Courtroom talk reveals water issue's sides

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By Diane Strand &#8220Isn't this interesting?” said Judge Kurt Klein, after allowing just about everyone in his standing-room-only courtroom who wanted to speak to the proposed water authority do so. &#8220The municipalities are saying, ‘We don't want a water district” to control our use of water, Klein said, &#8220and the rural people are saying, ‘We don't want municipalities to hog all the water.' And everyone has reasons why they should be in or out.” Klein gave anyone else who wanted to file an objection until 4:30 p.m. Dec. 26 to do so. Technically, only those included in the proposed authority were to have the right to give testimony. At issue is a proposed water authority that could control water use-in fact, could collect taxes, sell water-even build reservoirs and authorize swimming and fishing. It includes part of McHenry, DeKalb and Boone counties. Though DeKalb and Sycamore are excluded, smaller towns such as Cortland are not. Former Judge John Countryman, who is representing the proposed water authority, objected to just about all of the speakers and asked Klein to strike all their comments, which Klein didn't agree to do-though he told Countryman he would take all his objections under advisement. One of the more amusing of Countryman's objections was that about a dozen of those who wanted to speak were municipal or county officials, and he said they were wasting the taxpayers' money because they should have been back at work. Former DeKalb County State's Attorney Mike Coughlan made lengthy comments at the start, arguing against the constitutionality of the proposal because thousands of those affected will not have a voice in it. Countryman responded that anyone trying to use a &#8220constitutionality” objection should have contacted the Illinois Attorney General's office first. Klein then asked Countryman if there were other such water authority districts in the state and Countryman respond, &#8220Yes.” In fact, there are 17 such districts, most of them downstate. While many of those opposing the water authority proposal asked to be excluded from the boundaries, Norma Guess, DeKalb attorney, asked that the city be included in the district (as did Sycamore) so they would be able to vote. (The larger population of the major municipalities could control the outcome of the referendum.) The boundaries of the proposed water authority are contiguous but erratic and Coughlan said the whole issue was a case of &#8220gerrymandering,” and there is considerable legal precedent against gerrymandering. He said the land in question was designed to isolate the municipalities from having a voice in the water authority, even though the cities would be affected by it. Coughlan called the proposed territory &#8220a piece of swiss cheese,” when it should look like &#8220regular cheese.” Though municipalities are isolated, they draw water from the same aquifers that would be governed by the authority. Coughlan also noted that Illinois has the largest number of governmental bodies in the country and doesn't need another layer. Some of the objectors said the authority made sense in McHenry County, which is suffering a water shortage, but DeKalb has plenty of water. &#8220(For DeKalb County) It's a solution in search of a problem,” one speaker said. The hearing got off to a slow start. Klein asked if anyone had filed exceptions to the process and Countryman said individuals had asked for a substitution of judge. Klein said that problem had to be resolved before they could get started. So a recess was ordered while Countryman spoke to his clients. They decided to waive the request for another judge. DeKalb County State's attorney Ron Matekaitis argued that the water authority might be good for DeKalb County, but the county would like to see how it works in McHenry County first....or a different, regional approach might be better and representatives from all the counties could discuss other options. Several of those opposed to the water authority mentioned it was proposed so quickly, they didn't have time to study the issue. The cities of Cortland and Genoa objected because they are included in the water authority and other cities such as DeKalb, Sycamore and Belvidere are not. Next, Klein will hear from attorneys after they prepare arguments on the issue.