D46 Board Member Sue Facklam's Committees and Appointments Questioned

The Grayslake District 46 School Board does not have the authority to remove board member Sue Facklam as board secretary, nor can it prevent her from serving as an elected, at-large member of an Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) committee.

This was the answer given by D46 Board President Ray Millington in response to a request from board member Kip Evans to remove Facklam from any appointments and committees in which she represents the district.

“Our attorney said we can’t make that decision because she is an elected official. We have no authority to change that,” said Millington at the board’s Jan. 18 meeting.

The board can, however, vote to remove Facklam as its representative on the Special Education District of Lake County’s governing board. This is because Facklam was elected to this post by the D46 board.

Facklam had no comment. The matter is expected to be on the next meeting’s agenda for action.

Evans made the requests earlier this month in reaction to an investigation by the Lake  County State’s Attorney’s Office that concluded Facklam violated the state’s election code by giving high school students free gift cards in exchange for registering to vote for her in the April 2011 school board elections.

Though Facklam’s actions constituted a Class 4 felony, the state’s attorney’s office declined to prosecute. Facklam was censured by the school board in November and remains on the board.

Believing the censure was nothing more than a verbal slap on the wrist, Evans has been calling for further action.

Little can be done, if anything, said Millington, who publicly called for an end to the “harassment and personal attacks” on Facklam.

Board member Shannon Smigielski said, “Sue, I don’t think you’re all bad, but you’ve shown not one iota of remorse.”

“Who hasn’t said something they later regretted?” said Millington, referring to e-mails exchanged between Facklam and former board president Mary Garcia that talked about giving students gift cards for votes.

“We need to put this behind us and move forward,” said Millington.

“We need leadership from you to make that happen,” said board member Michael Carbone.

The board also discussed an attorney fee related to Facklam.

Smigielski criticized Facklam for e-mailing the D46 attorney about the state’s attorney’s investigation into her alleged election violation and her subsequent censure, which resulted in a $40 attorney consultation fee for the school district.

Smigielski said Facklam had no right to contact the attorney for what she called a personal matter. Furthermore, she said, it is an unwritten rule that only the board president, superintendent and business manager can contact the attorney on the district’s behalf, not random board members.

“Taxpayers shouldn’t be paying for your mistake,” said Smigielski.

Facklam said she had a personal check to cover the $40 fee.