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Village Clerk details records modernization, voter outreach and higher FY26 request
Summary
Oak Park Village Clerk Christina Waters presented a FY26 budget request that shifts record-management services to the clerk's office, adds one-time Iron Mountain costs and emphasizes digitization and voter-access programs.
Christina Waters, Oak Park Village Clerk, presented the Village Clerk’s FY26 priorities and a requested operating budget of $421,000 during the Finance Committee meeting on Oct. 30.
Waters said the clerk’s office — “Oak Park’s independent elected records steward” — is focusing FY26 on modernizing records management, expanding voter-registration outreach and providing free notary services for community members with limited access. “Every board record, election and public request relies on this foundation,” she told the committee.
The FY26 request is up from the FY25 amended budget of about $356,000. Waters said the increase reflects a one‑time transfer of Iron Mountain services (records storage) from Finance to the Clerk’s office and related re-housing costs. She said the village has started an RFP for digitization and is discussing long-term archiving partnerships with the Oak Park Public Library, whose temperature‑controlled archive room could house 100‑year‑old books and records.
Waters also described civic engagement efforts the clerk’s office will support, including youth programs, a new civic‑engagement festival, and continuing outreach on Black maternal health and other DEI events. She said the office will keep offering free notary services on weekends and off-site for residents with limited mobility.
Trustees asked for more detail on the Iron Mountain charge and the one‑time expenses that appear in the FY26 table; Donna Gaten, interim CFO, said the Iron Mountain line item moved from Finance because it had been budgeted there in FY25 but not spent. Waters invited committee members to ask additional questions and to support the office’s digitization and civic‑engagement plans.
