Editor’s note: This is one in a series of stories looking at contested races in the Aurora area in the Nov. 8 general election.
Nine candidates are vying for five seats on the Kendall County Board from District 1 in the Nov. 8 election.
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.
Malanda Griffin, of Yorkville, was the only Democrat on the ballot in District 1 in the primary election in June. The Kendall County Democratic Party slated two candidates July 25 to appear on the November ballot as well. They are former Kendall County Board member Audra Hendrix of Yorkville and Marta Keane of Plano.
Incumbent Democrat Amy Cesich decided not to run again for a seat on the board in District 1.
The Republicans running in District 1 include incumbents Brian DeBolt of Plano, Scott Gengler of Yorkville and Ruben Rodriguez of Yorkville, as well as Yorkville Ald. Jason Peterson and Millbrook Trustee Seth Wormley.
Republican Judy Gilmour of Yorkville decided not to seek re-election for her seat in District 1.
Todd Milliron, of Yorkville, is running for a seat in District 1 for a newly-established political party, and was unopposed in the primary.
Griffin is a safety and environmental engineer for an oil refining company. She said growing up with military parents influenced her to do community service. Her father served 26 years and her mother dedicated 10 years in the U.S. Marine Corps.
“I want to be the reflection of a growing county,” Griffin said.
For a time in her youth she lived in Japan and different parts of the United States, including California.
“It’s helped me to relate to people and have compassion for others,” she said.
She’s spoken to new business owners who would like to see it easier to start a new venture in the county, she said. Griffin said she has a commercial cleaning service company.
Hendrix was elected in 2016 and served a four-year term. She lost her bid for re-election in what she described as a “highly partisan” presidential election year in 2020.
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“It was a tough race to win,” Hendrix said. “I understand people’s feelings. The media has whipped people into a highly partisan state of mind. It’s rather unfortunate because the county board doesn’t really decide partisan issues.”
Hendrix said she would like to see more “forward-thinking” on issues that support “livability” in the county, including infrastructure such as clean water and telecommunications.
“We need to address livability on several fronts which includes encouraging development of energy-efficient and water-efficient housing,” Hendrix said.
Hendrix said she would support efforts to make neighborhoods more walkable and the types of businesses that homeowners could easily walk to and support.
Keane is a recycling specialist for Will County. She has worked for municipal and county government for about 30 years. She said she has been involved in working on legislation on environmental issues, including the electronics recycling law. Keane is on a state task force for electronics recycling and president of the Illinois Recycling Foundation and chair of the Illinois Products Stewardship Council, organizations that work toward finding solutions on environmental causes, she said.
Keane, who developed the Will County Green website, said she would bring her environmental expertise to the Kendall County Board.
“These are organizations that look to find ways for people to take care of their waste in a circular manner rather than a linear manner,” she said.
It’s a way to create jobs and economic opportunities as well as save resources, she said.
“I believe the area is filled with beautiful natural resources. We need bicycle paths and electric charging stations,” Keane said.
Keane advocates a “thoughtful approach” to economic development and having new businesses interested in Kendall County participate in infrastructure improvements.
“Some businesses have come in and placed a burden on taxpayers, such as roads and water resources. They expect taxpayers to take on the burden of providing roads. It’s not fair to our community. We can do better when we promote economic development. We should do it in a thoughtful manner and not reactionary,” Keane said.
Milliron has run seven other times for the Kendall County Board, in 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018 and 2020.
“Every time I have run for county board I have upped my vote totals. I figure that if I stay at it long enough, I will reach the threshold,” he said.
Milliron has advocated for county government to place its checkbook online.
“If anybody wants to see the expenditures of the county would be able to see the invoices and bills that were paid,” he said.
Strides toward transparency have been made, he said.
“It’s a lot better than it was. The reason it got done was because of consistent prodding on my part and being in the county board room month in and month out. I have probably attended more county board meetings than some of the people who are actually on the board,” he 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 and Kendall County Sheriff’s Executive Committee.
“There’s been a lot of discussion about the no-cash bail,” DeBolt said about the implementation of the SAFE-T Act which will end the cash bail system in Illinois on Jan. 1.
“It’s not entirely certain what is going to happen with no-cash bail. It’s something Gov. Pritzker and the state legislature put together that is coming Jan. 1. We are preparing for it but we are not sure what the outcome will be,” he said.
He said the county is also looking at providing sheriff’s deputies with squad cars that they can take home to improve emergency response.
“We are working on it to make it happen,” DeBolt said.
Gengler is a financial advisor. He was unanimously appointed in 2019 to serve the unexpired county board term of John Purcell, who was elected mayor of Yorkville. Gengler was elected to the board in 2020.
Economic growth and “operating under a fiscally-responsible budget” are his main priorities if re-elected to the county board, he said.
“We need the proper zoning and infrastructure in place for economic growth,” he said. “Route 47 is a main thoroughfare and we are working to get it widened north and south of Yorkville fairly soon. The bridge on Eldamain Road is nearing completion so we need to zone those corridors appropriately to encourage large businesses to locate in the county to create a greater tax base and alleviate taxes on property owners.”
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 specializes in information technology in the banking profession.
“Mental health services are close to my heart,” Rodriguez said.
“We need to be more mindful of mental health services and work with the public health department to create programming,” he said.
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Rodriguez said the county needs to equip law enforcement to help them handle mental health cases.
The county needs to continue to build the road infrastructure to encourage economic growth and lessen the property tax burden as well, he said.
Peterson, a real estate broker, has been a proponent of public safety, specifically in improving pedestrian crosswalks near schools.
As an alderman in Yorkville he has worked on a number of school safety issues in the city, Peterson said.
“We worked with the schools and parents to create safer school drop-off and pick-up procedures and orchestrated a new pedestrian crosswalk at Kennedy and Emerald in Yorkville and helped facilitate no parking areas to create a safer environment for children. Public safety is one of my passions and I would continue my passion to the county board if elected,” Peterson said.
Peterson said part of public safety is supporting and equipping law enforcement and first responders with mental health services.
“Police suicides are happening at an alarming rate,” Peterson said.
“It’s something we do not hear or talk about a lot. I have friends in the profession who are losing family members, colleagues and friends. We need to do what we can to help them mentally and physically and hopefully curtail the suicide rate. We can begin by having it as a topic of discussion,” Peterson said.
Wormley has been a Millbrook village trustee since 2019. He is a financial advisor and sixth-generation farmland owner. He did not respond to requests for an interview for this article.
Linda Girardi is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.