Township admin costs top 50%
Evanston Township spends more than a dollar in administrative costs for every dollar it distributes in direct benefits to its poverty-level clients.
That's one fact that emerged as the Human Services Committee reviewed an audit of township expenses Monday night.
The township distributed almost $442,000 to clients for medical, food, shelter and emergency services needs.
But it spent nearly $470,000 on administrative payroll and overhead to distribute that money -- not counting nearly $62,000 in salary and other expenses for the office of Township Supervisor Pat Vance.
That meant administrative costs totaled more than 52 percent of total program spending.
Aldermen at the committee meeting quizzed Vance about whether the expense level is typical for townships.
"I honestly don't know," Vance said. "Some townships operate differently than we do. But I do know that there are certain costs that are fixed that you have no control over."
The auditor hired by the city to review the township accounts also said he was unable to provide comparable figures for other townships.
But, in a research paper on the subject last spring, David Hamilton, a professor at Roosevelt University in Chicago, presented data showing that townships in Cook County on average spent just under 25 percent of their general assistance budgets on administrative costs.
Hamilton says even that percentage is high -- he cites other studies that say municipalities on average keep administrative costs to under 16 percent of their total expenditures.
Hamilton, who teaches in the school's Institute of Metropolitan Affairs, wrote that he believes townships in Cook County are "an unnecessary, inefficient, and duplicative form of government" that should be eliminated.
Printer-friendly version
A money pit
Bill, thanks for helping highlight the discussion about the Township of Evanston. It is an absolute disgrace, providing "services" available from the city and county. It adds no value, and is like those "charities" that spend almost 100% of every dollar on administration. Those are called scams, and so is this. The township is nothing but a resting place for administrative goldbrickers. The studies illustrate that, and clearly Vance doesn't know or care about its costs versus benefits. That's pretty telling. Its old website was a joke before being pulled, and now the only link to the township is through the city's website, and it contains no info. Please let's vote this useless money waster out of existence ASAP. In these tight times, we simply cannot tolerate such an operation.
Why government grows and is inefficient
The only areas where unions have been successful in recent years have been in organizing public-sector employees. Think about it. Where is the competition in the public sector? Uncompetitive wage and benefit packages for public-sector employees are simply funded through the increase in taxation on the public at large. Uncompetitive wage and benefit packages in the private sector cause companies to close their doors or move offshore. In business, when your costs no longer allow you to sell your product at the market price, you are finished.
Townships are the biggest
Townships are the biggest scam in all of government; they do nothing that can't be absorbed by local and county government. I've never met a non-township elected official that privately does not agree that they are a collosal waste of taxpayer dollars. They mostly serve to keep elected officials in office and government workers employed.
Township administration
At Connections, we try to hold general and administrative costs to 12%. We have an additional 8% that we spend on resource development, but since the township has its own source of revenue, it has no need for a development department.
Eliminate
My solution would be to eliminate the expenditures entirely.
I agree
While the needs the Township serves are real, I can't see where the number and size of salaries are justified here: I've asked repeatedly what services are offered here and I can discover only a few - almost all this money (other than that given directly as assistance) is spent referring the needy to other resources.
I'm also often frustrated that there are so many charitable resources for the needy in Evanston, but many needy people don't know how to access them. I agree, I'd like to hear more from our representatives on this issue. Foremost would be how to eliminate the Township with no reduction in services to the needy.
Find out more about Brummel Park Neighbors and Michele Hays
Hats off to Bill
This is a great and underreported story. This is a topic not only Evanston residents should address in this tough economic environment, but residents of all of Cook County.
Townships are a major waste of taxpayer dollars, and local, county and state legislators should look into it and do away with it altogether.
Maybe the township issue could be a key platform for one of the aldermen or mayoral candidates. I'd sure listen.
Technical assistance
Bill -- EvanstonNow is increasingly interesting and informative. I have been impressed with how quickly you have been able to post current news items. I do have 2 questions for you:
(i) With the speed that people are currently posting, if one does not check the site several times during the day they might miss some interesting information. It appears that only the 10-most recent items are listed under Recent Comments. Is there a means to go back and read through earlier comments, other than searching through each separate topic?
(ii) How can we find a post when it is sometimes inadvertenly cross-linked? I am curious as can be as to what "Psychopaths, thieves and violent criminals" is about. But the link takes me to the article about proposed 4.9% increase in the City property tax. This happens occassionally/infrequently. But i am looking for a way to debug that and get to the actual posting.
Thanks for all that you are doing with this site.
Thanks for asking
Thanks for asking about locating comments.
I've made two changes to the site in response to your first question. First, I've increased the number of comments listed in on the front page from 10 to 15.
Second, I've added a "more" link at the bottom of the list that will take you to a page showing 50 comments at a time.
(Of course, I'd really prefer that you did stop by the site several times a day ... but...)
As for your second question -- story pages display up to the first 50 comments on any story. To see additional comments on that story (if there are any), use the pager link "next" at the bottom of the comment display on the page. That's how you can reach the particular comment you were asking about.
-- Bill
RE: Thanks for Asking
Bill: "I've made two changes to the site in response to your first question."
Me: Thanks. It worked out very well and made it much easier to navigate through postings.
Bill: "To see additional comments on that story (if there are any), use the pager link 'next' . . . "
Me: Again, thanks. Very useful function that was not readily apparent to me.
Bill: "(Of course, I'd really prefer that you did stop by the site several times a day ... but...)"
Me: I do. I am a bit of a junkie with the site. But, recently, not frequently enough to keep up with current threads.
Post new comment