Geneva city candidates talk home rule, historic preservation

Whether Geneva should pursue home-rule authority was one of the questions posed to candidates for two ward seats, at a forum Tuesday conducted by the League of Women Voters of Central Kane County.

The issue is being studied by the current council. Home-rule towns have more power to create laws. They also have the power to institute taxes and increase property taxes without having to seek voters' permission.

4th Ward candidate Jim Radecki, who served as a a 2nd Ward alderman from 1999 to 2006, said residents don't support it, and neither does he. "It's time to let that question die, and move forward," he said, noting the council has previously considered having a referendum on the matter. He also doesn't like the concept of "home-rule light" the state legislature is debating. In that, cities would get some of the law-making powers of home rule, but not the taxing ability.

"I find that a little bit disturbing," he said.

His opponent, Eleanor Hamilton, noted that as residential construction resumes, Geneva could automatically get home-rule authority when its population hits 25,000.

First Ward candidate Tara Burghart didn't take a position, saying the council should decide whether it can make a case to voters to approve home rule.

But her opponent, Pat Lenski, said he does favor trying to get home rule.

"I think the folks on the council are close enough to the residents that they are not going to abuse that kind of (taxing) power," Lenski said.

Audience members also asked them what they thought of the council's decision Monday night to overrule the Historic Preservation Commission and let the old Sixth Street School, which is in the historic district and the 1st Ward, be demolished. The owner, Kane County, is selling the site to the Geneva Public Library District, which may build a new building on it.

"The meeting (Monday) that I attended was a real eye-opener for me," Radecki said; the residents who spoke against the demolition swayed him. He would have liked the city council to ask the county to take 90 days to try to find a buyer that would adapt the building, he said. "I think the residents got a little short-changed with the (appeal) process being six days."

Burghart said it's obvious she favors historic preservation, given she bought a 100-year-old home when she moved to Geneva. "That said, these questions on historical buildings are so tough and they have to be taken one by one," she said.

Lenski also attended Monday's meeting. "What I found interesting is that people who haven't been here a particularly long time were as passionate about saving that building as people who have been," he said. Lenski said the city should follow the preservation plans that were developed in the mid-2000s with input from residents.

Hamilton's husband, Mark Adams, is a library trustee, so she would recuse herself from city council discussions involving the library, she said. The city has a right of first refusal to buy the current library, which is next door to City Hall.

In general, she favors historic preservation, Hamilton said. "However … if a private body would not find it resaonble to invest a certain sum of money in to a building, then I don't think a public body should be expected either."