Ethics battle erupts over Kane County construction project
The primary election is over in Kane County, but the battle over what really constitutes ethical conduct for county board members continued Thursday in a dust-up between board members Cathy Hurlbut and Drew Frasz.
Hurlbut is the chairman of the county board’s Transportation Committee. Last week, she was accused by board member Jim Mitchell of making a pending I-88/Rt. 47 interchange project a priority only after receiving a $1,000 campaign donation from owners of land needed for the eventual construction.
On Thursday, Hurlbut brought in the mayors of Sugar Grove and Elburn to justify the new high-priority status for the interchange. Hurlbut followed their comments by saying criticism of her taking the campaign contribution was “gotcha” politics designed to make her look bad just before votes were cast in her run for Kane County Circuit Court clerk.
Hurlbut lost that contest Tuesday night.
“When we start taking important projects like this and casting aspersions on our fellow board members for political reasons, what we do is we put gray clouds on the project,” Hurlbut said. “Remember what you’re doing when you bring up issues like pay-for-play on good projects that needed to be moved up. These are things that need to be done. Casting aspersions on board members hurts projects. It hurts the county. It doesn’t necessarily hurt the board member.”
Hurlbut was also referencing a YouTube video titled “Pay to Play in Kane” that featured Frasz and board member Melisa Taylor talking about campaign contributions and the interchange project.
Frasz jumped in to defend the opinion he expressed in the video.
“I have to wonder why somebody would give those contributions and not expect something in return,” he said. “I look forward to the day when this cloud is not hanging over this body.”
Hurlbut said the donation had nothing to do with the interchange becoming a priority. The Illinois Tollway Authority or IDOT will be the organizations buying the land for the project, she said. So Sugar Grove LLC won’t directly make money from any action the county board takes, she said.
“Developers have been donating to county board members for as long as I’ve been on this board,” Hurlbut said. “This is nothing new. This isn’t pay for play. When you do a good job at what you do, people donate.”
Hurlbut then noted that Frasz took $5,000 from the Family Taxpayers Network. The group is run by Jack Roeser, owner of Otto Engineering in Carpentersville. Hurlbut suggested that Frasz should now recuse himself from any votes that benefit Roeser or his company if he really believes what he’s saying.
Frasz said he accepted the donation from Roeser as an individual in 2008 and told him directly that no favors would be given to him in return.
“That was almost five years ago,” Frasz said. “I haven’t heard from him since.”
The confrontation is more fuel for the ongoing ethics debate by the county board. The board has been trying to pass a revised ethics ordinance for more than year. Some board members, including Frasz, want the ordinance to require all board members and the board chairman to vocally declare donations from people who seek business with the county and abstain from any votes involving that business.
Hurlbut said Thursday she thinks that change goes too far since campaign contributions are already a matter of public record.