Park Forest’s new village manager, Jon Kindseth, was introduced to the public at Monday night’s Village Board meeting, although most of the meeting was spent honoring the man he is succeeding, Tom Mick.

Kindseth, the eighth manager in the 76-year history of the community, spoke briefly and for most of the meeting heard the tributes to Mick while standing in the back of the crowded room.

Mick, who is leaving after serving as the village manager for 20 years, was praised by board members for his dedication, commitment and building of trust.

Hired as the director of personnel under then manager Janet Muchnik in 1998, Mick was promoted to assistant village manager in 2001 and became the village manager in 2005.

Mick announced his planned retirement last some 11 months ago, generating an intensive search for his replacement.

Village Trustee Erin Slone, along with fellow board members Theresa Settles, Tiffani Graham and John Moore, began the search for Mick’s replacement last July.

The process also included Mayor Joe Woods and department heads, national, regional, state, Black and Latino manager groups, and the services of MGT, a national consulting firm, which whittled down an initial list of 62 applicants to a dozen. The finalists all had a master’s degree in public administration and from five to seven years of governmental experience.

From those 12, six were invited for either personal or virtual interviews with the board, and from there two were invited back for interviews with department heads and a tour of the village.

Slone said it was evident that Kindseth stood out.“What we saw impressed us all,” she said.

At the end of the tour, Slone said, Kindseth offered suggestions for trustees “even if he said he was not chosen.”

Kindseth graduated from Illinois State University in 2009 and was an intern with the west suburban community of Westchester for two years, and then assistant to Highwood’s manager for another 17 months. In December, 2021, he became the village administrator for Beach Park, a small north suburban village. It was a position he held until he was appointed the deputy city manager of Decatur in 2019.

In Beach Park, he joined with the neighboring communities of Zion and Winthrop Harbor in an agreement to hire an economic development coordinator to market the three municipalities as one unit, sharing sales taxes earned by new business brought to the area.

Under terms of the Park Forest contract, Kindseth will be paid $196,000 this year with a $4,000 raise to $200,000 in 2026.

Jerry Shnay is a freelance columnist for the Daily Southtown.