McHenry County Blog

Dennis Adams

At the Thursday night McHenry County College Board meeting, retiring Trustee Dennis Adams argued against extending MCC President Vicky Smith’s contract through June 30, 2015.

“I don’t think any harm would come until the end of June,” he said, adding that he thought the new Board members would come to realize Smith should be retained.

“It has the appearance of impropriety.  It will have a long life…It is an affront to the new Board members.  It has nothing to do with Ms. Smith’s performance.  It has to do with the process.

“It is not urgent.  It doesn’t have to happen today.”

Before any vote, the contract already ran through June 30, 2014.

After the contract was extended on a 5-2 vote, with outgoing Board members Barbara Walters and Carol Larson being joined by Cynthia Kisser, Linda Liddell and Mary Miller, a meeting was held to install the three newly-elected members–Molly Walsh, Chris Jenner and Tom Wilbeck.

In her last comments Walters complained, “It is now political.  This [MCC] is about students, not moving up the [political ladder].”

Somehow that bothered me.

As a Republican Precinct Committeeman, I knocked on doors in my Algonquin 7 precinct the weekend before the election supporting MCC candidates.

But I also was one of two people in the room that attended the meeting in 1967 when McHenry County College got its start.  (Iris Bryan was the other.)

And, you know who called that meeting?

A Republican Precinct Committeeman–Cal Skinner, Sr.

I was McHenry County Treasurer at the time, certainly a political position.

So, I hope I will be pardoned for pointing out that if “political” people had not started the ball rolling, MCC would not have come into existence in 1968 when a ten-cent per $100 of assessed valuation referendum was passed.

My father served on the first MCC Board.

Later he was elected to the McHenry County Board.

Did he serve on the MCC Board as a stepping stone to higher office?

Considering my father came within a couple of hundred votes of winning the County Auditor’s race against the McHenry County Board Chairman in 1964, the MCC Board service certainly wasn’t a prelude to running for county office.

When I spoke before the installation meeting, I pointed out that the old Board’s action would result in more negative publicity for the College.

And, as you can see below, my prediction was fulfilled:

The Northwest Herald’s front page the day after the outgoing MCC Board extended Vicky Smith’s contract.

The courthouse was re-named the “Government Center” by the McHenry County Board.

A press release from the McHenry County Board:

“The McHenry County Board is accepting applications from individuals interested in appointment to the McHENRY COUNTY PUBLIC BUILDING COMMISSION.

“Incumbents may apply for reappointment.

“A strong financial background is preferred with engineering and/or architectural experience desirable. One vacant position is available for a 5-year term to expire on September 1, 2017.

“Application forms are available at the County Board Office, Room 209, McHenry County Government Center, 667 Ware Road, Woodstock, IL 60098 (815-334-4221) or at the County’s website at http://www.co.mchenry.il.us/departments/countyboard/PDFDocs/AppointmentApp.pdf.

“Completed applications should be returned to the County Board office no later than 3:00 p.m. on Wednesday, July 11, 2012.

“If mailing your application, certified or registered mail is recommended. Mailed applications should be sent to the following address: McHenry County Board, 2200 North Seminary Avenue, Woodstock, IL 60098.”

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This reminds me of my most serious policy disagreement with my father, when he served on the McHenry County Board.

He told me over a weekend meal that the County was going to add onto the Courthouse using the non-referendum power of the County Building Commission.

I reminded him that one of the issues that got him interested in County politics was the County Board’s decision to build the new courthouse without referendum approval.

And, lest anyone be misinformed, the odds are very, very good that those making the appointments want someone who will do what the County Board wants.

A friend has forwarded an article from the Daily Herald by Marna Pyke about what George Ranney, head of something called Metropolis Strategies, and Jim LeBelle, a former Chairman of the Lake County Board, want to do to township road commissioners–abolish them.

This is a group that supported the 88% toll tax hike of Governor Pat Quinn.

No mention in its press release that it has a clue that the Tollway gets no Motor Fuel Taxes paid by vehicle using the Tollway, that most of this revenue gets shunted by the Illinois Department of Transportation outside of the Chicago metropolitan area.

Somehow, I would think an organization with the word “metropolis” in its title might take an interest in a rip-off like that, but, apparently, there is no interest.

As I read the statement of LaBelle on the toll tax hike, I found one marvelous idea:

“The Tollway should adopt a fair and practical method of ‘land value capture’ to help pay for improvements.

“Value capture enables property owners and communities in locations that especially benefit economically from improvements to help pay for them.”

A kNOw RTA clip=on button from the 1974 RTA referendum.

