McHenry County Blog

Below is the report upon which the old McHenry County College Board voted for 5-2.

Well, it’s not quite what the Board voted on.

The Board did not set President Vicky Smith’s compensation.

Read the report carefully.

Voting in favor were the two longest serving Board members who lost the election–Barbara Walters and Carol Larson. They were joined by holdovers Mary Miller, Linda Liddell and Cynthia Kisser.

Voting against extending MCC President Vicky Smith’s contract through the middle of 2015 were Ron Parrish and Dennis Adams. It was almost Adams’ last vote since he retired from the Board.

To understand what happened at Thursday night McHenry County Board meeting, you need to read this report carefully.

Do you see the problem?

Read the recommendation:

Recommendation

It is recommended that the Board of Trustees approves extending Dr. Smith’s contract through June 30, 2015 and to set compensation as discussed in Closed Session.

Do you note that the report does not tell the public the salary and benefits?

I surely did and was ready to file complaints with both the McHenry County State’s Attorney and the Illinois Attorney General about the seeming violation of the Open Meetings Act had the Board approved the report as presented in the Board Packet.

But the old members didn’t do that.

After the closed session, undoubtedly upon the advice of their attorneys, the Board considered a motion which excluded compensation

So, the outgoing Board got half of what it wanted.

Smith’s contract has been extended another twelve months after June 30. 2014, but her salary has not been set.

Newly-elected McHenry County College Board members Chris Jenner, Tom Wilbeck and Molly Walsh were sworn in four and a half hours after the meetings began.

That will be up to the carryover Board members and those newly-elected and now sworn in:

• Molly Walsh
• Chris Jenner
• Tom Welbeck

A new Student Trustee named Michele Lambert was previously sworn in.

There was public comment from 6:30 to 7:45.  Again there was not enough room for the taxpaying public.  Overflow folks were directed to the auditorium way across campus.

But, there were almost a row and half out of the three rows of chairs reserved for MCC employees who certainly could have sat in chairs outside until their turn in the program came.

The commenters were divided into three parts:

• Those supporting an extension of Smith’s contract
• Those opposed to an extension of Smith’s contract
• Those supporting the theater program whose 80-seat Black Box Theater seems destined to become the location of a greatly expanded robotics program

I’d love to give you a blow-by-blow account of the comments, but the new Board didn’t adjourn until 12:10 Friday.

Suffice is to say that both Chris Jenner and Molly Walsh asked the old Board not to extend Smith’s contract.

Jenner pointed out that there were nearing three months for the holdover Board members to explain to the new Trustees why Smith deserved to have her contract extended.

“I don’t believe any of us have passed judgment on Dr. Smith.”

“I really feel strongly that the incoming Board should be making the decision on terms and working conditions,” Walsh added as the last one to provide public comment.

“An action tonight is really disregarding the new Board members.

“Lets work together.”

Their pleas were ignored.

Very shortly after the old Board took its last gasp by voting for Smith’s contract extension, the new Board was sworn in.  That was at 10:45 Thursday night.

From foreground going around the table are Trustee Cynthia Kisser, Secretary Chris Jenner, Student Trustee Michele Lambert, MCC President Vicky Smith, Board President Ron Parrish and Trustees Molly Walsh and Tom Wilbeck, Vice Chair Linda Liddell and outgoing Board President Mary Miller.

Then, the tables were turned.

Jenner nominated Ron Parrish to be the new Board President.  Wilbeck provided the second.

Liddell nominated Kisser.  I believe Miller seconded that nomination.

Three to three.

The deciding vote seemed to belong to newcomer Walsh.

A secret ballot was taken and the vote came out 4-3 in favor of Parrish, who had been very much the minority member on the old Board.

For Vice Chair, it was Wilbeck vs. Liddell.

3-3 with, I presume, Walsh breaking the tie in favor of Liddell.

Wilbeck nominated Jenner for Secretary and no one else wanted the job so he got it.

Vicky Smith

The agenda for the last meeting of the old McHenry County College Board is scheduled for Thursday night at 6:30.

On the Agenda is a report to extend the contract of MCC President Vicky Smith.

But the College will not release the report.

Even though it was on the Agenda last Tuesday, April 16th.

Now you can read the report on McHenry County Blog. It’s found below:

The top secret, hush-hush report that recommends an extension of MCC President Vicky Smith’s contract through June 30, 2015.

The most important sentence is

“The Board was pleased with the results of the evaluation, and therefore feels a contract extension is appropriate.”

For those who think a Board consisting of three out of seven members who will not be in office about ten minutes after this contract extension is approved, attendance at the meeting might be appropriate.

I wish I had managed to make it to the McHenry County College Board meeting earlier.

