McHenry County Blog

Imagine my surprise to see that the McHenry County Health Department is again floating the McHenry County Republican Cat Tax in its FY2011 “Goals.”

Don’t believe me?

Take a look at the 2011 Draft Budget, a link for which can be found on this page.

Search for page 246 in the 425 page document.

Naturally, the Board of Health did not emphasize its Cat Tax proposal, but it is the departments third goal. Higher ones have to do with internet submission of of private sewage and well permit applications and computerized food inspection and record storage system with web access. The top two priorities, plus most of the others in the list of ten priorities cost money, as you can see below. The Cat Tax is the only proposal that seems to raise cash.

Click to enlarge the ten goals listed by the Health Department in the preliminary 2011 budget posted on the internet.

Besides wondering why the final budget has not been posted, I wonder what part of “No” that the Board of Health doesn’t understand.

You may remember that District 2 County Board Member Lyn Orphal blind-sided Board Chairman Ken Koehler in February of 2007 when she advanced a motion to remove the all references from about the Cat Tax.

But Orphal didn’t win re-nomination. She was replaced by Donna Kurtz and I don’t remember if she had taken a position on the Republican Cat Tax or not.

Looking at the people up for election who supported the Cat Tax, I see all won election. One of the opponents, Democrat Jim Kennedy lost to John Jung, who voted for the tax before he was defeated in 2008 by Democrat Paula Yensen.

Dan Ryan and Yvonne Barnes, both opponents of the Cat Tax, also did not win re-nomination.  They were replaced by Diane Evertsen and Robert Novak, neither of whose stands on the issue, if any, I know.

Both Ed Dvorak, who is retiring this year, and Nick Provenzano, who took his place, voted against the Cat Tax.

Maybe the word has been passed to the Board of Health that it’s OK to ask the County Board to impose this tax a second time now that the elections are over and two Cat Tax opponents will not be serving for the next two years.

The vote three years ago was 12-10. Apparently two people were absent.

But twelve votes would have killed the tax hike, if all had voted against Tina Hill’s motion to approve the amendatory ordinance. Ties fail, you see.

It’s unlikely that Koehler has zeroed in on this issue, however.

Keely, the McHenry County Republican Watchcat, hasn't gotten too worried about the 22-2 Republican majority's sending out the Republican Cat Tax Collectors yet.

Keeley Cat isn’t too bothered yet. He doubts many County Board members have even noticed that the Board of Health is planning another assault on the kitties.

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Thanks to Gus Philpott, who writes “Woodstock Advocate,” for letting me know of what was in the Health Department’s Goals.

Ersel Schuster listening to discussion of Conflict of Interest Ordinance.

Whether the ordinance that the McHenry County Board passed two days ago will make any difference in the way the board does business remains to be seen.

But it is a step toward the transparency that citizens need to begin to understand whether conflicts of interest drive County Board decisions.

It passed with only two dissenting votes, Lakewood’s Scott Breeden and Huntley’s Dan Ryan.  Ryan blamed his Republican primary defeat on his unwillingness to fill out the ALAW questionnaire upon which the ordinance is based.

Here is the way Emily Berandt, the one who led the charge before Ersel Schuster’s Management Services Committee reacted:

Emily Berendt (on the left) makes point in mark-up meeting of the Management Services Committee. Sitting to her left is Janet Trafelet, who serves on ALAS's Advisory Board.

The McHenry County Statement of Economic Interests Addendum Ordinance passed at the County Board meeting Tuesday night 22-2.Although much has been deleted or changed since we presented the original draft, much of what is really important remains.

This new addendum requires county officials to disclose all real estate holdings, business and professional relationships and larger indebtednesses to entities doing business with county or local governments.

When this ordinance was proposed, we said that this was McHenry County’s opportunity to be a leader in a nationwide movement toward greater transparency in government.

ALAW urged McHenry County to take a preemptive strike against accusations of self dealing and to restore the public trust in its elected officials.  We are pleased that the county has stepped up to the plate.

Thank you to all who were involved in this process.

Emily Berendt
Alliance for Land, Agriculture and Water (ALAW )

Marc Munarettl

Multiple sources have confirmed that the man who placed third in the contest to be named McHenry County Board Chairman is running again.

The vote in 2008 was sixteen for Ken Koehler, six for Barb Wheeler and two for Marc Munaretto.

