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Advice for Jack Franks — 24 Comments

  1. I’m flummoxed.

    Walkup was a failed Democratic candidate.

    He’s been asleep at the wheel when it comes to fundraising for himself or the McHenry County GOP.

    He is claiming disability, yet running for two offices at the same time.

    And then you attack Jack Franks for being highly motivated and successful… LOL http://goo.gl/7qSP6D

  2. No yow twit: He’s being attracted for being a Lying Democrat whose views and votes are totally out of sync with the majority of the moral and responsible adults of McHenry County.

    He’s also for massive tax increases (I guess you don’t follow this blog too closely …. LOL).

    McHenry County needs Lying Jack Franks like it needs one more term of O’bummer, or his surrogate Crooked Hillary.

    Don’t be Flummoxed by Lying Jack ……….. Vote Walkup !

  3. And, again, I will point out that Mike Walkup is the one who made certain that one running for both a district seat and the County Board Chairmanship would not receive two salaries–just the one for the County Board Chairman.

    And, again, Walkup’s disability payment comes from a private insurance company from which he purchased a policy, not Social Security as you might want people to believe.

  4. I think the important point is, if he is allergic to ink or paper, how is it he will hand out flyers with you and put them on cars?

  5. Above we have a supporter of Jack D Franks, whom is a partner in the law firm of Franks Gerkin McKenna, questioning the disability of Jack Franks political opponent, Michael J Walkup.

    Franks Gerkin McKenna
    19333 E Grant Highway, Marengo, Illinois 60152
    Attorneys at Franks Gerkin McKenna

    Herbert H Franks
    Peggy D Gerkin
    Terrence J McKenna
    Jack D Franks
    Steven J Greeley Jr.
    Joseph C Ponitz
    David L Montenegro
    Olivia P Dirig
    Rebecca A Lamm

  6. Moderate,

    Are you Jack Franks?

    Once again you are tied up in minutiae.

    The ridiculous points you are attempting to raise are unimportant and have nothing to do with this race.

    How Mike deals with his disability is his business.

    It is certainly not yours, nor the voters.

    His disability insurance is PRIVATE paid for by himself. It is none of your business nor is it the business of the voters.

    Do you ever bring up any salient points?

  7. Is Franks or his campaign against people with disabilities?

    Is Franks or his campaign or Family’s firm against people with disabilities working and being productive members of society?

    If so, WHAT A PREJUDICE JACK WAGON, Franks is!

  8. Describing Jack Franks ” highly motivated and successful” is a classic example of the success of ‘dumbing down’.

    The guy was born with a couple of silver spoons in his mouth!

    He is nothing but a great example of a carney barker.

    The real unfortunate part of it is that there were enough other victims of ‘dumbing down’ to get him elected.

    EDUCATE THE DUMBED DOWN!!

    Re: “Is Franks or his campaign or Family’s firm against people with disabilities working and being productive members of society? ”

    In my opinion: Not if there is money to made off representing the person with the disability.

    Most lawyers are the modern version of ‘ambulance chasers’.

    Just watch the plethora of TV commercials.

    Illinois needs torte law reform!

  9. Cautious voter/anonymous coward:

    Yes, let’s blame Jack Franks fir his father’s ability to buy a farm and practice law.

    You clearly haven’t lived in this county very long. I’ve lived here since 1965.

    The Walkup family was one of the first families to settle in the region.

    They owned a good chunk of Crystal Lake.

    Mike Walkup was born into a family that was just as successful as the Franks.

    As to where all that money went?

    Microfiches of the old Crystal Lake Herald at your local library are a good place to start your research.

    So yeah- once upon a time, Mike Walkup had a silver spoon…

  10. Have to seriously disagree with Mike Walkup “silver spoon” theory.

    Farmers now get federal help these
    Days (like John Bartman).

    Over decades, wars, depressions etc.
    Affected everyone & wealth was usually
    Lost for original pioneer family ancestors.

    Climate/weather,as most people know,
    Is a huge factor in how well farmers do
    In any year.

    A few bad years cause farmers to be
    Rich with land but in the poor house
    Because of poor crop yields.

    So having land is not a precursor for
    Wealth.

    Herbert Franks on the other hand has
    Been a personal injury attorney winning
    Some big cases over his career which is probably the source of the Franks family wealth.

    My mother’s family were early settlers (around 1806) near the Mississippi river
    In Missouri & had land that was divided up to offspring or some sold off in lean farming years.

