Many Oak Brook residents have asked the Park District this question. The Park District did not provide an answer with the documentation to prove it. They said they do not have software to track the numbers. Each Commissioner on the Park District Board should know the breakout between Resident and Non-Resident users, each year, to make appropriate funding decisions.

The Residents may not know. The Park District Board does not conduct a referendum for every tax levy increase. It does not ask Oak Brook Residents for their consent to raise the levy. In fact, in December 2023, the Park District Board and/or staff locked residents out of the meeting room during the public Board meeting, and Commissioners voted to approve a tax levy increase behind closed doors.

Non-resident users are the vast majority of Park District users. However, the continually rising property taxes paid by Oak Brook Residents each year are the majority of Park District’s funding. Oak Brook Resident/taxpayers subsidize Non-Residents fees that do not sufficiently contribute to the cost of expanded services.

The Park District changed the term Resident vs. Non-Resident to In-District vs. Out-of-District. Do District boundaries include only those homeowners who pay property taxes to the Park District, or is it more expansive?