WOODSTOCK – McHenry County Board Chairwoman Tina Hill is taking a monthlong leave of absence after her arrest early Friday morning on suspicion of driving under the influence.

Hill, R-Woodstock, is taking medical leave to enter a rehab program at the Rosecrance Health Network treatment center in Rockford, she said Friday afternoon. Her arrest comes as a number of her fellow County Board members have privately debated Hill’s ability to carry out her duties in the wake of erratic behavior at two meetings earlier this month.

“I realize that I’ve got a problem, and I’m seeking help,” Hill said on the way to the rehab facility.

Hill, 54, of 230 Verbena Lane, was arrested about 1:40 a.m. in the 1000 block of North Seminary Avenue, Woodstock Police Chief Robert Lowen said. He said she was cooperative and did not bring up her elected office. But she experienced chest pains at the police station during processing and had to be taken for several hours to Centegra Hospital-Woodstock for observation. The incident prevented her from taking a breath test, but blood was drawn at the hospital and sent to the Illinois State Police crime lab for testing, Lowen said. She also was cited for improper lane use and driving without a license on her person.

The debate over Hill’s competence to serve, and her subsequent arrest, come in the final two months of her first term as chairwoman, and as the County Board works to adopt a Unified Development Ordinance, a 2015 budget and a stormwater management ordinance before the new board is seated in December after the mid-term election.

Under County Board rules, Vice Chairman James Heisler, R-Crystal Lake, will lead the board until her return. Heisler, first elected in 1992, is the board's longest-serving member.
"I'm going to cover the meetings the best I can and do everything a chairman is supposed to do," Heisler said.

County Board members began expressing concern about her competency after her performance at two meetings. She exhibited erratic behavior at an Oct. 1 evening meeting to go over amendments to the proposed UDO and at an Oct. 3 budget workshop in which members said she could be seen nodding off.

Hill said Friday that she was not drunk at those meetings, but under the influence of medication prescribed after having a number of seizures, including one at her office the week before. But her behavior prompted County Board members to wonder whether she could be trusted to lead the board to finish the work that has to be done before the end of November, said member Mike Skala, R-Huntley.

“It was obvious that there was something wrong with her. She had said she was on some new medication and that she was struggling with it. Whatever her impairment was, my concern was that the board is able to do what the board is supposed to do,” Skala said.

Skala said he and several other members decided to gauge support for encouraging her as a group to take a leave of absence rather than people approaching her individually – there is no mechanism in County Board rules to force a chairperson to step down. He said he called a number of board members over the weekend, but the idea did not advance.

Hill appeared normal at the County Board’s regular morning meeting last Tuesday, but Heisler ran the evening UDO review meeting the next day after she called in sick, saying she had a migraine headache.

Hill has taken leaves of absence in the past. She took a monthlong leave in January, citing health issues after double knee-replacement surgery and complications from a previous gastric bypass.

Not everyone on the County Board is convinced that people who wanted Hill to step aside are doing so out of concern for her health. Donna Kurtz, R-Crystal Lake, said Hill has been the victim of “constant backbiting” since shortly after board members elected her chairwoman in December 2012, and that some on the board see an opportunity to exploit. However, Kurtz also stressed that Hill has to be held accountable for her actions related to the arrest.

“She’s been far more inclusive of a leader, and because of that, I think there have been other people on the board who have taken that as a sign of weakness rather than a strength, and I think when others saw an opportunity to beat her down and do some nasty things behind her back, they took the chance,” Kurtz said.

Skala said his main concern is Hill’s health – he took a monthlong leave of absence in June for treatment after he was diagnosed with a tumor near the base of his brain.

“It’s obvious she has some personal demons she is trying to deal with, and I feel that she needs to do whatever she needs to do to get her life back on track, and I sincerely hope she’s able to work through her issues,” Skala said.

While Hill is not up for re-election as a County Board member for another two years, her two-year term as chairwoman comes up for a vote at the Dec. 1 seating of new County Board members after the Nov. 4 election. It will be the last time that the County Board's 24 members elect the chairperson themselves — voters in March approved a referendum to make the seat popularly elected to four-year terms starting in 2016.