The Park District 1 Year Later

Just about a year ago we learned about perhaps when the Tribune reported on the pension padding and spiking for the ex-Executive and ex-Finance Director of the Park District.

I joined dozens of outraged citizens who expressed their anger and frustration at numerous meetings with the lax oversight exhibited by the Park District board that will continue to cost the citizens of Highland Park for years to come.

So what's changed in the last year?

Well, for one thing, the anger has dissipated. As unconscionable as the actions of the Park District Board were, I am alright knowing that our Park District Board Members are no longer receiving death threats. Hopefully, however, the vows of our informed and capable citizenry to make sure our Park District never embarks on such foolishness again has not lessened in the year.

These vows are easier to keep than ever because, to their credit, . More information than ever is available on the Park District's website. A series of reforms were also enacted to ensure that pension costs are fully considered when making any employment decisions. Pension spiking and pension padding are practices the Board has forbidden. More documents than ever are available from the Park District's website about what will be happening at board meetings. Hopefully the Park District will eventually equal the amount of information offered by the City in its agenda packets, but the increased documentation is a great step forward.

The Park District has now completed a Compensation Survey so we know, from our Executive Director on down, that Park District employees are being paid a fair wage for their work.

The composition of the board has also been improved. We have who approved those disgraceful contracts and we have a majority of the board which was elected for the first time just last April. The Board has also separated the position of Treasurer and Finance Director and appointed David Fairman, formerly Finance Director for the City of Highland Park and an incredibly capable and knowledgeable individual, to that newly created position.

Of course there is still work that can and should be done. First among this is to change the board's six year terms to four year terms. It is no coincidence that in April when we had, due to the resignations of the tainted board members, four and six year terms available that twice as many people ran for the 4 year positions as for the six.

Six year terms do not enhance accountability, but instead insulates office holders from public accountability. One of the disgraced board members would explain time and time again that there were six year terms because it was hard to find Community Members to serve. April disproved that claim. It was also argued that it takes a while to become an effective Board Member. This is no doubt true and why I'd not advocate for term limits. If someone is doing a good job it makes sense to re-elect them to take advantage of that learned expertise.

A second area of unfinished work is to continue examining the overly ample reserves the Park District possesses. The Park District, unique among the local taxing bodies in Highland Park, dipped into those reserves to not only hold taxes steady, but to actually decrease taxes. That was a good first measure for utilizing those funds. Hopefully the Board will continue to consider whether it can thoughtfully and productively spend these monies and if not continue to return the funds to the tax payers through lower levies.

Essential to knowing how to spend those reserves is a Master Plan. The Park District has employed a consultant to help them create a Strategic Plan, but this Strategic Plan falls short of the Master Plan that all of the newly elected board members, as well as remaining Commissioner Cal Bernstein, have greatly advocated for. The Board has been assured by their extremely talented Executive Director Liza McElroy that this Strategic Plan is an important first step in the Master Plan process so even in this area progress has been made, even if it was perhaps a bit too slow.

A year later the Park District continues to offer excellent services thanks to its many hard working staff members, who receive fair wages. The taxpayers of Highland Park deserve a world class Park District in both its operations and its board and a year later much hard work has been done to deliver on that goal.