    Trust me they had some good years,
    But as farmers, were never RICH, per se.

    My parents moved here in 1968 & I
    Went to Crystal Lake Central.

    Had one of Mike W’s cousins in my
    Class.

    Not aware of people speaking of
    Walkups as being WEALTHY in the
    60s.

    So it seems, broad generalizations
    Have been made in the previous post.

    I’m only putting general info & perceptions
    On here as well, but NO CONCRETE historical information was ACTUALLY
    Given in Mr. Loveass’s post.

  11. Either way Walkup only seems to claim a disability when it is convenient for him I see him handling brochures for campaign and holding paper when he is at the county board.

    So I believe his disability is just a way for him to claim his insurance policy and have an income.

    He is not good at being an attorney and he is not good at being a representative of McHenry County as a board member.

    Rather, Walkup is trying to hurt the most vulnerable people of McHenry County by cutting all funding to Valley Hi.

    No thanks to Walkup.

  12. Josey xxxxxx, there are no facts in your
    Comments/perceptions above.
    In fact MANY PEOPLE on the blog have
    Frequently refuted EVERYTHING you
    Posted.

    People just keep bringing all that WEAK
    PATHETIC crap up because they have NOTHING to say about Franks accomplishments (brcause there aren’t
    ANY) 🙁

  13. For the Record: I will speak to this as no one else has that information.

    Up until fairly recently, when the last person in a farmer’s generation died, there was a huge inheritance tax bill that had to be paid.

    This has since been largely eliminated.

    Usually the farmers were land rich but otherwise dirt poor.

    They did not pay into Social Security so when they retired, they had to sell land to fund their retirements or make repairs on the property.

    For example, my grandfather sold off part of the land to a developer to form what is now Walkup Woods and Heritage Estates.

    He was a very poor businessman and sold it on an impulse to the first developer who showed up based on the first offer.

    Other members of the family tried to talk him out of it, but being a stubborn Scot, he would never go back on a decision once he had made it.

    He used the funds to make needed repairs on the house at the time, finally bringing hot running water into the kitchen to replace the cold water hand pump my grandmother was still using in the 1960’s, and replacing the gas stove that dated from the 1920’s.

    Like I said, stubborn Scot.

    Also cheap.

    Some farmers were not too savvy about trying to sell land to developers before they died and had their heirs then had to pay the inheritance taxes.

    The first farm to go was that of Joshiah Walkup, who owned everything from Crystal Lake Avenue to present day Route 176.

    Much of the town now sits on that, including city hall.

    When Josiah and his wife died, inheritance taxes became due and the land had to be sold to pay them off.

    This was back in 1876. I have no idea where that money went.

    Similarly with my grandparents, who held on to everything until their deaths, both of which occurred in the same year.

    Then the only way the heirs had to pay off the inheritance taxes was to sell the land.

    After the taxes there wasn’t much left.

    I had to go to the University of Illinois because my parents couldn’t afford to send me to a non state school.

    I got a fellowship for law school in Washington D.C.

    I had to actually buy my grandparents’ house in the 90’s at market price from the people it had been sold to back in the 70’s when my grandparents died, both in the same year.

    I did so following the demolition of the Josiah Walkup House which was up to that point the oldest house standing in Crystal Lake.

    I didn’t want the same fate to befall the other house, which was much more historically and architecturally significant.

    I was able to have it plaqued with the county Historic Commission and it now graces the cover of their brochures.

    I received absolutely no inheritance when my father died other than the picture of him when the nursing home he had been staying in for the last 7 years of his life named him “Resident of the Month”.

    Later, I found out that I also own a very short gravel road that dead ends into the property on one side and has trees growing on it.

    Big deal.

    That’s it.

    Everything else I did for myself.

    No silver spoon I am afraid.

    I can’t speak to the Franks family fortune other than to say that last year Jack was driving a Cadillac convertible and I had a 1997 Chevy S10 that was so rusted out I could have stopped it by sticking my leg through the hole in the floor.

    I finally traded it in this Spring and now have a 2008 with 140,000 miles.

    At least there are no holes.

    If that is “gaming the system” I am not doing a very good job of it.
    .

  14. josey

    you express nothing more than a politically motivated, uninformed, idiotic set of useless opinions.

    Nothing you say is of value because you can not back up your empty opinions.

    Opinions absent facts are just noise.

