The Board of Managers of the River Forest Civic Center Authority voted unanimously Aug. 4 to dissolve the entity and turn over the aging River Forest Civic Center building, 8020 Madison St., to the Village of River Forest effective Sept. 29. River Forest’s village board must approve the consolidation of the Civic Center Authority into the village for the transfer to take effect but that is not expected to be a problem.
Village President Cathy Adduci wrote in a statement to Wednesday Journal that the village board will consider the consolidation at a meeting in September.
John Becvar and Keith Strom, civic center authority managers, met with the village board in closed session on June 22, presumably to discuss the transfer.
“Tonight’s vote is about what entity has the greatest chance of keeping the building open,” said Phillip Buta, one of the five members of the center’s board of managers, at Tuesday’s 24-minute meeting.
The Civic Center Authority, which is being dissolved, was created in 1984 to manage the Civic Center building that was purchased with the help of a $1.9 million state grant and a public/private partnership. By law, the center’s board consists of the members of the River Forest Township Board.
The Civic Center building was built in 1955 for Laidlaw Publishing, a textbook publisher. It was purchased in 1991 by the Civic Center Authority with the help of the state grant and smaller contributions from River Forest Township, the Village of River Forest, and the River Forest Community Center. Its largest tenant has been the River Forest Community Center which essentially managed the building until last year when the Civic Center Authority took control of managing and leasing the building. Other tenants include River Forest Township, Opportunity Knocks, which serves people with disabilities, CAYR Connections, which serves neurodivergent people.
Adduci said in her statement that the civic center is “an important community asset” and that the village government is “committed to ensuring it continues to serve our residents for years to come.”
According to a report completed by the architectural firm FGMA, the Civic Center building needs between $4.4 and $4.9 million of work in the next couple of years including a new roof. The Civic Center Authority does not have the power to levy taxes, its revenue comes only from the rental payments it receives from tenants and users of the building, and thus does not have the money to pay for the needed work on the building.
Becvar, the supervisor of River Forest Township and a member of the civic center board, said the organization has a cash reserve of only approximately $150,000.
“The authority is operating in a cash positive situation from operating expenses, meaning rent is covered to run the building, but does not have the money to put in capital type projects,” Becvar said at the Aug. 4 meeting.
The meeting was attended by only three members of the public: Community Center executive director Jonathan Livingston, Opportunity Knocks executive director Mike Carmody, and concerned citizen Margie Cekander, a close observer of River Forest government.
Livingston and Cekander made public comments before the vote.
Livingston said the village taking over the building is the best way forward.
“The village acquiring the building is less a takeover than an extended lease on life for the Community Center,” Livingston said. “Over recent years, the mounting capital improvements needed for the building have become an albatross. The RFCCA, which lacks the authority of a taxing body, would have had no recourse but to substantially raise rents on the existing tenants, likely causing tenants to relocate in the face of such rising costs. The Village of River Forest provides a necessary and common-sense solution to making sure that the Community Center, Opportunity Knocks, and CAYR connections can continue to serve the broader community at its current location while alleviating the existential threats currently impairing the building itself.”
Livingston suggested the village could use revenue from its TIF district to pay for the necessary work on the building.
“Village leadership, which has long supported the Civic Center’s tenants and their mission-driven programs, has offered to step-in and provide a path forward to addressing the capital improvement needs through leveraging TIF,” Livingston said. “It is important to note that using TIF money for addressing these building improvements does not lead to an increase in property taxes overall for River Forest residents. Additionally, because of the Civic Center building already being property tax exempt, there is no potential for this TIF investment to have any effect on increasing individual property taxes because it is not providing an exemption to an entity that had previously been responsible to remit property taxes to the village. This is a necessary, collaborative, and ultimately hopeful development in our community. We should embrace it and look forward to the years ahead.”
Cekander was more critical.
She questioned why the consolidation of the Civic Center Authority into the village was voted upon as an item of new business on the meeting’s agenda. Typically, boards don’t vote on items in new business. The more common pattern is to discuss a new business item one meeting and then vote on the matter at the next meeting as old business although it is not illegal to vote on an item of new business and it does sometimes occur. Even though the idea of dissolving the Civic Center Authority and giving the building to the village was discussed, with a two page frequently asked questions attachment to the agenda, at the July 14 meeting of the Civic Center Authority Board of Managers Cekander accused the board members of rushing the dissolution through.
“It’s unusual for governing boards to have a vote on an issue identified as new business,” Cekander said. “Most boards post new business to advise constituents well in advance of a vote.”
Cekander said the issue should be decided in a referendum. Cekander said that Adduci has long wanted the village to take over the Civic Center.
“This is Adducci’s third attempt to take the Civic Center in 12 years,” Cekander said. “You are her tool, whether you are aware of it or not. This process should be open and transparent; this is closed and secret, unnecessarily so.”
After the meeting members of the civic center board were tight lipped about why they voted on an item of new business. The dissolution was approved in a meeting that was called one week earlier than the regularly scheduled meeting. Typically the Board of Managers meet the same evening, and right after, a meeting of the township board. The next meeting of the River Forest Township Board is Aug. 11. Becvar said the Board of Managers meeting was pushed up a week because the township board will vote Aug. 11 to accept his resignation as township supervisor. Last year Becvar was the driving force in reasserting the Civic Center Authority’s control over the management and leasing of the Civic Center, which had been done for decades by the Community Center. Becvar apparently wanted to make sure that the decision to turn the Civic Center over to the village and dissolve the Civic Center Authority was made before he left the township board and hence the Civic Center Authority Board of Managers.
Becvar declined to comment when asked how long he had been thinking of turning over the Civic Center to the village.