Kane County begins redistricting process with call to cut size of board

Kane County has until July 1 to redraw its board districts now that new census numbers are in. And that means politicians are thinking both larger and smaller as major changes are on the way that will impact every area of the county.

County Board Chairman Karen McConnaughay announced a new task force to develop redistricting maps for the full county board to consider. The idea is to redraw the territory represented by each member of the county so everyone represents roughly the same number of people. Taking an average of the population for all 26 districts, that means each board member should represent about 19,800 people.

Several districts are a long way away from that. Likely targets for big changes include the 24th District, represented by Carpentersville’s Hollie Lindgren. Her district only has 12,625 people. Meanwhile, T.R. Smith, represents literally the entire northwest portion of the county and its 33,824 residents.

“This is a political exercise,” McConnaughay said. “There’s no getting around it. Everyone has something to gain or lose in this process.”

That includes their jobs. McConnaughay called for the elimination of two to four of the county board seats. That means county board members will select among themselves which of their colleagues will no longer be on the county board. McConnaughay believes the county will still hit a population of 800,000 sometime within the next 20 years. Counties Code (under the Illinois Compiled Statutes) says a county of 800,000 people can have a maximum of 18 board members. McConnaughay said it’s time to start the process of eliminating seats.

“This is really going to be a shock to the heart if you wait (20 years) to make this cut,” McConnaughay said.

Lindgren is a likely target. She announced Tuesday that she doesn’t plan to run for re-election. Jim Mitchell, of North Aurora, is another target as this will also be his final term. Both were named members of the new task force.

After the meeting, McConnaughay said there’s no real reason to not just cut eight board seats right now other than the political difficulties involved.

“I say let’s do it,” McConnaughay said. “That’ll save the taxpayers a few dollars. We are one of the larger boards out there. Many of the other county boards seem to be doing just fine with smaller boards.”

But smaller can also mean bigger jobs and bigger paychecks for county board members. Cook County only has 17 commissioners, but each of them are paid $85,000 per year for what is considered to be a full-time job. Kane County Board members are paid $24,000 a year for a part-time job. As the county grows, so will the job demands and salaries of county board members, McConnaughay said. At some point, the county will look at a full-time board member model.

“I think that goes without question,” she said. “But are we there yet? No.”

Redistricting will next be discussed at a special meeting March 22.