McHenry County Blog

The Northwest Herald concluded its endorsements for County Board yesterday.

McHenry County Board District lines.

Here are the results:

District 1

Yvonne Barnes, Anna May Miller, Nick Chirikos and Robert Nowak were endorsed. Chirikos is the only Democrat on the ballot. Passed over was incumbent Republican Bob Bless.

Bless, Miller and Nowak did not attend the County Board candidates’ night.

District 2

The four Republican running in the Crystal Lake-Lake in the Hills-Lakewood district were selected by the Northwest Herald Editorial Board. They are Jim Heisler, Ken Koehler, Donna Kurtz and Carolyn Schofield.

There was an interesting comment about Koehler: “If Koehler is re-elected, we do think it is time for him to step down as County Board chairman, a position he’s held for eight years.”

Part of the reason is probably the Editorial Board’s strong disapproval “of the secret meeting he presided over during last year’s redistricting…”

Koehler did not attend the County Board candidates’ night.

The two Democrats, former Board member Jim Kennedy and Jim Roden were not recommended.

District 3

While I am listing the candidates in alphabetical order, the NWH listed Democrat Cathy Bergan Schmidt first in is District 3 endorsement editorial.

The candidates preferred are Joe Gottemoller, Mary McClellan, Nick Provenzano and Kathy Bergan Schmidt.

Disappointment was expressed with Provenzano’s “involvement in a secret meeting during last year’s redistricting process.”

Left out in the cold was Republican Mike Walkup.

District 4

Those endorsed are Sue Draffkorn, Bob Martens, Mary Margaret Maule and Sandra Salgado.

Martens is identified as the former CEO of Family Service. He did not attend the County Board candidates’ night.

Odd man out was John Hammerand, who ran first in the Republican primary election.

District 5

In its District 5 endorsements, the NWH picked Tina Hill, John Jung, Mike Skala and Paula Yensen.

Yensen is an incumbent Democrat who defeated Jung four years ago. Two years ago, Jung took out Jim Kennedy, who is running in District 2 this time around.

Republican Michael Rein and Green Party candidate Frank Wedig did not make the select list.

Disappointment was noted in the editorial for Hill’s and Jung’s participation in an illegal secret meeting about reapportionment.

District 6

A Democrat and three Republicans were recommended for election in District 6, the most rural in McHenry County.

The Democrat is Scott Summers, former President of the McHenry County College Board, who, along with then board member Donna Kurtz, was censured by his colleagues for changing his mind on forcing taxpayers to guarantee the bonds for a minor league baseball stadium.

The Republicans are Mary McCann, Diane Evertsen and Ersel Schuster.

Not recommended were Republican Michele Aavang, Democrats Jay Kadakia and Ryan Heuser, plus Independent Larry Smith.

Former Group Editor, among other titles, at the Northwest Herald has moved on.

He still lives in Cary, but now he is Publisher of Pioneer Press, a chain of weekly newspapers owned by the Chicago Sun-Times.

The heading of Chris Krug's Twitter page says he is a Vice President of Sun-Times Media.

The chain used to have papers in Crystal Lake (a long time ago, but during the heyday of competition locally) and, more recently, in Algonquin-Lake in the Hills and Cary-Grove, but as the sources of advertising have diminished, the chain has been retrenching.

In any event, Krug now has his own empire, but his gain, is the loss of those who enjoyed his columns on the Cary Grade School District.

In announcing his resignation, the Northwest Herald did not tell readers where Krug was going.

The Republican District 3 McHenry County Board ballot.

You may remember that Kevin Craver’s Northwest Herald article about District 2 McHenry County Board candidates focused on the vote to increase the property tax levy by the maximum of 1.5% Cost-of-Living increase allowed by the Real Estate Tax Cap.

(You can find out who voted to hike your real estate tax bill as much as the law allows here.)

