Lame duck supervisor plans to address Kane County Board May 11 with disinformation about Kane County Clerk

UPDATE 5/6/21 7:10PM CDT: Dundee Township Cause of Action for declaratory judgement filed against Kane County Clerk Jack Cunningham on Wednesday, with payment of filing fees dated 5/6/21.

16th Judicial Circuit Case 21-MR-000801 with next action set for August 20, 9AM CDT with the Honorable Kevin T. Busch for Case Management Conference.

Township attorney from Ancel Glink representing the township.

From the desk of John Lopez: Lame duck Dundee Township Supervisor Trish Glees (D, West Dundee), who lost her reelection bid for a 2nd term last month is not going out quietly.

Glees will officially leave office the week of May 17, but she is going out swinging with false accusations concerning Kane County Clerk Jack Cunningham (R, Aurora). Last month, with advice from Kane County State’s Attorney Jamie Mosser (D, St. Charles), Cunningham did not extend the property tax levy funding two separate 708 Mental Health Boards approved by voters in Dundee and Elgin townships in March of 2020.

McHenry County Blog covered these developments in Kane County last month, and the article with the complete background can be viewed here.

Cause of Action has been filed with Kane County’s 16th Judicial Circuit as authorized by the Dundee Township Board on April 21 as case 21-MR-000801 with Case Management Conference scheduled for August 20.

But the facts of Clerk Cunningham’s decision are easily lost on Glees, as she has initiated an online petition through Ben Rattray‘s San Francisco-based change.org website with disinformation, meaning on-purpose, straying from the truth.

In my honest opinion, Glees knowingly using false information taints the very real need for Mental Health services within the Dundee Township community.

And Glees has decided to champion this initiative through her Facebook page in the waning days of her term as Dundee Township supervisor:

So what’s in the petition which through mid-day Thursday had just under 400 online signatures? Copied and pasted from change.org, the petition from “Advocates for Kane Mental Health” reads as follows:

Advocates for Kane Mental Health started this petition to Kane County Board Members

We, the undersigned voters in Kane County (Illinois), believe that the recent actions of the County Clerk’s Office disenfranchise the 13,533 voters who approved the Elgin and Dundee Townships mental health referenda on March 17, 2020.

Furthermore:

We believe that the Clerk’s Office failed to provide local and county officials in Kane County an essential public service by verifying that referenda language put forth to voters would meet the Clerk’s Office criteria for tax levies. As a result, litigation between the two townships and the Clerk’s Office will occur at the expense of taxpayers.

We believe that the Clerk’s Office has been disingenuous with voters and local government officials by certifying results of a proposition and then nullifying these same results by not executing related tax levies.

We believe that the Clerk’s Office, having experienced a similar lawsuit related to referenda and property tax levies, should have review procedures in place to prevent administrative barriers from enacting the wishes of voters.

We implore the Kane County Board to seek appropriate remedy for the breach of trust that now exists between the Clerk’s Office and Kane County voters.

To begin rebuilding trust with the voters, we ask that the Board request that the Clerk’s Office send letters by June 30, 2021 to all registered voters and taxpayers in Elgin and Dundee Township articulating the specific objections and legal implications in the referenda language used.

Additionally, we request that the letter be posted on the County Clerk’s website through December 31, 2021 as a source of information for all Kane County voters.

Source: “Kane County Votes” petition on change.org website

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Was it Mark Twain, no, Woody Allen who said, “Why ruin a good story with the truth?”

That’s exactly how the petition contents need to be treated. It’s a story with little basis in fact, particularly with references to “breach of trust” and a misperceived need to “…begin rebuilding trust with the voters…”.

The truth and as published in McHenry County Blog‘s article last month, the case law in my honest opinion is significant and the Clerk did the right thing implementing the advice of the State’s Attorney to not extend the taxes from two improperly worded referenda that did not use the Property Tax Extension Limitation Law.

In my honest opinion, what Clerk Cunningham did wearing his “Election Authority” hat in certifying the March 2020 election results is mutually exclusive to his duties wearing his “Tax Extension Officer” hat a year later.

Finally, as stated above in my honest opinion, Glees’ actions including this purposeful disinformation she’s promoting under her First Amendment rights, taints and undermines the real Mental Health challenges she purports to want to address in the Dundee Township community.

Glees’ successor, Arin Thrower (I, West Dundee) begins her term as Dundee Township supervisor on May 19, and that date can’t get here fast enough!