McHenry County Blog

The Nunda Township Board met to accept Supervisor John Heisler’s resignation and appoint Trustee Jim Schlader Interim Supervisor. From left to right are Road Commissioner Don Kopsel, Trustees Joni Smith and Lee Jennings, Clerk Bridgett Provenzano, Trustees Tom Palmer and James Schlader and Assessor Dennis Jagla.

In a letter dated December 11th, Nunda Township Supervisor John Heisler submitted his resignation as of January 3, 2013.

The missive, addressed to Trustee James Schlader, read,

John Heisler

“Due to recent events and family responsibilities, I will be unable to complete my current term as the Nunda Township Supervisor.

“I hereby submit my resignation to you effective January 3, 2013.

“Further, I am withdrawing my petition for candidacy for the February 26, 2013 primary election.

“I will make myself available3 for the execution of official documents and transitional discussion through January 3, 2013.”

It is dated one day before a challenge to Heisler’s petition resulted in his being removed from the GOP primary ballot.

Following Schlader’s reading of the letter, the four Township Trustees voted unanimously to accept Heisler’s resignation.

Jim Schlader

“I know we have had our ups and downs…but I think John’s heart was really in it,” Schlader said.

One of the three remaining candidates for the Republican nomination for Township Assessor, Lee Jennings, moved that Schlader be appointed to Interim Supervisor.

Trustee Tom Palmer pointed out that Schlader was “a good choice” because he was “the senior Trustee.”

After a vote, Schlader said, “Seeing how it’s unanimous I do accept.”

Before the meeting Schlader had explained Thursday was the first day of his retirement after being at th3 same medical supply company for thirty-nine years.

Schlader explained that it was not necessary to make “a whole bunch of changes,” but there would be some. He solicited suggestions from the elected officials at the meeting.

“I will be here at the office tomorrow morning at 8 o’clock.

“I need everybody’s support and I thank everybody here for their support.”

A second candidate for the permanent position is Township Clerk Bridget Provenzano, who will swear Schlader in on Friday.

Kerry Leigh, an Oakwood Hills Trustee, is the third candidate for Supervisor.

McHenry County Democratic Party Chairman Mike Bissett informs me that Dorr Township nominated Phil Robertson has been nominate in the Dorr Township Democratic Party Caucus for Township Supervisor.

Robertson is “an attorney and also the county party’s counsel, Bissett informs me.

His McHenry County Bar Association listing says he practices in the following fields:

• Business/Tax
• Municipal Law/Government
• Elder Law
• Labor & Employment

His office is in Crystal Lake.

Robertson will face off against incumbent Republican Party Supervisor Robert Pierce in April.

Michael Walkup

McHenry County Board member-elect shares some more thoughts on township government:

WHAT TO DO TOWNSHIPS DO?

With the deadlines for filing for township offices approaching, this may be a good time to review what exactly it is that townships do and see if that can be done more efficiently in some other way.

I will break this up into installments for those who have short attention spans.

HISTORY OF TOWNSHIPS

My family came into what would become McHenry County in 1835. They traveled by wagon and horseback. For the rest of the 19th century that was pretty much the only way to travel.

Railroads came in in the 1850′s and you could go to the county seat by train, but only if you lived near a station on that line.

Otherwise it took you all day to get to the county seat and back from many parts of the county on your horse or buckboard. Farmers couldn’t afford to be away from the farm work for a full day.

You couldn’t send them an email either.

Enter township government. Townships were established shortly after the Civil War and enabled people to get to and from a seat of government in an hour or so. This was a boon to the local residents. One of my ancestors was township supervisor in the 1870′s.

PARTS OF TOWNSHIP GOVERNMENT

Township Government, like Gaul in Caesar’s day, is divided into three parts, Supervisor, Assessor and Road Commissioner. There is also a Board to oversee all of the parts. Everyone is elected, including the Board, and there is also an elected Clerk. They are all paid, along with their staffs. (Contrast this to a Park District where the Board is not paid anything).

