Village Government
Wilmette is governed by a village board composed of six trustees and a president. Trustees serve staggered, four-year terms and are elected at-large. The current village trustees are Mike Basil, Cameron Krueger, Ted McKenna, Karen Spillers, Alan Swanson, and Mari Terman. The current village president is Chris Canning. Trustee-elects for a four-year term starting in April 2011 are Mike Basil, Bob Bielinski, and Julie Wolf.
In 2004, Wilmette was one of the first localities in Illinois to enact a ban on smoking in all public spaces, including bars and restaurants. Also that year, the village government prosecuted local resident Hale DeMar, age 59, for violating the town's handgun ban when he shot a burglar inside his house.
The handgun ban was enacted in direct response to an incident in 1988 when Laurie Dann opened fire on a classroom full of children in neighboring Winnetka. The handgun ban has since been repealed in 2008 after the U.S Supreme Court struck down a similar ban in Washington DC
Read more about this topic: Wilmette, Illinois
Famous quotes containing the words village and/or government:
“Where village statesmen talked with looks profound,
And news much older than their ale went round.”
—Oliver Goldsmith (1728–1774)
“How does it become a man to behave toward this American government to-day? I answer, that he cannot without disgrace be associated with it. I cannot for an instant recognize that political organization as my government which is the slave’s government also.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)