A07, election analysis

Congratulations to all the candidates elected and re-elected yesterday. And congratulations to those who ran and contributed to the public discourse.

What does it all mean?

The dominant trend was consolidation of power. However, my perspective may be skewed by having more personal contact with the races in Forest Park, District 88, District 209 and Maywood.

Forest Park went from a 3-2 divide on the village council to a presumed 4-1 split. District 88 (Bellwood & Stone Park elementary schools) went from a 4-3 divide to a 6-1 divide. District 209 (Proviso Township High Schools) went from a 4-3 split to a 5-2 split with one of the minority board members scheduled to leave the board in July (he will be replaced by the majority). In Maywood the allies of the mayor won all three seats up for election.

However, there were some countervailing examples. In Westchester the Progressive Party swept all three trustee seats. This means that Village President Paul Gattuso and his allies will be in the minority. Also the Broadview TEA Party swept all three seats to create a significant opposition block to Village President Henry Vicenik. In both communities political opposition was probably energized by Chicago Joe's Tea Room applying to open a strip club.

In Melrose Park the trustee candidates supported by Village President Ron Serpico handily defeated challengers backed by Proviso Township Trustee Jesse Martinez. Martinez has his political roots in Stone Park. He's a friend Beniamino Mazzulla, the village president of Stone Park. Martinez sees his political future as being in jumping to Melrose Park, a significantly larger community with a large and growing Latino population.

In Bellwood the referendum to build a new library was defeated for the second time. Evidence has now emerged that an anonymous mailing attacking the library referendum was paid for by a political ally of village president Frank Pasquale. By defeating the referendum and helping to dump the opposition on the elementary school board Pasquale showed that he remains the head-politician-in-charge in Bellwood, an overwhelmingly African-American suburb.

Voters re-elected two of three trustees to Triton College. Irene Moskal Del Giudice, identified as the lone independent voice on the board by the Wednesday Journal, narrowly defeated Stephen Kubiczky. The leading vote getter was Thomas Gary of Oak Park.

Gary had the support of the political organization aligned with board president Mark Stephens. He also had the support of the media outlet doing the best journalism on Triton, the Wednesday Journal. And he had the support of the Proviso Township Democratic Organization. Proviso is the largest township in the district. Gary's candidacy was initially pushed by Oak Park Democratic Committeeman Don Harmon. Harmon once again showed himself to be a master deal maker on the behalf of strong candidates. Harmon was first elected to a newly created Senate seat without facing opposition in either the primary or general elections.

Gary will be the first African-American to serve on the Triton board of trustees. And in Forest Park, Rory Hoskins will be the first African-American to serve as commissioner. Like Gary, Hoskins posted dominating numbers. Hoskins was the leading vote getter, exceeding the mayor's vote total by 300 votes.

To evaluate the individual “mayors” (most of them are really village presidents) in Proviso.

Power waxing

• Frank Pasquale, Bellwood—won in schools and library, unopposed in village races
• Ron Serpico, Melrose Park—won in village and schools
• Henderson Yarbrough, Maywood—won in village
• Anthony Calderone, Forest Park—won in village

Power waning

• Paul Gattuso, Westchester—lost in village
• Henry Vicenik, Broadview—lost in village

Yesterday was also a defeat for Proviso Democratic Committeeman Karen Yarbrough, wife of Henderson. She put her political capital into three races, District 88, District 89 and District 209. Her allies were swept in D88, D89 (Maywood and Melrose Park elementary schools) and lost significant ground in D209.

Arnie Bryant, the president of the Bellwood library board and a strong proponent of the new library, is a contributor to Proviso Probe.

GOV, village board rejects strip bar in Broadview [BV]

Last week the Planning Commission and Zoning Board of Appeals voted down Joe Inovskis' application for a strip club bar in Broadview; last night the board of trustees voted unanimously to reject the application. See Chicago Tribune (Joseph Ruzich).

The application was rejected because it clearly violated existing code that prohibits adult entertainment establishments from serving alcohol.

But what if Chicago Joe's Tea Room applies for permission to provide adult entertainment without serving alcohol?

The Westchester residents seem to be opposed to the strip club whether it serves alcohol or not. The property is isolated from Broadview's residential areas, but across the street from a whole neighborhood of Westchester single-family homes.

From Tribune:

[Broadview Village President Henry] Vicenik said he thinks Inovskis will give up trying to build the club in Broadview for two reasons:

- State laws prevent strip clubs from opening in areas that have day-care facilities, Vicenik said.

- There would be problems getting parking for the club, Vicenik said.

But the value of Vicenik's insights would be diminished in credibility if Vicenik was in on the original plan to sneak the strip club into Broadview until the residents rose against it.

I don't know what Vicenik knew and when. Westchester Village President Paul Gattuso and Westchester Village Manager Carl Goldsmith knew about the proposal about a week before residents did. And Gattuso and Goldsmith weren't the primary sources for notifying Westchester residents about the application.

Presumably Vicenik would have known about the application as early as Gattuso and Goldsmith. Again, Vicenik wasn't leading the opposition to the application. He waited until the residents had already expressed their ire to jump on the bandwagon.

Based on the law firms involved its reasonable to suspect that Chicago Joe's Tea Room is a project of some of the politically connected. So, if Vicenik is privately working with Inovskis, his lawyers or his investors it diminishes the credibility of his claims that residents don't need to worry about Inovskis re-applying for permission to conduct adult entertainment.