2025 Mokena Municipal Elections -Ep. 1. Where We Stand

Since our Village was incorporated in 1880, it held elections to determine who the decision makers in town would be.  The local elections for Village Mayor and Trustees, Village Clerk, School Boards, Park, Fire and Library boards, will be Tuesday April 1, 2025! And candidates are already circulating petitions.
This municipal elections cycle, Mokena's Front Porch Podcast is going to be a resource for this local elections and attempt to bring you conversations with each candidate, whoever is willing.
I also provide a current update of which seats are up for election and who has already pulled petitions to run for office!

This is going to be an ongoing series throughout the April 1, 2025 election. If you are a candidate and want to schedule a time to talk, or if you have a real question you would like us to ask the candidates, you can email them to mokenasfrontporch@gmail.com.

I am looking forward to getting to know the candidates and I think you will too!

A full video version is available on our YouTube channel by clicking here!
And check out the Local Elections tab on our website for all things Mokena elections. 

Chapters

• 0:12 Mokena Local Elections Information Update
• 10:17 Mokena Election Q&A and Voting Reminder

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:12

Well, the election season is upon us, and no, I'm not talking about the one in November. I'm talking about the April 1st 2025 local municipal elections Because, as of Tuesday, august 20th, candidates were able to begin circulating their petitions in order to be placed on the ballot in the April 1st election. Between now and November 12th, candidates will be circulating petitions, coming around and asking you to sign your name and address, and what that does is it just allows them to get their name on the ballot. It's not a vote for them, it's just saying you have the right to be on the ballot and candidates' petitions can start to be turned in as of November 12th through November 18th. So why is Mokina's front porch going to be talking about the local elections?

Speaker 1: 1:06

When we look at what affects us, property taxes have a huge effect on all of us. A $400,000 home in Mokina has a property tax bill of approximately $10,800. Our schools make up about 62% of that bill, with the village and fire making about another 15.5% of that bill. Property taxes are the taxes we pay that we feel the most benefit for as well as can hurt the most. The officials that we'll be voting for on April 1st are the ones that make decisions and vote on the everyday services that we enjoy and appreciate, as well as a lot of the ones that make decisions and vote on the everyday services that we enjoy and appreciate, as well as a lot of the ones that we don't think about. Unfortunately, our village no longer has a media, a newspaper or anything other than the patch to report on the people that are running and find out who they are and the part they play in our community, so this really leaves us limited opportunities to really get to know somebody that's running. I really do believe that if somebody steps up and says they're willing to run for office, that they should be willing to talk and share about why they're running and why they should be in that position, as well as tell voters why they should vote for them.

Speaker 1: 2:28

So, in thinking about the upcoming elections, I wanted to look and see how could I use this platform to better inform the community and get to know the people that are running. So I want to provide that opportunity here. Mokina's front porch will not be a place where we gossip and backbite and do those things about the candidates that often happen on social media and different sites. We're not going to be a political bash fest or gossip fest. We're going to be a place that we can get to know the candidates, a place that we can get to know the candidates. If you don't know somebody that's running for one of the boards, we want to be able to point you to an interview where we talk to them, get to know who they are as people and why they feel like they should run. I want this to be a place to get to know the real person and not just what somebody puts out on their social media. This will be a work in progress, as I continue to figure out how to do this, the best way and give everybody a fair opportunity to share their message and talk about who they are. My plan is to invite every candidate that decides to run for office this election to sit down and speak with me and share some about themselves and about why they're running and why the community should trust them with their vote. In fact, I'd like all the candidates and those considering running to think about this as an open invitation to start scheduling and reaching out to me as well, to plan when we can sit down and talk. I'm sure, as a candidate, you'll appreciate the opportunity to share your message with the voters of Mokina and I promise to be fair to each and every candidate. This is Mokina's Front Porch and my intention of the podcast was to share conversations like you would hear if you were sitting next to me on my front porch. Local elections and the results can ring loud through a community about the people that decide to run for office. So with that, I want to share where we're currently at with the election. As I said, august 20th was the first day that people could pull petitions and I want to share first the offices that are going to be up for election on April 1st. Starting with the village of Mokena. We have the mayor's position currently, frank Fleischer. We have three village trustee positions. Those are currently held by George Matanias, melissa Fedora and Rob Dauphineas. Also up is village clerk, currently held by Melissa Martini.

