McHenry County Blog

Ah.

The rumor mill.

Maybe there will be fewer fireworks at tonight’s McHenry County Board meeting than most folks think.

The rumor of the hour (just confirmed) is that McHenry County Chairwoman Tina Hill is reconsidering her resolution to replace McHenry’s Sandy Salgado with Spring Grove’s Robert Martens.

Both represent District 4.

Hill has argued that Salgado has a conflict of interest because the agency that employees her, Pioneer Center, receives money from the 708 McHenry County Mental Health Board, whose members are recommended by the Public Health and Human Services on which she serves.

Hill has put on the tonight’s County Board agenda a resolution that has Bob Martens replacing Salgado.

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

• 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).”

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.

There will be a domino effect from Tina Hill’s pending removal of Sandra Salgado from the Public Health and Human Services Committee, reportedly because she has a conflict of interest resulting from her employer, Pioneer Center.

This is not a new situation for Salgado. That has been where she has worked for years.

When Tina Hill appointed Salgado to the post, she knew where Salgado worked.

There is even a conflict of interest waiver that the County Board has passed.

But Salgado’s removal also means that she can no longer chair the Senior Citizens Grant Commission.

The reason is that the chairman must be a member of the Public Health Committee.

Tonight at the 7 PM County Board meeting, virtually everyone expects Hill’s resolution to replace Salgado with Bob Martens, the former long-time head of Family Services on the Pubic Health Committee.

As previously pointed out, the replacement will put Hill loyalists in a 4-3 position to control the committee that Donna Kurtz chairs.

That means the type of reform appointments to the 708 Mental Health Board that the Kurtz majority helped put in office will be in jeopardy when the next two 708 Board terms expire.

It also means that any Board member is at risk similar “discipline” should he or she be perceived by Hill to have been in a conflict of interest.

If the McHenry County Board follows Chairwoman Tina Hill’s recommendation, McHenry’s Sandy Salgado will have been replaced by Spring Grove’s Bob Martens the night before the Board’s Public Health and Human Services Committee meets in Crystal Lake at 9 AM in the Public Health Department building where Woodstock Street intersects Route 14.

That makes it convenient for those in the southeast corner of McHenry County to see the committee to which Crystal Laker Donna Kurtz was appointed chairman after supporting Hill’s chairmanship on the second vote.

Hill’s argument for replacing Salgado is that she works for Pioneer Center, which receives funding from the 708 Mental Health Board whose members are appointed by the the committee.

Martens, of course, before he retired, ran the Family Services agency which the 708 Board pumped in upwards of $1.8 million in an unsuccessful attempt to forestall its going out of business.

With Martens on the committee, Kurtz will have lost the fourth vote needed to advance proposals and nominations to the County Board floor, if Hill disagrees with them.

There will be a public comment period.

McHenry County Board Chairwoman Tina Hill is planning to plug a hole in her power structure by removing County Board Sandy Salgado from the Public Health and Human Services Committee.

In her place Hill is recommending Robert M. Martens, Sr.

Salgado did not vote for Hill for Chairman.

Martens did.  Martens and Salgado are both from District 4, which covers McHenry, Richmond and Spring Grove.

Putting a loyalist on the Public Health Committee will allow Hill to neutralize its Chairman, Donna Kurtz, any time Hill wants to.

The margin is now 4-3, with Kurtz being able to rely upon support from Salgado, Hammerand, Walkup and herself.  All are Republicans with Salgado being from McHenry, Hammerand from Wonder Lake with Walkup and Kurtz from Crystal Lake.

The three loyal to Hill are

• Mary McCann (R-Woodstock)
• Anna May Miller (R-Cary)
• Paula Yensen (D-Lake in the Hills)

 

Here are the McHenry County Board members who signed Nick Provenzano’s petition to call a special meeting on Friday, January 18th at 9 AM to consider whether voters should have a shot in April at passing a referendum on whether the Board Chairman should be elected.

You can see eleven signed the petition.  Eight–one-third of the Board’s members–were required to sign to call a special meeting.

