McHenry County Blog

As I reported eight days ago, Algonquin Township Road Commissioner Bob Miller, unopposed for re-election, was trying to take control of the Algonquin Township Board.  Maybe I should say “keep control.”

He contributed $1,000 to Marc Munaretto in his campaign to unseat Supervisor Dianne Klemm. While Munaretto ran a superior campaign, Klemm’s superior name identification led her to a convincing victory.

For Township Trustee, Miller contributed another $1,000 to Lowell Cutsforth’s campaign.

Shortly thereafter, signs started popping up promoting a slate of four candidates for Township Trustee:

• Dan Shea
• Lowell Cutsforth
• Neils Kruse
• Bill Bligh

On the other side were three candidates:

• appointed incumbent Russ Cardelli
• Larry Emery
• Melissa Sanchez

As you can see below, those three bested all of Miller’s Trustee candidates.  The fourth winner, who came in second, was incumbent Shea, a former Fox River Grove Village President and McHenry County Board member.

Now, as evidenced by the salary increases approved by Trustees Shea, Cutsforth and Linda Lance, who ran for Clerk against Chuck Lutzow and lost, allies of Miller control the Algonquin Township Board.

After the newly-nominated, but certain-to-be elected, township officials are sworn in, four of five Board members will carry the memory that Miller tried to defeat them.

While the Township Road District is run by Miller with little oversight from the Board, there may be some.

Four of seven candidates will be nominated in the Algonquin Township Republican primary election on Tuesday.

Since the deadline for the Democratic Party to nominate candidates by caucus passed December 4, 2012, whoever wins the GOP primary in Algonquin Township will run unopposed in the April general election.

In other words, any Algonquin Township Democrats reading this story is forewarned that if they don’t vote in the Republican primary election Tuesday, they won’t have any say in who gets to tax them.

When I was going door-to-door in two Algonquin Township precincts, I was talking about the salary increases that three Trustees voted for.

Who are those Trustees?

• Lowell Cutsforth
• Linda Lance
• Dan Shea

Cutsforth and Shea are running for re-election.

They are on the slate of Township Road Commissioner Bob Miller.

Lance is running for Township Clerk against Chuck Lutzow.

In this time of layoffs and salary freezes in the private sector, sympathy for the salary hikers did not manifest itself.

The three running against raising township salaries (in various permutations) four years from now are

• Larry Emery
• Melissa Sanchex
• Russ Cardelli

In fact, Cardelli led the fight against salary hikes for the upcoming term, but lost the vote 3-2. The only person voting with him was Supervisor Dianne Klemm.

As I said in my letter, “Vote as you please, but please vote.”

Look what I found distributed by the Crystal Lake Tea Party:

REMINDER OF TOWNSHIP ELECTIONS ON TUESDAY. THIS IS THE CLOSEST GOVERNMENT REPRESENTATION WE HAVE. BE SURE TO VOTE!

For what it is worth here are my personal recommendations for Nunda Township (of which I am a resident)

• Road Commissioner: Rob Parrish
• Supervisor: Bridgett Provenzano
• Clerk: Angela Koscavage

Township Polling places:
http://mchenry-il.connect.clarityelections.com/ElectionPollingPlaces.aspx

Letter from Irene Napier in support of Pro-life candidates in Algonquin Township:

Dear Pro-Life Supporter,

I was going to sit this election out, but two Pro-Lifers running for Algonquin Township Trustee are being slandered.

One is Melissa Sanchez, a 22-year old recent college grad (who has a job already!). Melissa, from Lake in the Hills, took a bus to the Pro-Life Washington demonstration three years ago and ended up meeting the young man she is going to marry. She is running with Larry Emery of Crystal Lake.

The key issue is pay raises voted for by three incumbent Trustees—Dan Shea and Lowell Cutsforth, plus Linda Lance, running for Township Clerk.

Both Melissa and Larry are being accused of voting to raise their own salaries.

The absurdity of the falsehood being spread is obvious when you think about it.

How could two candidates who are not in office have voted to raise their own salaries?

Such a “Big Lie” approach has been used successfully in politics before.

Shame on us if we let it work next Tuesday, when the Republican primary election is held.

What kind of a world do we live in when supporters of politicians spread outright lies about a recent retiree and a young woman inspired to try to improve things by entering public service?

Shouldn’t we be encouraging people like her and her friend Larry Emery, another Pro-Lifer, to stay involved in a political process that most of us would rather ignore because it is so often so dirty?

To summarize, there are three people on the ballot who voted to raise township salaries:

•         Dan Shea running for Trustee
•         Lowell Cutsforth running for Trustee
•         Linda Lance running for Clerk

There is one candidate, a current Trustee, running for re-election who led the fight to cut salaries

•         a Pro-Lifer named Russ Cardelli.

