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Oak Park leaders press voters to renew two public-safety millages, warn of deep cuts if they fail
Summary
City officials described two millage renewals on the Aug. 4 primary ballot as straight renewals (not tax increases) and said failure would force cuts to city services; public-safety leaders cited staffing gains and large equipment costs to justify the measures.
City Manager Eric Tungate and Public Safety Director Cooper urged Oak Park residents to support two public-safety millage renewals on the Aug. 4 primary ballot, saying both are renewals rather than tax increases and that their passage is critical to maintaining city services.
"This is not a tax increase. It is a straight renewal," Tungate told the council, adding that the 7-mill renewal (Public Act 345) is limited to seven years. He said the 7 mills represent about $5,600,000 to the public-safety department. "If either one of these ballot initiatives did not pass, it would be catastrophic to the city's finances," he said.
Director Cooper said the millages fund retiree health care, operations and staffing and that the department has recovered from a low of 42 officers in 2012 to 58 officers now, with a budgeted strength of 61. "We're now at 58 officers, and our budget manpower strength is actually 61," Cooper said, noting the department provides police, fire and EMS and requires costly equipment replacements such as ladder trucks that have exceeded $1 million.
The council and staff described the first measure (ballot 2026-01) as a renewal tied to Public Act 345 limited to seven mills for seven years; the second measure (ballot 2026-02) is described by staff as a 0.985-mill, 10-year operations renewal. City officials repeatedly framed the measures as renewals and emphasized that the second measure's revenues would not take effect until 2028.
Council members and staff said they will host five town halls and public outreach sessions ahead of the primary. Director Cooper and the city manager did not promise specific service cuts in a failure scenario beyond saying that without the revenue the city would have to significantly reduce non-public-safety services and that making the funding gap up without the millages would be difficult.
The council did not take a formal vote on policy during the presentation; the remarks were informational and part of the city manager's report. The manager and director answered council questions about staffing, equipment and timing for any rate changes.
