Merging County Clerk and Recorder

An issue that has come up again, and comes up frequently at the County government over the years, is whether to merge the two elected primary record keeping offices of the County government, the Clerk and Recorder. This isn't just a local topic. Illinois has numerous overlapping and divided local government entities that divide power, but also raise concerns about waste and redundancy. From a Chicago Sun-Times opinion piece describing the situation in the State last year:

Some Illinois government officials are facing tough budgets and flat revenues, and they know turning to taxpayers for more won’t work. So what do they do? In many counties, the answer has been: Consolidation.

Somewhat under the radar, 87 out of 102 counties in Illinois have merged the recorder of deeds office with the county clerk’s office. Another three are working toward it, including Cook County, Winnebago County and McHenry County. Adams County did it in 2004. Tazewell in 2012. McLean in 2013 and Peoria in 2016. In all of those counties, the move was preceded by voters approving the mergers.

Full article here. Recently the issue came up locally with an attempt to merge the office by Democratic County Board members while it was generally opposed by Republicans and a Republican currently holds the County Recorder office (Cheat Sheet post here). Consolidation would result in a single County Clerk office as it is a required County government office under the Illinois Constitution, while the Recorder office is optional. That last recent attempt to consolidate locally failed. From the News-Gazette after the vote:

In July 1968, Democrats on the Champaign County Board proposed eliminating the independent elected position of recorder of deeds.

The elimination never happened.

Exactly 50 years later, another generation of county board Democrats proposed the same thing.

And once again, it won't happen.

On Thursday night, the county board voted 15-7 against putting a question on the November ballot asking for the elimination of the office.

Five Democrats joined all 10 Republicans to ensure the status quo.

That full article is available here with some the details about cost savings versus concerns about keeping the office independent as well as some of the political and partisan realities. The latest push comes from County Board member Mike Ingram who has announced a run for the County Recorder seat in 2020 with a commitment towards the elimination of the office. From WILL:

The Champaign Democrat, first elected to the county board in 2016, holds a variety of freelance jobs, in music, music booking and teaching.

But Ingram said he has the leadership skills to oversee the recorder office’s staff, while leading a campaign to pass a referendum to eliminate the elected recorder’s post. Such a referendum could be placed on the ballot by the Champaign County Board, or a voter petition...

Ingram said Champaign County might save about $100,000 a year by having the county clerk oversee the recorder’s office, and eliminating the post of the elected recorder of deeds. He added that even if consolidating requires hiring an additional staff member, that person could be paid less than the elected recorder, and still result in savings for the county. Ingram says the person overseeing the recorder’s office doesn’t need to have the specialized skills of the staff, and so doesn’t have to be the recorder at all...

Most of Illinois’s 102 counties elect a combined clerk-recorder, according to a directory maintained on the website of by the Illinois Association of County Clerks and Recorders. That directory shows 18 counties, including Champaign, that have separate county clerks and recorders. But at least three of those—Madison, Winnebago and Illinois’ most populous county, Cook—will be consolidating the two offices soon, due to recent voter referendums...

But Ingram said he thinks the idea of merging the county recorder and clerk’s offices would gain more support if there was someone in the recorder’s office who supported the idea.

Full WILL article is available here. The News-Gazette's editorial board came out in favor of consolidating the offices in an editorial the last time this issue came up here. They've been supporting the idea for years, however. Here's another opinion piece in favor of consolidations two years before that here.