County Board chair accused of ethics violation

Charges that County Board Chairwoman Suzi Schmidt violated state ethics rules in planning a fund-raiser for her State Senate run were rebuffed Tuesday by Schmidt and State Rep. JoAnn Osmond, R-Antioch.

Nancy Shepherdson, Democratic 8th District State Central Committeewoman, said in a release that the use of Osmond's district office number as an RSVP point for a Schmidt fund-raising event disregarded "any pretense of separation between official government duties and political fund-raising." Notices for the event specified that people should RSVP by calling Linda Pederson -- a Republican County Board member helping Schmidt with her run for the seat held by state Sen. Michael Bond, D-Grayslake -- at Osmond's district office.

"Suzi Schmidt is kicking off her campaign by asking other government officials to raise money for her on state time and with state resources," Shepherdson said. "And JoAnn Osmond and Linda Pederson happily obliged."

Schmidt and Osmond countered that Osmond's office is located in a building that she owns. Osmond said she also owns the phones and doesn't accept any state money for the running of her office.

"I pay for everything," Osmond said. "To be honest with you, the state of Illinois doesn't pay their bills on time."

Osmond said she will check to make sure there are no ethical violations with the arrangement.

Schmidt says she does all her mailings from home and pays for all of her campaign materials.