McHenry County Blog

Earlier I figured out the percentage turnout of Republican voters for Algonquin Township and Grafton Township. All parts of the three townships had contested primaries for Republican county board seats.

Nunda Township precinct map. Click to enlarge.

Nunda Township also had a hotly contested Republican county board primary. Five candidates ran with the results you see below:

In the analysis below you see the Nunda Township precinct number, the percentage of GOP turnout and the name of the elected precinct committeeman, if anyone ran for the office.

• Nunda 1 – 13.5%
• Nunda 2 – 12.2%
• Nunda 3 – 9.7%
• Nunda 4 – 10.2%
• Nunda 5 – 15.4% (Howard Parth)
• Nunda 6 – 13.0%
• Nunda 7 – 9.7% (Kevin Lee Jennings)
• Nunda 8 – 11.6% (Kathy Corwin)
• Nunda 9 – 11.8% (Bernard Narusis)
• Nunda 10 – 17.0%
• Nunda 11 – 22.5% (Mark Daniel)
• Nunda 12 – 13.9%
• Nunda 13 – 14.4% (James Becker)
• Nunda 14 – 11.4% (Patrick Collins)
• Nunda 15 – 16.4% (Mike Shorten)
• Nunda 16 – 19.5% (James Schlader)
• Nunda 17 – 16.7% (Nick Provensano)
• Nunda 18 – 22.6% (Dave Gervais)
• Nunda 19 – 13.7% (In the only contest, Jon Heideman beat Doug Mann.)
• Nunda 20 – 18.2%
• Nunda 21 – 16.7% (Brent Smith)
• Nunda 22 – 16.3%
• Nunda 23 – 9.3%
• Nunda 24 – 13.1%
• Nunda 25 – 10.9%
• Nunda 26 – 7.1%
• Nunda 27 – 7.0%
• Nunda 28 – 9.3%
• Nunda 29 – 22.7% (Barbara Wheeler)

So, who did the best job of getting GOP voters to the polls?

The only three precincts with turnouts over 20% are those of county board member and candidate Barb Wheeler, Dave Gervais and Mark Daniel.

If you live in one of the precincts without an elected precinct committeeman and would like to serve in that position, shoot me an email.

July 4th Crystal Lake TEA Party demonstration.

It’s time for those people who attended TEA Party demonstrations to increase the intensity of their activity.  Serving as a precinct committeeman is one way to do that.

Craig Steagall

District 3 county board candidate Craig Steagall has filed his final report for his county board campaign that fell 232 votes short of beating incumbent Barb Wheeler.

Steagall came in fourth 32 votes behind Karen Tynis.

Joliet’s Merc Strategy Group was the place that Steagall’s money went. It received $16,700.

That entire amount was supplied by the candidate.

Winning a GOP nomination besides Wheeler was Nick Provenzano, who polled first.

Carolyn Schofield

At election night’s Crystal Lake City Council meeting, City Councilwoman Carolyn Schofield, elected last year, took the lead in getting a resolution on the agenda at tomorrow night’s meeting asking for recognition of the city’s Watershed Ordinance by county government.

You may remember that both Ellen Brady Mueller and Donna Kurtz made something of that issue during their campaigns for a District 2 slot on the fall county board ballot.

From a resident of the watershed’s perspective, it is so, so difficult to understand that the McHenry County Board has thus far not figured out how important protection of our lake’s watershed is to local residents.

You would think they might have figured that out when a citizen uprising killed the minor league baseball stadium at McHenry County College.

After all, half (that’s right, half) of the entire county board represents parts of Crystal Lake. With all residents of the Crystal Lake Park District having access to the lake, how can one explain why the board has not taken action already.

Ellen Brady Mueller

Donna Kurtz

My prediction is the resolution will pass without dissent Tuesday.

If that doesn’t convince the county board to follow the not-as-strict-as-it-could-be watershed protection ordinance, the next step, it would seem to me would be to invite those twelve county board members to a meeting of the city council.

Who are they?

District 2

• McHenry County Board Chairman Ken Koehler (R)
• McHenry County Board Vice Chairman Jim Heisler (R)
• Lyn Orphal (Lost the primary to Donna Kurtz) Both R’s.
• Former Lakewood Village President and Crystal Lake Park Board President Scott Breeden (R)

Crystal Lake Avenue is the dividing line between District 2 and District 3.

