McHenry County Blog

Besides the 6 PM meeting at McHenry County College at which the lame duck Board seems destined to renew President Vicky Smith’s contract, there are other meetings people might find of interest.

Each of McHenry County’s 17 Townships will hold annual meetings. They start at 7.

I’ve attended the Grafton Township Annual Town Meeting for the past four times, all of which were action-packed…often with Huntley Police presence.

It probably will be an interesting meeting, but the McHenry County Board might be more interesting.

It also starts at 7 PM.

The bar owners have retained attorney Tom Zanck to lobby County Board members to vote to reverse their prohibition of the video poker/slot machines from bars and restaurants regulated by the County.

My sources tell me that the proponents have about ten votes.

If all 24 members attend the meeting, thirteen votes will be needed to pass the measure.

The vote was 13-10-1 against legislation in late 2009.

That’s if no one abstains or, as they say in the Illinois General Assembly, someone “takes a walk.”

In any event, the last time around the vote was quite close.

Voting in favor of a ban of the video gambling machines in unincorporated areas in 2009 were the following, who are grouped by county board district (those up for election in 2010 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

I’ve been told that the proponents of repeal have only locked up ten votes and the lobbyist of those seeking to reverse the video gaming prohibition, Tom Zanck, is asking if those inclined to vote “Yes” could abstain to lower the number of affirmative votes needed to win the day.

Those wishing to let their Board members know where they stand can call them at the numbers below:

McHenry County Board Districts

District 1

• Robert “Bob” Nowak – Home: 847-977-5516, email – rcnowak@co.mchenry.il.us
• Anna May Miller – Home: 847-639-5112, Work: 847-639-2700, email – ammiller@co.mchenry.il.us
• Yvonne Barnes – Home: 847-516-2719, email – ymbarnes@co.mchenry.il.us
• Nick Chirikos – Home: 847-658-3434, email -nachirikos@co.mchenry.il.us

District 2

• Carolyn Schofield – Home: 815-455-9550, Work: 815-341-2440, email – cdschofield@co.mchenry.il.us
• James L. Heisler – Home: 815-459-1971, Work: 815-459-0171, email – jlheisler@co.mchenry.il.us
• Kenneth D. Koehler – Home: 815-459-7841, email – kdkoehler@co.mchenry.il.us
• Donna Kurtz – Home: 815-788-0632, Work: 815-353-5972, email – dmkurtz@co.mchenry.il.us

District 3

• Nick Provenzano – Cell: 815-355-8540, email – nxprovenzano@co.mchenry.il.us
• Mary E. McClellan – Home: 815-482-5693, email – memcclellan@co.mchenry.il.us
• Michael J. Walkup – Home: 815-477-8978, Work: 815-459-7090, email – mjwalkup@co.mchenry.il.us
• Joseph Gottemoller – Home: 815-382-9940 (Cell), Work: 815-459-5152, email – jxgottemoller@co.mchenry.il.us

District 4

• Sue Draffkorn – Home: 815-653-6057, email -sxdraffkorn@co.mchenry.il.us
• John D. Hammerand – Home: 815-728-0700, email – jdhammerand@co.mchenry.il.us
• Bob Martens – Home: 815-675-6353, Cell: 815-354-9300, email – rmmartens@co.mchenry.il.us
• Sandra Fay Salgado – Home: 815-276-2317, email – sfsalgado@co.mchenry.il.us

District 5

• Tina Hill – Cell: 815-347-4222, email – trhill@co.mchenry.il.us
• Paula Yensen – Home: 815-404-3918, email – peyensen@co.mchenry.il.us
• John Jung, Jr. – Home: 815-338-6201, email – jpjung@co.mchenry.il.us
• Michael Skala – Home: 847-669-3804, Work: 815-337-5550, email – mjskala@co.mchenry.il.us

District 6

• Michele Aavang – Home: 815-648-4210, email – mraavang@co.mchenry.il.
• Mary T. McCann – Home: 815-568-1061, email – mtmccann@co.mchenry.il.us
• Diane Evertsen – Home: 815-943-3298, Work: 815-943-3298, email – dxevertsen@co.mchenry.il.us
• Ersel Schuster – Home: 815-338-2207, email – ersel@sbcglobal.net

Several new members have said they will vote as their perceived their constituents feel.

