123 Madison Street

Oak Park, Illinois 60302

www.oak-park.us

Village of Oak Park

Meeting Minutes

President and Board of Trustees

Tuesday, October 1, 2024

7:00 PM

Village Hall

I. Call to Order

Village President Vicki Scaman called the Regular Meeting to order at

7:06 P.M.

II. Roll Call

Trustee Straw joined the Meeting at 7:27 P.M.

5 -

Present:

Absent:

Village President Scaman, Village Trustee Enyia, Village Trustee Robinson, Village

Trustee Straw, and Village Trustee Wesley

2 - Village Trustee Buchanan, and Village Trustee Parakkat

III. Agenda Approval

It was moved by Trustee Robinson, seconded by Trustee Wesley, to approve the

Agenda. A voice vote was taken and the motion was approved.

IV. Minutes

MOT 24-246

A Motion to Approve Minutes from the September 3, 2024 Regular

Meeting of the Village Board

It was moved by Trustee Wesley, seconded by Trustee Robinson, to approve the

Minutes. A voice vote was taken and the motion was approved.

V. Non-Agenda Public Comment

There was no public comment.

VI. Proclamation

MOT 24-236

A Motion to Approve a Proclamation Recognizing Breast Cancer Awareness

Month

President Scaman read the Proclamation aloud in a pre-recorded video.

It was moved by Trustee Wesley, seconded by Trustee Enyia, that this Motion be

approved. A voice vote was taken and the motion was approved.

MOT 24-237

A Motion to Approve a Proclamation Recognizing Domestic Violence

Awareness Month

President Scaman read the Proclamation aloud in a pre-recorded video.

Lawn signs are available at Village Hall for supporting Sarah's Inn.

It was moved by Trustee Wesley, seconded by Trustee Robinson, that this Motion

be approved. A voice vote was taken and the motion was approved.

MOT 24-238

A Motion to Approve a Proclamation Recognizing World Migratory Bird

Day

President Scaman read the Proclamation aloud in a pre-recorded video.

It was moved by Trustee Wesley, seconded by Trustee Robinson, that this Motion

be approved. A voice vote was taken and the motion was approved.

VII. Village Manager Reports

ID 24-470

Update on the Status of the Pete’s Fresh Market Development at 668

Madison Street

Development Services Director Emily Egan presented the Item. Developer

Eugene Grzynkowicz provided additional information. There were no

comments.

XIII. Village Board Committees & Trustee Liaison Commission Reports

There were no comments.

IX. Citizen Commission Vacancies

ID 24-474

Board and Commission Vacancy Report for October 1, 2024

There were no comments.

X. Citizen Commission Appointments, Reappointments and Chair Appointments

MOT 24-245

A Motion to Consent to the Village President’s Appointment of:

Citizens Involvement Commission - Greg Kolar, Appoint as Chair

Liquor Control Review Board - Sarah Corbin, Appoint as Chair

Village Clerk Christina Waters read the names aloud.

It was moved by Trustee Wesley, seconded by Trustee Enyia, that these

Appointments be approved. A voice vote was taken and the motion was

approved.

XI. Consent Agenda

Approval of the Consent Agenda

It was moved by Trustee Wesley, seconded by Trustee Enyia to approve the Items

under the Consent Agenda. A voice vote was taken and the motion was

approved.

MOT 24-212

A Motion to Approve the June 2024 Monthly Treasurer’s Report for All

Funds

This Motion was approved.

MOT 24-242

A Motion to Accept the Fiscal Year 2023 Annual Comprehensive Financial

Report (ACFR) and Supporting Documents as Reviewed at the Regular

Board meeting on September 3, 2024

This Motion was approved.

XII. Regular Agenda

ID 24-447

A Presentation and Discussion of the Village’s Fair Housing Testing Project

Assistant Village Manager/Neighborhood Services Director Jonathan

Burch presented the Item, along with HOPE Fair Housing Center's

Executive Director Michael Chavarria and Associate Director of

Enforcement Blake Mitchell.

Trustee Enyia said it is alarming that six buildings were not in compliance

with fair housing practices. He inquired about the course of action on the

Village's part. Director Mitchell said the current ordinance is unclear about

how it deals with enforcement so staff is looking at that. Trustee Enyia

asked if the Housing Programs Advisory Committee (HPAC) would be

able to participate in some of the annual meetings to understand the

practices and help inform the community. Director Mitchell said they can

make sure to involve HPAC in that. Director Chavarria said he is excited to

hear there is contemplation of implementing penalties on the license.

