Only two out of 102 Counties in Illinois have an elected County Executive.

Champaign County is one. (Will County is the other.)

The Champaign County Executive…

• Oversees the administration of the County’s business, similar to the Mayor at the city level or the Governor at the state level.

• Supervises all county activities that do not fall under the responsibility of another elected county official.

• Working with the County Board, the County Executive provides input for board agendas and presides over full board meetings.

• Represents the county on intergovernmental boards and committees, participates in regional economic development efforts and advocates for legislative action at the state and federal level that will benefit county residents.

The text above is from the current County Website, which has more details: https://www.co.champaign.il.us/countyexecutive/countyexecutive.php

Here is an article written by the first Champaign County Executive, Darlene Kloeppel - reprinted with permission by its author: https://sanfordforce.org/article-what-does-the-county-executive-do

The position was created through a referendum in 2016. This was the justification at the time: https://www.news-gazette.com/opinion/guest-commentary/3-reasons-to-elect-county-executive/article_b47ad78e-6683-5142-85c3-36c33cda120a.html (Yes - it’s behind a paywall. If it’s inaccessible please consider subscribing to the News-Gazette! We want to prevent our community from becoming another “news desert.”)