The Crystal Lake City Council race appears at first glance to be a routine contest among eight candidates to fill two vacancies, but behind the scenes, there’s a tense relationship between the mayor and the city manager and the remapping of the City Council.
In November, voters approved a referendum expanding the five-member council, in which the four council members and mayor now run at-large, to a seven-member body. Starting in 1999, four council members will be running from specific wards and three others–including the mayor–will run at-large.
That means the council re-map will be drawn within the next two years in the midst of the supposed icy relationship between Mayor Robert Wagner, who was elected in 1995, and city manager Joseph Misurelli, who has been at the city’s helm since 1979.
Furthermore, the 1997 winners and three incumbents will have to decide which sitting members would run from wards and which would run at-large. By state law, the terms of all five incumbents will be up for election in 1999 because of the change in council structure.
Three of the current candidates said they would be firmly in Misurelli’s camp if a showdown occurred over his job future, while the five others, including an incumbent and three others who hold mayoral appointments to advisory committees, said they are neutral.
The upcoming election, which pits two incumbents against six challengers, includes a Feb. 25 primary that will narrow the field to four candidates for the April 1 finale. Such a format will give the six challengers a chance to increase their name recognition for another try for more available spots in 1999.
“It’ll definitely come into play,” said incumbent Thomas Hayden, a strong Misurelli supporter who is completing his first four-year term. “I’ve heard some of the newcomers say they are looking to get name recognition if they don’t win this time.”
Another hot topic among at least five of the candidates is control of future growth, with three newcomers specifically mentioning the controversial conversion of Twin Ponds golf course into a shopping center as the spur that persuaded them to run.
A fourth candidate, who is one of four who live in the southern part of the city, mentioned the possible expansion of Lake in the Hills Airport as a growth issue.
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Misurelli, a council appointee who has said his job is to carry out policy decisions made by council members, declined to comment on the race, but Wagner said “good growth” and “bad growth” have to be defined.
“Nobody has really articulated exactly what bad growth is,” said Wagner, an attorney. “There’s no question that it’s a problem, but it would be illegal to try to stop all growth. The owner of the Twin Ponds shopping center site already had the proper business zoning, so the council had to give it to him.
“It also will mean $1.5 million a year for the city in property and sales tax revenues and help improve the balance of our tax base, which is too much residential,” he said.
Wagner has complained that he has difficulty working with Misurelli, who is known as a stickler in enforcing building and zoning codes, and has said Misurelli’s staff needs to be more user-friendly, but he called their tense relationship “a non-issue” in the reapportionment.
“The remap will have less to do with Misurelli than with the true feelings of the community,” Wagner said.
Misurelli has the open support of Hayden, 47, a financial manager who also is a former Lake in the Hills police officer, and challengers Dan Malone, 70, a longtime civic leader and former publisher, and Aaron T. Shepley, 33, an attorney.
The second incumbent, Peggy Chamberlain, 47, a veterinarian who is completing her first term, has sided with both Wagner and Misurelli in the past and considers herself neutral.
Malone is campaigning on his extensive experience in local school, business and civic matters, while Hayden, Chamberlain, Shepley, Kimberly Forman, 33, Ellen Brady Mueller, 33, Eric Moehlmann, 35, and Stan Perrin, 44, are all aiming at controlling growth.
Forman is chairman of the retail advisory committee, which was set up to attract more retailers to the city, and Perrin is a member of the committee. Forman and Mueller also are members of the airport advisory committee, and Mueller is on the city zoning board, as well. Moehlmann is an electrical engineer, and Perrin is an insurance benefits analyst.
Forman, who has targeted the proposed Lake in the Hills Airport expansion as a possible issue, is from the southern part of the city, as are Mueller, Malone and Hayden. Chamberlain lives on the lake and the other three candidates are in the central part.
“The literature on airport expansion doesn’t support the contention that it will bring in more needed business development,” said Forman, who also is a member of Communities Against Gangs and teaches religious education. “Instead, I think it will bring in larger airplanes and traveling business people who aren’t going to stop to eat or shop in Crystal Lake.”
Shepley complained that the city “is developing without a vision of where we’re going–what kind of development do we want and where do we want it.”
Perrin and Moehlmann complained that the Twin Ponds development is going up at a time when the city has vacancies in existing shopping centers and in the older downtown area.
“The city needs to make sure the schools and infrastructure are ready for growth before it happens,” Mueller said.
Malone, a former board president of High School District 155 and one of the leaders in the formation of McHenry County College, Crystal Lake, said he would like to bring a “historical perspective” and “more teamwork” to the council.
Besides controlling growth, Hayden is stressing the need for his council experience in drawing ward boundaries over the next two years.
Hayden also is hammering Wagner for what Hayden said was Wagner’s easy treatment of liquor establishments charged with selling alcohol to minors. Wagner, who heard the cases as liquor commissioner, has contended that police and prosecutors failed to prove their case.
Hayden called “a misuse of taxpayers’ money” Wagner’s proposal to offer tax incentives to nearby businesses to get them to annex into the city for the added tax revenue.
For the candidates other than Hayden, Chamberlain and Malone, the crowded council race is their first try for elective office in Crystal Lake.
“There’s definitely a learning curve. We’ll see who is left standing on Feb. 25 and April 1,” said Moehlmann.