McHenry County Blog

The Illinois Policy Institute co-sponsored a candidates’ forum at McHenry County College. Here Sheriff’s candidates Gus Philpott, Mike Mahon and Keith Nygren answer questions.

The following was written by Scott Reeder, the journalist in residence at the Illinois Police Institute:

EDUCATING IN THE DARK

As a journalist, I have filed thousands of Freedom of Information Act requests with Illinois school districts and uncovered major personnel problems and cases of criminals teaching.

So please forgive me if I’m a bit touchy when I hear school districts want to make it more difficult for the public to hold them accountable – or even know what they are up to.

But that is exactly what would happen under a resolution from the Illinois Association of School Boards to change Illinois open records laws.

IASB Executive Director and former state lawmaker Roger Eddy noted that the resolution initially was passed by his members well before he took the helm of the organization this year. But he added it is something his members want.

“This doesn’t surprise me,” said Josh Sharp, a lobbyist for the Illinois Press Association.

“It’s typical of how public bodies in this state think they should be able to operate – with a special set of rules for themselves. Frankly, it’s a slap in the face to the taxpayers who pay their salaries. “

Adam Andrzejewski, founder of For the Good of Illinois, was more blunt.

“Groups such as these use tax dollars to lobby against the interests of taxpayers,” he said.

It works like this:

1. Member school districts use tax dollars to pay dues to IASB.
2. Then, Eddy and the association pay lobbyists to push legislation supported by the association. Sometimes, this legislation is aimed at keeping the public in the dark about how tax dollars are being used.

Here are some of the things the IASB’s FOIA resolution calls for:

• Increase allowable FOIA response time from 5 business days to 10 business days.
• Exclude official school breaks in business day response time.
• Allow denials for commercial purposes.
• Allow denials for any request that is deemed “unduly burdensome.”
• Allow a request to be denied if it is “unduly burdensome” to the public body if the public body deems compliance with the request would result in excessive response costs.
• Exempt employment applications of individuals who apply for high profile positions.
• Eliminate requirement that public bodies give a detailed legal explanation when indicating why they are claiming an exemption.
• Allow public bodies to seek review of a binding opinion of the Public Access Counselor in the county in which they are located.

GETTING THE DISCUSSION GOING

At least since the days Gov. Dan Walker, there have been calls for better disclosure laws to provide the public with more information on potential economic conflicts of interest of their elected officials.

And for the last year, the Better Government Association has been working behind the scenes to drum up support for a law that would require more information be provided in the Statements of Economic Interests that all elected officials are required to fill out.

Emily Miller, policy and government affairs coordinator for the BGA, said she hopes legislation that has been introduced will go a long way toward getting lawmakers to begin the debate on what should be disclosed.

“This isn’t a pie-in-the-sky bill,” she said. “I think we are being very pragmatic in what we are asking.”

The BGA said the bill would require officials to report:

• Assets valued at more than $10,000
• Additional sources of income in excess of $2,500
• Debts over $5,000 incurred by or owed to the filer, other than those owed to a financial institution.
• Lobbyists with whom the filer has an economic relationship
• Family members of the filer, including a spouse, child, step-child, parent, step-parent or sibling, who are lobbyists registered with any unit of government in Illinois
• Gifts with a value of $500 or more

The push to disclose if a lawmaker is related to a lobbyist is relatively new.

Last year, Sen. Mike Jacobs, D-East Moline, got into a confrontation on the floor of the Illinois Senate with Sen. Kyle McCarter, R-Lebanon.

McCarter had noted Sen. Jacobs sponsored legislation backed by Commonwealth Edison even though his father, Denny Jacobs, was a lobbyist retained by ComEd.

Here is what Denny Jacobs said Tuesday night when asked what he thought of the bill:

“As many —– —- times as The Dispatch and the Quad-City Times have written about me being a lobbyist, if people in Mike’s district don’t know it already we have a real problem.”