SUPERVISOR

The Supervisor is like the CEO of the township. This was recently clarified by the litigation surrounding the attempt in Grafton Township to essentially replace the Supervisor with a Board appointed “administrator.” They weren’t allowed to do that.

The Supervisor has three main duties.

The first is to distribute what is called “interim public assistance.”

This has its origins in the days when we had no social safety net for people who had fallen on hard times. If Farmer Jones got run over by the team, Widow Jones would need help buying the seed for that year or hiring someone to help with the harvest, or she would become a drain on the local community. The Township Supervisor was therefore empowered to give her some
financial assistance out of the township coffers.

Today we have a myriad of other avenues for such assistance. To get state Public Aid, the individual has to drive to the county seat and apply in person at the state IDPA office. Numerous forms have to be filled out. Then the application is processed, but it takes about a month for the month for a check to be issued. In the meantime, the applicant is told to go to their local
township office to apply for interim assistance to tide them over.

They then drive to the township office, sit down and fill out more forms, and get a check right away. The time of an additional administrative staff person plus the Supervisor has to be expended on this process, not to mention the cost of the building they occupy. Why can’t this be done at the IDPA office while they are there using the same application forms they just completed?

Of course it could be done that way but that would eliminate the patronage jobs at the township, so the state workers are not allowed to do this.

There also aren’t a lot of these in McHenry County. Nunda Township typically processes about 2 cases per month. In Grafton it is about 18 per year.

Cemeteries

The second function of the Supervisor is to manage the township cemeteries.

Public cemeteries came into use after the Civil War so people didn’t have to keep burying their loved ones on their own properties. When I was a child playing on my grandfather’s farm, where I now live, I ran into a tombstone which said “M.J. Walkup” on it. These happened to be my initials. You can imagine how shocked I was. I later found out that this had belonged to Mary J. Walkup, who had died in the late 1800s and been buried on the farm. She had since been re-interred in the township cemetery in Ridgefield but the original tombstone stayed at the farm under a woodpile.

In the 20th century, private cemeteries began to spring up and the old township cemeteries were closed down. Today they are mainly historical relics where the occasional pauper is buried.

Check Writing

The third function of the Supervisor is to issue checks for the Road Commissioner, Assessor, their staffs, and the Supervisor’s staff, and otherwise balance the books of the township. Today this can be done by outside payroll services and accountants. This also assumes that there is a Road District and Township Assessor in the first place.

Meetings

Finally, the Supervisor prepares the agendas for the meetings of the Township Board and chairs those meetings. [However, as often seen in Grafton Township, the Board adopts its own agenda.]  Again, this assumes that there is a Township Board. If there is no township, there is no Board.

For this the Supervisor is paid a salary. The salary is usually set based on the overall population of the township. In Algonquin Township the Supervisor makes over $70,000 per year. However, the above duties do not necessarily increase along with the population. If you are in a relatively affluent area, there are not going to be that many new public assistance applications just because the population has grown. In fact, most new growth is going to be in the form of new housing whereas the poor tend to move into existing older housing.

The accounting functions do increase as the Assessor’s duties and staff will go up in direct proportion to population growth, but, again, there are outside services that can be used for this.

The ancient township cemeteries are usually landlocked and don’t grow with population increases.

Any other duties the Supervisor performs are newer functions that were made up to justify the position, and were not authorized originally by the Township Code.

The Supervisor’s job is really part time, even in a large township like Algonquin. The Algonquin Supervisor in the 80′s reportedly used to live in Florida five months out of the year. In those months he would fly back to McHenry County the weekend before the monthly meeting and catch up on the work. He would return phone calls on Monday, chair the meeting on Tuesday, and go back to Florida for the rest of the month on Wednesday. The rest of the year he just worked mornings. For that he was paid $35,000, a lot of money back then. He was also able to retire on a pension based on that salary. Not bad work if you can get it.

