The Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County has named a new executive director to replace the former agency head now facing trial on embezzlement charges.
The agency has named David Van Vooren, the public works director for Naperville, to head the agency that provides waste disposal and recycling services for 23 north and northwest suburban communities including Evanston.
Skokie Mayor George Van Dusen, head of SWANCC’s executive committee, said, in a news release, that Van Vooren, named afer a national search, brings “a strong fiscal management background” to the agency.
“We’ve made it clear to David that job one is ensuring the continued delivery of top-notch services to our member communities in the most efficient and fiscally responsible way we possibly can,” Van Dusen said.
In Naperville, Van Vooren, 55, has managed a $22 million department with 105 employees.
Van Vooren succeeds acting executive director Steven Schilling, who Van Dusen said guided the agency “with a very steady and skilled hand these past several months.”
The agency’s former executive director, Christopher Brooke Beal, was indicted this spring on charges of accepting nearly $850,000 in payments from the agency to reimburse him for prestigious executive and graduate management classes he never attended.
The agency in June filed a civil suit against Beal seeking reimbursement for the embezzled funds.