McHenry County Blog

With McHenry County Chairwoman Tina Hill labeling Sandra Salgado’s service on the the Public Health and Human Services Committee “The Epitome of Conflict of Interest,” Fox River Grove Republican Precinct Committeeman has written a story entitled,

“The Epitome of Conflict of Interest” – Backroom Politics

Hill bases that characterization on the fact that Salgado works for Pioneer Center and Pioneer Centers gets financial support from the 708 Mental Health Board, whose Board members the Public Health Committee recommends.

[Of course, the last recommendation, Scott Summers was rejected by the Hill followers listed below on the County Board:

[Those opposing the nomination were

• Michele Aavang
• Yvonne Barnes
• Sue Drafkorn
• Joe Gottemoller
• Jim Heisler
• Tina Hill
• John Jung
• Ken Koehler
• Bob Martens
• Mary McCann
• Mary McClellan
• Anna May Miller
• Bob Nowak
• Nick Provenzano
• Ersel Schuster
• Carolyn Schofield
• Mike Skala
• Paula Yensen

In favor were

• Nick Chirikos
• Diane Evertsen
• John Hammerand
• Donna Kurtz
• Sandy Salgado
• Mike Walkup

[And the last recommendation of Donna Kurtz' Committee--after Hill announced that she would bypass the Committee--Jeff Thorsen, was not even placed on tonight's County Board agenda.  She has recommended Cathy Ferguson, a colleague of Thorsen on the Crystal Lake City Council.]

With that as background, Gasser’s conclusion might be of interest.  Playing off Hill’s “epitome of conflict of interest” statement, Gasser concludes

“The real conflict of interest is Hill’s nominee of former Family Services & Community Mental Health Center for McHenry County CEO and current board member Bob Martens (Spring Grove).”

Why?

He points to what he calls about a $140,000 “Golden Parachute” for Martens when he was listed as “Former CEO” of  the Family Services and Community Health Center for McHenry County.   (He found that information on the agency’s IRS Form 990.)

Gasser continues,

“This same year the McHenry Mental Health Board gave a loan to Family Services & Community Mental Health Center for McHenry County $719,981 when no other lending institution would do so because of the risk.”

Gasser then asks a series of questions that readers might find of interest.

One of them has to do with the August 2012 collapse of Family Services after Martens retired and while he was one of four GOP candidate for County Board in District 4.

Gasser asks,

“Should this person really be the liaison between the county board and the Mental Health Board?”

There is more, but, again, I suggest you go to the source of this story on Andrew Gasser’s blog.

As mentioned previously, replacement of Salgado with Martens will change the balance of power on the Public Health Committee.  It will put Hill loyalists in control by a 4-3 margin.

For 708 Board purposes, that means that Hill can name replacements for the two seats whose terms expire January 1, 2014, without bypassing the committee for a second time:

• Vice President Brett  Wisnauski
• Secretary Connee Meschini

Ferguson’s term, if approved, would expire at the same time.

The meeting at which Hill’s replacement recommendation will be considered in tonight at 7 PM in the building north of the McHenry County Jail.

Those who read my article yesterday entitled,

708 Board Staff Outlines Audit Alternatives – “Audit…Might Be Very Damaging”

might have guessed I might have had something to say in public comment.

And I did.

I read the outlined part of the report that I emphasized in the article.

Having spent six years on the Legislative Audit Commission and reviewed hundreds of audits, I told the committee members, if I saw the head of an agency making such a recommendation that I would have demanded the most extensive audit possible.

I told the members that I hoped they would vote for a real audit.

Interim Executive Director Todd Schroll said that the memo was “not a true representation of my intent.”

He said, “It’s all about making sure we’re auditing the right things.”

Schroll pointed out that figures existed not only at the 708 Board, but also in County government.

Former Crystal Lake School District 47 Board member Rob Routzahn explained that he had talked to auditors and “the message I hear is to “ignore the county…to make this an audit of how [we're doing things].”

He said the Request for Proposal should be “really crisp about what we want to accomplish with the audit,” but that the Board should be open to modifications suggested by auditing firms.

Routzahn said the Board needed to “hedge against ‘We don’t know what we don’t know.’”

He was emphatic that the audit should not be an internal audit, but an external audit.

“We don’t want to be seen as steering the audit.”

“I agree with Rob,” subcommittee chairman Don Larsen said.

Schroll pointed out that they would not be auditing “the official numbers.”

“There’s not a fear of something wrong,” he added.

“If you remove the county from the picture, you remove separation of duties,” warned Fiscal Operations Manager Jane Wacker, a CPA.

“It’s one of checks and balances,” former Vice Chairman of the County Board Larsen agreed.

“None of this conversation should be considered as resistance to an audit,” Schroll said.  “They’re not coming to do a standard audit.  They’re coming to perform a blended audit.”

The third member of the Finance Committee, Connee Meschini then weighed in:

“I like a high audit like Cal said on the Mental Health Board not the County…and be open to what an auditor would say or affirm.”

Routzahn suggested that later, the Board might “want to do a procedural or operational audit, [but] let’s get out arms around the numbers first.”

He pointed out that the District 47 Board met with auditors without administrators in the room, asking other things the auditors had observed that were not in the audit or the management letter.

“They know when they see when  there’s something not right.”

Then Routzahn dropped this opinion:

“I do not think we should have a McHenry County [based] auditor.”

“That’s contrary to what we usually do,” Larsen pointed out.

Routzahn said he wanted the audit “so far above reproach, passing the sniff test for the public and me.”

The members voted 3-0 to present their idea at the next 708 Board meeting.

Lee Ellis, the Chairman of the McHenry County Mental Health Board, was not recommended for re-appointment by the newly-reconstituted Public Health and Human Services Committee.

Hearings have been held yesterday and today with applicants presenting their credentials and answering questions from the six committee members present.

After the interviews by the five women and one man were completed, members wrote down the names of their favorites for three four-year and one one-year term.

The following names were written on a white board:

• Carrie Smith
• Mary Donner
• Lee Ellis
• Bernadette May
• Heather Murgatoyd
• Rob Rontzahn
• Scott Summers
• Connie Meschini

Because Smith, the pastor at Crystal Lake’s Bethany Lutheran Church got four of the six votes, she was selected for one of the three four-year terms.

In a second round of voting, the committee singled out as finalists for the one-year term

• Donner, who was defeated for re-election to the County Board in last spring’s Republican primary election works for Pace and has been the liaison to the County Board from the 708 Board
• Meschini, also on the current Board

Finalists for the two remaining four-year terms were determined after another round of balloting.

Ellis and May got no votes that time around, leaving

• Murgatoyd
• Rontzahn
• Summers

In the fourth round, Mufgatoyd and Rontzahn emerged victorious.

That left the question of who was going to be recommended for the one-year term, Donner or Meschini.

The committee members split evenly with Mary McCann, Anna May Miller and Paula Yensen backing Donner and Committee leader Donna Kurtz, Sandy Salgado and Mike Walkup backing Meschini.

To break the tie, Committee members decided to await the return of the seventh member, John Hammerand.

Asked after the meeting if she expected any problem getting her the Public Health Committee’s recommendations approved by the full County Board, Kurtz replied, “No.  I think people will respect the balanced view of this Committee.  These are all qualified people and they have been thoroughly vetted.”

Rontzahn works for IBM out of his home office and serves on both the Crystal Lake District 47 Grade School Board and the County Housing Authority.

Murgatoyd is a clinical specialist (social worker) for DeVilbiss Health Care.