Roger Eddy

Double-dipping State Rep. Roger Eddy is due to jump from salaries for being in the General Assembly, plus being a school superintendent to that of the CEO of the Illinois Association of School Boards.

There, he will continue to be able to participate in the Downstate Teachers Retirement Fund, credits from which he will be able to transfer to the General Assembly Retirement when he retires.

The current IASB Executive, Michael D. Johnson, retired, as far as the Teachers Retirement System is concerned, in 2008. His last contribution to TRS was $30,141 in the 2007-2008 school year based on reportable earnings of $320,656.

So, figure he has 31 years or so in the TRS.

He’s 51 years old.

Currently he earns $283,520 per year, according to Adam Andrzejewski’s research.

So, you figure that a man with Eddy’s ability to milk public cash cows would not even think about leaving his two public jobs unless he would get a raise.

Unless he thought he was about to lose one of those public jobs in a contested Republican primary election.

In the Illinois Manufacturers Association poll, however, he was ahead 52-9-6.

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Related articles:

• Illinois Association of School Boards Announces State Rep. Roger Eddy as New Exec.
• Is Roger Eddy Heading to Taxeater Heaven?

Photo credit: Statehouse News Service.

Here’s the press release:

IASB Board Names Executive Director-Select

February 27, 2012

The Illinois Association of School Boards will have a new executive director later this year.

State Rep. and School Supt. Roger Eddy moves from legislator to lobbyist as the game of revolving chairs continues. Photo credit: Statehouse News Service.

Roger Eddy of Hustonville was chosen by the Association board of directors at their quarterly meeting Feb. 26.

Eddy, 53, will assume the position July 1. Eddy will replace Michael D. Johnson, who will retire June 30 after nearly 12 years as the Association’s CEO.

“This has been a very long, but very productive process,” said IASB Past President Joseph Alesandrini, who led the board’s search committee.

“We had many qualified candidates and we are confident that we made the right choice to lead the Association and its member school districts,” he continued. “The transition will be completed over the next four months, which should give the executive director-select, board of directors, staff, and members adequate time to prepare and adjust to the change in leadership.”

Eddy has spent the last 15 years as superintendent of Hutsonville CUSD 1. His career includes 31 years in education, as a superintendent, principal and teacher. Since 2003, Eddy has also served five terms as a State Representative in the Illinois General Assembly.

“I am very honored to be chosen to represent IASB,” Eddy said. “This is a great opportunity and challenge. This is a great association and I look forward to serving in this capacity.”

Eddy is married to Rebecca Eddy. The couple has five children and two grandchildren.

The executive director-select was reared in Newark and attended Newark public schools. He graduated from Northern Illinois University in 1981 and earned his master’s degree in 1986 and specialist’s degree in 1996 from Eastern Illinois University.

As executive director, Eddy will lead a staff of 75 full- and part-time staff members in the Association’s Springfield and Lombard offices. He will be responsible for all Association operations and represent its positions in state and national public school management policy on behalf of 852 member districts and nearly 6,000 elected Illinois school board members.

As executive director-select, Eddy will be the Association’s sixth full-time CEO since 1943. He will begin the transition soon, according to Alesandrini.

“Roger will get to know our board and staff and eventually all of our member districts. I know that Dr. Johnson will be a great assistant in that process,” he said.

During Johnson’s tenure at IASB, the Association has seen its staff more than double, its membership increase to all-time highs and the completion of several capital construction programs. Alesandrini also credited Johnson for his entrepreneurial fundraising ability and for developing state and national partnerships.

Johnson, who plans to work with Ronald McDonald House Charities in his retirement, said he has worked with Eddy often over the past 12 years.

“I have known Roger for many years and he has been a champion for public education as a state legislator. I know as executive director he will be a champion for the Association and its member school boards,” Johnson said.

The e xecutive director-select will be the Association’s sixth full-time executive director since 1943. Past executives include Robert M. Cole (1943-1968), B.B. Burgess (1969-1973), Harold P. Seamon (1973-1989), Wayne L. Sampson (1989-2000), and Johnson (2000-2012).

