Updated from original Dec. 17 post.
The 2012 Presidential Election is long over, but our local election season is just getting started.
The petitions have been submitted. Candidates for Orland Park Village, Orland School District 135, Consolidated High School District 230, Orland Fire Protection District and Orland Park Public Library boards, as well as Orland Park mayor and Orland Park village clerk, have thrown their hats into the ring.
Before the lists are finalized, a period now begins where people can object to a candidate's petition. Those questioning the legitimacy of petitions have until Jan. 4 to file claims with the respective taxing bodies, except for D230 which will be accepting until Jan. 3.
Frank Grabowski, who now serves as the Consolidated High School District 230 Board of Education president, will not be seeking re-election.
John Carmody, the Orland School District 135 Board of Education president, did not file to run for mayor, despite his April announcement that he would run. Carmody has repeatedly declined to answer previous questions about whether he would follow through and run or not.
D135 board members Mary Bragg and Tom Cunningham were late entries in the election Wednesday, with both filing just before the cut off time at 5 p.m.
Other additions to the races include Larry Moran for the Orland Fire Protection District board. Moran serves as the Willow Springs fire chief. James McCague is running for library board, and four more candidates were added to the D230 race.
Here are all the candidates:
Orland Park Village Board (three open seats), Mayor and Village Clerk
- Dan McLaughlin (mayor, incumbent)
- John Mehalek (clerk)
- John Fotopoulos (board trustee)*
- James Dodge (board trustee, incumbent)
- Kathy Fenton (board trustee, incumbent)
- Brad O’Halloran (board trustee, incumbent)
*Fotopoulos is running as a Republican, and as part of an already-established party, had the option to submit petitions in November.
Orland School District 135 (four open seats)
- Michael Carroll
- Michael Maratea
- Laura Berry
- Sandra Kulak
- Nathan Jaisingh
- Ann Gentile (incumbent)
- Mary Bragg (incumbent)
- Tom Cunningham (incumbent)
Orland Fire Protection District (two open seats)
- John Brudnak
- Martin McGill (incumbent)
- Jayne Schirmacher
- Glenn Michalek (incumbent)
- Larry Moran
Consolidated High School District 230 (four open seats)
- Carol Baker (incumbent)
- Laura Murphy (incumbent)
- Ben Twietmeyer
- Kathleen Murphy-Peterson
- Melissa Gracias
- Tony Serratore
- Susan Dalton
- Anthony Catalano
Orland Park Public Library (two open seats)
- Diane Jennings (incumbent)
- Catherine Morrisey-Lebert (incumbent)
- Linda Zec-Prajka
- James McCague
Return to Orland Park Patch later for more information about the candidates.
I really hope I'm not the only one bothered by that huge conflict of interest!
Orland School District 135 (4 open seats) Michael Carroll YES Michael Maratea probably not Laura Berry ?? Sandra Kulak probably not Nathan Jaisingh Friend of Ann Gentile's supposedly, so NO WAY Ann Gentile (incumbent) NEVER Mary Bragg (incumbent) No Tom Cunningham (incumbent) NEVER EVER
As far as the 2 candidates with union ties; what I would like to know is how active they still are with thier unions. The reason I say that that is our former Business Manager, Rich Lesniak was a former union president, but was an excellent business manager and definitely looked out for the district and its taxpayers when negotiating. Also, when Jim Lieb was a principal, he served on the district's negotiating team. Although he also once served as a union president, he was a very good negotiator for the district.
BTW, is 135 still raising taxes by selling working cash and life safety bonds using "backdoor referenda"?
Before they got into the details of these projects, they expelled all professional engineers from the Building and grounds committee, preventing tough questions from being asked and scrutinizing some really bad ideas by the administration. I understand the 230 board is also excluding all engineers and design professionals from the committee again this year. This isn't just carelessness. Avoiding knowledgeable oversight on committees is Board and adminstration political policy in 230.
Who is running for library and fire? Don't know much about that. I went to the library the other day to renew my card and got hassled. When we asked a question, the lady said she didn't know becuase she was new and only had been there since July. JULY??? Don't know your job after 4 months? Plus the library has to get up to speed with the new technology. Anyone affiliated with Hastings in 230 must go.
