Mayoral races in DuPage set after filing period ends

There will be contested races for mayor or village president in at least five DuPage County towns during the April election.

Candidates will face off in Downers Grove, Naperville, Oak Brook, Wheaton and Wood Dale. Carol Stream Village President Frank Saverino, meanwhile, will run unopposed.

The filing period for elected positions in most DuPage communities ended Monday.

Here's a look at some of the mayoral races in the Daily Herald coverage area:

Oak Brook

An Oak Brook trustee says he will wait a week to decide if he'll stay in the race for village president against incumbent Gopal Lalmalani and another board member.

Trustee Michael Manzo filed nominating petitions Monday for both village board and village president. He has until Dec. 26 to withdraw one of the petitions.

"I'm going to take that week to determine what's best for Oak Brook and what's best for me," said Manzo, who is nearing the end of his second term as trustee.

He said it's a difficult decision because some supporters want him to seek another term as a trustee while others want him to run for village president.

"There is a strong argument to be made to keep Oak Brook united moving forward and not have a contested race," said Manzo, adding that he thinks Lalmalani has done a nice job.

But even if Manzo stays out of the president race, Lalmalani still will face another sitting trustee - John Baar.

"I've been able to do quite a bit as a trustee," said Baar, who has served on the board since 2013. "As president, I feel like I can make even more of a difference."

Lalmalani said he's seeking a third term because the village is at a crossroads with McDonald's moving its corporate headquarters to downtown Chicago. He said he wants to see the former McDonald's site redeveloped.

"Standing still is not an option," he said.

Baar agrees that redevelopment of the McDonald's site - and other properties - is going to be a key issue.

He said previous town leaders made sure Oak Brook was a beautiful community.

"I want to continue and improve on that legacy," Baar said.

Wood Dale

The man Annunziato "Nunzio" Pulice defeated in 2011 to become mayor of Wood Dale wants his old seat back.

Kenneth Johnson, who served three terms as Wood Dale's mayor, will face Pulice in the April election.

Johnson says he wants to restore fiscal discipline to city government. If elected, Johnson said he would reduce residential property taxes "by creating a favorable business climate that will attract new businesses to Wood Dale." He's also promising to reduce water rates by 10 percent within his first 60 days in office.

But Pulice, who is seeking a third term, said Wood Dale is still cleaning up the mess from past years.

"We've got a big stormwater project coming up right now," Pulice said. "I want to make sure that gets done because they never wanted to take care of that kind of stuff before."

He said the city shouldn't return to Johnson's policies.

Carol Stream

Frank Saverino announced more than a year ago that he would seek a fourth term as village president of Carol Stream.

On Monday, it became official that he will run unopposed.

Saverino, who first was elected village president in 2007, said he decided to run again because he loves the job. He said officials have achieved many of their goals, including maintaining quality roads and building a newly expanded village hall.

Naperville, Wheaton, Downers Grove

The filing period ended last month in Naperville, Wheaton and Downers Grove.

In Naperville, incumbent Steve Chirico is seeking a second term but will have to face newcomer Richard "Rocky" Caylor.

In Wheaton, Mayor Michael Gresk is stepping down after three terms. Two city councilmen - Phil Suess and John Prendiville - are running to become the city's next mayor.

In Downers Grove, there's a three-person race to replace Mayor Martin Tully, who is stepping down because of term limits. The candidates are David Olsen and village commissioners Bob Barnett and Marge Earl.