Park Forest tradition takes bit of a hit

In the early 1950s, when Park Forest was little more than hopes and dreams, then Mayor Henry Dietch came up with a plan calling for nonpartisan villagewide elections. He was quoted as saying there was no Republican way of picking up the garbage and no Democratic method for plowing snowy streets. He believed political parties was not the way to go for this new community.

That statement of independence quickly led to the formation of the Non-Partisan Committee which still oversees local elections. The rules are simple, allowing all candidates free use of numerous forums to state their views and answer questions from voters. The only qualification is a pledge to run as an independent and not to cluster in groups or form a slate. The promise of nonalignment was seen as a commitment to the process.

Granted there were hints of noncompliance every so often, but the system seemed to work for more than 60 years. This year, however, Village Trustee Joe Woods admitted passing out petitions for fellow trustees Maya Hardy and Theresa Settles, as well as candidate Erin Slone, thus twisting the committee rules into a pretzel-shaped condition.

When informed by members of the Non-Partisan Committee that he transgressed, Woods openly admitted his guilt.

“I accept full responsibility,” he said. “I should never have done that.”

He claimed he believed the nonpartisan rule was in effect only for those running for election and that he only “wanted to help out.”

“I get it now,” he said apologetically, adding he should have known better and vowing it would not happen again.

That public servant Woods

stood up and publicly acknowledged his error can be considered a notable event in the lie-strewn world of politics masquerading as truth these days. We mention this because any admission of fallibility is rare. It is a “man bites dog” story or, as an editor once told me, “no one writes a story about the plane that did not crash.”

Which brings us to the saga of Randall White Jr., a member of the Park Forest Elementary District 163 Board, who filed to run for both a seat on the village board and the public library board. He also questioned the candidacy for both Settles and Hardy as well as incumbent library board members Dannthy Garçon, Alice McBride and Felicia Wrangel. In turn, White’s petitions were challenged by Mickey McNair. Now let’s sort things out. Even before an election board hearing last Friday, White announced he would run only for the library board, citing potential conflicts on tax levies and tax increment financing fund votes. There is no such conflict with a seat on the library board. What is still to be decided is the candidacy of Judy Hathaway, White’s fellow District 163 Board member who will be on the village board ballot. A third school board member, Lance Jefferson, is a candidate for the library board.

In what seemed to be a circle dance at the hearing, White dropped challenges against the trustees, McNair was a no-show and the board ruled against Garçon and Wrangel, based on poor or unfiled paperwork.

To be fair, other village trustee candidates are unfailing returnee JeRome Brown and newcomer Joshua Travis, who two years ago worked diligently for the election of Mayor Jon Vanderbilt. Others running for the library board include James Elmore and Teghan Usher.

It is getting so that you need a score card to find out who is running for what.

Stay tuned. This is just the start.

My town

I despise the mean discord and hostility that I see too often on social media, so I was delighted when Jonathan Billig, the son of Etel and Steve Billig, who for decades ran Park Forest’s famed Illinois Theater Centre, in his response to the posted rants about his hometown.

“I’m really tired of people who left Park Forest years ago coming on this page and trashing it, using terms like ‘ghetto,’ ” he wrote. “I’ve lived here for 58 years and will most likely die here. I love this town. If you are ‘afraid to live here,’ the problem is in your mind, not in the town.”

Well said. This marks year number 57 for us. I think we will also stay to the end.