Longtime Oak Parker and regulatory compliance attorney Lucia Robinson is vying for one of the three Oak Park village trustee seats up for grabs in April 2021.
“I see Oak Park being this thriving multicultural community and I also see the big issues that it faces on the horizon. It’s really important to me that Oak Park navigates those in a way that’s successful and ultimately makes the community stronger,” said Robinson. “I’d like to be a part of that.”
In her capacity as a regulatory compliance attorney in the financial services industry, Robinson has spent considerable time interpreting and applying rules and regulations set forth by the government to ensure financial institutions conduct their business accordingly.
“I’ve specialized in regulatory compliance which is essentially implementing policies and protocol to meet governmental statutory requirements,” said Robinson.
If elected, Robinson believes her legal knowledge would give her a unique perspective into governmental compliance matters as a trustee.
Robinson’s family moved from the Little Village neighborhood of Chicago to Oak Park when she was a child.
“I went up through the school system here,” said Robinson.
She has spent more than half her life living in Oak Park, but briefly left the village after meeting her husband.
“We moved away for a period of time, and then returned to Oak Park in 2007, and moved to northeast Oak Park where we’ve raised our three children,” said Robinson.
She is a graduate of Oak Park and River Forest High School, where her three children also attended.
“We love living here,” said Robinson. “I love raising my children here. The fact that my children have been able to be sort of legacy children, also going to the high school as second generation Huskies, it’s been really one of the highlights of my parenting.”
This is Robinson’s first time running for elected office. As a trustee, she plans to tackle myriad issues presented by COVID-19, including the health of Oak Park citizens and the health of its business community.
“I think from a COVID perspective, one of the things we would be looking at for sure is the health and safety of our residents,” said Robinson. “I think what goes along with that is maintaining the vibrancy of our business community.”
If elected, Robinson hopes to really focus on offering continuous support to local businesses throughout the entirety and aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic by having the village board provide relief and structured policies.
“I think it’s also about creating tailored solutions because we have various types of businesses that are struggling right now, whether it’s a medical office or a retail business,” said Robinson. “And so, the solutions that each of those types of business models might be a little bit different.”
Another platform stance of Robinson’s is her commitment to improving Oak Park’s commitment to diversity and inclusion.
“I’m raising biracial children; I myself, am a third-generation Mexican American woman,” said Robinson. “These issues of diversity and inclusion and equity are very personal to me, and they hit very close to home.”
Robinson believes that Oak Park is a microcosm of the United States and that many of the issues, such as police reform, being discussed at a national level impact Oak Park directly.
“Oak Park isn’t a bubble and I think in many ways it deals with a lot of the same issues on the national stage,” said Robinson.
The village of Oak Park has a very unique opportunity to address these issues in a way that the federal government does not, according to Robinson.
“In some ways we see sort of the national response to these issues falling short,” said Robinson. “As a smaller community, we’re able to try to avoid some of those types of pitfalls, and we can address these issues in a way that maintains some of the ideals that Oak Park stands for.”
Robinson is running on a slate with Stephen Morales, another candidate vying for village trustee.
“I really respect Lucia. She’s a great candidate,” Morales told Wednesday Journal. Morales stated that he and Robinson will begin the process of defining their slate and what it stands for in the coming weeks.
At the moment, Robinson has no plans to align herself with any of the candidates running in the village presidential race.
