McHenry County Blog

Back when Jack Schaffer was State Senator and I was State Rep., we once had a conversation about patronage.

Both of us agreed that we were pleased to let McHenry County Republican County Chairman Al Jourdan handle that aspect of politics.

Now, Schaffer, serving on the Metra Board, has called out newly-installed Metra Board Chairman Brad O’Halloran on his proposal to give Board members the power to approve new hires earning more than $75,000 a year.  That’s what the Chicago Tribune says.

“I know what patronage is.  I want no part of it.”

O’Halloran took offense.

So did other Board members, including Kane County’s Mike McCoy.

“Ridiculous and offensive.”

Schaffer was not alone in his believe, however.  Evanston’s William Widmer “feared the board ‘could become the go-to people about getting hired,’” according to the Tribune.

The pretty secret jockeying to be Chairman of the McHenry County Board for the next two years will culminate tomorrow morning in Woodstock.

After the 9 0.clock swearing in, three, perhaps four, perhaps more people will have their names entered into nomination.

“For sure” candidates are incumbent Ken Koehler, Tina Hill and Ersel Schuster.

My prediction is that none will achieve thirteen votes on the first ballot.

You can see my early guesses as to who would vote for whom for Chairman here.

Two new members, Joe Gottemoller (Crystal Lake) and Mike Skala (Huntley), apparently got earfuls of questions about whether they would support the re-election of Koehler and are schemish about voting for him on the first ballot.  Earlier, I pegged them as Koehler votes.

Others seem to be pledged to Koehler on the first ballot, but not the second.

Hill seems to have been the most aggressive at courting the votes of the eight new and one “re-tread” member (Yvonne Barnes).

Schuster was late out of the box on this treasurer trove of potential support.

A new rumor surfaced last week.

It suggests that Hill approached former County Republican Party Chairman Al Jourdan for support and, then, he and Sheriff aspirant Andy Zinke began working to bring votes to Hill.

And Sheriff Keith Nygren back in town for Shop with a Cop.

Could those who wish Zinke to replace Nygren be motivated by the wish-fulfillment that should Nygren retire that Hill would nominate Zinke to take Nygren’s place?

There will be those voting for Hill who would not vote to confirm Zinke, so such a nomination would not necessarily be a slam dunk in the game of succession.

My father used to say if a political rumor sounded like it might be true, it probably was.

Whether or not that side arrangement is in play, I believe that Hill will emerge the next Chairman of the McHenry County Board.

If she or Schuster are successful, the winner will be only the third female County Board Chairman (Chairwoman, if you prefer to use a title different from the one Kane County Chairman Karen McConnaughay used) in McHenry County history.

The first was Ann Hughes, who went on to become a State Representative. the second was Dianne Klemm.

If she does, not only will her salary increase a lot, but so will her retirement benefits under IMRF.

I shall wonder again if those on the new Board wishing citizens to be able to vote in a referendum as to whether to elect the 2014 County Board Chairman at-large in April will have as much success as those wishing to hike taxes in April did in November.

Just in case there was any doubt, “Fellow Republicans” received a letter from

• Mike Tryon
• William “Bill” LeFew
• Jack Schaffer
• Al Jourdan

informing them that are supporting David McSweeney, the GOP winner of the 52nd District State Rep. race this fall.

Targeted for opposition is Dee Beaubien, the widow of State Rep. Mark Beaubien who is gathering signatures to run as an Independent this fall after he favorite, the appointed incumbent Kent Gaffney lost to McSweeney.

“David McSweeney won that fight fair and square,” the letter says.

You can read the entire letter below:

Saturday afternoon, McHenry Township Republicans gathered at the McHenry Moose for a pig roast and to hear candidates make their pitches.

McHenry County Blog prevailed upon attendee Becky Kress to share her photos.

McHenry County Board member Barb Wheeler, who has announced her intentions to run for State Representative in the 64th District whose southern tip is my precinct in Crystal Lake and Lakewood and goes north to Antioch, was one of the speakers.

8th District Congressman Joe Walsh made a pitch for re-election, even though he doesn’t know who his potential future constituents will be. (He made a second appearance in Aurora at State Senator Chris Lauzen’s Porky Picnic later in the day. Lauzen announced he would give up his Senate seat to run for Kane County Board Chairman.)

A photo of State Senator Dan Duffy was captured.

Steven Rooney, recently elected to the Johnsburg School Board is caught with a John O’Neill for County Board tee shirt.

McHenry County Board members Tina Hill and Mary Donner were seen chatting at one table.

The star of the day may have been the pig.

State Senator Dan Duffy got a turn at the microphone.

