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March 28, 2024

Silly season alive and well – Political candidates that might want to consider a different line of work

By Kirk Allen & John Kraft

On March 31, 2021

Illinois (ECWd) –

Every election cycle we see an increase in communications related to local government candidate malfeasance. We appreciate that there are more and more people taking steps to expose those asking for their votes.

Out of the dozens of tips over the last few weeks, the following are noteworthy and took little work to validate and we believe the voters should know some details on those asking for their vote. Remember, these people could be making decisions with your taxdollars.

Algonquin Township Road District Highway Commissioner election:

Derek Lee is the candidate for Highway Commissioner.  As the foreman of the Road District, Lee brought his wife and daughter to a conference in New Orleans and the taxpayers picked up the tab for his family members.  Court records reflect his father-in-law, his boss at the time, failed to describe any public purpose for such an expense on the backs of the taxpayers. Shortly before his father-in-law was to leave office, Lee transferred the public paid-for cell phone to a personal account.  Court records reflect Derek Lee was in charge of keeping records for salt deposited at the Road District.  How special no such records were ever found.  Derek Lee wants your vote to be the next Highway Commissioner.  For those that remember the video of the car being shot up by three people connected to the Township, according to deposition transcripts, the union stipulated that Mr. Lee would testify that he was one of the persons shown in that photograph shooting a weapon. Mr. Lee would also testify that of those 3 persons, one other person who was firing a weapon is still employed by the Township Road Commissioner.

According to deposition transcripts, the union stipulated that Mr. Lee would testify that he was one of the persons shown in that photograph shooting a weapon. Mr. Lee would also testify that of those 3 persons, one other person who was firing a weapon is still employed by the Township Road Commissioner.

DuPage Township Supervisor:

Gary Marschke is running for Township Supervisor.  Marschke denied sexual harassment allegations lodged against him when he was employed by the State Treasure.  Court records conflict with his claim.  According to the court records he was disciplined over the matter and later resigned.   The Township has been sued four years in a row for excessive taxation and Marschke is of the opinion rather than fixing the problem the Township should not settle those cases but rather litigate them through the entire legal process because he claims they are not legitimate legal cases.  He refused to respond to questions pertaining to the racist flyer that was sent out against his opponent.  The flyer used pictures of both a noose and a Confederate flag.  Something most people would speak out against regardless of party affiliation, especially when it was used against a candidate of color, Alyssia Benford. He has sat silent while witnessing violations of the Open Meetings Act during past township meetings.  Gary Marschke wants your vote to be the next Township Supervisor.

Arcola, Illinois Mayoral race:

Sharilyn Kibler is running for Mayor.  Back in January, she was arrested in Arcola after a traffic stop went wrong.  What went wrong?  Rather than accept the fact she had no proof of insurance she chose to call 911.  She was then charged with a Class A Misdemeanor for resisting a peace officer. The Police report can be found at this link. While there is nothing criminal about dancing on the bar, one may wonder if that is the best option for their next Mayor. (Watch the bar dance here) Kibler wants your vote to be the next Arcola Mayor.

Avon Township Supervisor:

Terry Wilke is running for Supervisor.  The list of malfeasance is beyond belief for the average citizen but rest assured, this one is troubling.  He is currently being sued for defamation by the Assessor. After being exposed for using the Township email for campaigning he pulled an Anthony Weiner and said the email must have been hacked. He is currently under a criminal investigation related to taking ownership of Township property without approval as well as transfers of township property without approval. His problems have been covered in numerous articles. Wilke wants your vote for Avon Township Supervisor.

Maine Township Trustee

Kimberly Jones is running for Township Trustee.  According to records with the State Board of Elections, the campaign committee “Friends of Kimberly Jones” shows her as a Republican.  How special is it that she is running as a Democrat, not a Republican?  The State Board of Elections had never heard of a person claiming on campaign paperwork to be one party but then runs on the other.

The Treasurer for her campaign is Joseph Gomez, a former Director of the Illinois Tollway Authority.  Interestingly while Gomez was approving Tollway contracts, before and shortly after some of those contracts were approved, vendors managed to find their way to donate to the Friends of Kimberly Jones of which he is a treasurer. (See Tollway records here).  That appears to be a violation of criminal codes 720 ILCS 5/33-3.1 and 5/33-3.2 and may be worth a proper investigation by the appropriate authorities. (See Campaign reports here)

Also on the Tollway Authority Board was James Banks, an attorney with the law firm of Samual V.P. Banks.  The law firm also donated to Friends of Kimberly Jones.  How special that Banks specializes in “special uses for tattoo shops, liquor establishments and pawn shops throughout the area”. 

Who knew Kimberly Jones is the Administrator of the Pawnbroker Regulation Section within the Illinois Department of Financial Professional Regulations.  What are the odds that one of her contributors happens to deal with legal matters for pawnshops?

Who else used to work at the IDFPR?  Joe Gomez, the same Gomez that is her campaign treasurer.  The same Gomez that sat on the Tollway Authority Board along with James Banks.

