Editorials: Streamlining chain of command an important part of reforming townships
Townships often are in the crosshairs when critics take aim at Illinois' large and expensive collection of local governments. With 6,963 taxing bodies, we're far and away the nation's leader.
Some lawmakers aim to make it easier to dissolve or merge township governments, and those efforts make sense. Democratic state Sens. Melinda Bush of Grayslake and Julie Morrison of Deerfield say proposals they've offered would give voters those options, which we support.
We also see ways to streamline and economize that fall somewhere short of simply dissolving all townships. One of townships' roles, for instance, is public assistance, which might be of growing importance as the state fails social services.
But townships' awkward organization and under-the-radar fiefdoms are ripe for reform and cost-cutting.
That's because townships have just a handful of primary duties, and in Illinois, it's common to have an elected official in charge of each of them. Every elected official hires a staff and one even has a separate tax levy, but they have no official obligation to one another and no mandate for a shared mission.
It's like a corporation without a CEO, and it's an obstacle to frugality and efficiency.
An elected assessor assesses property, except in Cook County, where the county assessor handles that job - but where townships still have elected assessors. An elected highway commissioner maintains roads and levies a separate tax, even in most suburban townships that have very few miles of roads under township control. An elected supervisor oversees general assistance. Despite the title, he or she doesn't supervise the other elected officials.
The fight over the future of Naperville Township's road district demonstrates the obstacles posed by this setup, with Supervisor Rachel Ossyra and Highway Commissioner Stan Wojtasiak at cross purposes on whether his duties should be reassigned to the city of Naperville, which promised to cut costs.
Wojtasiak has dragged his feet, Ossyra and two township board members had the majority vote to cut his budget, and Wojtasiak says he'll sue.
As the Township Officials of Illinois points out, "where the highway commissioner, the supervisor, the clerk and the township board work in harmony, the taxpayer usually benefits." Hoping for harmony seems like a dubious strategy. Why not work toward a clearer line of command with one elected official in charge of managing the varied tasks and employees?