Unless the courts prevent it, Kane County will have a referendum on its March 20 primary ballot asking citizens whether they want to change their system of county government.
Voters looking for guidance in making their decision will find little fact but plenty of strong opinion, pro and con.
They`ll also have to sort out other factors. For one, the referendum`s backers are motivated by a dissatisfaction with the leaders of county government, not with the structure itself. And legal challenges may keep the referendum from appearing on the ballot in March or might delay implementation of the new system for more than two years even if the voters approve it in March.
The referendum asks whether the voters want to establish a county executive form of government. In that system, an executive officer is elected by popular vote in a countywide election. He or she presides over County Board meetings but not over the Forest Preserve District Board, which has the same membership as the County Board. The executive also appoints (with the board`s consent) chairmen and members of committees and is responsible for implementing the board`s policies and ordinances.
Other elected admininistrative and judicial officers would retain their present functions. Those are sheriff, state`s attorney, treasurer, clerk, auditor, recorder, assessor, superintendent of the educational service region, court clerk and judges.
Will County voters adopted the executive form of government last year. Voters in Champaign and Winnebago Counties rejected similar proposals. Du Page County changed in 1976 to countywide election of its County Board chairman. Previously the chairman had been elected by the board from among its members. If the referendum gets on the ballot in Kane County and receives voter approval, candidates could be selected by the Democratic and Republican central committees to run for county executive in the November general election. However there`s disagreement on whether that selection process is still legal. With no primary election scheduled between March and November, selection of candidates for the office might have to wait until the March, 1992, primary election.
Presently, Kane County Board Chairman Frank Miller, a Republican of Aurora, and Forest Preserve District President Philip Elfstrom, a Republican of Batavia, are elected by the 26 board members. All board members are elected from single-member districts.
Opinion remains divided in Will County on whether the executive form of govrnment has been successful.
”I never thought it would pass, it`s such a ridiculous form of government,” said John Annerino, Will County Republican chairman and County Board member.
”It doesn`t work on the state level or the federal level, so why should it work on the county level? The Congress and the president are always fighting, bickering, making deals.”
Annerino seems to doubt the very workability of the American form of representative government, and yet it`s true that government at many levels is plagued by bickering and backstabbing.
That`s not the case on the Kane County Board, however, where dissent is usually limited to a perfunctory word or two from the six-member Democratic minority and where most members of both parties go along with the initiatives of a few leaders.
The petition drive to get the executive referendum on the Kane County ballot was organized by leaders of STOP, a group that has been at odds with the county government`s leadership since a year ago, when the Forest Preserve District began efforts to take the riverfront portions of 26 residential lots on the west bank of the Fox River for a bike trail.
Residents organized STOP, which then stood for Stop Taking Our Property, but now stands for Stop! Think! Organize! Prevail! They took Gov. James Thompson on a tour of the area last spring and persuaded him to sign a bill that made it more difficult for the Forest Preserve to take residential property for bike trails.
Public opinion generated by their campaign also forced the Forest Preserve District to back off its plan to take riverfront property there by condemnation, although the district is still buying property as it comes onto the open market.
So incensed have the STOP leaders become over what they see as Elfstrom`s arrogant and dictatorial ways that they launched a petition drive last fall to put the executive referendum on the March primary election ballot.
”The executive form of government gives us a new option,” said Karen Steve, of unincorporated St. Charles, a STOP leader whose lot is one of those targeted for the Forest Preserve`s riverfront bike trail.
”The executive would be a candidate answerable to the entire county, not just to the voters of one district. He`ll have to accommodate and be accountable to the entire county. Phil Elfstrom`s plans never touch his home district (Batavia). He goes after homes some place else, where he doesn`t have to stand for re-election.”
Abuses are possible in the executive system, too. An executive elected countywide could develop pockets of support strong enough to secure his position, letting him give short shrift to other parts of the county.
”That`s a possible flaw in the executive system, but we`re committed to staying on the job as watchdog activists to make this work for all the people of the county,” Steve said.
”The county executive will professionalize county government,” said Charles Stuart, a neighbor of the Steves and another STOP leader.
Agreeing with them is William Damisch, a Republican County Board member from Hampshire.
”I`m 100 percent in favor of a countywide executive. County government is a weak form of government because it doesn`t have a centralized
executive,” said Damisch. ”An executive would be a person with countywide accountability.”
Attractive Republican candidates for the job, according to Damisch, would be Jan Carlson, county Republican chairman and clerk of the circuit court, who got more votes for court clerk in 1984 than Ronald Reagan got for president in Kane County; Sheriff F. John Randall, who got more votes in 1988 in the county than President George Bush; and County Treasurer Gordon Volkman.
Elfstrom and Miller could not win a countywide election, he said: ”Phil Elfstrom is perceived as being arrogant and overbearing. That`s the perception of the voters, that he doesn`t care for any point of view but his own.
”I`ve never questioned his ability. I do think in recent years he could have done things with more tact and diplomacy. He has stood and fought in cases where he might have compromised.
”Frank Miller is more electable than Phil, but he suffers from association with Phil. And any County Board member, including me, suffers from never having been a countywide candidate.”
Elfstrom sees no great advantage or disadvantage to the executive post:
”It probably won`t improve things all that much, but it wouldn`t make things much worse either.”
Would the executive system save money or just cost anywhere between $50,000 and $1 million to pay the salaries of the executive and aides plus other office expenses?
”Most things in county government happen in increments that are too small to attribute to any single event,” Elfstrom said.
Would an elected executive be unwelcome competition for Elfstrom, who has spent years developing expertise and influence in forest preserve matters and solid waste disposal, among other issues?
If that happened, Elfstrom said he wouldn`t mind.
”A county executive ought to be involved in those areas,” he said.
”That sort of general leadership would be good. Contact between the Forest Preserve (Elfstrom`s baliwick) and the county would probably become more structured, but there wouldn`t be competition for turf. Solid waste and other issues of countywide importance are things an executive would want to take under his wing.”
