McHenry County Blog

Mike Mahon

Keith Nygren

Democratic Party candidate for McHenry County Sheriff Mike Mahon has issued this statement:

“McHenry County Sheriff Keith Nygren appears to have a hard time getting into the spirit of Sunshine Week, which promotes openness in Illinois government.

“Yesterday, an unpaid private citizen and volunteer of my campaign delivered this campaign’s third Freedom of Information Act request, only to have Nygren call the volunteer into his office, berate him personally, repeatedly state that the Sheriff’s Office was ‘too busy’ to handle FOIAs, and threaten to file retaliatory FOIAs with my current employer for every FOIA his office received.

“It happened as follows:

“When the volunteer arrived at the Woodstock Government Center in Woodstock, Illinois, at about 11:30 a.m., to officially file an additional FOIA request, the volunteer was asked to wait.

“After about five minutes, Sheriff Nygren in person came out and asked to speak with the volunteer alone in his office. After reaching his office, he ‘ordered’ the volunteer to sit down and, visibly angry, proceeded to berate the volunteer about the campaign, about the volunteer’s professional background, and stated several times that his office was ‘too busy’ to handle FOIA requests.

“He also stated multiple times that for every FOIA request he received from the Mahon campaign, he would file a retaliatory FOIA request with my employer.

“Nygren’s boorish and unprofessional behavior aside, his statements indicate at the very least an attitude toward the Freedom of Information Act that could not possibly be more diametrically opposed to the spirit of Illinois’ new statute. J

“Just today in the current edition of the Northwest Herald paper there is an editorial titled ‘Government in Illinois still too secretive’ which discusses how this week is part of the national initiative called Sunshine Week, specifically designed to raise the awareness of the importance of open government. Obviously Keith Nygren didn’t get the memo.”

A complaint with all the specifics has been filed with the Public Access Counselor’s Office of the Illinois Attorney General.

For more information contact the Mike Mahon for Sheriff Campaign at 847.515.4772.

District 6 is the largest in area. No Democrats are on the ballot yet, but can be put on by a vote of the McHenry County Democratic Party Central Committee.

After receiving this email from District 6 McHenry County Democratic Party Chair Drew Georgi, I asked if I could share it with you.

He agreed, so here it is:

Cal,

I’ve spent the last 2-3 weeks taking the names of all the government officials from the newest yellow county year book.

Do you know how many names I ended up with?

1,324!

Lets cut 100 names off the list for the Federal, State, and those holding more than one office.

That leaves 1,224! names from the school boards to the county level.

Granted quite a few are non-paying jobs but those positions don’t come for free, there are still operating expenses for those positions and boards or whatever government group they are a part of.

This does not include the actual workers like the teachers, police, firefighters, highway workers, office workers, building maintenance workers, etc.

How are the Republicans in this county cutting down big government?

Also you would be very surprised at the number of duplicate last names I found.

I’m not talking about common names like Jones or Smith tho there were quite a few of those.

Looks like there are a lot of family members spread across our county governments. Some even have the guts to flaunt it so bad as to be members of the same government board.

So how are the Republicans of this county any better than those “corrupt Chicago Democrats” with their pay to play and hiring of family when it looks like the McHenry County Republicans are making Chicago officials look like they are just playing at it when the Republicans here are the real pros at it?

Plus why are you not screaming at Lou (Bianchi), Keith (Nygren), and other elected officials when you look at their campaign filings and see that the same people that are giving them money are many of the same ones doing lots of business either with their office or the county? Again showing how they are the real pros when it comes to pay to play and keeping it on the down low so nobody hears about it.

We are cutting the average workers from our government payrolls while the top people are getting raises or are making such high salaries that they can handle a raise freeze.

How about the school Superintendent of these little two and three school districts making almost or over $200,000 a year taking a pay cut?

When I asked different school board members about this insane amount they are making, I get the song and dance that we need to be competitive with other school districts.

At the same time I watch four teachers get their pink slips and six teachers told that they will be teaching two grades in the same classroom.

For the first time since my kids started to have to take the ISAT’s, the school sent home a study guide for it so the kids will score better.

That tells me that this doubling up is not working.

Again I hear that they are doing this to increase the scores so they can keep what funding they have.

When the school board came up with this plan they told us parents that they have done this same thing in the past and the kids did not suffer, yet they could not show us any thing to back up their claims because it was before the ISAT type testing.

This is just one government controlled department.

How many others are doing the same thing of cutting staff, giving us less services, yet asking for more money?

