Iraq withdrawal question could be put to voters

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Peace activists push initiatives at township meetings By Chris Rickert - City Editor Residents of Sycamore and DeKalb townships may be able to vote this November on nonbinding referendums that call on policy-makers to limit the U.S. military's presence in Iraq. Activists associated with the DeKalb Interfaith Network for Peace and Justice, a local peace group, appeared at the townships' annual meetings on Tuesday and helped pass initiatives to place the referendums on the Nov. 7 general election ballot. The DeKalb Township question asks voters if the U.S. government should &#8220immediately begin an orderly and rapid withdrawal of all of its military personnel from Iraq, beginning with the National Guard and Reserves.” The vote to place the question on the ballot passed 20-7, with three abstentions, according to James Barr, a former township trustee who moderated the meeting. The referendum in Sycamore Township asks whether Gov. Rod Blagojevich should &#8220veto further mobilization of National Guard units/personnel to the ongoing war/occupation in Iraq on the grounds that continued participation in this endeavor is harmful to the people of this state.” Those at the meeting voted 10-3 in favor of placing the question on the ballot, according to Peter Barick, the Interfaith Network board member who sponsored it. Ellen Rogers, the township's clerk, confirmed that the measure passed, but she wasn't sure of the exact vote. The advisory referendums are similar to other nonbinding antiwar measures that appeared on ballots in Wisconsin and Vermont earlier this year. They generally got broad support. Illinois townships are unique among the state's public bodies in that once a year - on the second Tuesday in April - registered voters of all 1,433 of the state's townships get to vote on township business. &#8220It's a good example of the grassroots power at the township level,” DeKalb Township attorney Colleen Cebula said. &#8220And everyone should participate.” Regular meetings of township boards of trustees are separate from the annual meetings, when trustees have no more say in a township's business than do residents. The annual meetings also are unique among other governmental meetings in that last-minute changes can be made to the posted agendas for such meetings, according to Bryan Smith, executive director of the Township Officials of Illinois, a private, nonprofit lobbying and education organization for Illinois townships. Case law related to the Illinois Open Meetings Act has held that governmental bodies are barred from taking final action on a matter if it has not been listed on an agenda posted at least 48 hours before the meeting. Neither of the DeKalb and Sycamore township agendas for Tuesday included mention of a proposed referendum on the Iraq war. Cebula said Wednesday that she was researching whether agenda items added late to an annual township meeting agenda can be voted on. Township boards have until 61 days before the Nov. 7 election to certify the referendum questions, she said. Dan Kenney helped sponsor the DeKalb Township referendum and said it was part of a statewide effort to get antiwar referendums on local ballots. The idea came out of the inaugural meeting of the Illinois Coalition for Peace and Justice held April 1 in Champaign. The coalition is made up of more than 80 peace groups from throughout the state. Other Illinois townships that saw attempts Tuesday to add antiwar referendums to the November ballot include Geneva and Riverside townships, where they were approved, and Elgin Township, where it was rejected. The proposed ballot measures in Riverside and Geneva townships have the same wording as the one in DeKalb Township. Township government typically receives little attention from the press and public. DeKalb Township Supervisor Pat LaVigne said no one other than township officials has shown up to the last 12 annual meetings. Kenney and Barick said there was no attempt to keep the antiwar referendums from public scrutiny until they were safely on the ballot. The initiative was proposed only on April 1, Kenney said, at the ICPJ meeting, so there wasn't much time to plan. He added that he plans to help organize public forums and debates on the DeKalb Township ballot question, hopefully with U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert and his challenger in the November election, John Laesch, in attendance. Still, Barick said Sycamore Township officials were surprised to see the effort. &#8220You could almost hear the jaws dropping,” he said. Brad Hahn, a spokesman for Hastert, who has been an ally of President Bush and a supporter of the war, said Hastert's office was told about the referendum in DeKalb Township and elsewhere. He said the primary role of townships is to assist vulnerable citizens and &#8220it's disappointing to see that exploited for partisan purposes.” He also rejected the idea that the efforts to get the antiwar referendums on the November ballot were a sign of grassroots opposition to the war. Chris Rickert can be reached at crickert@daily-chronicle.com.