North Cook News

Jim O’Donnell and Mel Thillens want Park Ridge to know that they don’t see themselves as being better than the taxpayers they represent.

The Park Ridge Park District Board members were at the forefront of a recent push to end a policy that gave the board free access to park district facilities and programs.

“Memberships at the fitness center and for other facilities is something taxpayers have to pay for, so why shouldn’t we,” O’Donnell told the North Cook News. “People are being taxed out of their homes. It’s time we got serious about fiscal responsibility.”

Thillens agreed, saying political cynicism is bad enough as it is.

“I think it’s important we build trust with voters,” he said. “No board commissioner should be getting free stuff.  We live in a state where people have less and less faith in government, a county where corruption runs wild. Taxpayers need to know not all politicians are bad.”

O’Donnell is one of several board members elected earlier this year to serve alongside incumbent Thillens.

In years past, board members argued that they needed to have open access to the facilities so that they could critique operations on a firsthand basis.

“I didn’t make this an issue during my campaign, but I did focus on property taxes,” O’Donnell said. “Rising property taxes are the most serious issue most people face, and we need to be fiscally prudent with taxpayer money. Anything we work at getting done has to be with that in mind.”

In the end, fellow board members Jim O'Brien, Robert Leach, Jim Janak and Harmony Harrington joined with O’Donnell and Thillens to get rid of the park perks.

“I knew a lot of other board members agreed with us that the free park memberships were unnecessary,” Thillens sad. “And the people of Park Ridge seem to be happy that we’re trying to establish trust with them.”