URBANA — The newest member of the Champaign County Board said he’d like to see the board discuss consolidating the county’s 30 townships into seven.
Wayne Williams, the current Democratic assessor for Cunningham Township, was appointed at a special county board meeting earlier this week to fill the District 11 seat vacated by the resignation of former board member Titianna Ammons.
His plan calls for keeping the two townships whose borders mirror those of Champaign and Urbana — City of Champaign and Cunningham, respectively — intact while consolidating the county’s 28 rural townships into five.
“Do we need 30 townships in the county?” he asked. “That is something I’d like to explore.”
Consolidating townships could reduce both layers of government and costs, and creating a fewer number of larger townships could help attract more qualified candidates to run for assessor positions, he said.
Williams, who has served as Cunningham Township assessor since 2018, has a master’s degree in accounting from the University of Illinois Springfield and holds a designation of certified Illinois assessing officer from the Illinois Property Assessment Institute.
Williams said he also hopes to see the county board discuss further consolidations in county government and explore the potential of replacing elected officials in certain departments with hired professionals.
At the end of the year, the county recorder’s office will be merged into the clerk’s office, with Clerk Aaron Ammons set to become recorder as well.
Williams also said he hopes to see the board discuss infrastructure needs, such as streetlights and drainage improvements, for some unincorporated neighborhoods outside Champaign and Urbana.
While these are all issues Williams said he thinks are worth discussing, he also said he’s aware the county board is already dealing with more urgent matters.
“I want to get my feet wet first, then explore these issues,” he said.
Williams was selected to fill the vacant District 11 seat by the county’s Democratic party, though Democratic County Executive Darlene Kloeppel objected.
While Williams meets state statutory requirements to be appointed to the county board, Kloeppel said she was concerned that a potential overlap of duties by Williams jointly serving as township assessor and a county board member “may not be the best practice.”
Kloeppel said she didn’t veto Williams’ recent appointment based on the advice of State’s Attorney Julia Rietz.
A state appeals court recently found that in counties that have both a county executive and county board chair, the power to make appointments to fill vacancies between elections lies with the board chair.
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December 12, 2021 at 08:00PM
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Newest Champaign County Board member wants to explore consolidating rural townships - Champaign/Urbana News-Gazette
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