Here’s the press release:

The McHenry County Board is accepting applications for the McHENRY COUNTY BOARD OF HEALTH from INDIVIDUALS, PHYSICIANS and REGISTERED NURSES.

One (1) vacant position is available with a term expiring June 30, 2016 and must be filled by a REGISTERED NURSE.

One (1) vacant position is available with a term expiring June 30, 2016 and must be filled by a PHYSICIAN.

One (1) vacant position is available for INDIVIDUALS interested in appointment to the McHenry County Board of Health and has a term expiring June 30, 2016.

Application forms are available at the County Board Office, Room 209, McHenry County Government Center, 667 Ware Road, Woodstock, IL 60098 (815-334-4221) or at the County’s website http://www.co.mchenry.il.us/departments/countyboard/PDFDocs/AppointmentApp.pdf.

Completed applications should be returned to the County Board office no later than 2:00 p.m. on THURSDAY, APRIL 25, 2013. If mailing your application, certified or registered mail is recommended.

Mailed applications should be sent to the following address: McHenry County Board, 2200 North Seminary Avenue, Woodstock, IL 60098.

= = = = =

Does anyone but government put the number in parentheses after the word for it?

John Hammerand

It was not until ‘Member Comment” time that John Hammerand shared his findings about being overpaid.

He explained that the checks he had received since the County’s Fiscal Year began in December indicated that he would be paid $21,500 a year, while the resolution setting salaries provided for $21,000 a year.

Hammerand cited a County Board resolution passed on November 1, 2011, right before the filing for election.

It was presented to correct “a scrivener’s error,” according to the minutes.

Committee chairmen decided to set the annual amount at $21,000, up $12 from the highest paid County Board members in 2012, just to have an even number.

But the resolution passed in October said $21,500.

In a Northwest Herald article by Kevin Craver, Hammerand was described thusly:

“Calling Hammerand a taxpayer watchdog is an understatement – when it comes to opposing government spending, he’s more of a taxpayer tyrannosaurus.”

This video poker machine is no longer in Crystal Lake because the City Council did not vote to legalize the new state neighborhood gambling program.

Monday morning video poker (or slot machines, if one wants to be accurate) returns to the Liquor & License Committee again.

Opponent John Hammerand isn’t Chairman any more.

Now, proponent Ken Koehler has the gavel.

The other members are

• VC Bob Nowak
• Joseph Gottemoller
• Sue Draffkorn
• Diane Evertsen

Public comment is allowed shortly after the meeting begins at 10 AM on the second floor of the Administrative Building across from the Jail.

Toward the end of the meeting the following will be considered:

“Resolution Repealing Video Gaming Ordinance for Unincorporated Areas of McHenry County”

Here is the Resolution bring considered.

See

• “Is Another Push for Slot Machines in Unincorporated Taverns Coming?” in which I wrongly say, “Not likely.”
• McHenry County Board Bans Video Slot Machines 13-10-1

A press release from the 708 Mental Health Board:

Mental Health Board postpones selection of executive director

Current McHenry County Mental Health Board (MCMHB) President Lee Ellis deferred the final selection process for choosing an executive director to allow soon to be appointed Board members to familiarize themselves with the mission and operations of the MCMHB and to provide their input on the final choice.

Lee Ellis

“I personally believe that it is essential for the partially newly constituted Board to be familiar with the operations of the MCMHB before proceeding with the interview process,” Ellis said.

