Kane County torn on pending board size reduction

Kane County’s redistricting task force recommended cutting two seats from the county board Tuesday night, shifting much of the task force’s ongoing drama to the actual drawing of the districts. But a move is afoot to not cut the size of the board at all.

Several Kane County Democratic Party members in the audience urged the board not to cut any seats. Democrats said fewer seats would dilute representation for residents, particularly minorities, and make it harder to unseat incumbents.

That said, the task force took a full cut down to 18 members off the table; such a dramatic change would create too much of a problem in drawing a new map as board members fight for their political futures.

Task force Chairman Cathy Hurlbut said board members should prepare to campaign against each other no matter what.

“The shift of our population to the west significantly changes the way we can draw the districts,” Hurlbut said. “It’s very difficult to draw a map that’s incumbent-friendly.”

Smaller districts, including some with declining populations in Aurora, Elgin and the Tri-Cities, are most likely to see dramatic changes. Hurlbut said chopping eight members off the board would save taxpayers at least $300,000 a year.

A reduction of four members seemed plausible after Hurlbut announced two more board members have told her they are considering not seeking re-election. Carpentersville’s Hollie Lindgren and North Aurora’s Jim Mitchell already announced they won’t run again. The other two board members debating retirement have not made their identities public.

Mitchell was the only vote on the task force against cutting two seats; presumably, one of those seats would be his. Mitchell said taxpayers don’t mean they want to see fewer elected officials when they say they want smaller government. What they really mean, Mitchell said, is they want smaller tax bills.

“If you look historically, when representation goes down, costs go up and accountability goes down,” Mitchell said.

Mitchell said he’d be in favor of saving $300,000 and more for the taxpayers by reducing or eliminating health insurance benefits and the government retirement plan for county board members.

With the uncertain number of retirements, the task force settled on slashing two seats from the board. That recommendation needs final approval from the full county board. At that level, there will likely be a renewed fight to maintain all 26 seats.

In public debate, a total of seven board members favored at least some cut to the size of the board. A total of six board members clearly said they don’t want any cuts. The remaining 14 others either said they need more information, could go either way or didn’t attend the meeting. Fourteen votes are needed for any map or board reduction to be approved by the county board.

The task force also recommended staying with single-member districts. Shifting to multi-member districts is widely seen as inviting a lawsuit from minority interest groups. A plan to hire State Rep. Mike Fortner to assist with the redistricting process was criticized as an unnecessary expense of up to $9,000. The bipartisan task force decided to get through as much of the process in-house as possible and only hire an expert if an impasse arises.