McHenry County Blog

In an article on his Woodstock Advocate entitled,

When did Trustees decide to sue Supervisor?

Philpott’s opening paragraphs are just intriguing:

In an update to this morning’s article about the Grafton Township’s Trustees’ filing a lawsuit against Township Supervisor Linda Moore, this morning I telephoned the Grafton Township Supervisor at her telephone number as published on the Township’s website.

Township Administrator Pam Fender answered the telephone number listed under the Supervisor’s name and told me that she did not know when the Trustees had decided on the lawsuit. Now, how does the Administrator not know the answer to what I would consider a fairly simple and direct question?

Grafton Township Trustees, from left to right, Gerry McMahon, Betty Zirk, Rob LaPorta and Barb Murphy, meeting in open session last Thursday night.

I stayed until the end of the meeting and discussion of the Separation of Powers suit filed by Supervisor Linda Moore by Ancel Glink partner Rob Bush was not even behind closed doors.

There certainly was no motion to sue anyone while the township trustees were in session, let alone the passage of a motion.

So, all you legal eagles reading this, let me know whether you think the decision to file the suit was a violation of the Open Meetings Act.

= = = = =
Incidentally, I called Township Administrator Pam Fender this morning asking for a copy of the suit, but have not received it as of 5 PM. She said she didn’t have one, but would contact Township Attorney Keri-Lyn Krafthefer.  If it ever comes, it will be interesting to see what the township is billed for sending it.

McHenry County Sheriff Keith Nygren

The sheriff with $123,000 in the bank as of New Year’s Day and 13-years of name identification as an elected official on top of service as Crystal Lake’s chief of police delivered a body blow to challenger Zane Seipler in Tuesday’s election.

There is no need to wait for the early and absentee ballots to be included in the totals to see that Keith Nygren won a convincing victory.

Nygren won over twice as many votes as Seipler.

The vote count at this time is 16,942 to 7,924.

Sheriff Nygren is again King of the Hill.

It’s not that Nygren isn’t vulnerable to criticism.

Zane Seipler on election day.

Seipler took my precinct 41-32, not counting the electronic, early and absentee ballots.

It is conceivable a similar message could have worked countywide had the challenger had sufficient money and manpower to deliver it.

What it means to me is that the veteran sheriff is not on as solid ground as he and his supporters probably think they are.

Nygren has Democrat Mike Mahon and Green Party candidate Gus Philpott as opponents in the fall election.  The two opponents will split the anti-Nygren vote, giving him a better chance to win than a one on one battle would.

Even so, my guess is that fall contest will not be as one-sided as this one seemed to Nygren.

Zane Seipler being interviewed Friday morning on Harvard Community Radio by David Gardner.

Friday McHenry County GOP primary candidate for Sheriff, Zane Seipler was on Harvard Community Radio.

Monday was Sheriff Keith Nygren.

On Tuesday Green Party candidate Gus Philpott will be interviewed

He will be the guest on the Morning Buzz with Dave Gardner at 8:05AM. The station is an online (only) radio station, broadcasting at www.HarvardRadio.net.

If you miss the live show, you catch it from the archives.

“It will be about my race for Sheriff of McHenry County (Illinois) in the November 2010 General Election,” Philpott said. “Dave asked me to bring some talking points, so I told him I’d have them delivered the night before (and included an image of a United Van Lines truck!).”

Philpott offers this biographical data:

“I was a police officer when he was a senior at Cornell College and was a reserve deputy sheriff in Colorado for eight years, including three years as a motorcycle traffic officer. He was interested in the Border Patrol, Colorado State Patrol, Littleton and Lakewood (Colo.) PDs and considers himself lucky that he never got hired. He would have told them everything that was wrong the first day, and then he would have been washing patrol cars, not driving them.”

The recent filing of potential conflict of interest information by Democratic Party candidate for sheriff Mike Mahon means all of McHenry County Sheriff Keith Nygren’s opponents have taken this step by transparency.

Nygren has not done so yet.

GOP primary opponent Zane Seipler was the first to file the form.  Green Party candidate Gus Philpott was the second.

The form in question was proposed as part of a county ordinance by the Alliance for Land, Agriculture and Water.

Its intent is to allow the public and other public officials to know what property those filing have as well as their business relationships.

Most county officials will show they have no such potential conflicts of interest.

