After two years as Summit’s part-time village administrator, Mike Porfirio has decided to resign effective the end of this year.

The village board voted 6-1 on Oct. 16 to accept his resignation. The lone exception was trustee Sam Dardovski, who later said he was “making a statement.”

“He’s doing such an excellent job for the village. I was hoping we could lure him into a full-time position because he knows what he’s doing, he’s got good connections, and he makes our lives a lot easier. I could not let a good employee go that easily,” Dardovski said after the meeting.

Mayor Sergio Rodriguez had offered Porfirio the full-time job.

“I discussed it with him, but he has a lot of things going on. I offered the job to him, but, at this time, it’s not in his wheelhouse,” Rodriguez said. “I’m sure we’ll cross paths and work together.”

“We’ll forever be grateful for the work he’s done for Summit,” the mayor said.

Porfirio, who did not attend the meeting, said earlier in a phone interview that “there’s never a perfect time to leave,” but this is the right time for him.

“It’s on good terms. But I’ve been there two years. We’ve created a budget surplus and it’s time for me to move on and for them to get somebody who can commit even more time and energy and effort to everything,” Porfirio said.

Porfirio is director of public works in Bridgeview, is a Lyons Township trustee, and serves as a West Suburban Water Commission commissioner. He also got married last Saturday.

Trustee Art Sullivan noted that Porfirio will stay on at Summit through the year to help officials find a new full-time administrator.

Porfirio said Summit is on a “much better and stronger financial path,” than when he arrived, noting the village now has a surplus “without having to raise property taxes.”

“We have good contracts with all the unions. Two years ago, we thought we’d have to lay off people or raise taxes. Now there’s good morale on the employee side and you see a lot of progress going on throughout town,” Porfirio said.

Rodriguez said a big reason for Summit’s success was adding home rule, which allowed the village to increase its revenue with a local sales tax.

“We were (also) going after grants that we never got before. And, we were lucky and got some of those grants,” Rodriguez said.

During the board meeting, longtime Summit resident Ted Bojanowski said he was “sad to see Mike Porfirio resigning.”