Elect County Board Chairman? why?

Should the McHenry County Board waste time and money on a referendum to find out whether The People want to elect the chairman, instead of having the chairman elected by the members of the Board?

Did the public make it clear that it wants to "weigh in" on this issue? How? When?

At the last election there was a vote on whether the People should elect a County Administrator. Fortunately, that got knocked down.

But the water was muddied early on, because some kept talking about how that would do away with the County Board Chairman's position or role, and this question was never part of the vote.

Voters did get surprised at the polls, though, when the issue was not limited to electing a County Administrator, but a home-rule issue was coupled with it. Was I the only one to wonder how you could vote Yes or No on a two-part question? I wondered who slipped the home-rule part into the question to be voted on and why the home-rule part never got much discussion before Election Day.

There is no rush to elect the Chairman for the County Board. In fact, I can see a number of reason not to. Hopefully, the County Board, with its many new faces, will go forward with meaningful (and cost-cutting) deliberations in 2013.