KnowExtremist, a commenter, adds this bit of history of Jack Franks’ usurping County Board members’ authority: Additionally, the former Management Services committee, which was traditionally charged with Rules rewrites at the beginning of each new two year Board term, was … Continue reading
Category Archives: Peter Austin
Some of those elected to the Winnebago County Board want to take some power away from the Republican County Board Chairman, elected at-large just like in McHenry County. In an article in today’s Rockford Register-Star entitled, “No consensus on Winnebago … Continue reading
An editorial in the Chicago Tribune uses a study by former Alderman Dick Simposon (now a professor at the University of Illinois-Chicago campus), Marco Rosaire Rossi and Thomas Gradel to comment on the “pliable” Chicago Aldermen. Instead of being a … Continue reading
The patronage employees that Jack Franks hired without County Board authorization around Christmas last year did not received a reprieve in the Internal Services Committee yesterday. After Franks prevailed upon County Administrator Peter Austin to exceed the hiring authority granted … Continue reading
Commenter Mark has taken the time to prepare a transcript of that part of the Wednesday, August 23, 2017, discussion in the McHenry County Board meeting between Edgar County Watchdog Kirk Allen and County Administrator Peter Austin. Mark’s analysis of … Continue reading
Edgar County Watchdogs, whose publication is Illinois Leaks, has written a second article about its visit to the McHenry County Board last Wednesday. It’s article, published with permission, can be found below: McHenry County Administrator – Two step shuffle BY KIRK … Continue reading
In a move of which no McHenry County Board member attending State’s Attorney Patrick Kenneally’s fundraiser last night was aware, Jack Franks has asked for Requests for Proposals to lease Valley Hi, the County nursing home. One member of the … Continue reading
Remember the article about Peter Austin, County Administrator, and John Jung, Human Resources Chairman, not complying with County Board Rules? Well, it seems to be happening again.. After the May 23rd HR meeting both Jung and Austin refused to schedule … Continue reading
The following email was sent to Human Resources Chairman John Jung and McHenry County Administrator Peter Austin: Call for Human Resources Cmte meeting on June 13, 2017 Mr. Jung, Mr. Austin, Mr. Wilcox (District 4), Pursuant to the fact the … Continue reading
The following was written by former McHenry County Board member Ersel Schuster: 4/12/17 McHenry County’s Internal Support & Facilities (ISF) meeting: There is no greater insult to voters/taxpayers than public officials who think their responsibility is to their own personal … Continue reading
This is Part 3. Part 1 can be found here. Part 2 is here. Michael Rein wondered if most jobs were not advertised on the internet and advertised. “That’s correct,” County Administrator Peter Austin replied, [but] it varies for the … Continue reading
Part 1 can be read here. Continuing the questioning of McHenry County Administrator Peter Austin, Human Resources Board member Craig Wilcox said, “You exercised an authority that the County Board is responsible for, that we do spell out in [your … Continue reading
A bare majority of the McHenry County Board’s Human Resources Committee refused to rubber stamp McHenry County Board Chairman Jack Franks’ hiring of two patronage employees at its Wednesday meeting. By a 4-3 vote, HR Committee members voted down a … Continue reading
A Friend of McHenry County Blog listened to the Internal Support and Facilities Committee meeting’s discussion about the trouble that County Board committee chairmen have had putting items on agendas. A transcript of part of the meeting is below: INTERNAL … Continue reading
Look at the agenda for Wednesday’s 8:15 meeting agenda below: Go to New Business, item 8 and you will read: “Discussion on the County Board Rules, Electronic Voting Rules and Electronic Voting Training” What you won’t find after the work … Continue reading
On January 12th, I filed the following Freedom of Information request with McHenry County: Under the FOIA I request documents showing the work product of the new Communications Specialist. Please also include copies of all emails and other electronic transmissions … Continue reading
The figures do not include the value of health insurance, car allowance or clothing allowance. Peter Austin and Joseph Korpalski have $6.000 car allowances. Austin’s salary also includes reimbursement of the employee’s share of IMRF contributions. Richard Hill has a $4,800 … Continue reading
Now that you have read the articles about the debate over the McHenry County Administrator’s contract, below is what the County Board members had in front of them during the debate. The proposed contact, by the way, was not posted … Continue reading
Still more of the debate on giving County Administrator Peter Austin five-year contract: Mary McCann explained that she liked by Thorsen had said, but still wanted to vote on the resolution. Chris Christensen, appointed only weeks ago, said that he … Continue reading
More on the McHenry County Board discussion of a five-year contract for County Administrator Peter Austin: Diane Evertsen started off, complaining about the size of the compensation, which she calculated included a 3 1/2% . She compared that with the … Continue reading