By CLARICE STETTER
Editor of the Illinois Voter for the
League of Women Voters of Illinois,
Ms. Stetter, a resident of Wilmette,
has worked part-time for the Suburban
Tribune and has a master's degree in
journalism from Northwestern University.
Aware of the problems, relishing the challenges
Six women mayors
They started out with a concern for specific issues
in local government rather than a desire
to hold office. They ended up running for mayor,
winning — and finding they could handle the job
BOLINGBROOK, the fastest growing
community in Illinois has at least one
thing in common with Sleepy Hollow, a
rural village in Illinois where duck
crossing signs caution road traffic: both
have women mayors. Nationwide, the
greatest number of women mayors are
found in the middle of the country
(Iowa, Missouri, Minnesota, Kansas),
according to a recent survey conducted
by the Center for American Women and
Politics at Rutgers University. Illinois
cannot boast of many women mayors,
but their number is growing.
Glen Ellyn, Hoffman Estates
In the late 1960's there were scattered
examples of women elected to the office
of mayor in Illinois. In 1973, greater
visibility was given to elected women officials in Illinois when the 100-year-old
community of Glen Ellyn and the new
and politically turbulent community of
Hoffman Estates each elected its first
woman mayor.
The election of Connie Zimmerman
as mayor of Glen Ellyn in 1973 was a
natural outgrowth of her years of
interest and involvement in the village's
government. After 11 years of observing
her village board for the League of
Women Voters, Mrs. Zimmerman
submitted her name to the local political
caucus. She intended to run for trustee,
an office women in the village had often
held. But the position of mayor (the
official title is village president) was also
open, and the caucus nominated her
over a male candidate for that position.
Her candidacy was not contested, and she soon found herself the first woman
mayor of Glen Ellyn, a comfortable
suburb west of Chicago in DuPage
County with a population of 23,000.
During her three and a half years in
office, the Glen Ellyn board changed the
village accounting system and reorganized village finances, enacted tax
subsidies and transportation programs
for the elderly, and encouraged more
citizen participation in the village's
government.
In the late 1960's, Hoffman Estates, a
new community located further north in
Cook County, was having its problems.
Zoning and growth were described as
being "so wild that the local school
district was the Illinois School Building
Commission's best customer. Residents
were laughed down at public meetings,
the teamsters were suing the village, and
Internal Revenue Service and the
Federal Bureau of Investigation were
starting to look into the situation."
Bribes for zoning changes were eventually exposed and resulted in the
conviction of two former mayors and
four former trustees. In 1971, Virginia
Hayter, a member of the local school
board, decided the best way to help the
schools was to get on the village board,
because that's where the crucial zoning
decisions were being made. She served
as village trustee from 1971-73 and then
ran on a Republican ticket in opposition
to the incumbent mayor and two other
women candidates. Corruption and
honesty in government were the big
issues in Mrs. Hayter's campaigns. She
says that her sex wasn't an issue; the voters in Hoffman Estates are politically
sophisticated and have twice helped
elect women as state representatives.
Immediately after her election as
mayor, Hayter was faced with a "wildcat" strike by 28 public works employees
in the midst of contract negotiations
with the village. Mayor Hayter, with the
unanimous support of her board, fired
the 28 workers, and three years later, a
lawsuit concerning the firing is still in
court.
Other problems demanding attention
in Hoffman Estates were a severe water
shortage (in 1971 water wasn't reaching
the second floor of apartment buildings), and dealing with the city's rapid
growth. The current population is
31,000, a figure that could reach 70,000
by 1995. Following the completion of
two water studies, the village developed
its own well system. Continuing problems for the community are the reconstruction of roadways, a need for new
businesses and a divided community of
two enclaves caused in 1969 when a
county forest preserve was established.
Crystal Lake
In 1975, the issue of growth was
affecting two other communities. Crystal Lake and Bolingbrook. Both communities had recently elected (their first)
women mayors. Crystal Lake, a community of 17,000 and the largest urban
area in rural McHenry County, is an old
resort town whose original residents
were mainly summer people. In the
1960's, long-time resident Arlene Fetzner was part of a group of Crystal Lake
February 1977 / Illinois Issues / 11
All the women said they would conceivably run for
another political office if circumstances were right.
Each has grown in office and become expert on local
government. All are confident they can handle more
women which became concerned about
pollution in the lake and in local wells.
