McHenry County Blog

Carolyn Schofield

At election night’s Crystal Lake City Council meeting, City Councilwoman Carolyn Schofield, elected last year, took the lead in getting a resolution on the agenda at tomorrow night’s meeting asking for recognition of the city’s Watershed Ordinance by county government.

You may remember that both Ellen Brady Mueller and Donna Kurtz made something of that issue during their campaigns for a District 2 slot on the fall county board ballot.

From a resident of the watershed’s perspective, it is so, so difficult to understand that the McHenry County Board has thus far not figured out how important protection of our lake’s watershed is to local residents.

You would think they might have figured that out when a citizen uprising killed the minor league baseball stadium at McHenry County College.

After all, half (that’s right, half) of the entire county board represents parts of Crystal Lake. With all residents of the Crystal Lake Park District having access to the lake, how can one explain why the board has not taken action already.

Ellen Brady Mueller

Donna Kurtz

My prediction is the resolution will pass without dissent Tuesday.

If that doesn’t convince the county board to follow the not-as-strict-as-it-could-be watershed protection ordinance, the next step, it would seem to me would be to invite those twelve county board members to a meeting of the city council.

Who are they?

District 2

• McHenry County Board Chairman Ken Koehler (R)
• McHenry County Board Vice Chairman Jim Heisler (R)
• Lyn Orphal (Lost the primary to Donna Kurtz) Both R’s.
• Former Lakewood Village President and Crystal Lake Park Board President Scott Breeden (R)

Crystal Lake Avenue is the dividing line between District 2 and District 3.

District 3

• Barbara Wheeler (R)
• Kathy Bergan Schmidt (D)
• Ed Dvorak (retiring) (R)
• Mary Donner (R)

District 5

• Tina Hill (R)
• Virginia Peschke (R)
• Jim Kennedy (D)
• Paula Yensen (D)

District 5 comes into the Crystal Lake area from the Northwest (Ridgefield) and the Southeast.

So, what’s the resolution ask for?

“That the Mayor and City Council request the Regional Planning Commission include the Crystal Lake watershed and its regulations in the list of watersheds that exist within McHenry County in the 2030 Comprehensive Plan document.”

The resolution points out that the lake’s watershed is 6.39 square miles of which 3.69 square miles are within the City of Crystal Lake.

“Hostile” would be fair in characterization of McHenry County Board member Pete Merkel’s reaction to the ALAW conflict of interest proposal, as reported by Kevin Craver of the Northwest Herald

Merkel, running unopposed in the Republican primary election, did not volunteer to reveal his property ownership outside of his home or other potential conflicts of interest.

No opponent. No political need to do so.

Nevertheless, his running mate Sandy Salgado was one of the 20 people running for the county board who did fill out the Alliance for Land, Agriculture and Water ethics questionnaire.

And, so did Jeff Thirtyacre, so far, the only Democratic Party challenger in the fall election.

Merkel ran first in the primary election.

Looking at the almost final primary election results, Merkel would seem to have no reelection problems.   The Democrat received 1,800 fewer votes than Merkel.

So, he would be the perfect person to lead the charge against ALAW.

The questionnaire was politically motivate, he charges.

No question about that.

It was designed to influence the February 2nd primary election.

Truth.

But, then Merkel charged that the conflict of interest form had nothing to do with “transparency and openness.”

He really should have come to the Patriots United County Board Candidates’ Forum and heard the tepid applause after incumbent Dan Ryan (R-Huntley) made known that he was not going to fill out the ALAW form.  Subsequently, Ryan blamed his loss on the questionnaire.

There he swerves from the truth and threatens to lead the Republican Party, as exemplified by its county board members, into an abyss.

No matter how insulated McHenry County’s Republican board members are from the public, even they, if they will just let their emotions subside, are capable of figuring out that Illinois voters are fed up with politics as usual.

Those who don’t think so aren’t paying attention.

Will it be the sea change that I noticed in 1969?

Before that date, the fact that Crystal Lake’s mayor worked for the biggest developer in town was no big deal.

Everybody had to work somewhere.