District 3

• Barbara Wheeler (R)
• Kathy Bergan Schmidt (D)
• Ed Dvorak (retiring) (R)
• Mary Donner (R)

District 5

• Tina Hill (R)
• Virginia Peschke (R)
• Jim Kennedy (D)
• Paula Yensen (D)

District 5 comes into the Crystal Lake area from the Northwest (Ridgefield) and the Southeast.

So, what’s the resolution ask for?

“That the Mayor and City Council request the Regional Planning Commission include the Crystal Lake watershed and its regulations in the list of watersheds that exist within McHenry County in the 2030 Comprehensive Plan document.”

The resolution points out that the lake’s watershed is 6.39 square miles of which 3.69 square miles are within the City of Crystal Lake.

McHenry County Board members Nick Provenzano and John Jung lost their seats two years ago in District 3 and District 5.

Joint sign for Mary Donner and Nick Provenzano for county board showed up for the first time the night before the election around polling places. Provenzano lost the election to Democratic Party challenger, now central committee chair, Kathy Bergan Schmidt.

It wasn’t that Provenzano and Jung didn’t have signs up supporting their re-election.

In retrospect, I believe it was because they did not run joint campaigns with their Republican running mates.

There was nothing but being next to each other on the Republican Party ballot to encourage supporters of their running mates to vote for them as well.

This causation factor hit me the night before the election when I saw this joint yard sign for Mary Donner and Provenzano.

It turned out to be too little, too late,

Provenzano lost to Kathy Bergan Schmidt and Paula Yensen beat Jung.

Yard signs for John Jung running mate Virginia Peschke began showing up two weekends before the election in which Democrat Paula Yensen picked off Jung. Peschke ran first.

Jung’s running mate, Virginia Peschke, put on no discernible campaign until yard signs appeared about two weekends before the fall election.

So, here’s my unsolicited advice to Republican county board candidates.

Convince your running mates to have joint yard signs.

Even if you don’t like them and they don’t like you.

Consider it a self-preservation move.

Right now, most GOP candidates don’t have Democratic Party opponents.

It is legal for the Democratic Party to slate candidates. They’ve done it before.

Certainly, it is difficult to find candidates like Yensen and Schmidt, people who will put shoe leather into a campaign.

Campaigning is boring work.

But, there are personal benefits. Candidates who are serious tend to miss meals and, because of that and the energy required going door-to-door, lose weight.

Nevertheless, odds are good that the Democrats won’t find vigorous candidates and, without “fire in the belly” opponents, Republican ballot holders probably aren’t in much trouble in this year of the backlash to corruption so evident among the Democrats’ high profile politicians.

But, it’s always better to do more, rather than less, in an election campaign.

If I were running for county board, I’d want a joint sign campaign.

And joint literature.

Especially, if I came in second in the primary election.

“Hostile” would be fair in characterization of McHenry County Board member Pete Merkel’s reaction to the ALAW conflict of interest proposal, as reported by Kevin Craver of the Northwest Herald

Merkel, running unopposed in the Republican primary election, did not volunteer to reveal his property ownership outside of his home or other potential conflicts of interest.

No opponent. No political need to do so.

Nevertheless, his running mate Sandy Salgado was one of the 20 people running for the county board who did fill out the Alliance for Land, Agriculture and Water ethics questionnaire.

And, so did Jeff Thirtyacre, so far, the only Democratic Party challenger in the fall election.

Merkel ran first in the primary election.

Looking at the almost final primary election results, Merkel would seem to have no reelection problems.   The Democrat received 1,800 fewer votes than Merkel.

So, he would be the perfect person to lead the charge against ALAW.

The questionnaire was politically motivate, he charges.

No question about that.

It was designed to influence the February 2nd primary election.

Truth.

But, then Merkel charged that the conflict of interest form had nothing to do with “transparency and openness.”

He really should have come to the Patriots United County Board Candidates’ Forum and heard the tepid applause after incumbent Dan Ryan (R-Huntley) made known that he was not going to fill out the ALAW form.  Subsequently, Ryan blamed his loss on the questionnaire.

There he swerves from the truth and threatens to lead the Republican Party, as exemplified by its county board members, into an abyss.