He was also President of the Student Body at Loyola, President of the Debate team, and a student rep on the Loyola Board of Trustees. The only clue to his politcs is that he worked politically to get the GA to give out $200 million it doesn't have in student aid. I don't know him, but his record infers that he's politically ambitious, and typically people with those ambitions don't serve the taxpayers and students well, but spend a lot on capital work to get booster group support and give out unfairly large salaries and benefits to staff to win union support in future politcal endeavors. This guy needs to have some tough questions to find out if he's going to sell out the students and taxpayers to pander to the unions and contractors that do most of the political contributions in the district. IS the local press up to that task? Based on past perfomance, that's unlikley. Some of us need to do some digging deeper.
"May a candidate file for more than one office? Yes, however, he must withdraw from all but one office within five business days following the last day of petition filing, if the offices are incompatible. If he does not withdraw from all but one incompatible office, his name will not be certified for any office.[10 ILCS 5/7-12]" This means that if he filed for both, he should not be certified and and appear on the ballot for ANY of the two offices. If you want to get him off both ballots, contact the school boards prior to candidate certification and he should be off both. Ben, do you want ot dig into this?
"The Illinois Attorney General’s office has compiled a comprehensive list of incompatible offices. Some offices found by Attorney General opinions to be incompatible with the office of school board member are: Board of Review member, City Council member, City Manager, Community College District Trustee, County Board Member, County Engineer, County Zoning Administrator, County Zoning Board of Appeals Member, Educational Labor Relations Board Member, Fire Protection District Trustee, Park District Board Member, Township Assessor, and Township School Trustee. The Attorney General’s index of opinions can be found at: www.illinoisattorneygeneral.gov/opinions/index1975topresent.pdf (see pg. 5 for incompatibility of offices). This information seems pretty clear and was easy to find( but I am a lay person, not an attorney). I'm not sure that enough of us(voters) care to get informed about these local elections and that some politicians count on this.
This happened in Palos District 118 about 15 years ago. Several candidates connected to the political "combine" that runs the patronage in the district got lazy and only filed about 55 of the 50 required signatures, and the objectors showed that there weren't 50 VALID signatures on the petitions. The Election board, nmade up of friends of the candidates who were part of the same patronage network, overruled the objection. The objectors appealed to the courts, and the election Boards ruling was quickly overturned. After that, the deposed candidates ran as write in candidates and were elected. They received over $37,000 for campaigning for the non-paying school board seats. That would be about $80,000 in 2013 dollars. I understand from acquaintenances in the campaign that Mike Madigan told them he'd arrange for up to $100,000 in campaign financing if they needed it. Think about it. Why would someone "invest" that much money in a local school board election? FYI, there was a state's attorney's investigation into the maintenance progam at the time because hundreds of thousands of dollars in checks written to the managers kids had no back up, and his wife got a no-bid contract for the district security system. Smells bad.
The Democrat state's attorney's office kept it "under investigation" until the statute of limitations ran out. There's a lot of dirty stuff going on in local public schools. Too bad we don't have an active press in our area making the effort to do a little digging.
http://orlandpark.patch.com/articles/cunningham-s-d135-election-petitions-challenged Bob, April is still a little while away. Have some patience. What you've mentioned isn't falling on deaf ears. But try not to assume that because you don't immediately see an article on something you mention within the next day (though you'll notice less than 24 hrs. elapsed since mention of Cunningham running for Moraine and my story), that we're not working on it. Thanks. Also, thank you for the quality discourse in this thread, folks. The criticism has been rather constructive and I just wanted you to know I appreciate that.
leaders do----Fire District??? Its the 21st century time to rid the taxpayer of this joke----School districts??? declining enrollment---"ITS for the kids?? We need a news organization to tell us what these "leaders" are thinking--The esteemed leader Laughlin?? time for change baby====
I'll talk to anyone and answer any questions. Email me at VoteForLar@Gmail.com , post a question here, or let's get together with your friends and neighbors. Maybe Ben can even swing an online debate! Larry Moran Candidate for Trustee Orland Fire Prot Dist