URBANA — In a series of straw polls, Champaign County Board members Tuesday endorsed a smaller board, and supported continuing to pay board members at a per meeting rate and a board chair chosen by other board members and not the voters.

The board, meeting in a study session, did not endorse a specific per-diem rate for board members to be elected in November 2012.

Board Chair C. Pius Weibel said the board would discuss a specific pay raise at a later date.

"It will come back to the board," he said. "What we need to do soon is to vote on how we're going to get paid -- a per diem versus an annual salary — and it would be nice if we could decide how much we're going to get paid too."

By law, Weibel said, the board could wait as long as next spring to decide on pay "but it would be nice to get it out of the way."

County Administrator Deb Busey had suggested two per-diem options: $100 per diem plus $500 more a year for committee chairs and a mileage reimbursement, or $77.50 per diem with the $500 committee chair bonus and mileage.\

The board is not bound by Busey's suggestions.

Current per diems in other comparable Illinois counties range from $60 in LaSalle County to $85 in DeKalb County.

Board members in other counties, however, also are paid on a yearly or monthly basis, ranging to as high as $9,242 a year in Peoria County.

Current Champaign County Board members are paid $45 per meeting; the last time pay was adjusted was in 1988.

By one calculation that $45 now is equal to $85; by another it is equal to about $77.50.

"No one in this county has gone 20 years without a salary increase, and they shouldn't either," said Urbana Democrat Tom Betz, one of several board members who doesn't plan to run for re-election next year. "There's this notion out there that county board members get a lot of money. But when you talk to people and they find out what you get, they say, 'Then why do you do this?'"

But some rural Republican board members said the board should go without a pay raise.

"I don't see any difference between this and a school board," said rural Urbana Republican Steve Moser. "Money was never my reason to be here."

Mahomet area Republican John Jay said that $45 was enough to cover expenses and that he would oppose an increase "until we get our county in some kind of reasonable fiscal shape."

But Champaign Democrat Michael Richards said the per diem rate often isn't enough to cover the cost of a baby sitter, and noted that the low pay has made it difficult for Democrats to recruit potential board members.

Also, with little debate the board voted to heed the results of an advisory referendum last fall in which county voters supported reducing the size of the board from 27 members to 22, elected from 11 districts.

"We need to support what the voters told us they want us to do," said Mahomet Republican Stephanie Holderfield.

Board members also voted down a suggestion that the county board chair, currently chosen from among board members, be elected by all of the county's voters. Only a handful of board members backed the countywide board chair idea.

"I can't imagine why anyone would want to run countywide for a part-time job," said current board chair C. Pius Weibel, who has already said he does not intend to run for another term. "You'd have to be nuts."

The board also spent more than an hour discussing a new county board district map that has been forwarded by an independent redistricting commission. A board vote to accept or reject the map is expected in May.

Three board members were absent from the study session, Republicans Brad Jones and Ron Bensyl, and Democrat Carol Ammons.