Mayor announces committee restructuring in Fairview Heights

The City Council’s committees are being restructured to include representation from each ward.

Beginning next month, each of the Fairview Heights City Council’s committees will consist of five members, one alderman from each ward. Fairview Heights Mayor Mark Kupsky announced the move during the City Council meeting on Tuesday night. Kupsky, who took office earlier this month, said he wants to establish better representation and coordination within each committee.

“I feel that now all five wards are always represented for every committee,” Kupsky said. “Also, it helps build collaboration among the Council.”

The city has three main committees: operations, administration and community committees. Under the operations committee will be personnel and public services. Both law enforcement and finance will be under the administration committee and the community committee will oversee parks and recreation, planning and development. To this point, each committee had three members serving on seven committees.

Each committee will meet once a month. The operations committee will meet on the first Wednesday of each month. The administration committee will meet on the second Wednesday of each month, and the community committee will meet on the third Wednesday of each month.

“Other communities do a similar format to this,” Kupsky said. “So this is a way to update our process, maximize our time together, get better representation among the whole city and more collaboration among the Council members.”

Each committee member has been appointed by the mayor for a two-year period. The mayor has also appointed a chairman to oversee personnel, public services, law enforcement, finance, parks and recreation, planning and development. Each chair will serve a year-long term.

Ward 3 Alderwoman Pat Baeske has been appointed as the chair of personnel issues, Ward 1 Alderman Dennis Baricevic has been named the public services chair, Ward 5 Alderwoman Denise Williams will serve as the law enforcement chair, Ward 2 Alderman Roger Lowry is the finance chair, Ward 2 Alderman Justin Gough will serve as the chair of the city’s parks and recreation, Ward 5 Alderwoman Carol Warner is the planning chair and Ward 5 Alderman Bill Poletti is the chair of city development.

This story was originally published May 19, 2015 at 9:17 PM with the headline "Mayor announces committee restructuring in Fairview Heights."