What is the Lake Forest Caucus
The Lake Forest Caucus is a group of elected volunteers who find volunteers to serve the City of Lake Forest. We estimate to save residents more than $100,000 each year through the work we do. Everything the Caucus does has checks and balances for added trust and transparency.
Since 1935, the mission of the Lake Forest Caucus has been to provide an open, independent, nonpartisan process for recommending qualified citizen volunteers to serve in Lake Forest government and on the school boards. All Lake Forest registered voters are members of the Caucus.
The Lake Forest Caucus identifies, vets and nominates residents for placement on local election ballots as Caucus candidates for City wide offices of Mayor, Alderman, District 67 and District 115 school boards. The Caucus also interviews and recommends, each year, over 100 volunteers for open positions on the 22 boards and committees (i.e. Plan, Historic Preservation, Parks and Recreation, and Library) to provide leadership, establish policy and oversee budgets.
You can think of the Caucus as an insurance policy for the City, by giving members of the community confidence that a community based search and review process has been conducted for all candidates. However, the Caucus only recommends candidates. The Mayor approves all appointments that do not require public vote by the residents of Lake Forest.