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La Grange board approves accounting-services contract with Lauterbach & Amen, amends term to end Dec. 31, 2028
Summary
The Village of La Grange approved a contract with Lauterbach & Amen LLP to provide client accounting and advisory services, amending the resolution to specify a Dec. 31, 2028 end date; the vote and related consent items passed unanimously.
La Grange — The Village of La Grange Board of Trustees on June 22 approved a contract with accounting firm Lauterbach & Amen LLP to provide client accounting and advisory services and unanimously amended the resolution to specify the contract will end Dec. 31, 2028.
Trustee Augustine, who introduced the measure, told the board the village issued an RFP on April 13, 2026, sought a wide set of financial services and that the evaluation team unanimously found Lauterbach & Amen “most qualified to provide these services.” The proposal, she said, names Kathleen Morley as finance director and Joanna Catterman as assistant, and budgets for the expenditure are included in the approved 2026–2027 fiscal-year budget.
Resident Al Foreman urged the board to build strong oversight into any outsourcing arrangement, saying, “Every outsourcing agreement requires strict oversight process to guarantee value.” Foreman also flagged a discrepancy between a three-year term cited in the resolution and contract language that mentions 30 months.
President Kugler and staff responded that the engagement is intended to professionalize and stabilize the finance function rather than primarily to save money. “We didn't do it to save money; we did it to make the department more professionalized,” the president said when explaining the board’s justification for hiring a firm rather than a single in-house finance director.
Board members asked for clarification on the contract term; the board approved a motion to amend the resolution to specify the contract ends on Dec. 31, 2028, and then approved the amended resolution. Both the amendment and the amended agreement passed unanimously on roll call.
The vote follows prior consent-agenda approvals at the same meeting. Attorney Schuster explained that the village president must cast a vote on certain consent items that waive bidding requirements. The full consent agenda (items 5A–5H) passed unanimously.
What happens next: The firm is expected to provide the named personnel and additional staff as needed to support the village’s ERP transition, reporting, and process improvements. The contract as amended sets the formal end date and remains subject to the terms in the board-approved agreement.
Votes at a glance: The consent agenda (items 5A–5H) passed unanimously; the motion to amend the Lauterbach & Amen resolution to set the end date to Dec. 31, 2028 passed unanimously; the amended resolution to enter the agreement with Lauterbach & Amen passed unanimously.
