Batavia Mayor Jeff Schielke, Kendall Sheriff Richard Randall, Naperville Councilman Doug Krause and Elgin Councilman Robert Gillam discuss their many years as elected officials

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Naperville City Councilman Doug Krause during a open house event at the Carillon Club community in Naperville, Ill., on Thursday, Oct. 6, 2011. Krause is also a real estate broker for RE/Max of Naperville. | Corey R. Minkanic~For Sun-Times Media

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Updated: November 16, 2011 10:21AM

I learned something a long time ago about asking Jeff Schielke, mayor of Batavia, if he’s running for re-election.

It’s pointless.

That’s because he truly doesn’t know, especially far in advance. His answer is always the same: something along the lines of, We’ll see what people think when the time comes. So far, I’ve learned to take that as a yes, even if sometimes he says it like a no. That’s because Schielke has been mayor for 30 years, now in his eighth term.

When he last ran for mayor in 2009, he had two opponents who announced well ahead of him. I heard from people all around town this was the year Schielke would lose. He spent his own money to buy 500 yard signs, the lion’s share of his campaign. Within a week, 400 of them were in the yards of people requesting them. He was re-elected.

A similar thing can be said of Kendall County Sheriff Richard Randall, whose last campaign, in 2010, I also covered. He faced a spirited opponent, and there was a real issue about the sheriff’s office, particularly one of its employees.

Randall ended up winning convincingly, and put his money where his mouth had been during the campaign: He made changes in his office regarding more transparency that his opponent had called for.

Randall is now in his 25th year of being Kendall County Sheriff.

Long-term politicians and public servants like these learn the lessons of survival by mastering the nuance of political and public service. They learn when to pick their battles, when to speak out and when to stay quiet. Mostly, they learn how to make people happy with their performances.

Yes, it sounds a little crazy, but they are the most philosophical about losing, the ones who never take anything for granted, who never look too far ahead, but always have a Plan B.

When I interviewed Schielke for this story, he mentioned that his term is up in 2013. My first impulse was to ask him if this was his last term, or if he would run again. He just smiled and said, “Well, we’ll see what people say.”

Got me again.

JEFF SCHIELKE,
Batavia Mayor

BY STEVE LORD

Not that this was ever his goal, but when the current term of Jeff Schielke, mayor of Batavia, ends in 2013, he will have been mayor for 32 years, and he will be 64 years old.

Which means “I will have been mayor for half of my life,” he points out.

He is in his eighth term, which puts him in the top five in the state for current longevity. “But I’m told I hold the record for Kane County,” he says.

It’s an amazing record for some people to contemplate. “The sense of accomplishment keeps me going,” he says. When certain things get close, you want to see them through.”

Schielke has a strong sense of local history. He also stays visible in the community — through his work with the fire department, and staying connected to the schools.

Schielke was a volunteer fireman before he was mayor, and he still holds the title of Fire Department photographer, along with Alderman Corey Sparks.

“When I show up at fire scenes, people really appreciate that I’m there,” he says.

Shortly after first being elected, Schielke went to the Batavia School District and said he would like to make regular appearances at the schools. Just this week, he went to Storm Elementary School to help hand out pencils and notebooks the children earned as an incentive to walk to school.

“I have people who come up to me and say, ‘I remember when you came and talked to my class in second grade.”

There are more tangible accomplishments Schielke is proud of, too.

One of those is the development of Randall Road as a commercial center, which he says has been a money-raising lifesaver for the community. He smiles as he admits that the beginning of that development was more by accident than anything else. But it created a synergy out there, he says.

Schielke also points to his work on the PACE suburban bus board; that he was involved with former Chicago Mayor Richard Daley on the expansion of O’Hare Airport, and has been involved with regional planning organizations such as the Metropolitan Planning Council, and the Metropolis 2020 organization.

He also has been chairman of the Kane-Kendall Council of Mayors, an organization that helps funnel federal and state money that comes to the region.

Despite his work bringing federal dollars to the area, he says that is one of the biggest changes he has seen in recent years.

When Schielke says having a knowledge of local history is important, he is serious. He authored a book on local history. But he expounds on that when he gives advice to potential office-seekers.

