Village Manager Association

Do you want to help continue the progress Oak Park is making in the areas of fiscal responsibility, diversity, and balanced economic growth? Do you have a positive attitude and a desire to work with an outstanding team?

We need you!

The Village Manager Association (VMA) is hosting a Wine and Cheese Party at Marion Street Cheese Market on August 26th at 7:00 pm, to meet fellow citizens who may be interested in either:

• Running in the Spring 2009 Village election for Village President, Clerk, or Trustee,

OR

• Joining the Selection Committee, a group of citizens like yourself who will help interview applicants for the above positions and choose the best candidates to run for Village President, Clerk, and Trustee with VMA endorsement.

If you want to learn more about these exciting opportunities, come join us!

Marion Street Cheese Market
101 N. Marion
Oak Park, IL
Tuesday, August 26th

7:00 pm to 9:00 pm

You can also read more about the Selection Committee. If you have any questions, contact Bob Tucker at (708)386-3228 or robert_g_tucker@comcast.net

Within the business community of Oak Park, many investments have occurred during the past year or so: the expansions of Maya del Sol, Marion Street Cheese Market, and The Book Table; the opening of three new businesses on Marion Street; the opening of Trattoria 225 and Fitness Formula Club; the re-opening of Cucino Paradiso; and the remodeling of Papaspiros. Within the next year we should see the much-anticipated Trader Joe’s opening, changes at Forest & Lake, the building of the Soho residences, and various Madison, North Avenue, and Harrison Street developments. In addition, many of us are putting in monies to upgrade our commercial buildings to not only create a better place for our employees, but to restore some very attractive historic buildings.

One of the keys in moving our business community along (both retail and commercial), is to have a village board that has the vision and passion to see the value of development, and how that development provides not only better services and lifestyles for our community, but a significant tax base for all.

I want to personally thank the current Village Board of Trustees for their many hours spent in study, planning, listening, and discussing the various options that will be the greatest benefit to our community. With over 30 business building vacancies, the current economic climate, and the shortage of $1.3 million in tax revenues (versus forecast), we must continue to have a strong, broad-minded, supportive Village Board of Trustees.

As a “large” cheerleader for Oak Park, a board member of the Village Manager Association (VMA), and a local business person, I want to personally encourage many of you who are “on the fence” about local government to participate in our VMA Selection process. Whether you are interested in running for one of the five positions open next year, or are interested in joining the Selection Committee (a group of citizens like yourself who will help interview applicants starting in early September for the open positions, and will choose the best candidates to run for Village President, Clerk, and Trustee with VMA endorsement), you can learn more by coming to our Marion Street Cheese Market Event on Tuesday, August 26th beginning at 7:00 pm. You can also contact Bob Tucker via www.vma-oakpark.org/selection or robert_g_tucker@comcast.net.

Volunteering for the VMA Selection process could be a very rewarding experience for you….and also very important for our great community.

Sincerely,

Paul Beckwith
VMA Board Member
2007 Dominican “Entreprenur of the Year”
President of The Sachem Company

I am pleased to announce that the Village Manager Association (VMA) is now in the process of actively recruiting Village President, Clerk and Trustee candidates for the next Village election in the spring of 2009. I am honored to chair the VMA committee that has the straight forward task of finding outstanding candidates who will make outstanding elected officials.

We are looking for those individuals who have a positive attitude and the necessary skills, background, character and desire to effect change in our community. These jobs can be difficult at times, but they also can be very rewarding.

While a great deal of attention will be given to national politics in the months ahead, important local issues are facing our Village now and will continue to face our Village in the years ahead. In the last Village election, the VMA endorsed slate of the Citizens for Progressive Action candidates, Ray Johnson, Jon Hale, John Hedges, and Jan Pate, received the overwhelming support of the electorate, and since their swearing in as Trustees, the Village Board has made tremendous progress. The VMA hopes to build on that progress.

If you want to be part of a group that can work together for accountable, responsive and fiscally responsible government, ongoing and inclusive diversity, and balanced and sensitive economic growth, then I urge you to contact us. Applicants for Village President, Clerk and Trustee will be interviewed by a volunteer group of citizens later this fall. These citizens will then choose the bestqualified candidates to receive the VMA endorsement for the next election.

