West Cook News

A group of Hillside residents is so fed up with its longtime mayor that they have organized to unseat him in the upcoming April 2021 elections.

Joseph Tamburino has been mayor of the village of Hillside for 40 years, first elected in 1981.

“We have now a team of candidates that are running against him,” Hillside resident Roger Romanelli said. “We have the first African American woman mayor candidate for Hillside, the first African American woman candidate for clerk, and myself with others running for trustee.”

Gwen Amber, a social worker, is campaigning for Hillside mayor, LaTonya Williams, a former restaurant owner, is running for clerk while Romanelli, Dan Adams, and Amy Woodrick are running for three of six trustee positions, according to the Hillside Neighbors website.

“He needs to resign immediately,” Romanelli told West Cook News regarding Tamburino. “Not only did he buy a 100-year old church for $640,000 with village funds that has been sitting there for years but now he's telling neighborhoods they can't have street lights. They can't have stop signs. He can't fix their sidewalks because we're out of money.”

Tamburino did not immediately respond to a request for comment but, according to a news release and a Nov. 23 video of a village meeting with the mayor that's posted on YouTube, he allegedly rejected an appraiser’s recommendation to leave the church for a new congregation to acquire in an area where there are no real estate investors knocking on the door with development plans.

“I would like to see him sell that $640,000 church building he purchased and give the money back to the citizens in the village instead of the property being locked up for no reason, sitting there vacant and doing nothing,” Adams told West Cook News. “Right now the city isn’t making money off the property.”

Romanelli further alleges that Tamburino has been critical of African American church leaders acquiring former commercial buildings because religious groups are exempt from paying property taxes.

“It's clear Mayor Tamburino does not understand the incredible role that our churches play in healing, in reaching out to the needy, and in helping people transcend their daily challenges,” Romanelli said in an interview. "He's not dealing in reality that those buildings were saved by the churches and they were going to be torn down if the churches didn't buy them. Now he's complaining about a lack of tax revenues when he's not valuing them for the social services they provide.”

Social services provided by the village of Hillside local government are limited to senior citizens, according to the village of Hillside website.

“The village of Hillside does not have a Department of Social Services for everyone and we want a Hillside Department of Social Services for when our children and our families are in need or for our youth who might be leaning the wrong way so that they do not end up in the criminal justice system,” Romanelli said. “The way to avoid that is to have a robust Department of Social Services.”