Pingree reassigns finance director duties - Chicago Sun-Times

By Ryan klassy For The Courier-News Jan 6, 2011 07:04PM

PINGREE GROVE — Finance Director Laura Pisarcik worked her last day on the job Wednesday. She has accepted the position of finance director for the city of DeKalb.

According to Village President Clint Carey, Pisarcik’s departure after 3½ years on the job was very amicable and he and the village trustees recognize that she is leaving for good reasons.

“We know that she is moving on to a position that is a great opportunity, with more staff under her and better pay, so we wish her the best,” Carey said. “Laura also stuck around for two weeks to make sure the transition went well.”

To fill Pisarcik’s shoes, trustees this week approved hiring Sikich CPA consultants to provide accounting and financial reporting services on an interim basis at a cost of $1,890 per week. Sikich has previous experience working with Pingree Grove as its auditing firm.

In addition, trustees granted interim Village Administrator Bill Barlow permission to increase his allotted hours by five per week to handle budgetary and policy-related items formerly handled by the finance director.

According to Carey, trustees did not seem concerned that Pisarcik’s departure bodes poorly for the village, even with the firing of its village manager and the resignations of a trustee and their village clerk.

“I think trustees were happy to see Laura have this opportunity,” Carey said. “Laura and Bill put together a solid proposal as to how her duties could be handled, and the village will be looking at whether this position needs to be filled as a full-time job moving forward or whether it could be part-time.”

According to Carey, budgetary decisions and other “large items” that need to be addressed will make village government interesting, given that there will be a large turnover in trustees after this spring’s elections, as well as a new village president because of his decision not to seek re-election.

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