Most readers can’t afford to take off work to attend a day time McHenry County Board meeting.
The next one is Tuesday, March 21st, at 7 PM.
There is something you can do to familiarize yourself with what is going on starting today.
The Friday before the meeting, the meeting’s agenda is published.
On this page, you should be able to click on “Meeting Agenda and Minutes” and be able to read both the agenda and, if you are really, really interested the hundreds of pages dumped in County Board members’ laps the weekend before their only voting meeting of the month.
The correct link to the portal:
http://mchenrycountyil.iqm2.com/Citizens/default.aspx
The packet is “only” 353 pages this time, at least it’s not 800+ like the February packet.
I heard they were going to CUT TEN like Jack Franks said?
Direct
Didn’t the “round mound” get all morning meetings removed?
McHenry County Regular Board Meeting
March 21, 2017 at 7PM
County Board Conference Room, Administration Building, 667 Ware Road, Woodstock
Board Agenda Packet
Pages 133, 134, & 135 of 353
In pages 133 – 135 the administration recommends the board purchase services from Archer Company for a new non-union classification – compensation – benefit system.
This is noteworthy for several reasons.
First, the controversial patronage hires of Oliver Serafini and Bridget Geenen involved reclassifying job positions.
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Along those lines, the FY 2014, FY 2015, Y FY 2016 FINAL county board budgets contained language about the existing classification system (including reclassification positions) from RSM McGladrey (with a note it is now Verisight).
The FY 2017 FINAL Budget is not on the County Board website in the Budgets section.
The FY 2017 DRAFT Budget is on the County Board website (but the FY 2016 DRAFT Budget did not contain the job classification language whereas the FINAL Budget did).
The County Fiscal Year is from December 1 through November 30th.
Thus FY 2017 is December 1, 2016 – November 30, 2017.
The FY 2017 Budget was apparently approved at a County Board meeting, so why is the FINAL FY 2017 Budget not on the County Board website.
When is the FY 2017 FINAL Budget scheduled to be on the County Board website?
Approximately when historically has the FY FINAL Budget been placed on the county board website under Budgets?
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Second, the recommended vendor is the Archer Company, and the past services for the classification system were purchased from RSM McGladrey.
Third, the memo in the Agenda Packet from the HR Director Cheryl Chukwu to the Board states non union positions during the period 2007 to 2017 decreased from 928 to 609 (34%), and union locals increased from 3 to 11 (267%).
– How many union positions did the County have in 2007 & how many union positions does the county have now?
Fourth, the memo states, “Many of McHenry County’s non-union positions have evolved over the last 10 years due to department reorganizations and a significant reduction in the number of non-union positions (100+) without a significant contraction of services.”
Fifth, the memo describes the reduction of 309 positions (928 to 609) as “100+.”
Sixth, the memo uses the phrase, “without a significant contraction of services?”
– When positions are shifted from non-union to union, there should be a significant contraction of services?
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Here is the direct link to the board agenda packet.
http://mchenrycountyil.iqm2.com/Citizens/FileOpen.aspx?Type=1&ID=3925&Inline=True
The following post contains more information about past county FINAL Budgets that contain language regarding the current system in place to reclassify employees, and the fact that FINAL FY 2017 Budget is not currently posted in the Budget section of the County Board website, although it was apparently approved by the County Board.
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McHenry County Blog
Franks’ Patronage Hires Fail HR Committee Test – Part 3
March 19, 2017
comment on 03/19/2017 at 4:22 pm
http://www.mchenrycountyblog.com/2017/03/19/franks-patronage-hires-fail-hr-committee-test-part-3/#comment-458127
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One could submit a FOIA request for documents describing the policies and procedures the county has for reclassifying non union employees, including documents in the comprehensive system purchased the county purchased from RSM McGladrey.
The taxpayers paid for the documents.
Where are the documents?
See the above link for more information.
What is the Readers Digest version of the previous two comments?
McHenry County taxpayers paid for a job classification system which they don’t have a copy of, which they have not seen, and was not used in the hiring of Oliver Serafini and Bridget Geenen.
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Summary of events to date:
Peter Austin, the County Administrator, the person hired by the Board to run county government, was directly involved in that hiring process.
Jack Franks, the inaugural voter elected McHenry County Board Chair, apparently told Peter Austin the names of the two people that Mr. Franks wanted hired.
There was apparently no competition for the hires.
Peter Austin contacted at least one of the employees directly by email.
One of those emails, obtained through a FOIA request and posted on the blog, indicates that Peter Austin told the candidate via email that he (Peter Austin) would get him (the applicant) an offer letter, in the very same email containing the job application.
McHenry County taxpayers probably would all like to be told by the top person in the hiring organization that they will receive the offer letter before they submit the job application.
There’s another question.
Did the job applicants first learn of the salary for the position in the offer letter?
Regarding that last point.
How was the salary determined?
Where is the cost justification for the salaries?
Did Jack Franks suggest or tell Peter Austin the desired salaries?
How do salaries get determined for positions which do not exist for which there was no competition?
What was Peter Austin and the HR Directors role in determining the salaries?
What do each of the codes on the hiring forms mean?
Where is the list of all codes and the exact steps that must be followed, and any leeway that is possible.
Ghost job positions and postings.
They could not be found because they did not exist.
What did exist?
Taxpayer money to fund the positions.
That is real.
An HR job classification and reclassification system existed.
That is real, but where is it?
Jack Franks cherry picking what board members to tell of his intentions to hire a few people.
Was that real?
So who was told, what were they told, when were they told, and how were they told?
Peter Austin reports to both Jack Franks and the County Board?
Where is the org chart which indicates exactly how that works?