Juracek formally announces run for Mount Prospect mayor
Mount Prospect Village Trustee Arlene Juracek announced Wednesday she is running for mayor in 2013.
Juracek will be seeking the office held for the last eight years by Irvana Wilks, who recently announced that she will not seek a third term.
Juracek said she and her family made the decision to run after careful consideration.
“As the village approaches its 100th Anniversary in 2017, I am realistic about the challenges this community faces in this still-uncertain economy, yet I am buoyed by the optimism that we also have great opportunities to successfully build on,” Juracek said in a news release.
She praised village trustees and staff, as well as leaders in the village’s business community.
“Mount Prospect is blessed with a legacy of dedicated, professional and hardworking leadership at both the village board and village staff level,” she said. “We have an active and dedicated group of business leaders in our chamber and Downtown Merchants Association. We have been recognized as the Best Place to Raise a Kid. We’re a great place to do business, as demonstrated by the rebirth of Randhurst Village.”
Juracek has an extensive background in business and government. A former ComEd executive, she currently heads the Illinois Power Agency, having been appointed to that role last year by Gov. Pat Quinn.
As director of the IPA, she develops and submits annual competitive electricity procurement plans to the Illinois Commerce Commission.
“I want to bring my broad-based and successful experience as an executive and a leader, and my public service to this village since 1993, to the next logical level and hope that the voters will allow me to serve as their next mayor in 2013,” she said.
Juracek, 62, worked 34 years for ComEd, retiring as vice president of energy acquisition in 2007.
She was elected to the village board in 2007, a decade after temporarily filling a board vacancy created when former trustee Michaele Skowron resigned. Juracek also has served on the village’s planning and zoning commission, which she led as chairwoman.
Fellow Trustee Paul Heofert has indicated that he also is weighing a mayoral campaign, but he has not yet made a formal announcement of his intentions.