Petition Rules for Calling Referendum to Abolish a Township

Here is what the new law says:

Sec. 24-10. Definition. As used in this Article, "electors"means the registered voters of any single township in McHenry County...

Sec. 24-20. Petition requirements; notice.

(a) Subject to the petition requirements of Section 28-3 of the Election Code, petitions for a referendum to dissolve a township located in McHenry County must be filed with the governing board of the township, the county board of McHenry County, and the McHenry County Clerk not less than 122 daysp rior to any election held throughout the township. Petitions must include:

(1) the name of the dissolving township;

(2) the date of dissolution; and

(3) signatures of a number of electors as follows: (A) for any township, the number of signatures shall be the larger of (i) 5% of the total ballots cast in the township in the immediately preceding election that is of an election type comparable to the election for which the petition is being filed, or (ii) 250 signatures. All signatures gathered under this paragraph (3) must be signed within 180 days prior to the filing of a petition.

(b) The proposed date of dissolution shall be at least 90 days after the date of the election at which the referendum is to be voted upon.

(c) If a valid petition is filed under subsection (a), then the McHenry County Clerk shall, by publication in one or more newspapers of general circulation within the county and on the county's website, not less than 90 days prior to the election at which the referendum is to be voted on, give notice in substantially the following form:

NOTICE OF PETITION TO DISSOLVE (dissolving township).

Residents of (dissolving township) and McHenry County are notified that a petition has been filed with (dissolving township) and McHenry County requesting a referendum to dissolve (dissolving township) on (date of dissolution) with all real and personal property, and any other assets, together with all personnel, contractual obligations, and liabilities being transferred to McHenry County...

Sec. 24-30. Referendum; voting.

Shall the (dissolving township), together with any road districts wholly within the boundaries of (dissolving
township), be dissolved on (date of dissolution) with all of
the township and road district property, assets, personnel, obligations, and liabilities being transferred to McHenry County?

Yes/No


Comments

Petition Rules for Calling Referendum to Abolish a Township — 25 Comments

  1. I know this isn’t the most important question in regard to this issue but what happens with precinct committeemen in townships that are abolished?

    Precincts in our county are subdivisions of townships, so if a township is abolished then how does that area get represented by political parties?

  2. I do believe the Township boundaries remain intact.

    Only the units of government (road and town) are affected.

    The County Clerk administers the precinct boundaries.

    The County Board approves changes in precinct boundaries.

    Precinct boundaries are not adhered to in the mapping of State Representative districts – some precincts are split.

  3. Back on May 18 of this year, I posted this comment in the topic http://mchenrycountyblog.com/2019/05/17/mcsweeneys-township-abolition-by-referendum-township-bill-to-governor which in light of the legislation becoming law, is placed here with a suggested method to move forward.

    Please remember, it is one thing to get the referendum on the ballot, it is another to get it passed:

    Thanks to State Representative Dave McSweeney and State Senator Terry Link, and all of the legislators who voted in favor of this legislation.

    May we be thanking Governor Pritzker, soon, for signing this legislation into law. [Thank you Governor!]

    But now it would be up to us to not only get the needed referenda in McHenry County onto the ballot, but we also need to get it passed.

    There will be organized opposition to our efforts to eliminate townships in McHenry County.

    This comment is only a suggested method to help us all get moving on this, assuming the governor signs the bill.

    I believe we need to get these referenda onto the ballot as soon as possible.

    Therefore, placing the referenda for the respective townships on March 17, 2020, is something we can and should do. Consolidation referenda on primary ballots have been successful.

    Last year in March, voters in the city of Aurora who live in Kane, Kendall and Will Counties eliminated the Aurora Election Commission, with the respective county clerks taking over elections in those portions of the city of Aurora.

    It was passed in March last year, and implemented in time for the November election.

    We also consolidated the county recorder’s office into the clerk’s office, and that transition will be completed by the end of November of next year.

    Getting township elimination referenda onto the ballot will need organization, coordination and the right legal help to draft the petitions to place this on the ballot and minimize legal expenses in the event our opposition want to take us to court.

    After what happened in Algonquin Township earlier this month, we should not leave it to the township board to place the elimination of townships on the ballot.

    We need to do this ourselves, via petitions. In other words, we need to do this the hard way, which will go further to getting the referenda passed.

    If I read this legislation right, for the drafting of the petitions, we need to set the date of dissolution for the township we want to eliminate, since the date needs to be on the ballot.

    The legislation states the date can be no fewer than 90 days after the election it passes.

