Jack Franks
The following comes from John O’Neill, the man who ran against Democrat Jack Franks for State Rep. in 2010:
I have been receiving daily Robo-Calls from Jack Franks encouraging me to vote for Direct Election of the County Board Chair.He uses the tagline, “After all, it’s your government, you should get to choose who leads it.”That got me thinking, if he was really interested in “We the People,” perhaps he might do whatever he can in the form of introducing a bill or a Constitutional Amendment to provide for Direct Election of the Illinois House Speaker and Senate President.Of course, knowing Jack the way I do, he has probably made the calculated decision that he wants to be County Board Chair.John O’Neill
It pays about as well as his job as State Representative, he wouldn’t have to drive to Springfield all the time, and he would be able to rule his own little serfdom here in McHenry County.
He knows that if he were to “stoop to the level” of running for County Board, he would not be able to get quite enough Republicans to elect him as Chair, so he wants the voters of McHenry County to do the heavy lifting for him.Then he could spend some of the six-figure campaign fund on getting elected to the position of County Board Chair.Jack ends the Robo-Call by inviting us to “call him at (815) 338-6363 with any questions.”I say we should all call him and ask why he is not doing anything and everything he can to provide for Direct Election of the Illinois House Speaker and Senate President.After all, It’s OUR government, WE should get to choose who leads it!
I do not believe one candidate for county board wanted to vote yes for this in the election – however – many wanted to put this on the ballot.
I will vote no on this and hope everyone else does too.
This would create one more bureaucrat in McHenry County – and we cannot afford that. A job that will have another pension, insurance, and other amenities.
We have to be honest and start reducing the county government footprint.
We are not “slashing” just to slash… we are reducing the size of government because the people cannot afford it.
Good people are on the board and more are on the way.
We can do something about it – one thing we all can do is vote no on this.
We should also reduce the County Board from 24 to 5 or 7, and then cut the State legislature by 2/3, then eliminate townships, then take a deep breath and
@Andrew Gasser, there’s a lot to like about you, and if I lived in your district, I’d vote for you, but on the at-large election of McHenry County Board Chairman, you are wrong.
You are not going to “create one more bureaucrat in McHenry County”.
A successful vote on the 18th, and in 2016, you will replace a current county bureaucrat, namely the county administrator, with a leader who will have been elected by the voters of McHenry County who will be both the legislative leader of the McHenry County board, and the administrator of the day-to-day operations of the county.
Assuming you’re elected, I trust the McHenry County Board to make the transition to an at-large popularly elected chairman to be as cost efficient as possible, and that means ending McHenry County employing a full-time county administrator.
Look at the example of government efficiency in Kane County, where you have a county board chairman and no full-time county administrator.
Please rethink this position, as your current stance tells me you do not trust McHenry County voters to make the right choice for McHenry County Board chairman.
The Oncoming Storm said: “Please rethink this position, as your current stance tells me you do not trust McHenry County voters to make the right choice for McHenry County Board chairman.”
Wow, way to frame the debate and put words in another guys mouth.
School Boards choose their own President from among the board members elected by the voters, Library Boards choose their own President from among the board members elected by the voters, the Illinois House chooses a Speaker from among the State Reps elected by the voters, and currently the County Board chooses a Chair from among members elected by the voters.
I saw nothing in Mr. Gasser’s post about ‘not trusting McHenry County voters to make the right choice’ but I did see The Oncoming Storm try to twist words and frame the debate like an extremist liberal lawyer, making people think that Mr. Gasser is bad or has an ill-formed attitude because you disagree on this point. Manipulative; very, very manipulative.
Oncoming Storm; I read your comment with interest.
I doubt that many people are aware of the powerful part the County Administrator plays.
And who does HE represent?
the “bosses” in the Government Center, or the people?
Not hard to figure this out.
Glad you looked outside McHenry County to see that other, larger counties function efficiently.
By the way, what are the salary, benefits, car and other perks the County Administrator receives?
An election we do not need the expense for.
How many people actually KNOW all the county board members to make a good choice??
People with more money will once again have a better chance of winning.
Not a good idea.
Absolutely agree with FYI, reduce the Board to 5 then people MIGHT know who the players are.
Lots of misinformation here. Let me clarify things.
(1) The County Board Chair is separate from the County Administrator. Although there is a clause in the Board rules that allows the Chair to assume co responsibility for day to day county administration, that has never been used. I tried to take it out in our Rules revisions but the majority of the full Board rejected that. Hopefully if we elect a Chair at large there will be a different feeling about that and perhaps other changes that our committee had recommended but were rejected by the full Board will be seen in a different light. We will have an opportunity to revisit those changes later this year if the referendum passes. Even so, we have a relatively ‘weak Chair’ system in McHenry County compared to neighboring counties.
(2) The At Large Chair does not necessarily add another person to the Board. If the person elected is already a Board member and retains their seat, there is no additional person on the payroll. (Query if there would be two salaries paid).
(3) I would agree with John that it is looking like Franks wants this position, although he denied it to me when I asked him. I don’t know why else he would be concerning himself as much as he has in county government issues the last couple of years. The Chairs of both DuPage and Kane counties were state legislators before becoming Board Chairs. They are also elected at large but have more powers than would be the case currently in McHenry County under the current Board rules.
If Franks runs in 2016, he could ride the coattails of Hillary for President. Obama actually won McHenry County in 2008 so that indicates that the two parties are actually pretty evenly represented in the county at this point, but that the Democrats don’t show up unless there is something sexy at the top of the ticket to motivate them to come out. A Hillary candidacy would bring in the first woman President plus there would be a favorite ‘son’ component in Illinois like there was with Obama. He could definitely pull it off.
