Task Force backs keeping 24 Kane County districts

GENEVA – The Reapportionment Task Force voted Thursday to recommend keeping county board seats and districts at 24 instead of reducing it, as members got a presentation on their upcoming task of redrawing district boundaries to reflect changes in population and demographics in the 2020 census.

And Board Chairwoman Corrine Pierog and Board member Kenneth Shepro, R-Wayne, got into it over the hiring of consultants for $30,000 without board oversight.

Most task force members and advisory members supported 24 districts.

Junaid Afeef, an advisory member, said he spoke to community members about this issue after the last meeting.

“By and large, the feedback I received was concern that as our county grows, it is not only numerically, but also in diversity,” Afeef said.

“To reduce the number of districts and board members would adversely impact the ability for a diversity of voices and perspectives to be at the table when decisions about the county are made,” Afeef said. “When the districts reduce, they become larger and the idea individuals being able to represent a broad cross section residents in geographically expansive areas is challenging. Even now, with 24 districts, given the number of people in those districts, it’s not an easy task.”

Board Member John Martin, R-Geneva, said one of the issues in having fewer districts is it makes it harder and more expensive for people to run for office, while keeping it at 24 members opens the door for more participation.

“Increasing the size of districts … I think it could be divisive, kind of like an us and them context of a vote, if a district gets too big,” Martin said. “We function with committees. … As a board, we’re not 24 people sitting there mulling over decisions. I think 80% or 90% of what we vote on at the monthly meeting is on the consent agenda because everything else has been run through committee and cleared.”

However, Board member Drew Frasz, R-Elburn, and advisory member Elburn Village President Jeff Walter both supported a reduction to 22.

Walters said based on research showing other county boards function with fewer members and more population, reducing to 22 would be more efficient. Frasz said the job of board member is 10-15 hours a week, 20 on a busy week. Frasz cast the lone no vote. The measure will go to the full board for final action.

Shepro said diversity on the board allows more people to bring something unique to the table.

“Winston Churchill said, ‘Democracy is a very bad form of government, except for all the others,’” Shepro said. “What is the goal of government? It is efficiency? If it’s efficiency, we might take a look at Slovakia or Moldova for a model which is very efficient. They don’t have a lot of representation.”

‘File a lawsuit’

Consultants Zach Koutsky, president and CEO of Berteau Consulting, LLC and Josina Morita and her company Grapple LLC, will be working with the county GIS and IT staff and Special Assistant State’s Attorney Phillip Luetkehans on the demography and population. Morita is also a commissioner on the Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago.

They will be relying on the American Community Survey and other measurements which will tell them the demographics in every precinct in the districts, because the 2020 census information will be coming late this year.

Shepro said it appears that the county cannot meet the statutes’ requirements because they conflict and recommended that the county file a lawsuit.

“The statutes cannot be met … we cannot comply with all of them,” Shepro said. “When we say we are going to follow the law, we can’t.”

Waiting for the General Assembly to act will not solve the problem because lawmakers may not act, act too late or their action does not address Kane County’s needs.

“Our only option is to file a lawsuit and get a judge to tell us and everybody else what needs to be done,” Shepro said.

Pierog said that would be a decision by the full County Board, not the task force.

Partisanship allegation

Shepro and Pierog got into a back-and-forth about partisanship over the choice of consultants for the redistricting because of their ties to the Democratic Caucus.

“This has been my position right along on this board, that we are going to be truly representing a non-partisan matter,” Pierog said. “Mr. Koutsky talked about that very clearly, his unique specialty, his team and Jocina to be able to look at minority districts and be able to draw them effectively, to have that dept. of knowledge as well. Josina represents a minority, she is of Asian decent … Mr. Koutsky is knowledgeable on how to work with diversified populations.”

Pierog said Koutsky will also participate at some of the four community town halls to be scheduled, where he will take notes and lead discussions.

Koutsky and Morita will be paid $30,000 for their consultancy, prompting Shepro to ask why hiring a consultant did not go through the board, but were chosen unilaterally by Pieorg.

“I find that very disappointing. I believed in good faith that this was going to be a bipartisan process,” Shepro said. “Mr. Koutsky’s very excellent resume that he posts online makes it clear that he is a partisan. He is not in the business of being objective in the work he does. He openly talks about it.”

Pierog said Shepro would have preferred the choice go through the committee structure, “rather than looking at the recommendation of what clearly – I believe – was my authority to do.”

“This is a debate between myself, obviously, and Mr. Shepro,” Pierog said.

“You doubt that I have the capacity to choose an adequate demographer and adequate consultant to lead this committee,” Pierog said to Shepro. “This is about drawing effective maps that represent the changing status of Kane County. This is not about Republicans. This is not about Democrats. This is about drawing adequate maps that will fairly represent the county as we move forward to growth in the next 10 years.”

The task force’s next meeting is 3:30 p.m. on May 6.