Task forces come under fire in Kane County

In a move that would strip some of the power out of the position of Kane County Board chairman, a new proposal seeks to force a bipartisan structure for all future county task forces as well as give the full county board a final vote on the membership of those task forces.

Kane County Board Chairman Karen McConnaughay has used task forces throughout her tenure to explore some of the more complicated and controversial issues that have come before the county.

As chairman, she currently creates and appoints all the members of the task forces on her own. Most recently, she created task forces that set the framework for eventual county board votes on new electric vehicle laws and new property nuisance restrictions. A task force is also continuing work a concepts for the possible future redevelopment of the Settler's Hill landfill and the 700-acre campus that surrounds it.

County board member Jim Mitchell said Wednesday that board members haven't been kept up to date on the work of the various task forces as much as he'd like.

"With the Settler's Hill thing, there's no minutes anywhere that I can find," Mitchell said. "So you don't know what those people discussed. This proposal is an attempt to make sure there are minutes so the whole board can know what's going on and that we have input into that task force so it's not set up to usurp any of our committee structure."

McConnaughay said she doesn't have any problem with Mitchell's proposal other than the notion that the task forces haven't been transparent. Indeed, the meeting minutes for the Settler's Hill/Fabyan Parkway task force are on the county's website.

"What's he's saying is not true," McConnaughay said.

The only roadblock to Mitchell's proposal may be some legal concern about mandating bipartisan representation on task forces. While many of the county board's committees already have bipartisan membership, there may be no legal mechanism to mandate that composition. The Kane County State's Attorney's Office will investigate the legality of Mitchell's proposal. McConnaughay said even if there is no law about bipartisanship, it's just a smart way to get votes passed.

"It's good public policy," McConnaughay said. "It's how you get a board to work together."