Four years ago, Lake Forest Mayor George Pandaleon took office anticipating he would be dealing with internal city issues with the hope to keep everything, “quiet, smooth and peaceful.”
Instead, from 2019 through 2023, Lake Forest officials encountered a growing downtown, a surge of new residents and large infrastructure projects. There was also a controversial campaign for the election of Pandaleon’s successor, preceded by the coronavirus pandemic and a Black Lives Matter rally.
“I wanted an uneventful mayoral term,” Pandaleon said with a chuckle. “That didn’t come to pass.”
With his successor, Stanford “Randy” Tack, set to be inaugurated on Monday, Pandaleon reflected in an interview on his four years as the city’s top elected official.
In 2019, Pandaleon was elected mayor with a city service résumé, including serving on both the plan and zoning commissions, overseeing the effort to overhaul the Gorton Community Center’s finances and six years on the City Council. He later received the Lawrence R. Temple Distinguished Service Award, the city’s highest honor.
Pandaleon spoke happily about an estimated 1,400 new families that recently moved into the city, prominent infrastructure improvements including the Burr Oak Storm Sewer enhancements and the introduction of the Lake Forest mobile app.
“This has been an incredibly productive four years,” he said. “We have the real estate market where we want it. We have completed a lot of crucial construction projects. We have done a lot with technology that is coming forward to the point where you can take a picture of a pothole and send it to the right person.”
He also positively characterizes the current state of the city’s central business district, noting several new places to eat or drink — from a new coffee and juice location, to new high-end restaurants with additional places expected to open soon.
Pandaleon traces that success to 2020, as the city grappled with the effects of the coronavirus pandemic and the measures the City Council took to assist during a difficult period.
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“We were very aggressive in supporting our local businesses, especially the restaurants because they were the most at risk,” he said. “The word got out that we were a friendly place to do business.”
Away from downtown, the City Council approved in February a $16 million renovation of Deerpath Community Park, which Pandaleon labels as the city’s biggest capital project since the August 2009 opening of its municipal services center. He believes the Deerpath improvements will be city’s largest investment in recreation.
The proposal was criticized by some residents given the price tag and the choice to use synthetic turf, but he lauded the City Council votes, noting there was a 50% cancellation rate of activities last year due to rain and wet conditions at Deerpath.
“There is no natural turf solution that is going to fix that problem,” he said. “You can’t play on mud.”
Away from downtown, the Forester Hotel opened in Conway Park office complex in April 2021, and the Chicago Bears moved their summer training camp — which is open to fans — to their Halas Hall headquarters.
Another element of Pandaleon’s term was the litigation filed involving a condominium on McKinley Road after the City Council initially refused to override the decision of the city’s historic preservation commission. The two sides eventually settled as the developers revised their proposal and the building is now under construction.
“We ended up with a better plan,” he said. “It was not fun, but I think it was worth it.”
Pandaleon said he was saddened by the closure earlier this year of the city’s Wildlife Discovery Center, adding it was not an easy decision but necessary as longtime curator Rob Carmichael retired.
“I loved that place,” he said. “But, we were going to need several people to replace (Rob), and we were going to need to build a proper facility for that. Given the other priorities we were dealing with, it just made sense to do this.”
In terms of infrastructure, Pandaleon said there was an estimated $55 million in upgrades within the community, including Metra, IDOT and ComEd projects. He said city taxpayers would only be directly responsible for less than half of the amount as the city secured grants, or the state or federal dollars were used to pay for some of the work.
Pandaleon’s 2019 election occurred shortly after the hiring of City Manager Jason Wicha. Pandaleon said one of his initial goals was to assist Wicha — who is responsible for the city’s daily operations — to get acclimated into his new role. Four years later, Pandaleon said Wicha has done a “fabulous” job and he now has a deeper appreciation overall for the city staff.
“The staff here is unbelievably professional and sophisticated,” he said.
While the schools are a separate unit of government, Pandaleon also speaks highly of District 67/115 Superintendent Matthew Montgomery, who was hired in 2021.
“He’s been a great guy to work with,” Pandaleon said. “He has been great in terms of outreach.”
Yet, while he ticks off the accomplishments, Pandaleon offers a sense of melancholy about the last four years. “I would have hoped it would have been more fun,” he said.
