Former River Forest Township Clerk Vanessa Druckman will be the next River Forest Township Supervisor. The township supervisor is the highest position in township government. The township supervisor serves in an executive, legislative, and sometimes an administrative capacity, and also presides over township board meetings and votes as a member of the township board.
Tuesday evening, Aug. 11, the township board voted 4-0 to accept current supervisor John Becvar’s resignation effective Aug. 31 and then voted 4-0 to appoint Druckman as supervisor effective Sept. 1. The board gave Becvar authority to continue to work in September to facilitate the merger of the River Forest Civic Center Authority with the Village of River Forest which is expected to be completed in September. When that happens the Civic Center Authority will cease to exist and village will own and manage the Civic Center building
Becvar served as River Forest Township Supervisor for just over two years having been appointed to the position in May 2024 when the previous township supervisor Carla Sloan resigned. He was elected to a full four-year term last year. He also served as township clerk for a year before being appointed supervisor.
“It’s been an honor to serve the residents of River Forest Township for the last three years,” Becvar said.
Becvar will continue serving the township in another capacity for at least one more year. After accepting his resignation as supervisor, the township board voted to appoint Becvar to fill a vacancy on the township’s mental health committee.
Druckman, who served as township clerk from 2021 to 2023, took her oath of office as supervisor immediately after the vote to appoint her even though she will not officially begin serving as supervisor until Sept. 1.
Druckman was chosen over two other finalists. Current township clerk Mark Hosty and Jessica Iverson were also interviewed by the township board. Oak Park Township Supervisor Tim Thomas also applied to serve as River Forest Township Supervisor while keeping his current job.
Township board member Keith Storm said all of the three finalists were strong candidates but Druckman stood out.
“She seemed to be the strongest candidate,” said Strom. “She has past experience with the township, she kind of knows how the sausage is made, if you will, and she’s also very well connected with the community.”
The other township board members agreed saying that Druckman’s experience in township government and River Forest were key differentiators. Hosty has only been township clerk since November of last year although he served as a member of the Forest Park Village Council for 16 years when he lived in Forest Park.
“She knows the township; she knows River Forest,” said township board member David Bonner.
Druckman, who lived the first 10 years of her life in Paris, France, moved to River Forest 16 years ago.
She said she is excited to become township supervisor. She is passionate about the township’s role in providing services to the residents of River Forest and is open to new ideas.
“I want to make sure that our residents get all the human services that they want and that benefit them and that’s what drew me to the position,” Druckman said in a telephone interview the morning after her appointment.
Township government is an often sleepy and overlooked unit of government. It mostly focuses on human services and its main role, in River Forest at least, is to funnel money and grants to non-profit service providers. It also provides some direct services to seniors and youth and families.
Druckman would like to see River Forest provide more direct services, as it has been doing to a degree under Becvar.
“I would like to see the Youth and Family Services offerings include more activities for all the youth in our community, so not necessarily activities such as the park district administers, but more in terms of like parent education, learning opportunities for parents of toddlers and new infants, perhaps play groups for younger children,” Druckman said. “I would love to see the township do some of that stuff as well.”
Druckman, who has a background in marketing, wants to boost the visibility of township government.
“I am passionate about all things marketing and voice, and it’s definitely, I think, part of why I was chosen for this role,” Druckman said. “I think it’s important for the township to be more well known in the community so that we can better serve the residents.”
The supervisor is a part-time paid position with an annual salary of $49,382. The supervisor typically works 25 to 30 hours a week although the supervisor certainly does not punch a time clock. Over the next month Druckman and Becvar will meet as they work together to create a new part time position of township administrator which would, if approved by the township board, handle some administrative tasks in township government and help provide a continuous physical presence in the township offices located on the second floor of the River Forest Civic Center.
“This is going to be a part time position, probably somewhere between 10 and 20 hours a week,” Druckman said. “And the purpose of that position is to make sure that we really have someone on hand in the building to help us administer more direct services.”
Druckman and Becvar have talked about putting a walking track around the gym in the Civic Center in the morning so that River Foresters would have an indoor place to walk. The township also provides notary public services, runs senior programs like chair yoga and pickleball, operates a medical lending library, and provides voter registration services as well as property tax education and assistance through the township assessor’s office.
She likely won’t have to deal with managing the Civic Center building because the Village of River Forest is expected to approve the village taking over the Civic Center next month. Druckman said she supports the village taking over the Civic Center and dissolving the Civic Center Authority which was created in 1984 to purchase the Civic Center building on Madison Street.
“I am just thrilled that the building is going to be transitioned to the village because I think the village is much better set up to service the building,” Druckman said.