McHenry County Blog

I have two attorneys tell me that a contract cannot be considered binding unless there is consideration.

Considering McHenry County College Board President Vicki Smith’s contract did not set her salary, some might argue the newly-constituted Board of Trustees might not be as restricted in their actions as some might suggest.

In any event, the next meeting is on Thursday at 6:30.

If you want to get a seat in the little Board room you better come really early.

Again overflow will be in the auditorium.

Folks who sat there tell me conditions were less than idea.

The audio could not be heard, perhaps, because the Board members did not use their microphones.  (Maybe they need longer stems.)

When I saw that Scott Summers had been picked by the Public Health & Human Services Committee, it struck me that the committee had picked a Democrat. (And, before that, a Green Party candidate for State Treasurer and Congress.)

Not only a Democrat, but one who had run unsuccessfully for County Board in District 6.

“Would District 6 Republicans want to give prominence to a potential future opponent?” I thought.

Then I learned that the runner-up was also a Democrat.

She is Lake in the Hills Village Trustee Denise Barreto.

She is the Democratic Party Precinct Committeeman in Grafton Township Precinct 18.

I don’t follow Lake in the Hills politics, so I can’t comment on Berreto’s oversight abilities.

From watching Scott Summers service on the McHenry County College Board, I know he can recognize a boondoggle when he sees one.

Not right away in the case of the minor league baseball stadium, but in time to stop the project dead in its tracks before local taxpayers were stuck with ultimate responsibility for repaying $25 million in borrowed money after the baseball team went belly up.

The MCC Board Establishment was so enraged at the switch in position in front of the Crystal Lake City Council by Summers, who was Board President, and Donna Kurtz that they voted to censure the two. Summers subsequently resigned as Board President and, a while later, from as a College Trustee.

Supporting Summers at the committee level were

• John Hammerand
• Donna Kurtz
• Sandy Salgado
• Mike Walkup

Opposed to Summers were

• Mary McCann
• Anna May Miller
• Paula Yensen

The four behind Summers have been most outspoken in their desire to see major reform of the 708 Board.

There is talk that the supporters of Barreto may try to defeat Summers’ nomination on the Board floor Tuesday night.

First Electric Newspaper is reporting today that only one resident showed up at Lake in the Hills’ Heineman Middle School to hear McHenry County College President Vicky Smith, Trustee Linda Lidell, Dean Jim Falco and Acadmic Affairs VP Tony Miksa.

Everything seems to be on hold awaiting the Power Wellness study later this summer.

And, in other MCC news, take a look at the following memo from the Northwest Herald about the $1,300 full-page ad featuring Smith right before the Board voted to extend her contract through the middle of 2015:

This past weekend when I posted the salary of McHenry County College President Vicky Smith, I wondered what the salaries of the school superintendents in McHenry County are.

A friend of McHenry County Blog did the research and sent me the information you see below:

At the Thursday night McHenry County College Board meeting, retiring Trustee Dennis Adams argued against extending MCC President Vicky Smith’s contract through June 30, 2015.

“I don’t think any harm would come until the end of June,” he said, adding that he thought the new Board members would come to realize Smith should be retained.

“It has the appearance of impropriety.  It will have a long life…It is an affront to the new Board members.  It has nothing to do with Ms. Smith’s performance.  It has to do with the process.

“It is not urgent.  It doesn’t have to happen today.”

Before any vote, the contract already ran through June 30, 2014.

After the contract was extended on a 5-2 vote, with outgoing Board members Barbara Walters and Carol Larson being joined by Cynthia Kisser, Linda Liddell and Mary Miller, a meeting was held to install the three newly-elected members–Molly Walsh, Chris Jenner and Tom Wilbeck.

In her last comments Walters complained, “It is now political.  This [MCC] is about students, not moving up the [political ladder].”

Somehow that bothered me.

As a Republican Precinct Committeeman, I knocked on doors in my Algonquin 7 precinct the weekend before the election supporting MCC candidates.

But I also was one of two people in the room that attended the meeting in 1967 when McHenry County College got its start.  (Iris Bryan was the other.)

And, you know who called that meeting?

A Republican Precinct Committeeman–Cal Skinner, Sr.

I was McHenry County Treasurer at the time, certainly a political position.

