McHenry County Blog

What would happen if a candidate ran for township office pledging to abolish the government for which he or she seeks office?

Mike Walkup

Attorney and future McHenry County Board member Mike Walkup considered the question and came up with the following:

Can this be done?

Many people are under the impression that townships can no longer be abolished one at a time.

This is due to legislation that was passed amending the Township Code when former McHenry County State Representative Ann Hughes chaired a special committee that had been formed following the unsuccessful attempt by Bob Anderson to abolish all of the townships in McHenry County in 1994. I will refer to this as the “Hughes Act.”

The issue at the time was that in a county like McHenry, where some townships have much larger populations than others and are also mostly incorporated into municipalities, a referendum to abolish all townships in the county could be carried by those more populous townships where the residents didn’t feel that they needed township services, notwithstanding the desires of the more rural township residents to retain that form of government.

I represented Bob Anderson at the time and helped him get the question on the ballot. It scared the heck out of the townships at the time.

The Hughes Act is as follows:

ARTICLE 25. DISCONTINUANCE OF TOWNSHIP ORGANIZATION

(60 ILCS 1/25-5)

“Sec. 25-5 Petition and referendum to discontinue township organization. Upon the petition of at least 10% of the registered voters of each township of a county, as determined by the date registration closed before the regular election next preceding the last day on which the petition may be filed, that has adopted township organization, the county board shall certify and cause to be submitted to the voters of the county, at the next general election, the question of continuance of township organization. ” {a lot of stuff next about how the signatures all have to be collected 90 days before the last day for filing the petition and how to establish that on each petition sheet}.

“Sec. 25-10. Cessation of township organization. If it appears by the returns of the election that a majority of the votes in at least three-fourths of the townships, containing at least of majority of the population in the county, cast on the question of the continuance of township organization are against the continuance of township organization, then township organization shall cease in the county as soon as a county board is elected and qualified.”

This referendum can only be presented at a general election at which members of the General Assembly are elected, so it cannot be done in connection with a Consolidated Election, which is the one next year.

The entire County Board is then replaced by 3 County Commissioners!!

Many legal experts have been advising township boards that this is now the only way to abolish townships.

This is incorrect.

The power to abolish townships by referendum created by citizen petition is derived from the 1970 Illinois Constitution. Section 5 of Article VII thereof states as follows:

” SECTION 5. TOWNSHIPS

The General Assembly shall provide by law for the formation of townships in any county when approved by county-wide referendum. Townships may be consolidated or merged, and one or more townships may be dissolved or divided, when approved by a referendum in each township affected. All townships in a county may be dissolved when approved by a referendum in the total area in which township officers are elected.” (emphasis supplied).

The State Constitution supersedes any legislative enactments which are inconsistent with it.

Bob Anderson formed a group known as “S.T.O.P.”, (Send Township Officials Packing), which I also represented, and which challenged the Hughes Act in DuPage County on the grounds that the second paragraph, which required a super majority, violated the “one person one vote” rule.

We lost at the county level and decided not to appeal.

Bob subsequently filed to abolish McHenry Township separately.

He did not have enough valid signatures and tried a second time.

This time McHenry Township Supervisor Donna Schaefer decided not to file an objection and it made it to the ballot, where it lost.

No further attempts have been made.

Therefore, I am of the opinion that you can get a binding referendum on the ballot to abolish an individual township, notwithstanding the Hughes Act provisions, which I believe apply only where someone is attempting to abolish all of the townships in a county at one time.

How many signatures would then be required and at what elections could it be presented?

The Hughes Act requires ten percent of the registered voters. However, it does not address the requirements for single township abolition.

I believe these would therefore be determined by the Election Code.

This would fall under Section 28, Submitting Public Questions.

It provides as follows:

“The method of initiating the submission of a public question shall be as provided by the statute authorizing such public question, or as provided by the Constitution. …..

If such statute does not specify any of the foregoing petition requirements, the corresponding petition requirements of Section 28-6 shall govern such petition.

“Sec. 28-6. Petitions; filing.

“(a) On a written petition signed by a number of voters equal to at least 8% of the total votes cast for candidates for Governor in the preceding gubernatorial election by the registered voters of the municipality, township, county or school district, it shall be the duty of the proper election officers to submit any question of public policy so petitioned for, to the electors of such political subdivision at any regular election named in the petition at which an election is scheduled to be held throughout such political subdivision under Article 2A.”

Therefore, I believe that only 8% of those who voted in the 2010 gubernatorial election (combining vote totals for all Governor candidates) within the township is needed and that it can be placed on the ballot at any upcoming election, including either the Consolidated Election in April or any primary election prior thereto.

There you have it.

The rest, if anything, is up to you.

