Vole to lead Prospect Heights; voters deny police protection tax

A town-hall meeting to discuss the city's financial situation is first on the agenda for Prospect Heights' newly elected mayor Dolly Vole, who served as Ward 3 alderman the last two years.

Political newcomer and local developer Nick Helmer garnered just under 44 percent of votes to Vole's 56 percent, unofficials results indicate. Vole will complete the two-year unexpired term of Mayor Rodney Pace, who resigned for health reasons in September 2007, shortly after being re-elected.

Voters also picked Gerald T. Anderson with 37 percent of votes over James R. Armbruster and Mark A. Saulka to represent the 4th Ward, a decade after Anderson's mayoral bid ended in a bitter court battle that favored then-incumbent Edward P. Rotchford.

Vole, 41, said she wants to hold the town hall meeting in June to discuss the city's finances in light of voters' denial of a proposed police protection tax.

The tax referendum, which was supported by Vole, was presented in the form of two questions on Tuesday's ballot: one asked voters for an additional $1.25 million per year for the police department; the second allows the city to raise the tax cap - the basic mechanism the city needs to collect any tax increase.

Voters denied both requests. All vote totals are unofficial.

"Voters decided, and now there are severe cuts we need to make. This is something we will have to deal with together," Vole said.

Officials laid off staff and slashed expenses to bring a nearly $500,000 projected deficit in 2009 down to less than $300. Future police layoffs hinged on the police protection tax denied by voters.

Vole said she intends to involve residents in re-establishing such committees as finance, public safety and public works, and the McDonald Creek Committee, which would allow the city to apply for grant money.

Anderson, 65, a semiretired electrical engineer, said his first priority is to fix the city's flooding issues, which he attributed to problems with state and county plumbing. He wasn't surprised voters rejected the police protection tax, he said. "Could there be a worst time to ever want to tax somebody," he said.