McHenry County Blog

Maybe I’m sensitive about the question because I was McHenry County Treasurer as a child way back from 1966 to 1970.

As you might guess, the question is arising in Grafton Township as the four trustees try to garner the power that Trustee Gerry McMahon keeps insisting belongs to the majority, of which he is a member.

By now, the four trustees have probably passed a resolution giving Trustees Betty Zirk and Robert LaPorta signature authority on township checks.  ( I was at the Crystal Lake Kiwanis Club’s Christmas Party tonight.)

At the last meeting and in his management letter, the auditor had pointed out that requiring two signatures was a good check and balance to implement.

So far, so good.

But the resolution being considered tonight says that if Supervisor Linda Moore, who, by statute, is the treasurer of all Grafton Township funds, doesn’t sign them within seven days of approval, the two township trustees can.

Setting aside that Moore is the one with the bond that would repay the township if anyone made off with some money, that procedure could take away the supervisor’s authority as treasurer.

It would be like the McHenry County Board’s proposing that two board members be given the keys to the county treasury, just in case Treasurer Bill LeFew didn’t want to do the job.

I’m certainly no attorney, but the section in the resolution stating that if any part of the resolution is found invalid, the rest remains valid seems to be more than boilerplate.

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The photo of the Grafton Township Board comes from last week’s meeting.

Related articles:

Auditing Grafton Township Style – Part 1

Auditing Grafton Township Style – Part 2

In 1963, my mother and I attended the Illinois Crime Commission’s summer hearings held in the old county board room at what is now Woodstock City Hall. It was twice the size of the current Woodstock City Council Chambers.

Crime Commission Executive Director Charles Siragusa had investigated a bookmaking operation in Crystal Lake and presented diagrams of Crystal Lake businesses (like the magazine shop on Williams Street) from which bets were phoned to a room on the second floor the Pinemoor Hotel southwest of the First Congregational Church. At the time, we knew the Pinemoor as a great place for pizza. (It still it near the “V” in the Crystal Lake Plaza.)

The owner of the Pinemoor was Harry Snell, our Republican precinct committeeman. He told the commissioners he didn’t know what was going on upstairs.

Algonquin Township Precinct 7 was huge. It went from Route 14 to the the McHenry-Kane County line east of McHenry Avenue. Most of the homes were in Crystal Lake and Lakewood. The current Lake in the Hills and Algonquin subdivisions west of Randall Road did not exist then. They were farms.

In 1964, my father ran for the office of McHenry County Auditor. It was the first year that the county had enough population to have one–over 80,000 people.

He ran against McHenry County Board Chairman Harley Mackeben, who was on the board by virtue of his position as Grafton Township Supervisor.

My father and mother ran a leisurely campaign in the then-90,000 person county, telling people who asked whether he would quit his Barley and Malt Institute job that he wouldn’t, that the job only require part-time work, which was subsequently proven correct.

Mother and Dad campaigned in the little northern and western towns on weekends, going into the small bars and stores and introducing themselves.

Dad lost the two-way race by about 300 votes, preparing the way for me to become McHenry County Treasurer in 1966 in a 3-way race (33%+, 33%, 33%-) by 72 votes with about 13,000 cast.

Lots of people obviously thought they were voting for my father.

I heard again and again when they met me, the 20-something, in the Treasurer’s Office.

The same year, Dad decided that he would make a more appropriate precinct committeeman than Harry, ran against him and won.

In 1967, Dad, who had opposed the formation of a junior college district in 1963, called a meeting in the cafeteria of Crystal Lake Community High School that led to the formation of a committee that successfully created McHenry County College with a ten-cent tax rate. The committee promoted a college that would be one-third funded by student tuition, one-third by local property taxpayers and one-third by the state. (Needless to say, state government did not come through with the promises made by state officials who spoke to McHenry County college proponents.)

The referendum passed on April 1, 1967, and Dad was elected to serve on its first board.

More tomorrow.

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Links to all the articles are below:

Biography of Calvin L Skinner – Part 1 – Second Son, School Years

Biography of Calvin L. Skinner – Part 2 – College, Marriage, First Jobs

Biography of Cal Skinner, Sr. – Part 3 – First House, Elected President of the Easton, Maryland, Town Council

Biography of Cal Skinner, Sr. – Part 4 – Storm Sewer Grates, Miles River Yacht Club, Slot Machines, Chesapeake Bay Bridge

Biography of Cal Skinner, Sr. – Part 5 – Switching Parties, Moving to Salt Lake City, Middletown and Crystal Lake

Biography of Cal L Skinner – Part 6 – The Early Crystal Lake Days, Dipping Feet Slowly into Political Arena

Biography of Cal Skinner, Sr. – Part 7 – Running for County Auditor, Precinct Committeeman, Calling the Meeting that Led to McHenry County College

Biography of Cal Skinner – Part 8 – The Star Reporter, Daughter Ellen Bored in High School, Prohibited from Attending MCC Classes

Biography of Cal L Skinner – Part 9 – Responsible Republicans’ Slate, County Board Reapportionment

Biography of Cal Skinner, Sr. – Part 10 – Unsuccessful County Clerk Try, County Airport Fight, Wife’s Death

As you can see, McHenry County Treasurer paid the Northwest Herald to put a

Wonder how much it cost?

