In addition to Home Rule, Franklin Park residents will have two other questions on the March 15 presidential primary ballot to vote on.
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The first asks residents if the village should prevent the hiring of family members of any official or officer of the village. After he was elected, Village President Barrett Pedersen promised reforms to the village’s hiring practices.
“When family members of elected officials are placed on the public payroll, it gives the wrong impression they were hired for who they know rather than what they know,” he said in a village newsletter dated July and August 2009.
If passed, the new measure would have Franklin Park be the latest village in the state to add anti-nepotism rules to curb the hiring of relatives and consolidation of power by politically connected families.
The second question asks residents if the village should look into building a pedestrian underpass between Ruby Street and 25th Avenue.
At various public meetings focused on the village’s comprehensive plan, residents have repeatedly brought up worries of students risking a run through the lowered train gates as a safety concern.
The underpass could potentially allow Leyden High School students crossing the train tracks a safe alternate route when they’re trying to get to class on time.
If this question were approved, the village says it would perform a study to examine the price and practicality of installing a pedestrian underpass at that intersection.
Alex V. Hernandez is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.