Munaretto’s votes two Decembers ago were his own and Randy Donley’s.

The major challenger to incumbent Ken Koehler was Barb Wheeler last time around. She received seven votes.

Besides her own vote, she received support from Sue Draffkorn, Virginia Peschke, Sandy Salgado, Kathy Bergan Schmidt and Dan Ryan.

Koehler retaliated by stripping Wheeler of her committee chairmanship. There was additional retaliation by Koehler to those who supported Wheeler, which may be coming home to roost.

Munaretto is not up for re-election this year.

Koehler is.

Koehler and his District 2 running mate, Donna Kurtz, were not on the best of terms during the primary election.

There is no indication the two Republicans are running a coordinated campaign.

They are being challenged by Democrat Mark Booras.

Here's a phoot of all the county board members, but Chairman Ken Koehler. It was taken in early December 2008, the day the county board elected officers.

There’s a movement on the McHenry County Board to freeze their own, plus countywide officials’ salaries.

And a counter-movement to raise the salaries of the McHenry County Clerk, Treasurer and Sheriff.

There’s politics involved, of course,

Those voting for such a freeze have a campaign dot point.
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Challenger Nick Provenzano used the issue to good effect in his primary election for county board.  He ran first in the District 3 county board primary.

Now some of those with a vote on the matter are picking up the issue.

Yesterday, the DuPage County Board took similar action.

That will increase the pressure on McHenry County Board members to follow suit.

I understand there has been some push back from elected officials who are none too pleased with missing out on a raise next year.

If the “Raise my salary!” folks get their way, they will be handing a marvelous issue to the Democrats and newly elected Democratic Party Central Committee Chairman Mike Bissett is just the man to know how to make hay out of it.

On the County Board’s Human Resources Committee, everyone is agreed on a freeze.

Ed Dvorak made motion a motion to approve salary freezes for the Treasurer, Clerk and Sheriff. It was seconded by Paula Yensen. All members present voted, “Aye.”

Besides Dvorak and Yensen, the “Yes” votes were Ersel Schuster, Sue Draffkorn and Sandy Salgado.

In the motion on freezing their own salaries, all voted in favor. Schuster made that motion, while Yensen seconded it.

The Finance Committee also got a crack at the resolutions.

For the countywide officials, Scott Breeden, Mary Donner and Marc Munaretto voted against the freeze, while John Hammerand, Tina Hill and Dan Ryan voted for the salary freeze.

3-3.

Tie votes fail.

On going without a raise for themselves, everyone present voted in favor.

The County Board vote tally should be interesting.

ALAW Spokeswoman Emily Berendt spoke at the Management Services Committee last week. While the subject matter was ALAW's proposed conflict of interest ordinance, there was byplay about the 2030 Plan and ALAW's haven't gotten what it wanted.

Something certainly is at stake in the 2030 County Land Use Plan to be voted upon at Tuesday night’s McHenry County Board meeting. The following press release from the Alliance for Land, Agriculture and Water might give you an idea what:

BE PROUD OF DISTRICT SIX REPRESENTATIVES!
NOW THEY NEED OUR HELP TO GET THE AMENDMENTS PASSED

If you live in District 6, (or even if you don’t) you can be proud of your D-6 County Board Representatives: Mary McCann, Dan Ryan, Randy Donley and Ersel Schuster.

McHenry's District 4 County Board member Pete Merkel aggressively opposed ALAW's proposed ethics ordinance and took the opportunity also to note that ALAW had not gotten what the organization wanted in the 2030 Plan.

On Thursday at the Committee of the Whole Meeting for the County Board, the District 6 Representatives stood united and presented a MINORITY REPORT objecting to the proposed McHenry County Land Use Plan as is and introduced five amendments that effectively FIX most of the problems.  In an impressive show of representative unity, they jointly spoke for their constituents on the issues of farmland preservation, water recharge protection and compact, contiguous land use.

Among other things the amendments require that the Sensitive Aquifer Recharge Areas map be used in future zoning decisions (Fourth Amendment) and that the productivity of farmland be determined by use of the entire LESA assessment tool rather than just by the LE score of the soils (Third Amendment). The Fifth Amendment offers a much more reasonable map for Future Land Use than the currently recommended one in the Plan.

