Dear Neighbor,
One of the reasons I am running is because I believe the City of West Chicago can do better with listening to the voices of residents and creatively working together with residents and small businesses to address their concerns. Sometimes resident and business concerns contradict. One recent example of this was the Video Gambling issue, which the city put to a non-binding referendum in 2018. Nearly 70% of voters–over 1,800 people–voted no to the proposition to introduce video gambling into the city. But in November 2021, the city council voted to pass the video gambling proposition, citing that several small businesses were losing customers to establishments in other towns because they did not offer slot machines and the like.
Unfortunately, the city council went ahead with the proposition, despite the objections raised by over 20 residents during that period and despite the 2018 referendum.
The West Chicago government can and should do a better job of listening to resident input and including residents in a participatory governing process. Some ideas I have for this include:
- Establish a nonbinding referendum system by text/email so the city can take a quick pulse of the community opinion before making any decisions.
- Increase communications and community outreach so residents have more opportunities to share their experiences and concerns with elected officials, including through quarterly town halls and listening sessions for key issues of concern.
- Enhance searchability and navigability of the city’s website so that more residents find out about discussions like the video gambling one in 2021 and have the opportunity to show up to discussions. Unfortunately, on the video gambling issue, many residents found out only after the city council had passed video gambling in 2021.
I would also like to hear your ideas for improvement. Please feel free to reach out to me at any time at the methods below. I also encourage you to vote on or before April 1, 2025. Your voice matters!
Daniel Bovey
(630) 473-8285
dan@votedanielbovey.com
www.votedanielbovey.com
