Illinois Valley Times

Rep. David Welter (R-Morris) does not want the state to mandate a vote on whether Lake County should have a chairman.

“I don’t think it is our place to be controlling the locals,” Welter said. “I believe this is a local control issue. The locals should have the ability to do this, and I think that is where it should be done. Not here in the chambers. So I would urge my colleagues to please vote 'no.' ”

Senate Bill 699, presented by Sen. Rita Mayfield (D-Waukegan), would put the referendum regarding a Lake County chairman on the 2018 ballot. If approved, the chairman would be chosen in the 2020 election. 

Agreeing with fellow Republican and former Lake County Board member Rep. Nick Sauer (R-Lake Barrington), Welter said the system Lake County has in place for these types of proposals is sufficient. 

“There are … currently two avenues in which the voters can go about making change,” Welter said. “One of those is the county board voting by the members of the board to place on the ballot a question of whether the county board chairman should be elected at large. The other option is, if citizens in that county feel the need to have a countywide elected chairman, they can petition by getting the required amount of signatures to place on the ballot [and then] then vote on this.”

Mayfield argued that voters have tried to enact similar initiatives when they collected signatures for term limits and redistricting. 

“They failed," she said. "If we couldn’t do it at the governor’s level, it’s not going to happen at the county level. That’s not even a valid option for our taxpayers."

SB669 passed 61-50 and now awaits Gov. Bruce Rauner’s response.