Incumbent village presidents reclaim seats in Inverness, Hanover Park and Streamwood

The three especially long-serving village presidents of Inverness, Hanover Park and Streamwood faced and appeared to overcome challengers in Tuesday’s election, according to unofficial results.

In the case of the latter two, those challengers came from other local government boards in their respective communities.

Streamwood

With all precincts reporting, nine-term Streamwood Village President Billie Roth had 1,745 votes, or 74.8% of the total, to challenger and Poplar Creek Library Trustee Asad Khan’s 588 votes.

Khan said he was concerned about declining population in the village, which he believes hurts revenues. He also wanted to modernize such services as online bill paying to make it easier to do from a phone, and encourage more open dialogue about what residents want.

Roth said she has a proven track record and wants to continue her practice of being both forward-looking and financially responsible. She touts the village’s balanced budget despite pension challenges, as well as managing to forgo a local grocery tax.

Hanover Park

Hanover Park Village President Rod Craig, who’s held the office for 18 years, was challenged by Mark Elkins, a 30-year member of the Hanover Park Park District’s board of commissioners and its current president.

According to unofficial results at press time, Craig had 1,228 votes, or 76.9% of the total, to Elkins’ 369 votes in both Cook and DuPage counties.

One of the most timely issues they debated was whether the village should replace the state’s 1% grocery tax with its own 1% tax.

Elkins believed that would create a hardship for residents, while its absence could attract shoppers from elsewhere.

But Craig said the village needs those revenues to provide necessary services and it would have to be made up elsewhere — probably from property taxes.

During the campaign, Craig also touted a decade-long decline in major crimes in the village that included 2024’s crime rate being the lowest since records began being kept 50 years ago.

Inverness

Jack Tatooles, who has led Inverness for the past 28 years as village president, had 931 votes, or 64.6% of the total, to challenger Benjamin Gottlieb’s 511 votes once all precincts had reported.

Gottlieb declined participation in Daily Herald endorsement interviews and did not respond to requests for information on his candidacy.

During Tatooles’ leadership, Inverness became a home rule community and later created its first police department in 2009, among other accomplishments.

During his campaign for an eighth term, he cited the police department, with its emphasis on what he called neighborhood-focused policing, as one of the greatest achievements of his long tenure. He credited that with enhancing village safety after years of contracting with other communities and saving about $14 million over the years.

An attorney by trade, Tatooles pointed to the village’s AAA bond rating, lack of debt and healthy cash reserves as proof of his board’s financial stewardship. That will be especially important, he said, in light of federal uncertainty, stock market swings and the potential loss of federal grants.