Next installment: Other township offices

The Republican Parties in all of the five largest townships in McHenry County seem to have decided or soon will decide to hold primary elections in February, rather than hold caucuses.

Those five are

• Algonquin
• Dorr
• Grafton
• McHenry
• Nunda

Paperwork apparently has to be filed first with a local township official, who is supposed to forward it to the McHenry County Clerk’s Office.

According to the County Clerk’s Office as of mid-Friday afternoon, none of the five has jumped through all of the loops yet.

Salaries have to be set prior to the election, before November 21st, according to Algonquin Supervisor Dianne Klemm.

The legislative intent for the law was so that those running would know what they would be paid, plus, if someone won a primary that the incumbents didn’t like, they couldn’t cut the salary.

Since the 1973 fiasco of a caucus conducted by the Algonquin Township Republican Central Committee, McHenry County largest township has allowed voters to decide who GOP candidates for township office shall be.

That was the year that first-term Assessor Forrest Hare was challenged by a young school teacher.

While the caucus looked like a three-precinct primary, after the 3 AM Crystal Lake Community High School Field House results showed the school teacher winning by a handful of votes and even the judges weren’t sure the count was correct, the Central Committee members would not allow a recount.

There was no way to legally force a recount, because the committeemen set the rules.

At that time losers could run as a write-in and Forrest Hare did.

And he won.

The local Republican Party really took a beating as every weekday it was taken to task by Crystal Lake WIVS Radio station owner Mal Ballairs on his morning talk show.

To avoid future similar problems, our State Senator Jack Schaffer and I passed legislation to allow township party organizations to select candidates by citizen votes.

When I brought up the idea at Monday night’s meeting in an Algonquin Township Road Commissioner’s building, only I and Lou Anne Majewski remember the 1973 fiasco.

Precinct Committeemen attending the Algonquin Township Republican Central Committee organization meeting on April 9, 2012.

I was immediately met with the objection of cost.

I couldn’t come up with a figure, but with the low turnout of 19% from both party primaries in March (plus non-partisan only votes on referendums) it’s pretty easy to predict that the turnout will be less when only township officials are on the ballot.

The result will be a high cost per vote, which could be lowered if McHenry County Clerk Kathie Schultz can combine precincts.

The projected expense was really the only argument.

But it was a long discussion.

I pointed out that Democrats could have a field day challenging Republican candidates who had been selected in a secret meeting.

Conversely, Republicans could make hay of any Democratic Party candidates who were not selected at the ballot box, but rather by party bosses.

With township government under attack, I argued, the potential negative publicity would not be helpful.

In the end, all of the Algonquin Township Republican Precinct Committeemen present voted to authorize a primary election next February in which candidates for Township Supervisor, Road Commissioner, Assessor, Clerk and Township Trustees would be selected.

An IRS finding handed down January 31st will surely be the talk of the next meeting of the Township Officials of Illinois.

Use of Grafton Township Road Commissioner Jack Freund's truck has been ruled taxable by IRS.

It says that heretofore fringe benefits, such as the Grafton Road Commissioner’s vehicle and the reimbursement for dinners at the McHenry County Council of Governments, are income for Federal tax purposes.

And, since the state tax code is built upon the national one, probably subject to state income tax as well.

The Internal Revenue Service writes that Grafton Township owes the Federal government $2,030.36 for 2010 for income, Social Security and Medicare taxes.

“Fringe Benefit Issues” is what the Internal Revenue Service investigator was looking at.

A topic subject to a tirade by Trustee Gerry McMahnon at one of the last meetings I attended was the taxability of reimbursements for dinners at the McCOG. [I have to tell you, except for the volume of his voice, he seemed to be making sense.]

But the IRS Specialist disagreed.

