LITH Sanitary District Trustee Point-Counterpoint

As I take a look at the moves and counter moves involved in the fight over who has the right to appoint the $6,000 a year Lake in the Hills Sanitary District Trustees, I’m taken back to my favorite course in grad school–organization theory.

Organizations are like organisms.

They want to keep living.

After State Rep. Jack Franks got legislation enacted in 2016 allowing the consolidation of districts whose trustees are selected by county government, the LITH Sanitary District accelerated the purchase of land in Kane County.

Franks wants Lake in the Hills to take over the Sanitary District, even though about 400 homes it serves are located in Crystal Lake and another 400 in Huntley.

Why the Kane County move?

District officials had already been negotiating with Plote for property in a farm that straddles the McHenry-Kane County line.

That fell through, but the district decided to annex south of the county line down the right-of-way of Red Barn Road.

That happened in April.

The boundaries of the Lake in the Hills Sanitary District clearly extend beyond the southern boundary of McHenry County into Kane County.

Was that in order to cut the McHenry County Board out of the appointment process?

I can’t speak to the intent, but the result was to bring into play a second part of a law I sponsored in 1973.

The 1970 State Constitution had recently passed and I noticed that it said that judges could no longer appoint members of local governmental boards.

For those districts wholly within a county, I figured county boards were the logical entities to make the appointments.

That gave McHenry County Board members the authority to appoint the LITH Sanitary District Trustees.

For districts crossing county lines, e.g., the Elgin Sanitary District, I settled on a committee of state legislators representing parts of the governmental entities.

Not ideal, but all I could think of.

In the case of the LITH Sanitary District, those legislators are now

  • State Senator Karen McConnauhay
  • State Senator Dan McConchie
  • State Rep. Allen Skillicorn
  • State Rep. David McSweeney

McHenry County Board Chairman Franks has made it abundantly clear that he consider the trustee positions patronage to be passed out to deserving members of his Democratic Party.

Both men named have voted in a Democratic Party Primary Election and one has been appointed a Democratic Party Precinct Committeeman.

The two people he wants to replace had not active party affiliation.  Both were relatives of former Lake in the Hills Village Presidents.


Comments

LITH Sanitary District Trustee Point-Counterpoint — 5 Comments

  1. The Lake in the Hills Sanitary District does not have any union employees?

    The Village of Lake in the Hills Public Works department is represented by the SEIU Local 73 union.

    Thus consolidating the Sanitary District into the Village would likely eventually result in more members being added to the Village Public Works bargaining unit (or creating a new bargaining unit).

    Keep in mind that labor unions have contributed over $1 million dollars to the political action committees (PACs) of Jack Franks.

    Labor unions want more dues paying members to grow the organization.

    +++++++

    Along those lines, has anyone compared the labor costs of the sanitary district to the labor costs of the village public works employees?

    If the village does not have any labor performing the work tasks being performed at the sanitary district, that might require looking outside the village too.

    Labor costs include salaries, overtime, current healthcare benefits, pension, retiree healthcare, sick days, vacation days, and any other perks and fringes.

  2. And the Attorney General will do what about it?

    Does the only Dem County Board member and her husband, imo a politician who dances to the tune of Alinsky, not reside in LITH?

  3. That would be same Alinsky to whose tune Hillary (supported by the “round mound”) dances.

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