McHenry County Blog

McHenry County State’s Attorney Lou Bianchi has clarified his relationship with the McHenry County Sheriff’s Department in a letter to Blake Horwitz, the attorney for former Deputy Sheriff Zane Seipler.

Read the text below to which I have added paragraphing to make it easier to read on a screen:

February 14, 2011

Mr. Blake Horwitz
The Blake Horwitz Law Firm
Two First National Plaza
20 S. Clark Street Ste. 500
Chicago, IL 60603

Dear Mr. Horwitz,

One of the goals set when I took office in 2004 was to minimize the use of outside counsel by maximizing the use of our civil division attorneys. We have accomplished that and with the exception of a few conflict cases, at a great savings to the taxpayers (estimated savings of $10,000.00 a week).

I am also proud of the fact that we have successfully defended the Sheriff in the several lawsuits brought against him and his office, never having lost a case, settling only two. This has also resulted in tax savings.

I am hoping this background helps explain our response to your recent letter.

During these past 6 years, as mentioned above, we have successfully defeated a great number of law suits filed against the Sheriff and his office.

Should we investigate the alleged complaints outlined in your Motion to Appoint a Special Prosecutor and/or prosecute the Sheriff for the alleged conduct, we could not continue to represent him in the lawsuits filed against him.

Furthermore, we may, in that case, be prohibited from representing the “People” in any criminal prosecution initiated by his deputies.

Having to hire outside counsel in those cases could be an enormous burden, resulting in hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions, of dollars of expense and costs to the County and the McHenry County taxpayers.

Accordingly, with very few minor exceptions, our office would not investigate the Sheriff, nor prosecute him, under circumstances where allegations have been made such as those asserted by your client in his Petition to Appoint a Special Prosecutor to Investigate Sheriff Nygren.

We want to make it clear that this Office of State’s Attorney has not, and will not, investigate the claims outlined in Mr. Seipler’s Petition and your recent letter for the reasons stated above.

With regards to a Special Prosecutor, our position has been and will always be the same, and that is, that one of three choices be utilized to act as special prosecutor:

• The Illinois Appellate Prosecutor,
• Attorney General, or
• a State’s Attorney from another county.

Any one of these options would result in no additional cost to the county and taxpayers. An annual fee is paid to the Appellate Prosecutor to represent the county in cases such as this, and accordingly, they remain open and available to act in that capacity.

Very truly yours,
Louis A. Bianchi

Chick to enlarge the letter below:

You may remember how McHenry County Blog reported on the hearing before Judge Thomas Meyer. Read the article linked below for the details:

“‘I’m Troubled,’ Judge Thomas Meyer Says at Sheriff Nygren Special Prosecutor Trial“

The Soar to Higher Heights Foundation is being contacted by the Charitable Trusts Division of the Illinois Attorney General’s Office, according to press officer Robyn Ziegler.

McHenry County Blog checked last week as to whether the foundation had registered with the Secretary of State’s Office and the Attorney General’s Office.

The "Frequently Asked Questions" page on the Illinois Attorney General's Charitable Trusts Division page says, "All charities that solicit in Illinois should be registered with the Office of the Attorney General." The Soar to Higher Heights Foundation has not yet done so.

When I called both offices said it had not, but the Attorney General’s Office told me that its Charitable Trusts Division would check further.

I got my reply yesterday.

“You’re right. The organization doesn’t exist yet, so obviously they are not registered with our office” Zeigler told me.

“The Attorney General’s Office is reaching out to those individuals identified as affiliated with this group.

“Our goal is make sure they understand the Charitable Trust laws of the state, including the requirement to be registered with our office, if they are soliciting for charitable purposes.

“Those efforts help to protect the charitable assets that have been collected for this or any charitable purpose.”

But, when I checked again with the Illinois Secretary of State’s Office I was told,
“It was incorporated 8-13,2010.”

That’s last Friday.

The only name attached to the foundation is its agent, David Joseph Ruelle

“They don’t list officers until their first annual report,”

the Secretary of State’s employee told me.

The Daily Herald style book can’t bring itself to use the words “illegal aliens,” but John Patterson’s story about the Illinois Auditor General’s study of Rod Blagojevich’s All Kids taxpayer-subsidized health care program says 75% of 71,665 children on the program were “ undocumented immigrants.”

$55 million.

All from state tax dollars, because Federal Medicaid will only match state money 50-50 when they are in the country legally.

Some doctors figured out they would not get paid.

