{"id":7720,"date":"2025-05-03T18:28:57","date_gmt":"2025-05-03T18:28:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/princetonillinois.com\/?p=7720"},"modified":"2025-05-03T18:28:57","modified_gmt":"2025-05-03T18:28:57","slug":"no-city-manager-for-oglesby-voters-say-tuesday-shaw-local","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/princetonillinois.com\/?p=7720","title":{"rendered":"No city manager for Oglesby, voters say Tuesday – Shaw Local"},"content":{"rendered":"


Oglesby voters appeared to shoot down a referendum proposing a restructured government. According to unofficial results, the referendum failed by a roughly 3-to-1 margin. <\/span>(Derek Barichello)
Oglesby<\/a> voters shot down a referendum proposing a restructured government. Just over 70% of voters opposed the city manager concept.
The La Salle County<\/a> Clerk\u2019s Office reported 283 \u201cyes\u201d votes to 678 \u201cno.\u201d The total isn\u2019t final but advocates and opponents agreed the margin was decisive.
\u201cIt is disappointing,\u201d Mayor Jason Curran said, \u201cbut the people spoke.\u201d
Curran said the council would resume work on the comprehensive plan, which was among the issues postponed while the city awaited Tuesday\u2019s results.
\u201cI think this was an amazing team effort,\u201d said Brandy Day, a vocal opponent of the proposal and who penned an editorial published in Shaw Media. \u201dThe town came together to speak their minds.
\u201cWe have a lot of work to do going forward for a more community-driven dialogue.\u201d
\u201cThe people of Oglesby have spoken and the no vote won by a huge margin,\u201d said Jay Baxter, a proponent who circulated petitions to put a referendum on the ballot. \u201cNow the question is can the commissioner form of government solve the real and significant problems Oglesby faces caused by the commissioner form of government.\u201d
Baxter secured plenty of signatures to put the question to voters, but there were hurdles.
For one, voters had seemed unclear on whether the referendum was advisory or binding. Oglesby Plan Commission Chairman Ken Ficek had to explain in late February that it was binding and the city would hire a city manager with a majority vote \u201cyes.\u201d
\u201cSome people think this is advisory,\u201d Ficek had said, \u201cand it\u2019s not.\u201d
Multiple residents also spoke up at city council meetings in opposition toadding a new salary and to giving an outside hire day-to-day control over city operations and administration of city workers. Not least, the city would not be able to quickly rescind it.
Karl Ottosen, a Naperville attorney brought in for a question-and-answer session, had said that if Oglesby found a city manager didn\u2019t work then voters would have to wait four years to hold a referendum on whether to abandon the managerial form of government. The clock starts ticking the date a manager is hired, not when the question passes. <\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2023 Shaw Local News Network
Copyright \u00a9 2023 Shaw Local News Network<\/p>\n

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Oglesby voters appeared to shoot down a referendum proposing a restructured government. According to unofficial results, the referendum failed by a roughly 3-to-1 margin. (Derek Barichello)Oglesby voters shot down a referendum proposing a restructured government. Just over 70% of voters opposed the city manager concept.The La Salle County Clerk\u2019s Office reported 283 \u201cyes\u201d votes to 678 \u201cno.\u201d The total isn\u2019t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t