With Eastern and his slate victorious, what can East St. Louisans expect at City Hall?
Not only was Robert Eastern III victorious Tuesday in his race for mayor, but so was his entire slate of candidates that ran under the name “The Heart for the People Team.”
The slate swept its races, which included securing two seats on the City Council, three seats on the District 189 school board, and two seats on the East St. Louis Park District Board.
Eastern said he expects changes in the school board and park board.
“We’re going to collectively work together,” Eastern said.
He said the taxing bodies have collaborated in the past, such as having police officers serve as school resource officers and helping the park district with events.
“I think it’s going to be a more unified effort as a whole to change the global perception of East St. Louis,” Eastern said.
Eastern, who is currently a member of the City Council, defeated Emeka Jackson-Hicks, who sought a second term as mayor. Former mayor and funeral home operator Carl Officer and Darnell Thompson also ran for mayor. Eastern will be sworn-in before the first council meeting in May.
Whether there will be staffing changes, especially among some higher administrative positions, when Eastern takes office has yet to be determined, he said.
“Right now I can’t answer that because I have to sit down with the council,” Eastern said. “It’s the will of the council. If the majority feel we need to make changes, then, yes, that’s what we’ll do. But right now, I can’t answer yes or no to that question.”
Eastern has two more years remaining on his term as city councilman, so choosing a replacement is also among the things that needs to be determined. He said he’s had discussions with several people who may be appointed..
The mayor-elect said the city needs to work on aesthetics by cleaning its thoroughfares to help “change the paradigm.”
“There are several areas we’re going to attack. I have to devise a plan, a holistic plan to clean the city up. ... We want to make sure we clean the city up from start to end.”
But he said his first order of business is getting a handle on the city’s finances.
“We have a lot of financial issues going on, the budget, cash-flow issues,” Eastern said. “Here in the next couple of months, my primary focus is making sure that that the financial (situation) of the city is paid attention to. It’s real murky to say the least.”
Eastern said he plans to have a different leadership style and work in the role full-time, even though it’s officially a part-time job. He said he plans to have regular office hours to be available to meet with residents and business people. It would be different than Jackson-Hicks, who also worked until 2018 for the state’s capital development board, according to her LinkedIn page.
He said the city manager will run day-to-day operations.
Eastern says there’s no camaraderie in City Hall right now, which he hopes to improve.
“We have to make City Hall welcoming, and it starts with the people who work there,” Eastern said. “Our goal is to make sure everybody is happy to come to work, and I want to come to work and do a good job and be productive.”
One of the members of the slate was Irma Golliday, who was re-elected to the District 189 school board. She also serves as the executive director of the East St. Louis Park District.
Golliday said she hopes parks in town will continue to improve and the parks remain clean.
Golliday said she joined the slate because she supported Eastern’s vision for change, including cleaning up the city.
“If we first tackle the uncleanliness of East St. Louis and then the safety problems, we’ll start bringing people back to the city,” she said.
Golliday said the group wanted to work with one another to improve East St. Louis.
“We wanted to work together during the election and after the election.”
Campaign contribution refund
According to a quarterly report posted on the State Board of Elections website, Eastern’s campaign has refunded a $10,000 contribution to the law firm Rich, Rich and Cooksey.
The law firm had made two $10,000 contributions to the Eastern campaign for a total of $20,000. However, the limit for a corporation to give to a candidate’s campaign is $11,600 per election cycle.
The State Board of Elections notified the Eastern campaign of the overage on March 13, after it was brought to the agency’s attention, said Matt Dietrich, the public information officer for the agency.
Eastern’s campaign then made the refund on March 15, state records show.
Dietrich said the campaign will not face any fines for the overage.
This story was originally published April 5, 2019 at 11:01 AM.
