Norridge District 80 school board candidates Mary “Molly” Dec and Louis Mezzano will face a challenge that seeks to remove their names from the ballot for the April 2 election.
Objections were filed against the nomination papers of Dec and Mezzano, and hearings were scheduled for Jan. 3 before hearing officer Yamil Colon. They are set to take place at 11:30 and 11:45 a.m. at the Cook County Administration Building, located at 69 W. Washington St., in Chicago.
The objector is Srbo Radisavljevic, the current District 80 school board president, who has not filed for the April election. According to the petition filed by Radisavljevic, he is requesting that both Dec and Mezzano not appear on the ballot for the April election.
Dec declined to comment on the matter, and Mezzano was not immediately available to respond to a request for comment. Radisavljevic also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Kevin Moore, Mezzano, Frank Tribuzio, Dec, Frank Stoffel, Sebastian “Sam” Palazzo, Oronzo “Renzo” Berardi and Michael Bellafiore filed to run in the April election.
Dec and Mezzano are among six candidates vying for four available four-year terms on the board. Stoffel and Berardi are running for one available two-year term.
According to the petition filing, Radisavljevic stated that Dec’s nomination papers failed to identify the office she was seeking, specifically whether she was filing for the two-year term or the four-year term. The petition added that her papers “contain numerous petition sheets for another candidate,” identified as Mezzano. The petition also stated that the headings on three of her 25 nominating sheets “seek the nomination of another candidate.”
Radisavljevic’s petition filing objecting to Mezzano’s candidacy stated similar issues, mentioning that his nominating papers contained sheets seeking Dec’s nomination.