From the McHenry County Board tape of Tuesday’s meeting during the consideration of allowing the at-large elected Chairman to make all committee appointments:
Mike Skala
Anna May Miller
The following ensued after Mike Skala and Anna Mae Miller introduced an amendment to the proposed Board Rules to allow the directly elected County Board Chairman to continue to appoint the Committee on Commitees that appoints members and chairs of each of the County Board committees.
2:36:32
MR. WALKUP:
Mike Walkup
This is the second bite of the apple, what we’re doing.
These are the people who didn’t prevail the first time we had the discussions.
I thought we had arrived at a very nicely balanced set of rules the last time, a very collaborative effort on the part of everybody here, and then now the only thing that has really intervened is that the current Chairman has announced that he is running for the county wide position and no one else has announced that they are running.
So I think what you are seeing are people who think they are going to be on the right side of that bandwagon wanting to put themselves..
CHAIRMAN: I have an objection. You are out of order. That’s way out of line.
MR. WALKUP: What I am trying to point out, and that’s not a personal comment.
This is what is going to happen every time, is that you are going to have, instead of having a chairman who is a part of the board and is being selected by the board, and promising various committee assignments in exchange.
CHAIRMAN: And one more thing about that Mr. Walkup, I didn’t promise a single committee assignment to anyone.
Joe Gottemoller
MR. WALKUP: I’m not saying you did.
CHAIRMAN: In fact I know that some of the candidates, other candidates, that some people supported, did make those promises, but I didn’t make a single one.
MR. WALKUP: I’m not saying you did. I’m talking about past experiences.
And I think that what you’re going to have are people who want to get on the political team of the person who winds up winning the election viewing that as a reward they are going to get, and I’m not saying you are going to be doing that, but you need to look at the long term future and not look at it in terms of the personalities that are involved and what someone might do that we don’t even know about in the future with that system.
So I think that a system where we are going back to having the Chair appointing people based on whatever the considerations are I think gets us right back into the quagmire we are trying to get ourselves out of .
I think that’s what led to the direct election of the county board chair.
I think that’s why we have now the direct election of the county board chair, because of the way that system was used in the past by …previous…board chairs.
= = = = =
The final vote was a voice vote with only Skala and Miller heard voting in favor.
Relative to the Gottemoller comments / objections, anyone else have the following Shakespeare line come to mind? “The lady doth protest too much, methinks.”
The taxpayers of McHenry County really, really need to get a candidate for Board D-1 who will force the Millers to deplete their $47,000 campaign fund.
Cal has another great post for you to read relative to Gottemoller’s protests of Walkup’s comments.
Go to this link: http://mchenrycountyblog.com/2014/12/14/spoils-for-the-winners/
Decide for yourself if Mike was on the right track.
If Gottmoller didn’t trade committee appointments for chairman votes, he’d have been the first in a long time who didn’t.
Remember hapless Bob Goben?
After several days of ballots, he switched his vote to Ann Hughes, who then appointed him Vice Chair.
In the next primary, everyone, including Queen Ann, walked away from him, he was such a pariah.
Business as usual on the McHenry County Board.
Thanks for that bit of history, Charlie. The Chicago Tribune report of December 20, 1989 is as follows:
“County Board Has New Vice President
Robert Goben, a real estate agent and former mayor of Oakwood Hills, was elected vice chairman of the McHenry County Board on Tuesday to succeed Cal Skinner Sr., who died Aug. 23. Goben provided the crucial swing vote that enabled Ann Hughes to be elected County Board Chairmen, 13-11, in 1988 and was rewarded with her support with the vice chairmanship.”
It’s human nature to want people that you think can work with you to appoint to the most important positions.
There isn’t a person out there that wouldn’t try and do the same thing.
The only way to get humans out of the deal is by some computer programmers from outside the area, state, even maybe the country, to program software that will after considering all the factors, pick the committees and their leadership.
Same thing related to gerrymandering done by those in power to keep their power.
Most of the committee working on the prior set of board rules, as has been mentioned repeatedly, made every effort to curtail the status-quo where a “power-base” was assured to those willing to “go-along.”
At the time, the “power-base” prevailed and those recommendations were squashed.
Thank the Good Lord this board was wise enough to understand those earlier recommended rules changes were simply to bring the authority back to the 24 members rather than consolidating the authority into the hands of one member.
In a nutshell, that is the issue.
By the way, someone questioned why the rules are changed so often…
When the board was electing the chairman, it was for a 2 year term.
The rules required the board to review and recommend changes to those rules every 2 years.
As a personal note, I would hope the rules will remain in place for 4 years since the chair election is now for a 4 year term.
This needs to be watched@
The only reason this is happening now Ersel is because we have the directly elected County Board Chair and people are afraid it could be Franks.
Board member Ken Koehler, R-Crystal Lake; past chairman who’s administration lead directly to Jack Franks push for a directly elected chair, was not at the meeting as well as a few others.
Franks stuck his nose in local gov instead of concentrating on getting the state fiscal house in order, same with his Consolidation thingy.
He’s playing both sides of the isle for political gain, that has to be considered troubling.
Had Koehler been at the meeting and heard Mike Walkups comments and how they were worded, he may have well considered those comments a personal attack and commented in a way similar to Joe.
Throwing rocks has many side effects, and if you throw them you must get a thick skin as the rocks will be coming back in your direction. especially if you are often disingenuous in your own personal agenda.
Dissenting opinions during public board meetings are an important part of the Democratic process.
Nob; These are not mutually exclusive positions, as several state legislators are also local officials.
Franks has been a whirlwind of activity since elected, at least in comparison to his predecessors.
Dick Klemm did nothing for anybody except the pits and his small business people.
He finally got off square 1 when Franks brought home grants for local government and published pictures.
Scheaffer and Brown worked for the pits and nothing else.
Tryon and Wheeler have been smart enough to see the comparison and have picked up the pace Franks has set.
If we can’t get anyone better than Gottmoller or Walkup, we deserve to lose.
Charles, you are correct, but Jack plays both sides and that still bothers me.
Gottmoller and Walkup names could be added to Clinton and Bush as families names that I wish would just go away.
Agreed as to the families.
However, Franks may be the most conservative northern democrat legislator in the country, and he certainly wasn’t a stooge in the George Ryan Culture of Corruption that Gottmoller aspired to be.
The Rat isn’t any better.
Charlie, Your are incorrigible.
You vilify Republicans for not supporting “Pro-lifers” even though you admit yourself that you have done so.
Your argument supporting your personal duplicity:
Oh, I see….If Charlie Nelson says it’s ok to vote for a pro-abort, then it’s ok.
But if Joe Gottemoller says so, he’s a RINO.
What???
The reality is Charlie, you have been hoodwinked by the grand master at deception.
To call Jack Franks
is an absolute FRAUD.
Jack Franks is a liberal, tax and spend, trial lawyer, pro-Abort, pro-Gay, Madigan supporting PHONY.
He’s deluded you into believing what you say – which all this does is reveal that you have fecklessly fallen for his dissimulation.
Wake up, Charlie, and realize you’ve been totally snookered.
Franks is a fraud.
Only the most irrational are still his supporters.
Gottemoller throwing stones?
Isn’t this the guy that was trying to send the people of Oakwood Hills and Crystal Lake up the creek by trying to back door a Canadian power plant across a school?
How doth our memories fade?
Eric, you mean cut our taxes by providing an opportunity for the free market to work and pay business taxes and LOWERING the property tax burden?
I’m sick of property taxes.
I support the Power Plant – next to my home if you want.
Eric, your property taxes must not be so high.