Oswego Board OKs Novy To Fill Vacant Trustee Seat

OSWEGO, IL — More than three months after the Oswego Village of Board of Trustees found itself with an unexpected vacancy, the board has returned to full strength after trustees voted to add long-time resident Karen Novy on Wednesday night.

The board approved President Ryan Kauffman’s nomination of Novy with a 4-2 vote at a special trustees meeting. Novy replaces Luis Perez, who was elected to the board in April, but announced his resignation less than a month later to pursue an out-of-state job.

As he stated when he first nominated Novy, Kauffman said at Wednesday’s meeting that the 20-year Oswego resident brings a wealth of knowledge” to the seat, which she will fill until the 2025 Consolidated Election, when a candidate will be elected to fill out the remaining two years of the four-year appointment.

The board’s vote comes after Kauffman had previously nominated Thomas Collins to fill the seat. After the board denied the initial nomination, Kauffman also previously nominated resident Brian Thomas along with Novy to fill the vacancy and hoped “in a dream scenario” that all six village trustees would approve the nomination.

A total of 23 people applied for the open position on the board, trustees said.

While four trustees voted in favor of adding Novy to the board at Wednesday’s special meeting, two board members — including Tom Guist — voted against the nomination, calling into question the way in which Kauffman approached bringing a candidate forward to the board.

The board had previously tabled the vote to fill the vacancy to obtain more input on the process. Guist said Wednesday night that the move was the “right thing to do” for the entire community.

Guist said in speaking with Novy, he found a resident with plenty of experience in community involvement to be very genuine, very honest, and very personable. However, he said that at a critical time for the village, he feels like someone with more experience in dealing with the issues at hand for village officials would be beneficial.

“Nothing against Karen Novy’s resume’ — it’s a very good resume’ (and) very capable — but right now, what will be closer to an 18-month term than a 24-month term, in my opinion, the experience of knowing where we were and where we’ve come on at least those two (specific project) topics, is something, I don’t know that is maybe being put aside in favor of partisan politics,” Guist said.

In addition to Guist’s vote against Novy’s appointment, trustee Jennifer Jones Sinnott cast the other vote against Kauffman’s nomination.

Trustee Andrew Torres said that he felt that Novy falls in line with how Perez would have served on the board and in line with how residents voted in the most recent election. He said that he believes Torres shares the same values as Perez when it comes to community growth and other critical issues facing the village.

“I’m sure everyone here would like to have a replacement in line with the most recently elected trustee,” Torres said. “Doing otherwise would, in essence, overrule the election. …I’m glad we are fulfilling our duty in establishing someone in that chair and we can go out doing what we feel is best for the community.”