16 of 27 county board candidates have their replies posted on the ALAW web site here.

But only five (half) of the incumbents running for re-election have voluntarily submitted a completed form:

• Tina Hill – District 5
• Mary McCann – District 6
• Lyn Orphal – District 2
• Sandy Salgado – District 4
• Barb Wheeler – District 3

None of the three male incumbents filed:

• Ken Koehler – District 2
• Pete Merkel – District 4
• Dan Ryan – District 6

And, the two District 1 females also did not fill out the ALAW ethics questionnaire:

• Yvonne Barnes
• Anna May Miller

Zane Seipler, GOP candidate for McHenry County Sheriff. was the first countywide candidate to file the conflict of interest form with ALAW,

Now there are two candidates for countywide office who have filed the conflict of interest forms prepared by the Alliance for Land, Agriculture and Water.

The first was Zane Seipler, the Republican challenging McHenry County Sheriff Keith Nygren for his spot.

Power party sheriff candidates Nygren and and Mike Mahon have not done so.

Gus Philpott is the second candidate for McHenry County Sheriff to file the ALAW potential conflict of interest questionnaire. He's running on the Green Party ticket and will be on the fall ballot.

Now, a fall challenger has stepped up to the plate.

It’s the Green Party candidate for sheriff and operator of Woodstock Advocate Gus Philpott.

That means both of the Green candidates on the ballot—the other is District 5 county board candidate Frank Wedig—have filled out the questionnaire that ALAW wants all elected and appointed county officials to file, including those who zone property.

17 of 27 county board candidates have completed the paperwork. That’s 63% of the candidates.

Showing how threatening to the Establishment this concept is, however, is the fact that 60% of the incumbent county board members running for re-election have neglected to reveal their potential conflicts of interest.

The idea, if enacted by the county board, would require elected and appointed officials, plus consultants to reveal potential conflicts of interest.

The ones who did file did it voluntarily and had to find the find the form on the ALAW web site.

Clearly, this is not your ordinary questionnaire.

District 2 county board candidate Craig Steagall was the first to complete the ALAW ethics questionnaire.

Donna Kurtz, District 2 candidate who was the second to file the ALAW ethics from.

District 3 county board challenger Craig Steagall was the first to file.

District 2 challenger Donna Kurtz was the second.

Now, all candidates from District 3 have sent the completed form to ALAW.

In District 2, all but County Board Chairman Ken Koehler have voluntarily filed the forms with the alliance.

Koehler was also the only candidate in District 2 to miss the Patriots United county board candidates night. No newspaper wrote an article. McHenry County Blog did publish a story.

Philpott issued the following statement about the questionnaire:

“The ALAW Disclosure is a very important document.

“Citizens have the right to know, up-front, about conflicts-of-interest for elected officials.

“I support disclosure by appointed officials, too.

“Cozy, backroom deals must be a thing of the past. I would support widening the disclosure to require reporting of any conflicts that come into existence, after the Disclosure is filed.

“I am pleased to report that I have no conflicts-of-interest

“Gus Philpott”

A while ago, McHenry County Blog took note that the blog

Dirty Keith vs. Dirty Harry

had something of a counterpart in

The Diametrical Woodstock Advocate

Alas, former Democratic candidate for McHenry County Coroner David Bachmann’s frequent updates have not inspired the anonymous author of “The Diametrical Woodstock Advocate,” to continue posting.

Originally inspired, it seems obvious, by now-Woodstock Green candidate for sheriff Gus Philpott’s blog

The Woodstock Advocate

But in the comments below the story

McHenry County Sheriff’s Race – Blog v. Blog

might entertain you.  Click on the title of the story and have a look at the 20-some comments.  Some are really heated.  Bachmann does not hold back when he is attacked.

As I pointed out September 11th, former McHenry County Coroner candidate Dave Bachmann created an anti-Sheriff Keith Nygren blog. It’s called

“Dirty Keith vs. Dirty Harry”

It’s an electronic whispering campaign. At least that’s what it reminded me of when I wrote  about it September 23rd.

1,623 people had viewed it then. Now the count is up to 6,027.

I infer that one has been Democratic political campaign consultant James Carville.

Every election cycle has new tools. I remember using the outside of bags that an advertising delivery service put on mailbox posts to hype my campaign for state representative in 1972.