No matter how insulated McHenry County’s Republican board members are from the public, even they, if they will just let their emotions subside, are capable of figuring out that Illinois voters are fed up with politics as usual.

Those who don’t think so aren’t paying attention.

Will it be the sea change that I noticed in 1969?

Before that date, the fact that Crystal Lake’s mayor worked for the biggest developer in town was no big deal.

Everybody had to work somewhere.

Then the Crystal Lake Jaycees, many of whom lived in Coventry, the development built by that developer, did a fire safety project. They discovered that in the back section of Coventry fire trucks could not get through if cars were parked on the streets.

Then, it became important where the mayor worked.

Tony Wujcik beat incumbent Mayor Lou Goosens handily in the 1971 election. (More about that change in ethical standards here.)

To mix metaphors, are we at a similar fault line now?

I think so.

McHenry County Board Chairman Ken Koehler was one of three re-nominated incumbents who has so far not completed the ALAW conflict of interest form.

Twenty of twenty-seven candidates for county board voluntarily completed ALAW’s questionnaire.

Of those who won nomination in the Republican Party, incumbents

• Anna May Miller,
• Ken Koehler,
• Pete Merkel, plus
• newcomer Robert Nowak

are a minority of 4 out of 12 GOP county board candidates on the ballot this fall who did not do so.

Democrat incumbent Jim Kennedy is the only Democrat who did not fill one out.

Maybe these four incumbents know something that the rest of the people (sans District 1 newcomer Robert Nowak) running for county board don’t know.

Eight of twelve people on the Republican Part ballot this fall have filled out the form are:

• Donna Kurtz
• Nick Provenzano
• Barb Wheeler
• Sandy Salgado
• Tina Hill
• John Jung
• Diane Evertsen
• Mary McCann

Among the Democrats, two-thirds answered ALAW’s questions:

• Jeff Thirtyacre
• Lori McConville

So did the only Green Party candidate:

• Frank Wedig

So, maybe those out of step with the times are those who have not yet sent in the questionnaire.

= = = = =

I’ll have some more comments a bit later.

The letter with the candidates endorsed by the Alliance for Land, Agriculture and Water was too late for the Northwest Herald’s deadline for letters.

The paper of record also would not use the information as the basis for a story.

It was published on McHenry County Blog, however.

So, who were those candidates who answered the questions below to ALAW’s satisfaction?

Barbara Wheeler

Diane Evertson

Donna Kurtz

John Jung

Mary McCann

• Donna Kurtz (R) District Two
• Barb Wheeler (R) District 3
• John Jung, Jr. (R) District 5
• Frank Wedig, (Green Party) District 5
• Diane Evertsen (R) District 6
• Mary McCann (R) District 6

Frank Wedig

“Each of these candidates has pledged to work for preservation of our natural resources, our fresh water supply and our prime farmland,” the ALAW press release said.

“These goals are critical to maintaining our quality of life and economic viability in the county.”

Survey results are available here.

You read what the Woodstock Independent, the Northwest Herald and the Daily Herald want to know about and from candidates. Here’s what the Alliance for Land, Agriculture and Water are interested in learning about those running for the McHenry County Board:

ALAW County Board Candidates Survey: 2010 Primary Election

Please, indicate yes or no in the box to the right of the question.

A. Land Use

1. Have you personally attended any of the Regional Planning Commission meetings or subcommittee meetings on the 2030 Comprehensive Land Use Plan?

2. Have you read the proposed 2030 Land Use Plan?

3. Do you think the makeup of the 2030 Regional Planning Commission was a
balanced representation of the residents of the county?

4. Do you agree that new development should be located where infrastructure
exists, to minimize the extension of new roads, utilities and services, and protect
farmland and water recharge areas?

5. If elected, will you support funding permanent protection of agricultural land
and the agricultural industry in the County?

6. Do you understand that new rural development costs more for the extension of
infrastructure (roads, water, sewer and services) than it brings to the County in
taxes and that those extra costs are passed on to the existing taxpayers?

7. Do you support creation of the Hac-Ma-Tac National Wildlife Refuge in the
county?

B. Water Resources

1. Would you oppose any land use change that would exceed a locally recharged
aquifer’s capacity?

2. If elected will you enforce use of the SARA – Sensitive Aquifer Recharge
Areas map developed by the County Water Resources Department, as a
determining factor in every land use change decision?

