Experience versus fresh perspective

MORRISON – Six candidates – four incumbent Democrats and two Republican challengers – are vying for four seats in the traditionally Democratic Whiteside County Board District 2.

Eight of the district's nine seats are held by Democrats. It encompasses Coloma, Montmorency, Hume, Hahnaman, Tampico, Lyndon and Hopkins townships in the southeastern portion of the county.

Some terms are 4 years, others are 2; lots will be drawn after the election to determine who gets which terms.

Here are the candidates:

Fidencio Campos Jr.

Party: Democrat

Age: 63

Residence: Rock Falls

Occupation: Steelworker with Northwestern Steel and Wire Co., now Sterling Steel.

Campos was appointed to the board in March 2015; this is his first run for the office.

He is treasurer of the Whiteside County Community Health Clinic Governing Council, and is a member of the county board's Highway and Public Works Committee, which oversees the care and maintenance of roads and bridges, the Prairie Hill Landfill, and the Whiteside County Airport.

He is a member of the board of NCI Works, which works with businesses, educators, nonprofits and individuals in eight counties to coordinate resources, provide leadership, and create a workforce development system that enables workers to work and businesses to compete. He also sits on NCI's Targeted Populations Committee, which helps felons, veterans and people with disabilities find jobs.

He is a founding member of Rock River Open Forum, a group that serves as a conduit for civic activism in the community.

He is a native of the Sterling-Rock Falls area, graduated from Sterling High School and also attended Sauk Valley Community College.

A steelworker since he was 19, Campos also is recording secretary of United Steel Workers Local 63.

While he has worn many hats – steelworker, musician (guitar, sax, and voice), online entrepreneur, martial arts teacher and kickboxer – politics is something he has come to relatively lately, but with great enthusiasm.

"I am running for the county board because this area is my home. I want to help make life better for the people I love in this great county that has sustained my family and me," Campos said.

"One of my favorite quotes is 'We all do better when we all do better.' I’ve learned from experience that democracy isn’t a spectator sport. If you want government to work, you have to be involved."

Name: John Espinoza

Party: Democrat

Age: 73

Residence: Rock Falls

Occupation: Retired Northwestern Steel and Wire Co. worker, 1965-2000.

Espinoza, a 1961 Sterling High grad, is a lifelong Whiteside County resident, as well as a Marine Corps veteran. He served 3 years, attaining the rank of corporal.

He first was elected to the board in 2006, and is seeking his third term.

He sits on the Whiteside County Community Health Clinic and Senior Center boards, and is a member of the county's Offices Committee, which oversees the county clerk, assessor and recorder and the Regional Office of Education.

As a former member of its Public Works Committee, Espinoza represented the board at Planning and Zoning and Airport committee meetings. He's also a former member of the Whiteside County Public Transportation board.

He also is a Rock Falls Police and Fire Department commissioner.

In 2015, he served on Lt. Gov. Evelyn Sanguinetti’s bipartisan Local Government and Unfunded Mandates Task Force. Its purpose was to prevent the wasting of tax dollars and to reduce the unfunded mandates asked of local governments by the state.

He is a charter and current member of Whiteside County Honor Flight, and a former member of the American Red Cross and Latin American Social Club boards. He also volunteers his time with and donates to the new Soldier's Lounge in Sterling, and is a member of the Rock Falls American Legion.

Espinoza is a voracious reader, and children and education always have been a big part of his volunteer efforts. He is a former board member and current volunteer for Twin Cities Scholarships, an organization he's been with since 1988. He was a “Book Buddies” volunteer reading tutor at Dillon Elementary School, and has coached tee-ball and Little League. He also hopes one day to carve out enough time to volunteer for Project Vital, a Sauk Valley Community College literacy program for adults.

He's also the social officer for the Sterling Chapter 30 of Royal Neighbors of America and a member of the Association of Clubs in Sterling-Rock Falls.

He, too, cites the state budget as Whiteside's biggest challenge – "but there's not anything much we can do about that at our level." He notes the efforts board members make to hold the line on costs, and to finds savings where they can. As an example, he noted that the county and two of its neighbors came to an agreement to share GIS services, lowering the costs for all three governments.

He's also proud of the board's work with other counties on economic development issues. Whiteside and Carroll are in the process of hammering out such an agreement, he said.

