Ousted Naperville candidate sues city

One of the four would-be Naperville City Council candidates kicked off the April ballot this week filed a lawsuit Thursday blaming the city for the filing error that forced him out of the race.

Local business owner Steve Chirico is seeking a judge's order forcing the city to certify his candidacy, despite having missed a Nov. 22 filing deadline for his required statement of economic interest.

Like the other three candidates booted from the ballot, Chirico says he was misled by a handout from the DuPage Election Commission listing Dec. 20 as the deadline for submitting the paperwork. That date is correct for most parts of DuPage County, but not for municipalities that could have a primary, such as Naperville, Aurora, Wheaton and Downers Grove.

“It would be an injustice to keep him off the ballot based on a document that was provided by a government agency and could be reasonably relied upon,” Chirico's attorney, Win Wehrli, said.

Naperville City Attorney Margo Ely did not dispute that some city council candidates may have acted on incorrect information when they used the commission's “candidate checklist,” which the city provided with nominating packets, to plan their filings.

But state law prohibits the city from certifying incomplete nominations, regardless of the reason, she said.

“We didn't write this law, we just have to enforce it,” Ely said. “The city did what it was supposed to do and if a judge wants to undo that, then that's fine. It will be up to the judge.”

Two other candidates who were booted from the ballot Joe McElroy and John Krummen said Thursday they also are consulting attorneys. John Adair, the fourth candidate kicked off the ballot, couldn't immediately be reached for comment, but has said he will explore his options for staying in the race.

Removing the four from the race leaves eight candidates for four available seats who met the Nov. 22 deadline. They are incumbents Robert Fieseler, Richard Furstenau and Grant Wehrli, and challengers Wayne Floegel, Ben Gross, Patricia Gustin, Charles Schneider and Tiffany Stephens.

The DuPage Election Commission on Wednesday referred comment about the situation to Naperville. An attorney for the commission, which is not named as a defendant in Chirico's lawsuit, could not be reached for comment Thursday.