Hebron names new chief in divided vote, village president breaks tie

Four months after the Hebron Village Board removed Juanita Gumble as chief of police, the village has a new top law enforcement officer.

Peter Goldman was sworn in on Wednesday following a special board meeting and is set to begin working Monday. He was confirmed in a 3-3 vote with Village President Robert Shelton breaking the tie, approving the appointment. Trustees Mark Mogan, Mark Shepherd and Shirlee Correll voted to approve Goldman, and trustees Josh Stevens, Dawn Milarski and Jonathan Mindham voted against.

Most recently, Goldman was a police officer in Union while also working as a McHenry County court security officer. The Spring Grove resident also served as an interim chief in Holiday Hills for a few months in late 2021 through early 2022 and chief in Oakwood Hills.

Goldman sued Oakwood Hills when, in February 2017 while out on disability following a work-related traffic crash the previous October, he was removed from the schedule and a new chief was appointed. A federal judge dismissed that claim in July 2018.

An attempt to reach Goldman through the Hebron Police Department on Friday was not successful.

Goldman’s appointment was the only item on Wednesday’s agenda. Originally set for Monday, the meeting had to be moved as a special meeting cannot be held on a holiday, village attorney Michael Smoron said.

Before voting against Goldman’s confirmation, Milarski argued that Shelton did not follow hiring protocols set by Gumble and which he signed off on in February 2023, shortly after Gumble was appointed.

“Since July, Shelton has interviewed people secretly,” Milarski told the Northwest Herald the day after the meeting, adding the job was never publicly posted. “What are the questions he is asking and who is in on these interviews?”

The chief position is a presidential appointment position, Shelton said Friday.

“It is not an absolute requirement to post it publicly,” he said. “We did nothing wrong. We covered everything the way the village manual states for an appointed position.”

Goldman is the right fit for Hebron, Shelton said.

“For our purposes and costs, his demeanor, expertise, his personality, was a very, very, very good fit for the position,” he said. “That is why I chose him.”

Goldman now is the third Hebron chief of police since December 2022, when Ramtin Sabet replaced Rich Donlea, who resigned for medical reasons.

Sabet then accepted a position out of state, and Gumble was appointed to the role in January 2023.

Then, on July 22, 2024, the Village Board voted to accept Gumble’s resignation and dismiss her immediately. Gumble claims she never resigned, never presented the village with a letter of resignation, and said this week that she reapplied for the position since she was separated from the role.

Since Shelton was elected in 2021 on a promise to reduced the department’s size, Hebron’s force has gone from from 14 full- and part-time officers to Goldman, a sergeant, one part-time officer and one community service officer.

The village of Hebron had a population of 1,400 last year, according to census estimates.