McHenry County Blog

Fox River Grove Village Hall

A “Meet the Candidates” night will be held at the village hall in Fox River Grove.

The event is hosted by Boy Scout Troop 166 and begins at 7pm

Ken Tentler

The next day he sent the following, but without a photo.   Now I have the picture, so you can read what he has to say and see what Tentler looks like.

I am a candidate for Trustee in Lake In The Hills.  This is my press release to you.

These are the attitudes I carry with my in my public career-

• This is a world in need of repair.
• Flat land open developing is beneath us as 21′st century beings.
• It is likely that other institutions that guide us as individuals and people are as bulky, selfish and undeveloped.
• We live in ways that are very difficult to factor all of the variables when they are needed.
• There are many things I think we all want to see more of-a healthy happy people, high end challenging-multi-development with underneath parking, challenging political debates with 3-4 candidates for mayor or village president etc..

I am a strong young mind and I am interested in ideas, quality thinking, problem solving, critical and independent thinking and vibrancy/urgency.  This things together are a powerful headlight to a world viewpoint.

My website-kjttrustee.com is an attempt at some valuable political talk and summary. The website will continue in a different form once elected (the current content will continue to be added too and refined) to share insight-my political travels and battles, help others and help me find the things I am looking for.

While I do not consider myself or my views malleable, I very much can learn on a daily basis and even last night [the night of the McHenry candidates' forum] picked up on about 10 ideas the helped.

The ballot in Lake in the Hills looks like this:

The entrance to the Island Lake Village Hall.

Taxpayers in Island Lake are passing petitions to force a vote on whether the Village Board can sell bonds to build a new village hall,

One of them is Jot Ptak, who ran unsuccessfully ran for the Village Board in 2011 and is known nationwide for forcing the League of Women Voters to allow the Pledge of Allegiance at the debate between Joe Walsh and Melissa Bea.

Ptak told McHenry County Blog,

“Many of us are collecting more than enough petition signatures necessary to put this NO NEW VILLAGE HALL  referendum on the ballot in November.”

The required number of registered voter signatures for referendum in Island Lake is 78.

The petition will be filed Monday.

The top three candidates are the incumbents, the bottom three comrise the slate of challenger. You will note that very, very few people are voting.

Truly anyone could have won these races with a turnout as low as you can see.

The one of the top is alligned with the incumbents, while the bottom candidate is with the insurgents.

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Campaigning until the last minute, Barrington Hills Trustee David Stieper has issued this press release:

David Stiepler

Barrington Hills- Supporters of David Stieper, candidate for a 4-year term on the Village of Barrington Hills Board of Trustees, will meet tonight at the Penny Road Pub at 7:30 P.M. to celebrate with him the end of the election campaign and hopefully confirm his victory later in the evening.

David believes his message of the importance of independent Board Members was embraced by Village residents, due in part to the contentious tenor of the opposing Abboud supported slate “Save5Acres” and the “Common Sense Party”.

David conducted an issues oriented campaign and avoided the personal attacks often associated with slate and party campaigns.

Unlike the opposing slate ($90,000) and party ($140,000) in campaign donations, Citizens for Stieper, a single candidate committee, raised just over $15,000.

The campaign was run by David and his wife, Darla, with moral support by a few loyal friends.

David’s goal was to prove that a lone, independent candidate could run a quality campaign on modest resources without the assistance of a professional consultant.

Should he prevail, David believes that other residents will be encouraged by his example to run in future elections as true independents obviating the need for high cost slates and parties in our small community of just 1,500 households.

Stieper surmises that a significant victory in this election “would be a mandate for Independence on our Board, not a mandate for David Stieper.”

Darla Stieper
Citizens for Stieper
847-519-7970
ElectionDarla@StieperLaw.com

As charges fly that election campaign contributions to the slate backed by Village President Robert Abboud and that a witness was deliberately not made available so the election would be over before an Illinois
State Board of Elections decision could be rendered, the only independent in the race, David Stieper, makes this last minute appeal:

Dear Neighbors of Barrington Hills:

As our journey of independence continues, I want to reiterate that the biggest threat of losing land to disconnection is our inflated spending.

Property owners legally qualified to disconnect will be encouraged to move from VBH to lower taxing municipalities.

