McHenry County Blog

If, like I, you have not looked at the 2030 McHenry County Land Use Plan, you might want to and send you reaction to the county board.

Comments were supposed to be over, but, because the county’s capacity to receive emails didn’t work this past weekend, the comment deadline has been extended to 4:30 this coming Thursday. Below is a press release to that effect:

McHenry County Department of Planning & Development announces:

Due to technical difficulties with our server over the weekend, the comment period for the 2030 Plan has been extended to Thursday March 11 at 4:30 p.m.

The County had received reports of e‐mails to 2030Plan@co.mchenry.il.us not being delivered. This issue has now been corrected. Those interested in commenting on the plan may do so at that e‐mail address or by mail at: 2030 Plan, c/o Department of Planning & Development, 2200 N. Seminary Ave., Woodstock, IL 60098.

All comments received by the deadline will be reviewed by the Planning and Development Committee of the County Board.

Tuesday morning the Finance and Audit Committee has two resolutions on its agenda:

One is for $344,729.

The other is for $36,378.11.

The resolutions don’t even tell what departments where the employees worked.

I have cited Huntley School District 158 as a model of transparency. I did so most recently for all to see at a Crystal Lake City Council meeting when I was perturbed that I could not find the council packet on the internet on the city’s brand-new web site.

I thought I got a favorable response, but last weekend I went looking for the information that the council folks had already received and there was nothing to be found.

Crysal Lake City Council

Asking City Manager Gary Mayerhofer about when it might happen, I was told that staff was ready, but waiting for direction from the council. Based on that representation, I didn’t ask again during the public comment section. If by the next meeting I attend it is not up, I shall, as you would expect, make mention of it again.

In any event, the Huntley School District was the web site I pointed to as what I hoped Crystal Lake would emulate.

But outside of the board packet’s posting, the Huntley School District is no model of transparency, even though outgoing School Board President Shawn Green represented as such.

Why would I say that?

While McHenry County government has been known to reply to a Freedom of Information request in less than 24 hours, the Huntley School District tends to take the pretty much the maximum amount of time allowed by law.

And, in the instance of my search for anyone employed by District 158 with a Special Education Director qualification, as defined by the Illinois State Board of Education, the term “dragging of the heels” is too mild to use.

On Monday, February 8th, I asked for the following:

“One document for each person having a special education director endorsement on their administrator’s certificate, as verified on the State Board of Education web site.”

The same day, FOI Officer Lori Woods replied,

“Are you requesting a copy of their certificate?

“If I can be of further assistance, please feel free to contact me.”

My reply:

“I really don’t care if it the certificate or something referring to the certificate. “

Woods:

“Okay, thanks.  I’ll get working on that ASAP for you.”

My reply:

“The basic question is whether anyone in the district has a certification to be a special ed director.

“I can’t find one.”

On Friday, February 12th, I received this reply from Woods:

“The response to your FOIA regarding documentation of Special Education Director endorsement is attached.

“If I can be of further assistance, please feel free to contact me.”

That certainly is within the five-workday returned turnaround time, but consider the answer from Human Resources Director Lauren Smith that was attached:

The parsed word response of Huntley Human Services Director Lauren Smith. Note that it took her only nine minutes to formulate her answer. Click to enlarge.

Huntley School District Human Relations Director Lauren Smith

“I am not clear how to move forward on this request. Based solely on the question, I cannot provide a document for all persons with an endorsement as a special education director.”

Smith’s parsing of my words reminds me of President Bill Clinton’s:

“I did not have sexual relations with that woman.”

Being the persistent type, I filed a new Freedom of Information request on Friday, February 12th, saying,

“It seems to me that my Special Ed certification request was pretty clear, clear enough to ask the IL AG’s office in an appeal and get a letter sent to District 158 the way one was recently sent to Grafton Township officials.  Instead, for a very brief time (I do not promise to wait 5 days, just to delay until the thought of an appeal enters my head again), let me give you another chance with the re-wording of the question you see below:

“I request all documentation provided by the Regional Superintendents Office or State Board of Education that evidences each district employee who holds or has held a Special Education Director endorsement during the 2009 – 2010 fiscal year, including any employee who was employed by the district in FY 2009 – 2010, and any certificate or copy thereof of in possession of the district that evidences the referenced employees’ holding or having held the referenced endorsement.

“A simple ‘We have no record of any such evidence that a Special Ed Director Endorsement has been held by any of our employees during Fiscal Year 2009-2010′ will suffice, if that is the situation.” (Emphasis added.)

Seven days later, I received this reply:

“The response to your FOIA for Special Education Director endorsement is attached.

“If I can be of further assistance, please feel free to contact me.”

Now, Human Resources Director Smith has discovered,

It took twelve days to get this answer. Click to enlarge.

Very interrresssting.

“Upon review of certified staff members, including administrators, there is not an employee as of this date with a Director of Special Education endorsement.”

