In April 2015, Niles residents will have a chance to change the make-up of the Village Board, Public Library Board, Park District Board and area school districts.
Because the board terms are staggered, only some of each board’s seats are up for grabs. Candidates had until Dec. 22 to file their petitions. The election will take place on April 7, with early voting starting on March 23.
Three Village Board seats are up for election – the seats currently held by Trustees Joe LoVerde, Rosemary Palicki and Chris Hanusiak. Joe LoVerde is running as part of the Niles Forward Party slate, which also includes former Niles Police Chief Dean Strzelecki and Niles Ethics Board member Denise McCreery.
Palicki and Hanusiak are running as independents. In addition, according to Village Clerk Marlene Victorine, attorney David Carrabotta is running as an independent.
Carrabotta is no stranger to Village Board meetings. He was one of the several residents to speak out against the original version of the Niles Tree Ordinance, and he spoke in favor of granting a special use permit to the controversial Sportman’s Club gun shop and firing range during a July 2014 Plan Commission hearing.
Tony Gaudio, the Ethics Board chairman who is helping run the Niles Forward Party’s campaign, previously said its main platform is to make sure that the village moves forward with development projects and other initiates that have launched since Mayor Andrew Przybylo took office. In a more recent statement to the press, LoVerde said that another part of the platform is spending tax revenue responsibly.
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“My primary focus will be to make sure that taxpayer dollars are spent wisely,” he said. “Homeowners already pay enough in taxes. As their representatives, we must ensure that their getting what they pay for.”
Hanusiak and Palicki have voted against Przybylo’s initiatives more frequently than any other trustees. Most recently, they spoke out against granting Class 6B tax credit extension to Shure Incorporated, arguing that it imposed unfair burden on the taxes of nearby properties.
Nonetheless, the two have found themselves on opposite sides of several issues – most notably, they found themselves on opposing sides over the Tree Ordinance and the approval of the Sportman’s Club special use permit.
Under Cook County law, ballots are created so that candidate slates go on the top and independent candidates go below in the order in which they filed petitions. For trustee, the Niles Forward Party candidates will be on top in alphabetical order by last name, with Hanusiak, Palicki and Carrabotta following, respectively.
All Library Board incumbents – Board President Morgan Dubiel and Trustees Linda Ryan and Chris Ball – will be running. Three independent candidates will also be running — Patti Rozanski Patrick Leonard and Tim Spadoni. Spadoni is the husband of Village Deputy Clerk Kathy Spadoni.
According to Niles Public Library interim director Susan Lempke, Dubiel, Ryan, Ball and Rozanski filed at the same time, so the library will hold a lottery to determine their placement on the ballot. Leonard and Spadoni will have the fifth and sixth spots, respectively.
For Niles Park District, three seats are in play — two four-year seats and one two-year seat. For the four-year seats, incumbent commissioners Ray Czarnik and Patrick Byrne are running to keep their seats. They will face once challenger – Niles resident and former Niles Park District soccer coach Jason Trunco.
Chris Zalinski was appointed to serve out the remainder of Commissioner Bill Terpinas’ term on Oct. 2, 2013, after Terpinas passed away. Zalinski will be running to keep his seat, and Niles resident Neil Cohn is running against him.
Trunco said he is running because he believes that while the park board has been doing a good job, it could use a fresh set of eyes.
“I’m not looking to make changes, I’m not looking to rock the boat,” he said. “I want to come in with a fresh set of eyes, new ideas, new opportunists that I may see.”