3. Do you support redistributing groundwater from water-rich areas to areas that have over drawn their groundwater?

4. Do you think that McHenry County will be able to get water from Lake
Michigan?

C. Transparency in Government

1. Would you support a requirement that all elected or appointed county officials
make up-front disclosures of any financial or other interest in any real property
in the County?

2. Do you support a requirement that all elected or appointed county officials
make up-front disclosures of their interest in any business entity doing business
with the county?

3. Do you believe that public officials should disclose whether they provide
professional services to any unit of government to which they are elected or
appointed?

4. Do you agree that all scheduled meetings agendas and minutes, including
committee and sub-committee, should be posted on the County web site?

5. Do you agree that all McHenry County Board meetings should be video
recorded and posted on the County web site?

D. Short Answer. Only the number of words indicated will be published in the response report. (please add a page if you need more room, but remember that we can only print the number of words indicated. Thank you.)

1. What role do you think the County should play in planning for growth? (50 words)

2. By protecting agricultural lands and soil resources, groundwater and its natural recharge can also be protected. What will you do to provide that protection? (50 words)

3. What does the County get from its annual contract with the McHenry County
Economic Development Corporation and is it a good investment of taxpayer money? (50 words)

4. Who do you consider to be your constituents and how do you intend to communicate with them to ensure your positions honestly represent them? (50 words)

5. Please provide a personal statement about what you intend to accomplish, if elected to the County Board, and/or provide additional information regarding any of the “ / no” yes answers given above. (100 words)

Answers are due January 11th.

With almost all of District 3 precincts reporting (30 out of 37), it appears that incumbent Barb Wheeler and former member Nick Provenzano will win the two spots on the fall GOP ballot.

Provenzano is running first, which means that the proponents of video gambling have picked up one vote. Two pick-ups are needed to switch the vote from a ban to allowing video poker at bars and restaurants in unincorporated areas.

From looking at District 3 candidate Nick Provenzano’s fancy Pro-Life post card (see bottom of the liked article), one would think he was the only Pro-Life candidate running.

A post card from Barb Wheeler hopes to clear up any confusion.

But, he isn’t, as McHenry County Blog reported exactly a month ago.

To recap, the candidates endorsed by Illinois Citizens for Life follow

Sheriff – Zane Seipler

County Board

Irene Napier

• District 1 – Robert Nowak
• District 2 – Ken Koehler and Sandra DePaul
• District 3 – Nick Provenzano and Barb Wheeler
• District 4 – No endorsement
• District 5 – Dave Fredrick
• District 6 – No endorsement

Wheeler, like Provenzano is endorsed by local pro-life leader Irene Napier, who heads McHenry County Right to Life.

Personal PAC, probably the most radical and most effect pro-abortion political action committee in the country (they certainly beat me) endorsed

• District 2 – Donna Kurtz
• District 4 – Jeff Thirtyacre (only Democrat whose endorsement is reported on this page)
• District 5 – Tina Hill

Personal PAC actually has a McHenry County agenda, as you can read here.

This was not an investigatory story.  (Hurry.  It won’t be free long.)

Nothing about how the county was looking for a place not near a residential neighborhood…on cheap land…without brick walls and ended up near a residential neighborhood on one of the busiest highways in McHenry County with brick walls.

After Blake Hobson gave Ken Koehler the credit for the new facility, someone named “OakLeaf” wrote the following:

OakLeaf wrote on January 25, 2010 12:44 p.m.

“I think the county could have found a much less expensive place. This is from mchenrycountyblog The folks running for re-election (or, in the case of one seeking to return to the board) who voted to impose the cat tax in order to help pay for new animal control shelter on Route 14 in Crystal Lake follow:

• Ken Koehler, County Board Chairman, Crystal Lake, District 2
• John Jung of Woodstock, District 5
• Tina Hill of Woodstock, District 5
• Anna May Miller of Cary, District 1
• Sandra Salgado of McHenry, District 4
• Barbara Wheeler of Crystal Lake, District 3″

Keely Cat doesn't have to hide from the McHenry County Cat Tax Collector anymore.

It was a coincidence that I wrote a story about the votes on the McHenry County Republican Cat Tax the same day the NW Herald did a two-year retrospective.