That stimulated my article entitled,

“Northwest Herald Turns Up the Heat on Three Crystal Lake County Board Members Who Voted to Maximize Tax Bill.”

Saturday’s NWH article about the District 3 campaign continued on the same property tax theme, the “touchiest issue,” as the reporter puts it.

There are three incumbents running for re-election.  Two Republicans–Mary Donner and Nick Provenzano–and Democrat Kathy Bergan Schmidt.

Donner and Schmidt voted for the tax hike; Provenzano did not.

Craver points out in the article that only challenger Lyn Orphal, a former District 2 Board member unseated by Donna Kurtz, came out in favor of the real estate tax hike.

Of the challengers, the following opposed the “Tax to the Max” approach:

• Mary Alger
• Joe Gottemoller
• Mary McClellan
• Jim Schlader
• Michael Walkup

Of the eight comments (as of 5:30 Saturday when this article was written) under the District 3 article, all are negative regarding the impending real estate tax hike.

Today, we move to the fourth installment on the motion filed by former Deputy Sheriff Zane Seipler’s lawyer Blake Horwitz requesting sanctions against McHenry County Sheriff Keith Nygren for releasing confidential information.

This is occurring in Seipler’s Federal wrongful termination suit being heard in Rockford.

Paragraphing and formatting has been added in the text to make the text easier to read on a computer screen.

A second alleged violation of the Court’s Protective Order is described next.

“Second Violation of Court Order

“On April 9, 2007, a police report was filed by Rosalinda Saucedo-Seipler with the Woodstock Police Department, Woodstock Police Report #07-4183. The report contains very personal information regarding a domestic incident between Plaintiff Zane Seipler and his wife, Rosalinda Saucedo-Seipler (Exhibit E).

“On or around January 22, 2010, the Woodstock Police report #07-4183 was widely disseminated to the deputy officers at the McHenry County Police Department [Foot Note 2].

= = = = =
Foot Note 2.  “Deputy Tim Matteson, a deputy of the McHenry County Sheriff’s Department personally observed a copy of the report in his mailbox and saw several reports placed in the mailboxes of various deputies and on a table in the Patrol Roll Call room in the McHenry County Sheriff’s made available in roll call two weeks prior to the primary.= = = = =

= = = = =

“The report was unlawfully placed in the mailboxes of several Deputy Officers and put on tables in the Patrol Roll Call room in McHenry County Sheriff’s Department without the permission or knowledge of Rosalinda Saucedo-Seipler or Zane Seipler.

“Mr. Seipler was a Republican candidate for Sheriff. The Woodstock police report was placed in the boxes and
made available in roll call two weeks prior to the primary.”

“Department (Exhibit F). Deputy Matteson spoke to Deputy Milliman regarding the report, who stated that he saw several copies of the report in various areas of the Squad room in the McHenry County Sheriff’s Department.

“At the time, Zane Seipler was running for the position of Sheriff of McHenry County and the illegal distribution of the report negatively influenced his political campaign.

“Newspaper reporters, Chuck Keashan of the Daily Herald and Jillian Duchowski of Northwest Herald, contacted Zane Seipler to inquire about this personal matter.

“Finally, Seipler’s domestic incident was discussed on online blogs (e.g. http://antiwoodstockadvocate.blogspot.com) and in the comment sections of numerous Northwest Herald articles.

“The release of this report affected both Zane Seipler’s career and reputation in McHenry County.

“On February 23, 2010, Robert W. Lowen, the Chief of Police of the Woodstock Police Department wrote a letter to Rosalinda Saucedo-Seipler regarding the results of the investigation (Exhibit G).

“Chief Lowen wrote that there were two different requests to access the report through the City of Woodstock Freedom of Information Act. Chief Lowen and Officer Cindy Smiley recommended denial of these requests and stated that the report was not disseminated to the two entities that requested the report via FOIA.

James Sotos

“Chief Lowen also stated in this letter that the report was released by subpoena.

