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Citing family, work, Speer won't run in February in Streamwood

One year after his bid to unseat Streamwood Village President Billie Roth failed and nearly four years after he was first elected to the village board, Trustee Jason Speer is bowing out of politics.

Speer cited the upcoming birth of his second child and a need to focus on his family business as why he has decided not to run for re-election to the village board.

He was elected to the board in 2007, and his term is up at the April 5 election.

Speer and his wife are also raising their 1-year-old daughter. He made the decision last week and said he struggled with it.

“I just don't want to commit to something I can't full commit to,” Speer said. “It was a gut-wrenching decision for me.”

Trustee James Cecille is also up for re-election in April. He said he will run and that Speer will be missed on the board.

Trustee Guy Patterson's seat is also up, and it's expected he'll run for re-election as well.

“He'll missed by some people, and some people won't miss him,” Cecille said of Speer. “I'll miss Jason because he's a good person, he's a good collaborator.”

Speer ran on Roth's slate in the 2007 election, but their relationship deteriorated quickly. That led to Speer challenging her last year in Roth's first contested village president race in 16 years. Voters elected to Roth to her sixth term in April 2009.

On Thursday, Roth said she was shocked by the news, but said she heard Speer had pulled his nomination petitions which had been circulating.

“In each election you never know what will happen,” Roth said from the Platt Hill Nursery in Bloomingdale, where she works. “I'm never sure who will win the next election. I'm surprised.”

Speer said he'll remain active in the community, but said lately his business, Quality Float Works, has demanded more attention.

He said he's been traveling internationally and the business will soon open an office in Dubai. He co-owns Quality Float Works, in Schaumburg, with his mother, Sandra Westlund-Deenihan, a Hanover Township trustee.

“I've got to make sure I'm there to keep it going,” Speer said.

Speer said he's proud of improvements in governmental transparency including a more informative village's website crime abatement through crime-free housing and the formation of the environmental committee.

He added it's unlikely he'll return to politics.

“You never say never, but I don't see myself running for an office anytime soon,” Speer said.

The Streamwood village board on Thursday night will have its first reading of next year's budget. Trustees are expected to vote on the budget at the Dec. 2 board meeting.