Since April 1, a mayor, three trustees and a clerk have been getting familiar with their new roles in Orland Park government.
Mayor Jim Dodge was a longtime trustee who has a high profile in town. But the new trustees and clerk are getting adjusted to the spotlight and some residents may not know much about them.
Here is a look at the four newcomers.
John Lawler
Lawler is involved in the real estate business and also has an interest in improving the village’s arts and sports scene.
“I’m passionate about the community,” the new trustee said. “My knowledge base is trading commodities and building houses so I’m familiar with how the building department and development services work. There are some issues with it and those are some of the things I want to address.”
He said he wants to curb some of the previous spending on the village’s Concert Series and Schussler Park improvements.
Joanna M. Liotine Leafblad
Leafblad worked in the Cook County State’s Attorney’s office and recently was the Orland Park Library Board president.
She realizes the village board has some power, but it’s the staff that makes the town run.
“The board isn’t going to be running the village, the village is run by the village administration and the employees,” she said. “We vote on a lot of important issues and we certainly have a lot of input and make a big difference but we have to be able to hear what they have to say.
“I see a lot of hard working and trustworthy people who need to be heard and who have something to contribute. Those wonderful people are going to make our job as trustees easy.”
Dina Lawrence
Lawrence pays such close attention to detail that 35 years ago when she was trying to find a new town to move to, she did a spreadsheet comparing communities in the south and west suburbs and landed in Orland Park.
“I looked at 40 or 50 different places before I finally found a place but I’ve been here ever since,” she said. “I did the spreadsheet and looked at a lot of towns in the western and southwestern suburbs and when I evaluated everything, Orland Park came up at the top,”
The retired engineer figured to be just as meticulous as a trustee.
“I have an understanding of how physical things work,” she said. “I will be able to understand very well what’s going on in Public Works and understand concepts about water billing and equipment maintenance.
“But I will also be able to deal with the financial analysis part. I know how to define a problem and figure out the different elements and figure out what their costs are at different points in time today, tomorrow or 10 years down the road.”
Mary Ryan Norwell
As a former state’s attorney and municipal attorney, Norwell is bracing for a mountain of work because there are lawsuits aplenty from the previous administration.
“I’m going to dive in and see what’s going on with the lawsuits against the village,” she said, “I’m also looking forward to working with the FOIA officer both in the clerk’s office and the police department. Those departments are pretty well decimated by this old administration. I’m hoping to build that up a little.”