Leadership Defined: Staying Ahead of the Crowd

You’ve heard that definition, haven’t you?

Sometimes events get ahead of their elected officials.

What’s an elected official to do?

Run faster.

That’s should happen in the conflict of interest arena at the McHenry County Board. Right now.

Those Republicans (and one Democrat) in control cannot imagine why their constituents don’t trust them enough to take their word for not having conflicts of interest.

But the writing is on the wall, not to mention in the Northwest Herald.

The writing on the wall is 20 out of 27 candidates for the county board in the February 2nd primary election voluntarily filling out questionnaires for the Alliance for Land, Agriculture and Water concerning potential conflicts of interest. Those holding many assets found the form challenging, as they thought of more ramifications of the questions, but they answered them anyway…even if it took an amendment.

This is the kind of good faith effort that those of us in the Chicago media market need.

Those of my advanced age have been watching U.S. Attorneys indict and convict politicians for decades and decades.

True most of those folks were not local, but some were pretty close.

So how do those in control of the McHenry County Board “run faster?”

Say,

“I have nothing to hide.”

Say,

“I realize in this day when there is a constant revelation of corruption in Chicago, those of us watching, listening and reading about it have a right to be disillusioned.”

Say,

“We on the McHenry County Board are going to do our part to not only help restore public confidence in the honesty of local officials, but lead the way statewide.”

“We Republicans on the county board are determined to pass an ordinance that will reveal property ownership of county board members and other county officials, employees and consultants that might present a conflict of interest.

“We shall reveal business relationships we have.

“We shall require those who work for us, directly or indirectly, to do the same.

“In short, we shall go farther than any other public officials or government in Illinois to restore citizen trust that what we are doing is above board.

“If passage of new state laws are needed to allow us to accomplish what we desire, we are assured that our legislators will carry the ball. They have led the way on transparency before and this is right up their alley.”


Comments

Leadership Defined: Staying Ahead of the Crowd — 1 Comment

  1. It should not stop with the elected officials like you said before but include those that are not only appointed and those hired where their position could influence the out come in their favor.

    I would call that it also includes the listing of all your family members that work for any government and any property or businesses that any of your family members own that could benefit from their being a government official.

    How many are right now shifting ownership of land & businesses to one or more of their family members so they can say they have no personal interests in something?

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