McHenry County Blog

Below are the comments of District 3 McHenry County Board candidate Mike Walkup made to the Board this morning:

Yesterday Jack Franks filed his petition to establish a county executive in McHenry County.

I was at the County Fair over this past weekend.

Jack and his volunteers were telling people who they wanted to sign the petition that it was to “elect the county board chair”, and “to end cronyism in the county.”

In reality, this petition will fundamentally change our form of local government.

It will do the following:

• Eliminate the County Board Chair;
• Create a County Executive who will be elected to a four year term, with no term limits, and who will have the following powers:
  (a) Chair the county board meetings and vote to break any ties;
  (b) Veto any votes of the County Board requiring a 3/5th supermajority to override;
  (c) Perform the duties now being performed by the County Administrator, including hiring and firing of staff and department heads, setting the county budget, awarding contracts; appointing members of commissions and special districts, and more.

Michael Walkup

Effectively a McHenry County Czar.

Hardly the way to “end cronyism”.

To the contrary, it is rife with potential for cronyism on an unprecedented scale.

Is this what you want? As a potential member of this Board in December myself, I don’t.

But , if you don’t do something right now, this may very well be what you get.

As we have already seen, the proponents of this measure think nothing of misrepresenting the effect of this referendum.

You can expect their campaign literature to do the same.

They have the money and means to get that message out.

Think: last minute mailings and robocalls the day before the election.

In fact, who is it, exactly, that is going to raise the money and form the organization to get out the true facts between now and November?

As I see it, the only way to counter that is for this Board to place the issue of direct election of the County Chair on the ballot yourselves.

This take the direct election issue off of the table and will allow the debate to be reframed as what it really is, a question of the distribution of power in county government.

This must be done before the end of this month.

I would also recommend that you include term limits in the proposal, which the County Executive referendum will not have .

I am out of time now, and so are you. Thank you.

Jack Franks has given another signal that he wants to be King of McHenry County.

Today a robo-call poll asks whether people favor a McHenry County Board Chairman “elected by the citizens of McHenry County.”

Here’s as close to the script as a Friend of McHenry County Blog could get:

Jack Franks

“Hi this is State Representative Jack Franks asking for your opinion on a bill I just filed in the Illinois House of Representatives.

“After the tone press 1 if you think that County Board chairman should be elected by the citizens of McHenry County or press 2 if you think he should be appointed by the county board.

“Thank you for your time and consideration, and if I can be of any help please don’t hesitate to call my office for any reason.

“Thank you.”

Franks, sitting on $450,000 in his Political Action Committee, is again signaling that he is not satisfied just being a State Representative.

And, who in their right might would want to commute at least 3 hours twice very week the General Assembly is in session.

From personal experience I can tell you it is wearing.

Franks obviously enjoys the limelight and he obviously enjoys exercising influence.

So why not try to change the way the McHenry County Board Chairman is election in a direction in which he might well be able to win.

There is no way that the Democrats could gain control of the County Board if they had to elect a majority of its members.

And, even if he could, that does not guarantee enough power.

But in a big constituency big campaign money talks.

Ask Kent Gaffney and Danielle Rowe about that.

As readers may remember, I’m not a supporter of at-large election of the County Board Chairman.

The reason is not that I don’t want to have a say.

It is because, under state law, when a County Board Chairman is elected at-large, power is tremendously concentrated in the hands of that Chairman.

Concentration of power is something I have opposed all of my life.

It leads to abuses of power.

Do I think Jack Franks is capable of abuse of power?

Well, yes.

And would a Republican County Board Chairman be capable of abuse of power?

I believe so.

I think the County Board Chairman needs the checks and balances that the present system provides.

But since everyone wants to vote on everything, undoubtedly a sizable majority will say they want a direct election for the McHenry County Board Chairman.

The problems that come with concentration of power won’t become evident until it is too late to do anything.

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It should be noted that Franks is having a fight with McHenry County Board Chairman Ken Koehler. Some say that it is because Koehler refuses to dump former State Senator Jack Schaffer from the Metra Board.

And, there is no doubt that Franks was fuming over the billboard that was put up by Liberty Outdoor at the location on Route 14 closest (next to Woodstock Harley Motorcycle) to his legislative office.