The biggest threat to our property values is high real estate taxes resulting in part from our inflated spending.

I humbly ask again for your vote on Tuesday, April 5th. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Please pass this on to your friends.

Sincerely,

David Stieper

Stieper provided the following post cards that were part of his campaign:

Click to enlarge.

Again, click to enlarge.

The Stiepler campaign reports:

Newly-elected McHenry County Board member Robert Nowak, on the right, asks for a study of cost savings from a proposed expanasion of paperless interconnectivity among law enforcement agencies. Jim Heisler is seen to his left in a Law and Justice Committee meeting.

Surprise Republican primary winner in last spring’s County Board election was Cary’s Bob Nowak. One year later he is endorsing the slate running against the Cary Village Board incumbents.

Below is his robo-call of tonight:

Hi this is your neighbor and McHenry County Board Member Bob Nowak.

I want to thank you for your support in the past, once again I’m asking fort your support.

After being a village official for twenty three years, I know it’s time for change.

Cary needs people with a fresh new perspective, and a new attitude.

I strongly recommend four new voices running for Cary Village trustee.

• Karen Lukasik,
• Bruce Kaplan,
• Robert Bragg, and
• Jeff Krause.

Four new voices with a fresh perspective and a new attitude for Cary.

On April 5th please vote for Karen Lukasik, Bruce Kaplan, Robert Bragg, and Jeff Krause, for Cary Village trustee.

On the ballot, please remember to vote from the bottom up.

Thank you.

This sign in front of Lowe Enterprises expresses what can only be described as heart-felt dissatisfation with the way the Village Board governs. The message is "PUPPETS DEFINED, NO BRAIN, BACKBONE, PULLS STRINGS."

Candidates running for Cary Village Board.

From watching Lowe Enterprises sign on Route 14, people know that there is some dissatisfaction there with those running the Village of Cary.  What you see above is just one of messages that has appeared over a several year period.

This year there are four seats up on the Cary Village Board.

There are two slates .

The incumbent slate consists of

• Al Pilli
• Barbara Hill
• Debra McNamee
• Mark Kownick

The incumbents are at the top of both the four-year term ballot and the two-year slot.

"Cary Works!" trash pick-up notice with all village board members' names displayed. Although not on the ballot, Mayor/Village President Tom Kierna has his name twice on the flyer. Click to enlarge.

The challengers’ slate is comprised of

• Karen Lukasik
• Bruce Kaplan
• Robert Bragg
• Jeff Kraus

The insurgents appear at the bottom of each ballot.

Stuck in between is Frank Steckelberg.

Although all are listed on the ballot as “Independent,” the label has special meaning for Steckelberg.

Conceivably, the balance of power could shift away from, presumably, Village President/ Mayor Thomas Kierna.

The incumbents are availing themselves of the power of incumbency to use village resources to promote their name identification.

The village put out leaflets promoting both the “Cary Works!” junk pick-up as well as one promoting a community clean-up day after the election which lists the names of those on the Village Board, but not those serving on School District 26 or 155′s Board nor those on the Cary Park Board.

With a slate of incumbents being challenged by a full opposition slate, there is obviously something at stake.

So far, what has made the news has been criticism by the incumbents that the challengers have violated election law by combining their resources to buy joint signs.

Click to enlarge if you wish to rad the small print on the bottom of the Lukaski-Bragg-Kaplan-Kruas sign.

The challengers retort that the fact that each candidate paid their share of the sign is listed at the bottom of the sign.

And today, the opposition slate made it owns charge that the incumbents were in violation of the Illinois Election Code.

A section of the Election Code [(10 ILCS 5/9‑9.5) Sec. 9‑9.5. Disclosures in political communications.(a)] says that “Any political committee organized under the Election Code that makes an expenditure for a pamphlet, circular [etc.]…mentioning the name of a candidate…shall ensure that the name of the political committee paying [it including distribution]…is identified clearly within the communication…”

The challengers to Cary Village Trustees running for re-election have issued the following press release :

Incumbents Violate Election Law

Recently, the incumbent candidates for Cary Village Trustee made baseless charges against our candidacies for violating State of Illinois Election Law.  They offer nothing in the way of facts or evidence, but simply pull ideas from thin air.

