McHenry County Blog

McHenry County making the front page of the Chicago Sun-Times twice in one week.

That’s probably a record since the tragic school bus-Metra train collision in Fox River Grove in the mid-1990′s.

First we are treated to the Thursday revelation of Congressman Joe Walsh’s child support problems.

And, today, we learn that McCullom Lake has the worst Com Ed electric service on storm days in the entire Chicago Metropolitan area.

I’ve extracted the data from the almost full-page chart. It shows “the total number of each town’s outage minutes divided by the population.”

Reporters Art Golab and Kim Janssen say this is “the first to compare towns of different sizes on a per-person basis.”

This, I would note as a former state legislator is the kind of information that the Illinois Commerce Commission should regularly report so members of the General Assembly can hold the regulators’ feet to the fire when such variation exists concerning the reliability of service.

Here are the numbers in McHenry County, from worst to best:

Com Ed employee fixes a line.

• McCullom Lake – 263.0
• Barrington Hills – 64.1
• Union – 57.2
• Port Barrington – 37.0
• Trout Valley – 33.1
• Lakemoor – 26.7
• Fox Lake 24.7
• Algonquin 24.3
• Lakewood – 23.5
• Oakwood Hills – 22.3
• Woodstock – 20.0
• Bull Valley – 17.4
• Crystal Lake – 16.6
• Johnsburg – 16.1
• Fox River Grove – 15.4
• Harvard – 14-8
• Chemung – 14.0
• Spring Grove – 12.7
• Prairie Grove – 10.5
• Cary – 9.3
• Hebron – 7.2
• Huntley – 7.1
• Lake in the Hills – 5.9
• Richmond – 5.7
• Marengo – 5.6
• Wonder Lake – 5.5
• Island Lake – 2.6

You can find all the numbers here.

The article will undoubted be used by opponents to electric supplers Com Ed and Ameren, who are seeking rate hikes to finance something they call a “smart gird.”

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s Office claims that the legislation “will guarantee it huge profits while weakening reliability standards for years to come,” the article says.

The following seems to summarize the dispute:

“Under the current legislation, ComEd is required to prove its reliability performance to regulators before winning rate hikes, whereas under the bill the balance of power would shift so that regulators seeking to prevent a price hike would have to show that ComEd has failed to meet reliability standards, according to Illinois Commerce Commission executive director Tim Anderson.

“Crucially, ComEd would not be judged on its performance on the worst nine storm days each year.

“ComEd says that’s necessary to allow a fair year-to-year analysis that excludes extreme weather events beyond its control, but critics say it will allow ComEd to dodge improvements to its storm preparedness and response.

“The utility said the new performance standard ‘is designed to accurately measure ComEd’s day-to-day reliability performance; it is not designed to measure how lucky we are in avoiding severe weather.’”

The beginning of the online version of the copycat suicide article.

Despite the negative comments that appear under articles published that remind folks that Metra Executive Director Phil Pagano’s highly publicized suicide by stepping in front of a commuter train, it seems others are of similar opinions.

Tuesday, the Chicago Sun-Times had such an article.

And the person agreeing was Illinois Commerce Commissioner Chip Pew, whose job is to keep cars and people from hitting trains.

“Copycatting is an element,” he told reporter Mary Wisniewski.

Illinois is on track to have double the number of train suicides this year as in 2009, Pew’s statistics show.

And a second Crystal Lake Metra crook gave this mode of ending one’s life the huge publicity push in early May.

Anchor Towing’s Dan Hunt made more public comments at today’s McHenry County Board meeting.

He again urged reconsideration of the towing regulation ordinance passed in February.

After Hunt’s talk, in new and unfinished business, board member John Hammerand made a motion to opt out of the ICC regulation of towing.

Sandra Salgado seconded the motion. There was even someone else who tried to “third it,” at least that was what was heard through an open mike.

Jamie Rein of the state’s attorney’s office, advised the board members that they could not take such action without its being on the board’s agenda.

