It has come to our attention that Mayor Anan Abu-Taleb planned to ask for consent to appoint former trustee Glenn Brewer to the Plan Commission at Monday night’s village board meeting. He will take the place of Mark Gartland, whose term was not renewed.
This is unacceptable for many reasons.
1. No notice of a vacancy on the Plan Commission was given to the public.
2. There was no opportunity for other community members to apply for this vacancy, as the Plan Commission has not published any minutes since January (and has not met since then, either).
3. Mark Gartland was a former park district commissioner. Glenn Brewer was defeated in the election, partly due to part dissatisfaction with the “development at any cost” attitude of the mayor. Glenn was seen as one of his “yes” votes.
4. The mayor/president has a right to appoint someone to the Plan and Zoning commissions. All other commissions have a process where people can apply and be interviewed by a citizen committee, then recommended to the trustees. Why are the Zoning and Plan commissions not part of that process? This exception gives way too much power to the mayor/president.
This action is not acceptable when a hotly debated project like the Albion development is in the pipeline.
Laura Stamp
Oak Park resident and member of Austin Guards
Austinguards.org
