The director of Du Page County`s Human Services Department resigned Tuesday to manage a nonprofit home nursing service based in Lombard.
Thomas Slymon, 50, of Warrenville, resigned in a letter to county board Chairman Jack Knuepfer (R., Elmhurst) a day after he was hired by the Community Nursing Service of Du Page County Inc., 33 W. Roosevelt Rd.
Slymon will manage the day-to-day operations of the 27-year-old service, the oldest of its type in Du Page. He is expected to start Nov. 11.
Slymon, a former Catholic priest, has worked for Du Page since 1974. County board sources who asked not to be identified said Slymon had opposed efforts by some county officials to politicize his burgeoning department.
Slymon reportedly was out of town Tuesday and unavailable for comment.
The Human Services Department has an annual county appropriation of about $136,000 and administers more than $1.3 million in federal and state grants a year. Since its creation in 1982, it has become one of the county`s fastest growing departments. When organized in 1982, the department had about a dozen employees. It has grown to include more than 50 employees, many paid through state and federal grant programs.
Knuepfer proposed in July that the department be merged into a Human Resources Department, similar to one in Lake County, that would include the Human Services, Job Training and Personnel Departments.
Board members who opposed the consolidations accused Knuepfer of trying to feather his political nest by consolidating administrative authority in the hands of a few loyalists.
No action has been taken on Knuepfer`s proposal. Knuepfer declined to comment on the resignation Monday after Slymon said it was imminent.
Slymon was hired by the county in 1974 as acting director of the now-defunct Du Page County Law Enforcement Commission. In 1982 he was named human services director.
He was a Redemptorist priest based in Puerto Rico from 1970 to 1974. Slymon has a master`s degree in philosophy.
James Reichardt, chairman of the 22-member nursing service board, said Slymon was chosen from among 50 applicants. Slymon succeeds the late Barbara Wilson of Glen Ellyn.
