Park Forest village manager Tom Mick announced he will step down from his job next year, terminating a nearly 26-year association with the community.
“I believe the time is right to refocus my priorities toward my family and other endeavors,” Mick wrote In a June 20 letter to village employees.
Tom Mick (Village of Park Forest)
Since then, his announcement to retire has functioned as does a leaky hose. slowly trickling its way through the village.
Mick is the longest serving village manager in Park Forest’s history, having been hired in 2002 as assistant for the village manager Janet Muchnick, and taking her place when she retired in 2006.
He began his public service as an intern with River Forest in 1995, and as assistant director of Glencoe Public Works the following year. After getting a master’s degree in public administration from Northern Illinois University in 1998, he served a four-year term in the U.S. Marine Corps before being hired by Park Forest.
Much of his letter was devoted to what he termed the “meritocracy” of the village, a word he defined as a hiring system in which people “are hired on what they know, rather than on who they know.” Former Mayor John Ostenburg praised Mick, saying that “time and again I am told by the peers that Tom is the best village manager in the state.”
For years, Mick has been the public face of the village at events, including Wednesday Main Street Nights events, neighborhood meetings and when the village made the finals of the All-America City competitions. He verbally underlined that in the letter, noting that “resident input, transparency and civic engagement” are important.
Mick’s popularity may have aided him when he survived an ill-fated attempt to force him out of office in 2019. Ostenburg, who was mayor for 20 years, decided to retire, and Village Trustee Jon Vanderbilt won a close election for mayor. After the election, one of Vanderbilt’s campaign workers created a media post “tommickneedstoretire.”
For numerous residents who engaged with Mick through the years, it was a call to arms.
In June of that year, Mick submitted his resignation to the Village Board, which took it up at a public board meeting which drew an overflow crowd. The board, including its chief attorney, Bert Odelson, went to a 2 1/2 hour closed-door session which resulted in no action being taken, much to the relief of the onlookers.
Jerry Shnay is a freelance columnist for the Daily Southtown.
