Leading up the list is

• District 2’s representative and McHenry County Board Chairman Ken Koehler, who published a defensive half-page ad in the Northwest Herald Sunday entitled,

“This is the worst possible time to sell property, but…”

Ken Koehler's half-page Sunday Northwest Herald ad.

Someone called it the “starving orphan” ad. I didn’t understand when I heard the characterization. I was told it meant that Koehler was selling the land to feed starving orphans.

He said he was selling the land to settle the estate of his deceased partner Gary Seigmeier, who “left behind a wife, three children and several grandkids.”

In the ad, Koehler mentions the desire by Metra to purchase land he partially owns. (The documents say he owns half interest.)

Below are the lesser known county board members who did not complete the form:

• District 1’s Anna May Miller
• District 4’s Pete Merkel
• District 5’s Jim Kennedy
• District 6’s Dan Ryan

Miller was opposed by challenger Robert Nowak, who also did not reveal his potential conflicts of interest.  To the best of my knowledge, Nowak made no mailing.  His two female, incumbent opponents did.

Merkel and Kennedy were unopposed in their primaries, so will be on the ballot this fall.

Ryan LOST

Running in District 5 was challenger Dave Frederick, who did not fill out the form.

The First Electric Newspaper has some comments from a couple of those who did not file ALAW’s form.

Hill and Jung teamed up in their campaign.

Here’s 23 of 39 precincts:

That brings the total to 20 out of 27 candidates who have answered the ALAW questionnaire.

74%.  Pretty amazing.

McHenry County Board Distrist Map

District 1 incumbent Yvonne Barnes is one of the recent filings. She has a contested primary election with three candidates—fellow incumbent Anna May Miller, Algonquin Township Highway Commissioner Bob Miller’s wife, and Robert Nowak, neither of which have filed. At the Patriots United County Board Candidates’ Forum, Nowak was the only one of the three to attend.

The second new filer is unopposed District 3 Democrat Lori McConville. District 3 is where the Democrats picked up a seat two years ago when Kathy Bergan Schmidt beat incumbent Nick Provenzano. Provenzano is trying to regain that seat this year. All five Republicans previously filed forms.

That means both non-incumbent Democrats have filled out the form. The other is District 4 candidate Jeff Thirtyacre.

However, the Democratic Party incumbent who is up for re-election, District 5’s Jim Kennedy, has not yet done so. He will be on the ballot this fall whether or not he decides to reveal his potential conflicts of interest. His Democratic Party colleague from District 5, Paula Yensen, not up for re-election this year, has also voluntarily filed the form.

Twenty-seven people want to be elected to the McHenry County Board next fall.

Twenty-one are Republicans, three are Democrats and one is a member of the Green Party.

Although the February 2nd election will decide who will be on the GOP ballot, the Democrats and Greens could appoint people to the ballot after the primary to challenge Republicans in Districts 1, 2 and 6, where Republicans currently face no fall contest.

100% of the Greens have filed (Frank Wedig, running in District 5).

Two-thirds of the Democrats have filed.

Of the twenty-one Republicans, seventeen have filed. That’s over 80%.

So, which Republicans haven’t told us what land they own and what business interests they have?

• District 1 – Incumbent Anna May Miller of District 1 and challenger Robert Nowak.
• District 2 – McHenry County Board Chairman Ken Koehler of District 1. ( All of his opponents have filed their ethics forms with ALAW.)
• District 4 – Incumbent Pete Merkel
• District 5 – Challenger Dave Frederick
• District 6 – Incumbent Dan Ryan

Two-thirds of the non-filing Republican candidates are incumbents.

Of the ten Republicans and Democrats now in office running for re-election, sixty percent have now filled out the conflict of interest forms.

There’s still time to file and I’ll more than happy to write an article if addition people decided to reveal their potential conflicts of interest.

That may have happened late last week with the Alliance for Land, Agriculture and Water’s conflict of interest ordinance.

Originally presented to the McHenry County Board in December, the draft ordinance was shipped off to the State’s Attorney’s Office for review.

The review came back with some good points, along with some trivial ones.

And the number of county board candidates voluntarily filing the form kept increasing. Here’s who have filed so far:

• District 1 – None
• District 2 – All but Ken Koehler, that is, Sandra DePaul, Donna Kurtz, Ellen Brady Mueller and Lyn Orphal
• District 3 – Everyone of them! Veronica Armstrong, Nick Provenzano, Craig Steagall, Barbara Wheeler and Karen Tynis
• District 4 – Sandra Salgado and Jeff Thirtyacre (Democrat)
• District 5 – Tina Hill, John Jung and Frank Wedig (Green).  Incumbent Jim Kennedy and challenger Dave Frederick have not yet filed the form.
• District 6 – All but incumbent Dan Ryan, that is, Richard Draper, Diane Evertsen, Mary McCann and Vic Narusis.

