The lack of a quorum at meetings has reached excessive proportions. Unless an individual is
gravely ill, there should be no reason to attend any meeting remotely. The covid crisis, which
necessitated this need, is behind us. The state of emergency has ended and the government has
even declared that masks are unnecessary.

You have been elected to do a job representing your constituents. At most, you are required to
attend perhaps 4 or 5 meetings a month. Many of you that have full time jobs have made
arrangements with your employer to take a half day off and that is commendable. By the way, I
applaud those of you that attend all meetings regardless of your specific assignments and other
obligations. Finding the time to attend no matter what outside circumstances there are is a true
sign of leadership.

One of the biggest reasons for the lack of personal attendance or the loss of a quorum during a
meeting is the fact that many of these meetings go on endlessly. Almost every meeting seems to
establish a new record for length. There is no reason for a any meetings of the full board to last
up to 6 hours. A meeting that has to be continued because you lose the quorum is a waste of time for each of you, and perhaps more important, county staff and the taxpayers. It also makes the leadership look incompetent.

When the board cannot even get a quorum for Committee of the whole meetings, for over a year it’s time to discontinue that meeting. You are assigned to be on committees and get a schedule of all meetings in advance. If you don’t want to take the time to
do what you’ve been elected to do, how do you think this affects those that have elected you to
represent them? If you cannot make a meeting because of a prior commitment, then you should
be marked absent and not given an opportunity to “call in” your vote. When your name has to be
called repeatedly because of something you’re doing at your other job has taken priority, it’s
rude, unnecessary and takes up valuable time.

If you are unable or unwilling to attend a meeting
in person then maybe it’s time to consider stepping down and letting someone else do the job.
Many board members who attend diligently manage to schedule important personal matters on
Mondays or weekday afternoons when no meetings are usually scheduled. But when a board
member does not timely notify the board office or committee chair that they will not be at a
scheduled meeting it is often too late to send a postponement notice. The solution all too often
has been to call another special meeting inconveniencing your fellow board members, county
staff and we the people once again.

Thank you,
Ellen Nottke
Republican Candidate for Kane County Board District 2