It is time we cut out duplicate departments like the 17 township highway departments and consolidate them at the county level and maybe create a central purchasing department like we had in the Marines for every government body from the villages to the county to be a part of.

It has been when it comes to the salt for the roads, (when they get their order in on time) so why not with all the other items they all use like one big group insurance policy for all of their insurance needs from car insurance to health instead of 18 or more policies for each thing the county and local governments need to insure.

It is time that our local officials see what is going on around them and stop think that the tax payers are an endless bank. They need to make the money we give them work smarter for them.

But you never thought you would hear a Democrat saying we need to reduce government did you?

Andrew “Drew” Georgi

McHenry County Sheriff Keith Nygren got a headline saying he was in favor of a concealed carry law in today’s Northwest Herald, as you can see below.

Headline: "Sheriff Nygren supports concealed carry law."

I’d try to find the NW Herald article that I believe quoted a Crystal Lake Police Chief Keith Nygren as being against concealed carry in the 1990’s, but, with the NW Herald charging for its archives, that’s expecting too much. (And I didn’t buy today’s paper. I’m a second hand user.)

Beyond what I remember as a flip-flop from when I was state representative, Woodstock Advocate writer and Green Party sheriff’s candidate against Nygren, Gus Philpott, wrote in a comment about Nygren’s speech to the McHenry County Concealed Carry Association that

“Nygren was at the meeting and presented the position of the Illinois Sheriffs’ Association, which is to support concealed carry; however, at no point did Nygren ever say that HE supports concealed carry.

“What’s your position, Keith?”

It appears that question has been answered in today’s NW Herald.

But, as they say, actions speak louder than words.

Democratic Party challenger Mike Mahon points out that Nygren will not let about 230 his own trained and certified employees carry their weapons when off duty.

You know how you hear about off-duty Chicago policemen interrupting crimes while on their own time. They have guns.

Back when I was state representative, I was told of an Illinois Department of Corrections Office who was shot after he got off work by a gang banger friend of one of the inmates at either Joliet or Stateville prisons.

Illinois stupidly does not allow correctional officers to take their weapons home to defend themselves with. They have to lock them up in the prison. They can’t even have their own guns in the prison parking lot.

The result was that one correctional officer died on his way home to his Chicago neighborhood.

I introduced a bill, got it out of committee and to the House floor to rectify that situation. No help from the Illinois State Rifle Association. The legislation would have allowed correctional officers, both state and county, plus retired law enforcement officers, to carry handguns while not on the job.

My logic was that there would be that many more good guys on the street should some gang banger or crook or just plain nutcase decides to do something in their presence.

The State Rifle Association sat on its hands as a drunken Peoria area Democratic state representative took aim after a well-lubricated dinner.

The ISRA didn’t want any bill passed unless everyone was included.

And my bill lost.

Now, Mahon is calling out Nygren about allowing his own jailers and other trained and certified employees to be armed while off duty.

“Let them carry weapons while off the job,” Mahon is, in effect, saying.

“The community will be safer and you won’t be subject to the charge of being a hypocrite.”

I repeat, those were not Mahon’s words. You can read his words in his press release below:

The following statement was released Tuesday by McHenry County Sheriff candidate Mike Mahon:

Mike Mahon

“I find it interesting that Sheriff (Keith) Nygren has appeared to have gotten religion recently with respect to ‘concealed carry,’ when in fact he has had the capability to reinforce crime fighting in McHenry County for over a decade and has refused to do so.“

I am speaking of the over 230 trained McHenry County correctional and court security officers and process servers whose ability to carry firearms outside of the scope of their official duties has been denied by the same Sheriff Nygren who now states, according to a Northwest Herald article published March 2, 2010, that ‘when something happens to you or your family…the likelihood that there will be a policeman standing next to you is probably not very great’ and therefore that ‘private citizens who have guns could prove especially helpful in circumstances in which police were not instantly at the scene of an incident.’

“Now that the issue of concealed carry in Illinois might be getting some traction, Sheriff Nygren seems to be signaling some lukewarm support.

“But for years and years he could have permitted his officers, who have all completed the State of Illinois Law Enforcement mandatory firearms training course, who work for his office and whom he could keep a close eye on, to carry firearms not only as they travel to and from work but also when off-duty and in the community.

“The list of mass killings like Columbine, Virginia Tech and, closer to home, Northern Illinois University, unfortunately continues to lengthen. An off-duty officer in Utah was instrumental in halting an incident there within the last several years.

“But in McHenry County the additional cavalry are unarmed.

“I, for one, will be far more ready to believe in Sheriff Nygren’s new-found conversion to concealed carry if he immediately lifts his own restriction on the sworn, trained, and certified officers under his command.