And there are the two candidates opposed to higher salaries who are being lied about

•         Melissa Sanchez
•         Larry Emery

Finally, a well-known Pro-Lifer named

•         Chuck Lutzow

is running for Township Clerk against a woman who voted to raise salaries.

Vote as you please, but please vote.

Irene Napier

That’s the question candidates face if they are doing well.

The latest lie to reach my ears came from Fox River Grove.

A citizen was told that Larry Emery and Melissa Sanchez had voted to raise their own salaries on the Algonquin Township Board.

That’s pretty funny because neither serve on the Algonquin Township Board.

Indeed both are candidates for Township Trustee.

And, perhaps not coincidentally, they are running against two incumbent Township Board members who did vote to raise salaries for Algonquin Township officials.

Those two are Dan Shea and Lowell Cutsforth.

A third incumbent, appointed to the position, Russ Cardelli, led the fight against raising Algonquin Township salaries.

So, what’s it all mean?

I think it means that supporters of the two incumbents who voted to raise salaries are worried they might lose.

In any event, it has not been my experience that one can’t sell a lie in a campaign.

Coincidentally, a mailing arrived today from the slate of Trustee candidates that include Shea and Cutsforth.  You can see it below:

Fox River Grove Republican Precinct Committeeman Andrew Gasser has published his Algonquin Township GOP primary election recommendations, which he has given me permission to share.

Here they are:

Consolidated Primary Endorsements – 2013

“All politics are local.” – Tip O’Neill, 1982

We have an election coming up in a week.

Many of my friends and neighbors in the 4th precinct are not sure who to vote for so I wanted to put together a small voter guide for the people that I am supporting in the Consolidated Primary to be held on February 26th, 2013.

As many of you know – I am a reformer. I am an articulate conservative who believes in the core values of

• fiscal responsibility
• limited government
• free market principles

These are the things that America great. These are the principles that are so definitively dictated in our constitution.

The candidates listed below will do just that for us here locally.

The is how we begin to rebuild the Republican Party in the belly of the beast, or in the lion’s den. I have attached a PDF you can download here to print out and share with your friends and neighbors. Lets turn out the vote.

Chuck Lutzow is running to be your Township Clerk.

Chuck owns a small business in Crystal Lake and has lived in the local area for over 20 years. He is an active committeeman in the local party.

He does not want to raise taxes or government wages, however his opponent voted to raise her salary and the tax levy.

We simply can’t afford NOT to have Chuck representing us.

Russ Cardelli was appointed to be a trustee last year and is now running for election, not re-election.

He has raised his family here in Algonquin.

He has made a name for himself asking good, difficult questions at township board meetings.

I want you all to know Russ was the only trustee who voted NO to the elected official salary hike.

We need to send him back to the township as a trustee so he can continue to work to bring down the cost of government, not raise it.

Larry Emery is a retired business analyst who lives in Crystal Lake.

He is an active precinct committeeman who worked several campaigns as well as an election judge. He is running to be one of our four trustees in the township.

Larry has already attended several township board meetings and even has pointed out mistakes to the sitting board members.

His excellent “attention to detail” is desperately needed.

Melissa Sanchez of Lake in the Hills is another active precinct committeeman running for trustee.

Even as she finishes up her double major in Political Science and Legal Studies, she has still found the time to work locally with the local party.

Like Larry, she has vowed to follow Russ’ lead and vote NO to raise salaries.

Melissa will be a great addition to the board and serve us all well.

I know many of you are disgruntled, angry, and somewhat detached from politics after November; especially nationally. However, all politics start locally.

Let’s work to build a stronger, more vibrant local Republican party that increases its influence.

Early voting is going on now so please vote today at the township hall!

The long-rumored slate of

• Dan Shea
• Lowell Cutsforth
• Neils Kruse
• Bill Bligh

popped up on some lawns recently.

Shea and Cutsforth are currently on the Algonquin Township Board.

Both voted to raise township salaries and, with the help of a third Trustee, Linda Lance, carried the day.  (Lance is now running for Township Clerk against Chuck Lutzow.)

Township Supervisor Dianne Klemm and appointed Trustee Russ Cardelli voted against the higher salaries.

There are seven people running for the four Township Trustee slots.  The others are

• Larry Emery
• Melissa Sanchez
• Russ Cardelli

Only Township Assessor Bob Kunz and Road Commissioner Bob Miller managed to avoid a challenge in the late February Republican Party Primary Election.

Township Supervisor Dianne Klemm is being challenged by Township Clerk Marc Munaretto.

Two are running for the Clerk

• current Trustee Linda Lantz and
• former Trustee Chuck Lutzow

For Trustee there are seven candidates.

