Study on townships was not flawed

This letter is in response to an article in the Daily Herald about my study on township government on May 7 and a subsequent letter to the editor by Elk Grove Township Supervisor Nanciˆ  Vanderweel on May 24.

Both pointed to errors in population numbers intimating that the entire study might somehow be flawed.

The majority of the data for the study, including population figures, were obtained from reports that townships send to the state.

So the population and employment figures were numbers that the townships themselves reported. I assumed their reports to the state were accurate.

I cannot take credit for those mistakes. I will take credit for the analysis based on those figures.

ˆ Even after correcting Hanover Township's population reporting mistake, the ratio of employees to population is still one of the highest among townships at 1:1,897 residents.

The average for all townships is one employee for 3,024 residents. Hanover's ratio is roughly 60 percent higher than the average.

Even with the changes reported in Ms. Vanderweel's letter, my overall finding on staffing stands: There appears to be no reason to the staffing patterns of the townships. The only conclusion is that some townships are patronage havens and have much larger staffs than necessary.

ˆ Other findings in the report: Townships carry large surpluses - some have enough cash on hand to operate for over two years; non-township counties in the state collect 13.5 percent less property taxes; township youth and senior citizen services are also offered by many municipalities; Cook County townships no longer assess property, but the position still exists; and townships spend twice as much on road maintenance per mile than a sample of eight suburban municipalities.

ˆ Eliminating townships should result in a more seamless provision of services, less duplication, better coordination of services and a reduction in administrative costs.

An estimate of the savings in Cook County if townships were eliminated is 50 percent of the $80-plus million that they spent in 2007.

ˆ David Hamilton

Dept. of Politicalˆ  Science and Public Administration Roosevelt University

Schaumburg