McHenry County Blog

Tina Hill

Robert Martens

With McHenry County Chairwoman Tina Hill labeling Sandra Salgado’s service on the the Public Health and Human Services Committee “The Epitome of Conflict of Interest,” Fox River Grove Republican Precinct Committeeman has written a story entitled,

“The Epitome of Conflict of Interest” – Backroom Politics

Hill bases that characterization on the fact that Salgado works for Pioneer Center and Pioneer Centers gets financial support from the 708 Mental Health Board, whose Board members the Public Health Committee recommends.

[Of course, the last recommendation, Scott Summers was rejected by the Hill followers listed below on the County Board:

[Those opposing the nomination were

Scott Summers while he served as President of  the McHenry County College Board.

• Michele Aavang
• Yvonne Barnes
• Sue Drafkorn
• Joe Gottemoller
• Jim Heisler
• Tina Hill
• John Jung
• Ken Koehler
• Bob Martens
• Mary McCann
• Mary McClellan
• Anna May Miller
• Bob Nowak
• Nick Provenzano
• Ersel Schuster
• Carolyn Schofield
• Mike Skala
• Paula Yensen

In favor were

• Nick Chirikos
• Diane Evertsen
• John Hammerand
• Donna Kurtz
• Sandy Salgado
• Mike Walkup

[And the last recommendation of Donna Kurtz' Committee--after Hill announced that she would bypass the Committee--Jeff Thorsen, was not even placed on tonight's County Board agenda.  She has recommended Cathy Ferguson, a colleague of Thorsen on the Crystal Lake City Council.]

With that as background, Gasser’s conclusion might be of interest.  Playing off Hill’s “epitome of conflict of interest” statement, Gasser concludes

“The real conflict of interest is Hill’s nominee of former Family Services & Community Mental Health Center for McHenry County CEO and current board member Bob Martens (Spring Grove).”

Bob Martens Family Services’ compensation reported on IRS 990 forms  revealed in Andrew Gasser’s article.

Why?

He points to what he calls about a $140,000 “Golden Parachute” for Martens when he was listed as “Former CEO” of  the Family Services and Community Health Center for McHenry County.   (He found that information on the agency’s IRS Form 990.)

Gasser continues,

“This same year the McHenry Mental Health Board gave a loan to Family Services & Community Mental Health Center for McHenry County $719,981 when no other lending institution would do so because of the risk.”

Gasser then asks a series of questions that readers might find of interest.

One of them has to do with the August 2012 collapse of Family Services after Martens retired and while he was one of four GOP candidate for County Board in District 4.

Gasser asks,

“Should this person really be the liaison between the county board and the Mental Health Board?”

There is more, but, again, I suggest you go to the source of this story on Andrew Gasser’s blog.

As mentioned previously, replacement of Salgado with Martens will change the balance of power on the Public Health Committee.  It will put Hill loyalists in control by a 4-3 margin.

For 708 Board purposes, that means that Hill can name replacements for the two seats whose terms expire January 1, 2014, without bypassing the committee for a second time:

• Vice President Brett  Wisnauski
• Secretary Connee Meschini

Ferguson’s term, if approved, would expire at the same time.

The meeting at which Hill’s replacement recommendation will be considered in tonight at 7 PM in the building north of the McHenry County Jail.

As I have stated since last fall, when I was McHenry County Treasurer I delivered the first checks approved by the new 708 Board.

To repeat myself, the referendum to approve the tax hike was supported by the McHenry County Association for the Retarded and the mental health advocacy group at the time.

I’m remembering that the checks I delivered were $25,000 for Pioneer Center (located then in the old Terra Cotta School) and $25,000 for Family Services down the street from now-McHenry East High School).

A 50-50 split.

Now I read in Bob McCoppin’s Chicago Tribune article that only “10 percent gotes to developmental-disabilities assistance.”

That sentence really deserves an exclamation point.

From 50-50, mental health to DD, to 10% for DD and  90% for mental health.

Talk about a governing board that has lost its way.

The folks at Pioneer Center think the answer is to pass a referendum Tuesday that will raise $9 million the first year.

The 708 Board billed $12,694,903.91 last year from property taxpayers.  (I think I overestimated the amount in previous articles at $15 million.  My apologiy.)

The 708 Board’s taxes bill more this spring.

