I wrote articles about the Human Resources Committee meeting on Feb. 28th. Here are the minutes:
PUBLIC COMMENT
County Board member Charles Wheeler joined committee members and thanked Chairman Jung for holding the Human Resources Committee meeting.
He is pleased that the Board decided to have a Human Resources Committee, and feels that it is an important part of their being, and that they have a procedure that is in place which can review the items that are so important to the County.
One of the major items is how they handle employee benefits, and another important item is how they handle human resources at the County.
Mr. Wheeler stated that he hopes this committee will take up and address the County’s personnel policies.
He feels the personnel policies should be reviewed regarding the distribution of literature at facilities and events.
Last week he attended an expo held in McHenry County and he observed a number of pieces of literature which appeared to be campaign literature by the Chairman (Franks).
He thinks this may be a violation of the existing personnel policy, and if it isn’t, he feels the personnel policies need to be reviewed and tightened up so this kind of behavior can’t continue in the future.
Mr. Wheeler also asked the Human Resources Committee to look at a resolution which will address items such as signage on property owned by the County.
He wants to make it clear that they should not have elected officials’ names on anything that is not without permission of the County Board.
He doesn’t want to drive around McHenry County and see signs which have particular politician’s name on them welcoming them into the County.
If there is something, it should be from the office, not from an individual.
Ms. McCann arrived at 8:35 a.m.
Mr. Wheeler stated that another thing that needs to be addressed is what type of materials are appropriate, and what types of materials are not appropriate to be handed out. If materials are being handed out, the material should clearly state who paid for the materials. It should state whether the materials are paid for by the individual’s campaign, or if the materials handed out are paid for by the County.
If they were paid for by a campaign, he feels there should be a heavy load of scrutiny that should be placed upon it and either the materials should be in a segregated spot, or they should not be distributed to the public.
Mr. Wheeler also requested that the Human Resources Committee investigate the most recent hirings that have occurred at the County.
The Chairman (Franks) has hired two individuals through Mr. Austin’s office and those particular positions to him seem to be nebulous in terms of what their job responsibilities are.
He feels the County needs to be made aware of what the responsibilities of those individuals are, and the County needs to also make sure those individuals are adhering to the particular rules outlined in the job descriptions.
If they are not following the job description, and not dealing with the Department of Transportation’s issues, those positions should be eliminated.
Mr. Wheeler stated that these are a few items that he hopes the Human Resources Committee examine, and he mentioned that if Chairman Jung wants to set up sub-committees to look at these particular issues, he would volunteer to work with the committee in establishing particular rules and regulations.
Chairman Jung stated that the personnel policy addresses political activity by employees at work, and as employees of McHenry County.
If there are complaints, they would be addressed by the Ethics Commission. Mr. Hartman mentioned that the advisor to the Ethics Commission is Ms. Chukwu, Director of Human Resources, and that position would advise for any questions regarding the Ethics Ordinance.
The Deputy County Administrator serves at the liaison to the Ethics Commission and would work with the Commission in the event a complaint is filed.
Members of the committee and Mr. Wheeler had a discussion concerning the topic of handing out materials at public events.
Full comments can be heard on McHenry County’s website audio of this meeting.
MEMBER COMMENTS
Mr. Rein thanked Mr. Wheeler for his comments and he hopes that the matter gets taken care of switfly.
He mentioned that the issue starts becoming what is right and what is wrong. He questioned if there is a rule concerning handing out literature at public events, and there may possibly be one, or possibly not.
They are discussing something that should never have been done, and the stickers are obviously campaign materials.
If someone goes to an elected officials’ booth when they are campaigning, there are items handed out.
The bottom line is to not bend the rules or circumvent the rules again, and that is why people start disliking government more than anything because the people who are elected aren’t doing the right thing.
The distrust that is in government right now with the public is huge, and the last thing that an elected official needs is more stuff to go through manutia.
There are enough issues in the State of Illinois and McHenry County and where they live, so this should never have happened.
Mr. Rein mentioned that the two new hires, Bridget and Oliver, were put into two positions that they shouldn’t have been put into.
One is an IT (Information Technology) position and the other is a DOT (Department of Transportation) position. They should have been new positions, and they should have come in front of the County Board like other new positions.
