County Executive Background

The Cheat Sheet has a basic overview of the County Executive form of government we transitioned to from the more common system by Illinois County governments where the County Board oversees an administrator and staff to carry out the County Board's directives. With a recent public push to get rid of the new County Executive position and go back to the old system, it's worth looking at how we got here.

The 2016 referendum for changing over to the County Executive form of government was supported by Champaign County's local Chamber of Commerce and Farm Bureau. This was in spite of their previous opposition to the same idea in the past. From Tom Kacich back in 2016:

Champaign County voters have rejected similar proposals for an elected county administrator on four occasions, the most recent coming in 1998 when the idea was rejected, 57 percent to 43 percent. It also was defeated in 1986, 1988 and 1990...

Ironically the Farm Bureau opposed the proposal on all four occasions, the organization's executive director, Brad Uken, said Wednesday...

[Chris Murray, president of the Champaign County Farm Bureau] denied that the initiative is an indication of unhappiness with the Democratic-dominated county board...

But Laura Weis, president and CEO of the Champaign County Chamber of Commerce, noted that "we have had a long period of time with a lot of unresolved issues (at the county) and I don't know that we can honestly say that this is going to be the thing that solves all those issues. But currently the way we're operating we're not bringing resolution to outstanding issues that are facing the county and with the state of the state it's only going to get worse."

Full article here with additional historical oddities. Kacich had further analysis on the conflicting motives of those suddenly supporting the change here. The County Executive plan was a collaborative project with the local Chamber and Farm Bureau as well as the candidate the role was effectively designed for, Gordy Hulten, then the Champaign County Clerk. From the News-Gazette during the 2018 midterm race that would eventually fill the position:

he political action committee of the Champaign County Chamber of Commerce has endorsed Republican Gordy Hulten over Democrat Darlene Kloeppel to be the county's first county executive.

The unusually early announcement comes almost 11 months before the general election set for Nov. 6, 2018.

"We decided that since the chamber was such a driver for the county executive initiative in the first place we wanted to make sure if we're going to get involved that we want as much of the (election) cycle as we could and to have as much impact as we possible could," said Garret Hill, spokesman for the Business Empowered political action committee.

The chamber of commerce along with the county Farm Bureau and Hulten, currently the county clerk, and state Sen. Chapin Rose, R-Mahomet, were the chief proponents of the county executive proposal which was narrowly approved by voters in November 2016 by a margin of 50.26 percent to 49.74 percent.

That full article here. The Farm Bureau also endorsed the presumptive candidate a month later. The public arguments danced around the thinly veiled partisan motivations and focused on urban versus rural divisions between the parties and specific policy issues dividing liberals and conservatives to paint the Republican backed move as non-partisan. To be fair, partisans on both sides believe that their positions are what's best for the County, not simply partisan battles. A cynical person won't believe their rationalizations. A more optimistic person may give more of a benefit of the doubt until their actions remove that doubt.

The surprise victory by Democratic Darlene Kloeppel was a shock to many, including Hulten who dismissed the possibility as realistic prior to the election. Since that election his and Republican Party desires to have veto power over the Democratic majority County Board have disappeared.

What has happened since has been frustrating and confusing for many Democrats hoping to consolidate those gains towards more political victories after the 2018 "blue wave" as they like to call it. Instead the Republicans have formed a coalition with self-described pragmatic Democrats on the County Board and elected Giraldo Rosales as Chairman of that coalition majority.

The Chairman and the Republican coalition have acted as an interim check on the Democratic Party's majority on some of the very issues Republicans hoped Hulten would play as County Executive. This appears to be a limited and temporary solution to their original goals, however. The ability to elect a Republican County Executive in a couple years is far from certain. The fractured Democratic party may be infighting before a primary election now, but that's not certain to continue either. The coalition some Democrats have formed with Republicans is causing serious resentments and bizarre power moves that could result in a very different situation heading towards or after the general election.

One of those coalition members, Democratic County Board Member Dr. Charles Young is the other half of the Reform Champaign County's bipartisan effort to eliminate the County Executive now. He has been a frequent and relentless critic of his party's own County Executive, Darlene Kloeppel. His appointment to personnel and policy committee chair by Chairman Rosales has allowed him to use his time to regularly and publicly admonish the County government's structure and Kloeppel for a litany of complaints.

The stated motivations and rationalizations may be more or less sincere. I've highlighted the public comments and disagreements in previous Cheat Sheet posts here for readers to make up their own mind:

• Fears and Loathing at the County Board: an expansive overview of Champaign County Democratic Party divisions, background, and coalition politics.
• Party Politics: a brief overview of the complicated party politics ahead of the 2020 primary election.