Second candidate booted from Fox River Fire District’s April 1 ballot

For the second time in a month, the Fox River and Countryside Fire Rescue District election officials bumped a candidate from the April 1 consolidated election ballot.

The district’s Station No. 1 is in St. Charles Township.

John Boveri of Campton Hills was notified last month that he would not be certified to appear on the ballot, and now incumbent Pamela Turrett will also not be certified.

Turrett did not fasten her nominating papers securely, nor number the pages, as required by the Illinois Election Code, according to a Jan. 2 letter from the fire district’s attorney John Motylinski.

According to the district’s minutes, the board appointed St. Charles Township resident Turrett Dec. 11, 2023 to fill a vacancy left by Wayne attorney Kenneth Shepro.

Turrett did not respond to a voicemail or email seeking comment.

Fire Chief Michael Hill did not respond to a voicemail message seeking comment about Turrett. But when asked previously about Bovari’s removal, he referred all questions to the attorney.

Motylinski said he could not comment about Turrett or Boveri.

Boveri was notified of his removal from the ballot in a Dec. 9 letter from Motylinski.

In both letters, Motylinski cites state law and case law that requires fastening nominating papers securely and numbering them.

The state’s election code also requires local election officials to serve as “a gatekeeper” to turn away nominating papers that do not conform to the law.

Motylinski said he could not comment about why Turrett’s removal happened nearly a month after Boveri’s.

Boveri said he was consulting an attorney.

The fire district’s local election officials – Hill, Deputy Chief James Niesel and Administrative Coordinator Tracy Dunklau – have until Jan. 23 to certify candidates for the consolidated election.

With four hopefuls reduced to two, it appears that James Gaffney of St. Charles Township and Thomas Kennedy of Wayne will be elected to fill two seats that are up – Turriff’s and John Karr who is not seeking re-election.

Turriff’s was a four-year term and Karr’s was six years.

According to their nominating papers, Kennedy is seeking the four-year term and Gaffney the six-year term.

Gaffney is a former fire district trustee and board president.

The fire district, which was established in 2011, serves more than 25,000 residents over 38 square miles in Kane and DuPage counties, Its primary response areas are in unincorporated St. Charles and Campton townships and the incorporated villages of Campton Hills and Wayne.