“I will also ensure the people of McHenry County that one of my first acts as Sheriff, after a thorough review of personnel records, will be to allow the sworn and trained officers of the Sheriff’s department to carry their firearms off duty.

“This will instantly put hundreds more trained and vetted public servants on the street during their off-duty hours which will therefore bring a higher level of public safety to all citizens of the county.”

For more information contact the Mike Mahon for Sheriff Campaign at 847.515.4772.

= = = = =

I will again point out that there was a woman who had Armed Forces training who was sitting in the front of the NIU auditorium when the massacre occurred.   She could have taken out the little squirrel who did the shooting from the stage, but, instead, she got killed.

NIU is what my campaign manager for governor (when I ran in 2002) called “a protection free zone.”

One more thing.  In John Lott’s “More Guns, Less Crime,” he points out the harder laws make it for people to obtain their own personal protection in the form of a gun, the less likely it is for those people really in need of such protection will be able to qualify.

So, if you want to discriminate against inner city residents, make the hurdles high.

Yesterday, you saw the joint booth for Democratic Party State Rep. Jack Franks and Republican State Senator Pam Althoff.  See

“What’s Wrong with this Picture?”

Continuing my tour of the McHenry Business Expo held at McHenry West High School concurrent with a McHenry Marlin swim meet, I found the booth of the Democratic Party challenger for McHenry County Sheriff, Mike Mahon.

McHenry County Mike Mahon's McHenry Business Expo Booth

I took this picture. “Where was the candidate?” I wondered.

Then I saw him.

Mike Mahon talking to two supporters at the Expo.

Not standing behind his booth table, but actually out campaigning, just as Franks was went I walked by.

Having not met, I introduced myself, we shook hands and he was off to shake more voters’ hands.

Mike Mahon shaking has with a potential constituent.

As I walked down the aisle, I found a booth sponsored by the McHenry County Sheriff’s Department.

McHenry County Sheriff's booth.

But, Keith Nygren was not there. in his place was a uniformed deputy.

The rumor during the primary campaign for sheriff was the Keith Nygren would win another term, but not serve it.

His replacement would be Under Sheriff Gene Lowery.

After the primary, the rumors started circulating that Lowery would be named Deputy Chief of the Crystal Lake Police Department.

And, that’s what happened.

At tonight’s city council meeting, Crystal Lake Mayor Aaron Shepley followed up on the press release below by saying,

“After a very (extensive) search to replace retired Deputy Police Chief Dennis Harris, we’re happy to announce that Gene Lowery from the McHenry County Sheriff’s Department has been selected as Deputy Chief.

“I know Mr. Lowery personally and, frankly, I couldn’t be any happier. I can’t wait for him to start.”

Chief Dave Linder has maximized his pension benefits, but told me he has no plans to retire.

Below is the city’s press release:

New Deputy Police Chief Appointed

Crystal Lake – The Crystal Lake Police Department is pleased to announce the appointment of Eugene E. Lowery to the position of Deputy Police Chief.  Mr. Lowery will fill the position left vacant by Deputy Chief Dennis Harris, who retired on January 29th after 27 years with the Crystal Lake Police Department.

Having served as the Undersheriff of McHenry County since 2003, Mr. Lowery joins the department with a wealth of knowledge and a comprehensive understanding of the public safety needs of the McHenry County and Crystal Lake area.

With a strong educational background that includes a Masters degree in Law Enforcement Administration and extensive experience as a law enforcement executive, Deputy Chief Lowery will join the Department on March 29th, 2010.

Chief David R. Linder is pleased to welcome Deputy Chief Lowery to Crystal Lake and he looks forward to the many contributions that he will make to our organization.

McHenry County Sheriff Keith Nygren

The sheriff with $123,000 in the bank as of New Year’s Day and 13-years of name identification as an elected official on top of service as Crystal Lake’s chief of police delivered a body blow to challenger Zane Seipler in Tuesday’s election.

There is no need to wait for the early and absentee ballots to be included in the totals to see that Keith Nygren won a convincing victory.

Nygren won over twice as many votes as Seipler.

The vote count at this time is 16,942 to 7,924.

Sheriff Nygren is again King of the Hill.

It’s not that Nygren isn’t vulnerable to criticism.

Zane Seipler on election day.

Seipler took my precinct 41-32, not counting the electronic, early and absentee ballots.

It is conceivable a similar message could have worked countywide had the challenger had sufficient money and manpower to deliver it.

