Airport board finds old conflicts die hard

Airport board finds old conflicts die hard
Originally published Saturday, Oct. 18, 2007

By Nadia Malik
Daily Herald Staff Writer

Through talks of turning over a new leaf, the Chicago Executive Airport board on Wednesday still had the vestiges of past conflicts pop up.
Board members of the Wheeling-based airport, formerly known as Palwaukee, questioned its engineering firm on what information was passed along to a consultant.
The consultant, Airport Corp. of America, has caused problems on the board in past months. Several directors have questioned why John Kennedy, with that company, was hired and what work he had been doing.
Brian Welker, with Crawford, Murphy and Tilly, Inc., the airport's engineering firm, said Kennedy was concentrating on land acquisition and noise regulations.
However, board members said they still don't have a full idea of why he was hired by the board's former chair, Kevin Dohm.
Dohm recently resigned from the board after several members took up the question of how the consultant was hired without their approval.
The board's vice chairman, L. James Wylie, also resigned a few weeks after Dohm.
Welker said the consultant situation "put us in an extremely awkward position" since the board as a whole wasn't and still isn't aware of what Kennedy was doing.
The board also changed to whom the airport's manager reports. Previously, the airport's bylaws had the manager reporting only to the chair, but he will now report to the whole board.
The group also had the responsibility of electing a new vice chairman after Wylie's departure. Secretary Ralph Shepstone will take over for the next few meetings; however, he said he wasn't interested in keeping the job permanently.
Darlene Ahlstedt also joined the board for her first meeting since the Prospect Heights city council confirmed her appointment Monday.
Ahlstedt was chosen by the city to take Wylie's open seat; both Wheeling and Prospect Heights co-own the airport and choose two members each to appoint.
The chairman position is chosen by both the Wheeling village president and the Prospect Heights mayor. Both are still discussing who to appoint as the chair.
The remaining members of the board said on Wednesday they'd like to put the consultant situation behind them.
"I just hope that tonight is the beginning of the future of the airport," said Pam Arrigoni, the Prospect Heights city administrator, who also has a seat on the board.