McHenry County Blog

Actually, it wasn’t raining as I drove to Woodstock for the McHenry County Board’s Finance Committee meeting Tuesday.

“Historical.  If an existing company, balance sheet and profit & loss statement for the last three fiscal years.  Include accountant’s opinion letter and any schedules and notes to financial statements.”

“*The entity that will own and operate the stadium will be a start up company that will have no historical financial information.”

I haven’t gotten around to writing a story on baseball stadium promoter Mark Houser’s pitch to the McHenry County Board’s Finance and Audit Committee yesterday, so I would encourage you to read the stories of the other three reporters there:

Stadium Developer Asks More Time For Financing

Stimulus Bonds Delayed

Houser, of course, is one of the two promoters, the other being Pete Heitman, who pitched the McHenry County College Board to issue bonds to pay for a stadium at MCC.

A friend dropped this flying pig on my front porch last week.

I haven’t seen him in a while, but I guess I told him the story about Illinois Senate President Pate Philip’s having said the state income tax would be raised “when pigs fly.”

That was before Governor Jim Thompson somehow convinced him to get enough Republicans to vote “Yes” to hike the income tax.

Today we have McHenry County Board Republicans deciding whether a pig will fly.

The pig in question is the Woodstock baseball stadium.

If ever there were a pig in a poke, this is it.

The board’s Finance Committee meets at 9:30 this morning.

The flying pig above seems to be a hood or motorcycle ornament.  I guess it would be a “flying hog,” if put on the right motorcycle.

Toot, toot.

Or is it,

“Hoonk, hoonk?”

That train speeding down the track is the one delivering authority for the Woodstock baseball stadium developer to use $15 million in Federal Stimulus Bonds to finance their proposed stadium.

The beneficiary of this largess is Equity One Development Corporation. The application form lists Mark Houser as the 100% owner of the firm.

Here are a couple of relevant sections of the proposed resolution:

Section 1. The County meets certain conditions specified in the Act required to designate the County as a Recovery Zone, those conditions being a significant increase in the unemployment rate, an increase in the rate of home foreclosures, and general distress and the County has been designated as a Recovery Zone.

Section 2. The County Board hereby approves the Project submitted by Equity One Development Corporation and designates $15,000,000 of Recovery Zone Allocation to Equity One Development Corporation for the issuance of Recovery Zone Facility Bonds to finance the Project.

Section 3. The Allocation shall be used to issue bonds to finance the Project and said Bonds must close no later than March 1, 2010. In the event the Bonds do not close by March 1, 2010, then the Allocation shall expire and revert back to the County.

Section 4. All actions of the officers, agents and employees of the County that are in conformity with the purposes and intent of this Resolution, whether taken before or after the adoption hereof, are hereby ratified, confirmed and adopted.

Here are the committee members who will meet next Tuesday at 9:30:

Chairman: Marc Munaretto

Vice Chair: Lyn Orphal
Members: Scott Breeden, John Hammerand, Tina Hill, Daniel P. Ryan, Mary Donner

Up for election this year are

• Lyn Orphal in the Crystal Lake-Lake in the Hills District 2the Woods
• Tina Hill in Woodstock-Lake in the Hills-Huntley District 5
• Dan Ryan the Huntley, Marengo, rural Woodstock, Harvard, Hebron, Alden District 6

In yesterday’s article about this pending decision, I laid out the campaign opportunities it would offer Democrats.

The light at the end of this tunnel could be what Democrats planning to run for county board are seeing.

The local expert on stadiums is McHenry’s Steve Stanek. He is a Research Fellow with the Heartland Institute.

When I read in Kevin Craver’s article in the Northwest Herald that the McHenry County Board is thinking of awarding the largest portion of the Federal stimulus bonds to the Woodstock baseball stadium folks, I thought of Stanek and asked for his opinion.

Just in case you are interested, here is the story I wrote the night the Woodstock City Council approved the proposal.

Here’s what Stanek has to say:

“I could quote dozens of economists and public policy researchers to show how bad it would be for the County Board to grant this greedy, self-serving request for $15 million of stimulus bonds for that baseball stadium. But I will instead quote the owners of a professional sports team:

“‘The financial issue is simple, and the city’s analysts agree, there will be no net economic loss if the Sonics leave Seattle. Entertainment dollars not spent on the Sonics will be spent on Seattle’s many other sports and entertainment options. Seattleites will not reduce their entertainment budget simply because the Sonics leave,’ the Soncis said in the court brief.” — Seattle Times, Jan. 18, 2008, regarding the NBA’s Super Sonics trying to break their stadium lease to move to another city.

