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The candidate chosen from the six who applied this week to fill retired Ald. Ed Smith’s seat from now until until mid May could have a leg up on other contenders in the Feb. 22 municipal election.
Kathy Adams, Carmelita P. Earls, Jason C. Ervin, Carol G. Johnson, William Siegmund and Michael A. (Mike) Stinson submitted their applications by the Dec. 6 deadline and have been deemed eligible for the 28th Ward appointment to be made by Mayor Daley. Another candidate also had applied but was disqualified; the city did not release that person’s name.
One of the applicants works for the city; Earls is commander of operations for the Chicago Fire Department’s Training Academy. Ervin is the former village manager for Maywood, and the candidate former Ald. Smith is backing. Johnson is a program director for Bethel New Life, while Adams works at the Joseph Center and the Illinois Small Business Development Center.
All but Adams are seeking to get their names on the Feb. 22nd ballot, with the hope of serving a full four-year term. Siegmund is the only one of the five who applied for the temporary job whose candidacy is not being challenged before the Chicago Board of Elections Commissioners in hearings this week and next.
Other candidates who want to be on the Feb. 22 ballot but did not apply to replace Smith until mid-May are: David J. Young, James Ogden, Shawn A. Walker and Velda Brunner. Their candidacies are also being challenged.
Calls to the mayor’s press office to find out how soon the mayor is expected to name a temporary replacement for Smith were not returned. Whomever Daley chooses will serve until May 16, when the winner of the Feb. 22 election – or April 5 runoff if no candidate gets at least 51 percent of the vote in February – takes over for the next four years.
Austin’s other two alderman were initially appointed by Mayor Daley – Deborah Graham of the 29th was named in March and is seeking election in February, while Emma Mitts of the 37th is running for re-election. (AustinTalks posted the applications of all 29th Ward
The city has posted the application forms submitted for the 28th Ward vacancy (as well as for the 4th and 38th). AustinTalks is requesting the full applications, including each candidate’s resume and letters of recommendation, which we’ll post as soon as we get them.
Here are the 29th Ward applications from earlier in the year that we posted.
austintalks.org@gmail.com
February 16, 2011
There is something that you can do to benefit the 28th Ward tremendously.
My research shows that the distance between each CTA bus stop should be approx. 500 feet apart. This is not the case for the CTA Blue Line on Kedzie going north. There is not a bus stop between Harrison St & Van Buren. This is a problem when a passenger, whether handicapped or not, gets up the ramp @ Kedzie, gets on the street & sees a #52 bus on Harrison St. The passenger can’t make it to the Harrison St bus stop or the Van Buren bus stop, so this means they will have to wait for another bus. Knowing he/she could have gotten that bus if there was a bus stop across the street from the Blue Line Train Station going north.
There was once a bus stop there, now it is not, why? There are bus stops on both sides of the street at all the other CTA train stations, why not this one ?
We as voters in the 28th Ward demands a CTA bus stop sign be put on Kedzie going north.
Claudette Gunter
cgunter1057@yahoo.com