Greeting me this morning was the following argument from State Rep. Mike Tryon against State Rep. Jack Franks’ County Executive referendum:
Mike Tryon
McHenry County Citizens,
As Election Day draws near, I would like to encourage you to exercise your right to vote in this critical election on November 6th. There is a very solid slate of Republican candidates from Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan all the way down to the good Republicans who are running in all six districts of the McHenry County Board. Voting straight Republican will result in sensible and stable leadership at all levels.
In addition to encouraging you to vote Republican in this election, I also wanted to take this opportunity to straighten out some misconceptions about the County Executive referendum.
Toward the end of your ballot you will see a proposition to adopt a County Executive form of government. The exact ballot question reads: “Shall the County of McHenry adopt the County Executive Form of Government and elect not to become a home rule unit?” It disappoints me greatly that proponents of this ballot question continue to spread false and misleading information regarding the issue. If you support smaller government, transparency and accountability, please join me in voting NO on this ballot question. I will list some of their claims and facts that dispute them below:
Proponents’ Claim: A County Executive form will lead to more accountability and transparency.
FACTS: Under the County Executive form, there is less accountability and less transparency. Today’s county board is subject to the Open Meetings Act. All business, including committee meetings, is conducted in public and in front of the press. A County Executive (as an individual) is not subject to the Open Meetings Act. He/she can create the budget, redraw county board district boundary lines, and conduct a great deal of business behind his closed office door. Even more alarming, a County Executive can award no-bid contracts up to $25,000 to anyone he/she wants with no county board oversight. In addition, today’s county board chairman is elected for a two year term and during that time he is directly accountable to the 24 county board members, and by extension, the voters. The day-to day operation of the county is led today by a hired professional (not a politician) who can be fired at any time by the county board. A County Executive is elected for four-year terms, and can only be removed if he/she is convicted of a crime. Otherwise this individual has a full four years to implement an agenda.
Proponents’ Claim: A County Executive form will lower your taxes.
FACTS: A change to a County Executive form of government increases the size of government. McHenry County currently has a 24-member county board and one of those individuals is selected to serve as chairman for two-year terms. Will County is the ONLY Illinois county to utilize a County Executive form of government, and a visit to their web site (www.willcountyillinois.com) clearly shows that they have a 27-member county board with one member selected to serve as chairman, plus an entire list of Executive branch employees, including: County Executive, his Chief of Staff, his Manager of Operations, his Finance Director, his Legal Council (serves in addition to the State’s Attorney), his Communications Director, and his Public Information Officer.
Proponents’ Claim: Will County has lower taxes than McHenry County.
FACTS: Proponents continue to use an “apples to oranges” tax comparison between McHenry and Will counties. McHenry County has four voter-approved and mandated tax rates that do not exist in Will County. This includes our Valley Hi Nursing Home, Senior Services, Veterans Assistance and Mental Health services. These four districts represent approximately 30% of the McHenry County tax bill. In addition, Will County has a much larger industrial tax base (24% in Will vs only 14% in McHenry). They do not account for this disparity in their numbers.
Proponents’ Claim: A County Executive form will not create a new layer of government.
FACTS: This is absolutely false. Today McHenry County does not have an executive branch of government. If the referendum is successful, a County Executive and the staff members mentioned above will be added.
Proponents’ Claim: Most of the United States is governed by the County Executive form.
FACTS: In reality, there are only 14 states that offer the County Executive as an option, and two of those states require it. In Illinois, even though it has been available to counties for almost 30 years, only Will County has chosen to use it. Ballot initiatives in other counties regarding making the change to a County Executive have failed by large margins.
Proponents’ Claim: The County Executive form leads to better representation.
FACTS: To the contrary, a switch to a County Executive weakens county-wide representation. Today, McHenry County is divided into six geographic districts, and voters from each district send four people to the county board to represent their interests. Each vote, including that of today’s county board chairman, carries the same weight. Majority rules all decisions and the chairman’s job is to implement the majority votes of the board. A County Executive would have Governor-like veto power over the actions of the county board. Additionally, today every county board district is represented on each county board committee. A County Executive would be under no obligation to provide similar county-wide voices on committees since he puts the committees together without input from the board.
If you have not yet seen this short video which summarizes the many reasons why you should vote NO to this ballot proposal, please take three minutes to watch my closing remarks at the recent forum on the county executive proposal.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Again, please take time to vote, as the consequences of this election are significant.
Mike Tryon
Chairman
McHenry County Republican Party
In the name of complete honesty and integrity, I cannot let these facts from McHenry County Republican Party Chairman (and former McHenry County Board Chairman and current State Representative) Mike Tryon go without at least a complete, valid disclosure. Voters should evaluate the McHenry County Executive referendum with the whole truth.
Citing a May 2011 update of the KANE COUNTY DEPARTMENTAL ORGANIZATION AND MANAGEMENT STRUCTURE REPORT of 2010, prepared by Kane County Board Chairman (and State Senate Candidate) Karen McConnaughay staff, the dollar figures in the current McHenry County structure must be shared and evaluated by voters to see if they are happy with the status quo.