“Imagine: The owners of the Seattle Super Sonics said, under oath in federal court, that Seattle would suffer no economic harm if the team were to leave the city. These same owners, when arguing for huge taxpayers subsidies for KeyArena in Seattle, said the team would bring tremendous economic benefits. But of course, when they made those claims, they were not under oath in a court of law.

“When I read about this request for stimulus bonds in the (Northwest) Herald this morning, I said to myself,

‘You’d think these people would have learned from the MCC baseball stadium fiasco.’

“But then I realized this has nothing to do with good economics or benefiting the community.

“This has to do with benefiting a handful of people with lots of money and friends in high places in this county, and with making a handful of people who cast themselves as community leaders feel good about themselves.

“I am especially disgusted with the McHenry County Community Foundation. I contacted them with information about how bad it is to use subsidies to support such facilities, and I received assurances this would be entirely privately funded. (See this article.)

“Now $15 million of stimulus bonds that have been made available by the government could go to this baseball team.

“To those few local officials who might actually care about benefiting the community, I say this would be a terrible waste of resources.

“Economic studies overwhelmingly conclude sports teams return virtually nothing to the economy and sometimes actually hurt the overall economy.

“That money could be loaned far more effectively to other businesses — businesses that have been in this county for years, paying every nickel of tax local government officials can squeeze from them.

“If they don’t believe me about the overwhelming agreement among researchers about how bad such proposals are, maybe they’ll believe this:

’With most empirical issues there’s lots of debate. Does the minimum wage cause unemployment? There’s lots of debate about that issue. Here there’s no debate.’ — Vanderbilt University economist John Siegfried regarding economists against sports subsidies, quoted in Boston Globe, March 19, 2006.”

= = = = =
All the photos were taken at the Woodstock City Council meeting when the proposal was approved 6-1. Top right, pointing at the plan for the stadium is Mark Houser, the man who refused to identify himself when he walked out of a secret meeting with the McHenry County College board. The MCC plan eventually died, of course. Below are Frontier League Commissioner Bill Lee and baseball team promoter Pete Heitman. The crowd that attended the Woodstock City Council meeting is seen at the bottom.

I would note that now the Democrats have two issues upon which to beat county board Republicans about the head–the upcoming Ridgefield train station vote and the baseball stadium bond vote.

Remember the

direct mail piece the Democrats put out last fall (click to enlarge) ?

I am sure the Dems will top this piece, if the county board allocates more than half of the bonds allocated for private enterprise in McHenry County to the Woodstock baseball stadium.

And think of the mailing that could be made to every small business in McHenry County:

Couldn’t get a loan last year?

The McHenry County Board could have helped you, if (you fill in the blank).

In case you have forgotten how good the “Monopoly” piece was, talk a look at

McHenry Dems Attack Republican Monopoly

Democrats Go for Republican Vulnerabilities – 1

Democrats Go for Republican Vulnerabilities – 2

Democrats Go for Republican Vulnerabilities – 3

Democrats Go for Republican Vulnerabilities – 4

County Board Plans to Buy Land to the North

Democrats Go for Republican Vulnerabilities – 5

How Is Your Town Ranked by Local Democrats?

It was political pressure that led to the release of baseball promoter buddy Mark Houser’s feasibility report after months and months of secrecy…at the meeting where the board majority censured then-Board President Scott Summers and Donna Kurtz, no less.

It was a combination of political pressure from the Northwest Herald and an almost on point May 21st Illinois Supreme Court decision ordering the release of the Wheaton Warrenville Unit School District Superintendent’s contract that led to the McHenry County Board’s back flip.

Tomorrow morning, bright and early, I’ll be at President Brian Sager’s office looking for the copy of ex-MCC President Walt Packard’s $200,000 a year golden parachute contract that I requested under the Freedom of Information Act.

I wonder if there will be any justification for giving him and his wife health benefits through August 21, 2012.

You can read the contract here.

In honor of Mark Houser and Pete Heitman’s obtaining their McHenry County dream—zoning permission to build a minor league baseball stadium in McHenry County—I post this tee shirt found in Milwaukee’s Mitchell Airport.

In case you didn’t read the article that kept me up until 3:45 AM, it is here.

It says,

= = = = =
Pete Heitman is the one on the left and his partner Mark Houser of Equity One is on the right.

