Oak Lawn Dist. 6 Trustee: Carol Sheahan

Name: Carol Sheahan

Position sought: Trustee, 6th District, Village of Oak Lawn

Campaign information:

Campaign contact information:

●      Campaign office address: 9632 S Cicero Ave.

●      Website: MIPoaklawn.com

●      Facebook: facebook.com/mayorsindependenceparty

●      E-mail address: carolfortrustee@gmail.com

●      Campaign phone:708-229-0060

Personal Information

●      Age: 42

●      Family: Jim (47), Molly (8), Annie (7), Katie (7)

●      Time living in Oak Lawn: Lifelong

●      Education: BA - Journalism/Advertising

●      Political party affiliation, if any: Non-partisan election

●      Previous elected offices (if applicable): N/A

●      Applicable experience qualifying you for the position: Sales Manager-Coca-Cola Enterprises; Direct Sales Account Manager - Jays Potato Chips

Candidate Questions

Use as much space as you need.

1      What is the primary reason you are running for this office? I want to give back to the community I grew up in and help my neighbors. I want them to have someone they can turn to for answers. 

2      Why do you deserve to be elected/reelected? What sets you apart from the other candidate(s)? No one deserves to be elected. You work for it through experience and by volunteering for causes and projects that bring a community together. I understand what it takes to grow your business. My experience lies within sales goal achievements at Coca-Cola and Jays Potato Chips.  Even before leaving Coca-Cola to stay home with my daughter, I was always active in my community. I’m very involved at Kolmar where my daughters attend school. I am the Membership, Market Day, and Campbell’s Chair for Kolmar’s PTA. I am a member of the Oak Lawn Lions and the Oak Lawn Green Team. I’m a lifelong parishoner of St. Catherine’s and a lector there for 20 years. I’m a member of the Citizens Utility Board, which strives to find ways to cut utility rates for Illinois residents. You choose to do these things to get involved in the process that makes a community like Oak Lawn great! What sets me apart from Mike Carberry isn’t much in proximity! We live on the same block! However he made a decision that has affected every resident in this district, village and state when he took a week’s salary from everyone. As our State Representative, Mike voted to raise our taxes 67% in one of Illinois’ largest taxes hikes in history! He’s not putting Oak Lawn first.

3      What are the three issues in the village that you feel need to be addressed right away? Why are these issues important?

** Safety - I grew up here when you left the back door unlocked, windows of your car open and we rode our bikes all over the neighborhood as long as we were back by dinner. You can’t do that anymore. We have more police officers now and that’s a great thing, but as a community we need to work together and help them. I’m a part of the Oak Lawn Neighborhood Watch. We are a group of residents who want to help be the eyes of the police. We are looking to grow in numbers and have meeting scheduled every few months.

** Business Development - with the 111th and Cicero project underway, we need residents’ input as to what stores will go in. Nothing better than shopping Oak Lawn, however, we need the mix of retail stores that we want. I will work with the residents and the developer to make that happen.

** Taxes - We’ve got to do our best to keep the village taxes for the residents low. Losing home value while your property taxes rise makes no sense. This is where the business development comes into play. If we get residents’ input for the right stores, we get to spend our money at  these stores that then pay sales tax back to the Village and, in the end, keep our taxes down.

4      Give one example of how you would work with an adversarial village board? It is the duty of an elected trustee to work together with other board members for the betterment of Oak Lawn. You are going to have disagreements, that’s understandable and it’s healthy, but issues need to be resolved without egos getting in the way. If you’re outnumbered on a vote, move on and don’t hold a grudge.

5      Should Advocate Christ Medical Center be required to pay impact fees and permit fees for future expansion? Why or why not?

The hospital was exempt from paying building permit fees which was approved by the Village Board years ago. Christ Hospital has constructed new buildings in recent years and there was no mention of an impact fee at the time of expansion. Now that the ordinance has changed, I would consider working with the hospital on an impact fee.

6      Should there be a cap on video gaming licenses granted to new businesses coming to Oak Lawn? Why or why not?

Yes, I think there should be a cap. Since video gaming has already been approved by the Board of Trustees and licenses have already been granted to many establishments in Oak Lawn, regulations need to be adjusted and set forth.

7. What do you like best about Oak Lawn? There are so many things to like about my hometown. The people are first. Neighbors are the closest thing to family in many cases. I know mine are. There are so many people who grew up in Oak Lawn who then started their own family here.  Next are schools. They are second to none when it comes to our children's educations. Amenities are fantastic and many are within walking distance. The library is like a second home to my kids. All of the events that the Village sponsors that is geared toward kids: Fall on the Green, Pumpkin Fest, Meeting Santa, Easter Egg Hunt, etc. The sense of community and family is part of what I love best.