McHenry County Blog

A press release from State Senator Dan Duffy:

Duffy Passes Bi-Partisan Pension Reform Measure

SPRINGFIELD – On Wednesday, May 15, the Illinois Senate unanimously passed House Bill 140, a bi-partisan measure sponsored by State Senator Dan Duffy (R-Lake Barrington).

Duffy worked with State Rep. Jack Franks (D-Marengo) to pass the legislation, which would eliminate benefits packages currently afforded to part-time members of state-funded transit boards.

“Illinois is notorious for its large number of wasteful boards and commissions,” said Duffy.

“While we’re financing these boards, paying their members often exorbitant salaries as well as benefits, we’re not making payments on pensions for teachers, firefighters, and policemen.

“Benefits for these boards and commissions are low hanging fruit, and are a good place to start in making up for the $100 billion unfunded pension liability in Illinois.”

House Bill 140 stipulates that members of the Regional Transportation Authority Board, Suburban Bus Board, Commuter Rail Board, and Chicago Transit Authority Board are not eligible for pension or insurance benefits if they become a member of these boards on or after the effective date of the legislation.

“For members being reappointed to these boards, previously accrued benefits will remain unchanged, but all benefits will be eliminated for any future terms of service.

Bi-partisan effort is largely to thank for the passage of this legislation.

“I have enjoyed working on this truly bi-partisan piece of legislation with my house colleague Democratic Rep. Jack Franks,” said Duffy.

“Rep. Franks and I agreed fully on this issue and by coming together we were able to pass this legislation unanimously in both houses of the General Assembly.

“Now it’s up to Governor Quinn to sign this bill into law and help us cut some waste out of our overburdened pension system.”

Keven Craver has an interesting article in the Northwest Herald about the fight Democrat State Rep.  Jack Franks had with former McHenry County Republican Party Chairman, State Senator and Metra Board member Jack Schaffer.

You see, Schaffer owns Liberty Outdoor Advertising.

During the 2010 election a billboard critical of Franks went up in the location on Route 47 closest to Franks’ legislative office.

Franks went ballistic about the billboard over the phone with a couple of folks involved.  That’s what I’ve been told by multiple sources.

He has lost his temper with others on other subjects as well.

There were attacks on the House floor during the veto session immediately after the 2010 election.

The first article I wrote about Franks attacking Schaffer was in January of 2011, while the Metra Phil Pagano scandal broke in the late April.

In any event, there was not an immediate attempt by Franks to remove Schaffer from the Metra Board after the Pagano scandal and suicide occurred.

The attacks on Schaffer began after the billboard appeared.

So, now Schaffer is not applying for reappointment.

And, according to the last paragraph of Craver’s story, Franks says the billboard had nothing to do with his calling for Schaffer’s removal from the Metra Board:

“While Franks has said his interest in the topic is based solely on good government, Schaffer has alleged that Franks is out to settle a score because Schaffer allowed an attack ad aimed at Franks to be posted on a billboard owned by Schaffer. Franks denies the allegation.”

Draw your own conclusions.

Back when Jack Schaffer was State Senator and I was State Rep., we once had a conversation about patronage.

Both of us agreed that we were pleased to let McHenry County Republican County Chairman Al Jourdan handle that aspect of politics.

Now, Schaffer, serving on the Metra Board, has called out newly-installed Metra Board Chairman Brad O’Halloran on his proposal to give Board members the power to approve new hires earning more than $75,000 a year.  That’s what the Chicago Tribune says.

“I know what patronage is.  I want no part of it.”

O’Halloran took offense.

So did other Board members, including Kane County’s Mike McCoy.

“Ridiculous and offensive.”

Schaffer was not alone in his believe, however.  Evanston’s William Widmer “feared the board ‘could become the go-to people about getting hired,’” according to the Tribune.

A friend of McHenry County Blog sent the following email shortly before 8 PM Saturday night:

“Between Three Oaks and Cary Algonquin.

“Metro train stopped and a series of rescue vehicles along the side of 14.

“Looked like the were searching under the train.”

Metra Spokesman Michael Gillis told McHenry County Blog,

“It was the 721 train which left Chicago at 5. It was due into Harvard at 7:20.

“At 6:50, it struck a pedestrian north of the Cary station.

“It is a fatality.

“I do not have information about the identity, gender or age.”

If a suicide, this is the second one in two weeks between the Cary and the Pingree Road Stations. You can read about the October 20th one here and here.

Coroner Marlene Lantz confirmed today, “It was an apparent suicide.”

She also told me that it was a man.

The Crystal Lake Police Department again directed me to the Union Pacific Railroad and I ended up talking to the same media guy I conversed with Saturday, Mark Davis.