In fact, Espinoza can sum up his leadership philosophy in one word: collaboration. He has no stomach for bipartisan bickering – which is notably, and thankfully, absent on from the county board, he said.

His first stint on the board was to fill the last 2 months of a departing member's term, but when the late board Chairman Tony Arduini asked him to fill in, "I really had mixed feelings." The political climate was much like today, with Dems and Republicans fighting like cats and dogs.

"I didn't really want to get into that, but our Whiteside County Board is not like that at all, and after those 2 months, I was ready to run."

That cooperative atmosphere remains to this day, he said. "After all is said and done, it's all Whiteside County business. We talk to people about what they need, and then we try to get it for them.

"Not to say we don't argue – we all argue and discuss, but not along political lines. We've got good people, Republicans and Democrats, and they all really care about Whiteside County."

Eugene 'Gene' Jacoby

Party: Democrat

Age: 67

Residence: Rock Falls

Occupation: Retired, after 8 years with Illinois Tollway; 27 years at Northwestern Steel and Wire before that.

Jacoby, a lifelong Whiteside County resident, first was elected to the board in 1998.

He is vice chairman and a past chairman of the Health and Social Services Committee, which oversees the Health Department, the Veterans Assistance Commission, the University of Illinois Extension, the 708 Mental Health Board, on which he sits, and the Senior Center Board, and also is on the CGH Ambulance Committee.

He also was a Coloma Township Board member for 38 years, and is a former member of the Whiteside County Board of Health.

He is a member of the Whiteside County Honor Flight committee, and also of the Rock Falls Sesquicentennial Committee.

He has served Whiteside County Relay for Life for 15 years, 5 as a board member. He also is a board member of Rock River Ducks Unlimited, the Rock Falls Optimist Club and the Sterling Moose Lodge, and is a member of the Rock Falls American Legion, the VFW, the Latin American Social Club and the Sterling-Rock Falls Historical Society.

All that experience makes him uniquely qualified to continue to serve on the county board, said Jacoby, a Sterling High School graduate who also attended Sauk Valley Community College and Northern Illinois University.

"I have been a caring voice for Whiteside County for 18 years," he said. "I pride myself on the fact that I always try to work with our department heads, and with the citizens."

Jacoby is a firm believer in open doors and in open lines of communication – "it's the most important things in all areas of government" – and he makes sure his phone number is posted on the county website and available in the phone book.

"People can always call me with their concerns. I'm a very visible person. I think that all elected officials should have a telephone number where people can get a hold of them."

He, too, sees the state's financial situation as one of Whiteside's biggest hurdles – 43 percent of the county's funding come from the state, Jacoby said, and trying to keep the local budget balanced is challenging.

Although it's too soon to release specifics, he said, there is good news on the economic development front – "some very exciting things" are coming the board's way, he said, especially along Interstate 88 – and the board will continue to work with county Economic Development Director Gary Camarano and other neighboring counties to bring those projects to fruition, he said.

Cooperation, like communication, is paramount, Jacoby said.

"We all need to work together. We need to think out of the box, all of our counties, to make things happen. If we're going to survive, we need to all work together."

Karen M. Nelson

Party: Democrat

Age: 76

Residence: Rock Falls

Occupation: Retired, after 20 years as supervisor for the state's Job Service and Unemployment office and 5 years with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources.

Nelson, a Rock Falls resident for nearly 70 years, first was elected to the County Board in 2000. She has served on the board's Judicial and Financial committees, and is chairwoman of its Health and Social Services committee.

She is on the Whiteside County Board of Health and the community clinic's Federally Qualified Health Clinic Council. She is a past member of the Whiteside County Transportation Board.

She is chairwoman of the local American Red Cross Disaster Assistance Team, which responds to local disasters and fire calls, and, at 76, still is an active Red Cross volunteer. She has responded to several major national disasters, including Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana and Hurricane Isaac in Mississippi, and three others this year alone, including helping out in flood-ravaged Baton Rouge.

The Tampico High School graduate, who has an associate degree from Sauk Valley Community College, also is a Red Cross board member, and a past chairwoman.

As chairwoman of the Health and Social Services Committee – which oversees the Health Department, the Veterans Assistance Commission, University of Illinois Extension, the 708 Mental Health Board and the Senior Citizens Board – the effects of the state funding crisis weigh heavily Nelson's mind.

