Activist Toolkit

1) Why do you want to serve on the Park DIstrict Board? Why are you qualified to serve as Trustee? What metrics of success do you plan on holding yourself accountable to?

I want to continue to serve and to make a positive impact on my community. As an incumbent, I bring eight years of experience and understanding of how the Park District operates, our strategic initiatives, and the history of issues. Prior to being elected Commissioner, I served for four years as a member of the Park District Citizen Committee. I have maintained “Master Board Member” status from the Illinois Association of Park Districts for the past 5 years, a distinction that fewer than 50 park district commissioners in Illinois have earned, so I feel like I have been doing a good job working for our community.

Our metrics for success is the positive impact and level of innovation we are able to bring to our community. I’m immensely proud of the impending opening of the Community Recreation Center, which is the culmination of many years of work. I’m proud that we have been a national Gold Medal winner, and a Gold Medal finalist for the past two years running. This means that judges from a national organization have decided that we are one of the top five park districts in the country. Staff reports to us four times a year on our progress towards our strategic initiatives and what percentage of our goals we have achieved, which is a great metric. Another measure we have used is that pre-pandemic, or goal was to fund our agency at 50% from tax revenue, and 50% earned revenue. We actually exceeded that and were at 52/48. Then Covid struck and our revenues plummeted because we had to cancel so much programming and close the pools. Now, we are almost back at our goal level, which means that our tax dollars go farther.

2) How do you make decisions?

As a Board member, it’s my responsibility to make informed decisions, which means studying, listening, and preparing for meetings by thoroughly reading my board packet and understanding all the issues surrounding the items we are voting on. When I do not understand, or I have further questions, I meet with the staff to ask for further explanation and clarification.

3) What are the three biggest challenges or opportunities facing the Park District in the next three, five, and ten years and how should the board address them over the next four years?

The biggest issue that always faces the park district is continuing to find new ways to enhance our offerings to serve all residents of our village while being financially responsible. This requires extensive advance planning, being responsive to the input from community members about the types of programs that they would like to see, collecting data about who is using our parks and how they use them, and being excellent stewards of every tax dollar. Over 90% of residents report using the parks, but we are not reaching all age and demographic groups with program participation, so we want to improve in that area.

A challenge in that area that we have recently faced is that in striving to offer more culturally responsive programming, it is easy to make missteps and inadvertently cause harm to the community. An opportunity has emerged from our recent culturally insensitive camp offering to listen deeply to BIPOC voices in the community and partners, to examine and strengthen our internal processes and education, and to forge new partnerships with individuals and groups in the community who want to engage with the agency in order for us to do better for our patrons.

Another challenge we face is that we have the same person density as the city of Chicago, and very limited green space. We have 52,000 residents in a very small geographic area, and our park system has to support a wide variety of activities: sports fields, dog parks, playgrounds, walking trails, tennis, pickleball, and basketball courts, and passive green spaces where people can picnic, relax in nature, and just enjoy time outdoors. We must balance all these uses and support all those activities. We can’t always meet all the requests for spaces, and we can’t make more green space. So it is a constant balancing act.

A huge opportunity in front of us is the opening of the Community Recreation Center this Spring, which will greatly enhance opportunities for recreation, community gathering, play, meeting space, and fun. Getting that center up and running this year, and adding all the free after-school programming in the fall for all Oak Park middle and high school students will be a major accomplishment of this Board.

The agenda of the park district is not set by the personal priorities of any individual commissioner, nor is the agenda of any governing body set by one elected official. We have a strategic plan that is developed by our Director and her staff with Board input that is voted on by the entire board. That strategic plan, along with our capital improvement plan, establishes our priorities as an agency. Some of the areas of focus in our strategic plan include continuing to improve our agency excellence, ensure equity, financial responsibility, and planning wisely for the future of our agency. My personal priority is to work with our staff and my fellow board members to oversee implementation of that plan, which we voted to approve. It’s my job to work collaboratively with my fellow board members to that end.

4) How would you approach the budgeting process?

We spend a great deal of time on the budgeting process. We start over the summer with renewing and reviewing our strategic plan and our capital improvement plan, and identifying our priorities. Staff then uses those broad guidelines to develop an agency budget that matches the desired outcomes with available resources. In the Fall, we have a series of Board meetings when the proposed budget is presented by staff and thoroughly discussed and questioned by the Board. Then we vote to approve the budget, which is one of the main legal tasks of the Board. Our budget process is thorough, thoughtful, and responsive to questioning.

