By Matt Schury
Suzanne Petrella was reappointed to her seat on the Kendall County Board Tuesday night.
Kendall County Board Chairman John Purcell recommended appointing Petrella and the rest of the board approved the appointment in a split 5-3 vote with board members John Shaw, Dan Koukol, Bob Davidson casting no votes. Board member Elizabeth Flowers was absent.
The vote comes exactly seven weeks after the board voted to remove her from her seat because she had moved outside of the district she was elected to represent.
Petrella said that for about four weeks she had lived outside of District 1. When she filed her paperwork to run for County Board in the fall she used an address that was in District 2. According to state statute, the board had to remove her, Purcell said in December.
However, according to state statute, Petrella retained all of her responsibilities, committee assignments and voting rights on the board until she was reappointed or someone new was appointed to the seat.
Since the seat has been vacated, Purcell said that he was approached by a couple of people who had an interest in the seat. However, Purcell has said he intended to reappoint Petrella if she re-established residency in District 1.
“The more I thought about it, the more I stand in my convictions that the right person to appoint to this position is Suzanne. She was elected to the position by the voters of the county,” he said. “She moved, and it was just an innocent thing while she was waiting to establish her residency.”
Petrella showed Purcell some bills and a voter registration card with her new address in District 1. Purcell said that was enough to convince him that she was back in that district.
Purcell told the board it didn’t make sense to appoint someone running for County Board in the upcoming election because he didn’t want to “pick favorites in a primary.” He also didn’t want to appoint someone who was unfamiliar with the board because, he added, there is a learning curve. Purcell stated that he didn’t feel a new person could be brought up to speed in 10 months, when the term of the seat runs out.
Shortly before the vote, Koukol said that he didn’t think there was enough public discussion on the appointment and wanted to table the motion to reappoint Petrella.
“I thoroughly believe this should have been discussed more at the committee level,” Koukol said. “I just don’t know how a Kendall County Board member—at this point in time without having discussions—can thoroughly vote on this?”
The state statute does say that Purcell has to appoint someone within 90 days of the vacancy occurring.
Davidson wanted to know how much Purcell looked into Petrella’s new residency.
“The information brought forward tonight has put some doubt in my mind. Have you personally checked this out? Has she moved back into the district?” Davidson said.
Purcell said he talked to State’s Attorney Eric Weis who felt confident she had established her residency.
Davidson responded that he still had his doubts.
“This is part of the problem child, if she is not living here physically I don’t care what the paperwork says,” Davidson said. “Has anybody checked this out physically that she lives in the district? I don’t need any more egg on my face. Let’s get this right.”
Board member Anne Vickery said that she thought the process has “gotten far too political” and supported reappointing Petrella.
“Suzanne has done a wonderful job,” she said. “There was obviously a screw up in how her petition was presented.”
“The law’s the law we swore an oath to uphold it and I’m just asking anybody if we checked it out,” Davidson said.
“What are we going to check out next, Bob, people’s tax returns? Are we going to go into people’s homes now?” Vickery asked. “This is government?”
Board member Jeff Wehrli said he felt satisfied with Purcell’s appointment and believed Petrella deserved a chance to finish out her term.
“If the state’s attorney tells me she had established residence, I accept that in good faith and I would hope you would. Nobody’s checked my residence lately and I hope they don’t have to for me to stay on this board,” he said.
Responding to Davidson’s remarks, Petrella said that she didn’t do anything wrong.
“I take great offense at being accused of breaking the law,” she said. “I have not broken the law. The law has been defined very clearly for me and I have adhered to it.”