McHenry County Blog

Joe Wiegard did reach the top of this mountain on the Applachian Trail

With nine counties having voted on the two candidates for Congressman Don Manzullo’s 16th District state party post, State Senator Dave Syverson has come out on top.

That’s what I read between the lines of the following email that just arrived from challenger Joe Wiegand.

And, even though he doesn’t know the final results, that’s what he told me:

“I have enough information to know I lost.

“While I won overwhelmingly in Stephenson, Carroll and DeKalb Counties, I lost Winnebago by 14 raw votes on the ballot of elected committeemen (which is Syverson’s home county) at which point Chairman Jan Klaas kept her pledge to vote vacant precincts on behalf of the winner of the raw vote.”

I was asked last night at the McHenry County Republican Party Convention whether Wiegand supported Senate Bill 600, the legislation that would allow voters to again directly elect their state central committeeman.

The 2010 McHenry County Republican Party Convention

I said I didn’t know, but, that, if direct election were in effect, Wiegand would have no chance to win. Syverson has such a higher name identification in the Rockford media market, which covers most of the 16th District, Syverson would win walking away.

So, if direct election were in effect, most of them would end up being elected officials.

From the email below, you can see that Wiegand does favor direct election of the party office.

I’ve lived under both systems and, frankly, I don’t think it makes any difference.

In my experience, the Illinois Republican State Central Committee has only been useful when Governor Jim Edgar got them to mail absentee ballot applications to all GOP voters in the state and another mailing urging people to vote.  I found it useful because it contained my name as a candidate for state representative.

Democratic House Speaker Tip O’Neill was right:

“All politics is local.”

There is not much some state organization can do to energize a local party, if the local party isn’t interested in recruiting new people.

That’s the problem I’ve seen since I got active in 1966, when I ran for McHenry County Treasurer.

Let me give you an example.

There were four Republican Women’s Clubs then.  At the congressional district level, there was the 12th District Republican Women’s Club that Congressman Robert McClory shepherded.  Crystal Lake’s Margaret Jenner was big in that.

Then, there was the one my mother was active in—the Algonquin Township Republican Women’s Club. That’s where McHenry County Recorder of Deeds Phyllis Walters got her start.

McHenry Township had a Republican Women’s Club in which Boots Davis was active.  So, did Dorr Township.  My predecessor and successor as County Treasurer Audrey Walgenbach introduced me to it.

They have disappeared to be replaced by one McHenry County Republican Women’s Club.  I recognize all the officers’ names but one and they all are long-time party activists.

But, back to Wiegand’s email. It is below:

Joe Wiegand

I want to thank the elected Republican precinct committeemen throughout the nine northwestern counties of Illinois for their votes for me last night in the contest for 16th Congressional District State Central Committeeman.The battle within the Illinois Republican Party continues between those who would renew our commitment to the Lincoln/Reagan standards and those who have been at the helm during our days of scandal and failure.

Illinois Democrats elect their state party leadership in their primary election.

Illinois Republicans use a system that is a mixture of backroom politics and kabuki theatre, using county conventions and a convoluted set of bylaws and procedures, often, in the view of some legal scholars, in violation of Illinois state statutes.

My experience as a candidate informs me that the need for Illinois Republican Primary voters to directly elect their state party leaders is necessary for our future prosperity.  The need for passage of Senate Bill 600, which would return control of the party back to the voters, is paramount.

I guarantee you that the nine county conventions in the 16th district were held in nine different ways.

One hour before the beginning of a western county convention, I was still explaining the convoluted system to a soon to be elected chairman who did not understand the process.

When I attended the county convention of the district’s largest county (Winnebago), several newly elected committeemen had no idea what the state central committeeman’s post was nor how this election would take place.  Despite my being in attendance, rules were adopted to prohibit me from making a two minute speech to the committeemen as a candidate for the office for which they were about to vote.

As long as we elect our state central committee in the manner conducted last night, as long as public employees, tax eaters and hangers-on have the votes that are denied to grassroots Republican citizens, the Party of Lincoln and Reagan will continue to be the Party of George Ryan, Stuart Levine, Robert Kjellander and Bill Cellini, and the people of Illinois will suffer for it.  We need Senate Bill 600.

Finally, one idea I shared in my campaign was that the birthplace and cradle of Ronald Reagan should be a bevy of Republican Party building activity in the months ahead as we prepare to celebrate his 100th birthday on February 6, 2011.

Were I your state central committeeman, I would have made sure that the counties of the 14th, 16th and 17th Congressional Districts used this event to build the party, attract regional and national exposure and host an event or series of events bringing the GOP’s brightest lights to the region that bred the man who changed the world.