Then the Crystal Lake Jaycees, many of whom lived in Coventry, the development built by that developer, did a fire safety project. They discovered that in the back section of Coventry fire trucks could not get through if cars were parked on the streets.

Then, it became important where the mayor worked.

Tony Wujcik beat incumbent Mayor Lou Goosens handily in the 1971 election. (More about that change in ethical standards here.)

To mix metaphors, are we at a similar fault line now?

I think so.

McHenry County Board Chairman Ken Koehler was one of three re-nominated incumbents who has so far not completed the ALAW conflict of interest form.

Twenty of twenty-seven candidates for county board voluntarily completed ALAW’s questionnaire.

Of those who won nomination in the Republican Party, incumbents

• Anna May Miller,
• Ken Koehler,
• Pete Merkel, plus
• newcomer Robert Nowak

are a minority of 4 out of 12 GOP county board candidates on the ballot this fall who did not do so.

Democrat incumbent Jim Kennedy is the only Democrat who did not fill one out.

Maybe these four incumbents know something that the rest of the people (sans District 1 newcomer Robert Nowak) running for county board don’t know.

Eight of twelve people on the Republican Part ballot this fall have filled out the form are:

• Donna Kurtz
• Nick Provenzano
• Barb Wheeler
• Sandy Salgado
• Tina Hill
• John Jung
• Diane Evertsen
• Mary McCann

Among the Democrats, two-thirds answered ALAW’s questions:

• Jeff Thirtyacre
• Lori McConville

So did the only Green Party candidate:

• Frank Wedig

So, maybe those out of step with the times are those who have not yet sent in the questionnaire.

= = = = =

I’ll have some more comments a bit later.

Following the pattern established in District 2, the incumbent woman, in this case, Tina Hill, and a man seeking a return to the county board, John Jung, are beating out the challenger, Dave Frederick.

Hill and Jung teamed up in their campaign.

Here’s 23 of 39 precincts:

From looking at District 3 candidate Nick Provenzano’s fancy Pro-Life post card (see bottom of the liked article), one would think he was the only Pro-Life candidate running.

A post card from Barb Wheeler hopes to clear up any confusion.

But, he isn’t, as McHenry County Blog reported exactly a month ago.

To recap, the candidates endorsed by Illinois Citizens for Life follow

Sheriff – Zane Seipler

County Board

Irene Napier

• District 1 – Robert Nowak
• District 2 – Ken Koehler and Sandra DePaul
• District 3 – Nick Provenzano and Barb Wheeler
• District 4 – No endorsement
• District 5 – Dave Fredrick
• District 6 – No endorsement

Wheeler, like Provenzano is endorsed by local pro-life leader Irene Napier, who heads McHenry County Right to Life.

Personal PAC, probably the most radical and most effect pro-abortion political action committee in the country (they certainly beat me) endorsed

• District 2 – Donna Kurtz
• District 4 – Jeff Thirtyacre (only Democrat whose endorsement is reported on this page)
• District 5 – Tina Hill

Personal PAC actually has a McHenry County agenda, as you can read here.

This was not an investigatory story.  (Hurry.  It won’t be free long.)

Nothing about how the county was looking for a place not near a residential neighborhood…on cheap land…without brick walls and ended up near a residential neighborhood on one of the busiest highways in McHenry County with brick walls.

After Blake Hobson gave Ken Koehler the credit for the new facility, someone named “OakLeaf” wrote the following:

OakLeaf wrote on January 25, 2010 12:44 p.m.

“I think the county could have found a much less expensive place. This is from mchenrycountyblog The folks running for re-election (or, in the case of one seeking to return to the board) who voted to impose the cat tax in order to help pay for new animal control shelter on Route 14 in Crystal Lake follow:

• Ken Koehler, County Board Chairman, Crystal Lake, District 2
• John Jung of Woodstock, District 5
• Tina Hill of Woodstock, District 5
• Anna May Miller of Cary, District 1
• Sandra Salgado of McHenry, District 4
• Barbara Wheeler of Crystal Lake, District 3″

Keely Cat doesn't have to hide from the McHenry County Cat Tax Collector anymore.

