Kendall County Board members get term lengths based on election vote totals; lawsuit still pending

YORKVILLE – Voters determined not only who will represent them on the Kendall County Board in the Nov. 8 election, but how long their terms of office will last.

Every 10 years, the entire county board is up for election to allow for redistricting after the decennial Census.

Terms of office are staggered so that half the board seats are up for election every two years.

This time, board members Brian DeBolt of Plano, Elizabeth Flowers of Montgomery, Scott Gengler of Yorkville, Ruben Rodriguez of Yorkville and Dan Koukol of Oswego are receiving four-year terms to start.

The other five board members, four of them new, will start off with two-year terms of office. They include Jason Peterson of Yorkville, Brooke Shanely of Aurora, Seth Wormley of Millbrook, Matt Kellogg of Yorkville and Zach Bachmann of Montgomery.

Kellogg, the only veteran board member among that second group, was elected county board chairman at its reorganizational meeting on Dec. 5.

DeBolt, the top vote-getter overall in the general election, was named president of the Kendall County Forest Preserve District.

The county has in the past used a lottery system in which the county clerk draws numbered pingpong balls to determine which five board members will start with a four-year-term and who will be up for reelection in just two years.

Evenly distributed population growth meant that no reapportionment was needed for the two county board districts from which voters elect five members each.

However, the board decided ahead of the election to change the way in which the staggered terms of office are determined.

Under the new system, the top five vote-getters start with a term of four years. If that person runs and is reelected, he or she would serve another four years, followed by a two-year term ahead of the next Census.

The other five board members will start with a two-year term, followed by two four-year terms, assuming that person is reelected.

The new system has been the subject of a legal challenge that was initiated well before the election.

Todd Milliron of Yorkville filed the lawsuit in Kendall County Circuit Court on Sept. 19, charging that the system violates state elections law.

Milliron was running for a county board seat under the independent Kendall County Party label but was not elected.

Board members say their vote-total system is better and fairer than selections made by chance, but in his lawsuit, contends that a random selection is exactly what is required under state statute.

Kendall County State’s Attorney Eric Weis said the next scheduled hearing on the lawsuit is Dec. 9.