Push to create voting districts in Winfield fails

A proposal to change the way Winfield village trustees are elected won't appear on the November ballot because a deadline revision went unnoticed by organizers behind the resident-driven effort.

Tim Allen said he and other residents worked for months circulating petitions for a referendum question calling for trustees to be elected from districts instead of at-large.

Supporters say the move is necessary because too many of the village's elected officials come from the same part of town, leaving some residents feeling they lack representation.

Last week, it appeared the petition drive for the referendum was going to be successful. Allen and his supporters collected signatures from 500 registered voters and were poised to submit the paperwork before the Aug. 16 filing deadline.

There was just one problem.

A measure passed last month by the Illinois General Assembly moved up the filing deadline to Aug. 2. Allen didn't know about the change until two days later.

"I feel like when you're in grade school and you go to sit down and someone pulls the chair out from underneath you," Allen said.

Before starting the petition drive in May, Allen met with lawyers and took steps to ensure the paperwork could withstand any legal challenges. No one involved in the push saw the July 13 announcement on the DuPage County Election Commission website about the new filing dates.

"I have been beating myself up for about the last 24 hours for having missed that and finally made peace with it," Allen said as he was about to play his final card.

On Thursday night, he publicly asked Winfield trustees to vote to put the districting question on the ballot. Municipalities have an Aug. 16 deadline to take such action.

"The people who you work for have a right to have this question on the ballot," Allen said to the board.

But the board took no action on Allen's request.

"I think it's completely irresponsible to suggest the board vote on this thing sight unseen without first thoroughly reviewing the implications," Trustee Glenn VadeBonCoeur said.

Trustee Jay Olson, who signed the petition, said he believes residents should be able to vote on the districting issue. However, he said November isn't the right time because Winfield already has two questions on the ballot related to the roads.

The first ballot question is asking voters to give Winfield permission to borrow $3.3 million to resurface its most deteriorated streets. The second seeks permission for the village to collect an additional $700,000 in property taxes each year to fund a 20-year maintenance cycle for the entire network of local roads.

Olson said the village is busy trying to raise awareness about the road questions.

"I think that it would be very difficult to educate residents on a districting issue when we have not made any strides toward education," he said.

Allen said after the meeting he was disappointed - but not surprised - by the village board's decision. He's planning to launch another petition drive to get the question on the April ballot.

The bottom line, he said, is that the system needs to be changed.

Allen said at-large elections have resulted in political power being concentrated in the southern part of the village, adding that many of the trustees live within blocks of each other.

"The town politically is ripped up," Allen said. "It's very contentious. There's a whole lot of people who feel like they don't have a voice."