The Munster Town Council’s board picks among its ranks has one councilman fuming, but it’s all about who can get the job done, the council president said.
The council made its board and commission appointments during a short Monday meeting, voting unanimously to reappoint Robert Dershowitz to the Safety Board for a three-year appointment and naming Steve Glombicki to a three-year term; appoint Jose Gutierrez to a four-year term on the Park Board and Councilman Chuck Gardiner, R-4 to the Regional Development Authority’s Transit Development Steering Committee. Council President George Shinkan, R-1, then went to place the councilmen on their assignments for the year.
Shinkan assigned himself to the Police Pension Board, Safety Board, Plan Commission, and Lake County Solid Waste Management Board alternate; Vice President Joe Hofferth, R-2, to the Plan Commission; Councilman Dave Nellans, R-3, to the Plan Commission and Solid Waste; and Gardiner to the Park Board and Solid Waste. Because Munster’s Council serves as its Redevelopment Commission, the entire council has a seat on it, and Shinkan appointed all five councilmen to the Munster Civic Foundation.
Councilman Jonathan Petersen, R-5, immediately motioned to table Shinkan’s appointments, but not before Gardiner asked to add Petersen to Solid Waste as an alternate.
“What’s going on here is, there’s an irregularity,” Petersen said. “Last year, and generally, appointments made to boards and commissions are extensively discussed by the council, but apparently, there’s been conversations, and I’ve not been involved in those. I think this is something that merits conversations.
“One of the things we campaigned on is transparency and communication. I’m not necessarily opposed to the changes being made, but I would like to be brought into the thought process. Since there’s no deadline to these appointments, I move that we table them and discuss at the next meeting agenda, which is next Wednesday.”
Petersen’s motion failed for lack of a second.
Gardiner asked whether the council appointments are voted upon or at the council president’s discretion, to which Town Attorney Dave Westland said only the Plan Commission would be. Gardiner then made the motion to vote for them to vote on Shinkan’s, Hofferth’s and Nellans’s Plan Commission spots.
Petersen reiterated the need for transparency and communication, and that he believes he’d been left out of conversations.
“We are a councilor form of government, and I think conversation, transparency is something the town would expect from all of us,” he said.
Nellans added that historically, the council appointments have been made by the council president, and Westland agreed.
Shinkan told the Post-Tribune Tuesday that there were no clandestine conversations or machinations when he made his appointment. He was just installing people where he thought they belonged.
“The simple answer is that there was only one major appointment to a board last night, and that was the Plan Commission, where there are three members of the Town Council. I took Nellans off the Park Board and put Chuck on there because that was his job for town,” Shinkan said, referring to Gardiner serving as Munster’s Parks and Recreation Director many years ago. “Nellans is an engineer who’s served on the Plan Commission through being on the council, so it makes sense to have him there. And Petersen is a smart guy who understands the workings of the Solid Waste Board.
“The portfolio appointments are liaison appointments to boards with the sole responsibility of reporting back to the council matters of significance, and I looked at past performance using people’s experience. There were no secret conversations.”
The vote to install Shinkan, Hofferth and Nellans to the Plan Commission landed at 4-1, with Petersen dissenting.
Michelle L. Quinn is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.