DuPage hires remap consultant, spikes confidentiality clause

An Itasca law firm was hired Tuesday to help redraw DuPage County's electoral boundaries, but only after county board members agreed to remove a confidentiality clause from the contract.

Schirott, Luetkehans and Garner, P.C. will be paid up to $125,000 to serve as a consultant to the county board committee charged with configuring the future legislative map.

However, the firm won't need to comply with a confidentiality clause that had DuPage County Board Chairman Dan Cronin raising concerns about lack of transparency.

Cronin argued that the proposed restriction could have prevented him and county board members who aren't on the redistricting committee from getting access to information.

On Tuesday, the county board's finance committee responded by removing the confidentiality clause before the contract was approved by the full board.

“That's progress,” Cronin said of the vote. “The whole process should be out in the open. If you are going to spend taxpayers' dollars on the services of a professional, that information should be open and accessible to the public.”

Cronin said he believes the end result will be “a better product” when the county board votes on a new map in June. Right now, the county is divided into six districts, with three board members per district.

Democrats don't share Cronin's optimism. All three Democrats on the 18-member county board voted against hiring Schirott, Luetkehans and Garner.

“It's a shameful waste of the taxpayers' money,” said county board member Rita Gonzalez, an Addison Democrat. “It (the process) is unfair. This whole vision of redistricting, we know it's going to be slanted toward the Republicans.”

County board member Tony Michelassi, an Aurora Democrat, said he opposed the contract because he believes there's a more cost-effective way to do redistricting. He said existing county resources should have been used to draft proposed legislative maps without spending money on a consultant.

But board member Pat O'Shea, chairman of the redistricting committee, says an improperly drawn map could result in legal challenges.

“I don't want (the county) to be challenged because we used a bunch of people who have never done a map before and don't know the rules,” O'Shea said.

O'Shea said hearings and forums will be held to seek public input on proposed maps. He strongly disagreed with the claim that Democrats will be excluded from the redistricting process.

“I think we made it as fair as we can,” O'Shea said. “Each and every county board member — that includes each and every Democrat — will have equal access to the (redistricting) committee and have equal access to the consultant.”

Still, DuPage Democratic Party Chairman Bob Peickert questions whether the outcome will be a map that fairly represents the diversity of the county.

“They are determining the map by having it decided by Schirott's firm, Cronin and Republican board members,” Peickert said. “They should set an example. Let's have a system in DuPage that lets a computer draw the map.”