McHenry County Blog

Every day Dave Diersen of DuPage County puts together a compilation of articles about Illinois politics at GOPUSA Illinois. That’s where I got the idea for this story. (You can subscribe to his daily email here.) Today’s email pointed me to an Illinois News Network story, which stimulated this piece.

Bill Cunningham

Chicago Democratic Party State Rep. Bill Cunningham has come up with a half-good idea. He seems like a qualified enough guy. He used to be Director of Communications for Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart.

He wants to require statewide elected officials to disclosed their income tax forms for five years prior to the immediately before the election.

He is motivated by the Republican Governor Bill Brady’s limited release and the refusal of his Lieutenant Governor running mate Jason Plummer to show anything and is even willing to mention Democrat Scott Lee Cohen.

But, what about the other people running for office?

What about state legislators?

What about judicial candidates?

Wouldn’t you like to know if such candidates would get paid more for the office they are seeking than they earned in the private sector?

Wouldn’t you like to know if you candidate had even worked in the private sector?

Wouldn’t you be interested in where they got their income?

Some people might be.

Not that the bill has a chance of passing, but it would be a better bill, I think, if the sponsor had included himself and his colleagues in the jurisdiction of the legislation.

The bill’s number is House Bill 278.

Rep. Cummingham can be reached by phone at 773-445-8128.  No email addresses are provided on the General Assembly web site.

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 )

An issue ALAW set forth during the primary election caught fire.

It was an income and a potential conflict of interest disclosure form which most county board candidates voluntarily filled out.

Since before the primary election county board members have been trying to figure out how to enact something like it.

So far they have not done so and the November election is just around the corner.

The Alliance for Land, Agriculture and Water is now reminding people which people were willing to reveal potential conflicts of interest and who wasn’t.

You see the results below:

This shows only incumbents. Click to enlarge.

Challengers who filed out the forms and won the primary election include

• Donna Kurtz (R-District 2)
• Jeff Thirtyacre (D-District 4)
• Frank Wedig (District 5)
• Diane Evertson (District 6)

District 1′s Bob Nowak is the only victorious challenger who did not fill out ALAW’s disclosure form.

Two Democrats on the ballot were not put there through the primary election process. Their party’s caucused them in and they, under new rules designed to make it tougher to put candidates on the ballot who did not run in the primary, were forced to gather signatures later.

They have both filled out ALAW’s conflict of interest questionnaire. They are

• Mark Booras of District 2
• Dennis Palys of District 6

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Roll calls on the Federal Stimulus Bond allocations are here.

Roll calls on land use are here.