Fifteen of Oak Park’s volunteer commissions have their marching orders for the next year.
Oak Park’s village board approved 2026 work plans for all but three of the village’s citizen commissions last week. Changes to the work plans from last year ranged from minor adjustments in guiding language to significant adjustments to the commission’s functions for the village.
The most significant changes to any commission work plans came from the Citizen Police Oversight Commission. Reimagining CPOC’s operations and role in village decision making was a significant topic for the village board last year, as trustees voted to accept guidance and recommendations on the commission from Pivot, a consultant hired to study police oversight in the village.
The village board committed last year to supporting the hire of a new DEI staffer, whose responsibilities would include serving as a dedicated liaison to CPOC to help the volunteer body expand its capacity to review citizen complaints about policing and to take on a broader role in assessing policing efforts locally after reviewing the consultant’s recommendations.
The OPPD generally generate only a few citizen complaints each year.
Oak Park’s police oversight committee is significantly older than most of its peers in other cities. Created in 1991, the body hadn’t previously changed much as governments around the country created new police oversight methods and strategies in the wake of high-profile officer-involved incidents — like the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police in 2020.
Other Pivot recommendations the board voted to accept last year included providing the committee with more police department data and standardizing the role CPOC has when the police department looks to adopt a new surveillance technology.
Oak Park’s citizen commissions generally have a very small impact on the village’s budget, with the 18 group’s total operations costing less than $20,000 “over the last several years,” according to village documents. But two commissions filed requests for more than $30,000 in village funds to support marketing efforts for planned projects.
The village’s Disability Access Commission asked for $31,000 to support the local marketing and implementation of AccessAble USA, a digital tool created by Princeton University that provides customized information to disabled people about building accessibility. Oak Park’s Housing Programs Advisory Committee asked for $30,500 “to support additional marketing of village housing programs,” according to village documents.
Staff will first work to see if the village’s communications department can support the marketing goals without earmarking additional village funds. If not, the commissions’ requests will have to go before the village board again for approval, according to village documents.
Other new business for citizen commissions includes the Aging in Communities being tasked with collaborating with village staff to address ageism as a “public health issue” through Oak Park’s community health plan. The Environment and Energy Commission will now also evaluate the village’s energy-related programs on a quarterly basis, including Oak Park’s recently revamped energy grant and loan programs.
Three citizen commissions — the Board of Health, the Farmers Market Commission and the Community Relations Commission — have not yet submitted work plans for 2026.
