Happy Anniversary

 

Happy Anniversary to the love of my life.

It’s hard to believe that today Linda and I have been married for 27 years. It feels like it was just yesterday……..how fast the time fly’s when you’re having fun.

Looking forward to the next 27 plus years.

Happy Halloween

 

As the sky grows dark and the moon glows bright,

As strange creatures and critters appear in the night,

As the goblins growl and the werewolves whine,

Hope that Halloween sends a chill up your spine!

 

Sauk Village Halloween Trick or Treat Hours: Saturday, October 31, 2015 from 4 – 6pm

 

Please be careful and keep an eye out for all the little goblins and ghouls on Saturday, October 31st

 

 

 

Village Administrator/Director of Public Safety Report - October 13, 2015

 

Village Administrator/Director of Public Safety Report

Vacant Homes:

Working to develop a master list of vacant houses and of those, which do not have water accounts. Presently, we have the Housing Commission list which is compiled by their members who conduct manual counts; followed by Sauk Village water accounts that identify locations that have/had water. Then, houses are tracked through the villages PFS system.

In addition, housing information is tracked through the CAPS (J&P) system. Once all the information is combined, this information will be distributed to Sauk Village Police, Fire, Code and Public Works Department managers to be use for staff safety, identification of squatters and monitoring those locations for unauthorized use of our water.

FOIA:
We are reviewing our system/policy/practice to better coordinate, respond and track the request and response to all FOIA inquiries.

Court:
Reviewing current processing of court cases, their results and developing a plan for more accountability and better/favorable results.

Second Quarter Reviews:
Quarterly Reviews of each department managers will begin within the next two to three weeks.

Water Billing:
Kicked off discussions with staff, Trustee Burgess and Chief Kowalski concerning the need to change our water billing and to strengthen our ordinance wherein all bills will be sent to homeowners and those who have mortgages.  The result will remove village personnel from acting as arbitrators having to engage in conversation about which party is responsible for paying water bills.

Trustee Burgess agrees and will have his Public Work Committee work on an ordinance addressing this issue and hopefully have something prepared and ready to be sent to the ordinance review committee for final review and/or approval soon.

CN Noise Abatement Program:
Initiated discussions with staff, Trustee Burgess and Chief Kowalski concerning applicants for this program who owe Sauk Village money. Are applicants that owe the village any outstanding balance (tickets, water bills, etc.) eligible for funds through this program? The decision was applicants that owe Sauk Village should not be eligible. Trustee Burgess agreed and will be taking this back to the original CN Noise Abatement Committee for final discussion.

Mr. Mayor, this completes my report.

JW Fairman, Jr

VA/DPS

Sauk Village Police Department Report - October 13, 2015

Board Meeting Report 10/13/2015

 Police service case summary:  During the period of 9/16/2015 thru 10/12/2015 the Sauk Village Police Department had a total of 15 arrests.  Of the arrests reported five were felony arrests and 10 were misdemeanor arrests.

 -Case of note: Although this did not occur in Sauk Village I feel it was important to inform all about an incident that involved several Sauk Village students at Bloom Trail High School.  They were victims of a physical altercation with other students from a neighboring town while in school.  According to the School Resource Officer the Sauk Village students were the victims of this incident and stems from an altercation that had previously occurred between the two groups. 

This investigation will be ongoing which the Sauk Village PD will assist Steger PD as needed.

I would like to note that I am now a member of the Bloom Trail High School Safety Committee.

-CalCom Radio Outage:  On Friday October 9^th Calcom was experiencing radio issues to the point they were not able to dispatch calls from the center but the Police Department enacted a contingency plan and continued to function.  An Officer remained in the station taking telephone calls from CalCom then dispatching our officers as necessary...I noted that the PD was still functioning during this 2 hour outage and our officers had radio contact among themselves as well as the Illinois State Police Radio Emergency Network (ISPERN). CalCom had a technician from Chicago Communication called out to resolve the issue…after arriving at the Sauk Village PD the technician found the problem was human error…Officer Gary Lukes who was the Officer in Charge reported after the outage no calls were missed, great job by the PD during the incident.

-Neighborhood Watch: I was the guest at the Neighborhood Watch Meeting hosted by Trustee Washington and Trustee Myers.  It was an honor to have been selected as one of the guest speakers.  The meeting was well attended and several other Trustees as well as the Village Clerk were in attendance.  I highly encourage other residents to participate and attend the Neighborhood Watch meetings.

 

-Trunk or Treat:  Trustee Jones invited the Sauk Village Police Department to participate in the upcoming Trunk or Treat program.  I reassured the Board that the Police will have an active part in the program.

-New Hire:  The Police Department is currently conducting background investigations on the top candidates of the Police and Fire Commission department eligibility list.  This police will be making a recommendation to hire within the next few weeks to fill an officer vacancy created by the village receiving a Community Outreach Program Grant.

 -General Orders/Policy and Procedures Updates:  I am currently reviewing the General Orders as well as the policies and procedures since the current are outdated to 2005.  It is my goal to bring the department’s standard to the level of the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement (CALEA).  This will take some time but I have begun the process.

