Forest Park Village Administrator Tim Gillian will be honored June 9 with the Jack Williams Intergovernmental Achievement Award from the West Central Municipal Conference (WCMC), a regional Chicago-area grouping of local governments.

The annual award, given to one elected official or appointed staff member, recognizes excellence in intergovernmental cooperation, according to WCMC Executive Director Richard Pellegrino.

“I’m extremely honored to receive that award,” Gillian said June 1. “Just about everything I do is collaboration. It’s collaboration between department heads, it’s collaboration between elected officials, it’s collaboration between governments. To be recognized for the efforts made, I’m honored.”

Gillian mentioned the Madison Street revamp on Forest Park’s shared border with River Forest and the 911 dispatch center consolidation as recent projects that required communication across municipal boundaries.

Pellegrino praised Gillian’s input on several WCMC committees and his deep knowledge of issues, including the “forceful” advocacy of the Local Government Distributive Fund, which gives local municipalities money from Illinois state income tax revenues.

“I don’t believe he’s missed a meeting that I can remember,” Pellegrino said June 1 of Gillian’s service to the WCMC. “The award is in honor of his dedication to intergovernmental cooperation.”

The village administrator, a position first created in 1997, is an appointed post recommended to the Forest Park Village Council by the mayor and is responsible for the day-to-day management of village government.

Gillian has a long history with public service in Forest Park. He was a reserve police officer from 1977 until 1995, when he was elected as a commissioner on the village council.

As part of his campaign platform, Gillian said, he called for the creation of the village administrator position.

“The business end of running a municipality was becoming much more complex,” Gillian recalled, in particular the legal and human resources issues.

“All those things required a full-time person,” Gillian said. “Times were changing. It was getting a lot rougher to keep up with the day-to-day of running the village.”

Gillian said he has no plans to stop his work as administrator.

“I’m happy here as long as the commissioners will have me,” Gillian said.