Former Forest Park Village Council member Mark Hosty was appointed River Forest Township Clerk on Nov. 18 to replace Margaret Detmer who resigned her post effective at the end of that day.
Detmer, who was appointed Township Clerk in 2024 when the previous clerk John Becvar was appointed Township Supervisor. Becvar replaced Carla Sloan who had resigned her post. He was reelected to a full four-year term earlier this year. Detmer said that she resigned because of the time commitment of the part time job and the pressure of being the mother of three small children.
“I need to focus on my family right now,” Detmer said after participating in her last township board meeting on Nov. 18. “I have three young kids, five and under.”
Detmer will serve as a marketing consultant to the township to help transition some of the website and social media work involved with the clerk’s job. She will be paid $26 an hour and will not work more than 10 hours a month.
The work of the township clerk is administrative and paperwork heavy. It includes taking and publishing the minutes of meetings of the township board and calling the roll and keeping track of votes at meetings of the township board.
Hosty, 57, has lived in River Forest for the past nine years. His father was born in River Forest and his paternal grandparents moved to River Forest in 1917. Hosty, who grew up in Oak Park, has deep connections to River Forest where many of his relatives lived.
This is the third time that Hosty has applied for the River Forest Township Clerk position. He also applied when Becvar was appointed clerk in 2023 and again in 2024 when Detmer was appointed clerk. This time around Hosty had no competition for the position as he was the only person to apply for the job.
The appointment as clerk will run until the current term expires in 2029.
The township clerk is expected to work an average of seven hours a week and is paid an annual salary of $9,500 without any benefits.
“I want to continue to be involved in my local government as I was for Forest Park,” Hosty told Wednesday Journal in a telephone interview. “I’ve lived in River Forest now for 9 years and I want to be involved where I live and this is a great opportunity. I think the township is a very important government that gets overlooked and it was time.”
Hosty has served on the Youth and Family Services Committee of River Forest Township since 2024.
Hosty served on the Forest Park Village Council from 1999 until 2015 when he ran for a fifth term and was defeated finishing last in a race of five candidates for four seats. During his time on the Forest Park Village Council Hosty was a strong ally of former Forest Park Mayor Tony Calderone. In Forest Park’s bare knuckles politics he was at times controversial and was not liked by some in the town, especially those opposed to Calderone.
Hosty operated Healy’s Westside tavern at 7321 Madison in Forest Park for 25 years. He still owns the building which now houses Robert’s Westside. He currently works as a real estate broker.
Hosty has remained active in politics after losing the final village council race.
Hosty currently serves as the Republican State Central Committeeman for the 7th Congressional District.
He has served as a delegate to three Republican national conventions, in 2008, 2020, and 2024, and ran for a seat on the Cook County Board from the 9th District in 2022 but finished second in the Republican primary.
With the clerk’s position filled the township board will turn its attention to filling the vacancy created when Karen Taubman resigned from the board this month. Those interested in replacing Taubman on the township board can apply by filling out a form on the township’s web site. The application deadline is Dec. 1. Becvar said the township board hopes to fill the vacancy at its Dec. 16 meeting.
“We’ve had a half-dozen residents express interest in that (unpaid) vacancy,” Becvar said in an email.
