McHenry County Blog

The Nunda Township Board met to accept Supervisor John Heisler’s resignation and appoint Trustee Jim Schlader Interim Supervisor. From left to right are Road Commissioner Don Kopsel, Trustees Joni Smith and Lee Jennings, Clerk Bridgett Provenzano, Trustees Tom Palmer and James Schlader and Assessor Dennis Jagla.

In a letter dated December 11th, Nunda Township Supervisor John Heisler submitted his resignation as of January 3, 2013.

The missive, addressed to Trustee James Schlader, read,

John Heisler

“Due to recent events and family responsibilities, I will be unable to complete my current term as the Nunda Township Supervisor.

“I hereby submit my resignation to you effective January 3, 2013.

“Further, I am withdrawing my petition for candidacy for the February 26, 2013 primary election.

“I will make myself available3 for the execution of official documents and transitional discussion through January 3, 2013.”

It is dated one day before a challenge to Heisler’s petition resulted in his being removed from the GOP primary ballot.

Following Schlader’s reading of the letter, the four Township Trustees voted unanimously to accept Heisler’s resignation.

Jim Schlader

“I know we have had our ups and downs…but I think John’s heart was really in it,” Schlader said.

One of the three remaining candidates for the Republican nomination for Township Assessor, Lee Jennings, moved that Schlader be appointed to Interim Supervisor.

Trustee Tom Palmer pointed out that Schlader was “a good choice” because he was “the senior Trustee.”

After a vote, Schlader said, “Seeing how it’s unanimous I do accept.”

Before the meeting Schlader had explained Thursday was the first day of his retirement after being at th3 same medical supply company for thirty-nine years.

Schlader explained that it was not necessary to make “a whole bunch of changes,” but there would be some. He solicited suggestions from the elected officials at the meeting.

“I will be here at the office tomorrow morning at 8 o’clock.

“I need everybody’s support and I thank everybody here for their support.”

A second candidate for the permanent position is Township Clerk Bridget Provenzano, who will swear Schlader in on Friday.

Kerry Leigh, an Oakwood Hills Trustee, is the third candidate for Supervisor.

John Heisler has filed the required Statements of Economic Interest with the County Clerk for twenty years, but, with his mother dying in hospice care, he didn’t remember to attach a copy of the receipt to his Statement of Candidacy and petitions.

The members of the Nunda Township Electoral Board were from right to left, James Schlader, Tom Palmer and David Stone. Ancel Glink Attorney Scott Puma advised the panel.

That got him kicked off the ballot Thursday by the Nunda Township Electoral Board.

The Board consisted of Trustee Tom Palmer, who chaired the meeting, Trustee Jim Schlader and former Assistant State’s Attorney David Stone, a Nunda Township resident.

Russell Scott

Nunda Township resident Russell Scott, a McHenry resident, bought the complaint against Heisler in a professionally-prepared legal document.

When asked to testify, Scott said, he was “just going over the paperwork and I didn’t think it met the requirements of the State Board of Elections.”

When asked he said he stood on the arguments made in the objection that he filed.

“No one is here on behalf of the candidate,” attorney Scott Puma then announced.

“The objection is basically one of a legal question,” Electoral Board member Stone, an attorney, explained.

The Election Code requires a receipt from the candidate’s Statement of Economic interest to be attached to the petition filing.

John Heisler

Stone noted that the objected had cited three cases “which basically cover every conceivable situation.”

And, their message was that the attachment was a “mandatory requirement.”

“I’m of the opinion that the candidacy of John A. Heisler is invalid,” Stone concluded.

Schlader said he had a copy of from the County Clerk and asked, “Does it have to be attached?”

He said the copy had been “left in his box.”

Stone asked whether he got the copy before or after the filing and Palmer answered, “Well after.”

“I also declare that his petition package is invalid,” Schlader said.

Palmer agreed.

Stone then made a motion to take Heisler off the ballot.

Puma produced a resolution which the Electoral Board members read the document (that’s what the members are doing in the photo above).

After reading it and making a minor correction, the Board adopted the resolution unanimously.

