A petition to establish a process for a recall of Oak Park officials has nearly 1,000 signatures in under three weeks.
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The petition is purposed to ask voters in the April election if the village of Oak Park should provide a system for voters to recall a village president, clerk or trustee.
If the referendum passes, the right of recall would then be established.
To begin the recall process, petition signatures need to reach 25% of the total votes cast in the last village president election. After filing the signatures with the village clerk, the removal of an elected official before their term expires could be passed through a majority vote.
The initiative was started by Jacob Drews, a 22-year-old senior at Columbia University and an Oak Park and River Forest High School alum, after he noticed recall exists in other Illinois municipalities including Arlington Heights, Wheeling, Buffalo Grove and Mount Prospect.
“If these past years have taught me anything, taught us as a nation anything, us as a state of Illinois anything, is that you can never have too many democratic safeguards and guardrails,” Drews said. “This is one that has been around for over a hundred years. It’s tested in almost 50% of all towns and cities across the country, thousands of communities have it at the local level, so I believe Oak Parkers should get to enjoy these rights too.”
In November 2024, Drews placed a question about whether Oak Park residents should have the right to propose and enact ordinances by petition and referendum on the annual township meeting ballot, and he said 85% of voters said yes.
In the nearly two years since then, Drews said he’s worked with Oak Park officials in trying to see how to get the such a law enacted, but the process has been slow.
“I’ve been a little disappointed that it hasn’t come up for a vote yet and I’m hoping it does in the future,” Drews said.
Village President Vicki Scaman said she has worked with Drews and said she knows he has the best intentions with the pushing of the initiative.
She said that she supports the petition, but couldn’t pin a specific reason for why people would sign it or a specific circumstance when the right of recall would be used.
“Different people are going to sign for different reasons,” Scaman said. “Some people will sign for federal reasons or for this moment in Oak Park.”
She said Oak Park was built on civil engagement and people are engaged about preserving democracy.
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Drews said he’s always been interested in politics but his involvement in local government started about five years ago when he was researching direct democracy mechanisms in other communities.
“This isn’t about one specific issue, it’s not about one specific trustee, this is just about good government,” he said.
While away at school, Drews has worked with other volunteers to collect signatures in the village at the Oak Park farmers markets and at community gatherings.
Though only about 1,900 signatures are needed, volunteers are aiming to get about 2,500.
If an official is recalled, the office would be declared vacant in the manner provided by law for filling that vacancy.
“It’s a structured way to give voters a little bit more power, it’s a Democratic safeguard,” Drews said. “I hope recall is never used in our community, but who knows in 20 years or 50 years what may come up.”