North Cook News

A reform coalition of independent candidates is running to reshape government in Morton Grove by ending what it describes as one-party corruption plaguing the city.

Mounting a challenge to the well-established Action Party, the Independent Candidates for Morton Grove includes Dan Staackmann vying for village president, Lori Gattorna competing for village clerk and Mark Albers, Jeanine Como and Mary White running for village trustee seats. 

The group’s effort is fueled by the city’s growing pension crisis and what Staackmann and his allies contend is the Action Party’s failure to address the area’s growing debt crisis.

“All they pay is the minimum,” Staackmann told the North Cook News. “The growing debt obligation is far outpacing their payment plan. It’s like if you had outstanding credit card debt but only continued to pay the minimum each month while you still use the card. The debt isn’t going anywhere, and that’s not responsible financial management.”

Staackmann's coalition estimates that over a three-year period ending in 2016, the city’s pension obligation ballooned to nearly $160 million from $135 million. The city can reportedly fund only 41 percent of that debt, a decrease of 6 percent over the last four years.

Since Mayor Dan DiMaria and his Action Party took office in 2013, the village bond rating has been lowered at least twice. Citing "a declining trend in operating fund cash and the village's elevated pension liabilities," Moody's Investor Services downgraded the village's general obligation fund from Aa3 to A1 in 2016.

The independent candidates have also blasted the DiMaria Administration for what they call a reluctance to cash in on a proposed Prairie View redevelopment project that would include a grocery store and several other enterprises. Staackmann also charges that city officials have been derelict in the way they do business by ignoring a local ethics ordinance that forbids political donations of more than $150 by entities that do more than $20,000 of business annually with the village.

“Every major leadership post in town is held by the Action Party, including the city attorney,” said Staackmann, a lifelong Morton Grove resident who has held several elected city positions, including village president and commissioner on the park district board.

“There’s been no local press about what’s happening here, so we had to take matters in our own hands,” he said.

Staackmann explains the independent candidates’ plan not only addresses the debt but also factors in the spending side of the equation so that the balance won’t continue to increase.

The coalition, formed roughly a year ago, sees implementing a long-term plan for erasing all the debt as its first order of business should it ascend to power.

A Local Government Information Services (LGIS) analysis of 20 suburbs in northwest Cook County found that real estate values have plummeted across the board over the last decade, while median tax bills have skyrocketed.

In Morton Grove, home prices fell by an average of 40 percent, while between 1997 and 2015 Morton Grove School District 70 spending increased by 54 percent as enrollment grew by just 21 percent.

“I’ve talked to plenty of business owners, and it seems we’re at a crossroads,” Como, now treasurer of the Morton Grove Chamber of Commerce, said. “It seems we’ve maybe lost sight of what Morton Grove is, and maybe we’re trying to build in ways that may be successful in other places but aren’t suited for who we are.”

Como said the problem seems clear.

“There’s just not much designation between what’s governing and what’s political anymore,” she said. “We have to get back to being Morton Grove and doing what's in our best interests.”