5) What would you say to voters who are worried about the tax burden?

As a fellow resident and taxpayer in Oak Park, I recognize that worry as I am also impacted by our taxes. I do not see taxes as a “burden” although I recognize that is commonly used nomenclature. I accept paying taxes as part of the social contract, and I chose to live in Oak Park because of the values of our community and what I consider to be an excellent quality of life with excellent public services. I moved here as an empty nester and never have and never will have kids in our schools, but I benefit from our school system because a well-educated citizenry is an essential component of our society.Our taxes are high, and I believe we get a lot of value for what we pay. I’m proud of all that the Park District is able to provide our community, knowing that only 5 cents of every tax dollar goes to the parks. We work to be excellent stewards of every one of those dollars, and maximize them through matching grants and philanthropy to the greatest extent possible. Another way we show our stewardship of those public funds is by maintaining a well-thought-out capital improvement plan that maintains our parks and properties in a coherent manner. With over twenty parks and historic properties, we must and do maintain a regular rotation of improvements and refreshing of our parks to keep everything in good repair and in safe condition. Deferred maintenance can be the result of failure to plan for and budget for expenditures.

6) How do you seek feedback from residents throughout the community? Do you believe there are barriers that exist in accomplishing this, what are they, and how would you adapt your approach seeking that feedback?

As an agency, we have many ways of collecting feedback. We do surveys of patrons, and community surveys regularly. We maintain several advisory committees (the Park District Citizens Committee, the Environmental and Sustainability Committee, an Arts committee, and we have relationships with several “friends” groups - Pleasant Home Foundation, the Friends of the Oak Park Conservatory, and others). Informally, we hear from residents quite frequently either through email to the staff and board, in public comment at our meetings, and when we are present at community events such as Day in Our Village, any of our multiple festivals in the parks, or even when talking with friends, neighbors, and friends’ neighbors. We are always working to reduce barriers so that everyone knows they can be heard.

7) How do you define equity? Have recent discussions in the larger community informed or changed your thinking?

I define equity as the state that exists when all people have equal access, and recognizing the systemic barriers that exist that prevent people or groups of people from enjoying the benefits of access. Equity is something that I spend a lot of time studying and working for in my professional work as well as in my public service. My understanding of, and thinking about, equity is constantly evolving and changing. Without a doubt, recent discussions in the community have impacted my thinking.

8) In 2019, The Park District adopted an equity policy that adds training and organizational support around equity and inclusion. How would you evaluate the success of the equity policy so far? What additional steps should be taken by the Park District?

I am proud that we were the first agency in Oak Park to adopt such a policy. Equity is one the four pillars of excellence in the National Parks and Recreation Association’s framework, and PDOP has been a nationally recognized agency of excellence, in part because of our pioneering and ongoing commitment in this area. Our policy, as enacted by staff, has had some successes and some failures. We continue to engage in deep learning and work to be better every day as we learn more. Any good organization has to have a commitment to continual improvement. Learning is never finished, and improvement in all areas never ends. Our recent failure in the summer camp issue is proof that there is more work to be done in our understanding of equity and inclusion practices, and we have committed publicly and repeatedly to that improvement.

9) Oak Park will soon have a Community Recreation Center. What (if any) concerns do you have about the potential ongoing impact on the Park District’s annual budgets?

I am delighted to receive this question! Many people do not understand that the CRC was built on financial modeling designed to enhance our financial picture. We have an excellent track record of building and running revenue-producing facilities that perform quite well and provide excellent return on investment for the taxpayers of Oak Park. The Gymnastics and Recreation Center, and the renovated Ridgeland Common, between the two of them return 1.5 million dollars into our capital improvement budget annually, over and above the cost of the facilities. In short, they make money for us, they do not cost us money to operate. We anticipate and our financial forecasts support that we will see a similar positive economic result from the CRC from the paid fitness memberships. Our executive director is financially astute, and she has an MBA in addition to her Recreation degree. Our finance offers receives awards for excellence every year. This CRC has a solid and well-thought-out financial strategy behind it.

10) Park districts make use of many different sources of funding, including property tax revenues, fees, and grants. Recently, community members have raised concerns about the affordability of Oak Park Park District programs in comparison to surrounding communities. What would you say to those who raise this issue?