    In order to insure the referendum passage as well as the best, efficient and less costly (and that includes less potential litigation), assuming we go to referendum on March 17, 2020, the dissolution date should be set at April 13, 2021.

    Why over a year from referendum approval to dissolve a township to its actual dissolution?

    Because we proponents for dissolution want and need to demonstrate to voters that doing the right thing will not be rushed.

    Opponents of dissolution will try to scare voters into thinking they will lose services without adequate reassurances and transitions, important things like snow plowing and road maintenance will not be maintained at the same level of service residents expect.

    By demonstrating to voters we have an extended transition period will insure no township service will be completely dropped without another government entity picking it up, and likely for a lower cost, will make scare tactics moot.

    And it will show voters that the elected officials we elected in 2017 will, with the exception of the assessor, finish their terms in order to implement the transition.

    The April 13, 2021 date is the date of the annual township meetings that year.

    And if the voters decide to eliminate their township, the last annual meeting of that township will bring closure and answer any last possible questions township residents may have of their elected township officials who will all be finishing their terms on the date of dissolution.

    For all the elected officials, except the assessor, they will be finishing their final elected terms.

    Only the assessor will be retired early, by over 8 months.

    Last but not least, while this new legislation says any of McHenry County’s townships can be eliminated via referenduam, I would suggest we proponents do a “Focus on the Big Five” priority:

    Algonquin, Grafton, Nunda, Dorr and McHenry.

    The first 2 have had litigation, costing taxpayers, in recent years.

    Additionally, the successful passage of a township elimination referendum is more sellable in townships where there are a significant number of residents living in municipalities.

    These municipal residents are the more likely voters to eliminate a layer of government, as opposed to an unincorporated voter, who does not have municipal services (nor the property taxes to go with it).

    Yes, there are some exceptions where an unincorporated property owner has municipal water/sewer, but they are exceptions.

    Finally timing is everything to do township elimination right and maximize savings for taxpayers.

    Successful passage of referenda eliminating the 5 largest townships in McHenry County in March of next year eliminates the need to have township elections in 2021.

    And given the 5 largest townships usually nominate their township officials by established political party, this will eliminate the need for a township primary election in February of 2021, or a township caucus in December of 2020.

    Those kinds of savings are in addition to the larger savings the economies of scale will bring when either McHenry County and/or municipalities take over the basic township services.

    There is a lot here, but to taxpayers in McHenry County, there is a lot of opportunity to save them their hard-earned money by consolidating township services into other local units of government.

    By all means, let’s discuss, and let’s coordinate for the common goal.

  4. There has been no proof elimination of the road district or township Assessor will save tax $$$$.

    If the county does take over, eliminating the present Alg twh facility and moving all the employees to Woodstock will end up either costing taxpayers more, or reduce service.

    McDOT reports both in the past and more recently have talked about the problems with them taking over all the township roads.

    I hope both sides make their case on what it will cost to eliminate those functions of a township before the vote is taken.

    Please lets not play follow the leaders, leaders like Jack Franks who would just love to have more power under his control.

    Mcsweeney, Gasser, Anderson, and others never prove a savings, only give tons of lip service. Thinking counts.

  5. So, going by the # of signatures in the passage and if we want to abolish the “Big 5” townships by referendum on March 17, 2020, then the total ballots cast in the 2018 General Primary Election (Republicans, Democrats and Non-Partisan ballots), 5% numbers are the minimal number of signatures needed to place the referendum on the ballot in March which is more than the minimum of 250, with the exception of Dorr Township:

    TOWNSHIP BALLOTS CAST 3/20/18 5% OF BALLOTS CAST

    ALGONUIN 14235 712
    DORR 3481 174 (The 250 signatures minimum applies for Dorr)
    GRAFTON 7205 360
    MCHENRY 7360 368
    NUNDA 6182 309

    Just wanted to communicate the amount of work it will take for voters to place this referendum on the ballot for March.

  6. Aren’t you forgetting the 10% cut in the replacement tax after a township is abolished?

  7. Now for a more important question:

    If the township were abolished, which government would get responsibility over those roads?

    Would it be the county?

    Would it be a mixture of county and municipality?

  8. I’ll get working on Dorr Township ASAP.

    These pension pigs, with all their lazy kids ‘inheriting’ these do-nothing positions has gone on long enough!

    Bob Peirce would actually brag he had to really work finding something to do as supervisor, Wednesday was Pencil Sharpening Day

  9. Iowa got rid of all their township governments in the 1950s.

    Townships still exist in Iowa, but not as governmental or taxing units.

    Iowans saved billions since while Illinois created tens of thousands of pensioners and whooping waste!

