Meet your Park Ridge City Council candidates

The following candidates are running for Park Ridge City Council in the April 4 municipal election. Two races are contested: Alice Dobrinsky faces Joseph Steinfels to succeed retiring Ald. Charlie Melidosian in the 5th Ward and recently appointed Ald. Mwende Lefler faces a challenge from John Bennett to represent the 7th Ward. Races in the 1st and 3rd Wards are uncontested.

The next Park Ridge City Council will oversee development of a plan to make 10% of the city’s housing stock affordably priced and do continuing work to update the city’s comprehensive plan, among other tasks. They’re also likely to continue hearing about issues of sustainability and law enforcement and policing.

Read on for candidates’ answers to questions posed by Pioneer Press.

1st Ward: Ald. John Moran

Years in Park Ridge: Lifelong resident

Favorite community event: Alfresco dining program

Other community involvement: Member, Junior Board for Advocate Lutheran General Hospital, Park Ridge Chamber of Commerce, football, baseball and soccer coach

Ald. John Moran is running uncontested for reelection in the 1st Ward. A city council member since 2015 and the current chair of the city’s Public Works committee, Moran is a certified financial planner and investment broker.

Answering questions via email, Moran told Pioneer Press he supports greater police visibility to help deter catalytic converter thefts and other criminal activity in Park Ridge. He also noted that he sees the recent move to purchase eight Flock license plate reading cameras as a promising avenue to reduce illegal activity.

However, Moran said, data doesn’t support the perception that crime is on the rise.

“The Park Ridge Police Department just published their 2022 statistics and CRIME IS DOWN in Park Ridge,” he wrote.

Moran said police visibility would also “pay dividends” in ensuring that young people in Uptown behave well, but said “a permanent solution to this issue must start at home.”

“Teen centers and youth activities are all great concepts, to give the good kids a place to hang out and not be bothered, but the teens that want to cause problems stay away from those environments,” he wrote.

Moran will be part of the City Council that supervises the creation and implementation of a plan to ensure that 10% of Park Ridge’s housing units are affordably priced under a 2021 state law, and said he is curious to see what the updated data on the city’s housing stock prices are.

“If the data seems to show a trend in the wrong direction, I’d be open to exploring specific measures to address this topic, as long as they do not alter the overall character of our neighborhoods,” he wrote.

He said he thought the city needs to think about what policies will help ensure “a reasonable mix of housing available at a variety of price points in the city.”

Regarding Park Ridge’s work around environmental sustainability, Moran said “the city will need to continue to make more investments in stormwater management, parkway tree maintenance and replacement, and water conservation.”

3rd Ward: Maureen “Kelly” Gannon Lawrence

Years in Park Ridge: Grew up in town, moved back 2005

Favorite community event: WinterFest

Other community involvement: St. Teresa Guild (Mary, Seat of Wisdom); soccer coach for Park Ridge Soccer; Girl Scout Leader; Girls on the Run; District 64 Strategic Planning Committee

Maureen “Kelly” Gannon Lawrence is running unopposed to succeed retiring 3rd Ward Ald. Gail Wilkening because “somebody needed to,” she said.

“We knew Gail was retiring,” Lawrence continued. “Talking amongst the community, people have recommended that I get involved in community service because I really do care about getting information about the town.”

Lawrence said she feels that decisions at City Council are sometimes made based on input from “a very small population of the community” and said she hopes to hear a wide range of perspectives at the horseshoe.

“I would really like to hear the voices of everybody within the decisions being made,” she said.

Lawrence said she’ll support initiatives to inform citizens about how they can reduce their risk of catalytic converter thefts and other vehicle-related crimes as an alderman.

She said she’d like to see more structured activities for Park Ridge’s young people as a way of deterring bad behavior in the Uptown area, saying she’s seen the issue “firsthand.”

“I think increasing some of our youth programs, the youth commission program and making things where kids can go and socialize and kind of act goofy, [is a possible solution],” Lawrence said.