See my response above about our goal of mixed revenue streams. We constantly assess our fee structure and compare ourselves to peer agencies to ensure we are in line with the market. We have had minimal percentage raises to keep our programs affordable. We offer a resident discount for all programs, and deliberately offer a mix of free and fee-based programs. We continue to offer free concerts in the parks, movies in the parks, ice rinks in the parks, and festivals in the parks throughout the year. I have seen this commentary specifically surrounding our swimming pool rates, and would point to the rising costs of everything - energy, labor, supplies, repairs, etc - to explain why prices must sometimes go up. I would also point people to the outstanding scholarship program we have that is available to users of all ages. Back when I was a member of the Park District Citizen Committee, the Park District was only distributing a small amount of scholarship money each year (under $10,000). They were trying a variety of ways to get the word out that assistance was available. In my work as a Principal, I know that school principals and social workers always know the families who have financial need, so I suggested some new strategies for the PDOP to go directly to the principals to inform them about our scholarship program and enlist their help in identifying families who might appreciate the assistance and helping them apply for the funding. Our scholarship reach has grown every year since then (2010), and last year we gave out nearly $100,000 in scholarships. Those funds come primarily from non-resident fees, so it is not at additional expense to Oak Park residents.

11) The Park District is largely staffed by part-time employees. How will you balance the need for fiscal stewardship and still pay employees a living wage?

You may be aware that we are the largest employer of youth in our community, and the vast majority of our part-time employees are high school and college students, camp and pool staff and summer seasonal workers. We have, in fact, kept pace with the increases in minimum wage, and are always balancing those values. In response to market forces, we have had to be agile and always consider the needs of the program when determining the type of employee that will provide the best service while maintaining our budget.

12) What approach should the Park District take towards intergovernmental cooperation initiatives such as the Collaboration for Early Childhood Development? Are there other specific initiatives that you would like to implement or expand upon?

Intergovernmental cooperation isn’t optional; it’s a necessity. We all serve the same citizens of Oak Park, and our interests overlap. The list of cooperative ventures is so extensive I couldn’t list them all here. The staffs of all the government agencies meet together regularly and work together on issues, large and small. One of the most recent projects I am proud of is our collaboration with the OPRF board to enhance and share athletic space at Ridgeland Common and on the existing high school fields to create a collaboratively used campus to enhance community access.

13) What approach should the Park District take towards intermunicipal cooperation with neighboring communities? Are there specific initiatives that you would like to implement or expand upon?

One of our biggest cooperative ventures is our membership in WSSRA (the West Suburban Special Recreation Association), which involves many municipalities and park districts as partners to provide services for adults and children with disabilities. We are always seeking cooperation with our neighbors. We engaged neighboring communities in the planning for the CRC, but ultimately those other communities chose not to engage with us, which is their prerogative.

14) What lessons learned from the services provided or not provided during the pandemic do you believe will be applicable going forward, even after the pandemic abates?

We were guided by health department and public safety regulations in how we were able to offer programs during the height of the pandemic, and had to limit group sizes, venues used, and facilities, and that had a huge impact on people's lives, and on our revenue. We learned how precious our parks are to people, and how important outdoor spaces are to our health and wellbeing. There is also definitely still a pent-up desire for community, which can be observed in how popular ALL of our programs are since Covid restrictions have ended. Agility and being able to adjust quickly to conditions in the community were our great strengths. We did lose $2 million in revenue, which we are still trying to recoup.

15) What is your favorite Park District program, event, or service?

Great question!! I am going to project a couple of months in the future and say that the Community Recreation Center is my favorite. Other than that, it’s hard for me to pick a favorite. I enjoy all our parks, I love the variety of holiday events and celebrations that we offer all throughout the year, a peaceful visit to the Conservatory is always welcome, and I’ve taken some great classes from us.

16) For those who are currently serving or have previously served on the Park District Board: What vote are you most proud of, and what vote do you most regret? Why?

I am most proud of the vote we took when we awarded the construction projects for the CRC. I am proud of that because it was the culmination of years of preparation and study, because it took so much foresight and courage to keep that project going, even though we launched the fundraising literally days before the pandemic struck. We had also exceeded our goal of having 25% of the contractors being minority and women owned firms. No one had reached for a goal of 25% before, and when all was said and done, we have 29% - exceeding our goal. I honestly do not regret any of my votes. I take pains to be well-prepared and well-informed for every vote, and I am confident when I cast my vote.