I had made this point in trying to get the referendum advanced to last year’s election cycle which would have put the Chair election on mid term years. Now it will always coincide with the Presidential election which is more favorable to the Democrats. You make your bed and you get to sleep in it.
I got the call too and did a bit if research.
It’s a non binding advisory referendum.
Regardless, I’ll take former library board member John O’Neill’s opinion with a grain of salt.
In a tea party year, he won less than 3 precincts and raised less that 15k according to the state board site.
Fair Play: It is NOT a non binding advisory referendum.
If it passes we WILL directly elect the CB Chair in 2016.
Period.
Really?
Looks like I was wrong.
Thanks for confirming my yes vote.
Please vote no.
Adding more government positions does not fix todays issues.
There are 24 board members now.
Is this not enough elected citizens to truly be good stewards, leaders, and liaisons with the county hired offices and our resources?
Maybe we should go down to 12 board members?
A directly elected chairman doesn’t create more government.
It gives the power to the people and prevents cronyism on the board.
Since it was put on the ballot by the County Board, and not by a citizen petition, it is binding.
That’s why I pushed to get the Board to pass the resolution.
I take no position on the merits.
There are pros and cons.
The biggest factor on the con side is the amount of money it would take.
You would need to be self funding or have to cozy up to special interest groups.
Franks can be self funding at this point.
The most likely special interest groups would be developers and unions. Unions are targeting local governments now that aren’t unionized.
On the pro side you would reduce the horse trading that goes on now within the Board and the members might feel more independence from the Chair.
Currently the Chair basically controls committee assignments and chairmanships.
Committees are extremely important and, it could be argued, is where the power really resides.
The committee chairs control their committees so if you are not chair of a committee you are somewhat marginalized.
O’Neill nailed it. Mr. O’Neill, you have the pulse of local politics accurately assessed.
The fact that the local press hasn’t articulated what you have deduced is revealing of their bias towards Franks and Democrats in general.
Mr. Walkup has assessed the pros and cons of the petition but what he avoids is the political motivation of it’s purpose.
THAT is what is sinister about it, thus no word in the press.
O’Neill is doing the equivalent of tea leaf reading while wearing a tin foil hat.
Franks motivated to seek Chairman is fear-mongering at best.
And to slander the NW Herald which prints Letters to the Editor about putting the Ten Commandments in the classroom and say they are in bed with Dems cracks me up.
Proverbs 19:1
‘Better is a person who walks in his integrity than one who is crooked in speech.’
Sed libera nos a malo. Amen.
The motivation for the referendum was essentially that we had a Chair who had outstayed his welcome.
Franks jumped on that probably due to a personal vendetta, and perhaps personal ambition.
Now it has taken on a life of it’s own and needs to play itself out.
People should vote as they think best and we can then deal with the result.
This is yet another attempt by Madigan and Franks to gain more Democrat power in McHenry County.
A recent attempt by Democrats to extend their foothold into the McHenry, Lake, and Kane collar counties took place during the 2012 General Election campaign for the 52nd Illinois State House District.
That election took place on November 6, 2012.
Dave McSweeney was the Republican candidate.
Dee Beaubien ran as an Independent.
The Democrats slated no candidate.
The Democrats and Unions poured $492K into Beaubien’s campaign.
Here’s the breakdown.
Contributor – Amount
Democratic Majority – $98,223.00
Democratic Party of Illinois – $292,014.
Friends of Michael J. Madigan – $50,000.
Friends of Michael J. Madigan – $16,045.
Illinois Pipe Trade PAC – $5,000.
IPACE – $5,000 (IEA statewide teacher union PAC).
Lou Lang – $5,500 (Lake County Democrat State Rep – 16th District).
SEIU – $21,138 (labor union).
Total – $492,920.
You can verify those numbers on the Illinois State Board of Election website by doing a Contribution Search by Committee using The Citizens for Dee Beaubien Committee ID of 24348.
http://www.elections.il.gov > Committees > Search Options > Contributions Search > By Committees.
Type in the Committee ID of 24348.
If you want to download that data to an Excel spreadsheet, in the upper left corner select, “Download this List.”
Select “Tab-Delimited Text File.”
Under “Open With” if Excel is not present, select the down arrow, and if you still don’t see Excel click “Other”, if you still don’t see Excel click “Browse”, go to your the directory that contains your Excel program files which is probably C > Program Files > Microsoft Office, select the most recent version office which is probably something like Office11 or Office12, Double click on the “Excel” file, then click “OK” in the ensuing window, and the spreadsheet should appear.
Directions may vary depending on how your computer is set up.
Hilariously a Democratic mailer for Beaubien touted Beaubien as an independent candidate.
No doubt there would be big money flowing from Democrats and Unions to get a Democrat elected to Chair McHenry County.
“Fair Play”….what a laugh.
Your quote from Proverbs: “Better is a person who walks in his integrity than one who is crooked in speech.”
That favorite quote of yours is two sentences after you accuse a Republican Nominee for State House as, in your words, “doing the equivalent of tea leaf reading while wearing a tin foil hat.”
You have to be a Democrat; for only Dems have the intellectual duplicity that is revealed so plainly in just a few sentences – and not to even recognize it.
Actually, you’re wrong!
I’ve pulled GOP ballots in the last three elections!
But you can sling mud all ya want pumpkin.
I like the part about introducing a bill or a Constitutional Amendment to provide for Direct Election of the Illinois House Speaker and Senate President.
That ought to roast Madigan’s gonads a bit.