Objection filed to candidacy of St. Charles Blue Goose Market President/CEO Paul Lencioni

The city of St. Charles Electoral Board will meet Monday to hear an objection to the nomination papers of Blue Goose Market President and CEO Paul Lencioni, who is running for 3rd Ward alderman on the St. Charles City Council.

St. Charles City Clerk Charles Amenta, who is also running for the seat, filed the objection. Amenta is challenging Lencioni’s legal qualifications and eligibility for the seat.

St. Charles Mayor Ray Rogina is chair of the St. Charles Electoral Board. Other members include 1st Ward Alderman Dan Stellato and 2nd Ward Alderman Art Lemke.

The hearing will be held at 10 a.m. in the City Council chambers at the St. Charles Municipal Building, 2 E. Main St. As part of the current COVID-19 mitigations, up to 10 people may gather in one area at a time, as long as room capacity allows it.

Instructions for how to join the hearing via Zoom are at the city’s website, stcharlesil.gov.

City code currently prohibits St. Charles public officials – including local liquor control commission members, the mayor and aldermen – from obtaining or holding a liquor license in the city. Lencioni holds a liquor license because Blue Goose sells alcohol.

In recently addressing aldermen about the issues, he wasn’t able to convince the majority of aldermen that the prohibition should be dropped. The state’s liquor control act allows an alderman or mayor to obtain a liquor license for a location in the city as long as the the sale of alcohol is incidental to the selling of food. However, they are not able to vote on alcohol related items.

Lencioni’s family has deep roots in St. Charles. In 1928, Annunciata “Nancy” Lencioni – his great-grandmother – opened the Blue Goose Fruit Market in what had been Gartner’s Bakery, 201 W Main St. The store moved to its current location at 300 S. 2nd St. in downtown St. Charles in 2008.