Grace Bardusk hopes to win back the office of Bremen Township assessor and kick down the door that Township Supervisor Maggie Crotty once closed on her.
Bardusk's opponent in the April 4 election, Willie Jones of Hazel Crest, is an ally of Crotty’s and took over from Bardusk when she was forced out in a strange turn of events involving stolen passwords, a police visit and a changed lock on the assessor's office.
Bardusk and her "Bremen Families First" slate will be squaring off against three-term incumbent Crotty's "Bremen Tax Cut Party," which has been in power since 2005.
“I’m passionate about what my staff was able to accomplish in our first four years,” Bardusk, a licensed Realtor, said of her Bremen Township experience. “I compare that to what’s happened over the last four years, and I’m left feeling like I just want to bring some integrity back to this office and give the residents more of what they deserve.”
She contrasted her dedication and experience with that of Jones, asserting that Jones works a full-time job with ADT Security and is in the Bremen Township offices only on rare occasions. She pointed out that in Cook County, assessors must be certified and take classes to maintain their certification.
According to Bardusk, Jones only fulfilled the latter part of his obligation three days before the deadline to submit paperwork declaring his intention to seek re-election.
“I believe Mr. Jones was first certified in 2008 but didn’t take any more classes until 2012,” she said. “Then, he didn’t take any more until three days before his recent filing. The courses he did were all home study.”
As for her fractured relationship with Crotty, a former state senator, Bardusk insists she knew early on “these weren’t the kind of people I wanted to be associated with.”
The simmering tension between the two came to a boiling point in 2013, late in Bardusk's term, when she discovered that an unauthorized person logged onto her township computer and reported the breach to the police. Crotty responded by having the locks to the assessor's office changed, but according to Bardusk, Crotty never gave her a key, essentially locking her out of her own office before her term expired.
Crotty is on record claiming she had no choice but to change the locks and told the SouthTown Star at the time that Bardusk and her staff were never locked out of the building.
Bardusk counters that she is less concerned with getting along with the township's politicians and more interested in being a champion of her constituents.
“I’m not a political team player,” she said. “I work for the people and am here to provide services."
She also stressed a wealth of experience that in her estimation her opponent can’t claim. In addition to having served as a township trustee, she was elected taxpayer advocate of Oak Forest, where one of her duties was handling property tax appeals.
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