McHenry County Blog

Here is the text of the letter:

November 19, 2012

Grafton Township Supervisor Moore and Board of Trustees:

Effective upon receipt of this letter, Evans, Marshall and Pease, P.C. is resigning as the independent auditors for the year ended March 31, 2011.

This decision was reached after much consideration of the facts and circumstances that have arisen throughout our relationship and relative to the planned meeting with the Township on November 28, 2012.

Pursuant to a conversation with Supervisor Moore, it was agreed that Mr. Paul H. Thermen C.P.A. would attend a board meeting to discuss the March 31, 2011 audit and the accompanying management letter.

It was agreed that the Board would submit to our office, the questions and other items that they wished to address relative to these items only.

The decision to limit the meeting to these items was that the March 31, 2010 was completed, accepted and paid for by the Township.

It was only the March 31, 2011 audit and management letter that were not accepted by the Township, hence the meeting.

Since then Mr. Thermen has been contacted by Trustee LaPorta, first wanting to know if the information regarding the meeting that he received from the supervisor was correct.

Then, on November 13, 2012, Mr. LaPorta e-mailed Mr. Thermen and stated that he felt that it was unreasonable to limit the meeting as stated.

He goes on to say that we never met to discuss the final report of the previous audit.

In late August, 2011, CPA’s Jeffrey Rollefson and Paul Thermen presented their draft audit to the Grafton Township Board minus Trustee Gerry McMahon. The headline of my article quoted this statement: “Found nothing untoward in the audit.”

Mr. Thermen and Mr. Jeff Rollefson did in fact meet with the entire board relative to the audit report and it was subsequently revised to be in agreement with the Board’s request.

Mr. LaPorta asked for permission to expand the meeting to the prior year as well.

This request was not in accordance with the understanding reached with the Township Supervisor and therefore it was unacceptable.

On November 15, 2012, Mr. LaPorta e-mailed our office again, now stating that “Myself and/or our attorney’s will be contacting the AICPA and other professional organizations in your profession to determine if this is a normal reply. We will notify them of this refusal.”

He then states “We will also invite various media (2 newspapers and 2 on-line blog newspapers) to attend this meeting, of which we will highlight Paul’s refusal.”

This is not the first threat that has come from the Board via Mr. LaPorta.

At the beginning of our engagement, Evans, Marshall & Pease, P.C. was told that if the audit of the financial statements did not coincide with the allegations put forth by him, that legal action may ensue.

Our management letter set forth a number of items that we felt should be implemented, however nothing was found to impact the fairness of the financial statements for either audit period.

In light of this and the on-going tensions between the Board and the Township Supervisor, which is no place for the certified public accountants to be, we hereby tender our firm’s resignation.

As a result of our resignation, we feel that there is no purpose to the meeting scheduled for November 28, 2012 and Mr. Thermen will not be in attendance.

We suggest that the Township retain the services of another independent certified public accountant to perform the March 31, 2011 audit.

We have already submitted our invoice for the work performed on that audit and upon payment thereof we will fully co-operate with whomever the Township chooses.

Respectfully submitted,

Evans, Marshall & Pease, P.C.

A press release from State Senator Dan Duffy:

Dixon $30 million theft prompts Sens. Duffy to call for government checkbooks to be online

Lawmaker says transparency could have prevented theft from city

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (May 1, 2012) – Following allegations that a Dixon city official stole $30 million from city coffers, State Sens. Dan Duffy is calling for legislation that would require local governments in Illinois to post their checkbooks online.

Senate Bill 3392 would require all local governments – including school boards, townships and municipalities – to post their checkbooks online. The state senators say it’s possible that the alleged theft could have been flagged earlier if the public had access to this vital information.

“These accusations highlight why it’s so important for Illinois to move forward on government transparency,” said Sen. Duffy, R-Lake Barrington.

Dan Duffy

“If you look at the city of Dixon’s website, there is almost no financial information available to the public. Without filing onerous Freedom of Information Act requests, the public had no mechanism for holding its city officials accountable or investigating the finances themselves.”

The Illinois Policy Institute supports this legislation and greater efforts by Sen. Duffy and others to improve the level of government transparency in Illinois.

Since 2010, the nonpartisan Institute has partnered with local citizen activists to grade governments on how much public information is available online. More than 130 government entities have been graded using the Institute’s 10-Point Transparency Checklist.

The city of Dixon received a failing grade on the Institute’s audit, scoring only 18.1 out of 100 possible points. In addition to having no budget or financial information available on the city’s website, there also is no information outlining how to file a Freedom of Information Request, how much government employees are paid or tax information.

“After seeing how little public information is available on Dixon’s website, it’s no surprise that the alleged theft went under the radar for so long,” said Brian Costin, director of government reform at the Illinois Policy Institute. “What Dixon and the entire state must do now is create a culture of transparency and accountability. This will help weed out corruption, and restore the public’s faith in local government.”

