Sue Klinkhamer: Candidate Profile

Note: Answers provided have not been edited for grammar, misspellings or typos. In some instances, candidate claims that could not be immediately verified have been omitted. Jump to:BioKey IssuesQA Bio City: St. CharlesWebsite: http://klinkhamer4kane.comOffice sought: Kane County Board ChairmanAge: 58Family: Married, 2 children, 1 son-in-law and 1 granddaughterOccupation: RetiredEducation: Elgin Community College, 1974Civic involvement: Candidate did not respond.Elected offices held: Mayor, City of St. Charles, IL 1997-2005 City Council, City of St. Charles, Il 1989-1997Have you ever been arrested for or convicted of a crime? If yes, please explain: Candidate did not respond.Candidate's Key Issues Key Issue 1 Hiring an Administrator for Kane County. Kane is the only county in the Chicago Metro Region (and DeKalb County) that does not have a full time administrator. This accounts for much of the dysfunction of county operations.Key Issue 2 Reducing the size of the County Board to 18 members.Key Issue 3 Making sure that the employees of Kane County have the right tools to do their jobs efficiently and effectively.Questions Answers Do you support a more stringent ethics ordinance for Kane County governing the conduct of elected officials and county employees' Why or why not? If so, what should the ordinance contain?Ethics ordinances are good things if the Board can ever agree on its content. The ordinance should be based on common sense and not "gotcha" clauses. The State's Attorney should also have the power to try each complaint on the merits of the case and throw out the ones that are obviously politically motivated.The county's portion of gambling proceeds has been decreasing every year for several years. What is your plan to prioritize use of that money? What might be done to wean the agencies and programs that receive this money off of it?This is a hard thing to do but the reality is that the revenue will continue to go down. It is the same thing that happened when I worked for a Congressional Office. The money for social agencies was drastically reduced and it was hard to explain that to the agencies that had come to depend on those dollars. The best thing is to be honest with the agencies and help them to find other sources of revenue.Do you believe the Kane County court system needs a computer system upgrade that might cost as much as $12.6 million? If so, do you support using RTA sales tax money to fund the cost, or do you have a different plan? If not, what is your alternative plan?This is something that needs to be resolved way before the election. I will leave that to the current board.Do you believe county board members and the chairman should receive health insurance and pension benefits' If you are running for one of those positions, do you plan on accepting those benefits' Why or why not?I do believe that the full time position of Chairman should receive benefits, as do all full time employees of the County. I do not think it is fair that part time board members receive benefits when the part time employees do not receive benefits. Yes, I would accept the benefits just as I would at any other full time job.How do you resolve the ongoing debate over the county board setting budgets for departments run by other elected officials whom the county board has no control over? How should the county board enforce the budgets it sets'This is why the County needs to hire an administrator.