Since there is no deadline, candidates or public officials can still download the conflict of interest form, fill it out and send it in.

Indeed ALAW did not even ask candidates to fill out the ethics form; it did have a questionnaire on issued of interest, however, the results of which can be found here for the twelve county board candidates who completed it.

As you can see more candidates filled out the ethics statement than filled out the issue questionnaire.

Along the way, every candidate for sheriff has answered the conflict of interest questionnaire.

And, two incumbent county board members not up for election have completed it. One, Republican Virginia Peschke, the other, Democrat Paula Yensen.

Crystal Lake Councilwoman Carolyn Schofield

Late last week, however, the first municipal official sent in answers.

She is Crystal Lake City Councilwoman Carolyn Schofield.

What’s that all about?

She just got elected.

Does this portend an issue in the Crystal Lake city elections next spring?

Will Schofield introduce an ordinance to make completing the conflict of interest form a requirement for elected and appointed city officials, as well as city consultants?

Unlike the County of McHenry, the City of Crystal Lake is a Home Rule unit of government.

What’s that mean?

It means the Crystal Lake City Council and other Home Rule cities have more power than county government.

The standard explanation of what a Home Rule government can do is anything the General Assembly doesn’t say it can’t do.

If Schofield, the newest member of the city council, follows decides to make a variation of the ALAW ordinance mandatory in Crystal Lake, the debate could turn quite interesting.

Since city Councilwoman Ellen Brady Mueller is running for county board in District 2, she might get elected. She certainly is in the top three in the sign war.

If elected, I imagine she would resign from the council. If so, a replacement would have to be selected.

Might the council require applicants for the possible vacancy to answer the conflict of interest questions first?

Whether or not the city council passed such a requirement, any council member could let it be known that he or she would not support a candidate who did not fill out the form.

Yes, ALAW has started something that could get very, very interesting.

As of now, over half the candidates have filled out questionnaires aimed at identifying potential conflicts of interest–14 in all.

Might this be an indicator that those wanting to serve on the board have discovered voters don’t trust their public officials.

The latest two to submit the Alliance for Land, Agriculture and Water are

• Crystal Lake City Councilwoman Ellen Brady Mueller, running as a Republican in District 2
• Former McHenry County Board member and Vice Chairman John Jung, running in District 5

Ellen Brady Mueller

Brady Mueller becomes the second candidate to submit the form to the Alliance for Land, Agriculture and Water. The first was fellow challenger Donna Kurtz.

County Board Chairman Ken Koehler and fellow incumbent Lyn Orphal have thus far ignored the ethics questionnaire, which ALAW asked the county board to enact before the February 2nd primary election.  Challenger Sandra DePaul has, as well.

John Jung

In District 5, former county board member John Jung has now filled out and sent in the form. The only incumbent in the district, Tina Hill, did so earlier. Challenger Dave Frederick has not.

The Management Services Committee referred the ALAW-suggested language to the McHenry County State’s Attorney’s Office. Here is the story about the State’s Attorney’s reply.

There will be a candidates’ night Friday at 7 at McHenry County College sponsored by Patriots United.  Candidates will start arriving about 6:30, if you want to talk to them ahead of the forum.

The idea seemed patterned, after Newt Gingrich’s 1994 “Contract with America.”

I was writing as fast as I could, but he was talking faster.  He said he was not willing to release its contents because it was in preliminary form and that he wanted to see if other candidates might agree with him.

Veterinarian Frederick told of showing the platform to 180 voters while gathering petition signatures and they “enthusiastically supported this.”

Sort of test marketing.

Among the notes I made seemed to be a preamble about governments at all levels having responded “very inadequately” to something, perhaps, the economic situation.

“Bureaucracy” also came in for a “hit.”

Then there were a series of “If elected” statements.

One advocated term limits for county board members—two, unless someone were elected county board chairman during a second term and then he/she could have three.

Another supported reducing the number on the county board from 24 to 18 elected from nine districts.

There was a plank about electing someone at-large.  It may have been the county board chairman.

In an anti-politician year, cutting back the size of the county board might find some traction.  A similar approach to the Illinois House, called the Cutback Amendment, won now-Governor Pat Quinn a lot of supporters back in 1982

Twenty-three people are vying for twelve spots on the fall ballot.

Thirteen are women; ten men.

In District 1, incumbents Anna May Miller and Yvonne Barnes are being challenged by Cary’s Bob Nowak.

In District 2, incumbents Ken Koehler and Lyn Orphal will face not only MCC Board member Donna Kurtz, but Crystal Lake City Councilwoman Ellen Brady Mueller, but also Sandra DePaul.

Mueller likes to be last on the ballot, but she didn’t wait long enough this afternoon. DePaul gets the coveted spot, worth an extra 5% in a six-person race, probably less in this five-person race.

In District 3, newly energized entrepreneur Craig Steagall, who lives just north of Crystal Lake will take on incumbent Barb Wheeler, former county board member Nick Provenzano and newcomers Veronica Armstrong and Karen Tynis.

