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CAPITAL TOWNSHIP SHOULD GO TO CITY, NOT COUNTY Capital Township Supervisor Tom Cavanagh called it a “no-brainer” that the township should merge with Sangamon County after a large majority voted yes on the township’s advisory referendum on that question in the November election.
The real “no-brainer” from the election, though, is that voters are hungry for efficiency and consolidation in government. They want their hard-earned money that they have to pay in taxes to be spent cost-effectively, and they want to abolish unnecessary and overlapping governments such as Capital Township. With its 6,963 units of local government, Illinois has more than any other state by a long shot. Much larger Texas is next with 5,417, and that’s 1,816 less than Illinois!
What the advisory referendum results do not show is that voters prefer to have Capital Township merge with much larger Sangamon County as opposed to it being dissolved into the city of Springfield, which has the same boundaries as the township.
That question was not on the November ballot because Ald. Andrew Proctor and six other aldermen rejected Mayor Jim Langfelder’s ordinance to put that question to voters. That question will finally be put to voters in the April 2 city election, if enough signatures are collected. Sam Cahnman Springfield
MAKE ALPLM INDEPENDENT After reading the article about the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum, its money woes, and not being able to authenticate several items that belonged to Lincoln (“Questions not limited to hat,” by Bruce Rushton, Nov. 15), I had a good laugh. The bigger issue here is not the authenticity of the items but how the Lincoln museum is going to the state for a bailout of $9 million when it should be independently run just like most other museums in the country. Because of the fact that they are a state-run entity, they do not have transparency, as Rep. Tim Butler pointed out, and can be bailed out at the taxpayer expense because of long-standing financial purchases from 2007.
What is more outrageous is that some higher-level positions within the museum pay six figures with full pension and benefits. A guest to the museum would think that each of the higher positions would have to have advanced degrees or a deep museum background. Of course at the Lincoln museum it is the exact opposite, where they are political appointees and did not go to school for learning how to maintain a museum.
There was absolutely no reason why Eileen Mackevich should have been director of the museum for as long she was had she not been a friend and donor to Pat Quinn. Interestingly enough, she was shown the door a couple of years into Bruce Rauner’s term for that exact reason. When I worked at the museum for a little over a year, I hardly saw Mackevich in her office and the only time I did see her was at special events that included high-profile people with big checkbooks.
I believe one or even two things should be considered going forward. First, I think the museum should be audited, judging by its massive debt and high salaries. Second, I think the state government should strongly consider making the museum and its foundation independent, eliminating the political appointees and giving jobs back to the private sector. In this case, people who have education and background in museums, unlike people who are put there just because they are married to or know someone in government. Ben Brislawn Springfield
