Angry University Park residents demand answers
Furious residents packed University Park Village Hall Tuesday and demanded Mayor Joseph Roudez and other village officials respond to a range of concerns.
Residents wanted to know what was being done to address high lead levels in the public water system. Many households have been unable to drink tap water in their homes for nearly three years.
“We don’t want to get sick,” resident Chandra DeVance said. “I’m appalled that we’re still paying our water bills and we can’t even drink this water.”
The drinking water crisis persists in University Park, though it no longer receives much attention.
“I’m just disgusted that this is swept under the rug,” DeVance said.
Roudez told DeVance that complaint forms were available on the village’s website. State environmental officials and Aqua, a private company that manages the water supply, recently told village officials that water in most of the town was safe to drink, Trustee Karen Lewis said.
“My question to Aqua and the IEPA was, where are you doing this testing?” Lewis said. “We still have 1,500 homes that are affected. They said they would get back to us. We’ve been telling them it’s not right because we still have residents picking up water every Saturday.”
Homes with high lead levels are concentrated in one area of the village of about 7,000 residents, officials said. The company has tested lead levels in about 80 homes, Roudez said.
“It’s time for us to stand up as a community and start hollering and screaming and come up with a plan and fight this,” Roudez said.
Aqua said on its website April 11 that the company resumed standard billing procedures and offered financial assistance to qualifying low-income customers.
“Aqua Illinois remains committed to keeping an open line of communication with University Park residents as we build on our progress and work toward a final resolution,” the company said.
Several residents said poor communication was a recurring concern.
“There is definitely a communication problem with the board and the residents,” resident Star Lawson said. “We’re asking you questions and we’re not getting answers.”
Lawson said residents were frustrated because village officials refused to share information.
“I’m concerned about my community,” Lawson said.
Lawson and others wanted to know why Deborah Wilson was no longer serving as the village’s police chief. Some held signs that said the chief was fired without due process.
Wilson was placed on leave Dec. 16 following an incident at the village-owned University Park Golf Club. A Will County grand jury indicted golf club manager Sonia Coffee on felony aggravated battery to a police office and misdemeanor resisting arrest charges for allegedly attacking Wilson.
“Sonia Coffee is still here after being indicted on aggravated battery charges but our police chief is gone,” Lawson said. “Where does that happen?”
Trustee Sonia Jenkins-Bell said she agreed with a resident’s concerns that the village’s abandoned public swimming pool posed a safety hazard. The pool needs to be drained, she said.
“I live down the street from the pool. The mosquitoes are ridiculous in the summertime,” Jenkins-Bell said. “Now we need the residents to step up and demand the pool be drained and tarped.”
Jenkins-Bell directed her criticism at village manager Ernestine Beck-Fulgham. The trustee said she repeatedly asked the manager to address the pool situation. Jenkins-Bell then demanded that Beck-Fulgham repay the village $54,000 in unauthorized bonuses paid to village employees.
“I want restitution,” JenkinsBell said. “I want it paid back.”
Trustee Theo Brooks agreed with a resident’s concerns that hoards of feral cats and other animals were menacing neighborhoods.
“It is out of control,” Brooks said. “This is a serious situation.”
Anger and frustration among residents has been growing since at least September, when citizens publicly protested and demanded more transparency and accountability.
At the time, Roudez called the protest a “political hit job” and noted the participation of former Mayor Vivian Covington, whom he defeated in the April 2021 election.
So far, a Village Board majority of four trustees continue to support Roudez on most matters, though the faction has cracked at times. Lewis and trustees Shirley Bolding, Donzell Franklin and Janelle McFadden tend to vote in lockstep with Roudez, while Brooks and Jenkins-Bell dissent.
In December, however, two Roudez supporters voted with Brooks and Jenkins-Bell to reject a proposal to appoint Ed Bradley as acting police chief while Wilson was on leave. Covington fired Bradley, who then sued the village and successfully argued he was fired without due process.
Also, trustees recently unanimously voted to withhold payments to Coffee’s management company until she reported to the Village Board.
Amid the many concerns in University Park, residents appear to be focusing their efforts on ousting Beck-Fulgham as village manager. Watch for residents to step up public pressure on Roudez’s coalition to secure the votes needed to fire the village manager, even if Roudez continues to support her.