As he quickly read the UP report to himself I heard

• “north side of the road,”
• “trespassed sustained fatal injuries” and
• “relatives being notified.”

And, Davis told me local officials would have to release further details.

So I called Metra and got Meg Reile.

She told me more than anyone else has.

And her source seemed to be the Crystal Lake Police Department.

A woman was stopped on Sands Road looking for something in her bag.

She saw a man get out of a vehicle and walk toward the tracks.

The engineer repeatedly blew the train’s horn.

The man stood by the crossing waiting for the train to come.

He stepped in front of the train.

The woman said he “disappeared.”

The man seems to have been a resident of the south side of Crystal Lake.  Her was was 61 years old.

I’m not releasing the name of the man because I can’t see any purpose it would serve.

That’s a bit more than you could have read about the accident in my Saturday article, where there are more pictures.

As I was driving to Fox River Grove in mid-afternoon, a Crystal Lake Police Car was blocking Sands Road at Route 14.

On the way home, I drove from Route 14 to Sands Road via Smitana Raod, the one that cuts off 14 next to Country Gas.

Here’s what I saw:

Getting closer, here was the view:

From Sands Road, here is what was visible:

“Somebody walked in front of a train,” Metra Spokesman Tom Miller said.

It was the 709 train, which left Chicago at 1:30 Saturday afternoon.

The train was due at the Pingree Road Station at 3:48 in the afternoon. It left Cary five minutes earlier and had just crossed the Route 14 overpass.

A call to the Crystal Lake Police Department was referred to the Union Pacific Railroad.

UP Spokesman Mark Davis, out of Omaha, told me, “I wouldn’t have anything,” saying that local officials would release the information.

“We will provide peer support to the engineer and the train crew, if they need it.”

Crystal Lake’s most memorable “Death by Metra” occurred when Metra Executive Director Phil Pagano walked in front of the last train to Chicago from McHenry in May of 2009.

Given blanket coverage on Chicago electronic media, there were many copycat suicides in the following months.

A press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office:

OWNER OF DEFUNCT AZTECA SUPPLY CO. AND HER HUSBAND SENTENCED TO FEDERAL PRISON IN CONNECTION WITH MINORITY CONTRACT FRAUD

CHICAGO — The owner of a defunct Chicago company once certified as a minority- and woman-owned business and her husband were sentenced to federal prison terms today in connection with public contract fraud involving projects at O’Hare International Airport and in the Village of Orland Park.

Aurora Venegas, the owner of Azteca Supply Co., who pleaded guilty to mail fraud, was sentenced to 26 months in prison.

Her husband, Thomas Masen, former comptroller and secretary of National Concrete Pipe Co. in Franklin Park, who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI, was sentenced to 24 months in prison, following lengthy sentencing proceedings for both in U.S. District Court.

Venegas, 63, and Masen, 67, both of Naperville, were ordered to begin serving their sentences on Dec. 4 and Nov. 27, respectively.

Venegas also was placed on home confinement during the first six months of two years’ supervised release. Venegas was ordered to pay $482,850 in restitution, and Masen was ordered to pay restitution of $450,000.

“It is an especially serious crime because it involves public money,” U.S. District Judge Robert M. Dow, Jr., said in imposing the sentences. “What Ms. Venegas was supposed to be doing, Mr. Masen was doing and, as a result, the work wasn’t being performed by a [legitimate] WBE or MBE,” Judge Dow said.

The judge ruled that the government met its burden in proving that Venegas engaged in a scheme to steer minority contracts through her company, which collected nearly $9.7 million in fraudulent payments while acting as a sham minority contractor on runway and restroom projects at O’Hare International Airport for the City of Chicago between 2001 and 2008.

Venegas, who the judge ruled did not merit credit for accepting responsibility in pleading guilty, had admitted only that she engaged in a $57,000 fraud scheme involving a landscaping project at a new Metra commuter rail station for the Village of Orland Park.

Court proceedings showed that, following a November 2007 interview with Venegas by an investigator with the City of Chicago’s Inspector General’s Office, Venegas, Masen and others made it appear that Azteca maintained an inventory of concrete pipe at the National Concrete Pipe plant where Masen worked.

Venegas staged Azteca’s warehouse to make it appear that she kept inventory of other products, and she asked to borrow inventory from another company so that if an inspection occurred, Azteca could falsely convey that it maintained products that it claimed to sell.

The sentences were announced by Gary S. Shapiro, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois; William C. Monroe, Acting Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; and Joseph Ferguson, Inspector General for the City of Chicago.

