Public comments are required at every public meeting.
McHenry County Board Chairman Jack Franks could encourage people to send in comments–and perhaps has–but for a meeting in mid-month, he forwarded letters and emails sent him personally as public comments.
Here is the evidence:
What are ” missives” ?
I thought those comments sounded like they came straight out of Frank’s playbook.
Could he have taken the opportunity, while the meeting was closed to the public, to broadcast his own agenda?
@Mike Hunt
Assuming yours is not a rhetorical question, a missive usually refers to the old-school style of hand-written communication on paper (remember that?), but these days you also might hear an email called a missive.
No matter how you deliver it, a missive is a message.
Since these missives likely come from or were penned by Jack Franks, IMHO the true meaning is “bend over, I’m sticking it to you again!”
Written notes or letters
That’s not public comment-that’s blatantly and desperately CAMPAIGNING!
Why does the board just look the other way on his antics?!
Like with the latest ridiculous campaign piece he sent out regarding Covid on taxpayers dime!
Casey, you are so right!
What about the unpleasant letters that Jack didn’t write to himself?
Where did those go?
Cal, these are some questions that you and others should explore.
-What was the official process of submitting a public comment during the shutdown?
-Where were emails supposed to be sent?
-Were Jack Franks’ chairman email address or personal email address acceptable places to send emails for public comment?
-Which email address did Jack Franks forward the messages from (personal email address or official chairman email address)?
-Who were the people and email addresses that sent the emails to Franks in the first place?
-Who did Franks forward the emails to and from what address did he use?
(Sorry for any redundancy, but this all ties together.)
That’s the line of questioning I am interested in.
Most of these questions should receive a very short answer.
Hopefully you, county board members, or other curious people with FOIA know-how can get to the bottom of all this.
There are some people who think the comments were phony; that’s worth looking into as well.
Getting the names and email addresses of the people who submitted the public comment is the place to start with for that issue.
I’d also look into whether there were emails that were not read, because I heard that Kelly Liebmann submitted something that was not read during public comment at one of the meetings but was added into the minutes.
Then, who else sent unread emails, if applicable, and what did they say?
If Franks did something wrong, I would think at the very least a censure would be in order.
Perhaps something more.