This committee just voted on minutes which had a resolution on hiring somebody.
When there is a Human Resources Committee, there are new hires and new restructuring from different elected officials who come before the Committee because it is the right thing to do.
As of right now, the two new hires in those positions still have the job titles and job descriptions of IT and DOT.
Mr. Rein requested a State’s Attorney’s opinion regarding what authorities state statues, County ordinances,
County Board Rules, etc. were utilized in hiring Bridge and Oliver, and the parliamentarian.
He Also requested a summary of what rules, processes and protocols were disregarded during the hiring process as in job descriptions, County ordinances, invalidating positions after 90 days, budget authority or lack thereof. Mr. Rein requested an opinion on how can the County Board remove these positions and how do they go about removing these positions, and if they have to, the process they must follow including the authority to site, issues to be aware of or careful to avoid, if it deems the hirings to be unethical, improper or otherwise not in the best interests of the County.
He feels that they need to figure out what they are going to do going forward because this sets a precedence of doing what they shouldn’t be doing.
They need to figure out how to right the wrong going forward, and make sure this doesn’t happen again.
Ms. Kurtz thanked Dr. Rein for bringing up the issue of the unauthorized hires.
This continues to be a dark cloud hanging over the County Board and its employees.
The reason is the administration part of the County Board has never engaged in patronage hires.
They have now had a situation which has been facilitated by the Administrator, without the authority of the County Board, in facilitating a request by the new Chairman to conduct these hires without the oversight of the controlling body that is legally responsible and has the fiduciary responsibility for maintaining the budget.
Ms. Kurtz stated that if they do not correct this situation, and if they do not rescind these hires and have them go through a normal process of hiring, they have opened the gates to a patronage-based employment situation.
She mentioned that the situation of patronage hiring should be a complete anathema to everyone of them, given their potential business corporate background.
They know they cannot control costs unless there is a management oversight and without that kind of approach, they subject themselves to patronage hiring and patronage hiring and corruption fall in the same category from where she comes from.
She stated that she can’t emphasize the importance that this has to be addressed, and this has to be fixed. Ms. McCann stated they need to understand they are looking at the way elected officials, in general, not just the Chairman, proceed through hiring.
She is not sure if the County has rules concerning this, but feels the state laws are clear on this subject.
She mentioned that these two hires would fall under any elected officials’ behavior. Ms. McCann mentioned what she has wanted to see, for a very long time, is an employee recognition program in every department.
The Division of Transportation has this program.
Many employees who have worked for the County 30-35 years have retired and the County Board never knows of their retirement.
She suggested a uniform plan for all departments, and feels this type of program would improve employee morale.
Mr. Wilbeck requested that an item be placed on the agenda for the next Human Resources Committee, that being the hiring of the two employees previously discussed.
Chairman Jung responded that it will be on the agenda for the next meeting.
Mr. Wilbeck stated, with his prior HR (human resources) experience, normally the people hired have defined positions, and in these two instances these two positions weren’t defined.
He requested an explanation of how the two positions were placed into their positions.
Mr. Austin mentioned that there have been discussions on this matter with other committees. Concerning the point about bringing this forward to other committees, that was the expectation.
Today’s agenda contains an agenda item concerning a proposed joint meeting with the Finance and Audit Committee a week from Thursday (March 9, 2017).
He mentioned he had a commitment to bring this matter to committee, and there wasn’t anything normal about these two hires.
Staff made the two positions work in terms of positions which were on the roster, and positions that were already funded.
Now they have to go back and adjust the pay grade to the responsibilities, and adjust the job descriptions to the responsibilities.
Job descriptions were created for the two positions in advance of their hiring.
Concerning the State’s Attorney’s Office, he mentioned that there are approximately a dozen positions which have been moved around, and the headcount has remained the same or less, and the changes have been budget positive or neutral.
He had a commitment to make these changes, but they now have to go back and make these position changes right. Mr. Kenneally wants to have these position changes correct.
Mr. Austin suggested a discussion concerning all of these hires during the joint meeting suggested for next week.
Mr. Wilbeck questioned if there are written job descriptions for these positions, and Ms. Chukwu replied yes.
Mr. Wilbeck and Mr. Wheeler requested copies of these job descriptions.