Constitutional Convention Bulletins

Commissioners of the First Park District of the City of Ev

anston (partly within Chicago)

Albany Park Commissioners

The entire city constitutes one school district; and territory annexed to the city is also annexed to the school district. The board of education is a body politic and corporate, and, as reorganized by act of 1917, consists of 11 members, appointed by the mayor with the approval of the council, two or three retiring each year, and their successors to be appointed for five-year terms. The city treasurer is exofficio school treasurer; and is required to keep school funds separate, subject to the order of the board of education upon warrants signed by its president and secretary and countersigned by the mayor and city comptroller.

The Public Library is organized under the library law of 1872, with a board of nine directors, appointed by the mayor, with the approval of the council, three being appointed each year for terms of three

This board has exclusive control of library funds, which are kept by the city treasurer subject to the order of the library board.

The Municipal Tuberculosis Sanitarium has been established under an act of 1908, with a board of directors of three members, appointed by the mayor, with the approval of the council, one each year for a term of three years.

Other governmental agencies, connected with the city government, but having a special legal status are the Municipal Court, the House of Correction, the Board of Election Commissioners and the boards of trustees of pension funds.

The House of Correction is governed, under an act of 1871 by a board of inspectors, consisting of the mayor and three other persons appointed by the mayor, with the advice and consent of the council, one appointed each year for a term of three years. This board has power to make agreements with the county board and with city and village trustees as to the keeping of prisoners.

The board of election commissioners is an anomalous body. Its members are appointed by the County Judge; and some salaries and the expenses of general and state elections are borne by the county. But they are also city officials; and the salaries of most employees and the expenses of city elections are borne by the city.

Boards of trustees of pension funds also occupy a peculiar position. They consist of representatives of the city or other local government and representatives of the particular class of public employes. Separate boards have been provided for the police, firemen, school, library, House of Correction, Municipal employes, and the several park district pension funds.

Sanitary District of Chicago. The Sanitary District of Chicago is a distinct municipal corporation, organized in 1890 (under an act of 1889), for the primary purpose of constructing a channel or canal, from the Chicago river to the Des Plaines river, for the disposal

of the sewage of Chicago and neighboring territory so as to prevent the contamination of Lake Michigan, which is the source of the city's water supply. The district has also power to establish and maintain docks and to control water power in connection with the drainage canal.

As first established the district covered 185 square miles, including the greater part of the city of Chicago and a smaller area outside of the city. This area has been extended from time to time, by act of the legislature subject to optional local referendum; and is now nearly 400 square miles, including the entire city of Chicago and about an equal area outside of the city, and over two-fifths of the area of the county. The population of the district is about 97 per cent of that of the county; and the assessed valuation is about 98 per cent of the entire county.

The governing body of the district is a board of nine trustees, elected at large by the voters in the district, three members every second year for a term of six years. The President of the board is one of the trustees elected as President as well as trustee.

The district has its own taxing and borrowing powers. The main channel has cost approximately $24,000,000. Improvements have been made in the Chicago river at a cost of more than $10,000,000; a north shore channel, providing a direct outlet for the sewage of Evanston and the village of Wilmette has cost $3,250,000, and the Calumet-Sag channel (now under construction), to drain the Calumet region to the south of the city, will cost about $12,500,000. From the water power developed at Lockport, the district generates electric current which is sold to the city of Chicago and other municipal corporations.

Within the Sanitary District and outside the city of Chicago there are 162 separate taxing bodies, in addition to the county and the Sanitary District, as follows:

5 Cities: Berwyn, Blue Island, Evanston, Harvey and West Ham-
mond.

The incorporated town of Cicero.
39 Villages: Bellwood, Broadview, Brookfield, Burnham, Burr
Oak, Dolton, Elmwood Park (in part), Evergreen Park, For-
est Park, Franklin Park, Glencoe, Glenview, Hinsdale (in
part) Kenilworth, La Grange, La Grange Park, Lyons, May-
wood, Melrose Park, Morton Grove, Mount Greenwood,
Niles, Niles Center, Oak Park, Phoenix, Posen, Riverdale,
River Forest, River Grove, Riverside, Robbins, Shermerville
(in part), South Holland (in part), Stickney, Summit, Tess-
ville, Western Springs, Wilmette and Winnetka.

