Charleston Mayor John Inyart wants a home-rule governing style because it can help save lives.

Home rule is a style of local government that allows city officials to authorize any actions that are not prohibited by Illinois law, rather than being bound to what the city is told it can do.

At the inaugural meeting of the Home Rule Ad-Hoc Committee on Tuesday night, Inyart used the example of the recent deaths of three Wisconsin college students in a house fire as an example of how the added powers associated with home-rule government could help save lives.

“That’s the sort of thing on the minds of my staff in regard to code enforcement,” he said.

Inyart said the student deaths in Wisconsin were a result of a house being improperly renovated into student housing and the safety codes of that building not being properly enforced.

With the powers that a home-rule governing system would give the Charleston government, funding for area housing code enforcement could be increased with existing funds.

The reason these revenue funds could not be transferred from other areas to code enforcement is mainly because of the style of government that currently exists in Charleston.

This system requires that the city use revenues created from tax levies – like those placed on hotels and restaurants in the area – on areas like tourism enhancement.

City Manager Scott Smith said the idea of switching to a home-rule governing style came last year at a city council retreat.

Smith said he supports the switch because it would allow the city government to implement more programs that could bring in more retail businesses to the area, something Charleston has been unable to do because of state restrictions.

This lack of freedom when it comes to public funds is one of the main reasons Charleston started investigating the switch to a home-rule style community.

This began last night with the first meeting of the committee formed to investigate such a change. At this meeting, several Charleston residents as well as members of the city council were present to hear an expert on home rule in Illinois discuss the possible change.

Jim Banovetz, professor emeritus at Northern Illinois University, was involved in the actual drafting of the Illinois Constitution in 1970 that made home rule a possibility in all Illinois cities. There are 191 such cities in Illinois that have implemented home rule.

He spoke at the committee’s first meeting to provide an overview of home rule and the advantages and disadvantages of implementing it.

The main focus of the discussion came down to two issues associated with home rule: taxes and trust.

Banovetz said most cities that have implemented home rule have faced the issue of convincing voters that the change will not necessarily force a rise in taxes.

He said this is caused by the false belief that politicians will use the increased power of home rule to institute more taxes to line their pockets.

“There is an impression in the American body politic that politicians somehow benefit from taxes,” Banovetz said.

While a home-rule system does allow for the implementation of more tax levies by the city government, Banovetz said extra taxes are not a necessary part of the system.

In cities like Charleston, which already has a number of existing tax levies, extra taxes are unnecessary and would likely cause the city populace to force a revision to the old city governing system, he said.

Such a revision can be caused by a certain percentage of the electorate demanding a special recession and voting to abandon home rule.

Banovetz said the abandonment of a home-rule system has only occurred four times in Illinois history.

Cases in which home rule has been rescinded or has not been passed in the first place have traditionally been where the electorate has not trusted its public officials.

“There are communities in Illinois that, quite frankly, should not have it,” Banovetz said.

These are the times when a city should not adopt a Home Rule system because of the inherent power that is placed in the hands of these officials, he said. A trust among the governing and the governed is a definite prerequisite for Home Rule.

“The critical element in this is trust,” he said.

The next Home Rule Ad-Hoc Committee will meet at 5 p.m. May 6 at City Hall.

Other advantages to home rule in Charleston:

The change would allow the city to better recruit firefighters from around the area and allow them to train them in paramedics.

Economic development could be increased by giving more freedom to the city government.

Increasing taxes could be slowed by the implementation of new programs.

Jordan Crook can be reached at 581-7495 or at jscrook@eiu.edu.

Jim Banovetz, guest speaker at the Home Rule Ad-Hoc Committee, explains the benefits of the program for members of the community during Tuesday’s meeting in the Charleston’s City Hall. (John Bailey/The Daily Eastern News)

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