Effective Leadership for Countryside

Countryside is a home- rule community with a Mayor-City Council form of government. Mayor Carl LeGant, who has held the office since 1978, presides over the City of Countryside’s nine-member City Council — which includes the Mayor, six aldermen, the City Clerk and the City Treasurer. The City Council meets twice monthly (on the second and fourth Wednesdays, once in November and December); all meetings are open to the public and take place in the Council Chambers at City Hall, 5550 East Avenue (just south of 55th Street).

Under home rule, the City Council (with input from Countryside residents and business owners) determines municipal policies, regulations and local law, budgets for annual municipal operating funds; discusses and allocates funds for various city improvement projects; and addresses issues of concern to both residents and businesses of Countryside. The City Council is advised and supported by several committee appointees and a number of full-time municipal staff members. Countryside employs a city attorney and a city administrator, in addition to a number of other department heads who oversee such departments as Building, Public Works and Community Development.

The City’s Plan Commission/Zoning Board of Appeals issues property use and zoning variations, and hears appeals of decisions of the city’s Building Commissioner. The commission also hears and makes recommendations to the City Council on all applications for zoning changes, as well as on any proposed amendments to existing zoning codes, and administers the subdivision regulations. The commission also serves as the city’s long-range planning entity and in 2004 approved the city’s new Comprehensive Plan. The Countryside Department of Public Works (DPW) duties and responsibilities vary depending on the seasons. Keeping the streets free of ice and snow is the most important winter duty of the DPW. All employees are on 24-hour call.

The Countryside Water Department oversees a water distribution system that taps water from Lake Michigan (via Chicago and the Village of McCook) into the Department’s million-gallon underground reservoir, pump house and million-gallon aboveground storage tank for distribution to users in Countryside, as well as in other areas near city boundaries. Under current city policy, single-family homes are billed for water every other month while businesses, apartments and mobile home parks are billed on a monthly basis.