McHenry Township GOP Recommends Four to Replace Trustee Bill Cunningham

Here is the letter from McHenry Township Republican Party Chairman Erik Sivertsen:

Dear Mchenry Township Supervisor and Board of Trustees,

Erik Sivertsen

The McHenry Township Republican Party is hereby making a recommendation to the McHenry Township Supervisor and Board of Trustees for the appointment to fill the vacancy on the board of trustees. The party plays a role in the recommendation and selection of replacement candidates whenever any partisan office is vacated. In the past, there have been instances where appointments were made in McHenry Township that had the appearance of being prearranged deals and patronage appointments, because the board made the appointments without involving the party.

The Republican Party wanted to eliminate any appearance of prearranged deals and patronage in the appointment process. Because of these instances in the past, the Party felt that it was important to make sure that the process was as open to the public and as transparent as possible. Out of respect to the citizens of McHenry Township, we wanted to make sure that we found the best possible candidates to fill this vacancy. We have done everything possible to ensure that everyone was given an opportunity to apply, and that all the candidates were given fair consideration.

We started with an open application, that was available to anyone in the community. From that process we received many applications. We followed that application with a questionnaire, that contained questions to help us determine which candidates were not only legally qualified, but that they were also equipped to serve in the role of McHenry Township Trustee.

Based on the information from the application and questionnaire, we narrowed the field of candidates. A committee then interviewed each of the remaining candidates. We asked them in depth questions, including questions related to current issues in townships, and current issues in McHenry township, as well as questions about the role of township government and particularly the trustee’s role.

A McHenry Township Electoral Board composed of Supervisor Craig Adams, Trustee Neal Schepler and Clerk Marsha Nelson to which Republican Party candidate for Township Supervisor against Adams Steve Verr challenged its impartiality.

On August 7th at our regular monthly meeting we invited the best of these candidates to address the entire committee. At that meeting we then voted to recommend Mark Jaeger, Gary Barla, Neal Schepler, and John Macrito for appointment to fill the vacancy on the McHenry Township Board of Trustees.

These 4 candidates are all highly qualified to serve in this role. They have all gone through an open and transparent public process to receive this recommendation. Each one of these candidates has the skills and knowledge necessary to serve as a trustee. They are all familiar with the processes of township governance, and the roles and responsibilities of a Township Trustee. We feel confident that these candidates are seeking this position to further the interests of the residents of McHenry Township. These 4 are the most qualified candidates to fill this vacancy, and we strongly recommend each of them.

= = = = =
The names who applied follow:

  • Mark Jaeger
  • Jill Hodkovitz
  • Carl Schuenke
  • Nicholas Fisher
  • Gary Barla
  • Missy Robel (withdrew)
  • Daniel Collins
  • Dennis Piehl
  • John Macrito
  • Patrick Whalen
  • Sue Draffkorn (withdrew)
  • Alexander Koeneke
  • Neal Schepler

Comments

McHenry Township GOP Recommends Four to Replace Trustee Bill Cunningham — 9 Comments

  1. Erik needs to get a case of deoderant, but that won’t begin to mask the smelly recommended hacks.

    Macrido: His wife works as the Township Supervisor’s shamefully overpaid asst. Nepotism? You bet! An independent citizen? Funny.

    Sheapler/Barla: These losers ran as ‘independents’ in the last township election. And they lost.

    Jaeger: Just attended the Township Road District lobbying/vendor convention for in Springfield.

    He sells equipment to Townships.

    When this obvious conflict was brought up at the township GOP mtg, he said there’s no conflict ‘yet.’

  2. –these township hacks need to be booted.

    Thank GOD Bob the Barber clipped their bloated salaries.

  3. This is the most frightening thing I have seen, mainly because I know protesting won’t stop those who want power at any cost… and there are plenty of people like that in Township misgovernment.

    They want to undo the election.

  4. Manny, your personal attacks are uncalled for.

    Explain what Sivertsen actually did!

  5. Sivertsen rigged the whole thing.

    It was very unfair.

    The insiders had already picked the ‘recommended’ before the meeting even began.

    A big waste of time.

  6. Cal, I think the first comment has enough info for a whole new article!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *