McHenry County Blog

Carolyn Schofield

At election night’s Crystal Lake City Council meeting, City Councilwoman Carolyn Schofield, elected last year, took the lead in getting a resolution on the agenda at tomorrow night’s meeting asking for recognition of the city’s Watershed Ordinance by county government.

You may remember that both Ellen Brady Mueller and Donna Kurtz made something of that issue during their campaigns for a District 2 slot on the fall county board ballot.

From a resident of the watershed’s perspective, it is so, so difficult to understand that the McHenry County Board has thus far not figured out how important protection of our lake’s watershed is to local residents.

You would think they might have figured that out when a citizen uprising killed the minor league baseball stadium at McHenry County College.

After all, half (that’s right, half) of the entire county board represents parts of Crystal Lake. With all residents of the Crystal Lake Park District having access to the lake, how can one explain why the board has not taken action already.

Ellen Brady Mueller

Donna Kurtz

My prediction is the resolution will pass without dissent Tuesday.

If that doesn’t convince the county board to follow the not-as-strict-as-it-could-be watershed protection ordinance, the next step, it would seem to me would be to invite those twelve county board members to a meeting of the city council.

Who are they?

District 2

• McHenry County Board Chairman Ken Koehler (R)
• McHenry County Board Vice Chairman Jim Heisler (R)
• Lyn Orphal (Lost the primary to Donna Kurtz) Both R’s.
• Former Lakewood Village President and Crystal Lake Park Board President Scott Breeden (R)

Crystal Lake Avenue is the dividing line between District 2 and District 3.

District 3

• Barbara Wheeler (R)
• Kathy Bergan Schmidt (D)
• Ed Dvorak (retiring) (R)
• Mary Donner (R)

District 5

• Tina Hill (R)
• Virginia Peschke (R)
• Jim Kennedy (D)
• Paula Yensen (D)

District 5 comes into the Crystal Lake area from the Northwest (Ridgefield) and the Southeast.

So, what’s the resolution ask for?

“That the Mayor and City Council request the Regional Planning Commission include the Crystal Lake watershed and its regulations in the list of watersheds that exist within McHenry County in the 2030 Comprehensive Plan document.”

The resolution points out that the lake’s watershed is 6.39 square miles of which 3.69 square miles are within the City of Crystal Lake.

McHenry County Board members Nick Provenzano and John Jung lost their seats two years ago in District 3 and District 5.

Joint sign for Mary Donner and Nick Provenzano for county board showed up for the first time the night before the election around polling places. Provenzano lost the election to Democratic Party challenger, now central committee chair, Kathy Bergan Schmidt.

It wasn’t that Provenzano and Jung didn’t have signs up supporting their re-election.

In retrospect, I believe it was because they did not run joint campaigns with their Republican running mates.

There was nothing but being next to each other on the Republican Party ballot to encourage supporters of their running mates to vote for them as well.

This causation factor hit me the night before the election when I saw this joint yard sign for Mary Donner and Provenzano.

It turned out to be too little, too late,

Provenzano lost to Kathy Bergan Schmidt and Paula Yensen beat Jung.

Yard signs for John Jung running mate Virginia Peschke began showing up two weekends before the election in which Democrat Paula Yensen picked off Jung. Peschke ran first.

Jung’s running mate, Virginia Peschke, put on no discernible campaign until yard signs appeared about two weekends before the fall election.

So, here’s my unsolicited advice to Republican county board candidates.

Convince your running mates to have joint yard signs.

Even if you don’t like them and they don’t like you.

Consider it a self-preservation move.

Right now, most GOP candidates don’t have Democratic Party opponents.

It is legal for the Democratic Party to slate candidates. They’ve done it before.

Certainly, it is difficult to find candidates like Yensen and Schmidt, people who will put shoe leather into a campaign.

Campaigning is boring work.

But, there are personal benefits. Candidates who are serious tend to miss meals and, because of that and the energy required going door-to-door, lose weight.

Nevertheless, odds are good that the Democrats won’t find vigorous candidates and, without “fire in the belly” opponents, Republican ballot holders probably aren’t in much trouble in this year of the backlash to corruption so evident among the Democrats’ high profile politicians.

But, it’s always better to do more, rather than less, in an election campaign.

If I were running for county board, I’d want a joint sign campaign.

And joint literature.

Especially, if I came in second in the primary election.

Two more county board candidates have filed their conflict of interest forms with the Alliance for Land, Agriculture and Water.

That brings the total to 20 out of 27 candidates who have answered the ALAW questionnaire.

74%.  Pretty amazing.