Julie Fox

Monday night, one of the statewide candidates who spoke was Dundee Township’s Julie Fox.

This is what the Chicago Tribune printed about Julie Fox's campaign for State Comptroller on Columbus Day. Click to enlarge.

Comptroller was the office Fox ran for when I ran for Governor on the Libertarian Party ticket against Rod Blagojevich and Jim Ryan.

She is doing so again this year.

At each campaign appearance, she justifiably touts her unique qualifications for the job.

She is a Certified Public Accountant.

None of the other candidates can make that claim.

Fox led the Libertarian Party ticket in 2002 and deserves to do so again.

And, think of the authority with which a CPA could speak to financial matters.

Julie Fox spoke at the Crystal Lake TEA Party on April 15, 2010.

Of all the candidates for State Comptroller, only one is a Certified Public Accountant.

She is Julie Fox, the Libertarian Party candidate.

Julie led the ticket in 2002, when I ran for Governor against Rod Blagojevich. She got over 4% of the vote, almost qualifying Libertarians for power (I mean “established”) party status. Parties that are established—the Republicans, Democrats and Greens—need many fewer signatures to get on the ballot.

But back to Saturday afternoon.

The fundraiser is being held in Wonder Lake ar a private 7-acre estate, starting at 2.

If you want details, call 847-287-1432.

After a long interview with Huntley District 158 Controller Mark Altmayer, the Northwest Herald published an article about how the finances of District 158 were bleak.

It was so bleak Certified Public Accountant Altmayer put on a lengthy presentation to teachers internally within the district showing how negative the finances are.  Altmayer told the public the teachers “got it.”

Northwest Herald editor Chris Krug chewed on District 158 officials in his Sunday column titled

“Krug: D-158 strumming wrong tune”

In essence, Krug wrote in his column about not understanding how everything could have gotten so bad so quickly.  Krug blamed the teachers’ contract.

Well, the financial condition was never as bad as Altmayer thought.

Anyone who listened to former board member Larry Snow would have already known the numbers the district put out were screwed up.  Snow had told me, as he told me he did administrators and residents, that Altmayer’s projections were way off.

Huntley School District 158 Comptroller Mark Altmayer

Altmayer admitted the the numbers were wrong at last night’s board meeting.

Altmayer attributed the $1.4 million mistake showing the district not having enough money to a “reference cell error.”

As if reference cells go around distorting financial projections all by themselves without human intervention.

It was not a pesky, reference cell varmint who made the error. Altmayer is the one who produced and presented the calculations to the media and public.

Maybe he misunderstood how property taxes are calculated. They are confusing.

In any event, here was another Huntley school official publicly crying wolf to the Northwest Herald, the paper printing the story and all it turned out to be was a large calculation error by the district’s finance guy.

When Snow blogged on the Northwest Herald website under Krug’s column on Sunday, he wrote:

“The budget for next year should be relatively easy to balance.”

Looks right to me.

And Snow isn’t a CPA.

At Thursday night’s board meeting, Superintendent John Burkey was talking about hiring new staff for next year.

“Bleak” had turned into “let’s hire more staff.”

Find money. Spend it. Pretty typical attitude for public officials.

In spite of all the hubbub over the minor league baseball stadium, only three people have filed for McHenry County College Board’s two six-year terms.

But, guess what?

One of the challengers, John Darger, was a frequent and vocal opponent to the board majority’s ill-conceived minor league baseball stadium proposal.

Darger participated in MCC board meetings.

Darger participated in Crystal Lake City Planning and Zoning Commission meetings…more than once.

An MCC student at the time, Darger said,

“I don’t see how that will serve the students of McHenry County College.”

Darger participated in Crystal Lake City Council meetings.

This is an active citizen who has probably decided that the majority faction on the McHenry County Board did not represent him.

And decided to do something about it by filing for office.

Darger is last on the ballot and you don’t have to guess if I shall vote for him, even if he is a Democrat.

A second candidate announced the McHenry County Promise at a March 2007 board meeting.

His name is Ron Parrish.

I have no idea whether Parrish supported, opposed or didn’t take a position on the baseball promoters’ attempt to stick McHenry County College taxpayers with paying off the stadium bonds if the baseball team did not succeed.

It is clear that the stadium put quite a crimp in the fund raising. Former board member Irv LeCoque made that clear.

Parish is first on the ballot.

The final candidate is CPA Mary Miller put her Certified Public Accountant reputation on the line by saying about the baseball stadium deal:

“Ms. Miller(‘s) refer(ring) to her CPA standing and stat(ing) that all the figures are in order for us to go ahead with this.”

And, then she and the board would not release the documents that she verified

Another variation of the long-discredited

approach to public decision-making.

