Editor’s note: This is one in a series of stories looking at contested races in the Aurora area in the June 28 primary election.
Six Republicans are in the running for five openings on the Kendall County Board in District 1 in the June 28 primary election.
The five GOP winners will move on to the general election Nov. 8.
The Kendall County Board consists of 10 members, with five elected from District 1 and five from District 2 on a partisan basis, with four-year, staggered terms. However, this year all seats are on the ballot, which is required every 10 years by Illinois statute.
For the Democrats, only one candidate, Malanda Griffin of Yorkville, is running for a seat in District 1 in the primary, so is unopposed. Incumbent Amy Cesich decided not to run again in District 1 in the Democratic primary.
For other parties, one candidate, Todd Milliron of Yorkville, is running for a seat in District 1 for a newly-established political party called the Kendall County Party, and so is unopposed in the primary.
The Republican race in District 1 in the primary features six candidates competing for five spots on the November ballot. The Republican incumbents in District 1 are Brian DeBolt of Plano, Scott Gengler of Yorkville and Ruben Rodriguez of Yorkville. The other three in the GOP race are Yorkville Ald. Jason Peterson, Millbrook Trustee Seth Wormley and Tommy Okapal of Yorkville.
Judy Gilmour of Yorkville decided not to seek re-election for her seat in District 1 in the Republican primary.
DeBolt and Gengler were unopposed in the 2020 GOP primary and the top two vote-getters in a five-way race for two open seats in the 2020 general election.
“It’s been gratifying to help people and businesses, that’s the only reason why I originally ran for Kendall County Board. I was born and raised here,” DeBolt said.
DeBolt said he believes his approach to matters will further benefit the county.
“A common sense approach to getting the job done and being a conservative Republican is the philosophy I had when I worked for the schools,” DeBolt said.
DeBolt retired from Yorkville School District 115 after 37 years as director of buildings and facilities. He previously was a firefighter for Little Rock Fire Protection District.
DeBolt said he has overseen building projects for the Yorkville public school system and as a trustee for the fire department.
He serves on several county board committees including the Facilities Management Committee.
The $32 million Eldamain Road Bridge project will bring more commerce to Kendall County, he said.
There is a need to do more in health services, he said.
“The pandemic has affected a lot of people in different ways. That’s something we really need to watch,” DeBolt said.
Gengler was unanimously appointed in 2019 to serve the unexpired county board term of John Purcell, who was elected mayor of Yorkville, and then elected to the board in 2020.
“I want to continue working for the people of Kendall County to make sure we keep taxes under control. Kendall County has had a growth rate of 10% since 2010. A lot of growth is happening in residential and business,” said Gengler, a former Oswego high school teacher from 2002 to 2018 who grew up in rural Kendall County.
He is now a financial advisor. The county board has not increased the tax levy for the past several years, he said. Gengler is a proponent of helping small businesses impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic through the American Rescue Plan Act that authorized grants to those that applied.
“We continue to work with small businesses and nonprofits recuperate from the losses from the pandemic,” Gengler said.
Gengler noted the Eldamain Road Bridge as one of the significant projects the county is examining. The bridge project is looking to be finalized possibly at the end of this year, he said.
“Improving our infrastructure will lead to more business growth and alleviate some of the property tax burden,” Gengler said.
Rodriguez was appointed to the Kendall County Board in January 2021 to fill an unexpired seat vacated by Kendall County Circuit Clerk Matthew Prochaska. Prochaska was elected to the post in November 2020.
Rodriguez said Kendall County Board Chairman Scott Gryder asked him to serve and the first thing he did was to consult with his wife.
“I knew it would be a big time commitment in order to do the job,” Rodriguez said.
His wife encouraged him to accept the appointment.
More Top Picks Best Pool Cleaners
“I am one to always want to help people and I don’t have an agenda,” Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez, of Yorkville, previously served on the Kendall County Regional Planning Commission and Ethics Committee.
Rodriguez said he had not been involved politically before joining the Kendall County Board.
“I realized my common sense approach and life experiences can help make important decisions to benefit the entire county,” he said.
He specializes in information technology in the banking profession.
Peterson was appointed to fill a vacancy in the 4th Ward on the Yorkville City Council in October 2018 and was elected to the council seat in the 2019 municipal election.
Peterson, a real estate broker, has been a proponent of public safety, specifically in improving pedestrian crosswalks near schools. He is also the chair of the Yorkville City Council Economic Development Committee.
“I am a proponent of small business as it is a critical part of a community. As a city we were able to help many small businesses during the pandemic,” he said.
He is running on a common sense platform, he said.
“As a real estate broker, two of the common questions are why are Kendall County taxes so high and why are they the highest in the state? There is speculation the taxes are among the highest in the country as well,” Peterson said.
“I have to answer to that. If I can help out on the county side to understand why the taxes are high and what we can do to attract new businesses that can definitely help out,” he said.
“Being the chair for the Economic Development Committee for Yorkville, I have a better understanding of how to attract businesses,” he said. “In Yorkville, we have a lot of new businesses coming to town.
“We have to look at what we can do to make it more advantageous for people to come to Kendall County to live, work and spend their tax dollars,” he said.
Wormley has been a Millbrook village trustee since 2019.
He is a financial advisor and sixth generation farmland owner.
“With expansion and growth, it is important for the rural areas of Kendall County to have representation at the county level,” Wormley said.
Millbrook is a small rural community with a population of roughly 300 people that relies on intergovernmental agreements to access county services, he said.
“Millbrook does not have the staff as that of the county. We are one of the only villages in the county that has a zero tax assessment. It’s on our tax bill but it is zero dollars and zero cents,” Wormley said.
“We do not have a lot of income to support expenses related to building and zoning and other services. They are rendered through an intergovernmental agreement through the county,” he said.
“I was born in Oswego when the population was about 3,500 people. I have experienced a lot of growth and probably over the next 20 years we will experience some of the same changes further west in the county,” Wormley said.
“For small communities surrounded by bigger communities that are growing rather quickly it’s important to have representation. One of the greatest needs in a growing Kendall County is high-speed internet – the county is working on that. There are many homes here connected only through point-to-point or satellite alternative system and they are a fraction of the speed of a fiber optic network,” Wormley said.
“It’s important over the next decade to be working towards that type of infrastructure and improvements for the county,” he said.
Wormley also represents Fox Township on the Kendall County Regional Planning Commission.
Okapal did not respond to requests for an interview for this article.
Linda Girardi is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.