Ellis, who is also chairman of the MCMHB Search Committee, believes it is essential for new Board members to understand their obligations and roles to intelligently develop their independent expectations regarding choice of an executive director.

For this reason, Ellis cancelled plans for the final interviews for choosing an executive director scheduled for March 5, 2013. Instead, he is calling a Search Committee meeting immediately following the regularly scheduled meeting of the Mental Health Board at 6 p.m. on Feb. 26, 2013 to discuss reevaluation of the timeline for final interviews.

The MCMHB appointed Todd Schroll as interim executive director until a national search for a replacement for former Executive Director Sandy Lewis is completed. Lewis left her position in November to take the position of assistant professor of psychiatry and the director of the Virginia Treatment Center for Children.

The Public Health and Human Services (PHHS) Committee of the McHenry County Board recently interviewed and recommended candidates for four open seats on the MCMHB. County Board Chair Tina Hill delayed the vote to approve the recommendations due to a glitch involving compliance with the Open Meetings Act.

As a result, it is anticipated that the PHHS committee will meet again on Feb. 27, 2013 at 8:30 a.m. to make its recommendations to the McHenry County Board, which will meet on March 5, 2013 at 9 a.m. At this time it is further anticipated that the McHenry County Board will complete its appointments to the four open seats on the MCMHB.

Lee Ellis

Lee Ellis, the Chairman of the McHenry County Mental Health Board, was not recommended for re-appointment by the newly-reconstituted Public Health and Human Services Committee.

Hearings have been held yesterday and today with applicants presenting their credentials and answering questions from the six committee members present.

After the interviews by the five women and one man were completed, members wrote down the names of their favorites for three four-year and one one-year term.

The following names were written on a white board:

• Carrie Smith
• Mary Donner
• Lee Ellis
• Bernadette May
• Heather Murgatoyd
• Rob Rontzahn
• Scott Summers
• Connie Meschini

Because Smith, the pastor at Crystal Lake’s Bethany Lutheran Church got four of the six votes, she was selected for one of the three four-year terms.

Six Public Health Committee members cast ballots in round two of the 708 Board selection process.

In a second round of voting, the committee singled out as finalists for the one-year term

• Donner, who was defeated for re-election to the County Board in last spring’s Republican primary election works for Pace and has been the liaison to the County Board from the 708 Board
• Meschini, also on the current Board

Finalists for the two remaining four-year terms were determined after another round of balloting.

Ellis and May got no votes that time around, leaving

• Murgatoyd
• Rontzahn
• Summers

In the fourth round, Mufgatoyd and Rontzahn emerged victorious.

That left the question of who was going to be recommended for the one-year term, Donner or Meschini.

The committee members split evenly with Mary McCann, Anna May Miller and Paula Yensen backing Donner and Committee leader Donna Kurtz, Sandy Salgado and Mike Walkup backing Meschini.

Rob Rontzahn

To break the tie, Committee members decided to await the return of the seventh member, John Hammerand.

Asked after the meeting if she expected any problem getting her the Public Health Committee’s recommendations approved by the full County Board, Kurtz replied, “No.  I think people will respect the balanced view of this Committee.  These are all qualified people and they have been thoroughly vetted.”

Rontzahn works for IBM out of his home office and serves on both the Crystal Lake District 47 Grade School Board and the County Housing Authority.

Murgatoyd is a clinical specialist (social worker) for DeVilbiss Health Care.

A press release from the McHenry County Board:

The McHenry County Board is accepting applications from individuals interested in appointment to the McHENRY COUNTY HOUSING COMMISSION. Six additional vacant positions are available as follows:

• One three-year term is available to be filled by a representative of the Continuum of Care
• one three-year term is available to be filled by a representative of the Housing Authority
• the remaining four members may include persons from among the following organizations or interested stakeholders:
  • banking industry
  • McHenry County Association of Realtors
  • McHenry County Townships
  • McHenry County Council of Government
  • McHenry County Homebuilder Association
  • McHenry County Bar Association
  • McHenry County Economic Development Corporation
  • McHenry County Mental Health Board
  • McHenry County educational school districts
  • Senior Service Commission
  • tenants of affordable housing
  • users of housing services
  • members of the general public who have an interest in housing

= = = = =
I guess taxpayers fit into the last category.