Ver-r-r-r-y in-ter-r-r-r-r-es-s-s-t-ing, as the Laugh-In Nazi would say.

Not that I think Green had any knowledge of the games his staff was playing, but I would point out this answer was received the day after Green praised the district’s transparency.

It was not received before I got fed up at not having receiving a timely answer to my question of February 8th, though.

I would suggest the kiddie games evident above are unworthy of a local government aspiring to be known as a “model of transparency.”

= = = = =

The 800 number of the Illinois Attorney General’s Public Access folks is 877-299-3642, by the way.  Complaints may be filed by email.  The email address is PublicAccess@AtG.State.IL.US.

Lack of inter-connectivity has always been the problem in delivering bus service to the suburbs.  To get from one town to the next, you had to be able to get from your home to the bus stop.

During the 1974 RTA referendum, proponents promised,

“Public transportation, when and where you need it, throughout the region.”

“Right,” I thought then. “Not in my lifetime.”

Now local officials have forged an agreement to allow those living in Crystal Lake (the city, not the zip codes 60012 and 60014) to get to and from home and McHenry and/or Woodstock or anywhere in Dorr Township, plus all combinations thereof.

Here is the county’s press release on the ribbon cutting:

PACE Ribbon Cutting

WOODSTOCK, IL – A ribbon cutting ceremony was held this morning to commemorate the launch of a program to expand Pace Dial-a-Ride services in McHenry County.

The Program, which officially went into service last Saturday, enables registered users to arrange transit trips between the cities of Crystal Lake, McHenry, and Woodstock, and for seniors and people with disabilities the area also includes all of McHenry Township and unincorporated Dorr Township.

McHenry County Board Chairman speaks at a ceremony announcing the expansion of PACE bus service between Crystal Lake, McHenry and Woodstock.

Near the Vietnam War Memorial at the County Administration building, County Board Chairman Ken Koehler provided a few words for the occasion:

“It would be an understatement to say it’s been a very long journey from planning stage to implementation of these services… This project, funded by the Senior Services Grant Commission and the County Transit Grant Program will have immediate impacts to many with limited mobility in the County and will, in the long-term, create positive social and economic impacts.”

The seeds for this service were first planted in 2005, when the County Board approved a Transit Plan calling for the coordination of transit services.

Pace Board Chairman Richard Kwasneski heralded the new service as an example of the kind of coordination that will be necessary for successful transit systems in the future.

Sandra Salgado, McHenry County Board member and Chair of the County’s Senior Services Grant Commission, expressed how happy the Commission members are to see this service provide new transportation options for McHenry County’s seniors.  In late 2007, the Senior Services Grant Commission awarded funds to the McHenry County Division of Transportation to begin a program of coordinated transit services.

Anna May Miller, also a Board member and Chair of the County’s Transportation Committee, shared her enthusiasm for this first step in coordinated, expanded transit services.  The Transportation Committee authorized a Transit Grant Program that provided funding for the service in 2009 using the County’s RTA Sales Tax.

County Chairman Koehler, Pace Chairman Kwasneski, County Board Member Salgado, County Board Member Miller, and McHenry Township Supervisor Donna Schaefer cut the red ribbon over the door of the Pace bus, officially declaring the service up and running.

Sandra Salgado, Anna May Miller, Donna Schaefer, Ken Koehler, Rick Kwasneski cutting the ribbon.

Other attendees at this event included: County Board members Lyn Orphal, Mary Donner, and Mary McCann; Bob Pierce, Dorr Township Supervisor; Don Kopsell, Nunda Township Road District Commissioner; Mayor Susan Low, City of McHenry; Mayor Brian Sager, City of Woodstock; Pace Executive Director T. J. Ross; McHenry County Engineer/Director of Transportation Joseph Korpalski, Jr.; and Pioneer Center President and CEO Lorraine Kopczynski.

Alice in Wonderland

Read this article on The First Electric Newspaper about the unsavory background of one of the McHenry County SportsPlex’ consultants.

The publication reports SportsPlex supporters introduced “Terry Gaouette, Vice President of Administration and Business Consulting Services for H&K Sports Fields, Egg Harbor, WI, as a consultant.”

Further, that he was “Chief Financial Officer of the Milwaukee Public Museum and indicted on four felony counts in 2007 for draining money from the museum’s endowment funds to cover its declining operations and hiding it.”

The museum had to be bailed out by county government to keep it from going under.

Marc Munaretto

Also of interest was McHenry County Board Finance and Audit Committee Chairman Marc Munaretto:

“I understood him to represent himself as the consultant for (McHenry County Sportsplex’s) business plan. I thought he was a paid consultant that helped develop the application.”

Munaretto told reporter Pete Gonigam it wasn’t his committee’s job to “drill down that far.”

The committee has also not “drilled down” far enough to even reveal to fellow county board members and the public who owns how much of the project.