So people can find their names, let me list them in the order in which they signed and who they ended up voting for in the County Board Chairman’s race:

• Nick Provenzano (supported Koehler)
• Mike Walkup (new, supported Hill))
• Ken Koehler (supported Koehler)
• Robert Nowak (supported Koehler)
• Joe Gottemoller (new,  supported Gottemoller)
• Mike Skala (new,  supported Gottemoller)
• Robert Martens (new, supported Hill)
• Diane Evertsen (supported Schuster)
• Donna Kurtz (supported Schuster, then Hill)
• Sandy Salgado (supported Koehler)
• Mary McCann (supported Hill)

Four supported Tina Hill for Board Chairman.

Four supported Ken Koehler for Board Chairman.

Two supported Joe Gottemoller.

One supported Schuster.

All are Republicans, which when one thinks about it, that probably just recognizes the lay of the political land, that is, Democrats are more likely to gain positions of power, e.g., Paul Yensen’s appointment as Chairman of the Management Services Committee, through politicking in the current system of selecting a Board Chairman than through a one-on-one fight with any Republican in a countywide contest.   Both Yensen and first time Democratic Party Democratic Party Board member Nick Chirikos voted for Hill and neither showed any support for an at-large election at the Monday Management Services Committee meeting.

Only one of what I would consider hardcore supporters of Hill broke ranks to potentially endanger the new ruling coalition’s ability to continue its power after the 2014 election cycle.

Just because someone signed the petition does not mean that they are committed to vote for an April referendum.

There are twenty-four Board members and a majority vote will be required to put the question on the ballot.

Do you want to express your viewpoint to your County Board members?

Here are their phone numbers:

• Michele Aavang – 815-648-4210
• Yvonne Barnes – 847-516-2719
• Nick Chirikos – 847-658-3434
• Sue Draffkorn – 815-653-6057
• Diane Evertsen – 815-943-3298
• Joe Gottemoller – 815 382 9940
• John Hammerand – 815-728-0700
• Jim Heisler – 815-459-1971
• Tina Hill – 815-347-4222
• John Jung – 815-338-6201
• Ken Koehler – 815-459-7841
• Donna Kurtz -815-788-0632
• Bob Martens – 815-675-6353
• Mary McCann – 815-568-1061
• Mary McClellan – 815-482-5693
• Anna May Miller – 847-639-5112
• Robert Nowak – 847-516-9637
• Nick Provenzano – 815-355-8540
• Sandy Salgado – 815-271-5293
• Carolyn Schofield – 815-455-9550
• Ersel Schuster – 815-338-2207
• Mike Skala – 847-669-3804
• Mike Walkup – 815-459-7090
• Paula Yensen – 815-404-3918

At this point one can see that Nick Provenzano read the political wind better than the Management Services Committee did on Monday.

Whether the wind is blowing hard enough to overcome the reticence of Board members who like the current insider system (for reasons including an inability to raise sufficient funds to mount a countywide campaign–campaign cost having been mentioned by several Board members during the ongoing debate) remains to be seen on Friday morning.

And whether the measure passes or fails, the roll call will be used in the 2014 elections.

It will be interesting to see if any County board members from the last Board who voted to put a tax hike on the ballot in April will refuse to allow their constituents to vote on whether to elect their County Board Chairman at the ballot box.

I don’t know what John Hammerand did right, but he’s running first when neither his ballot position (in the middle) nor his gender would have led one to predict it.

Of course, he is an incumbent who works his constituents even when he is not running for election.

The other two incumbents running for re-election, Sue Draffkorn and Sandra Salgado are running close enough behind with 80% of the vote counted that their re-nomination seems assured.

Filling the slot left vacant by Pete Merkel is newcomer Linda Kvidera Murphy, Brent Smith’s sister-in-law. I’m curious to know how many doors she knocked on.

I saw no campaign from the former head of Family Services, Robert Martens.  Ed Varga had an internet presence, but if he mailed, he didn’t share any with McHenry County Blog.

 

After an overly long set-up yesterday, today we move into what office seekers who attended the McHenry County Young Republicans’ Candidates’ Forum said about the County Board’s having decided to maximize the amount of money it will take out of our pockets this summer.

Before beginning, let me remind you of those incumbents who voted to increase the tax levy so the tax take from property owners will be as high as allowed by state law.

Those running for re-election are in boldface type.

