Attorney: EMS chief role conflicts with spot on Village Board
By Vicky Wedig
Editor
A Darien Village Board trustee elected in April had to resign before his first meeting.
The board Friday accepted the resignation of Robert Krueger, 27, chief of Darien’s Emergency Medical Services Department.
Krueger was advised to resign earlier in April after the village’s legal counsel issued an opinion that the two offices – that of village trustee and EMS chief – may be incompatible.
Krueger did not return a phone call seeking comment Monday, but in a letter to Village Board President Kurt Zipp and Administrator Diana Dykstra, he wrote:
“I was unaware when I took out papers to run for village board that it would possibly be a conflict of interest for me to remain as EMS chief. I wish it had come to my attention before the voting process had taken place, but it did not.”
Village Attorney Brad Lochowicz said he was not asked to look into the matter until after the election.
Dykstra said the potential for a conflict hadn’t occurred to her until someone asked about it on election night.
Zipp said Krueger could have taken a lower position in the EMS Department to serve on the board.
“When Robert ran, I didn’t know whether his intent was, if he got elected, to go to assistant chief,” he said.
However, Zipp said, the assistant who was qualified to assume the chief’s spot is now moving.
Molly Jo Baars, 26, also a Darien emergency medical technician, also was elected to the board in April. Dykstra said Baars can serve on the board because she is a paid-on-call volunteer and does not have authority to hire and fire employees.
Lochowicz said the opinion that Krueger cannot hold both offices is based on the common law of compatibility of offices. He said because both a trustee and the EMS chief deal with employee discipline and budgetary issues, he believes the offices are incompatible.
Zipp said he hopes the village can use Krueger’s talents on some of its citizen committees.
“We want excited young people,” he said. “We don’t want to discourage that.”
Zipp said he has asked trustees to bring forth names of people interested in being appointed to fill Krueger’s slot to the May 20 Village Board meeting. He said the board could select a new trustee at that meeting if a suitable candidate is nominated.
