Sheila Chalmers-Currin said she tells people to leave their politics in the driveway when she has them over for her spicy, Jamaican-influenced Paella every August.
Chalmers-Currin, the mayor of Matteson and now the first Black woman to head the Illinois Municipal League, said she has had politicians from all sides of the aisle gather for music and food at her home, including Gov. JB Pritzker, U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, mayors and education superintendents.
Chalmers-Currin, vice president on the league’s board of directors since 2021, said she intends to bring this experience gathering diverse perspectives into conversation to her new role as president.
She was elected to lead the association Saturday as part of the league’s 112th annual conference at the Hyatt Regency Chicago. Along with being the first Black woman to head the association in its 112-year history, she is also the ninth woman from the Southland to be league president, the first in more than 17 years.
The ceremony Saturday had one of the association’s highest attendance records, she said.
“Here’s an opportunity to not only break open the door but to hold that door open so that others will follow,” Chalmers-Currin said. “Being first comes with a great responsibility and you want to make sure that you do it the right way.”
Chalmers-Currin said the right way is to continue communication and collaboration between different perspectives, something she said she has a history of doing. That is especially important as the league, founded in 1913, advocates for more than a thousand different municipalities.
She said a major part of her success in Matteson is her ability to collaborate with a diligent team. She said it was a difficult time when first elected in 2017, as commercial stores were leaving. Target and Walgreens both closed area stores that year, and the former Lincoln Mall was demolished.
She said she brings her experience dealing with a lot of issues, along with her dual rural and urban experience, as someone raised in Chicago with family ties to farming in Tennessee.
“That’s what I’m hoping that I’ll be able to bring when I come to the table with IML,” Chalmers-Currin said. “Whatever we do, I’m hoping work across the board can make that happen.”
But Chalmers-Currin said her leadership will be different, as she brings her experience of being the first Black woman to head the municipal league.
“I can collaborate and talk about everything that happens in the state of Illinois, but I have a very close relationship with what happens to individuals that look like me,” Chalmers-Currin said.
Chalmers-Currin said she has experience with being a “first,” as she was the first woman to be mayor of Matteson, the first woman elected on the Fire and Police Commission for Illinois and even the first born in her family.
Chalmers-Currin also said her appointment shows people how important the south and southwest suburbs are, where small towns close to Chicago deal with big city issues and problems.
Next summer, she said, the village will host an event highlighting Matteson, where mayors across the state will gather at the village’s Marriot and even see the historical area of the town. She said she plans to highlight areas such as Olympia Fields, Flossmoor, Rich Township and Country Club Hills.
“I tell people all the time that the village of Matteson is not an island,” Chalmers-Currin said. “We’re all connected. What affects Matteson affects all the other communities around us.”
Rich Township Supervisor Calvin Jordan, the first Black president of the Township Officials of Cook County, said the south suburban community was proud to see Chalmers-Currin sworn in Saturday.
“It means a lot,” he said.
Chalmers-Currin will meet with league leadership in Springfield on Oct. 24 to discuss legislative moves, of which she said there are ongoing conversations.
Chalmers-Currin said she plans to advocate for the elimination of some mandates on communities, such as new equipment for body camera requirements.
She also said addressing transit in the Chicago area, managing the grocery tax, replacing lead pipes, funding for education and having a third airport are important.
But there is not one single initiative, she said, that is more important than another because the league represents a diverse number of municipalities across the state from rural to urban and from different political parties.
“I never want anyone to think that because I’m from a particular area that I’ll just be advocating for that area. When the state of Illinois does well as a whole, we all do well, and I’ll be advocating for all the things that affect mayors,” Chalmers-Currin said.
She said while she can push the envelope, it takes the entire municipal league team working collaboratively to accomplish, something she learned from working with past President Deborah Frank Feinen from Champaign.
Feinen will still sit at the board, where Chalmers-Currin said she can still “grab hold to her” for advice. Chalmers-Currin also said this makes for a unique time at the league, where three women are in major leadership positions: Feinen as past president; Chalmers-Currin as president; and Rita Ali, from Peoria, as vice president.
“It’s a good opportunity to see women in leadership, and you’ve got to talk about the idea that for 112 years that hasn’t happened,” Chalmers-Currin said.
Part of the barrier for women to be in leadership roles at the league, she said, is that you have to be a mayor in order to be an leader, and it can be hard for women to be elected mayor.
Chalmers-Currin said while the league has already made significant accomplishments, she believes there is “so much more” it can accomplish this year.
awright@chicagotribune.com