WOODSTOCK – The McHenry County Board gave final approval to a system by which to seat its committees with a popularly elected chairman.
Board members ratified a change to board rules that takes away the chairman’s past authority after each election to select the seven-member Committee on Committees.
Starting with the 2016 election, it will be up to each of the board’s six districts to choose its delegates, with the chairman acting as the seventh member.
Under the new rules approved Tuesday, each four-member district at the December organizational meeting in which new members are seated after the November election will sequentially vote to appoint a delegate. A 2-2 tie vote goes to the most senior member.
In the event of a tie of seniority, a coin flip will decide the delegate.
Board members Tuesday decided on a coin flip rather than the recommendation to have the entire 24-member County Board vote to break the tie.
The change is one of several major ones to County Board rules that were made in the wake of last year’s voter referendum to make the board chairman elected by the people rather than by the 24-member board itself.
A number of board members had expressed concern that a newly elected chairman might not have any experience on the County Board, and would be in position to pick which members get to decide assignments to the committees in which most of the county government’s work gets done.
Previous questions and concerns over the proposed change, such as whether it would comply with the Illinois Open Meetings Act, prompted board member Mike Skala, R-Huntley, to attempt to amend the change back to the old way of doing it in which selecting the Committee on Committees was the chairman’s prerogative.
The proposal was overwhelmingly defeated by voice vote.
An attempted amendment by Nick Provenzano, R-McHenry, to make the most senior district member the delegate was likewise defeated.Board member Carolyn Schofield, R-Crystal Lake, observed that seniority does not make a board member the most competent or qualified.
Whatever the Committee on Committees recommends still must be approved formally by a majority vote of the County Board.
The membership of the County Board’s dozen or so standing committees is a big deal politically for its members, as was the chairman’s past privilege to choose the chairmanships for them.
Critics alleged the power of incumbency was strong because the chairman could promise those chairmanships in exchange for almost all of the 13 majority votes needed for re-election.