The roll call was 11-9 with four McHenry County Board members absent when the vote was taken on whether voters should be allowed to determine they should be allowed to elect the County Board Chairman starting with the 2014 election.

You can see the roll call below:

The January 18, 2013, roll call on whether a referendum would be held in April to allow voters to decide if they wanted to elect the 2014 McHenry County Board Chairman at the ballot box.

The nine voting in favor were

1. Joe Gottemoller
2. Michele Aavang
3. Yvonne Barnes
4. John Jung
5. Donna Kurtz
6. Nick Provenzano
7. Sandy Salgado
8. Mike Skala
9. Mike Walkup

The eleven opposed were

1. Nick Chirikos
2. Sue Draffkorn
3. Diane Evertsen
4. Jim Heisler
5. Tina Hill
6. Ken Koehler
7. Robert Martens
8. Anna May Miller
9. Robert Nowak
10. Carolyn Schofield
11. Ersel Schuster

Right before the old Board was replaced by the folks whose names are seen above, it voted 20-3 to put a “377″ tax hike referendum on the ballot in April.

You can read the article and why I am going to vote against the referendum here.

Not only did the Board vote to put the referendum on the ballot, but the resolution seems to endorse it. Read the specific paragraph I reference below:

“Need for Tax: It is necessary and in the best interests of McHenry County, in order to provide sufficient funds for the provision of facilities and/or services for the developmentally disabled, that the County levy and collect a tax not to exceed .1% of the value as equalized or assessed by the Department of Revenue of all taxable property in the County for said purpose.”

As Northwest Herald reporter Kevin Craver wrote on his blog, Opening Doors,

“• LACK OF FOCUS: More than one Management Services Committee member on Monday suggested that community outreach, focus groups and the like were needed to gauge the community’s mood on whether to make the chairmanship popularly elected.

“The idea might rear its head again Friday.

“But speaking of that ’377 Board’ referendum we’ll be facing in April, I don’t remember any County Board member suggesting that they first go out into the community to gauge support for a new taxing body and a new property tax to finance it.

“The nobility of the agencies’ cause aside, would any focus group or meeting of regular voters have come back in this state’s economic climate asking the County Board for a tax increase referendum?”

In any event, some might be interested in comparing who voted to put a tax hike on the ballot at the lowest turnout day in the election cycle with who voted not to allow citizens decide whether their County Board Chairman should be elected by those who cast ballots.

The members of the McHenry County Board when the tax hike referendum was approved.

Those who voted to put the ’377″ tax hike question on the ballot.

Comparison time for the roll calls, anyone?

jack Franks

That might be the question being discussed by some prior to Friday morning’s vote on whether or not to put a question on the April ballot as to the direct election of the McHenry County Board Chairman.

I figured out I may have been wrong when I wrote the following about why Democrats were opposed to electing a County Board Chairman at-large yesterday:

All are Republicans [who signed the petition to call a special meeting to consider the referendum], which when one thinks about it, that probably just recognizes the lay of the political land, that is, Democrats are more likely to gain positions of power, e.g., Paul Yensen’s appointment as Chairman of the Management Services Committee, through politicking in the current system of selecting a Board Chairman than through a one-on-one fight with any Republican in a countywide contest. Both Yensen and first time Democratic Party Democratic Party Board member Nick Chirikos voted for Hill and neither showed any support for an at-large election at the Monday Management Services Committee meeting.

I wasn’t taking into consideration that Jack Franks might be interested in such a job.

I can’t think of any Democrat besides that Franks who might be able to put up a decent race.