VMA endorsed candidates have served Oak Park with great distinction. Once elected, our candidates listen and learn from members of the community and make informed decisions for the benefit of all Oak Park. If you would like to learn more about the VMA selection process, please go to our website at vma-oakpark.org/selection. You can also call us at 386-3228 or e-mail us at BobTucker@vma-oakpark.org. If you would like to submit an application for Village President, Clerk or Trustee or serve on the citizen committee which will recommend a VMA candidates endorsement, please contact us.

Robert Tucker
Chair, VMA Candidate Recruitment Committee

One year ago, with the overwhelming support of the electorate and the swearing in of the Village Manager Association’s (VMA) endorsed slate of the Citizens for Progressive Action candidates, Ray Johnson, Jon Hale, John Hedges, and Jan Pate, Oak Park took a giant step forward. Take a look at what has changed:

• The Oak Park Village Board meetings are no longer an embarrassment. We see a return to responsible, civil discourse at the Board’s table with fewer meetings, which end at reasonable hours, giving both Board members and members of the public sensible opportunities for engagement.
• This Board has addressed the serious Village fund balance issues by making difficult cost cutting moves, with plans to monitor the process throughout the year in advance of the next budget session. Over $3.5M in nonessential expenses was cut from the 2008 budget. Village-owned properties are being sold and returned to the tax rolls.
• Concrete action has occurred despite the very challenging economic times. For example, continued capital improvement throughout the Village is taking place, with a renewed emphasis on street resurfacing and alley reconstruction. The village is reaching out to Springfield and Washington, D.C. to secure State and Federal dollars for added capital improvement and infrastructure projects.
• Movement is occurring on the Colt/Westgate area. The Board has implemented the new idea of competition with development teams, which is aiding this movement.
• Public safety initiatives have been started, along with police deployment reviews with Police Chief Tanksley.
• The Village is working strategically with its neighbors as evidenced by: outreach to Chicago Aldermen for North Avenue improvements; partnerships with Berwyn and Cicero for Roosevelt Road improvements; and continued inter-governmental cooperation with Forest Park and River Forest for resource sharing.
• Efforts toward becoming a sustainable community have increased, demonstrated by Oak Park hosting Green Town, the Barrie Park Green Homes RFQ, the Bike Plan, and the recent effort to consolidate commercial waste collection.
• The Board has focused on improved parking efficiencies and cost/expense ratios designed to reduce the parking fund deficit.
• Work has started on a new vacancy ordinance that would seek to reduce the number of commercial vacancies in the village by encouraging building owners’ efforts and progress and improvements to properties.

Three cheers for this outstanding team, which, true to its name, has made PROGRESS and ACTION the new theme of Oak Park governance.

Sincerely,

Bob Kane
President of the VMA Board of Directors

Click here to see video of the event.

Forty years ago, Oak Park made history and became a beacon for change for the entire United States. It was one of the first municipalities in the country to adopt and enforce its own Fair Housing Ordinance.

The Oak Park Fair Housing Ordinance protects the rights of individuals of any race to purchase or rent a home. As simple as it sounds today, in 1968, it was groundbreaking.

The Fair Housing Ordinance, and the philosophy behind it, are part of Oak Park’s culture—not only did it prevent white flight, but it protected Oak Park’s diversity in the future. This didn’t happen easily. In the 1960s, white families were leaving neighborhoods bordering Oak Park, and there were many who feared that a pro-integration law such as the Fair Housing Ordinance would cause housing declines and white flight here too. Amid protests and demonstrations, courageous visionaries fought for and helped pass the legislation. The family members of some of those visionaries joined the VMA on Sunday, March 30th, 2008, for a recollection of those times.

• The family of the late John Gearen, Sr—John was a VMA endorsed Trustee who was on the Board and voted for the legislation.
• Former Village President Jim McClure and his wife Lynn—Jim was also a VMA endorsed legislator, and as Village President in 1969, he was involved in the challenges Oak Park faced in enforcing this groundbreaking ordinance.
• The family of the late John Donaker, Sr.—John was Village President in 1968, when the Fair Housing Ordinance was passed, and was an important advocate for the legislation. Former VMA Trustee Rupert Wenzel recalls him as “being very open to listening to everybody”…“not afraid to take action when that was needed”, and was “one of the finest people [he had] ever known.

At the event on Sunday, John Gearen, Jr. and Jim McClure made a few comments about those times, and were joined by three of our current VMA Trustees, Ray Johnson, John Hedges, and Jan Pate, who made some remarks as well. VMA member Pauline Coffman also added her recollections of how Oak Park’s leadership was recognized throughout the United States.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4