Well, the public didn’t trust her and her colleagues.

Thank goodness.

Just goes to show that having passed the CPA test does not mean one can make good public judgments.

Miller is in the middle of the ballot.

Incumbent Frances Glosson’s term is also expiring this year, but she has decided to retire. She joined incumbents Scott Summers and Donna Kurtz in figuring out the numbers were not all in order.

= = = = =
Ron Parrish is seen next the screen, followed by Mary Miller and Frances Glosson.

In spite of all the hubbub over the minor league baseball stadium, only three people have filed for McHenry County College Board’s two six-year terms.

But, guess what?

One of the challengers, John Darger, was a frequent and vocal opponent to the board majority’s ill-conceived minor league baseball stadium proposal.

Darger participated in MCC board meetings.

Darger participated in Crystal Lake City Planning and Zoning Commission meetings…more than once.

An MCC student at the time, Darger said,

“I don’t see how that will serve the students of McHenry County College.”

Darger participated in Crystal Lake City Council meetings.

This is an active citizen who has probably decided that the majority faction on the McHenry County Board did not represent him.

And decided to do something about it by filing for office.

Darger is last on the ballot and you don’t have to guess if I shall vote for him, even if he is a Democrat.

A second candidate announced the McHenry County Promise at a March 2007 board meeting.

His name is Ron Parrish.

I have no idea whether Parrish supported, opposed or didn’t take a position on the baseball promoters’ attempt to stick McHenry County College taxpayers with paying off the stadium bonds if the baseball team did not succeed.

It is clear that the stadium put quite a crimp in the fund raising. Former board member Irv LeCoque made that clear.

Parish is first on the ballot.

The final candidate is CPA Mary Miller put her Certified Public Accountant reputation on the line by saying about the baseball stadium deal:

“Ms. Miller(‘s) refer(ring) to her CPA standing and stat(ing) that all the figures are in order for us to go ahead with this.”

And, then she and the board would not release the documents that she verified

Another variation of the long-discredited

approach to public decision-making.

Well, the public didn’t trust her and her colleagues.

Thank goodness.

Just goes to show that having passed the CPA test does not mean one can make good public judgments.

Miller is in the middle of the ballot.

Incumbent Frances Glosson’s term is also expiring this year, but she has decided to retire. She joined incumbents Scott Summers and Donna Kurtz in figuring out the numbers were not all in order.

= = = = =
Ron Parrish is seen next the screen, followed by Mary Miller and Frances Glosson.

Yesterday, I started a three-part article about what MCC might do to regain public trust in order to get support for the baseball stadium that four of its board members (George Lowe, Barbara Walters, Mary Miller and Carol Larson) desire so ardently.

With the public relations disaster that McHenry County College has managed to create, it seems to me that the board has to start from scratch.

That’s what I told Northwest Herald General Manager and Executive Editor Chris Krug before the McHenry County Economic Development Corporation’s dinner last Thursday night.

Admit that the college will be irreparably harmed if it proceeds without starting the process over.

Everyone who thinks the college can pass a referendum, please raise your hand.

Anyone who thinks Mary Miller is not going to be challenged if she runs for re-election next spring, let me know.

And, if you want to run, let me know.

Needless to say, people are organizing to support some opponent of this consistent baseball stadium supporter. In laying her hands on the goodness of the baseball stadium, Miller touted her credentials as a CPA.

Now I know why we don’t let CPA’s run government.

Earning the designation obviously does not guarantee analytical ability on public policy issues.

Here’s how Miller was quoted in the April 26, 2006, board minutes:

“Ms. Miller(‘s) refer(ring) to her CPA standing and stat(ing) that all the figures are in order for us to go ahead with this.”

So, why was a re-do of the numbers necessary after Economics Research Associates savaged Mark Houser’s EquityOne presentation she avowed was ”in order?”

In a Freedom of Information request, I asked for any documentation to back up her professional judgment.

Needless to say, there was none.

I was told to look at an analysis of construction costs by PMA Consultants, the same outfit that advised Huntley School District 158 that it needed a 55-cent tax rate hike.

PMA’s analysis of construction costs speaks not one sentence about whether the baseball team receipts will pay off the cost of the bonds to build the stadium.

And, that, of course, is the real issue in this fight.

Show me a written analysis of the numbers and maybe I might regain the respect I used to have for the designation “C.P.A.”

So, start the process over.

What does this mean?

Do you know there were two baseball promoters who wanted to build a stadium in Crystal Lake?

One was making real progress in Harvard until the McHenry County College Board decided to ink a sweetheart deal with Pete Heitman, a buddy of Equity One’s Mark Houser.

A fresh starts demands that competing promoters be given a fair shot.

Such presentations should be at public hearings, where both the public and the board get to ask questions.

We can hear how much money each group is willing to put up.

