McHenry County Blog

McHenry County Blog has chronicled the efforts of Marengo Democrat Jack Franks to get noticed by media talking about who is running for what statewide.

He was pretty successful during the summer of 2009 as a result of family and friends dumping big money into his campaign fund.

Although a big check was returned to his father Herb, Franks still has one of the biggest pots of money around–money that I sincerely doubt he could raise today with the $5,000 limit on individual contributions and $10,000 on corporations.

By way of Capitol Fax Blog, I found his name on a new web site, “Trial Balloons.”

It is there along with Attorney General Lisa Madigan (because she hasn’t said she won’t run for re-election) and a bunch of others:

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• Anita Alvarez
• John Bradley
• Tom Dart
• Jack Franks
• David Hoffman
• Lisa Madigan
• Kwame Raoul
• Jesse Ruiz
• Sheila Simon

Franks’ vote on same-sex marriage will probably be a good predictor of whether he is preparing for a statewide run.

He has been moving to the left as his time in office has increased and his ambitions have risen. He voted for civil unions and was featured in the Windy City Times presenting a certificate to gay teen who did something heroic in Zion (or nearby).

Five years or so ago he also modified his Pro-Choice views to be radical enough to be endorsed by Personal PAC. (Personal PAC is so radical that it will not endorse candidates who are not in favor of abortion up to the day of full-term delivery.)

The attentiion-getting on the front page of the Chicago Sun-Times’ Sunday edition is what will happen in the political arena if Attorney General Lisa Madigan runs for Governor instead of Attorney General.

Note our local worthy State Rep. Jack Franks (D-Marengo) is not included.

There is another graphic inside with the story.

Multiple sources have told McHenry County Blog that the McHenry County State’s Attorney Lou Bianchi’s Office is making contact with the three newly-elected members of the County Board to advise them of the conflict of interest that would exist if they did not resign their current posts.

The three and their current positions follow:

• Carolyn Schofield, Crystal Lake City Council
• Mike Skala, Huntley District 158 School Board
• Mike Walkup, Crystal Lake Park District

Of the three, Walkup has resigned as of midnight Thursday, November 15th.

Schofield has announced her intention to resign.

Skala has said that he does not intend to resign until February.

In the article linked above, you can read  1993 opinion from Attorney General Roland Burris that concludes serving on a school board and a county board at the same time is “incompatible, and one person may not serve simultaneously in both offices.”

Delaying his resignation from the School Board until February would allow the remaining members of the Board to appoint his replacement for the next two years.

Resignation prior to being sworn into the County Board would allow people to run to fill the remaining two years of this term.

Pete Gonigam at First Electric Newspaper has details of Skala’s resignation plans.

I missed the Northwest Herald article about newly-elected McHenry County Board member Mike Skala deciding to stay on the Huntley District 158 School Board until after a suit with contractors is settled.

And, it seems that former McHenry County College Board member Scott Summers thinks Skala missed a 1993 Attorney General’s opinion from Roland Burris saying that serving on both a school board and a county board at the same time is “incompatible, and one person may not serve simultaneously in both offices.”

The NWH notes that McHenry County citizens voted 9-1 against people holding more than one office at the same time.

There is also a political impact to Skala’s not resigning until February.

The current school board would not have to worry about someone running for the vacancy.

Its members could just appoint someone with whom they felt comfortable.

You can see the results here.

The five-page opinion that Summers found can be seen below. Click to enlarge any page.

The McHenry County Board’s decision-makers have released the bills and court orders even members of the Finance and Audit Committee were not important enough to show.

The bills, however, are not anything like what your or I would receive from a lawyer we might hire.

There is no indication of the hourly rate of payment to the two special prosecutors–Henry Tonigan and Thomas McQueen–or consulting firm Quest Consultants.  No itemization about the investigation of McHenry County State’s Attorney Lou Bianchi.

Just lump sums owed.

The letter from Assistant Attorney General Sunil Bhave explains that the county initially denied my request and the Public Access Counselor

“directed the County to explain in detail its basis for withholding the requested information.

“The County subsequently has provided us with all of the information in its possession that is responsive to your FOIA request.”

Let’s look at the documents sequentially.

First there’s the February 1, 2010, hand-written court order signed by Associate Judge Gordon Graham. It says Tonigan filed a motion asking for approval of his fees. The order says, “the court being fully advised.”

From Sept 4, 2009 through December 31, 2009, Tonigan 3was to get $21,987.50 and McQuinn $12,243.90. The judge orders the county to pay “within___days of this order.” (The number of days is not on the copy I received.)

