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The Riverside-Brookfield Township High School Electoral Board ruled Tuesday night that insufficient valid signatures were submitted on petitions to force a referendum on RB’s plans to sell working cash bonds.
The Electoral Board voted 3-0 to sustain enough of former District 208 school board member Marty Crowley’s objection to the petitions that there were not the 1,864 valid and qualified signatories needed to force a referendum.
Unless the decision is appealed to the Cook County Circuit Court within 10 days, RB is free to sell the bonds.
The electoral board consisted of District 208 school board President Larry Herbst, Vice President Sue Kleinmeyer and board Secretary Mary Ann Nardi.
The board sustained a number of Crowley’s objections, including that the petitions were delivered in three separate batches, were not securely bound and did not have consecutive page numbering.
The board also upheld objections to 69 specific signatures for various reasons. The reasons included signors who did not live in the district, petition circulators not having signed the required affidavit on the petitions, faulty circulator addresses and illegible circulator signatures.
Assistant Principal Tim Scanlon testified that 1,869 signatures were submitted by the June 13 deadline. With 69 signatures ruled invalid, the petitions fell 64 short signatures short of what was required to force a referendum.
The principal proponent of the petitions, Bob DeDera, a former District 208 school board president, did not participate in the hearing, claiming the board lacked jurisdiction.