Homer Glen board candidates lose appeal to get back on ballot

Homer Glen — A Will County judge struck down the appeal of eight aspiring candidates for the Homer Glen Village Board on Jan. 8, preventing them from appearing on the ballot in the April 1 election.

The group of candidates were removed by the Homer Glen Electoral Board in December for flaws in their candidacy forms.

According to Michael Carroll, the attorney for the village of Homer Glen and the village’s electoral board, Homer Glen resident Craig Carlson, originally challenged 14 of the 17 candidates running for the board, while another candidate was challenged by another party.

Seven of the 15 challenges were dropped or failed in the early stages of the four-day electoral board hearings, according to Carroll, but eight individuals, all challenged by Carlson, were found ineligible.

“He [Carlson] is not a candidate, but he was of the opinion that some of these people were running just to force a primary and that it was an abuse of the system,” said Carroll.

“If the village hadn’t removed them the county or state would have. The school boards also could have done it had someone filed an objection.”

—  Michael Carroll, the attorney for the village of Homer Glen

Candidates sought both school, village seats

Four individuals who filed paperwork to run for the Village Board were removed because they also filed paperwork to run for local school boards, which is a conflict of interest and not permitted under Illinois law.

“From time to time the office of the Illinois Attorney General will release opinions on election law issues. Two have been issued on this subject saying a village board or city council position is incompatible with a school board office,” said Carroll. “Anyone who has followed election law for any time should know the offices are incompatible.”

Carroll noted that it is not illegal to seek placement for both offices, however, a candidate must pick one or the other to run for and withdraw from the other before a set deadline. The deadline this year was Nov. 25, 2024, and all four candidates missed it.

“If the village hadn’t removed them the county or state would have,” Carroll said. “The school boards also could have done it had someone filed an objection.”

The four candidates removed for running for conflicting offices were Theresa “Tammy” Hayes, James Roti, Jennifer Trzos-Consolino, and John Walters.

Hayes and Roti have both filed paperwork to run for the Lockport Township High School District 205 Board of Education, while Trzos-Consolino filed to run for Homer Elementary District 33C and Walters filed to run for Will County Elementary District 92.

Hayes previously run for a seat on the Will County School District 92 Board of Eduction and lost, while Roti mounted an unsuccessful campaign for a vacant Homer Glen trustee seat in 2023.

The Herald-News reached out to both Hayes and Roti for comment but did not receive a response from either candidate.

Since they have been removed from the Village Board ballot, there have been no objections to any of the candidates' remaining on the school board ballots.

Hayes and Roti will be joining 12 other candidates in the race for School District 205’s six open board seats.

Residence, nickname objections

In addition to the four candidates removed for running for more than one office, the electoral board removed two candidates, Cesar Marin and Ethan Fialko for not meeting residency requirements.

“One of the candidates, it became clear he lived in Orland Park,” said Carroll. “He lived in Homer at one point, but not currently. The other was using a UPS store where he has a mailbox as his home address.”

Heidi “Hadley” Pacella was removed for using the “improper nickname” Hadley on her nominating papers which is allegedly linked to her position on a construction project on Hadley Road.

Carroll explained that using a nickname that is a recognized short form of a person’s given name or something they are known to go by – such as Hayes being listed as Theresa ‘Tammy’ Hayes on the ballot – is appropriate, however it cannot be a title like ‘reverend’ or ‘coach’ and cannot be tied to a political issue.

“The Hadley Road project was subject of several fairly contentious fights at the village, township, and county level,” Carroll said. “It would be like if I tried to run as Michael ‘taxes are too damn high’ Carroll. Election rules say you can’t do that.”

Finally, Daniel Gutierrez was removed after certain signatures on his petitions were stricken, leaving him with an inadequate number. He also did not attend the hearings.

Several of the candidates had signatures on their petitions from people who had signed more than the allowed number of forms. Each resident is only allowed to sign for as many candidates as there are open seats. In the Homer Village Board races, that number is three, and several signatures had to be removed from petitions because they appeared on four or more.

The candidates attempted to appeal their removals, citing improper due process and conflicts of interest on the part of the electoral board members, however, Judge Ben Braun reportedly dismissed the appeal because the paperwork had not been filed properly.

According to Carroll, the removed candidates failed to list the village electoral board or Carlson as objectors on the filing and Carlson also was not properly notified of the appeal.

“There were a bunch of things they wanted to challenge, but the fatal errors in the filings jumped off the page at me,” said Carroll.

Carroll noted that the Will County State’s Attorney’s office joined in his motion to dismiss the appeal because the candidates were also asking that ballot printing be paused during the process.

Who’s on the electoral board

While Carroll said it is unclear how the candidates found to have residency and conflicting office issues intended to argue they should not have been removed, the conflict of interest complaints stemmed from the members of the electoral board.

One of those members is Mayor Christina Neitzke-Troike, who has supported other incumbent members of the board.

The board was made up of three members, Neitzke-Troike, Village Clerk Candace Bielski, and Village Trustee Sue Steilen.

According to Carroll, Steilen was added as a substitute for senior Trustee Dan Fialko, who recused himself from the proceedings since his son Ethan was one of the challenged-– and ultimately removed – candidates.

When asked about the candidates’ appeal being dismissed, Carroll said “the electoral board took very seriously the potential of disenfranchising voters who signed petitions supporting certain candidates, but believes it is more important to follow election law, and the law is very clear on these issues.”

With the eight candidates removed from the ballot, only nine candidates remain for the three open Village Board seats in Homer Glen: John Hayes, Kevin Koukol, Michael LePore, Nicholas Muller, Richard Modelski, Katie Surges, Kyles surges, former trustee Ruben Pazmino, and the race’s only incumbent Rose Reynders.

The reduced number of candidates eliminates the need for a primary and all the candidates will advance to the consolidated election on April 1.