Both State Senator Pam Althoff and State Rep. Mike Tryon were enjoying the roast pig.

Newly-appointed State Rep. Kent Gaffney spoke to the gathering, but the photo with his son was really fuzzy.

The event had at least one McHenry Alderman in attendance–Andy Glab.

McHenry County Auditor Pam Palmer was campaigning for re-election.

There were many others at the successful fund raiser.

A two-elected official family, McHenry County Board member John Hammerand and Wonder Lake Fire Protection District Board member Cheryl (seen with Joe Walsh above) were enjoying themselves.

Kevin Craver of the Northwest Herald wrote a story Tuesday about McHenry County Board Chairman Ken Koehler’s unwillingness to ask for the resignation of former State Senator Jack Schaffer from the Metra Board.

The first indication I could find of Franks’ displeasure was after the fall election when he introduced bulls to toss both RTA and Metra Board members. Just a coincidence, Franks would have folks believe, is that Schaffer is a former McHenry County Republican Party Chairman as is RTA Board member Al Jourdan.  And Schaffer owns Liberty Outdoor Advertising.

According to the article

Schaffer “said he believes Franks’ efforts stem directly from the billboard ad on Route 47 in Woodstock, which alleged that Franks collected almost $1 million from lobbyists, unions and lawyers.

“’To the extent that he’s attacking everyone on the board, that bothers me, but if he’s strictly after me, as a former legislator, I’m offended by it,’ Schaffer said. ‘Voters elect people to go out and represent them, not to pursue petty vendettas. The state has plenty of other problems to focus on.’”

Missing from the article was a photo of the billboard. Had anyone asked, I would have been pleased to provide the one you see here.

I’ve written previously of State Rep. Jack Franks’ personal motivation for going after Metra and RTA board members, but let me remind readers that Metra Board member Jack Schaffer owns Liberty Outdoor, the company that puts up small billboards favored by politicians and Al Jourdan still is active in McHenry County Republican politics.

Neither favor having Jack Franks represent McHenry County in Springfield or Washington.

Specificity ticking off Franks this past fall was one billboard on Route 47 going into Woodstock.

With that background, it is still possible for a piece of legislation motivated at least in part to make trouble for political enemies to serve a solid public purpose. Few would argue that Metra could use a bit more oversight.

Franks guided State Senator Susan Garrett’s Senate Bill 3965 through the Illinois House. It passed the House 92-21-1, the Senate 53-3. (The “No” votes in both the houses came from Downstate Republicans. All local legislators voted for the bill.)

And, even though Franks did not support Governor Pat Quinn in the primary election, Quinn put Franks’ name in his press release. (Good move on Quinn’s part.)

The bill “brings oversight of the regional transit boards under the jurisdiction of the Executive Inspector General and Executive Ethics Commission,” the press release announced.

After noting the sponsorship, the release further explained that the legislation “requires each regional inspector general to submit a monthly report to the Executive Inspector General which will outline, among other things, the agency’s reported complaints, as well as investigation status and outcomes.

“The Executive Inspector General will work to detect and prevent fraud and mismanagement at all levels of the transit agencies…Senate Bill 3965 has an effective date of July 1.”

Let me augment that summary by showing you the bill summary legislators saw:

• 

  Jack Franks

  Amends the State Officials and Employees Ethics Act. Provides that, beginning January 1, 2011, the Executive Inspector General has jurisdiction over all board members and employees of the Regional Transit Boards and all vendors and others doing business with the Regional Transit Boards to investigate allegations of fraud, waste, abuse, mismanagement, misconduct, nonfeasance, misfeasance, malfeasance, or violations of the Act.

• Requires the board of each Regional Transit Board to designate an ethics officer. Authorizes Regional Transit Boards to hire an Inspector General to receive complaints and conduct investigations in accordance with an ordinance or resolution adopted by the Board.
• Authorizes the Executive Inspector General to disclose otherwise confidential information to an Inspector General appointed or employed by a Regional Transit Board.
• Specifies additional duties for the Executive Inspector General.
• Details the responsibilities of Inspectors General appointed or employed by a Regional Transit Board, which include, among other things, the filing of monthly activity reports with the Executive Inspector General.
• Provides that, in specified portions of the Act: “appointee” and “officer” include a person appointed to serve on the board of a Regional Transit Board and “employee” and “State employee” include a full-time, part-time, or contractual employee of a Regional Transit Board.
• Defines “Regional Transit Boards” and “board members of Regional Transit Boards”.
• Amends the Metropolitan Transit Authority Act to provide that a member of the Chicago Transit Authority may be removed by the Governor in response to a summary report issued by the Executive Inspector General provided he or she has an opportunity to be publicly heard in person or by counsel prior to removal.
• Amends the Regional Transportation Authority Act to provide that directors of the Regional Transportation Authority and members of the Suburban Bus Division and Commuter Rail Division may be removed by the Governor in response to a summary report issued by the Executive Inspector General, provided that they have an opportunity to be publicly heard in person or by counsel prior to removal. Effective July 1, 2011.
• Provides that within 30 days after the effective date of the amendatory Act, a Regional Transit Board must notify the Executive Ethics Commission of (rather than “or”) any person serving on that date as an Inspector General for the Regional Transit Board.

