Walsh approved as River Forest administrator

Village board votes unanimously for interim to replace Murphy

By ROBERT J. LIFKA Contributing Reporter

As expected, the Rive r Fo rest Vi llage Board voted unanimously Jan. 23 to appoint Matt Walsh as i nterim village ministrator, re p lacing B ria Mur phy, whose resignatio was announced earlier thi month.

Walsh has b een serving assistant to the village ministrator since April

Mur phy’s last day at Rive Fo rest will be Jan. 27. He has ser ve d as village administrator since December 2021.

Vi llage of ficials are not in a r ush to look for Mur phy’s per manent re p lacement.

“A t this point in time, we ’re not looking to hire a recr uiting fir m,” Vi llage

President Cathy A dduci said. “We’ ll j ust figure it out as we go.”

S he cited the strength of the staf f, especially leader s, as a reason for of ficials to take their time.

“We’ve g ot great p eople around Matt,” she said.

Walsh has ser ve d as assistant to the village manager since April. Prior to hi s iring in Rive r Fo rest, he ser ve d the village of Homer Glen for over three year s, including a year as i nterim village manage r.

He also ser ve d as a c ommissioner on the b oard of the Pa rk District of Fo rest Pa rk for eight year s.

Walsh gr aduated from the Unive rsit y of I llinois Chicago (UIC) with a Bachelor of Ar ts de gree in 2015. He also rece ived a Master of Public Administra- tion de gree from UIC in 2017.

Over protests from Mur phy, who was attending his final village b oard meeting as village administrator, of ficials thanked him for his service and noted his accomplishments

Trustee Katie Brennan was ef f usive in her prais e. A dduci and Trustee Erika Bachner also thanked him.

Mur phy ser ve d as Plainfield village administrator prior to his h iring in Rive r Fo rest. He re p laced Eric Palm, who left Rive r Fo rest in Fe bruary 2021 after 10 years to a cce pt a similar p osition in Hof f man Estates.

Mur phy ear ned his bachelor ’s de gree from Oakland Unive rsity in Michig an and his master of public administrator de gree from the Unive rsity of Michig an.

Following Palm’s resignation, village of ficials used Gov HR of Nor thbrook, a public management c onsulting fir m, to c onduct a search for his re p lacement. T he fir m, wh ich serves local gove rnment clients and other public-sector entities across the c ountr y, had b een used by Rive r Fo rest previously, most recently to fill the village finance director position.