THE “ALIVE! OUR PARKS!

” SLATE

The “Park People” Present Their Plans for the Oak Park Park District
Diane Dunn – Thomas J. Finch – Julie Grossman-MacCarthy
for Commissioners of the Oak Park Park District
PUNCH 44, 45, 46 on April 5

“ALIVE! OUR PARKS!”

Diane Dunn, 29-year resident of Oak Park. Married. One daughter, a graduate of Oak Park-River Forest High School now
in college. Retired fundraising associate, Northwestern Memorial Hospital Foundation. Education: English Literature,
Northwestern University. This is the first time Diane has sought office; she is not an insider.

Thomas J. Finch, 22-year resident of Oak Park. Married. Three children, graduates of Oak Park-River Forest High School
now in college. Project Manager and Computer Analyst. Education: Economics, University of Chicago. This is the first
time Tom has sought office; he is not an insider.

Julie Grossman-MacCarthy, 19-year resident of Oak Park. Divorced. One daughter, attending Oak Park-River Forest High
School. Marketing Director, non-profit bringing arts programming into the Chicago Public School system. Education:
English, DePaul University, M.S., DePaul University, Public Service Management. This is the first time Julie has sought
office; she is not an insider.

The actual reason for filing of papers of “withdrawal” of candidacy of Ms. Grossman-MacCarthy, the documents
for which were entered one month past the date for ballot certification, will be addressed in detail in a news
conference if the “Alive! Our Parks!” slate is victorious.

PLATFORM

As a slate, we have held numerous meetings and have agreed on the following platform. Please ascribe these positions to
all of us in common. We hope you will note a strong common element of intergovernmental cooperation. Black and white
renditions of the photos are attached.

We regret the late date of the communication of our issues, but it results from the failure of the Oak Park Park District to
respond to our FOIA request. In it we address several issues, most notably those relevant to our platform element #9
below, Ethics Reform*. Specifically, we requested:
1. Revenues sources from non-property tax items since 2000. We believe a large decrease has occurred.
2. Any transfer of funds from referendum-raised revenue to general expenses, in particular, management salaries.
3. Communications between Gary Balling and Michael Grandy with Wayne Gardner of Kolicki construction in the period
November 1, 2006, to April 15, 2007, concerning the criminal trial of a local environmentalist for “trespassing in the park.”
The judge placed on the record that Mr. Gardner had committed perjury and we wish to determine the origin of that
testimony.
4. Any payment from the park district to incumbent commissioner Jessica Bullock or her business which raises grants for
governments and whose website prominently lists “park districts.”
5 . Any payment to professional soccer coach and candidate Paul Aeschleman from the park district or from semi-
professional youth soccer organizations which uses park district fields.
6. Details of payments since 2000 from the park district through the Berwyn Park District to Gary Balling’s brother in his
role as principal of U.S.A. Volleyball and other organizations.

Due to illness, business out-of-town, and work commitments, only Tom Finch may be able to meet you face-to-face for an
interview. He will contact you. We hope our detailed platform will suffice for Diane and Julie and we all look forward to
meeting you in the future as park district commissioners.

1. TAX RELIEF. Immediate and long-term significant tax relief. We believe that the current park board and
administration is out-of-touch with the taxpayer burden in Oak Park. As shown on the graphs based on data provided by
Ali El-Saffar, the Oak Park Township Assessor, not only has the park district levy increased the most of all taxing bodies in
the last five years, but also that rate has accelerated. Also, the percentage of levy to fund benefits is more than twice that of
any other district. The following will achieve our goal of a 50% tax levy reduction from the current $5 million.

a. Sell the administrative buildings for commercial redevelopment, with its generation of a projected $50,000 to
$100,000 in property taxes. Use half of the expected $1 to $2 million proceeds for reduction of the tax levy in the next two
years, and invest the other half in corporate and municipal high-interest bonds for long-term tax relief. Relocate the offices
to the Harrison Street arts district and its low rents, to provide an anchor and additional foot traffic for the arts district and
to aid the Village of Oak Park, in the spirit of intergovernmental cooperation, in creating vibrancy in this promising tourist
area.
b. Freeze all manager salaries and revise benefit packages to include 50% self-pay.
c. Create a ceiling of $65,000 on all management salaries except for the executive director, which would be
capped at $100,000. This, after all, is a park district, not a municipality or school district.
d. Since 2005, the number of managers has increased from 42 to 50 while Oak Park’s population has decreased, at
an annual cost to taxpayers of $750,000. These additional positions will be consolidated or eliminated.
e. Modify the master plan from one of multi-million dollar expenditures to maintenance.

