Brookfield is planning how to reach residents with educational materials ahead of the referendum question that will be posed to voters on Nov. 3, creating a permanent funding source for street repairs if the referendum passes.
With just six weeks until Election Day, village staff said they’re working to reach residents in a variety of ways, centralizing information on a dedicated webpage while linking people back to it through materials shared on social media and in real life.
The webpage explains the need for the referendum as previous bonds that were taken out to fund road repairs are paid off. If the ‘yes’ votes win out, a one-time increase in the village’s share of tax bills will go into effect at the same time the bond debt expires, cancelling out the decrease that would otherwise be experienced by taxpayers and funneling the money directly into a street improvement program to avoid the extra fees associated with bonds.
Through this mechanism, taxpayers will experience no change in Brookfield’s 15% share of the property tax bill from one year to the next, while the village will create a permanent funding source to implement a road repair cycle over 25 years.
Assistant Village Manager Stevie Ferrari said village staff plan to attend existing community events, like the farmers market on Saturdays, the Creative Arts Festival this weekend, Monsters on Mainstreet next month and Little League games. These events will all draw crowds, Ferrari said, giving village staff a chance to reach people in the wild and explain the role the referendum will play.
The village is also partnering with the school districts in town to share information at board or PTO meetings. The village has heard back affirmatively from Brookfield-LaGrange Park School District 95 and LaGrange District 102, Ferrari said.
With trustees’ approval, which they gave on Monday, Sept. 14, the village will initiate other efforts to meet residents in their locales or to invite them into the village’s space to learn about the referendum.
Two of these efforts will be dubbed “lunch and learn” and “libation and learn,” which will see members of village staff or the village board take to businesses around town to provide educational materials to and discuss the referendum with patrons, allowing people to ask questions spontaneously and sandwiching their education between other socialization.
“[We’re] providing a variety of opportunities for people to ask questions, and not to come to us only to ask questions but to put staff out in the community,” Ferrari said.
A third approach will be known as the “manager meetup,” creating time for residents to meet with Village Manager Tim Wiberg at Village Hall to question him directly about the referendum and Brookfield’s needs.
“Oftentimes, residents will feel they want to go to the top with questions, and if they hear it from the top, it feels more secure of an answer. This is an opportunity to go straight to the top and sit down, ask some questions, and hear about it a little more,” Ferrari said.
She said this kind of approach could also benefit residents who work from home and can get away during business hours but who might have busy home lives during the rest of the day preventing them from getting out.
“I like all three of the options that were laid out, and we can fine-tune them and pick who goes where,” Village President Michael Garvey said.
Additionally, the village will place vinyl banners in Candy Cane Park on Brookfield’s north side and Ehlert Park on its south side, as well as strategically placing yard signs throughout town, to make people aware of the referendum. Both kinds of materials will have QR codes directing residents back to the village’s explainer webpage.
After some discussion about the appearance of the banners, members of the board threw their support behind the initiatives brought before them in the countdown to the referendum vote on Nov. 3, even if some are less successful than others.
“We have nothing to hide. We’re trying to educate and make ourselves available,” Garvey said. “Every vote does matter. The more people we can educate, the better.”