It was a coincidence that I wrote a story about the votes on the McHenry County Republican Cat Tax the same day the NW Herald did a two-year retrospective.

And, the Herald didn’t point out the role its approval played in the defeat of Woodstock Republican County Board member Perry Moy by Lake in the Hills Democrat Jim Kennedy.

There are certainly different roles played by the NW Herald and McHenry County Blog.

And, only McHenry County Blog features the best know cat in McHenry County:

The one, the only

Keely Cat

“You should not even have come to the courthouse with these alleged claims.”

That’s how one lawyer familiar with Suzanne Ehardt’s discriminatory firing case against McHenry County and various appointed and elected officials characterized the decision. That decision can be found in full here.

Federal Court Judge Philip Reinhard, a former Winnebago County State’s Attorney, found in McHenry County’s favor, plus the following individuals

• Peter Austin, individually and in his official capacity as McHenry County administrator,
• Kenneth Koehler, individually and in his official capacity as McHenry County board chairman,
• John Jung, Jr., individually and in his official capacity as McHenry County vice-chairman,
• Tina Hill, individually and in her official capacity as McHenry County board member,
• Barbara Wheeler, individually and in her official capacity as McHenry County board member, and
• John Kelly, in his official capacity as McHenry County hearing officer.

McHenry County State’s Attorney Lou Bianchi’s assistants who won the case are Sarah B. Jansen, Don Leist and Christina Webb.

Ehardt claimed that the Employee Handbook gave her a property interest in her continued employment.

But the judge found,

“…’[n]othing in this manual establishes contractual rights or obligations.’ The ‘disclaimer’ section further states that both employer and employee have the ‘mutual right to terminate their employment relationship at any time for any reason-with or without cause’ Finally, the disclaimer provides that employees, unless otherwise provided in a written contract, are ‘at-will’ and ‘the employee relationship may be terminated at any time with or without cause.’”

Ehardt also asserted, according to the decision,

“that she had a property interest in her job created by a county ordinance which provides, in pertinent part, that a department head such as plaintiff may not be dismissed unless the liaison committee approves and that any such dismissal must be pursuant to the procedures in the employee handbook.”

But the judge found,

“the ordinance relied on by plaintiff contains no substantive limitations on terminating an employee. The language relied on by plaintiff is merely a matter of procedure.”

Ehardt claimed, again according to the decision,

“a violation of a constitutionally protected liberty interest where the state actor is the employer, a plaintiff would have to show that the defendant called into question her good name, reputation, honor or integrity in a way that makes it virtually impossible for the employee to find new employment in her chosen field.’

But the judge concluded,

“plaintiff’s barebones allegations are insufficient to plead a claim for a denial of a liberty interest. Herreference to “disparaging remarks,” along with the allegation that she has been “ unable to obtain a [similar] position,”are conclusory and too sketchy to provide defendant with adequate notice of her claim.”

An individual claim against John Kelly, in his official capacity as McHenry County hearing officer was filed. The judge characterized it as a claim about “a denial of due process based on the previously alleged property interest in continued employment combined with an alleged ’sham’ post-deprivation hearing conducted by Kelly.”

Ehardt claimed denial of equal protection under the law.

Judge Reinhart did not agree because

“…plaintiff does not set forth allegations sufficient to state a claim for a violation of equal protection. She merely alleges that other department heads ’similarly situated’ were ‘alleged’ to have engaged in rude and unprofessional behavior but were not terminated. She does not provide specific factual allegations that touch on the elements of discriminatory effect and intent as required…”

A number of counts in the suit were “based on the allegations that plaintiff had an enforceable employment contract with the County,” the Judge wrote.

“In this case, plaintiff’s claim fails as there is no enforceable employment contract based on the allegations and the materials attached to the complaint,” he concluded.

The next claim the Judge explains is this:

“plaintiff alleges a tortious interference with a business relationship. According to the allegations, plaintiff had a business relationship with the County as an employee and these defendants were aware of, and interfered with, that relationship by causing her to be terminated in violation of the ordinance.”