So, I hope I will be pardoned for pointing out that if “political” people had not started the ball rolling, MCC would not have come into existence in 1968 when a ten-cent per $100 of assessed valuation referendum was passed.

My father served on the first MCC Board.

Later he was elected to the McHenry County Board.

Did he serve on the MCC Board as a stepping stone to higher office?

Considering my father came within a couple of hundred votes of winning the County Auditor’s race against the McHenry County Board Chairman in 1964, the MCC Board service certainly wasn’t a prelude to running for county office.

When I spoke before the installation meeting, I pointed out that the old Board’s action would result in more negative publicity for the College.

And, as you can see below, my prediction was fulfilled:

The McHenry County College Board members who lost and retired left office last night, but not before two (the two who lost their elections) did their best to reward not quite three-year President Vicky Smith for her efforts.

If you want to know what happened at Thursday night’s meeting in the outgoing Board’s last gasp, plus the shift of power when the newly-elected Board members took office, you can read McHenry County Blog’s article here.

The old Board majority (with Ron Parrish and Dennis Adams in the minority) want to extend Smith’s contract and raise her salary.

They achieved half of that goal.

The contract was extended through June30, 2015.

But they didn’t get to raise her salary.

That question will be up to the newly reconstituted Board.

To start that discussion, I asked for the current salary of Smith.

MCC told me it is $204,867.

I don’t know if that makes her the highest paid public official in McHenry County, but it might.

If anyone finds a school superintendent with a higher salary, please tell readers in the comment section.

Below is the report upon which the old McHenry County College Board voted for 5-2.

Well, it’s not quite what the Board voted on.

The Board did not set President Vicky Smith’s compensation.

Read the report carefully.

Voting in favor were the two longest serving Board members who lost the election–Barbara Walters and Carol Larson. They were joined by holdovers Mary Miller, Linda Liddell and Cynthia Kisser.

Voting against extending MCC President Vicky Smith’s contract through the middle of 2015 were Ron Parrish and Dennis Adams. It was almost Adams’ last vote since he retired from the Board.

Do you see the problem?

Read the recommendation:

Recommendation

It is recommended that the Board of Trustees approves extending Dr. Smith’s contract through June 30, 2015 and to set compensation as discussed in Closed Session.

Do you note that the report does not tell the public the salary and benefits?

I surely did and was ready to file complaints with both the McHenry County State’s Attorney and the Illinois Attorney General about the seeming violation of the Open Meetings Act had the Board approved the report as presented in the Board Packet.

But the old members didn’t do that.

After the closed session, undoubtedly upon the advice of their attorneys, the Board considered a motion which excluded compensation

So, the outgoing Board got half of what it wanted.

Smith’s contract has been extended another twelve months after June 30. 2014, but her salary has not been set.

That will be up to the carryover Board members and those newly-elected and now sworn in:

• Molly Walsh
• Chris Jenner
• Tom Welbeck

A new Student Trustee named Michele Lambert was previously sworn in.

There was public comment from 6:30 to 7:45.  Again there was not enough room for the taxpaying public.  Overflow folks were directed to the auditorium way across campus.

But, there were almost a row and half out of the three rows of chairs reserved for MCC employees who certainly could have sat in chairs outside until their turn in the program came.

The commenters were divided into three parts:

• Those supporting an extension of Smith’s contract
• Those opposed to an extension of Smith’s contract
• Those supporting the theater program whose 80-seat Black Box Theater seems destined to become the location of a greatly expanded robotics program

I’d love to give you a blow-by-blow account of the comments, but the new Board didn’t adjourn until 12:10 Friday.

Suffice is to say that both Chris Jenner and Molly Walsh asked the old Board not to extend Smith’s contract.

Jenner pointed out that there were nearing three months for the holdover Board members to explain to the new Trustees why Smith deserved to have her contract extended.

“I don’t believe any of us have passed judgment on Dr. Smith.”

“I really feel strongly that the incoming Board should be making the decision on terms and working conditions,” Walsh added as the last one to provide public comment.

“An action tonight is really disregarding the new Board members.

“Lets work together.”

Their pleas were ignored.

Very shortly after the old Board took its last gasp by voting for Smith’s contract extension, the new Board was sworn in.  That was at 10:45 Thursday night.