(The figures represented in the following graphs do not include the increase in tax levy that resulted from the 2005 park
district referendum. Figures for the Village of Oak Park are not included as being not comparable, that entity receiving
only 30% of its funding from property taxes. The library pension is included in Village of Oak Park figures.)

2. ATHLETICS. A centrally-located athletic complex. The master plan will

be revised from that which continues to generate contentious controversy -- at Maple, Carroll, Field, Lindberg, and Taylor
Parks – and the expenditure of million of dollars, in which parks are transformed into athletic fields, to maintenance of
those parks and intergovernmental relation with the high school. We will create a modern complex of playing fields at the
high school/Ridgeland Commons including a new synthetic turf soccer field on the roof of the high school parking garage.
The complex will be paid entirely by corporate naming rights and philanthropic donations. We look forward to the ball
field at Ridgeland Commons being named “Jack Kaiser Memorial Field,” in honor of the high school baseball coaching
legend. The new facility will include a youth sports hall of fame, indoor batting cages, and a banquet hall which will be the
future home of high school and youth sports awards functions. It will generate an estimate $2.6 million annually in
regional, sectional, and national tournament fees, concert tickets, retail sales, and banquet hall receipts. Again in the spirit
of intergovernmental cooperation, a baseball and softball summer school will be started using high school coaches. This
will enable the early identification and development of young talent with our goal of state championships for Oak Park-
River Forest High School in both baseball and softball within the decade.

3. THE ARTS. Significantly increased programming in the fine and performing arts. The current programming is heavily
unbalanced, with a significant decrease in programming in the fine and performing arts in the last ten years. We will
greatly expand these programs, including dramatic productions in the fieldhouses, fine arts classes held in the arts district,
taught by those artisans in their professional studios, an all-village youth orchestra and all-village youth band, a summer
camp in the dance sponsored with local dance studios at their facilities, and a summer camp co-sponsored with Oak Park
Festival Theater at the Performing Arts Center on Madison Street.

4. SENIOR PROGRAMMING. A full-fledged senior center at Farson-Mills House. The Historical Society will be
relocated from Farson-Mills House to either the Oak Park library or a local university, locations where a research facility
belongs and would be better utilized. Farson-Mills House will become a 100% senior center. In the spirit of
intergovernmental cooperation, the park district and the Oak Park Township will provide free transportation to and from the
other senior communities, including the Oak Park Arms, the Oaks, Heritage House, and Holley Court Terrace as well as
local nursing homes. Senior programs currently are scattered and haphazard in the village. Our senior center will provide
numerous services and activities, including income tax counseling, medical screenings, as well as lectures, live
entertainment, weekly movies, crafts, bridge and chess tournaments, and bingo nights.

5. A FREE DOG PARK AT LINDBERG PARK. A safe, large, grassy area at the former location of the dog park with no
admission charge or fee. We find a small facility at Maple Park inadequate, in addition to being unwanted by the
neighbors, and the facility at Ridgeland Commons dangerous because of heavy vehicle traffic on Lake Street and a non-
grass surface. We will again welcome dog owners and their pets to a large, safe, grassy area at Lindberg Park with
minimum impact on neighbors.

6. COMMUNITY WIDE YOUTH PROGRAMS. Early age acculturation via village-wide programs. In addition to the
all-village youth orchestra and all-village youth band, we will develop programs to acculturate youth village-wide in their
early years. This will include an all-village track meet, a distance balloon competition, and we will bring back the Gala
Summer Children’s Circus, the highlight of the summer for many decades past, in which children dress up as clowns and
animal acts, the climax of a summer-long training and rehearsal program. The circus will, as in decades past, use a
professional ringmaster, band, and trained animal act under the “Big Top” at Stevenson Playground and will be fully self-
funded by ticket sales.

7. CONCERN FOR THE ENVIRONMENT AND OUR HERITAGE. Respect for the environment and Oak Park’s
architectural heritage. Healthy trees will no longer be destroyed for any reason, including ballfields, with the creation of a
central athletic complex at the high school and Ridgeland Commons. A 100% ban on pesticides in force since 1991 will
continue to ensure the health of crawling tots, picnickers, dogs, and wildlife. Playground youth supervisors will be asked to
spend a few hours each week performing weeding or organizing “environmental youth brigades” to do so. Maintenance of
the Van Bergen fieldhouses and the Jens Jensen Ridgeland Commons building will be priorities.