Since all Illinois children needing assistance were already covered by the Governor Jim Edgar-initiated Kids Care, it was obvious from the git-go that Blagojevich and the Democrats were just trying to gain political support from people they hoped would be future citizens…if amnesty were again enacted by Congress.

As time went on, it became more important to doctors.

Meanwhile, the program has made Illinois a magnet for illegal aliens wanting health taxpayer-funded health care for their children.

It’s evidence of what the Daily Herald reported two years ago.

More information here.

You can find the summary of the Auditor General’s report here.

I have already explained how Roland Burris didn’t know the difference between a civil and a criminal case.

That memory from a Champaign County debate in 1982 when I was running against Burris for State Comptroller made me chuckle when I heard a national talking head praise the former Attorney General’s legal prowess.

But, what about his managerial talents, not that much of that is needed by a United States Senator.

I looked at the Illinois Auditor General’s Audit of the last year and a half of Burris’ service as Illinois Attorney General.

Having served on the Illinois Audit Commission for a couple of terms in the 1970′s I can tell a good audit from a bad one.

Roland Burris’ last audit (for Fiscal Years 1993 and 1994 – Burris left office midway through FY94) had these negative findings:

• Burris didn’t pay $313,600 in phone bills over the two-year period. “We again recommend the Agency comply with the State Finance Act and not incur expenses in excess of amounts appropriated.”
• Burris had $14.5 million in receivables, $12 million of which were considered uncollectible.
• Burris got only a “qualified audit opinion” (emphasis in the original) because the agency’s 1994 and 1993 financial statements do not present the general fixed asset group of accounts.”
• Burris had not distributed $21,000 from a 1988 Consumer Trust Account to fifty consumers who should have received the money violating the office’s “fiduciary responsibility to distribute these moneys.”
• Burris “did not sufficiently plan and manage three computer database projects. Since 1991, the Agency has spent $716,070 for professional services on these and other projects with the three consultants. We did not see evidence that all required work products had been delivered. As of December 1994 (the month before Burris left office), none of the three projects had been completed; two of the computer systems developed were not usable; and only a portion of the third system was installed.”

Compare these findings with those for Burris’ successor Jim Ryan. There are a lot fewer negative audit findings for Ryan than for Burris.

= = = = =
Credit for inspiration for this story goes to CPA Charles Nelson. He worked for Ryan and was assigned to the correction of the problems relating to the accounting, finance, and management related findingsfindings.

I have already explained how Roland Burris didn’t know the difference between a civil and a criminal case.

That memory from a Champaign County debate in 1982 when I was running against Burris for State Comptroller made me chuckle when I heard a national talking head praise the former Attorney General’s legal prowess.

But, what about his managerial talents, not that much of that is needed by a United States Senator.

I looked at the Illinois Auditor General’s Audit of the last year and a half of Burris’ service as Illinois Attorney General.

Having served on the Illinois Audit Commission for a couple of terms in the 1970′s I can tell a good audit from a bad one.

Roland Burris’ last audit (for Fiscal Years 1993 and 1994 – Burris left office midway through FY94) had these negative findings:

• Burris didn’t pay $313,600 in phone bills over the two-year period. “We again recommend the Agency comply with the State Finance Act and not incur expenses in excess of amounts appropriated.”
• Burris had $14.5 million in receivables, $12 million of which were considered uncollectible.
• Burris got only a “qualified audit opinion” (emphasis in the original) because the agency’s 1994 and 1993 financial statements do not present the general fixed asset group of accounts.”
• Burris had not distributed $21,000 from a 1988 Consumer Trust Account to fifty consumers who should have received the money violating the office’s “fiduciary responsibility to distribute these moneys.”
• Burris “did not sufficiently plan and manage three computer database projects. Since 1991, the Agency has spent $716,070 for professional services on these and other projects with the three consultants. We did not see evidence that all required work products had been delivered. As of December 1994 (the month before Burris left office), none of the three projects had been completed; two of the computer systems developed were not usable; and only a portion of the third system was installed.”

Compare these findings with those for Burris’ successor Jim Ryan. There are a lot fewer negative audit findings for Ryan than for Burris.

= = = = =
Credit for inspiration for this story goes to CPA Charles Nelson. He worked for Ryan and was assigned to the correction of the problems relating to the accounting, finance, and management related findingsfindings.

The Associated Press highlighted the well-funded Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund yesterday.

You know why it has enough resources to pay the pensions local government employees have earned?

