 (l to r) Newly elected board members Carissa Casbon (District 7), Gina Roberts (District 4), and Paras Parekh (District 12) were sworn into office Monday morning, Dec. 7 by Lake County Chief Judge Diane Winter.
Three newly elected Lake County Board members were sworn into office this morning, along with five members who were elected to subsequent terms of office.
The three new board members are District 4 representative Gina Roberts of Beach Park, District 7 representative Carissa Casbon of unincorporated Warren Township and District 12 representative Paras Parekh of Highland Park.
All have been active in their communities. Roberts most recently served as board member and secretary of Zion-Benton Township High School District 126; Casbon most recently served as school board president of Millburn Elementary District 24; and Parekh most recently served as a trustee for West Deerfield Township.
After the swearing-in, the board's first official act of business was to appoint a Chair and Vice-Chair, each of whom serve for two-year terms. The board voted to re-appoint Sandy Hart (left) as Lake County Board Chair and Mary Ross-Cunningham (right) as Lake County Board Vice-Chair. Hart, who resides in Lake Bluff, has served on the board since 2012, and as its chair since 2018. Cunningham, who resides in Waukegan, has served on the board since 2002 and as its vice-chair since 2018.
"In just two years as Board Chair, Sandy Hart has led us in a positive direction, focusing on board governance and ways to help people in need. This year she led us through an unprecedented crisis, keeping us informed, coordinating with our public health experts and empowering us as a board to make key decisions regarding funding and budgetary priorities. I know in her second term as chair we can expect great things from her, and from our collective action as a board," said Board Member and Finance Committee Chair Paul Frank in nominating Hart to serve once again as Chair.
"I am really grateful for this board’s continued faith in me and am honored to again serve as chair of the Lake County Board. The COVID-19 pandemic has taken a terrible toll, resulting in a loss of life, jobs, income education and normalcy that we could not have imagined one year ago," said Hart, who went on thank the County's employees and all essential workers in the county for their devotion to keeping the county running during these challenging times. "By working together and remaining focused on the current and future needs of Lake County, we’ll recover from this pandemic and come back even stronger than we were."
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 Linda Pedersen (District 1); Sandy Hart (District 13); Diane Hewitt (District 2); Terry Wilke (District 16); and Marah Altenberg (District 20) were also sworn in by Chief Judge Diane Winter on Monday, Dec. 7.
In addition to the three new board members, five board members who have been on the board and were elected to new terms were also sworn in. They are Linda Pedersen of Antioch, District 1, who has served on the board since 2008; Diane Hewitt of Zion, District 2, who has served on the board since 2008; Sandy Hart of Lake Bluff, District 13, who has served on the board since 2012; Terry Wilke of Round Lake Beach, District 16, who has served on the board since 2008, and Marah Altenberg of Buffalo Grove, District 20, who has served on the board since 2020 after being appointed to fill the vacancy of former board member Adam Didech.
At the Dec. 7 meeting, Chair Hart appointed members of the Board Rules Committee, which will meet at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday Dec. 9 for the purpose of discussing rules of order and operational procedures, and for determining the calendar of board and committee meetings for the coming year. The full board is scheduled to meet again on Tuesday, Dec. 15. All board and committee meetings can be viewed live at lakecounty.tv.
Contact
Arin Thrower
Chief Communications Officer
athrower@lakecountyil.gov
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