Patch Election Q&A: Jeanne Felten on Question #3

The question:

One candidate has suggested returning to a village administrator form of government. How do you feel about the current village manager system? Do you see this as an area where the village could save money?

I am 100% behind our current village manager system. Montgomery has grown rapidly from a population of 5,000 up to our current 18,000 and along with this growth has come a whole new set of challenges. Montgomery needs to be run as a business with a budget now just under $9,000,000. Laws are continuing to change, regulations change and we now have 2 bargaining units within the village. This requires a full time manager in order to ensure that the village functions within the laws.

There are decisions that need to be made on a daily basis and we need to have an individual that we can be confident will make the correct decision in the best interest of the village. Our village manager has done an outstanding job for us and has been instrumental in making Montgomery a well respected community and one that other communities will look to for assistance and advice. I believe there is more to running our village than what most residents see. It is not just having public works crews on the streets and police patrolling our community. While these are both critical functions there is also much that goes on in the background in terms of keeping day to day operations going.

I don’t believe that there would be any significant cost saving to the village by not having a full time manager. Many of the items that she is currently able to handle would most likely have to be referred to outside counsel for help and would result in additional consulting/legal fees.