The deadline for filing for the general consolidated election is December 24th. I believe for a primary there is an earlier date.

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Those wishing to file for township office must do so from November 19-26.

Happy Thanksging.

Thanks to Illinois Review for pointing me to a list pensions of retired legislators published by the Chicago Tribune.

Democrat Art Berman, one of my contemplates, seems to have gamed the system the best. He’s getting $203,428 a year.

Republican Ed Petka, who served as Will County State’s Attorney before being elected to the legislature and as a judge afterward, pulled in $161,280.

Locally, former State Senator Jack Schaffer, who headed the financial regulation department under Governor Jim Edgar, gets $99,010.

Former State Senator Bill Peterson got $93,737 in the last year.

Yours truly is receiving $79,831 this fiscal year.

Ann Hughes’ annual pension is $21,768.

In another connection to McHenry County, former felon and State Rep. Roger Stanley, who went to jail seeming to admit to illegalities in a GOP primary campaign by an Establishment Republican against me, but was allowed to keep his state pension because his conviction was not linked to his public service, gets $73,721.

296 are on the list.

The General Assembly Retirement System web site says,

“At June 30, 2010, the accrued actuarial liability of the System was $251.8 million and the actuarial value of assets amounted to $66.2 million resulting in an unfunded actuarial liability of $185.6 million.”

Yesterday I wrote about how Winnebago County’s board had decided they, as part-time employees didn’t deserve to have pensions.

Front page of the Chicago Tribune April 10, 2010.

Today, the Sunday Chicago Tribune has a front page article by Christy Gutowski, Joe Mahr and Joseph Ryan entitled,

Quite a deal

Former DuPage County official Bill Maio was able to

secure a $100,000 a-year pension

after working mostly part-time

I wrote yesterday of how it used to be and to some extent still is the number of years one have of government pension credits, plus the final salary that counted, that a McHenry County Board member could take the credits from the relatively lowly paid County Board post, get elected to a countywide office which now, astoundingly, pay $100,000 a year and, then, retire after 40 years total annual pension participation at 75% of final pay under the well-funded Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund (IMRF).

(I also pointed out my generous legislative pension in yesterday’s article.)

The Tribune article reminds me of a gambit that elected county officials convinced legislators to pass when I was in office to turn county officials into state legislators, as far as pension benefits went.

It’s called the “Elected County Officials” option.

Notice that to be eligible one has to be a politician.

Among retired DuPage County Officials who benefited from the special pension plan was former State's Attorney Joe Birkett. After resigning his post, he was apppointed to the 2nd Appellate Court. Click to enlarge

The request of legislators was to allow elected county officials to retire after 20 years at 80% of final salary.

That’s pretty close to the benefits legislators themselves had.

But, legislators are nervous folk.

If you can keep your county officials happy, maybe they won’t run against you.

Congressmen figured this out when they allowed state legislators to keep any expense money paid for being at state capitols tax free…whether or not it was spent on room and board.

Since some lobbying group or another is holding a reception with decent food virtually every session night, it’s not hard to spend the entire per diem payment. Former State Senator Jack Schaffer used to suggest that such money should not be paid unless it was spent.

But, back to the “Elected County Officials” pension plan.

The Tribune’s research says the bill passed overwhelmingly.

The Senate voted for it 55-2 n May 16, 1997.  Senator Dick Klemm of McHenry County supported the measure.  One of two senators who did not was Chris Lauzen from just south of the McHenry County border.

The Senate's May 16, 1997, vote on the county officials pension improvement bill.

The House, 105-10. (I voted against the bill, as you can see from the roll call below.  Ann Hughes, the other representative from McHenry County favored the bill.)

The May 23, 1997, House roll call on the county officials pension sweetener bill.

Governor Jim Edgar signed the bill.

As the arrangement went down, county officials would have ther pension payment increased from 4.5% of salary to 7.5%.

Local property taxpayers would pick up the rest.

The Tribune reports that more than half of Illinois county boards signed up for the benefit.

McHenry, Kane and Lake were not among them, but DuPage and Will Counties were.

So, think back to who was serving you on the McHenry County Board in the mid-1990′s and thank them for their good judgment, even though some countywide officials wanted the board to approve the plan so their pensions would increase a lot.

August 1, 2010, Chicago Tribune article. (Click to enlarge any image.)

When I read of the leaking pipeline in southwestern Michigan, it brought back the memory of the pipeline map that I got while fighting the Lakeland Pipeline with then State Rep. Ann Hughes and State Sen. Dick Klemm.

As the result of the pressure put on owner Enbridge, the new pipeline is probably as safe as one can get.

The old ones running through McHenry County.

Well, that remains to be seen.

Below is a map of the hazardous liquids crossing McHenry County. We’re talking propane, gasoline, oil.

