Election 2023: Chris Hallum elected mayor of Willoughby Hills

Marah Morrison, The News-Herald, Willoughby, Ohio
·2 min read

Nov. 7—Willoughby Hills voters were in favor of electing Chris Hallum as their mayor.

Hallum defeated Virginia "Jenna" Bing, the replacement candidate for the late Laura Pizmoht, 1,790 to 1,546, according to Nov. 7 unofficial final results from the Lake County Elections Board.

As mayor, Hallum wants to continue the city's successes by working to add more new businesses, improving infrastructure, senior programming and the senior center.

"I will continue to be the leader you've come to know," Hallum said. "Compared to four years ago, the city is in better shape from public perception to finance, to safety forces, to roads and community engagement."

Meanwhile, voters decided on several key City Council races in this year's general election. According to the unofficial final results from the Elections Board, Mike Kline defeated Scott Kordos 758-361 in District 1. District 2's Tanya Taylor Draper ran unopposed.

In District 3, Kathleen Sivo defeated Amy Frato-Wright 663-384 and for council-at-large, Vicki Miller defeated Peter A. Pike 1,938 to 1,151.

According to Bing, she was all in for being mayor of Willoughby Hills.

"I would not have accepted and said I would run in Laura's place if I didn't really want this job," she said.

Bing said she became interested in city politics about 10 years ago as she felt it was important to understand how her city was spending her tax money, as well as watch what was going on at council.

As mayor, Bing had hoped to focus on the budget.

"I am focused on what we are doing so that maybe we have a chance to be able to then free up some budget money to either do more for residents or figure out how to start dealing with the level of tax we have," she said. "We have to care for each other with kindness."

In October of this year, the Elections Board was informed of Pizmoht's passing. The former mayoral candidate had stage four cancer and had planned to do a study of city finances to see if there was room in the budget to cut the Regional Income Tax Agency tax.

Pizmoht also had west side economic development goals.

"Laura was a dear friend of mine and was an extremely great person," Bing said. "She really wanted to be mayor and I was all behind her."

All members will begin their four-year term beginning Jan. 1. The mayor of the city will receive $30,370.54 per year. The council president will receive $9,870.43 per year and members of council will receive $7,817.82 per year.