From what Woodstock Advocate blogger Gus Philpott said in the public comment section of the meeting, the room was packed with college employees when he arrived.

No room for ordinary taxpayers to sit.

The three rows in the MCC Board room were filled after the employees left.

Philpott gave thanks to President Vicky Smith for convincing them to leave.  I guess they went to an “overflow” area in the huge front hall nearby.   That’s where I saw a screen set up on the way out.

Cynthia Kisser

Cynthia Kisser began the meeting by asking for the controversial item–the extension of Smith’s contract–be postponed until the Thursday after next.

Ron Parrish

“I completely agree,” Ron Parrish replied.

That was also met with agreement from fellow Board members.

That’s the last day Carol Larson, Barbara Walters and Dennis Adams will be in office.  Larson and Walters lost the election; Adams retired.

It was not clear whether that postponement was until the last meeting of the outgoing Board or the first meeting of the reconstituted Board after Molly Walsh, Chris Jenner and Tom Wilbeck are sworn in.

Then, it was on to public comment.

“Thank you very much for coming,” Board President Mary Miller said before the first person, Grafton Township Assessor-elect Al Zielinski spoke.

Al Zielinski urged the Board to act in a “business-like” manner.

Zielinski urged Board members to act in a more business-like manner.

Jane Collins asked the Board to “respect the results of the election.”

Philpott urged the Board to include that they were going to vote on a contract extension on the next agenda, if that were their intent.

Jane Collins, a fixture at MCC Board meetings, pointed out that if the “old Board” were to make the decision next week, “nothing has changed.”

She said that would be the same as saying, “We’re not going to respect the results of the election.”

“We don’t trust you to make informed decisions,” she continued.

Collins, it should be noted, was part of the group that put up signs supporting Molly Walsh, Chris Jenner and Tom Wilbeck.

Woodstock’s Molly Oakford said she “was here for the students.”

She urged the Board to show the “highest level of standards of excellence.”

Molly Oakford asks the Board to live up to “standards of excellence.”

Referring to what was on the agenda, she asserted, “The process is wrong.  The process does not [meet] standards of excellence…

“This meeting should never have been held.  It’s shameful.  It’s railroading.

“I want to see our Board conduct itself in a standard of excellence.”

Former Board member George Lowe urged members to allow the new Board to make the decision.

Former MCC Trustee George Lowe then weighed in.

“I think it behooves you to give them [the new trustees] a chance to vote on the contract.

“If not, it’s a gotcha!”

MCC Instructor James Gould said it wold be “anti-democratic” for the old Board to make the decision.

Philosophy and Ethics Instructor James Gould also expressed disapproval.  He thanked Larson for her 24 years of being a “faithful advocate for the employees” and urged Board members to think about the good reputation and image of the college.

He called the effort to act on extending Smith’s contract “anti-democratic and, in effect, subvert[ing] the will of the public.

“I ask that decision be made by the new Board.”

MCC Instructor Marla Garrison defended the Board.

The only person speaking in favor of the old Board extending Smith’s contract was Biology Instructor Marla Garrison.

She told of the “erosion of confidence” during “the four years of rapid turnover administration.”

“I don’t believe lame ducks.  This Board is an active Board and was elected by the community regardless of what happens next.

“For the past two years, I’ve felt energized…the status quo was no more.”

Chris Jenner said the Board had seven weeks to act on the contract extension.

New Board member Chris Jenner spoke next.

He pointed that he had talked to no Board members about Smith and that the Board had seven weeks to act on her contract.

“There seems to be ample time,” he said, asking the current Board to allow its successor to make the decision.

I spoke next, pointing out I was the only one in the room who had been at the meeting called to form the college.  (Cal Skinner, Sr., called the meeting and served on the first board.)

Steve Willson said the Board faced “a test of integrity.”

I asked the members who would not be on the next Board to think of the harm they would do to the college’s reputation and their own if they acted on the contract extension before leaving office.

I also requested that the reports be made available to the public prior to the meeting.

Steve Wilson, just out of cataract surgery read a statement to the Board:

“This is a test, a test of integrity.

“A week ago 70% of the people who went to the polls voted AGAINST the incumbents.

“If Liddell, Kisser and Miller vote for this contract, it shows they have no respect for the voters and no respect for their new colleagues.

“And if Vicky Smith accepts a contract voted by this lame duck board, over the objection of the new trustees, it will prove she also has no respect for the new board, no integrity, and that she is simply looking for a big golden parachute on her way out the door, grabbing for a half million dollars of taxpayers’ money.”

Ron Parrish and Rosemary Kurtz joined Molly Walsh at her Meet and Greet last month.

