Who will Chair the County Board?

The Champaign County Board will swear in its new members tonight at its organizational meeting. The board will also elect a new Chair, who will serve a two year term. The position of Champaign County Board Chair is a quasi-full time job and pays $30,000 a year. The chair has considerable influence, most importantly the power to appoint members of county boards such as the CUMTD and the Public Health District.

Who will be the new boss? Will it be the same as the old boss? (yes I couldn't resists The Who lyric). As of the time of this post, it looks like this will be the vote breakdown on the first ballot: 12 votes for Republican John Jay (there are 12 members of the Republican caucus), 11 votes for former County Board Vice Chair Tony Fabri (the Democratic caucus minus the Wysocki crew), and 4 votes for incumbent Chair Barb Wysocki (Wysocki, Beckett, McGinty and newcomer Carrie Melin).

It takes a majority, 14 votes, to win election as Chair. That means there will be a deadlock after one round of voting. That means there will have to be some kind of compromise. Either the Wysocki crew will swing their votes to Jay and have a GOP Chair preside over a Democratic controlled board, or they will come to their senses and vote for Fabri, the duly elected choice of the Democratic caucus.

What will happen? It's still anyone's guess at this point, but I should have an update later tonight.