Is separate Northfield Road District needed?

Non-binding referendum will gauge opinion

March 19, 2013|By Alexandra Chachkevitch, Chicago Tribune reporter

A nonbinding referendum in April will gauge if Northfield Township residents favor combining the road district with the township, and already reaction seems mixed.

The April 9 ballot question goes to the 78,000 residents of the township, which covers parts of Glenview, Northbrook and Northfield. It asks whether locals would be interested in dissolving the Township Road District and having the Township Board assume its duties and rights.

Three Northfield Township trustees — Carol Blustein, Mary Reynolds and Richard Mullen — voted in January to add the nonbinding referendum to the April ballot.

Blustein, who is running for re-election, opposes the way the road district operates and said she believes it lacks oversight. By folding the district into the township, the trustees would gain more control over the district's budget and would be able to see if there is unnecessary spending, she said.

She said if the referendum fails then "pretty much everything will stay the same."

But if the election shows that residents favor the Northfield Township assuming responsibilities of the road district, it could still be a while until anything is finalized, she said.

"It's just a question at this point," Blustein said.

Options include holding a binding referendum, or asking for legislators in Springfield to amend township legislation.

Some residents say that the fewer levels of government there are, the better.

"I'm all for consolidation," said Ray Dempsey, 58, who has lived in the unincorporated area of Northbrook since 1984. "I think we have too many layers of government."

Dempsey said he thinks the road district does a good job with its services, but combining the two governmental bodies could potentially benefit the taxpayers.

But other locals felt they did not know enough about the repercussions of combing a road district with the township to be able to have an educated opinion.

"It's totally irresponsible that you can ask an uneducated population to vote on something like this," Carol Brdecca said.

Brdecca, 69, who has lived in Glenview most of her life, said she would vote no on the referendum.

She said she would like to see evidence that abolishing the road district and having the township assume its responsibilities would save taxpayers' money.

"If the district is dissolved, what's going to happen?" said Brdecca, who enjoys the road district's services.

Blustein said the services will not go away but she believes there are redundancies between the road district and other forms of government, such as nearby municipalities.

In particular, she said she and some of the other township trustees want to study the need for an emergency management director in the road district because fire chiefs in Northbrook and other nearby villages handle similar responsibilities.

By striking an emergency management director position, Blustein said, the township could save about $70,000 per year.

"Most importantly, we don't want to diminish the services," she said, adding that the advisory referendum is just a stepping ground for further research.

But Northfield Township Road District Highway Commissioner Peter Amarantos disagrees.

He said if Northfield Township assumes the road district's responsibilities, it would cost more money to the residents, not less.

The system "has worked for a lot of time," said Amarantos, who has been elected over the past 20 years to oversee the road district. "It's been there for a lot of time."

Amarantos is running for re-election as well as Blustein. Reynolds, Mullen and Trustee Brenden Appel are also running again for their seats on the township board. Democrats Blustein, Reynolds, Mullen and newcomer Marla Miller will be running against republicans Appel, Melanie Peterson, John Birkinbine and James Pieczonka. Amarantos, a Republican, will run for his seat as Highway Commissioner against Democrat Dan Frey.

Bryan Smith, executive director of Township Officials in Illinois, said he believes that townships already have oversight over their road districts. Township trustees are supposed to make the final approval on the road district's budget.

"If they don't like it, they can trim it," Smith said.

Smith said he believes a lot of people do not appreciate the important role townships play in daily lives of the residents. But he said that law mandates them to provide several services, such as road maintenance and general assistance to those in need, and other levels of government cannot provide all of those services.

"Townships are probably the most misunderstood form of government," Smith said. "But it's a very necessary form of local government."

He said Stickney Township, located near the Midway Airport, had a similar referendum to Northfield's a year ago. In that case, a binding referendum was placed on the ballot to dissolve the road district, but the measure was defeated.