Champaign County voters will have another decision to make in the 2021 consolidated election on April 6: whether or not to eliminate the Champaign County Recorder of Deeds office, merging its duties with the Champaign County Clerk’s office.
The language for the referendum was approved 18-3 by the Champaign County Board on Jan. 14.
The question will be:
SHALL THE OFFICE OF THE RECORDER OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY BE ELIMINATED AND ALL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE OFFICE OF THE RECORDER OF DEEDS BE TRANSFERRED TO THE OFFICE OF THE COUNTY CLERK OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY ON APRIL 1, 2022.
The Champaign County Committee of the Whole debated the timing of the referendum on Jan. 12.
Jim Goss, a Republican representative of District 1, should that the timing of the referendum should be questioned.
“I’m not going to say that I’m not for consolidation,” Goss said. “I’m all about saving money. I don’t think we’re going to save much money on it, but I think it ought to be in front of an election where there are more people voting.”
Democrat Mike Ingram ran for the Recorder’s office in 2020 on the platform of eliminating the position of the recorder. In defeating incumbent Mark Sheldon, Ingram has continued the conversation of his campaign process by bringing the issue to voters.
Ingram has presented the Champaign board with documents showing that almost 90-percent of counties in Illinois have eliminated the Recorder’s office. Champaign, DuPage, Kane, Kankakee, LaSalle, Macon, Rock Island, Sangamon, St. Clair, Vermilion, Whiteside and Will are the only counties in Illinois that still elect a Recorder.
Cook, Lake, McHenry, Winnebago, Madison, Peoria, McLean, Tazewell, Kendall, DeKalb, Williamson and Adams are just some of the 102 Illinois counties that have combined the tasks of the Recorder’s office with those of the County Clerk.
It is estimated that Champaign County will save about $60,000 annually by eliminating the position that Ingram currently holds. The current salary for the county recorder is $91,830.
Elimination of the Recorder position would not change the number of employees needed to handle the work of the recorder’s office — filing and maintaining all real-estate records (deeds, mortgages, property liens, subdivision plats and land surveys) in the county.
Currently, the County budgets for 5.5 full-time employees to do the work of the office. According to Ingram’s report, the positions would be moved into oversight of the County Clerk.
Ingram said the consolidation could “create an opportunity for cross-training of all staff, resulting in the flexibility to move staff from one function to another depending on current demand.
“The functions of the Office of Recorder are administrative,” Ingram wrote. “The elimination of the elected Recorder position and placing the administrative functions and responsibilities under the authority of the elected County Clerk is a responsible for of management that works in 85-percent of the counties in the State of Illinois.”
The board-level discussion on the Champaign County Recorder position has been ongoing since 2014 — when then County Administrator Deb Busey presented reports on the elimination of the position until 2018.
Ingram said the April 1, 2022 elimination of the office would give him enough time to prepare the office for a smooth transition into the Clerk’s jurisdiction. He added, though, that should voters approve the referendum, if the timeline can be expedited, he is not opposed to leaving the position earlier.
