Kane Dist. 10 candidate criticized for using fire district email for campaign
Kane County Board District 10 candidate Todd Zies of North Aurora used a work email, from his job as a firefighter, to conduct campaign business.
The revelation came from Republican political consultant Jon Zahm, who obtained the emails through a Freedom of Information Act request with Zies' employer, the North Aurora Fire Protection District.
When Zies first filed for election, he gave the Daily Herald his work email address as a contact when requested.
The emails contain correspondence between Zies and Kane County Democratic Party leader Mark Guethle, and a political-advertising business, about purchasing printed campaign materials. They also include correspondence between Zies and several people, including the North Aurora police chief, about them writing letters of endorsement for him.
Another is a cordial reply to a voter, who wrote to Zies to explain why he wouldn't be voting for him.
And one is from Republican activist Ellen Nottke of Batavia, in which she offers to set up a meeting between herself, Zies and attorney Kenneth Shepro to see if Shepro could help Zies. Shepro is a Republican from Wayne. He ran against Kane County Board Chairman Chris Lauzen in the March primary, but lost.
Zahm has done paid political work for Lauzen, as well as other Kane County officials. He said he supports Zies' opponent, Republican Susan Starrett of North Aurora, but is not working for her. Starrett is finishing her first term on the board.
North Aurora Fire Chief Ryan Lambert said the district is investigating whether Zies violated district policy. It prohibits using work email for personal business, and it prohibits doing political work on work time, or using work resources for it. Zies has been on disability leave since April due to an injury.
Zies said he suspects he initially received something campaign-related on his work email instead of personal email, and replied.
"It was one of those things ... I just inadvertently got it on one email vs. the other," Zies said. "I know that now."
In 2014, Kane County Clerk Jack Cunningham pleaded guilty to violating the county's ethics law for its elected officials, for using his work email to conduct campaign business. He paid a $500 fine.
State law says public money cannot be used for political or campaign purposes, and a first offense is a Class B misdemeanor.
"Things like stationery or postage used to be where candidates messed up in the past," said Ken Menzel, an attorney for the Illinois State Board of Elections. "Email is sort of difficult to pigeonhole, because it is difficult to say that individual emails have a quantifiable cost to the public body."