    Your comments are like donuts.

    All calories but no nutritional value.

  15. Mike Walkup fails to mention that the onerous inheritance tax on estates is going to be raised if the DEMOCRATS (yes that’s Lying Jack’s crew) prevail in November.

    Jack voted for this increase as part of the Democrats platform while on his little trip to the convention as a delegate for ‘CROOKED HILLARY’.

    Those of you that think Lying Jack Franks will reduce your taxes are one brick (maybe more) short of a full load.

  16. btw: We now know for sure who “Moderate” is.

    The only person who would know anything about flyering cars at Main Beach would be Franks or a high member of his campaign.

    What happened:

    When it was discovered that Franks would be distributing ice cream at a band concert at Main Beach, some people contacted me about getting some folks together to hand out flyers at the entrance.

    This was supposedly cleared with the Park District Executive Director and attorney but the Park Police were not informed.

    (Technically you can do it inside the parks but they do have an Ordinance so you might get into litigation. Distributing outside of the gate is a compromise that they encourage. Pam Althoff did the same thing earlier this year).

    Just as I was arriving, a volunteer, without instructions from anyone, was seen by me putting flyers directly on the windshields of a few cars in the parking lot.

    I immediately stopped him and together we removed all of the flyers, but not before someone from the Franks campaign called the Park police.

    There is no way anyone not affiliated with the Franks campaign would even know about this as the flyers were not on the cars for more than five minutes.

    So if anyone had any lingering doubts about who “Moderate” is, they have been answered.

    I am also only bothered by paper if it is in larger quantities, such as a large legal file, and in an interior space like an office or courtroom.

    It is an asthmatic reaction to the chemicals they use in today’s papers, not a touch related reaction.

    Strictly speaking it is also not an “allergy” but a chemical sensitivity.

    To be an allergy there has to be DNA in the material. so that your immune system is mistaking that for a bacteria or virus and initiating a response.

    This is part of a reactive airway disease in someone who has had asthma from birth.

    It started when they introduced fax machines, photocopiers, and computer printers into offices and the bond papers had to be replaced as they would jam the equipment.

    No one uses the rag based papers any more.

    I tried to cope for several years with medications and inhalers but eventually it became too much and I had to discontinue my practice.

    I am insured as a “trial lawyer” and am allowed to do anything and everything other than “trial law”.

    That is why I can be on the County Board or even be Board Chairman so long as most of the materials are accessible electronically, which they are.

    I could even be a judge as the benches are now mostly electronic.

    The lawyers, however, are not and still use lots of paper.

    I stopped an earlier run for County Board back in 2001 when I came down with this as at that time all of the materials were still in large paper files and I didn’t think I could handle it.

    I did a stint at the Park District starting in 2007 but made them get me the packets on a computer stick and brought in my laptop.

    The current Board all have ipads and the packets are online.

    This is not the same thing as Social Security disability, in which you are not allowed to work and earn over $1000/month.

    This is a private policy which has completely different types of provisions.

    I paid for it over many years and never expected to have to use it until I did.

    That’s why you buy insurance.

    There are all kinds of different private and governmental disability programs and they each have different criteria and definitions of disability.

    My current law practice consists of helping people in those situations.

    When life hands you a lemon, open an lemonade stand.

    I call that “helping people who need my help”, not “gaming the system”.

    Of course, none of this fits on the front of baseball cap.

  17. Walkup is running for two offices – to guarantee a chairman paycheck.

    Walkup has repeatedly said that he would not stand up to the board PROBABLY because he doesn’t want to risk them turning on him and therefore losing a chairman paycheck.

    Walkup is obligated to pay alimony for five years so he may need another chairman paycheck to help with that.

    Walkup just put his house up for sale, but he possibly wouldn’t have to if he got the chairmanship paycheck.

    Walkup is on disability, which may be running out, so he would need a chairman paycheck.

    Walkup ran in 2012 saying he wouldn’t take county board benefits, and then took them anyway.

    And now Walkup has literally laid bare the extent of his family’s fiduciary shortfalls, therefore necessitating a chairman paycheck.

    This is clearly not about public service to Mike Walkup.

    Some supporters of Walkup say that he could make $500,000 a year as an attorney, but then he claims in this thread that he can’t afford a new car.

    To that Walkup Camp http://goo.gl/7qSP6D

  18. Jack: (ie Moderate): I am managing fine with what I have, thank you.

    Disability never runs out.

