For the first time in eight years, Elmhurst residents will be voting for a new mayor to represent the city, and the race, which features three aldermen, is on.

When Steve Morley announced he would not be running for a third term as mayor, 7th Ward Alderman Mark Mulliner announced he would be running for the position. Mulliner has served on the City Council for 22 years and, as the longest-serving alderman, has served the past six months as mayor pro tempore in the absence of Morley.

Mulliner is not the only mayoral candidate with previous experience serving as mayor. Scott Levin served as mayor for a six-month period in 2013. Levin was elected mayor after Morley’s predecessor, Peter DiCianni, resigned mid-term to take a seat on the DuPage County Board.

“I think I bring vast history to the community that is a little bit different than what everybody else can bring to the table,” said Mulliner, a lifelong Elmhurst resident. “I’m very proud of this community. I think I’ve done a lot for this community.”

Mulliner ran in the 2013 election against Morley and Diane Gutenkauf, who also served on the City Council at the time. Morley beat the other two candidates with 43% of the vote, and Mulliner returned to a seat on the council.

Michael Bram, who has served as 3rd Ward alderman for 20 years, also is running for mayor, and falls in between Levin’s 10 years on the City Council and Mulliner’s 22 years. Bram said he has a citywide reputation as a leader and has taken the lead on many issues within Elmhurst such as stormwater and budget concerns, as well as recycling efforts. Bram has served on three of the four committees on the City Council and was vice chairman on one of those committees.

“I’m not aware of any other community … within this area that does not allow ALS equipment on their fire engines … except Elmhurst,” Bram said. “I think this is the time that I should take my leadership, knowledge and experience to the next level.”

For more than 40 years, the city has contracted its ambulance services to a private company and, while the issue is of utmost importance to Bram’s campaign, opposing candidates have differing views on whether the city should create an advanced life support firehouse and the costs of doing it.

Levin, who has served as chairman of the public affairs and safety committee, as well as on the development and planning committee, and is vice chairman of the finance committee, said he believes Bram is “ahead of the curve” and “naïve” in his cost estimate of providing ALS. Mulliner said he agreed that the timing would not be appropriate for this issue.

“Let’s not kid ourselves, these are bargainable issues, so if we start expanding from our model of a private contracted service to having our firefighters take on additional duties, that will come to the bargaining table,” Levin said. “I guarantee you [that] will result in increased costs as we are now faced with the undeniable conclusion that [they] would [be] doing more.”

Bram’s platform is heavily focused on this topic, and he said he believes the first thing to be done should be supplying paramedics with advanced life support equipment. He said his estimates show that the cost of supplying ALS equipment to fire engines would be between $75,000 and $80,000, allowing firefighters who arrive on the scene first to administer advanced life support.

Currently, the fire engines are equipped with basic medical equipment such as oxygen and defibrillators, Mulliner said. With the issue a referral before the public affairs committee, Mulliner and Levin said that is where the decision should be made and further evaluated because he believes costs of salaries alone would amount to $2.5 million.