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Glencoe races taking shape
Glencoe Park District Commissioner Trent Cornell wants to jump from the Park Board to the Village Board. | Irv Leavitt~Sun-Times Media
Updated: September 7, 2012 3:44PM
GLENCOE
Last-minute applications have swollen the number of 2013 candidates for Glencoe trustee to seven, and Glencoe Park District commissioner, to three.
The village president field, however, remains a one-on-one match: Trustee Larry Levin vs. former Village President Tony Ruzicka.
While these races are now well-stocked with candidates, there still are not as many applicants for Glencoe Public Library trustee as there are seats available.
Trustee candidates include Trent Cornell, a Glencoe Park District commissioner, who served as district president for a year, through this spring. Cornell was a member of the village’s Street Ends Task Force, which completed recommendations for Dell Place beach’s future this summer.
Another task force member, Dale Thomas, is also running. Thomas is a member of the village Golf Clubhouse Task Force, the group planning the replacement of that aging facility. He is a former member of the Village’s Golf Advisory Committee. Thomas has both a law degree and a divinity degree from Yale University.
Cornell and Thomas are both lawyers. Cornell, a litigator, is a partner at Pedersen & Houpt. Thomas is a senior counsel in the litigation-commercial, competition, and securities group of Sidley Austin’s Chicago office, specializing in utility matters, according to his company biography.
Coming back to the caucus slating process is Mitchell Melamed, who served on the Village Board for two terms, 2001-2009. He’s also a lawyer.
A couple of men from the real estate and construction businesses are running. Thomas Fraerman is a vice president of Joseph Freed and Associates, and has served as general counsel of that large real estate and development company.
Brad Ashman is the owner of Chicago Renovation and Development, a home remodeling firm.
Another trustee candidate, Johnathan Vree, is a principal with the investment counseling firm of Gofen and Glossberg and serves on the Board of the Open Studio Project, an Evanston-based non-profit arts and social service organization, and on the Leadership Council of the Posse Foundation, a Chicago organization that trains high school students and then offers them college scholarships.
Scott Pearce has a long history of running corporate marketing, sales and client service divisions for a variety of companies, and this year co-founded enableucoaching LLC, a business coaching consultancy with a holistic flavor.
The candidates are competing for slating for three seats now held by Levin, Joe Keefe and Keki Bhote.
Joe Keefe, the Board’s liason to the Golf Advisory Committee, didn’t apply to run for a third term, as is the tradition in Glencoe. Bhote, whose health has not been good, is finishing his first term.
Levin, in running for village president, asked that if not slated for the top job, he be considered for a second term as trustee. He’s running for the seat now held by Village President Scott Feldman, who is abiding by the two-term limit.
On the Park Board, the seats of Cornell and Max Retsky are in play. The newest candidate is Richard Kaplan, active with the Winnetka Hockey Club and the North Shore Ice Arena, the relatively new Northbrook facility owned and operated by area youth hockey associations. He’s the associate vice president for institutional research and grants management of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.
Earlier applicants are Seth Palatnik and Bob Footlik. Palatnik has been a member of the district’s Lakefront Advisory Group. He’s a management consultant who grew up in Chicago, and is a former Loyola Beach lifeguard.
Footlik is a semi-retired industrial engineering consultant who sails two sailboats berthed at the Glencoe Beach.
Glencoe Public Library Board trustee Tracey Meyers is running for re-election, but fellow one-year incumbent Stephanie Pearce isn’t. She’s her husband Scott Pearce’s partner in the new business-coaching company.
One of those who has applied is Michelle Litchman, daughter of the late Judith Krug, director of the Office for Intellectual Freedom of the American Library Association for over 40 years. She’s a former Chicago Public Schools teacher and a long-time Glencoe District 35 PTO member.
Also applying is Gary Massel, a physicist who served on the U.S. technical support team for the first Strategic Arms Limitation Talks with the USSR (1969-1972). After several positions in government and private indistry, Massel is now the retired senior vice-president of OfficeMax.
Since there are four seats open for the library board and only three candidates, the Aug. 31 deadline for applications has been extended, Caucus co-chair Catherine Cooper said Tuesday.
The slating sessions — open to the public — will take place at 7 p.m. Monday nights at the Takiff Center, 999 Green Bay Road, commencing with an organizational meeting Sept. 10 and ending with a vote Nov. 5. The weeks of Rosh Hashana and Columbus Day will be skipped.
A separate segment of the Glencoe Caucus handles the District 35 School Board slating. No one has applied so far, but that Caucus committee has a deadline of Oct. 1. Five seats — those now held by Nancy Shaw, Robert Bailey, Eddie Chez, Marc Glucksman and Keith Stauber — are available to candidates wishing to run in the spring, 2013 election.
Applications are available at www.glencoecaucus.org.
