Republicans On Will County Board Oppose Redistricting Plans Pushed By Democrats In Political Power

(The following press release is from Stewart Warren.)

JOLIET – Don’t cut the members.

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Will County Board Republicans oppose reducing the number of representatives on the Board. If there was one County Board Member for each district instead of two, that would not provide adequate representation for residents, they say.

The May 14 meeting of the Board’s Executive Committee included a discussion of possibly eliminating some members of the Board. Will County Board Speaker Joe VanDuyne, D-Wilmington, made the proposal and suggested placing an advisory referendum on the November ballot to determine if voters agree. That type of referendum is not binding; it wouldn’t become law. It is simply a way to see how constituents feel about an issue. The Will County Board currently has 11 districts with two members each.

“I am against reducing the number of people on the board to one person per district because we are a county of 700,000, and we have a great deal of unincorporated area that requires more attention to the people,” said Will County Board Member Dan Butler, R- Frankfort. “And one person per district would not provide the representation that residents need.”

Large parts of his district are unincorporated, meaning residents can’t call the city or village if they have problems. They call their Will County Board Members. And they call them often.

“I get calls on Sundays at 8 p.m.,” Butler said.

Will County Board Member Dave Oxley, R-Lockport, agreed.

“We are the fastest growing county in the state of Illinois. Why would we reduce the board members?” Oxley asked.

Additionally, many districts are split politically. The residents are Democrats and Republicans.

They don’t belong to one political party. It helps to have two representatives so there can be one from each party.

“The current system is working pretty well. There are many districts that have both a Democrat and a Republican representative. The Board itself is well divided. It’s an even number of Republicans and Democrats,” said Will County Board Member Frankie Pretzel, R-New Lenox. It would be difficult for one person to take care of an entire district, said Will County Board Member Judy Ogalla, R-Monee. Each district has about 50,000 residents. “One person can’t do all the work,” Ogalla said.

Republican Leader Jim Richmond, R-Mokena, noted that the Democrats introduced the proposal as a cost-saving measure. “If they want to cut costs, let’s just decrease our salaries,” he said.