Maria Zeller Brauer
Amid ongoing controversy over funding for mental health services, Wheeling Township Democrats plan to run a slate of challengers for township board seats in the April election.
The upcoming race could turn into a second referendum on the township’s 708 mental health board. Voters in 2022 approved a referendum creating the board and a tax to fund it, but the township board has refused to levy that tax.
The 708 board is supposed to take the tax dollars and distribute it them to local agencies addressing mental health needs.
At the top of the planned slate will be Maria Zeller Brauer, a nonprofit professional running for township supervisor. A member of the board of the Metropolis Performing Arts Centre, Brauer ran unsuccessfully in 2023 for the Arlington Heights Elementary School District 25 board.
“I think we can be doing much better for the citizens in Wheeling Township,” she said.
Candidates for trustee will include Lorri Grainawi and Philip “John” Geier, who were among the organizers of the 2022 referendum. Both Grainawi and Geier, a former mental health counselor, have appeared frequently before the township board expressing their dissatisfaction with the board’s inaction on the levy.
“Every other mental health board is funded,” said Grainawi, who serves on the board of board of National Alliance on Mental Illness Northwest Suburbs Chicago. “I want to see ours funded, too.”
Lorri Grainawi
Sheri Williams, a former Northwest Suburban High School District 214 PTO president, also is running for trustee. She is the former local lead of the Northwest Chicago Suburbs group of Moms Demand Action.
Sheri Williams
“There just needs to be more transparency, so that people who are paying taxes and living in the community know what’s going on,” said Williams, who proposes broadcasting township board meetings.
The planned slate also will include Austin Mejdrich, chief of staff for State Sen. Mark Walker. Mejdrich has accused the township of “hoarding” funds that could be used to meet the needs of township residents.
“I’m looking at the township as a place where we can meet those needs of our residents in a pretty fiscally responsible manner, and it’s just not being done,” he said.
Candidates must file nominating petitions between Nov. 12 and 18 to get on the April 1, 2025 ballot.