Mary McCann & Michele Aavang Team Up in Attack on Ersel Schuster & Diane Evertsen, Schuster & Evertsen Reply
Here’s the first attack piece I have seen in this year’s McHenry County Board races.
It is signed by District 6 McHenry County Board incumbent Mary McCann and Michele Aavang.
Mary McCann and Michele Aavang have issued this campaign piece. (Emphasis added.)
Included in the piece is the following paragraph (the emphasized one above):
“Incumbents Schuster and Evertson have voted against any conditional use or issue that supports farming or expanding specialized agribusiness in the County. Their election guarantees their ‘no’ votes will continue.”
Evertsen replies:
Diane Evertsen
“I would say that there is no doubt in my mind that I have voted ‘no’ on the majority of conditional use permits which come before the Board because they do not, in most instances, support farming.
“Should reference to ‘expanding agribusiness in the County’ refer to the seemingly unrestricted growth of ‘landscapers’ allowed to bring yard waste and debris from other counties to be dumped here in McHenry County, again I’d have to plead guilty to voting against this expansion of ‘agribusiness.’
Please know that, indeed, I will continue to vote ‘no’ on businesses which want to circumvent the necessity of purchasing commercial property on which to operate their businesses while choosing to use agricultural properties with lower taxes and supervision to subvert the intent of our zoning ordinances.”
Ersel Schuster
Schuster has this to say:
“It is unfortunate that campaigns at this level of government have sunk to this depth.
“I have always, and will always, be a firm supporter of our food producing, agricultural community.
“I will stand strong against those who, for personal financial gain, work to inject non-agricultural uses into the farming community.”
[The following I earlier attributed to Schuster. I now see it came from another source.]
“The flyer contains a statement that I will refer to as totally untrue.
“However, due to the transmission of the flyer I will ask a question:
‘Why did Mary McCann actively lobby the McHenry County Board for a Conditional Use permit at 14510 IL Hwy 176, Woodstock, Il for James and Sue Hong?
‘Could there possibly be a connection to the political contributions from James and Sue Hong?’
If you want verification of the donations, here are the links:
I looked at the State Board of Elections links and share what they show about campaign contributions from the Hongs below:
During the third quarter of last year, James and Mary Hong gave Mary McCann $300 of "in-kind" contributions. That was 18.5% of the total she collected
James and Sue Hong contributed $500 during the last quarter of 2011. That was 25.8% of Mary McCann's contributions.
Additionally, Evertsen offers the following evidence of the incorrectness of the statement excerpted from the McCann-Aavang flyer:
Insofar as Diane always voting NO on Conditional uses and zoning changes you need not look far to find this is false. Just go to the minutes of the County Board last October 18 and you can read:
ZBA (Zoning Board of Appeals) CONSENT AGENDA
Chairman Koehler asked if anyone wished to remove a petition, there were none.
Ms. Hill made a motion seconded by Ms. Donner to approve the following Petitions:
- Exb #11-32; Nunda Twp; Andrew/Jennifer Myers; reclass A1-A1CV
- Exb #11-35; Algonquin Twp; Richard Norwood/Monika Zajac; reclass R1-R1V
- Exb #11-37; Algonquin Twp; Tom/Joan Claypool; reclass R1-R1v
- Exb #11-39; Coral Twp; Grismer Trust; reclass A1-A2
- Exb #11-42; Chemung Twp; Kenneth/Mimi Book; reclass A1-A2C
Chairman Koehler asked for a roll call vote. The following members responded aye: Wheeler, Yensen, Bless, Breeden, Donner, Draffkorn, Evertsen, Hammerand, Heisler, Hill, Jung, Kurtz, McCann, Merkel, Miller, Munaretto, Nowak, Peschke, Provenzano, Salgado, Schmidt, Schuster and Koehler. Absent: Donley. The vote being twenty-three (23) ayes noting one (1) absent, the Chairman declared the motion to approve the ZBA Consent Agenda has passed.
