Citizen Advisory Board Leadership

Jeffrey Berman is an attorney, with a nationwide practice that emphasizes complex commercial litigation and insurance coverage matters. Berman has been a Village Trustee for the Village of Buffalo Grove, IL since 1999.

During his time in law school, Berman was an Associate Editor for the “University of Illinois Law Review” and a Notes Editor for the “Illinois Bar Journal, Recent Decisions.” Berman also was a Harno Scholar and an American Jurisprudence Award recipient.

Berman has served as a member of the Northwest Municipal Conference Transportation Committee since 2001.  He also has been Village team captain for the American Cancer Society Relay for Life in Buffalo Grove since 2000.

Patricia R. Mahon is the deputy village administrator for the Village of South Holland, Ill.

She holds a bachelor’s degree in international studies from Bradley University in Peoria, Ill., and a Juris Doctor from DePaul University College of Law in Chicago, Ill. After being permitted to practice law in Illinois in 1998, Mahon went to work as chief legal counsel for a minority- and female-owned professional engineering firm. In 2001, Mahon was appointed as the Village of South Holland’s Director of Communications and EEO Officer, where she promoted the benefits of living and investing in South Holland. Prior to being appointed director of communications, she served as chair of the South Holland Neighborhood Groups Committee, chair of the Mediation Commission and interim president of the Parkside Neighborhood Association.

As deputy village administrator, Mahon assists the village administrator with managing the day-to-day operations of the village. As the former EEO Officer, she continues to work with all departments to ensure the recruitment, hiring and promotion of qualified minority and female employees, and provides legal advice on employee and labor relations issues.

Timothy M. Calcagno of Park Ridge, Ill., graduated from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette with a bachelor’s degree in business and psychology.

He has been employed as a futures trader at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and is currently an insurance agent for Geico. 

Calcagno is a board member of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette Gridiron Alumni Association and a consultant for Olympic Chiropractic and Physical Therapists in the Chicago area.

Sue Klinkhamer recently served as the district director for former U.S. Representative Bill Foster in the 14th District.  From 2006 to 2008, Klinkhamer served as the associate director of the Chicago Intergovernmental Affairs office in Washington, D.C. There she acted as a liaison between Chicago and the federal government working primarily on transportation issues.   From 1997 to 2005, Klinkhamer served as mayor of St. Charles, Ill.

Klinkhamer graduated from State and Local Government program at the Harvard University John F. Kennedy School of Government in Cambridge, Mass.

Gary L. McClung has more than 40 years of experience in compensation and benefit consulting, human resource management, retirement planning and financial counseling.  From 1967 to 1970, after serving four years of duty as an officer in the U.S. Navy, he was employed as a stockbroker and financial planning consultant with the New York Stock Exchange member firm of Thomson & McKinnon in Chicago.  He then served for nearly 21 years as a consultant and principal with the international consulting firm of Towers Perrin, where he specialized in benefit, compensation and executive benefit consulting for several major clients. 

McClung earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. He is a past president of the Human Resources Management Association of Chicago, holds the certified financial planner (CFP) designation from the College for Financial Planning in Denver, Co., and currently serves as a trustee of the $75 million Police Pension Fund of the Village of Arlington Heights, Ill.

Bill Molony
Appointed by Director Jack E. Partelow, Will County

Bill Molony serves at the Chairman of the Planning and Zoning Commission for the City of Lockport. Bill is a retired U.S. Army Master Sergeant and Automotive Technology instructor. He is the President of the Blackhawk Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society, a Director for the Will County Historical Society and a life member of Lockport Post 5788, Veterans of Foreign Wars.

George Pearce
Appointed by Director William A. Widmer III, Suburban Cook County

George Pearce is a partner at Holland & Knight LLP in Chicago, with a practice-focus family owned businesses and individuals. He serves as a member of the firm’s Private Wealth Services Group and China Practice Group. 

Pearce holds multiple academic degrees from several Illinois schools. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Knox College in Galesburg, Ill., a Juris Doctor from the DePaul University College of Law in Chicago, and a master’s of laws in taxation from the John Marshall Law School, also in Chicago. 

Currently, Pearce serves as the Chairman of the Wilmette Fire & Police Commission board in Wilmette, Ill., and is a member of the Wilmette Harbor Rotary Club. He is a former trustee and member of the zoning board of appeals for the village of Wilmette.

Pearce has received several professional and academic honors and awards. He is a member of The Phi Beta Kappa Society, the nation’s oldest academic honor society; received the Christifideles Award from the Archdiocese of Chicago in 2005 for outstanding lay service to his parish, St. Joseph Church in Wilmette; and Illinois Super Lawyers magazine recognized him in 2005–2007 and 2009–2011 for high peer recognition and professional achievement.

Pamela Pelizzari spent 20 years as a city land use and transit planner.  She worked for the Southeast Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission, the City of Chicago Planning Department, the Regional Transit Authority and Metra. While at Metra, Pelizzari worked on the acquisitions of the former Milwaukee Road and Illinois Central rail lines.

Pelizzari served on the Western Springs Village, Ill., Board, the Western Springs Zoning Board and has represented the village in the West Suburban Mass Transit District for the past 20 years as chairman, vice chairman and secretary. As chairman of the West Suburban Mass Transit District, she was in charge of disposing of 20 locomotives and 50 rail cars, realizing substantial revenue that Metra and the district agreed to use to improve Metra’s Burlington Northern commuter operation.

Ernest Sawyer earned an associate’s degree in political science from Olive-Harvey College in Chicago, a bachelor’s degree in urban policy planning from Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., and a master’s degree from the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Immediately after graduation, Sawyer began working with the city of Chicago as a construction and technical inspector, then moved on to the department of planning and development. He was soon appointed deputy executive director of planning, marketing and development, where he stayed until he founded his own business, Ernest R. Sawyer Enterprises, Inc., in 1994.