Oak Park trustees hear governance workshop that flags trust and teamwork as priorities

A governance consultant told the Oak Park Village Board on Tuesday that the village's strategic plan gives board members a strong foundation but that the board should adopt written governance expectations and team-building practices to turn the plan into sustained action. The presentation and ensuing discussion, during a workshop session, repeatedly returned to the topic of trust among elected members.

Mike Fletcher of Bridge Elk Group, LLC said his firm's Governance Relations System (GRS) is designed to spell out shared expectations between elected officials and the village manager so future boards can operate with clearer roles, fewer operational debates and more consistent follow-through. "If you don't have strategic focus, these other two are nice, but this gets the work," Fletcher said in his presentation. He later added, "The trust needs to be addressed. You really need to address it."

Fletcher described three core governance building blocks'teamwork, clear expectations and strategic focus'and reviewed survey results from the board. He said the survey showed the board has strong strategic material to work with but lower scores on interpersonal trust and recommended a structured program of team evaluation and exercises based on the five dysfunctions model (trust, conflict, commitment, accountability, results). Fletcher said high-participation surveys and annual evaluations of board performance and the manager help embed the practices over time.

Trust emerged as the dominant theme in discussion. One trustee said the survey'which four of seven trustees completed'was disappointing for its low response rate and urged the board to take the issue seriously. Other trustees said the newness of the current board and the recent election season likely contributed to uneven familiarity among members, and recommended off-site retreats or informal social gatherings (subject to open-meetings rules) as ways to build relationships.

Village Manager Kevin Jackson and deputy director Lisa Shelby took part in the session and described how written expectations could be incorporated into existing workflows'for example, tying the strategic plan to annual staff workplans and budget priorities so staff time is aligned with board priorities. Fletcher and attendees discussed evaluation models that ask the board to evaluate itself and the manager on the same set of expectations to strengthen the partnership between policy and administration.

Trustees asked for concrete next steps: draft GRS language they could review, a schedule for team-building, and a simple board policy that would codify how the village approaches strategic planning and performance monitoring. Fletcher said he would supply clients a simple template and a suggested process; the village said staff would bring revised protocols and, if the board approves, present formal adoption language in a future packet.

The session also covered related governance tools Fletcher recommended including a structured agenda preview process, clarified public engagement expectations and clear staff-manager deliverables tied to the strategic plan. Trustees and staff discussed how those process changes could improve transparency and make it easier for new trustees to onboard.

The board did not take final votes on changes during the workshop. Trustees directed staff to return draft protocol language for further review and possible formal adoption at a future meeting.