The Caucus Party has held the six trustee positions in the village for more than half a century.
David Gleicher and Michael Rosenberg were the last independents who ran for trustee. That was in 1993 and both of them lost.
Almost two decades later, however, two new independents will be trying to change village history and be the first non Caucus Party elected trustee in more than 50 years.
Lisa Lipin and Brian Novak are both Skokie residents known for being active in the community. On Lipin's end, she founded and currently chairs Skokie Voice, a grassroots organization aimed at improving communication between the village and residents. Meanwhile, Novak is currently a board member of Skokie School District 73.5 and sits on the village's Consumer Affairs Committee. There will be six vacant seats come April, and both Lipin and Novak are hopeful to win out those spots.
"Skokie is evolving, changing," said Novak, 38. "The evolution equals the need for fresh perspective."
Novak said he grew up in Roger's Park and moved to Skokie about eight years ago.
"I don't feel like I'm running against the Caucus Party," he said "It's not in my best interest to act that way. There's room for fresh perspective, room for change."
When Patch asked Novak what he thinks Skokie's short term goals should be he said: "Short term, we need to enforce existing ordinances. And maybe we're not enforcing those ordinances enough. [Second,] sticking with public safety perception."
In the end, Novak said he simply wants to offer a fresh perspective to the village and represent the everyday citizen.
"For far too long the people of our community have not had a choice for their trustee representative. My wife, Cyndy, and I chose Skokie because of its richly diverse population, commitment to excellence in education and fantastic location," Novak said. "We have been active in the community and want to ensure everyone has a voice in fulfilling our village’s goal – to be a village of vision. I will offer a fresh perspective for our evolving community – for the 21st century and beyond."
Lipin agrees Skokie residents need a choice come April. While she's been a member of the Caucus Party for several years, Lipin was screened prior to announcing her run for trustee. In the end, she decided to run as an independent.
"I screened with them. It was just like a job interview," Lipin said. “I see myself as a true advocate for people and after serving the community for years in a variety of positions I’ve decided to bring my advocacy work as an elected official.
“I feel that running independently is the best way for the people of Skokie to have a choice.".
Skokie Patch reached out several times to the Caucus Party for interviews, but did not get a response. The following will be running for trustee under the Caucus Party this April: Michele Bromberg, Randy Roberts, Edie Sue Sutker (all incumbents) and newcomers Karen Gray-Keeler, Ralph Klein and Ilonka Ulrich.
Gray-Keeler is filling the unexpired term of former Village Trustee Michael Lorge. Lorge resigned several months ago and now serves as the Village’s Corporation Counsel.
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If he stated that he plans to enforce the existing ordnances it certainly sounds like he’s in the dark. The statement did not mention anything about reviewing them or changing them, just blindly enforcing them. This means yes, the lower speed limits will be enforced to ensure our safety. People love to hide behind the word “safe”. Does safe mean we need more traffic light cameras or speed cameras? We are told this is a way to enforce “safe” driving. Now you’re expecting me to believe that enforcing other ordnances will make Skokie a safer place. Does that mean we are not safe now? How safe to we need to be? When ever I hear a politician use the word safe telling me they are protecting the public I know their actions are motivated by another reason and safety has nothing to do with it. Skokie writes plenty of traffic tickets. Skokie has 6 pages listed on the National speed trap web site speedtrap.org http://www.speedtrap.org/city/3343/Skokie&page=1 Writing tickets and imposing fines does not make Skokie a safer place to live in it just makes people want to move out or avoid the area. I do not agree with the new building ordnances you mention, I think we have way too many ordnances now, but again we are suppose to believe those new ordnances are to provide a “safer” environment for all of us.
Thank you for the background! I've updated the article to reflect your comment and plan on adding more later this afternoon (currently out in field). Best, George
Isn't it time the for the very richly compensated Al Rigoni retire and enjoy his handsome pension and all the other wonderful benefits he receives as a government employee? Most highly compensated Illinois state village manager in calendar year 2010, in the midst of the current hobbled national economy. Things don't look so bad from Al's kitchen sink window. Skokie local politics are as dirty as anything at the national level. Plenty of back room maneuvering. It seems to have generated epic levels of discontent amongst village residents. Go vote. Make things change!! The mayor and his minions would prefer we all just shut up and pay the new taxes they cook up quietly. It's one thing for the village government to say they give a damn and another to actually back that up with improved performance and provision of better village services. They only thing current village management seems committed to is full employment of village employees. It's high time fat got trimmed and performance increased. Nothing increases work efforts like trimming away the slackers.
Is it that she doesn't understand the concept of a paragraph, or hasn't mastered the computer? Most likely a teacher though....that would help explain district 219's overcompensated teachers and under performing students. They must need more money. They ALWAYS need more money. For more than 30 years now. And still, student performance continues to decline. A 60% competency rating among 219 graduates. Now that's performance you can stand behind. You sure wouldn't want to stand in front of it. And the unforgettable words or 219 board president Robert Silverman referring to tax increases ..." I don't want to leave any money on the table ". I can see why. There are actually fewer and fewer tables in Skokie as we "enjoy" the highest or close to the highest foreclosure rate of any Chicago suburb. See the March 30th Chicago Tribune story titled "Schools Stockpiling Cash" . Three specific Skokie school districts were cited in this city and suburban wide analysis. Good to know that reord spending by our schools in harsh economic times doesn't hurt your typical property owner and ratchet up his property taxes. Ya know, I think Niles West needs a new $15 MILLION dollar pool too.
I am extremely proud of the work I have done with the 73.5 School Board (as Secretary), District 807 - NTDSE (as president), the PTA, as a Commissioner on the Consumer Affairs Commission, Chamber of Commerce Economic Development Task Force, Skokie's home delivered meals program, and all of the other local organizations I have been a part of since I arrived in Skokie. For those of you who do not know me but would like to learn more, you can either visit my website, www.novakforskokie.com, or attend a meet-and-greet coffee. There have been and will continue to be many opportunities to meet me in person - the dates will be posted on the web-site or you can join the mailing list so that you will be notified. As Skokie residents we are all invested in the community and should be part of the conversation - I strongly encourage you to exercise your right to vote on April 9th.