Kendall County Board candidate assails plan for deciding staggered terms

YORKVILLE – A candidate for a seat on the Kendall County Board is challenging the board’s plan for determining how terms are to be staggered.

Todd Milliron of Yorkville, who is running for a seat on the board from District 1 under the Kendall County Party label in the Nov. 8 election, told board members on Aug. 16 that an ordinance they recently approved for changing the procedure is illegal.

The entire 10-member county board will be selected by voters in the Nov. 8 general election. It happens every 10 years after the decennial Census.

In the past, five board members have been assigned four-year terms, while the other five receive two year terms, with the decision left to chance. Typically, the county clerk draws numbered ping-pong balls to make the selections.

With the staggered terms of office decided, half the board members are up for election every two years until after the next Census.

On Aug. 2, the board approved a plan in which the newly elected members will be assigned slots in a descending order based on their vote totals from the Nov. 8 general election, with the biggest vote-getters starting with four-year terms.

Board members said this system is better than the random selection made by chance.

Milliron, however, contends that a random selection is exactly what is required under state statute and asked for a formal legal review of the ordinance.

“This ordinance needs another look and I ask for the judges to review,” Milliron said.

Milliron is making his seventh attempt to be elected to the County Board.

Kendall County State’s Attorney Eric Weis declined to comment on Milliron’s objection to the ordinance, deferring to the board.

“I don’t anticipate any changes,” board Chairman Scott Gryder said later. “We’ll let the ordinance speak for itself. It’s an appropriate way to take any chance out of the process.”

Gryder noted that 10 years ago, when County Clerk Debbie Gillette made the random selections, all five incumbents received the four-year terms, while the new members received two-year terms, leading to some grousing about the system.

Milliron said state election law specifies that selections for staggered terms are to be made by “lot” and that the decision must be left to chance.

“You’re putting County Clerk Gillette in a difficult position,” Milliron told the board members.

For her part, Gillette did not appear to think so.

“I would have to follow the ordinance,” Gillette said afterwards.

County Board members are elected from two districts, with five members each.

Population growth has been very evenly distributed across Kendall County over the past 10 years and the two County Board districts did not need to be reapportioned after the 2020 Census.

District 1 covers the western side of the county and, geographically, is the larger of the two.

It includes most of Yorkville and portions of Montgomery and Sandwich, along with Plano, Bristol, Millbrook, Plattville, Newark and Lisbon.

District 2 includes Oswego, Boulder Hill and portions of Yorkville, Montgomery, Aurora, Plainfield, Minooka and Joliet.

Census results show District 1 with 65,419 residents and District 2 with a population of 65,702.

Under the term-staggering plan approved by the board, the top three vote-getters in District 1 will be assigned a “4-4-2″ schedule, which will continue through the 10-year period whether or not the 2022 election winner serves any subsequent terms of office.

The other two board members from District 1 will serve a “2-4-4″ schedule.

In District 2, the top two vote-getters will gain a “4-4-2″ slot, while the other three will be assigned “2-4-4″ schedules.

Ten years ago, District 2 received three slots with the “4-4-2″ schedule, so this time around District 1 gets three.

On Nov. 8, voters in each district will cast ballots for five County Board candidates in a partisan election.

In District 1, Republican candidates include incumbent board members Brian DeBolt of Plano and Yorkville residents Scott Gengler and Ruben Rodriguez, along with Yorkville Alderman Jason Peterson and Millbrook Trustee Seth Wormley.

Those Republicans will face off against Milliron, as well as Democrat Malanda Griffin of Yorkville.

In District 2, incumbents Dan Koukol of Oswego and Matt Kellogg of Yorkville are seeking reelection.

The GOP field also includes former Oswego Village President Brian LeClercq, Oswego Township Trustee Donna Sawicki and Kendall County Young Republicans Chairman Gabriella Shanahan of Joliet.

The three Democrats on the ballot in District 2 include incumbent board member Elizabeth Flowers of Montgomery, Brooke Shanley of Aurora and Zach Bachmann of Oswego.