With one election only just decided — at least in the minds of most — Elmhurst voters will soon be asked to vote for local candidates in another election, this one the consolidated general election coming up next April.
Races to be decided on April 6 include Elmhurst city council races for mayor, with three candidates, and races in four of the city’s seven wards where multiple candidates have filed. The race for three seats on the Elmhurst District 205 school board has drawn eight candidates, including two incumbents.
That pattern of multiple candidates, however, was broken with the Elmhurst Park District, where three open seats drew only one candidate, an incumbent.
In the Elmhurst city council, with Mayor Steve Morley choosing not to run, three council veterans will vie for the top spot. They are Michael Bram, currently alderman for the 3rd Ward; Scott Levin, currently alderman for the 5th Ward; and Mark Mulliner, now representing the 7th Ward.
In the city’s 1st Ward, there are two races. The first contest is for a two-year term filling the remaining term of Mark Sabatino, who resigned earlier this year. Jennifer Veremis, who was appointed in July to fill the term until the election, is running for that two-year term against Susan M. Smentek and Kevin Flanagan. Current 1st Ward alderman Martha “Marti” Deuter is running unopposed for a four-year term.
In the 2nd Ward, Tristan Dacre is running against Jacob Hill. Hill is currently serving as alderman after he was appointed recently to fill the remaining term of former Ald. Norman Leader, who resigned in September.
In the 3rd Ward, three candidates are running for the seat Bram is leaving to run for mayor. The three, all council newcomers, are Nektarios Arvanitis, Christopher Jensen and Alan Quarrie. Voters will also see the Arvanitis name among candidates for the school board, as his wife, Athena, is running for a seat there.
In the 6th Ward, four newcomers are running for the seat formerly filled by Jim Kennedy, who has chosen not to run. The four are Yeena Yoo, Emily Bastedo, Peter Dabertin and Peter Ahern. Bastedo is a former District 205 school board member.
Aldermen in three of the city’s wards are running unopposed. They are Brian Cahill in the 4th Ward, Tina Park in the 5th and Michael Brennan in the 7th.
City Clerk Jackie Haddad-Tamer is also running unopposed.
In Elmhurst School District 205, eight candidates are running for three open seats. The eight include the board’s current president, Kara Caforio, and longtime board member and past president Jim Collins. Also running are Lauren Schrementi, Athena Arvanitis, Nicole “Nikki” Slowinski, Marie Gall, Leslie Stettin and Gordon Snyder.
Arvanitis is an assistant principal with New Trier High School. Stettin organized a peaceful protest in October covered by Pioneer Press/baiduhai, gathering a group of parents outside the District 205 administration building calling for the return of students to in-person learning. Snyder ran for a board seat two years ago. At the time, he said he had children at Emerson Elementary School and was active in youth sports.
Attempts to reach the other school board candidates were unsuccessful. The open board seats are those of Caforio, Collins and Margaret Harrell, who chose not to run.
Over at the Elmhurst Park District, incumbent commissioner Kevin Graf is the only candidate filing to run, although three board seats are open. In addition to Graf’s seat, the two other open seats are those now held by Doug Ennis and Carolyn Ubriaco.
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A Park District official said the upcoming election could include write-in candidates. In the absence of candidates, the remaining board members can vote to appoint individuals to take vacant seats.
Park board commissioners serve for six years. All other races are four year terms, except where noted as unexpired terms.