After seven years as town collector and 24 years in local government, Cicero Trustee Jan Porod is retiring Tuesday.
Porod made the decision this week after learning the town did not plan to review its participation next year in an early retirement incentive program through the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund. The incentive gives employees five additional years’ work credit and adds five years to their age for pension calculation purposes.
Porod, 56, said she wants to spend more time with her family, though she also has acknowledged frustration with town leadership, particularly Town President Ramiro Gonzalez.
In the last year, Porod has been an outspoken critic of the town’s financial dealings, including payments to a printing company, M&D of Chicago Inc. The firm has been paid nearly $700,000 in less than two years for work that has not been subject to competitive bidding.
On Tuesday, Porod was alone in opposing a $21,069 payment to M&D for publication of the town newsletter. It has been a familiar scene: Porod and occasionally Trustee Dennis Raleigh have been the only ones to dissent on a board that routinely approves payments and other measures without discussion.
Raleigh said he was saddened to learn of Porod’s retirement.
“She’s had a long, distinguished career,” Raleigh said. “She’s always performed her duties in a professional manner, no matter where she was in town government. Her professionalism will be sorely missed.”
Town spokesman Omar Duque said Gonzalez will appoint an interim replacement. Election of a collector to a four-year term would be held in April 2005 during balloting for other town offices.
The collector, who also serves as a trustee, oversees four full-time employees, and the office’s duties include collecting and tracking money for town departments. The collector’s office also distributes vehicle stickers.
Porod said she continues to be concerned that trustees do not “take enough time to review paperwork, bills, warrants, agendas” and rarely ask questions.
“I tried to serve the town the best that I could, and toward the end that was not an easy task,” Porod said. “It used to be fun, and it became a job.”
After working briefly as a preschool teacher in the Clyde Park District and as secretary to the town’s Mental Health Board, Porod was executive director of the Cicero Housing Authority from 1980 to 1997. She unseated Alison Resnick as collector in 1997 and won re-election in 2001.
