Elmhurst Park Official Doubts Survey, Defends Bandshell Stance

ELMHURST, IL – An Elmhurst park board member, fresh off her victory in the DuPage County Forest Preserve election last week, defended her position in the local controversy over where to build a bandshell.

And the member, Susan Smentek, cast doubt on the park district's own survey, which indicated a large majority opposed her bandshell location choice.

In last Tuesday's election, Smentek, a Democrat, defeated fellow park board member Carolyn Ubriaco, a Republican, with 59 percent of the vote. That margin was similar to Democratic victories across the county.

Smentek and Ubriaco disagreed over whether to put the bandshell east of the Wilder Mansion. In January, Smentek joined a 4-3 majority for the east lawn.

Ubriaco joined those who wanted another site at Wilder Park. She and others didn't want the bandshell to block views of perhaps Elmhurst's most iconic building.

Ubriaco favored putting the issue on the November ballot. Smentek opposed doing so.

After Patch wrote last week about the forest preserve race, Smentek said context was missing from the story about her bandshell positions.

Ubriaco declined to comment on Ubriaco's statement to Patch. Another park board member, Vince Spaeth, however, disagreed with Smentek.

'Personal decision'

In her email, Smentek said she would not characterize her position as favoring the east lawn location. She referred to a successful referendum for $90 million in projects, about 95 percent of which is going to the rebuilding of the Wagner Community Center.

"My position was, and continues to be, that the Park District has a responsibility to honor the commitments we made to voters leading up to the November 2024 referendum," Smentek said. "The proposed bandshell location was clearly communicated to residents before the vote. The District held public open houses, met with civic organizations, posted information on a website dedicated to the proposed projects, held online live Q & A sessions, sent direct mail to voters showing the proposed location, and posted social media videos filmed from the actual site."

These points have been the subject of debate since May 2025.

Spaeth said the only documented commitment in the referendum was to build a new Wagner Center, a bandshell in Wilder Park (no locations mentioned) and three new restrooms.

He said Jim Rogers, the district's executive director, made a "personal decision (and he admitted so) on where he would like the bandshell and had no official authority" from the board.

And Spaeth said no firm and final location was clearly communicated. Three board members confirmed that the board did not decide on a bandshell within Wilder Park, he said.

"The (park district's) Master Planning Process would be conducted after the Referendum, and the community and Board would work the details out – this is the process that was not followed," Spaeth said. "Jim Rogers dictated where the bandshell would go and had no authorized support of the EPD Board for this decision."

He said the east lawn location was a major impediment to the historical nature of the mansion and park.

Rogers declined to comment Monday.

'Vulnerable' survey

According to the district's survey last year, 70 percent of the 2,021 respondents favored the ice rink site north of Wilder Mansion, while the rest chose the lawn east of the iconic building.

At the time, the district said it removed another 514 responses that had been completed back-to-back "in a very rapid sequential order" on certain dates by a single IP address or device.

Of the 514 responses, all but one favored the lawn east of the Wilder Mansion for the bandshell site, according to the district.

In her message, Smentek downplayed the survey's value.

"(R)egarding the community survey, there is no statistically valid data establishing that Elmhurst residents as a whole prefer a different site," Smentek said. "The survey was self-selected, open to individuals regardless of residency, and vulnerable to multiple submissions.

She continued, "While the results reflect the preferences of those whose responses were counted, they cannot reliably be generalized to the entire community. That is an important distinction when characterizing public opinion."

In his response, Spaeth questioned why Smentek approved the survey. He said no park district survey has received so many responses.

For years, Spaeth said, the park district and its architect, Plainfield-based Upland Design, have used the same format for surveys.

"Jim Rogers and Upland confirmed in their final opinion that the survey was good and they stood behind it (after the bad bot votes were removed)," Spaeth said. "(The park district) also used SurveyMonkey for selection of bathroom sites (like the Prairie Path) and commented on how good the surveys were. Once again, we had commissioners who ignored community feedback that was overwhelmingly in favor of the ice rink location."

Residents' voice shut down?

In August, Smentek joined the 5-2 majority against sending a citizen petition to DuPage County to place the question on the ballot. In her statement, Smentek explained what she said was her reasoning.

"(T)he Board was asked to approve a nonbinding advisory referendum question that was not solely about location," Smentek said. "The proposed wording combined issues in a way that would not have provided the Board with clear, actionable information, regardless of the outcome. My opposition was to the wording and usefulness of that particular question, not to public input."

Spaeth said the board majority again shut down residents' voice, even though the referendum would have been nonbinding.

"The wording was clear and simple and was reviewed before submittal by legal experts," Spaeth said. "The EPD Board could have elected to put a question on the Ballot and again voted against the communities' request and desires."

Smentek said she plans to step down from the park board because of her forest preserve position.

In April's park board election, the seats of President Kevin Graf and members Ubriaco and Meghan Scarsella are up. Graf and Scarsella favored the east lawn location.