= = = = =
Vicki Smith informed me the tee shirt was designed by her company, Eagle Sportz of Cartersville, which is located as far from Atlanta, Georgia, as Crystal Lake is from Chicago. I received the owner’s email on April 2, 2009.

In honor of Mark Houser and Pete Heitman’s obtaining their McHenry County dream—zoning permission to build a minor league baseball stadium in McHenry County—I post this tee shirt found in Milwaukee’s Mitchell Airport.

In case you didn’t read the article that kept me up until 3:45 AM, it is here.

It says,

= = = = =
Pete Heitman is the one on the left and his partner Mark Houser of Equity One is on the right.

= = = = =
Vicki Smith informed me the tee shirt was designed by her company, Eagle Sportz of Cartersville, which is located as far from Atlanta, Georgia, as Crystal Lake is from Chicago. I received the owner’s email on April 2, 2009.

With only councilman Richard Ahrens voting in opposition, the Woodstock City Council approved a special use permit for gravel mining across Route 14 from Centegra Hospital down to Lily Pond Road.

A privately financed minor league baseball stadium promoted by Mark Houser and Peter Heitman will be built northeast of Lake Shore Drive and Route 14.

The third of the threesome who showed up at a secret meeting of the McHenry County College Board in March of 2007, Frontier League Commissioner Bill Lee, only to duck out the back door of the board room, was also present for Woodstock’s public meeting.

The stated plan is to have baseball games starting in May of 2010, but when the council was discussing how the 38 acres to be occupied by the stadium would be conveyed to the city ownership if a stadium were not completed within five years of approval of the rezoning, Houser asked for an extra five months.

If a stadium is not completed by May of 2014, the city would get the parcel.

So, two years if all goes well and five if there are hitches.

In the meantime, Merryman Aggregates will be mining gravel, stockpiling enough each year to provide what the firm thinks it can sell.

Tom Zanck, attorney for the proposal, and others kept calling the operation by other names, e.g., “aggregate extraction.”

Members of the newly renamed McHenry County Defenders, now, the Environmental Defenders of McHenry County complained of the fast track for the re-zoning. The report from the McHenry County Soil and Water Conservation District had just arrived Monday and had not been reviewed by city staff.

Those wishing to slow down the approval process pointed out that it should have been ready before the Planning Commission had reviewed the petitioners’ plan.

Right before the vote, starting at 12:42 AM, Mayor Brian Sager read the report’s executive summary.

In his summation, Sager reported that 41 citizens had contacted him prior to the council meeting had been “strongly in favor.” One was distinctly opposed and two others wanted to make sure certain questions were answered.

Ahrens opposition centered on the far eastern parcel in the proposal.

It fronts on Lily Pond Road, which is where the gravel trucks would leave the property.

Ahrens thought the highest and best use would be something other than the county fair and exhibitions.

Several members had made lists of pros and cons. The pros obviously were considered more persuasive for the six voting in favor of the re-zoning. (Except for the mayor, they are listed in alphabetical order. Picture are in seating order, from left to right with the exception of Ahrens.)

Mayor Brian Sager
Councilwoman Julie Dillon
Councilwoman Maureen Larson
Councilman RB Thompson
Councilman Mike Turner and
Councilman Ralph Webster

But they didn’t agree with the proposal without placing upwards of 50 conditions, a couple of which were strongly disputed by the petitioners.

One was the citing of a state law which said that the city could impose a ticket tax.

When Houser objected, city attorney Richard Flood pointed out that they could take it out, but this council could not bind future council in such a matter. And, since it was in the state law anyway putting it in the document did not harm to the petitioner.

Houser finally agreed.

More contentious was a city proposal which would allow levying an extraction tax. Merryman wanted his surety bond used first, if something were not done which he had promised. It turns out the city wanted to hold his business responsible for any infrastructure failures of the baseball promoters as well, which the council must have thought unfair, because they limited the liability to the mining operation.

Several times, Mayor Sager said that he didn’t want to end up with the problems that Woodstock’s neighbor to the east, aka, Crystal Lake, had with Vulcan Lakes.

Merryman did not propose a pit going beneath the water table and he proposed reclaiming the land as he moved from one part of the property to the next.

Ahrens, Thompson and Turner are running unopposed for re-election.

