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In the wake of a consensus reached by Riverside trustees Monday night to replace the village’s recreation board with an advisory committee and assume control of tax money levied for recreational purposes, a group of residents is trying to put the matter to a vote.
Led by Joseph Ballerine, a member of the recreation board, and Ben Sells, a village trustee, the group has started a petition drive to gain the roughly 250 signatures it will take to put a question on the ballot.
According to Ballerine, the question is a simple one: “Shall the village of Riverside retain its parks and recreation board?”
In addition to collecting signatures door to door, the group is holding a petition sign-up drive on Saturday morning, beginning at 9:30 a.m. at Grumpy’s Café, 35 E. Burlington St.
If the question does make its way to the ballot for the Nov. 2 election, any result would be advisory, not binding. The deadline for submitting petitions for advisory referendum questions is Aug. 2.
“People are incensed about this,” said Sells, one of two trustees at Monday’s meeting to voice opposition to the proposed change in the village’s recreation system. “[A referendum] seems to me to be the obvious next step.”
“There’s a claim by the board majority that they’re enacting the will of the people,” Sells said. “This is a way to find out.”
Asked if he felt it appropriate that a sitting trustee advocated for a referendum question, Sells said he was doing so in his capacity as a private citizen, not as a trustee.
“It’d be inappropriate for me to advocate for it from the [board] chair, but I’m a citizen, too,” Sells said.