Country Club Hills mayoral race centers on economy
Increasing local development, government transparency are key focal points for candidates
James Ford has big plans for his city.
Themayor of Country Club Hills, who recently secured the development of a logistics hub on long vacant city farmland, said hewould also like to bring in a hotel and casino on adjacent plots.
But Ald. Anthony J. Davis, whom Ford defeated handily in 2015, and first-time candidate Steven Heath have a different view. They are aiming to unseat the mayor April 2 with a message of smarter spending and increased government transparency.
Heath, 65, who has an eclectic work background that includes experience in engineering, real estate and small business ownership, is critical of Ford’s development proposals and said he would like to see more transparency in how the city conducts business.
Davis, who has been an alderman since 2011, did not return requests for comment for this article, but said in January when he announced his candidacy that he supported implementing stronger financial controls and increasing accountability.
Ford, however, is banking on past economic development efforts to convince voters to give him a second term.
“To me, that’s a major accomplishment,” Ford said of the recent announcement that Chicago-based Logistics Property Co. would be investing $75 million to $100 million in creating a transportation and distribution center in Country Club Hills that could create hundreds of jobs. “That’s going to benefit not only Country Club Hills and the tax base of Country Club Hills, but it’s going to affect the whole region, the Southland.
“That’s going to be a legacy forme.”
Ford, 70, is an Army veteran who spent decades in the reserves while working his way up the management ranks at IBM. A Chicago native, Ford said he landed at IBM in the early 1970s after a chance meeting with legendary Cubs shortstop Ernie Banks in a Bronzeville restaurant.
“My wife and I were at dinner one day and (Banks)” — who had been making the rounds talking to restaurant patrons — “came up and said…‘What is it that youwant to do in your life?’ ” Ford said.
“I told him I wanted to become a tech, and he said, ‘Oh, OK. I know IBM is looking for technicians,’ and so he gave me a referral. I went and interviewed, passed the test and 37 years later, that’s history.”
Ford entered politics in 2009, not long after retiring from his corporate job, and believes the leadership experience he honed in the military — where he retired as a command sergeant major, the highest enlisted rank— and at IBM, where he oversaw $50 million to $75 million projects, prepared him to serve as city executive.
“As a project manager ... you have to make sure that everything is coordinated,” he said. “That’s what I did at IBM and in the military, so it gave me great insight to be able to become the mayor of a city.
“The responsibilities are the same, but the tasks are different.”
Ford said he inherited a solid foundation from former Mayor DwightWelch and has mostly just tried to “keep the city on track” during his first term.
He acknowledges that property taxes are high — Country Club Hills’ composite tax rate ranked fifth out of 134 Cook County municipalities, according to a 2017 Tribune analysis— but said he believed his economic development effortswould eventually result in lower residential taxes down the road.
“To me, the economic development is going to bring in the funds that I need to give some tax relief to the residents of Country Club Hills,” Ford said. “I justwant to keep economic development flowing so we can bring the taxes down.”
Heath, a longtime Country Club Hills resident who only recently began following city politics closely, is skeptical of Ford’s tax relief pronouncements.
“I’ve seen our taxes go up every year and seen the city budget go up every year, and I don’t see anyone speaking out for the taxpayers,” he said. “When dowe get a break?”
Heath said hewould like to see the budget cut — he proposes 10 percent cuts across the board in many, if not all city departments— and more investment in city infrastructure, local small business development and city programming geared toward supporting home ownership.
He criticized city officials for what he said was a failure to inform residents and seek their input on major decisions, and said he’d take a different approach as mayor.
“I’m willing to listen to the residents and I think if we let the residents have a voice then we’ll go in the right direction,” said Heath, who expressed concerns about the environmental impact of Ford’s vaunted logistics center and the way he believes it was foisted upon residents without a full vetting.
He said he supports conducting a “needs analysis” to get a better pulse of the community and where residents would like to see things go in the future.
Heath also has seized on the big payout that a jury awarded a female Country Club Hills firefighter last fall
after she sued the city for alleged gender discrimination, sexual harassment and retaliation.
He said the jury’s verdict, which found in favor of firefighter Dena Lewis on all of her claims and awarded her more than $11 million in damages, would “devastate” the citizens, if the city’s insurance didn’t pick up the bill.
Davis, whose campaign material boasts of his “wide array of managerial experiences” in business, real estate, sports and entertainment, and facilities and maintenance, also supports greater government transparency.
“My goal is to encourage more effective decisionmaking and efficient service delivery byempowering citizens to have a more active role in improving our community,” his campaign fundraising site says. “Greater community participation can go a longway.”
Davis, who also wants to impose stricter financial controls and eliminate “wasteful spending,” is the chairman of the Public Works Committee and former chairman of the Finance and Theater committees, according to his campaign fundraising site.
He finished third with 19.4 percent of the vote when he ran for mayor in 2015.
According to his aldermanic page on the city’s website, Davis is married with two daughters and a grandson, and has been a Country Club Hills resident for over 20 years.