Grafton Township Fight Set for Assessor

Here are the people who have filed for office in the Grafton Township Republican Party Primary Election:

Supervisor:

  • Eric Ruth

Clerk:

  • Kathleen M. Watson

Road Commissioner: 

  • Frank J. Kearns

Assessor: 

  • Terra DeBaltz
  • Alan Zielinski

Trustees: 

  • Sean Cratty
  • Lesli Melendy
  • Dan Ziller Jr.
  • Matthew Cooper

Comments

Grafton Township Fight Set for Assessor — 18 Comments

  1. Thought Zielinski was only going to serve for 2 terms and then retire.

    Unless he previously announced he was altering his plan, he reneged on a self-imposed 2-term limit.

    Did Grafton Township board give the assessor a big raise and that’s why he’s running again?

  2. Good. We can vote the corrupt idiot in the Assessor’s office out.

    Can’t wait for the debates where Mr. Z can field questions about his stupid assessment decisions like sales chasing, the brutally inconsistent assessments between the neighborhoods he created, how his lakefront address dropped nearly 25% on appeal, how he chopped the Lakewood Village President’s assessment in nearly half, double dipping as Boone County Assessor, the FOIA violations, the computer debacle that nearly got the township sued, the near constant lying, crap office hours with messages not returned, wasting taxpayer dollars by taking overnight trips in ROCKFORD, the list of idiocy goes on…

  3. @lopez, they did raise the pay so as to draw in someone to run against him, we just have to make sure now that she is elected.

    I was at a meeting a couple months ago when he billed the people for a hotel stay, fuel and then $35 for a Popeye’s chicken dinner for a CE class in Rockford.

    Yep, an approximate 35 minute drive from his house and he just had to stay in a hotel during a Pandemic and bill us for it, while the other employee drove home to eat and sleep.

    Can anyone here eat $35 worth of chicken??

    Let’s pluck his feathers, he has mooched off of us for far too long and his assessments appears to favor his OWN subdivision at the peril of the rest of the non-Lakewood minions.

    He seems to have started a class warfare with his Sheriff of Nottingham tactics.

    (Sheriff of Nottingham is the main antagonist in the legend of Robin Hood. He is generally depicted as an unjust tyrant who mistreats the local people of Nottinghamshire, subjecting them to unaffordable taxes. Wikipedia)

  4. These are reasons #6754, 6755, 6756, 6757, 6758 & 6759 why we don’t need township assessors at all.

    Just go to Zillow, more accurate and free.

  5. Hold on a minute!

    Is Terra DeBaltz the former Terra Leilani Jensen who lost to Al Zielinski 8 years ago when she ran against him as an independent??

    And she’s running as a “Republican” now?

    It’s true, Terra DeBaltz is the former Terra L. Jensen, who’s a deputy assessor in Elgin Township.

    She also serves on the Plan Commission for the Village of Huntley.

    This could be interesting, and if Ms. DeBaltz is successful, could be a great lesson for an unsuccessful candidate for public office to bide their time, and wait a good 8 years before making a 2nd run at the office they lost the 1st time, against the same opponent.

    I will be watching this race, and will see if DeBaltz can win over Zielinski, who is the favorite because he’s the 2-term incumbent especially in what will be a low-turnout Republican primary, with assessor the only contest on Grafton Township Republican ballots.

    Will DeBaltz win it this time, or will she be the next Carolyn Schofield her 2nd time running for the same office?

    Schofield is a precinct committeeperson in Grafton Township, so she’s sure to be involved in this race.

  6. @Lopez, Joe Biden ran for President 3 times, what difference does it make?

    Just takes 1 more vote than your opponent and we haven’t even pointed out the “clerical errors” that happened under his watch in the last assessment.

    Have to go to my notes but if memory serves me, it was extrapolated out to be about a 60-70% error rate Township wide.

    Let me get back to you on that though, lots of FOIA emails to parse.

  7. Terra Leilani Jensen DeBalz reminds me of Jane Margaret Byrne McMullen and Janice Danoff Schakowsky Creamer. 🤣😂

  8. For the record…when Zielinski first ran, he had offered his campaign rival a job if she were to step down.

    The rival refused.

    And Zielinski admitted to this, including in a post on this very blog.

    Unfortunately, Grafton didn’t understand what kind of lying conjob they were getting.

  9. @Grafton, Wow, that sounds ethical?

    Kind of like lowering the assessments almost 50% for your well connected neighbors?

    Then blame an employee and tell everyone your office discovered “clerical errors” after you submitted your 2020 book and you emailed the county to alert them about it and they refused to correct it.

    Then when a FOIA for that email was requested, you fail to produce it and admit that you probably misspoke.

    The 1500 errors were in 3 different subdivisions.

    Unacceptable and he should slink away quietly while he still has some dignity.

  10. New article up about Terra DeBaltz’s first run for Grafton Township heading into the rematch.

  11. This slate is just a bunch of old neighbors.

    There’s nothing fresh or original about it.

  12. Ms. Linda Moore…having qualified individuals in these township jobs is fresh and original.

    The current Grafton Board cut the levy, works together, and has the township on solid financial footing, despite all the headaches provided by the current Grafton Assessor.

    Compare that with your sordid reign when the township nearly went insolvent due to mounting legal bills, many of which were driven by your actions.

    So yeah, fresh and original.

  13. And we have these townships….. why.

    Many counties abolished them and do just fine w/o this costly layer of pension pigs and nepotistic grubs.

    “CARBONDALE — Robert “Bo” Emery of southern Illinois’ Williamson County has little use for the township form of government.

    Emery, who chairs the three-member Williamson County Board of Commissioners, said taxpayers end up paying more for road maintenance, tax assessment and red tape.

    “Counties like his, where townships don’t exist, operate more cheaply, he said.”

    Excerpted from: https://www.nwitimes.com/uncategorized/some-illinois-counties-get-by-without-townships/article_da6bb762-07b5-57eb-b164-d4f182e862ba.html

  14. Grafton taxpayer why not have the courage to use your name?

    Perhaps, if you did, your comments would have more value.

  15. Linda Linda Linda,

    Man, you’re funny. What, if you get my name, will you send your husband after me? AFter all he was charged with battery.

    https://www.nwherald.com/2010/10/15/grafton-supervisors-husband-arrested/a5dghig/

    No, my less than valuable comments are based on articles like this, where a judge threatened you with jail time

    https://patch.com/illinois/crystallake/judge-orders-grafton-township-supervisor-linda-moore-to-jail

    And an audit stated you exceeded your authority.

    https://www.nwherald.com/2014/04/04/forensic-audit-wasted-grafton-township-tax-dollars-officials-say/ast9iem/

    Like Zielinski, you are off in some alternate reality. I just found it funny that you take pot shots at these candidates when you nearly drove that township into the ground. That’s like the Captain of the Titanic taking potshots at other ship captains.

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