A press release from Citizen Advocates for Public Accountability:

“Since he endorsed two candidates in a race where there are three open seats, we asked current MCC Trustee Ron Parrish who he would endorse for the third. He emphatically responded, ‘Molly Walsh should have a seat at the table. I endorse her.’

“’As a former MCC employee. Molly will bring that experience, along with her sense of community and an environmental awareness that is lacking in the current board.’

“‘I think the combination of the three – Jenner, Wilbeck and Walsh, will be the beginning of a new focus at McHenry County College.’

“CAPA endorses Walsh, Wilbeck and Jenner for MCC Board of Trustees.”

Citizen Advocates for Public Accountability (CAPA)
capahere@gmail.com

A press release from the folks supporting Chris Jenner and Tom Wilbeck for McHenry County College Board:

Ron Parrish Endorses Tom Wilbeck and Chris Jenner for McHenry County College Board

Ron Parrish

Ron Parrish, who has been a McHenry County College trustee for three years, has endorsed Tom Wilbeck and Chris Jenner in the upcoming April 9 election.

It is very unusual for a sitting board member to endorse two newcomers when there are incumbents seeking re-election.

Parrish has often been the lone vote against the current expansion project and against higher taxes and tuition. Before joining the board, Parrish was a member of the MCC Foundation Board and co-founder of the district-wide Promise program that offered free tuition for all high school graduates living in the district.

Said Parrish, “It’s time for a change at McHenry County College. We need fresh thinking, people who are independent, people who put students ahead of new buildings. Tom Wilbeck and Chris Jenner display both independence and remarkable common sense.”

The current MCC board has taken several actions indicating it plans to issue over $42 million in property-tax backed bonds without a referendum to build a 30,000 square foot health club and to double the amount of classroom space they have.

Wilbeck has been in the finance business for more than 30 years. He’s a local business owner and a former Township trustee.

Jenner has served on the Cary School District board for eight years where he authored a policy forbidding the District from issuing any bonds without a referendum.

On Friday in the Northwest Herald, I found the following ad from Nunda Township Road Commissioner candidate Rob Parrish. Parrish is running against incumbent Don Kopsell, as is Mike Lesperance.

Rob Parrish’s ad in the Friday-before-the-election Northwest Herald.

A press release from the Nunda Township Republican Central Committee:

Nunda Republican Candidate Forum Video Now Online

About a third of the crowd at the Nunda Township Republican Central Committee’s Candidates’ Night.

On February 13, 2013 the Nunda Township Republican Central Committee held a Candidate Forum at American Community Bank in McHenry.

All of the candidates running for the Republican nomination in contested races were asked questions submitted online and by audience members. The Forum was moderated by the Executive Officers Mark Daniel, Mike Shorten, Mary McClellan and Scott Brown.

The Nunda Township Republicans are committed to providing their voters all of the information that they need to nominate the most qualified candidates. To that end the forum was recorded and is now being made available online for all voters to view.

To access the videos, voters in Nunda Township can go to nundagop.org and click on the link on the main page or by scrolling over the ’2013 Candidate Forum’ menu option.

The Nunda Township Republican Central Committee is the grassroots of the Republican Party in Nunda Township. Made up of 29 elected and appointed Precinct Committeemen the Nunda Republicans are dedicated to connecting with voters in their precincts throughout Nunda Township to ensure the successful elections of Republican candidates. If you would like more information about Nunda Township Republican Central Committee please visit our website nundagop.org.

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The link to the comments by Supervisor candidates Bridgett Provenzano and Lee Jennings are here.

The link to the comments by Highway Commissioner candidates Don Kopsell, Ron Parrish and “Iron Mike” Lesperance here.

The link to the comments by Township Clerk candidates Angela Koscavage and Susan Jennings are here.

When I heard McHenry College Board member Ron Parrish cite a letter from a constituent that was critical of the College’s hiring of Power Wellness to conduct a feasibility study of whether building a new health club would be a good idea, I immediately filed a Freedom of Information request for it.

It came with the name and address of the sender withheld.

Read it below and determine for yourself whether the criticisms are legitimate:

The letter critical of the Health Club cited at the last meeting of the McHenry County College Board

The correspondent questions “every single study commissioned by the current administration.”  He suggests that every study has been flawed, but “miraculously” supports the position of President Vicky Smith.

Also commented upon is the $42 million cost of the current proposal…before the feasibility study has been completed.

The writer, who seems to be from the Harvard area, wonders how much could be accomplished by putting $42 million into remodeling the old Harvard Motorola plant.

Steps outlined by Power Wellness in its first report to the McHenry County College Board.

The question of whether it is a conflict of interest for Power Wellness to be paid $50,000 to determine if a health club should be built at McHenry County College which Power Wellness might end up operating surfaced at Tuesday night’s Committee of the Whole meeting.