Missing from Quinn’s press release is his newly-enacted power to remove Metra, RTA, CTA and Pace board members.

Also missing is that board members could be removed for “nonfeasance.”

So, if you have ethical complaints about any mass transit agency, there soon will be a way to get more people to look at them now.

Marengo Democrat Jack Franks has gotten publicity for his third “Let’s get rid of the pensions” bill.

First he went after the RTA, Metra, Pace and the CTA. No salaries, not pension, no health care benefits.

No one seems to have noticed that this was an attack on former McHenry County Chairmen Al Jourdan, Jack Schaffer, plus Aaron Shepley. Jourdan serves on the RTA Board, Schaffer on Metra’s and Shepley on the Pace Board. Shepley is a past vice chairman of the local McHenry County Republican Party

Republicans, of course, fielded McHenry Grade School and Library Board member John O’Neill.

O’Neill’s campaign led to Franks’ spending $208,000, so one might be excused for thinking the pension bill was retribution.

Next Franks took on Tollway Board members.

I wonder if that was a message to Governor Pat Quinn that he should appoint one of Franks’ supporters to the Illinois Toll Highway Authority Board.

None of the Tollway board members are local, as far as I know. Maybe Franks was just expanding on a theme.

Now, he’s going after legislative pensions, but doesn’t care to emulate newly-elected Congressman Joe Walsh, who announced a year ago that he would not participate in either the congressional pension or health program.

Since Franks may well end up running against Walsh for Congress after the Democrats re-apportion congressional districts, one might wonder why the wealthy Franks doesn’t include language in his legislative pension abolition bill to allow himself to opt out of the legislative pension system.

Such legislation could allow Franks to take the contribution he has provided since 1999 and waive his right to the pensions he wants to abolish.

Capitol Fax Blog had the following to say about Franks’ latest headline grab. Comments within the story are by Rich Miller, those below it by folks across Illinois.

Cuts for thee, but not for me

Rep. Jack Franks, a Marengo Democrat, wants to take the chances for state pensions away from all future lawmakers.

Franks has filed legislation that would keep all members of the Illinois General Assembly taking office in 2013 and after out of the state pension system in an effort to save money.

But what about Franks’ own legislative pension?…

He said Tuesday that the law doesn’t allow the state to take away benefits that any state employees, including lawmakers, have already earned.

True, but he could vow to return the cash, minus what he’s already put into the system. Actually, he could just simply cash out rather than accept pension payments

Some of the comments under the article are amusing, e.g.,

MJMspksman – Wednesday, Jan 26, 11 @ 2:54 pm:
Good luck getting Jack Franks to return any pension money to the State. That is one press release he will never issue!!!!

Statewide – Wednesday, Jan 26, 11 @ 3:17 pm:
Rep. Franks just put his foot in it big time. This is a first-rate piece of legislative hypocrisy. I hope it gets noticed far and wide.

Franks says, “I can’t think of anywhere else a person can work part-time and receive a pension, let alone a pension as lucrative as those received by Illinois lawmakers.”

But his pension? He’s taking it to the bank, baby!

Showmanship & Hypocrisy: 100%

Self-awareness & Credibility: Zero

Look in the mirror, Rep. Franks, take your own advice, and give up that pension ASAP.

Where There’s a Will - Wednesday, Jan 26, 11 @ 3:18 pm:
@Rich -

I don’t think there would anything unconstitutional about legislation that created a system for current lawmakers to contractually and irrevocably surrender their pensions.

We could call it the Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is Act.
Pivoting off Franks’ statement, since Tom Cross and Radogno seem to think otherwise,

I recommend legislation eliminating the pensions for current lawmakers as a test case.

Can’t WAIT to see Republicans line up to vote for that one.

MJMspksman – Wednesday, Jan 26, 11 @ 3:35 pm:
people: We are forgetting one thing> this is Jack Franks we are talking about, why would we waste our time talking about another one of his foolish PR stunts???????

The good news is, the new map will have him in a district just outside of Green Bay Wisconsin!!

