The race for village president in Oak Park is a hotly contested one this year between incumbent Vicki Scaman and Village Board member Ravi Parakkat. Recent campaign forums have shown that the two candidates have very different personalities and approaches. Scamon, a former village clerk who was elected village president four years ago, describes herself as a listener and consensus builder.
“I have the skills to listen to the breadth of perspectives across our community,” Scaman said last week during a candidate forum at the Carleton Hotel in Oak Park.
Scaman also said she works with the Village Board to come to consensus solutions, and she values community engagement and listens to residents.
Parakkat painted Scaman as a big spender, saying Oak Park cannot keep raising taxes and must be more disciplined in its spending decisions.
“Reckless spending is a problem we have,” Parakkat said at the candidate forum, arguing that high taxes are pushing people out of Oak Park. “Getting our spending in order is going to be really important.”
Parakkat, who was elected a village trustee in 2021, is running what one observer of Oak Park politics called a neo-populist campaign while Scaman has the support of many former village officials and many progressive activists. Parakkat is running an aggressive campaign criticizing a proposal for a new village hall, the leaf bagging ordinance that went into effect last year and a pay raise for the village president.
Scaman took offense at Parakkat’s claim of reckless spending by the village, noting that Parakkat has voted for village budgets while he has been a member of the Village Board.
“There is no reckless spending,” Scaman said. “There has been a 7-0 vote on our budget the last four years.”
The issue of what to do with the current Oak Park Village Hall, which opened in 1975, has received a lot of attention during the campaign. Both Parakkat and Scaman agree that the current police station in the basement of Village Hall needs to be replaced to create a better working environment for the short staffed police department. But Parakkat has criticized previous proposals to either extensively remodel the current village hall or demolish it and build a new one. Parakkat said with current and future technology and the rise of remote work, the need for a large village hall must be rethought. Current estimates are that a major village hall project could cost at least $120 million.
“The average Oak Parker spends less than five minutes in Village Hall,” Parakkat said.
Parakkat said money the village has in reserves should be used to pay a portion of the cost for a new police station and any other work at village hall. Scaman said just building a new police station would likely cost 76 to 80 million dollars.
Scaman noted that the longer the village waits to redo village hall the more costs will rise.
“Every time we defer we pay more,” Scaman said.
Scaman said that she would like to explore sharing the village hall campus, and the cost of new construction or remodeling, with other bodies such as the Oak Park Arts Council or perhaps creating a cultural center.
“We may not need all of the current Village Hall for village services,” Scaman said, adding that the improvement or replacement of the current village hall would not be 100% tax funded, saying that she would look for grants and other revenue sources.
Scaman has lived in Oak Park since she was a teenager. Before being elected village clerk in 2017 Scaman worked for nearly two years for Oak Park Township. Before that she worked for nearly 13 years as the executive director of the Steckman Studio of Music in Oak Park. She also managed a restaurant in Forest Park for five years. Scamon graduated from UIC in 1993 with a bachelor’s degree in fine arts and taught art for five years in Dolton.
Parakkat, who grew up and was educated in India, moved to Oak Park 19 years ago. He has a background in technology and consulting. In India he earned a bachelor’s degree in engineering/industrial management and a master’s degree in business administration and management. Parakkat now works as the vice president for digital transformation for Junior Achievement of Chicago. During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 he created the Takeout 25 not for profit that encouraged residents to spend $25 a week in takeout food to help sustain local restaurants.
Election Day is April 1.
Bob Skolnik is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