He disagrees, saying,

“…plaintiff’s claim fails as she has not alleged any third-party interference. Alleging interference by various county board members, who act on behalf of the County, is insufficient. Further, plaintiff has not alleged a prospective business relationship that was prevented from coming to fruition, nor does she have a reasonable expectation of continued employment in light of her at-will employment status.”

Keely Cat takes a dim view of those county board members who wanted to send out the McHenry County Republican Cat Tax Collector. (He also takes a dim view of people who wake him up to take his picture to illustrate a story like this.) Catkins still can't understand why they thought he couldn't take care of any rabid bat that might penetrate the Skinner household. The bugs he has hunted are no longer around and, if he could get out of the sun porch, he knows that chiprats would be no problem.

Now that the primary election is but a week away, I’m going to give you a chance to read my article on the McHenry County Board’s 2007 defeat of the Republican Cat Tax.

The folks running for re-election (or, in the case of one seeking to return to the board) who voted to impose the cat tax in order to help pay for new animal control shelter on Route 14 in Crystal Lake follow:

• Ken Koehler, County Board Chairman, Crystal Lake, District 2
• John Jung of Woodstock, District 5
• Tina Hill of Woodstock, District 5
• Anna May Miller of Cary, District 1
• Sandra Salgado of McHenry, District 4
• Barbara Wheeler of Crystal Lake, District 3

The original February 21, 2007, article follows. For some reason Google has removed the original photographs, even though I paid extra to keep the up.

11 Republicans, 1 Democrat Kill McHenry County Republican Cat Tax

If you ever think that your voice can’t make a difference in local government, think again!

Both opponents and proponents of the Republican Cat Tax mentioned they had been lobbied by their constituents.

And some of them used language (“Cat Tax Collector”) that made me know that McHenry County Blog readers had been spreading the word.

The McHenry County Board, stacked 23-1 in favor of the Republican Party, defeated the cat tax backed by County Chairman Ken Koehler (he called it a “fee”) and nine other GOP county board members.

The motion to eliminate the cat tax from the revision of the animal control ordinance passed 12-10 on a motion by Lyn Orphal, seconded by Mary Lou Zierer. Perhaps Republicans have been this split on a board vote before. I don’t follow it closely enough to know. It must be a rarity, however, for a county board chairman not to get his way.

The 11 Republicans voting to kill the Republican Cat Tax follow. (Those in bold face type are on the ballot.)

• Yvonne Barnes of Cary, a newcomer
• Sue Draffkorn of Wonder Lake
• Randy Donley of Union
• Ed Dvorak of Crystal Lake
• John Hammerand of Wonder Lake
• Mary McCann of Woodstock, just elected
• Lyn Orphal of Crystal Lake
• Nick Provenzano of McHenry
• Daniel Ryan of Huntley, just elected
• Dan Shea of Fox River Grove
• Mary Lou Zierer of Marengo

Newly elected Democratic Party member Jim Kennedy of Lake in the Hills joined this majority of voting Republicans (two were absent) to kill the cat tax.

Get down, Catkins. I’m writing a story.

Don’t worry, you’re safe now from the McHenry County Republican Cat Tax Collectors.

Relax.

I’ll scratch your chest and neck later.

Those voting in favor of the Cat Tax ordinance, which would require rabies inoculation, plus the fee (which even a supporter slipped and called a “cat tax”), couched their arguments primarily toward being fair to both dog and cat owners, plus getting ahead of the spread of cat rabies, which is in Pennsylvania.

Those voting in favor of imposing the Cat Tax Hike were all Republicans. Their names follow (those on the ballot shown in bold face type):

• Ken Koehler, County Board Chairman, Crystal Lake
• Marie Chmiel of Crystal Lake
• Mary Donner of Crystal Lake, just elected
• John Heisler of Crystal Lake
• Tina Hill of Woodstock
• John Jung of Woodstock
• Anna May Miller of Cary
• Virginia Peschke of Woodstock
• Sandra Salgado of McHenry
• Barbara Wheeler of Crystal Lake

= = = = =
Here, minus Chairman Ken Koehler, are those who attended the Cat Tax County Board meeting. (Click to enlarge.)

