Democratic Citizens of Berwyn candidates decline to participate in forum, debate

A planned Feb. 11 debate that was to be hosted by the League of Women Voters was abruptly canceled the night of Feb. 7 after all 17 candidates with the Democratic Citizens of Berwyn decided not to participate.

According to League rules, debates must include at least two parties.

The debate is the third community forum in as many weeks in which all DCOB candidates declined to participate.

“All citizens deserve to hear from candidates that will make decisions about their daily lives,” the League’s Peggy Kell said Feb. 8. “Candidates that choose not to participate in public forums deprive voters of the opportunity of seeing and hearing from their future representatives. This was our first forum in Berwyn. I hope we can win the trust of these parties in the future because we will try again.”

DCOB candidates declined to participate in a Feb. 6 forum hosted online by WBEZ and the Cicero Independiente.

DCOB candidates also did not respond to a questionnaire on issues sent to all candidates as part of the Activist ToolKit, which developed and published questionnaires for candidates in Berwyn, Oak Park, River Forest and Broadview, among other nearby municipalities.

The DCOB did not provide a reason for declining to participate in the League of Women Voters debate, said longtime Berwyn community organizer Lisa Polderman, who reached out to the League months ago in hopes that the group would host a debate in Berwyn.

“This has never happened before where a whole slate refuses to participate,” Polderman said. “We’ve had individual candidates refuse but never a whole slate. I hope people who really want to see community engagement will look at this for what it is.

“I want my elected officials to not just talk about openness and communication. I want them to communicate.”

At the Feb. 6 forum, WBEZ government and politics editor Alex Keefe and Cicero Independiente’s Irene Romulo said they had reached out to the DCOB multiple times via phone and email, but had not received a response.

Berwyn Township Supervisor David Avila, a DCOB incumbent, said on Facebook that he believed the WBEZ/Cicero Independiente event would be biased because it was affiliated with the Rizoma Collective, but did not elaborate further. The Rizoma Collective was not affiliated with the forum.

Avila, Berwyn Mayor Robert Lovero, who is the head of the DCOB, and all DCOB-affiliated council candidates except 8th Ward Alderman Scott Lennon declined multiple requests for comment.

The DCOB slate includes candidates for mayor, city treasurer and alderman, as well as Berwyn Township supervisor, township assessor and township trustee.

Lennon replied in an email that he included his email address in all of his Facebook posts and on his campaign literature, but did not explain why he did not want to debate his opponent, Nicolette Penaranda.

In addition to Lennon, the DCOB slate includes incumbent aldermen Anthony Nowak (8th Ward) and Robert Fejt (4th Ward), 3rd Ward candidate Richard Leja, 2nd Ward candidate James Woywood, 5th Ward candidate Ariana Macedo, 6th Ward candidate Sandra Diaz and City Clerk candidate Rafael Avila.

“We knew the [candidates] might be concerned with bias, so we were very clear with the League. We wanted to have no say in the questions that were asked and no say in the actual running of the event,” Polderman said. “The only thing we requested was that they provide Spanish translation services. The League has a long-standing reputation as a nonpartisan advocate for voting. We really hoped the DCOB would respect that.”

The League has 12 municipal forums scheduled in the western suburbs before the April 6 election, Kell said.

“We’ve been doing candidates forums in Oak Park, River Forest and Forest Park for years. We have a good reputation for running organized, informative and non-partisan forums,” Kell said.

The League asked the candidates who agreed to debate to create two-minute videos about their campaigns. The League hopes to post the videos online this week.