With the resignations of two top staffers at Oak Park’s village hall, Village Manager Cara Pavlicek said she is considering proposing a realignment that would bring both human resources and the law department into a new Administrative Services Division under the manager’s office. She said such a change might allow cost savings and greater efficiencies as the work of the three departments is often related.
In the past two weeks, both the HR director and the assistant village attorney have tendered resignations. While Kim Shamley, the short-time human resources chief, departed for a new, higher-paying post in San Francisco, Simone Boutet, the assistant village attorney who has been associated with Oak Park since 1989, will leave on Aug. 25 without any immediate work plans.
Pavlicek said she is looking to Evanston and other communities as models for the possible new alignment. She said staff departures can sometimes be opportunities to consider changing an organization chart.
“There is a lot of duplication” in the work of the law department and human resources,” she said. “There could be positive efficiencies [in linking the departments] that we think could be good.”
Pavlicek said village government had become “very cautious on backfilling open positions” as it looks for areas of cost savings. While not being specific, she said a large salary could potentially be saved at the cost of adding some para-support services.
Shamley, she said, had been recruited to return to a past employer in California. She had worked at Oak Park Village Hall for about one year.
“We are very sad to see her go,” Pavlicek said. “HR people that are good are very hard to find.”
Boutet has been the assistant Oak Park village attorney since 2001 and an outside counsel to the village since 1989. After the retirement of longtime Village Attorney Ray Heise, Boutet served as acting village attorney for a time.
“I am going to take a break, enjoy life for a while and then decide what is next.” Asked about the timing of her decision, she said, “I no longer feel able to provide effective services” at village hall.
In a statement earlier on Friday, Boutet said, “It has been a privilege to serve the community as an attorney since 1989. … I will always be dedicated to the interests of this village which I consider to be the greatest town in the country.”
Pavlicek said Boutet had done “a great job serving the community. And we wish her the best.”
Oak Park Village President Anan Abu-Taleb said there had been a brief discussion about the concept of an Administrative Services Division and that he was open to hearing more. Abu-Taleb, in his two years in office, has pressed for both cost savings on staffing and for changes in the work culture at village hall that focus on better service to customers.
Abu-Taleb said the village board sees progress in changing the village hall culture.
“We see more efficiency. Are there bumps? It is possible.”
He said a new survey of worker attitudes at village hall will be conducted by Gallup this fall.
“We did a survey of staff a year ago,” he noted, “and it was not favorable to us. Not good. We want to ensure a good work environment.”
