UPDATEx2: McHenry County Board Approves Reapportionment Map in 17-7 Vote

John K. Collins

Board Member’s pay kept at $21K annual salary with existing insurance benefits in 15-9 vote

Amid claims by Board Democrats the new 18 Member, 9 district map being partisan, appointed Democrat John Collins crosses party lines and voted with Republicans on the map, and the salary freeze votes

Last night at the regular meeting of the McHenry County Board, the reapportionment map for the next 5 election cycles beginning next year for electing county board members was approved on a 17-7 vote.

The recorded vote from the County Clerk on the map approval is below (note, Chairman Mike Buehler (R, Crystal Lake) only votes to break a tie):

Source: McHenry County Clerk accessed by McHenry County Blog

Seven of the Board’s 8 Democratic Members voted against the new map. Appointed Democrat John K. Collins (Crystal Lake) voted with the Republican majority to approve the new map.

As documented last week in an updated article on McHenry County Blog, an amendment was presented to the resolution moving Grafton Precinct 14 from proposed DIstrict 9 to proposed District 3, which brought all village of Algonquin residents to be represented by two Board districts, instead of the originally proposed 3 district split.

The amendment was approved unanimously by voice vote prior to the formal recorded vote on the amended map.

Around 20 minutes later, most with discussion of the resolution for County Board Members’ raises, and insurance coverage, the vote for the resolution to keep annual salaries at the same $21K per year, beginning in December of 2022 was taken, with the recorded vote below:

Source: McHenry County Clerk accessed by McHenry County Blog

While two Republicans voted against the salary and insurance resolution including Board Vice Chair Carolyn Schofield (R, Crystal Lake) citing due diligence she had done and shared with Members and wanting more discussion, Member Collins again voted with the Board majority Republicans to adopt the resolution keeping salary and benefits as is for Board Members.

Republican Board Member Mike Skala (R, Huntley) who participated in the meeting remote, voted with Schofield against the resolution.

The approximately hour and 20 minutes Board meeting video can be accessed here with discussion of the amended reapportionment resolution beginning at the 36 minute mark. Discussion on Board salaries and benefits starts at 55 minute mark.

UPDATE: Approved Map with Precincts and Census Populations

Approved McHenry County Board Districts 2021

UPDATE: District Census Population Rolled Up by Precinct Populations

McHenry County’s 310,229 Census 2020 population, broken out by the approved County Board districts, are as follows:

  • 1: 33,656
  • 2: 33,776
  • 3: 35,315
  • 4: 35,136
  • 5: 35,042
  • 6: 34,031
  • 7: 33,886
  • 8: 34,289
  • 9: 35,098

Comments

UPDATEx2: McHenry County Board Approves Reapportionment Map in 17-7 Vote — 15 Comments

  1. WHY does that ACOUST even have a VOTE why is he not fired ???!!! he lost his privilege to do anything for this county !

  2. Cal, forgive me, but what do the letters M and S represent following members’ votes?

  3. “BigOrange”, the “M” represents the Board Member who moved for the the motion for what’s being voted on, and the “S” represents who seconded the motion.

    I don’t know if the electronic voting software automatically records a “YES” vote for the Member making the motion as required by Robert’s Rules, or if the Member actually has to cast the vote physically clicking the “YES” button.

  4. It would be good if Cal or John could put up a map showing the districts with the percentage for Trump vs Biden in each precinct.

    Given that McHenry County is still majority GOP, I don’t see how any map that is not severly gerrymandered could net more Democratic districts.

    Other that the fact that 11, as I count them, incumbents live in precincts that are right up against the line of the adjoining district, the maps appear to be reasonably compact and continuous and don’t have any weird shapes.

    It’s interesting that the only Democrat to vote for the maps was appointed by the Chairman. A quid pro quo there?

    Having said all of that, I dont think that partisan politics have much to do with county issues that are actually voted upon and not forced by some interest group with an agenda.

    Wisconin has non partisan county boards and has lower property taxes than Illinois.

  5. So I think that the fixation on partisan politics in county level offices is misplaced.

    The functions performed by the county are basically the same as those performed by municipalities which are elected on a non partisan basis.

    Even Chicago has gone to non partisan mayoral elections and aldermanic elections have always been non partisan (albiet candidates backed by the Democratic Party almost always win).

    If people are concerned about property taxes they need to go to their local school boards or run for school board themselves and maybe also focus on their township assessors.

    County government, especially the county board, has nothing to do with it apart from the 9 or 10 percent of the tax bill for which it is responsible.

    Also they need to talk to their state legislators to increase state funding for schools as is contemplated in the 1970 State Constitution, and adjust the tax mix at the state level.

    Other states have lower property taxes because they use other sources of revenue which are more directly tied to the individual’s current income earnings such as state income taxes, sales taxes, etc. Also they usually have far fewer number of local taxing bodies.

    In Illinois, the state legislature threw the schools under the school bus and forced them to rely on local property taxes so they could spend money elsewhere.

    However, you will not be able to change that in terms of ever getting a majority of the GOP in control of either chamber in Springpatch because the conservatives on the US Supreme Court have washed their hands on policing political gerrymandering and Illinois has become a solidly Blue state anyway.

    So lots of luck.

  6. 1. Why was Buehler AWOL again?

    2. Why is a disgusting monster like Acosta doing on the board?

    3. When is Jung going to start making sense?

    4. When will Gottemoller come clean about his dirty, dirty deal with Jack Franks?

  7. The County Board Chairman only gets a vote if there is a tie.

  8. John Lopez,

    Care to cite that rule that the member making a motion is an automatic vote in favor of the motion?

    The only thing I can find is:

    “REFRAINING FROM SPEAKING AGAINST ONE’S OWN MOTION. In debate, the maker of a motion, while he can vote against it, is not allowed to speak against his own motion. He need not speak at all, but if he does he is obliged to take a favorable position. If he changes his mind while the motion he made is pending, he can, in effect, advise the assembly of this by asking permission to withdraw the motion” RONR (11th ed.), p. 393

    Nothing about any “automatic” vote in favor.

  9. Why is the fat Antifa witch Tauler spouting his crap here?

    He needs to be removed from Illinois and renditioned to a waterboarding unit in Bulgaria.

  10. Hubbard, which dirty Gottemoller deal with Franks?

    There were dozens!

  11. Jail:

    If you are talking about his appointment to fill a vacant seat, he did only barely lose the election in his district so he obviously wants to be on the board and does make a valuable contribution.

    He should never be the Chairman again, however, due to his ties to the real estate industry.

    Apart from that, however, he is an asset to the board imo as long as people take some of his advice with the proverbial grain of salt.

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