Even if you don’t live in District 6, THESE PEOPLE NEED OUR SUPPORT NOW. These amendments will FIX the Plan.

Not all other members of the County Board were thrilled with these amendments.

In fact, some are downright opposed and will certainly be working to prevent them from even reaching the floor.

IT IS TIME TO CALL ALL COUNTY BOARD MEMBERS AND TELL THEM YOU WANT ALL OF THE AMENDMENTS TO PASS! Call District 6 members to thank them.

Call the others to tell them you support District 6 amendments.  Read them AND CALL FOR their passage! (list attached).  FIX that Plan or NIX that Plan!

PLEASE FORWARD THIS EMAIL TO YOUR OTHER GROUPS AND ANY OTHER PERSON YOU THINK MIGHT BE INTERESTED. The attached Minority Report is in pdf format. If you can’t open it, you can find it on the County Board agendafor April 20 or email us and we will get it to you.

Alliance for Land, Agriculture and Water, Inc.
PO Box 1021, Woodstock, IL

With 15 out of 31 precincts having no elected GOP precinct committeeman, the Grafton Township Republican Central Committee met to select officers for the next two years.

Tom Poznanski will continue to be chairman of the Grafton Township Republican Central Committee,

Grafton Township Precinct Map (click to enlarge)

Running against him was Tammy Lueth an ally of Grafton Township Supervisor Linda Moore.

The weighted vote was 1,302 for Poznanski and 626 for Lueth.   (“Weighted” votes allow each precinct committeeman to cast the number of votes cast by their constituents in the last Republican primary election.)

The other officers are

• Dan Ryan, Treasurer
• Mike Skala, Recording Secretary

All 16 elected committeeman were present, except Tom Halat, whose proxy vote was allowed.

Grafton Township precinct map. Click to enlarge.

Continuing a series of Republican turnout in the February 2nd primary election, we now turn to Grafton Township. Previously, precinct results for Algonquin Township have been previously  published.

As in Algonquin and Nunda Townships, all Grafton Township precincts had contests for county board.

Part of the Crystal Lake July 4th TEA Party demonstration. My favorite is "If you're not outranged, you're not informed."

What you see below are the thirty-one Grafton Township precincts. Next to the precinct number is the percentage of Republican Party turnout. If there was a person on the ballot for precinct committeeman, his or her name is seen in parentheses.

If you live in a precinct with no elected committeeman, you could volunteer to fill that slot. If you are interested—and maybe some TEA Party demonstrators may wish to make their citizenship more intense—just send me a email and I’ll pass your name along.

• Grafton 1 – 11.0% (Mike Skala)
• Grafton 2 – 19.3% (Scott Breeden)
• Grafton 3 – 9.9%
• Grafton 4 – 10.7% (Tammy Lueth)
• Grafton 5 – 9.8%
• Grafton 6 – 17.5% (Harriet Ford)
• Grafton 7 – 17.2% (Fred Wickham)
• Grafton 8 – 12.5%
• Grafton 9 – 10.1% (Eric Hartmann)
• Grafton 10 – 13.8% (Lloyd Everard)
• Grafton 11 – 11.0% (Bernice Gora)
• Grafton 12 – 8.1%
• Grafton 13 – 8.4% (Gene Goeglein)
• Grafton 14 – 7.9% (Terry Aavang)
• Grafton 15 – 25.5% (Daniel Ryan)
• Grafton 16 – 6.1% (Tom Halat)
• Grafton 17 – 10.5%
• Grafton 18 – 8.2%
• Grafton 19 – 4.4% (Samuel Paglini)
• Grafton 20 – 6.3%
• Grafton 21 – 10.2%
• Grafton 22 – 7.1%
• Grafton 23 – 6.1% (Linda Betzold)
• Grafton 24 – 8.3%
• Grafton 25 – 7.1%
• Grafton 26 – 17.7% (Linda Moore)
• Grafton 27 – 21.1%
• Grafton 28 – 7.8% (Thomas Poznanski)
• Grafton 29 – 9.7%
• Grafton 30 – 12.4%
• Grafton 31 – 11.1%

Sun City continued it reputation of being a high turnout area. County board member Dan Ryan got 25.5% of his constituents to vote GOP. He was on the ballot, but did not win. He blamed his loss on not filling out the conflict of interest questionnaire proposed by the Alliance for Land, Agriculture and Water. He was the only committee who topped the 20% benchmark that I am using.