Then discussion moved to whether to hold a special meeting to consider repeal of the ordinance.

Lively discussion followed, with ordinance author Nick Provenzano defending his proposal.

After most of the discussion, Board Chairman Ken Koehler asked for a show of hands of those who would be willing to remove Illinois Commerce Commission oversight over towing, at least until the legislature could revise the law.

A vast majority raised their hands.

The emergency meeting will be held Tuesday, October 14th at 11 AM.

In other news, before the county board meeting, Senator Pam Althoff, Koehler, County Administrator Pete Austin, county board member Randy Donley and someone representing the state’s attorney’s office met on the same subject.

Below, you can read what Hunt said to the McHenry County Board.

If you will read the purpose of this blog, found under the masthead, you will see that I want to encourage people to become active in public affairs. Sometimes it is ideology that spurs people into the public arena. Other times, it is seeing government do something that does not make sense to you.

I think it was the latter that convinced Anchor Towing’s Dan Hunt to fight the McHenry County towing ordinance.

Think of coverage of this crusade as a case study of how to work with public officials.

Today, he said the following to the board members. They responded, as you can see above, by setting a special meeting on October 14 at 11 AM to repeal, it appears the ordinance that they passed in February.

His comments follow:

Members of the McHenry County Board

I approach you yet again about your new towing law.

I think most members now agree that the all-or-nothing state law you invoked went too far.

Personally, I am disappointed that you have not yet decided to repeal your ordinance. It is going to cost my company $1,150 to register, if no action is not taken before October 15th. Other companies will also have to pay the Blagojevich administration the non-refundable licensing fee.

The problems with your new ordinance remains the same.

Regardless of what the Illinois Commerce Commission representative told your Law and Justice Committee yesterday morning…the law is what it says, not what he wants it to say.

People with car trouble this winter are going to have to stay with their cars to provide positive identification and to sign something saying they have been informed of all the possible costs.

Mr. Provenzano’s advice to wait and see what happens in Springfield may indicate more optimism about the legislative process than is warranted.

Bills don’t seem to get passed very quickly in Springfield.

It takes time.

Maybe Rep. Franks and Senator Althoff will get something passed in the veto session; maybe they won’t.

And, then, of course, we have the governor. No one ever knows what he will do or when he will do it. If he gets indicted, he probably won’t be paying a lot of attention to his governmental duties.

So, I’m not counting on a quick resolution of the problem on the part of Springfield.

By allowing this admittedly defective ordinance to go into effect, it is going to cost local businessmen literally thousands of dollars.

I would be less than forthright if I didn’t tell you I was disappointed that nothing is on the agenda today.

I know that there are people on this board who do not want to take a “wait and see” approach. Some are downright angry at having made a mistake, but not being afforded the opportunity to undo it.

If they had the chance, many, perhaps a majority, would vote to repeal the ordinance until the General Assembly passes a law to allow this board to do what it thought it was doing when all of you voted for the proposal.

Maybe there is some way to vote to repeal the towing ordinance. Most organizations have such a way to act in the case of an emergency.

And, although not all of you can imagine what an emergency is to a small McHenry County business like my own, I can assure you, in this less that robust economy, the prospect of being force to throw $1,150 in that snake pit called state government is an emergency to me.

You voted for oversight on rates charged by towing companies removing illegally parked vehicles, not safety towing and all of its glorious attributes.

Thank you for allowing me to vent my frustrations.

Anchor Towing’s Dan Hunt made more public comments at today’s McHenry County Board meeting.

He again urged reconsideration of the towing regulation ordinance passed in February.

After Hunt’s talk, in new and unfinished business, board member John Hammerand made a motion to opt out of the ICC regulation of towing.

Sandra Salgado seconded the motion. There was even someone else who tried to “third it,” at least that was what was heard through an open mike.

Jamie Rein of the state’s attorney’s office, advised the board members that they could not take such action without its being on the board’s agenda.

Then discussion moved to whether to hold a special meeting to consider repeal of the ordinance.

