When voters in Highwood head to the polls in November to vote for president and other representatives, they also will be asked whether they want to change the size and structure of their local government.
A referendum question on the ballot will ask residents whether the city should eliminate its ward system and elect City Council members at large. It also will ask whether the number of elected officials on the council should be reduced from eight to six.
Jon Kindseth, assistant to the city manager in Highwood, said the referendum was an initiative of a former alderman, Quintin Sepulveda, who resigned about a month ago to take a new job in another state.
“For the first time and only time, people in Highwood will have a chance to clean house completely,” Sepulveda said in an interview.
The discussion centered on the size and population of the city — 5,400 people— and whether it was too small for a ward system, Sepulveda said.
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Highwood is divided into four wards, with two aldermen representing the people of each ward. If that system is dismantled, council members would not be limited solely to winning over the voters of their individual wards.
“If elected at large, you could have people represent the city as a whole,” said Lake County Clerk Willard Helander.
Such a government structure is more common to villages rather than cities and was once a key difference between those types of municipalities, said Ken Menzel, deputy general counsel for the Illinois State Board of Elections.
“Over the years, the differences between cities and villages has dwindled,” he said.
The referendum comes at a time when Highwood officials are gearing up for the next local election, in April. Kindseth said a successful referendum might mean some current aldermen whose terms don’t expire until 2015 would have to seek re-election in the spring.
Under the current structure, four Highwood alderman seats — one per ward — are up for election next April. The potential change in the city’s governmental structure would mean six seats might be up for election, Kindseth said.
But Helander said she thinks elected officials could not legally be removed from their positions until their terms expire, meaning that if the referendum passes, Highwood could have to implement its new system of government in phases. Kindseth said the city’s legal counsel advised officials that the entire council structure could change at once.
The mayor is currently charged with filling the vacancy left by Sepulveda, Kindseth said. The appointment was on the agenda for the Oct. 2 City Council meeting. Whoever is appointed would be up for election in April regardless of whether the referendum is approved.
The mayor also is charged with filling two non-council vacancies: city clerk and city treasurer. Those positions, along with the mayor’s seat, are up for election in the spring.
Most aldermen voted in July to place the referendum on the ballot in November, but not all of them support the proposed changes. Alderman Andy Peterson said in an email that his constituents oppose the measure, and that is part of the reason he doesn’t support it.
“I have not been presented with compelling rationale as it relates to why the proposed changes will improve the efficiency or effectiveness of the City government,” he wrote.
But Alderman Kathy Murphy-Pieri said she supports the change in council structure. Like Sepulveda, she feels it would make aldermen more accountable to residents of the city. The current council structure came as a result of a vote by aldermen, not a vote of the residents, she said.
“People need to have a choice,” she said. “The government hasn’t been working right.”