Lawrence praised the city’s planning and zoning commission for being on top of the first steps toward implementing the new affordable housing law and said the city should focus on incentivizing people to offer rental units at lower prices to those who need it

“You’ve got to be able to give people a break,” she said, noting that when she had rented a unit to others, she’d offered it at a lower price to people under financial pressure.

Lawrence also said City Council should support the sustainability commission and “help them get the resources that they need in order to pilot some of these projects.”

Of the many suggestions the sustainability commission offered to aldermen, Lawrence said she was enthusiastic about reducing waste at city-sponsored events.

“You can start small and then keep building that momentum,” she said.

5th Ward: Alice Dobrinsky

Years in Park Ridge: since 2015

Other community involvement: Member of D207 Advisory Council, part of the observer corps for Park Ridge League of Women Voters, leader of Field School Parent VShow

Favorite community event: Concerts in Hodges Park

Alice Dobrinsky is running to represent Park Ridge’s 5th Ward after six years as a regular city council attendee and advocate for more transparent practices in Park Ridge government.

In pitches to voters at forums and community events, Dobrinsky has played up her “deep knowledge of how the city works” and her track record of attending and participating in council meetings.

“I can hit the ground running as a representative,” she said. “I pour my heart into community work because I love this town and the people in it.”

On issues, Dobrinsky said she will “thoughtfully review the police department’s recommendations” on how to fight crime in Park Ridge and said she’d support hiring a social worker as a way to address persistent issues of youth misconduct in the Uptown area.

“No one thing will magically solve this issue,” she said. “But hiring another social worker is a step the city can take to positively impact the overall health of our community.”

On the affordable housing law topic, Dobrinsky said she looked forward to seeing what Planning and Zoning officials and staff sent to City Council and that she’d like to “see parking and congestion taken into consideration.”

“My goal is always to… mindfully take things into consideration for the best possible solution and outcome for the community,” she said.

Asked how the city ought to proceed with its work on environmental sustainability, Dobrinsky said she’d support dedicating city staff time to the Park Ridge sustainability commission.

“I would like them to receive approval to begin working with staff so that… staff can start helping to thoughtfully prioritize based on feasibility and budget,” she said.

5th Ward: Joseph Steinfels

Years in Park Ridge: Grew up in town, returned in 2019

Favorite community event: Memorial Day parade

Other community involvement: Library Board member, Go Green Park Ridge member, basketball coach, Cub Scout pack committee chair, Kiwanis

Public defender Joseph Steinfels is hanging his run for City Council on a record of community involvement and a laundry list of volunteer involvement in Park Ridge.

A Maine South High School graduate, Steinfels states on his website that he takes personal credit for the “no loitering” sign outside the Pickwick Theatre. Now the father of a teenager himself, Steinfels said watching his son navigate the Uptown area informs his perspective on how the city should deal with young people in the area.

“Let’s open up options so the only entertainment venue isn’t to go up and sit in the Panera lobby area or to go up and slam Chipotle and take every seat available,” Steinfels said.

He added that he supports establishing “other activities that we can provide … for people between that 13 to 18 age group” that provide a positive outlet “where they’re not just stuck to mob around Uptown Park Ridge and then make bad decisions.”

Steinfels told Pioneer Press his approach to policy around crime reduction and law enforcement as a possible future council member would be being “receptive” to the recommendations of the city’s police chief and to “make sure that [recommendations are] in keeping with the longer term plan for Park Ridge.”

As the city works toward implementing the state affordable housing law, Steinfels said he would support the city developing a plan that prioritizes people who live in town.

“I certainly would want… the applicants at the front of the line [to be] the kind of people who already are vested within the Park Ridge community,” he said.

Steinfels has also spoken before about the challenges Park Ridge may see in the coming years as it accommodates a growing population and debates whether and how to change its infrastructure for greater environmental sustainability.