Search process

The IASB board of directors launched a national search for the position in February 2011, after Johnson formally notified the board of his intentions. Applications were accepted until Sep. 30, and according to Alesandrini, there were many inquiries and applications received from across the U.S.

Criteria for the new executive director were developed in part from surveys taken of IASB staff and the Association board of directors, division officers, local board presidents and the Illinois Statewide School Management Alliance partners.

The criteria indicated that candidates should have “the appropriate education and experience in organizational leadership, working with a volunteer board, knowledge of major issues facing public education, strong communication skills, and the ability to work with diverse cultures of rural, suburban and urban constituents.”

The search committee, chaired by Alesandrini, included the following directors: then-vice president Carolyne Brooks, then-treasurer Dane Tippett, Southwestern division; Ben Anderson, Northwest; Karen Fisher, Starved Rock; Tom Neeley, Central Illinois Valley; Roger Pfister, Shawnee; Dale Hansen, Three Rivers; Joanne Osmond, Lake; Rosemary Swanon, DuPage; and Joanne Zendol, West Cook.

Alesandrini said the search committee screened internal and external candidates and narrowed the list for potential interviews. Finalist interviews took place in December and January. The two finalist candidates were interviewed by the board of directors on Feb. 25 in Chicago.

“We are very pleased to successfully conclude this process,” Alesandrini said. “We believe that the broad representation and diversity of membership on our board of directors assures that we have made the best decision possible on behalf of our entire membership.”

= = = = =

The current Chief Executive, Michael D. Johnson, retired, as far as the Teachers Retirement System is concerned, in 2008. His last contribution to TRS was $30,141 in the 2007-2008 school year based on reportable earnings of $320,656.

To read my take, click here.

Double-dipping State Rep. and School Superintendent Roger Eddy has an offer to go to taxeater heaven.

Frireworks in Northern Illinois prompted by a hoped for resignation in Southern Illinois.

The tax hiking advocate and transparency opponent has released a statement which I found in the Decatur Herald-Review via a link from Dave Diersen’s GOPUSA Illinois which you see below:

“The (Illinois Association of School Boards) has asked me to serve as their new executive director beginning on July 1. While final details regarding the position have not been resolved, I do expect them to finalize soon, and as a result I am suspending my champaign for state representative effective immediately.”

It’s time for fireworks for those who are on the taxpayers’ side of the equation.

How important is this race?

Tom Cross thinks it is important enough to tell contributors to Eddy’s opponent that they will be “persona non grata” in his office.

That’s what I’ve been told anyway.

Eddy seems to have replaced Bill Black as Spokesman for Republicans in House debates.

This is a man who has received $60,000 from the Illinois Eduction Association during his current campaign.

Other taxeaters contributing include

• $12,000 – Illinois Federation of Teachers
• $5,000 – University Professionals of Illinois AFT AFL-CIO PAC
• $3,000 – Illinois School Administrators
• $2,500 – Illinois Retired Teachers Association
• $1,000 – Citizens for Jim Edgar
• $500 – The Illinois Alliance of Administrators of Special Education

Eddy is being challenged by Republicans Kevin Garner of Toledo and Brad Halbrook of Shebyville.

Garnger had $269 at the end of December.

Halbrook’s first Illinois State Board of Elections filing was for $20,000 from the We Mean Business PAC, followed by $5,000 from For the Good of Illinois, $10,000 from Pioneer Oil’s Mr. and Mrs. Don Jones, $2,000 from Eagle Forum Illinois State PAC, $3,000 from Adam Andrzejewski, $1,000 from Unique Home Properties, and $1,000 from Deborah Dunn.

= = = = =
The current Chief Executive, Michael D. Johnson, retired, as far as the Teachers Retirement System is concerned, in 2008. His last contribution to TRS was $30,141 in the 2007-2008 school year based on reportable earnings of $320,656.

