When Thornton Township special meeting moderator Prince Reed announced the name of Stephanie Wiedeman as nominee for trustee, a sea of yellow voting paddles shot into the air and most of the people in the packed field house at South Suburban College erupted in a sustained ovation that lasted nearly a minute.
The crowd of more than 500 people subsided when Reed asked electors to be seated but keep their paddles in the air so Township Clerk Loretta Wells and helpers could get an accurate vote count.
Two other township residents were nominated for the position, Charles Rayburn and Carol Cook. According to Wells, Rayburn received five votes, Cook received 80 votes and Wiedeman received 465.
When Reed announced that Wiedeman had won the vote, the crowd rose to its feet and broke out in cheers again, chanting her name.
The meeting was called by Wells after more than 60 days had passed following former Trustee Jerry Jones’ resignation on Oct. 7, 2024. Supervisor Tiffany Henyard was unable to appoint a successor during a three-month stalemate with trustees Carmen Carlisle and Chris Gonzalez.
The two trustees boycotted most of the regular and special board meetings since Jones’ resignation in order to prevent Henyard from appointing someone to the vacant seat.
After taking the oath of office, Wiedeman talked to reporters between hugs from supporters.
“This means the stalemate is over,” Wiedeman said, noting that her goal is to help “get things up and running again. We definitely have a checklist of things that need to be accomplished.”

She listed restoring insurance, passing a new budget and approving the township’s tax levy as top priorities. The lapse in insurance coverage has been especially disruptive during the stalemate, resulting in the closure of township buildings and suspension of transportation programs.
After Henyard filed suit Jan. 10 in an attempt to get the Cook County Circuit Court to compel the two to attend meetings, they showed up to the Jan. 14 meeting long enough to officially open the meeting with a quorum, then called for adjournment and left.
Gonzalez said the outcome of the vote Tuesday was what he hoped for, because it shifts the balance of power on the board.
“Although (the stalemate strategy) was unorthodox, this is what we felt needed to happen,” he said. “We want to bring more accountability, more responsibility to the entire board, to the entire township.”
Gonzalez has long claimed that the Henyard administration was not transparent enough about spending. He regularly voted against motions to pay the bills as a means of protest. He has said the list of payments was not provided to trustees far enough in advance to allow a thorough review.
Whether Wiedeman’s appointment will change that situation is not certain, although Gonzalez said he thinks it will help.
“It will have an effect. It allows us to bring more pressure, to get answers,” he said.

Wiedeman also received support from Democrats of Thornton Township. State Senator and Committeeman Napoleon Harris sent emails out Monday and Tuesday urging township residents to vote for her, touting her experience working for the township. Harris is running for township supervisor in the April 1 election.
Wiedeman was a township employee for two decades, serving under Assessor Cassandra Elston and then as executive assistant to the late supervisor Frank Zuccarelli. She was fired in March 2022 by Henyard and the board shortly after Henyard was appointed to the post following Zuccarelli’s death.
She has had support since then from Henyard opponents. She was elected moderator of the township’s annual meeting last year by acclamation.
Wiedeman expressed gratitude for the community’s support Tuesday night.
“It’s very humbling to see all these people come out and those paddles go up when they say my name. I don’t think anybody could ever get used to that,” she said.
