Last summer, members of the City’s O’Hare Airport Commission told the City Council that a majority of Park Ridge residents wanted the City to fight the new O’Hare runways; and it asked for $500,000 to pay for a lobbyist, lawyers, additional noise studies, etc. 

Yet when the Council had the good sense to consider addressing this issue through an advisory referendum, Alds. Allegretti, Bach and Ryan opposed it – with Allegretti characteristically harrumphing about how the voters elect people like him to make these decisions, presumably without the voter input that a non-binding, advisory referendum provides. 

At a later meeting, a $500,000 cap was added to the referendum question by a 4-3 vote of Alds. Carey, DiPietro, Sweeney and Mayor Schmidt (as tie-breaker, in the absence of Ald. Ryan) v. Alds. Allegretti, Bach and Wsol, none of whom wanted the voters to consider the very dollar figure that the OAC was looking for from the City and, hence, from those voters. 

Not surprisingly, members of the OAC now want to read the 7,494 (56.9%) “No” to 5,678 (43.1%) “Yes” result in a glass-half-full way, with OAC chair Sue Perschke and member Christine Kutt both interpreting it as simply a rejection of the $500,000 amount rather than a mandate that the City stop spending money fighting O’Hare expansion. 

Fair enough. 

Now that we know a majority of the voters don’t want to spend $500,000 on battling O’Hare, let the City Council put the following question to another non-binding, advisory referendum on the April ballot, while this matter is still fairly fresh in the public’s mind: 

“Should the City end its funding of measures related to O’Hare Airport?” 

If a majority of the voters say “Yes,” that should serve as a convincing sign to the Council that the City should focus on solutions that don’t involve throwing any tax dollars at the problem.  And if the voters say “No” to that question, then the Council (and the OAC) can reasonably conclude that some middle-ground is needed – perhaps a combination of money for noise and pollution studies (for purposes of building a case for a supplemental Environmental Impact Study) combined with some political arm-twisting of Illinois’ new Congressional delegation.  

Perschke says the OAC is discussing the possibility of another referendum question, but with more specificity as to what noise abatement measures would be pursued.  

We think such a question, especially when paired with the one we propose, would be a fine addition to the April ballot…so long as it contains a dollar amount so that the voters aren’t being effectively asked to sign a blank check.  

Even if a blank check is exactly what the OAC, and the anti-O’Hareans, are looking for.

EDITOR’S NOTE:  We wish to remind our readers that today is Veterans Day, the one day each year that our country pays tribute to the men and women of its Armed Forces, both past and present.  Please take a moment out of your day to to give thanks and to honor them for their patriotism, their service and their sacrifice to help gain and preserve the freedoms we all hold dear.  And we also wish to once again remind our readers that, in addition to our gratitude, our veterans have earned proper medical care, educational opportunities, and jobs.

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