Mrs. Fetzner and others believed that it
was time that Crystal Lake had a sewage
system. In 1970, when Mrs. Fetzner was
elected as the city's first councilwoman,
her concerns in this area resulted in a
board commitment to build a complete
water sewage system. In 1974 the mayor
of Crystal Lake resigned, and Mrs.
Fetzner was appointed to fill the
vacancy. The next year she ran for the
office as an uncontested independent
candidate and was elected.
In the three years since the city
replaced the old septic tanks with a new
sewage system and built a water treatment plant, the quality of the lake water
has improved greatly. Improving the
area's water supply and demanding that
developers help finance new schools and
park facilities are part of Mayor Fetzner's program. She wants to "plan for
growth so that the growth is not a
detriment, has adequate facilities, and
pays its fair share."
Bolingbrook to Sleepy Hollow
"They are always moving dirt in
Bolingbrook" is an expression of people
in the area and it reflects the growth of
Illinois' fastest growing city. Bolingbrook's population has leaped from
5,000 in 1965 to a current 32,000 and is
expected to rise to 50,000 by 1980 (See
Illinois Issues, September 1975, pp. 270-271.). In the spring of 1975, the city had
been through a difficult two-year
period; the mayorship had changed
hands three times and several trustees
had come and gone. The city desperately
needed stable and consistent leadership.
Eleanore Wipfler and her husband
were among the original "pioneers" to
the Bolingbrook area and were involved
in its incorporation 11 years before.
After her husband's death in 1971, Mrs.
Wipfler began serving on the Plan
Commission and in 1974 she accepted
an appointment to fill an opening as
trustee on the village board. She knew
Bolingbrook from its beginnings and
understood its problems so it was no
surprise when she won (by 200 votes) the
mayoral race in the spring of 1975.
Mayor Wipfler believes that good
planning and commercial development
are compatible and that Bolingbrook
needs more businesses. Currently, 32
commercial enterprises a re in the
process of opening; 30 more are on the
drawing boards. There is so much
happening in town that the village board
meets officially once a week with an
informal meeting the night before.
In stark contrast to the suburbs of
Chicago is the small rural village of
Sleepy Hollow which lies north of Elgin
in the Fox River Valley. A community
of expensive homes on minimum one-half acre lots, Sleepy Hollow is a rural
retreat heavily populated by executives
and professionals. Residents say living
in Sleepy Hollow is like living in other
suburbs 30 years ago. Carol Schoengart
moved to the village, population 2,008,
in 1968 when it was 10 years old. She
soon found "the only way to really find
out what was going on" was to run for
(and win) a seat on the village board.
After serving a two-year term, Mrs.
Schoengart ran for (and won) the office
of mayor to help maintain the village's
rural character in the midst of surrounding urbanization. Specifically, she
wanted to help implement the comprehensive plan, including zoning and
building codes, of the village's Plan
Comission.
In a community without a village
manager and with a limited professional
staff. Mayor Schoengart and her board
of trustees must operate as both creators
and administrators of policy. Mayor
Schoengart also acts as the chief administrator for the village in dealings with other communities. She represents
Sleepy Hollow in negotiations with
neighboring West Dundee and Carpentersville in the planning for a Homemart
shopping center to be located on the
borders of the three communities. Each
community has agreed to annex part of
the land and to share tax revenues based
on impact to each community. Mayor
Schoengart, who is somewhat skeptical
of politics at higher levels, finds government at the local level very satisfying
and believes that grassroot politics work
best.
A grassroot political campaign to
help elect a friend to the city council first
stimulated Carol Reitan's interest in
local government. This interest eventually led her to the mayor's chair of
Normal. A college town of 32,000 in the
middle of Illinois, Normal is proud of its
former lady mayor. During her four-year term from 1972-76, intergovenmental projects and relations with its
sister city of Bloomington prospered.
Initially, friends were concerned about
her ability to win. Mrs. Reitan ran a
hard race against an opponent who had
been on the council six years and had
served as acting mayor. She won by 48
votes.
Normal
The merger of Normal and Bloomington had been defeated twice in a
referendum, and with feelings still
running high on the subject. Mayor
Reitan was determined to decrease
friction between the two cities. During
her term. Normal solved its water
problem (long a source of conflict with
Bloomington), developed a joint bus
system, established quarterly meetings
between Bloomington and Normal city
councils, and even experimented with
Bloomington in sharing a city manager
for a year. The result of the experiment
showed that it was too cumbersome an
arrangement for one city manager, but
the two cities have been encouraged to
restudy the merger question.