= = = = =
On top you can see Equity One’s Mark Houser explaining his and partner Peter Heitman’s baseball stadium proposal. Below is Frontier League Commissioner Bill Lee on the right and Heitman on the left. A shot of some of those attending the meeting follows. Mayor Brian Sager is seen directly below with dissenting Councilman Richard Ahrens below him to the left. The council members voting from the proposal are from left to right on the top row, RB Thompson, Maureen Larson and Mike Turner. On the next row you seen Ralph Webster on the left and Julie Dillon on the right. Mark Houser talks to his attorney Tom Zanck directly below. Woodstock City Attorney Richard Flood is below right. At the bottom is another picture of the audience, this time from the back of the room. All photos may be enlarged by clicking on them.

With only councilman Richard Ahrens voting in opposition, the Woodstock City Council approved a special use permit for gravel mining across Route 14 from Centegra Hospital down to Lily Pond Road.

A privately financed minor league baseball stadium promoted by Mark Houser and Peter Heitman will be built northeast of Lake Shore Drive and Route 14.

The third of the threesome who showed up at a secret meeting of the McHenry County College Board in March of 2007, Frontier League Commissioner Bill Lee, only to duck out the back door of the board room, was also present for Woodstock’s public meeting.

The stated plan is to have baseball games starting in May of 2010, but when the council was discussing how the 38 acres to be occupied by the stadium would be conveyed to the city ownership if a stadium were not completed within five years of approval of the rezoning, Houser asked for an extra five months.

If a stadium is not completed by May of 2014, the city would get the parcel.

So, two years if all goes well and five if there are hitches.

In the meantime, Merryman Aggregates will be mining gravel, stockpiling enough each year to provide what the firm thinks it can sell.

Tom Zanck, attorney for the proposal, and others kept calling the operation by other names, e.g., “aggregate extraction.”

Members of the newly renamed McHenry County Defenders, now, the Environmental Defenders of McHenry County complained of the fast track for the re-zoning. The report from the McHenry County Soil and Water Conservation District had just arrived Monday and had not been reviewed by city staff.

Those wishing to slow down the approval process pointed out that it should have been ready before the Planning Commission had reviewed the petitioners’ plan.

Right before the vote, starting at 12:42 AM, Mayor Brian Sager read the report’s executive summary.

In his summation, Sager reported that 41 citizens had contacted him prior to the council meeting had been “strongly in favor.” One was distinctly opposed and two others wanted to make sure certain questions were answered.

Ahrens opposition centered on the far eastern parcel in the proposal.

It fronts on Lily Pond Road, which is where the gravel trucks would leave the property.

Ahrens thought the highest and best use would be something other than the county fair and exhibitions.

Several members had made lists of pros and cons. The pros obviously were considered more persuasive for the six voting in favor of the re-zoning. (Except for the mayor, they are listed in alphabetical order. Picture are in seating order, from left to right with the exception of Ahrens.)

Mayor Brian Sager
Councilwoman Julie Dillon
Councilwoman Maureen Larson
Councilman RB Thompson
Councilman Mike Turner and
Councilman Ralph Webster

But they didn’t agree with the proposal without placing upwards of 50 conditions, a couple of which were strongly disputed by the petitioners.

One was the citing of a state law which said that the city could impose a ticket tax.

When Houser objected, city attorney Richard Flood pointed out that they could take it out, but this council could not bind future council in such a matter. And, since it was in the state law anyway putting it in the document did not harm to the petitioner.

Houser finally agreed.

More contentious was a city proposal which would allow levying an extraction tax. Merryman wanted his surety bond used first, if something were not done which he had promised. It turns out the city wanted to hold his business responsible for any infrastructure failures of the baseball promoters as well, which the council must have thought unfair, because they limited the liability to the mining operation.

Several times, Mayor Sager said that he didn’t want to end up with the problems that Woodstock’s neighbor to the east, aka, Crystal Lake, had with Vulcan Lakes.

Merryman did not propose a pit going beneath the water table and he proposed reclaiming the land as he moved from one part of the property to the next.

Ahrens, Thompson and Turner are running unopposed for re-election.

= = = = =
On top you can see Equity One’s Mark Houser explaining his and partner Peter Heitman’s baseball stadium proposal. Below is Frontier League Commissioner Bill Lee on the right and Heitman on the left. A shot of some of those attending the meeting follows. Mayor Brian Sager is seen directly below with dissenting Councilman Richard Ahrens below him to the left. The council members voting from the proposal are from left to right on the top row, RB Thompson, Maureen Larson and Mike Turner. On the next row you seen Ralph Webster on the left and Julie Dillon on the right. Mark Houser talks to his attorney Tom Zanck directly below. Woodstock City Attorney Richard Flood is below right. At the bottom is another picture of the audience, this time from the back of the room. All photos may be enlarged by clicking on them.