If the 708 Board were giving DD services the 50% that I remember was the case in the late 1960′s, Pioneer Center and other agencies servicing the Developmentally Disabled would be getting about $6 million a year.

The other $700,000 ought to be enough for administration.

Actually 5% ought to be enough.

So, if DD services are now getting $1.2 million, as I deduce from the Tribune article, passage of the 377 referendum on Tuesday, would increase that amount to $9 million, plus what seems to be about today’s $1.2 million from the 708 Board.

Or, after passage, would the 708 Board forget why it was created and start giving DD services nothing?

There is an alternative.

And, maybe it will be considered if the referendum fails.

This is McHenry County Board’s Public Health Committee. Consisting of Donna Kurtz, chairing the meeting at the head of the table, and members (from left to right) Mary McCann, Sandy Salgado, Paula Yensen and Mike Walkup.  John Hammerand is missing from the picture.

The McHenry County Board has ultimate budget power over the 708 Board.

If the County Board does not approve the 708 Board’s levy, its tax take would be zero.

So, why doesn’t the County Board set guidelines for the next levy?

Tell the Board it gets 5% for administrative expenses.

And require the grants to service agencies to be 50% to DD and 50% to mental health.

= = = = =
If you haven’t read my updated critique of the tax hikers’ deceptive robo-call, which came a second time Friday nigh, you can do so here.

In the article is the chart showing McHenry County having the 29th highest property taxes.

Not in Illinois.

In the United States of America.

Bill Choslovsky

Yesterday, I published a column by attorney William Choslovsky about the Algonquin mom who, after researching how various states treated developmentally disabled adults, decided that Tennessee provided the best care.

She drove her 19-year old daughter, whom she was unable to continue caring for, there and abandoned her after she entered a bar to go to the bathroom.

Choslovsky pointed out that Illinois State officials finally did what a compassionate state should have done in the first place.

But only after they declared her in “crisis.” That is, her mother essentially had to manufacture a “crisis.”

When I was State Representative, how many times did I receive desperate phone calls from parents of adult children who were so, so worried about what would happen to their child after they died?

There were so few placements and such long waiting lines that a call from my legislative assistants, pretty much miracle workers in manipulating the state bureaucracy, was sometimes insufficient to get a placement.  (Their casework was so good that people from throughout McHenry County called and came for help on all sorts of subjects.)

Even when I called, I couldn’t always succeed, despite the fact I was on the Appropriations Committee that handled the relevant department’s budget.

A call from a legislator or his/her office sometimes created the “crisis” that Choslovsky pointed out Eva Cameron created by her trip to Tennessee. (I wonder if Eva Cameron contacted her State Rep. and Senator before implementing her Tennessee strategy.)

Illinois officials just got embarrassed enough by all the negative publicity to do what they should have done in the first place.

There was a public relations “crisis.”

Now consider there are 10-20,000 DD adults living with their parents in Illinois.

That is one huge number of families of which Algonquin’s Eva Cameron was just one.

Choslovsky educated me on the scope of the problem.

First, there are about 2,000 DD residents.

They each cost the state about $150,000 a year.

There are 6,000 DD adults living in what are called Intermediate Care Facilities. These are places that house over 8 clients.

Next, another 9,000 DD residents – usually a bit higher functioning – live in “Community Integrated Living Arrangements” (CILAs), which are small homes or apartments “integrated” in the “community.” These “homes” have less than 8 residents and are the type of housing that advocacy groups push because they are not large “institutions.”

These CILA homes also cost the state about $50,000 per resident, basically the same as the ICF homes.

So, if you’re keeping score, that’s about 17,000 DD residents the state now pays for: 2000 at about $150,000 each and 15,000 at about $50,000 each.

If you stop there, at least one conclusion is self evident: if the state closed the eight remaining state institutions that cost $150,000 for each resident and moved them to ICFs or CILAs, there could be huge savings.

To his credit, Governor Pat Quinn has started to close some of the facilities, but ironically he faces opposition from the public unions – the very unions that helped him win his razor thin election in 2010.

The unions he made promises to he would not cut their jobs.

Pure politics.

And what could all the savings be used for: the fourth – and biggest – group:
the 10,000-20,000 families with DD kids who receive no services.

That’s right, in Illinois about 17,000 DD residents receive care while between 10,000 to 20,000 wait for any services.

From a cost-benefit basis, Choslovsky and pretty much anyone who can do such an analysis would conclude that getting people out of state DD institutions would free up money to provide similar services in the not-for-profit sector.

