County board says no to limiting chairman’s terms

The McHenry County Board has agreed to reduce the capacities in which the vice chairman can serve, but rejected a recommendation to place term limits on the county board’s top two elected officials.

Those items were among a slew of rule changes recommended by the county management services committee to the county board Tuesday.

“People get upset with the perceived good old boy and good old girl network,” said management committee Chairman Ersel Schuster, a Republican from Woodstock. “This was to provide transparency and prevent the appearance of the same people continually being elected to public offices.”

County board members voted 13-11 against creating a three-term limit on the county board chairman and vice chairman.

“State statute does not allow us to create term limits for elected positions,” said board member Nick Provenzano, a Republican from McHenry. “Therefore, putting term limits in the county rules is ineffectual and unnecessary.”

The topic was first introduced last December after current Ken Koehler was elected by the board to serve a fourth two-year term as chairman.

By the same vote, the county board added a rule that prevents the vice chairman of the board from serving as chairman of a standing committee. The new rule will take effect in December 2012.

Vice chairman John Jung leads the county’s human resources committee.

Board member Barbara Wheeler, a Republican from Crystal Lake, said both changes were aimed at fostering new leaders in the county.

“The thought was to facilitate and shepherd in new leadership,” Wheeler said. “There are 24 of us on the board and 11 committees. There are plenty of talented board members to share the leadership sufficiently.”

Board members who backed the new rule argued the vice-chairman’s responsibilities would increase should the county board chairman become unavailable or incapable of serving his post.

But Provenzano said the board was limiting who could lead committees.

“Ninety-nine percent of the time the chairman is in the chairman’s seat and vice chair does not have any other responsibilities other than being a regular board member.” Provenzano said. “We shouldn’t miss out on opportunities to use someone’s expertise just because they are also vice chair.”