Homes gone. Houses burned. Costs climbing. Responsible flood protection?
Vote Against Party Loyalty. Vote for Community Competence.
By Jill B. Shestokas, Michelle Pennington, Tim Rueckert
Imagine $9 – $13 million of your money – taxpayers – after 8 years with at least two to go, your community is wrecked and you still don’t have two miles of sewers and a flooding detention basin.
Never heard of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District (MWRD), even if your basement has flooded? Most people barely know this $1.8 billion agency. Democrat insiders know it well. It’s a place for them to move political money and climb to the next office.
The nine commissioners, alone, set priorities and budgets. While the MWRD legally covers Cook County, the water and sewage discharge impacts all of Illinois.
Demand change with your vote. That is why we are running together.
Michelle Pennington has run a real estate investment business since 2007. She reads financial statements and evaluates capital costs—useful skills when a project’s price rises before construction begins.
Tim Rueckert has a finance degree and spent eight years as Northfield Township highway commissioner, overseeing roads and drainage, reviewing construction plans and issuing more than 1,000 permits. A former Illinois law-enforcement agent who investigated tax fraud, criminal and regulatory cases, he knows how to keep asking questions until the answers hold up.
Jill Shestokas served MWRD as public affairs director, explaining technical water, engineering and legislative issues to the public and lawmakers. Her work earned two national awards, and she knows the difference between technical jargon and an answer a flooded homeowner can use.
Finance. Drainage and construction oversight. Investigative experience. Nationally recognized MWRD work. Compare that record with the people already at the board table.
Beth Kirkwood, a 40-year Democratic operative, reported union PAC contributions and $45,000 in payments to the Cook County Democratic Party. Unelected Pritzker appointees Precious Brady-Davis and Eira Corral Sepúlveda want to represent the politicians.
Where’s their hurry? Homes are gone. Houses burned. Families are still waiting.
COMMUNITY WRECKED. ELEVEN YEARS FOR TWO MILES OF SEWERS AND A BASIN?
• Homes gone. MWRD bought Myrtle Avenue homes in Harvey for two miles of sewer and a basin. Families moved out two years ago.
• Crime moved in from the neglect. Squatters, drug arrests, two fires—and a resident reported to police about people having sex on a porch near children waiting for a school bus.
• Our pressure got action. Residents pleaded for months. Buildings were boarded within four days of our September 1 press release.
• Eleven years for flood protection? Planning began in 2018. Main contract expected in early 2028; another 18 months to build.
• Costs up. Protection down. Construction estimate: $9.85 million → $13 million. Structures benefiting: 690 → 209.
• Lowest bidder. Lowest standards? MWRD called K.L.F. Enterprises the “lowest responsible bidder” for the demolition. On another recent job: 36 alleged OSHA violations—35 serious, one alleged willful violation involving asbestos—and an Illinois Attorney General civil lawsuit.
“Responsible”
These delays are systemic. MWRD bought the homes, let the buildings deteriorate, watched the project’s price rise and pushed construction years down the road while crime incubated.
Harvey is the worst. Across the county during the extreme weather, residents get a holler from MWRD not to flush their toilet when it rains.
Meanwhile, take the power and choose dedicated to the job and taxpayers, Pennington, Rueckert and Shestokas who bring competence to make MWRD answer to you.
We would require one public dashboard that’s easy to read for every MWRD project with significant costs, delays, safety concerns or effects on residents.
What was promised? What will it cost now? Who will be protected? When will it be finished? Why did the deadline move?
When families must leave their homes, commissioners must answer for what happens to those properties while construction is delayed.
The major problem is $1.8 Billion is spent basically in secret. Secrecy the Democrats want to continue. Party allegiance above protecting homes must be stopped.
On November 3, Cook County, Vote 3 for MWRD: #51 Michelle Pennington, #52 Timothy Rueckert and #53 Jill Shestokas.
