Craig Roman expected to announce resignation from County Board

DeKALB – Craig Roman, a Democrat representing District 6 on the DeKalb County Board, has submitted paperwork to remove his name from the Nov. 8 ballot and is expected to resign from the board later this month.

Roman said he initially expected to finish out his term as a County Board member before starting a new position in Madison, Wisconsin, but those plans have changed. Roman’s home will be sold later this month, necessitating his resignation before the end of his term on Nov. 30.

Roman said he will be out of the country when the board’s Committee of the Whole meeting takes place on Aug. 10 but will be present to give his resignation Aug. 17.

Roman’s colleague, Mary Cozad, is the only other person running to represent the restructured district, now called District 10 on the board in the November election. Cozad said Suzanne Willis was planning on retiring after her term finished at the end of November, but volunteered to take Roman’s place on the ballot. As a result, Cozad and the newly elected chair of the DeKalb County Democrats campaigned for Willis to be put on the ballot last month.

“A couple of weekends ago, I and Anna Wilhelmi, and a couple of other people went door to door in District 10 getting signatures, and they were filed on time,” Cozad said.

Now, Willis will replace Roman on the ballot for District 10. Since districts are allocated two representatives and only Willis and Cozad are on the ballot, it’s expected they will both win their elections on Nov. 8.

“These things happen, people get offered better jobs and I know Craig has some kids who are just a year or two away from starting college,” Cozad said. “I think he went in the direction of getting some extra income and for totally understandable reasons.”

When a board member resigns before their term is complete, the political party they represent is able to caucus for a new representative. When a nominee is selected, the County Board then votes to accept that person onto the board through the remainder of the term. Since Roman is putting in his resignation on Aug. 17, the earliest the board could vote on instating an interim member would be Sept. 21 – unless the Democratic Party comes ready with a caucused nomination.

Cozad said she doesn’t think the resignation will have an impact on votes or legislative processes in the county.

“There are two kinds of issues in the County Board,” Cozad said, “partisan issues, which the county nursing home turned out to be, or most the stuff we do is totally non-partisan, and mostly kind of common sense.

“It wouldn’t even matter, probably, unless there was something really controversial that was up before the board,” Cozad said.

A failed vote last month to put the nursing home’s struggling financial status up for a referendum in November fell largely among party lines.

Since district maps for the county board have been restructured, someone from Roman’s current District 6 – DeKalb – would need to fill that position.

“So someone that would be filling that seat would just be filling it for that short period of time,” County Administrator Brian Gregory said. “It’s my understanding they wouldn’t be someone who’s on the ballot for the next election.”