The Lake Forest City Council is eliminating its park and recreation board, but holding off similar action on its legal committee.
At its May 5 meeting, council members unanimously voted to dissolve the city’s parks and recreation board after initially supporting that measure at its April 21st meeting. The City Council also was expected to dissolve its legal committee, but that measure was tabled amid some concerns from the public.
Regarding the parks and recreation board, Lake Forest is one of the rare North Shore communities that does not have its own park district with governance of the parks within the city government.
However, the city established a volunteer parks and recreation board in 1996, according to city officials. The board’s tasks include working with the city’s full-time parks and recreation director in an advisory capacity regarding governance of the parks, the Deerpath Golf Club, and the Forest Park Beach. However, it does not have spending authority.
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The mayor appoints members of the board, after they are vetted by the Lake Forest Caucus.
However, Mayor Stanford “Randy” Tack said at the April 21st City Council meeting spoke of concerns he had heard about the board’s responsibilities.
“Everybody that I have appointed to the board and some that I didn’t appoint to the board, have contacted me and expressed concern about the value of their participation on the board,” Tack said. “They didn’t feel that they were doing something that was meaningful. Although they wanted to contribute to the city, they just didn’t feel that met that standard.”
The most controversial issue that board discussed in recent years was the 2022 decision whether to install synthetic or artificial turf as part of the $16 million renovation of Deerpath Community Park.
Alderman Ara Goshgarian, 3rd, who served as City Council liaison to the parks and recreation board, during that debate, remembered it was a substantial decision for some members.
“I felt somewhat uncomfortable for them that this burden was laid upon them when it really should have been decided by elected officials,” Goshgarian said at the April 21st meeting. “It was a lot of pressure for them.”
Board chairman Marc Silver deferred comment to the city administration.
While the City Council went ahead with the elimination of the parks and recreation board at the May 5 meeting, they did not eliminate its legal committee.
The legal committee is charged with the responsibility to review litigation management policy, legal decisions and opinions plus related ordinances and contracts among other roles, according to the city’s website.
Yet Tack offered his concerns about the amount of work that the committee had as well at the April 21st meeting.
“They provided some oversight to legal affairs but the reality is we haven’t had a lot of legal affairs that required legal affairs committee oversight,” he said.
After a discussion on the 21st, the City Council voted unanimously for initial approval to dissolve the committee.
But in a very unusual move, the City Council did not take final approval on May 5 as objections surfaced from the public.
Former State Senator Susan Garrett was a member of the public advocating for the city to maintain the committee.
“It is like an insurance policy,” she said. “You never know when you are going to need it, but when you don’t have it and you need it then all hell breaks loose.”
The City Council then engaged in a lengthy debate on the topic, eventually voting to table the idea.
Daniel I Dorfman is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.