West Cook News

Patty Henek would face an uphill battle in a 2025 re-match with three-term River Forest Village President Cathy Adduci.

Another approach: Henek is seeking to bar Adduci from running for a fourth term next spring.

She’s leading a local effort to put a voter referendum on the Nov. 5 River Forest ballot that would limit River Forest village presidents to two terms in office, making her rival ineligible to run.

In 2021, Adduci routed Henek by 871 votes– winning 65 percent to the challenger’s 35 percent. 

That’s after Henek proposed bringing Section 8, high density housing to the village, pop. 11,717.

Government-subsidized housing is “one of my passions,” Henek told voters.

Henek, 731 Bonnie Brae Place and “psychotherapist” Deborah F. Borman, 14 Lathrop Avenue, turned in 90 sheets of signatures on a Petition for Referendum seeking a November ballot question on term limits.

“Insufficient and not in compliance”

Carolyn A. Kilbride, 1335 Park Avenue, filed a challenge of Henek and Borman’s petition on Aug. 12 with a River Forest Electoral Board, which includes Adduci herself as well as Village Clerk Jonathan Keller and Village Trustee Respicio F. Vazquez.

Kilbride argued the petition is vague, was done incorrectly, and doesn’t include enough signatures to qualify.

She said that the petition “advises the signers that the (term limits) Referendum would appear at ‘the next regular election’” which, for River Forest, isn’t the November general election but the next village president election itself.

Kilbride also argues the signature sheets used different variations of the referendum question and thus were notarized in error.

Of the 90 signature sheets, 71 were notarized by Henek’s husband, financial advisor and notary John F. Henek.

An Aug. 20 hearing on the challenge, the board voted 2-1 to check petition signatures against public records, to validate that names and addresses match and that the signers are registered voters. Keller voted against.

After the vote, Adduci recused herself from the board, which will replace her.

Borman, a licensed clinical social worker, has been critical of Adduci, using a petition to challenge zoning changes in commercial districts, and writing letters to the editor to express contempt for Adduci’s leadership.  Borman circulated 15 of the 90 signature sheets filed. 

Another wrinkle: the Illinois Municipal Code bars imposing term limits by ordinance, retroactively. If a term limits referendum were to pass, Adduci could argue she is running for office next spring for the first time under the new rules.  

Borman, referred to as “an up-and-coming local activist”, told the Wednesday Journal “We want to improve the village. River Forest has been under essentially the same group for 40 years. There are a lot of things that need to change.”  

According to a 2011 International City/County Management Association survey, 90% of municipalities do not have a legal limit on the number of terms allowed for the chief elected official.

The Cook County Electoral Board meets next on September 4 at 10 a.m. for a briefing on a motion to strike and dismiss the objection.