Phyllis Schlafly wrote a cheaply produced book about Barry Goldwater, “A Choice Not an Echo.”

That went hand-in-hand with “A Texan Looks at Lyndon” by J. Evetts Haley.

Haley’s books led to a whispering campaign about how Johnson had stolen the election that put him in the U.S. Senate.

Bachmann’s has covered various aspects of Nygren’s life about which no campaign opponent would want to take the blame.

I won’t itemize them all, but the postings do rely heavily on ridicule, something absolutely no politician can stand.

Bachmann’s blog has led the way to a story even the Northwest Herald could not ignore—the Keith Nygrens having Homestead Exemptions in both McHenry County and Florida. Such a practice is not legal in Florida.

Well, a Nygren supporter has taken up the fight on his blog, which is called

“The Diametrical Woodstock Advocate”

It apparently was started to attack Gus Philpott’s

“Woodstock Advocate”

The latest post on the anti-Woodstock Advocate blog is a flat out attack on Bachmann’s blog.

Thinking about the concept of one blog’s attacking another concept got me thinking of Mad Magazine’s Spy v. Spy.

I never could figure out whether the white or the black spy was the good guy.

Go to both of the battling blogs and make up your own mind.

Lake in the Hills resident Mike Mahon is not only passing petitions for the Democratic Party nomination for McHenry County Sheriff, but he has an initial campaign piece that has been made available to McHenry County Blog. You see it below (click to enlarge):

The text from the Cook County Deputy Sheriff says the following:

Mike Mahon has been a Deputy Sheriff for Cook County since 1987.

The majority of Mike’s career has been in investigative and supervisory positions.

Mike’s hard work, sound judgment, integrity, and test scores have earned him numerous promotions during different administrations.

He has held positions of increasing responsibility, including:

• Department of Corrections Officer,
• Investigator,
• Supervisor,
• Fugitive Unit Investigator,
• Internal Affairs Division Investigator, and
• Sergeant.

Currently, Mike works in the Sheriff’s Administration for the Office of Integrity and Compliance where he directs efforts related to strategic planning, program evaluations, personnel and productivity studies, and policy and procedure reviews.

Mike lives with his family in Lake in the Hills, where they have resided for the last fourteen years.

For more information, contact Mike at 815-788-9540.

So, now three challengers have raised their hands as candidates to challenge three-term Republican incumbent Keith Nygren.

The first was Gus Philpott, who intends to run on the Green Party ticket.

The second was Zane Seipler. He is running against Nygren in the Republican Party’s primary election.

After the McHenry County Board’s Finance Committee meeting, Chairman Marc Munaretto answered some questions. One of them concerned how the allocation of Federal Stimulus Bonds for McHenry County was $27.5 million, but that there were about to be $33 million in requests.

Since the Woodstock baseball stadium request was for $15 million, that means the other potential request would be $18 million.  Unless multiple requests are in the pipeline.

I pointed out that manufacturing plants have a higher multiplier effect than retail. Or a baseball stadium. With the latter two, there is only so much money in a community to be spent on things and on recreation.

“We’re out beating the bushes right now (for other applicants),” Munaretto commented.

He listed and defended three loan potentials:

• Manufacturing
• Construction
• Tourism

Commenting on the $33 million in potential bond requests versus the $27.5 million in authorization, Munaretto observed, “We don’t have to fulfill the request,” meaning, I took it, that the entire request for any project would not have to be approved by the county board.

In any event, the mystery may be solved about a major part of the mystery $18 million.

Read this statement from the Erin Smith, Village President of Lakewood:

September 24, 2009

“Since there have recently been reports in the local media about potential development plans in the Village of Lakewood, I thought it would be appropriate and in the best interests of the residents of our community to provide accurate information regarding this development activity,” said President Erin Smith.

“We are currently working with a developer who is interested in building a mixed use project within the Village of Lakewood’s Planning Area, near the intersection of Illinois Route 47 and Illinois Route 176.

“This Planning Area is the result of signed Boundary Agreements with all of our neighboring communities,” she explained, “and has allowed for an orderly and purposeful attitude toward our planning and discussions with developers.”

This general area is designated for commercial development within the Village of Lakewood’s Comprehensive Plan and is an area of  “regional commercial significance” within McHenry County’s proposed 2030 Land Use Plan.

