Elmwood Park Recall Expands to Trustees, President Candidate Bows Out

Members of the Friends of the Village of Elmwood Park will file recall petitions Friday against two trustees, saying they are violating the public's trust.

Nick Haas and Alan Bagg confirmed Thursday while trustees were in closed session that they will pull recall petitions for David Voss and Linda Pelish and start collecting the necessary signatures.

The move comes, they said, because Voss and Pelish are colluding with Village President Audrey Viau and not truly representing the residents of Elmwood Park.

"It is clear from the way they present motions and vote that there is some planning going on before they get to meetings," Bagg said. "We can't have a crooked board operating in the dark shadows."

He pointed to when there is an audio recording proving otherwise. That motion - which called for a joint public hearing with the City of Racine for the proposed at Lathrop and Durand Avenues - was part of a special board meeting called after a regular meeting was too loud for trustees to hear and participate in proceedings.

"He lied about not voting when he did," Bagg said. "We have the tape to prove it."

Pelish is being targeted, Haas said, because she doesn't vote with residents in mind.

"She consistently acts outside the best interests of constituents," he said. "She's just a mirror of what action the president supports."

Haas used . She made a motion to amend ; going from the single issue of changing the village's land use plan to a combination hearing for the plan and Walmart's rezone request for a residential lot where the company wants to build a new grocery store.

"Why go against the Plan Commission? And Audrey was right there with her," he continued. "Anyone here could tell they talked this out before the meeting."

In other Elmwood Park recall news, trustees set the primary date for Sept. 16 and the general election on Oct. 16, but the primary may not be necessary.

Originally, against Viau after . Then, , setting off the potential for a primary election had both pulled nomination papers and collected the necessary signatures.

But on Thursday, Cattoi said he's not going to run.

"I don't think the village should have a primary," he said. "There's nothing I can do better than Tom can do."

Whether or not anyone else will step forward remains to be seen, but Mills said he is definitely running though he remains unsure that, if elected, he will run for re-election in April.