Lake Forest Cop Takes On Lake County Board Chair In District 13 Candidate Forum

LAKE BLUFF, IL — A pair of Lake Bluff residents competing for a seat representing the area on the Lake County Board appeared together this month at a cordial candidate forum.

Sandy Hart, a member of the 19-member board for the past dozen years and its chair since Democrats gained a majority in 2018 for the first time in its history, faces a challenge from Republican Ben Grum, a Lake Forest police commander making his first foray into electoral politics in his campaign for the 13th District, which includes Lake Bluff, as well as portions of Gurnee, North Chicago and Waukegan.

Both candidates found agreement on the importance of affordable housing development, stormwater management, wetlands preservation, public safety and reporting illegal burning. But throughout the forum, questions from the moderator and fact-checking from the incumbent exposed the newcomer's lack of familiarity with the functions of county government.

"The gas tax has been implemented, adding 8 cents a gallon to each and every gallon of gas that you purchase and I think there's no reason to believe that's not going to continue to go up in the coming years," Grum said.

"Just to be really clear, that's not accurate, it is a 4-cent gas tax, it is the lowest gas tax [of] any other county in the Chicagoland area, and that 4-cent gas tax takes the burden off of our property owners," Hart responded.

"Ms. Hart's right, it was 4 cents, not 8, I'm just predicting the future, so I'm sorry about that," Grum said later.

"So, to be clear, for the gas tax to reach 8 cents, that would be decades away, by state law, it can't increase that quickly," Hart said.

The Illinois County Motor Fuel Tax Law, which governs the board's authority to levy a gas tax, permits rates ranging from a minimum of 4 cents to a maximum of 8 cents per gallon, with increases tied to the consumer price index.

Grum emphasized the need for someone with public safety experience to join the board, which approves the budgets of the Lake County State's Attorney's Office and the Lake County Sheriff's Office.

"We are making critical decisions on what we are funding and the laws that are being passed at the state level, having someone with hands-on experience as to how to address those issues and how they're going to play out in the real world I think is extremely important, " Grum said.

"With that said, I think taxes have been a burden on all of us," he added. "I think it's been a smokes-and-mirrors game from the beginning."

Grum's public safety prescriptions primarily pertained to policy decisions outside the purview of the county board, as Hart, its chair, repeatedly pointed out.

The Lake Forest cop criticized the operations of the Lake County Sheriff's Office, which he described as short-staffed, and the Lake County State's Attorney's Office, which he said was experiencing massive turnover. (While data shows more than 100 of his 155 employees have left since he took over, Lake County State's Attorney Eric Rinehart at a recent forum attributed all of it to the misdemeanor traffic division.)

"Those are separate elected offices, and the county board doesn't have anything to do with those decisions, we do however manage the budgets for those two departments," Hart said.

When asked what the county board can do to improve public safety, Grum suggested improving recruitment for the sheriff's office and staffing jails.

"We need to be self-sufficient, we can't be transporting prisoners across county lines to have them housed, at the end of the day, that is a board issue, the operations of the county stops with the board, that's who's responsible, at the end of the day. Yes, the sheriff, yes, the state's attorney are involved, but there are [implementations] that the Lake County Board can take to make sure that these measures are taken care of and done and that's what I would do," Grum said.

"The operations of the sheriff's office [are] under the purview of the elected sheriff. The board does the finances," Hart responded. "The contract to ship people out to McHenry County was signed by the sheriff, not by the county board."

The board chair then pointed to the savings and 911 response time improvements gained by consolidating emergency communications response across towns and fire protections district.

"We've already seen a 911 consolidation here on a smaller scale, with Lake Bluff, Lake Forest, Highwood and Highland Park, this is much larger and we intend for that to grow with our new building in Libertyville," Hart said.

Both candidates were asked to name three items from the county budget that they would eliminate to save money for taxpayers.

"I cannot, I will be honest with you," Grum said, explaining he had gotten a booklet a few days earlier containing about a hundred pages of information about county services, but he did not yet understand them.

"I absolutely think there's at least three," he said. "But without being on the board and without this being my primary duty I feel like trying to pick those out without a detailed, thorough look at it would be inappropriate and irresponsible of me."

Hart pointed out anything eliminated items would have to be non-mandated services, giving the children's advocacy center as an example.

"One of the things that I work on, and that I'm really proud of, is getting rid of those special districts, drainage districts, sanitary districts, mosquito abatement districts — things that we no longer need — to save taxpayer money," Hart said.

Grum also suggested separating the dual roles of Lake County members serving simultaneously as Lake County Forest Preserve Commissioners, though Hart later pointed to the existing state law that provides for forest preserves as separate legal entities when a county has at least 800,000 residents. Lake County is about 100,000 people short of that mark.

At the Oct. 6 candidate forum, which was hosted at Lake Bluff Middle School by League of Women Voters of Lake Forest/Lake Bluff, along with Lake County League and Mano a Mano Family Resource Center, Hart was asked if the county should shift its revenue source from its current mix of sales and property taxes.

"Our revenue actually comes from many more places than that," Hart said.

"But I would say, look, we all live here, we have high property taxes," she said.

The board chair said property taxes comprise about 29 percent of the county's revenue. She said about 8 cents of homeowners' tax bills goes to the county government, with 2 cents to the forest preserve.

"What do you get for that 8 cents out of every dollar?" asked the Democrat. "You get the funding of the judiciary, you get the funding of the Lake County Health Department, all of our county roads, the bike paths that you might enjoy, like the Robert McClory Trail. You get funding for the jail and our sheriff's office, and then all ordinance planning, building and zoning."

Grum said property tax increases are out of control and must be curbed.

"I think we need to look for other revenue sources. I think economic development is one option," suggested the Republican.

"We all drive through Pleasant Prairie and Kenosha and we see some of the campuses and some of the businesses are moving up there," he said. "And if you drive down Sheridan Road in Waukegan and North Chicago, we have vast sections of industrial and commercial areas that can be developed into something that can increase revenues from other sources."

Watch Full Video: 2024 Lake County Board District 13 Candidate Forum