Nonresident Schaumburg Township Assessor Lawson will serve until his term ends

Longtime Schaumburg Township Assessor John Lawson, having already demonstrated his office’s lack of a residency requirement to serve once elected, has decided to stay on until the end of his term in December 2025 — more than three years after moving to Huntley.

That decision scraps potential plans of having an academically certified nominee, who’s a Republican like Lawson, appointed by the Democrat-dominated board of trustees in Schaumburg Township to serve the remaining 19 months of the term.

There will be no incumbent in the April 2025 election for the office, and whoever wins will have to wait until the end of that year to officially succeed Lawson.

“That’s one of the benefits of the assessor position,” Lawson said. “I will have eight months to work with whoever the new assessor is.”

After inheriting the office through appointment two decades ago, Lawson never faced a Democratic challenger in the years since. But, he said, the proper function of the office is sufficiently nonpartisan that he would have no qualms working with an elected successor from either party on a smooth transition next year.

Residency and replacement are more complicated issues for township assessors, who are required to possess specific academic certifications.

The fact Lawson isn’t currently a resident of Schaumburg Township but serving as its assessor is not a matter for the Illinois State Board of Elections, whose jurisdiction is candidates for office, board spokesman Matt Dietrich said last year.

The only issues relevant to the board are that Lawson was a resident at the time of the last election in 2021 and that the next candidates for the office in 2025 will be, he added.

Lawson, who also is the police chief at Harper College in Palatine, was a member of the Roselle Police Department when he was appointed to succeed Paul Froehlich as Schaumburg Township assessor in the spring of 2004.

At the time, Lawson said he had to devote all of his vacation time for 18 months to attend classes needed to meet the assessor job’s academic requirements.

Day-to-day operations at the office are overseen by hired Chief Deputy Assessor Victor Morales.