On Oct. 13, Maria Maxham posted on Facebook that she was resigning as Forest Park’s commissioner of accounts and finance with six months left in her four-year term. That evening, she did not attend the council meeting and village officials confirmed her resignation.
At the next village council meeting on Nov. 9, there will be public discussion and a commissioner vote to appoint a new commissioner in Maxham’s place. There must be a majority vote among the current four commissioners, including Mayor Rory Hoskins.
“If you guys have names that you are interested in appointing, I would recommend that you let your fellow council members know and talk with them,” Village Administrator Rachell Entler told commissioners at the Oct. 26 council meeting during her administrator’s report at the end of the evening.
Commissioners must follow the Illinois Open Meetings Act, which means no more than two of them can discuss their nominations outside a public meeting.
Anyone who’s qualified to run as commissioner in the April 6 election is eligible for Maxham’s seat.
“Typically, one would start by asking people who are already involved in the community, either through a village board or commission or volunteering in other ways,” Entler told the Review about how commissioners might select their nominees. “One of the steps in nominating someone is to determine if they are interested and would accept the appointment.”
Entler said the new commissioner will fill out the remainder of Maxham’s term and can choose to run in the April 6 election.
“They will have to submit to the same process as everybody else who is seeking to run in the next election, and they have to go through all of that pretty quickly,” Entler said at the Oct. 26 meeting.
Entler added that, if commissioners want to rearrange which departments they’re the heads of after appointing the new commissioner, they are allowed to do so.
“That will be as we do at the beginning of a term. You’ll have to nominate somebody to fill a certain department, and then there would have to be a majority council vote in order for that person to move,” Entler said at the meeting.
Entler previously told the Review that commissioners have 30 days from Maxham’s resignation to appoint her replacement. That means the seat must be filled by Nov. 13.
“The council needs to continue deliberating until they reach a consensus,” Entler told the Review.
At the last council meeting with four commissioners on Nov. 9, the village will continue operating under Robert’s Rules of Order, which say the council must have more votes in favor of an agenda item than against it in order for it to pass. So, a tie between the four current commissioners would result in a failed motion.