The Lincolnshire Village Board recently appointed an attorney to fill the seat left by former trustee Karen Feldman, who resigned as she focuses on her general election campaign in the 59th Illinois House District.
Julie Harms Muth, who has lived in Lincolnshire for nine years, said she is taking a spot on the village board without a particular agenda in mind and also at a time in her life when she can devote more attention to community issues.
“I want to investigate and explore the issues that come before the village board and see where I can best help,” she said in an email.
Harms Muth does not have past experience with local government, but she has been a practicing attorney for 25 years, covering environmental law, insurance coverage and general commercial litigation, village officials said.
Her career includes time with Waste Management Inc., where she negotiated and managed business transactions and handled legal matters, officials said.
Harms Muth now leads her own small law firm, providing legal counsel to small businesses and individuals regarding corporate transactions, litigation and employment matters.
As a volunteer in the Lincolnshire area, she has been involved in several activities at Lincolnshire-Prairie View School District 103 and has helped out on her sons’ sports and academic teams at Stevenson High School, officials said.
“Being a village trustee, with an ability to continue helping my community, was one of the new activities that interested me most,” Harms Muth said of why she wanted a position on the village board
Village board members officially sworn in her as the village’s newest trustee during a meeting April 23 at Lincolnshire Village Hall.
Harms Muth and her husband, Michael Muth, also own a small manufacturing business, called Slide Products, in Wheeling.
She fills the spot of Feldman, who was first elected to the Lincolnshire Village Board in 2009 and recently secured a new four-year term in spring 2017.
Feldman resigned more than a year into her new term as a Lincolnshire trustee after she won the Republican primary in the 59th Illinois House District, which is an open contest this election cycle for the first time in nearly a decade after incumbent Carol Sente, D-Vernon Hills, announced plans to retire.
Feldman, who works as a real estate agent, has said since her primary victory in March that she was planning to resign from the Lincolnshire Village Board to focus on her statehouse campaign.
She is set to face Democratic candidate Daniel Didech, who was elected Vernon Township Supervisor in 2017 and also works as a municipal attorney for Del Galdo Law Group in south suburban Berwyn, in the general election in November.
tshields@pioneerlocal.com
Twitter @tshields19
