e return of Simone Boutet

Back on the trail for Oak Park trustee

compelled Boutet in part to retur n to the campaign trail.

“I’m really passionate about that,” she said. “We need to build trust in the police, and we need to combat crim e.” Boutet is a f amiliar face in the village. She’s lived here fo r 32 years and has experience working as an elected of ficial and as a member of village staf f. Before she was elected village trustee in 2017, she served for a total of 14 years in the village ’s le g al de par tment. he was both the assistant village attor ney and the acting village attor ney, after Ray Heise retired. While she said she found the work “rewarding,” Boutet left the village ’s employment after not being hired as Heise’s per manent replacement.

“Then I left and star ted my own practice, but I couldn’ t get Oak Park of f my mind,” she said.

Boutet then ran for village trustee and was elected alongside Dan Moroney and Deno Andrews. What she views as the biggest achievement during her trustee tenure was the passing of Oak Park’s inclusionary zoning ordinance in 2019, which requires developments of 25 or more units in transit-oriented areas to make 10 percent of the units af fordable to renters making 60 percent of the median area income. T he ordinance also allows developers to contribute $100,000 per unit into the village ’s af fordable housing fund in lieu of setting aside units

Economic development was the cor nerstone of Abu-Taleb’s tenure as mayor. He broadened the village ’s par tnership with the Oak Park Economic Development Corporation and ushered in the construction of several high-rise apar tment complexes

“The focus of the board was more on economic development than on social issues and that was a struggle,” Boutet said. “I thought we should be paying more attention to social issues.”

Under Village President Vicki Scaman, Boutet has seen a shift in the village board’s priorities – less focus on new developments, more on racial equity and sustainability. Boutet wants to g et in on that action, even putting herself forward to serve the remainder of the ter m vacated by Ar ti Walker-Peddakotla, who resigned last August. Cory Wesley, also a past trustee candidate, was appointed to fill Walker-Peddakotla’s seat.

T here was a time though when Boutet coveted the village president position for herself She ran a confusing campaign two years ago, where she put to g ether a slate of trustee candidates, including Ravi Parakkat and Lucia Robinson, both of whom were elected, but then she dropped out. Boutet reentered the race only to drop out again. She no longer wishes to serve as village president, nor does she intend to exit the village trustee race

Her second exit from the village president race led many to speculate that she was secretly behind the campaign objections filed against then-trustee candidates Anthony Clark and Chibuike Enyia, the latter of whom was elected. After it became public knowledge that Boutet had re por ted to police a message sent to her by Clark, which she perceived as threatening, controversy swirled. Many criticized her, as a white woman who made public pledges to racial equity, and then re port a Black man to police Boutet declined to comment on that chapter of her political career.

“Campaigns are future-looking,” she said.

While she may be looking to the future in her campaign, Boutet hopes her past gover nment experience will induce residents to check her name on the ballot this April

“I think people should vote for me because of my experience, because of the fact that they want things to get done.”