Brookfield’s PEP Party has announced its endorsements for the board of trustees consolidated election in April, including three incumbent board members, a parks and recreation commissioner and a former LaGrange District 102 school board president.
Village President Mike Garvey and Trustees Kit Ketchmark and Jennifer Hendricks will run for re-election alongside Kyle Whitehead, who is running for trustee, and Michael Melendez, who is running for village clerk, the PEP Party recently announced. The party has controlled the village board since 2007.
The three incumbents are running for a second term in their respective positions following their uncontested election in 2021, Brookfield’s first in living memory.
Trustee Edward Côté, who has held his seat since 2017, confirmed in an email to the Landmark that he is ineligible to run again after his two consecutive terms on the board.
Village Clerk Brigid Weber has also reached her term limit and cannot run again. Weber has been clerk twice, first from 2006-13 and then from 2015 on. In 2006, she was appointed to the position after former Clerk Dan Raddatz resigned before she was elected in 2007 to finish his term and re-elected for a full term in 2009.
In 2015, Weber was reappointed as clerk to finish the term of Cathy Colgrass Edwards, her successor, after Edwards’ death. She was elected to keep her seat in 2017 and 2021.
The PEP Party’s endorsed candidates traditionally run as a slate, which simplifies the process of collecting signatures for nominating petitions. While residents outside of the party may seek to file to run independently for an open seat, the Landmark has not identified any other candidates.
Whitehead has served as a parks and recreation commissioner since 2020. The next year, he co-founded the Brookfield Parks and Recreation Foundation, which fundraises to provide financial support to low-income families in town who cannot afford parks and recreation programming. He now serves as the president of the foundation’s board. Professionally, Whitehead advocates for safe and sustainable public transit, now at the Regional Transportation Agency and previously at the Active Transportation Alliance.
In an interview with the Landmark, Whitehead said running for the village board felt like a natural progression of his community involvement since he and his family moved to Brookfield in 2018.
“As I got more involved as a volunteer with the village, I got to know more people, both elected officials and village staff, and [I’ve been] really impressed by their work and their commitment and their contributions to the community,” he said. “That motivated me to want to continue to stay involved. Eventually, some of them asked me over the last year or so if I would be interested in running for village board, and I saw that as the next step from a lot of the work that I’ve been doing.”
Whitehead said he was excited to learn he had been endorsed and that he looks forward to possibly joining a strong group of volunteers and staffers who keep Brookfield running.
“There’s a level of nervousness that comes with it. It’s a significant responsibility, and I want to make sure I can do it well, but I’m confident based on the work I’ve done in the community so far and the people I’ve gotten to know,” he said.
Melendez has lived in Brookfield for 12 years. He was elected to the D102 school board in 2017, re-elected in 2021 and appointed by the board as president in 2020, a role he served until 2023. He is now finishing the rest of his term as a board member.
According to his PEP biography, Melendez has practiced law for nearly 20 years, now serving the manager of the University of Illinois System’s Chicago legal office and the chief legal counsel for the University of Illinois Chicago.
Melendez did not respond to the Landmark’s requests for comment on his endorsement by the time of publication. As Brookfield’s outgoing clerk, Weber said in an email that she endorses Melendez, who “will definitely be an asset to the village.”
Garvey is seeking his sixth consecutive term on the board and his fourth overall term as village president; he first held the seat from 2005-13 before serving as a trustee from 2013-21. This would be his second consecutive term as president.
Ketchmark served as a trustee from 2001-09 and again from 2011-2013. He took over as board president from 2013-21 before returning as a trustee four years ago.
Hendricks was first elected as a trustee in 2021 after being a member of Brookfield’s planning and zoning commission.
All three incumbents said they were pleased to hear the PEP Party had endorsed them to seek re-election.
“Serving my hometown as an elected official for all these years has been a tremendous honor, and I’m more energized than ever about doing it going forward, so I was very happy to be chosen,” Garvey said.
“I thank the PEP party for the nomination to my re-election as village trustee,” Ketchmark said. “If re-elected, I look forward to continuing on with the many projects we have started and seeing them come to fruition.”
“I’m very pleased. I realized early on in this adventure that this is a challenge that I kind of love. I love being a trustee,” Hendricks said. “It’s very rewarding to know that I’m working to better the community and help out my neighbors.”