What it means to me is that the veteran sheriff is not on as solid ground as he and his supporters probably think they are.

Nygren has Democrat Mike Mahon and Green Party candidate Gus Philpott as opponents in the fall election.  The two opponents will split the anti-Nygren vote, giving him a better chance to win than a one on one battle would.

Even so, my guess is that fall contest will not be as one-sided as this one seemed to Nygren.

It’s the day before the election and time to do some reviewing of issues that McHenry County Blog has covered on the county level.

McHenry County Board Map

Most attention was given to the Alliance for Land, Agriculture and Water’s conflict of interest questionnaire.  It is now under consideration by the county board. It has not been voted upon.

Nevertheless, most candidates on the ballot for county board have voluntarily completed it and sent it to ALAW for posting on its web site.

A couple of candidates own significant land in McHenry County and their filings make interesting reading.

One, Victor Narusis, proposes putting his real estate, except for his home “in a blind trust to be managed by an independent third party.”

I consider that a sincere attempt to deal with a problem that other land owners on the current board might follow. He would still know where the land he owned was located when he put  it in the trust, though, so it seems to me he shouldn’t vote on zoning matters concerning it. There may, of course, be other avenues for county board members to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest, which I think is what the public expects.

Below are the candidates on the county primary ballot who have NOT voluntarily filled out the ALAW ethics form. Incumbents running for re-election are seen in bold face type.

McHenry County Sheriff

Sheriff Keith Nygren (R)

District 1 County Board Candidates

• Anna May Miller (R)
• Robert Nowak (R)

District 2 County Board Candidates

• McHenry County Board Chairman Ken Koehler (R)

District 3 County Board Candidates

• None (all filed)

District 4 County Board Candidates

• Pete Merkel (R)

District 5 County Board Candidates

• Dave Frederick (R)
  Jim Kennedy (D)

District 6 County Board Candidates

• Dan Ryan (R)

Again, those named above did not volunteer to fill out ALAW’s conflict of interest form.

One, Ken Koehler, seems to tacitly admit his land ownership is an election issue by buying a half-page ad in the Northwest Herald on Sunday.

Ad McHenry County Board Chairman Ken Koehler put in the Northwest Herald two days before the election. Koehler is the only candidate in District 2 to refuse to fill out the ALAW conflict of interest questionnaire. All of his female opponents did so.

There is, of course, significant question as to whether Metra has selected the correct side of the tracks for the Ridgefield station, although I have never suggested that Koehler used his position to influence Metra’s decision.

Route 47 front yard in Woodstock.

Except for signs all over, incumbent Sheriff Keith Nygren is running a pretty low key campaign.

The signs, of course, are only good for name identification and he already has plenty of that.

He mailed a post card two weeks ago that was pretty routine. It could have been rebutted (and was by an anonymous letter writer here), but challenger Zane Seipler doesn’t have enough money for a mailing.

Last week a letter arrived from Nygren that said pretty much the same thing as his post card.

Keith Nygren ad with the theme of "The Proud Tradition Continues." (Click to enlarge.)

Then I saw Nygren’s ad in the Northwest Herald.

As I was driving into every driveway in my precinct (except the one owned by the couple who refused to register to vote because “they didn’t have time,” although I was standing at their door on a mild day with registration cards on my clipboard, plus driveways of a couple homes that were vacant—one a nice half-completed fixer-upper right down the street from me), it occurred to me that Nygren’s ad might be interpreted by some as having all those past sheriff’s endorsing him.

“Dead Sheriffs for Nygren” crossed my twisted brain.

A couple on the list are still alive, but most are dead. The list, after all, goes back to 1837.

Lots of time to think worthless thoughts while going door-to-door.

Was there a parallel to Dan Hynes’ running a video of a vibrant Harold Washington talking from the past about Pat Quinn’s administrative incompetence?

Probably not, but the thought flitted across my mind.

And, didn’t some of the sheriffs listed have reputations that wouldn’t be considered favorable?

When I was McHenry County Treasurer, my bookkeeper, Oral Herendeen (the wife of a former sheriff and whose old home is in my precinct across from the Dole Mansion), told me that Ed Dowd, who was sheriff the term before I was Treasurer, had his checks sent to Texas for the last two years he was in office. No cell phones then.

While I was in college, I remember reading about how Dowd’s deputies seized the slot machines in Algonquin. They were full then, but empty when destroyed more than a year later.

No accounting for the money.

Surely, Nygren wouldn’t want Dowd to endorse him for re-election.

How would Dowd’s reputation fit into “The Proud Tradition” touted above Nygren’s list of mainly dead sheriffs?