And, the Herald didn’t point out the role its approval played in the defeat of Woodstock Republican County Board member Perry Moy by Lake in the Hills Democrat Jim Kennedy.

There are certainly different roles played by the NW Herald and McHenry County Blog.

And, only McHenry County Blog features the best know cat in McHenry County:

The one, the only

Keely Cat

“You should not even have come to the courthouse with these alleged claims.”

That’s how one lawyer familiar with Suzanne Ehardt’s discriminatory firing case against McHenry County and various appointed and elected officials characterized the decision. That decision can be found in full here.

Federal Court Judge Philip Reinhard, a former Winnebago County State’s Attorney, found in McHenry County’s favor, plus the following individuals

• Peter Austin, individually and in his official capacity as McHenry County administrator,
• Kenneth Koehler, individually and in his official capacity as McHenry County board chairman,
• John Jung, Jr., individually and in his official capacity as McHenry County vice-chairman,
• Tina Hill, individually and in her official capacity as McHenry County board member,
• Barbara Wheeler, individually and in her official capacity as McHenry County board member, and
• John Kelly, in his official capacity as McHenry County hearing officer.

McHenry County State’s Attorney Lou Bianchi’s assistants who won the case are Sarah B. Jansen, Don Leist and Christina Webb.

Ehardt claimed that the Employee Handbook gave her a property interest in her continued employment.

But the judge found,

“…’[n]othing in this manual establishes contractual rights or obligations.’ The ‘disclaimer’ section further states that both employer and employee have the ‘mutual right to terminate their employment relationship at any time for any reason-with or without cause’ Finally, the disclaimer provides that employees, unless otherwise provided in a written contract, are ‘at-will’ and ‘the employee relationship may be terminated at any time with or without cause.’”

Ehardt also asserted, according to the decision,

“that she had a property interest in her job created by a county ordinance which provides, in pertinent part, that a department head such as plaintiff may not be dismissed unless the liaison committee approves and that any such dismissal must be pursuant to the procedures in the employee handbook.”

But the judge found,

“the ordinance relied on by plaintiff contains no substantive limitations on terminating an employee. The language relied on by plaintiff is merely a matter of procedure.”

Ehardt claimed, again according to the decision,

“a violation of a constitutionally protected liberty interest where the state actor is the employer, a plaintiff would have to show that the defendant called into question her good name, reputation, honor or integrity in a way that makes it virtually impossible for the employee to find new employment in her chosen field.’

But the judge concluded,

“plaintiff’s barebones allegations are insufficient to plead a claim for a denial of a liberty interest. Herreference to “disparaging remarks,” along with the allegation that she has been “ unable to obtain a [similar] position,”are conclusory and too sketchy to provide defendant with adequate notice of her claim.”

An individual claim against John Kelly, in his official capacity as McHenry County hearing officer was filed. The judge characterized it as a claim about “a denial of due process based on the previously alleged property interest in continued employment combined with an alleged ’sham’ post-deprivation hearing conducted by Kelly.”

Ehardt claimed denial of equal protection under the law.

Judge Reinhart did not agree because

“…plaintiff does not set forth allegations sufficient to state a claim for a violation of equal protection. She merely alleges that other department heads ’similarly situated’ were ‘alleged’ to have engaged in rude and unprofessional behavior but were not terminated. She does not provide specific factual allegations that touch on the elements of discriminatory effect and intent as required…”

A number of counts in the suit were “based on the allegations that plaintiff had an enforceable employment contract with the County,” the Judge wrote.

“In this case, plaintiff’s claim fails as there is no enforceable employment contract based on the allegations and the materials attached to the complaint,” he concluded.

The next claim the Judge explains is this:

“plaintiff alleges a tortious interference with a business relationship. According to the allegations, plaintiff had a business relationship with the County as an employee and these defendants were aware of, and interfered with, that relationship by causing her to be terminated in violation of the ordinance.”

He disagrees, saying,

“…plaintiff’s claim fails as she has not alleged any third-party interference. Alleging interference by various county board members, who act on behalf of the County, is insufficient. Further, plaintiff has not alleged a prospective business relationship that was prevented from coming to fruition, nor does she have a reasonable expectation of continued employment in light of her at-will employment status.”