Nick Provenzano was talking to Mark Daniel after the decision was rendered.

That means the following candidates will be on the ballot for Nunda Township Supervisor:

• Bridgett Provenzano (current Township Clerk and wife of County Board member Nick Provenzano)
• Kelvin Lee Jennings (current Trustee)
• Kerry Leigh (Oakwood Hills Trustee)

Tom Palmer

John Heisler

Chairman of the Nunda Township Electoral Board Tom Palmer advises me that the challenge to Supervisor John Heisler’s petition for re-election has been postponed until 1 PM, Wednesday, December 19th, at the Nunda Township Hall.

“At the electoral board hearing, we approved a standard set of rules, entered documents as official exhibits, and continued the hearing…,” Palmer emailed me.

If Heisler is removed from the Republican primary ballot, three candidates will remain:

• Bridgett Provenzano (current Township Clerk and wife of County Board member Nick Provenzano)
• Kelvin Lee Jennings (current Trustee)
• Kerry Leigh (Oakwood Hills Trustee)

It is unknown whether Heisler would run as a Independent if he were denied the opportunity to run as a Republican. He won his first race in a write-in campaign.

John Heisler

Lee Jennings

Bridgett Provenzano

I have given up trying to understand Nunda Township Republican politics.

Township Supervisor John Heisler, a former McHenry County Board member, is being challenged by three people.

Heisler, whose family’s name has been associated with Crystal Lake since his grandfather started a shoe repair shop across from the railroad station in 1908, won his first election in 2001 with a write-in campaign running against Mike Walkup.

So, beating him will be a real challenge.

Usually, the more opponents, the better for the incumbent in a primary election.

Even so, three have lined for the opportunity:

• Bridgett Provenzano (current Township Clerk and wife of County Board member Nick Provenzano)
• Kelvin Lee Jennings (current Trustee)
• Kerry Leigh (Oakwood Hills Trustee)

Don Kopsell

Running for Highway Commissioner are

• Incumbent Don Kopsell
• Robert Parrish (Crystal Lake, Supervisor, Geske & Sons Asphalt Paving)
• Mike Lesperance (Lakemoor, owner of Iron Mike’s Excavating)

For Assessor, no one is challenging incumbent Dennis Jagla.

Two are running for the Clerk’s position, which Provenzano is vacating to run for Supervisor:

• Angela Koscavage (Community Care Assistant to the Director of Community Care and Equipping with Crystal Lake Willow Creek Community Church)
• Susan Jennings

For Trustee there are only four candidates for the four positions:

• Tom Palmer (Crystal Lake, incumbent)
• Ed Dvorak (Crystal Lake, former Road Commissioner and County Board member)
• Eddie Gil (Holiday Hills, husband of County Board member-elect Mary McClellan, retired trucking company owner, property investor)
• Mike Shorten (Crystal Lake,Vice Chairman of the Nunda Township Republican Party)

Bowing out as Trustees are Joni Smith and Jim Schlader.

Slim advertising have apparently loosened standards for political inserts at the Northwest Herald.

I can’t remember the campaign (one in the Cary area pops into my mind), but a former managing editor pledged that a political insert would no longer be allowed the day before an election.

The Republicans in Nunda Township, labeling themselves “Team Nunda,”
paid for an insert that I didn’t get, but discovered while reading the paper at the First United Methodist Church of Crystal Lake. The church is located just north of the Algonquin-Nunda Township line, which is Crystal Lake Avenue.

So, it appears the local GOP candidates didn’t waste their money on the Algonquin part of Crystal Lake.

The Team Nunda sign is reproduced on both sides of the three color campaign piece.

Endorsements from

• former State Senator Dick Klemm
• current State Senator Dan Duffy
• State Rep. Mike Tryon
• McHenry County Sheriff Keith Nygren
• McHenry County board members Ed Dvorak, Mary Donner and Barb Wheeler

are featured on one side.

