Slupski: Carl Tomaso will be missed in Huntley

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Huntley Village Hall was quiet this week.

Too quiet for Public Works Director Jim Schwartz.

“You would hear him before you would see him,” Schwartz said. “He’d be in the hall, calling out to people. Saying hi. Forty million things going on in his head.”

The ebullient energy of Village Manager Carl Tomaso will be missed in Huntley.

Tomaso died this week at 56. He left behind a wife and two sons.

It is unlikely that many of Huntley’s residents even will understand what they have lost. Despite his passionate intensity, his attention to detail, and his drive for the job, Tomaso kept a relatively low profile.

There is a saying from Alexander the Great framed in his office: “All glory is fleeting.” Tomaso followed that saying in the pursuit of his job. For Tomaso, the goal was to do a good job and serve the village. It was not about exercising his ego.

“We used to say that our staff meetings were like the United Nations,” Assistant Village Manager Dave Johnson said. “He wanted everyone to speak their mind. And if Carl was wrong, he would admit it in front of the staff. We would have heated discussions, but when those doors opened, we would be locked arm in arm.”

Johnson has spent the bulk of his professional life working with Tomaso, who hired him in Cary, fresh out of college. All in all, Tomaso hired Johnson at least four times. Johnson twice left Huntley for other positions, but each time, Johnson returned.

“I’m a glutton for punishment,” Johnson said with a chuckle.

When Tomaso arrived in Huntley 11 years ago, the village population was 3,100. It now is more than 23,000. The wheels of growth already had been put into motion before Tomaso arrived. He did his best to manage it.

The new police station and village hall, built in 2006, were paid for and financed without a referendum. Early on in Tomaso’s tenure, he insisted that Main Street be extended to Haligus Road. Some around town derided the extension as the “Road to Nowhere.” A frame of the land before the extension with the quote still hangs at the village hall.

It’s safe to say that the extension, which provides additional access to the village hall, the library and downtown, was the right move to make.

“I’m not sure people will ever realize how much time he spent thinking about them,” Johnson said, noting it was not unusual for him to get a call after hours from Tomaso because his boss had an idea about Huntley. “He never stopped thinking about this place.”

Sadly, in a relatively short amount of time, Huntley has lost a significant number of public officials: Village President Jim Dhamer, Police Chief Randy Walters, Trustees Charlie Becker and Dennis Beeskow, and Tomaso, all served together in the late 1990s and early 2000s. It was fun a board to cover. It was a colorful group, and there was a lot happening in Huntley.

I first met Tomaso in the late 1990s when he was relatively new to Huntley. Over the years, we developed a mutual respect for one another. His greeting eventually evolved to “Hey, its the Slupper.” He was a honest and accessible and epitomized the meaning of a public servant.

Tomaso also was thorough and detailed. Once he sent out a meeting notice because the Daily Herald scheduled too many incumbent Huntley Village Board members for an election endorsement interview. Such interviews are done by newspaper editorial boards to determine endorsements, and they are meant to be private. But, the Daily Herald scheduled so many incumbents at the same time that there was a quorum of public officials. Technically, it was a meeting.

So, Tomaso sent out the meeting notice.

I was shocked when I got it, and as a joke I went to cover the “meeting” at the Daily Herald. The editors there did not think it was very funny.

Tomaso was one of the good guys in local government, and I will miss him.

– Brian Slupski is the Northwest Herald’s opinion page editor. He can be reached at bslupski@nwherald.com.