A process server’s conclusion that County Board Member Suzanne Petrella’s home was unoccupied in March has strengthened some political opponents’ doubts about her residency and her role in the county board’s redistricting process.

Petrella, who last week was reappointed to her District 1 seat after being removed over her residency, said she was living at her long-time Yorkville home in March while she had surgery that required hospitalization for three or four days. She also sometimes stayed at her boyfriend’s home at 1394 Route 31, Oswego.

Court records show Robert B. Holst, of United Processing Inc., unsuccessfully tried to deliver foreclosure paperwork to Petrella at 14 Maple St. in Yorkville eight times over two weeks in March. He noted stopping by the home as early as 8:45 a.m. and as late as 8:40 p.m. but indicated that no one seemed to have been at the residence between his first visit March 2 and his last March 16.

“The home clearly appears unoccupied,” Holst wrote in a court affidavit. “There is personal property packed in boxes stacked neatly in preparation for moving and no furniture visible.”

His observations came months before Petrella publicly acknowledged moving out of her district beginning in October and months before she voted for a favorable boundary change. The redistricting committee that ultimately would recommend a boundary line change that pushed Petrella’s boyfriend’s home from District 2 into District 1 met – with Petrella in attendance - for the first time March 14. Meeting minutes also show Petrella attended both the county board meetings in March.

Petrella said Holst would not have been able to see her living quarters from the home’s front window. The boxes he saw stacked contained her grown children’s belongings, she said. Both her sons live out-of-state, while her daughter lives in downtown Chicago.

“It was a tough process to leave the home (where) I had raised my children,” Petrella said. “… I insisted they take everything they had so I would not have to do it alone.”

The process server’s log “casts an even longer shadow of doubt on Petrella's residency question,” said Judy Gilmour, who, like Petrella, is seeking a Republican county board seat in District 1. Eight Republicans are seeking five nominations in the March primary; all 10 county board seats are up for election this year.

“This document seems to indicate that board member Petrella's seat was vacant for much longer than she said,” Gilmour said in an e-mail. “The people deserve to know that their representatives on the county board are being honest and forthright in saying the whole truth. This is one more reason why this county board needs new, qualified members who will serve the people with integrity and transparency, and is the reason why I twice offered my services to the Chairman to fill the vacant seat.”

Another Republican candidate in District 1 – Todd Milliron – said he was disappointed Petrella hadn’t been more forthright about her living situation.

“Her lack of candor is disturbing, but what is more troubling is how her charade fashioned the new Kendall County Reapportionment (Redistricting)  Plan and assured  Ms. Petrella’s Rt. 31 address in Oswego Precinct 15 would be so manipulated for her own political and electoral benefit,” Milliron wrote in an e-mail. “It was not something Ms. Petrella could have accomplish alone; she had help and was in cahoots with certain Kendall County Board members who were also complicit in aiding and abetting this very selfish pretense.”

The issue surfaced after Petrella filed nominating petitions seeking re-election that listed 1394 Route 31, Oswego, as her address this winter.

Petrella said she was staying at the address on Route 31 as she moved from her long-term residence at 14 Maple Street, Yorkville, to 4588 Camden Lane, Yorkville—both addresses in District 1. Petrella said she started moving in October but didn’t draw a lease on the Camden Lane unit until State’s Attorney Eric Weis brought the residency issue to her attention.

Petrella has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and stated she lived outside District 1 – the county board district she was elected to represent – for about four weeks. Kendall County voter's registration records showed she registered at the 14 Maple St. address in January 1998, changed her registration to the Route 31 address on Nov. 2, and changed it to the Camden Lane address on Dec. 14.

She has denied any personal motivations in her redistricting votes, emphasizing that the new boundaries followed an overall preference for natural boundaries – in this case, the river.

The county board voted to vacate her seat in December over her residency. Then, county board members voted 5-3 to affirm reappointing her after she showed Chairman John Purcell bills and a driver’s license with a new District 1 address.

Last week, Purcell stood by his decision to reappoint her to the District 1 seat, emphasizing that voters could elect different candidates “if people are disappointed with the performance of county board members.”

Purcell also indicated the affidavit didn’t prove she was living outside District 1 in March or was not living at 14 Maple St. then.

Petrella and Purcell were among the five county board members who voted June 7 in favor of the redistricting plan that shifted the Route 31 address listed on Petrella’s candidate petition from District 2 to District 1.

Voting against that redistricting plan were Bob Davidson, Dan Koukol and Elizabeth Flowers.