The Wednesday Journal sent questionnaires to each person running for public office in 2025. The Journal’s questions are in bold and the candidate’s responses are below.
Political experience
Chair of Oak Park Liquor Control Review Board (2 terms), Village Clerk (1term), Village President
Community experience
Teacher, Restauranteur, Non-profit management, Co-Chair of Law Review Committee for IMPACT coalition, Program Coordinator for Positive Youth Development coalition with Oak Park Township funded by Illinois Department of Human Services, founding Co-Chair of Oak Park Addition Recovery Team with Community Mental Health Board, Coalition member West Garfield Park Community Stakeholders, Restorative Justice trained, and founding executive team member of Cross Community Climate Collaborative (C4).
As village president, how will you respond to Trump administration policies on a local level?
Our federal government is making changes that are a direct attack on our values. I participate on weekly calls hosted by our Governor’s office to inform legal steps we need to take to protect residents. I will ensure information, legal and social service resources are available. I will work with neighboring communities, governmental partners, and elected representatives to advocate for our needs. We are a community that believes every person deserves to be safe, respected, and cared for. Diversity, equity, and inclusion are not words we use to fear-monger. I will protect these values. Our historic commitment to fostering racial integration, and to cultivating diversity and equity will continue. We will stand in loving solidarity with our LGBTQ+ siblings. We will always be welcoming.
How is Oak Park doing on promoting economic development and vitality? What needs to change?
Oak Park was named to Travel Lemming’s list of top 50 places to travel in 2025. Oak Park has 12 vibrant business districts, each with their own unique flair and a low vacancy rate of 3%. It is my priority to invest in our small business districts with infrastructure that will attract opportunities to grow our tax base and promote cultural events that contribute to a stronger sense of belonging for all. I am interested in further diversify our housing stock for affordability and inclusivity. We are creating an economic vitality plan that will provide a blueprint for attracting new growth and an economic development framework that merges the recruitment strengths of the past with the transparent incentive policies tax payers and developers appreciate.
What are your thoughts on the new leaf collection program and would you support repealing the decision to bag leaves for collection?
I voted “no” on changing our leaf pick-up program because we had not engaged residents nearly enough. I requested the engagement of our commissions and governmental partners, specifically; aging in communities and disability access. Further community engagement still needs to happen to better inform a path forward, even if it leads to reversing the program. I have heard from some neighbors that like the change. The fact remains, we did not do the work to engage our community on how to address concerns that existed related to our leaf pick-up program. By voting before more thorough investigation and community engagement we undermined any possible success we could possibly have had on any change. I communicated this at the board table.
With federal COVID-era funds coming to an end, how can Oak Park fund special efforts such as it did with migrants or to invest in sustainability?
I am committed to identifying diverse funding sources to fully support our Climate Ready Oak Park plan and special efforts that speak directly to our community goals and values. Including public private partnerships, county and state grants, universities, foundations, and mayors caucus funding opportunities. I have a strong track record of successfully leveraging relationships and partnerships for projects important to Oak Park. I am a founding village president of a public private partnership called “Cross Community Climate Collaborative” (C4) with Broadview Mayor Katrina Thompson, River Forest Village President Cathy Adduci. We work with fourteen communities to collectively seek grants and funding partnerships for large scale sustainability projects with over $3M in grants to date.
The Oak Park Police Department has been seriously understaffed for multiple years. What will you do to recruit and retain officers to ensure public safety needs are met?
I have led on a multi-faceted approach to recruit and retain officers and ensure public safety needs are met. We re-evaluated salaries, benefits, and incentive programs to be more competitive, including adding maternity leave for both men and women. Working with the Chief, we approved lateral hires for qualified candidates from other police departments. We are investing in officer wellness programs inclusive of a therapy dog, social services, and access to workout facilities. We have prioritized building of a new police facility that meets the needs of our department and welcomes collaboration with partner agencies and space for community engagement. I have led on engaging a talented task force to advance an alternative response model for mental health and wellness calls that includes care coordination with the goal of better serving residents and business districts while reducing the number of calls to our police department.
Please add final thoughts not covered in this questionnaire. These responses may appear online.
As Village President it is important to address affordability and the need for affordable housing. If we are to remain a diverse community racially as well as socioeconomically we must be intentional in our efforts. Under my leadership we have maintained an average levy of less than 3% and are creating a levy policy that will provide transparent guidance for determining a responsible goal for each budget year. We partnered with the Metropolitan Mayors Caucus to create a Strategic Vision for Housing for the Village of Oak Park that provides a roadmap for addressing gaps in our housing stock with policy recommendations and strategies for implementation including strengthening our inclusionary zoning ordinance and reviewing single family zoning. I am invested in supporting additional multi-family housing in business districts, missing middle development, and programs to protect our more naturally occurring affordable housing to enable aging in community, housing for people with disabilities, new entry points to homeownership, and affordable units for families.