"The state needs a budget. That's probably our biggest question mark, are we going to have a budget?"

Local levies help support area social services, and the county has money in its reserves, but without a reliable source of state revenue, "you're going by the seat of your pants," she said.

She credits county Administrator Joel Horn's budgeting skills with helping the county maintain social services funding, so far without any cuts – and none anticipated – but "if something doesn't happen soon after the election," she said, tough decisions may have to be made. And she's prepared to make them.

Linda S. Pennell

Age: 67

Party: Republican

Residence: Rock Falls

Occupation: Educator, licensed paraprofessional assistant, at the ROE Safe School Thome and Sterling schools. Before that, she was a manager for Seattle Sutton's Healthy Eating for 12 years.

Pennell is tenacious in her desire to serve.

Then Linda Marley, she was a Sterling alderwoman-at-large for 4 years, from 2009 to 2013, before stepping down to marry and move to Rock Falls.

This is her second run for District 2: Her first was in November 2014. It was followed by an unsuccessful run for Rock Falls City Council in April 2015.

"I knew that when I moved to Rock Falls, I was going to find a way to get involved in politics again," she said in a campaign letter to Sauk Valley Media for the April election. "It is in my blood; what can I say?"

To that end, Pennell also is a Precinct 5 committeewoman; an active member of the Whiteside County Republican Party; and is working hard to help Savanna Mayor Tony McCombie defeat Democratic state Rep. Mike Smiddy in the 71st District race.

She's a member of the Rock Falls Chamber of Commerce board, working on Summer Splash, Hometown Holidays and other chamber events, and has been chosen its Ambassador of the Year three times.

She's almost as passionate about her chamber work, in fact, as she is about her political aspirations. "I try to be really, really involved with everything the Rock Falls Chamber of Commerce does," she said.

She's also a former member of the American Red Cross and was involved with REACT, which was kind of a neighborhood watch group.

The 1967 Rock Falls High graduate has an associate degree from Kaplan University, and is near to completing her work on a bachelor's in government and public policy, her true calling.

She has a lot of respect for the current administration – "I know that the county board is doing really good with their money and with everything that they do," she said – but it needs "fresh ideas and new blood."

If elected, she'd like to help work on legislative issues that affect the county, and in any capacity in which she can help fight what she sees as an epidemic in suicides.

That desire may stem in part from the hard times she has endured in her lifetime. Pennell speaks openly of her alcoholism – she hasn't had a drink in nearly 4 decades – and of her faith, in God and her fellow man.

"I believe strongly in integrity. Even if you struggle with certain issues, you can always make a 180-degree change, which I did."

Name: John Petry

Age: 56

Party: Republican

Residence: Morrison

Occupation: AT&T technician for 20 years

Petry, appointed Hopkins Township trustee about 2 years ago, is an independent thinker with few ties to area groups and organizations – which means he's beholden to none of them, he said.

He grew up in Lisle, in an area more rural than it is today, and his job as a technician for AT&T brought him to the area from Addison – he's been living in Morrison since 1999. He also served in the Marine Corps 10 years, attaining the rank of sergeant.

He'd like to see less secrecy and more openness in the economic development process from the beginning – people deserve to know what's happening in their communities before decisions are finalized, Petry said, giving a for-example.

"The Wahl Double G ranch has been bulldozed. Does that mean a truck stop is coming? A strip club? Why? Why not?"

He's also not pleased with the spread of TIF districts, which supposedly are created to spur growth, but often give tax incentives to not-so-deserving businesses that simply move from, say, the downtown to a TIF, to take advantage of those breaks. That kind of nongrowth actually is harmful, he said.

"I've seen small towns decimated by well-meaning politicians," all in the name of progress, Petry said.

He's also not a union man.

"I pay union dues, but I'm not in the union, because I object to the way they spend their money. I support state workers, but I don't support state unions."

He is concerned about the number of board members who simply are entrenched, stuck in their ways for years, decades, and also has no patience for people who complain about how they are governed, but don't step up and do something.

"I see so much of the old-boy network, it makes me sick," he said, adding that his would be a fresh perspective and "definitely a new voice."

Petry might not have many affiliations, but he doesn't need that kind of experience to be an engaged, effective county board member, he said.

"I live here, I work here. It's the friends I work with, the people I associate with, the shops I shop in."