Letter:Change needed in McHenry Township
McHenry Township Trustees will vote again on whether to allow the voters decide on a Road District consolidation referendum at tonight’s township meeting.
On February 14th, Algonquin Township Trustees will discuss placing a consolidation referendum on the November ballot.
The following letter to the editor that was printed in the Northwest Herald in Sunday’s edition.
It is reprinted here with permission from the author.
To the editor:
I’m thrilled that a majority of the McHenry Township Board had the good sense to reject Bob Anderson’s flawed motion to eliminate the position of township Highway Commissioner.
The township Highway Commissioner is like God.
It is a one person show.
No one is standing over their shoulder providing any check or balance.
They can hire and fire at will.
They can hire relatives, decide what equipment to buy or sell, with or without a bidding process, what projects get tackled, what non-dedicated roads get accepted into their system and everything else, all with no oversight.
No accountability.
Simply get elected and then for four years have free rein to do whatever they want.
Bob Anderson’s proposal would have left all of those flaws in place with the difference being that the town supervisor would now be the one man show.
At least with the present system, in McHenry Township, the one man show knows what he’s doing.
Anderson’s proposal to transfer those duties to the supervisor still had it being a one man show, but with the one man, the Supervisor, stating that he didn’t know how to run a road district.
Giving another person those same duties, again with no oversight, does not solve the problem.
I hope that the wiser majority of our town board brings forth a proposal that will give the voters an opportunity to vote to eliminate the position of Highway Commissioner and transfer those duties to the township board, a board of elected officials, not a single individual.
The town board would run the road district.
They could hire the current commissioner for the same dollars that he’s now getting and we would still have a better system than we now have because now we would have some oversight.
Hopefully, when it’s certain that the issue will be on the ballot, a factual study, vetted by the press, will tell us what we could expect to evolve and whether it’s better or worse than what we currently have.
It is time for the county board to step up and conduct their promised study.
Ned Neumann
McHenry
Wow! Somebody who cares about his disgusting overtaxation and the impudence of Township pigs at the trough we meekly supply with moolah!
Why can’t we vote on this in Nunda?
Is there some confusion here? Ned makes the statement: “Bob Anderson’s proposal would have left all of those flaws in place with the difference being that the town supervisor would now be the one man show.” but Bob Anderson’s motion was as follows:
“The ballot shall be in the following form: ‘Shall the Road District of the Township of McHenry be abolished with all the rights, powers, duties, assets, property, liabilities, obligations, and responsibilities being assumed by McHenry Township ‘”
In other words, the Board of Trustees would have oversight. The Supervisor would have just one vote on all issues just like each Trustee.
Because it is illegal; the post of Highway Commissioner cannot be eliminated unless the Road District is eliminated.
Bob’s motion was a fool’s errand.
That can only be done if there are no roads under Township Authority. Only if the municipalities annex every square inch of the Township can that be effected.
Good Gracious, Mr. Naumann, Doing studies of Township Highway costs, etc. are NOT the duty or authority of the McHenry County Board. The County Board is tasked with the business and responsibilities of the County. Don’t look to other government entities to carry out what is Your responsibility. And by the way, if any other governmental entity suggests that they can or should do such things, watch out. That is encroachment, a desire to take over powers that are NOT given to them by law.
How many people are living in a bubble?
Please read HB0607.
Nelson, is dead wrong. The vote allows the Township Board to take over the District. Not abolish it.
These township grandees have helped themselves to our wallets.
It’s time to slam the parasites.
More oversight, no savings to tax payers is correct.
Hiring somebody with the correct expertise in the long run will cost more.
Past township boards really have never practiced oversight, mostly just agreeing because of ignorance.
How will that change by applying this law?
New Jersey has just 1344 units of gov, yet the residents there pay a higher property tax than we do in IL.
The facts that the writer of the letter to the the NW Herald forgot to mention is McHenry township is Not the same sh*t show that Algonquin Township is.
Dem, State Rep. Sam Yingling, Lake County, sponsored HB 607
Nob is outed as township employee!
OLD man, you hate facts don’t ya!
So if NJ has fewer yet they pay more, what’s you excuse for that?
Waiting