Fundraisers & Filings - Local Election Update 2

It has been a busy couple of weeks, with fundraisers and petition filings! We hear from former Mokena Mayor, Mike Everett, and we find out who actually filed their petitions to run in the April 1st election! Be on the look out for our candidate interviews! You won't want to miss them! 

For the past year we have been doing more video episodes of our podcast through our YouTube page and our new website! The videos can be found through our website, www.mokenasfrontporch.com and our YouTube Page https://www.youtube.com/@MokenasFrontPorch . Thanks for listening!

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:43

Okay, we are going to go on. Assume that we're good In three, two, one. Now that the national election is over, the shift, hi. Welcome to Mokina's front porch. Now that the national election is over, the focus will shift more to local elections which are coming up on April 1st 2025. These offices directly affect us and the community we live in, and that's why Molkina's Front Porch is covering these local municipal elections this year. But especially we want to talk about and cover the mayor's races, the village trustees and the school board races. Mayor's races, the village trustees and the school board races.

Speaker 1: 2:16

Candidates began filing their petitions to run on Tuesday November 12th and they had to be submitted by Monday November 18th at the end of the day. The Park District. For the Mokena Park District, there were three seats that are up for election. All three incumbents Jeff Appel, bob Lindblom and Mary Louise Knoser all filed their petitions. No one else has filed to run for Mokina Park District. Park District At the Village of Mokena, the mayor clerk and three trustee positions are up for election.

Speaker 1: 2:52

Trustee Terry Smith had resigned at the September 24th board meeting and Trustee James Roberts was sworn in at the November 11th meeting. This term, trustee Roberts' term will run through the election when the winners of the April 1st election are sworn in. Last week, mayor Fleischer filed his petitions to run for mayor along with New Village trustee James Roberts, sandburg teacher Kim Husellman and Clancy Brothers coffee owner Nick Clancy. Nick is running for the two-year unexpired term of trustee Terrence Smith. Trustee George Matanias also filed his petitions to run for mayor along with current village clerk Melissa Martini, who is running for clerk, current Village Trustee and Moquina Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Melissa Fedora, moquina Park District Commissioner Dan Gilbert, ozinga Executive Josh Bailey and longtime Moquinian and a flooring executive, colleen Leonard, who is running for the two-year unexpired term.

Speaker 1: 4:30

At the Mokena 159 Elementary School District there are four Board of Education spots up for election Jim Andreessen, anna Briscoe, eric Bush, jen Francis, lisa Zielinski, katie Carley and Lauren Doman. At the Lincoln Way 210 School District there are three seats up for election. As of November 19th, all three incumbents had filed to run for school board with no challengers. So Aaron Janik, deidre Stokes and Joe Kostek will all run unopposed.

Speaker 1: 5:47

One thing that's important to every candidate is campaign money. Candidates are required to report their fundraising activities to the state and these reports are published quarterly. But if a candidate receives a donation larger than $1,000, they are required to complete what's called an A1 form within five days of receiving the donation. So it gives us a more clearer, quicker look as far as who is making donations. So currently, mayor Frank Fleischer and the committee Friends of Frank Fleischer had a fundraiser at Mr Benny's on Tuesday, october 15th. Here's a clip of Mayor Fleischer from the event. The Friends of Mokina George Metanius' slate of candidates also had a fundraiser. Theirs was on Trustee George Matanias and the Friends of Mokena slate also had a fundraiser. Theirs was on Tuesday October 22nd at JMO's Live and here's a clip from that fundraiser. Based on the most recent reports as well as the A1 reporting of $1,000 donations or higher, the Friends of Frank Fleischer currently have Mayor Fleischer's committee. The Friends of Frank Fleischer currently has just over $162,000 available. $31,000 of that was cashed in investments that were moved to now be available funds. Trustee George Metanius and the Friends of Mokena committee have just over $81,000 available to them after their fundraiser. After their fundraiser Trustee George Metanius' slate, the Friends of Mokina have just over $81,000 available in their committee. So it would seem like both campaigns are looking to really gear up and get their messages out and probably spend a good amount of money doing it. It seems like both camps are gearing up for a very active campaign.

Speaker 1: 8:46

I look forward to talking. I'm looking forward to, I look forward to talking with all of the candidates as a way to learn more about the people that who are running for these very important roles within our community. I want to thank all the candidates who have taken time with. I want to thank all of the candidates who have taken time so far to talk with me for my candidate interviews. I want to thank all of the candidates who have taken time to talk with. I want to thank all of the candidates who have made time to talk with me so far. We've had some great conversations and I'm really excited to share those with the community. If you're a candidate and you haven't gotten an interview invitation from me yet, please send me an email at moquinasfrontporch at gmailcom. I would love to get you set up. This is an exciting opportunity to really get to know the candidates and the people that are running, and I'm grateful for those that have chosen to talk directly here too. Here too, and I'm happy, I'm really excited about this opportunity to get to know the candidates better and to share these conversations with the community as well.

Speaker 1: 10:13

Please be sure to follow us on Facebook and subscribe to our YouTube channel to get all of our campaign updates as well as we share a lot of great history information about our town. Our town's got a great history and that's what got us here and got us starting this podcast. So if you enjoy our community, you're going to love the history that we have here as well. So be sure to check out our videos on YouTube, our posts. Matt's got a great blog, matt's Old Mokina, where he's been sharing stories for years about the history of our town. So check out our website at mokinasfrontporchcom and be sure to follow so you get all of the campaign updates. Thanks for watching and be sure to vote on April 1st 2025 in our municipal elections.