Freedom to Thrive Oak Park held an information session with Village of Oak Park board candidates on January 13, 2021. The information session included a presentation to the candidates, which was recorded. The presentation highlighted data collected from more than fifty Freedom of Information Act requests submitted over the last two years to our government bodies and agencies: Oak Park Police Department, Village of Oak Park, Oak Park Township, Park District of Oak Park, Oak Park Library, and Illinois Department of Transportation. The session also provided updates to the Analysis of Policing Policy and Budgets in Oak Park, IL report released last April in collaboration with Local Progress. Local Progress is a national organization of local elected officials who are advancing racial and economic justice agendas throughout all levels of local government. In partnership, the teams applied Local Progress’s Reform/Transform framework to analyze Oak Park’s spending on policing and social services.

Because transparency and research are the foundations for our work, we are sharing this recording. Freedom to Thrive Oak Park has hosted other information sessions for the general public and regularly posts the results of our research.

All Village Board candidates for Village President, Village Trustee, and Village Clerk were invited to the information session and all of the candidates currently running, except for Trustee Dan Moroney and Trustee Deno Andrews, were in attendance. Candidates were not asked to take a position on any of the issues raised in the presentation. We are grateful to those candidates who took the time to attend.