With 2011 in the books, the Oak Park village board started meeting this week to decide if its only direct employee, the village manage, deserves a pat on the back and a raise.
Trustees met in a closed meeting Monday to discuss Village Manager Tom Barwin’s performance in 2011. They’ll likely meet again in the coming weeks, and will need to vote in public if they decide to give the six-year manager a pay hike or bonus, according to Village President David Pope.
The process is a routine one that Oak Park board’s have undertaken annually as an accountability measure for the manager. Pope declined to comment on any of the specifics, and was unsure of the exact timeline going forward.
Last year, Barwin did not receive a raise to his base pay of $165,411, though he did get a one-time $4,135 performance bonus. At the time, trustees declined to say whether the manager received a favorable evaluation, though one board member singled out the Building and Property Standards Department as an area needing improvement.
Barwin said Monday he thought 2011 was a productive year. Village hall was one of the first to dig itself out of the February blizzard; it added money to its once-miniscule reserves; crime was at a 39-year low; and Oak Park steered residents to a new energy provider that could save consumers millions over the next two years, he said.
Three members of the village board have met a couple of times previously to discuss Barwin’s performance, as part of their personnel-related committee, which deals with employment-related issues. Besides Pope, its other two members, Colette Lueck and Ray Johnson, could not be reached for comment Monday.
Trustee John Hedges said 2011 had its ups and downs, and he was interested to hear what the personnel committee had to say this week.
“It’s always a mixed bag, so I’ll wait until Monday night to see what the whole picture looks like,” he said before the meeting.