Glendale Heights tightens grip on raffle licenses

Raffle licenses soon may be overseen by higher officials in Glendale Heights.

Village leaders Thursday night agreed to begin working on an ordinance that will allow only the village administrator to issue raffle licenses. Currently, the village clerk can issue raffle licenses.

The new code would also allow licenses to be issued annually.

Officials declined to comment on whether the direction and potential change has anything to do with Glendale Heights Deputy Clerk Paula Sabatino creating a fake raffle license, then destroying the document -- all after a Veterans of Foreign War gun raffle fallout. Sabatino pleaded guilty in June.

"The responsibility is being shifted from the village clerk's office to the village administrator's office," Assistant Village Administrator Roger Mabbitt said. "It's something that needed to be done."

He said the change is being made to make sure the village is up to code and in line with state regulations.

The raffle license ordinance was last touched in the late 1990s.