SUN CITY – In 1850, when Grafton Town¬ship was founded, Thomas Stilwell Huntley was elected its first supervisor. According to the township website, he was “much loved and respected by residents.” Joy, friendly camaraderie, and a positive confidence in the township’s future abound¬ed, so say historians.
Today, 163 years later, the township has over 45,000 residents in five local communities and an impressive array of programs to serve residents. A prominent resident said last week, however, that relation¬ships among leaders and officials of the township have got¬ten so bad that, “The township appears to have ground to a halt.”
The speaker was Marty Waitzman, one of four candidates currently running for Grafton Township supervisor for a new four-year term beginning in May. A public forum in Sun City’s Drendel Ballroom on Feb. 6 was quiet and civil, but there was no mistaking the wide¬spread perception of acrimony and dysfunction that many residents say permeates all aspects of township operations.
The four came to Sun City at a candidates’ forum sponsored by the community’s Volunteer Civics Committee. They are: incumbent Linda Moore, who is completing her first four-year term as supervisor and seeking a second; attorney and CPA Marty Waitzman of Algonquin; Huntley businesswoman and current Village trustee Pam Fender; and Huntley business¬man James Kearns.
All four are Republicans, but they are running in two different ways. Moore, Fender, and Waitzman are on the Feb. 26 Republican primary ballot for the supervisor position. Kearns is running as an independent and will oppose the winner of the Feb. 26 voting in the area’s April 9 consolidated election.
While there are many issues and activities that are sparking debate and disagreement in and around the township (bus transportation, food pantries, services for the needy and seniors, property tax assessments, etc.) much of the night was devoted to talk of a future township free of infighting and its current legal fees.
(Second table from left to right) candidates Linda Moore, Marty Waitzman, Pam Fender, and Jim Kearns at the Feb. 6 forum in Drendel Ballroom.
(Mason Souza /Sun Day Photo)
Fender’s campaign flier put it concisely: “I am the antidote to Linda Moore. Together we can stop her.” The campaign has emerged as a “three against one” confrontation. Fender, Waitzman, and Kearns all say that Moore should be replaced and that a culture of civility and respect needs to replace the “mess” that has turned the township into a dysfunctional organization.
When asked about specific township programs or issues, Moore defended her record in brief statements. Defining her¬self as a fiscal conservative, Moore said she has lowered taxes and expenses, changed the budgeting process to increase efficiency, and voted in favor of reducing her own paycheck by 30 percent. On a piece of campaign literature, she claims that she “saved $5.5 million by stopping illegal actions of a prior town board to build a new township town hall.”
Moore blamed the other four township board members for the acrimony and bickering. “The board has asked me to do things I have no authority to do, and I have refused to carry those things out,” Moore said. “They spent $472,000 on legal expenses to defend themselves, and I spent about $60,000 to defend the township,” she said.
When asked what they would do about “getting along,” Kearns, who has founded and led two businesses in Huntley, said, “I had no plans to run for this office until I learned about the situation in the township. I entered this campaign for some personal reasons. I plan to fix the problems using my business experience and then leave. I don’t expect to stay as a super¬visor. I am just sick and tired of the problems.”
“I have made a positive impact on those I have worked with in 20 years in running a business and volunteering extensively and [in] my community,” Fender said. “I have organizational skills that are needed in the township. We need only one food pantry, not the one Moore has been running. I won’t cash checks that are meant for someone else,” referring to a recent controversy about donations intended for the Grafton Food Pantry going to the Grafton Township Food Pantry.
Waitzman said, “We have too many lawyers involved in township activities in so many lawsuits. We need only one; I believe I can be that person. One would cost a lot less. I want to end the childish bickering that is costing tax¬payers money and return commonsense to Grafton Township government. I will create new audits and clean up our finances using my CPA experience and knowledge.”
On the new town hall issue, all four candidates agree: they oppose building a new one. As to specific programs, Fender revealed a lengthy “to do” list if she is elected.
“Create peace and harmony through¬out the township, stop the litigation, expand support to [the] working poor, and don’t cash checks that do not belong to someone else,” she said. “Put the coffee on and say hello. We need a diabetes clinic and a diaper bank for both kids and adults. We need financial assistance to homeowners and students. We need to bring back the job center and get people back to work. We also need to start paying our bills correctly and promptly.”
Waitzman stressed the need for generating grants for expansion of programs and creation of new ones.
“We need to generate more support for single parents,” he said. “We need to figure out how to do more with less. But above all, we need to return to civility so we can focus on moving the community forward.”
“We need to upgrade our audit pro¬grams and strengthen our accounting,” Kearns said. “We need to take the food pantry out of the town hall, but I also think we need to keep a lot of our best programs in place.”
Moore stressed the need for reduced expenses and lower taxes.
“We need to get township employees to chip in more of the expenses for health insurance premiums. We need to adopt the township budget before we approve the property tax levy, and not the other way around, the way it is now,” she said.
“A vote for me is a vote to lower tax¬es,” states Moore’s campaign literature.
Fender defined the role of a township in the face of some public attitudes that say townships are not needed or should serve a new role.
“Townships play a vital role in our society,” states her campaign literature. “Municipalities take care of basic needs, like snowplowing and water services. But they do little for the enrichment of seniors or helping the poor. Townships are the catch-all for poor, working poor, seniors, and disabled adults. Grafton takes care of desperate people.”