    Lifetime payment after a certain age which has passed.

    Only two years to go on alimony, which is not that much per month anyway.

    Eligible for Social Security retirement also but am waiting to age 70.

    House is getting to be too much for one person to maintain and if I am Chairman, I will have even less time to do so.

    Would like to make sure it goes to someone who will take proper care of it and respect the history and what I have done with the place.

    I’m not going to live forever and would prefer to control who takes it over.

    Don’t need the Chairman paycheck.

    However, I am not big on driving a fancy car.

    As long as it gets me there (and can haul chickens).

    I was grossing $500K back in the 90’s as an attorney which is why I would have no reason to quit that to “game the system” with some (much smaller) disability benefits.

    I wish I could go back to that.

    Maybe some day when everyone uses a computer for everything.

    As for now, I get by.

    How’s the Cadillac doing?

  19. It may come as a huge disappointment that one does not have to be Jack Franks to see the shockingly average job you and the GOP dominated board have done for McHenry County.

    This election is a referendum on an unchecked McHenry county GOP leadership who have had unfettered power for years, yet deferred shortcomings to seemingly omnipotent external forces.

    Abdicating responsibility doesn’t gel.

    Again, sorry to disappoint, I’m not Jack and sure wish I had a Caddy too.

    We need a change in leadership and it’s certainly not you.

  20. This is not a GOP issue !

    There are BIG PENDERS in
    both parties, that is why I am
    an independent.

    The BIGGEST SPENDERS are from
    The Madigan mobsters that have had
    a stranglehold on Illinois for decades.

    The unions & pensions are DIRECTLY
    Responsible for the astronomical debt
    & fiscal disaster in Illinois today.

    The underfunded pension debt effects EVERY PERSON in Illinois one way or another.

    Jack Franks has taken union contributions & consequently
    Added to this TRAVESTY on Illinois
    Residents & taxpayers for almost
    20 years, besides being a Madigan
    Puppet & voting for him 9Xs out of
    Nine.

    Frank’s minions can point out things
    About Mike Walkup, who has only been
    On the board 4 years, but it PALES in
    COMPARISON to the sheer mess Jack Franks helped create for 18 years in
    Springfield that adds to the FINANCIAL
    BURDEN of EVERY CITIZEN in ILLINOIS.

    There is only one TRUE & REAL
    Candidate for county board chair,
    That is MIKE WALKUP ! 🙂

  21. With $41.7 million in the Valley Hi fund and the budget basically breaking even, what Walkup is trying to stop is continued excessive property taxation.

  22. Democrat Jack Franks v Republican Mike Walkup for inaugural voter elected McHenry County Board Chair, election being held today.

    In the past, the 24 member County Board has selected one of its own as Board Chair.

    Jack Franks has apparently had his eye on becoming the most powerful possible leader of McHenry County for a long time.

    First he advocated the form of County government be converted to County Executive.

    In the County Executive form of government, more power is given to the County Executive (than is currently held by the board chair), and the County Executive position is voter elected.

    Will County is the only County in Illinois to have a County Executive form of government.

    Cook County has an elected County Board president and has its own set up laws.

    That McHenry County county executive form of government referendum failed on November 6, 2012.

    Next, Jack Franks advocated a referendum to convert the board chair to a voter elected position.

    That referendum passed March 18, 2014.

    Next, Jack Franks was pushing two advisory referendum for the 2014 fall election.

    The county board elected to not put those questions on the ballot.

    One of the questions was to reduce the number of County Board seats from 24 to 16, while simultaneously increasing the number of county board districts from 6 to 16 (currently there are 6 districts with 4 members per district).

    During that push, in a June 6, 2014 Kevin Craver article titled, “Franks Asks County For 2 Advisory Referendums” the Northwest Herald reported:

    “Franks made clear that he is not pushing for County Board changes as an effort to run for the chairman’s seat in two years, following the footsteps of former state senators Chris Lauzen and Dan Cronin, now chairmen of the Kane and DuPage county boards.

    ‘What I’m trying to do is reduce our property taxes in McHenry County and make it livable so people don’t leave,’ Franks said.

    ‘I can promise you I am not running for county chairman in 2016.

    This has nothing to do with me.

    This is about good government.'”

    Then on May 15, 2016 Jack Franks announced himself as a Democrat candidate for McHenry County Board Chair.

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