Dolton trustee term limits on track
Referendums to eliminate primary, cut trustees trail
Voters in Dolton on Tuesday supported a controversial mayor-backed referendum to impose term limits on trustees, according to unofficial results.
The ballot measure, which received more than 64 percent of the vote in Dolton, prevents trustees — but not the mayor or clerk — from serving more than two consecutive terms.
It was the only referendum of three Mayor Riley Rogers placed on the November ballot that appears to have won clear voter support.
The other two ballot initiatives that Rogers sponsored, which would have eliminated the village’s primary election and reduced the number of trustees from six to four, trailed by small margins Wednesday, with mailed ballots and provisionals yet to be counted.
Rogers, who did not return a request for comment Wednesday, said previously that he’d put forth the three ballot measures in an effort to save the village money and usher in a board more supportive of his agenda.
If Tuesday’s results are ultimately certified, only Trustee Tiffany Henyard will immediately be term limited from running for re-election.
Henyard, who won a second term last year and would have been forced to run again in February had the mayor’s trustee reduction referendum passed, said she was pleased that it appeared her seat was safe until 2021, when her second term ends.
“I’m just happy the residents came out and voted and they didn’t let the mayor take their voice,” said Henyard, who had unsuccessfully challenged Rogers’ efforts to get his measures on the ballot.
Henyard said previously that she was eager to challenge the mayor in 2021, if she were term limited from running as a trustee, but backed off that comment Wednesday.
“Right now, I just want to finish out my term,” she said. “That was my main goal, just finish what I was elected to do. I haven’t got my mind set on running (for mayor in 2021).”
Henyard, who has voted with the mayor on various issues in recent months, said she didn’t think his support for ballot initiatives that aimed to weaken the power of trustees had created a rift between them.
She did, however, say she took issue with the fact that the mayor’s term limit referendum applied only to trustees and not to the mayor or clerk.
“If you’re going to sell it
to the people that it's good for them, it should be good for you,” she said. “It should have went across the board.”
Rogers has said previously that he would not stand in the way of others who wished to propose a referendum that would place term limits on the mayor or clerk.
Neither Henyard nor Trustee Valeria Stubbs, a frequent critic of the mayor, said they were considering gathering signatures to get such a measure on the ballot next election.
Stubbs, who is up for re-election next year, said she was pleased with Tuesday's unofficial referendum results, even if they meant she could not serve as a trustee past 2023.
She said she didn't believe voters' apparent support for trustee term limits was a repudiation of her and her board colleagues, but rather represented a sign that voters generally favor checks on government officials at all levels.
“I think that (voters) have been looking at (Illinois House Speaker Michael) Madigan and the things that have been going on in Springfield, that people have been holding those seats forever,” she said. “I think that's why they (supported term limits in Dolton).”