Will County Board to change process for filling vacancy

The Will County Board will change its process for filling a vacancy because of an ongoing legal dispute in another county.

The Will County State’s Attorney advised the board to abide by a court ruling stemming from a lawsuit in Champaign County government.

In the form of government under which Will and Champaign counties operate, it’s typically the county executive who nominates a candidate to fill a board vacancy. The candidate is then voted on by the full County Board.

However, the Fourth District Appellate Court recently ruled the appointment should come from a county board chairman, and not the executive.

In Will County, the board has to fill the seat left by the December resignation of Ken Harris, a Democrat from Bolingbrook.

Speaker Mimi Cowan, D-Naperville, said Thursday that the board next week will have to elect a chairman with the sole duty of nominating someone to fill the vacancy.

“We are just trying to make our process conform with recent court rulings,” she said.

Cowan said that she, County Executive Jennifer Bertino-Tarrant and the chair of the Will County Democratic Party, have all agreed on who should be appointed. County documents show Bolingbrook resident Elnalyn Costa was slated to be the appointee.

State law requires a vacancy to be filled by someone of the same political party as the departing member and who lives in the same district.

Mary Tatroe, the civil division chief at the Will County State’s Attorney’s Office, said whoever is elected chairman at the board meeting next week can make a nomination during the same meeting for approval. By state law, the board needs to fill the vacancy within 60 days of declaring the seat open, which members did in early January.

The next full board meeting is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. Thursday.