”Do your homework, know the history of who’s been in there before you,” he says. “Know what that person did, positive and negative. You should always give those people the credit ...”

RICHARD RANDALL, Kendall County Sheriff

BY STEVE LORD

Richard Randall smiles when he remembers his first run for sheriff.

It was not a job he wanted, nor even aspired to. He was happy as chief of police in Yorkville.

But during the times of controversial Sheriff Charles McDonald, Randall visited the political people in the county who asked him to run.

Although he didn’t consider himself a politician, he soon became sheriff, a position he has held now for 25 years and counting. While there are several downstate sheriffs with more longevity, there are not many throughout the state. He shares the longevity distinction with Roger Scott in neighboring DeKalb County, also in his 25th year.

Randall attributes his success and longevity to stressing public service over politics. “I’ve always been a public servant,” he says. “I don’t care whether you’re Republican or Democrat. If I find a person bleeding on a sidewalk, I’m gonna help. You represent everybody.”

One key to longevity in office, Randall insists, is being “blessed with having great people who made me look very good.”

In addition to being a sheriff, he is a captain in the Bristol-Kendall Fire District, where he has worked for 43 years. He also “attends a lot of Boy Scout suppers ... to be supportive of the community.” Last year, Randall became a member of the first board for Kendall Public Action to Deliver Shelter (PADS) for the homeless.

Randall also has worked for about 10 years on the Criminal Intelligence Coordinating Council, a U.S. Justice Department initiative. He became involved through the state sheriff’s association, and former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, who is a personal friend.

Randall has also spent much time on Project North Star, which looks at issues with the United States and Canadian border.

He chuckles when he remembers that first call from a member of the Justice Department about being on the committee.

“I said, ‘Do you know who you’re talking to? Kendall County is nowhere near the Canadian border,’” he says. “The next thing I said was, ‘OK.’”

DOUG KRAUSE,
Naperville City Councilman

BY SUSAN CARLMAN

The hours are long, the pay minimal, the toil often thankless.

Those things don’t really bother Doug Krause. Often outspoken and sometimes a sole dissenter, the six-term Naperville City Council member has a voice, and he’s not afraid to use it.

“Every election, to me, gives people the opportunity to say if they like what I’m doing. If you don’t, vote me out,” said Krause, 63, early one recent morning at a local Starbucks.

The longtime resident and Realtor has been through a lot of campaigns, not all of them successful. In two bids for mayor over the past five years and a pair of runs for the state House earlier in the decade, Krause fell short. He remains undeterred, taking it as a sign voters would like him to stay put. He plans to run for a seventh term on the council in 2013, but if Mayor A. George Pradel steps down two years later at the end of his recently begun fifth term, as he has said he plans to do, Krause will launch a third attempt to take the city’s top elected post.

He has become pretty adept at updating signs used in past campaigns. He hangs onto them, and modifies the particulars when they can be used again. But first comes the talk with his family: wife Cyndee and in years past, their four kids.

“You sit down, every time you’re going to run, and talk to the family,” said Krause, who doesn’t see anything winnable in an office run that doesn’t have support on the home front. “They have to sacrifice a lot.”

Krause has set his sights on other constituencies when it has seemed like the right time. He recently toyed with the idea of putting in a bid for a DuPage County Board seat. He had concerns about the frequency of contracts being awarded by the board without competitive bids, and wanted to tackle the task of streamlining the county’s many small taxing bodies. Once he started talking to voters about making a change, however, he decided to keep his focus on the city.

“There’s some heavy issues here that need to have a different voice,” Krause said.

His skin is pretty thick, so the currently pervasive anger at those in elected office isn’t anything he takes personally.

“There’s this thinking that ‘we want everybody out,’” he said.
When times are especially tough, there are difficult calls to be made. People are fed up, and with good reason. As a decision maker, Krause thinks it’s important to spread out the pain and thus minimize it: Letting one or two city employees go or cutting back on brush pickup are less unpalatable options, he said, than raising people’s taxes. But it’s futile to try to please everybody all the time.

“Not everyone likes you. Every time you vote, half the people are unhappy,” he said. “You have to try to find a compromise.”