Next comes a February 1st letter from Tonigan to McHenry County Administrator Peter Austin enclosing and explaining the court order.

A second court order, this time typed, was entered by Judge Graham on August 20th, but apparently typed on August 13th.   It asks for payment of $74,306.69 to the two lawyers, plus a consulting firm.  (Maybe someone can find the Quest web site.)

It says,”Henry C. Tonigan of Kelleher & Buckley, LLC, Robert McQueen and Quest Consultants, Ltd. have submitted itemized bills for services rendered in this matter from January 1, 2010 through June 30, 2010, and the Court having reviewed each of them” orders McHenry County to pay

• $16,112.50 to Tonigan
• $18,497.35 to McQueen
• $39,696.84 to Quest Consultants

Finally, there is an August 20, 2010, letter from Tonigan accompanying that court order asking for payment.

It even says, “If you should have any questions, please do not hesitate to give me a call.”

Maybe next time, some County Board members will request an itemized bill as I assume they are provided for all other expenditures, if they want one.

A quick review of the system of checks and balances suggested in the Federalist Papers:

Three branches of government, each with its own unique powers:

• Legislative
• Executive
• Judicial

In the case of county government, the legislative branch has executive branch functions as well.

One final thought:

Why on earth didn’t the County Board’s leaders just provide this to the county board in the first place?

Other stories that might be of interest:

• 9-21-10 McHenry County Refuses to Release Special Prosecutor’s Bill
• 9-27-10 County Board Doesn’t Know Special Prosecutor’s Hourly Rate
• 9-29-10 County Auditor Pam Palmer Echoes County Board on FOI Denial of Special Prosecutor’s Bill
• 9-30-10 County Auditor Pam Palmer Won’t Even Release the Name of the Judge Ordering Payment to Special Prosecutor Henry Tonigan
• 10-5-10 McHenry County Refuses to Even Supply the Name of the Judge who Ordered Payment of Special Prosecutor Henry Tonigan’s Bills
• 10-6-10 Attorney General to McHenry County: Show Us the Special Prosecutor’s Bills

You may remember that I’ve been trying to get information about the suicide notes that Phil Pagano’s suicide notes.

I requested that McHenry County Sheriff Keith Nygren send me a copy of Pagano’s signature on one of the notes that he left for his family and any one word containing at least four letters.

You can speculate on why I might think those two elements might be of significance.

October 14th Assistant Public Access Counselor Matthew M. Sebek wrote Nygren’s Freedom of Information Officer Jan Weech a letter requesting that the Sheriff’s “Department provide us with a further explanation of its basis for withholding the subject record excerpts as exempt under Section 7(1)(c).”

You can read the entire letter below (click to enlarge):

On September 23, I filed an appeal to McHenry County’s denial of my Freedom of Information request for “copes of the bills that were submitted by Special Prosecutor Tonigan,” plus for “any for consultants, investigators, or anything else submitted.”

“No, no, Cal, you can’t see those” is my summary of the reply denying my request.

And, from what I have been told by County Board members, they have not been allowed to see the bill submitted by Henry Tonigan either.

Having served as McHenry County Treasurer, in the United States Budget Bureau, on the Illinois Legislative Audit Commission and various appropriations committees, I’m trying to figure out how county decision-makers can in good faith pay bills on a “trust me” basis.

October 4th the letter you see was sent from the Public Access Counselor’s office of the Attorney General.

Signed by Assistant Attorney General Sunil Bhave on behalf of Public Access Counselor Cara Smith, the letter is a variation of

“Show me the money.”

Or at least how it was spent.

“We have concluded that further inquiry (emphasis in the original) is warranted.

“FOIA does not include a Section 7(1)(c)(viii). While a prior version of FOIA included a Section (1)(c)(viii), FIA was amended on January 1, 200.

“Thus, McHenry County is directed

• to provide us with a detailed explanation as to why it contends that the requested information falls within the purview of the purported exemption.
• Finally, McHenry County is directed to provide us with a copy of the information responsive to Mr. Skinner’s FOIA request for us to review in determining whether any exemption claims have been property asserted.”

Within working seven days, please.

As the Laugh-In Nazi would say,

“Ver-r-r-r-r-r-y

In-ter-r-r-r-es-s-s-s-ting.”

The title of this article could have been

“Blogger Sued,“

but there’s enough drama without bringing that up.

Or the headline could have been

“MCC Sues MCC Founder.”

I even have a ribbon from the dedication of the current campus saying that around here somewhere.

In the worst way, a majority of the McHenry County College Board want to keep its evaluation of of ex-President Walt Packard secret.

