Two McHenry County Electoral Board members voluntarily step down as Colatorti hearing continues
MCHENRY COUNTY—As previously reported in My Huntley News, members of the Electoral Board and all other parties involved in the objection proceedings against McHenry County Sheriff candidate Antonio “Tony” Colatorti, agreed to reconvene on April 1, in hopes of resolving a motion that was submitted by the objectors to disqualify all three current members of the board.
At the start of the meeting, McHenry County Clerk Joe Tirio announced that in order to expedite the proceedings, he would be voluntarily removing himself from serving on the board.
Likewise, McHenry County Circuit Court Clerk Manager Debra Schmitt, the authorized designee for Circuit Court Clerk Katherine Keefe, followed Tirio’s lead and also recused herself from the board.
Just when Tirio was about to move the discussion forward to the next steps of Colatorti’s objection hearing, Dan Bolin, one of the attorneys for the objectors against Colatorti, reminded the board that the motion for disqualification was for all three of the board members, including McHenry County State’s Attorney Patrick Kenneally and his current designee on the board, Lisle Stalter.
“The disqualified state’s attorney shouldn’t be appointing designees or be involved with this process whatsoever. I don’t have a problem with the person that was designated personally, but Section 10-9 of the Election Code provides a procedure to replace disqualified members to fill their vacancies with public members,” stated Bolin at the hearing. “If you (Stalter) were an appointed public member, that’s one thing and what the statute provides, but a disqualified state’s attorney shouldn’t be able to hand-select their designee, their own hand-selected replacement, to serve on the board.”
Stalter countered Bolin’s statement by explaining that upon further review of the submitted motion to disqualify, she didn’t see any basis in the Illinois Election Code to disqualify Kenneally from the Electoral Board, while also citing other court cases involving similar circumstances, as examples.
“Because of how the cases have come out with respect to the issue and there are actually also cases that talk about the fact that an electoral board member’s political affiliation does not require disqualification. In the Ryan v. Landek case which is 159 Ill. App. 3d 10, even circulating petitions on behalf of a candidate is not enough to require removal of an electoral board,” said Stalter. “In the Muldrow v. Barron case, [it] also discusses that allegations of contributions to an opposing candidate were insufficient to require removal of a board member. So, based upon the case law that is out there, the assertion that there is a required removal of the state’s attorney from this electoral board isn’t substantiated by the law.”
She continued, “The motion to disqualify does not provide any allegations that would support the determination that I’m not qualified to sit on the electoral board as the designee. I’m not running for office. I have no direct pecuniary interest in any item for this board. I will not be called as a witness for this board. I haven’t been involved with any of the campaigns and because of that, I contend our position that I don’t need to recuse myself because it was an appropriate designation of somebody to sit in State’s Attorney Kenneally’s place.”
Confused at the new issue at hand, Tirio next proceeded to ask the court-appointed attorney for the Electoral Board, Jim Campion, for guidance on what to do next.
Campion told attendees of the hearing that because there is only one remaining board member left, there is not a full quorum, and therefore, nothing more can be done until the issues relating to the disqualification are solved.
Campion added that he would be sending a letter to McHenry County Chief Judge James S. Cowlin so that he may appoint two new individuals to fill the vacancies left by Tirio and Schmitt on the Electoral Board.
“Then there will be a full board, a complete board, then at the next time, there will then be a hearing on whether or not there needs to be a disqualification of the state’s attorney’s designee. That’s what procedurally is going to happen,” said Campion.
Bolin and Tirio both asked Campion if Cowlin could select three replacement board members instead of just two in the event that Stalter is disqualified from serving on the Electoral Board at the next hearing.
Campion stated that he would further discuss the matter with Cowlin about having the two replacement board members appointed as quickly as possible in time for the next Electoral Board hearing, and would possibly have a third replacement on reserve depending on the outcome of the motion to disqualify Stalter.
The next hearing to discuss whether or not Stalter and Kenneally can remain on the Electoral Board will take place on Tuesday, April 5 at 2:30 p.m. at the McHenry County Administration Building in Woodstock.
