Kendall County Board rejects committee overhaul proposal

The Kendall County Board refused to vote on an overhaul of its committee system, a longtime priority of Chairman Scott Gryder, at a meeting Thursday, Jan. 14.

The proposed rule change would have eliminated seven of the board’s 11 committees, replacing them with board member liaisons who would give reports to the rest of the group. Only Committee of the Whole and the committees for finance, highway and planning, building and zoning would have continued to have regular meetings under the new rules.

“You’ll have the same conversation three or four different times” under the current committee system, Gryder argued to the board, adding that fewer committees would save time for staff. “You’ll have five members at a committee, but the other five will still have a lot of questions about the same topic. It [reform] would cut down on a lot of that back-and-forth.”

Yet board members raised concerns about limiting discussion and the outright elimination of committees such as facilities and administration. After a lengthy discussion, not a single board member motioned to send the changes forward for a full vote.

“I understand the principle behind this, but we’re losing the input of board members if you’re just relying on everything coming through in an email like this,” said board member Judy Gilmour. “You’re just losing that discussion that five committee members would normally have.”

Although committee reform is on the back burner for now, most board members voiced support for making their committees more efficient. Suggestions included allowing a committee chairman to schedule meetings at will, or limiting some committees to certain times of the year.

“When we’re talking about eliminating the committee meeting, we’re not eliminating talking about the items,” said board member Amy Cesich. “This was just an opportunity to get to the point where we didn’t feel like we we’re being stagnant.”