MCC, the Junior College That Just Keeps on Giving

Maybe word should be “threatening.”

I received a letter from McHenry County College Tuesday and read it before going to the Crystal Lake City Council meeting, where MCC President Walt Packard did such a marvelous job advocating expansion of the current college campus.

The letter was from Packard and I foolishly thought he might offering an apology for the way four taxpaying citizens had been given the bum’s rush out of the building last Thursday night.

Under threat of being charged with trespassing.
See MCC – One Step Forward, Two Steps Back – Part 1

See MCC – One Step Forward, Two Steps Back – Part 2

See MCC – One Step Forward, Two Steps Back – Part 3

See MCC – One Step Forward, Two Steps Back – Part 4

No such luck.

It was another threat.

On behalf of the “Board of Trustees.”

Can’t be legal, can it, because it wasn’t on the agenda and we know that MCC President George Lowe wouldn’t do anything that wasn’t on the agenda, don’t we?

Anyway, here’s what Packard wrote with some paragraphing on my part so your eyes don’t glaze over:


Re: Photographs Taken During Closed Session

Dear Mr. Skinner:

I am writing on behalf of the Board of Trustees of the College in response to concerns with your attempts to photograph closes session proceedings.

As you know, part of the room in which the Board holds their closed session is enclosed by a glass wall.

Of recent, the Board members and I have observed you taking photographs through the glass wall during the Board’s closed session meetings, and subsequently making these photographs available to the public

The Open Meetings Act does not provide that any person may record closed session meetings by tape film or other means (I,e., photographs). While Section 2.05 of the OMA provides that “any person may record the proceedings at meetings required to be open by this Act by tape, film or other means” (5 ILCS 120/2/05) (emphasis added), there is nothing in the OMA which permits one to photograph closed session proceedings.

Accordingly, we are requesting that you cease taking photographs of the Board during its closed session meetings.

We anticipate your compliance with this request.

If you have any questions, please direct them to my attention.

I guess the junior college has decided that the best defense is to go on the offensive.

Let’s dissect that letter.

First, notice that Packard is “on behalf of the Board of Trustees of the College.”

I wonder if that was discussed and decided at an open meeting. A listening to the tape by the McHenry County State’s Attorney’s Office ought to answer that question.

If so, when might that open meeting have taken place?

After the top secret, hush, hush meeting when Packard covered up the window with his body and the American Flag?

Deciding to enforce this perverted interpretation of the Open Meetings Act after violating the Open Meetings Act with the expulsion of us four folks who were waiting in the hall to see what the board would do after its meeting on FM and TV tower(s).

That takes so much gall.

First Assistant McHenry County State’s Attorney pretty much gave his opinion in Regan Foster’s article on the ouster last Saturday:

“First Assistant State’s Attorney Tom Carroll said the eviction was ‘troubling.’

“He added that the onus falls on the local governing body to prevent people from looking in on private sessions and even taking pictures of the happenings from the outside.”

Here’s what Carroll told me after I FAXed him Packard’s letter:

“The onus is on the public body to take reasonable steps to ensure that a closed (meeting is closed, assuming) that they have lawful right to go into a closed (session).”

I guess I don’t take notes as well as Foster.

Of course, it would not have taken a camera to be able to remember what was on this slide:

So, Packard must be disturbed about my finding out the content of this one:

Any image can be enlarged by clicking on it.

It’s not as if I haven’t taken pictures of what is happening behind the closed door before. I have be doing that since the merry band of baseball promoters–all of whom stand to make big bucks from the taxpayers by co-opting this governmental entity.

Maybe photos of people are OK.

Maybe it’s pictures of power points about secret deals that gets under Packard’s and some board members’ skin.

= = = = =
The top photo was taken in the conferenced room next to the Crystal Lake City Council chambers. You can see MCC President Walt Packard making his case for buying the 57-acre Gilger property, which lies between the current college campus and Ridgefield Road. The back of Carol Larson’s head is visible. MCC Board President is seen standing to the left.

Newly-hired security guard William Schultz telling Iris Bryan (taking notes) and Jane Collins and the other two of us that we had to leave the building.

Next you see Walt Packard’s head while he moves the American Flag to block my view and the MCC Freedom of Information Officer blocking visual information with opaque plastic.

Below is a photo taken on March 19, 2007–almost a year ago. You see MCC Trustee George Lowe to the right. At the table, from left to right, is baseball promoter Pete Heitman, EquityOne buddy Mark Houser and Frontier League Commissioner Bill Lee making their secret pitch to use college land and borrowed money.

On February 4, 2008, I took the next photograph. It shows Mark Saladin at the microphone with John Maguire and Cindi McDonald sitting to his left.

Below are the two security officers taping up the vertical windows on the northwest corner of the boardroom. Only people could be seen through these windows and no one was watching when they were covered up.

The clock shows the time I walked past it on my way to the parking lot last Thursday night.


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