McHenry County Board Distrist Map

District 1 incumbent Yvonne Barnes is one of the recent filings. She has a contested primary election with three candidates—fellow incumbent Anna May Miller, Algonquin Township Highway Commissioner Bob Miller’s wife, and Robert Nowak, neither of which have filed. At the Patriots United County Board Candidates’ Forum, Nowak was the only one of the three to attend.

The second new filer is unopposed District 3 Democrat Lori McConville. District 3 is where the Democrats picked up a seat two years ago when Kathy Bergan Schmidt beat incumbent Nick Provenzano. Provenzano is trying to regain that seat this year. All five Republicans previously filed forms.

That means both non-incumbent Democrats have filled out the form. The other is District 4 candidate Jeff Thirtyacre.

However, the Democratic Party incumbent who is up for re-election, District 5’s Jim Kennedy, has not yet done so. He will be on the ballot this fall whether or not he decides to reveal his potential conflicts of interest. His Democratic Party colleague from District 5, Paula Yensen, not up for re-election this year, has also voluntarily filed the form.

Twenty-seven people want to be elected to the McHenry County Board next fall.

Twenty-one are Republicans, three are Democrats and one is a member of the Green Party.

Although the February 2nd election will decide who will be on the GOP ballot, the Democrats and Greens could appoint people to the ballot after the primary to challenge Republicans in Districts 1, 2 and 6, where Republicans currently face no fall contest.

100% of the Greens have filed (Frank Wedig, running in District 5).

Two-thirds of the Democrats have filed.

Of the twenty-one Republicans, seventeen have filed. That’s over 80%.

So, which Republicans haven’t told us what land they own and what business interests they have?

• District 1 – Incumbent Anna May Miller of District 1 and challenger Robert Nowak.
• District 2 – McHenry County Board Chairman Ken Koehler of District 1. ( All of his opponents have filed their ethics forms with ALAW.)
• District 4 – Incumbent Pete Merkel
• District 5 – Challenger Dave Frederick
• District 6 – Incumbent Dan Ryan

Two-thirds of the non-filing Republican candidates are incumbents.

Of the ten Republicans and Democrats now in office running for re-election, sixty percent have now filled out the conflict of interest forms.

There’s still time to file and I’ll more than happy to write an article if addition people decided to reveal their potential conflicts of interest.

Thursday, McHenry County Blog told of the conflict of interest and economic interest ordinance proposed by the reform group ALAW.

Short for the Alliance for Land, Agriculture and Water, the group ALAWproposed wide-ranging conflict of interest notification for McHenry County’s elected and appointed officials.

Think about knowing what real estate planning and zoning people have an interest in.

And, who owns land near what highway improvement.

Information like that might begin to explain otherwise really hard to understand county government decisions.

What was it that Deep Throat advised Woodward and Bernstein advised?

“Follow the money.”

I believe I told you last night that the Management Services Committee of the CB was meeting on Thursday morning and the ordinance is on that agenda for discussion.  I need to correct myself, the meeting is Tuesday morning, 8:30 am, and yes the ordinance is on the agenda.

Here are the committee members:

Ersel Schuster, Chairman
Pete Merkel, Vice Chairman
Yvonne M. Barnes
Paula Yensen
Kathleen Bergan Schmidt
Tina Hill
Lyn Orphal

The organization has called for passage before the primary election in the first week of February.

OK. I was wrong.

I predicted last night that the McHenry County Board would approved what proponents insist on calling video poker.

But, this morning social conservatives on the board pulled off a 13-10-1 victory.

That was with the help of all three Democrats on the county board. (Counting only Republicans, the vote would have been tied 10-10.)

Lake in the Hills member Paula Yensen has personal knowledge of how devastating gambling can be to a family.

Patriots United video slot machine debate panels, ban proponents on the right, opponents on the left.

Perhaps also influencing the vote was the leadership that Democratic Party State Rep. Jack Franks has taken on the issue. He attended a Patriots United debate on the subject after returning from one of this fall’s veto sessions.

All Republicans representing McHenry County in the Illinois General Assembly except State Senator Dan Duffy, that is, State Representatives Mike Tryon and Mark Beaubien, plus State Senator Pam Althoff, voted supported video slot machines.

