Moving On

We've all been there.  Two people we care about decide to go their separate ways and no matter how amicable and constructive the breakup is, it's hard to watch the dissolution.  

That's what I saw last night.  Dennis Kelly who brought the village a new level of financial transparency, empowered many of our talented employees to take on more responsibility and with whom I always enjoyed a friendly and professional relationship broke up with the village commission, a contentious and sometimes erratic group who are trying very hard to get things on course.   

The meeting was full, held in the packed temporary headquarters at 1666 Kennedy Causeway and Dennis had the sense and grace to excuse himself from the discussion which was largely about the severance agreement.  

I had written before that he had resigned and that's factual in the strictest sense, but what's really true is that the commission voted last night to formalize the breakup.   I cringed a bit when the reasons were laid out publicly, and they were valid reasons, but as in the breakup analogy, they were things you would rather not hear.  Still, it's our money and our day to day lives that are affected and the commission needed to do that in order to justify the cost and the cash layout, and the commission did it well respectfully.  

The residents who attended were mostly focused on how the village moves forward and while there was concern about spending the money to end things, most agreed that this was the best course.  

During the interim, Jenice Rosado, Deputy Village Manager, will fill in and it's not going to be easy.  Ms. Rosado is bright, hard working, open minded and smart enough to say no but she is steering the village through a budget crisis, a police chief under investigation for nepotism, a contentious labor negotiation and residents who are increasingly angry about dirty streets and poor police presence    

Jenice is going to need a lot of support, formal and informal, to get us through the next few months.  I hope she gets it.  

Kevin Vericker
April 2, 2013