We believe the State of Illinois Elections Laws should be followed and appropriate disclosure be done.  That is why we are very disturbed at the gross negligence by our opponents to distribute yard signs, fliers and advertisements without attributing who “Paid for” or “Authorized” these forms of political speech.  It is deceptive to our neighbors and it violates the State of Illinois’ Election Law.

A leaflet promoting Cary Pride Day a week after the election is being distributed. Although it mentions the two schools and park district as sponsors, none of the names of their board members are listed. The names of the Cary Village Board are. Click to enlarge.

Additionally, we find it increasingly disturbing that our citizens’ tax dollars are being utilized by the incumbents for political speech.  We are attaching two examples paid for by taxpayer dollars where the incumbents’ names are clearly portrayed in an attempt to deceptively gain votes.

Couple that with a “Weekly” e-mail newsletter that is now appearing almost daily supporting the incumbents’ message; we cannot sit idly by without calling them out on it.

It is time for a new way of doing things in Cary.  Cary residents deserve better.

Statements:

Karen Lukasik: “In these tight economic times, I find it troubling that our Village is using our tax dollars to promote the incumbents.”

Bruce Kaplan: “We have been very careful and conscious not only to support the letter of the Election Law, but the spirit of it.”

Robert Bragg: “I think it would be the honorable thing for the incumbents and the Village to come clean and stop these underhanded election practices.”

Jeff Kraus: “I have run a campaign on transparency and trust.  The incumbents should have been following the law before they began leveling hypocritical charges against my candidacy.”

The literature of the incumbents and the village-financed literature containing their names follows (click to enlarge):

Literature from Barb Hill.

Campaign literature from Mark Kownick.

Debra McNamee's piece.

The campaign literature of Al Pilli.

From reading McNamee’s flyer, I see she says she pays for her own literature and she and her family distribute it.

Mark Kownick's sign.

Whether the incumbent’s charge that the challengers broke the campaign finance law or not by combining resources to buy and post signs and not reporting it as a political action committee that has spent more than $3,000 is one I have not seen raised before. I assume that a complaint has been filed and if whoever filed it wishes to send me a copy, I’ll post it.

Al Pilli and Barb Hill have their signs next to Mark Kownick's. Click to enlarge.

The challengers’ complaint is an interesting one. Except for McNamee’s, the other incumbents do not disclose who paid for their literature.

Neither do the signs those three candidates have posted. (McNamee rightly points out in her piece, which says she has not signs, “Signs Don’t Vote.”) With sixteen years on the board, the name identification that signs provide probably is not one of her re-election problems.

The law cited by the challengers definitely applies to those with political action committees registered with the State Board of Elections.  I was able to find none for the four incumbents using their last names to search or any village board PACs after looking at those listed with a 60013 zip code.

There is so much going on in McHenry County that a citizen can easily lament the need for more information in a usable format.

Fortunately, “Cary Report” has popped up.

It’s not up to the quality of the gravel pit expansion opponents’, but one has to start somewhere.

I note that when organizers of a candidates’ night would not allow it to be recorded, a citizen-note taker started writing. On the web site are those notes.

The web site cost $25.50, it says right before this delicious quote:

“It’s harder and more expensive to get information from the village to put on this website, than it is to run this website.”

As you can see from the press release below from the Village of Lakewood’s Clerk
Janice S. Hansen, it is time for those wanting to run for village trustee or village president (some like to call themselves “mayor”) to pass petitions.

There are lots of people on a village board, the president, plus six trustees. Here you see the Lakewood Village Board.

Candidate petition packets for the April 5, 2011 Consolidated Election will be available at Lakewood Village Hall, 2500 Lake Avenue, beginning at 8:30 a.m. on September 21, 2010. This is the first day Independent Candidate Petitions may be circulated.

Vacant positions include: one (1) two-year Trustee position and (3) three four-year Trustee positions. Anyone interested in running for a Village of Lakewood Trustee position can pick up nominating packet at the Village Hall during regular business hours.

Nomination papers must be filed at the Village Hall between December 13, 2010, beginning at 8:30 a.m. and continuing during regular business hours until 5:00 p.m. on December 20, 2010.

Respectfully submitted,
Janice S. Hansen, Village Clerk
Village of Lakewood
815-459-3025