March 08--The Metropolitan Water Reclamation District is in the business of treating wastewater. It also works to reduce flooding and the runoff of stormwater into Lake Michigan. But electing commissioners to the MWRD board doesn't get the attention it merits. Too many among us take clean water for granted, and thus take MWRD elections for granted.
In November, voters will elect three commissioners to six-year terms on the nine-member board. One commissioner also will be elected to fill a two-year vacancy created when Patrick Daley Thompson departed to join the Chicago City Council.
Only the Democratic Party has contests for MWRD seats in the March 15 primary. So the task for Democratic primary voters is to select three general election candidates (from a field of six) for the three six-year terms, plus one general election candidate (from a field of three) for the two-year term. Still with us?
Six-year terms: Our top choice is Josina Morita, who has the professional skills of an urban planner and a background of community outreach work. She impressed us when she ran unsuccessfully for a board seat two years ago; we said she could parlay her background in regional development, land use and infrastructure planning to protect clean water. She also could help the MWRD educate local governments on the need for water-permeable paving and other techniques to reduce storm runoff. She supports a notion first proposed in our pages by board member Debra Shore to find industries that could use the district's huge output of treated but non-potable water. Morita, who is of Chinese and Japanese heritage, would be the first Asian-American elected to a countywide office. A bonus for her future speeches to local audiences: She also speaks Spanish.
Incumbent Mariyana Spyropoulos ran unsuccessfully for an MWRD seat in 2008, was appointed to the board in 2009, and won election to a full term in 2010. She's a lawyer with an MBA and had received plaudits from conservationists. She also won our hearts during her last campaign with her suggestion to cut administrative costs at the MWRD by reducing the board from nine members to five -- "even if this means mine is one of the positions eliminated." She's an advocate for resource recovery, converting the solids and liquids that flow to treatment plants into fertilizers so "we can create a revenue stream and thus reduce our tax burden." She boasts of championing a Space to Grow project that is converting paved Chicago Public Schools playgrounds to green spaces that absorb rainwater.
R. Cary Capparelli says he is "the only independent running for the six-year term," perhaps a wry nod to the fact that in the past he's run for an MWRD seat as a Democrat (2010) and a Republican (2014). This year he's again a Democrat. Capparelli is self-employed in a Park Ridge consulting, marketing and public relations business, and he served on the board of the Illinois International Port, aka the Port of Chicago, from 2000 to 2009. He tells us he's also a candidate for a doctorate in geography -- an asset on a board that oversees extensive land holdings. He's also sensitive to the danger that an MWRD board dominated by Chicagoans can set policies that don't work well for suburban communities.
Two-year term: Our choice here, Tom Greenhaw, would bring technology savvy, youth, energy, commitment and keen knowledge of water issues to an MWRD board that needs all of the above. Having founded Cashier Live, the tech startup he runs, Greenhaw has a skill set unlike that of any current commissioner. He's a Chicago-area native whose undergraduate years at Arizona State University educated him in water conservation issues: "I realized very quickly that I had taken Lake Michigan, our greatest resource, for granted." He's since completed the University of Chicago's program in Leadership in Sustainability Management and immersed himself in a host of environmental policy issues; at the U. of C. he researched how to increase the proper disposal of medications that, too often, get dumped into toilets and wind up in our water. Greenhaw is enthusiastically endorsed.
