Farmers Weekly Review

Nick Reiher

I’m sure most of you follow the doings of county government, including the County Board, with great fervor. But for the handful who don’t, let me give you a little background.
Following the 2020 census and the ensuing redistricting of County Board boundaries, we now have 11 districts instead of 13, still each served by two member. So, there are 22 board members, down from 26.
The fickle finger of fate once again produced a County Board split with 11 Republicans and 11 Democrats. As we learned several years ago when this happened, it has much, much more effect on our daily lives than when any planets align or move in different directions.
This time, for example, the Democrats were set once again to have a de facto majority, since County Executive Jennifer Bertino-Tarrant, a Democrat, could break all ties.
But for some reason, when it came time to vote on the County Board leader, Democrats found themselves suddenly one member short of a tie. Thus, Republicans, with that sudden majority, voted in Judy Ogalla, R-Monee, as County Board leader.
Joining her on the board’s Mount Rushmore of leadership would be Republican Steve Balich of Homer Glen and Democrat Jackie Traynere of Bolingbrook. Balich is as far right as Traynere is far left.
The three, along with County Board Chief of Staff Kim Fladhammer, found themselves in the same room one Thursday, a week before the June 15 County Board meeting.
Among the topics discussed in that private meeting were what proclamations the board would consider at its monthly meeting.
Balich, Ogalla recalled later, said there should be one for Juneteenth, which would be celebrated the following June 19, as it had been unofficially since the 1920s and officially as of a few years ago.
Ogalla said Traynere, who would announce at the board meeting that she has a gay daughter, offered the that board should recognize Pride Month, celebrated since the Stonewall riots, a series of riots for gay liberation that took place over several days beginning on June 28, 1969.
Balich, Ogalla recalled, then suggested the county recognize June as part of National Family Month.
National Family Month, according to Childrenofallnations.com, was created by Kid’s Peace to have a renewed focus on families experiencing the pressures caused by contemporary society while trying to raise and nurture their children.
Ogalla said the issue became more complicated when, despite her protests, Balich insisted Moms for America be honored in the proclamation as upholding those standards.
Members of Moms for America would see no conflict with their mission and those standards.
Others see the group as extremely right wing, anti-LGBTQ+, anti-semitic and racist.
Ogalla, saying she was trying to broker a peace at the leadership meeting, told Balich the group could maybe be mentioned in the proclamation, but not honored.
The directives then were to be handed off to the County Board staff, who would write up the proclamations for perusal before the meeting.
Before they could, Ogalla said, she began receiving texts on the following Saturday about the board preparing to honor Moms for America. Other County Board members were getting messages from an angry public, too, she said.
Ogalla doesn’t know how word got out about the proclamation and with the wrong intent to boot. But by that Sunday, there were enough calls on the issue that she called Traynere to see what she wanted to do.
Traynere, Ogalla said, told her to pull all the proclamations, including, for some reason, the one for Juneteenth. Ogalla called Balich, and he said fine with him.
So, the proclamations were pulled from the County Board agenda before they even were written. Members of the public – many motivated by a website devoted to ripping Balich and his oft-controversial comments – didn’t get the memo. Or if they did, they decided to show up at the County Board meeting to ask WTH anyway.
“Everybody has a right to be different,” Ogalla said. “They have a right to their feelings. … But don’t impose them on me.”
Bertino-Tarrant said during the meeting she never saw a proclamation. But when she heard about it, she said there would be no way she would sign a proclamation like that. She later would issue her own proclamation honoring Juneteenth and noted the county has had a Pride flag raised in front of the County Building during June.
She, Traynere and Ogalla said looking ahead, they will reconsider how proclamations are offered. Now, any person can request one, and those who didn’t may not know until the board meeting what they say.
That practice has led to arguments at the meetings, resulting in battles over gun safety proclamations and others on the County Board floor. Reminded the County Board unanimously approved a proclamation supporting Pride Month last year, Ogalla said, “That’s right. And this is a different board, isn’t it?”
She said maybe sticking to food-related proclamations like Donut Day or Taco Day would be safer.
“But then you’d get someone who is vegan,” she said.
So, like I said, there is a split County Board.