Daily Herald opinion: Low-hanging consolidation fruit?: Calls for blending mosquito fight into county operations tempting, but just a start

There is wide and responsible consensus in Illinois that the state’s multitude of government units needs to be whittled down, and we’re on the side of those who want to see costly duplications and unnecessary administrative costs eliminated.

So, a March 24 Civic Federation report calling for the consolidation of four separate mosquito abatement districts under the auspices of the Cook County Department of Public Health might seem on the surface to represent attractive “low-hanging fruit” to fight mosquitoes “more efficiently, equitably, and transparently,” in the words of the report.

The emphasis there, though is on the word “might.”

Whenever consolidation of government units are recommended, it is common for leaders of the consolidating elements to respond with explanations and descriptions that could protect their jobs. So it is not particularly surprising that James Thennisch, director of the Northwest Mosquito Abatement District that provides coverage for seven townships in the Northwest panhandle of Cook County, expressed concerns to our Jake Griffin that taxpayers in our region “would lose the level of service they receive now” if the four districts were blended into the functions of the county health department.

But it is — or should be — attention-getting when leaders who have nothing to lose by consolidation, except for the possibility of the losses Thennisch predicts, urge caution.

One of those is Maggie Trevor, Democratic Cook County Board commissioner for the 9th District.

“One of the things I’ve learned in my relatively short time on the board,” said Trevor, who was elected in 2022, “is that sometimes when you crunch the numbers, it doesn’t result in the savings you’d think.”

Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle was similarly circumspect.

“Dissolving these districts does not represent a simple solution,” Preckwinkle said in an emailed statement. “It requires thoughtful public engagement, collaboration with the districts themselves, a more thorough assessment of their effectiveness and a realistic evaluation of the county’s capacity to take on their responsibilities.”

Statements like these do not constitute outright opposition to consolidations or imposition of new efficiencies, and the Civic Federation report includes some compelling arguments and pertinent details. It shows, for instance, some wide disparities in the effectiveness of operations among the four mosquito districts as well as in degrees of transparency and management. Its calls for legislation requiring openness on finances and expanding the scope and authority of inspectors general to investigate all public agencies, not just the Cook County Mosquito Abatement districts, are especially noteworthy.

But much of the report also is based on failures of one of the districts — the South Cook County operation — so there is room to question whether fixing that part of the system requires dismantling what is working in the others.

In an introduction to the report, Civic Federation President Joe Ferguson insists, “There is simply no compelling reason to maintain a separate taxing body for a service that Cook County could deliver more efficiently, equitably, and transparently.”

He might be right. But despite great strides that Cook County government has made in the past decade, it still is not often cited as a paragon of efficiency, equitability and transparency. Perhaps it can bring those qualities to mosquito abatement efforts, but many questions remain to be answered before the job is simply handed over.