:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/shawmedia/FGCAU3HNGNEGJN6TU45SH33VZI.jpg)
McHenry County Board District 4 includes parts of Crystal Lake, Cary, Bull Valley, Woodstock, McHenry and Prairie Grove. Mike “Shorty” Shorten is the incumbent.
Full Name: Mike “Shorty” Shorten
What office are you seeking, including district where applicable? I am seeking re-election to the McHenry County Board in District 4.
Political party? Republican
Age: 52
Occupation and Employer: National Account Manager with 20+ years’ experience managing large scale vendor partnerships.
What elected offices, if any, have you previously held?
McHenry County Board, District 4 (Current)
Nunda Township Trustee
Campaign Website: mikeshorten.org
Town where you live: Crystal Lake
Education: 2 years collegiate education focused in business courses.
Community Involvement:
Served on several non-profit boards
Former youth Soccer Coach
Former Chairman and President of KIC Leukemia
Marital Status/Immediate Family:
Married for 29 years to my wife Cheryl and proud father to three adult daughters (Tessa, Jillian and Delanie).
In under 100 words, please share anything else about your professional or personal background that you want voters to know.
I’ve lived in McHenry County for 23 years, coached youth soccer, volunteered on church and local non-profit boards, and have built a reputation in the county of being a fair individual who is eager to work with individuals, regardless of political affiliation, gender, sexual orientation, race creed or color towards common goals.
My professional career has been by my ability to connect with people on a personal level, understand their needs and work to help deliver the results that they desire. I’m very focused on process and financial accountability, which has been a valuable skill as an elected official.
Why are you running for office?
I am exceedingly proud of the record that the McHenry County Republicans have leading the McHenry County government. McHenry County government has zero debt, we’ve held the line on taxes for more than a decade and we are by far the safest county in the state of Illinois.
We have seen the other collar counties fall under Democrat control and one by one we have seen fiscal responsibility decline, debt increase, crime increase and their residents continue to escape to McHenry County.
I’m running because I want to make sure that McHenry County remains a great place to live stay and play. We need to have effective and cost-efficient government programs that deliver the results that our residents expect, and I believe I am best suited to continue to deliver the results that have made McHenry County one of the most desired states in the county.
What would you identify as the top three issues currently facing the county board and how would you address them?
- Fiscal Challenges- While McHenry County has been historically incredibly fiscally responsible, the board over the past two years has elected to pass along an increase in the tax levy to our residents. I was not a member of the board when the 2023 levy increase was passed and I voted against the levy increase in for the 2024 budget. While costs have increased due to skyrocketing inflation and the need to shore up our employee wages and benefits to drive retention and recruiting, I voted against the increased levy in 2024 for the 2024 budget. My decision was driven by the fact that, while we had significant headwinds affecting spending, we also had some strong tailwinds. As a result of successful investments from treasurer Donna Kurtz, a new jail contract with the Lake County sheriff courtesy of McHenry County Sheriff Robb Tadelman and increased revenue from cannabis sales tax, I was confidant that we could have sustained the proposed budget without taking the 2% that was passed.
- Crime- McHenry County is one of the safest in the State of Illinois and certainly the safest of all of the collar counties by far. The reason that we are the safest is because I believe we have the most qualified law enforcement in our Sheriff’s department and municipal police departments across the county. I am proud to continue the tradition of the Republican Majority on the County Board to invest in programs to provide avenues that enable individuals who may be heading or on a bad road, opportunities to redirect via the vast amount of services that we support on a county level. Some of these programs include the Mental Health Board, the State’s Attorneys First Offenders program, the Sheriff’s Police Social Worker Program and the specialty courts sponsored by the circuit court. Give my opponents insinuations on x.com that a majority of police officers are racists, the residents of McHenry County should expect that he will continue the record of the McHenry County Democrats and defund the police and prioritize the rights of criminals over our own citizens.
- State Mandates- On a lot of different levels, many of the challenges that face the board on a monthly and annual basis are state mandates that are imposed on McHenry County, driving up cost and increasing unnecessary red tape.
The so called Safe-T Act has not improved safety and in fact has driven up costs for the county and all of the municipalities, even to the extend that some can no longer afford their own police departments. The impact to the county to comply was over $3MM annually.
Additionally, “activists” from outside of our county, in collaboration with the local Democrats on the board, tried to have the County’s contract with the DHS Immigration and Customs Enforcement department to hold immigrants that had entered the country illegally and were in the process of being removed from the country for serious crimes including sexual assault, murder and even treason. After the Board refused to cancel the agreement, local Democrats went to Springfield and had their Cook County counterparts pass a law making the housing of these detainees illegal. That state mandate cost the county nearly twenty million dollars and only trafficked these detainees to other detention centers out of state As the Vice-Chair on law and government I have been working with the Chairwoman to connect and lobby state lawmakers to consider the local impact that statewide mandates, increasing costs and imposing regulation that increases red tape for our citizens and I will continue to do so if I am re-elected.
If you’re an incumbent, how are you planning to vote on the upcoming budget and tax levy? Aside from the cut in the levy related to the mental health board, do you support additional cuts, or would you support holding the line on any increase? Would you support taxing the maximum allowed under the tax cap and of new EAV growth? If you’re a challenger, how would you approach this issue?
