Trustee challenges road commissioner in Geneva Twp.

Is the Geneva Township Highway Department poorly run, with an employee that has no job description or set hours; a lack of competitive bidding for contracted services such as leaf pickup; and overpaying to store equipment and trucks?

Or did it save money by putting that on-call employee on salary instead of hourly pay; arranging with a nearby township for leaf pickup; and finding an ideal location to store equipment that has easy access to the two main areas of service, which are widely separated?

Mark Wissing, a current Geneva Township trustee, is running against incumbent John Carlson for highway commissioner.

In campaign literature, and at a recent forum, Wissing has been quite critical of Carlson and the department.

• He has accused Carlson of failing to attend township board meetings, saying that has made it difficult for trustees to get answers to questions they have about the road district bills they must approve for payment. He said in four years Carlson has attended 16 of 88 meetings.

• He questions the township's spending $51,000 a year to store its equipment at a landscaping firm on Raddant Road, saying it can be done for less money.

• He believes a lack of proper maintenance led to the deterioration of the Wenmoth Road bridge, leading to imposition of weight restrictions last year. "There is more to the road district than just plowing snow. We have broken-down shoulders and have roads and bridges that need repair," Wissing said at a candidates forum last week.

• And he has questioned the hiring of a $25,000-a-year employee, saying the worker has no job description, no set hours, and doesn't submit a time sheet for approval.

Carlson, who has been commissioner for eight years, defends his approach to the job.

"If he checked the state statute, he would see I'm not required to attend" board meetings, Carlson said. He also believes he attended more meetings than Wissing thinks, but that his name may not be reflected in the records for some meetings because he is not part of the roll call taken and may not have said anything during those meetings. (A check of minutes does show the clerk has recorded the names of other people present at meetings whether they speak or not, but it is unclear if this is a consistent practice.)

He contends that he is accessible, by cell phone and e-mail.

Rebar in the deck of the Wenmoth Road bridge over Mill Creek is rusting on the underside. Carlson said trucks going to and from construction sites in the Mill Creek subdivision accelerated the damage, and he put the weight restriction on the bridge to force trucks to use alternate routes. The bridge is due to be replaced this year.

As for the department's sole employee, Carlson said that the man used to be paid by the hour, and that with overtime, he would have made more than $25,000 in 2008 due to heavy snowfall.

The employee also owns the trucking firm from which the township rents space for its equipment, something else Wissing and other trustees have questioned. Carlson said a four-year contract for the storage space is ending, and that he intends to request proposals from other businesses in May. The site, on Raddant Road near Fabyan Parkway, makes it easy for trucks to get to the eastern and western portions of the township, he said.

He acknowledged he does not require the employee to fill out time sheets.

And Carlson contracts with Batavia Township to handle leaf pickup, saying he hasn't sought bids because "nobody locally is available." (The City of St. Charles hires Kramer Tree Service of West Chicago; Geneva and Batavia handle it in-house.)

Carlson also questions whether it would save money to have the cities of Batavia and Geneva, and Kane County, take over maintenance of township roads, but that the idea "may be due for a look."