Batavia hopeful Rechenmacher to decide Wednesday what he'll run for
Ron Rechenmacher is leaning toward running for the Batavia school board, but a ballot position lottery for Batavia City Council might change that Wednesday morning.
Rechenmacher filed petitions to serve on both the school board and the 6th Ward seat on the city council. Kane County election officials said Tuesday those are not compatible offices. Both boards make decisions that could negatively affect the other.
But even Kane County Elections Director Suzanne Fahnestock said the election laws that will force Rechenmacher to decide which office to seek are a bit murky.
The county's official deadline for a candidate to withdraw from a race is the end of the business day Wednesday. But the county won't officially know that Rechenmacher filed for two elected offices until Batavia officials certify the city's list of candidates. Most municipalities have already filed a certification with the county, but the official deadline to certify the candidate list is Jan. 29.
"So we only have him running for the school board right now because he filed for that office here at the county," Fahnestock said. "Once we know he has filed for incompatible offices, then we have to notify him within three days. But for us to take that action, we have to know. We have to be made officially aware of the situation, and not just by what we read in the newspaper."
That raises a question. Which is the real deadline for Rechenmacher to decide which public office he will run for? Is it Wednesday? Or is it five days after the county sends him a letter notifying him the offices are incompatible?
Fahnestock said the Kane County state's attorney's office would make that call. That office won't be consulted unless or until Batavia sends a certified list of candidates that includes Rechenmacher's name.
During a phone interview late Tuesday, Rechenmacher said he was already filling out a candidate withdrawal form in anticipation of making a decision Wednesday.
"I want to avoid that murky situation," Rechenmacher said.
He wouldn't say definitively which office he would withdraw from.
"I'm leaning, almost regardless of the outcome of the lottery, toward running for school board," he said. The school board, because of its mission to educate local youths, has a "generational impact" in its decisions. That has a lot of appeal for Rechenmacher, he said.
However, if something else unexpected happened, such as the other 6th Ward city council candidate, Michael Russotto, were to withdraw, Rechenmacher said that would have a big impact on his decision.
If Rechenmacher stays on the school board ballot, he will be one of eight candidates running for three seats. He said he might run as a slate with two other school board candidates - Michelle Olache and Bill Gabriel.