Cary Park District Referendum Piece Comes with Source Unidentifed

A Cary resident with sharp eyes called to tell me a pamphlet had been delivered to the door on behalf of the Cary Park District referendum asking the voters to authorize the sale of 87 acres of Hoffman Park fronting on Route 31.

The park board has declared the land surplus, wants to sell it and use the money to build a multi-purpose sports center next to Cary-Grove High School.

The resident told me that there was no way to figure out who sent it.

All the leaflet said was

This newsletter was paid for with private funds.

That didn’t surprise me since local tax districts are sensitized to the illegality of spending tax dollars to promote passage of a referendum.

It’s illegal under the Election Interference Act, a weakly enforced law, except in Lake County where the state’s attorney apparently got fed up with school districts using tax money to promote their referendums.

I called Cary Park District’s head guy, Steve Cherveny, and asked if he knew who put the piece out. He didn’t and told me,

“The Cary Park District had nothing to do with it.”

Well, someone paid for it to be printed and distributed.

And someone else felt strongly enough about the omission of any indication of who paid for the campaign piece to complain to the Illinois State Board of Elections.

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Click to enlarge the front page and the “paid for with private funds” from the back page seen above in the grass next to the “this will never be a gravel pit” pitch. Click to enlarge the reprinted part.


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