She further indicated that the first phase of the proposed development was a multi-use sports complex, including both indoor and outdoor facilities, with ancillary uses as a second phase.

President Smith explained that one of the most appealing aspects of the concept is the sustainable, green development strategy that the developer has outlined.

“We are both committed to the ideals of sustainable development,” said President Smith, “and believe that this concept provides the opportunity to create a strategic environmental plan that will incorporate best management practices and new technologies in all phases of the project and will solidify McHenry County’s reputation as a leader in environmental issues.”

President Smith also noted that this development has strong potential in terms of job creation and overall economic impact to McHenry County.

She finished by saying,

“All of our discussions until this time have been conceptual, and the more detailed analysis is just underway. Any further specifics regarding the project are purely speculative at this time.”

“We expect to have more details available regarding the project within the next few weeks and eagerly anticipate sharing them with the community.”

“The sports complex is Lakewood is targeted for youth.

“It is not targeting a minor league baseball team.

“It should be a nice complement to the proposed Woodstock stadium.”

New ballgame in town?

IL 47 – Why in Lakewood?

The McHenry County Sheriff’s race has heated up considerably since former Democratic Party candidate for coroner Dave Bachmann started a blog called

“DIRTY KEITH vs. DIRTY HARRY.”

The blog has taken off. As I write this article, 1,623 folks have taken a look, according to what is apparently the first counter installed. 

A second counter popped up yesterday. It has a map feature which shows where readers are located.  You see the nationwide distribution of the last 100 hits above.  I copied it yesterday afternoon.  The concentration of hits is in our area, as you can see below.

Here’s what a close-up of readers in the Chicago area looked like yesterday.  The one up top is Milwaukee.  The background is not too sharp, but you can make out Lake Michigan.  The two dots above what looks like a “Hidden Mickey” are in Walworth County.  One guy was on the blog for over two hours, the counting mechanism indicates.

The blog is not laid out like McHenry County Blog.  The latest entries are not on top.  They may be in the middle or at the bottom.  To find what is new, one has to go searching.

As anyone who followed the 2008 race between Bachmann and Marlene Lantz knows, Sheriff Keith Nygren was on his fellow Republican’s side. That no love is lost between Bachmann and the two Republicans is blatantly obvious.

How would one characterize Bachmann’s effort?

It’s satire.  No doubt about that.

Bachmann is using it to even scores.   Bachmann was none too pleased at Nygren’s comments to the Northwest Herald about Bachmann’s lack of investigative abilities. 

The blog’s first substantive post had a photo of what readers were led to believe were items related to some arson crime on a rainy night. One that had not been solved, it seemed.  It was beyond me, but insiders might get more from it.

There are a lot of implications in the blog, but readers have to pretty much draw the inferences.  They are usually not stated directly.

To be sure, the content is over the top on any number of topics.  It even contains some “eye candy.”

It reminds me of the whispering campaigns that occur in virtually every campaign of any significance. 

One side tries to get undecided voters to oppose the opponent because of something they dare not put in writing because of the backlash it might occur among those who think the whisperers are just taking part in dirty politics.

But, assuming the charges are amusing, if you aren’t the target of the satire, a number of people might be interested in the blog.

Indeed, what I found above shows a number are.

How often does a sheriff get taken on by a citizen?

Maybe that’s part of the draw.

As I have stated before, ridicule is the one type of criticism that politicians can’t stand.

Who wants to be the butt of Saturday Night Live skits or a Chicago Tribune cut and fold doll or a Chicago Tribune editorial cartoon or another editorial cartoon in the same paper on the same subject or a fake Christmas card.

As I think about what Bachmann has created, it reminds me most of what Saturday Night Live did to Rod Blagojevich and Roland Burris.

Definitely over the top, but funny.

With Bachmann’s blog out there, neither of Nygren’s opponents has to play the bad guy.

Bachmann is.

Hard to blame Green Party candidate Gus Philpott and Nygren’s Republican primary opponent Zane Seipler for what Bachmann does.

Bachmann does link to Seipler’s web page and has a supplementary web page entitled

on which he asks readers to send him information at this email address:

RANOFF2MEXICO@AOL.COM

Somehow I don’t think Bachmann has enough material to keep this going through the November general election in 2010, but it’s going strong now.