Geils still on Bensenville ballot - for now

Bensenville Village President John Geils won a hard-fought battle late Thursday to keep his name on the April 7 ballot amid questions about whether he really lives in town.

But a DuPage County judge today will be asked to intervene.

The Bensenville electoral board unanimously voted Thursday in Geils' favor after a heated seven and half-hour hearing at village hall. The panel denied resident Donald Heim's request to find Geils ineligible to run for re-election.

This morning, Heim's attorney plans to file an emergency motion asking a judge to disqualify the village electoral board and, thus, toss out its vote.

Attorney Timothy Martin argues the panel - composed of Clerk Carole Crowe Mantia and trustees Henry Mandziara and Marianne Tralewski - lacks impartiality.

The trustees are Geils' political allies. Martin said they both made critical comments at a recent village board meeting against Heim's residency objection.

Furthermore, the attorney said Mandziara was demoted by the Schiller Park Fire Department in 2005 following allegations he used his position as lieutenant to gain access to a state police database to check backgrounds of people working for the campaign of then Geils' opponent John Wassinger.

If the village electoral members are disqualified, DuPage Chief Judge Stephen Culliton would be asked to appoint another public board to hear the residency objection. Timing is critical since election ballots are expected to be printed soon.

Geils, village president since 1985, is seeking his seventh term. He faces a challenge from attorney Frank Soto, who lost a 2001 bid against Geils.

In that election, Soto also raised the residency issue. He later dropped it for lack of evidence, but continued to object to the way Geils filled out his nominating petition.

Though the village electoral board sided with Geils, a DuPage County judge overturned its decision and kicked Geils and the rest of his Unity Party off the ballot. The judge's decision forced Geils to run as a write-in candidate, but he still soundly beat Soto.

Heim, who admits he is in Soto's camp, testified Thursday it's a well-known fact around town that Geils doesn't live in the village.

Geils testified he has lived at 208 S. York Road in Bensenville for about 54 years. In recent years, though, the village president said he's had to travel to Green Lake, Wis. most Wednesdays through Sundays to oversee construction of his family-owned golf resort due to a 2004 fire.

Geils presented his driver's license, social security card, voter registration, tax statements, utility bills and various other personal records to prove his residency. Besides his trips to Wisconsin, also at issue was whether he has a claim to an Oak Brook home where his wife, Sharon, and children moved to in 1997. Despite signing parts of a recent mortgage document, Geils presented the loan application, promissory note and other property paperwork that are solely in his wife's name.

"He lives in (Bensenville) and is more involved than most village presidents," said Geils' attorney Phillip Luetkehans. "He is very, very active. No one can say otherwise."