Fire Commissioner and Newcomer Take Seats on Orland Fire Board

A fire commissioner and newcomer joined the Orland Fire Protection District board, unseating two incumbents following Tuesday’s election.

As of early Wednesday morning, all 53 precincts showed vote totals that place John Brudnak, who now serves as an Orland Fire Commissioner, and Jayne Schirmacher as the new additions to the Orland Fire Protection District Board of Trustees.

“I am very thankful for the ones who came out to vote,” Brudnak said. “We just want to keep it moving forward. There are a lot of positive things going on with the new chief and other aspects. We still need to get spending under control and work more efficiently, but we are not going to take anything away from firefighters. We’ll run things close to the vest and reduce taxes.”

Schirmacher, who won the most votes in the race, said she was humbled by the results.

“I want to do the best I can for the community,” she said. “I will listen and learn, ask questions, think it all through and vote on behalf of the Orland Park and Orland Hills residents, do what is best for the fire district and keep everyone safe.”

View Patch’s Orland Park Election Results table for a rundown of the votes.

 Challenger Larry Moran said he is proud of his campaign’s grass roots effort, without any major contributors.

“I’m just happy I got word out about what’s going on and I won’t stop following the board and it’s decisions,” Moran said. “If there are more bad ideas and bad things happening I’ll still call them out.”

Incumbent Martin McGill said the results were bittersweet.

“We had a good run,” he said.

Incumbent Glenn Michalek wasn’t available for comment.

The Orland Fire Protection District has been in a state of swift, and at times forced, evolution since the 2011 spring election. Sweeping cuts in staff, including former chief Bryant Krizik who was leveraged into retiring, came shortly after trustees Chris Evoy and Blair Rhode took seats and Jim Hickey became board president. Since then, Chief Ken Brucki took the helm in summer 2012 and the district added 11 new firefighters, after losing several to injury, retirement and resignation.

The district and Orland Firefighters Local 2754 are still in contract negotiations.

The newly elected trustees shared their thoughts on the district’s biggest challenges earlier in our Patch election questionnaire.

John Brudnak

One of the biggest challenges in the OFPD has been the fluctuation of the staffing levels. Our hiring classes have been very large and spread over a long period of time resulting in larger numbers of personnel retiring and hiring at or near the same time. A more consistent process would be to replace an employee as they leave and not have to wait for the next hiring class. As commissioner, I have helped improve the testing process so that it truly measures the qualifications and education of the candidates competing for advancement. As a trustee I would continue to improve the testing processes and will ensure that qualified candidates will be hired in the future.

Jayne Schirmacher

To me the biggest challenges of the fire district are accountability with respect to the taxpayer, spending, communication with the public and having a good strategic plan in place for years to come. More information needs to be shared with the public to better understand not only the operations, but what diverse resources it takes to keep the public safe. I feel this can be accomplished with continued public education and improving the OFPD website with connection to social media.

Return to our results page for other election outcomes.

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