Koehler is pictured in profile on top, while Lyn Orphal, the Crystal Laker who made the motion to kill the McHenry County Republican Cat Tax is just below.

Keely cat is shown relaxing after the death of the McHenry County Republican Cat Tax Collector ordinance.

Remember hearing about how forest fires sometimes jump fire breaks that are intended to contain them.

That may have happened late last week with the Alliance for Land, Agriculture and Water’s conflict of interest ordinance.

Originally presented to the McHenry County Board in December, the draft ordinance was shipped off to the State’s Attorney’s Office for review.

The review came back with some good points, along with some trivial ones.

And the number of county board candidates voluntarily filing the form kept increasing. Here’s who have filed so far:

• District 1 – None
• District 2 – All but Ken Koehler, that is, Sandra DePaul, Donna Kurtz, Ellen Brady Mueller and Lyn Orphal
• District 3 – Everyone of them! Veronica Armstrong, Nick Provenzano, Craig Steagall, Barbara Wheeler and Karen Tynis
• District 4 – Sandra Salgado and Jeff Thirtyacre (Democrat)
• District 5 – Tina Hill, John Jung and Frank Wedig (Green).  Incumbent Jim Kennedy and challenger Dave Frederick have not yet filed the form.
• District 6 – All but incumbent Dan Ryan, that is, Richard Draper, Diane Evertsen, Mary McCann and Vic Narusis.

Since there is no deadline, candidates or public officials can still download the conflict of interest form, fill it out and send it in.

Indeed ALAW did not even ask candidates to fill out the ethics form; it did have a questionnaire on issued of interest, however, the results of which can be found here for the twelve county board candidates who completed it.

As you can see more candidates filled out the ethics statement than filled out the issue questionnaire.

Along the way, every candidate for sheriff has answered the conflict of interest questionnaire.

And, two incumbent county board members not up for election have completed it. One, Republican Virginia Peschke, the other, Democrat Paula Yensen.

Crystal Lake Councilwoman Carolyn Schofield

Late last week, however, the first municipal official sent in answers.

She is Crystal Lake City Councilwoman Carolyn Schofield.

What’s that all about?

She just got elected.

Does this portend an issue in the Crystal Lake city elections next spring?

Will Schofield introduce an ordinance to make completing the conflict of interest form a requirement for elected and appointed city officials, as well as city consultants?

Unlike the County of McHenry, the City of Crystal Lake is a Home Rule unit of government.

What’s that mean?

It means the Crystal Lake City Council and other Home Rule cities have more power than county government.

The standard explanation of what a Home Rule government can do is anything the General Assembly doesn’t say it can’t do.

If Schofield, the newest member of the city council, follows decides to make a variation of the ALAW ordinance mandatory in Crystal Lake, the debate could turn quite interesting.

Since city Councilwoman Ellen Brady Mueller is running for county board in District 2, she might get elected. She certainly is in the top three in the sign war.

If elected, I imagine she would resign from the council. If so, a replacement would have to be selected.

Might the council require applicants for the possible vacancy to answer the conflict of interest questions first?

Whether or not the city council passed such a requirement, any council member could let it be known that he or she would not support a candidate who did not fill out the form.

Yes, ALAW has started something that could get very, very interesting.

Looking for something else, I found a summary of the Daily Herald’s endorsements in McHenry County’s Republican primary.

All the incumbents were endorsed. When the paper couldn’t find enough incumbents running, it endorsed incumbent Republicans who were defeated by Democrats two years ago.

It appears the Daily Herald doesn’t think there is reason for any voter unrest in McHenry County.

But it does remind me of Dan Walker political operative and Department of Transportation Rest Stop Inspector Gary Fears.  In 1976, my intern Art Sternberg, then a Lakewood resident, now a Chicago lawyer, examined Fears’ time cards to make sure he didn’t take more time off for politics than he had coming in vacation and personal days off.

