Newly-Elected to the McHenry County Board

Just in case you are interested in the new faces who will serve on the McHenry County Board starting in December, here they are.  All six of McHenry County’s Districts will have newcomers.  (In the case of District 1, Yvonne Barnes is not exactly a newcomer, having served one term previously.)

District 1

Yvonne Barnes

Nick Chirikos

District 2

Carolyn Schofield

District 3

Joe Gottemoller

Mary McClellan

Mike Walkup

District 4

Bob Martens

District 5

Mike Skala

District 6

Michele Aavang

Here’s something to ponder:

Who will these newcomers vote for McHenry County Board Chairman?


Comments

Newly-Elected to the McHenry County Board — 6 Comments

  1. Congratulations to all of the winners on Tuesday on the McHenry County Board.

    Here’s a better question to ask not only this freshmen class of 9 (with 8 true freshmen) than who they’ll vote for county board chairman: With the County Executive referendum soundly defeated, which county board members, freshmen and veterans alike, will vote to put an at-large election of the county board chairman on the April 9th election ballot as a binding referendum?

    While the County Executive referendum was driven by the wrong motivation, the county board earlier this year thought about giving voters the choice about an at-large county board chairman.

    This year, the county board scrapped the at-large chairman referendum citing it would create confusion for voters with the County Executive referendum.

    Now that the County Executive referendum has lost, it is time for McHenry County voters to weigh-in on giving direct-election to voters for chairman of the county board.

    As an accompanying advisory referendum, the county board should ask the voters if McHenry County should continue with the county administrator form of government, or if a county board chairman, directly elected by the voters, should take over the role of day-to-day operations of the county.

    This is the operating model for DuPage and Kane Counties, where the county board chairman is elected at large, and runs the day-to-day operations.

    All McHenry County board members, voters were motivated, albeit for the wrong reason, to place the County Executive referendum on the November ballot.

    Please do not take away the defeat of the County Executive referendum means the voters do not want a popularly elected County Board Chairman.

    Voters didn’t want to create the Will County governance model, which clearly gave way too much power to the County Executive.

    Perhaps the Kane County governance model, which is proven to be the most cost efficient with statistics to back it up, is the way voters will want to go.

    County Board members, and members-elect, please feel free to comment here on McHenry County Blog and tell the community what you think about this idea.

  2. Agree with On/Storm; this is a chance for Board Members to express themselves without the political arm twisting that goes on before electing a Chairman.

    As a “citizen”, I hope there’s the courage to elect a Chairman who’s not a vinditive S.O.B.

  3. Great question Storm.

    One that deserves a hard look and much study, from both sides.

    We have debated this repeatedly in our house after the County Exec referendum made the ballot.

    In my many months of canvassing I’ve sadly learned that few people know much about the County Board at all, let alone whom to support for its Chair.

    Would this election be truly relevant or just an expensive popularity contest?

    What are the day-to-day functions of the Chair which most impact the citizens?

    What is the upside to keeping it the way it is?

    Although I’m not ready to take a stand on this yet, I want to see discussion on every aspect of popular election of the County Board Chair, both for and against.

    Let’s decide this with both eyes wide open.

  4. why should citizens be responsible for electing the county board chair?

    frankly, citizens are too stupid to elect a chair at large. case and point, the elected nick cirikos……

  5. Just a suggestion to the Chairman, whomever it will be, that in appointing the Chairperson of each County Board Committee, that he/she not create a serious, and obvious, conflict of interest, such as Anna May Miller, wife of Algonquin Township Road Commissioner, Bob Mller, chairing the County Board Transportation Committee.

    Similarly, Bob Martens, former Executive Director of Family Services, should not be appointed as a County liaison to anything relating to the Mental Health Board, its funded agencies or personnel.

    Such appointments should be filled by people with fresh, unbiased perspective.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *