When board members in McHenry County pushed County Administrator Bill Barron to resign two weeks ago, it is unlikely any of them thought the move would lead to an effort to knock them from office as well.
But with some County Board members expressing reservations about replacing him, that could be an outcome of Barron’s departure on April 1.
County Board member Alex Orsolini of Richmond is recommending that the size of the County Board be slashed if Barron is not replaced. Without an administrator, he said, the board would become more active in running county government and a large County Board would only be unwieldy.
Orsolini made the suggestion last week during a meeting between County Board Chairman Dianne Klemm and the nine board committee chairmen. Orsolini is chairman of the board’s Management Services Committee.
“If we don’t hire another administrator, that probably would mean that the County Board would become a lot more involved in day-to-day operations,” Orsolini said. “If we’re going to become more involved, I think it might be a good idea to have fewer board members, but ones who are full-time.”
Orsolini said he believes a half-dozen board members, one from each of the six County Board districts, would be sufficient. The board now has 24 part-time members, four from each district.
The earliest such a change could occur would be 2000, when the next County Board elections, after this year’s, will be held, he said.
But Orsolini said his first choice would be to hire a new administrator and retain the same number of board members.
Orsolini’s recommendation has the support of Klemm, who favors hiring a new administrator. But even if a new administrator is hired, Klemm says she thinks the size of the board should be reduced.
“I am 100 percent for cutting the size of the County Board,” Klemm said. “That is something I’ll be pushing for. My position as County Board chairman has given me a good look at how cumbersome things can be. If we cut the size of the board and have good people on it, I believe residents would get better representation.”
A special County Board meeting has been scheduled for 8:30 a.m. Friday with local-government expert Jim Banovetz, who retired last month as chairman of public administration at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb. Klemm invited Banovetz to explain the various ways county government can be structured in Illinois.
District 5 board member Joanne Simes of Hebron said she is leaning toward not replacing Barron.
“I would like us to step back and see what we have done over the past 10 years,” Simes said. “I’d like us to find out whether we might be too top-heavy in administration.”
Simes said there is also “a question of whether we want a strong administrator.” In her view, Barron was influencing policy instead of carrying it out.
“We don’t want an administrator who is a rubber stamp for the board, but we don’t want a board that is a rubber stamp for the administration, either,” Simes said.
But Finance Committee Chairman John Colomer of McHenry says a rubber stamp administrator is exactly what Simes and others who oppose hiring a replacement for Barron want.
“They want a `yes’ man in there,” he said. “We’re a nearly $100 million operation, the third-largest employer in the county with 1,100 employees. Some of our board members want to micro-manage, and I think that’s wrong. We need skilled professionals to help us carry out the business of the county.”
In addition to hiring a full-time administrator, board members are considering a switch to a full-time County Board chairman who would act much like an administrator and be elected by countywide votes. The McHenry County Board picks its chairman.
Another option would be to have a board of supervisors, whose members would be made up of each of the county’s 16 township supervisors, which is common in rural counties.
Neighboring Kane County has an elected, full-time board chairman. “We don’t have an administrator, and I don’t know that we need one,” said Kane County Chairman Mike McCoy, who was elected to the post a little more than a year ago. “Probably in lot of ways, I act like an administrator.”
He said he works with the county’s finance director and other staff members to oversee day-to-day operations, and helps set policy with his 26-member County Board, which is divided into 11 committees.
“I think we’re the only collar county that does not have a full-time administrator,” McCoy said. “It’s more of a bare-bones operation than the other collar counties have, but we seem able to handle things. There has been some talk of hiring a county administrator, but I think what we have here works well.”
