4 Elmhurst City Council Seats Contested: 2023 Election

ELMHURST, IL – City Council seats in all seven Elmhurst wards are up in Tuesday's election. Four are contested.

Two incumbents, Ward 4's Noel Talluto and Ward 5's James Nudera, are running unopposed.

In Ward 3, Michael Bram has no opponent. He was an alderman from the ward for two decades until 2021, when he unsuccessfully ran for mayor. He is set to take the seat vacated by Dannee Polomsky.

In Ward 1, Alderwoman Jennifer Veremis is fending off two opponents, Engy Sutherland and Rhian Fazzini.

In Ward 2, Karen Sienko is running against Jake Meding for the seat held by Bob Dunn, who is running for the Elmhurst park board.

In Ward 6, Guido Nardini and Laura Vevers are vying for the seat held by Michael Honquest, who did not seek re-election.

In Ward 7, the city's longest-serving alderman, Mark Mulliner, is running against Rex Irby.

The only candidate who did not fill out Patch's questionnaire was Ward 1's Fazzini.

In the questionnaires, Patch asked candidates whether they supported more condos and apartments downtown, which many residents oppose.

The candidates were generally open to more such downtown development.

But Ward 6's Nardini said he hoped to see how the latest projects played out before approving more.

"I want to see how they affect our schools and services before getting behind a subsequent wave of construction," he said.

Ward 7's Irby said he did not believe that condo and apartment buildings should be more than three stories in the outer core of downtown. That would avoid negatively impacting nearby housing, he said.

Traditionally, Elmhurst aldermen keep their political ideology at the door. For instance, Ward 7's Mulliner doesn't voice his conservative views during meetings, even though he joined a mask protest and created the Facebook page for a group that says it wants to prevent the indoctrination of local children.

In the Ward 6 race, Nardini is progressive and Vevers is conservative. He has sparred with conservative school board candidate Tom Chavez and his supporters.

In a recent text message to Chavez, Nardini said, "I'll be damned if c---s-----s f--- up my town."

Vevers lives at the house on South York Street where the yard was filled with dozens of signs before the last election. One of them was for GOP congressional candidate Art Jones, who the Illinois Republican Party repudiated and called a Nazi.

In 2018, Jones told Politico that he was running against a "two-party, Jew-party, queer-party system."

After Patch asked Vevers about the sign, she wrote, "Who took the picture, was it the person who planted the sign? I don't know or SUPPORT Art Jones or his philosophy."

Asked further about the sign, she said, "The fact is, someone put the sign in my yard without my consent."

Here are the questionnaires from the candidates:

Ward 1

• Rhian Fazzini
• Engy Sutherland
• Jennifer Veremis

Ward 2

• Jake Meding
• Karen Sienko

Ward 6

• Guido Nardini
• Laura Ann Vevers

Ward 7

• Rex Irby
• Mark Mulliner