North Cook News

Illinois GOP Chairman Timothy Schneider was just 22, fresh out of the University of Illinois and helping his father run their family's Elgin area golf course when he was introduced to the power of politics.

Alcohol sales before noon had long been banned in unincorporated Cook County, and Schneider was trying to get the Cook County board's permission to sell a bloody mary to "early bird" golfers so inclined. 

"They simply play golf somewhere else," Schneider pleaded in a 1979 public hearing, as reported then by the Chicago Tribune.

Illinois GOP Chairman Tim Schneider

Four decades later, Cook County business owners make such pleas for mercy to Schneider, who is seeking his fourth term as a commissioner this November.

He, however, no longer has to be concerned with the fanciful whims of recreational golfers. 

Four years after winning a seat on the Cook County board, county taxpayers bought his family's golf course for $5.75 million.

34 years in public life

Five years after begging to sell a bloody mary, Schneider started his own political career.

He won a spot on the Hanover Township board, which governed the section of unincorporated Cook County including his family's Rolling Knolls Country Club, in 1984.

In 1997, he traded up to become Hanover Township highway commissioner, lording over 13 miles of roadway in one of the smallest road districts in the state. Voters officially abolished the district, and Schneider's former post, in a referendum last year.

Schneider first sought a seat on the Cook County board in 2002, challenging then-76-year-old Carl Hansen, a conservative who had served on the board for 28 years. He lost, but tried again in 2006 and narrowly won, with 3,481 votes to Hansen's 3,429.

Rauner tapped Schneider to run the Illinois GOP in 2014.

"I think everyone is pretty sure who they are"

Public records show the Schneiders started exploring the sale or re-development of Rolling Knolls in the early 2000s.

The golf club was founded by Tim's father, Russell, in 1962.

Northwest Cook County was a sparsely populated place then -- home to few people and fewer golf courses. Hanover Township had just 11,367 people, according to the 1960 census. 

By 2005, it was pushing 90,000. And the competitive landscape had changed.

After proposing turning the golf course into 132 homes, annexing the land to the City of Elgin, Schneider said he learned the Cook County Forest Preserve was also interested in his family property.

Schneider, first elected to the Cook County board in 2006, officially recused himself from negotiations between the Cook County Forest Preserve District and his family business.

He said his twin brother, Tom, would handle the negotiations to avoid a "conflict of interest."

Critics cried foul.

"I think everyone (at the forest preserves) are pretty sure who they are and who the other brother is," said Jay Stewart of the Better Government Association told the Daily Herald. "If we were talking about (then Democrat Cook County board President) Todd Stroger doing this, people would be ripping hair off their heads and yelling, 'Outrage, outrage.'"

Stewart said that Schneider's influence on the transaction, netting millions for himself from taxpayers, was unavoidable.

"It's the old, your boss comes in and says, 'Can you do this for me?'," Schneider said. "He's not the boss, but he votes on the (forest preserve) budget."

Schneider said the property was undervalued by the county-- the family thought it was worth $8 million-- and that selling it to the county was not his first choice.

"We spent $1.7 million of my family's money trying to get a subdivision annexed (to Elgin)," he said. "If I knew we would sell it to the Forest Preserve, would we spend that money?"

Rolling Knolls has since been transformed into positively reviewed, professional-level par 59 "disc golf" course.

Schneider recently came under fire for revelations that a car wash he owns in Elgin owes $21,448 in back taxes.

In addition, Schneider has faced withering criticism for standing by Rauner, whose decision to back taxpayer-funded abortions and make Illinois a sanctuary state resulted in a fracture in the Illinois conservative block and a very narrow win in a primary challenge from state Rep. Jeanne Ives (R-Wheaton). 

Schneider appears to be facing an uphill battle in his pursuit to remain as the head of the Illinois Republican party.