The other side has endorsements from

• State Senator Pam Althoff
• McHenry County Treasurer Bill LeFew
• McHenry County Board Chairman Ken Koehler
• McHenry County Auditor Pam Palmer
• McHenry County Coroner Marlene Lantz
• Bryan Javor, Young Republicans Chairman

And there’s a big

on both sides.

Not only Algonquin Township, but Nunda Township rolled out campaign literature at the Crystal Lake Expo.

Both were found at the Algonquin Township Republican Central Committee booth, which was right on the first aisle of the exhibition.

The booth looked more like a Nunda Township-sponsored one than one put up by the Algonquin Township folks.

That was because all the township trustee candidates had yard signs. You see Nunda Township Trustee candidate Lee Jennings above.

True, you could see a sponsor’s sign on top, but the six Team Nunda red and white yard signs dominated the booth. Here you see Algonquin Township Trustees Linda Lance and Lowell Cutsforth, both running for re-election, at the booth.

But, back to the literature.

There’s a side with “Team Nunda” candidates listed, even the ones who are not opposed. An “Early voting begins March 16th” is highlighted in pale yellow.

The values the Republicans tout as sharing with constituents are

• Teamwork
• Managed Growth
• Fiscal Responsibility
• Quality Road Maintenance
• Promoting Programs to Assist Residents

The reason for ignoring the two Democratic Party candidates for township trustee who are on the ballot (not phrased that way, obviously):

We have the experience and desire to maintain a strong and secure township government for Nunda Township residents.

The other side of the folded 8½ by 11 inch sheet of paper has a pitch for voting for Team Nunda, a web site address and another reminder of early voting.

Strangely, Township Supervisor John Heisler is missing from the candidates listed on the sign, but he is in the endorsement list. Township Clerk Bridgett Porvenzano is not mentioned at all. Both are unopposed, but so are Township Highway Commissioner Don Kopsell and Assessor Dennis Jagla and they are on the sign.

There’s a panel of endorsements and supporters surrounding and above the 4 by 4 foot sign that first appeared prior to the primary election.
They include

• Dick Klemm, former State Senator
• Dan Duffy, State Senator
• Mike Tryon, State Representative
• Keith Nygren, McHenry County Sheriff
• Ed Dvorak, McHenry County Board
• Mary Donner, McHenry County Board
• Barb Wheeler, McHenry County Board
• Pam Althoff, State Senator
• Bill LeFew, McHenry County Treasurer
• Ken Koehler, McHenry County Board Chairman
• Pam Palmer, McHenry County Auditor
• Marlene Lantz, McHenry County Coroner
• John Heisler, Nunda Township Supervisor
• Bryan Javor, Chairman, McHenry County Young Republicans

Click to enlarge the images.

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For those of you who don’t know much about townships, they perform three basic functions: assessing, road maintenance in unincorporated areas and hand out local welfare, called General Assistance. Crystal Lake is in four townships. The two major ones are Algonquin and Nunda. The horizontal dividing line is Crystal Lake Avenue. The western part of Crystal Lake (west of our home in Lakewood on Meridian Street, in fact, is Grafton Township. The far Northwestern corner is in Woodstock-dominated Dorr Township.)

Two incumbent township trustees were dumped by Republican voters in Nunda Township.

One, Kevin Sarnwick, was an appointed incumbent.

The other Richard Meyers was also an appointed incumbent.

Taking them out were newcomer Joni Smith and rejected appointed trustee aspirant Kevin Jennings.

The results follow:

• Tom Palmer – 581
• Joni Smith – 540
• James Schlader – 512
• Kevin Jennings – 480

Notice the fall off of votes for Team Nunda candidates as folks proceeded down the ballot. Their order is the same as on the Team Nunda signs.

Results for the two who lost follow:

• Richard Meyers – 412
• Kevin Sarnwick – 388

I spotted my first political signs of the February 23rd Republican primary election yesterday.

They are for “Team Nunda.”

