It's Up To Us To Make Skokie Government Work For All

Skokie IL

30 March, 2022

3:38 PM

Description

Living our daily lives, we barely register the drone of cruising cars and the comings and goings of our next-door neighbors. Even annoyances such as street litter become part of the rhythm of our day. So when something truly unnerving happens, it jolts our "self-constructed world views to pieces," as Mark Miller observes in Jolt: Stories of Trauma and Transformation. Many of us experienced a jolt on February 22, when – over the objection of thousands of Skokie residents – our elected officials voted to approve the hulking "Carvana" car-vending tower across the road from the Harms Flatwoods. A score of environmental organizations also voiced opposition to the tall glass tower, which puts migrating birds in harm's way and contradicts the town's own development guidelines. Beyond their disappointment in the vote itself, many residents woke up to a major fault line in Skokie politics: the Skokie Village Board is not accountable to the people it purportedly represents. The mayor and individual trustees who voted for Carvana are members of the Skokie Caucus Party. With their Carvana vote, these Caucus Party trustees demonstrated that they value party unity over resident wishes. But swapping out the Caucus Party for another is not the answer. Propping up the Village Board's rubber-stamp unanimity and unresponsiveness is a poorly designed and unjust electoral system. Candidates who try to run independently rather than as a member of a political party are relegated to being listed at the bottom of the ballot, which, studies show, can diminish their chances. Furthermore, the fact that all six trustees run at the same time every four years makes taking on the Caucus Party bloc that much more difficult. At least partly as a result of these election rules, fully 91 percent of the candidates in the past five Village elections have been Caucus Party members. With this kind of electoral system and so little choice on offer, it's no wonder that only 11 percent of potential voters took part in the municipal election in April 2021. And that was actually an increase over the 17-year average of 9 percent, because a lone independent candidate, James Johnson, spiced up an otherwise Caucus-filled ballot. In 2009, the voting rate was an abysmal 3.8 percent. The low voter turnout affects other, more competitive local races, including school, library, and park district boards. These important elections end up getting short shrift. Some Skokie residents don't vote in Village Board elections because they believe things are fine as is. However, many others don't participate because they feel, with some justification, that their vote doesn't matter, as local elections serve mainly to endorse slating decisions made by the governing party. Ethnically, socioeconomically and politically, Skokie is a very diverse place. With a population of approximately 68,000 divided into distinct neighborhoods, Skokie is a radically different town than it was in 1959, when the population was 99.5% white and a Black person could not own a home within its boundaries. Today, Skokie is 48 percent white, 27 percent Asian, 10 percent Latino, 10 percent Black, and 5 percent mixed race, with immigrants of all races making up a large proportion of the population. Yet it is still run as it was during the Eisenhower administration, with little debate or public input. And despite having a population and land area nearly as large as that of Evanston, which votes by ward, Skokie is not divided into electoral districts. Our at-large system makes the system even less representative, as most Board members live in the northeastern quadrant of Skokie. It is time that we, the voters of Skokie, took matters into our own hands. Clearly, we cannot expect an essentially one-party Village Board to alter a system that all but guarantees that party's permanent control. We envision a future where Skokie candidates are not all from a single party, regardless of what party that may be. Only we can reform Skokie's unfair electoral rules. We now have our chance. A grassroots group of residents coalesced at the end of 2021 to form the Skokie Alliance for Electoral Reform. The Alliance is using ballot initiatives – three referendum questions that Skokie residents can vote on in November – that will establish nonpartisan elections, staggered terms, and hybrid representation. Once implemented, the following three initiatives will reform an outdated system that has resulted in decades of unaccountable single-party rule: Nonpartisan elections: Candidates will be listed on the ballot without party affiliation and in the order they submit their qualifying documents, eliminating unfair advantages.Staggered terms: Half the Village Board will be elected every two years, instead of all every four years.Hybrid representation: Four trustees will be elected by district, and two trustees will continue to be elected at-large on a village-wide basis. The Skokie Alliance for Electoral Reform – which is nonpartisan and endorses no candidates – will kick off our campaign on Tuesday, April 19 at 6:30 p.m. at Devonshire Cultural Center, 4400 Greenwood Street. All are invited to our event, which will include family-friendly activities and training to gather petition signatures. Speakers will include former Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn, a longtime champion of voter initiatives, and local residents who reflect Skokie's diversity and are united in favor of reforming our obsolete and unfair electoral system. We believe these common-sense reforms can unite all of us in our democratic ideals. Indeed, we hope that the Skokie Caucus Party agrees that democracy requires choice and will support strengthened voter engagement, and we have asked for their endorsement. We are motivated by a vision for a future in Skokie in which elections are open to all, issues are debated, civil society is respected, public participation is encouraged, trustees are held accountable, and residents are served by a genuinely responsive and representative Village Board. By voting for these three ballot initiatives, Skokie residents can make unaccountable, unrepresentative, and unresponsive local government a thing of the past. For more information on Skokie Alliance for Electoral Reform, visit SkokieElectoralReform.org or www.facebook.com/SkokieElectoralReform, or write to [email protected]. This press release was produced by the Skokie Alliance for Electoral Reform. The views expressed here are the author's own.