CHICAGO HEIGHTS CITY CLERK RUNS FOR BLOOM TOWNSHIP SUPERVISOR

Lori Wilcox, Chicago Heights City Clerk, is running for Bloom Township Supervisor. Photo provided by Lori Wilcox
Lori Wilcox, Chicago Heights City Clerk, is running for Bloom Township Supervisor. Photo provided by Lori Wilcox

Chicago Heights City Clerk runs for Bloom Township Supervisor

BY TIA CAROL JONES

     Lori Wilcox, Chicago Heights city clerk, is running for Bloom Township Supervisor. Wilcox said she wanted to run for supervisor because township government is the only body of government that directly touches the residents.
     “Our main goal is to provide services and resources to the residents of the township,” informed Wilcox, who added, she’s a person with a “servant’s heart”. Wilcox, who’s served in the military said, she’s a “preacher’s kid” where you don’t volunteer, you’re “volun-told”.
     Bloom Township includes 12 municipalities and 90,000 residents. The city of Chicago Heights is the largest in Bloom Township, with 30,000 residents, making Chicago Heights one-third of the population of the township.
     Wilcox has been city clerk for three terms. She said as city clerk, she is the keeper of records, as well as the information source for the city. Wilcox put together a new citizens packet and a new business owners packet, so new residents and business owners can have access to information. She said this has prepared her for running for Bloom Township Supervisor.
    “I’m known as the ‘connectress’. I connect people to resources, I connect resources to people, I connect our residents to jobs. Just being a person that is always touching
people, I would say I am the best candidate for this position because, again, the role of the supervisor is to connect the resources of the township to the constituents,” she said.
     Wilcox served in the military for 12 years. She said it taught her to be a selfless servant, to honor the position that a person is holding, and have integrity to do the right thing when no one is looking. She said she still lives by the core values of the service.
     Wilcox said allegations about the mishandling of funds while she was the president of the Chicago Heights Library Board are farfetched. “The voters know me, how do they know me, because they voted me in, not once, not twice, but three, actually four times. I was voted in as city clerk and once as the
committeeman. That was a history race. I’m the second Black woman to hold the seat of committeeman in Bloom Township,” she said.
     Wilcox was one of eight board members on the Chicago Heights Library Board. She said there were three strategic plans signed by the board of directors over a ten-year period, that said there would be a build out of the library, a teen room, a music studio, a computer lab with new computers, a dance studio, as well as a remodeled kitchen, with brand new carpets
and furniture.
     Wilcox said there were 60 programs at the library a month, ranging from record expungement to senior programs. She said the library partnered with various organizations to host these programs.
    “If there was something that was done wrong, it was not intentional. It was a mistake, charge it to our head and not our heart. We would never, ever do anything like that, ever,” she said.
     Wilcox said she did not have signature authority to sign or write checks at the library. She said invoices were sent to city hall and signed there.
     Wilcox conducted a listening tour. She said she found that a lot of residents lost their jobs, which in some cases means, they may lose their homes. She said she is looking at economic development, constituents’ service to find ways to help residents stay in their homes and how to partner with businesses to create new jobs.
     Wilcox’s ticket is diverse, comprised of people with diverse backgrounds where six of the eight people are combat war veterans who served in the same unit. She said they can touch more people with a diverse ticket.
     Wilcox said she will partner with community colleges to make sure the residents are trained when new jobs and businesses come into the township. She said she will also talk
to other township supervisors to pool ideas together to build a stronger Bloom Township.
     Wilcox said she will use the same motto she used when she was a committeewoman: educate the residents as to what resources are available, then engage them, then empower them by being transparent. She said she will make sure what is happening in one city will happen in the other 12 cities. She also said she will interact with the 300 elected officials that
are part of those cities.
     “Once you tap into the elected officials, then you can touch the officials, then you can touch the residents of Bloom Township and make sure they know what we have available
at the township,” she said.
     The election is on Tuesday, April 6.

Latest Stories

Latest Podcast

This Is Life