This is where AFCSME union officials start talking about how the employees will be hurt.

But, what is the purpose of government?

To provide jobs or services.

I would argue the latter.

And living in our communities are 10-20,000 families who getting no help at all.

McHenry County has more than it would otherwise because our mental health-DD property tax, passed by referendum, is a magnet to families seeking the services that Pioneer Center was formed to provide.

There’s $20 million that could be made available for Intermediate Care Facilities or Community Integrated Living Arrangements.

What kind of a society would not care for such individuals?

Well, folks, Illinois is such a society.

Snoopy had nothing on State Senator Pam Althoff Monday night.

State Senator Pam Althoff was simply bubbling after the McHenry County Republican Central Committee Monday night.

What she enjoys doing most is make government work.

From personal experience in two decades of casework, I can tell you that is difficult in Illinois.

She had two successes on her mind.

How excited was she?

If I had had a video camera and been fast enough, I could have shown you a Snoopy happiness dance as she walked up the incline from the Algonquin Township Hall meeting room to the parking lot after telling me about her successes.

The one with the most countywide significance is the retention of the over $800,000 that had flowed to the now closed McHenry County Family services.

Family Services Building virtually vacated when the organization stopped providing services.

With McHenry County Mental Health Board employees handling the paperwork, stepping up to the plate were

• Pioneer Center
• Family Alliance
• Thresholds
• Rosencrans

The latter is based in Rockford and has agreed to operate out of the old (really quite new) Family Services Building.

It is also providing jobs for seventeen of those who used to work at Family Services.

The not-for-profit organization responsible for repaying the bank loan will now have a source of rent which will, to some extent, replace that paid by Family Services.

It will also provide services to non-Medicaid patients who used to be served by Family Services.

In addition, Althoff is strongly thinking about moving her office from Crystal Lake (northeast corner of West Crystal Lake Avenue and Route 14).  Her rent would also help pay the mortgage.

With a lot of her new district in Lake County, she believes her office should be closer to the population center.  Her State Representatives will be Democrat Jack Franks and Republican Barb Wheeler.

Back in the 1990′s I was on the House Appropriations Committee before which the budget of the Department of Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities came.

When Governor George Ryan took office, he named a former Director of McHenry County’s Pioneer Center, Ann Patla, Director of the Department of Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities.

Each year I had asked the percentage of the budget going to state institutions and the percentage to community groups.

The bureaucracy, AFSCME union and its Democratic Party legislators wanted the money to keep flowing to state developmentally disabilities institutions.

Jobs for state employees were the main priority, not caring for those institutionalized in what might be characterized as the most restrictive location.

Ryan’s Director was the first to propose a budget with a majority going to community care.

Illinois ranks at the bottom, according to statistics developed by the University of Colorado in this Tribune graphic.

Now I see in the Chicago Tribune that a suit with its lead plaintiff, Stanley Lilgas, living in Sheltered Village’s 96-bed facility in Woodstock, has won a 2005 lawsuit to allow him to move to a less restrictive place to live.

Progress has been made. One of two Tribune articles on the suit reports that most of the money no longer goes to AFSCME-organized state institutions.

But Illinois is still a backwards state.

States like Alaska and Vermont have 98% of their people with intellectual and developmental disabilities living in settings of six or fewer.

Illinois ranks 50th (out of 51) with 38% in such community settings.

Blame it on the public employee union and politicians supporting them.

One source quoted in this article says it costs $55,000 a year to support an individual in a group home, but $192,000 in a state institution.

Part of the reason is undoubtedly that those working in group homes are paid much less than state employees.

Part of the problem is that parents of adults who need support or supervision of one sort or another are getting older.

The Tribune shows where those with developmental disabilities live in Illinois.

When I was still in office, I would get calls pleading for help when a parent would be in failing health.

They had spent their lives making sure their children were cared for as well as they could, but were at a loss as to what to do as they became unable to continue such care.

Sometimes a phone call would help.

Sometimes there were no openings.

McHenry County’s mental health tax has long been a magnate for such families. Parents know their children are more likely to receive appropriate care here than elsewhere.

Now, as University of Illinois at Chicago Professor Mary Kay Rizzolo puts it, Illinois will have to “either reallocate money that is going to state-operated developmental centers or come up with new funding for community support services,” the Tribune reports.

