Rotering Wants To Provide Steady Leadership As Highland Park Heals

HIGHLAND PARK, IL — Nancy Rotering has never taken her role as Mayor of her hometown for granted and has always kept the fact that Highland Park is home at the center of the job she holds so dear.

Even after three terms in office, Rotering — who became the first woman to be elected Mayor in Highland Park in 2011 — has never tired of serving the city even when it was tested like never before. So just four months after seven people were killed and dozens more were injured in a horrific mass shooting at Highland Park’s July 4 parade, Rotering has not wavered in her dedication to continue to serve the only way she knows how.

Rotering announced this week that she will seek a fourth term as mayor in the 2023 election. While Highland Park continues to heal from the massacre, Rotering keeps the mass shooting at the center of her thoughts although she does not want the tragic events of that day to define Highland Park.

Instead, Rotering wants the incident to inspire residents to want to call Highland Park home as it moves ahead, doing what she can to make the city the place she loves so much what it is and what it has always been. But as the city moves forward. Rotering sees the need for consistency in Highland Park’s leadership, which is why she said she chose to seek re-election next April.

“I fully recognize and understand that we’re all, frankly, pretty fresh off of the horrific event that has impacted each of us in a unique way,” Rotering told Patch this week. “…There’s a lot that needs to happen as we move forward. This is one of those moments in time where every single morning we open the news and see another mass shooting, it takes everyone back to where they were on the Fourth of July….every mass shooting is a re-living of that horror.”

In the past four months since the July 4 tragedy, Rotering says she has been reminded of the fact that Highland Park is a compassionate community of caring people who will reach out and help others when they are facing challenging times. She says in just a short amount of time, she has seen countless examples of community heroes stepping forward as they have quietly done things to make the community better.

Rotering says she is proud of how the city has come together to unite and begin to heal from the mass shooting, which put Highland Park at the center of national headlines in the weeks after July 4. But it has been in the wake of those events, she has realized that local residents need more time and space and that local officials need to be reminded that moving on from the tragic Independence Day holiday is and will continue to be a long journey and that city officials need to exercise patience and to allow people to move forward at their own pace.

Still, Rotering knows that as Mayor, she needs to take a leading role in that effort while also continuing to focus on the things that have made Highland Park successful in the past. She says she will continue to use the new information that continues to come in from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office Of Victims of Crime to make sure that the city is doing everything it can to help not only help residents heal but to make Highland Park safer moving forward.

Rotering said that information will help direct decision-making not only in terms of how Highland Park chooses to commemorate July 4 next year but also in terms of the bigger picture.

“There’s the importance of also recognizing that we have been and continue to be a strong community,” she said. “So bringing forth the knowledge that I have in terms of the budget and the finances and our commitment to investing in infrastructure and public safety, the work we’ve been doing regionally in terms of making sure that our community continues to move forward in terms of the work we’ve done on business development and vibrancy as a community as well as making sure we’re as inclusive as we possibly can be.

“This is a great city and it takes a commitment to progress and justice and freedom and so with all those as our watchwords, we’ll continue to move forward in strength.”