MWRD Comms. Kari Steele, Marcelino Garcia and Precious Brady-Davis and commissioner-elect Sharon Waller. [MWRD website/Waller campaign site]

Three Democrats retained their seats on the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District (MWRD) of Greater Chicago’s Board of Commissioners Tuesday night, and a fourth Democrat is set to replace an outgoing commissioner.

The MWRD is responsible for protecting area waterways and Lake Michigan, treating wastewater and providing stormwater management for Chicago and suburban Cook County.

The board usually has at least three seats up for election on its nine-member board each cycle as members serve staggered six-year terms, but a fourth seat was up this year after a commissioner vacated a seat in the middle of her term. 

President Kari Steele, a Democrat who was first elected to the board of commissioners in 2012, won a third six-year term on the board. 

Steele, a chemist and licensed real estate broker, is in her third two-year term as board president following her election to that role by the board in 2019. When she was selected to become president, she became the first Black woman to be the board’s president. 

Comm. Marcelino Garcia, the board’s finance chair, won his second term on the board. Garcia, a public interest law attorney who also worked as the community affairs director at Cook County Health, was first elected in 2018. 

Comm. Precious Brady-Davis will also serve an additional two years on the board after winning a special contest against R. Cary Capparelli with 67.9 percent of the vote. Brady-Davis was appointed to the board by Gov. JB Pritzker in July 2023 after former commissioner Kimberly du Buclet was appointed to the Illinois General Assembly.

Brady-Davis is a former deputy press secretary and regional communications manager for the Sierra Club and the first Black transgender woman to hold office in Cook County. 

"Together, we’ve made history," Brady-Davis said in a social media post Tuesday night. "Over the next two years, I’ll fight to protect Lake Michigan, champion environmental justice, and amplify voices too long ignored. The work continues."

Democrat Sharon Waller, a licensed water engineer and small business owner, won a six-year term on the board with % of the vote. Waller will replace outgoing Democratic Comm. Daniel Pogorzelski, who placed fourth in the primary. Pogorzelski was elected to a two-year term in 2022 to serve out the remainder of former Comm. Debra Shore’s term.

Pogorzelski was the Democrats’ only slated MWRD candidate to lose in the primary.