McHenry County Blog

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.

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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.

967 Wedgewood Drive in Crystal Lake is going to take massive renovation to make it livable again.

What you see is some photographs after the big mid-day fire.

Take about 3 in the afternoon, the pictures show a completely gutted second floor. There were still whiffs of smoke coming out of between the chimney and the shell of the front of the second floor over the garage. If you look closely, you can see daylight through the front wall.

It seems no one got hurt.

In front were a CL fire truck, a rescue truck, two police cars and a car from the Illinois State Fire Marshall’s Office.

You can enlarge any of these photographs by clicking on them, if you are into detail. If you want to see the plume of smoke the fire produced, click here.

The Northwest Herald reports that a propane tank explosion is suspected at the home of Dave and Laura Wutzen.

967 Wedgewood Drive in Crystal Lake is going to take massive renovation to make it livable again.

What you see is some photographs after the big mid-day fire.

Take about 3 in the afternoon, the pictures show a completely gutted second floor. There were still whiffs of smoke coming out of between the chimney and the shell of the front of the second floor over the garage. If you look closely, you can see daylight through the front wall.

It seems no one got hurt.

In front were a CL fire truck, a rescue truck, two police cars and a car from the Illinois State Fire Marshall’s Office.

You can enlarge any of these photographs by clicking on them, if you are into detail. If you want to see the plume of smoke the fire produced, click here.

The Northwest Herald reports that a propane tank explosion is suspected at the home of Dave and Laura Wutzen.