 

-Police Vehicles:  I have assigned Officer Hufnagel to the Police Departments Vehicle Coordinator position.  Ofc. Hufnagel is coordinating with Public Works Director Kevin Weller on getting the police vehicles serviced.  He is also arranging to have each vehicle outfitted with new tires in time for winter.

 

End Report.

Tollway positions Opening

The Tollway has introduced a NEW update to their application process, which you can read more about below.

• Employee Benefits Manager ($70,000.00 - $80,000.00 Annually)

o   A Bachelor's degree is required, preferably in the fields of Human Resources, Benefit Administration or related field.
o   A minimum of five (5) years work experience in Human Resources, Benefits Administration or a related field is required.
o   A minimum of five (5) years of supervisory experience is required.
o   Must be able to analyze comprehensive benefits information, make recommendations for cost effectiveness of overall programming.
o   Excellent computer skills in Microsoft Office applications including Excel, Outlook and Word is required.
o   Experience with MAR computer database is desirable.


NEW UPDATE TO APPLICATION PROCESS:

“As of September 10, 2014, the Tollway will begin using an on-line application system to assist prospective and current employees in the job application process. This system will allow users to create an individual account, create and maintain a profile of education, experience and certifications, identify job interest categories, search for open positions, and submit job applications. This system will automatically notify users of recently posted jobs based on the job interest categories chosen.

For the employee to be notified of open positions and submit job applications, this system requires the user to have an email account. This could either be a personal account (i.e. gmail, yahoo) or getipass.com account.

To apply for a posted position or to create a “Job Interest Card,” applicants should visit the Tollway’s website, www.illinoistollway.com.
Completed applications may be mailed to the Tollway or dropped off in person at the agency’s Downers Grove headquarters between the hours of 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. All applications must be received within the dates indicated on the job posting.”


The completed Illinois Tollway Employment Application is due Thursday, October 22, 2015 and can be completed on our on-line application system, which can be found at the www.illinoistollway.com under ‘Employment Opportunities’, or mailed or hand-delivered to Human Resources, 2700 Ogden Avenue, Downers Grove, IL 60515.

More information can be found at www.illinoistollway.com.

Questions should be directed to Human Resources at (630) 241-6800 ext. 2333.

Congresswoman Robin Kelly will host a Hiring Event

Congresswoman Robin Kelly will host a Hiring Event for residents of the 2nd Congressional District on Friday, October 16, from 9 a.m. to noon, in the gymnasium of South Suburban College, 15800 State St., South Holland.

For more information about the Hiring Event, call (708) 679-0078 or access www.robinkelly.house.gov.

Homeland Security (ESDA) Report October 13, 2015

Over the past 4 weeks, the ESDA responded to 16 calls. The ESDA department responded to 4 fire alarm, 4 vehicle accidents, 1 dumpster fire, 3 brush fires, 1 stalled school bus, 1 kitchen fire, 1 assist other agency, and 1 smell of gas.

 

Fire Department Report October 13, 2015

Over the past 4 weeks, the fire department responded to 28 calls. The fire department responded to 6 fire alarms, 1 dumpster fire, 1 structure fire, 2 smell of gas, 1 smoke in the house, 5 vehicle accidents, 7 medical assist, 1assist other agency, 3 rubbish fires, and 1 car fire.

 

The Beautification Committee Report - October 13, 2015

The Beautification Committee is hosting our Annual Fall Cleanup.

 

It will take place on Saturday, October 17, 2015 from 9:30am to 1pm. The committee will start Saturday morning behind the Village Hall.  Public buildings and Village access roadways are on our radar for anti-litter clean up. 

 

If you aren't able to attend this event but would like to form a neighborhood adopt a block clean up those efforts would be appreciated. 

 

All volunteers are welcome to join us.

 

The Committees next meeting will be Wednesday, October 21, 2015 at 10am at the Village Hall. 

Great Job Fire Chief Stoffregen and Team!

This last week and fitting since it was during "Fire Prevention Week" I signed the documents for the Sauk Village Fire Departments application for a 0% interest loan, which will be applied towards a new Fire Engine/Pumper. 

During the presentation at the October 6th committee meeting Fire Chief Stoffregen requested the board to allow the Mayor to sign the documents. While we could wait until the October 13th meeting the timing was critical since the documentation needed to be submitted in Springfield by October 15th and Chief Stoffregen was going to a Fire Chief's conference. Chief Stoffregen felt that signed and submitted documents provided a leveraging point while meeting with potential vendors at the conference, which in turn could save the village money.

A special thank you goes out to Trustees Myers, Washington and Williams for consenting to allow me to sign these documents and move the process forward.

While the negative crowd are saying Illinois is not granting funds our department heads and employees refuse sit back, do nothing and accept this "head in the sand" thinking. In fact, all departments continue to look for resources that will benefit Sauk Village and its residents.

As Mayor, I am thankful for Fire Chief Stoffregen and his team for putting together a plan and applying for what some would call impossible. In addition, Chief Stoffregen is currently working on further plans to put processes in place with an end result of improving the departments ISO rating.

Great Job Chief Stoffregen and Team! 

Thank You,

Mayor David A Hanks