Des Plaines City Clerk Jessica Mastalski
In a move that was all but inevitable following a preliminary vote two weeks ago, the Des Plaines City Council on Monday stripped City Clerk Jessica Mastalski of authority over her office’s workers.
Mastalski and any future clerks still will work with employees but are forbidden from exercising “administrative direction and control” over them, according to the new rules. Workers will instead be exclusively supervised by the city manager or a designee.
Additionally, the clerk no longer can unilaterally coordinate the work of office personnel or delegate responsibilities. The clerk will have to work with the city manager or the designee to determine what duties can be assigned to staffers.
The city clerk is a part-time, elected position in Des Plaines, and the job pays $6,000 annually. Two employees work in the office, and since a 2019 edict from then-City Manager Mike Bartholomew, they have reported to both the manager and the clerk.
The changes approved Monday were recommended by an attorney for the city, Kelly A. Coyle, after Coyle investigated a complaint about Mastalski by an employee in the clerk’s office, documents acquired by the Daily Herald through the Illinois Freedom of Information Act revealed.
The complaint was made to the city’s human relations director in December 2024, documents showed. The name of the employee who made the complaint was redacted from the documents shared with the Daily Herald.
Coyle determined the complaint was unfounded and attributed the conflict in the office to a “clash of personalities. Even so, Coyle said changes in the clerk’s office were needed.
Coyle recommended having a full-time employee — such as the city manager — oversee the staff, rather than a part-time elected official. It’s difficult for the clerk to oversee the office when serving part-time, Coyle wrote. Coyle also called the current system with two supervisors “not particularly efficient or effective” and said it can lead to confusion and conflict.
Mastalski, who isn’t running for reelection as clerk this year and is instead campaigning for the 1st Ward aldermanic seat, objected to the proposed changes during an initial public review on March 3 and did so again Monday night before the vote at city hall, even while acknowledging the changes would be approved.
Mastalski said she was disappointed by the maneuver. The elected clerk is supposed to answer only to voters, she said, and the clerk’s staff is supposed to answer to the clerk and not be members of just another city department.
Fifth Ward Alderman Carla Brookman — one of two candidates for clerk in the April 1 election — and the 6th Ward’s Mark Walsten spoke against the changes Monday, too, and then voted against them.
Brookman called the move “a dangerous precedent.” Walsten suggested the council ask voters to decide the issue but didn’t get enough support to make that happen.
The other six council members voted for the changes.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