Those initiatives could include more bike racks in town and organizing community cleanups, he said.

7th Ward: Ald. Mwende Lefler

Years in Park Ridge: since 2015

Favorite community event: Farmer’s market

Ald. Mwende Lefler is running for reelection to a full term on City Council after her July 2022 appointment to replace former 7th Ward Ald. Marty Joyce.

When she filed her nominating petitions in December 2022, Lefler told Pioneer Press she was interested in helping Park Ridge implement the 2021 state affordable housing law should voters opt to send her back to the horseshoe for a full term.

I would say that all options are on the table,” she said in a March interview. “I think that we need to be able to have a brainstorming session.”

Lefler said she thinks the city is “taking some of the right steps” as it looks to draft a plan to make 10% of the city’s housing units affordably priced, including recruiting the Metropolitan Mayors’ Caucus to advise the process.

“I go into this with an open mind and look forward to being able to evaluate all the options,” she said.

Lefler is also the City Council Liaison to the sustainability commission, which recently presented a long list of recommendations to aldermen for how Park Ridge might promote further environmental sustainability.

Lefler praised the work of the commission and its “countless hours” to Pioneer Press, saying their plan has been years in the making.

“I’m just excited that we’re able to take some steps to start to make progress on the plan,” she said.

Lefler has also heard a substantial amount about perceptions that crime is on the rise in Park Ridge and many discussions about how to manage teenagers’ behavior in Uptown.

She offered two means of addressing young people’s misbehavior in the Uptown area that she’d back: parental involvement, “just ensuring that we know where kids are, [that] kids are being responsible and respectful when they’re out around town” – and placing school resource officers in the area during school breaks.

On whether crime is on the up in town and what to do about it, Lefler suggested that the perception of increased crime may be heightened by social and news media, but said she would continue to support “increased police presence just in and around the neighborhood.”

7th Ward: John Bennett

Years in Park Ridge: since 1992

Other community involvement: former planning and zoning commissioner, former police and fire commissioner, Sunday Night Supper volunteer, Community Emergency Response Team Leader, St. Paul of the Cross Emergency Response Team Chairman, Maine Township Emergency Management Agency Director, search and rescue volunteer

Longtime Park Ridge resident and former planning and zoning commissioner John Bennett told Pioneer Press he’d put other’s views ahead of his own if he’s elected alderman.

“I’m not running to represent John Bennett’s views at city council,” he said. “I’m there to represent the 7th Ward’s views at city council.”

Bennett said it seemed to him that crime in general is up around the city and that he’d support the city police in implementing whatever they felt was necessary to address it.

“It’s not just catalytic converters, it’s also home invasion and robberies and things of that nature that have seemed to be on the increase in town,” he said.

On disruptive behavior by young people in the Uptown area, Bennett said he’d support more activity by the Youth Commission, “whether it’s dodgeball or basketball tournament or movies in the park or dances.”

“Kids are going to be kids, and if you keep them occupied, there’s less chance of them getting in trouble,” he said.

While Bennett would “love to be able to have affordable housing in Park Ridge,” he was less enthusiastic about what it might take to make that a reality.

“I do not want my tax money to be used to subsidize somebody else,” he said. “The way I look at it, I’m going to be working until I’m 80 years old just to afford the taxes in this town. So [finding] something that would make it more affordable for me — yeah, sure I’m for that. But if I have to pay taxes so that somebody else can live here, that’s creating another problem.”

On sustainability, Bennett told Pioneer Press he thinks the city’s sustainability commission is “putting the cart before the horse.”

“They’re trying to dictate to the City Council what those initiatives should be, as opposed to coming up with these ideas, going to [aldermen] and letting the City Council decide what ones they want to tackle,” he said.

Bennett also pointed out that one of the most significant environmental factors in the area, O’Hare Airport, was not something that Park Ridge has jurisdiction over.