Skokie Sends Off Al Rigoni With Great Thanks

To many, it's hard to separate Al Rigoni from Skokie.

As the village manager for 25 years--and a village employee for 12 years before that--he has been in his position longer than the mayor or any of the trustees. But he's officially prying himself loose on Dec. 31.  

His last board meeting took place Monday, Dec. 16, and Skokie Mayor George Van Dusen took the occasion to heap praise on him. Two friends in Rigoni's field of city management came to add congratulatory remarks, and trustees chimed in, too.

All the while, a slideshow of photos of Rigoni taken over the years, ranging from humorous to distinguished, played. There were photos of Rigoni golfing, Rigoni conducting official business, Rigoni with a full head of black hair and a mustache, Rigoni with gradually lightening hair and no mustache, Rigoni with President George W. Bush, and on and on.

"Al has an enormous number of accomplishments," Van Dusen said, noting that city managers have to know something about public safety, police and fire, construction, water delivery, finance, budgets and more. 

One of two areas where Rigoni excelled, the mayor said, is in budgeting. He credited Rigoni with bringing the village through the 2008-09 recession, when sales tax revenue plummeted 25 percent over a year and a half, with no disruptions to residents.

"Not only did we not cut any service, we increased services," Van Dusen said. "And the village did something extraordinary. We accomplished not one, but two AAA bond ratings."

Rigoni also excelled in recruiting top-notch professional staff to Skokie, Van Dusen continued, maintaining they're as good as in any municipality in the country.

He ticked off a list of the projects Rigoni oversaw during his long tenure: the redevelopment of Westfield Old Orchard Mall, the construction of Village Crossing Shopping Center, Illinois Science and Technology Park, Skokie Police Station, the CTA station, and much of the downtown development project.

"Al is held in the highest esteem by his fellow managers," the mayor exuded, before introducing David Limardi, the former city manager of Highland Park and currently the Midwest Regional Director of the International City/County Management Association, and Bob Kiely, the city manager of Lake Forest. Both men, who Van Dusen described as friends of Rigoni, had warm words for him.

Rigoni thanked them all and reflected on the mayors and corporation counsels and staff he had served with.

"The manager is the orchestra conductor, but there is no concert without these fine people," he said.

He told a brief story of his early years as manager, "before I learned any Yiddish," when a woman he had helped told him he was a mensch, and he asked what that meant, and she said a nice guy. He was pleased by that. 

"It has been my pleasure to have served this fine community," he said in closing.