  10. Townships are a license to steal.

    Not all Township crooks get away with murdering taxpayers like Bob Miller thanks to Kenneally!

    https://www.chicagotribune.com/opinion/editorials/ct-madigan-essex-kankakee-public-corruption-edit-0225-jm-20170224-story.html

    excerpt:

    Small town trust. Big time theft. Again?

    Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s office has announced the arrest of an official in rural Kankakee County, Essex Township Clerk Traci Freytag, on allegations she spent taxpayer money on personal expenses.

    She faces charges of theft of government property, financial institution fraud and two counts of official misconduct.

    If convicted, she could face up to 15 years in prison.

    Freytag is accused of depositing roughly $94,000 in township money into a personal bank account.

    An investigation began when an employee’s payroll check bounced.

    The township’s account had been depleted, Madigan’s office alleges.

    She was arrested Feb. 15 in Aiken, S.C., where she had posted on her Facebook page she was staying and planning to move permanently from the town of Essex, 30 miles south of Joliet.

    Freytag’s Facebook page indicates she worked as a payroll clerk for a casino company and became disabled.

    She was appointed township clerk a few months before the theft allegedly began.

    Were there checks and balances that could have caught, or deterred, any such alleged theft, which Madigan’s office says unfolded between November 2014 and May 2016?

  11. The concept of township government was good.

    But that was back in the 1850’s

    In McHenry Township, it costs $17 in admin salaries and overhead and pensions to administer giving out $1 in actual aid to the ‘needy’

    That doesn’t make sense.

    I see empty township buses all the time.

    I’m getting taxed to death.

    It’s crazy to keep townships.

    They never had a referendum when they built the gigantic McHenry Township complex over by Johnsburg water tower.

    Cost us million$.

    It was paid for in crooked over runs from ‘excess’ township funds that should never have been collected.

    The late Albie Adams, the Supervisor then, said if I didn’t like it I could ‘move to Wisconsin’ or ‘one of the Illinois counties that abolished townships’ years ago, but McHenry Township would never go away because too many people had a financial interest in keeping it.

  12. I moved here from Washington (state).

    Washington had townships, but got rid of them all during the depression.

    From time-to-time I see Nunda Township trucks plowing neighbors’ driveways.

    I asked them how do you get on the list to be plowed out and how much is it.

    One told me it’s free.

    Another said you ‘have to know somebody.’

    When I went to Iron Mike at Nunda HQS he said the township didn’t do private drives.

    When I said I saw the trucks he said I was mistaken.

    It seems it’s a way to get votes to stay in power.

    Either treat people the same or do’nt do ‘favors’ on the taxpayers’ money.

    Something’s rotten in Denmark.

  13. Townships are the source of so much drama, corruption, laughs, etc.

    Please don’t abolish them!

  14. I thought townships were a good thing.

    I took a closer look.

    They rip us off on a daily basis.

  15. Townships employ the unemployables.

    I mean people who couldn’t get jobs in the real world.

    When I voted early at the McHenry Township offices, I was directed to vote against road dist. abolition, by, you guessed it, township employees.

    Isn’t that against the law?

  16. If they are within 100 feet of the door of the polling place.

  17. Bob Anderson is a man who’s time has come.

    Get rid of useless townships and their lobbyists.

  18. Yes there have been some extremely poor run townships. Townships, as a cost to home owners’ real estate tax bills, are not the big problem.

    Which that some people would go after the outrageous costs of our school system which is about 70 percent of our tax bills. Why so many administrators and their high costs? What about the astronomically high unfunded pension liability of our government workers and retirees? What about the outrageous 3 percent cola for government pensioners over the years and it is locked in and the Democrat controlled Illinois Supreme Court ruled that it is OK?

    What about many thousands of government retirees getting annual pensions from $100K up to and beyond $400K per year AND then getting that bumped up 3 percent every year? Imagine getting $400K this year and then getting a $12,000 raise in pension next year? Why does someone getting a $100K to $400k pension need that boosted by 3 percent every year? How is that fair to low and middle income persons in Illinois who work in the private sector and have no pensions only IRA’s and 401k’s?

  19. Nob you ignorant slut!

    You want proof of savings as if that could be the only reason a voter should be allowed to make a determination as to how the government functions.

    You simply don’t get it.

  20. I don’t mind townships per se, but most seem to be badly managed and run.

    And if what went on in Algonquin township is systemic, then they should go.

    Maybe it’s just the wrong people getting elected?

  21. Townships are like Fire Departments, they cost a great deal of money and they only work when there is a fire.

    The only difference is that Fire Departments are necessary.

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