Harvey elections 2023: City Clerk candidate guide
Read up on the City Clerk candidates before heading to the ballot.
Before casting your ballot, take a look through our candidate research guide. Candidates are listed in ballot order.
Candidates
Rosa Arambula
Under Arambula, the Office of the City Clerk has been in violation of the state’s Open Meetings Act by not posting meeting minutes in a timely manner.
State law requires public bodies with websites to post approved meeting minutes within 10 days. The Clerk’s Office hasn’t done so between April 2022 and February 2023, nearly an entire calendar year.
There’s no current written record of committee meeting minutes between May 2019 and February 2023, according to a FOIA response provided to the HWH. That suggests aldermen haven’t been meeting in nearly four years.
However, Alderman Marshun Tolbert (2nd) told the HWH the Clerk has not been present at any of the committees to take meeting minutes, which discouraged many aldermen from calling committees altogether.
The Office has facilitated more community events since Arambula was elected.
She and a relative have donated at least $4,000 to Mayor Chris Clark’s reelection bid. However, there are no reported donations from Clark to Arambula, according to an HWH analysis of campaign finance records.
Endorsements
Mayor Chris Clark
Joyce V. Brown
Brown is a retired social worker and holds a master’s degree from Governors State University. She was previously a secretary at the Harvey Park District. She has often been seen associating with the McCaskill family, and ran for Harvey Park District commissioner in 2019. The McCaskill family has overseen Park District operations for over a decade. She is running on a joint ticket with mayoral candidate Anthony McCaskill, former HPD commissioner.
Endorsements
Napoleon B. Harris III
The Democrats of Thornton Township
Monique Williams
Williams is a current Harvey Public Library District trustee and assists with the Thornton drama program. She also has experience organizing around affordable housing in the south suburbs and previously oversaw the now defunct Harvey Colts football program.
She prefers youth-driven approaches to youth engagement, she previously told the HWH. Her campaign is emphasizing digital and print materials to keep residents informed and wants to push the mayor’s office to allocate more funding to the Clerk’s Office to better support operational capacity.
Williams is one of the few candidates who’s complied with the state finance laws requiring those with political committee information on file being required to file a quarterly report even if they don’t bring in money. She has over $2,000 in her campaign chest, according to an HWH analysis of campaign finance records.
Endorsements
Cook County Commissioner, 5th District Monica Gordon
View Williams’ responses to the HWH candidate questionnaire
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