Chief’s wife runs for C'ville Trustee

The natives are restless in Carpentersville!

In its upcoming Village election set for April 7, there are three contenders for the Village President position and there are eight candidates in the race for Trustee. The pecking order on the ballot has been determined, but here's the fly in the ointment.

The petitions of every - that's every - candidate have been challenged. Last Monday evening the Carpentersville Electoral Board met to consider the challenges, and on Friday at 6:30PM the Board will meet again. Somebody, make some extra coffee!

One of the candidates for Trustee is Debra Lowen, wife of Woodstock's Police Chief Bob Lowen. Mrs. Lowen's baking skills are well-known to Woodstock residents who attend the monthly Coffee with the Chief, because she bakes the goodies and sends them into Woodstock as treats for the Monday evening program each month. And they are delicious! Thanks, Mrs. Lowen.

Challenges filed by two objectors listed many irregularities on the signed petitioners submitted for this election. Somebody went to a lot of work to check each name and figure out why the person should not have signed the petition. (And some people say that I have a lot of time on my hands!)

But get this! Only one irregularity was presented in regard to Mrs. Lowen’s petition. According to Verified Obfector (sic) Frank Stoneham, Nominating Papers for the April 7th election are, by State law, to contain at least 148, but not more than 225, signatures of qualified, registered and legal voters.

Mrs. Lowen committed the unpardonable sin, in Frank Stoneham’s mind, of presenting petitions signed by 241 voters. Shame, shame, shame…

First of all, what could possibly be the reason for such a limit imposed by State law? Why should there be any maximum limit at all?

All the Board has to do is find a minimum of 148 of the signatures to be of “qualified, registered and legal voters” and stop counting. Pretty simple.

Will it throw out her petition because she presented 16 signatures too many? I certainly hope not! Usually, there are numerous collectors of signatures. And heaven help the candidate who discards a petition containing signatures; right? So she did the right thing by submitting all the petitions. Good luck, Mrs. Lowen!

Perhaps the Board will throw out all the objections of Frank Stoneham, who was brash enough to list VERIFIED OBFECTOR (sic) in bold print on his otherwise very official looking objection forms. What is an Obfector? There may be such an animal, but I didn’t find it in my dictionary.

Mrs. Lowen’s candidacy for Trustee in Carpentersville does bring up an interesting local question. The Woodstock City Code requires all sworn officers of the Woodstock Police Department to live in McHenry County. Their address in Carpentersville is in Kane County. And I thought I had read somewhere that the City of Woodstock required its police chief to live in Woodstock.

I would guess that the depressed real estate market might have something to do with the Chief’s not having moved to Woodstock. And 17 miles isn’t all that far, should he have to come back in the middle of the night on business. But the residency requirement is in the City Code. Who can make an exception to that? Only the City Council?