McHenry County Blog

Newly-installed(after being elected at-large) Kane County Board Chairman Chris Lauzen has included Latino Democrats as committee chairmen. All committee chairmen serve on what Kane County calls an “Executive Committee.”

The following article, written by a Kane County Friend of McHenry County Blog explains what has happened on the Committee assignment front.

Kane County Board Chairman Chris Lauzen Reorganizes County Board

Names 3 Latinos to Executive Committee, North-end majority on Transportation Committee with Maggie Auger as Committee Vice Chair

(GENEVA) — Kane County Board Chairman Chris Lauzen (R, Aurora) reorganized the Kane County Board at its meeting on Tuesday by winning approval to implementing a Bi-partisan Executive Committee which includes 3 Latino members, naming 2 to lead Kane County Board committees.

In a move to implement bi-partisanship, Chairman Lauzen named 5 Democrats to the 15 voting members of Executive Committee of the County Board.

For the first time in Kane County’s history, 3 Latinos are members of the Executive Committee.

• Dr. Monica Silva (D, Aurora) will lead the county’s Public Health Committee.
• Cristina Castro (D, Elgin) will chair the Human Services Committee.
• Board Member Jessie Vazquez (D, Aurora) is slated to Co-Chair the Legislative Committee once its organization is approved by the board in January, but his Executive Committee appointment was approved.

In a move to show the north-end of Kane County’s transportation needs merits great importance in the Lauzen administration, the county’s 7-member Transportation Committee includes Maggie Auger (R, Algonquin) as the committee’s vice chair, and Board Members T.R. Smith (R, Burlington, with district including Huntley’s Sun City), and freshmen Becky Gillam (R, West Dundee) and Joseph Haimann (D, Carpentersville). The Transportation Committee Chairman is Drew Frasz (R, Elburn), who was elected county board Vice Chairperson on Tuesday.

Additionally, Chairman Lauzen has proposed 2 additional standing committees,

• Jobs and
• Agriculture,

to address the needs of Kane County. These 2 committees, along with the Legislative Committee, will need board action at the January 15th meeting of the county board, since the committees were introduced for the first time on Tuesday.

Additionally, Chairman Lauzen has requested co-chairmen for the Jobs and the Legislative Committees.

This bi-partisan leadership is new to Kane County, and will be discussed at the next meeting of the Executive Committee.

The Chairman’s recommendations for the co-chairs of Legislative and Jobs, as well as the chair for Agriculture were named to the Executive Committee. Algonquin’s Maggie Auger is slated as the Co-chair of the Legislative Committee, and TR Smith will be named to lead the Agriculture Committee.

In another move to demonstrate Chairman Lauzen appoints the best members, regardless of tenure, freshman Board Member Kurt Kojzarek (R, Elgin) will chair the Energy & Environmental Committee.  Kojzarek, who resigned as the Elgin Township Clerk last month, will soon be moving to the Gilberts part of the 19th county board district, giving additional representation for the north-end of Kane County and one of the fastest growing communities.

The 9 standing committees plus the Executive Committee begins its work immediately.

A view of the Kane County elections from a Friend of McHenry County Blog:

“Here are a couple of items you may have heard about, including the result of creating a vacancy on the Elgin Community College (ECC) Board of Trustees.

“ECC Trustee John Dalton (D, Elgin) won election as a Circuit Judge in the 2nd subcircuit of the 16th Circuit by defeating appointed Judge John Walters (R, Elgin).

“His election will create a vacancy on the ECC Board of Trustees, as he will need to resign his trustee’s post sometime this month.

“Judge-elect Dalton was elected to the ECC board in last year’s local elections.

“The vacancy will need to be filled, and should create an unexpired term (4-year seat?) to fill in the April 9th, 2013 election for ECC Board.

“The ECC district includes all of Algonquin and parts of Lake in the Hills, [covering the same territory as District 300].

“The second ECC Trustee on the ballot yesterday, Bob Getz (D, Elgin) lost his bid for the 22nd district of the Kane County Board by a mere 18 votes to Republican Doug Scheflow in the open seat election.

“I’d anticipate a recount in that race.

“Because of Scheflow’s narrow victory (as it stands now), the composition of the Kane County Board will be 14 Republicans to 10 Democrats.

“Kane County Board Member Maggie Auger (R, Algonquin) won re-election in the 23rd district with nearly 55% of the vote over Kevin Smith (D, Lake Marian).

“In the other Kane County board election which touches a McHenry County community, Board Member T.R. Smith (R, Burlington) was re-elected to a 2nd term in the 9th district, which includes all of the Kane County portion of Huntley.”

This is the second part of the Mike Tryon Fish Boil story.  Part 1 is here.

Mike Tryon gave a short talk at his third Huntley Fish Boil.

Then, he introduced the elected officials.

After he was finished with the introductions, he turned the microphone over to 14th District Congressman Randy Hultgren.

Illinois Democrats put all of McHenry County into the 14th District, except for Algonquin Township, the county’s largest.

Hultgren took the stage, so to speak, and excoriated Washington Democrats.

Perhaps indicative of a turf battle to come in the March 2012 Republican primary election, Helene Walsh, wife of 8th District Congressman Joe Walsh was also in attendance.

Besides Provenzano, I spotted two other candidates for the McHenry County Board–Jim Schlader of District 3 and Shawn Green of District 6.

There were also non-partisan elected officials on hand.

I don’t know the players as well as I used to, but I did spot Fox River Grove Village President Robert Nunamaker and his wife.

None of Fox River Grove will be in Tryon’s new district.

In addition, long-time Huntley School District 158 Board member Mike Skala was at the Fish Boil.

I recognized two township officials besides County Board candidate Schlader, but I image there were more.

McHenry Township Trustee Kathy Kuchta, who is also Vice Chairman of the McHenry County Republican Central Committee was present. S

So was Nunda Township Trustee Lee Jennings.

As I mentioned previously, Dr. Anne Majewski was campaigning for the McHenry County Coroner vacancy that Marlene Lantz’s retirement makes possible.

There was also Barrington Township Committeeman Gene Dawson, also the Republican State Central Committeeman for the 8th Congressional District, in attendance.

Finally, you know how I like messages, most of which I find on tee shirts.

One of the servers was wearing a Hastert congressional tee shirt. I didn’t think to ask her if it was from two years ago (when Hultgren beat Denny Hastert’s son Ethan) or from when the father represented Coral Township, where the young women lives and knew that it had been in Hastert’s original district.