Village elections are as much about personality as politics and often become more combative than convivial. These odd-year choices by the people manage to stir voters and, in recent years, there has seldom been an election in Park Forest that has not, for one reason or another, become a close, contentious conflict.
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Yet, despite voter clamoring about property taxes and levels of village services, voters are often stirred to action by temperament instead of thought.
Although it is too early to proclaim that light will replace heat, some battle lines are drawn. There are two seats now open on the Village Board. Mayor Jonathon Vanderbilt is matched against Trustee Joe Woods, who is vacating his seat on the board while another trustee, Candyce Herron, has decided not to run again.
Five candidates are in the mix for two seats. They include Trustee Tiffani Graham; Randall White, who is leaving the Elementary District 163 Board; Joshua Travis, who ran for the board in 2021; former Trustee Andy Gladstone; and newcomer John Moore.
Unlike the prickly run-up to the 2021 election, when two candidates for the Library Board were ruled off the ballot, Trustee Woods apologized for passing petitions for two candidates and District 163 Board members White and Judy Hawthorne also filed to run for Village Board, 2022 ended without a single challenge.
As in the past, the 68-year-old Park Forest Non-Partisan Committee will conduct a series of debates among all candidates who sign pledges to run separate and independent campaigns. Anyone who will not pledge to that is excluded from the forums. That standard has long been a respected tradition in the community, although to some its firm guidelines seem to be a relic of another century.
The first debate is scheduled Sunday Jan. 29 in Village Hall. Election Day is April 4. The question remains whether civility will carry the day in Park Forest. One can only hope for the best.
School daze
Everything old is new again for the Park Forest District 163 Board.
Twp former board members, Kim Elmore-Perkins and Margaret McDannel, are among six candidates for a board seat with McDannel serving six terms before failing for a seventh try two years ago. Board members Christina Dupee and Judy Hawthorne are running for reelection along with new faces Herbert Ferguson and Tiara Smith-Bobo.
The board has had its share of controversy. In recent months, cries of nepotism arose when board President Walter Mosby twice tried and failed to get his wife, Belinda Mosby, on the district payroll.
Elmore-Perkins filed objections to the candidacy of Hawthorn, Ferguson and Smith-Bobo, citing errors in filing statements and signature sheets, according to the office of the Cook County clerk’s office. A hearing in Chicago is set for Thursday.
New Year wishes
Considering what has happened during the still fearsome COVID-19 the last three-plus years, we will go with the flow and make no personal resolutions for 2023. There are, however, a few suggestions and a final word about the past year.
No one goes through a year untouched. The unexpected speed bumps of life affect us all and the mantra of resolutions we so often murmur at the turn of the calendar can merely be a hope the new year will be better.
We live in challenging times and may need to grasp the words of a poem by the late Eugene Pickett, the former president of the Unitarian Church of America.
Pickett’s optimistic verses always seem appropriate at the dawn of the year. He begins with homage to the universe and moves from there to a celebration of our world, our lives and our beliefs, concluding with a plea that we live “not by our fears but our hopes, not by our words, but our deeds.”
The year 2023 might be the right time to start.
Happy New Year.
Jerry Shnay is a freelance columnist for the Daily Southtown.
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