Lake County Board Republicans say ‘patronage’ behind former state Sen. Melinda Bush’s Metra board appointment

Lake County Board Democrats are defending the appointment of former state Sen. Melinda Bush to the county’s vacant seat on the Metra Board of Directors after the move drew sharp criticism as an example of “political patronage” from board Republicans last week.

District 5 member Kevin Hunter, R-Ingleside, said that eight Democrats who received a combined $24,000 in donations last summer and fall from the Lake County Democratic Women political action committee — which Bush relaunched in 2018 to help women get elected — should abstain from voting on someone who recently supported their campaigns.

“Four of the (board) members are current officers of the Lake County Democratic Women’s board,” Hunter said. “This is a paid position. This doesn’t pass the sniff test for myself or my constituents. I also feel that this reflects as a bad example of either pay-to-play politics or, at the very least, political patronage that I nor my colleagues should even have given the appointment for consideration.”

Bush won the vote of each Democrat, easily securing the appointment, while Republicans Hunter, Michael Danforth, R-Fox River Grove, Linda Pedersen, R-Antioch, and Adam Schlick, R-Wauconda, voted no.

Lake County Board Chair and District 13 member Sandy Hart, D-Lake Bluff, countered that Hunter’s statements were “extremely disappointing and offensive,” noting that he claimed incorrectly on the board floor that Bush still chairs the committee.

She said Bush is not involved on the Lake County Democratic Women’s executive board, and clarified that while the Illinois State Board of Elections website still lists Bush as its chair, Hart was elected to that post in January of 2022.

“It’s a PAC for which she has no involvement,” Hart said. “I’m the president of Lake County Democratic Women. I was president of Lake County Democratic Women when donations were made.”

Hart said outgoing Metra board representative Norm Carlson, whose retirement created the vacancy, District 6 County Board member John Wasik, D-Grayslake, and herself agreed Bush was the right fit after interviewing all three applicants.

“I don’t even understand the (criticism),” Hart said. “I don’t get it.”

The Metra Board of Directors is made up of 11 members from Cook County and the collar counties who serve four-year terms, meet monthly and receive $15,000 per year. Lake County’s appointment falls to Hart as the County Board chair.

Bush told the News-Sun that she has the experience to succeed in the new role, and that she “applied for it like anyone else did.”

“I went through the interviewing process,” she said. “I made sure I took that very seriously. I made sure that I had letters of recommendation supporting me. But frankly, all I really want to say is that I’m grateful to have the support and confidence of many members of the Lake County Board, and I’m looking forward to doing a good job in representing Lake County on the Metra board.”

Hart said Carlson did an “outstanding job” as Lake County’s representative, and approached her near the end of 2022 to share his plans to retire from the role.

Carlson declined to comment. Danforth and Schlick echoed Hunter’s sentiments.

“If the roles were reversed, I would abstain from voting,” Schlick said. “If the roles were reversed — and this was a Republican nominee, and a former Republican senator, and it was a Republican-led body — I could almost read the captions now: ‘Worse than Watergate, quid pro quo.’”

Danforth added, “I don’t think it passes the smell test. It smacks of patronage.”

Hart said she wanted to make it clear that Bush is passionate about serving on the Metra board, adding she had “many other opportunities in places to serve” after retiring from her state senator position in December.

“Just because you reactivate the PAC, does that mean everything the PAC does after falls back on you?” Hart asked.

Hart credited Bush’s involvement in the Rollins Road grade separation project, and that Bush’s relationships across levels of government and her historical knowledge will “go a long way.”

She pointed out that Bush is not the original founder of the Lake County Democratic Women PAC, which Susan Garrett formed in 2003, before it was dissolved in 2014 and reactivated in a new form under Bush.

Hunter argued in a follow-up interview that Lake County Democratic Women members are “misleading the state of Illinois” by not ensuring up-to-date information is available on the Illinois State Board of Elections’ website.

Over the years, the committee has donated tens of thousands of dollars to Democrats around Lake County.

District 8 member Diane Hewitt, D-Waukegan said Bush’s qualifications speak for themselves, before voting yes on her appointment.

“Just to set the record straight, I did not receive a penny,” Hewitt added. “Not a penny from that org.”

Wasik thanked the two other applicants who interviewed for the seat, and said Bush would “give it her all.”

“This (appointee) will be representing Lake County on the Metra board, reviewing budgets, doing some very hard work and hopefully improving our overall public transit profile in Lake County,” Wasik said.

Bush previously served as vice chair of the Illinois Senate’s Transportation Committee, and worked extensively on transportation issues in her decade as a state senator.

District 7 member Carissa Casbon, D-Gurnee, consulted with a lawyer and said she was advised that voting on the matter would not be a conflict of interest unless Bush was involved in the committee during the recent campaign cycle. She said if prior political donations were always accounted for in board appointments, “a lot of people wouldn’t have been eligible, and wouldn’t have been appointed.”

Sara Knizhnik, D-Vernon Hills, said Bush is “supremely qualified” for the role, and she felt comfortable weighing in on her appointment, adding that the donations she accepted from the PAC, “didn’t make or break my campaign.”

“Obviously, that (Illinois State Board of Elections website) should have been updated because it is simply wrong,” Knizhnik said.

Cunningham, a long-standing member of the Lake County Democratic Women, said she did not feel remorse about her vote because she trusted the application process and in Bush.

“ (Bush) deserves it,” Cunningham said. “She has a resume that was straight up to me.”

Hunter called the vote “just wrong,” and said it is “sickening” when Lake County Republicans “get $10,000 for the entire county from (Lake Forest billionaire Richard Uihlein and his wife, Elizabeth) and it’s a big deal,” but Democrats rake in more in donations from political action committees and it flies under the radar.

District 10 member Jessica Vealitzek, D-Hawthorn Woods, said she was “taken aback and surprised by” the Republican disapproval.

“ (Appointees) are usually people who are public servants, have a lot of experience and care about the issues, and all of that is Melinda,” Vealitzek said.

Gina Roberts, who is the vice chair of the Lake County Democratic Women, said she trusted the integrity of the application process.

“I didn’t know about Melinda being interviewed on this until I read the (board meeting) agenda,” Roberts said.

District 19 member Marah Altenberg, D-Buffalo Grove, said she would have abstained from the vote if Bush had still been on the committee’s executive board.