“Chicago’s M/WBE program is the very center of the city’s efforts to provide economic opportunity for disadvantaged communities.

“We will continue to work with our partners in law enforcement to ensure those who cheat the system are punished appropriately,” Mr. Ferguson said.

Azteca was certified by the City of Chicago as a minority business enterprise (MBE) and a women’s business enterprise (WBE).

To obtain and maintain that status, Venegas falsely represented

• that she performed a commercially useful function;
• that she did not perform brokering services between Azteca and other companies; and
• that she was the only person who provided estimates for Azteca’s contracts.

Based on Azteca’s status as a MBE and WBE contractor for the City of Chicago, Metra provided reciprocal status for its contracts.

Venegas learned from customers what supplies they needed and caused Azteca to act solely as a broker in shipping those items from actual suppliers to customers in violation of MBE and WBE contract requirements.

Venegas and Azteca allegedly generated invoices to make it appear as though Azteca had complied with contract requirements when, in fact, Venegas and Azteca had played no role whatsoever.

Masen admitted lying to the FBI when he told agents that he did not direct Venegas and Azteca as to what Azteca should charge for certain goods sold to customers and how much Venegas should mark up those items. The government showed that Masen frequently interacted directly with Azteca’s customers and used Azteca as a “pass-through” to make it appear that customers were purchasing goods from Azteca when, in fact, they were purchasing goods directly from Masen’s company.

The government was represented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys April Perry and Paul Tzur.

The “Unimopper” article probably has gotten the most hits.

Who can’t be interested in someone stuffing mops down toilets which clog the sewer system at the lift pumps?

Today, Andrew Gasser reports on information he picked up about the new Fox River Grove train station from Metra Board member Jack Schaffer.

Where did he talk to Schaffer?

At the McHenry County Republican Central Committee meeting.

Jack Franks has given another signal that he wants to be King of McHenry County.

Today a robo-call poll asks whether people favor a McHenry County Board Chairman “elected by the citizens of McHenry County.”

Here’s as close to the script as a Friend of McHenry County Blog could get:

Jack Franks

“Hi this is State Representative Jack Franks asking for your opinion on a bill I just filed in the Illinois House of Representatives.

“After the tone press 1 if you think that County Board chairman should be elected by the citizens of McHenry County or press 2 if you think he should be appointed by the county board.

“Thank you for your time and consideration, and if I can be of any help please don’t hesitate to call my office for any reason.

“Thank you.”

Franks, sitting on $450,000 in his Political Action Committee, is again signaling that he is not satisfied just being a State Representative.

And, who in their right might would want to commute at least 3 hours twice very week the General Assembly is in session.

From personal experience I can tell you it is wearing.

Franks obviously enjoys the limelight and he obviously enjoys exercising influence.

So why not try to change the way the McHenry County Board Chairman is election in a direction in which he might well be able to win.

There is no way that the Democrats could gain control of the County Board if they had to elect a majority of its members.

And, even if he could, that does not guarantee enough power.

But in a big constituency big campaign money talks.

Ask Kent Gaffney and Danielle Rowe about that.

As readers may remember, I’m not a supporter of at-large election of the County Board Chairman.

The reason is not that I don’t want to have a say.

It is because, under state law, when a County Board Chairman is elected at-large, power is tremendously concentrated in the hands of that Chairman.

Concentration of power is something I have opposed all of my life.

It leads to abuses of power.

Do I think Jack Franks is capable of abuse of power?

Well, yes.

And would a Republican County Board Chairman be capable of abuse of power?

I believe so.

I think the County Board Chairman needs the checks and balances that the present system provides.

But since everyone wants to vote on everything, undoubtedly a sizable majority will say they want a direct election for the McHenry County Board Chairman.

The problems that come with concentration of power won’t become evident until it is too late to do anything.

= = = = =
It should be noted that Franks is having a fight with McHenry County Board Chairman Ken Koehler. Some say that it is because Koehler refuses to dump former State Senator Jack Schaffer from the Metra Board.

And, there is no doubt that Franks was fuming over the billboard that was put up by Liberty Outdoor at the location on Route 14 closest (next to Woodstock Harley Motorcycle) to his legislative office.

With the increase in gasoline and diesel prices, Metra already had a good excuse to raise commuter fares.

But, with the 88% Toll Tax Hike, there is now even less possibility of losing railroad passengers to their cars.

The Daily Herald is reporting that the Metra Board is considering a 25% hike in ticket prices over the next two years.

Some might characterize the one-two punch as “pile-on.”

Just as Barack Obama blames the country’s problem on predecessor George W. Bush, new Metra Executive Director Alex Clifford points the finger at Phil Pagano for kicking the can down the road.