By By JOHN EBY / Cassopolis Vigilant
CASSOPOLIS – Cass County commissioners appointed Louis R. Csokasy of 21198 Carlton Drive, Cassopolis, and LeRoy R. Krempec of 68373 George Smith Court, Edwardsburg, to the new Road Commission seats Thursday.
Csokasy, who garnered 12 of the 15 first-round votes, will serve a four-year term beginning Jan. 1.
Krempec, named in the second round of balloting, will serve a two-year term expiring Dec. 31, 2009.
Commissioners Nov. 1 interviewed eight finalists for the two new seats on what has been a three-member panel of Chairman Robert Powers, Clifford Poehlman and Roger Bowser.
Road commissioners otherwise serve six-year terms.
"In 2005, they were bringing in revenue of $710,000 a month. This year's budget has fallen to about $540,000 a month," creating a $1.2 million deficit, Commissioner David Taylor, D-Edwardsburg, told each candidate.
The gap will attempt to be closed by two millage questions commissioners voted 10-3 to place on the Jan. 15 presidential primary ballot.
Road Commission Engineer-Manager Joseph Bellina has spoken to five townships and Marcellus promoting the requests.
Each seeks a half mill, or 50 cents per $1,000 state equalized value for four years, 2008-2011, which would generate $828,400 the first year of the levy. One request is for primary road and major street improvements, the other for local bridge and street improvements.
Krempec, Mason Township Planning Commission chairman, lives on Juno Lake.
"I applied for the Road Commission position because I believe the southern part of the county needs to have local, on-hand representation for residents who can't afford to take off work to appear before the Road Commission with their problems or concerns," Krempec said. "Mason Township is a strategic place to have an individual" given its proximity to Porter, Milton and Ontwa townships.
"From a resident's point of view, I have concerns about its $1.2 million deficit and how it plans to get back to zero. I'm also concerned about how its request for road millage will be presented to the public," Krempec said. "I would like to be of help in researching and creating the type of presentation that will be needed to get public support. Another reason for seeking the appointment is the opportunity it would afford me to work with our parks. I'm an avid fly fisherman and belong to the St. Joe Valley association, Trout Unlimited and the Elkhart Conservation Club. I've been attending Road Commission meetings since last fall."
Krempec, who offers labor management experience, has been Edwardsburg Little League president, director of boy's coaching for the Junior Irish Soccer Program in South Bend, Ind., assistant varsity soccer coach at Clay High School in South Bend for six years and varsity soccer coach at South Bend St. Joseph High School for seven years, including state champions in 2003.
The retiree directed Conrail's labor management program for five years, with committees in Indiana, Ohio, Michigan and Illinois.
Krempec was division chairman for the Transportation Communications Union for 20 years and a brief writer for the TCU for appeals to the 3rd Division public law boards. He is presently on the executive board of the PJC Lakes Association.
"I have heard there is discontent between the union workers and the commission," he said. "I get the impression that the workers feel their feelings don't seem to matter to those in charge. Lack of open communication is a usual reason for employee discontent. You can have good ideas fail because of disgruntled employees. I've always had the ability to bring all sides together and I've been very successful in whatever endeavor I've undertaken."
When employees feel mistreated, "Sit down, talk things out that are really priorities in making things run smoothly. (Nov. 1), for instance, they passed a resolution on smoking. I probably would have done it differently by approaching the organization that represents the employees. In the railroad industry, we had 17 different crafts covered by 28 different agreements."
Csokasy, a Detroit native, attended Tri-State University in Angola, Ind., where he met his wife of 38 years and eventually became a trustee. Their two children live in Nashville, Tenn., and Seattle, Wash.
A Cass County homeowner for 29 years, he operates a small orchard in Calvin Township which is "a hobby rapidly getting out of control," but it keeps his wife's three Appaloosa horses in apples.
A graduate engineer, he has a master's degree in business. "I had a 28-year career in the automotive area," Csokasy said. "I call it my first career. I started off as a design engineer and finished up as president of the automotive group – a $700 million business with 4,000 employees working under me at eight manufacturing sites on four continents. After retiring from that, I started a second career with a private equity group out of Indianapolis." In that capacity he served as president and CEO of two smaller ($20 million to $30 million) companies.
"There's probably no aspect of business that I'm not intimately familiar with, including finance, engineering, operations and management," he said. "I've always been involved in community activities wherever I've lived. I feel a strong commitment to serving the area where I live. An organization like the Road Commission should be run like a business, and I believe I bring to the table my business experiences. I would focus on a top-down review, since revenues are going down as expenses are going up; and every organization should challenge itself by setting up areas to measure and monitor. Most budgets are built from the bottom up by going to departments to see how much they want. When you're in crisis, you say, 'This is the mission,' and the mission of the Road Commission is very well established. 'This is the amount of revenue I have. How do I accomplish this with that revenue and, longer term, how to increase revenue?' I'm an absolute fiscal conservative. I would take a hard look at what could be cut in that budget, however, not so much that I would absolutely never believe in millage. I've been to two meetings."
"My impression of the Road Commission is that it's an internal organization," Csokasy added. "It needs to be much more refocused on the customer. That's a long process to undertake. But it appears to me that the organization needs to be more responsive to taxpayers."
Eight Road Commission employees with 15 to 25 years of service attended the meeting.