This appeared before the robo calls from Washington, D.C., that people received last Saturday.

A Crystal Laker got a phone call from McHenry County Treasurer (and Tax Collector) Bill LaFew today.

It was a robo call from Washington, D.C., caller ID said. The number was 202-495-7118.

LeFew wanted to remind my friend that property taxes are due on June 4th.

There are two ways to look at this.

Cynic that I am, I’ll look at the political side first.

It’s another way to try to convince people that he is helpful less than a year before what could be a hard-fought GOP primary campaign, if McHenry County State’s Attorney Lou Bianchi’s supporters and financiers are in a vindictive mood for what LeFew did to oust him.

The other way of looking at it is that LeFew was being helpful.

In any event, this is the first time I have seen this technique used.

I wonder what it cost and who paid for it.

“To the Dark Side,” I’m sure many reporters would suggest, but going into politics is an honored career path for British reporters.

I figure going from being a reporter to public relations qualifies as much as going to “the Dark Side” as running for office.

Anyway, former courthouse reporter Mark Bonne, more recently of Rockford publications, ran unsuccessfully for 14th Ward alderman.

Now, he’s done both.

Bonne earns his living now as spokesman for the Rockford School District.

Bonne is aligned with State Sen. Dave Syverson, R-Rockford.

One of the commenters under the above linked column by political columnist Chuck Sweeney was none to kind in describing Bonne as a “RINO,” which stands for “Republican in Name Only.”

In January Bonne held a fund raiser featuring former Rockford Congressman and Presidential John B. Anderson.

I haven’t seen Anderson since crossing paths at Waukegan’s WKRS in 1980 when he was running for president and I was running unsuccessfully against incumbent Bob McClory for congress. He was walking out as I was walking in.

The race was a three-way one with Bonne running as an independent, the Republicans running Edward Geeser. Former Rockford Fire Chief Bill Robertson won the election as a Democrat.

Bonne was forced to run as an Independent because he voted in the previous Democratic primary election. But he wasn’t alone. Robertson was kicked off the ballot because he voted in the previous Republican primary and also ran as an independent. The Republican Party’s candidate had to be slated twice because of mistakes the first time around.

The results were 49% for the “independent” ex-fire chief, 29% for “independent” Bonne and 24% for the official Republican.

In Rockford no incumbent lost and those who retired were all replaced by candidates from the same party, except in this ward.

Bonne will always have a warm place in my heart for the NW Herald interview he did of my father. I played the tape in Dave Bachmann’s funeral home, which pretty much freaked some people out.

At the NW Herald, Bonne was a too tenacious courthouse reporter, uncovering petition forgeries that led to the resignations of a county treasurer and county board member.

It was known as the coffee cup-Wite-out scandal.

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The Darth Vader you see was in the 4th of July Parade two years ago in Crystal Lake.

First it was Republican Governor George Ryan who decided that increasing drivers license fees was the way to finance his Illinois FIRST in 1989.

I didn’t support that bill because it took about 56% of its money from the six-county Chicago metropolitan area and proposed spending only about 43% in the area on roads.

Under the 1989 gas tax hike deal that Lake County State Rep. Bob Churchill put together, the Chicago-area had been getting 45%, so Ryan’s deal was making things worse for this area, even though population and traffic had increased since 1989.

Now, Democrat Governor Pat Quinn wants to raise license plate fees $20 more.

Being a resident of Cook County, Quinn probably never paid a personal property tax bill.

Typically, getting rid of a personal property tax bill was something one asked one’s Democratic Party precinct captain to dispense with.

“Fix” for those of you who don’t need sugar coating.

Outside of Cook County, the tax was collected.

I remember that the half-life of uncollected bills was about a year. About 90% was paid and our collection efforts cut that the delinquencies in half each year.

With lots of people having moved from Cook County, lots of personal property tax bills went unpaid when I was McHenry County Treasurer from 1966-70.

The office had a whole division (well, two or three people) who filed small claims suits in my name for any bill or combination of bills that amounted to over $25. They were located down in the basement at the back of the old courthouse.

2,500 to 3,000 suits a year.