Pete Merkel

Yesterday I weighed in with my thoughts on McHenry County Board member Pete Merkel’s apparently harsh criticism of the Alliance for Lake, Agriculture and Water’s proposal for a conflict of interest ordinance.

The group asked county board candidates whether they would support such an ordinance, but didn’t ask that they fill out the questionnaire in the ordinance.

Northwest Herald ad concerning McHenry County Board Chairman Ken Koehler's real estate holdings the Sunday before the primary election.

Nevertheless, 20 out of 27 candidates, some from all three parties on the ballot, did so.

After the election, county board member Dan Ryan explicitly blamed his defeat on his unwillingness to volunteer to fill out the ALAW questionnaire.

And the Sunday before the election, McHenry County Board Chairman Ken Koehler ran a half-page ad concerning his property holdings.

Clearly the issue has traction.

Today the Northwest Herald editorial adds its support for part, but not all of what ALAW wants in a new ethics requirement.

But, first the editorial dismisses Merkel’s objection that ALAW’s advocacy of the property revelation requirement for elected and appointed officials, plus consultants is political by saying,

“So what?”

Indeed,

“So what?”

Merkel’s opposition is political, too.

The Herald notes and I agree that it does not matter where good ideas come from?

The NW Herald does demur on a requested requirement where I wouldn’t.

It says that those who volunteer their time, that is, county officials who are not paid, should not be subjected to as strict conflict of interest scrutiny as those getting a salary.

It is my experience that people who think they are not getting paid what they are worth are most likely to take something that is not theirs. That’s why we pay police well. We don’t want them to think they are underpaid when they are enforcing, say, drug enforcement laws.

Think of how stores watch for shoplifting among lowly paid clerks.

I am sure you can come up with other examples.

So, do I think those who plan and zone property should be required to reveal any conflicts of interest?

You bet!

Tomorrow, another property-related reform that is ready for prime time in McHenry County.

“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.

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I’ll have some more comments a bit later.

In an interview with the Daily Herald, Sun City McHenry County Board member Dan Ryan blamed his refusal to disclose personal financial information requested by the Alliance for Land, Agriculture and Water and low turnout in his retirement community.

“It infringed on individual privacy too much,” was what he told a reporter.

Regrets?

“Absolutely not,” he told the Daily Herald. “I don’t care if it cost me my office. I have principles.”

District 6 incumbent Daniel Ryan, sitting second from the right of the photo was the only candidate who either has not filed the ALAW conflict of interest form or committing to doing so. From left to right you see Richard Draper, Diane Evertsen, Victor Narusis, Dan Ryan and Mary McCann,

At the Patriots United County Board Candidates’ Forum, Ryan received decidedly tepid applause when he said he was not going to fill out the ALAW form.

Ryan was similarly resistive when the Illinois Family Institute, in conjunction with Patriots United made phone calls to him, among others, seeking people to call Ryan in favor of a ban on video gambling. When he figured out who had stimulated the 50-some calls, Ryan called IFI, telling the person who answered the phone that he would call them every time someone called him.

Ryan voted to allow video poker in rural bars and restaurants.

The conflict of interest form, which asks for property ownership and business relationships, was completed by 20 of 27 candidates in the February 2nd primary election.

Ryan was the only incumbent who lost who failed to fill out the form.

District 1′s Yvonne Barnes and District 2′s Lyn Orphal, both of whom sent ALAW the answers to the financial questions asked, also lost.

The other four Republican candidates in Ryan’s District 6 voluntarily turned in their questionnaires. (Those who did not volunteer for the financial exposure can be found here.)

With regard to the Sun City turnout question, the precinct voting returns for Ryan’s Grafton Township Precinct 15 showed these returns:

• Ryan – 107
• Evertsen – 71
• McCann – 55
• Draper – 33
• Narusis – 33

These totals are not the final precinct totals. The finals will show more votes, perhaps many more because lots of folks in Sun City are out of town this time of year and Ryan made a determined effort to solicit absentee votes.

It should be noted, however, that the McHenry County Clerk’s web site shows Ryan receiving 272 votes for precinct committeeman.

It will be interesting to see the final totals to compare his precinct committeeman total with those votes he received to retain his county board seat.

Here’s what happened to those county board candidates who did not send in a completed ALAW ethics form.