Lively discussion followed, with ordinance author Nick Provenzano defending his proposal.

After most of the discussion, Board Chairman Ken Koehler asked for a show of hands of those who would be willing to remove Illinois Commerce Commission oversight over towing, at least until the legislature could revise the law.

A vast majority raised their hands.

The emergency meeting will be held Tuesday, October 14th at 11 AM.

In other news, before the county board meeting, Senator Pam Althoff, Koehler, County Administrator Pete Austin, county board member Randy Donley and someone representing the state’s attorney’s office met on the same subject.

Below, you can read what Hunt said to the McHenry County Board.

If you will read the purpose of this blog, found under the masthead, you will see that I want to encourage people to become active in public affairs. Sometimes it is ideology that spurs people into the public arena. Other times, it is seeing government do something that does not make sense to you.

I think it was the latter that convinced Anchor Towing’s Dan Hunt to fight the McHenry County towing ordinance.

Think of coverage of this crusade as a case study of how to work with public officials.

Today, he said the following to the board members. They responded, as you can see above, by setting a special meeting on October 14 at 11 AM to repeal, it appears the ordinance that they passed in February.

His comments follow:

Members of the McHenry County Board

I approach you yet again about your new towing law.

I think most members now agree that the all-or-nothing state law you invoked went too far.

Personally, I am disappointed that you have not yet decided to repeal your ordinance. It is going to cost my company $1,150 to register, if no action is not taken before October 15th. Other companies will also have to pay the Blagojevich administration the non-refundable licensing fee.

The problems with your new ordinance remains the same.

Regardless of what the Illinois Commerce Commission representative told your Law and Justice Committee yesterday morning…the law is what it says, not what he wants it to say.

People with car trouble this winter are going to have to stay with their cars to provide positive identification and to sign something saying they have been informed of all the possible costs.

Mr. Provenzano’s advice to wait and see what happens in Springfield may indicate more optimism about the legislative process than is warranted.

Bills don’t seem to get passed very quickly in Springfield.

It takes time.

Maybe Rep. Franks and Senator Althoff will get something passed in the veto session; maybe they won’t.

And, then, of course, we have the governor. No one ever knows what he will do or when he will do it. If he gets indicted, he probably won’t be paying a lot of attention to his governmental duties.

So, I’m not counting on a quick resolution of the problem on the part of Springfield.

By allowing this admittedly defective ordinance to go into effect, it is going to cost local businessmen literally thousands of dollars.

I would be less than forthright if I didn’t tell you I was disappointed that nothing is on the agenda today.

I know that there are people on this board who do not want to take a “wait and see” approach. Some are downright angry at having made a mistake, but not being afforded the opportunity to undo it.

If they had the chance, many, perhaps a majority, would vote to repeal the ordinance until the General Assembly passes a law to allow this board to do what it thought it was doing when all of you voted for the proposal.

Maybe there is some way to vote to repeal the towing ordinance. Most organizations have such a way to act in the case of an emergency.

And, although not all of you can imagine what an emergency is to a small McHenry County business like my own, I can assure you, in this less that robust economy, the prospect of being force to throw $1,150 in that snake pit called state government is an emergency to me.

You voted for oversight on rates charged by towing companies removing illegally parked vehicles, not safety towing and all of its glorious attributes.

Thank you for allowing me to vent my frustrations.

Dan Hunt, who operates Anchor Towing, has opposed the imposition of Illinois Commerce Commission regulation on McHenry County towing operations since its proposal by McHenry County Board member Nick Provenzano.

Researching the implications of the county board’s action, Hunt concluded that there were unintended consequences.

One is that people will have to stay with their vehicles until they sign a statement from the towing company saying they have been informed of what the cost will be and other items of consumer interest…even in the worst of weather and the most extreme of consequences.

Last night Hunt and others spoke in the public comment time. Here is what Hunt had to say:

Statement by Dan Hunt, Anchor Towing

When you passed your towing law, you created some problems for your constituents, some unintended consequences, if you will.

