As Glencoe officials move toward asking residents for adoption of the home rule, two people with experience on the subject are detailing how the shift affected their work and what steps Glencoe will have to take to convince its residents it would be for the best for the community.
At a March 19 Committee of the Whole meeting, all Glencoe trustees expressed support for asking voters for a switch to home rule authority. Glencoe and Kenilworth are the only two North Shore municipalities without home rule.
Enacted in 1970, home rule communities have more flexibility in creating laws and regulations and can opt out of certain state mandates or legislation unless barred from doing so by the Illinois Constitution or the legislature.
Among the area municipalities that have made the switch are Lake Forest and Barrington.
Lake Forest voters approved home rule status in November 2004.
“The biggest advantage and the selling point was that as a home rule community you are making decisions on the local level unless the state has specifically restricted your ability to do so versus having to go to Springfield to seek approval to do certain things,” former Lake Forest City Manager Bob Kiely explained.
Lake Forest City Manager Bob Kiely helped manage the city until early 2019 when he stepped down.
Kiely pointed to specific advantages for home rule regarding license, permits and generating fees.
“The overriding sense of the community is they wanted local residents to have control more so than the state politicians,” he remembered.
Kiely added as part of the switch to home rule there was a creation of a real estate transfer tax to fund infrastructure improvements in the city.
“We were forthright and open with the people and said this is why we want it and why it will benefit you,” he said.
Barrington voters said yes to the change in November 2022.
“It allows us to be a little more strategic in how we address infrastructure,” Barrington Village Manager Scott Anderson said. “It helps to share some costs with those that come into the community and enjoy some of the amenities.”
Barrington Village Manager Scott Anderson addressed the crowd of would-be voters during a forum Sept. 28, 2022 aimed at garnering support for a home rule referendum that passed on the Nov. 8 election ballot.
Anderson mentioned with home rule, Barrington officials have been able to modify some local ordinances on issues including street exhibitions where people were coming into the community and taking over streets as well as “crime free” housing programs.
Barrington also instituted a 1% home rule sales tax that is used on auto sales, groceries and medicine that he believes will collect over $1 million in the first year.
Anderson said the village has yet to issue any debt through its home authority, but that is a potential advantage in the future.
“You can time the credit market to be a little bit more advantageous based on bidding, the interest rate environment and really having more of a strategic approach to how you address infrastructure improvement,” he said. “It is still a transparent process. The difference with home rule you don’t have to go to referendum to issue that general obligation debt.”
With Glencoe’s approximate 8,600 population falling way below the state requirement of a 25,000 residents for an automatic switch, village residents will have to approve home rule at the ballot box.
Kiely and Anderson spoke of the public relations effort Glencoe officials may have to embark on.
“It has to be a community initiative because the opposition usually comes where residents and the Village Board want additional taxing power,” Kiely said. “It really has to come from the community and that is what Lake Forest did successfully. It wasn’t just the City Council and the (Lake Forest) Caucus. A lot of other neighborhood groups got behind it and said this is in our long term best interests. That is what Glencoe will have to do to sell it.”
Anderson offered a similar sentiment, saying transparency will be key while suggesting officials get out into the community to tell residents how taking on home rule authority will help the village.
At the March meeting, differing opinions were shared by village trustees on whether a referendum should be on this coming November’s ballot or next spring’s municipal elections, leaving the matter unsettled for now.
Village Manager Phil Kiraly wrote in an email that trustees were tentatively set to discuss the timing at their May meeting.
Glencoe has explored a switch to home rule in the past, including a 1988 referendum that was handily defeated by voters. Subsequent discussions on home rule have popped up at times, but never went back to residents for a referendum. The most recent set of conversations on the subject were tabled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Daniel I. Dorfman is a freelance reporter with Pioneer Press
