3 people running for 2 open seats in upcoming Highland City Council election
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include remarks from incumbent Peggy Bellm.
Three people are running for two seats on the Highland City Council in the upcoming election, two of whom are incumbents.
Rick Frey and Peggy Bellm are each running for re-election after multiple terms on the council, and Emily Livingston is challenging them for one of those seats.
Frey, 68, is running for his third term on the council. Frey has served on the planning commission and other boards and is a former — and future — business owner in the city. He said he has enjoyed serving on the council.
“This council has always been proactive; we don’t like to be reactive,” Frey said. “The future doesn’t just mean the immediate future, but 20 years out.”
In his time on the council, Frey said he is proud of the project to update aging water and sewer lines in the city, and the ongoing efforts to improve infrastructure.
Also of immediate concern is the budget, he said, and he believes his experience will help with those efforts.
“COVID has hit us as it’s hit every other town,” he said. “We will have to go through line by line and make sure we properly handle and adjust to all the different problems and budget concerns that are out there.”
Bellm served on various commissions before she filled an unexpired term on the city council and was subsequently elected in 2007. She said she is running again because she wants to continue to watch carefully what’s happening in the community.
“We’ve got a good sound financial status here and good sound operations, and I want to make sure that continues,” she said.
In addition to the ongoing cannabis controversy, Bellm said she expects the issue of the city pool to come up again. The city’s consultants have recommended replacing the aging city pool with a new facility, but the proposal is temporarily on hold due to the pandemic.
“The cost involved in that is what concerns me,” Bellm said. “I’d love to have a brand-new, fancy clean pool, but the financing concerns me.”
Emily Livingston, 43, is an administrative law judge at the Illinois Department of Employment Security with a bachelor’s degree from Tulane University and a law degree from Syracuse University.
Livingston said she is running to help rebuild a strong community from the pandemic and to provide a choice in the only contested election in the city.
“Government should never be predetermined or stagnant,” she said in a statement to the Belleville News-Democrat. “I will not stand in the way of ‘home grown’ economic development, infringe upon the freedom and personal dignity of my constituents, nor squander the ripe opportunity to build tourism for the city by altering the existing ordinance which permits the operation of a licensed marijuana dispensary within the city limits of Highland.”
Recovering from COVID, marijuana dispensaries
Livingston said obviously Highland needs to recover as a community from “the devastating, unprecedented COVID public health emergency.”
“Every household and every person has been affected, and we need to make government work for the people and find a way to recover as a community,” she said.
Livingston said she attended city council meetings during the controversy over whether Highland would allow marijuana dispensaries, and felt the decision to ban them was detrimental.
“I’m in favor of the market deciding whether a dispensary opens in Highland,” she said. “I don’t think it was the city council’s place to infringe on that.”
‘Tough issue’
The council had initially voted 4-1 to allow a dispensary within certain parameters, but after public backlash, they sent it to the voters. The advisory referendum last March went against allowing a marijuana dispensary 1,047-709.
Frey agreed it was “a tough issue,” but said the voters let the council know through the referendum the majority were opposed to allowing a dispensary in town.
“Speaking for myself, it’s my job to represent the citizens,” Frey said. “They said no, so I voted no. I vote the way the citizens want. I like to listen to what they have to say and do what’s best for everyone in the city, not just one group. I will continue to do that.”
People will ‘get a fair shake’
Livingston said she thinks the market should have been the deciding factor: A dispensary that met legal requirements would sink or swim based on its sales.
“I want to make sure that people know when they come to me, they’ll get a fair shake and I won’t treat businesses based on my personal preferences or agenda,” she said.
Bellm said she expects the final cannabis decision will return once the city can have a full open chamber for public commentary. She said she voted in favor of a cannabis ordinance because if at some future time the state ordered all cities had to be open to a dispensary, she wanted rules on the books to regulate them.
“I wanted to make sure we had an ordinance on the books that spoke to that, in terms of where in the town it could be located, the hours it could operate and additional security measures,” she said. “Without that on the books we really have very little to say if a dispensary would ever come to town.”
Highly controversial matter
The cannabis issue was highly controversial and consumed several hours-long meetings before the pandemic hit. Bellm was frequently criticized by anti-marijuana speakers, as one who had voted in favor of the regulatory ordinance.
“The most difficult thing about being on the council is when you are in a room full of people, many of whom are friends and associates, and they’re asking you to do something, but in my gut I know I have to do something else for the city of Highland,” Bellm said.
“Your personal views are always there, but you have to be able to look at the big picture — 20 to 50 years down the road. It makes it difficult sometimes, but if you’re going to do the job, you have to do what’s best for the overall community.”
The municipal election will take place April 6. Early voting has already begun.
This story was originally published March 15, 2021 at 12:36 PM.