The “audit,” for lack of a better term, specifically addressed this topic:

“In 2010, the elected officials and trustees of the Township received a stipend varying from $26 to $40 per month to attend monthly dinners for the McHenry County Council of Governments. The Township does not require these members to attend these meetings. The total amount of stipends issued to all officials and trustees was $1,300 for the year. These stipends were provided under a non-accountable plan.”

If I am interpreting the documents correctly, the Trustees, in toto, will owe taxes on an additional $729 because of the McCog dinner reimbursements.

Road Commissioner Jack Freund had similar $200 of non-accountable reimbursements, Supervisor Linda Moore $253 and Clerk Harriot Ford $118.

Freund was also cited for $3,125.70 which he received for “medical reimbursements made to the elected official. However, there was insufficient substantiation provided to receive reimbursement. Thus, the payment falls under a non-accountable plan.”

Freund was further cited for getting reimbursement for his spouse’s travel expenses. This included $120.56 for a number of meals, plus “a $35 spouse fee for the conference.”

Township Road Commissioner Jack Freund’s Ford F250 pickup truck was the subject of the final finding.

Purchased on December 8, 2010, “for the Road Commissioner’s use. The vehical was inspected by the Specialist and the vehicle is not deemed to fall into the category of a Qualified Nonpersonal Use Vehicle.

“There was no adequate substantiation of business uses v personal use of the vehicle.

“Therefore, the automobile lease value for this vehicle is $7,250 (see tables in Publication 158). As it was used for 23 days in 2010, the calculation is as follows:

• Annual Lease Value = $7250
• Days of Use in 2010 + 23.365
• %7,250 X (23/365) = 456.85

Also targeted by the IRS were meals provided by Assessor Bill Ottley’s office when employees were not away overnight. Called “Day Meals” by IRS Examiner John Lauer, the reimbursements of those and non-overnight meals for Ottley and Moore totaling $369.28 have been deemed taxable.

Also mentioned are uniforms costing $480.01, but detail is not given regarding the employees affected. The report sys that “under an nonaccountable plan” are considered “wages and are treated as supplemental wages”…”reportable as wages on the employee’s Form W-2.”

“It as been determined by the FLSG Specialist that the taxpayer is wiling to correct all the above mentioned isues found during the examination,” one report concludes.

Implications for the 2011 tax year were not addressed in the report.

Linda Moore

“I was instructed to follow the precedent sent by the 2010 audit when amending the 2011 W-2′s,” Supervisor Moore said.

“All taxpayers know they that have to comply with IRS regulations.

“It’s important that township officials are IRS compliant, too, but I don’t look forward to delivering this bad news to my colleagues.”

It is not clear whether the elected officials will have to repay the township the cost of the fringe benefits targeted by IRS.

The State Constitution says that no elected official can earn no more or less than what was set before he or she was elected:

Illinois Constitution Article 7
Section 9 Salaries and Fees
(b)An increase or decrease in the salary of an elected officer of any unit of local government shall not take effect during the term for which that officer is elected.

Some of the documents can be found here.

Of course, township elections are not until 2013, but I know people are already discussing running for the offices.

Some have commented that some officials’ salaries are too high.

Odds are good that most will be raised for the next four years.

If a candidate thinks the salary for the office he or she is thinking of seeking is too high, one can always promise to refund all or part.

Current Avon Township Officials Sam Yingling, Tom Brust, Lisa Rusch, Chris Ditton, Randy Evangeledes and Mark Feldstein pose with oversized check of salaries being refunded.

If health insurance and/or pension payments are part of the compensation package, one can promise not to take them.

I learned from “Round Lake District 116” blog that Avon Township officials are giving back the pay raises presumably approved by the people whom they presumably defeated.

Not a bad campaign pitch in the middle of a deep recession.

Ancel Glink will soon get a big pay day.

Grafton Township Trustees went to court Monday seeking payment of $100 per diems for past meetings and tens of thousands of dollars of legal fees to their law firm.

Grafton Township Board

“She has to pay our fees.  Nothing else has been decided,” Ancel Glink attorney Thomas DiCianni said, summing up the day in court.