I was brought back to reality as I saw a Nygren sticker on the front of the Northwest Herald’s Sunday edition.

Nothing more than another name identification effort, something this incumbent sheriff does not need.

It was the same place where McHenry County Treasurer Bill LeFew gets tax paid advertising telling people property tax bills are due. (Why do public officials have to put their names on so much stuff the taxpayers buy?)

Nygren’s campaign has not mentioned that he has an opponent.

It’s been a positive campaign.

No need to spend any money dirtying up the opponent when the Northwest Herald will do it on its front page for free.

But Nygren’s supporters’ tearing down yard signs and disabling the biggest sign of his opponent’s campaign delivers another message.

Billboard on Route 176 northeast of the intersection with Route 31 on wehich the ligths were vandalised last week.

There also have been a couple of–how shall I put it?–how about “not in complete control” moments I’ve heard about Nygren.

I’m not sure that means much, because candidates try their very best to control what happens in a campaign and all get disappointed or even outright disturbed sometimes.

In any event, the election is Tuesday and you won’t get anyone to bet that Nygren won’t win.

License plate 989-NHH on a white Jeep into which Sheriff Keith Nygren and his wife drove from the fundraiser for Appellate Justice Mary Schostok. It has a license plate holder saying, "POSSE SHERIFF NYGREN."

I found this Wisconsin license plate in the parking lot of D’Andrea the night of the event for Appellate Court Justices Mary Schostok and Ann Jorgensen.

While looking for a big, lit up Nygren sign in the parking lot, I saw McHenry County Sheriff Keith Nygren and his wife Marge get into a large white Jeep with a Wisconsin license plate and a Nygren’s Posse license plate holder.

It prompted me to send this email yesterday morning to Nygren’s campaign web site.

Brent Smith sent me out to the parking lot at Schostok’s fund raiser to get a photo of your sign, which he said was lighted.  Searching the parking lot, I ran across a white Jeep with Wisconsin plates.  It had a Nygren Posse license plate holder.  (At the far edge of the parking lot I finally found the pickup truck, but with an unlit sign.)

Cary village Trustee Ray Chisholm and, later, Woodstock Mayor Brian Sager and I talked on the steps.  Then you and Marge left the event, got into the Jeep and drove away.

Why does the Jeep have Wisconsin license plates?

By the time I went to bed, having scheduled this to be posted shortly after midnight, Sheriff Nygren had not replied.

Considering the front page story in the Northwest Herald last week about there being one supervisor for every three deputies, I thought readers might be interested in what the supervisors get paid.

The following information was obtained through a Freedom of Information request from the Sheriff’s Department by challenger Zane Seipler’s campaign. It is posted at his secondary web site, MCSDExposed (for “McHenry County Sheriff’s Department Exposed,” I guess), but is no longer on its front page.

The 2009 Wage Report for MCSD was provided today via FOIA request. Keith Nygren’s salary was $149,259.32, a $5000 increase from last year. Listed below are the twenty four other deputy supervisors and the EEO.

• Under Sheriff Eugene Lowery $136,544.37
• Sergeant Porfirio Campos-Cruz $83,461.62
• Lieutenant Donald Carlson $97,580.59
• Sergeant Duane Cedegren $93,544.91
• Sergeant Michael Cisner $98,137.88
• Captain Anton Cundiff $107,519.33
• Sergeant Alex Embry $89,513.35
• Sergeant Karen Groves $87,891.53
• Sergeant Carolyn Hubbard $89,573.22
• Sergeant Donald Kalenick $85,544.37
• Sergeant John Koziol $99,558.30
• Lieutenant William Lutz $99,363.05
• Lieutenant John Miller $105,141.26
• Sergeant Kenneth Nielsen $92,378.49
• Sergeant Daniel Patenaud $88,171.19
• Sergeant Anthony Penna $98,320.79
• Sergeant James Popovits $101,143.16
• Sergeant Greg Pyle $94,183.61
• Sergeant Daniel Reineking $98,510.24
• Sergeant Steve Schmitt $90,072.54
• EEO Kathleen Seith $93,276.86
• Captain David Shepherd $120,966.40
• Sergeant James Wagner $92,968.84
• Lieutenant Andrew Zinke $103,835.64

Summary:

• 17 supervisors increased there yearly income, 7 decreased or remained the same.
• Largest increases in yearly salary goes to Lowery +$10,000, Shepherd +$12,000 and Embry +$15,000
• Largest decreases in yearly salary goes to Cedegren -$4,000 and Carlson -$3,000