President Scaman asked if the Village has ever done an audit of this sort

previously. Director Burch said the Village them before in 2015 and

2017-2018. She asked if the Village has maintained data on complaints

received throughout the years. Director Burch said data was gathered in

2021-2023 as part of the recent strategic vision for housing process. Staff

only reviewed the complaints that were then translated into formal fair

housing complaints, of which the number was 0 for those three years.

Director Chavarria added that HOPE ran this project for six months and

during that time organically received 7 complaints that were investigated.

Trustee Straw said he finds the findings of this report quite disturbing. We

need to dig in on the enforcement side of this. We should consider whether

or not it makes sense to include a private right of action and have attorney's

fees recoverable in a private right of action for a fair housing violation under

Oak Park ordinance. These kinds of violations are the kinds of things that

prevent people from moving into Oak Park and it's just unacceptable.

Trustee Robinson requested clarification on the sources of income issues.

Director Chavarria said they were only able to find a policy for two of the

seven housing providers. One was out of written compliance, though the

practices were all out of compliance. She said she is unclear on how the

Village is consistently conducting training and education sessions yet what

is reported back is a lack of education and awareness. She said she is

less concerned with the frequency of the sessions as the content. Director

Burch said the way the Village has done training has changed after

COVID-19. We get less interactions with landlords when we are doing the

trainings remotely. The Village is requiring them only for the owner or

designated agent. We want to make sure we are talking to the right group

of people in addition to covering the right content.

She said she supports increasing the frequency if we are also paying close

attention to the content and expanding the target audience. Director Burch

noted there are two supplemental trainings in November and December

which the Village has not historically done. She said there is a subjective

portion that is going to require a very careful and detailed level of training

and education effort to make sure that landlords are aware of exactly what

that means. She suggested adding this information to the Village website.

She asked if the training sessions apply to landlords that have to be

licensed. Director Burch said the Village has different tiers of the rental

license. All landlords are required to attend the training session under the

current ordinance. She said it is critical the training sessions are as

detailed as possible because there will be some landlords who are not

professionals and are just renting one or two units. She said the goal is to

have great tenancies in this community which will take supporting both

tenants and landlords.

She noted the Board goal on page 20 of the Board goals document. She

said she didn't love the housing coalition idea. We have the housing

coalition, the Board, and Neighborhood Services department. She

expressed concerns about decentralizing the process so much that these

different areas become siloed and there is not a comprehensive

perspective.

She said the lack of language support services is a big miss in both

presentations. National origin is a protected class at the federal level and

immigration is a protected class at the state level. We have to fold in a

language access piece and be able to communicate with people,

especially when discussing issues of discrimination.

President Scaman inquired why a coalition was recommended in the first

place. Director Mitchell said the intention around the coalition was to give

us a dedicated working space to consider fair housing related issues.

Trustee Wesley said he finds it troubling that all of the landlords tested

show violations. There is an imbalance of power due to the lack of

vacancies that we have for apartment units. He referenced the Village's

housing study which showed renters face barriers ranging from credit and

eviction history to logistical hurdles of the housing choice voucher program

and parking. This is a verifiable problem and antithesis to the values we

proclaim as a village so we have to move forcefully to fix it. He said he

supports Trustee Straw's comment about private right of action and

recoverable attorney fees. He noted the FCRA and FCDPA have statutory

damages and he would love to see that implemented as well.

He asked if landlords were unable to articulate the benefits of their units or

neighborhood. Director Chavarria said no, they are good salesmen.

Trustee Wesley said it sounds like they are selectively confused about fair

housing law. Director Chavarria said HOPE was baffled to see uniform

lack of knowledge on source of income and just housing amendment.

Trustee Robinson noted the source of income became a protected class

much more recently. Director Chavarria said source of income

discrimination has been illegal under the Cook County human rights

ordinance of 2014 and the Illinois Human Rights Act was amended to also

include source of income protections in 2023. The project period of six

months included the testing and analysis. Trustee Wesley said he would

support continuous testing. He asked if landlords can be required to have

the paperwork with the application. Director Chavarria said they are

proposing that as part of the ordinance change.

Trustee Enyia said secret shoppers makes you deliver the service you are

supposed to. We should have been holding ourselves to a higher standard

a long time ago.

Trustee Robinson raised two points on behalf of Trustee Parakkat who was

not present. One is how we fold in landlord participation and the coalition

has two slated positions for housing providers. The second is the

consideration of the increased costs of associated regulations to landlords

that may be passed onto tenants. Director Chavarria said they can come

back with information.

