Evan Walter Unanimously Approved As Permanent Administrator

BURR RIDGE, IL — The Burr Ridge Village Board voted unanimously Monday to approve Interim Village Administrator Evan Walter as permanent village administrator.

Deliberations took place during a roughly 20-minute closed session just after Monday’s main meeting, and then all Trustees voted to approve Walter, with Mayor Grasso abstaining. Walter, who has served as interim administrator since November 2020, will begin his new role Nov. 8, the date of the next Board meeting.

Trustee Al Paveza told Patch that to his knowledge, no other candidates for the position were considered.

The Board approved an annual salary of $160,000, Burr Ridge Executive Assistant Julie Tejkowski told Patch. As interim administrator, Walter made $125,000 a year.

Walter has worked for the Village of Burr Ridge since 2017, according to his LinkedIn profile, serving first as assistant to the village administrator, then assistant village administrator, then interim village administrator. Before that, he served as a management analyst for the City of Elgin, and an administrative intern for the Village of Glenview. He holds a B.A. from Thiel College, and both an M.A. in Political Science and MPA from Northern Illinois University.

In November 2020, Walter replaced Doug Pollock, who had served as village administrator for three years and received a severance package of $38,000. Soon after Walter began his tenure as Interim Village Administrator, Patch received two different texts from Walter to then-Trustee Zach Mottl that called Pollock an obscene name for female genitalia. Walter wrote a few other texts denigrating Pollock’s job performance. Mottl sent Patch the texts, who was able to confirm that they were sent by Walter.

Mottl also released texts where Walter wrote about departing Village Clerk Karen Thomas that he was sorry to lose Karen's brain but honestly I'm going to get someone 40 years younger to replace her for 70 percent of the cost.”

Mayor Gary Grasso told Patch in an email that Walter showed a “lapse in judgment” and has made “the appropriate apologies.” Several other Trustees criticized the texts in a closed session.

Grasso also told Patch that the texts caused the board to make Walter an interim administrator rather than a permanent one so that they could evaluate his performance. Mottl was the only one to vote against Walter as interim administrator. When he tried to read the texts during a board meeting, other trustees shouted him down. Mottl himself has been censured for calling Pollock and Finance Director Jerry Sapp incompetent.

Pollock initially took on a roll as city planner after leaving as village administrator, but eventually resigned. In July, the Village Board voted to assign Walter the duties of planner, on top of his administrator workload.

In October 2020, shortly before Walter began his tenure, Grasso wrote to Patch about Pollock’s early retirement: “The consensus of the Board wanted that to happen, so we could also get a certain younger qualified person at a lower salary as Village Administrator sooner." It was later revealed that he had nominated Walter, just 31 at the time.

Over the next year, several village staff members left for various reasons, including Pollock, Finance Director Jerry Sapp, Acting Finance Director Amy Nelson, Communications Coordinator Janet Kowal, Village Planner Joe Arcus, Police Records Specialist Heidi Nelson, and Water and Wastewater Supervisor James Lukas.

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