Mount Prospect trustee plans mayoral run in 2021
Mount Prospect's longest-serving village trustee is taking aim for higher office in the 2021 election.
Trustee Paul Hoefert said Wednesday he will seek the mayor's office in three years. But first, he hopes to win re-election next April to the village board seat he's held since 1991.
"My life circumstances are such that I think the timing would be right," said Hoefert, 62, the director of private banking for First Midwest Bank.
Mayor Arlene Juracek, who won election to a second term in April 2017, has not indicated whether she will run again in 2021.
Hoefert has been an outspoken critic of village plans to build new police and fire stations, and the large amount of debt Mount Prospect is taking on to fund that work. However, he said Wednesday, that is not behind his decision to seek the mayor's office in three years.
"I had thought about running for mayor over the years. I think every trustee probably has those thoughts," he said. "The timing was never right. You had family issues to deal with, and kids were still at home. All those kinds of things. And a lot of that is easing up. Obviously I'm still working, but I can manage my work life and the mayor's role going forward, if the people were to elect me, obviously."
Outlining his vision for a potential administration, he said economic development is key.
"I'm a fiscal conservative, and I would employ fiscally conservative policies as mayor," Hoefert said. "The same policies that I have put out there for 28 years.
"I'm always very interested in hearing the voice of the people, but you have to create the opportunities for that to happen," he added.