The City of Palos Heights’ City Council hosted its annual Mayor for a Day event ahead of its Oct. 20 meeting.
Twelve eighth-grade students from local schools were selected by the Palos Heights Woman’s Club to participate in the program and take on the roles of Mayor, City Clerk, City Treasurer, City Attorney, and eight aldermen for the evening.
Winners were selected based on essay applications the students write explaining their ideas for the city.
Each member of the student-city council gets a chance to give a speech with their ideas for improving the city at an event at Lake Katherine, before heading to the council chambers for a mock meeting during the slated Committee of the Whole time.
This year’s student government was composed of Mayor Joe McDonough, Clerk Rory MacLeod, Treasurer Ava Lewandowski, City Attorney McKenna Krause, Ward 1 Aldermen Annabel Andrekos and Aiden Oganovich, Ward 2 Aldermen Pryor Kasmer and Madeline Pricone, Ward 3 Aldermen Gaby Pacetti and Danny Dougherty, and Ward 4 Aldermen Rich Facko and Marcel Fakhoury.
During their meeting, the students voted on such measures as a $1,500 sign grant for “Rizz Fizz Café,” a $20,000 contract for “Snow & Behold Design” to conduct a drone show following the Christmas tree lighting ceremony, a zoning variance for an “indoor/outdoor family fun zone” to operate at 119th Street and Route 83, a contract to construct a go-kart track in the Palos Heights Metra lot, and the $300,000 purchase of Lamborghini Huracan LP-640 “equipped with defibrillators and organ refrigeration for emergency transport.”
Following their meeting, each student was acknowledged and presented with a certificate at the regular City Council meeting.
“This has been going on for close to 40 years,” City Clerk Shannon Harvey said. “It’s fun to watch how the ideas the kids have changed year to year with the times. We had speeches this year talking about electric vehicle charging stations, for example, we never would have thought about that even ten years ago.”
