| 8/10/2008 1:34:00 PM | Email this article • Print this article |
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| Tom Barwin |
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Barwin's Colorado flirtation ends
Boulder chooses other candidate for city manager
By MARTY STEMPNIAK
Staff Reporter
Web Extra!
Oak Park Village Manager Tom Barwin, whose résumé turned heads out West recently, appears to be staying here for the foreseeable future.
Barwin was in the top three finalists when the Boulder, Colo., City Council selected its new city manager Sunday morning, but he didn't get the job. The council ended up selecting Jane Brautigam, the current city manager in Dublin, Ohio. The council will return to chambers this afternoon to vote on her contract.
"Clearly, I believe she is, of the three candidates, the one that has excelled the most," said Mayor Shaun McGrath.
Council members praised Barwin, Oak Park's village manager of two years, for his experience with diversity, budget tightening, and development, among other things, before settling on Brautigam. Barwin received the second most votes when the council was whittling its list of seven candidates down to three.
"I liked his style," McGrath said Saturday. "I think it's a style that would work well for us and for the city. It's a laidback style with a grounded amount of confidence, too."
"I thought his answers on all questions were very thoughtful and it was very obvious to me that, if you want someone to reduce budgets, he would probably be the best candidate," said council member Ken Wilson.
Barwin was in Colorado to interview for the position Saturday morning. The Boulder City Council asked Barwin eight scripted questions during the hour-long interview, which was broadcast live on the city's Web site.
Questions touched on such topics as environmental sustainability, diversity, affordable housing, and aligning elected officials' priorities with work done by the community's staff. All are relevant topics in Oak Park, and Barwin frequently found parallels between Oak Park and Boulder.
"I was attracted to Oak Park because it is a community that's about something," he told the council. "We seem to be cut from a similar DNA."
Barwin also made a 10-minute presentation to the city council Friday, as did the other six candidates, on environmental sustainability issues in Boulder. The city has a Climate Action Plan, which spends $1 million each year in efforts to reduce greenhouse gases, according to the local Boulder newspaper.
Check the Aug. 13 print edition of Wednesday Journal for more on this story.
CONTACT: mstempniak@wjinc.com
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Reader Comments
Posted: Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Article comment by:
Bill Maxwell
Thank you Mr. Johnson, for explaining your rational for what's best for shoppers in Oak Park.
Supply & Demand is a good common sense approach to business to arrive at a cost for a product or service.
That kind of thinking will lead to balancing books or a business going out of business unless that business is supported by tax payers.
I have not once met a person in agreement to how parking rules are effective for shoppers, but that could be just the negative effect of a parking ticket talking.
Maybe some good ole common sense could be used like it was in deciding to build a home on higher ground in Scoville Park. The thinking was, lower ground gets flooded.
Is it really a matter of fair play to discourage people using parking meters to free them up for other shoppers while all of the time the motive is to get people to park in parking garages which have never been successful?
When was the last time a shopper received a ticket for meter feeding? Maybe that will help.
I can't believe a business owner would want to rush a customer out of his or her door over 1.50.
Why are parking garages free for the first hour? Common sense says if it isn't worth anything, give it away.
Parking garages have never proved effective for shoppers. There have been parking garages built on parking lots at malls that remain dormant.
Here's an idea for creating supply and demand for a parking lot. Have only one, sell the land to developers, generating a positive tax base and keeping the Village, financial sound and at the same time, making it shopper friendly.
I'm sure Mr. Barwin can bring Oak Park into where it should be, but if board members are going to rely on outside reports and not on common sense, then Mr. Barwin can only do what you let him do.
Posted: Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Article comment by:
Ray Johnson
I share Mr. Maxwell’s enthusiasm for Tom Barwin remaining in Oak Park and I’d like to address his comments in regards to the recent changes in parking rates.
After carefully studying the manner in which the Village manages parking through input from Village staff, business district associations, a citizen commission and a consultant, hired with the specific purpose of providing deeper analysis and parking cost comparisons with other communities, I supported an integrated system of parking rates based on supply and demand.
The rationale behind parking rate changes is not solely based on the desire for added revenue, since there are some designated parking areas which will actually see a reduction in parking rates, but rather designating parking districts based on high, medium and low demand and pricing those areas accordingly.
Where meters are now priced at $1.50 an hour, these high demand parking areas require quicker turnaround of parking spaces, thus more parking availability and are designed to be integrated with the nearby parking garages. Parking garages provide lower cost options for consumers if they need to park near a high demand parking area, as the first hour in parking garages remain free.
Alternatively, commuter parking areas will soon be expanded in lower demand areas of the Village and priced at $0.50 an hour, thus providing commuters a cost effective manner for utilizing public transit.
The Village’s fund balance remains well below targets and higher utilization of the parking garages will indeed reduce the taxpayer subsidy currently provided for parking, but an overall parking strategy that provides for various cost options based on supply, demand and need and targeted toward the user will allow us to more smartly manage a crucial resource.
Please contact the Parking Services Department at Village Hall to learn more about meter keys which eliminate the need to carry change when you need to pay a meter or day and/or night time parking permits which are cost effective alternatives for your parking needs.
Posted: Monday, August 11, 2008
Article comment by:
Bill Maxwell
Boulder's lost is our good fortune. If board members get out of his way, he can move forward reducing spending in the Village and find out who keeps thinking aggressive parking tickets and now 1.50 per hour meters are the only way to generate income. Everyone knows, "Stop your car in Oak Park, get a parking ticket". That should not be the message Oak Park board members should continue spreading. Hopefully, that will be one area he will address quickly. Who thought up the 1.50 per hour parking meters? Sure, it's easy to think if meters bring in 1,000 a day, just double them and they'll bring 2,000 a day. Sure, if people continue shopping in Oak Park. Parking tickets drive people away. Of course it's easy income because who's going to spend time contesting a 10 dollar parking ticket. This thinking is wrong and destructive to buisinesses. Resulting effect? Shoppers go elsewhere who don't want a parking ticket and refuse to pay 1.50. Wake up board members. What does Oak Park shopping really offer that can't be found elsewhere. Case in point. Starbucks. Oak Park, 1.50 meter. River Forest, free parking and available. Oh yes, for those members who like to take the inflation in account as the reason for loss of income from Oak Park businesses when working on numbers, don't forget to match the losses against the National average, and then add back the number that will drop that average lower in Oak Park, because Oak Park does not reflect the National average and the loss of income in Oak Park is directly related to parking. Now lets let Mr. Barwin get to doing what he was going to do to Boulder. Welcome back, Mr. Barwin.
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