Based on the “site value taxation” of property by the first great American economist, Henry George, it basically says that the increase in value of public improvements should help pay for them. That’s how the new interchange at Route 47 should be finance, rather than forcing McHenry County taxpayers to pick up part of the tab.

In the article for which I do not have a link, LaBelle argues for elimination of township road commissioners.

He wants legislation because the township road commissioners are not “cost-effective.”

Other initiatives include

• developing a regional economic plan to counter lackluster job and business growth
• pushing the state to come up with a plan to handle freight congestion
• doubling riders on mass transit
• assessing alternatives to prison for nonviolent offenders and addressing climate change

Regional government advocates have been around as long as I have been active in the political arena.

All of them have one common thread, that they, who mainly live in Chicago, know best what should happen out here in the sticks of McHenry County and other provinces useful only for the taxes they pay.

I met Ranney at my last debate in 1974 on the creation of the Regional Transportation Authority. He represented the “RTA Citizens Committee for Better Transportation.”  I kid you not. That was the title of the proponents’ front group for Downtown Chicago property owners.

As I have said previously, I tried to get other suburban legislators to help- carry the media burden but could get any takers.

About 180,000 kNOw RTA pamphlets were printed in an around-the-clock operation at No. 8 Crystal Lake Plaza, where the McHenry County Republican Headquarters is now locatred and where State Rep. Cal Skinner's legislative office and his father's trade association, the Barley and Malt Institute was in 1974.

Because I was not about to cede the Chicago media market to the “Chicago knows best” crowd, I ended up doing all sorts of interviews, press conferences and debates.

So, it was the Friday before the primary election and here Ranney and I were at some small FM radio studio in an old Chicago high rise.

Last debate of the campaign. The biggies, like WIND and WGN’s Milt Rosenberg’s Extension 720 (where State Rep. Gene Schlickman of Arlington Heights joined me) were over.

After the debate at the elevator he said, “If we had known what a fight you McHenry County people were going to put up, we would have left you out.”

My reply: “Now you tell me.”

Ranney has been one of Governor Richard Ogilvie’s “whiz kids,” if memory serves me correctly, and was the son of one of the biggies at Inland Steel.

We later served on the Commission on the Year 2000 or something with a similar name, where I got to know and like him. He was one of those who would not be insulted by being labeled a “moderate Republican.”

No referendum was held to approve financing for the McHenry County Jail.

The McHenry County Public Building Commission is an under the radar group of people who have been known to issue non-referendum bonds.

That’s the way part of the present courthouse was financed.

In fact, avoiding the voters using this method led to the most serious policy dispute I ever had with my father.

He was on the county board and, as you might guess, my mother, he and I discussed politics and government when we ate together.

Dad told me the county board had decided to use the Public Building Commission to get the money to add on to the courthouse.

I pretty much went ballistic.

Not loud, but I probably did raise my voice when I said something like,
“You did what?”

You see, Dad had staunchly opposed building the new courthouse without a referendum. County board members has been unlawfully accumulating money for years to build it.

In 1967, the first year I was McHenry County Treasurer, I went to the budget meeting and pointed out that the zero balance the Finance Committee under Cary’s G. Watson Lowe leadership wasn’t what I thought would be in the bank on December 1st.

The committee members didn’t care, of course. So what if 10% of the taxpayers eventually got refunds of their county general fund taxes through tax protests of their planned unlawful action.

They had done it for years and just wanted to accumulate enough money to build a new courthouse.

As a private citizen,Dad had fought against building a new courthouse without a referendum.

I could not understand why he had decided that going around the voters was OK this time, but not then.

Let’s get back to the next McHenry County Public Building Commission meeting.

It’s on September 2nd at 3 PM in Room 210 of the Administration Building, also constructed without voter approval.

Among the items of new business is a “resolution to provide for closed (executive) meetings.”

Now, why would they be needing such authority?

To buy land on which to build a new edifice where politicians could have their names appear in bronze?

If so, which politicians have an edifice complex?

How often does one’s family get mentioned in a book?

Jim Paulson served the First United Methodist Church of Crystal Lake from 1968-1973. Paulson is retired now and has written an autobiography entitled,

As he writes about his time in Crystal Lake, he remembers my sister Jan’s July 26, 1969, wedding to Mike Peters. He mixes up my sisters and gets Mike’s first name wrong, but regular readers of McHenry County Blog will know that I make mistakes like that all the time. I’ve made the corrections below:

“Another exciting time for me was when Jan Skinner came to me with her fiancée Mike Peters for pre-marital counseling. Jan had been away to college and come home to her parents’ church to be married.

