Days after putting in her resignation, a Mundelein village trustee was caught driving drunk, the second time in less than a year, authorities said.
Trustee Jennifer Grieco had sent in a resignation letter on Aug. 19, Mayor Robin Meier said, citing her move out of the village as the reason.
Just days later, Grieco had her driving privileges suspended for 12 months, with Lake County Sheriff’s Office deputies alleging she had been driving drunk early Thursday evening, according to court documents.
Grieco was in a white Alfa Romeo, documents said, and officers said she had an “odor of alcohol emitting from breath,” that she had been “unable to maintain balance, had slurred speech, had to hold officer hand and use car to balance,” and “showed impairment during SFST’s” (Standardized Field Sobriety Tests).
The incident mirrors a similar one in September, when Grieco was involved in a two-vehicle crash and arrested for driving under the influence, according to reports.
In Grieco’s resignation letter, she said she had been maintaining two homes to continue living in Mundelein and serving on the board, but “financially, it simply no longer makes sense for us.” She planned to rent out the house in the next month and make Green Oaks her primary residence.
“I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity to have served Mundelein, both as a Trustee and through my years of involvement with the village,” she said in the letter. “I have tremendous respect for the people who work every day to make Mundelein such a wonderful community, and I hope to maintain the strong relationships and friendships I have built here.”
With Grieco’s resignation, Mundelein has put out a call for applicants to fill her seat.
Meier gave the general process and timeline for appointees to the board during Monday’s Village Board meeting. Applications and resumes will be accepted until Sept. 4.
The appointment will run until the end of April 2027, after which the position will go to whoever wins the spring election for the remaining two years of Grieco’s seat.
According to Meier, she will be conducting the interview and selection process, with her pick to be voted on by the board at a later date.
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Initially an appointee to the board herself before winning her election, Meier said the most recent appointment was just last year, after she had won the election for mayor. After an interview process with more than a dozen applications, Tony Ugaste was appointed to her former seat.
During that previous application process, Meier said she had sat down with some candidates prior to interviews to discuss what the job is and what it requires. It’s “more than just the two board meetings that you see every month,” she said. Meier was looking for candidates who were “more than a one-issue person.”
“Somebody that’s willing to look at the totality of the village, everything that we have going on,” Meier said. “Someone who can do the homework, make sure you read the information and have an informed decision.”
Meier couldn’t give a definitive timeline for when an interim trustee will be appointed, with resumes already coming in.
The next election for local municipal offices is April 6, 2027, with petition circulation from August 25 to November 23, 2026. The remaining two years of Grieco’s seat will go up for election, as will three other trustee positions: the seats of Erich Schwenk, Kara Lambert and Ugaste.
Whoever is appointed to Grieco’s seat can also choose to run in the election, Meier said, but they will go through the same election process as any other candidate.