One reason is that forty-some years ago, it required participating governments like McHenry County to sign an agreement to agree over the next forty-year period to put enough money into the IMRF to enable the pension fund to have enough money to, as they say, “fully fund” the pensions of its participants.

It happened in the late 1960′s when I was McHenry County Treasurer, not that I had anything to do with the agreement, except signing the checks.

So, the IMRF has 100% of the money it needs to pay the obligations that have been incurred.

The five state pensions are funded at 63%.

Guess who gets to make up the difference.

You’ve got it.

It’s Illinois taxpayers.

And, lest I seem ungrateful, thank you for paying the taxes to pay my pension.

Recently, the Chicago Sun-Times pointed out that former State Senator Carol Ronan had used a loophole in the legislative pension plan to increase her pension by $38,000 a year for eight weeks work for Governor Rod Blagojevich at the annual salary rate of $102,000.

Ronan wasn’t the first to do that.

I remember that after State Senator John Friedland (R-Elgin) he took a lobbyist job with the Elgin Sanitary District for a couple of months at about the same salary and similarly jumped his pension.

Legislators appointed sanitary district trustees, myself among them during the 1970′s. We who were not from Elgin deferred to the recommendations made by Friedland, however. So, the people Friedland appointed gave him the job.

Earlier in his career, Friedland earned a figurative “Badge of Honor” for standing up to Governor Richard Ogilvie. Friedland refused to vote for the income tax Ogilvie proposed. Ogivie decided to make an example of Friedland, but, fortunately, for the concept of separation of powers, failed.

Blagojevich is merely following in the foot steps of former Secretary of State George Ryan, who allowed former Republican State Rep. Roger Stanley (R-Streamwood) a little work job that similarly boosted his pension.

Stanley admitted to various felonies and served time in federal prison. Among his admitted misdeeds was a postal fraud charge in which Stanley fronted for Lee Daniels’ House Republican Campaign Fund and created a fake organization that mailed out the hit piece reprinting the then-Northwest Herald’s Amy Mack’s reporting of my ex-wife Robin Meridith Geist’s false divorce court charges.

And, speaking of hiking legislative pensions, in the summer of 1999, Daniels chief of staff Mike Tristano asked me at Daniels’ DuPage County office if I would like to be assistant Auditor General. The salary would have been over $100,000, with a massive pension boost to follow.

In return for the appointment I would have to agree not to run in 2000.

I told Tristano if the offer were to be Auditor General, I would think about it, but not the assistant’s job.

I was later told that Daniels got to decide who filled that job in the deal to make Bill Holland Auditor General. I was told Daniels even put his former travel agent in the post. When she found out she would have to go to work, she decided she didn’t want the job, the story went.

After I lost the 2000 primary election to Rosemary Kurtz, another offer was made via Tristano. It was to be assistant director of the department where my former state legislative colleague Jack Schaffer had been director during Jim Edgar’s terms. The pay was about $96,000, with understood subsequent pension boost.

I decided to retire instead.

The Associated Press highlighted the well-funded Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund yesterday.

You know why it has enough resources to pay the pensions local government employees have earned?

One reason is that forty-some years ago, it required participating governments like McHenry County to sign an agreement to agree over the next forty-year period to put enough money into the IMRF to enable the pension fund to have enough money to, as they say, “fully fund” the pensions of its participants.

It happened in the late 1960′s when I was McHenry County Treasurer, not that I had anything to do with the agreement, except signing the checks.

So, the IMRF has 100% of the money it needs to pay the obligations that have been incurred.

The five state pensions are funded at 63%.

Guess who gets to make up the difference.

You’ve got it.

It’s Illinois taxpayers.

And, lest I seem ungrateful, thank you for paying the taxes to pay my pension.

Recently, the Chicago Sun-Times pointed out that former State Senator Carol Ronan had used a loophole in the legislative pension plan to increase her pension by $38,000 a year for eight weeks work for Governor Rod Blagojevich at the annual salary rate of $102,000.

Ronan wasn’t the first to do that.

I remember that after State Senator John Friedland (R-Elgin) he took a lobbyist job with the Elgin Sanitary District for a couple of months at about the same salary and similarly jumped his pension.

Legislators appointed sanitary district trustees, myself among them during the 1970′s. We who were not from Elgin deferred to the recommendations made by Friedland, however. So, the people Friedland appointed gave him the job.

Earlier in his career, Friedland earned a figurative “Badge of Honor” for standing up to Governor Richard Ogilvie. Friedland refused to vote for the income tax Ogilvie proposed. Ogivie decided to make an example of Friedland, but, fortunately, for the concept of separation of powers, failed.