In a state with as many financial problems as Illinois, the cost-reducing mandate of the Federal court should be a no-brainer.

It’s not only the compassionate thing to do, it is the way to save money.

When I was running against Rod Blagojevich for Governor in 2002, Blagojevich attached Governor Ryan’s proposal to close the Lincoln DD Center.

Ryan was acting logically, while Blagojevich was acting politically.

Votes over cost savings.

Votes over the best interests of the clients.

When I was the Republican Spokesman on the Illinois House Appropriations Committee that handled the budget for the Department of Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities, one of my goals was to get at least 50% of the money into community services.

Think about it.

If you needed supervision, would you rather live in an institution or a home near your family or even at home?

I think the answer is obvious.

It was not until Governor George Ryan appointed Barrington’s Ann Patla director that I got cooperation from the Executive Branch. Patla headed up Pioneer Center before becoming agency head.

One year when I asked my annual question of the budget percentage going to non-institutional care, Patla told me it was over 50%.

Not much over 50%, but more than half.

Now, the folks Governor Pat Quinn appointed to look at cost cutting agree:

“We believe that every individual with developmental disabilities should be given a meaningful choice to live and remain in his or her community,” is in that part of their report, which is below.

From the June report from the Illinois Tax Review Board, I’m assuming that putting too much money into the expensive institutional part of the care still exists.

Indeed, one of Rod Blagojevich’s key campaign pitches was to keep open or to open institutions like Lincoln Developmental Center whose costs clearly outweighed their benefits. He went from facility to facility holding rallies set up by AFSCME. I ran into one in Canton while campaigning against him for governor on the Libertarian Party ticket in 2002.

Let’s take a look at page 37 and 38 and see what the folks given the task of suggesting budget cuts came up with:

Enhance community options for people with developmental disabilities that are living in State or privately-run institutions:

The Division of Developmental Disabilities (DDD) provides services to adults with developmental disabilities who are living in their homes and communities, or in institutional settings.

Currently, there are 2,385 individuals served in nine State-Operated Developmental Centers (SODCs), which provide residential and program services to those with developmental disabilities needing active treatment programs and intensive supervision.

One of the SODCs, the Howe Development Center, is a de-certified facility, serving approximately 289 adults at an average annual cost per beneficiary of $186,573.

The average cost per individual of the remaining SODCs is $142,533.

In addition, there are over 300 private intermediate care facilities for persons with disabilities (ICF/DD) that are currently serving 5,648 adults at an average annual cost per beneficiary of $57,428.

Both SODCs and private ICF/DDs are certified and operate under the same federal regulations.

There is also a network of Community Integrated Living Arrangements (CILA), in which approximately 200 community-based organizations provide services to 7,240 people with disabilities on a 24-hour basis, at an average annual cost of $53,291. Services provided by these centers include advocacy, peer counseling, skills training, information and referral.

Finally, there are 3,055 people with disabilities that currently receive home-based services at an annual individual cost of $19,852.

All other individuals with disabilities are being served on a Average Annual Per Person Cost Waiver program, in which they receive day services at an average cost of approximately $12,000 per year. (12)

Illinois relies disproportionately on high-cost institutional settings rather than less costly community settings or shared living environments to serve the needs of these individuals.

According to recent state comparisons, (13) Illinois ranks at the very bottom – 51st – out of all states, including the District of Columbia, in serving adults with disabilities in settings of six persons or less.

We believe that every individual with developmental disabilities should be given a meaningful choice to live and remain in his or her community.

Many of the beneficiaries who are currently being served in high-cost institutions in Illinois could be served in the community with quality services at a much lower price.

States such as New Hampshire, Maine, Florida, Oregon, and Wisconsin have developed shared living environments that serve individuals in an independent foster care-like setting.

In 2006, 70.5% of all persons nationwide were supported in living arrangements for six or fewer people – Illinois can take advantage of these best practices to make successful community transitions.

The State should immediately begin pursuing aggressive strategies to reduce the number of individuals with developmental disabilities in institutional care, including:

• Exploring the potential closure of some of Illinois’ State-Operated Developmental Centers (SODCs).
• Pursuing the immediate closure of Howe Developmental Center. The Department of Human Services has recommended to the TAB the closure of this facility, and the TAB supports this department’s recommendation. The decision was based on a number of factors:
  1. concerns from the U.S. Department of Justice,
  2. the need to ensure quality of care for all residents, the decertification of the facility under the federal Medicaid program,
  3. the facility’s inability to regain certification, and
  4. the continued loss of over $2 million of federal matching funds per month.
• Investing some of the savings from closing these facilities in enhancing the capacity and services available in the community.

