Unless you’ve applied for a building permit or hosted a ribbon cutting in Brookfield since the summer, you may not have noticed staffing changes in the village’s community development department this year.
Since April, Brookfield has hired Community Development Director Libby Popovic, Building Division Manager Michelle Niemeyer and Business & Economic Development Coordinator Deanne Adasiak to fill out the department, which is responsible for permitting, property maintenance, planning and zoning, business retention and more within the village.
Popovic, who started April 28, came to Brookfield after founding and managing her own private law firm for about 14 years; before that, she worked at the Cook County State’s Attorney’s office. An attorney by trade, Popovic earned a doctorate in law from the Chicago-Kent College of Law and a master’s in public administration from the Illinois Institute of Technology.
Popovic said she wanted to join Brookfield after seeing its growth through her private work in real estate. In a joint interview with Niemeyer and Adasiak on Oct. 30, she told the Landmark the community development director position spoke to her as a role where she could play a pivotal part in the village.
“Brookfield has grown so much over the last number of years, and in what I was doing previously, in private practice with residential and commercial and lending and so forth, I’ve seen different areas in Cook County, Will County, DuPage [County] that have grown,” she said. “This position particularly has four divisions that are under it, in terms of the organizational structure, and it seemed like it would be the best fit for being able to come in and really make an impact.”
Niemeyer, who started June 24, said she had spent the entirety of her nearly 30-year career in the public sector as an employee of the Village of Oak Lawn, joining them straight out of college. While she worked for Oak Lawn, Niemeyer earned a bachelor’s in early childhood education, which she said has been helpful in her role due to the large amount of teaching and explaining she does to residents and contractors alike about the ins and outs of permits.
She first became acquainted with Brookfield while applying for the open community development director role after being pushed to look outside her status quo at Oak Lawn.
“My supervisor was retiring, and he had made a comment to me, something like, ‘I just wish I had looked outside of Oak Lawn at some point … and I’m going to encourage you to,’” she said. “It was kind of a cheesy moment, but it was super true.”
While she lost out on that position to Popovic, Niemeyer said Village Manager Tim Wiberg saw she would be a good fit with the building division and offered her the job.
“It’s a strong fit for me, and I’m thankful that Libby has that position, because she’s a really good leader for us, and we can all learn a lot from her,” Niemeyer said. “This has given me a lot of opportunity to make advancements in the department that were needed and ready.”
Adasiak, who started Sept. 30, worked at Oak Lawn, like Niemeyer, for about 18 years, she said, where she worked in business licensing and community development. She said she started her career in institutional sales at Merrill, formerly known as Merrill Lynch, the investment and wealth management arm of Bank of America, after earning an English degree from Northern Illinois University.
She said she saw professional opportunities working for Brookfield that she couldn’t access at her previous post.
“I felt that I needed to grow, and I was limited [in] doing some of the things to do. For example, grants; we had a grant person. Economic development on a more specialized level: There were other people in the department that handled that,” she said. “I feel like there is so much opportunity here for growth, and to be a part of that was exciting for me, to make a change here.”
Popovic had a hand in hiring Niemeyer and Adasiak after she was brought on board; she said each of them was a perfect fit for Brookfield.
“When I was hired for this position, and even before that, I had a chance to evaluate all four of the divisions and see where they’re at and what do we need to take it to the next level in terms of experience,” she said. “It was like [Niemeyer] was born to the position, because there is a need for [experience] here, because [the building division] could be run more efficiently and be enhanced.”
In fact, Popovic said she played a part in the creation of Adasiak’s role before hiring her.
“We never had an economic development full-time coordinator. That was just a part-time, contract job, and it jumped out at me initially: Why don’t we have one? Because it’s really hard to do it on a contract basis, because Brookfield, for a little town, has a lot of stuff and a lot of potential,” she said. “Bringing someone in, it was just a matter of finding the right person, so I feel like the universe brought both of them in.”
While each of them has specific goals in their own positions, the group consensus was that they hope to take the department “to the next level” after the strides they’ve already made this year, like streamlining applications and considering how the department deals with residents. All three agreed they work together well and have a passion for Brookfield and community development.
“We always joke that we’re winning,” Popovic said.
“I don’t know what we’re winning, but we are winning,” Niemeyer added.
