As One Challenger Steps Aside, A New One Steps Into Dist. 3 Trustee Race

Caption: Candidate Scott Hollis is running for third district trustee on the Oak Lawn Village Board.

Eight months out from the suburban Cook County municipal elections, there is a new challenger on the dance card for Oak Lawn’s Dist. 3 trustee race.

Pat McGowan, who declared his candidacy a year ago, has dropped out of the challenger’s slot for Oak Lawn newcomer Scott Hollis.

Hollis, 58, moved to Oak Lawn 16 months ago after his retirement from the City of Chicago. His wife passed away six years ago. During his 32 years of driving trucks for Chicago’s streets and sanitation department, Hollis lived in Mt. Greenwood and Marquette Park, complying with the city’s residency requirements.

“There was no reason to live in Chicago anymore. I could see the writing on the wall with taxes going up. I put in my time and now it’s time to get out,” he said. “I have a lot of ties to Oak Lawn and friends here. This is where I wanted to be.”

Bob Streit, the longest-serving trustee on the Oak Lawn Village Board, hasn’t officially announced if will seek a sixth term, but according to Streit’s most recent campaign financial disclosures, he had $14,681 in the coffers as of June 30. That’s a lot of mailers. He also shelled out $17,588 in expenditures. The tallies don’t include what he took in as his most recent DeJa Brew fundraiser.

Streit barely won in 2011, even after knocking his opponent off the ballot, who ran as write-in candidate and came within 11 votes of ousting Streit off the village board.

McGowan insists he wasn’t a placeholder, that he intended to run when declaring last year.

“I’m just stepping aside. I picked up some new business at work that requires a lot of time and travel,” McGowan told Patch. “I would love to run for trustee one day, but the timing is just not right.”

Hollis says he and McGowan got together through mutual friends.

“I went to go see if he needed any help in his campaign. He told me he had a job change and was thinking of getting out,” Hollis said. “Our ideas were basically the same, so I got in instead.”

What are those ideas? Hollis sent a two-page list. Among them, he will work as a team with the other board members, start a neighborhood watch program and hold quarterly district meetings -- which may come as a shock to some third district residents not used to community meetings.

“Our current trustee instead prefers to send anonymous emails to residents and businesses that attack other board members and village management, and actually tell people Oak Lawn is not a good place to live anymore,” Hollis alleges in his statement.

Hollis has also given some thought on his list to Oak Lawn’s unfunded pension liabilities, he’s all for aggressively paying it down while pursuing new retail development. Hopefully that doesn’t mean another dollar store.

He’d like to develop the eyesore Southwest Highway Corridor, “where our current trustee has his offices,” where “economic growth has been stagnant.”

He also thinks that a new approach is warranted for dealing and bargaining with the village’s union employees. As a retired member of Teamsters Local 700, he claims he knows how to deal fairly with employees who are blamed “when all they are doing is protecting their rights and their families.”

During his career with the city, Hollis spent many hours behind the wheel of a truck salting and plowing streets for the city of Chicago.

“It’s fun until you work 16-17 hour days for 12 days straight. Then it’s not so fun,” he says.

Running for village trustee wasn’t part of his game plan. His only prior political experience is as a precinct captain in Chicago’s 15th Ward.

“I’m tired of all the B.S. going on. Why can’t we get along and work together,” Hollis said. “You see Streit on TV grandstanding -- I’m tired of it.”

Does Hollis think he ca withstand a ballot challenge?’

“Most of the signatures I’ll get myself. I’ve done this before,” Hollis said. “I know people can’t sign for each other. I don’t see that being an issue. I understand how everything runs.”

Dist. 3 residents can reach Scott Hollis at scotth4d3@gmail.com. He’ll also be volunteering in the beer tent for his brother’s Culver’s stand at Fall On the Green.

» First time commenting on Patch’s new website? Learn how here