The Northwest Herald's Keven Craver's Blog's masthead.

The Northwest Herald’s Kevin Craver is again pointing to the incongruity of our tax dollars being used to lobby against our self-interests as citizens and taxpayers.

McHenry County government and other tax districts from townships to school districts belong to associations that lobby in Springfield.

McHenry County Blog found these groups lobbying against Jack Franks’ bill to limit this year’s taxes to last years (because the assessed value had decreased):

• Townships
• School Boards
• Cities & Villages

Right after the new, broader Freedom of Information law went into effect, the House and the Senate voted to exempt employee performance evaluations.

Craver zeros in on House Bill 3137, sponsored by double-dipping Republican State Rep. Roger Eddy.

Eddy has received $60,000 from the Illinois Education Association’s Political Action Committee.

Here’s what he wants to keep secret:

• the date of birth of public employees,
• medical and health information of public employees,
• the names of applicants for public employment, a
• applications for public employment,
• recommendations and opinions regarding the qualification of public employment applicants,
• investigative notes of public employees, and
• outlines or drafts of oral statements, presentations, or remarks

So, FOIA filers wouldn’t be able to get applications of those who apply for the empty Regional Superintendent of Schools slot…nor their names.

Back to the good ‘ol days for the good ol’ boys.

Craver points out that your tax dollars are going to the Metro Counties Council (on which my father used to serve when he was on the County Board) to lobby in favor of this bill.

Dave McSweeney watches as State Rep. Kent Gaffney makes a point at the McHenry County Young Republicans' Candidates Forum.

Filed Saturday with the Illinois State Board of Elections is the receipt of $17,000 by State Rep. Kent Gaffney in his effort to fend off the challenges of David McSweeney and Danielle Rowe.

Here’s where the money came from:

• $10,000 – We Mean Business, Chicago
• $5,000 – Realtors PAC, Springfield
• $1,000 – Gerald Forsythe, CEO, Indeck Energy, Wheeling
• $1,000 – Robert & Nina Stephenson, Attorney, Locklord, Barrington Hills

The We Mean Business PAC is reported by Illinois Review to be reported by Crain’s Chicago Business as being part of former Attorney General Ty Fahner’s effort to reform pensions in Illinois.

There is some irony in that the fund is heavily financed by the family of Lester Crown, who has contributed $2,500 to McSweeney.

Of further irony is that the group gave $20,000 to Brad Halbrook, the opponent of Cross ally (Floor Spokesman!) Roger Eddy (110th District).  Eddy is a double-dipper, being a school superintendent as well as a state representative.

Eddy has gotten $60,000 from the Political Action Committee of the Illinois Education Association, a thousand dollars from former Governor Jim Edgar and thousands more from other various education industry PACs.

This guy looks like a wholly-owned subsidiary of the education industry.

He’s the one who dreamed up the idea to base the annual increase allowed under the Property Tax Cap on the increase in employee salaries, public employee salaries, I think. If I remember correctly, of the five years I examined, that index was higher than the CPI, which currently limits real estate tax hikes.

State Rep. Roger Eddy. Photo credit States News Service.

No doubt which side of the taxpayer Downstate Republican State Representative Roger Eddy is on.

It’s not the taxpayers’.

This is the legislator who wanted to loosen the Real Estate Tax Cap in the early 2000′s in order to allow local governments, including the one for which he serves as School Superintendent, to pry more money out of citizens’ pockets.

As I remember the bill, Eddy wanted to tie the rate of increase not to the Consumer Price Index, but to an index that pretty much measured public employee salaries.

That would, of course, set up circular process whereby high teacher salaries would have triggered the ability of schools and other local governments to get more taxes than would be allowed under the CPI.

That was the case in four out of five years I looked at back then.

Well, now double-dipper Eddy has filed a couple of requests for notes that will slow down the consideration of House Bill 3793, as you can see below:

Requests for notes like this are usually an attempt to slow down the legislative process.

