In Park Ridge, Martin “Marty” Maloney appears to have breezed to another term as mayor, holding off a challenge from the current city clerk Sal Raspanti.
“I am so thrilled to continue as mayor of Park Ridge. I am excited that this opportunity has been afforded to me and the community has faith in my experience and vision of the future of the next four years,” Maloney told Pioneer Press.
Maloney has four children with wife, Lauren, and works full-time as a named account manager in sales at a technology company. He explained that the mayoral position is part-time, with a $1,000 a month stipend, and relies on the city manager to run the daily operations of the city.
Raspanti’s campaign had promised to work full-time to address concerns over public safety and redevelopment in the city. Formerly a senior vice president of global sales, Raspanti is retired and his two adult children with his wife, Anna.
He said Maloney has served too long and isn’t hearing residents’ concerns while Maloney is proud of the city’s growth under his tenure in office.
Maloney captured 64% of the vote in the April 1 Consolidated Election, with Raspanti picking up 36%, according to unofficial vote totals from the Cook County clerk’s office.
Election results are unofficial until the county clerk certifies them — usually within weeks of the election.
“I have an amazing campaign team and wonderful supporters, and we will all continue to collaborate to improve, grow, and amplify all that makes up Park Ridge,” Maloney said.
Both Maloney, 52, and Raspanti, 62, were born and raised in Park Ridge, and continue to express a passion for the north suburban town of 39,000 residents located near O’Hare International Airport.
“No regrets, we ran a very good campaign. I would like to thank all of the people involved in the campaign. I wish my opponent well. I know he’ll continue to work hard for the citizens of Park Ridge. Hopefully, we raised some issues that weren’t necessarily on the radar that he’ll take to heart,” Raspanti told Pioneer Press.
Maloney was on the City Council before being appointed mayor in 2015 following the sudden death of then-Mayor David Schmidt. He was then elected to the post in 2017 and reelected in 2021. By the end of the term he was reelected to in Tuesday’s contest, Maloney will have served for 14 years as mayor.
“Candidly, that’s too long in many people’s eyes,” said Raspanti, who would like to see the city impose term limits. “Too long for many people in town who supported him.”
As city clerk, Raspanti said he has been meeting with residents daily at City Hall. He sees the value of having the presence of a full-time mayor — even though it’s a part-time position — to address the concerns of residents, he said.
“There’s residents in town who believe their voices are not being heard,” Raspanti said. “They’ve tried to express concerns about public safety, pedestrian crossings, residents worried about basic infrastructure from resurfacing our streets to how the repaving of our alleys is handled. Their voices are not being heard.”
The now-departing city clerk said the more than 1,000 mayoral petition signatures he received in three weeks to get his name on the ballot is telling.
“It should not have been that easy,” he said. “That told me we were on to something. People are feeling they are ready for a change.”
But the election did not bring change to the mayoral office. So, Maloney is now teed up to begin another term.
The incumbent mayor said he is proud of his accomplishments, particularly the growth of the Uptown business district and the sales tax currently generated in the city. The introduction of new restaurants, boutiques and office space has contributed to an anticipated $6.5 million in sales tax this year — a $2 million increase since he took office 10 years ago, plus an additional increase of $1.4 million in home rule tax now at $3.1 million.
Maloney also touted that the city hasn’t increased its tax levy in four years, but said “fund balances are higher than we would like them to be.” He said that is a result of the funding received from the state and federal government during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Looking ahead, Maloney said there’s still more he’d like to accomplish as mayor.
The Uptown tax increment financing district will expire in the next four years. Although it required assistance from the city in the early years which meant a tax levy, the TIF is now funded, the mayor explained.
“There will be surplus revenue in the TIF fund to allow the city to reinvest in the TIF district or in the area adjacent to TIF district,” Maloney said. “It will give the city the ability to address the parking challenges in the Uptown area.” He said the city will need to either reconfigure traffic flow or consider building a parking structure.
Maloney also wants to see the city make a determination on the future of the police station. Although the city has invested money over the last 14 years to address such pressing problems as water seepage, flooding, mold, mildew and locker room facilities, wants to find out if there is another space to relocate the police station from the basement of City Hall.
Raspanti believes recent reports from the police department are a bigger concern.
“Calls for service for the month of February are up 48% over last year, according to reports from the Park Ridge Police Department,” Raspanti said. “We have incident reports up 20%, arrests up 31%, and crash reports up 54%.”
Maloney said he and the City Council questioned the police chief about these numbers. The mayor said the chief explained that not all calls for service or arrests correlated to a crime.
“Crime is actually down from last year to this year, down overall,” said Maloney.
Raspanti, also a former alderperson and Planning and Zoning commissioner, said Park Ridge is ripe for redevelopment. He had looked forward to maintaining the small town feel instead of turning the suburb into a “cement jungle” of overdevelopment.
He believes the city needs to “do more” to redevelop and market the South Park and North Park retail areas, as well as the Higgins corridor. He also recognized the need to address parking in the Uptown area.
Maloney said there are some areas where city residents will see redevelopment as a result of the Planning and Zoning Commission’s recently approved Uptown master plan. There are two parking lots just south of the railroad tracks under active development and other parking lots to the west owners want to develop, he said.
Once the farmers market moves next year, he said its current location will also be redeveloped.
“It’s a great opportunity to see smart development in place,” Maloney said.
He counters criticisms of his job as mayor by pointing to the outcome of this and previous elections.
“If I’m not doing a good job, I wouldn’t have been reelected twice, or this time,” said Maloney.
Elizabeth Owens-Schiele is a freelancer. Pioneer Press staff contributed.
