On Jan. 14, the Cook County Electoral Board validated the Petition for Referendum and placed it on the March ballot.
In just two weeks, a small group of residents galvanized a community-wide, monumental effort to successfully complete the petition drive to force a backdoor referendum on the funding of the controversial, proposed $37.5 million Oak Park and River Forest High School pool and the demolition of the community/high school garage, with its long-term parking and safety ramifications.
The petition drive was a grass-roots effort, the likes of which had not been seen in Oak Park and River Forest in more than a generation.
In an effort to invalidate the petition, two members of the pool lobby filed an objection with the Cook County Board of Elections. Their objection was filled with false allegations of fraud. It included questioning signatures of friends and neighbors who signed the petition in the presence of petitioners. According to the visitor log at the Cook County Board of Elections over a three-day period in December, 15 members of the pool lobby spent over 110 hours poring over the pages of the petition in an effort to keep the pool’s funding off the ballot and to deny taxpayers a vote on the project. That speaks volumes.
Contrary to allegations in the objection, residents used the school board-issued petition form and adhered to its guidelines. Petitioners collected signatures going door-to-door in their neighborhoods and at publicized sites in the villages. There were no paid petition gatherers. Repeatedly, signers of the petition thanked petitioners for their time and efforts, all done in the hope of putting the pool’s funding on the ballot so all the taxpayers of Oak Park and River Forest, not just the seven taxpayers who sit on the school board, could vote on this massive, long-term public works project that would change the landscape of our community for at least the next 50 years.
On Monday, Jan. 11, a Cook County Board of Elections hearing officer ruled in favor of the Petition for Referendum and recommended that the three-member Electoral Board overrule the objection, validate the petition and place it on the ballot.
The following evening, Jan. 12, the high school emailed a memo from school board President Jeff Weissglass that stated the school board has the right to withdraw its resolution of intent to issue the non-referendum bonds and remove the referendum question from the ballot in March, deferring it to November. The memo also announced that a special meeting would be held on Jan. 14 to hear public comment on the subject, with the school board decision to be rendered at a meeting on Jan. 19.
The Petition for Referendum is a voting rights issue. Residents of Oak Park and River Forest were outraged that the school board chose to bypass voters on this controversial project that would level the heavily-used, community and high school parking garage and build an 11-lane, 50-meter, Olympic-size pool on the site.
Citizens should never have to gather thousands of signatures to force elected officials to put major funding projects on the ballot through a backdoor referendum. Non-referendum bond issues should be abolished in Illinois. Elected officials should be required to put funding for all major, long-term projects to referendum.
That’s a good policy and good governance. Just put it on the ballot, and let us vote. That’s the way it’s done in many states, why not here?
State Senator Don Harmon, are you listening?
Bruce Kleinman, Maureen Kleinman and Monica Sheehan are residents of Oak Park.