Tim Gillian, former Forest Park village administrator, was appointed to the village’s Fire and Police Commission, which oversees public safety employee hiring, firing and promotions. 

Gillian was appointed during the Jan. 24 village council meeting to a fill seat left vacant when commission chair Rachell Entler became Mayor Rory Hoskins’ executive secretary. He will serve out the remainder of Entler’s three-year term, which will expire on April 30. Hoskins told the commissioners that he intended to reappoint Gillian for another three-year term after that – he simply wanted to make sure that the terms are consistent with term lengths Forest Park has on the books. 

Gillian was originally elected village commissioner in 1995, serving until 2007. In 2009, he was appointed village administrator, staying on the job through 2021 until his successor was chosen. Since then he was appointed to the Park District of Forest Park Board of Commissioners on Nov. 18, 2021, to fill the vacancy created when park commissioner Matt Walsh resigned to take the job as interim village manager at south suburban Homer Glen. 

The Fire and Police Commission is a three-member civilian commission that is responsible for hiring, firing and promoting police officers and firefighters who work for the village. As with other village boards and commissions, the members are appointed by the mayor and confirmed by the village council.  While the commission page on the village website states that it meets every third Thursday of the month, in practice, it meets as needed. It met twice in September 2021, November 2021 and January 2021, once in October 2021, four times in December 2021. 

Gillian said it has yet to meet since he was appointed, and, to the best of his knowledge, there hasn’t been any meeting scheduled for the rest of February or March as of Feb. 21. 

According to her LinkedIn page, Entler served on the Fire and Police Commission from June 2019 to Jan. 2022. Gillian said she resigned because working for the village created a conflict of interest. Since he is retired from the village, he said, it wasn’t an issue for him. 

Hoskins didn’t comment on his choice during the Jan. 24 meeting, and he didn’t respond to the request by the Review for comment by deadline. Gillian said that the mayor reached out to him and speculated it was because of his experience as a village administrator.

“I had extensive experience working through police department issues, both on labor side and on management side, and I would guess that the mayor believed that this experience would be beneficial to police department and the village as a whole,” he said. “As the village administrator, I was responsible for negotiating the last 3-4 contacts with the [Fraternal Order of Police Michael T. Caulfield Memorial Lodge #24, which represents Forest Park police officers].”

Gillian added that his time as the village administrator gave him experience in the process of public safety hiring and promotions since “I’ve been a part of it.”

The village council confirmed the appointment unanimously, along with five other appointments to various boards and commissions. While the commissioners raised the questions about term lengths, they didn’t talk about Gillian or any other nominees.