Public safety. Open government: The issues driving the 2023 mayoral race

No, it’s not deja vu. Mayor Chris Clark and former Harvey Park District commissioner Anthony McCaskill are facing off once again for the city’s mayoral seat.

But a lot’s changed since 2019.

Under Clark’s watch, Harvey homicides peaked with 31 reports in 2021—the most on record, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office. There were 15 homicides reported in 2022. City officials tout homicides are down 55%, but they remain highest in Harvey out of any municipality in suburban Cook.

This race, the first since the COVID-19 pandemic began, has been marred by concerns over violence and transparency. Four years after the ousting of Eric J. Kellogg, criticisms fly about the promise and the pitfalls of the Clark administration—the first in a post-Kellogg era.

Mayor Clark is also facing opposition from Alderman Marshun Tolbert (2nd). Once an ally who supported Clark’s mayoral bid, Tolbert has had a combative relationship with the mayor.

The race hasn’t been without its drama.

According to the Cook County Clerk Elections Team, two campaign workers engaged in a dispute in the parking lot of the Harvey Park District’s Gloria Taylor Center, currently an early voting site. The incident, allegedly over a parking spot believed most feasible to electioneer, did not impede voting, a county spokesperson told the HWH.

“It’s just kids being kids and shows why we need change,” Tolbert said about the incident, denying his staff was involved. A representative with Clark’s campaign team told the HWH they weren’t aware of such a matter. McCaskill did not respond by press time.

Then, there’s the campaign signs. Several aldermanic and mayoral candidates have found street department workers removing their signs around the city in violation of height restriction ordinances. In many cases, Clark’s signs weren’t removed. McCaskill’s campaign office was hit with a cease-and-desist order a week after opening last fall, sparking many in his camp to believe it was politically motivated.

The candidates each face a slightly different battle to win over undecided voters with the election a week away.

Tolbert, a south suburban political darling in some spaces, said he can help bring change. However, his performance as an alderman puts his mayoral run under heightened scrutiny. Just ask Yvettte Hale II. She believes Tolbert has been a lame duck while on council, with little to no progress being made. “He hasn’t done any work in the ward that I can see,” Hale told the HWH.

And Clark, who made his name as a reform-minded alderman jousting with Kellogg, has faced criticism from some residents that he has a conflict-avoidant leadership style. It’s the throughline as residents still wonder why JET Foods hasn’t—and won’t—open doors along Dixie Highway, little to no public input regarding Harvey Lofts, public meeting faux paus, and complaints about public safety.

Finally, McCaskill, currently a Harvey Public Library Board trustee, comes off as too aggressive for some. While he’s attracting Clark defectors, some have expressed concerns that his administration would be all in the family, bringing loved ones along for the ride.

Policing and criminal justice

McCaskill said he hopes to spur business development and affordable housing in Harvey while mayor, but in order to do that he says public safety must be addressed first. He told the HWH he plans to take a “hands-off” approach with the Harvey Police Department. McCaskill alleges Clark is micromanaging the department — causing a police chief turnover issue alongside other city staff roles.

“Micromanagement is one issue impacting staff retainment,” McCaskill, who is a business owner, said.” A person who's never run a business or organization doesn't have what it takes to deal with personnel issues.”

Police turnover has been a frequent issue. The department’s had five different chiefs under Clark’s tenure. Gregory Thomas served as chief in the Kellogg administration, replaced by Eddie Winters after Clark was elected in 2019. Winters, who lasted eight months, was replaced by Robert Collins in 2020. Collins resigned a year into the job, after which Clark tapped Elvin Boone. Joseph Moseley II followed.

Clark fired Moseley after a former internal affairs official alleged cover-ups of corruption and police brutality, alluding they were committed by then Deputy Chief and now Interim Police Chief Cameron Biddings.

Clark’s campaign team could not be reached for a long-form interview for this story after repeated phone calls.

Last month, Clark beamed at a public meeting touting investments in the police department, including additional officers, police vehicles, the police precincts/community hubs project, and nearly 200 illegal weapons removed from Harvey streets.

But McCaskill and Tolbert aren’t buying it.

McCaskill said his ideology of letting the police department take command of public safety makes sense because it will have more training, knowledge and experience in crime than him. He said having a positive relationship with the police chief and ensuring consistency will help bring crime down. Tolbert agrees.

