Beck and Greenberg will join Park Board of Highland Park

Public-office newcomers Josie Beck and Steven Greenberg ran away from their competition in a race for two seats on the Park District of Highland Park Board of Commissioners.

According to unofficial voting totals from the Lake County Clerk’s Office, Beck earned 2,995 votes, or 44.56% of the turnout, while Greenberg wasn’t too far behind with 2,615 votes and 38.9%. Thomas Vanden Berk is running in third with 1,112 votes.

Beck and Greenberg are set to be seated on the Park Board later this spring and will serve six-year terms. Current board members Cal Bernstein, the board’s president, and Barnett Ruttenberg will leave the board, while Rafael Labrador, in an uncontested election, won a two-year seat on the board Tuesday night.

“I am incredibly excited,” Beck told The Record. “It’s nice to see the work pay off and the support of the community. Now the real work starts. I’m excited that the campaign is over and to be part of team.”

She added that putting together an active campaign is challenging and takes “much more (work) than anyone anticipates.”

But Beck, who is the president of the Parks Foundation of Highland Park, also said that her hard work is likely what set her apart.

“I think I was the most active, the most present (of the candidates),” she said. “I was at an event almost every night for weeks, starting in October. I think what resonated was the energy and enthusiasm, being out there, being present, my work with the parks foundation and the fact that I have young kids. I am a park district super user.”

A 60-year Highland Park resident, Greenberg ran a campaign based on sustainability, hoping to increase outdoors programs for children and preserve Highland Park’s open spaces.

He told The Record that he was pleasantly surprised in the community support for his campaign, both in and out of the voting booth. He said he would have been happy to win by one vote but “felt awesome” seeing more than 2,500 voters back his name.

“I feel like my hard work paid off. I got to reach a lot of people and I said my message and people liked that message and what I was saying,” Greenberg said.

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