Shiloh mayor stands by board’s decision to lay off lead engineer

Village of Shiloh Mayor Jim Vernier said in a two minute telephone conversation Friday the village “will move forward” following the elimination of the lead engineer position.

“We’re always going to move forward,” Vernier said.

On Monday the board of trustees eliminated Norm Etling, who had worked for the village as its lead engineer for the last 21 years.

Vernier, who has served as the mayor since 2001, and was a trustee for 16 years prior to that, said “Everything is handled and there are no problems.

Etling said on Thursday that the village did a similar thing about 10 years ago, when the village board eliminated Joe Hayden, former Belleville alderman and mayoral candidate, as the director of public service. Etling said he assumed Hayden’s responsibilities after his dismissal. In February, the village board hired Megan Fuhler as its first director of public works. Etling expects Fuhler will assume some of his job responsibilities in the interim, but staff have said otherwise.

Vernier said all construction projects will move forward without any problems.

“Yes, we will outsource engineering projects like we have been, and have for a long time,” he said.

Vernier deferred all comments on the elimination of the position to the two-sentence village public statement.

It stated: “In recent years, the Village’s professional engineering activities have largely been performed by private engineering firms. Given the very limited amount of professional engineering work performed in-house, the Village Board voted to eliminate the position of village Engineer and offer the incumbent, Norm Etling, a severance package reflective of the village’s appreciation for his dedicated service.”

“We’re good, we’re good. We have inspectors to handle our permits and inspections, so everything is good,” Vernier said.

This story was originally published June 10, 2016 at 9:02 AM with the headline "Shiloh mayor stands by board’s decision to lay off lead engineer."