DuPage Township, IL. (ECWd) –
During a recent DuPage Township Board of Trustees meeting, Trustee Benford read a letter during public comment.
Trustee Maripat Oliver objected and even wrote a complaint to the Attorney General about Benford’s reading of a letter during public comment. Her specific allegation was that Trustee Benford violated the Open Meetings Act by “reading a letter, during public comment, that was not written to the Township Clerk, exceeded 200 words, and did not relate to township business.”
The Attorney General’s office refused to investigate these frivolous claims, clearly aimed at silencing someone Maripat Oliver has been publicly embarrassing herself over for more than a year.
It has been documented in the recent past, that Trustee Oliver has shown complete disrespect to Benford during meetings by purposely mispronouncing her last name, even after being told how to pronounce it.Β Rita Kohli, a race and ethnicity scholar at the University of California, along with other experts, has stated that “mispronouncing names can be a form of racial microaggression, and the act of learning names acknowledges their history and presence. This micro-aggressive behavior is clearly evident in the numerous interactions on video during DuPage Township public meetings – and even the reported closed session meeting where Oliver yelled at Trustee Benford: “F*ck you, as a matter of fact, f*ck you twice” – as if once wasn’t enough…
We suggest once again that Trustee Maripat Oliver resign her office, and seek professional help.
Read the AG’s response to Oliver’s complaint below:
64514 o no fi war mun