8. MUNICIPAL STRUCTURE. Study a possible dissolution of the park district as a separate taxing body. We will
convene a Blue-Ribbon Citizens' Committee to determine if dissolving the park district as a separate unit of government
would both improve park district programming and reduce property taxes. We will ask the Oak Park Historic Preservation
Commission to consider historical or landmark status for the Jens Jensen building at Ridgeland Commons and the Van
Bergen fieldhouses so that these architectural treasures will be maintained with donations as well as taxes rather than
allowed to decay.

9. MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTABILITY. Put accountability into action. We’ve seen in the past year: Many more dead
trees at Field Park, three cut down in 2010 and others left standing dead; cost over-runs at Scoville War Memorial; a 4-year
old run over at the Woodbine and Division entrance into Field Park; weed-infested "nature gardens" at Lindberg Park;
unuseable soccer fields at Barrie Park; sidewalks 3 1/2 years after the construction crumbling into pebbles and sand at
Field Park; an elm tree by the tennis courts at Lindberg Park infected with Dutch Elm disease left to stand for nearly 8
months, leading to the devastation of village parkway elm trees in northwest Oak Park -- costing taxpayers hundreds of
thousands of dollars in tree removal cost. Yet no one at the park district takes responsibility – not the board, the landscape
architect, the head of buildings and grounds, the contractors, the sub-contractors, or the executive director. Accountability
in the form of salary decreases, fines, firings, and if need be lawsuits will be instituted to ensure that commissioners
represent the interests of the residents, not management and contractors.

10. *ETHICS REFORM. Institution of strict ethics guidelines. (Please see note above; some of our beliefs are based on
anecdotal information from past park district managers. These have yet to be substantiated, the result of our FOIA request
being ignored. Nonetheless, we are concerned about a lack of propriety that seems to be evident, yet not confirmed.) The
Oak Leaves referred to the current park board public outreach meetings in an editorial as a “sham” and their budget process
as “irresponsible.” This state of affairs will no longer continue. In addition, no longer will a park district manager commit
perjury to gain revenge, as in 2007, against a local taxpayer. No longer will a highly placed manager be able to hide a
sibling on the payroll to the tune of many thousands of taxpayer dollars by hiring him as a sub-contractor through a
neighboring park district. No longer will the taxpayers of Oak Park have to pay a legal judgment based on racial
discrimination in hiring (Greg Evans lawsuit settled out-of-court after several years of federal litigiation) or allow the park
district to sue such former managers at taxpayer expense. We are also concerned about a current candidate who has a
consulting firm which lists “park districts” as a client and another candidate on the same slatee who is a paid soccer coach
who may, if elected, increase programming in his sport possibly for personal financial gain. We have been stymied by the
park district ignoring our FOIA requests while an incumbent commissioner and her slate have at their disposal the full
budget of the park district. In particular, we believe that non-property tax revenues have dwindled appreciably in the last
five years, but cannot obtain the supporting documentation under FOIA. We also have been led to believe that money
raised from the 2005 referendum may be being used to improperly pay general expenses including salaries, but again we
cannot obtain the supporting documentation under FOIA. We will institute a policy that speedy fulfillment of FOIA
requests, within state law, be implemented. We repeat, without the requested FOIA information, many of these concerns
are only based on anecdotal information, but even the appearance of impropriety should be the concern of all residents.

Please address any questions to me. For myself, Tom, and Julie, thank you for considering our candidacies.

Diane Dunn
Press Relations: “Alive! Our Parks!”
dianedunn7@yahoo.com

Diane Dunn, Tom Finch and Julie Grossman-

MacCarthy, the “Alive! Our Parks!” team,
stand before a 5 ft x 5 ft architectural rendering
of their proposed new athletic stadium for
youth and adult baseball, softball, and soccer,
concerts, and outdoor ice-skating at Ridgeland
Commons. It will be paid entirely by corporate
naming rights and philanthropic donations.
The complex, including an Oak Park youth
athletic hall of fame, indoor batting cages, first
aid station, retail, and a banquet hall, is
estimated to generate $2.6 million in revenues
annually. The rendering will be on display for
public viewing at the Oak Park Public Library.