SAUK VILLAGE | In his inaugural report as Acting Mayor David Hanks reported to the residents of Sauk Village during Tuesday night's meeting. Hanks was selected by the Village Board of Trustees to serve as Acting Mayor and also retains his position on the Village Board. Hanks vowed his support for Derrick Burgess in his bid for Mayor and endorsed his entire slate of candidates. Hanks said he would not seek election in April as Mayor in a press conference before accepting the position as acting-mayor with Burgess at his side. Hanks said he will return to his seat on the Village Board after the new Mayor is sworn-in during the meeting in May, 2013.
Last Wednesday, November 7th at approximately 5:45pm Mayor Lewis Towers submitted his immediate resignation as Mayor of Sauk Village. Thursday evening, an emergency meeting was called to fill this vacancy. After the Corporate Authority voted 4-1, I humbly accepted the appointment of Acting Mayor for the remainder of the current term.
Since the resignation and appointment I have reached out to the following:
· Reached out to the Trustees seeking their advice and input. Although, not all have accepted the olive branch however, going forward I would hope that we could agree that we can disagree but let’s no longer be disagreeable!
· Reached out to Residents for their input as to what they feel are current issues in our community. In addition, residents were asked to submit letters of interest in a hope to appoint a replacement to fill the vacancy left by Trustee Chavez. Trustees were provided those letters and were asked to provide their top three picks. Tonight, based on the top picks from the majority of corporate authority I will present a name to fill this vacancy and hopefully they will be confirmed.
· Reached out to staff and yesterday, we had our first joint departmental staff meeting.
· Reached out to Engineering firm (Baxter & Woodman) for an update on the EPA loan.
· Reached out to Schrader concerning the air strippers and the winterization which should be completed this week.
· Reached out to the business community – informing them that Sauk Village has so much to offer and we want them here.
· Reached out to our TIF consultants and scheduled a meeting to find out what we can do to bring businesses and jobs to our community.
· And most importantly, reached out to our auditors and to steal part of a phrase from the Jerry McGuire movie said “SHOW ME THE AUDIT”
Sauk Village has many challenges and I'm sure many more that are still unseen. The Challenges we know and in no specific order are the following:
· Healing the division among our residents, employees and Board members
· Bringing back our motto “Pride and Progress” including order and decorum in our Village Board Meetings
· Understanding our Finances which includes, where are we today and going forward, scheduling meetings with our financial consultants and again demanding the Audit Results!
· Reducing Crime by making sure our Police officers have the support of this administration and the tools needed to combat the criminal
· Water - First put together a team lead by neutral individuals that are not politically motivated, develop a plan, work closely with State and Federal Agencies, and keep the residents informed.
· Litigation – Understand which cases are legit and which are frivolous. Address the legit cases and take the necessary legal steps to go after the individuals that are falsely attacking you the residents in the court system.
I will continue to reach out to all the village board members for their advice and input as we develop a plan to move our community forward. Communication will no longer be lacking and will be the key to successfully turning Sauk Village around.
I will be the first to admit; I do not have all the answers and will humbly reach out to past and present elected officials from Sauk Village and surrounding communities for advice.
Our problems will not be resolved over night however; I can assure you the process has started.
Hanks concluded.
