A study of how Lake County government could operate more efficiently recommends several radical changes, according to details obtained Wednesday by the Tribune.
Some of the most controversial recommendations, which are scheduled for release on Friday, include reducing the size of the County Board from 23 to 12 members and allowing Lake County voters, rather than the board, to elect the County Board chairman.
The report, “Modernizing Lake County Government,” also recommends that the county coroner, recorder and Circuit Court clerk be appointed, rather than elected by county voters, every four years.
In addition, the report recommends that the county seek to institute home-rule status, which would give it automatic taxing powers, and that the county provide greater leadershipon hot-button issues such as the proposed Illinois Highway 53 extension and development of affordable housing in the far northern suburbs.
But many of the recommendations in the report, commissioned last year and prepared by two professors at the University of Illinois at Chicago at a cost of nearly $25,000, are likely to be rejected by county officials.
In a letter to board members, County Board Chairman Suzi Schmidt (R-Lake Villa) said she planned to hold a news conference immediately after the report’s release “to mitigate any controversy as a result of this study.”
On Wednesday, Schmidt rejected the notion that the board should be reduced to 12 members.
“I don’t think it will happen because I think a lot of the board members, including myself, believe that [smaller districts] give us more opportunity to work on behalf of our entire district,” she said.
“To have people cut themselves out from doing something they love to do is not reasonable or realistic.”
Schmidt, who last week attended an anti-Illinois 53 news conference organized by environmentalists and elected officials, also rejected the notion that the County Board should take a more active role in the controversy.
“Route 53 is not our issue; it’s a state issue,” she said.
She also said there was little the county could do to institute meaningful rules on affordable housing, although she said the county had been “grappling” with the issue.
“I’m not saying we’re not going to look at it, but it’s not the county that’s doing the developing,” she said.
Other high-ranking county officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said they are pleased by many of the report’s findings.
“The major thing is they want us to become more professional, and that’s the way it should be,” said one board member who endorses many of the findings. “At least if nothing else, these people are realizing you need to have some leadership.”
Schmidt and board member Sandy Cole (R-Grayslake), who chairs the Finance Committee, are scheduled to join County Administrator Karl Nollenberger at the news conference in Libertyville on Friday.
University of Illinois professors L. Vaughn Blankenship and James R. Thompson also are scheduled to attend. Thompson said Wednesday that he and Blankenship had been asked not to talk about the report until Friday.
The report was commissioned to help the county prepare for the redistricting process it will undertake based on the 2000 U.S. Census. Similar studies were conducted in 1980 and 1990.
After previous reports, the county abolished the elected position of county auditor, established the position of county administrator and went from multimember to single-member districts for County Board elections.
