Algonquin Voters To Determine Status of Village Clerk Position

ALGONQUIN, IL – Whether the position of village clerk will continue to be an elected position will be determined by voters in November after the Algonquin Board of Trustees approved a resolution to include the referendum on the Nov. 3 ballot this week.

The referendum will decide whether the job currently held by Jerry Kautz will continue to be filled as an elected role or whether it would become an appointed position. Village attorney Kelly Cahill told trustees in a special meeting this week that changing the status of the position would require the community to do so in a vote but that Algonguin's status as a home rule municipality allows it to shift the clerk's job to an appointed position.

Kautz’s term runs through April 30, 2021 and if voters would vote to change the position of village clerk to an appointed role rather than an elected one, trustees would have the ability to appoint a new clerk the day after Kautz’s term expires.

As it stands now under Illinois state statute, Algonquin’s clerk position is listed as a default position, as are the roles of village trustees and village president. The resolution states that the village board has concluded that it is in the best interest of the village and for the sake of sound government in an increasingly complex and regulated environment that the role of village clerk should be an appointed position rather than one that is determined by an election.

Cahill wrote in a memo to village trustees that Kautz’s role is more administrative in nature rather than one that is included in policy-making at the village level and that many towns “gone this route” in making the clerk's job an appointed role due to the nature of the position.