The controversial ex-village manager of Oak Park, who believes that ”if you`re doing things the same way you were five years ago, you`re probably out of date,” has been hired as the new city manager of Naperville.
The Naperville City Council approved the hiring in a split vote late Monday in the closing minutes of a marathon session.
Speculation that Ralph A. DeSantis, who resigned as Oak Park manager last year in the face of growing disputes over his actions, would be named the new city manager had been percolating through City Hall since the beginning of the month, but Monday`s vote came without announcement at the end of a five-hour council meeting.
By a 5-2 vote, the council hired DeSantis at an annual salary of $67,500, the same as paid to retiring manager George Smith. To allow for the transition of authority, DeSantis will start next Monday and Smith will retire the following Monday.
Voting against DeSantis were Councilmen Phyllis Rasmussen, who declined to comment on her vote, and Toby Hayer, who said she felt the hiring procedure had not allowed sufficient time to evaluate the candidates for the job and questioned DeSantis` qualifications.
”He is very heavily oriented toward finance,” she said. ”I was hoping we would get resumes from high-growth areas of the country, which would be helpful in our situation. But all of the applications came from the middle part of the country, and (DeSantis`) experience is mainly in issues you`d find in older, stable areas.”
But, countered Mayor Margaret Price, DeSantis, 56, spent more than seven years as manager of Wethersfield, a Hartford, Conn., suburb with a mixture of stable and growing neighborhoods.
”A good manager has to get the best out of his people, but he himself doesn`t have to be an expert engineer, an expert planner, an expert wastewater manager,” said Price, who denied that the council was rushed into making a decision. ”We spent a great deal of time on this matter, but we wanted to have someone on board before George left.”
During his five years in Oak Park, where his salary was $70,000, DeSantis earned a reputation as a heavy-handed, uncooperative supervisor among his critics. Among his supporters he was regarded as an enthusiastic, innovative manager. His detractors acknowledge his financial savvy–property taxes rose only once during his tenure–and say he did nothing illegal. His advocates admit that he can be headstrong.
”I talked to people on both sides of the issue,” Price said. ”There was a lot of controversy, but it seemed to me to be politically motivated. He`s a good choice, and he`ll have strong guidance from the council.”
”I think this job is a great opportunity to work in a city where the majority of land is still to be developed and the infrastructure has to be put in place,” said DeSantis, who will be overseeing about 600 city employees.
”I`m not going to get too engrossed in my image. That`s not my job. I`m committed to developing a team, and I want (the city staff) to be innovative about the way they do things. I preach that if you`re doing things the same way you have been doing them for five years, you`re probably out of date.”
Among the questions and outstanding issues facing the new manager are the city`s water supply, the building of a new police headquarters, the developing of a legal department, and coping with the increased services and facilities necessitated by Naperville`s growth.
