Barrington moves on without home rule powers
After residents voted no on a referendum to implement home rule in Barrington, Village President Karen Darch said there are no plans to put the question before voters in the immediate future.
"Obviously the people have spoken," Darch said after Monday night's board of trustees meeting.
In last Tuesday's election, 1,435 Barrington residents voted to adopt home rule, which would grant additional powers to the village, but 2,017, 58.4 percent of those who cast a ballot, voted no. More than 3,400 people cast votes on the referendum, which is around one-third of the population of Barrington.
The village board did its part getting the ball rolling on the issue. After an ad hoc committee of residents reported to the board in mid-August that they felt home rule would benefit the village, the board unanimously put the home rule referendum question on the November ballot.
Then from late-August until weeks before the election the board hosted eight public meetings around town to discuss the home rule referendum and other village issues.
Darch said the village tried to educate the public because home rule is a very involved, multifaceted issue.
Home rule gives a local government the power to deal with local problems without seeking the authority of the Illinois General Assembly and exempts it from certain state laws.
Besides giving a municipality more authority to raise taxes, home rule allows a town more flexibility to craft ordinances and develop alternative sources of revenue, proponents say.
Darch said home rule is a difficult topic to get your head around, which made it more difficult to present to the public.
Darch said the board may continue educating people on home rule by noting when they would have acted differently had residents adopted home rule.
Darch left open the possibility of the issue being addressed again in the future.
"It's done for now, but you know down the road if people decide they want to bring it up again then that's always a possibility," Darch said.