Republican primary candidates in Grafton Township assessor’s race differ in full-time, part-time views on position

Grafton Township’s candidates in the Feb. 23 Republican primary for the elected assessor’s office differ on whether the position each is running to win is truly a full-time gig.

The incumbent, Alan Zielinski, a Republican who first won election in 2013 and won again as a write-in candidate with no others on the ballot in 2017, said he thinks it is.

But his primary challenger, Terra de Baltz, said she would be keeping her job as a deputy assessor in Elgin Township if she won the contest for the Grafton Township assessor’s title. She would put in a part-time schedule for the elected position while relying on hired staff members to be present in the Grafton Township assessor’s office during standard daytime hours.

“I intend to be present as much as possible. I have no doubts the office will run smoothly full-time in my absence,” de Baltz said, adding that she would ensure she is available to residents at nights and on weekends, when her staff would be unavailable while occupying the office during weekdays.

The township assessor is tasked with valuing homes for property taxing purposes in Grafton Township, which includes Huntley and Lakewood.

The Grafton Township trustees ahead of Zielinski’s second term cut the pay of the township assessor from more than $70,000 with benefits to $30,000 with benefits, according to the incumbent, and raised it back up to $40,000 with no benefits for the upcoming term, the trustees, he argues, have made a false impression that the job can be done in a part-time fashion.

Grafton Township trustees cut the pay of the township assessor from more than $70,000 with benefits to $30,000 with benefits ahead of Zielinski’s second term, according to the incumbent, and then raised it back up to $40,000 with no benefits for the upcoming term.

The move, Zielinkski argued, gave the false impression that the job can be done in a part-time fashion.

“I can’t speak for why the board did that. It’s with the intentions it would be a full-time office, run by a part-time assessor. How Al treats that on a day-to-day basis is on him. He can claim to be there full-time but I’ve heard otherwise,” de Baltz said.

She alluded to issues at least a small number of residents and some township trustees have taken with Zielinski’s handling of resident concerns and requests for data, as well as his creation of new market areas for comparing trends in home values within the township, spats that resulted in a lawsuit that cost the township about $25,000.

Zielinski also came under fire for attempting to work two different assessor jobs starting in 2017. Zielinski resigned from Boone County Jan. 5, 2018, as part of a separation agreement.

Similar moves to cut the pay of elected officials in the McHenry Township by nearly half were made last year by a faction of township trustees that has also sought to consolidate and even abolish the government unit.

“If I was going to look at the tea leaves, and I’m a numbers guy, not a politician, but I see the numbers and there seems to be a desire to have the county do everything,” Zielinski said, adding he thinks state law intends for township assessors to work as full-time elected officials. “I don’t think it should be done behind the curtains by the township trustees to damage that intent, to say we’re just going to keep cutting the budget until no one wants to run.”

Having assessors handle setting values for property taxing at the township level provides a way to have someone with more recognition of hyper-local market movements at the helm than could be offered by a countywide system, he said.

“Quite honestly, when you’re dealing with 22,000 parcels and $1.8 billion in equalized assessed value, the taxpayers deserve someone who understands the intricacies and complexities of the neighborhoods,” Zielinski said.

De Baltz agreed with Zielinski that keeping the system of township assessors in place is smarter than moving toward a model that would centralize a countywide assessing system.

“I am not in favor of consolidation, especially with the assessor’s office. I think the roles and duties of the assessor’s office are imperative to what is happening at the local level. They’re the ones examining the market trends. They can provide fair and accurate assessments on a daily basis. I think that’s imperative to establishing that fair and equitable process,” De Baltz said.

The incumbent questioned how de Baltz, who also ran in the 2013 election for Grafton Township assessor and lost, could do the hiring she claims she would to fill the assessor’s office, considering Zielinski has struggled to attract qualified applicants recently.

“I don’t think I am in any way inferior in the ability of providing a helpful staff than Al is,” de Baltz said.

Grafton Township trustees cut the assessor’s office budget from about $491,000 when Zielinski first took office to around $344,000 now, according to the township budget documents. Zielinski attributes a loss in assessor’s office staff to the cuts.

He now has only two deputies, Hugo Roldan and James E. Burke, both of whom might soon have reason to leave Grafton Township employment as they are respectively running unopposed in the April election for assessor jobs in Dunham and Marengo townships.

“I’ve been trying to hire people for 18 months now with no success. With the pandemic, the salaries the board has set, with their desire to stop compensating people for continuing education, no one wants to come to Grafton,” Zielinski said.

The assessor’s race is Grafton Township’s only competitive contest in the Feb. 23 Republican primary. The McHenry County Clerk’s Office lists information and locations for early voting online at bit.ly/3pe1Jl0. The winners of the GOP’s primary races will be put onto April 6 general election ballots, which will determine victors in municipal, school board and special taxing district elections, as well.