Voting in favor of a ban of the video gambling machines in unincorporated areas were the following, who are grouped by county board district (those up for election this year are show in bold face type):

District 1

• Yvonne Barnes

District 2

• Jim Heisler

District 3

• Ed Dvorak (retiring)
• Kathy Bergan Schmidt
• Barbara Wheeler

District 4

• Sue Draffkorn
• John Hammerand
• Sandy Salgado

District 5

• Paula Yensen
• Jim Kennedy
• Virginia Peschke

District 6

• Mary McCann
• Ersel Schuster

Voting against the ban, thus in favor of expanding gambling were the following:

District 1

• Anna May Miller
• Bob Bless
• Marc Munaretto

District 2

• Scott Breeden
• Ken Koehler
• Lyn Orphal

District 3

• Mary Donner

District 4

• Pete Merkel

District 5

• Tina Hill

District 6

• Dan Ryan

Abstaining from the vote was District 6 Republican Randy Donley.

A month ago the board voted against holding an advisory referendum on the issue. The vote was 13-11-1.

The thirteen board members who voted against allowing their constituents to vote on the issue follow:

• Yvonne Barnes (R-Cary)

• Sue Draffkorn (R-Wonder Lake)

• Paula Yensen (D-Lake in the Hills)

• Ed Dvorak (R-Crystal Lake)

• Jim Heisler (R-Crystal Lake)

• Ken Koehler (R-Crystal Lake)

• Mary McCann (R-Woodstock)

• Pete Merkel (R-McHenry)

• Virginia Peschke (R-Bull Valley)

• Sandy Salgado (R-McHenry)

• Kathy Bergan Schmidt (D-Crystal Lake)

• Barb Wheeler (R-Crystal Lake)

Voting in favor of an advisory referendum were

• Bob Bless (R-Fox River Grove)

• Scott Breeden (R-Lakewood)

• Mary Donner (R-Crystal Lake)

• John Hammerand (R-Wonder Lake)

• Tina Hill (R-Woodstock)

• Jim Kennedy (D-Lake in the Hills)

• Anna May Miller (R-Cary)

• Marc Munaretto (R-Algonquin)

• Lyn Orphal (R-Crystal Lake)

• Dan Ryan (R-Huntley)

Members of the Operating Engineers Local 150 lobbied vigorously against the gambling ban, arguing for the jobs its proceeds would finance.

Word of the speaker at next Tuesday’s McHenry County Democratic Party Central Committee meeting has arrived. It’s the party’s challenger to incumbent Congressman Don Manzullo, George Gaulrapp.

The party press release, which points out this is the third time in a row that Manzullo has faced off against a mayor, follows:

CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE GAULRAPP TO SPEAK TO McHENRY DEMS

CRYSTAL LAKE—Freeport Mayor George Gaulrapp will be a special guest at the Democratic Party of McHenry County meeting at 7 PM on Wednesday, November 18, at the McHenry County Farm Bureau Building, 1102 McConnell Road in Woodstock. Gaulrapp has announced his candidacy for Congress in the 16th District, a seat now held by Republican Don Manzullo.

Gaulrapp is in his second term as mayor of the western Illinois city, a manufacturing hub in an agricultural region. He cites jobs as the major reason for challenging the incumbent.

“Jobs will solve the problems with unemployment, jobs will solve the reduction in good housing stock, jobs will solve problems for the social service agencies who have been drained economically,” Gaulrapp recently told a Rockford television station.

Prior to his election as mayor, Gaulrapp served as a Freeport alderman for eight years and has been a long time community leader. His business experience includes 29 years in the dental laboratory and supply industry and several years with E*Trade Solutions Group.

This is the third time in three elections that Manzullo has been challenged by Democratic mayors in his district.

In 2006 former Galena Mayor Richard Auman mounted a challenge. In 2008 Barrington Hills Mayor Robert Abboud made a run.

“It is a telling indictment when responsible municipal leaders from all corners of his congressional district challenge a powerful incumbent,” said McHenry County Democratic Chair Kathleen Bergan Schmidt.

The public is invited to attend the meeting. For further information see www.mchenrydems.org.

As expected, incumbent Jim Kennedy, he who broke the Republican stranglehold on the McHenry County Board four years ago by defeating incumbent Republican Perry Moy in District 5, has filed for re-election.

A new entrant, Burton’s Bridge )with a Crystal Lake address) resident Lori McConville, has filed in District 3. District 3 comprises all of Nunda Township, which is north of Crystal Lake Avenue, into southern McHenry Township with one Algonquin Township precinct in Oakwood Hills.

District 3 is where McHenry County Democratic Party Chair Kathy Bergan Schmidt scored one of two Democratic Party county board victories last year. She knocked out Nick Provenzano at the same time that District 5 Democrat Paula Yensen beat John Jung. (Both Provenzano and Jung are seeking to regain seats on the county board this year.)

McConville led the successful fight against a commercial business servicing contractors on Route 176 near her neighborhood.