All of your attention was focused on the few towing companies gouging county residents when they removed vehicles that were trespassing on people’s properties. This is a legitimate concern. People should not have to pay thousands of dollars to get their cars back.

What you didn’t know was passage of the resolution would also affect people whose cars needed towing in emergencies. This is called “safety towing.”

To the best of my knowledge, there have no abuses by tow companies offering this type of roadside service.

In the rules required by your ordinance, people with car trouble will have to stay with their vehicles until the tow truck arrives…regardless of weather or other extenuating circumstance(s).

That’s because the state law your county board action invoked requires the customer to sign a consumer notification form and must provide adequate identification, drivers license or social security card, before their vehicle can be towed.

I doubt any of you knew about this implication when you voted for the resolution.

I understand that Senator Althoff is planning to try to amend the law so you can have regulation on what is called relocation towing, but leave safety towing alone.

It is unlikely this will occur before October 15th, when all McHenry County towing companies must have filed and paid the licensing fees that your ordinance requires.

Because of the incomplete knowledge of what you were doing by voting for your ordinance, I ask that you repeal it until you are authorized to do by state law what you really want to do.

If you do not do this, Governor Blagojevich’s budget will get large sums of money from a number of McHenry county companies which will never be returned and completely unnecessary once Sen. Althoff gets the law amended.

Please act in the best interest of your constituents, which, in this case, also happens to be in the best interest of the honest tow companies in McHenry County.

Other articles on the topic:

To Regulate and Allow Rod Blagojevich To Tax or Not

Nick Provenzano Makes Case for Towing Relocation Regs

Nick Provenzano Towing Motion Passes 24-0

Anchor Towing To Bow Out of Relocation Towing

Dan Hunt, who operates Anchor Towing, has opposed the imposition of Illinois Commerce Commission regulation on McHenry County towing operations since its proposal by McHenry County Board member Nick Provenzano.

Researching the implications of the county board’s action, Hunt concluded that there were unintended consequences.

One is that people will have to stay with their vehicles until they sign a statement from the towing company saying they have been informed of what the cost will be and other items of consumer interest…even in the worst of weather and the most extreme of consequences.

Last night Hunt and others spoke in the public comment time. Here is what Hunt had to say:

Statement by Dan Hunt, Anchor Towing

When you passed your towing law, you created some problems for your constituents, some unintended consequences, if you will.

All of your attention was focused on the few towing companies gouging county residents when they removed vehicles that were trespassing on people’s properties. This is a legitimate concern. People should not have to pay thousands of dollars to get their cars back.

What you didn’t know was passage of the resolution would also affect people whose cars needed towing in emergencies. This is called “safety towing.”

To the best of my knowledge, there have no abuses by tow companies offering this type of roadside service.

In the rules required by your ordinance, people with car trouble will have to stay with their vehicles until the tow truck arrives…regardless of weather or other extenuating circumstance(s).

That’s because the state law your county board action invoked requires the customer to sign a consumer notification form and must provide adequate identification, drivers license or social security card, before their vehicle can be towed.

I doubt any of you knew about this implication when you voted for the resolution.

I understand that Senator Althoff is planning to try to amend the law so you can have regulation on what is called relocation towing, but leave safety towing alone.

It is unlikely this will occur before October 15th, when all McHenry County towing companies must have filed and paid the licensing fees that your ordinance requires.

Because of the incomplete knowledge of what you were doing by voting for your ordinance, I ask that you repeal it until you are authorized to do by state law what you really want to do.

If you do not do this, Governor Blagojevich’s budget will get large sums of money from a number of McHenry county companies which will never be returned and completely unnecessary once Sen. Althoff gets the law amended.

Please act in the best interest of your constituents, which, in this case, also happens to be in the best interest of the honest tow companies in McHenry County.