Steagall is known for his full-page ads in the Northwest Herald in opposition to Metra’s purchase of 17 acres next to the old 84 Lumber (new Alexander’s Lumber) on Country Club Road.

Those ads have attacked McHenry County Board Chairman Ken Koehler. Less well known is that he put together the people who built Prairie Ridge High School’s soccer field.

In District 5, Dave Frederick filed his nominating papers. The veterinarian will be running against incumbent Tina Hill and former county board member John Jung. The announced candidacy of John Vrett did not materialize.

In District 6, incumbent Mary McCann filed her petitions Monday. She joins incumbent Dan Ryan and challengers Richard Draper of Wonder Lake, Dianne Evertsen of Hartland Township and Victor Naursis of Woodstock.

Confirmation has been received that Woodstock’s Frank Wedig will again run for the McHenry County Board in District 5.

That district covers Dorr Township, which covers most of Woodstock and Bull Valley, plus the eastern part of Grafton Township, including parts of Huntley, Lake in the Hills, Lakewood and Crystal Lake.

Wedig ran two years ago. You can find out how well he did here.He then ran for Dorr Township Trustee.

Wedig was competitive, running 158 votes behind the lowest Republican, Joseph Evanoff.

Wedig received 84% of the votes of the lowest Republican vote getter. (That is the margin prior to adding in absentee and early voting results, which were not tremendous in this election.)

Most recently,. the Green Party came out against the Woodstock baseball stadium’s being allocated $15 million in Federal Stimulus Recovery Zone Bonds.

There are four Republicans who have taken out primary petitions in District 5:

• Tina Hill (incumbent)
• John Jung (who lost to Democrat Paula Yensen last year)
• Dave Frederick
• John Vrett

The winners will face Democrat Jim Kennedy and Wedig.

With all the new residents in western Lake in the Hills and Huntley, Democrats saw an opening four years ago, running Lake in the Hills Trustee Jim Kennedy.

In a slash and burn campaign, combined with lots of shoe leather, I learned later, incumbent Perry Moy was defeated.

Two years later Lake in the Hills Trustee Paula Yensen ran an extensive door-to-door campaign and unseated Republican incumbent John Jung.

Now, Kennedy is up for re-election, looking apprehensively at the upcoming reapportionment by his GOP county board colleagues.

District 5 Democratic Precinct committee met after the August Democratic Party Central Committee meeting.

With the Barack Obama phenomenon wearing off and groups like Patriots United, while not a participant in partisan politics, drawing over 500 people to a hot button meeting on the Democrats health care reform program, you can imagine that District 5 Democrats are wondering if they can re-elect Kennedy.

Republicans apparently don’t understand that Kennedy’s seat is a “Democratic” one.

Besides incumbent Tina Hill, three others have picked up nominating petitions at the county clerk’s office.

You know about John Jung.  He lost to Yensen, but is running again.

Two others are apparently gathering signatures:

• John Vrett
• Dave Frederick

I hope each will send me a bio, but let me tell you what I know about them.

Vrett served on the Woodstock Unit School District 200 school board. Although he taught in the Marengo Grade School District and Carpentersville’s District 300, his school board service reflected a “protect the taxpayer” point of view. He is an avid hunter and lives on Bull Valley Road just east of Woodstock. Vrett is now retired.

Frederick has served on the McHenry County Regional Board of School Trustees.  He has also run for the District 200 Board. He lives on Mt. Tabor Road about halfway between Route 176 and Lucas Road. He is a veterinarian, specializing in horses.

Both can accurately be described as conservatives.

It should be noted that all of the Republican candidates live in the Woodstock zip code, although Frederick’s children have attended St. Thomas School in Crystal Lake and he lives right on the edge of the Crystal Lake-Woodstock zip code.

= = = = =
Facing the camera in the photo of District 5 Democratic Party activists at their party’s last Central Committee meeting are McHenry County Board members Jim Kennedy and Paula Yensen.

Frederick chides nationally syndicated Chicago Sun-Times columnist Robert Novak for not reading Tim Novak’s 3—part series on Barack Obama’s Tony Rezko’s involvement Rezko’s failed low income developments and with the purchase of Obama’s home.

Concerning the side lot, Frederick writes,

“I also take issue with Robert Novak’s contention that Obama paid “above-market-value” for a slice of his side yard.

“Obama paid exactly one-sixth of the price Rezko paid six months earlier for a sixth of the lost. Selling a sixth of the lot to Obama serverely restricts any opportunity Rezko or any subsequent owner of the lot would have to ever build a comparable home on the now undersized lot.

“The sale destroyed the value of the separated lot and removes any notion that Rezko purchased it as anything other than a favor to Obama.”

Veterinarian Frederick sounds like he could pass the test for Certified Illinois Assessing Officer.