And off the public payroll came Fears.

At the time Springfield Republican Bill Cellini’s group got money to build a new Downtown hotel next to the new convention denter, Fears got money to build a Holiday Inn in Collinsville, my failing memory tells me.

At one point Walker ally State Rep. Hal Byers said that Fears wanted to know why I disliked him so much.  Since I had never met Fears, I had and have no animosity toward him.  I just thought if Dan Walker were going to have political operatives they should be on his political payroll, not my constituents’.

I don’t know whether it was then or later, that someone, maybe Byers, told me that Fears was a member of “the Incumbent Party.”  He supported whoever was in power.

Maybe the Daily Herald is a member of the Incumbent Party, too.

When I heard of the $1,000 a year that McHenry County Board members can use to get reimbursement for county board-related expenses, it perked my interest.

Would goodies be found as they are with the Chicago Aldermen’s much larger expense accounts?

Here’s what I received when I filed a Freedom of Information request for Fiscal Year 2009, which ended November 30th. As you can see, it’s pretty obvious that the spreadsheet provided contains some reimbursements beyond the $1,000.

In fact, I learned it contains all of the expense rreimbursements to county board members, except mileage for driving to and from meetings.

What seems most significant is the large number of county board members that took no reimbursements.

McHENRY COUNTY BOARD EXPENSE REIMBURSEMENTS – FY 2009

Randy Donley

• $188.10 for 342 mile trip for 3-30-9 Rural Community Economic Development Conference
• $94.33 for hotel/food for Rural Comm Econ Dev Conf

John Hammerand

• $38, McCog (McHenry County Council of Governments) Dinner September 23

Tina Hill

Tina Hill

• $742.19 2009 National Association of Counties Conference 3-7 thru 3-10
• $28.05 Comcast broadband meeting 2/26/09
• $161.28 Rural Economic Development Seminar
• $841.12 NACO 3/7-3/10  Wash DC
• $32 March McCog Mtg 3
• $35 McCog May 27, 2009
• $34 McCog June 26th dinner
• $30 McCog Meeting July 2009
• $125 EDC Dinner Sept 17
• $38 McCog Dinner Crystal Lake 9/23/09
• $31 October McCog Dinner Mtg
• $32 November 18 McCog meeting

Ken Koehler

• 

  Ken Koehler

  $436.80 Wash DC Mtg w/Lobbyist

• $193 Paratransit/Fed Lobby/Strat Plan Dec 2008
• $76.50 Springfield Meetings Jan 2009
• $57.20 K.Koehler
• $255 DCA Lobbyist 3/2-4,2009
• $37 transportation mtg 2/17/09
• $38 EDC 2/19/09
• $12 CMAP 3/24/09
• $71 Amtrak/Rockford 3/25/2009
• $43 Integrated Justice Mtg Luncheon
• $45.25 Lakewood Issues Luncheon
• $43 Transit Grant Program Luncheon
• $129 PACE Pilot Project
• $28 Randall Rd., City CL Mtg
• $53 CMAP2030 Chicago
• $34 Public Safety Bldg Mtg
• $50 MCEDC Issues
• $26 RWSP, Chicago Water Issues
• $24 Valley Hi Issues Koehler, Dvorak
• $44 ISSSoftware Issues Koehler, Austin, Wallis
• $47.25 MCEDC Issues Koehler, Austin, MCEDC reps
• $84 Valley Hi long range Koehler, Austin, Revere reps
• $27.50 2030 plan w/Eldridge
• $47.25 Meeting w/Lobbyist – Ferguson
• $12 RTA – cab fare

Lyn Orphal

• $34 June 24th McCog Dinner

Ersel Schuster

• $173.28 Rural Community Econ. Dev. 03/04-03/05
• $64 McCog June and July reimbursement

Barb Wheeler

• $91.71 Housing Forum refreshments

Paula Yensen
$30 McCog reimbursement
$30 Feb McCog reimbursement
$34 McCog Dinner 6/24/09 3
$30 McCog July 2009
$20 MCCD Class-Creating Thriving Communities