= = = = =

(12) It should be noted that the CILA, home-based services and private ICF/DD annual costs reflected above do not include pharmacy or other medical services funded through the Medicaid State Plan. The ICF/DD and CILA costs do include some nursing services provided at the residential settings.

Nevertheless, the large disparity in costs associated with private and community services versus those delivered by the State, even after taking into consideration additional Medicaid medical services, clearly supports the TAB strategy addressed below.

(13) “The State of the States in Developmental Disabilities: 2008,” Washington, DE. American Association Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities. Braddock, D., Hemp, R. and Rizzolo, M.C. (2008)

In the 1970′s when my legislative office was across from the train station in Mike Janek’s old automobile dealership (at the corner of Woodstock and Brink Streets), a man rode up on a balloon tire bicycle.

He parked his bike on the sidewalk and came in.

He spoke rapidly, as if he had to get his words out in a hurry. I later concluded that he though he had to talk fast because most people wouldn’t listen to him. After a very short time, I surmised, they would start to ignore him.

His name was Bill Spencer.

These were the days when few people rode bicycles in Crystal Lake. In fact, I only remember Bill.

He was known as the

I think I read in the Northwest Herald.

His father had been the janitor at the old city hall.

People thought he was retarded.

Bill would stop in and talk to my legislative assistant, Marge Jones, and me.

He got placed at the Pioneer Center Workshop.

After a while he came in and said, “They lock me in a closet.”

He said it real fast, as usual.

That got those of us who cared about Bill pretty upset, as you can imagine. I can’t remember what we did about it, but I’ll lay odds the practice stopped.

Julie Covert, from a subdivision between East Main Street in Cary and the Fox River, had had a long interest in mental health.

A former union organizer, she and attorney Janice Johnston were involved with representing those being mistreated by the mental health system.

They arranged for Bill to be tested at the University of Chicago and, guess what?

Bill wasn’t retarded.

People had just treated him that way.

Bill went to live in a nursing home somewhere southwest of Rockford. Every once in a while he would write a letter.

Then, in the late 1980′s oe early 1990′s a class action court decision came down and I got a phone call from Bill. He was one of the winners in the court suit. He talked about being able to buy a condo in Crystal Lake because of what was called the Bogard decision. I told him about the new condos next to the roller skating rink on Virginia Street Road.

He decided not to move to Crystal Lake and the last I heard from him was after I re-entered the Illinois House of Representatives in 1993.

His handwriting was a bit shaky and his syntax not quite correct, but it brought back such great memories.

In the 1970′s when my legislative office was across from the train station in Mike Janek’s old automobile dealership (at the corner of Woodstock and Brink Streets), a man rode up on a balloon tire bicycle.

He parked his bike on the sidewalk and came in.

He spoke rapidly, as if he had to get his words out in a hurry. I later concluded that he though he had to talk fast because most people wouldn’t listen to him. After a very short time, I surmised, they would start to ignore him.

His name was Bill Spencer.

These were the days when few people rode bicycles in Crystal Lake. In fact, I only remember Bill.

He was known as the

I think I read in the Northwest Herald.

His father had been the janitor at the old city hall.

People thought he was retarded.

Bill would stop in and talk to my legislative assistant, Marge Jones, and me.

He got placed at the Pioneer Center Workshop.

After a while he came in and said, “They lock me in a closet.”

He said it real fast, as usual.

That got those of us who cared about Bill pretty upset, as you can imagine. I can’t remember what we did about it, but I’ll lay odds the practice stopped.

Julie Covert, from a subdivision between East Main Street in Cary and the Fox River, had had a long interest in mental health.

A former union organizer, she and attorney Janice Johnston were involved with representing those being mistreated by the mental health system.

They arranged for Bill to be tested at the University of Chicago and, guess what?

Bill wasn’t retarded.

People had just treated him that way.

Bill went to live in a nursing home somewhere southwest of Rockford. Every once in a while he would write a letter.

Then, in the late 1980′s oe early 1990′s a class action court decision came down and I got a phone call from Bill. He was one of the winners in the court suit. He talked about being able to buy a condo in Crystal Lake because of what was called the Bogard decision. I told him about the new condos next to the roller skating rink on Virginia Street Road.

