Suburban Mayor's Campaign Enlists Village Workers For Petition Effort

LYONS, IL – Several Lyons village employees earlier this year helped Mayor Chris Getty's petition effort to get on the November ballot for Congress.

They include Village Manager Thomas Sheahan, a Lake Forest resident who collected a dozen pages of signatures. Police Chief Thomas Herion outdid him with 14.

Subscribe

Also contributing to the effort was Kenneth Getty, the mayor's brother, who is listed in public records as making an $84,000 salary from the village. He turned in 15 petition pages.

If the employees followed the law, they did the campaign work outside of work hours. Also, Getty is barred by law from tying campaign work to job security.

Under state law, government resources cannot be used for political purposes.

Getty did not return a message for comment Wednesday.

Unlike most Illinois mayors, Getty gets a full-time salary. He makes $86,745 as mayor, up from $46,659 in 2020.

And that's not his only full-time job. He makes $74,000 as Lyons Township's elected supervisor, an amount that is slated to reach $80,000 by 2028.

Many mayors make only a few thousand dollars or nothing at all.

Earlier this year, a Patch analysis showed that Getty had accepted $635,000 in campaign donations from companies and people who have done business with the village. Another $38,000 came from township vendors.

He has gone unopposed in elections for years, but the donations keep rolling in.

Besides the manager and police chief, others in the Lyons village government circulated Getty's petitions for his independent candidacy for the 4th Congressional District:

• Michael Bennett, village trustee
• Daniel Hilker, village trustee and library director
• Daniel Karbarz, police officer
• Vladimir Krstov, former administrative assistant
• Doreen Norris, assistant to the administrator
• John Pierce, building director
• Martin Stack, village attorney

The 4th District is Democratic turf. In November 2025, Rep. Chuy Garcia announced he would retire at the end of his term. He left little time for candidates to collect petition signatures to get on the ballot. Only his chief of staff, Patty Garcia, got a heads-up, so she met the requirements on time.

Garcia took a lot of heat for the late announcement. The House reprimanded him, with a Democratic congresswoman taking the lead.

Getty and two others, Chicago Alderman Byron Sigcho-Lopez and Chicago nonprofit executive Mayra Macias, submitted petitions to run as independents.

The state Board of Elections determined Sigcho-Lopez and Macias failed to collect enough signatures for the ballot. Getty continues as a candidate.