I will be supporting a flat levy, subtracting the full impact of the Mental Health Board levy and adding new growth into the equation.
I am of the solid opinion that an increase is not necessary given the increases in revenue from the Sheriff’s Lake County agreement, ongoing returns from investment income generated by the treasurer’s office and the fact that we are projected to have $4.6MM in excess reserve funding after the 2025 fiscal year.
At this time, I cannot support additional cuts, however if the economy continues to stabilize, I will be pushing for a broader review of the budget and looking for opportunities to cut in next year’s budget, provided those cuts will not negatively impact service levels or the safety of our residents or staff.
Why shouldn’t voters choose your opponent?
My opponent has no experience in government at any level that is discernible, has taken no positions that I’m aware of, nor has he bothered to run a campaign.
In today’s political environment, it is beyond important for our elected official set the example of behaving, in a way that is respectful of others. We need to be able to listen to each other and disagree in a way that is respectful and avails us the opportunity to work together tomorrow even if we cannot agree today.
I have a record supporting effective and efficient governance both during my first term on the County Board and as a trustee in Nunda Township. I am available and accept calls from all constituents and can have a respectful conversation, regardless of political affiliation and work collaboratively with board members and other public officials from the other side of the aisle to identify and pursue policy for the betterment of our society. My opponents x.com feed (@Coach215), is filled with explicative laden tirades against people that he disagrees with. It is clear that he lacks the demeanor and ability to interact with others with who do not share his point of view and that degradation, labeling and division are the tools that he chooses to use when operating in public forums. One of the most troubling items in his feed was a retweet, taken in context of what he appears to believe, implies that most police officers are racists. The type of behavior that Mr, Meyers continues to exhibit online, is indicative of the behavior that the people of District 4 can expect from him as a board member. It is clear to me, after talking to friends neighbors and constituents across McHenry County that nobody wants elected officials who are only serving to pour fire onto and already tense political environment.
Should the Metra, CTA and Pace boards be consolidated into one regional public transportation agency? Why or why not?
Absolutely not! - Chicago and Cook County already have too much authority over the three separate agencies. The proposal to combine them is based on bailing out the Chicago Transit Authority which holds most of the debt that is causing the “Fiscal Cliff”. The consolidation scenario has been floated out of Springfield would greatly diminish McHenry county’s voice and our residents would likely end up paying to bail out another one of Chicago’s failures.
What are the county’s biggest infrastructure needs and what is your plan for funding them?
One of my biggest concerns has to do with the bridges in the more rural parts of the county that are in desperate need of repair. As vice chair of the law and government committee I will work with my colleagues in the transportation department to the lobby federal and state government for funding to help rebuild the necessary infrastructure to make sure that our important agricultural community is brought up to standards and are able to navigate roads in our more rural areas.
How do you propose to regulate the use of solar farms in the county? Do you support the expansion of solar farms in unincorporated areas?
Springfield has implemented a mandate that effectively took away the ability of the county to regulate zoning and placement of solar farms in McHenry County.
Solar and wind energy, despite having its cheerleaders, is woefully inefficient and the mandate from Springfield could turn McHenry County into a battery for Cook County, converting hundreds of miles of green space to solar farms that the County will ultimately have to pay to dismantle.
The county board recently convened a working group on workforce housing whose report found a need for more workforce housing in the county. Do you support the expansion of sub-market workforce housing and should the county be involved in investing in such projects?
The conclusion of the Workforce Housing group, which I supported, is that public perception needs to be addressed and that a menagerie of state and federal ‘lasagna financing’ exists that increases cost and extends the time it takes for Workforce Housing to be built.
I favor lobbying our state and federal officials to review the processes and remove the obstacles to financing for private builders to move forward with Workforce Projects. The federal and state government should do a full bore review of building codes to remove requirements that do serve any real purpose and increase the cost of home construction across the board.
Should the county board limit its votes to “germane” topics as was proposed recently? And should the board be in the business of passing resolutions or flying flags to recognize certain groups or movements?
Given that the most contentious issues that the board has faced during my tenure have to do with non-board related activities, I prefer that proclamations to be limited to honoring the achievements of our residents and particularly our youth.
Based on my experience when we pass resolutions that recognize certain groups or movements, there is very little knowledge of those recognitions among citizens, nor do most of the people that reside in the county look to the county board as their moral compass.
Should the county allow marijuana dispensaries or cultivation centers to operate in unincorporated areas?
As long as it is legal in Illinois, and the municipalities continue to approve them, I see no logic in denying requested permits. I do hope that our state legislators review the impact that the legalization of marijuana has had on our state. While I’m not necessarily opposed to it, I’m also not 100% sure that long term or regular marijuana usage has positive benefits for individuals or society as a whole.
Have you ever been convicted of a felony? No.
In your capacity as a private citizen, have you or any business entity in which you have a ownership stake receive a federal PPP loan? If so, what was the amount and is it repaid, forgiven or still outstanding? No.
Will you honor the results of the November election, including the presidential race? Absolutely.