DuPage County board members Tuesday appointed the first woman to serve on the county’s zoning board of appeals.
In a 12-4 vote, the board approved Janice Anderson, a Naperville-area Republican and former DuPage County Board member, as a ZBA member.
Anderson, who was defeated in the 2018 reelection bid for a District 5 board seat, will fill a term that expires in December 2022.
Four Democrat county board members — Dawn DeSart, Sheila Rutledge, Julie Renehan and Liz Chaplin – voted against Anderson’s appointment.
DeSart, one of the two Democrats elected in 2018 to represent District 5, said she did not question Anderson’s qualifications to serve on the ZBA, but noted she already serves on the county’s stormwater committee. The board should not be appointing residents to serve on more than one county board or committee, she said.
“We should spread the wealth,” DeSart said.
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DuPage County Board Chairman Dan Cronin and other board members pointed to Anderson’s experience as a former board member and a member of the Bolingbrook Plan Commission as reasons for her appointment. Cronin and others also noted Anderson is the first woman to serve on the ZBA.
Alicia Fabbre is a freelance reporter for the Naperville Sun.