Roberts gets nod from voters, plans to focus on water issue
At one point during his campaign, Dixmoor mayoral candidate Fitzgerald Roberts said he was having a lot of fun. “I’m movin’ and groovin,’ ” he said. The longtime trustee appears to be moving up a rung as unofficial results have him winning Tuesday’s election with 60% of the vote while Cynthia Mossuto followed with 35% and incumbent Mayor Yvonne Davis trailed with 5%.
Roberts, 56, said one of the first priorities on his list is the water in the community. Some parts of the community are getting little to no water.
“We should be getting a grant for infrastructure,” he said. “I did sit in on a meeting for that. That’s been very important for the residents.”
Roberts, a trustee since 2011, was a vocal critic of Davis when she received more money than she was entitled to the first two years as mayor. Davis said it was an error caused by a glitch in the payroll system and she is paying the money back.
Roberts was among those trustees who took the matter to the Cook County state’s attorney’s office.
He said that he wants to fix the budget, which he says is a mess.
“The past administration has been doing anything and everything with the budget,” he said. “Anything goes. We’re trying to get a federal audit and for the state to come in and audit their money.”
Roberts has also had issues with the police Chief Ronnie Burge, who was trailing badly in his bid for mayor of Dolton. Roberts was one of two trustees who filed a lawsuit against Burge and other officers in 2020. A judge dismissed the suit a year later.
The town has been the subject of unfavorable publicity recently. Burge made an unorthodox decision to tell his officers not to respond to call because the village is not supplying his men with the proper protective equipment. The village’s water issues has also been publicized.
Davis narrowly beat out Roberts in 2017 and called her tenure as mayor “the worst four years of my life in politics” and dealt with “four trustees from hell.”
“I have a life outside of politics,” the 61-year-old Davis said. “I have no problem moving on.”
In the clerk’s race, incumbent Juanita Darden has 64% of the vote over former Mayor Keevan A. Grimmett’s 36% showing.
In the trustee race, Roberts’ team of Dwayne Tyson (20%), Angela Franks Muse (19%) and Charlene McFadden (18%) were leading for three spots over Raymond Lavigne (13%), Alda Leavy-Skinner (12%), Lizette Delgado (12%) and Iliana Guzman (3%).