This map shows the pipelines carrying hazardous liquids through McHenry County.

Chicago Tribune article of July 29, 2010.

If one with oil in it ruptures, you can figure out what stream, lake or river would look like the photo in the July 29th Chicago Tribune article above.

The map below shows the gas transmission lines.

Natural gas pipelines traversing McHenry County.

If ruptured with a spark nearby, they would go “Boom.”

Below you can see a map with both types of pipelines.

This shows all the pipelines running through McHenry County.

Make no mistake.

The Republican Party primary for state’s attorney is a bitter fight.

And I haven’t even seen Dan Regna’s last $15,000 mailing.

It may end up like the GOP primary fight between Mike Brown and Steve Verr.

That year Brown, who was appointed to the post after State Rep. Ann Hughes (R-Woodstock) resigned, ran against McCullom Lake’s Verr.

It was Verr’s fourth attempt to win the Republican nomination.

Verr lost the bitterly contested fight.

And, Jack Franks won the House seat.

He is so entrenched now that Bill LeFew’s feeble party is not even fielding a challenger.

So, regardless of who wins the nod for McHenry County State’s Attorney, will the loser walk?

And give provide enough votes for a Democratic Party candidate for state’s attorney?

There are some indications that might be the case.

If you want to hear more talk, come to Governors Pub on Randall Road in Lake in the Hills after the polls close and open your ears.

You might even hear the name of the potential optimistic challenger or meet him…or her.

Make no mistake.

The Republican Party primary for state’s attorney is a bitter fight.

And I haven’t even seen Dan Regna’s last $15,000 mailing.

It may end up like the GOP primary fight between Mike Brown and Steve Verr.

That year Brown, who was appointed to the post after State Rep. Ann Hughes (R-Woodstock) resigned, ran against McCullom Lake’s Verr.

It was Verr’s fourth attempt to win the Republican nomination.

Verr lost the bitterly contested fight.

And, Jack Franks won the House seat.

He is so entrenched now that Bill LeFew’s feeble party is not even fielding a challenger.

So, regardless of who wins the nod for McHenry County State’s Attorney, will the loser walk?

And give provide enough votes for a Democratic Party candidate for state’s attorney?

There are some indications that might be the case.

If you want to hear more talk, come to Governors Pub on Randall Road in Lake in the Hills after the polls close and open your ears.

You might even hear the name of the potential optimistic challenger or meet him…or her.

June 8, 1916, is my father’s birthday.

I found this picture from the day that he came back to the county board room to vote for Ann Hughes for county board chairman.

The doctor did not understand that legislative organization meetings do not wait for lung cancer treatments to be completed.

I wheeled him into the room.

His vote was the deciding vote.

And he was elected vice chairman.

In order to get there, he had to check himself out of Georgetown University Hospital against doctor’s orders.

We drove from Washington, only getting lost once in the Gary area after taking the wrong off-ramp.

Without Dad’s presence, McHenry’s former Mayor Don Doherty would have won the county board chairmanship.

Dad thought Doherty would not be independent enough.

Of McHenry County Republican Party Chairman and County Auditor Al Jourdan, I presume.

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And I picked up another tidbit this week. Apparently my father was referred to as “Phoenix” sometimes. I was told that when letters to the Crystal Lake (Northwest) Herald said that “Phoenix had said” or words to that effect, they were referring to Dad.

The only Phoenix of which I’m aware is former Lake Killarny (Cary) resident Jim McDonald, who wrote a Royko-like column for Richardson Publications in the early 1970′s. He worked for the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad and used to be a reporter.

June 8, 1916, is my father’s birthday.

I found this picture from the day that he came back to the county board room to vote for Ann Hughes for county board chairman.

The doctor did not understand that legislative organization meetings do not wait for lung cancer treatments to be completed.

I wheeled him into the room.

His vote was the deciding vote.

And he was elected vice chairman.

In order to get there, he had to check himself out of Georgetown University Hospital against doctor’s orders.

We drove from Washington, only getting lost once in the Gary area after taking the wrong off-ramp.

Without Dad’s presence, McHenry’s former Mayor Don Doherty would have won the county board chairmanship.

Dad thought Doherty would not be independent enough.

Of McHenry County Republican Party Chairman and County Auditor Al Jourdan, I presume.

= = = = =

And I picked up another tidbit this week. Apparently my father was referred to as “Phoenix” sometimes. I was told that when letters to the Crystal Lake (Northwest) Herald said that “Phoenix had said” or words to that effect, they were referring to Dad.

The only Phoenix of which I’m aware is former Lake Killarny (Cary) resident Jim McDonald, who wrote a Royko-like column for Richardson Publications in the early 1970′s. He worked for the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad and used to be a reporter.