Other articles on the topic:

To Regulate and Allow Rod Blagojevich To Tax or Not

Nick Provenzano Makes Case for Towing Relocation Regs

Nick Provenzano Towing Motion Passes 24-0

Anchor Towing To Bow Out of Relocation Towing

Glory be!

Look at the gift our Illinois General Assembly has blessed me with.

A cut of $85.91 in my October electric bill. (Click on bill to enlarge.)

We only have to pay 5.34 this month.

The rest has mysteriously disappeared thanks to that super-electric rate regulator, the Illinois General Assembly.

It’s really a throwback to the days before the Illinois Commerce Commission.

Electric magnate Sam Insull used to have to buy the favors of the Illinois General Assembly. He got tired of doing that, according to his secretary, and got them to create the Illinois Commerce Commission.

Fewer people to buy is what I was told.

Now, Insull’s successors run Commonwealth Edison.

The free market advocates of the late 1990’s, not to mention then-ComEd Exec Sam Skinner (no relation), pressed for an auction system.

It would lower ComEd’s rates from being the highest in the Midwest to, maybe average.

Somehow, I don’t think it worked out that way.

ComEd got permission to sell of the very-costly-to-build and really-inefficiently-run (at least in 1980, when I last got monthly reports on the subject) nuclear power plants.

So, the nuclear power generation benefit Illinois rate payers paid dearly for over the decades was bartered away for, what, a ten-year rate freeze.

I certainly didn’t figure out that part of the complicated bill out. Frankly, I doubt that many members of the General Assembly knew the implications of the proposal.

In any event, when the ICC held the free market auctions, the bids came in quite high.

The competition promised by the de-regulation advocates did not materialize.

Instead much higher bills–up 24%–in ComEd began arriving in customers mail boxes. In the non-Com Ed, mainly Ameren territory, the electric bills were much, much, much higher.

Folks in northern Illinois who are regularly taken to the cleaners by the tollway, the RTA and, in the collar counties, but not in Cook County, by much higher property taxes pretty much shrugged and paid the 24% higher bills.

In Central and Southern Illinois, however, the folks went ballistic.

It became the “you son of a b—-h, if you don’t lower these rates, we’ll kick you out of office” issue of the year.

The result was that northern Illinois folks got screwed to the wall again. Upside down. With money falling out of their pockets.

With 70% of the residential customer base, ComEd and its parent company ponied up 80% of the approximately half billion dollar of refunds, but its customers only got half back.

Too many northern Illinois legislators allowed a disproportionate share of the money pried out of our electric company’s pockets to be shunted to Central and Southern Illinois ratepayers.

Here’s what CBS Channel Two Mike Flannery’s reported:

“Some representatives complained that the northern Illinois ComEd service area was getting an unfair small share, with ComEd and its corporate parent, Exelon, contributing 80 percent and downstate Ameren only 20 percent of the funds.

“But the actual rate relief cash was being split 50-50, a net transfer of nearly $300 million from the Chicago area’s 3.8 million ComEd customers to Ameren’s 1.2 million customers downstate (emphasis added).

“’I think if you represent a ComEd rate-payer, you have to ask yourself why is the rate-payer in ComEd having to subsidize the rest of the state,’ said Rep. Michael Tryon (R-Crystal Lake).“

$85.91 was cut from my family’s bill, which apparently was higher than average. (I’ll have to do more to follow Jimmy Carter’s White House example by flicking off more lights.)

Ameren customers were guaranteed a $100 rebate.

What did that Reform Party presidential candidate Ross Perot say about hearing a “great sucking sound?”

At least in Illinois we know where it is going?

But, hey, it couldn’t have been much better for incumbent state representatives and senators…unless the “General Assembly Rate Relief Credit” (look at the bill; that’s what it says) had arrived on January’s electric bill—right before the February 5th primary election.

But more research tells me I’ll get about $10 a month on each of the rest of this year’s bills.

Presumably the General Assembly will get political credit each time.

And the last bill will come the month before the primary.

How convenient for incumbents.

In other news, ComEd shares went up over 2% the day rate relief bill passed, stockholders were so relieved that a rate freeze was dead.