• Robert Bless
• Scott Breeden
• Sue Draftcorn (a switch)
• Mary Donner
• Jim Heisler
• Tina Hill (a switch)
• John Jung
• Donna Kurtz
• Mary McCann
• Pete Merkel
• Anna May Miller (a switch)
• Marc Munaretto
• Kathy Bergan Schmidt
• Ken Koehler

Candidates were allowed two minutes to introduce themselves. Some used the time to emphasize the tax hike issue.

Friday night it was Joe Gottemoeller, Nick Provenzano, Mary Alger, Sandy Salgado, John Hammerand and Ed Varga, (I was taking photos, so if I missed someone, let us know in the comment section.)

The tax issue surfaced in some of the opening comments.

“I voted ‘No’ on the tax increase,” District 3 incumbent Provenzano said in his opening.

“I’m here to put the brakes on…raising taxes,” said Tea Party candidate Mary Alger, running in District 3.

“I voted ‘No’ on the tax increase,” District 4 incumbent Sandra Salgado chimed in.

And that was all before the tax hike question was asked.

Crystal Lake City Councilwoman Carolyn Schoefield praised the process set in place to immediately begin an effort to see how the budget could be cut. She explained that her city “dipped into our reserves to lower the tax levy,” but noted, “the reserves are not limitless.”

“I voted against the budget increase,” John Hammerand said.

“If there’s money to be spent, we use it.”

District 4′s Ed Varga of Richmond:

Ed Varga

“I was upset about hearing about the tax levy, the last minute nature of it.

“Just go to each department and say, ‘You’ve got 5% less to spend.’”

Having served on the McHenry County Board of Health, he pointed to an outside audit that said the local health department did more with less than any other Chicago area health department.

Joe Gottemoeller, a challenger in District 3, expanded on his opening remark by answering, “No” and pointing out that property taxes had increase from 2% of a home’s value to 4% since 1994.

“Government has to tighten its budget.”

“I’m not looking for increasing the tax levy,” explained District 2 challenger Tom Wilbeck. “That’s what got me involved on the very last day.”

He told that people asked, “Are you going to raise my taxes?” as he went door-to-door soliciting petition signatures.

Incumbent Mary Donner of District 3 said, “I guess you get to hear frankly (from one in the) peanut gallery who voted, ‘Yes.’”

The Finance Committee member explained that the Committee started working on the budget in May. She pointed to mandates, e.g., courtrooms for two new judges.

“We are the smallest unit government [at least the smallest Illinois county] that has a Triple A bond rating.”

District 3 incumbent Nick Provenzano reiterated that he had voted against the $2.7 million increase. He pointed out that the Board had taken “an addition $1.2 million out of the tax reserves.

“That was a mistake.

“We need to relieve staff of some of the high level decisions. We have to stop spending where we don’t need to.”

District 3′s Tea Party Republican, Mary Alger, said, “I would not have voted for the increase in taxes. I’ve looked at the notices that are tacked on houses.”

“I did not vote for the tax levy,” District 4′s Sandra Salgado repeated. She told of excesses in the budgets of “political figures.”

Salgado was told by a colleague, “That’s a great question, but you’re not the one to ask it.” She said the question involved “over $600,000.”

She said she “put a stop to elected officials salaries” going up.

“The office pays what it pays,” she observed. [Most county officials get about $100,000 a year.]

District 3 challenger Mary McClellan, first on her ballot, had this response:

“A resounding, ‘No.’

“Hold any County Board member responsible for the votes they made.”

District 2 incumbent Donna Kurtz said,

“I voted for the tax levy because I believe in fiscal responsibility.

“We had labor contract’s and inflation of 1.5%. and that [was] what the tax levy [increase] was [for].

“Others wanted to use money earmarked for capital to pay for the [operating] expenses. That was [irresponsible].

Linda Kvidera Murphy of District 4 put in her two cents worth: “I also don’t support the increase in taxes. I think County Board members should be held accountable [for their votes].

“I did support the tax increase,” admitted District 2 incumbent Jim Heisler.

He explained he started out in opposition to the increase, but “wages got us corralled where we couldn’t back out of it.”

Crystal Lake Park District Commissioner Mike Walkup, a challenger in District 3, expresses his opposition to the hike.

“I agree with Cal [Skinner]. Set the number you have and [make] that number the [levy].

“The economy is not going to get better quickly,” he predicted.