President Scaman asked a question on behalf of Trustee Buchanan who

was not present. She asked if the landlords polled were diverse in terms of

building size. Director Chavarria said due to resource constraints, they

looked at landlords with larger market shares that impacted more

residents. He encouraged the Village to look at a more comprehensive and

diverse approach. He said they are seeing a lot less person-to-person

communications which is making discrimination tricky to demonstrate and

prove. She said she wants to create partnerships with these landlords. She

said this Board brought the RTLO into our own ordinance in 2021 and

made it stronger than the Cook County RTLO.

On behalf of Trustee Buchanan, she asked if the Village would take over

the Oak Park Regional Housing Center's services and invite them into the

coalition. Director Chavarria said OPRHC was more on the front-end of the

process. The Village brings a different dynamic by enforcing property

maintenance standards. Some internal work needs to be done to

determine if a coalition is the right next step. She said she is not looking to

bring everything in-house if we have good partners in the community and

she has a lot of trust in how they are going to proceed because of the

transparency of this information. She said online training should be

available as a back-up for accessibility purposes.

She shared Trustee Buchanan's concern about increasing our race data on

rental units and how we can keep that as accurate as possible. Director

Chavarria said they have flagged that as part of the ordinance process. He

encouraged anyone aware of an issue to contact him.

President Scaman said she would be interested to know how many

complaints we are able to resolve amicably. Director Burch said staff will

follow up on that.

RES 24-296

A Resolution Authorizing the Reallocation of Funds within the Fire

Department’s FY24 Budget to Increase the Overtime Line Item by $235,000

Oak Park Fire Chief Ron Kobyleski presented the Item.

President Scaman asked what was the 2023 budget. Chief Kobyleski said

it was around $1M. For 2024, it was originally $850K and then reduced to

$600K. This is a reallocation and not asking for new money.

Trustee Straw asked if additional staffing would reduce the need for

overtime. Chief Kobyleski said it definitely would. Trustee Straw said it

would be far preferable to have three additional salaries than paying those

same funds in overtime to reduce workload, stress, and injuries. He said he

would like to see additional data on that. Chief Kobyleski said we are

asking for three more full-time positions in this budget and there will be

further information following up to support that.

President Scaman and Trustee Wesleys and Enyia agreed. Trustee Enyia

said he would like to see historical sick time.

This Resolution was adopted.

5 -

AYES:

Village President Scaman, Village Trustee Enyia, Village Trustee Robinson, Village

Trustee Straw, and Village Trustee Wesley

NAYS:

2 - Village Trustee Buchanan, and Village Trustee Parakkat

ABSENT:

A Resolution Setting Halloween “Trick or Treat” Hours between 4:00 p.m. to 8:00

p.m. on Thursday, October 31, 2024

RES 24-300

There were no comments.

It was moved by Village Trustee Wesley, seconded by Village Trustee Straw, that

this Resolution be adopted. The motion was approved. The roll call on the vote

was as follows:

5 -

AYES:

NAYS:

Village President Scaman, Village Trustee Enyia, Village Trustee Robinson, Village

Trustee Straw, and Village Trustee Wesley

2 - Village Trustee Buchanan, and Village Trustee Parakkat

ABSENT:

XIII. Call to Board and Clerk

Clerk Waters said Viva was a great event and she thanked the DEI, Public

Works, and Communications departments. The Clerk's Office will partner

with Housing Forward, Change Illinois, and the League of Women Voters

OPRF at the Oak Park Public Library Main Branch on Oct. 22 from 4-8 pm

to register voters and answer questions. Early voting begins at Village Hall

Oct. 21-Nov. 4. There is no voting at Village Hall on Election Day. Voters

must go to their polling place on Election Day. Please call 708-358-5670 if

you need assistance with finding your polling place. The Clerk's Office is

participating in a diaper and wipe drive in support of A House in Austin.

Community members can drop off diapers and wipes at Village Hall. Dia

de Muertos in Oak Park and River Forest registration is open now.

3. More info is on Facebook and Instagram. Trick or Treat signs can be

printed from the Village website.

Trustee Robinson said the second annual Viva event was phenomenal.

She thanked staff and community members for organizing and planning.

There is a video on the Village's social media.

Trustee Straw said he adopted a dog from Almost Home Foundation and

said it is always good to consider adoption instead of buying a pet.

XIV. Adjourn

It was moved by Trustee Wesley, seconded by Trustee Enyia, to Adjourn. A voice

vote was taken and the motion was approved. Meeting adjourned Tuesday,

October 1, 2024, 9:06 P.M.

Respectfully submitted,

Deputy Clerk Hansen