Laure Kosey, the director of Riverside Department of Parks and Recreation, tendered her resignation Friday afternoon and has accepted the job as executive director of the Oak Brook Park District.
The Oak Brook Park District board agreed to a contract with Kosey on Feb. 4. She was introduced to board members at their meeting Monday night, according to Nancy Strathdee, human resources director for the Oak Brook Park District.
Details of that contract were not immediately made available to the press despite a Freedom of Information request from the Landmark on Monday.
Kosey, who was out of the Riverside office Monday, could not be reached for comment prior to press time.
Village Manager Peter Scalera said that Kosey’s last day as a Riverside employee will be Feb. 26. However, her last day in the office will be Feb. 19.
“She’ll stay to the end of the month to give us time to talk about a transition and what next steps are going to be,” Scalera said.
Scalera said he knew Kosey, who made $93,000 a year in Riverside, had been looking for a new position and that he supported her decision to leave.
“She felt it was time to make a change,” Scalera said. “She’s been an asset and has done a tremendous job in turning Parks and Rec around, and she will be missed.”
The Riverside Department of Parks and Recreation has been under pressure to cut its costs and work toward becoming a self-sustaining entity since the beginning of 2009, when its funding was cut in half by the village board. Trustees are retaining those cuts in 2010 and have not decided how the department will be structured in the future.
Plans developed by Kosey and the park board in 2008 indicated that the department would likely become a program-driven entity without a director, which essentially started the clock ticking on Kosey’s job in Riverside.