Unless a court of law reverses the ruling of the Riverside-Brookfield Township High School District 208 electoral board, RB will be able to sell up to $5.7 million in working cash bonds without being forced to put the issue to a referendum.
The District 208 electoral board voted 3-0 last week that not enough valid signatures had been submitted on petitions seeking to put the issue on the November ballot. The electoral board, which included school board President Larry Herbst, school board Vice President Sue Kleinmeyer and board secretary Mary Ann Nardi, issued a 13-page written opinion that was drafted by attorney Todd Faulkner explaining its decision.
The proponents of a referendum have up to 10 days to appeal the decision to the Cook County Circuit Court. A leader of the petition drive said Monday that the group had not decided yet whether to appeal the decision.
“We’re still considering the matter at this time,” said Bob DeDera, a former president of the District 208 Board of Education.
DeDera and the other named parties in the case, Riverside residents Jerry Buttimer and Don Farnham, chose not to participate in the hearing before the electoral board, held at RB on July 1. They claimed that the board lacked jurisdiction.
They had submitted a written objection on June 26, claiming that they had not been properly served with notice of the objections to the petitions filed by former District 208 school board member Marty Crowley.
However, attorney Todd Faulkner, advising the electoral board, said that the board had overruled that objection at the hearing on June 26.
At the start of the July 1 hearing, DeDera left the table in the front of the room and took a seat in the audience, saying that he would not participate in the hearing except to observe and answer questions.
With DeDera, Buttimer and Farnham sitting silently in the audience, Crowley had field day pointing out flaws in the petitions and ridiculing errors.
He noted that the petitions were delivered in three separate batches, were not stapled or numbered, and he pointed out numerous problems with various signatures of both signers and circulators of the petitions.
He said if he had handed in some thing so sloppy at his grammar school, St. Cornelius, on the Northwest Side of Chicago, he might have been whacked with a Bible.
“My sixth-grade geography teacher, Sister Muriel, would have told me to get it off her desk if it was handed in like that,” said Crowley.
The electoral board upheld the objections to the entire set of petitions. It also ruled that 69 specific signatures were invalid for various reasons. This brought the number of signatures down to 1,800 or 64 short of the number required to force a referendum
One petition signor listed his address at 4803 N. Damen Ave. in Chicago which lies far beyond the boundaries of District 208. Another address of a signor was at 7630 Ogden Ave. which is also outside the boundaries of District 208.
Crowley also pointed out a number of other addresses that appeared to be beyond the boundaries of District 208, but the board rejected those objections since Crowley had not made them in his written objection submitted on June 20.
The board ruled that 36 signatures were invalid because of problems with the signature and address of a petition circulator. One circulator listed two different addresses. The board also found that that the circulator’s signature was illegible.
The board ruled that the two differing addresses was sufficient evidence that the circulator had signed a false affidavit and, along with the illegible signature, ruled invalid all 36 signatures that the circulator had gathered.
DeDera was offered a chance to respond, but he declined. But after the hearing DeDera said that petition drive sent a strong message despite the flaws of some of the signatures.
“It was a great effort,” said DeDera. “They’re not denying there’s going to be 1,800 unhappy residents of this school district.”