Oak Brook Board of Trustees Special Meeting of July 27, 2009

The meeting was called to order at 6:30PM. President Craig, Trustee Saiyed and Trustee Zannis were absent. Village Manager Niemeyer and Zoning Board of Appeals chair Champ Davis were also participating n the meeting. The first business was voting Trustee Wolin acting chair. Trustee Wolin then reviewed the purpose of the meeting. The Trustees, along with the chair of the committee involved, were going to interview applicants for appointment to a committee and recommend a list of qualified persons to the Village President. The President could then nominate anyone he chose, either from the recommended list or not. The Board then votes whether to accept the President’s nominee. This follows the procedure adopted by the board 4 years go and reconfirmed 2 years ago.
Today’s meeting was called to interview candidates for Zoning Board of Appeal and Firefighters Pension Board. The candidates were Natalle Cappetta for ZBA and Asif Yusuf (who applied for several boards including both ZBA & Fire Pension. A third candidate, Dr. Forutan, had withdrawn his application for Fire Pension Board. It was noted that the acting Finance Director of the village, Sharon Dangles, could fill the vacancy on the Pension Board.
Natalle Cappetta was first. She noted she was raised in Oak Brook and lived here for most of her life. She is a lawyer and after attending several meetings of the ZBA she thought that her legal background would help her contribute to the ZBA. Chairman Davis noted that he was also a lawyer and agreed it was helpful. It was noted that her firm had appeared before the committee in the Callahan/Brittwood Creek zoning matter. She replied that was the only case the firm had involving Oak Brook and that she would disclose any potential conflicts of interest. Trustee Aktipis affirmed her good character and strongly supported her.
Asif Yusuf was the second candidate. As a former Trustee, everyone knew him. He had applied for several boards because he wanted to continue to contribute to the Village. He didn’t own any property in the Village except for his house and had no business dealings in the Village. When asked what changes he recommended, he suggested allowing PVC for waste pipe in commercial construction. Trustee Aktipis agreed with this idea. Trustee Aktipis asked how he felt about home height limits recently made and about residential density. Mr. Yusuf said height increases were needed to remain competitive with our neighbors, but needed to be applied on a case-by-case basis. He wanted density to remain consistent with neighbors and history.
Champ Davis then reviewed the ZBA member whose term is up and who would like to be reappointed. Glenn Krietsch had great attendance, was very detail minded, and had done a very good job on the ZBA. Chairman Davis supported his reappointment. The committee agreed that all three candidates were qualified and forwarded their names to the President.
The committee then discussed plans for the next meeting. Trustee Aktipis asked the committee to consider candidates for the Library Commission. That commission doesn’t have a quorum now and needs two new members. There are five candidates.
The Doings article on this meeting is at http://www.pioneerlocal.com/oakbrook/news/1689808,oak-brook-appointments-073009-s1.article/ or http://bit.ly/19eCK9/