Now and then, it’s more than half. Krause doesn’t mind being a minority of one. Last Tuesday he cast the sole dissenting vote when the council decided to let residents opt out of the $22 million Smart Grid Initiative, which aims to install high-tech electric meters in Naperville homes and businesses. He remains unconvinced the system makes sense.

Because he is “pro development,” he also is in favor of a project his council colleagues have given a tepid response so far. The proposed Freedom Plaza project, comprising a hotel, restaurant and residential facility for people with Alzheimer’s disease, has garnered a thumbs-down from city staff, citing comprehensive plans that envision office or research/development uses for the site near Interstate 88. Krause’s rationale that “hard economic times” call for some flexibility in zoning decisions is at odds with several others on the council, which has postponed a decision on the request until mid-November.

Dialog that brings in different perspectives seems to energize Krause, who also opposes the ward representation system voted in by city residents last April, saying it limits “the potential for bargaining” by assigning residents to a specific officeholder.

While he doesn’t envision stepping away from public life any time soon, Krause knows the day will come.

“I’ve always said when it isn’t fun, or when I start — as I’ve seen other council members do — barking at people when they come up the podium, I’ll stop,” he said. “When you get like that, it’s time to be out.”

ROBERT GILLIAM,
Elgin City Councilman

BY MIKE DANAHEY

Veteran Elgin city councilman Robert Gilliam got involved in local politics back in the 1970s.

“There was a little unrest in the African American community. My uncle suggested that instead of complaining, to get involved,” Gilliam said.

So Gilliam was among a half dozen men who met to decide who might run, “And I drew the short straw,” Gilliam joked.

Gilliam has been serving on the city council since 1973, when he was just 28 years old. He worked from 1968 until 2002 as an educator in District U-46. Though he hasn’t made up his mind if he will run again in 2013, as for why he has remained part of the process, “My wife says I love Elgin as much as I love her. I’m an Elgin guy, and I enjoy being involved. I think anyone who can should serve the community in some fashion,” Gilliam said.

Of his toughest decisions, Gilliam recalled three. Back in the mid-1970s, Gilliam was on the winning side of a 4-3 vote to build a new water plant for Elgin — one that would use water from the Fox River, which was a controversial decision at the time.

“That decision really turned Elgin around. Because of it, we have more water than surrounding towns, and we’re selling our water to other villages,” Gilliam said.

In the 1990s, Gilliam was on the short side of a 4 -3 vote, casting his against allowing the Grand Victoria Casino to launch on the Fox downtown. Gilliam said he based his vote on input from the community, particularly local churches, which felt the riverboat would be a detriment to the city.

“Fortunately, people a lot smarter than me voted for the casino. It’s been a big asset to Elgin,” he said.

Another tough decision came last decade, when Gilliam was among those who approved the city building The Centre in downtown Elgin. Though he knows some people who to this day won’t visit the facility, Gilliam said, “It was the best decision we made.” His own regret about the effort was thinking that it could become a money-making operation.

Gilliam noted that The Centre’s amenities (gym, pool, ballroom, classrooms and more) make the community better and attract thousands of visitors each month. “And if it didn’t get built, what would be in that spot today?” he rhetorically asked.

Having open council elections has, for the most part, kept ideology out of local politics, Gilliam said. People tend to run not because they are Democrat or Republican but in the hopes of making the community better, he noted. The local media, he said, has helped keep the council under close scrutiny. With the rise of the Internet, there’s certainly more anonymous gossip going on with no accountability, he noted, “but you develop a pretty thick skin.”

Gilliam describes the current council as “a pretty good group.” A key to operating in the city’s politics is separating the issues from the personalities and focusing on the former, he said.

Of his own success at the polls, Gilliam said he campaigns hard and it still feels good to be re-elected. During his tenure, he is most proud of how the community has changed for the better. That work continues with downtown improvements which, like many things, have been impacted by the recession.

It is important those efforts succeed, he says. “The first thing people do when they check out a city is look around its downtown to see what a nice community it may be.

“We’re getting there,” Gilliam said, “and the ArtSpace project, the money coming from the state for the Riverside Drive improvements, and bringing in more restaurants will help.”