Then, the tables were turned.

Jenner nominated Ron Parrish to be the new Board President.  Wilbeck provided the second.

Liddell nominated Kisser.  I believe Miller seconded that nomination.

Three to three.

The deciding vote seemed to belong to newcomer Walsh.

A secret ballot was taken and the vote came out 4-3 in favor of Parrish, who had been very much the minority member on the old Board.

For Vice Chair, it was Wilbeck vs. Liddell.

3-3 with, I presume, Walsh breaking the tie in favor of Liddell.

Wilbeck nominated Jenner for Secretary and no one else wanted the job so he got it.

Yesterday on the front page of its internet edition, the Northwest Herald noted that tonight at 6:30 the McHenry County College Board will vote on whether or not to extend President Vicky Smith’s contract through June 30, 2015.

Not that the end of the contract is up or anything. Currently it expires in the middle of 2014.

It’s just that the old board, on whose last agenda the contract extension is 24th of 26 items, doesn’t want the three brand new Board members elected a little over two weeks ago–Molly Walsh, Chris Jenner and Tom Wilbeck–to have a say in the person they will have to oversee for the next over two years and two months.

I’ve read the internet NWH edition and I see quotes like

• “She has done a wonderful job.”
• “She has done a fabulous job.”
• “The cafeteria is much better.”

Nary a word of criticism of her performance.

I didn’t go looking for something to balance off the positivity of the article–published the same day as a full-page, full-color ad by MCC–but I did have the something in my in-box, which you can see below.

Not that there hasn’t been some criticism. Consider the public comments of James Gould of the Philosophy Department, which you can read here.

A friend of McHenry County Blog wrote:

“I read the article in the Northwest Herald yesterday about the MCC faculty who were so enthusiastic about President Vicky Smith.

“I hope that readers recognized that both instructors teach in the Math and Science Department, and thus, would benefit from new classrooms, labs, and offices. ‘
“One instructor was quoted as saying that the President had ‘put the college in a positive light.’ I

“I disagree – Vicky’s administration creates the toxic environment that a faculty member spoke of at the MCC Committee of the Whole Meeting on April 16.

“Employees describe how Vicky and a few of her administrators make decisions without consulting affected faculty and staff, and then everyone is expected to live with the decisions.

“Most employees do not feel that they can question her policies without putting their jobs in jeapardy.

“Sadly, these stories of the unrest spill over into the community.

“The instructors who spoke in favor of Vicky are well-regarded.

“But it troubles me that they ignored the fact that she blind-sided the Theater Department by her decision to move the Robotics Lab into that space.

“Would these instructors have been so flattering if Vicky had decided to move the Robotics Lab into their lab space?

“Further evidence that Vicky is not putting the college in a positive light is the full-page ad that MCC put in the Northwest Herald yesterday.

“It appears to be the work of a delusional or desperate (or both?) administration.

“The ad, at taxpayer expense, shamelessly promotes Vicky, and the word ‘students’ only appears once!

“This ad speaks volumes to her narcissistic attempt to shore up her image.

“She states, ‘I am just like you.’

“I do not think so.”

Full-page, full-color.

One has to hand it to McHenry County College.

The Board is sparing no expense to provide “cover” for the extension of MCC President Vicky Smith’s contract by the old Board members on Thursday night at 6:30.

And cover those Board members need because three of them won’t be on the Board about ten minutes after they vote to hike her salary through June 30, 2015.

That’s seven months after the next gubernatorial election.

It’s over two months after two of the remaining Board members will have been up for re-election. They are Board President Mary Miller and Ron Parrish.

Miller is for the contract extension by the old Board; Parrish is not.

The McHenry County College Board has posted the papers it will consider at its Thursday night’s 6:30 meeting.

You can read it here.

If you go way, way down all the way to the bottom, you will see the recommendation to extend MCC President Vicky Smith’s contract to June 30, 2015.

It’s the same report that McHenry County Blog published Monday.

That’s the last meeting of the outgoing board, three of whose members will not be attending future meetings in an official capacity.

Carol Larson and Barbara Walters lost the election; Denis Adams decided not to run for re-election.

Those wishing to address the Board may do so at the beginning of the meeting, shortly after 6:30.