Island Lake board brings back former trustee

A former Island Lake trustee was appointed to fill a vacancy on the village board Thursday night.

Steve Stiller, whose political service dates back four decades, replaces Donna O’Malley on the panel and restores it to full membership. O’Malley resigned unexpectedly in May, without public explanation.

Stiller, who had been a member of the town’s zoning board of appeals since last year, was chosen for the trustee post by Mayor Debbie Herrmann. In an email to the Daily Herald, she praised his long-standing community service and work ethic.

The board approved Stiller’s appointment without opposition, and he joined the panel after being sworn in by attorney Julie Tappendorf.

Stiller’s appointment leaves a vacancy on the zoning board.

Stiller’s first stint as trustee lasted from 1989 to 1991, and he served again from 1993 to 2001. In between, he served as chairman of the local planning board.

In 2005, he was appointed to fill a vacancy by then-Mayor Tom Hyde, and he served until 2007.

Stiller was appointed to the zoning board by Herrmann and the village board last year.

“I believe I can work with the rest of the board to tackle the challenges that face Island Lake,” Stiller, 58, said in an email before Thursday’s meeting.

Stiller will finish O’Malley’s 4-year term, which was scheduled to end in 2013. He can run for election at that time.

The trustee appointment is the second for Herrmann in her three years as mayor. In 2009, she appointed ex-trustee Don Verciglio to a seat on the board following a different trustee’s resignation. Verciglio, who had just lost his seat in that year’s election, served until 2011.

Verciglio and O’Malley ran as part of Herrmann’s slate in 2009. O’Malley’s political relationship with the mayor soured by early 2011, however, and she shifted allegiance to a trio of critics on the board.

Most have since left the panel.