The Friend of McHenry County Blog who let me know that State Rep. Jack Franks was passing a petition to cut the number of County Board members in half only got half of the story.
Another Friend of McHenry County Blog sighted a second petition–this one to make sure Board members are not elected from multi-member districts.
McHenry County Board district map. Under the proposal from State Rep. Jack Franks, single-member districts would be half the size they are now.
Currently there are six County Board districts.
Minorities, such as Democrats in McHenry County, have a worse chance of winning the larger the district.
That’s because it takes a lot a foot power and/or money to cover one-sixth of the county, as the districts are now configured.
So far, County Democrats haven’t hooked up with a Sugar Daddy, so that means successful candidates need to exert lots of energy.
If Franks can get the Cutback Amendment on the ballot, it will undoubtedly pass…even though the remaining County Board members will probably double their $21,000 salaries based on their perception that the work will increase so much.
But that would still leave districts at about 51,000 people each.
That’s a lot of homes, a lot of postage.
If the County Board districts were forced by referendum to be half the current size, however–something over 25,000–however, a determined candidate would have an easier time running a door-to-door campaign…whether a Republican in a primary election or a Democrat in a general election.
To get on the ballot, Franks and his allies would have to gather over 7,500 signatures.
That is not a small undertaking.
Good!
I hope he’s successful.
Is Jack laying the groundwork for his run at County Board Chairman?
it also means that elected officials are less accountable to their constituents.
Most people have no idea who their county board members are.
Most county board members do not have a clue who their constituents are and vote based upon their own self serving agenda especially people like mike walkup take a close look at how he votes and remeber he is up for re-election in the upcoming election
So a State Rep say it’s the county’s fault for the problems and they need to be reduced.
The county says it’s the township’s fault and they need to be reduced.
Has any government entity though it might be their “fault” and they need to clean up their own back yard and get the “plank” out of their own eye?
We need agreed upon apples to apples key indicators measured first before we point fingers.
It needs to be a total plan or we will just move the expense (and probably increased expense) to another government level.
I once thought Nick Provenzano was out of his element for going after Franks on county issues.
I kind of agree with him now.
Why is he wasting all this time circulating petitions.
Hey, what about the budget impasse that’s been going on for over a month?
I once thought the prospect of Franks running for County Board was just a paranoid delusion of some Republicans.
The evidence is stacking up to look that way.
Maybe a compromise would be to increase the districts to 9 with two reps from each area.
If growth happens and it will, then what Jack?
To Larry Emery: Every time I read something you’ve written, it makes sense.
Twh consolidation meeting tomorrow if anyone cares.
Regardless, cutting the County Board in half will concentrate power more than it is already.
The single member district petition might be BINDING on the County Board in 2021 when the redistricting is done.
This is therefore the more significant petition.
Reducing the size of the County Board may be desirable for various reasons, but it will not reduce the cost as the members will have to put in more time and will want to be paid more.
Now that we can have two people on the same 5 member committee at least talk to one another without violating the Open Meetings Act, we don’t need 7 member committees and could go to 5 members on each, which would also be more efficient and might reduce meeting times.
In order to have every district represented on every committee, you would need at least five districts.
Single member districts would result in some of the county being unrepresented on some committees.
The most important decisions are usually made at the committee level and later affirmed by the Board off of a consent agenda so this is an important consideration.
If you are going to have at least five districts, you also want to have at least two people on each district so one person is always up for re-election every two years.
This increases accountability.
That means you would need to have at least a ten member Board plus possibly a directly elected Chair.
That would be 11 total.
That could work, but you have to then bear in mind that each member is going to need to be on more committees.
With ten committees, for example, you would have a total of 50 slots which, when divided by 10 means each member would need to be on 5 committees rather than the 3 we have now.
Add in liason positions to various Boards and Commissions and you have at least 6 meetings per month per member, sometimes more as some committees meet twice per month, plus the two Board meetings.
This is almost double the current workload.
IMRF has just done an audit of the time expenditure and found that Board members are putting in 700 hours per year just on meetings and preparation time therefor.
This does not include constituent service and other outreach.
Therefore a smaller Board would make it a full time job for each member.
The Chairman is currently being paid $82,000 because that job is supposed to be full time.
With benefits it’s probably over $100K.
Board Members currently receive $21,000 plus travel and benefits if they sign up for them.
So don’t expect any cost savings from a smaller Board, but there could be other benefits in terms of shorter and more efficient meetings.
Also having to call only two Board members for your district may actually be better for people than having four to contact as currently.