Her fiancée was Jewish, but he decided to convert to Christianity and wanted to be baptized and join the church before marriage.

I explained to Mike the procedures involved, and he heartily agreed to be baptized and also to receive Holy Communion.

One summer day Cal and Eleanor Skinner, Jan’s parents, and a few friends gathered with us at Crystal Lake.

It was an exciting time when Mike and I waded out waist high in the lake and I immersed him in the water and uttered the words,

“Mike Peters I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.”

This was my first baptism by immersion, and a Jewish convert at that!

Jan and Mike joined a conservative Baptist Church afterward, and he also became a Baptist minister!

Talk about going all the way from conversion from one religion to another. That seems to set a record for the Skinner and Peters families. So far that has not happened again in my career as a minister.

The baptism was at Gate 21 in Lakewood.

How often does one’s family get mentioned in a book?

Jim Paulson served the First United Methodist Church of Crystal Lake from 1968-1973. Paulson is retired now and has written an autobiography entitled,

As he writes about his time in Crystal Lake, he remembers my sister Jan’s July 26, 1969, wedding to Mike Peters. He mixes up my sisters and gets Mike’s first name wrong, but regular readers of McHenry County Blog will know that I make mistakes like that all the time. I’ve made the corrections below:

“Another exciting time for me was when Jan Skinner came to me with her fiancée Mike Peters for pre-marital counseling. Jan had been away to college and come home to her parents’ church to be married.

Her fiancée was Jewish, but he decided to convert to Christianity and wanted to be baptized and join the church before marriage.

I explained to Mike the procedures involved, and he heartily agreed to be baptized and also to receive Holy Communion.

One summer day Cal and Eleanor Skinner, Jan’s parents, and a few friends gathered with us at Crystal Lake.

It was an exciting time when Mike and I waded out waist high in the lake and I immersed him in the water and uttered the words,

“Mike Peters I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.”

This was my first baptism by immersion, and a Jewish convert at that!

Jan and Mike joined a conservative Baptist Church afterward, and he also became a Baptist minister!

Talk about going all the way from conversion from one religion to another. That seems to set a record for the Skinner and Peters families. So far that has not happened again in my career as a minister.

The baptism was at Gate 21 in Lakewood.

June 8, 1916, is my father’s birthday.

I found this picture from the day that he came back to the county board room to vote for Ann Hughes for county board chairman.

The doctor did not understand that legislative organization meetings do not wait for lung cancer treatments to be completed.

I wheeled him into the room.

His vote was the deciding vote.

And he was elected vice chairman.

In order to get there, he had to check himself out of Georgetown University Hospital against doctor’s orders.

We drove from Washington, only getting lost once in the Gary area after taking the wrong off-ramp.

Without Dad’s presence, McHenry’s former Mayor Don Doherty would have won the county board chairmanship.

Dad thought Doherty would not be independent enough.

Of McHenry County Republican Party Chairman and County Auditor Al Jourdan, I presume.

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And I picked up another tidbit this week. Apparently my father was referred to as “Phoenix” sometimes. I was told that when letters to the Crystal Lake (Northwest) Herald said that “Phoenix had said” or words to that effect, they were referring to Dad.

The only Phoenix of which I’m aware is former Lake Killarny (Cary) resident Jim McDonald, who wrote a Royko-like column for Richardson Publications in the early 1970′s. He worked for the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad and used to be a reporter.

June 8, 1916, is my father’s birthday.

I found this picture from the day that he came back to the county board room to vote for Ann Hughes for county board chairman.

The doctor did not understand that legislative organization meetings do not wait for lung cancer treatments to be completed.

I wheeled him into the room.

His vote was the deciding vote.

And he was elected vice chairman.

In order to get there, he had to check himself out of Georgetown University Hospital against doctor’s orders.

We drove from Washington, only getting lost once in the Gary area after taking the wrong off-ramp.

Without Dad’s presence, McHenry’s former Mayor Don Doherty would have won the county board chairmanship.

Dad thought Doherty would not be independent enough.

Of McHenry County Republican Party Chairman and County Auditor Al Jourdan, I presume.

= = = = =

And I picked up another tidbit this week. Apparently my father was referred to as “Phoenix” sometimes. I was told that when letters to the Crystal Lake (Northwest) Herald said that “Phoenix had said” or words to that effect, they were referring to Dad.

The only Phoenix of which I’m aware is former Lake Killarny (Cary) resident Jim McDonald, who wrote a Royko-like column for Richardson Publications in the early 1970′s. He worked for the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad and used to be a reporter.