Under former Supervisor John Rossi, the Trustees had been being paid quarterly, but in May, according to Trustee Betty Zirk, the only one from that side of the case in court, the Board voted to be paid monthly because “a couple of trustees were having trouble.”

“The reason Ms. Moore is refusing to pay the bills, in my opinion, is she’s vindictive because she lost the appeal [of Judge Michael Caldwell's ruling that Moore could appoint the Township Attorney of her choice, which in this case was her litigation attorney John Nelson],” attorney Thomas DiCianni said.

Supervisor Linda Moore (who is also the Treasurer of the Township and Road District) cut the checks for all but one meeting prior to the court hearing, so that part of the motion was ruled “moot” or irrelevant.

The meeting in question was a committee meeting of the Senior Transportation Advisory Board for which state law prohibits payment.  Moore called a special board meeting for it in order to prevent the Board from violating the Open Meetings Act.

Asked if Grafton Township had the money to pay the almost $50,000, Moore, “Yes, (but) the effect of these legal bills over time is going to cause the township to limit expenses.

“The Trustees always have the option to go with more reasonable attorneys.”

After observing, “I don’t know under what authority she doesn’t pay bills approved (by the Township Board), DiCianni asked Judge Michael Caldwell to hold Moore in contempt of court and “sanction incarceration.”

“Take her away today and show her the game she is paying should end.”

“Procedurally, this case is now ready for (that),” Caldwell replied.

Moore attorney John Nelson said the hearing consisted of two elements:

Nelson asked if Moore were in a position to “debate” the Ancel Glink bills, whether they were “reasonable and proper.”

1. the payment of Trustees, which he argued had nothing to do with the state statutes cited in support of payment of the per diems and
2. “Mr. Dicianni’s attorney’s bills.”

Nelson objected that the motion filed “tends to pack both issues.”

Nelson noted that his bills had been subject to discussion.

“Even though my rate is higher, my bill is lower.”

Nelson observed that the Court could say, “this is a mess the Grafton Township officials have gotten themselves into and they have to pay the bills.”

DiCianni pointed out that some bills were from before Ancel Glink was dismissed as Grafton Township attorney.

There was discussion about Assessor Bill Ottley’s wanting to remodel his office.

Nelson said Moore had discussed it with him.

“The Assessor wants to do a project in excess of $20,000 and (is trying) to do it in a piecemeal basis, which is illegal,” Nelson said.

Before ruling that the Ancel Glink legal bills should be paid, Judge Caldwell said,

“I do not have any discretion to determine the propriety or reasonableness (of the bills).

“The payment of these bills is a ministerial act and should be done.”

The Court added that he didn’t have any standard with which to compel Moore to pay the Trustees’ per diems.

“If she wants to do so quarterly, she can do so,” he said.

There won’t be another court hearing until January 20, 2012. It will be a 1:30 in the afternoon.

The subject of hearing, DiCianni said, will be “what else has to be done to bring this case to a conclusion, other disputes coming up that were not covered by the original order.. I think he’s seeking concrete suggestions.”

Nelson wondered if DiCianni wanted a final court order, so he could it appeal parts of it to the Appellate Court.

McHenry County Blog has obtained a copy of the transcript of the May 4th court hearing in the separation of powers suit brought by Grafton Township Supervisor Linda Moore last spring after the Township Trustees tried to strip her of virtually all of her power by giving it to a newly-appointed Township Administrator.

The main result was Judge Michael Caldwell’s slapping down that effort, plus dismissing the Township Attorney that Moore tried to fire, Keri-Lyn Krafthefer, a partner an the law firm of Ancel Glink.

The township officials continue to disagree, which requires continuing intervention by Judge Caldwell.

In a moment of levity not captured on the transcript, Judge Caldwell ended the hearing by saying,

“And the beat goes on.”