“The only firm that subpoenaed the materials was James G. Sotos and Associates. This firm admits having secured the documents via subpoena.

“As illustrated above, the law firm of James G. Sotos and Associates and the Defendant Officers were the only entities who were given access to the report through the use of a subpoena. As a result, they were the only persons who could have unlawfully distributed the report to the McHenry County Sheriff’s Department.”

Addition detail is included, then…

“Defendant’s distribution of the report was in direct violation of the Confidentiality Order entered by both parties: ‘The Parties will not use or disclose the PHI and/or Confidential Matter released in this proceeding for any other purpose or any other proceeding.’

“The dissemination of the report is a clear violation of Illinois law. 20 ILCS 2630/7 Sec. 7.

“No file or record of the Department hereby created shall be made public, except as provided in the ‘Illinois Uniform Conviction Information Act’ or other Illinois law or as may be necessary in the identification of persons suspected or accused of crime and in their trial for offenses committed after having been imprisoned for a prior offense …Violation of this Section shall constitute a Class A misdemeanor.

“In this instance, the distribution of the report by Defendants is a clear abuse of their official position.

“By releasing private information with regards to a candidate and citizen who was running for political office, the public good was harmed and the law was violated.”

= = = = =

More tomorrow.

Front page news on both of Chicago’s papers today was the Cook County Board’s vote to phase out its hefty sales tax under the now out-of-office Todd Stroger.

After a contentious election in which repeal of the Cook County sales tax increase was a major issue, the Cook County Board has voted to phase it out.

The Crystal Lake City Council’s March, 2008, 75% city sales tax increase went into effect the same day as Cook County’s, July 1, 2008.

But there has been no pressure to repeal it.

Unlike in Cook County, there was no local Chicago Tribune beating the drums for repeal. The Northwest Herald did not even run a story the day the tax took effect

And it certainly did not run a campaign similar to the Tribune’s in which every day readers were reminded of the tax hike.

Those on the council who voted to impose the 75% city sales tax have no opposition this year.

Mayor Aaron Shepley has no opponent.

I am sure he has concluded that people in Crystal Lake just don’t care. A justifiable political conclusion.

All who voted for the tax were Republicans, but the Democrats in Crystal Lake are so weak they put up no opposition in the non-partisan election.

What a wedge issue they would have had.

It still bothers me that financing Vulcan Lakes was used as an excuse for imposing the tax. The same reason was used to impose a Tax Increment Financing district on much of the Route 14 area now virtually vacant, plus Vulcan Lakes.

It also bothers me that there was only one week’s notice.  Municipal officials around here don’t want a lot of public input on major decisions and giving virtually no notice certainly encourages lack of citizen participation.

There was an alternative way to finance development of Vulcan Lake, but it would have allowed anyone living in Crystal Lake to use the resulting recreation area.

Some Crystal Lake leaders apparently didn’t want outsiders to be able to enjoy the amenities–regardless of the lower taxes that would have been imposed on Crystal Lake residents and others shopping in Crystal Lake–if the McHenry County Conservation District had paid for the improvements with already existing taxes.

= = = = =

Besides Mayor Aaron Shepley, the other council members who voted to raise Crystal Lake’s city sales tax 75% are seen above.  Top row:  former Councilman Dave Goss and current Council members Ralph Dawson and Ellen Brady-Mueller.  Second row: Kathy Ferguson and Brett Hopkins.

I don’t know if anyone at the Northwest Herald was there in 2002 when I ran for governor on the Libertarian Party ticket, but Sunday’s editorial writer provided a flashback for me.

When I announced my candidacy, the main pitch was that Springfield needed reform and that the problem with the legislative branch was a lack of turnover of the leadership.

I proposed

Six years max.

This sign was displayed at the Libertarian Party's gubernatorial kick-off press conference in 2002.

At the time Mike Madigan had been Democratic Party leader in the House since 1983 when he took over from George Ryan as Speaker. Lee Daniels had been the top GOP guy since then, too.

