Sargent Office Building Dedicated

By PETE ELLERTSEN, Springfield Journal-Register

The Illinois Municipal League's new headquarters at Fifth Street and Capitol Avenue was dedicated in a low-key manner that generations of state law-makers might recognize.

The building was named the Sargent Office Building after A. L. "Lon" Sargent, the league's executive director from 1943 to 1968, and his son, Steven Sargent, who retires after 21 years as director.

Both Lon and Steve Sargent were known around the Statehouse for a low-key approach to lobbying bills through the General Assembly.

They were also known for getting their bills through.

The ceremony lasted about five minutes, as 40 or 50 people gathered outside on the Capitol Avenue sidewalk while the plaque dedicating the building to the Sargents was unveiled.

Left to right — Senator John Davidson, Mayor Ossie Langfelder (Springfield) and Mayor Jeffrey Markland (Urbana).	Sixty friends and family attend dedication.

"There isn't one person in the state of Illinois who's done more for all the cities than Steve Sargent," said Urbana Mayor Jeffrey Markland, past league president. "I didn't have the privilege of knowing Lon Sargent, but the two of them put a legacy together that will probably never be matched."

State Sen. John Davidson, R-Springfield, said the Illinois Municipal League has attained national stature because of their efforts.

"We've heard the accolades to Steve and his dad put in place the programs that made the Illinois Municipal League what it was," Davidson said.

With that, Springfield Mayor Ossie Langfelder and league officials peeled a sheet of brown wrapping paper away from the plaque, and the ceremony was over.

Lon Sargent was hired in 1943 as the Municipal League's first full-time executive director. According to William Waldmeier, he shaped its response to the demands on housing, sewers, parking, airports and municipal services of all descriptions that followed World War II.

Waldmeier, who wrote a 75th-anniversary history of the league last year, said Lon Sargent developed a reputation for being "soft-spoken, meticulous, knowledgeable, extremely persuasive and effective."

In 1968, Lon Sargent retired and was named executive director emeritus. Steve Sargent, who had worked for the league 15 years, took over as executive director.

Steve Sargent retired at the end of the year and in

January 1990 / Illinois Municipal Review / Page 5

turn will become the league's director emeritus. Tom Fitzsimmons, assistant director, moved up to the directorship.

Sargent said he believes the Municipal League's major accomplishments over the years have been home rule and periodic amendments to the revenue code that have allowed cities to become less reliant on property taxes. Home rule came with the constitutional convention of 1970.

"I think the 'con-con' and the conscious decision of municipal officials, through the league, to work for revenue sources other than the property tax — and to make them as broad-gauged as possible — are probably the two outstanding things," he said.

Probably equal in importance, Sargent said, is the long struggle for municipalities to get control over land use planning and zoning.

That fight goes back at least as far as the explosive growth after World War II, but Sargent said it's not over.

"We definitely see that under assault now, not only by the state government but also by interest groups and the federal government," he said. "The people at the league and elected officials are going to have to be very conscious of that and work for maintaining local control of land development." •

(Courtesy of Journal-Register, Springfield)

Page 6 / Illinois Municipal Review / January 1990