4 percent – Wednesday, Jan 26, 11 @ 4:28 pm:
Jack Franks is a blowhard.

If the state of Illinois had a nickel for every phony press release and sham bill that he filed to generate publicity, we would have enough money to balance the Illinois budget and put a serious dent in the federal deficit!!!

jake – Wednesday, Jan 26, 11 @ 5:33 pm:
Naomi Jakobsson goes one step farther than the others. In lieu of awarding Legislative scholarships from the public treasury, she awards a scholarship to one graduate from each of the high schools in her district from her own pocket, and also adds two scholarships from her own pocket to students competing in the annual M L King scholarship competition.

They say the legislature is divided into show horses and work horses. Guess which category I would put Jack Francks into.

Michelle Flaherty – Wednesday, Jan 26, 11 @ 6:51 pm:
Park, you prove the point. Franks doesn’t actually want to do this, he wants to get credit and attention for proposing it. They hypocricy points to the truth regarding why this won’t happen because the sponsor himself isn’t really committed.

anonyMiss – Wednesday, Jan 26, 11 @ 7:51 pm:
Mr Franks says “the law doesn’t allow the state to take away benefits that any state employees, including lawmakers, have already earned”… Didn’t he just proposed legislation to significantly change (take away) the pension benefits current state employees were promised AND ALREADY EARNED?!

anonyMiss – Wednesday, Jan 26, 11 @ 8:10 pm:
Perhaps Mr Franks should propose legislation asking why these “part time” lawmakers (his words) earn a base salary of $65,353.

Thursday in the Chicago Tribune, Democratic Party State Rep. Jack Franks lashed out at McHenry County Republicans who had the audacity to put up an opponent, John O’Neill, in last fall’s election.

The comments were in a story covering a bill to create an inspector general for the RTA, CTA, Metra and Pace..

Inexplicably it took nine months for Democrats to take any meaningful action after Metra Executive Director Phil Pagano committed suicide near his home in Crystal Lake.

Among those criticized as part of “a good old boy culture” were former State Senator Jack Schaffer and former County Auditor and McHenry & Illinois State GOP Chairman Al Jourdan, plus Don Udsteun, who was convicted and served time in Federal prison because of his actions while a Metra board member.

Schaffer and Jourdan were appointed by McHenry County Board Chairman Ken Koehler.

Franks’ best shot:

“No longer will the fox be watching the henhouse. We will have an independent inspector general overseeing these transit agencies.”

$4,559.58 is how much McHenry County Board Chairman had in the bank at the beginning of July.

Koehler is up for election in a three-way race with Donna Kurtz, the woman who bested him and the second incumbent Lyn Orphal, plus Democrat Mark Booras.

Koehler raised $11,000 from July 1^st through October 3^rd.

Here’s what public under the Illinois campaign disclosure laws, $7,625 worth:

• $1,000 – Mathewson Right of Way Company, Frankfort
• $1,000 – Wheatland Title Guaranty Company, Yorkville
• 

  September 18th Makin' Bakin' Invitation

  $500 – Breeden, John Scott, Lakewood

• $500 – Comcast Financial Agency Corporation, Philadephia, PA
• $500 – T Engineering Service Ltd., Chicago
• $500 – W. Randal Baudin Attorney at Law, Dundee
• $500 – Zukowski Rogers Flood & McArdle, Crystal Lake
• $300 – Charles A. Southcomb & Associates, Joliet
• $300 – Crawford Murphy & Tilly Inc., Aurora
• $250 – Algonquin Penny L.P. c/o EJ Plesko & Associates , Madison, WI
• $250 – Alliance Contractors Inc., Woodstock
• 

  Invitation letter for Makin' Bakin' fund raiser. Click to enlarge.

  $250 – Bravo Properties, Oak Brook

• $250 – Elmhurst-Chicago Stone Co., Elmhurst
• $250 – Howard R. Green Company, Cedar Rapids, IA
• $250 – Jack Porter & Associates, Woodstock
• $250 – World Famous Broasted Chicken d/b/a Crandalls Restaurant, Hebron
• $200 – Shepard, Daniel, Lake in the Hills
• $200 – Smyder, James, Chicago
• $200 – Nimmo, Anthony, Chicago
• $175 – Schillerstrom, Bob, Naperville

Take a look at the headline in the Chicago Tribune about Sheriff Keith Nygren’s belated release of Al Jourdan’s 911 call about Phil Pagano’s possible suicide.

Then, take a look at the emphasis in the Northwest Herald’s headline.

Which do you think conveys the story better?

To look at other headlines on the story, including two internet versions from the Northwest Herald, look here.