March 28, 2019
Dear editor;
It may seem old school to insist on at least good attendance from our public officials. Those of us whom you have trusted to make laws should be first to follow laws; at least to try our hardest to provide good examples. Silly, you say?
Barbara Hernandez, one of 24 Kane County Board members, was recently appointed by a three-person partisan panel to the Springfield State Legislature; she has not resigned from the County Board. Since that appointment March 8, 2019, she has missed 100% of her County Board and Forest Preserve meetings. Citizens in her Aurora County Board district have neither had their voices heard nor representation on 54 out of 54 resolutions and matters requiring her votes.
When I assumed that Hernandez would exercise the good judgment to concentrate her limited time on one office or the other, Springfield or Kane County, I received a scolding letter from the State’s attorney’s office that the law allows her to hold on to two offices, as long as she’s paid for just one.
Was Hernandez such an effective Board member during her short time with us that she’ll be able to represent 120,000 individuals in Aurora/Montgomery in her spare time? I would not be writing this letter if I believed that.
As an incumbent in both offices, she takes away the opportunity for another citizen to serve with a full effort. Is there such an expression as political gluttony?
It is obviously inappropriate public conduct. Perhaps Barbara Hernandez and the three individuals who appointed her think that you won’t know or won’t care. She should choose one public office or the other . . . or be removed from both by you at the next election.
Just because it’s legal…doesn’t make it right.
Christopher J. Lauzen
Kane County Board Chairman
Aurora