Dupage Policy Journal

Earlier this year when DuPage County Board Chairman Dan Cronin announced his intentions to appoint a fellow Republican to the county's health and human services committee, several Democrats alleged Cronin passed over a female for the job due to her gender and politics.

Paul Hall said in a statement that he didn't feel Julie Renehan was suited for the position. He even urged voters to vote her out.

"On July 17, I read a Daily Herald story written by Robert Sanchez in which three county board members blasted Chairman Cronin for not picking county board member Renehan for a vacant health and human services chairmanship," Hall said in the statement. "Commissioners Ozog, DeSart and Chaplin inferred that the board should have picked Renehan instead of the current board of health president Sam Tornatore to fill the vacant position."

Hall said Renehan was quoted in the same article as saying, "My experience certainly qualifies me to take over a committee," but he did not agree.

"I would certainly beg to differ," Hall said. "In fact, I believe Member Renehan's experience certainly qualifies for her to not take over the health and human services committee. I live close to the former location of the Sterogenics facility, which everyone knows was poisoning my community for decades with carcinogens."

Hall said in the time of his community's greatest need, many elected officials stood up to protect the residents, except for Renehan.

"Despite what I'm told she says in public and on social media — wherever she was looking for a vote — Julie Renehan stood with the evil Sterogenics Corporation against legislation that would have stopped the corporation from polluting us," Hall said. "SB 1852, filed by Illinois Sen. John Curran, would've prevented Sterogenics from poisoning us. There were 864 people who filed witness slips in support of the bill. There were 15 people who filed witness slips in opposition. Of those 15, four were the Chemical Industry Council of Illinois, the Illinois Manufacturers Association, Sterogenics themselves and County Commissioner Julie Renehan."

 Hall said Renehan stood on record with Sterogenics, the chemical industry and her own economic interests, as her family owns a company down the street from Sterogenics and against her own district.

"(This is) shameful behavior from anyone not to mention someone who wants a health chair title," Hall said. "Maybe instead of asking for a promotion, Julie Renehan should resign her vice chairmanship. She belongs nowhere near the position of healthcare or public service. She has proven herself a hypocrite and someone who isn't interested in public health."

Back in 2009, Renehan's company, Stone Wheel Inc., was named as a defendant in a lawsuit alleging gender discrimination and sexual harassment. The plaintiff in that lawsuit, Priscilla A. Paszkiet, was hired at Stone Wheel as a driver and was initially told the position would pay $10 per hour, but, when hired, it only paid $8 per hour.

Paszkiet claimed she was threatened with retribution if she reported the sexual harassment and hostile work environment, with one supervisor even telling her if she made any complaints, she would lose her job because he was friends with House Speaker Mike Madigan's daughter.

Renehan has been vice-chairman of the health and human services committee for more than a year and half.

When Cronin chose Tornatore, he said he'd done so because Tornatore had been the president of the DuPage County Board of Health and had served on the committee for seven years, the news media reported.

"Sam's deep understanding of the county public health system, his experience dealing with and advocating for various nonprofit agencies and his heartfelt support of the DuPage Care Center make him the perfect leader for this role," Cronin said in a letter to the board.

In a letter to Cronin, Commissioners Elizabeth Chaplin, Dawn DeSart and Mary FitzGerald Ozog told Cronin they would vote 'no' on Tornatore's appointment, saying Cronin was playing politics.