Tryon cited “The day-to day operation of the county is led today by a hired professional”
Yes, but how much does this service cost McHenry County taxpayers?
According to the McConnaughay study, McHenry County pays its County Administrator a salary of $151,000. Include his administrative staff of 10 professionals plus 13 executive directors, including Planning and Development Director, Facilities Management Director, County Engineer, Auditor, Purchasing Director, Emergency Services Director, Health Director, Workforce Network Director, Investments Director, Human Resources Director, GIS Director, Information Technology Director, Supervisor of Assessments, and the County Administration staff totaled $1.3 million, according to 2008/2009 numbers.
In Kane County, that same administration cost $849,852.
Oh, did I forget to mention, the McHenry County Board Chairman made a salary of $74,406, according to the McConnaughay comparison (page 4, table 1).
And to be fair and completly transparent, the Will County figure in the McConnaughay report is $1.5 million.
Using this comparison, the Will County arrangement truly costs more then McHenry County’s current arrangement.
But, McHenry County has a ways to go to match the efficiencies Kane County Board Chairman Karen McConnaughay has implemented in her 8 years as the elected chairman of the Kane County Board.
While Tryon makes a valid point about the 4 voter approved and mandated tax rates is a reason the McHenry County administration is higher then other counties, Kane County has a significantly higher population, and a significantly high minority population (31%, according to 2010 census).
But two things should be evaluated here.
First, McHenry County voters do not currently have the right to elect all of their county board members.
They only have the right to elect 4 of them, in McHenry County’s multi-member district form of representation.
ALL McHenry County voters would have the right to elect their McHenry County Executive.
Voters should consider, will their board representatives implement the proven cost-savings as neighboring Kane County has done if the voters choose to transition to the Executive form of government?
The other questions, should voters be trusted with the responsibility to choose the right person in our democratic process to be the county executive?
Because McHenry County voters cannot elect their curent county board chairman at-large to make that $74K+ salary, the proponents of this referendum do have a valid point concerning voter transparency.
Additionally, I must take issue with the comparison Tryon did of McHenry County board size compared with Will County board.
He cited Will County’s current 27-member county board size.
What Tryon left out was the fact the Will County Board under the elected County Executive’s leadership reduced the size of their county board to a 26-member board in last year’s redistricting.
In addition, the 3-member per district representation through 9 multi-member districts was converted to a 2-member per 13 multi-member district representation model.
Given the county board districts are now significantly smaller, voters can more easily run and possibly win a seat on the county board.
By contrast, the current McHenry County Board leadership was the ONLY collar county board that did not reduce its membership during redistricting last year.
In addition to Will County’s 1 member reduction, Kane County reduced 2 districts and Lake County reduced its membership by 2 seats, too.
DuPage County is at its statutory limit of 18 members, since its population is over 800,000.
Finally, the proponents have a valid point about a County Executive form will not create a new layer of government.
Tryon said, “This is absolutely false. Today McHenry County does not have an executive branch of government. If the referendum is successful, a County Executive and the staff members mentioned above will be added.”
The whole truth, the position of County Administrator and the $151,000 salary will be eliminated and replaced by the County Executive at a salary set by the county board.
Given the overhead of 23 administrators and directors, the elected County Executive, provided voters elect the right person to the job and the county board does its oversight, can implement a restructuring similar to the one Karen McConnaughay successfully implemented in Kane County over the course of her 8 years on board.
Nice try “Oncoming”.
This “County Executive” scheme is purely a way for Jack Franks to gain power.
Pure and simple.
Everyone who knows politics, knows this.
What’s funny about Mike Tryon being the spokesperson for the contrary position is that he is just the figure head of the Republican Party.
The real political maneuvering for the Republicans is made by Keith Nygren, who is both a thug AND a serious Franks’ supporter.
The disarray of the Republican Party has allowed psychologically unstable narcissists like Franks as well as vicious, selfish, power hungry thugs like Nygren to control the political scene in the county.
That’s what this stupid scheme is all about.
The newspapers know it, but are too afraid to call it like it is.
They have allied with these two idiots.
I still think if guys like Tryon don’t like it, we should consider it.
Signed,
Unhappy McHenry County Resident
Any of you who live in the western portion of the county need to read the following comment closely:
This is an indisputable fact. Planning and development would be stacked with members from the populated areas only.
We need to look at eliminating some of the social welfare programs we cannot afford now that the state is taking an additional whack at our income.
We need to privatize animal control to eliminate its over paid union.
We need to dump Valley Hi because it is no longer serving its intended use – elder care for the indigent – just look at all the medicare / medicaid residents.
These items would be a start. An executive form of government WOULD add another layer of government. It is interesting that the State Rep at the head of a committee chartered to eliminate levels of government walked the McHenry County Fair grounds this summer to get his petition signed for this costly counter productive referendum which would turn the McHenry Chair position into a Czar type position.