Residents want to dump sheriff's patrol, but Wayne Township refuses

Did the Wayne Township board ignore the results of a property tax hike survey?

Why did West Chicago's water revenues shrink $2 million last year?

How much did Cook County homeowners in Barrington Unit District 220 pay in rebates last year to their Lake County counterparts because of a nearly 50-year-old property tax feud?

If these topics sound familiar, it's because we brought them to light in the past, but every so often we like to check on the results of our investigations. We call these follow-ups watchdog kibble. Here's the latest helping.

Don't ask

Wayne Township Supervisor Tom Arends sent out nearly 1,600 surveys to residents of unincorporated areas last October asking if they'd favor a property tax hike to keep a DuPage County sheriff's deputy on a special patrol in their neighborhoods.

Issuing the survey cost taxpayers $1,402, township officials said.

Fewer than 600 surveys were returned, but 301 responded they weren't in favor of the tax increase while 273 said they did support the hike.

So why did the township just begin a new 10-month contract with the sheriff's office to continue the patrol?

“There was a small sampling that had returned the survey,” said Trustee Brandi Fike Ramundo. “The way the question was written, we were finding there was some misunderstanding in what the impact was going to be.”

Fike Ramundo along with fellow township trustees Joan Mruk and Mark Jatczak voted in favor of raising the special tax levy to $110,000, while Arends and Trustee William Waghorne voted against it.

“I felt if we were going to take a survey we should probably honor it,” Arends said.

County officials are quick to note that it's already the sheriff's responsibility to patrol unincorporated areas of the county and that these taxpayers are essentially being taxed twice to add the special patrol.

The township will pay $89,616 to the county for the deputy's services through February 2016. That's about 80 percent of the cost of the deputy's annual salary, according to county officials.

Bloomingdale, Milton and York townships also pay for extra patrols but didn't survey their residents about continuing the practice. Last year, the townships paid about $66,000 each for 12 months of the deputies' services. The cost to townships went up by more than 60 percent.

“Their costs are going up because our costs are going up,” said Paul Fichtner, chairman of the county board's finance committee. “And the townships know that the costs are going to continue to go up.”

Fike Ramundo said it's unlikely the township will survey residents again about the tax. It might not have to.

“We may not be able to afford it,” she said. “They're pricing us out of this needed service.”

It's unclear what the township will do with the extra $20,000 that was levied for the patrol program this year. If it is disbanded, they could abate some of the property owners' tax burden next year. If the tax cap prevents the township from levying enough money to fund the program in its entirety next year, this year's excess revenue could be used to offset the difference.

Pretty please

When a software problem kept West Chicago from issuing water bills to most of the city last year, officials asked property owners to pay estimated amounts.

They didn't get a lot of takers. Even among some of the city's aldermen.

“We didn't see a need to pay until we got our bill because we knew the city was going to work with us,” Ward 7 Alderman John Banas said.

The city fell $2 million short of its $4.5 million water revenue target, according to West Chicago's most recent budget.

Some residents said they're concerned about sending the city payments without actual invoices.

“I haven't received any bills for more than a year and when I call they basically don't have any real answers,” said 17-year resident Brian Meade. “If they're not competent enough to send out timely invoices, why would I trust them enough to send them a blank check?”

The city's switch from manually read water meters to ones that transmit the data electronically sparked the billing snafu in 2013. City Administrator Michael Guttman said the city's billing software wasn't compatible with the equipment. Meanwhile, city workers have been manually calculating the property owners' bills while the software issue is addressed and using reserve funds to cover what the city is calling a delay in revenue.

Guttman said the city will eventually recoup those revenues when all residents begin receiving bills again. Residents will pay what they owe in installments rather than all at once.

While city officials said they've made strides in rectifying the issue and more people have begun getting bills again, there's still no timeline for when everyone in the city will be getting regular water bills.

Currently, the city is billing in four-month increments to a “majority” of property owners. The goal is to get bills out on a regular two-month cycle, officials said.

“Once people receive their first four-month bill, they're happier that it's less than what they thought it would be,” Guttman said.

Declining fortunes

Two years ago, Cook County property owners in Barrington Unit District 220 paid more than $2 million to their Lake County counterparts to help offset years of unbalanced property tax burden.

The issue arose because Cook County assesses property differently than any of the other 101 counties in the state, according to tax law experts. After years of legal wrangling, a court decided in 2003 that District 220's Cook County property owners should pay rebates to the Lake County property owners in the school district until the tax burden is rebalanced.

It appears the scales are starting to even out.

The amount paid by Cook County property owners last year was nearly 40 percent less than in 2013, according to property tax data on Cook County Clerk David Orr's website. The Cook residents paid $1,240,003 last year compared to $2,028,144 in 2013. It's the lowest amount paid since 2009.

Minard Hulse, the lawyer who oversees the rebate program for the Lake County property owners, said the paybacks could be over within five years. Lake County taxpayers have to sign up with Hulse each year to receive their share of the money. Information on the rebate program can be found at the Barrington Enlightened Taxpayers Association website, betaonline.us.

“The way things look now, it appears that it will go away,” he said.

Got a tip?

Contact Jake at jgriffin@dailyherald.com or (847) 427-4602.