An online petition started by a Clarendon Hills resident calls for the village to adopt a recall ordinance through which registered voters can recall elected village officials.
However, enacting a recall ordinance would not be possible because Clarendon Hills is not a home rule municipality, and Illinois law does not permit a local recall process to remove sitting Village Board members.
The online petition, which as of Friday had 157 signatures, was started by Keith Chval, who said he was not aware that the non-home-rule status of Clarendon Hills would prevent the ordinance.
He said he was motivated to start the petition because he believes the Village Board and Village President Eric Tech have not given enough consideration to the opposition expressed by some residents regarding an ongoing Downtown Improvement Plan.
Specifically, Chval referenced the controversial future of a slip lane that is part of the Sloan Triangle at Prospect and Park Avenues and its possible future use as a plaza.
“I have been paying reasonably close attention to the triangle/plaza/slip lane issue,” Chval said. “From what I had seen occur over the many months, it looked to me like, despite a strong push from the Village Board, or at least the president and some number of others, citizens had organized, turned up, and let their voices be heard very strongly that they did not want a plaza and the loss of the slip lane.
“Despite that seemingly strong opposition, the president/board continued to push and try various means to move their vision forward. It seemed like he/they were taking it a bit far, but that was ok as long as they ultimately acceded to citizen demand if they didn’t turn it around to support the plaza/slip lane elimination.”
Acting village manager Paul Dalen said Village Board members have frequently voiced their willingness to engage with residents and address their concerns.
“The residents have every right to speak, organize, criticize public officials and circulate petitions,” he said.
Chval said he was aware before he learned the village could not enact a recall ordinance that if it was possible to do so it most likely couldn’t be done in time to affect the downtown situation.
“The purpose of floating the petition was only for whatever good it might do in letting citizens’ frustrations be heard through another medium and trying to get the board’s recognition of the unpopularity of what they were doing and awareness that the opposition was not just going to fade away if they ignored it long enough,” Chval said.
He said he also believed that if enough people cared and signed the petition, that number would speak to the Village Board about how serious this is to their fellow citizens, and how angry they are about it.
The Village Board recently agreed to proceed with what officials called a compromise that would use temporary bollards to make the slip lane/Sloan Triangle area at times be closed off for events.
Clarendon Hills resident Angie Sartori, who has been very outspoken against any type of plaza where the slip lane is now located, called the compromise a “bait and switch.”
“They now want residents to trade a permanent plaza for a six-month dining plaza that will be completely flat, all at zero-grade, with no traditional sidewalk curbs, furnished with expensive, difficult-to-maintain pavers and controlled with a long line of ugly, non-crash rated permanent parking bollards that will inevitably be buried in winter snow banks,” she said.
Sartori also said a community survey conducted by a village consultant strongly indicates that most residents don’t want any plaza.
“The plaza was widely rejected in comments, and any support for such a notion was meek, at best,” she said.
However, Dalen had a different take.
“The purpose of the survey was not to vote on a plaza, but to garner general sentiment from those participating,” he said. “Looking at the data, it appears that 9.55% of the adult population in Clarendon Hills responded to the survey and generated over 3,000 comments. Of the 3,000 comments, less than 5% mention the plaza. Based on this data, I do not believe this represents the residents of Clarendon Hills as a whole.”