How does each propose to pay for the stadium?

What will the amount of public subsidy be, if any?

Harvard’s group, by the way, plans to pay for its own stadium; Heitman’s wants us to bet on the success of his scheme.

There’s absolutely no reason for secrecy.

And, speaking of secrecy, the public has a right to know who the investors are.

When I was at the Crystal Lake City Council meeting looking at the staff reports on various proposals, you know what I found?

Petitioners must reveal everyone who has a beneficial interest in their properties.

The college must demand the same information from those with whom it signs leases.

I was pleased that Krug agreed.

Part 3 tomorrow.

Yesterday, I started a three-part article about what MCC might do to regain public trust in order to get support for the baseball stadium that four of its board members (George Lowe, Barbara Walters, Mary Miller and Carol Larson) desire so ardently.

With the public relations disaster that McHenry County College has managed to create, it seems to me that the board has to start from scratch.

That’s what I told Northwest Herald General Manager and Executive Editor Chris Krug before the McHenry County Economic Development Corporation’s dinner last Thursday night.

Admit that the college will be irreparably harmed if it proceeds without starting the process over.

Everyone who thinks the college can pass a referendum, please raise your hand.

Anyone who thinks Mary Miller is not going to be challenged if she runs for re-election next spring, let me know.

And, if you want to run, let me know.

Needless to say, people are organizing to support some opponent of this consistent baseball stadium supporter. In laying her hands on the goodness of the baseball stadium, Miller touted her credentials as a CPA.

Now I know why we don’t let CPA’s run government.

Earning the designation obviously does not guarantee analytical ability on public policy issues.

Here’s how Miller was quoted in the April 26, 2006, board minutes:

“Ms. Miller(‘s) refer(ring) to her CPA standing and stat(ing) that all the figures are in order for us to go ahead with this.”

So, why was a re-do of the numbers necessary after Economics Research Associates savaged Mark Houser’s EquityOne presentation she avowed was ”in order?”

In a Freedom of Information request, I asked for any documentation to back up her professional judgment.

Needless to say, there was none.

I was told to look at an analysis of construction costs by PMA Consultants, the same outfit that advised Huntley School District 158 that it needed a 55-cent tax rate hike.

PMA’s analysis of construction costs speaks not one sentence about whether the baseball team receipts will pay off the cost of the bonds to build the stadium.

And, that, of course, is the real issue in this fight.

Show me a written analysis of the numbers and maybe I might regain the respect I used to have for the designation “C.P.A.”

So, start the process over.

What does this mean?

Do you know there were two baseball promoters who wanted to build a stadium in Crystal Lake?

One was making real progress in Harvard until the McHenry County College Board decided to ink a sweetheart deal with Pete Heitman, a buddy of Equity One’s Mark Houser.

A fresh starts demands that competing promoters be given a fair shot.

Such presentations should be at public hearings, where both the public and the board get to ask questions.

We can hear how much money each group is willing to put up.

How does each propose to pay for the stadium?

What will the amount of public subsidy be, if any?

Harvard’s group, by the way, plans to pay for its own stadium; Heitman’s wants us to bet on the success of his scheme.

There’s absolutely no reason for secrecy.

And, speaking of secrecy, the public has a right to know who the investors are.

When I was at the Crystal Lake City Council meeting looking at the staff reports on various proposals, you know what I found?

Petitioners must reveal everyone who has a beneficial interest in their properties.

The college must demand the same information from those with whom it signs leases.

I was pleased that Krug agreed.

Part 3 tomorrow.

McHenry County Blog has received the following email from Algonquin resident Rich Evans, a CPA who applied for appointment as McHenry County Auditor when Ruth Rooney decided to retire.

Rooney’s deputy, Pam Palmer, was appointed by the McHenry County Board and selected by the McHenry County Republican Central Committee to appear on the fall 2006 ballot.

Palmer is being challenged in the GOP primary election on the ballot by Richard Kelly, Jr.

Here is the email I received:

Dear Members of Illinois Office Holders, Workers, Candidates and Citizens:

I would like to announce a Write In campaign for the position of McHenry County Auditor.

The selection process involved seven candidates who interviewed with the County Board before an appointment was made. The process was manipulated so that there would not be any real vote or complete review to select a CPA for this important position.

So now we have an election on February 5th and I would appreciate your support in the quick campaign and somewhat uphill battle of a Write In Campaign.

Best regards,

Rich Evans CPA
815-347-6377

He has a leaflet that contains the following information:

VOTE Write In

February 5, 2008

Richard Evans CPA

for

McHenry County Auditor

Write In

CPA, Risk Manager and Insurance Auditor

Over 20 years of experience doing operational & financial audits

Record of recovering funds due according to purchase contracts

Experience in claims, risk management process

Willing to hold the line on taxes and spending