Taking advantage of a clerical error?

I applaud those who take it upon themselves to run for office and serve as public servants in often difficult and thankless roles. They make many sacrifices in order to serve as elected officials and deserve our gratitude for the time and resources they give to their respective office. I just have a couple of questions about one of our elected officials who appears to have circumvented the electoral process by taking advantage of a clerical error. The Naperville Park District issued a public notice indicating that there were five open seats in the upcoming election, when technically there are four seats and one unexpired term due to the resignation of Charlie Brown. My question is did Park Commissioner Andrew Shaffner deliberately wait until one hour before the close of the application to submit his paperwork indicating he would run for the unexpired twoyear term?

Since he is on the board that is ultimately responsible for properly informing the public of the election, did he use inside information that allowed him to be the only resident applying for that seat, and therefore is running unopposed? Seeing as the board never issued a corrected statement allowing others to consider a run for a two-year term, this is very concerning. Isn't it intolerable that an elected official, who often touts transparency, knowingly took advantage of a human error and used it to his personal benefit? I think had the proper notification been publicized, at least one or maybe more of the individuals who are running for park board, would have opted for a twoyear opportunity, thereby giving the people of Naperville a choice and maintaining the integrity of the election process.

Ray Kinney

Naperville