ROCHELLE — Ogle County Clerk Laura Cook confirmed on Thursday morning that she indeed received an official objection from a Flagg Township resident and voter on Wednesday, Feb. 20, challenging a number of signatures on petitions turned in to block a Flagg-Rochelle Community Park district ordinance that could provide tax payer funding for building a recreation center.

On Friday afternoon, Cook said that an Electoral Board hearing will begin this Monday, Feb. 25 at 11 a.m. in the Ogle County Board room on the third floor of the courthouse in Oregon.

She has also named former Ogle County State’s Attorney Doug Floski, of Byron, as the hearing administrator.

“Doug has been involved in this type of hearing before, so I think he is a good choice to oversee the process,” Cook said. “I think on the first day the guidelines of the hearing will be laid out and I expect it will last more than one day.”

During Monday night’s regular park board meeting, park district attorney Paul Chadwick told the park board that 603 signatures and addresses appeared on petitions submitted to the park district, but that an objection had been filed on their validity.

The signatures were in response to commissioners passing an ordinance on Jan. 7 that would give the district authority to issue up to $14 million in alternate revenue bonds unless at least 523 registered Flagg-Township voters petitioned the park district to force a binding referendum vote to secure the funding.

“We did receive the objection from Flagg Township resident Richard Ohlinger and we now have to issue a notice of an electoral board hearing,” Cook announced on Thursday morning. “We sent out certified mailings to the petitioners who turned in the signatures to let them know about the objection.”

Cook said she has not previously dealt with this type of petition objection before in the clerk’s office, but she will be conferring with the Ogle County Circuit Clerk and Ogle County State’s Attorney offices to follow through appropriately.

“We had to give notice of the hearing within 24 hours of receiving it, so we are moving the process along based on the timeline,” she said. “The hearing itself cannot last longer than five days.”

Ohlinger’s objection questions the validity of 114 specific petition signatures that were collected and submitted by local residents John Loggins, Belen Martinez, Thomas Lower, John Forni, Tom McDermott, John Kaminski, Paul Lower, Ronald Fleener, Julia Fleener and Christa Seebach.

The objection claims that the petitions were not properly bound and numbered, some signers were not registered at the correct address, some signers do not match their correct voting district, some signers are out of the Flagg district and some signatures are illegible.

Background

During a special meeting on Jan. 7, park board commissioners approved two separate motions in an effort to secure tax payer funding to build a community recreation center in Rochelle on the Helms South property.

One resolution was passed in a 6-0 board vote to place a referendum proposition on the April 2, 2019 consolidated election ballot for voters to decide if the district could issue $11-$14 million in general obligation bonds to pay for the project.

However, a second motion on an ordinance was also passed in a 5-1 board vote. The ordinance gave the district another possible option of issuing up to $14 million in alternative revenue bonds without holding a referendum, unless at least 7.5 percent of registered Flagg-Township voters petitioned the district to force a binding public vote on the tax increase.

Park board commissioner Bud Norcross voted against the ordinance, saying the two motions were confusing and he preferred allowing the public to have the final say on the matter.

“It would seem more simple to just put it on the ballot for referendum in April,” Norcross stated at the Jan. 7 meeting. “My main concern is the voters of Flagg Township to get the chance to say yes or no, that’s all.”

After a public legal notice on the ordinance appeared in the News-Leader on Jan. 9, several Flagg Township citizens began collecting petition signatures within the allotted 30-day time frame to block the ordinance and force a binding referendum vote on the tax increase to pay for the facility’s construction.

“When I read that public notice, I realized that the park board could legally issue the bonds if there weren’t enough petitions turned in,” said Seebach, who organized the petition drive with the help of several other residents. “So, I got together with about a dozen other people and friends who feel the same as I do that the public should make the final decision and we made an effort to gather enough petitions.”

Seebach said all the petitions were turned into the park district before the Feb. 7 deadline on forms provided by the park district with room for seven signatures on each sheet.

According to Chadwick, the park district officials can only accept the petitions, and it requires independent Flagg Township residents to review them within the given time frame and file an objection to any of the signatures.

“We just turn everything over to the county,” Chadwick stated last Monday. “I don't know much more about the process or what type of deadlines the county officials have to rule on it. It’s out of our hands.”

In the meantime, park district officials are preparing for the April 2 referendum with public presentations planned on the recreation center project. The question that remains is will the results of that election be the final determination on whether tax dollars can be raised to build the facility, or will commissioners be able to move forward on the project either way based on passage of the ordinance to issue alternate revenue bonds.