Blagojevich is merely following in the foot steps of former Secretary of State George Ryan, who allowed former Republican State Rep. Roger Stanley (R-Streamwood) a little work job that similarly boosted his pension.

Stanley admitted to various felonies and served time in federal prison. Among his admitted misdeeds was a postal fraud charge in which Stanley fronted for Lee Daniels’ House Republican Campaign Fund and created a fake organization that mailed out the hit piece reprinting the then-Northwest Herald’s Amy Mack’s reporting of my ex-wife Robin Meridith Geist’s false divorce court charges.

And, speaking of hiking legislative pensions, in the summer of 1999, Daniels chief of staff Mike Tristano asked me at Daniels’ DuPage County office if I would like to be assistant Auditor General. The salary would have been over $100,000, with a massive pension boost to follow.

In return for the appointment I would have to agree not to run in 2000.

I told Tristano if the offer were to be Auditor General, I would think about it, but not the assistant’s job.

I was later told that Daniels got to decide who filled that job in the deal to make Bill Holland Auditor General. I was told Daniels even put his former travel agent in the post. When she found out she would have to go to work, she decided she didn’t want the job, the story went.

After I lost the 2000 primary election to Rosemary Kurtz, another offer was made via Tristano. It was to be assistant director of the department where my former state legislative colleague Jack Schaffer had been director during Jim Edgar’s terms. The pay was about $96,000, with understood subsequent pension boost.

I decided to retire instead.

I’ve been reading state audits since the mid-1970’s when I served on the Legislative Audit Commission.

Take a look at these negative findings for the State Fire Marshall’s Office. They are pretty bad. 27 negative findings this year compared to 9 last year.

The Office did not

• exercise proper control over the contract and monitoring of the monies paid from the Firefighters Memorial Fund.
• maintain adequate documentation for an Interagency Agreement.
• competitively procure services, timely approve contractual and grant agreements, or prepare and file written contracts as required.
• maintain adequate controls over employees designated to work from a home office or the Office’s various locations.
• sufficiently monitor and pursue collections on delinquent accounts receivable.
• adequately utilize its State vehicles, request approval for lesser usage, justify all vehicle assignments, or have established criteria or documentation for vehicle replacement decisions.
• adequately monitor and document meal reimbursements.
• had a high number of past due inspections of Boiler and Pressure Vessels.
• comply with licensing and fee provisions of the Pyrotechnic Distributor and Operator Licensing Act.
• adopt rules for the administration and enforcement of elevator safety and installation standards during the examination period.

Whatever it “did not” do, a State Fire Marshall’s car was in Crystal Lake May 25th when a big house burned in the Wedgewood subdivision to the south of mine.

= = = = =
If you click on the picture, you can see the car is from the State Fire Marshall’s Office.

And, if you want to see a Regional Superintendent of Schools run amuck, take a look at this audit summary. Nepotism, no shows, indictments, undocumented bonuses. The good news? It’s about a “former” Regional Superintendent.

I’ve been reading state audits since the mid-1970’s when I served on the Legislative Audit Commission.

Take a look at these negative findings for the State Fire Marshall’s Office. They are pretty bad. 27 negative findings this year compared to 9 last year.

The Office did not

• exercise proper control over the contract and monitoring of the monies paid from the Firefighters Memorial Fund.
• maintain adequate documentation for an Interagency Agreement.
• competitively procure services, timely approve contractual and grant agreements, or prepare and file written contracts as required.
• maintain adequate controls over employees designated to work from a home office or the Office’s various locations.
• sufficiently monitor and pursue collections on delinquent accounts receivable.
• adequately utilize its State vehicles, request approval for lesser usage, justify all vehicle assignments, or have established criteria or documentation for vehicle replacement decisions.
• adequately monitor and document meal reimbursements.
• had a high number of past due inspections of Boiler and Pressure Vessels.
• comply with licensing and fee provisions of the Pyrotechnic Distributor and Operator Licensing Act.
• adopt rules for the administration and enforcement of elevator safety and installation standards during the examination period.

Whatever it “did not” do, a State Fire Marshall’s car was in Crystal Lake May 25th when a big house burned in the Wedgewood subdivision to the south of mine.

= = = = =
If you click on the picture, you can see the car is from the State Fire Marshall’s Office.

And, if you want to see a Regional Superintendent of Schools run amuck, take a look at this audit summary. Nepotism, no shows, indictments, undocumented bonuses. The good news? It’s about a “former” Regional Superintendent.