[See

"How to Cut a Budget, Plus How to Provide Political Camouflage for Incumbent McHenry County Board Members"]

District 3 aspirant Jim Schlader was the last Friday participant to answer the tax question.

“People I talk to out on the streets are asking whether they’re going to but food or [pay taxes].

“I would not vote for that increase.”

Missing from the event were District 2 candidate Ken Koehler, the Chairman of the McHenry County Board.  Koehler voted for the tax hike.

Among the missing from District 3 was former Board member Linda (Lyn) Orphal.

Not taking part from District 4 were incumbent Sue Draffkorn, plus challenger Robert “Bob” M. Martens, Sr.  Draffkorn voted in favor of the tax  hike.

= = = = =
What District 5 and 6 candidates said Saturday night tomorrow.

With the exception of any Democrats, most of those wanting to serve on the McHenry County Board filed petitions in the County Clerk’s Office today.

An asterisk in front of a name means they filed at 8 AM when the office opened and will take part in a lottery to determine the order on the ballot.

Four will be elected from each district.

Benefits include power, prestige, about $20,000 a year in salary with no attendance requirements, plus health and pension benefits that can be worth up to about $20,000.

Filing ends at 4:30 next Monday.

Republicans in District 1 follow:

• *Yvonne M. Barnes, Cary
• *Anna May Miller, Cary
• Robert “Bob” Bless, Fox River Grove

In District 2, the following will be on the ballot, pending any challenges:

• *James L. Heisler, Crystal Lake
• *Carolyn Schofield, Crystal Lake
• Kenneth (Ken) D. Koehler, Crystal Lake

The lively District 3 contest features

• *Mary R. Alger, Crystal Lake
• *Mary L. Donner, Crystal Lake
• *Joseph (Joe) Gottemoller, Crystal Lake
• *Mary McClellan, Holiday Hills
• *Linda (Lyn) Orphal, Crystal Lake
• *Nick Provenzano, McHenry

District 4 aspirants follow:

• *John D. Hammerand, Wonder Lake
• *Sandra Fay Salgado, McHenry
• *Edward Varga, Richmond
• Robert “Bob” M Martens, Sr, Spring Grove

District 5 contestants in the GOP primary so far are

• John P. Jung, Jr., Woodstock
• Tina R. Hill, Woodstock

In District 6, the following have submitted petitions:

• *Diane F. Evertsen, Harvard
• *Shawn Green, Union
• *David LaGue, Marengo
• *Mary T. McCann, Woodstock
• *Ersel C. Schuster, Woodstock
• *Rachel Elizabeth Smith, Wonder Lake, IL 60097
• Michele R. Aavang, Woodstock

Republican incumbents not filing yet are

• Marc Munaretto of Algonquin,
• Robert Nowak of Cary, Donna Kurtz of Crystal Lake,
• Pete Merkel of McHenry,
• Barb Wheeler of Crystal Lake, who is running for State Representative,
• Sue Draffkorn of Wonder Lake and
• Virginia Peschke of Bull Valley.

Neither Democratic Party incumbents Kathy Bergan Schmidt or Paul Yensen submitted petitions.

= = = = =

Candidates are invited to share their backgrounds, reasons for running, platforms, etc., on McHenry County Blog.  The email address is to the left.

The current McHenry County Ethics Commission has three members whose terms are expiring:

• Walter J. Packard, former McHenry County College President, who is now retired with a golden parachute
• Robert Blaizer, recently retired Crystal Lake Chamber of Commerce Exec and former District 47 Grad School Superintendend
• Rev. Karen Stunkel, former Home of the Sparrow administrator

Replacements being recommended at Tuesday’s 8:30 AM meeting of the Management Services Committee are

• Deborah Nier – Administrator, City of Marengo
• Major John Price – Salvation Army, Crystal Lake
• Robert Martens – Director, Family Service & Community Mental Health Center

It appears that the original members, appointed Feb. 1, 2005, were

• Walter J. Packard, President McHenry County College
• Art Osten, Jr., Village Administrator Fox River Grove
• Robert Blaizer, President Crystal Lake Chamber of Commerce
• Timothy J. Clifton, City Manager City of Woodstock
• Karen Stunkel, Executive Director Home of the Sparrow