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Committee moves toward naming policy that would bar buildings being named for living people and raise nomination threshold
Summary
Committee members signaled support for a draft naming ordinance that would require board action to name county facilities, require nominees be deceased and route nominations through the F&A committee or a majority of a quorum; members debated whether to exclude roads and whether to limit naming to non-building elements such as rooms or bridges.
The Financial and Administrative Committee discussed a proposed ordinance to govern the naming of county facilities and provided staff with direction to draft formal language for consideration.
Staff presented a draft that would require any naming or renaming of county-owned land, parks, buildings and structures to be done by ordinance or formal board action and proposed criteria for nomination including a positive image, broad public support and service to Lake County. The draft set a nomination procedure — written nominations by a minimum of three board members to the chair — and left open whether honorees must be alive or deceased.
A substantive point of consensus emerged in committee discussion: a majority of members said the county should not name whole buildings after living people. Member Mace said, "I think the person needs to be deceased," citing the risk that a living honoree might later run for office or do something that would complicate the naming. Member Clark recommended raising the nomination threshold above three members to avoid ad hoc decisions and suggested a larger board endorsement requirement, arguing "it's a really big deal to name a Lake County building after someone."
Other members recommended restricting naming to non-building features (rooms, bridges or pedestrian elements) or requiring a waiting period to ensure the honoree's contributions "stand the test of time." Several members proposed that nominations either be recommended by the F&A committee or require a majority of a quorum before reaching the full board to guard against informal out-of-meeting decisions.
Staff said they would return with a proposed ordinance reflecting committee guidance and a separate display policy; the committee signaled it favored an approach that routes nominations through committee and requires honorees be deceased when considering full-building names.
