Official forced to resign county seat
The head of the McHenry County state's attorney's civil division resigned her seat on the neighboring Boone County Board this week after the Illinois attorney general issued an opinion saying she could not serve in both capacities.
The move by Michelle Courier headed off a possible showdown Tuesday night between her and Boone County State's Attorney James Hursh over whether she could participate in a scheduled meeting of a county board committee.
Hursh said he would have told Courier she legally could not serve on the board if she showed up for the meeting.
"She can't hold both offices simultaneously," he said.
Courier was unavailable for comment Tuesday, but McHenry County state's attorney Louis Bianchi called her resignation a bureaucratic issue.
In hiring Courier for his office in 2004, Bianchi said he relied on a previous attorney general opinion that allowed a onetime assistant Kane County state's attorney to serve on his local parks board. Courier, he added, never worked on McHenry County legal matters that involved Boone County.
"This has no effect on the administration of justice in this county," Bianchi said. "But to avoid any appearance of impropriety, she decided to resign."
Hursh said he sought the the attorney general opinion last year after a former assistant McHenry County state's attorney alerted him to Courier's role in both county governments.
The informal opinion states that according to a 2005 state appellate court decision elected county board members may not hold another public office. The position of an assistant state's attorney, the opinion states, qualifies as a public office.
"If a county board member, during his or her term of office, is appointed to the office of assistant state's attorney in another county, the appointment is void," Senior Assistant Attorney General Lynn E. Patton states in the decision.
Courier likely will leave Bianchi's office by December to become Boone County state's attorney. In February she defeated the incumbent Hursh for the Republican Party's state's attorney nomination. No Democrat was seeking the post.