Wauconda trustee candidates disagree on term limits
The candidates for seats on Wauconda's village board disagree about whether term limits are needed for the mayor and trustees.
Three candidates - Dan Casper, Joe Lewis and Mike Silverman - support term limits. Lewis was among the leaders of an unsuccessful civilian effort to put a term-limits question on the April 4 ballot.
The other three contenders - Tim Howe, Richard Morino and Adam Schlick - say voters should decide how long officials serve through elections, not forced limits.
Lewis, Silverman and Casper are with the One Wauconda slate. Howe, Schlick and Morino are with the Wauconda Forward slate.
The candidates discussed term limits and other issues with the Daily Herald.
The term-limits proposal Lewis supported would have limited the mayor and trustees to two, 4-year terms starting this year. The question was disqualified because petition pages were numbered improperly.
Lewis said the mayor and trustees should "do (their) term and step aside for someone else." Mistakes can happen when people make politics a career, he said, although he didn't give examples.
"I don't understand why (some people oppose term limits)," Lewis said.
Silverman said term limits ensure new perspectives in local government. He said he was part of the group gathering signatures for the referendum and claimed "more than 90 percent" of the residents the group encountered supported term limits and wanted the question on the ballot.
"The ones we spoke to thought this was something that helps promote diversity and stops the career politicians," Silverman said.
Casper said term limits result in "fresh ideas." Without them, he said, "you face complacency."
Howe, the only incumbent in the race, criticized the term-limits proposal, saying it addressed "a problem that doesn't exist" in Wauconda.
He pointed out the last mayor who served more than two terms in Wauconda was Jim Eschenbauch, who left office in 2005 after three terms. Before Eschenbauch, the last mayor to serve three or more terms did so in the 1920s, Howe said.
Additionally, Howe said there's no need to combat career politicians on a village board because trustees generally are poorly paid and don't receive money from lobbyists who fill state and federal lawmakers' campaign funds. They also rarely serve more than two terms, he said.
Schlick, now a Wauconda Park District board member, likes that residents can get rid of politicians they don't like by voting.
"We have the ultimate term limit in our right to vote," he said.
Forcing good elected officials out of office arbitrarily "can really do a disservice to the community," Schlick said.
Morino said term limits are "uniquely un-American."
"(They're) about disenfranchising voters," he said.
Morino said term limits usually are pushed by people who feel they can't defeat a popular incumbent on Election Day.
"(They) prevent the public from choosing the option that we really want," he said.