A brief convening of the Normal Electoral Board on Friday morning kicked off what will be a series of meetings in which the board will review objections to petitions filed for candidacy for three non-elected offices in the municipality.
The three-person board was formed after Normal residents Patrick Dullard and Jeffrey Fritzen filed written objections to petitions for candidacy for Town Collector (Charles Sila), Town Supervisor (Robert Shoraga) and Town Clerk (Amy Conklin);
members were to include Mayor Chris Koos, mayor pro tem Kevin McCarthy and council member Scott Preston.
Koos was not at Friday's meeting, meaning the board was chaired by McCarthy and Preston. Chicago-based attorney Michael Kasper, who already has been retained by the town, was appointed as the board's counsel.
The board registered the objections filed by Dullard and Fritzen earlier this week and marked appearances by their legal counsel, semi-retired attorney Todd Greenburg of Bloomington, and that of Tom Devore, a recent GOP candidate for state attorney general who said he was there on behalf of Conklin, Shoraga and Sila.
"It's no secret that ... trying to make sure that towns and counties and state government follows the law has always been something that interests me," Devore told reporters Friday. "Those types of cases are ones I'm interested in and this is no different."
Devore told reporters the position of his clients is that the Town of Normal is not following state law by not having the positions of Town Collector and Town Supervisor, and having the Town Clerk as an appointed office and not an elected office.
He said he plans to file written responses to Dullard and Fritzen's objections by next week.
Greenburg said his clients had filed objections in part because "this is not how you create offices — by filing petitions for candidacies."
"There have to be offices that are set forth by the government. They have to have appropriations for staff so that those people can spend money," he said. "And ... for all offices, they have to set forth the duties of those offices. None of those exist."
As of Friday afternoon, specific dates and times had not yet been set for forthcoming meetings of the Normal Electoral Board.