He decided not to move to Crystal Lake and the last I heard from him was after I re-entered the Illinois House of Representatives in 1993.

His handwriting was a bit shaky and his syntax not quite correct, but it brought back such great memories.

When McHenry County State’s Attorney Lou Bianchi announced his campaign for re-election, one of the things he was obviously pleased about was the upcoming establishment of a mental health court.

Now, there are twice-monthly Friday after sessions of the court. There are thirteen such courts in Illinois.

Sixteen people are now in the program, according to the press release.

Now comes a press release from the McHenry County Mental Health Task Force announcing a celebration of its first anniversary is scheduled for Friday, April 4th. It will be held in the grand jury room in the state’s attorney’s office at 1:30.

There are all sorts of people and agencies involved in this effort, as you can read in the press release below:

THE MCHENRY COUNTY MENTAL HEALTH COURT TASK FORCE

The McHenry County Mental Health Task Force is pleased to announce that the McHenry County Health Court, which is presided over by the Honorable Judge Charles Weech of the 22nd Judicial Circuit Court, is celebrating its one year anniversary on April 4, 2008.

The McHenry County Mental Health Court was created by a community based effort including the

• McHenry County Board,
• McHenry County Mental Health Board,
• Family Services,
• McHenry County Health Department,
• McHenry County 22nd Judicial Circuit Court and the
• McHenry County State’s Attorney’s Office.

As in many jurisdictions around the country, the criminal justice system in McHenry County is experiencing a rapidly growing population of offenders who have mental disorders.

For many individuals with mental health problems circulation in and out of the criminal justice system is a way of life. Jailing individuals whose offenses are related more to the symptoms of their mental illness perpetuates the cycle of offense and incarceration.

This court seeks to provide an alternative way to address non violent criminal conduct, by those with mental illnesses in providing them a support system with which to have their illnesses medically and therapeutically treated.

The Mental Health Court has a

• case worker,
• probation officer and
• nurse

who each monitor the defendant’s compliance with court orders and assists defendants in maintaining their rehabilitating efforts.

In exchange for compliance with court orders and working on maintaining treatment for their mental illnesses defendant will receive a dismissal or reduction of their charges at the completion of the program.

Defendants will be under the careful supervision of the McHenry County Mental Court for a period of 18 to 24 months.

Currently the Mental Health Court has 16 participants who are at various stages of the program, with several more individuals being considered for the program.

Admission into the program occurs upon referral to the program by police officers, probation officers, defense attorneys, prosecutors, jail or Judge. It is anticipated that within the next few months of the program participation will increase to 25 or 30 members involved in the program.

Presently McHenry County’s Mental Health Court is one of only thirteen in the state of Illinois. The Illinois Legislature has passed legislation for Mental Health Courts and the McHenry County Health Court operates its program within those statutory guidelines.

The Mental Health Court’s success is achieved through a community based effort of various providers including mental health professionals and organizations like

• Family Services,
• Pioneer Center,
• Family Alliance,
• Thresholds,
• McHenry County Crisis,
• NAMI and the like.

The fact that this program has been so successful is a testament to the cooperative spirit of these mental health agencies that provide individuals in McHenry County who have mental illness with a network of support opportunities.

The Mental Health Court is conducted on Friday afternoons twice a month at 1:30 p.m. in the McHenry County Court House before the Honorable Judge Charles Weech, who has presided over the Mental Health Court system from its inception.

A reception recognizing this anniversary will be held immediately following the Mental Health Court on April 4, 2008 in the Grand Jury Room of the McHenry County State’s Attorney’s office. The press is invited.

The Mental Health Court Task Force
Sandra Salgado
Mental Health Court Task Force Chairperson

= = = = =
All of the photos can be enlarged by clicking on them. The one on top was at the beginning of McHenry County State’s Attorney Lou Bianchi’s re-election announcement. You can see McHenry County Board Chairman Ken Koehler at the podium and Bianchi to his right, if you click on the photo. The location is the main courtroom in the Old McHenry County Courthouse on the Woodstock Square. It is where I was sworn in as McHenry County Treasurer during the first week of December, 1966. The smiling photograph of Judge Charles Weech was taken at the wedding of Mackenzie Walter to Carlos Garcia on a very, very snowy night. On the bottom is a photograph of McHenry County Board member Sandra Salgado. I’ve also put in pictures of the Old McHenry County Courthouse, the one I served in, plus the new one.

