Tinley Park incumbents yank official photos from campaign website
BY STEVE METSCH smetsch@southtownstar.com January 31, 2013 7:54PM
Steve Eberhardt
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Updated: March 2, 2013 12:07PM
Chalk one up for Tinley Park mayoral candidate Steve Eberhardt and his running mates.
Earlier this week they filed a complaint with the Illinois State Board of Elections, alleging their incumbent opponents in the municipal race improperly used taxpayer-funded portrait photos in campaign materials. Now those photos have been yanked from the Team Tinley website.
In their place are candid shots — four of which appear to have been taken at some outdoor event — of Mayor Ed Zabrocki, Clerk Pat Rea and trustees Dave Seaman, Brian Maher and T.J. Grady. All five are running for election April 9.
The photos previously used were the same as those hanging in the village hall and featured on the village website.
Grady’s cost the village $480 in March 2011, according to village records obtained by Eberhardt.
“When I went online (Thursday) morning, they had been changed,” Eberhardt said of the Team Tinley site.
Seaman also had changed his photo on his Facebook page, going from the official shot to a different photo.
“I feel pretty good they made an admission. I give Pat Rea a lot of credit for saying that everybody has to follow the rules,” Eberhardt said, referring to a comment Rea made this week regarding the complaint.
Rea, however, said plans already were in place to change the photos, and it wasn’t done in response to the complaint.
“To my knowledge, the photos were due to be changed this week. Was it lucky that the change came at this point? Did we rush it? I don’t think so,” Rea said.
Eberhardt said the incumbents took care of the problem.
“It’s better than it was,” he said.
