Palatine said goodbye this month to Finance Director Paul Mehring, who retired Friday after 28 years with the village.
The timing was significant. This month, the village council approved a property tax levy that for the first time in more than a century does not include a levy for debt service.
Becoming debt-free has been a top priority for the village. Now the village is in a position to cover remaining debt with reserves.
Much of the credit for that belongs to Mehring and his team, including Assistant Finance Director Sue Conn, who also retired Friday after 34 years with the village.
“We couldn’t have done this without Paul’s leadership and vision,” Village Manager Reid Ottesen said.
Mehring was Ottesen’s first department head appointment. Over the years, Mehring has been more than a finance director — he has been a confidant and someone who is not afraid to offer constructive criticism, Ottesen said.
Assistant Finance Director Sue Conn (left) and Finance Director Paul Mehring retired from the village Friday after decades of service.
Steve Zalusky/szalusky@dailyherald.com
There have been ups and downs, including some nights when they were at village hall at 3 a.m. trying to figure out how to balance the budget, Ottesen said.
Mehring spent 10 years in public accounting prior to his stint with the village. He said his first contact with the village was managing Palatine’s audit. When Palatine went looking for an assistant finance director, Mehring applied for the job and was accepted. He was elevated to finance director 21 years ago.
“We’re both fiscal conservatives,” Mehring said of his relationship with Ottesen. “There are some managers who, if there is a dollar on the table, they want to spend five. Reid says, ‘there is a dollar on the table, how can we save it?’”
Palatine Mayor Jim Schwantz praised Mehring and Ottesen not only for getting the village on the path to becoming debt-free, but also for shepherding the village through the Great Recession without putting it on the backs of residents.
“A global pandemic happens, and there’s no chapter in the manual that tells you how to get out of that, but you did, and all the while never sacrificing services,” he said.
