Shields Township One of Many Taxpayer Sinkholes

During the last few years, the movement to abolish Township Government has rightfully gained much strength. Township Officials of Illinois (TOI) has ruled with an iron hand. Those elected to township offices and their employees have for better than half a century wallowed in cushy taxpayer compensation and benefits while doing as they pleased rather than doing best to serve their constituents.

Townships’ General Assistance (GA) to aid the needy and infirmed is no longer relevant. State and Federal governments have taken on that role. Few qualify for GA funding and when they do it is only until State agencies take over.

In 2013, TOI successfully lobbied to allow GA administrators the right long held by State welfare agencies to withhold from public view personal client data. The State interprets the law and holds its agencies accountable for heeding it. Numbers and geographical locations of welfare recipients are gathered, analyzed and made available to policy agencies in efforts to affect change and promote public interests. Townships however rely on TOI to interpret the statutes, shirk from data collection and are answerable only to their own governance.

At the April 18, 2019 meeting, Shields Township Supervisor Terry Darraugh refused to grant the trustees’ request to keep metrics on clients who call or come to the offices to seek assistance. Ms. Darraugh stated, “Frankly, I don’t have to do it”. Her repudiation was backed up by the township attorney Kerri-Lyn Krafthefer who stated, “It is the law”.

Further, after 17 years of recording and publicly broadcasting Shields Township meetings, Ms. Darraugh wishes to discontinue the practice. So much for transparency and affecting policy change for the better.