VERNON TOWNSHIP — Vernon resident Donald Dean thinks voters should decide this election year if the township Board of Supervisors should be reduced from five members to three. The board seems in agreement that such a question should be left to the electorate to decide, but its members said at a public meeting Thursday that voters should give some hard thought before making that move.

Dean recently filed petitions with Crawford County election officials to get the question posted on November’s ballot. He reportedly collected just over 200 signatures; the petitions need to represent at least 5 percent of the township’s 4,000-plus registered voters to be considered for a ballot question, according to election officials.

The reason for filing the petitions, Dean said, is that the township board should be expected, as average citizens are in the current economic climate, to do more with less.

One of the main issues at hand, he said, is that each board member is offered medical coverage benefits through the township. Supervisors Robert Davis, Alden Hills and Tim Mullen don’t accept those benefits; Supervisors Norm Cronin and Gary Wagner do, at the same coverage level that’s established for township employees under the state Municipal Code.

The annual costs for the medical benefits can range from roughly $5,500 for basic personal coverage to $16,000 for full family coverage, according to township officials. Exact figures on how much is spent on each of the supervisors’ benefits weren’t released Thursday, but officials indicated neither Cronin nor Wagner takes full coverage benefits.

Officials pointed out that a future three-member board could potentially consist of supervisors who all take the offered medical benefits, thereby making for a more costly scenario for Vernon taxpayers.

Another possibility to consider, officials said, is that a three-member board could effectively create an unstable political environment in the township.

“Two individuals could literally do anything they wanted (to), because they couldn’t be outvoted. They would have a great deal of power,” said Wagner. “With five (board members), you have a broader area of expertise” and opinions. “Each person brings something to the table.”

Members of both of the township’s volunteer fire departments were present at Thursday’s meeting in a show of support for the board. “The five-member board does work, and it works well,” said Vernon Central Volunteer Fire Department Chief Don Grinnell. “I think you guys are doing a wonderful job.”

The board pointed to continuing commercial and industrial growth, ongoing regional planning efforts and the fact the township property taxes have been lowered in recent years as being among their collective successes.

“This is the team folks voted in,” and “we do our jobs to the best of our abilities,” township Chairman Robert Davis said Thursday. “There’s strength in numbers. ... (And) none of us are here sitting on our hands.”