In a 2007 web site statement she described the group she head, Nunda Neighbors, as a “small (but powerful) civic committee.”

This past spring McConville’s name surfaced as a leader of the Nunda Township Open Space Committee referendum. She is listed by the State Board of Elections as the political action committee’s current chairman and treasurer.

Tax fighter Gerry Walsh and his allies fought successfully against the referendum. Later he noticed that the political action committee did not file its campaign disclosure report on time and filed a complaint. No one from Nunda Neighbors showed up for the hearing.

In the case “Gerry Walsh vs. Nunda Neighbors for Open Space,” the State Board of Elections ordered:

“No further action is required other than referral to SBE staff for the assessment of the requisite civil penalty for delinquent filing…”

Filing on the first day was Jeff Thirtyacre. He is seeking election to the county board for the second time for the board in District 4, which consists of most of McHenry Township and all of Richmond and Burton Townships.

= = = = =

Above is one page of the proponents’ Open Space mailing last spring.

Wednesday night Lake County Democratic Party Chairman and State Senator Terry Link went courting McHenry County Democratic Party Chairman and McHenry County Board member Kathy Bergan Schmidt Wednesday night at the McHenry County Farm Bureau building.

Before the above photo, there was a slight bow as Link went up to where Schmidt was putting out goodies for the assembled committeemen and guests. It would have been a classic.

During the meeting Schmidt explained how Link had been helpful to McHenry County Democrats back to when John Bartman chaired the central committeeman.

“I’d like to welcome Cal Skinner.  I never thought I’d live long enough to do that,” he said before saying,

Link explained that he had been Lake County’s Democratic Central Committee Chairman for eighteen years.

“We took a very bright red county and made it light blue.  It took a lot of work.  I could not have done it by myself.”

Referring to his candidacy for the Democratic Party nomination for lieutenant governor, he said,

“I’m not ready to retire.”

He said he would use the position to advance issues across the state the way he had passed the Smoke Free Illinois bill.  He wants the office to advance economic as it does in Indiana.

Link said his re-write of the Workers Compensation law–the first time in 30 years–had pleased both labor and industry so much that both gave him awards for his role of facilitator.

He was extremely proud of getting the Early Voting law passed.  He pointed out that he “carried all election law” bills and had faced House Speaker Mike Madigan down over Early Voting.

“I stood heel to heel with (Madigan).  I told him I wouldn’t sign off on (his bills if he wouldn’t pass Early Voting).”

Making his pitch to his fellow suburban residents, Link observed,

“We have nobody on this ticket who had announced–and I’m saying ‘announced’–who lives outside of Cook County, except me.”

Guess Link was referring to the possibility of McHenry County’s State Rep. Jack Franks running for governor or some other statewide office.

“I have the experience.  I come from business.  I know what it’s like to run a business.”

He also pointed out he knew what it was like to live in a rapidly growing county.

“I was born and raised in Lake County.  We have our problems.  We need to have that perspective (at the table).

“I’m asking for your support.”

= = = = =
The photos are of State Senator Terry Link.  In the top photo he is talking to McHenry County Democratic Party Chair Kathy Bergan Schmidt. In the bottom picture, he is talking to Spring Grove’s Jeff Thirtyacre.

In he opening remarks McHenry County Democratic Central Committee Chair Kathy Bergan Schmidt stressed the importance of the 2010 election year by pointing out that it would determine who would reapportion the General Assembly. Of course, congressional districts would also be up for grabs.

Speaker State Rep. Lou Lang (D-Skokie) also emphasized that importance of the coming elections.

At one point he said,

“Remap drawing is a very important process.”

Lake in the Hills McHenry County Board member Jim Kennedy asked about county board reapportionment.

“That’s going to affect me because they’re (the Republican county board members are) going to be redrawing the district.”

“The Republicans control the county board,” Lang agreed, suggesting,

“Even the most Neanderthal will recognize that the two-party system is important.”

Democrats now have two seats in county board District 5 and one in District 3.

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State Rep. Lou Lang (D-Skokie) is the man in the photograph. The map of McHenry County shows the six county board districts.

I don’t know why the yard signs are green, but with the ground brown, they should show up to most folks.

Nunda Township Democratic Party candidates Patrick Murfin and Meredith Reid Sarkees are beginning to post signs for their Nunda Township Trustee challenge to Republican dominance.

McHenry County Democratic Central Committee Chair Kathy Bergan Schmidt upset incumbent Republican Nick Provenzano in the Nunda Township-dominated District 3 McHenry County Board race last November.

I think the sign is difficult to read, but, as with most signs, once one has figured one out, one know the next one that looks like it is the same.