After almost 25 years at Oak Park Village Hall, Sandra Sokol is calling it quits.
In a press release Monday, Sokol announced, with “very mixed feelings,” that she will not run for a fifth term as Oak Park village clerk. She spent eight years at village hall before that, working in the Community Relations Department. Sokol called her 24 years with Oak Park the “most meaningful and rewarding period of my life.”
“I believe that it is time for me to pass the torch on to others,” she said in the press release. “Yet I look forward to my continued active participation in our beloved hometown.”
The release does not elaborate on how she might participate, noting that it could involve “established” as well as “new capacities.”
Sokol was out of the office Monday and Tuesday. Calls to her Oak Park home were not answered.
“She will be tremendously missed, and I personally am very sorry to see her go,” Village President David Pope said Monday. “It’s obviously a great loss to the community.”
Along with Sokol’s clerk position, village president and the trustee spots of Greg Marsey, Colette Lueck, and John Hedges are also up in next April’s election.
Pope, nominated as an independent president in 2005, says he and his wife, Beth Houle, are still mulling over whether he will run for another term.
“Beth and I haven’t made a final decision, although I suspect that we will soon,” he said.
Hedges-elected last year on the Village Manager Association slate for a two-year term to replace a vacated trustee spot-is also unsure of his future political plans. But he says there’s a possibility he may run in April.
Greg Marsey, elected on the New Leadership Party slate in 2005, says he’s waiting until after the presidential election in November to decide whether he’ll run again.
“I don’t think anyone’s really paying attention to local politics,” he said. “The stakes are so high in the national election, that that’s drawing everyone’s attention.”
Marsey said he has been asked by a couple of individuals involved with the NLP to run for village president, but he hasn’t given it serious thought yet.
“I’m flattered that people have asked me to do that, and I’ll definitely consider it,” Marsey said.
Lueck, former chair of the Oak Park Plan Commission, says she hopes to run for re-election. She joined the board a few months back to take the spot of Ernest Moore, who left Oak Park to take a teaching post in Texas. Lueck interviewed with the VMA committee on Sunday as part of its candidate selection process.
“I’m having a great time being a trustee,” Lueck said. “It’s a ton of fun. People would not think of it as something that’s fun, but it really is.”
CONTACT: mstempniak@wjinc.com
