Two slates announce plans to run for Wauconda village board
The long marathon for the White House is over, but candidates are just getting warmed up for the five-month sprint to serve local government next April.
In Wauconda, two slates have announced plans to run for four village board seats, including the mayor's post. One team is led by Mayor Salvatore Saccomanno and the other slate led by Trustee Mark Knigge.
Candidates will be able to file petitions for the April consolidated elections Jan. 19 through 26.
Yet, the campaigning has already started as the Wauconda slates solidify their message.
Knigge, who was elected to the village board as part of Saccommano's Wauconda First slate in 2005, said he is running against the sitting mayor because he disagrees with Saccomanno's leadership style.
"We just had a fundamental difference in how we are trying to approach new things in town," Knigge said. "We are going to look really heavy into strategic planning, financial long-range planning, economic development. Right now, we're just kind of a reactive government. We are not really charting our own course."
Knigge's Wauconda United slate includes current village trustee Lincoln Knight, retired Wauconda Unit District 118 superintendent John Barbini, and Pam Wahl, administrative assistant at District 118's Robert Crown School for three trustee positions. Ginger Irwin, an employee of the Special Education District of Lake County, is the slate's village clerk candidate.
Knigge said Saccomanno's previous slate, which also included Knight, didn't accomplish what it promised in that 2005 election in terms of strategic planning, running an open government and improving communication with residents by including them in the process.
Saccomanno defended what his board has achieved in the last four years.
"Every single item on that platform I accomplished," he said. "Wauconda is probably one of the only communities that has a communication program between the village and the residents in terms of our village update that we send out, the village newsletter. Everything is wide open for them to reach out to us. Honestly, I can't see how it could be more."
Saccomanno said he has received and responded to more than 2,000 e-mails since he took office in May 2005.
He said he will consult residents before putting together a new platform for his Wauconda First slate. It includes incumbent trustee Cathy Scott, and newcomers Danielle Zimmerman and Mark Kwasigroch for the three trustee posts, and Linda Lochmayer for village clerk.