Thirion To Seek Second Term As Tinley Park Clerk

Country Club Hills IL

19 October, 2020

4:24 PM

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From the Richard Free Press: By Jon DePaolis TINLEY PARK, Ill. – Village of Tinley Park Clerk Kristin A. Thirion is running for re-election. Thirion, who was first elected to the clerk position in 2017, announced her intention to seek a second term during Our Tinley Party's 2021 campaign launch party Saturday, Oct. 17, at Cavallini's in the Park, 6700 South St. in Tinley Park. At the event, Thirion's running mates were unveiled to be: Trustee Michael Glotz, who is running for mayor; Trustee William Brady, who is seeking re-election; and Dennis Mahoney and Colleen Sullivan, who are running for trustee seats on the Village Board. "Ultimately, the reason I'm standing here before you today to seek a second term is my confidence and faith in Trustee and Mayoral Candidate Michael Glotz," Thirion said. "Mike has continually displayed a level of integrity, bravery, persistence, dedication, and an unbridled work ethic that is rarely witnessed in present times, especially in the realm of politics and public service. He is continually engaged with managing the Village and spearheading measures to benefit all of us, whether it be helping citizens to lower their property taxes, finding ways to assist and promote small businesses, supporting charity initiatives, and stimulating development in spite of repeated public attacks from his political opponents spreading lies and misinformation. Those of us who truly know Mike as a person as well as a public servant surely realize that these attacks stem from Mike's threat to the status quo of the political sphere in in Illinois and its self-directed agendas. "The other reason is our running mates. Colleen and Dennis have consistently demonstrated their engagement with and dedication to our community, and I look forward to serving with them in the near future. Trustees Mike Mueller, Bill Brennan, and Bill Brady have been an inspiring source of humor, rationality, servant leadership, and friendship. "When you have a team that respects differences of opinions, is open to learning new perspectives and procedures in spite of uncertainty and risk, and supports and encourages each other, a team gradually becomes an extended family and an unstoppable source of unity and positive, proactive change to and within the community. It's a realization and exemplar of everything public service should be." Thirion also listed some of the work she has done in the Clerk's Office since being elected nearly four years ago. "My goals and accomplishments in the Clerk's Office over the past four years have resulted in an increase of efficiency within it that have ultimately resulted in lowering taxpayer expenditures while enhancing and facilitating public access to information concerning their community and how it operates," Thirion said. "We have transferred collections functions and staff from the Clerk's Office to the Finance Department, and I initiated the establishment of a new Village ordinance to the Board that additionally decreases the stipend the Village Clerk receives as a result. We've expanded information on the Village webpages and implemented a data resource management program that enables staff members to collect and share information more quickly and efficiently, saving them valuable time and the taxpayers' money. Our agenda management system now extends this enhanced, paperless system to the creation of meeting agendas. We continue to revise outdated Village ordinances and update the Village code on a quarterly basis in lieu of an annual or semiannual schedule, which empowers us to get information to the public faster. We've enhanced the [Freedom of Information Act] portal in order to make it easier for the public to request public records, and we have collaborated with Public Works to expand available public information on open bids. We've enhanced our meeting live-streaming and recording procedures and informed the public as to how they can avail themselves of automatic, time-stamped transcripts while we continue to provide the most detailed and comprehensive meeting minutes we possibly can. "As we hone these new procedures and pathways to public access, we will continue our efforts to seek and respond to citizen input via our goal of a public participation component to our meeting agendas that will enable the public to ask questions regarding specific meeting agenda items online and receive documented responses and enhanced access to the discussion of these items at meetings by providing hyperlinks to the exact moment in the recorded video footage in which their concern was discussed or addressed by the board and/or staff." Thirion and her husband, Sven, live in the Lancaster Estates neighborhood of Tinley Park. Richard Free Press is a one-stop destination for the news that most affects you, the southwest suburban resident. Be an informed citizen of the town you live in and love.