Speaker 1: 5:08

For the Mokena 159 school district, there are four trustees up for election. There are four trustees up for election. Those are currently held by Jim Andreessen, anna Briscoe, eric Bush, who's currently the president of the school board, as well as Lisa Zielinski. The Lincoln Way 210 High School District. There are three board members up for election Currently. Those are held by Aaron Janik, who is the president of the board? Joe Kostick and Deidre Stokes. There are three Mokena Community Park District commissioners up for election Currently. Those are held by Jeff Appel, mary Louise Knoser and Bob Lindblom. For the Mokena Library District, there are two trustee positions up, currently held by Elvin Kempf Jr and Marilyn O'Rourke, and at the Frankfort Township. Those offices are up for election this year and the positions that are open at the township are the Frankfort Township Supervisor, currently Nick George the Clerk, who is currently Nella Piccolin, the assessor Joe Kral. Highway commissioner, currently Bill Carlson. The collector is currently Elizabeth Burghardt. And all four Frankfort Township trustees are currently up. Those seats are currently held by trustees Kennedy Kott, kurzweil and Smith.

Speaker 1: 6:36

Who has filed so far? Who's gone in and requested a petition saying that they're going to run for office? Let's start with the Lincoln Way High School District 210. Joe Kostek, deidre Stokes and Aaron Janik have all pulled petitions. Nobody else has pulled petitions in that race. For the Mokena 159 school district, the elementary school district, the incumbents Eric Bush, jim Andreessen, anna Briscoe and Lisa Zielinski all pulled petitions, as well as Katie Carley, amanda Montgomery and Lauren Doman At the village of Mokena and this is as of Tuesday, august 27th, per a FOIA request that I submitted.

Speaker 1: 7:22

The candidates so far that have requested petitions to run for office were George Matanias, dan Gilbert, josh Bailey, melissa Fedora and Melissa Martini. Now, these positions don't say which office they're pulling petitions for, but, as George Metanius told us in our interview with him, his intention is to run for Mokina mayor, so I would assume that he is running for Mokena mayor. Melissa Martini is currently the Mokena village clerk, and so it would seem clear that she is also running for clerk again as well, which leaves the three candidates that would appear to be running as trustees, with George Matanias being Dan Gilbert, josh Bailey and current Mokena village trustee Melissa Fedora. As you know, if you've watched our interview with Mayor Frank Fleischer, he told us there that he does intend to run as well, and so we would expect that we would see his petitions being pulled in the near future, or any other trustees that decide to run as well. I'm going to keep an update going of the township races, but those are a little different. It's a wider area and they do run partisan, meaning Republican and Democrat so it tends to be a little more straightforward. Also, I did reach out to the park district and requested a FOIA of any buddy that had requested a FOIA of anybody that had requested a park district petition. As of Friday, august 23rd, there were no petitions that had been pulled for Mokena Community Park District candidates, so I'm requesting an update and as soon as I hear anything from them, I will update, as well as keeping track of any other candidates that are deciding to run.

Speaker 1: 9:17

So I just want to tell you if you're thinking of running, now is the time to do it. So, as the mayor said in our interview, if you want to run, do it. Petition packets can be picked up at the Park District or the Village Hall, or if you want to run for school board, those are even available online. I'm going to have a separate tab on our website that will be all election related news and videos, and everything we do will be put in one place, so you can direct that to neighbors and community members that don't know how they're going to vote or who they're going to vote for. We'll have likely a lot of contested races, which can make it hard to know everybody that's running or involved, so we want to help make that process easier. One way to do that would be for you to subscribe to our YouTube page, just going on YouTube, searching Mokina's Front Porch and clicking subscribe, and make sure you follow our website as well.

Speaker 1: 10:14

If you have any questions for the candidates, I'd love to hear those.

Speaker 1: 10:17

If you have questions for specific races that you'd like to hear, please specify which race it is school board, high school, whatever it might be, and the question that you have for them. You can send those questions to MokinasFrontPorch at gmailcom or you can go to our website and send us a message at MokinasFrontPorchcom and that'll keep you updated on everything Mokinas Front Porch, on everything Mokina's front porch. I hope this will be a great resource to the community to be able to learn more about the people that are running to make good choices when we go to vote on election day. You can mark your calendars now for April 1st 2025 to be sure you get out and vote, because this is truly where your vote counts. So check out the rest of our website and the podcast and all the great history stuff that we share, but keep track of us for this, because this matters and I'm glad that we can play a small role in it. So thanks for watching and we will see you next time on Mokina's Front Porch.