By Igor Studenkov | For the Bugle
The Niles Municipal Officers Electoral Board will reconvene on Jan. 26, at 2 p.m. to decide whether to keep two referenda launched by local activist Joe Makula on the ballot.
Makula launched a referendum that would require voter approval for the creation of new “tax districts” and expansion of existing ones. He also filed a referendum to reserve two out of the three slots for referenda questions for referenda launched by members of the public. Under the current law, a member of the public or the village board can file a referendum, and only three referenda may go on the ballot.
Niles resident and business owner Jack Drexler filed objections to both referenda. His attorney, James Nally, argued before the board that the referenda were too confusing and, in case of the latter, would violate state law. He also objected to both referendum petitions, saying that not only were there issues with many signatures, but none of the petition sheets were properly notarized. If the board upholds these objections, that would effectively throw out the referenda.
The taxing district referendum would apply to all “tax districts.” While the term isn’t defined in the referendum question, Makula told the Bugle that he meant for it to include Tax Increment Financing districts, property tax based Cook County incentives and other designations that would affect property taxes. He argued that, because any changes in property tax levy would affect voters, they should have the final say over whether they get approved.
According to the copy of the referendum petitions provided to the Bugle, it got total of 804 voter signatures – more than the 637 signatures required by law; 706 of them were collected by Makula himself, nine were collected by his wife, Mary Makula, 10 were collected by former Niles trustee Rosemary Palicki and 79 were collected by Niles resident Robert Cieszykowski.
The referendum drew opposition from the Niles Chamber of Commerce and Industry, as well as current village trustees Dean Strzeleckiand and Denise McCreery, who previously served as the chamber’s board president and director, respectively. They argued that it would hurt Niles economically, since it would limit the board’s ability to offer incentives, and the delay between the business’ application for tax incentives and the vote would drive them to municipalities that would have a quicker process.
The second referendum would reserve at least two out of three referenda slots on the ballot for referenda submitted by members of the public. Under the state law, both the voters and the municipal legislative bodies can put referenda on the ballot, which gets filled on first-come, first-serve basis.
During the March 2016 primary election, the Village of Niles Board of Trustees submitted referenda for all three slots. Two were advisory and nature, and the third, binding referenda would have undone Makula’s November 2014 referendum, which took away village mayors’ power to fill trustee vacancies.
That referendum got 759 signatures, 660 of which were collected by Makula, 10 by his wife, 10 by Palicki and the remaining 79 by Cieszykowski.
Both referenda objections alleged that none of the petition sheets had the “circulator’s signature” field black. And, indeed, most petitions had the circulator’s signature in the “Name of Circulator” field. There were some sheets where the circulator’s name was printed, and the signature was placed right above it, directly to the right of the “circulator’s signature” field. And the two referenda had a total of three sheets where other fields were left blank.
The objections also alleged that, even if the notarization wasn’t an issue, there were enough invalid signatures to put the petitions below the legal minimum. They allege that a total of 215 signatures were invalid on the tax district referendum, while the ballot petition had 178 signatures were invalid on the referenda spots referendum. That would mean that total of eligible signatures would drop to 589 and 582, respectively, less than the legal minimum.
The Niles Electoral Board convened on Jan. 16 to hear the objections. Normally, the board would be made up of the mayor, the village clerk and the longest-serving trustees. But during this meeting, trustee Joe LoVerde was absent, while village clerk Marlene Victorine recused herself because Makula is currently suing her after she rejected his objections to Mayor Andrew Przybylo nomination for the upcoming mayoral elections, on the ground that he didn’t file the legally required number of copies. Trustee George Alpogianis filled her spot.
As the board prepared to hear the petitions, Makula’s attorney Brian Wojcicki filed motions for the rest of the board to recuse themselves, arguing that, as a mayor and the trustee, Przybylo and Alpogianis have an interest in outcome of both referenda. Nally countered that this argument was too vague and speculative, and that there were no legal conflicts.
Keri-Lyn Krafthefer, the Electoral Board attorney, said that, under state law, board members had to recuse themselves if the issue before the board dealt with a position they were running for, if it directly impacted their existing positions or if they were involved in litigation with the one of parties in the issue, if they would need to testify before the board. She advised the board to rule against the objection, and they unanimously voted to agree.
As always in cases where petition eligibility is an issue, the board moved to do a record check, the Cook County Clerk’s office would check them against its voter records, and determine which contested signatures should be stuck. Once the record check is complete, the board would reconvene the review the findings and rule on this and other objections.
To give enough time for the record check, the next meeting was scheduled for Jan. 26, at 2 p.m.
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Niles Municipal Officers Electoral Board, Andrew Przybylo, George Alpogianis, Joe Makula, Dean Strzeleckiand, Denise McCreery,