Caldwell also tried the case instigated by allies of Moore and including Moore as a plaintiff before she took office as Township Supervisor which ruled that the former Township Board had failed to provide adequate notice when they approved construction of a new township hall. His ruling was upheld by the 2nd Appellate Court.

In the early May court hearing, which you can read here, Caldwell ruled that the Township Trustees must approve Moore’s selection for Township Attorney. That choice is the Rockford attorney John Nelson, who won her separation of powers case against the Trustees.

Needless to say, the Trustees do not want to do so and after the Judge’s ruling, their attorney Ancel Glink litigator Thomas DiCianni asked for a stay of the order so that he could appear what he said was a separation of powers question to the Appellate Court.

The final part of the transcript is reproduced below:

Judge Michael Caldwell

THE COURT: While I’m not unsympathetic to some of the arguments made by Mr. DiCianni, I think the separation of powers question is probably a little overly broad to be applied directly to this particular dispute, primarily because we’re dealing with a unit of
local government.

We are not dealing with the United States of America where the separation of powers between the legislative, judicial, and executive branches is far more important than it is here at the local level.

I am also sensitive to the fact that courts should not be and I believe are prohibited ordinarily from interfering with the exercise of legislative discretion. I don’t want to get involved in the idea
that I have to tell the township that they have to approve this road or this contract or anything else.

I did not run for circuit judge for the purpose of being the township supervisor or the — or a township trustee. I have no interest in running this — this unit of local government.

However, this is a case pending before me in a court of equity. I do have the power to enjoin what I consider to be the continuing violation of a statute.

I believe — I don’t know — This is personal for me. This is a personal remark. I probably shouldn’t make it, but I don’t really know why you would want this job.

But that having been said, I believe the failure or refusal of the trustees to approve Mr. Nelson as the township attorney is merely a pretext to continue their ongoing dispute with Linda Moore, the township supervisor.

It will therefore be my order that at the next regular meeting of the town board that the trustees reported McMahon, Murphy, and Zirk approve the appointment of John Nelson as the township attorney. The fact that he disagrees with them or they with him quite frankly is one of the qualifications for the job.

I don’t come to this dispute or the issue of being an attorney for a local government without considerable experience in this arena, having served as a municipal attorney for 30 years, 25 of those with the City of Woodstock. If I had a reputation for one thing (indiscernible) of those years, it was my ability to tell the aldermen or councilmen of the City of Woodstock or really for that matter any other unit of government I represented, things they didn’t want to hear in the first place.

So I don’t regard the ongoing dispute as being a conflict of interest that would bar Mr. Nelson from serving.

That will be my order.

I want the trustees mentioned by name in any draft order that you give.

Now, I also advise– Somebody is going to have to advise these people if they don’t follow it– They are free not to follow it, but that will activate contempt proceedings.

MR. DICIANNI: Well, I would — I suppose I will have to do this by written motion, but I will be moving to stay the order pending appeal.

THE COURT: It’s not ripe.

MR. DICIANNI: Well, I think it is. It’s an injunction, and injunctions can be appealed–

THE COURT: Okay.

Two Grafton Township Thursday meeting agendas arrived today.

The Trustees’ and the one developed by Township Supervisor Linda Moore.

Linda Moore

Present on Moore’s, but not on the Trustees’, is

“Action to approve $400,000 payment to Harris Bank (Bank of New York Mellon) on $700,000 road district loan with the Road Commissioner’s approval per the intergovernmental agreement.”

Moore’s agenda is never approved by the Trustees, of course, but sometimes items on it are added to the Trustees’ version.

Maybe Moore has talked the bank into accepting partial payment in a lump sum.

Last month Moore handed Township Road Commissioner Jack Freund a $200,000 check after the Township Trustees approved the re-payment.

No word on the agenda as to where the other $200,000 would come from.

“They approved $200,000 at the April meeting and they also approved $200,000 at the March meeting,” Moore told me when I asked the source of the other $200,000.