Moylan to lead in Des Plaines

After nine years under Tony Arredia's leadership, Des Plaines voters officially moved into the city's next phase Tuesday, giving a convincing victory to 2nd Ward Alderman Martin Moylan in his mayoral bid.

Moylan won with a 1,473-vote lead over the other three hopefuls. Trailing were former 4th Ward alderman Dick Sayad, former Maine Township supervisor Mark Thompson, and retired precision machinist Mike Lake. All votes are unofficial.

The race generated much interest since it represents a changing of the guard with Arredia being forced out by term limits. Fourteen people originally considered running for mayor, in the end, four filed.

Arredia, four aldermen and the city clerk will leave office due to term limits imposed by voters in 1998.

Arredia threw his support behind Moylan at the eleventh hour because, he said, Moylan's platform seemed the most "doable."

"We're very pleased with the results," said Moylan, 58, celebrating with Arredia and supporters at his campaign office. "Our message of hope and vision, community involvement and listening to what the residents were saying prevailed."

Moylan, who's been on the city council for two years, said his first order of business is sitting down with Arredia, City Manager Jason Bajor and the newly elected aldermen to set goals and priorities.

The part-time mayor's job pays roughly $9,000 a year.

Moylan bankrolled his campaign with more than $50,000 from about a third of his own money and the rest largely donations from the construction industry, labor unions and businesses. The mayoral candidates collectively said they would have spent roughly $75,000 when it was over.

Lake, 61 said the candidate who spent the most money won. Lake capped his campaign budget at $3,000.

"Marty spent the most, got the most votes. I didn't spend any, look what I got," said Lake who came in last with 559 votes total. "It's a shame that politics has come down to that."

However, Lake commended Moylan for a well-organized campaign and said "he deserved to win."

The tone of the campaign, which remained largely uncontroversial, changed in the last week with news that two former political operatives of Chicago Mayor Richard Daley were helping Moylan's campaign.

Moylan denied Daley had any ties to his campaign or is trying to influence his position on the O'Hare International Airport expansion.

The most pressing issue for the next mayor and council is managing city finances while maintaining services, such as police, fire and public works, despite layoffs and budget cuts.

"We have to cut more where feasible. We have to limit our property taxes, keep our budget lean and mean and keep our services up," Moylan said.

The new council also inherits a host of problems, including persistent flooding, storefront vacancies at Metropolitan Square and a TIF district that is losing money. And, it will have oversight of the biggest development project to come before the city in years - the building of a new casino.

Throughout the mayoral campaign, the candidates agreed the city needs to be prudent about spending the roughly $9 million yearly in projected gambling revenues once the casino comes online in 2011/2012.

"We have to plan to get our (infrastructure) projects in place not only for casino revenues but for the stimulus money from Washington," Moylan said.

He proposes to use casino money to retire the city's debt, make infrastructure improvements, enhance senior programs and limit tax increases.