In the Senate, Pate Philip was the long-time leader for the Republicans and Emil Jones headed the Dems, but not for as long.

In any event, I made the argument that leaders should change periodically and since it was not occurring regularly naturally, I proposed a constitutional amendment. I remember meeting with two top Libertarians at McDonald’s Playland in Crystal Lake.

As my son climbed, they agreed they would pass such a petition after the election. Without that promised, I probably would not have run. It was the clincher, so to speak. I figured Libertarians didn’t know how to win elections, but they did know how to pass petitions.

Unfortunately, that part of the bargain went by the wayside.

But, as with other third party ideas, the term limits for leaders pitch apparently did stick in some brains.

With the publishing of the NWH Editorial, I see that the idea has entered the mainstream, so to speak.

The paper did not just pitch term limits for state legislative leaders, but also for the chairman of the McHenry County Board.  Four terms is enough for Chairman Ken Koehler, the paper suggests, agreeing with Randy Donley in his effort to impose term limits on people holding the office.  Donley’s idea was reported first on McHenry County Blog.

Supreme Court Justice Robert Thomas, who represents McHenry County.

The following appears to be new information about the suit that Supreme Court Justice Robert Thomas filed against the Kane County Chronicle, a Shaw Suburban Media Group, which also owns the Northwest Herald:

“Robert Thomas, the chief justice of the Illinois Supreme Court was awarded $7 million in damages by a Kane County jury today, three years after columns that accused him of political deal-making ran in the Kane County Chronicle.

“Justice Robert Thomas claimed defamation in suing former columnist Bill Page along with Shaw Suburban Media Group.”

It is contained in a cut line below a photo of Justice Thomas leaving the Kane County Courthouse.

Northwest Herald story posted April 7,2007 at 5:28 PM. McHenry County Blog's story about the post office's closing was posted shortly after midnight April 5

Some folks might have thought my story Monday about the closing of the Cary Post Office was an April Fool’s Day joke.

But it was published on April 5th.

Now, almost two days after the posting of that McHenry County Blog story, the Northwest Herald has posted a similar story.

Think the Northwest Herald will follow up on the story I just posted about the ten months’ severance pay that’s in Grafton Township Administrator Pam Fender’s contract, due to be passed Thursday?

Building on Route 31 in Crystal Lake where the Northwest Herald is printed.

Shaw Publications had decided that it is cheaper to have rival Paddock Publications print its area newspapers than to continue to do it themselves.

That was announced on the Daily Herald’s web site today.

When’s it going to happen?

Pretty quickly.

By mid-April Paddock’s Schaumburg presses will be printing the Northwest Herald, the Kane County Chronicle, DeKalb’s Daily Chronicle, the Lake County Journal, Mid-Week and other minor publications.

“More color capacity and better reproduction” were touted by Publisher John Rung.

Last April 10th the headline on Publisher John Rung's column assured readers the Northwest Herald was "still viable."

Less than a year ago, Rung wrote a column assuring readers that newspapers were viable.

Crystal Lake stands to lose 25 full-time and six part-time production employees, the article says.

Shaw’s Northwest Herald building was built in 1985, but has been expanded since then.

McHenry County Blog reported on the Northwest Herald’s circulation drop from last spring to last fall here.

In January, the NW Herald started charging for old articles.

More information about a poll asking probing questions about the NW Herald, but not the Daily Herald, can be found here.

Actually, the notice referred to “most comments.”

That’s what the message said under the three most commented upon postings on Tuesday.

Maybe the message was there before.

If so, I didn’t notice.

From personal experience I know that comments have been selectively removed before.

Others have emailed me about similar “take-downs” of some of their comments.

A common denominator seems to be McHenry County College’s baseball stadium proposal.

So, if you want to make certain that someone’s comments are available for later use, I guess you’ll have to copy them to a file in your own computer.