DuPage candidates differ on consolidating fire districts

DuPage County Board candidate Jeremy Custer says county officials are “moving too fast” to consolidate fire districts and fire departments.

But his opponent in the Nov. 4 election — District 4 incumbent Grant Eckhoff — insists he's already waited five years to see progress made on the fire consolidation issue.

Democrat Custer is trying to unseat Eckhoff, a Republican, in a race that will determine who represents county board District 4, which includes all or parts of Addison, Bloomingdale, Carol Stream, Glen Ellyn, Glendale Heights, Lisle, Lombard, Wheaton and Winfield.

Both candidates have lauded DuPage's efforts to explore consolidating local units of government as a way to save taxpayers money.

Custer, however, claimed this week that county officials have been putting undue pressure on fire protection districts and fire departments to consider consolidation.

“There's definitely some friction between what the fire chiefs, fire boards and firefighters want and what the county wants,” said Custer, who lives in Glendale Heights. “A lot of the districts don't want to consolidate. The county is really looking for it to happen.”

Earlier this year, a group of mayors and fire chiefs suggested that firefighting agencies in the county voluntarily work together to save money and improve service.

Custer said that plan by the DuPage Mayors and Managers Conference Fire Services Stakeholders group doesn't need agencies merging to be successful.

“I think they (county officials) are moving too fast,” he said. “There's definitely a push for political reasons because this is something that looks good on a piece of (campaign) mail.”

Eckhoff insists consolidation is inevitable because every government entity in DuPage is dealing with budget challenges.

The Wheaton resident said that's why he and others are exploring proposals to consolidate firefighting agencies.

“The person who says we're going too fast doesn't ever want us to do it,” said Eckhoff, who has been publicly pushing for fire consolidation since 2009.

In order to keep existing levels of fire protection and emergency medical services, Eckhoff said there wouldn't be a reduction in the number of firefighters if two departments are merged.

Taxpayers would save money because there wouldn't be a need for separate fire chiefs, finance departments, human resources departments and legal teams. He said administrative positions would be reduced through retirements and attrition.

Still, Eckhoff acknowledges that consolidation ideas have received pushback from some chiefs.

“We knew some people didn't want to do it,” he said. “If people wanted to do it, Illinois wouldn't have more units of government than any state in the country. But the bottom line is, we should do it.”

Custer said the fire chiefs he's heard from are concerned with the direction Eckhoff is taking.

“They fear that this is going to be a march toward cutting head count and lowering the quality of service that the residents are used to getting,” Custer said.

If elected to the county board, Custer said he would pursue “a more deliberate and more thoughtful process” — not a push to consolidate for the sake of making it happen.