Pandaleon and city staffers had to deal with unforeseen issues such as the coronavirus pandemic, which created a new communication vehicle for him. Amid reports of people gathering at the beach in the early days of the pandemic creating safety fears, he appeared in a social media video asking residents to be cautious. The video drew an estimated 13,000 views, and soon Pandaleon was appearing weekly for several months in two- to three-minute segments delivering information with a local angle.
“The one thing people remember about my time as mayor is those videos,” he said. “They were effective, and they got the word out in a way that had never been used before.”
Then in June 2020, shortly after the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, a Black Lives Matter vigil was held in Market Square. City officials were fearful about the violence that had occurred in other parts of the Chicago area.
“I was concerned about Lake Forest being a target,” Pandaleon said. Some of the national retailers in Market Square boarded up windows in advance. “That was not pleasant,” he said.
The outgoing mayor recalled he was among the city staff members answering many angry telephone calls from people questioning the city for allowing the rally to take place, leading to consideration that he and his wife should move into a hotel for their own personal safety.
“There was a large group of residents who just lost it,” he said.
Yet just ahead of the rally, Pandaleon said city officials received intelligence the city did not appear to be a target for violence because people he called “the bad guys” were going elsewhere. He added the organizers made changes to the originally proposed program for safety reasons, and today he is characterizes it as a “great event.”
Then last July 4, Pandaleon said he was at the Lake Bluff parade when he got word of the mass shooting in Highland Park. With the suspect still at large for several hours, the city canceled its July 4 fireworks show.
“It would have been irresponsible to let that go ahead,” he said.
Pandaleon, a Lake Forest resident since 1989, expressed an element of frustration over the attitudes of some city residents, and their approach to political discourse.
“People want to get what they want,” he said. “In the past, people were more civil about it, and I think there has been a loss of civility. People are willing to really go after each other, and hurt people if it is a way to get what they want. That’s a little disappointing to see. It’s a symptom of the us-versus-them politics that we are dealing with at the national level.”
Pandaleon connected that observation into the recent mayoral campaign, when former Alderman Prue Beilder challenged Tack. It was a very unusual campaign for Lake Forest, as Beidler ran an independent campaign after not getting the endorsement of the Lake Forest Caucus Committee.
That led to some sharp exchanges during the campaign. Tack prevailed with nearly 57.5% of the vote, with Beidler receiving just over 40%.
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“This was pure politics,” said Pandaleon, who endorsed Tack. “I was extremely disappointed because of the divisiveness of the whole thing, and you knew that was going to happen. There was no benefit to it, and it caused division for no reason.”
Beidler disputed Pandaleon’s assessment in an email. “The ‘pure politics’ to which Mayor Pandaleon refers is based on the Caucus/Team Tack’s determination to vilify me for past donations to Democrats, an issue that never arose when I was an alderman, nor when I was a previous finalist for mayor.
“I believe that much of the ‘divisiveness’ the mayor mentions relates to consistently negative campaigning by the Caucus/Tack team,” she continued. “On the positive side, I think having a choice for mayor afforded community engagement and discussion that is not typical in these elections. Finally, I will note that on April 4, over 40% of Mayor Pandaleon’s constituents demonstrated that they wanted a choice for mayor other than the Caucus-selected candidate.”
Going forward, Pandaleon said he has started meeting with Tack as part of the transition. “The mayors stay together,” he said. “We kind of hang together.”
Pandaleon stated he will miss the camaraderie of working with the city staff and other members of the City Council, along with the ceremonial activities, such as the ones where children participate.
On the flip side, he said he won’t miss nasty phone calls or people making “unreasonable demands” of the city.
“You have a lot of intelligent people here who are used to getting their way, and they love to find a way to have the city do for them what they really should be doing for themselves,” he said. “Some of them get very noisy about it.”
As for his future, Pandaleon is now retired as a corporate real estate executive. He said he is open to some consulting work, and working for not-for-profit agencies. He has already agreed to join the Lake Forest Open Lands Association board, and there are plans to spend more time at a second home on Martha’s Vineyard.
He speaks with appreciation about his role in city government that stretches back three decades. “I’ve been incredibly honored, and I have an incredible sense of duty about this,” he said. “It is never something I did for me.”