Three are currently Trustees:

• Dan Shea of Fox River Grove
• Lowell Cutsforth of Fox River Grove
• Russ Cardell1 of Algonquin

Four are not:

• Neils Kruse of Cary
• Melissa Sanchez of Lake in the Hills
• Larry Emmery of Crystal Lake
• Bill Bligh of Crystal Lake

Of the Trustee candidates, Shea, Cutsforth, Kurse, Sanchez and Emery are Republican Precinct Committeemen.

Bligh applied to be Associate Judge in 2011.

Last month, led by Trustee Dan Shea, the Algonquin Township Board voted 4-1 to freeze salaries for the first two years of the term starting next May and allowing a 2% per year increase for the last two years.

Wednesday night an effort was made to freeze them for the entire four-year term, but it was defeated on a 3-2 vote.

The two votes for a four-year freeze were Supervisor Dianne Klemm and newly-appointed Trustee Russ Cardelli.

Klemm switched her vote from a month ago.

Trustees supporting last decision were

• Lowell Cutsforth
• Linda Lance
• Dan Shea

Salaries for Supervisor will be $66,655.40 for the first two years and rise to $69,348.28 in the final year, plus $1,000 for being the Road District Treasurer.

The Road Commissioner will receive $93,317.56 to start, rising to $97,087.59 in 2016.

The Assessor will be paid $84,430.18 to start, going up to $87,841.16 in the last year of the term.

Township Clerk will continuing receiving $17,774.78 for the first two years, rising to $18,492.88 in the fourth year.

The Board voted to accept the audit without substantive questions, which it was decided would be asked at the next meeting, if there were any.

in the public comment period at the beginning of 35-minute meeting, audience member Larry Emory pointed out what appeared to be a clip and paste mistake in the audit.

McHenry County Board member Donna Kurtz, seeking re-election for the first time after running first in her initial attempt in 2010, held a fund raiser Wednesday at Park Place, the old American Legion Home in Crystal Lake.
Some people got into the baseball theme.

Early in the event, which started at 5:30, State Rep. and McHenry County Republican Party Chairman stopped by and dropped off a check, Kurtz said while introducing elected officials and candidates in attendance.

McHenry County Sheriff Keith Nygren and his allies seemed to gather in one main floor room, while Lou Bianchi and his friends were in the other.

Nygren’s choice to succeed himself in 2014, Andy Zinke, was nowhere to be seen, but both opponents Bill Prim and Jim Harrison were meeting and greeting folks.

There was some cross-pollination with Zane and Rose Seipler and Eileen Marhoefer sitting in a corner booth within site of the Nygren table.

Dr. Anne Majewski chatted with McHenry County Sheriff’s candidate Bill Prim before the speeches began.

In introducing the event’s keynote speaker, McHenry County State’s Attorney Lou Bianchi, Kurtz told of Bianchi’s going “with his gut as to what was right to change the way things are done.

“When he did that, down upon him came a brick wall,” she continued, referring to the two indictments by Special Prosecutors that were so weak that Bianchi’s attorney did not even have to put on any evidence before the Judge found him not guilty.

“But he stuck to his dreams,” Kurtz concluded as Bianchi climbed the stairs to a roomful of applause.

Bianchi pointed out that “Donna is our client” as a member of the McHenry County Board, as are all elected officials.

“Our lawyers enjoy working with her,” he continued.

“She does a fine job representing her constituents [and is] one of the hardest working members on the board.”

Bianchi said Kurtz tries to understand all the issues before voting on resolution.

And she “speaks her mind.”

Kurtz was also praised for asking questions that need to be asked.

She was characterized as “an independent thinker.”

Kurtz then took the microphone.

She praised Cardelli for his “courage” in voting against the Algonquin Township officials pay raise.

She praise Jane and Bill Franz for giving of themselves to Crystal Lake for over 40 years.

She praised Pat Owens and The Advantage Group, often known by its acronym TAG.  They have done substance abuse for twenty-five year Kurtz pointed out.

“Over 1,000 people treated each year…25,000 lives changed for the better,” the County Board member explained.

Speaking of her public service, Kurtz said that you “have to have in our heart goodness and honesty.

“Everything I do has to be about you.

“It can’t be about me.

“Pursue our dreams and they will come true,” she concluded to rousing applause.

Algonquin Township’s top elected officials decided to ask for 2% raises each year for the next four years.

The salaries would have looked like the following, had the proposal passed:

While advanced by Township Trustee Dan Shea, fellow Fox River Grove Township Trustee Lowell Cutsforth amended the motion to freeze the salaries for two years, followed by two years of 2% increases.

That motion ended up passing 4-1.

The newest member of the Board, Russell Cardelli, wanted to freeze the salaries for the entire four years, as McHenry Township proposes.

His was the only “No” vote on the amended salary resolution.