Jones was behind false allegations of sexual harassment of which she signed a letter that contained information in conflict with her false allegations.  After a costly and lengthy investigation conducted by the law firm Ancel, Glink, Diamond, Bush, Dicianni & Krafthefer, her allegations were determined to be unfounded.

As Jones seeks your vote for Township Trustee, she voted NO on abating Township taxes all while the Township sits on over $11 Million dollars.

We are working on finalizing several other local elections that have problematic candidates worthy of exposure prior to the election.  Stay tuned!

 

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12 Comments
  • Clean It All Up
    Posted at 19:24h, 31 March

    Some of the dirtiest stuff comes out of the townships. People pay attention to D.C., the governor, their mayor, their school board, and maybe once in a while their county board but those townships fly completely under the radar way too much.

  • D. Sleezer
    Posted at 19:45h, 31 March

    With so many of these scurrilous acts being performed by Township “leadership”, this behavior just adds to the case to absorb the Township concept! They must really feel that they are working so far under the radar that they are above the law. Either that or they believe that the Attorney General’s office is so inept or uninterested that they can get away with it (I agree with the inept statement).

  • kathiann
    Posted at 10:00h, 01 April

    These candidates all sound very special (not). Perhaps they should find a banana republic to run in another country because they would certainly fit in. By running here, It seems they are begging for exposure. Good job, Watchdogs.

  • PK
    Posted at 11:42h, 01 April

    I’ll put it for a silliness reminiscent of the Gong Show by nominating incumbent Avon Township Supervisor/Lake County Board member Wilke for the Ding-Dong award.

  • Algonquin Twp Taxpayer
    Posted at 13:05h, 01 April

    Derek Lee put out a mailer for his campaign that states he has a Jurisdoctorate from a school in California. Any word on whether that might be true?

    • Kirk Allen
      Posted at 13:07h, 01 April

      no clue.

  • Ang
    Posted at 09:57h, 03 April

    Shouldn’t Elmhurst mayoral candidate Scott Levin be on the list?

    There is opposition to equipping the fire department to provide ALS (advanced life support)…

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/news/elmhurst-officials-debate-adding-new-firefighter-service/ar-BB1eDHe8

    rather than keep outsourcing to a private, for profit subsidiary of Elmhurst based Superior Ambulance…

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/elmhurst-may-wade-into-debate-over-emergency-medical-services/ar-BB1emY6h

    As you can read here, Metro Paramedics once sent some of their people to a scene in Cicero…

    https://chicago.suntimes.com/news/2021/2/23/22297643/victor-cazares-cicero-looting-murder-lawsuit-fire-department

    And a Superior Ambulance driver lost custody of a patient who had been dangling off the Chicago Trump Tower. How do you lose custody of a clearly disturbed patient??

    Um, why oppose equipping not for profit firefighters with Advanced Life Support? Still scratching head over this debate.

  • Ang
    Posted at 10:35h, 03 April

    One more comment to add about why there should be no further debate about keeping municipal ambulance services and Advanced Life Support a public function, as opposed to private for profit.

    Besides underpaid and overworked EMTs at privately owned and run companies, what if your town’s contracted private ambulance provider just went out of business suddenly?

    https://www.mintpressnews.com/sudden-loss-of-ems-in-six-states-undermines-for-profit-model-for-critical-services/174834/

    https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/major-ambulance-service-shuts-down-without-notice-six-states-flna2D11718619

    Can’t believe the Elmhust officials are even still debating equipping the firefighters with ALS. The alternative could be a private ambulance company that just goes out of business suddenly. Some of Elmhurst’s mayoral candidates are thinking penny smart, patient stupid.

    There should be a national alarm sounded over the perils of private ambulance services IMHO. Especially during the pandemic. What if a private contracted provider just up and went belly up when grandma needs to be hospitalized and put on a ventilator? Yikes.

    • PK
      Posted at 13:12h, 03 April

      Suggesting the government can provide better patient care than private enterprise is absurd, Keep drumming though, as its seems you’ve a real cause for change.

    • Aaron
      Posted at 07:09h, 04 April

      Huh? Government can’t wipe ass effectively. Why don’t we just put government in charge of food production. Yes! Lets get rid of all the farmers and replace them with unionized government employees. What could go wrong ?

  • Ang
    Posted at 14:56h, 04 April

    OK my point is not that government gets things right (case in point: COVID handling has been a disaster across the aisle), but firefighters are noble people and greedy for profit ambulance companies overwork and underpay their EMTs because it makes more money for the owners to do so.

    That was my point. Not that government should get into the business of making our food. Good Heavens no.

    I just think public servant career firefighter paramedics are waaay better than some exhausted private company EMT who is being underpaid and overworked because he or she does not belong to the town. Don’t you just care more about your own community than one 18 miles away?

    Maybe cut the salaries of the overpaid bureacrats who keep costing taxpayers and you’d probably still save money and be able to equip the local fire department with Advanced Life Support capabilities. Now there’s an idea.

    There are town managers making more money than some private sector CEOs. That’s ludicrous!

    (And Happy Bunny Day by the way, aka Easter…hop hop hop)

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