9 Park Districts: Blue Island, Clyde, Glencoe, Kenilworth, Oak
Park, Riverdale, River Forest, Wilmette, Winnetka, (The
First Park District of Evanston is partly within Chicago.)
12 Towns: 6 wholly within the district-Berwyn, Evanston, New
Trier, River Forest, Oak Park and Riverside; 6 partly outside
the district-Bremen, Leyden, Lyons, Northfield, Proviso
and Thornton. (In addition 3 towns wholly within the dis-
trict and partly in Chicago-Calumet, Niles and Stickney; and
3 towns partly outside the district and partly in Chicago-
Maine, Norwood Park and Worth.

66 School Districts: 47 wholly within the Sanitary district, and 19 partly outside.

11 High School Districts: 6 wholly and 4 in part; also part of the non-high school district.

15 Library Boards.

4 Drainage Districts.

In these communities the machinery of local government is even more complex and more difficult for the voter than in the city of Chicago. In addition to substantially the same county, sanitary district and city or village officers, the voters in these communities are also required to elect township and school district officers, and in some places also park, library, high school and drainage district officers. They have to face the problems caused by the extraordinary number of elective county officers in Cook County and also those caused by the large number of local elections for the various minor districts.

Towns in Cook county. There are altogether 38-towns in Cook County. Of these, eight are entirely within the city of Chicago, and have practically no separate town government. Within the Sanitary District are included ten other towns entirely and nine more in part. Outside of the Sanitary District, there are eleven towns.

Of the towns entirely outside of the Sanitary District, all are mainly agricultural, except Bloom Township, which has mainly an urban and suburban population in the industrial city of Chicago Heights and the villages of Glenwood, South Chicago Heights and Steger. Of the other ten townships entirely outside of the Sanitary District, seven each contain not more than one village, and most of these had less than 1,000 population in 1910; the largest (Lemont) had 2,284 in 1910. These townships are in two groups: six in the northwest (Barrington, Elk Grove, Hanover, Palatine, Schaumberg and Wheeling); and four in the southern part of the county (Lemont, Palos, Orland and Rich).

The towns partly in and partly outside of the Sanitary District differ in character. Several of them have a number of suburban villages, some within and some outside the Sanitary District. Such towns as Lyons and Proviso (west of Chicago) and Thornton (on the south) are largely suburban in character. Leyden, Norwood Park and Maine (northwest of Chicago) and Worth (on the south) include several villages or suburban districts. Bremen and Northfield have some small villages, but are as yet largely agricultural.

The terms town and township are used in the Illinois statutes in a number of different senses. The congressional township is a geographical area used in the land surveys, and as such has no political significance. The school township is in most cases, but not always co-terminous with the congressional township. The civil town, under the township organization law, is more often different in area from the school and congressional township. Incorporated towns are usually villages, incorporated before 1870; but the incorporated town of Cicero is co-terminous with the civil town, and has the usual officers of the civil town as well as officers for village functions.

All of the ten towns entirely within the Sanitary District and partly or wholly outside of Chicago may be classed as suburban. Several suburban townships cover only a comparatively small area, taken out of the former congressional townships-e. g. Norwood Park, Riverside, River Forest, Oak Park, Berwyn and Cicero.

The towns of Lyons, Proviso and Thornton have the most complex variety of local districts. Lyons has 10 villages (6 partly in other townships), 10 school districts (5 union districts), 2 library boards and part of 1 high school district. Proviso has 9 villages (2 partly in other townships), 9 school districts (3 union districts), 3 library boards, 1 high school district and part of 2 others. Thornton has 2 cities, 11 villages (4,partly in other townships), 14 school districts (2 union districts), 1 high school district, 1 library board and 1 park district.

For towns not wholly included in Chicago the regular list of elective town officers is: Supervisor, Town Clerk, Assessor, Town Collector, Highway Commissioner, 1 to 5 Justices of the Peace, 1 to 5 Constables, and 3 school trustees. There are however, some exceptional arrangements for certain of the towns in Cook County. The only elective town officers for the town of the city of Evanston are justices of the peace and constables. The city clerk is exofficio town clerk, the city treasurer is ex-officio town collector, and the assessor is appointed by the county board of assessors. The distinctly suburban towns of Berwyn, Cicero, Oak Park and River Forest do not elect highway commissioners. In two cases, three towns are included in one school township; and only one set of school trustees is elected for each of these school townships." Two towns (Thornton and Bloom) each include 2 school townships.

The total number of elective town officers in the county is as follows: