DeKalb city clerk not counting on running for second term

DeKALB – The current DeKalb city clerk is not eyeing another term in office come the April 6 consolidated election more than a year after the City Council passed an ordinance that amended the powers of the embattled office.

DeKalb City Clerk Lynn Fazekas confirmed Tuesday she did not file for candidacy this time around. She said she doesn’t anticipate running for another term as city clerk.

“I’m not going to 100% rule out a write-in campaign,” Fazekas said. “If something were to happen and there was no more candidate, I’d seriously consider it.”

Fazekas’s comments come after she confirmed only one candidate – Sasha Cohen, who previously ran for a DeKalb County Board seat and lost – filed for the seat by end of day Monday. Fazekas had said in October she was undecided about running for reelection.

Fazekas said she wanted to make sure DeKalb voters had a candidate to vote for before deciding not to run for the seat again. She said another part of her reasoning was she has been in a high risk COVID-19 related situation for most of the year, with a household member working for a nursing facility with a COVID-19 unit and actually getting infected.

Fazekas said she also was infected with COVID-19 and became symptomatic the day after Election Day. As a result, she had some symptoms for a few weeks that made it very hard to get through the day, let alone inhibiting her from getting campaign-related things done.

Fazekas said she had thought about helping out during the general election but ended up deciding against it, saying she was “thanking my lucky stars that [I] wasn’t an election judge on Election Day.”

The DeKalb City Council previously voted to pass an ordinance that eliminated the deputy clerk position and assigned those duties to the executive assistant to the city manager, a role held by Ruth Scott who formerly served as deputy clerk. The ordinance amendment also formalized the ability for both the clerk and executive assistant to use the City Seal.

Fazekas later filed a lawsuit asking a DeKalb County judge to declare the changes to the powers of her office to be unconstitutional.

The clerk’s office has been the topic of debate since June 2019, as city emails obtained by the Daily Chronicle revealed a growing rift between City Manager Bill Nicklas and Fazekas. Smith asked Fazekas to resign after a closed session meeting July 22, to which she refused.

Fazekas said the job has been difficult to manage with what she calls a toxic and abusive leadership. She said she believes there is not much she can do about what she calls the plight of the clerk from inside City Hall and that would be better managed with the lawsuit now heading to appellate court, which is the next level out of the circuit court.

“I don’t see any good reason to put up with that kind of work environment,” Fazekas said.

Cohen said he thinks the clerk is an important position that very few people take the time to really understand what they do for a city. He noted the role also has been a little controversial for some within the city of DeKalb.

“I thought it would be important to make sure somebody stood up and ran for the position,” Cohen said. “Because somebody has to do it.”

Cohen, who ran for a DeKalb County Board seat during the Nov. 3 election, said he got a good feel for what area constituents wanted from local government during his campaign for County Board office. Should he be elected to the city clerk’s seat, he said his main focus would be transparency at the city level because he thinks a lot of people feel that maybe the city isn’t as transparent as it could be.

“So I want to prioritize that,” Cohen said.

City mayoral races

Meanwhile, DeKalb First Ward Alderwoman Carolyn Morris and Cohen Barnes remain the only candidates that have filed for the city’s mayor seat, according to Fazekas. Ballot lotteries for the first ballot position for mayor and Second Ward Alderman is set for 5:15 p.m. Dec. 29, she said.

Other contested city of DeKalb races as of Monday include JJ Wett, Barb Larson and Wesley Hoadley for Second Ward Alderman, along with Matthew Keys and Greg Perkins for Fourth Ward Alderman, Fazekas said.

Sycamore City Clerk Mary Kalk confirmed Third Ward Alderman Steve Braser and local business owner Adam Benn are the only two city mayoral candidates that filed during the filing period that ended Monday. A lottery drawing for first ballot position for Second Ward Alderman candidates is set for 8:30 a.m. Dec. 29, according to the city clerk’s office.

Genoa City Clerk Kim Winker confirmed there are no additional candidates running for city mayor apart from Second Ward Alderman Dennis Di Guido and Fourth Ward Alderman Jonathon Brust.

It is unclear how many total candidates are running for Cortland mayor. Cortland town clerk officials were not available for comment upon request from Daily Chronicle.

However, former DeKalb County Chairman Mark Pietrowski Jr., who announced his intent to run for the Cortland mayor office in May, confirmed in a Dec. 14 social media post he officially filed for candidacy. He also wrote in a Monday social media post he was notified that he won the ballot placement lottery, meaning his name will appear first on the ballot for that race.

“There is such opportunity for this small town [the third largest town in Illinois], and I am excited to keep talking to residents and would be honored to serve as the next mayor if fortunate enough to be selected by the voters of Cortland,” Pietrowski wrote in the Dec. 14 post.