Letters to the Editor: Residents Voice Support for Mayoral Candidates

Olian balanced and articulate

With Election Day around the corner, we wanted to encourage voters to support as mayor of Highland Park. We are extremely impressed with her diligence in preparing for a smooth transition to the position of mayor and her detailed plans for addressing the many challenges Highland Park faces today.

Terri's vast experience and deep understanding of the issues involved in our community's environmental, economic and financial development as well as youth and senior well-being makes her an exceptional choice for this position. She is balanced and articulate, always working on creative solutions which reap positive impacts for our city.

We are proud to support Terri and hope you will do the same. 

Lauren and Jules Lapin 

Rotering the clear choice

is the clear choice for Highland Park mayor. During her tenure on City Council, she has thought independently and questioned several of its decisions and “sacred cows.”  These include paid health insurance benefits for retired Council members, the purchase of the Highland Park Theatre and the administrative costs associated with the numerous fees the City has enacted for residents and businesses.  This thinking is crucial if the City is to balance its budget, which Nancy supports. She did not vote for the 2011 budget because it was the City’s third deficit budget in as many years.

Nancy wants to set clear priorities for the budget:  fire, police, streets, sewers, community development and the library. These are the services that benefit every single resident.  Money must be focused on core City services, not non-essential projects of the Council.

Nancy Rotering will bring sanity and integrity to the City’s spending.  Please vote for Nancy.

 Donna Fletcher and William Schur

Olian a person you can trust

Football Coach Lou Holz tells us that if you want to have success in life you  need to surround yourself with people that you trust, are committed and care. These three simple words are the reason why we are supporting for Mayor of Highland Park.  

Terri is a person that you can trust.  Trust comes in many forms; it can be the simple trust that the person will come to a meeting, respond to an email or return a call.  Or the trust that you will get a fact-based answer to a question or problem, regardless of whether the answer is what you would like to hear or not.  Terri exemplifies trust in all of the examples given above.  Terri lives her life by the Pillars of Character.  In fact, Terri was instrumental in the development of the Pillar of Character awards given by the City of Highland Park and the Human Relations Commission.  One of those pillars in trustworthiness.  With trust also comes integrity.  Terri is a woman of consistency in her beliefs, words and actions. 

Terri is committed to not only the City of Highland Park, but I think more importantly to the people of Highland Park.  Terri is a friend to the youth, parents, seniors and those new to Highland Park. She brought the concept of Late Nite Highland Park to our community and created a fun place for young and old to be on a Friday evening. We have witnessed Terri and her husband Rob outside in the cold serving cake and hot chocolate to people at the anniversary of Late Nite Highland Park. Both with smiles on their faces and happy to be a part of a thriving community.  Terri has been instrumental in helping the City of Highland Park Human Relations Commission create our MLK Day of Service.  Once again she rolls up her sleeves and helps be it with behind the scenes organization or event day set-up.  If this is not commitment what is?

Mary Ann and Jerry Pedersen 

Rotering committed to the arts

Highland Park has some wonderful cultural resources that need to be nurtured and protected as future budget and strategic decisions are made for our city. I feel confident that with as mayor, the arts will be continue to be a priority and a source of pride for Highland Park. Our wonderful music and dance schools, performing groups, the Art Center and, of course, , all help to make this a vibrant and exciting place to live, with fantastic resources for children as well as adults. Nancy has always been committed to the arts, and has proven this with hard work and fundraising, serving on the Ravinia Festival Women’s Board and Annual Fund Committee, for whom she has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars over the years. She has also used every opportunity to support the needs of the Art Center in her capacity as City Council Member. Nancy’s sound judgment, grace under pressure, honesty, and boundless energy make her an ideal candidate to lead Highland Park. The arts will be safe in her hands, as will the integrity of our city government.

Amy Duque

Olian a successful community leader

is a longtime respected and highly successful community leader.

No one comes to the table more prepared than Terri. We respect Terri for her intelligence, thoroughness, honesty and her abilities as a communicator and consensus builder.  Her boundless energy, positivity and enthusiasm for making Highland Park the best of communities has been apparent for literally decades as demonstrated by her involvement in so many areas.

We are Highland Park natives who chose to raise our children here. We are confident that Terri shares our vision for  maintaining the town we love as well as preserving the quality of life that makes living in Highland Park special and unique. She has all the capabilities necessary to successfully do so. Highland Park deserves to have Terri Olian as our mayor!  We will be proud of her representation.

