Hazel Crest trustees seeking to fire village manager over handling of July storms

Fallout from this summer's damaging storms in south suburban Hazel Crest has turned into a political storm, and village leaders are at major odds.

Some want to replace the current village manager and take veto power away from Mayor Sandra Alexander, who said she first heard of the plan Tuesday night.

Village trustees called a special meeting for Thursday night in hopes of moving forward with the changes.

The first item up for a vote on the agenda is a motion to remove acting village manager Donna Gayden from her post.

Trustee Mia Reed said she supports keeping Gayden in place, but the majority of board wants her out.

"The village manager, she resides in New York. She is back and forth. We don't even know when she's here," said trustee Merle Kimbrough-Huckabee.

Trustees said, when a tornado hit Hazel Crest, displacing dozens of people in July, they could get no guidance or plan of action from Gayden.

"The village manager should have communicated with us, and she did not. There was no plan whatsoever in place. We had to make our own plan," Kimbrough-Huckabee said.

At the special meeting, the board hopes to appoint and swear in new village manager, but Reed calls that likely vote premature.

"She hasn't been vetted. We have not received any information about her background. We don't know who we're supposed to be voting for," she said. "We don't have information on this person's background."

Alexander also said she hasn't seen the resume of Tanya Tucker-Perry, who the board is seeking to install as acting village manager, so can't vouch for her credentials.

Meantime, Alexander said the board is also looking to eliminate any and all veto powers so she wouldn't even be able to say no to the new appointee.

"If the board of trustees say, the majority say take it away, how does that look our community?" she said. "That would leave me with no powers in that area, so I couldn't really make decisions that would be good for our community."

Trustee Carmilla Malone said she doesn't believe Alexander has any veto power.

"We don't want to turn this into a boardroom like Dolton had at some point," Kimbrough-Huckabee said.

Alexander said the people of Hazel Crest should be concerned about Thursday's meeting.

"They should show up and voice their concerns about that," she said.

Both sides are using tax dollars on attorneys to examine if veto powers can be removed from the mayor. That meeting likely will