I ask the elected state central committeemen, the county chairmen and the precinct committeemen to give some leadership to this effort.

We live to fight another day.

Joe Wiegand

Huntley School District 158 got its audit results for last fiscal year ending June 30th last week.

That’s about two months after the final budget was prepared and approved in September.

But where is District 300’s Audit?

Try finding it on D-300’s web site.

Maybe you will have better luck than I did.

Or, more likely, it isn’t there because it isn’t finished.

Does it amaze you how school districts finalize their official budgets before they know what the audited results are from the previous year?

At least Huntley got its auditor to promise to get it done in September. Not that that promise was kept.

I looked at the letter District 300’s auditor wrote last year.

Does insufficient internal controls sound good to you? Doesn’t to me.

Outside auditor Virchow Krause and Company wrote only about the deficiencies it described as “material weaknesses.“

“During our audit, we noted that existing, written policies and procedures for internal control were not in sufficient detail “

The auditor made it clear that what they did would “not necessarily identify all deficiencies in internal control that might be significant deficiencies or material deficiencies.”

If the audit firm isn’t hired to find them all, then who is?

Well, no one.

This wasn’t a topic of discussion when administrators wanted a big property tax increase.

If you are a District 300 board member, how apparent is it (from reading what the auditor wrote) that there needs to be more sufficient safeguards?

Check it out yourself. Here’s the management letter in the audit. Click on “Download” after this link comes up.

What’s interesting in this letter is that the auditor explains how it is the auditor who is doing the final preparation of the district’s financial statements.

I thought auditors audited books prepared by the entity being audited. That’s what happened when I was McHenry County Treasurer.

Tough to find anything wrong with numbers you, the outside auditor, yourself prepare.

Apparently District 300 only keeps the books on a cash basis and has to pay an audit firm to do the accrual accounting…done, it seems, only once a year well after the fact.

You would think a large school district as large as Carpentersville’s would be able to do the accrual accounting and report those numbers on a quarterly basis when they might be helpful for management purposes.

Apparently not.

When it audited Huntley School District 158, Virchow Krause and Company took about 11 months after year end to finish an audit a couple of years ago.

Think any District 300 school board members up for reelection want an unfavorable letter coming out about internal controls before the school board election?

In the last letter to management from the auditor (after linking, click Download), District 300’s auditor found that fiscal management continued to be several months behind in reconciling its bank accounts and books.

When I was county treasurer, my bookkeeper Oral Herendeen did that every month. Over a four-period she was off $10 and that was a counterfeit bill grabbed by the Federal Reserve. She and my chief deputy, predecessor and successor as county treasurer Audrey Walgenbach certainly had accuracy down pat.

Huntley School District 158 got its audit results for last fiscal year ending June 30th last week.

That’s about two months after the final budget was prepared and approved in September.

But where is District 300’s Audit?

Try finding it on D-300’s web site.

Maybe you will have better luck than I did.

Or, more likely, it isn’t there because it isn’t finished.

Does it amaze you how school districts finalize their official budgets before they know what the audited results are from the previous year?

At least Huntley got its auditor to promise to get it done in September. Not that that promise was kept.

I looked at the letter District 300’s auditor wrote last year.

Does insufficient internal controls sound good to you? Doesn’t to me.

Outside auditor Virchow Krause and Company wrote only about the deficiencies it described as “material weaknesses.“

“During our audit, we noted that existing, written policies and procedures for internal control were not in sufficient detail “

The auditor made it clear that what they did would “not necessarily identify all deficiencies in internal control that might be significant deficiencies or material deficiencies.”

If the audit firm isn’t hired to find them all, then who is?

Well, no one.

This wasn’t a topic of discussion when administrators wanted a big property tax increase.

If you are a District 300 board member, how apparent is it (from reading what the auditor wrote) that there needs to be more sufficient safeguards?

Check it out yourself. Here’s the management letter in the audit. Click on “Download” after this link comes up.

What’s interesting in this letter is that the auditor explains how it is the auditor who is doing the final preparation of the district’s financial statements.

I thought auditors audited books prepared by the entity being audited. That’s what happened when I was McHenry County Treasurer.

Tough to find anything wrong with numbers you, the outside auditor, yourself prepare.

Apparently District 300 only keeps the books on a cash basis and has to pay an audit firm to do the accrual accounting…done, it seems, only once a year well after the fact.

You would think a large school district as large as Carpentersville’s would be able to do the accrual accounting and report those numbers on a quarterly basis when they might be helpful for management purposes.

Apparently not.

When it audited Huntley School District 158, Virchow Krause and Company took about 11 months after year end to finish an audit a couple of years ago.