All six women say they are accepted
on the basis of their knowledge and the
ideas they have to offer. Each woman
has her favorite anecdote about the
person who has shook hands with her
husband only to discover he wasn't the
mayor, or the visitor at the office door
who asked, "Is your boss in?" But each
woman displays a good sense of humor
and realistically accepts the fact that she
is still rather unique as a public official.
12 / February 1977 / Illinois Issues
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Four of the six women work at their essentially volunteer mayoral tasks 40
hours a week. Only former Mayor
Reitan of Normal and Mayor Schoengart of Sleepy Hollow were able to work
in part-time positions (as teachers) in
addition to their mayoral duties. Arlene
Fetzner of Crystal Lake did carry an
additional part-time job, but finally quit
after finding it difficult to do justice to
home, family, a job and her role as
mayor. Mayor Wipfler represented the
sentiments of all the women when she
said, "Either your family supports you,
or you're in trouble." She always tries to
be home between 4 and 7 p.m. for dinner
and to spend time with her four children. She says her three boys at home
are proud of their mother, the mayor,
and often listen to proposed speeches
and offer suggestions. Outspoken Mayor Hayter said that because she made
some enemies in the community during
past controversies, the older of her five
children have had to deal with pressures
that have made them less than enthusiastic about their mother's job.
The mayors' husbands
The husbands of Mayors Zimmerman and Fetzner are themselves current
or former elected officials and are
especially understanding of their wives'
public roles. Richard Zimmerman
currently serves on Glen Ellyn's library
board and Kenneth Fetzner, a popular
former park commissioner, felt that two
Fetzners on the ballot were too much
and declined to run for office when his
wife ran for mayor in 1975. Carol
Schoengart described her husband as a
terribly understanding husband who
often pitches in with their twin 9-year-old boys when her mayoral duties call.
There is agreement that being a woman
mayor without other full-time professional responsibilities allows more time
to research issues and to meet with
administrative and outside experts
during the day. All the women had high
praise for their predominately male
boards and refused to take credit for
various innovations during their terms
in office saying, "Our board decided..."
All the women have enjoyed their
work. Hayter says she has grown in
office beyond her wildest expectations.
Mayor Schoengart says it has offered
her excellent executive training. She
added, "I have been able to sit down
with experts and reply to them. After
you background yourself, you often find you know more than the others."
Mayor Zimmerman says her term as
mayor has "opened my eyes to the whole
political process. Some people want to
participate, but not run for office. If you
really want representative government,
someone must be prepared to make
decisions," she said. Mayor Zimmerman said perhaps the hardest part of the
job is that "people honestly do believe
that you are different. From the beginning, you are expected to be a public
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speaker, etcetera. It is sometimes hard
to handle the adulation."
Three of the six women have, to date,
thought seriously about running again
for public office. Mayor Hayter said she
will probably present herself again to
the Republican township organization
as a mayoral candidate, although she
added that with her strong stands on
some matters it is possible she may not
be the party's choice. Mayor Wipfler
will finish a two-year term in 1977,
expects to run again for a full four-year
term, but with opposition.
Women's attitudes
Carol Reitan, whose mayoral term
expired early in 1976, began an active
campaign in the summer for state
senator from the 44th state legislative
district and almost beat the incumbent
in a close race. Mrs. Reitan believes
there have been definite changes in
attitudes towards women in government
since she first ran for mayor in 1972.
Then, she said, "it was a disadvantage to
be a woman. I hadn't been on the
council or even been elected to a board.
People were very skeptical. Later, after
doing a job, there seemed to be a sense of
pride to have a lady mayor. I was also a
curiosity," she said, "invited more
places — more doors opened to me."
During her recent campaign for state
senator, Mrs. Reitan felt being a woman
was a distinct asset because of the recent
history of political corruption in male-dominated government. She also believes women's attitudes about other
women in politics have changed; it is no
longer inappropriate for women to be in
politics.
Women's capabilities
All the women said they would
conceivably run for another political
office if circumstances were right.
Crystal Lake's Fetzner added that "the
fear of thinking you can't do it is over."
The styles of these mayors run the
gamut. One described herself as a
proponent of consensus and another
called herself as "tough, but fair." As a
group, these six women have shown
themselves capable of handling all
aspects of local government: finance,
land development, environmental issues
and intergovernmental cooperation.
Individually, each has grown in office
and become expert on local government. All are confident they can handle
more.Ž
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February 1977 / Illinois Issues / 13