McHenry County Blog

The pretty secret jockeying to be Chairman of the McHenry County Board for the next two years will culminate tomorrow morning in Woodstock.

After the 9 0.clock swearing in, three, perhaps four, perhaps more people will have their names entered into nomination.

“For sure” candidates are incumbent Ken Koehler, Tina Hill and Ersel Schuster.

My prediction is that none will achieve thirteen votes on the first ballot.

You can see my early guesses as to who would vote for whom for Chairman here.

Two new members, Joe Gottemoller (Crystal Lake) and Mike Skala (Huntley), apparently got earfuls of questions about whether they would support the re-election of Koehler and are schemish about voting for him on the first ballot.  Earlier, I pegged them as Koehler votes.

Others seem to be pledged to Koehler on the first ballot, but not the second.

Hill seems to have been the most aggressive at courting the votes of the eight new and one “re-tread” member (Yvonne Barnes).

Schuster was late out of the box on this treasurer trove of potential support.

A new rumor surfaced last week.

It suggests that Hill approached former County Republican Party Chairman Al Jourdan for support and, then, he and Sheriff aspirant Andy Zinke began working to bring votes to Hill.

And Sheriff Keith Nygren back in town for Shop with a Cop.

Could those who wish Zinke to replace Nygren be motivated by the wish-fulfillment that should Nygren retire that Hill would nominate Zinke to take Nygren’s place?

There will be those voting for Hill who would not vote to confirm Zinke, so such a nomination would not necessarily be a slam dunk in the game of succession.

My father used to say if a political rumor sounded like it might be true, it probably was.

Whether or not that side arrangement is in play, I believe that Hill will emerge the next Chairman of the McHenry County Board.

If she or Schuster are successful, the winner will be only the third female County Board Chairman (Chairwoman, if you prefer to use a title different from the one Kane County Chairman Karen McConnaughay used) in McHenry County history.

The first was Ann Hughes, who went on to become a State Representative. the second was Dianne Klemm.

If she does, not only will her salary increase a lot, but so will her retirement benefits under IMRF.

I shall wonder again if those on the new Board wishing citizens to be able to vote in a referendum as to whether to elect the 2014 County Board Chairman at-large in April will have as much success as those wishing to hike taxes in April did in November.

You may remember that McHenry County Sheriff’s Department deputies were found by Federal Judge Frederick Kapola to have violated the U.S. Constitutional rights of Dr. Jerome and Carla Pavlin.

The Fourth Amendment to be specific.

Here’s what that part of the U.S. Constitution says:

“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”

He made that finding in his decision to allow major parts of the case to go to trial.

The Sheriff’s Department’s attorneys appealed the decision, but that motion to reconsider was denied.

They entered the couple’s home on March 14, 2008, without a search warrant and hurt both husband and wife.

And who was arrested?

The Pavlins.

This is the case in which information supplied by Zane Seipler, which he heard before he was fired by Sheriff Keith Nygren, led McHenry County State’s Attorney Lou Bianchi to dismiss charges brought by the Sheriff’s Department.

This is also the case the State Police investigated, finding nothing amiss. The State Police did not interviewed the Pavlins or Seipler.  Seipler was listening over the radio to the incident.

“I can tell you my clients are happy with the settlement,” winning attorney Louis Meyer said.

“As the record stands the Deputies violated the Pavlins’ Fourth Amendment Rights to be free from unreasonable searches. There is a Federal Court Decision that states that.

“The Deputies will now all have that decision out there in the public where the Judge ruled they violated the Pavlins’ constitutional rights.

“This was a large settlement in my opinion.”

Settlements were reached with both Carla and Jerome Pavlin.

Mrs. Pavlin will get $200,000.

Mr. Pavlin $100,000.

Chicago Tribune reporter Bob McCoppin broke the story and found that local taxpayers only have to foot $100,000.

As of mid-June, 2011, the legal fees only exceeded that amount.

The rest is paid by an insurance policy.

No admission of liability on the part of any of the defendants, of course.

The defendants were

• McHENRY COUNTY
• KEITH NYGREN
• JEREMY BRUKETTA, Star 1909
• KYLE MANDERNACK, Star 1726
• TREVOR VOGEL, Star 1773
• CHRISTOPHER JONES, Star 1877
• RYAN LAMBERT, Star 1941
• GREG PYLE, Star 1672
• DAVID SHEPHERD, Star 142

You can read a summary of the case here.

The County summarizes it like this:

“Plantiff alleges false arrest, excessive force, failure to intervene, illegal search, of home civil conspiracy, malicious persecution.”

The case, as it was filed in July of 2009 is here.

You can read the settlement with Carla Pavlin below:

Dr. Jerome Pavlin’s settlement is below:

The ice is so soft on Crystal Lake that it trapped a deer Wednesday afternoon.  There was open water before New Year’s Day.

I saw the McHenry County Animal Control vehicle parked at Gate 21′s Beach parking lot in Lakewood, but it was private citizens who rescued the deer.

Keith Nelson took a boat out onto the melting ice and. then, as the doe tried to escape toward shore at John Burton’s old home at Gate 15, the boat followed.

You can watch the rescue here on CNN’s web site.

Commentary on the video indicates the doe was really breathing hard as it struggled across the ice.

It had a hard time getting up the little hill, but got a little help from its human friends.

Derek Rauchenberger supplied the photos and the commentary below, which was posted at the CNN web site:

“I live an hour outside of Chicago where the winter has been mild but recently chilled.

“This has put a thin layer of ice over some of the area lakes including Crystal Lake where I came across a stranded deer about 100 yards offshore.

“Some of my neighbors had gathered and we learned that it had been there since early morning when it became encircled by a pack of foxes.

“A nearby woman was able to chase the foxes away from the deer, but the deer was unable to get its footing as it lay sprawled and injured across the ice.

“Local fire department and animal welfare authorities had been called and said they would not be able to provide assistance.

“The predicted afternoon warm-up to 40 degrees would surely determine its fate without a rescue effort.

“As locals gathered to witness the sad plight of the unfortunate deer, we discussed our options.

“We had a small boat, but the ice was too thick to boat and too thin to walk on.

“I called a local fly-fishing friend Keith Nelson who seemed to have been preparing for this moment his entire life.

“He showed up with a fully rubberized suit and 100′ of rope.

“We attached the rope to the boat and he shoved off from shore and approached the deer.

“The closer he got to the deer, the more the deer began to wiggle across the slick ice as it tried to escape his grasp.

The deer has almost made it to Crystal Lake's shore.

“Keith was basically able to scare it back to shore where it shook off the chills and returned to the wild.

“Keith Nelson is our local Deer Hero!

“I am proud to submit this wonderful story of a deer man with rubber suit who was willing to ‘risk his life’ to save an animal.”