Although primary election voters approved the imposition of a one percentage point sales tax hike in Lawrence County, former State Rep. now Sumner Press Publisher Roscoe Cunningham is calling for a delay in the county board’s imposing it.

“While changing the rules under which we live, Lawrence County Board of Supervisors should take another look at the 1% (really one percentage point) tax increase and repeal same in toto.

“There is a limit to which a community can be taxed and continue to progress.

“Our county is 1% above that toleration limit.

“Board could postpone the implementation of the tax for a year.”

That’s what Cunningham wrote in his April 29, 2010, column entitle, “Roscoe’s Journal.”

He refers to implementation of legislation sponsored by State Rep. Roger Eddy.

The law says that the county board has to approve levying the new sales tax after passage.

If any school board sells bonds based on paying them back from sales tax proceeds, this non-attorney believes the tax may not be repealed until after the bonds are paid off.

Campaign piece from Champaign County.

The new tax idea passed in Champaign County in 2009. A bit more about the Champaign County effort can be found here.

An article on the winners and losers in such a tax change appears here.

The main article in the Chicago Tribune April 27, 2010. Note the artificial turf being laid which was financed by non-referendum bond money

“It’s just a little nothing bill.”

I can hear the words coming out of House Sponsor Roger Eddy to colleagues asking privately what the bill was all about.

Not that I know Eddy. I just know the process.

When you have an important bill, you minimize its impact.

And this is an important bill.

Eddy’s House Bill 6041 is a Tax Eaters’ delight.

School districts have been playing games with Working Cash Fund money for decades.

First, they create an emergency in their own minds. They know they can’t pass a referendum, so they pass an ordinance allowing them to issue bonds without voter approval…unless enough people sign a petition asking for a referendum.

This is called a “backdoor referendum.”

Often this is proposed in the middle of winter when taxpayers can’t go door-to-door collecting signatures.

As you might imagine, I and the democratic process prefer front door referendums.

Why should it be so easy to raise taxes?

It’s not easy to win election.

Which is more important?

I asked attorney Jim Rooney, whose appellate court victory the bill is intended to reverse, what was at stake. (I knew Rooney in a prior legislative life.)

“What’s at stake is the ability of voters to control whether a district goes into debt for building projects.

“You do have the operations and maintenance levy every year for ordinary maintenance and repair. It’s when you go into debt, you’re supposed to ask the people if they want to pay the interest and principal.”

In Cook County, about $150 million is at stake.

And the Tax Eaters are desperate to keep the money.

I can’t wait to see the roll call on this bill listed on the score card produced by National Taxpayers United of Illinois, Jim Tobin’s group.

In McHenry County, NOT ONE of our state representatives stood up for taxpayers.

Jack Franks, Mike Tryon and Mark Beaubien all voted for the bill to make it possible to spend Working Cash Fund money for capital or building purposes.

It zipped through 113-2. Only State Reps. Paul Froehlich and Betsy Hannig voted against it. Both are retiring at the end of the session.

Talk about being asleep at the switch.

Or in the pockets of school districts greedy enough to violate the law.

There was a warning issued by retiring Schaumburg State Rep. Froehlich:

“I see it as an amnesty bill. It’s giving amnesty to those school districts that didn’t follow the law.”

Amnesty not only for the spending of past money, but also for potential personal fines against school board members.

I didn’t mention that before. It not only allows this “money laundering”

Want to know how important the bill was to one school district?

The one featured in the excellent lead story of the Chicago Tribune by reporter Noreen S. Almed-Ullah is the Hinsdale High School District.

That board spend Working Cash Fund money to buy artificial turf.

Makes you wonder how the headline writer at the Tribune could possibly come up with the headline

SCHOOLS IN A SQUEEZE

The headlines below were more relevant:

Districts
skirt law
to fund
projects

and

Schools sell cash bonds
without going to the voters

I’ve never seen a Working Cash Fund proposal that I’ve liked.

