The Subregional Councils are defined by specific geographic boundaries – six in suburban Cook County and one for each of the collar counties. The Kane Council of Mayors also takes in Kendall County. The Will Council takes in urbanized portions of Grundy County. At one time, the Council of Mayors was comprised only of communities defined as urban or urbanized areas by the US Census Bureau. With the passage of ISTEA (the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act) in 1991, however, all incorporated communities, urban or rural, are eligible to receive federal transportation funds and to participate in the councils. By agreement of the affected communities, however, only Kendall’s urbanized communities adjacent to Kane County program federal Surface Transportation Program (STP) funds through the Kane Council.
The individual councils range in membership from 12 to 47 municipalities. The mayors and municipal presidents or their designees are voting members. The organization and structure of the individual councils varies greatly from area to area, and in many parts of the region Council of Mayors boundaries often coincide with and/or are organized though a standing municipal conference.
The councils meet regularly for cooperative decision-making. Likely topics are the programming of STP funds and issues needing a subregional consensus before being brought to the Executive Committee for a regional debate. Each council appoints two mayors from their membership to serve on the regional Council of Mayors Executive Committee.
The subregional councils are free to establish their own meeting schedules, by-laws, structure and policies. Their meetings are open to the public. These meetings provide a useful forum for regional transportation and planning agencies (such as Pace, Metra, CMAP) to report to the local governments and to get local input.
Each council receives and is responsible for programming an annual allocation of STP funds. They verify the federal eligibility of the projects and assure that council policies are adhered to. The council’s member communities sponsor the individual STP projects and manage the preliminary and final design and rights-of-way acquisition, etc. for implementation. The Illinois Department of Transportation conducts the bid lettings for construction of the local STP projects.
Certain caveats are placed on the councils as the managers of federal transportation funds. The councils must include all local governments eligible for STP funding and must establish and utilize a ranking methodology to evaluate potential STP projects for programming.
Regional Council Associations and Conferences: Chairmen and Presidents
- North Shore Region
- Mayor George Van Dusen, Skokie, 847-673-0500,
Co-Chairman, North Shore Council
- Kerry Cummings, Glenview 847-724-1700,
Co-Chairman, North Shore Council
- Northwest Region
- Mayor George VanDusen, Skokie, 847-673-0500,
President, Northwest Municipal Conference
- Mayor Arlene Mulder, Arlington Heights, 847-368-5000,
Co-Chairman, Northwest Council
- President Al Larson, Schaumburg, 847-923-4402,
Co-Chairman, Northwest Council
- North Central Region
- Mayor Jeffrey Sherwin, Northlake, 708-343-8700,
Chairman, North Central Council
- President Anna Montana, Schiller Park, 847-678-2550,
Vice Chairman, North Central Council
- Central Region
- President Daniel Pritchett, Franklin Park, 847-671-8235,
President, West Central Municipal Conference
- Southwest Region
- Mayor Gerald Bennett, Palos Hills, 708-598-3400,
President, Southwest Conference of Mayors
- South Region
- Mayor Dan Podgorski, Lansing, 708-895-7200,
President, South Suburban Mayors and Managers Assoc.
- DuPage County
- Mayor Joseph Broda, Lisle, 630-271-4100,
President, DuPage Mayors and Managers Conference
- Kane/Kendall County
- Mayor Jeffery Schielke, Batavia, 630-879-1424,
Chairman, Kane Council
- President Larry Keller, West Dundee, 847-551-3800,
Vice-Chairman, Kane Council
- Lake County
- Mayor Leon Rockingham, North Chicago, 847-546-2790,
Chairman, Lake Council
- Mayor Roger Byrne, Vernon Hills, 847-367-3700,
Acting President, Lake County Municipal League
- McHenry County
- President Rick Mack, Ringwood, 815-653-5511,
Chairman, McHenry Council
- Dr. Brian Sager Mayor, City of Woodstock, 815-338-4300,
President, McHenry County Council of Governments
- Will County
- Mayor Joe Cook, Channahon, (815) 467-6644,
President, Will County Governmental League