Journal & Topics Media Group | Serving Chicago's Great Northwest Suburbs
Wednesday, March 15, 2023
Anne Lunde
Alice Dobrinsky and Joseph Steinfels, candidates for 5th ward Park Ridge City Council
Ald. Yvonne Mwende Lefler and John Bennett, candidates for 7th ward Park Ridge City Council
Of four Park Ridge City Council seats up for election on April 4, two are contested, in the Fifth and Seventh wards. The Action Ridge organization hosted a candidate night at the Community Church of Park Ridge on Wednesday, March 8 to introduce them. The discussion is posted on the Action Ridge Facebook Page until the election on April 4.
In the 7th Ward, Ald. Yvonne Mwende Lefler was selected from interested volunteers by a committee of residents last summer after Ald. Marty Joyce moved out of the city.
Her opponent, John Bennett, decided to run last December when he realized there was no opposition. The ward, originally represented by current Mayor Marty Maloney, had not had a contest for a number of elections and Bennett wants this ward at the southeast corner of the city to have a choice.
In the 5th Ward, Ald. Charlie Melidosian chose to retire. A recent ward remap shifted the top border further south because of a number of residential housing projects in the last decade. Candidates are Joseph Steinfels and Alice Dobrinsky, both seeking a council seat for the first time.
Lefler, a civil environmental engineer for 20 years, manages large scale construction projects for the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District. She first relocated to Chicago from out of state, but she and her husband chose to move to Park Ridge in 2015 for the school system. She was the choice of a residential panel who interviewed candidates last summer to fill the 7th Ward vacancy when Ald. Marty Joyce moved out of the city. She was involved in the city’s most recent strategic planning and budgeting process.
Bennett and his wife have been in the city since they started their family. He works for a consulting engineering firm in the nuclear power industry, which, he explains, has taught him that collective problem solving is most effective. He is an advocate of the late Mayor Dave Schmidt’s mantra: honesty, integrity, transparency, and accountability.
Bennett has been involved in a number of volunteer teams. There is a regional search and rescue team network which is called out to search for missing people. After serving on the Maine Township group, he now heads the Lake County unit. He is part of the local CERT Team (Community Emergency Response Team) in Park Ridge which also assists with traffic control at big events like Taste of Park Ridge or Winterfest. He served on the Planning & Zoning Commission for several terms and on the Police and Fire Commission.
Steinfels grew up near Mary, Seat of Wisdom, and is the oldest in a local family of 12 children. He earned his college degrees during a 25-year career in the U.S. Marine Corps. He and his wife, who grew up in Des Plaines, moved back to Park Ridge with their four children. They have been active as Roosevelt School parents. He is a public defender in Cook County.
His volunteer projects have included cleanup projects twice a year in local forest preserves, Boy Scouts, Wilderness Princesses, and Go Green Park Ridge. His family volunteered one recent summer to go to Kenya, Africa, to build a well near a school, which could be shared by the entire rural community.
He is a member of the Park Ridge Library Board and will be taking over the Memorial Parade organization this year for the Park Ridge American Legion.
Dobrinsky and her husband relocated from Chicago in 2015 and became active in parent activities in Field School activities and the parents’ V-Show. She says she started attending City Council meetings, questioning city ordinances and requesting compliance, to learn about city government. She believes this has prepared her to serve on the council with an open mind, without being influenced.
Affordable Housing
One of the big issues this year in Park Ridge is how to introduce a local plan to meet affordable housing guidelines from the state. Members of the Metropolitan Mayors Caucus had offered their help to Park Ridge because there may be ways to best meet the state guidelines, which will be based on a state report out later this year. The city has to balance consumer demands for expanding smaller houses that become less affordable or construction of expensive apartments, with a requirement to offer smaller, less expensive units that are gradually disappearing.
MMC advisors have proposed bringing solutions this spring better fit Park Ridge’s situation.
Issues to Solve
Bennett thinks the expansion of O’Hare Airport and the latest terminal work is still an environmental nightmare for Park Ridge’s southern neighborhoods.
He also is concerned that the police department has faced an increasing number of incidents, especially in the last couple of years, with late night car heists, robberies on residential streets, and shopping center parking lots.
Steinfels points to the increasing number of traffic accidents, and the drain on city infrastructure — such as heavier garbage trucks on the streets and alleys, and more demand for fire department ambulance crews as facilities with medical personnel call for assistance. He wants to start a drive to plant trees around the city and restore its canopy.
Dobrinsky reminds the city it should require better flood control for private projects.
She also would like the city to hire a second social worker, to spread the workload of cases now handled by one person.
Diversity
The city has developed a more diverse population over the last decade, and both Maine East and Maine South high schools have encouraged better understanding among students and families of various races and ethnic groups. Organizations, including Action Ridge which hosted this debate, encourage understanding of diversity.
Steinfels and his wife have four bi-racial children. Lefler and her husband have two bi-racial daughters.
In July, as a young Hispanic student was attacked by a Chicago police officer by the Starbucks at Euclid and Northwest Highway, many residents from across the city responded, demanding justice for the teen, upset that he might have been targeted. Police assembled a case over seven weeks that resulted in two felony charges against the officer.
Supporting Business
A proposal that grew out of budget talks for 2023 was for the city to set aside a specific fund to provide some support for local businesses. Because there is no economic development office in the city, the Park Ridge Chamber of Commerce stepped in during the pandemic years to research opportunities to help any local businesses, not just Chamber members. Executive Director Jackie Mathews was offered an opportunity to apply for some city funds for city-wide economic development or running events which were open to any businesses (Winterfest, Cruisin’ Park Ridge).
The possible budget is $20,000. Lefler and Dobrinsky were generally in favor of the plan but Lefler wants to see more investment in South Park business areas. Bennett doesn’t want the city to focus on Uptown and its outdoor dining alone, especially with funds that go to the chamber.
Steinfels points to the often delayed hotel development project for Higgins Road (Mr. K Garden Center) which was brought to City Council just before the COVID pandemic. There is an extension which would allow the project to resume this year. The city had agreed to waive some of the initial taxes it would receive from the project, but would eventually benefit from the project on the Higgins corridor.
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