Champaign County to Hold Hearings on Appointments Over Elections

Public hearings in Champaign County this week will consider whether the elected county offices of auditor, coroner and recorder of deeds should be appointed instead.

Any member of the public can speak at these hearings --- including the three office holders, who will argue for election by voters over appointment by the county board. Champaign County Auditor Tony Fabri says making his office an appointed one would make him beholden to the same county officials whose spending he's supposed to review. "When you take that position and make it subordinate to the folks who are actually making the expenditures," says Fabri, "it weakens the independence of the office, and it weakens the financial safeguards that the county has to protect taxpayer money."

County Board members Brendan McGinty and Greg Knott first proposed appointing rather than electing the three county offices a couple of years ago. McGinty says initial research reveals that counties as big or bigger than Champaign County elect rather than appoint their coroner, auditor and recorder. --- and he says there may be good reasons for that. "I wouldn't be disappointed if we ended up making no changes or making changes that make sense," says McGinty. "All I want to do is have the conversation on it, do the research on it."

McGinty and Knott serve on the Champaign County Board Policy Committee, which is holding the hearings. Committee chairman Tom Betz says the hearings will help the county board decide whether to put a referendum on the fall 2010 ballot asking voters if they want to make any or all of the offices appointed instead of elected.

All hearings will be held at the Champaign County Brookens Center in Urbana. The recorder of deeds hearings starts at 6 PM Tuesday followed by the coroner's hearing at 7. The auditor's hearing is Wednesday night at 6.