The strategy continues to be to run out the clock in the hope that the Illinois General Assembly will override Governor Pat Quinn’s amendatory veto on House Bill 5154 , which, in its amended state, would continue to allow the public to view performance evaluations of people like Packard.

The bill passed 70-39 in the Illinois House and 49-9-1 in the Illinois Senate. On July 26th, the Governor filed his amendatory veto. A bare majority is all it takes to override an amendatory veto.

So, you can see the college law firm is expecting the law to change as soon as the fall veto session takes place after the election.

So, what strategy does the esteemed firm of Robbins, Schwartz, Nicholas, Lifton & Taylor advise.

Slip, slide and duck.

The latest ploy is to file suit against the Illinois Attorney General and yours truly for Administrative Review.

Not in McHenry County, but in Cook County.

The assertion of the suit is Public Access Attorney Matthew M. Sebek’s opinion “is not in accordance with the law.”

That is pretty much what Sheriff Keith Nygren is doing with Zane Seipler’s attempt to regain his job has a deputy sheriff.

An administrative body has made a ruling that someone does not like. The someone, be it Sheriff Nygren or the McHenry County College Board, has the right to ask a judge to overturn the administrative ruling.

Of course, with the way our court system works, that will take time.

In the case of the MCC suit, my guess is that the vote will be held on whether or not to override Governor Quinn’s amendatory veto before a judgment is rendered.

And, given all the patronage workers in both parties who don’t want people to be able to see what their supervisors think of their job performances, my prediction is that the bill will be approved in its original condition and the McHenry County College Board members can continue to hike some of the real reasons that Walt Packard was ousted.

Incidentally, there are a couple of MCC Board members up for election.  Petitions are now available for circulation.

Other articles that might be of interest:

6-2-10
Freedom of Information Request for Walt Packard Performance Evaluations Hits MCC Nerve

6-3-10
Beaubien, Duffy, Franks and Tryon Vote Against Stripping Employee Performance Standards from Freedom of Information Act

8-18-10
Attorney General Rules McHenry County College May Reveal Walt Packard Percformance Evaluation

8-20-10
McHenry County College Continues Stonewalling on Release of Walt Packard’s Performance Evaluations

Eight media requests were apparently made to the McHenry County Sheriff’s Department for copies of the suicide notes that Metra Executive Director Phil Pagano wrote to members of his family.  Another was made by the Better Government Association.

The one to Metra was made public.

Sheriff’s Department FOI Officer Jan Weech refused to release the other documents based on Section 7(1)(c) of the Freedom of Information Act. That’s the one relating to the information being “personal information…the disclosure of which would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of privacy…”

The last term quoted above is defined as “the disclosure of information that is highly personal or objectionable to a reasonable person and which the subject’s right to privacy outweighs any legitimate public interest in obtaining the information.”

I could care less about most of the contents of the notes, but there are a couple of things about them I would like to see. I’m not ready to share all of that yet, but a time may come when I shall do so.

Of interest in the Illinois Attorney General’s Public Access Counselor’s office’s letter affirming Weech’s turn down is the following:

“These letters contain Mr. Pagano’s last words to his family members and friends and are expressions of his feelings to these individuals. The letters also contain instructions to his wife for handing personal financial matters and other private family issues.”

Since Pagano took money that he was not entitled to, it seems to me that the public has a distinct interest in the information about the Pagano’s “personal financial matters.”

The hundreds of thousands of Metra dollars went somewhere.

The public has a right to see that it is returned.

If parts of the letters would aid in such recovery, I believe the public has a right to see them.

Others requesting to see the letters follow:

• Kevin Craver, Northwest Herald
• Charles Keeshan, Daily Herald
• Richard Wronski, Chicago Tribune
• Eric Siegel, WLS-TV
• Bob Roberts, WBBM-Radio
• Madeleine Martino Fox, WTTW-TV
• Mary Wisniewski, Chicago Sun-Times
• Bob Herguth, Better Government Association

Hiring and firing is the topic of Linda Moore Attorney John Nelson’s sixth section.

“It must be noted that a board of trustees of any township cannot set any conditions on benefits or work rules unless the township employees five or more employees, with Grafton Township clearly does not do.

“The legal principle was confirmed by the Office of the Attorney General in 1997 OP Atty. Gen. No 97-007.

“There is nothing in the statute or the law that provides that an employee, and member therefore of the executive branch is employed by and subject to the direction of the board of trustees.

“By any measure – even Wikapedia – the CEO is the highest ranking executive officer or administrator in charge of the total management of an organization.”

More tomorrow.