Incumbents fend off challenge in Vernon Hills
The race in Vernon Hills Tuesday was a showdown between the old guard and a slate seeking change.
The result was a compromise.
With all 16 precincts reporting, unofficial results showed incumbents Thom Koch Jr. and Jim Schultz taking the top spots, while newcomer Craig M. Takaoka took the third spot, all for 4-year terms.
For a 2-year term, David Oppenheim defeated newcomer Tom Quille, who was supported by the incumbents.
Koch led with 1,251 votes, followed by Schultz with 1,159 and Takaoka, who ran with mayoral challenger Don Kathan, with 936. Timothy Walter Nockels trailed with 890, followed by Tim Grieb with 880 and Alessandro A. Serra trailed the pack with 811.
Oppenheim had 1,139, while Quille had 918.
Nockels, Serra and Takaoka, ran as the Fresh Start Team.
Serra, 49, is a marketing data consultant; Nockels, 50, is a commodities and futures broker; Takaoka, 49, owns an insurance agency; and, Oppenheim, 48, is a pediatrician.
In a showdown with the old guard, the victors ran with mayoral challenger Kathan as the Fresh Start slate with the message of greater transparency and term limits. The slate criticized incumbents for being entrenched and holding closed door meetings with parties having business with the village.
Koch, 67, a teacher with Hawthorn District 73, is the veteran of the candidates, having served on the board since 1993.
He said, "I have been teaching in the community for 30 years, so a lot of people know me. It's very humbling and very flattering that people apparently think I'm doing a good job. It's disappointing the whole group didn't get in."
Schultz, 66, a logistics consultant, has been on the board for 12 years. Grieb, 63, a computer systems architect, was appointed about two years ago to fill a vacancy. Quille, 34, who is in technology sales, has served three years on the village's police and fire commission.
Several slate members live in the Gregg's Landing subdivision, where residents have had issues with a planned Menards home improvement store and other developments to the east. Incumbents contended during the campaign trustees served the entire community, not just certain neighborhoods.
Whether or to what extent a $42 million referendum question on the ballot from Hawthorn District 73 influenced the turnout and outcome is unknown.