During the Jan. 19 meeting, Oak Park village trustees voted to include a referendum on the ballot asking citizens if they want to “defund police.”
Trustee Dan Moroney introduced the referendum, saying he wanted to use it as a litmus test to determine how residents feel about defunding the police department, Wednesday Journal reported.
"The proposal for an advisory referendum pertaining to defunding the police passed on Tuesday evening in a 4-3 vote," Moroney said. "Therefore, on the April 6th 2021 ballot there will be an advisory referendum question that reads: 'Shall the Village of Oak Park defund its Police Department?'"
Moroney proposed the request on Jan. 6.
Trustee Simone Boutet called the question a political stunt, as Moroney is running for village president. Boutet is also a village president candidate.
Boutet told Wednesday Journal that because the terms had not been sufficiently defined, adding the question to the ballot wouldn’t produce accurate information.
“This idea was brought to me in conversation by a few residents who felt that the village board should give residents more of a voice on this matter," Moroney said, Wednesday Journal reported. He denied the referendum was politically motivated.
During Tuesday’s vote, Moroney and Trustees Deno J. Andrews and James Taglia and Mayor Anan Abu-Taleb all voted for the referendum.
Boutet and Trustees Susan Buchanan and Arti Walker-Peddakotla voted no. Boutet and Buchanan specifically voted, “no, and ashamed,” while Walker-Peddakotla voted, “(expletive) no.”
Walker-Peddakotla was very emotional about the referendum. She has been an advocate for defunding the police in the past and even started a group called Freedom to Thrive Oak Park.
Walker-Peddakotla also published a piece on Freedom to Thrive's website detailing her commitment to defunding the police, while being opposed to the question being on the ballot.
“And it’s really hard to take attack after attack and not take it personally,” she said during the meeting. “When you put defunding the police on the ballot for a survey question, you’re really asking the community, ‘do you agree with Black Lives Matter or not?’ ‘Do you agree with the movement for Black lives?’ That’s what you’re really doing.”
Walker-Peddakotla stressed that the board did not want to have the conversation they needed to about the movement.
“And it’s really hard for me to sit here and listen to people say, ‘well why do you not have any problem with this?’ Because the intention of this issue must be questioned,” Walker-Peddakotla said. “You all are so scared to have a conversation when people’s lives are at stake. I am unable to hold my emotions on this anymore because it’s ridiculous and you should vote no on it.”
Walker-Peddakotla urged everyone to vote “no” on the referendum.
"This board should be absolutely ashamed if this goes through,” Walker-Peddakotla said. “This board should just be so (expletive) ashamed.”
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