DU PAGE COUNTY EMPLOYEE AGENCY OFFICIAL REACTION
DuPage County Forest Preserve Commission President Dewey Pierotti said Wednesday that he has no plans to call on the district’s executive director to resign over a letter the director wrote criticizing the outgoing board.
Pierotti, who will remain president when a new, seven-member commission is sworn in Monday, said he doesn’t believe the letter provides any legal basis to terminate Dan Gooch.
“I did not agree with the letter. I thought it was an insult to the board, but it was his opinion. I don’t anticipate him resigning and I’m certainly not going to terminate him,” Pierotti said Tuesday.
Gooch, who joined the district in 1974 and has an annual salary of $116,000, criticized the board in a bimonthly newsletter for district employees. In responding to questions about what changes Gooch thought the new board would bring, he accused the outgoing board of overspending and taking on too many land acquisition and improvement projects.
He still may face a rough road with the new board, which could try to take action against him. One incumbent commissioner who will remain on the new board, Wally Brown, has said the district would be better off without Gooch.
Gooch, who is on vacation, could not be reached.
An executive director can be fired only if a majority of board members vote to do so, said Robert Mork, the district’s attorney.
Pierotti said he plans to meet with Gooch to discuss his future Monday, when Gooch is expected to return from Florida.
“I told him to think about what he wants to do. The ball’s in his court,” said Pierotti, adding that he would be able work with Gooch in the future, despite the recent controversy.
Several commissioners urged Gooch to consider resigning last week, Pierotti and Brown said. After weighing the options, Pierotti canceled a special closed-door meeting scheduled for this week where action against Gooch was to be discussed.
With the holiday weekend approaching, many commissioners said it was highly unlikely that the current board will take action on the matter, meaning Gooch’s fate may lie with the new board.
Brown said he lost confidence in Gooch long before his letter was published.
“He wasn’t my kind of manager because he isn’t a hands-on guy. I just have never seen any great bursts of leadership. You’d ask him something, and he’d start off answering the question, but 10 minutes later he’s talking about bumble bees or something else,” Brown said.
Brown said he has no plans to call for Gooch’s termination, but predicted he will resign.
In addition to Pierotti and Brown, the new board will consist of incumbents Gwen Henry and Roger Kotecki and three newly elected commissioners.
Kotecki would not comment on whether Gooch should stay on as executive director, but said he “doesn’t share the same sense of outrage” as other commissioners about the letter.
“The new board will have enough on its plate,” Kotecki said.
