Staff Reorganization Saves Lake Zurich $115,000

The Lake Zurich village board agreed to a reorganization of village staff that will result in about $115,000 in savings, at Monday’s village board meeting.

Village Administrator Jason Slowinski said the restructuring, along with other cost saving measures and new revenue, approved Monday, have resulted in significant savings for taxpayers.

“Those three actions tonight, we have saved the village almost one-quarter of a million dollars; that’s over a million, 1.2 million over the next five years and we haven’t impacted resident in terms of service,” Slowinski said. The three actions he referred to were the staff reorganization, a contract for dispatch service to Island Lake, and a new copier lease that resulted in a 50 percent savings over the previous lease.

Slowinski said village staff is continuing to seek ways to be more efficient and save money.

The staff restructuring includes changing the position of parks director ($128,800 per year) to recreation manager ($101,900) for a savings of about $26,900. The park director position was vacant since Michael Perkins left last summer. 

During public comment, Mary Mihelic, park and recreation advisory board member, stated that staff change was eliminating the parks department and asked for a clarification of the changes. 

“We’re not closing the park and recreation department; we’re making a job description change . . . park and recreation is not going away,” Trustee Tom Poynton said. He explained that maintenance of parks has been shifted to the public works department, which paved the way for the change. 

Slowinski said the reorganization resulted in the loss of a job for two employees, the network administrator and the MIS assistant. The village recently hired an IT director and other technology functions are being outsourced. The savings is about $10,000.

The planning manager in building and zoning resigned, recently, and the position was eliminated ($123,500). The village planner position was created ($87,500). The savings is $36,000.

Other changes were made in already vacant positions. 

The assistant finance director position ($115,300) was eliminated and accounting supervisor created ($91,900) for a savings of about $23,400. 

The executive assistant position ($103,450) was eliminated and the management analyst position ($84,750) was created for a savings of about $18,700.