Elmhurst Park Board Warned Of 'Repercussions' With Bandshell Referendum

ELMHURST, IL – The Elmhurst park board is sticking with its lawyer's advice: Don't let voters weigh in on the location of Wilder Park's bandshell.

At this week's park board meeting, attorney Andrew Paine maintained that the board would violate the law by certifying a petition with nearly 1,200 signatures.

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The petition calls for holding a nonbinding referendum on whether the board should build the bandshell east of the iconic Wilder Mansion, which many residents oppose.

Citizen-generated advisory referendums are allowed for other government bodies, Paine said, but state law doesn't specifically list park districts.

"There can be repercussions for not following the law," he said.

But an election lawyer, John Fogarty, has pointed out other provisions of the law that refer to advisory referendums as applying to "governmental subdivisions," a category that he said would include park districts.

Earlier this month, the district's executive director, Jim Rogers, denied the petition, based on Paine's opinion. Then, the park board voted 5-2 against placing the same question on the ballot under its own authority.

At Monday's board meeting, board member Vince Spaeth argued that the board had one more chance to make things right with the petition's signers.

And he said the referendum's outcome is only advisory, so it would have no effect on the board majority's decision in January to build the bandshell on the east lawn.

Spaeth advised the board to send the petition to the DuPage County clerk's office, which handles election issues. The county, he said, could then make the call.

"There's no harm to push it downstream," he said. "There's everything to gain by doing that. It's transparency."

He said that while he respects Paine's work, he has now seen differing legal opinions on the same law.

"I have to hear both sides," Spaeth said.

The board voted 5-2 against sending the citizen petition to the county to place the question on the ballot. Spaeth and Carolyn Ubriaco were the dissenters.

"You people are all jerks," a man in the audience yelled at the board.

A woman went up to Spaeth and said, "Thank you for trying."

Since May 2025, the park board has debated which Wilder Park location is best for the bandshell. The park district's own survey indicated a vast majority of residents opposed the mansion site, saying it would interrupt the sightlines to perhaps the city's most iconic building.

In January, Spaeth, Ubriaco and member Tim Sheehan opposed the mansion location. But Sheehan joined the majority against the ballot question, saying the board had already made its decision.