Read the whole story.

It’s getting curiouser and curiouser.

Ken Koehler chairing a McHenry County Board meeting.

Someone suggested after I run a summary of the Daily Herald article about Kane County Board Chairman Karen McConnaughay ’s campaign contributors and the payments they had received from county government that I should look at McHenry County Board Chairman Ken Koehler’s.

None during this January were above the $500 level over which a report must be made within two days, but ones over $150 for year 2009 are shown below in alphabetical order:

• Algonquin Penny L.P. c/o EJ Plesko & Associates, Madison – $1,000
• Alliance Contractors Inc., Woodstock – $1,000
• Athans, Georgia & James, Williamsbay, WI – $500
• ATT Illinois Employee PAC, Chicago – $250
• Barn Nursery & Landscape Center Inc., Rt 31, Cary – $500
• Baudin, W. Randal, Attorney at Law, Dundee – $250
• Baxter & Woodman Inc., Crystal Lake – $500
• Beaubien Citizens for, Barrington – $250
• Bianchi Citizens to Elect Lou, Crystal Lake – $575
• Bollinger Lach & Associates Inc., Itasca, IL – $250
• Campion Curran Dunlop & Lamb P.C., Crystal Lake – $500
• Castle Creek Homes Limited Partnership, South Barrington – $225
• Ciorba Group Inc., Chicago – $500
• Comcast Financial Agency Corporation, Philadephia, PA – $500
• Cowhey Gudmundson Leder Ltd, Itasca – $250
• Crawford Murphy & Tilly Inc., Aurora – $250
• Curran Contracting Company, Crystal Lake – $500
• Eldredge, Charles, Richmond – $500
• Fox Ridge Nursery Inc., Harvard – $500
• HDR Inc. Political Action Committee, Omaha, NE – $250
• Held, Bernard, Plainfield – $200
• Innovative Component Sales Inc., Huntley – $500
• Jacobson, Bruce or Peggy, Glen Arm, IL – $300
• K & J Schaid Enterprises Inc., McHenry – $225
• Kilkenny Real Estae Services, Woodstock – $250
• Knoles, Warren, Springfield – $200
• Koestner, April, Chicago – $500
• Mathewson Right of Way Company, Frankfort, IL – $1,000
• Merryman, Thomas (“Occupation: Developer”), Woodstock – $1,000
• Metropolitan Chicago Healthcare Council, Chicago – $250
• Operating Engineers Local 150 I.U.O.E. Local Area PAC, Countryside, IL – $250
• Ottosen Trevarthen Britz Kelly & Cooper Ltd., Wheaton – $500
• Overbay, Gary, Crystal Lake – $500
• Patrick Engineering Inc., Lisle – $500
• Schain Burney Ross & Citron LTD., Chicago – $500
• SEC Group Inc., McHenry – $200
• Shumway, Grant, Algonquin – $250
• Thelen Sand & Gravel Inc., Antioch – $300
• Transystems Corporation, Schaumburg – $500
• Tryon Committee to Elect, Crystal Lake – $500
• V3 Companies of Illinois LTD, Woodridge – $500
• Zukowski Rogers Flood & McArdle, Crystal Lake – $250

Mary McCann

District 6 McHenry County Board member Mary McCann gave her campaign$1,500 on January 18th.

Within two days she was supposed to report that to the Illinois State Board of Elections, but form is dated more than a month later—on February 10th.

Another $1,200 was given by McCann to her committee on January 28^th, but not reported until February 10^th.

That’s a “No-No,” which could result in a fine.

Usually first-time offenders are treated leniently. If a subsequent reporting mistake is discovered, a fine results.

Craig Steagall

District 3 county board candidate Craig Steagall has filed his final report for his county board campaign that fell 232 votes short of beating incumbent Barb Wheeler.

Steagall came in fourth 32 votes behind Karen Tynis.

Joliet’s Merc Strategy Group was the place that Steagall’s money went. It received $16,700.

That entire amount was supplied by the candidate.

Winning a GOP nomination besides Wheeler was Nick Provenzano, who polled first.

3-D image of McHenry County

Shortly before the 2008 fall elections, the McHenry County Board approved a contract with the Illinois State Geological Survey for 2½ year study including “geologic mapping for sustainable management and protection of the county’s groundwater resources.”

It was supposed to be finished next December

Tuesday night the county board is scheduled to put off that deadline by a year.

The accompanying memo to Mary McCann, Chairman of the Natural and Environmental Resources Committee, from Water Resources Manager Cassandra McKinney says the Illinois State Water Survey will use the 3-D mapping of “the distribution and character of sand and gravel aquifers in the County as well as insight on their potential for recharge and vulnerability to contamination.”

But, because the aquifers extend beyond the county lines, the State Water Survey wants the overlapping areas mapped first to make the resulting groundwater flow model more accurate.

Hence, the delay of a year.

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.