The impetus was a call from an unnamed Chicago Tribune reporter to Ron Parrish, the Board’s designated representative on a committee considering that idea, as well as two other related ones:

1. Health education
2. Clinical services center

Concerning how to finance the project, Parrish said, “Frankly, Vicki and I are on opposite ends of how we’re going to do it.”

Parrish did not enunciate his financing preference.

Parrish praised the two Northwest Herald articles the Sunday and Monday before last.

Sunday’s headline was “MCC claims need for expansion.”

He called the “report well balanced.”

Most of the information seems to have come from MCC President Vicki Smith, MCC Board President Mary Miller and Parish’s having visited the Northwest Herald at its offices.

A discussion followed about whether there was a conflict of interest existed in the hiring of Power Wellness to do a feasibility study.

“Are you comfortable with that?” Parrish asked.

“I’ve only found good reports about Power Wellness[but] they might be soliciting proposals which they might be [competing] against.

Cynthia Kisser asked if there were other potential partners which were as good.

“[If so,] at that pint we’d have to have some other resource to help us evaluate [the proposals].

“I think that’s a bridge we’ll have to cross.

Monday’s headline says, “MCC: No need to tap taxpayers.” This came just one day after a major Chicago Tribune expose featuring how 53% of the bonds from alternative revenue bond financing of a golf course in Lakewood were paid with higher property taxes. Those bonds were sold without a referendum. The sub-headline reads, “College says it won’t go to referendum for proposed expansion.”

“We’re not in a conflict yet. It’s more their conflict than ours.”

“Right now we haven’t hired a partner,” President Miller observed. “For now I don’t see any conflict.”

“I’m prepared to step forward and stop it,” Parrish said.

At that point there was a chorus of “Oh no’s.”

Chairing the Committee of the Whole meeting was Dennis Adams who observed, “Right now we’re all nodding up and down.”

Summing up the attitude of most members, Carol Larson said, “I don’t know [that] the board has a concern right now. I don’t think anyone’s having a problem.

And to Parrish, “I know you do.”

“I do,” Parrish affirmed.

He then talked about a letter from “a concerned citizen.”

“I’ve only seen negative comments.”

“Are the letters you get signed?” Larson asked.

Ron Parrish

Yes,” replied Parrish.

“I get comments [that are] positive, but I don’t have it in writing,” the Alden Township resident observed.

Addressing one complaint was Kisser.

“We are not seeking to become a four-year institution,” she said referring to “a well written letter.”

Then Parrish moved into the question of public perception.

“I believe public perception is just as important as reality.”

“What are we doing to correct the record?” Adams asked, referring to what I think was a letter to the NWH which contained what he characterized as “misinformation.”

“It’s in print,” he stated, perhaps inadvertently showing the power of letters to the editor read by “everybody in this county.”

He referred to a “public relations lie, wrong data, wrong class utilization data. What do we do about that?”

“Maybe Dr. Smith could address those in her column,” Miller suggested.

“Building a fitness center is so far from the truth. That’s not the truth and it not [just] a fitness center,” pointing out that it would be used to train people for jobs.

Centegra’s Crystal Lake HealthBridge.

And of the three additions being considered, Kisser said, “The fitne4ss center may not be there.”

Parrish observed that it was being explored because “there’s a funding mechanism.”

“It’s not like we’re going to be competing with HealthBridge,” Miller said.

Kisser mentioned physical therapy as a use for the fitness center.

In answer to the question of what the college was going to do to counter the bad publicity, Smith told the Trustees, “We do have a communications plan.”

She said, “They have FOIed [filed Freedom of Information request) and drawn their own conclusions [which] don’t have much relationship to what the data says.”

The 2012 Labor Report was referenced which shows health careers going up through 2015.

“What can we use besides the newspaper?” someone asked.

Parrish said, “Pushing forward a $42 million building–that, as I see it, is not on the table.

“We are looking to justify that.”

The new Vice President of Institutional Advancement Laura Brown gave some areas where she and her staff were “looking at what else we can do creatively.”

The internet was specifically referenced.

McHenry County College, Northeastern entrance.

Dateline April 17, 2012. Finance and Negotiations Committee, McHenry County College.

Trustees Dennis Adams, Ron Parrish, Carol Larson present, Barbara Walters absent.

President Vicky Smith and Chief Financial Officer Larry West.

The minutes tell of West explaining that “the College went out for a levy representing a 9.9% increase, but the actual levy, once figured by the County, came out to a modest levy increase of 1.97%.”

Of course, it was the Real Estate Tax Cap that saved McHenry County Taxpayers from the 10% tax hike approved by the College Board.

The Board Taxed to the Max, as most other governmental entities in McHenry County did.