All images can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Glory be!

Look at the gift our Illinois General Assembly has blessed me with.

A cut of $85.91 in my October electric bill. (Click on bill to enlarge.)

We only have to pay 5.34 this month.

The rest has mysteriously disappeared thanks to that super-electric rate regulator, the Illinois General Assembly.

It’s really a throwback to the days before the Illinois Commerce Commission.

Electric magnate Sam Insull used to have to buy the favors of the Illinois General Assembly. He got tired of doing that, according to his secretary, and got them to create the Illinois Commerce Commission.

Fewer people to buy is what I was told.

Now, Insull’s successors run Commonwealth Edison.

The free market advocates of the late 1990’s, not to mention then-ComEd Exec Sam Skinner (no relation), pressed for an auction system.

It would lower ComEd’s rates from being the highest in the Midwest to, maybe average.

Somehow, I don’t think it worked out that way.

ComEd got permission to sell of the very-costly-to-build and really-inefficiently-run (at least in 1980, when I last got monthly reports on the subject) nuclear power plants.

So, the nuclear power generation benefit Illinois rate payers paid dearly for over the decades was bartered away for, what, a ten-year rate freeze.

I certainly didn’t figure out that part of the complicated bill out. Frankly, I doubt that many members of the General Assembly knew the implications of the proposal.

In any event, when the ICC held the free market auctions, the bids came in quite high.

The competition promised by the de-regulation advocates did not materialize.

Instead much higher bills–up 24%–in ComEd began arriving in customers mail boxes. In the non-Com Ed, mainly Ameren territory, the electric bills were much, much, much higher.

Folks in northern Illinois who are regularly taken to the cleaners by the tollway, the RTA and, in the collar counties, but not in Cook County, by much higher property taxes pretty much shrugged and paid the 24% higher bills.

In Central and Southern Illinois, however, the folks went ballistic.

It became the “you son of a b—-h, if you don’t lower these rates, we’ll kick you out of office” issue of the year.

The result was that northern Illinois folks got screwed to the wall again. Upside down. With money falling out of their pockets.

With 70% of the residential customer base, ComEd and its parent company ponied up 80% of the approximately half billion dollar of refunds, but its customers only got half back.

Too many northern Illinois legislators allowed a disproportionate share of the money pried out of our electric company’s pockets to be shunted to Central and Southern Illinois ratepayers.

Here’s what CBS Channel Two Mike Flannery’s reported:

“Some representatives complained that the northern Illinois ComEd service area was getting an unfair small share, with ComEd and its corporate parent, Exelon, contributing 80 percent and downstate Ameren only 20 percent of the funds.

“But the actual rate relief cash was being split 50-50, a net transfer of nearly $300 million from the Chicago area’s 3.8 million ComEd customers to Ameren’s 1.2 million customers downstate (emphasis added).

“’I think if you represent a ComEd rate-payer, you have to ask yourself why is the rate-payer in ComEd having to subsidize the rest of the state,’ said Rep. Michael Tryon (R-Crystal Lake).“

$85.91 was cut from my family’s bill, which apparently was higher than average. (I’ll have to do more to follow Jimmy Carter’s White House example by flicking off more lights.)

Ameren customers were guaranteed a $100 rebate.

What did that Reform Party presidential candidate Ross Perot say about hearing a “great sucking sound?”

At least in Illinois we know where it is going?

But, hey, it couldn’t have been much better for incumbent state representatives and senators…unless the “General Assembly Rate Relief Credit” (look at the bill; that’s what it says) had arrived on January’s electric bill—right before the February 5th primary election.

But more research tells me I’ll get about $10 a month on each of the rest of this year’s bills.

Presumably the General Assembly will get political credit each time.

And the last bill will come the month before the primary.

How convenient for incumbents.

In other news, ComEd shares went up over 2% the day rate relief bill passed, stockholders were so relieved that a rate freeze was dead.

All images can be enlarged by clicking on them.