I sued fully 25% of the households in McHenry Township. It’s a wonder I ever carried the township for state representative.

If a person tried to sell a home and they had such a small claims judgment, they could not get a clear title before paying it off.

I remember one of Democratic State Rep. Tom Hanahan’s best precinct committeemen, Frank Hromac, came in really disturbed one day several years into my term.

The McHenry County Title Company had told him he couldn’t sell his home until he paid his back personal property taxes.

I explained that was the case.

He was not happy, but paid.

He was not moving out of his McHenry Lakeland Park precinct—just from one side of the subdivision to the other. He didn’t want to give up his precinct, one that he had worked so hard.

When I ran for county treasurer, opposition to the personal property tax was one of my issues.

It resonated.

The Establishment types said a county treasurer couldn’t do anything to get rid of the personal property tax.

That took a change in state law.

There were a number of county treasurers elected in 1966 with similar ideas.

We decided the way to bring pressure on the General Assembly was to enforce the law.

I remember the Peoria County Treasurer Vic Castle went so far as to physically seize cars with unpaid personal property taxes. One day I went down to watch and ended up cowering behind a snow plow blade in an East Peoria trailer park while the police tried to get an armed man to surrender.

That convinced me I didn’t want to seize cars.

In any event, enforcement was ramped up.

Part 2 tomorrow.

Normally school districts put presentations on their Board agendas so residents can know if they should attend to learn about what is going to be said.

District 300 wanted this one under the radar.

In other words, no photos and nothing highlighted to the media. They even left it off the agenda.

What District 300 administrator wants to alert residents that it needs to fix its internal controls?

Certainly not incumbent board members up for reelection in April.

Here’s what was discussed at Wednesday’s Finance Committee Meeting.

Board policy 4:30

Operational Services

Controls and Reports. The Chief Investment Officer CIO shall establish a system of internal controls and written operational procedures to prevent losses arising from fraud, employee error, misrepresentation from third parties or imprudent employee action.

You might think the highly-paid administrators might know what needs to be fixed. Or could/would ask their independent auditor.

Instead the plan, apparently is to rely on a consultant, PMA, to do the review.

How does PMA make a lot of money?

If you guessed from school districts investing their funds with the company, that’s a pretty good guess.

Forget for a moment that Huntley District 158 used to have money invested with PMA that violated that district’s policy of requiring collateralized deposits.

Until board member Larry Snow pointed out how this either shouldn’t be done or the policy should be changed.

District 158 withdrew its uncollateralized deposits from PMA.

When I was McHenry County Treasurer collateralization was not required. I required it on the larger investments.

Laura Pauli from PMA gave a sample Investment Policy and Procedure Manual to District 300 at the meeting.

On its face, this sounds like a potential conflict of interest.

Copies were not made available for audience members.

When’s the last time you heard of a school district going out to bid for where it invests its money?

I used to do it all the time when I was county treasurer. It was good policy 40 years ago and it still is.

If a company like PMA actually pays less money than other investment options, with the lack of watchdogging and oversight that goes on in most school districts, who would ever know?

Normally school districts put presentations on their Board agendas so residents can know if they should attend to learn about what is going to be said.

District 300 wanted this one under the radar.

In other words, no photos and nothing highlighted to the media. They even left it off the agenda.

What District 300 administrator wants to alert residents that it needs to fix its internal controls?

Certainly not incumbent board members up for reelection in April.

Here’s what was discussed at Wednesday’s Finance Committee Meeting.

Board policy 4:30

Operational Services

Controls and Reports. The Chief Investment Officer CIO shall establish a system of internal controls and written operational procedures to prevent losses arising from fraud, employee error, misrepresentation from third parties or imprudent employee action.

You might think the highly-paid administrators might know what needs to be fixed. Or could/would ask their independent auditor.

Instead the plan, apparently is to rely on a consultant, PMA, to do the review.

How does PMA make a lot of money?

If you guessed from school districts investing their funds with the company, that’s a pretty good guess.

Forget for a moment that Huntley District 158 used to have money invested with PMA that violated that district’s policy of requiring collateralized deposits.

Until board member Larry Snow pointed out how this either shouldn’t be done or the policy should be changed.

District 158 withdrew its uncollateralized deposits from PMA.

When I was McHenry County Treasurer collateralization was not required. I required it on the larger investments.

Laura Pauli from PMA gave a sample Investment Policy and Procedure Manual to District 300 at the meeting.

On its face, this sounds like a potential conflict of interest.

Copies were not made available for audience members.

When’s the last time you heard of a school district going out to bid for where it invests its money?

I used to do it all the time when I was county treasurer. It was good policy 40 years ago and it still is.