Think any District 300 school board members up for reelection want an unfavorable letter coming out about internal controls before the school board election?

In the last letter to management from the auditor (after linking, click Download), District 300’s auditor found that fiscal management continued to be several months behind in reconciling its bank accounts and books.

When I was county treasurer, my bookkeeper Oral Herendeen did that every month. Over a four-period she was off $10 and that was a counterfeit bill grabbed by the Federal Reserve. She and my chief deputy, predecessor and successor as county treasurer Audrey Walgenbach certainly had accuracy down pat.

UPDATE: After I wrote this story, the woman in question was found not guilty, according to a Northwest Herald story by Brandon Coutre. I saw no article in the NW Herald about the trial before the verdict.

= = = = =
Don’t know how this former McHenry County Treasurer (1966-70) missed this story about corruption in the office of McHenry County Treasurer (and McHenry County Republican Central Committee Chairman) Bill LeFew.

Written by the Daily Herald’s Chuck Keeshan, the piece is about a deputy county treasurer who is accused of stealing $1,000.

It comes complete with surveillance tape evidence purported showing Jennifer L. Gallo of Genoa City, Wisconsin.

Yes, that’s right, Wisconsin.

Check out the story for the details.

During the four years I was McHenry County Treasurer, we balanced to the dollar, except for a $10 counterfeit bill, which the Feds seized.

Was the late Oral Herendeen a good bookkeeper or what? (And that’s not to say that my chief deputy, Audrey Walgenbach, who was my predecessor and long-time successor, didn’t do an excellent job as well.)

And that’s not to say that there was not a crime committed.

One of the holdover clerks who was under 21 stole a voter registration card form in order to create an identity that I suppose would get her a drink.

The voter registration cards were in a vault in the basement of the old courthouse on the Woodstock Square now occupied by part of the bar. The main part of the bar was where the Address-O-Graph machines were located. The Address-O-Graph machines were used to prepare voter registration forms.

The county treasurer’s office used the Address-O-Graph machines to print the names, legal descriptions and addresses on tax bills, while the county clerk’s office used NCR machines to calculate and print the amount of property taxes owed. I’m pretty sure the clerk’s office did all of the voter registration work.

One day in my first two years in office, I was asked to come over to the State’s Attorney Dick Cross’ office, where I found the girl and her mother, who worked for the County Clerk’s office. Cross explained the situation and suggested that the matter be dropped and the girl be allowed to resign from the Treasurer’s Office..

Obviously, everything had been set up ahead of time without my knowledge, but the resolution seemed reasonable, so I agreed.

UPDATE: After I wrote this story, the woman in question was found not guilty, according to a Northwest Herald story by Brandon Coutre. I saw no article in the NW Herald about the trial before the verdict.

= = = = =
Don’t know how this former McHenry County Treasurer (1966-70) missed this story about corruption in the office of McHenry County Treasurer (and McHenry County Republican Central Committee Chairman) Bill LeFew.

Written by the Daily Herald’s Chuck Keeshan, the piece is about a deputy county treasurer who is accused of stealing $1,000.

It comes complete with surveillance tape evidence purported showing Jennifer L. Gallo of Genoa City, Wisconsin.

Yes, that’s right, Wisconsin.

Check out the story for the details.

During the four years I was McHenry County Treasurer, we balanced to the dollar, except for a $10 counterfeit bill, which the Feds seized.

Was the late Oral Herendeen a good bookkeeper or what? (And that’s not to say that my chief deputy, Audrey Walgenbach, who was my predecessor and long-time successor, didn’t do an excellent job as well.)

And that’s not to say that there was not a crime committed.

One of the holdover clerks who was under 21 stole a voter registration card form in order to create an identity that I suppose would get her a drink.

The voter registration cards were in a vault in the basement of the old courthouse on the Woodstock Square now occupied by part of the bar. The main part of the bar was where the Address-O-Graph machines were located. The Address-O-Graph machines were used to prepare voter registration forms.

The county treasurer’s office used the Address-O-Graph machines to print the names, legal descriptions and addresses on tax bills, while the county clerk’s office used NCR machines to calculate and print the amount of property taxes owed. I’m pretty sure the clerk’s office did all of the voter registration work.

One day in my first two years in office, I was asked to come over to the State’s Attorney Dick Cross’ office, where I found the girl and her mother, who worked for the County Clerk’s office. Cross explained the situation and suggested that the matter be dropped and the girl be allowed to resign from the Treasurer’s Office..

Obviously, everything had been set up ahead of time without my knowledge, but the resolution seemed reasonable, so I agreed.