When McHenry County State’s Attorney Lou Bianchi announces his campaign for re-election, one of the things he was obviously please about was the upcoming establishment of a mental health court.

Now, there are twice-monthly Friday after sessions of the court. There are thirteen such courts in Illinois.

Sixteen people are now in the program, according to the press release.

Now comes a press release from the McHenry County Mental Health Task Force announcing a celebration of its first anniversary is scheduled for Friday, April 4th. It will be held in the grand jury room in the state’s attorney’s office at 1:30.

There are all sorts of people and agencies involved in this effort, as you can read in the press release below:

THE MCHENRY COUNTY MENTAL HEALTH COURT TASK FORCE

The McHenry County Mental Health Task Force is pleased to announce that the McHenry County Health Court, which is presided over by the Honorable Judge Charles Weech of the 22nd Judicial Circuit Court, is celebrating its one year anniversary on April 4, 2008.

The McHenry County Mental Health Court was created by a community based effort including the

• McHenry County Board,
• McHenry County Mental Health Board,
• Family Services,
• McHenry County Health Department,
• McHenry County 22nd Judicial Circuit Court and the
• McHenry County State’s Attorney’s Office.

As in many jurisdictions around the country, the criminal justice system in McHenry County is experiencing a rapidly growing population of offenders who have mental disorders.

For many individuals with mental health problems circulation in and out of the criminal justice system is a way of life. Jailing individuals whose offenses are related more to the symptoms of their mental illness perpetuates the cycle of offense and incarceration.

This court seeks to provide an alternative way to address non violent criminal conduct, by those with mental illnesses in providing them a support system with which to have their illnesses medically and therapeutically treated.

The Mental Health Court has a

• case worker,
• probation officer and
• nurse

who each monitor the defendant’s compliance with court orders and assists defendants in maintaining their rehabilitating efforts.

In exchange for compliance with court orders and working on maintaining treatment for their mental illnesses defendant will receive a dismissal or reduction of their charges at the completion of the program.

Defendants will be under the careful supervision of the McHenry County Mental Court for a period of 18 to 24 months.

Currently the Mental Health Court has 16 participants who are at various stages of the program, with several more individuals being considered for the program.

Admission into the program occurs upon referral to the program by police officers, probation officers, defense attorneys, prosecutors, jail or Judge. It is anticipated that within the next few months of the program participation will increase to 25 or 30 members involved in the program.

Presently McHenry County’s Mental Health Court is one of only thirteen in the state of Illinois. The Illinois Legislature has passed legislation for Mental Health Courts and the McHenry County Health Court operates its program within those statutory guidelines.

The Mental Health Court’s success is achieved through a community based effort of various providers including mental health professionals and organizations like

• Family Services,
• Pioneer Center,
• Family Alliance,
• Thresholds,
• McHenry County Crisis,
• NAMI and the like.

The fact that this program has been so successful is a testament to the cooperative spirit of these mental health agencies that provide individuals in McHenry County who have mental illness with a network of support opportunities.

The Mental Health Court is conducted on Friday afternoons twice a month at 1:30 p.m. in the McHenry County Court House before the Honorable Judge Charles Weech, who has presided over the Mental Health Court system from its inception.

A reception recognizing this anniversary will be held immediately following the Mental Health Court on April 4, 2008 in the Grand Jury Room of the McHenry County State’s Attorney’s office. The press is invited.

The Mental Health Court Task Force
Sandra Salgado
Mental Health Court Task Force Chairperson

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All of the photos can be enlarged by clicking on them. The one on top was at the beginning of McHenry County State’s Attorney Lou Bianchi’s re-election announcement. You can see McHenry County Board Chairman Ken Koehler at the podium and Bianchi to his right, if you click on the photo. The location is the main courtroom in the Old McHenry County Courthouse on the Woodstock Square. It is where I was sworn in as McHenry County Treasurer during the first week of December, 1966. The smiling photograph of Judge Charles Weech was taken at the wedding of Mackenzie Walter to Carlos Garcia on a very, very snowy night. On the bottom is a photograph of McHenry County Board member Sandra Salgado. I’ve also put in pictures of the Old McHenry County Courthouse, the one I served in, plus the new one.