Here are the McHenry County Board members who signed Nick Provenzano’s petition to call a special meeting on Friday, January 18th at 9 AM to consider whether voters should have a shot in April at passing a referendum on whether the Board Chairman should be elected.

This petition for a special meeting of the McHenry County Board shows who signed.

You can see eleven signed the petition.  Eight–one-third of the Board’s members–were required to sign to call a special meeting.

So people can find their names, let me list them in the order in which they signed and who they ended up voting for in the County Board Chairman’s race:

• Nick Provenzano (supported Koehler)
• Mike Walkup (new, supported Hill))
• Ken Koehler (supported Koehler)
• Robert Nowak (supported Koehler)
• Joe Gottemoller (new,  supported Gottemoller)
• Mike Skala (new,  supported Gottemoller)
• Robert Martens (new, supported Hill)
• Diane Evertsen (supported Schuster)
• Donna Kurtz (supported Schuster, then Hill)
• Sandy Salgado (supported Koehler)
• Mary McCann (supported Hill)

Four supported Tina Hill for Board Chairman.

Four supported Ken Koehler for Board Chairman.

Two supported Joe Gottemoller.

One supported Schuster.

All are Republicans, which when one thinks about it, that probably just recognizes the lay of the political land, that is, Democrats are more likely to gain positions of power, e.g., Paul Yensen’s appointment as Chairman of the Management Services Committee, through politicking in the current system of selecting a Board Chairman than through a one-on-one fight with any Republican in a countywide contest.   Both Yensen and first time Democratic Party Democratic Party Board member Nick Chirikos voted for Hill and neither showed any support for an at-large election at the Monday Management Services Committee meeting.

Only one of what I would consider hardcore supporters of Hill broke ranks to potentially endanger the new ruling coalition’s ability to continue its power after the 2014 election cycle.

Just because someone signed the petition does not mean that they are committed to vote for an April referendum.

There are twenty-four Board members and a majority vote will be required to put the question on the ballot.

Do you want to express your viewpoint to your County Board members?

Here are their phone numbers:

• Michele Aavang – 815-648-4210
• Yvonne Barnes – 847-516-2719
• Nick Chirikos – 847-658-3434
• Sue Draffkorn – 815-653-6057
• Diane Evertsen – 815-943-3298
• Joe Gottemoller – 815 382 9940
• John Hammerand – 815-728-0700
• Jim Heisler – 815-459-1971
• Tina Hill – 815-347-4222
• John Jung – 815-338-6201
• Ken Koehler – 815-459-7841
• Donna Kurtz -815-788-0632
• Bob Martens – 815-675-6353
• Mary McCann – 815-568-1061
• Mary McClellan – 815-482-5693
• Anna May Miller – 847-639-5112
• Robert Nowak – 847-516-9637
• Nick Provenzano – 815-355-8540
• Sandy Salgado – 815-271-5293
• Carolyn Schofield – 815-455-9550
• Ersel Schuster – 815-338-2207
• Mike Skala – 847-669-3804
• Mike Walkup – 815-459-7090
• Paula Yensen – 815-404-3918

At the Management Services Committee meeting Monday only member Mike Walkup and audience member Nick Provenzano seemed to favor an April election.  Nevertheless, hesitant Committee members Donna Kurtz and Mike Skala signed the petition, along with Walkup.

At this point one can see that Nick Provenzano read the political wind better than the Management Services Committee did on Monday.

Whether the wind is blowing hard enough to overcome the reticence of Board members who like the current insider system (for reasons including an inability to raise sufficient funds to mount a countywide campaign–campaign cost having been mentioned by several Board members during the ongoing debate) remains to be seen on Friday morning.

And whether the measure passes or fails, the roll call will be used in the 2014 elections.

It will be interesting to see if any County board members from the last Board who voted to put a tax hike on the ballot in April will refuse to allow their constituents to vote on whether to elect their County Board Chairman at the ballot box.