Rock Island County votes to cut board size - CBS4 - WHBF Quad Cities, IL-IA News Weather Sports

Rock Island County votes to cut board size

By: Jillian Wilson

Jwilson@cbs4qc.com

Since the seventies, Rock Island has had 25 board members representing the county.

And for the first time, residents have voted in favor of cutting that to fifteen.

 "I want a smaller board. I want them to work. I want them to be efficient, I want them to attend the meetings and I think they should not be compensated. If they are not doing the job they are hired for," says Dr. Myron Fields.

Other counties like Scott and Cook county have much smaller boards.

Many in Rock Island said twenty five people on the board is simply unnecessary.

And the amount of people who agreed was enough to put the question on the ballot.

But the vote was just to gauge where people stand on the issue.

"It doesn't take 25 to run Rock Island County, if you look across the river, Scott County has five supervisors, and we don't hear anyone in Davenport jumping up and down saying we need to make the board bigger," says Ron Oelke, a Rock Island board member elect.

But some folks in Rock Island say they don't really care how many people represent the county.

"I'm 100 percent neutral, so either way I just don't put much stock into politics," says Jessica Kremer, a rock island resident.

Others were unclear about the question to begin with.

"I didn't know for sure and I tried to find the information online and I wasn't able to, so I voted yes. I thought it would be important but either way, I'm not certain how it should be," says Maidena Navratil, a Rock Island resident.