Tolbert sides with McCaskill when it comes to public safety by planning a hands-off approach to let the professionals do their work.

But this approach is likely to strike the ire of police accountability advocates who charge the police aren’t capable of holding themselves accountable and or being transparent with the public in the absence of independent oversight.

There’s another elephant in the room: crime data. The department doesn’t make it publicly available. So, it’s unclear the extent to which police track crime in Harvey or what the department's homicide clearance rate is. Even with this, Tolbert said he believes the crime rate increased in recent years, and McCaskill has repeated claims that most Harvey homicides are unsolved.

Public safety, some candidates believe, still undergirds future development and growth efforts. The city’s population is dwindling. A homogenous business market is fueling retail leakage—money spent outside the local market and into more economically diverse areas. Business owners want to see their investments are in good hands, McCaskill said.

“We need a secure police department because any business owner is going to look at that,” McCaskill said. “There's no return on investment. If a person doesn't feel safe or that their inventory is going to be controlled and secure, who is going to actually come to Harvey?”

If elected, McCaskill said he wants to hire at least five more police officers at large. He says this will be done by cutting spending in the Mayor’s Office by eliminating the mayor’s security detail.

McCaskill doesn’t plan to take a salary. He added he would take a salary when public safety and government operations are in a better place. McCaskill did not provide a specific benchmark for when that may be or what that may look like when asked by the HWH.

Healthy business development

It’s no secret that Harvey has a fraught history with quid pro quo. Last year, a former police lieutenant was indicted for extorting Harvey tow companies in exchange for city work.

Clark, himself a businessman who previously owned a law firm located downtown Harvey, has stressed clean deals in bringing businesses to Harvey. However, Tolbert and McCaskill both implied that the Clark administration doesn’t give out business licenses equitably.

McCaskill, despite being a long-time Harvey resident, does not have a business in Harvey partially due to this difficult process, he implied.

Tolbert accused Clark of trying to monologize business development in Harvey for political gain, which makes it hard for those opposing Clark to open up shop.

Nicholas Greifer, the city’s Economic Development Director, remains an elusive figure in Harvey’s politics. Observed walking in and out of the mayor’s office in-between meetings. Always seen at City Council meetings. And apparently outside of reach for alderman, according to Tolbert.

“We have an economic development guy and if the mayor doesn’t say go, you're not allowed to talk to him,” Tolbert said. “I want to hear everybody's plans. We want to have an open, transparent government where it's not solely the friends of the mayor or campaign donors.”

McCaskill is also worried about housing in Harvey considering many of its residents are renters and many properties sit vacant. He said he hopes to bring more property owners to Harvey because they will have more stake in what goes on in the city, with a more permanent investment versus a renter who can easily leave town.

Harvey doesn’t boast the tax base and homeownership rates that once made it the “Gateway to the South Suburbs.” But transitioning renters—especially Black and Brown—into homeowners when so many barriers to capital persist will be tough.

McCaskill said he hopes to alleviate this issue by helping local school districts grow to attract families.

“Prospective families look at security, how the schools are doing and recreation—those are top three things people consider when they're trying to come into a new community,” McCaskill said. “If you're missing one, two, or maybe three of those things are missing, that's an issue.”

Responsive dignitaries

Earlier this month, the Democrats of Thornton Township hosted a forum at Thornton. All three candidates were invited, but only one showed up: Anthony McCaskill. That earned Clark and Tolbert the frustrations of Illinois State Senator Napoleon Harris (15th), head of DOTT.

“There have been many forums for many different races across this state and across this country,” Harris said. “I think it’s a disservice when people say they want to be public servants and they don’t show up for events which they said they were going to. Let’s make no mistake about it, Harvey is at a crossroads where the residents have an opportunity to choose their leadership.”

McCaskill, a training and development leader at Ford Motor Company, seized the moment to discuss his campaign without background noise, stressing his decision to add more officers, be more transparent than previous administrations, collaborate with others to repair aging infrastructure, and launch a barrage of criticisms at Mayor Clark.

The biggest one being that McCaskill is making the center of his public safety rhetoric: it’s Clark’s fault, McCaskill charged, that Harvey residents don’t feel safe, in part, because of micromanagement of HPD.

“I’m not going to be in City Hall like that,” McCaskill said. “We’re going to have competent department heads doing their jobs. My phone’s only going to be ringing when there's a problem. I don’t want to micromanage these people—let them do their jobs.”