J U L Y 6, 2 01 7 V O L . 6 1 I S S U E 40
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LIBRARY
Niles Library Board Library approves revised conduct rules SEE PAGE 2
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BY IGOR STUDENKOV Bugle Staff @BugleNewspapers nweditor@buglenewspapers.com
Player of the Year Donovan earns 2017 honor SEE PAGE 6
CALENDAR Upcoming Events Plan your weekend with our calendar SEE PAGE 4
Niles mayor Andrew Przybylo said he wanted to address the criticism he and the village board received after voting to fill all referenda slots for the next two elections. Instead, during the June 27 meeting, he spent the bulk of his speech sharply criticizing referenda submitted by Niles activist Joe Makula. He reserved special ire for the referendum that took away Niles mayors’ ability to fill trustee vacancy and a proposed referendum to require all “taxing districts” be approved by voters – arguing that the former could potentially cripple the village government and that the later
would have hurt the village’s property tax revenues. This led former trustee Rosemary Palicki to accuse Przybylo of crossing the line, saying that he was dispariging residents simply for disagreeing with him. During the June 13 special village board meeting, the trustees voted unanimously to put three advisory referenda on the March 20, 2018 ballot and three more advisory referenda on Nov. 6, 2018 ballot. Because there are only three referenda slots available per ballot, this affectively means that no citizen-launched referenda can go up on the ballot for the next two elections. In recent years, Makula attempted to launch a number of referenda on every ballot where there was room. In November 2014, voters approved a referendum that
took away mayors’ powers to fill vacancies. Instead, it would be filled by voters during the nearest municipal election. In December 2016, Makula launched two referenda. The first referendum would require voter approval any time Niles creates a “taxing district.” The second referendum would require that at least two of the three referenda slots on the ballot be reserved for refereda launched by voters. Both referenda were thrown off the ballot during the Jan. 26 Niles Electoral Board meeting. As it’s usually the case in Illinois, the board was made up the mayor, the village clerk and the senior-most trustee. SEE REFERENDA PAGE 7
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