Here's the process some school districts are using to "launder"m (as one unnamed school board member put it) their Working Cash Fund money so it can be spent on building projects. Normal repair should be paid out of the Operations and Maintenance Fund.

That’s because school districts have an unlimited number of bites at the apple.

They can drain their Working Cash Fund and immediately create another one.

The worst that can happen is that taxpayers will get angry enough to force a referendum.

If they lose such a referendum, they can immediately start over or decide to lay in the weeds until things quiet down again.

In Southeastern Illinois lies the County of Lawrence. I subscribe to the Sumner Press and saw the ad you see below:

The required referendum passed 1,557 to 1,385, according to Daily Record.

Money collected from the new tax will be distributed to all local school districts in proportion to the number of students in each district.

Once bonds are issued, the tax cannot be abolished until the bonds are paid off.

That, of course, means never.

Two Thursdays before the election (January 21, 2010), one of the local school superintendents wrote this letter to the Sumner Press:

Dear Editor:

Our elected school board members are obligated to assure our community the best possible school systems and facilities, all without excessive burdens on taxpayers. To balance our educational needs and costs is a difficult task.

On February 2, voters of Lawrence County will decide whether a 1% hike in sales tax on certain items (not the most essential) is the best solution to provide much needed improvements and upgrades to our school buildings and facilities.

The referendum on a County School Facility Sales Tax is the result of legislation sponsored by State Representative Roger Eddy and passed by our Legislature which, if approved by our voters, gives us a chance to assure needed improvements to our school facilities (including Lawrenceville High School) and for retiring bonds for Unit 10 construction, without raising taxes on essential items such as groceries, medical drugs and appliances, licensed vehicles, agricultural supplies and machinery, and without raising property taxes.

As taxpayers, we have created a Capital Development Fund which will pay 60% to 70% of the cost of such needed improvements and construction. But if we do not have the necessary “matching funds” (30 or 40% of the costs), our tax money is left on the table for other communities to obtain the facilities we need. The proposed sales tax on other items will provide the needed matching funds.Please attend the Public Forum at the Lawrenceville Central Christian Church this Thursday, January 21, at 5:00 p.m., to hear Rep. Eddy and school officials explain the effect of your vote. Please be an informed voter.

Our community needs, and cannot afford to lose, the educational upgrading and facilities this proposal will provide. I urge a “Yes” vote.

Sincerely,

Philip B. Benefiel

Can you see why I wrote my former legislative colleague, now Publisher Roscoe Cunningham and told him the superintendent was “math impaired.”

I wrote,

“He apparently thinks a one percentage point increase in the local sales tax is the same as a ’1% hike in sales tax.’ (See letter posted online: ‘On February 2, voters of Lawrence County will decide whether a 1% hike in sales tax on certain items (not the most essential) is the best solution to provide much needed improvements and upgrades to our school buildings and facilities.’)

“Really!

“Let’s assume the local sales tax is 6.25%. If so, dividing one percentage point by and a quarter percentage points would yield a 15% sales tax hike.

“Politicians lie all the time about political issues, but wouldn’t you think a school superintendent would tell the truth?

“Or, doesn’t he really know the difference?

“I don’t know which is worse, deliberate deception or not knowing enough about percentages to get out of junior high school.

“Wishing we lived closer together and enjoying your now self-identifed weekly views of the world.”

And he published it with this reply,

“Cal, you are too hard on Supts. Seaton and Steagall. Each is a straight arrow. Antecedent on the numbers isn’t clear.

“We yet remember and appreciate the skill with which you skewered the ‘bad guys,’ across the aisle, in the General Assembly.

“Local GOP, to use Paul Powell’s line, ‘smell the meat a cookin’,’ are confident that either McKenna, Dillard or Ryan will win November 2.

“See you in Springfield for victory celebration.

“Best to you and family,

“roscoe”

I can’t wait for school districts to try this in McHenry County. Rest assured that every county board member who votes to put such a referendum on the ballot will think my McHenry County Republican Cat Tax campaign was mild.