If a company like PMA actually pays less money than other investment options, with the lack of watchdogging and oversight that goes on in most school districts, who would ever know?

Huntley School District 158 got its audit results for last fiscal year ending June 30th last week.

That’s about two months after the final budget was prepared and approved in September.

But where is District 300’s Audit?

Try finding it on D-300’s web site.

Maybe you will have better luck than I did.

Or, more likely, it isn’t there because it isn’t finished.

Does it amaze you how school districts finalize their official budgets before they know what the audited results are from the previous year?

At least Huntley got its auditor to promise to get it done in September. Not that that promise was kept.

I looked at the letter District 300’s auditor wrote last year.

Does insufficient internal controls sound good to you? Doesn’t to me.

Outside auditor Virchow Krause and Company wrote only about the deficiencies it described as “material weaknesses.“

“During our audit, we noted that existing, written policies and procedures for internal control were not in sufficient detail “

The auditor made it clear that what they did would “not necessarily identify all deficiencies in internal control that might be significant deficiencies or material deficiencies.”

If the audit firm isn’t hired to find them all, then who is?

Well, no one.

This wasn’t a topic of discussion when administrators wanted a big property tax increase.

If you are a District 300 board member, how apparent is it (from reading what the auditor wrote) that there needs to be more sufficient safeguards?

Check it out yourself. Here’s the management letter in the audit. Click on “Download” after this link comes up.

What’s interesting in this letter is that the auditor explains how it is the auditor who is doing the final preparation of the district’s financial statements.

I thought auditors audited books prepared by the entity being audited. That’s what happened when I was McHenry County Treasurer.

Tough to find anything wrong with numbers you, the outside auditor, yourself prepare.

Apparently District 300 only keeps the books on a cash basis and has to pay an audit firm to do the accrual accounting…done, it seems, only once a year well after the fact.

You would think a large school district as large as Carpentersville’s would be able to do the accrual accounting and report those numbers on a quarterly basis when they might be helpful for management purposes.

Apparently not.

When it audited Huntley School District 158, Virchow Krause and Company took about 11 months after year end to finish an audit a couple of years ago.

Think any District 300 school board members up for reelection want an unfavorable letter coming out about internal controls before the school board election?

In the last letter to management from the auditor (after linking, click Download), District 300’s auditor found that fiscal management continued to be several months behind in reconciling its bank accounts and books.

When I was county treasurer, my bookkeeper Oral Herendeen did that every month. Over a four-period she was off $10 and that was a counterfeit bill grabbed by the Federal Reserve. She and my chief deputy, predecessor and successor as county treasurer Audrey Walgenbach certainly had accuracy down pat.

The salaries for the officials of the largest township in McHenry County have been set and they are high enough so that they might lure some competition.

• Supervisor – $61,119.35, plus full benefits
• Highway Commissioner – $84,167.09, plus full benefits
• Assessor – $76,151.18, plus full benefits
• Clerk – $16,031.83, plus Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund pension benefits
• Trustees – $2,137.83

“Full benefits” is defined as IMRF, health, life, dental & vision insurance.

All salaries will increase 3.5% per year.

Algonquin Township is now about the same size as McHenry County was when I ran in the Republican Party primary for county treasurer in 1966—just under 100,000, as of 2005.

I was 23 when I passed my petitions; turned 24 two days before the primary date.

So, with the five largest townships—Algonquin, McHenry, Grafton, Nunda and Dorr Townships—having decided to hold primary elections, will any youngish Republicans decide to run for township office?

I wasn’t thinking about the really well paying full-time township jobs, although I certainly was after a full-time job in 1966. It paid more than my United States Bureau of the Budget entry level job that I left did. I was earning $7,500. County treasurer paid $10,000 a year, but it didn’t increase over the four-year term.

People would have a hard time arguing that a college graduate wouldn’t be qualified to be a township trustee.

With so many young people not being able to find jobs commensurate with their education, maybe some will think the upwards of $2,000 a year jobs worth the time to put together a campaign.

It could be the start of something big.

And, a word to the wise.

A lot of senior Republicans will tell you to wait.

I got that a lot as I visited GOP precinct committeemen in the spring of 1966.

Nunda Township Supervisor Howard Freese said while I was qualified for the job I should wait a while.

Wait my turn, so to speak.

Right.

I’ve heard one of my contemporaries heard that line until he was in their 50’s.

Another committeeman said I would be “eaten alive” at the courthouse. I think he used a tiger analogy and I wasn’t the predator.

I won the three-way primary race by 72 votes–33%-, 33%, 33%+.

Township GOP petition filing time is Monday, December 8th, through Monday December 15th.

Think any of the young people who worked in the John McCain-Sarah Palin campaign will run for township trustee?

More about the lure of township officer here.