The slate includes unopposed Supervisor John Heisler, opposed incumbent Assessor Dennis Jagla and opposed Trustee candidates

• Tom Palmer (incumbent)
• Joni Smith (challenger)
• Jim Schlader (incumbent)
• Lee Jennings (who unsuccessfully sought appointment)

In addition to the “Team Nunda” 4 by 4 foot sign, each of the candidates on that sign have smaller color coordinated yard signs. You can see them if you click on the picture to enlarge it.

Trustees left off the sign are appointed incumbent Dick Meyers and incumbent Kevin Sarnwick.

Also missing from the sign are unopposed Road Commissioner Don Kopsell and Clerk Bridgett Provenzano.

If someone would like to tell me why which trustee candidates made the slate and which didn’t, I’ll bet that would be an interesting story.

I spotted my first political signs of the February 23rd Republican primary election yesterday.

They are for “Team Nunda.”

The slate includes unopposed Supervisor John Heisler, opposed incumbent Assessor Dennis Jagla and opposed Trustee candidates

• Tom Palmer (incumbent)
• Joni Smith (challenger)
• Jim Schlader (incumbent)
• Lee Jennings (who unsuccessfully sought appointment)

In addition to the “Team Nunda” 4 by 4 foot sign, each of the candidates on that sign have smaller color coordinated yard signs. You can see them if you click on the picture to enlarge it.

Trustees left off the sign are appointed incumbent Dick Meyers and incumbent Kevin Sarnwick.

Also missing from the sign are unopposed Road Commissioner Don Kopsell and Clerk Bridgett Provenzano.

If someone would like to tell me why which trustee candidates made the slate and which didn’t, I’ll bet that would be an interesting story.

As I mentioned before, township officials get paid really well.

Especially in comparison to municipal officials.

Not to mention school board, park board and miscellaneous special districts, where there is no compensation except

When Cary School Board member Chris Jenner made his pitch for people to run for local office, however, he didn’t list townships as a government whose officials are up for election next spring.

So, why do people run for public office?

Most of the posts up next spring don’t pay anything.

“Public service” is often mentioned as a reason for running for office and that is undoubtedly a motivation for some, maybe many.

But it was put more crassly by the guy who taught the first campaign school I attended.

I remember he was from the Republican National Committee. Unfortunately, I can’t remember his name.

There were three reasons people run for office, he said, and all started with the letter “P:”

• Power
• Prestige
• Pecuniary

The first two are obvious. I took the last one to mean pay, but, given Chicago’s long history of political corruption, money obviously does not have to be limited to pay.

Looking at just the salaries for Nunda Township, you can see why people might want to hold the offices.

Right now, the pay is

• Supervisor – $64,350
• Highway Commissioner – $81,990
• Assessor – $70,875
• Clerk – $12,700
• Trustees – $150 per meeting

But, raises are in the offing for those elected next April.

• Supervisor – $66,900
• Highway Commissioner – $85,230
• Assessor – $73,700
• Clerk – $13,200
• Trustees – $156 per meeting

And, they are scheduled to increase about 4% per year.

Incumbent Supervisor John Heisler and Road Commissioner Don Kopsell have picked up petitions to run for re-election.

Already in Nunda Township two people are passing petitions for township assessor. Incumbent Dennis Jagla will be challenged again by Alan Weaver. Weaver ran as an independent in 2005 after Republicans didn’t slate him.

When Walt Romanus died recently a name from past political contests—Dick Meyers—came up as his replacement. He has gotten nominating petitions, as have incumbents Kevin Sarnwick, Jim Schlader (who ran for county board in the GOP primary), Tom Palmer. Lee Jennings, who applied unsuccessfully for the Romanus vacancy, is also gathering signatures.

So far, incumbent Township Clerk Bridgett Provenzano has not picked up a packet of petitions.

Republican Party primaries will be held in Algonquin, Dorr, Grafton, McHenry and Nunda Townships. The Democratic Party has not requested that primaries be held to select candidates in any McHenry County Township.

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The source of my “Three P’s” motivation for running for office?

Republican National Committee campaign veteran Ray Humphreys in a campaign school at Illinois College in Jacksonville.  Humphreys had been a West Virginia state representative, elected in 1950,  and ran for congress in 1936 and 1938.