Skokie trustee and clerk candidate forums this week at Skokie Library

Skokie residents will get to hear from candidates for Skokie Village Board of Trustees and village clerk at a series of in-person public forums at the Skokie Public Library this week.

Candidates for Skokie’s four new electoral districts will be part of the first forums tonight. The forum for Districts 1 and 3 will be from 6:30 p.m. to 7:15 p.m., with the Meet and Greet for candidates in Districts 2 and 4 running concurrently. The Districts 2 and 4 forum will take place afterwards from 7:45 p.m. to 8:15 p.m., with the Districts 1 and 3 Meet and Greet also running concurrently at that time.

The District 1 race has three candidates: Samantha Abraham, Patrick Blackwell, and Kimani Levy. Levy is a professor at DePaul University and serves as a member of Skokie’s Public Safety Commission.

In the District 2 race, the candidates are Nathan Norman and Alison Pure-Slovin. Pure-Slovin is currently an at-large trustee on the village board. Norman serves as a member of Skokie’s Economic Development Commission.

Lissa Levy is running unopposed in the District 3 race. Levy is a food stylist and the founder of Meetup on Main events.

The District 4 candidates include Jim Iverson and Edward Olivieri. Iverson is a partner at F&I Marketing and a founder of the Mini Man Monkey Brains non-profit candy store, which previously operated a storefront on Lincoln Avenue, and provided social and vocational training to youth on the autism spectrum. Olivieri is an attorney and served as the director of the Cook County Office of Contract Compliance, where he oversaw the County’s Minority- and Women-Owned Business Enterprise (MBE/WBE) programs from 2018 to 2021.

The League of Women Voters of Evanston (LWVE), a nonpartisan political organization that encourages informed and active civic participation, is sponsoring the forums with the Skokie Public Library. The forum for the at-large candidates will be on Wednesday, February 26, and the village clerk forum will take place on Thursday, February 27. The full schedule and details are available on the LWVE website.

The Skokie mayoral candidate forum was cancelled because only one candidate accepted an invitation to attend. LWVE invited all candidates to participate, and on their website said that “The League of Women Voters adheres to the following conditions: The forum must include at least two candidates for a contested race. The League will not hold a scheduled forum when only one candidate for that race accepts or appears for an event.” Video of the forums will be available on-demand on the LWVE website and the library’s Voter Information page after the events.

The new electoral districts were formed after Skokie voters approved a referendum during the November 2022 election. Voters also approved non-partisan, staggered elections for the village board, which means that elections will take place every two years.

Under this new system, in the upcoming April 1 election voters will be voting for trustees for mayor, village clerk, and two at-large trustees for a four year-term. The four district trustees will be elected for initial two-year terms. In the 2027 election, all four district trustees will be on the ballot again for the first four-year term of the new system, and every four years in subsequent elections. More information, including the new district maps, is available on the Village of Skokie Electoral Changes webpage.