Champaign Co Bd Tries Again to Put Auditor Referendum on Ballot

Champaign County Board members voted 15 to 11 in committee Tuesday night to put a referendum making the county auditor an appointed post on the April 2011 ballot. Board members voted the same way they had 13 months ago, when they slated the measure for the November ballot. That vote turned out to be legally premature --- state law says a referendum must be approved to go on the ballot within a year of the election date.

Despite the delay, supporters like Republican Greg Knott of District Four say it's clear that an elected county auditor is not needed.

"Very seldom does the current auditor ever come and really recommend changes or point out things other than the very obvious that the county or departments within the county could use the advice on," says Knott, referring to Champaign County Auditor Tony Fabri. "His staff does all the work. So at this point, it's a surplus position, in my opinion."

Fabri, a Democrat, disagrees. He says the auditor's office needs to be led by someone elected by the people, who can act as an independent monitor of county finances. He says referendum supporters are trying to weaken the office because of their opposition to him. But Knott says problems with the office go back several decades in Champaign County.

Fabri also questions referendum supporters for wanting to place the question on the April ballot, after losing their chance on the November ballot. The November election is a general election, expected to attract more voters than the local elections in April. Fabri says the referendum supporters hope to benefit from the lower spring election turnout.

"I think they're trying to game the system. And they think that in the municipal election, when Urbana, for example, has no municipal election at all, and probably won't have many contested school board elections, I think they believe they'll get a better voter turnout for their side of the argument."

But the Democratic co-sponsor of the referendum, Steve Beckett, says the political maneuvering was actually done earlier --- when Champaign County Democratic Chairman Al Klein spotted the state election rule that disqualified an earlier county board vote to bring the referendum to voters in November. Beckett says Klein waited until it was too late to fix anything before bringing up the matter.

"If he had alerted the board prior to the time that he did, we could have corrected the technical problems with the prior draft, and had it on the ballot for this November,", says Beckett.

The District Nine county board member says he also has concerns about holding the auditor referendum in April, but doesn't want to delay it until 2012, when candidates for auditor will be on the ballot, too.

The Champaign County Board will take a final vote on whether to put the auditor referendum on the April 2011 ballot, at their general meeting September 23rd.