Michael and Julie Fisher

Rotering a mayor for challenging times

We urge all voters in Highland Park to support Nancy Rotering for mayor.  It is time for Highland Park to change direction and return to financial stability.  We have known Nancy for many years, Ellen since we were in school together at Edgewood, and Scott since we moved to our home fifteen years ago.  Nancy is the type of mayor we need for these challenging times, a lifelong Highland Park resident, committed to raising her family in the town in which she grew up, a defender of our natural environment and open spaces, and a leader knowledgeable in finance who will keep a close eye and a tight rein on city spending. 

Nancy Rotering is committed to returning the property to the tax rolls so that it can be developed in a way that benefits Highland Park financially.  Highland Park depends on a vibrant revenue producing uptown. By taking private property on our main commercial street off of the tax rolls, more tax burden is placed on our residents, who already pay the highest property taxes in the area.  In contrast, as the economy was tumbling, Terri Olian supported purchasing the Highland Park Theater and taking that valuable piece of property off of the tax rolls.  Despite the continued downturn in our local economy and our declining property values, she has declined to change her views to reflect the reality of the City's mistake.  It's time to return the theater property to private hands so that it can be developed to produce revenue rather than drain revenue from the city.

Nancy Rotering  is committed to ending deficit budgets.  For the past three years the City has run budget deficits and dipped into reserves.  Nancy has voted against these deficit budgets during her tenure on the City Council. By contrast, Terri Olian has supported three years of deficit spending.  These deficit budgets simply cannot continue.  Please vote for Nancy Rotering for Mayor and start the process of stabilizing our City's finances and protecting our City resources for the future.

Ellen and Scott Goldsher

Olian thinks big

None of us moved to Highland Park for cheap housing.  None of us moved here for the lowest taxes.  We moved here for community—Port Clinton featuring the Israeli Scouts every year, Late Night Highland Park--restaurants open with entertainment for us and our teens, festivals and gatherings that give us a sense of community and security in an isolated impersonal world.  

The mayor and City Council have made this possible.  Think of how the Community House, Arts Center and now the Highland Park Theater have been saved from becoming condos, offices or worse yet banks.  Think of the cultural opportunities our families have here.  Think of the economic well being that this brings to our community.  

Today it has become popular to say all government and community is bad and the only action of government should be to cut taxes. Highland Park proves that our city government uses our money to make our lives better as effectively as if we spent it in our own living rooms.  

in every capacity she has held, dreams that dream and makes it a reality.  As mayor, she will make Highland Park a more interesting community for teens, adults and seniors.  Whether it is Late Night, a more aesthetic Crossroads or keeping culture in the Highland Park Theater, she will be the mayor who thinks big.

Marc and Barbara Slutsky

Rotering a financial watchdog

I have seen in action at not only city council meetings, but at smaller board meetings regarding our neighborhood changes. In fact, she is the force behind neighborhood meetings! Nancy is inclusive and transparent in her approach to everything she does – especially city government.

Not only am I impressed with her involvement, but with her wisdom and her being an excellent watchdog of our city’s money.  For example, before Nancy was a member of the Council, she actively opposed buying the because she didn't believe it was fiscally responsible to do so.

Nancy has a perspective that gives incredible merit to what the future can be for Highland Park.

Sadira Suzan Tash

Olian rolls up her sleaves

I am writing to urge my fellow Highland Park residents to vote for for Mayor. Olian is the only candidate with a proven track record of implementing programs that benefit Highland Park residents and businesses.  There are many examples, but  three that are especially meaningful to me are Olian’s work on ,  her  commitment to  affordable housing, and her careful stewardship of our tax dollars. By envisioning and spearheading Late Nite HP, Olian has created  safe, fun, local options for our teens.  By serving on  the Board of the Highland Park non-profit, Community Partners for Affordable Housing,  Olian is  on the forefront of ensuring  affordable housing options remain in our city.  By partnering with city staff and committees of the City Council, Olian  identified and voted for sensible measures  to trim the city’s budget.   

I have consistently been impressed not only with Olian’s vision, but also with her ability to see programs through to implementation.  Olian rolls up her sleeves, draws on her innumerable community connections formed over decades of public service and gets the job done.  

Annie Mullin

Rotering a leader

What is a leader? A leader spends many years paying their dues, working quietly behind the scenes. A leader studies, analyzes and seeks counsel before arriving at decisions. A leader makes decisions for the greater good, without regard for special recognition. A leader makes the right decisions, not the popular ones. A leader tells the truth, not just what we want to hear.

We need a leader as our Mayor, not a politician. That leader is .

Abby Neumann