Oak Park candidates facing petition challenges will have a matter of days to submit their legal briefs as they seek to remain on the April 4 ballot.
Trustee candidate Emily Masalski and village clerk candidates Mas Takiguchi and Elia Gallegos are three of the six candidates defending their petitions in front of the village’s electoral board, which first met Jan. 5. The board asked candidates and challengers to file their legal briefs by the end of the day Jan. 9, and the board will reconvene at 3 p.m. Jan. 12 to discuss the challenges.
The board is made up of Mayor Anan Abu-Taleb, Trustee Colette Lueck and Village Clerk Teresa Powell.
Prior to her hearing, Masalski asked Abu-Taleb to recuse himself from the board, citing an earlier meeting between the two. Masalski said she met Abu-Taleb for breakfast at George’s Restaurant on Dec. 27, and she said he asked her “how he could convince me not to run for Oak Park trustee.”
Abu-Taleb said he was meeting with her, and all candidates, to offer assistance prior to Election Day, and said he was merely joking.
“We had a lot of laughs, and we discussed a lot of stuff about the village,” Abu-Taleb said. “At one point, like a friend saying to their friend who’s about to get married, you say ‘Are you sure you want to do this?’ and ‘Can I talk you out of it?’ That is how I presented that to Emily that day. I said to her, I want to make sure that was a joke. If you misunderstood that, let me apologize right now.”
Masalski said she wanted to bring up the issue to be sure there was “no appearance of conflict of interest or bias” during the hearing.
“I had to raise it for the record,” Masalski said. “It was the very first thing you said to me as we sat down. As you said, we had never met prior to that date. I had just met you for the first time in person. There could be the appearance of bias that could affect my right to a fair and impartial proceeding. That’s all.”
Village Attorney Paul Stephanides said since Abu-Taleb, Lueck and Powell are not running for village trustee or village clerk in April that there is no conflict of interest and each can remain on the electoral board.
The three candidates face challenges from residents Kevin Peppard and George Lazewski, who each take issue with each candidate’s filing petitions.
In challenging Takiguchi’s petition, Peppard alleges several of the candidate’s petition sheets are “invalid for lack of notarization,” while one sheet is an “invalid affidavit” due to issues with the signatures of relatives of Takiguchi. Peppard alleges one sheet has one notary signature crossed out, replaced with a second signature.
Peppard also alleges page 24 of Takiguchi’s 26-page petition is missing, while pages 20-23 do not contain a signature from notary Doug Weismantle, who simply drew “four stars where his signature was required.”
Takiguchi said the issues with the crossed out signature was “made in a rush” as they were filed at 4:59 p.m. on the deadline day, while saying he filed his completed petition in full with the village, and guessed the page was lost following its submission. Takiguchi also said Weismantle actually signs his name as four five-point stars as shown on a copy of Weismantle’s driver’s license, which he provided to the board.
“It creates a greater level of security and less susceptible to forgery,” Takiguchi said. “He signed it, he witnessed those 50 signatures and he notarized it.”
Regarding Gallegos, Peppard alleges she “failed to fasten those papers in any manner,” which he says makes them invalid.
“They were not fastened in any way,” Peppard said. “I cited an Illinois appellate court case from this district that says that’s fatal.”
Gallegos acknowledged the petition sheets she filed were not fastened together, but she asked the board to rule in her favor.
“I do understand that’s a fatal error, however, I would say my bid packet contained the required notarized forms and signatures required by the election code,” Gallegos said. “I am respectfully asking that my name remain on the ballot for village clerk.”
Though Peppard and Lazewski each have similar allegations against Masalski’s petition, the two will move forward with separate challenges against the trustee candidate. Both allege her 118 signatures collected are not enough to appear on the ballot.
“I contend 251 signatures are required to be on the ballot,” Peppard said. “I’m not contesting the signatures’ validity. I’m saying there’s not enough of them.”
Masalski said she was following information provided in a 2017 candidate’s guide, which she said came from the Illinois State Board of Elections, and felt she filed the proper number of signatures required.
Peppard also alleges Masalski submitted the nominating papers without specifying a date of election, sought to run as a nonpartisan where only independent and partisan were available and filed for a primary election when she meant consolidated election.
“His petition lacks specificity and fails to set forth a specific Illinois state law to support his position,” Masalski said.
Twitter: @steveschering
