23 Republicans, 5 Democrats Run for 12 County Board Seats

Here are the final filings for the Republican Primary Election for McHenry County Board: District 1 Yvonne Barnes, Cary Anna May Miller, Cary Terence Ferenc, Fox River Grove Tom Wilbeck, Barrington Hills District 2 Cameron Hubbard, Crystal Lake John Reinert, … Continue reading

County Eliminates $3 Million Valley Hi Tax

The all-Republican McHenry County Board  Tuesday night voted unanimously to cut the tax levy for the Valley Hi Nursing Home to zero. The significant amendment did not even require a roll call, as County Board Chairman Joe Gottemoller called for … Continue reading

Justification of Valley Hi’s $40 Million in the Bank

Peter Austin unveiled graphic results of Valley Hi Administrator Tom Annarella’s modeling efforts Tuesday. All versions assumed that the levy would be cut from $3 million to $2.250 million. The first version, seen below, shows the Valley Hi bank account … Continue reading

Finance Reverses Course, Cuts Valley Hi Levy by $750,000

What a difference five days makes. On Thursday, the members of the McHenry County Board’s Finance Committee voted 4-3 against lowering the $3 million Valley Hi Nursing Home levy by one penny. First-term member Chuck Wheeler, who was recently appointed … Continue reading

Finance Committee Fight over Valley Hi Taxes – Part 2

At this point Barnes weighed in. “That’s concerns me,”  she said. “You don’t solve that $20 million problem by [lowering the levy]. “I disagree,” Barnes replied. “If you’re going to be thinking about another facility,” Walkup said, “I think that … Continue reading

The Finance Fight over Valley Hi Taxes – Part 1

First, Mike Walkup, not a member of the Finance Committee, asked that the Valley Hi levy be split from the others for voting purposes. Pointing out that he had served on the nursing home’s Operating Board for two years, Walkup … Continue reading

Budget Back to Finance Committee

McHenry County Board Chairman Joe Gottemoller has apparently decided not to put next year’s levy ordinance on the Board Agenda without a positive vote from the Finance and Audit Committee. As you can read exclusively here, the vote was 3-3 … Continue reading

Skala Proposes No Fringe Benefits for County Board Members

In the last Republican Primary election two candidates campaigning on not taking pension and health benefits. They were District 1 candidates Andrew Gasser and David Stieper.  Gasser won the primary and the election, while Stieper lost to incumbent Republican Robert … Continue reading

County Board Pay and Benefits Questioned

As I was entering the County Board’s Finance Committee last Thursday, Mary McCann was proposing an amendment to the resolution setting members’ salaries. Instead of the flat rate of $21,000 a year, she proposed returning to the per diem approach … Continue reading

County Board Considering Extra Pay for Vice Chairman Despite Negative State’s Attorney’s Opinon

There are so many good stories to be written about last Thursday’s Finance Committee meeting. Let me do a little one first. The Lake County State’s Attorney has ruled that its County Board’s Vice Chairman cannot receive extra pay, that … Continue reading

Raising Elected Officials Salaries – Not!

The Human Resources Committee held a meeting on April 2nd which I attended. The reason was the following agenda item: Discussion on Establishing Elected Officials’ Salaries During public comment time, former Board member Kathy Bergan-Schmidt encouraged members to “drop the … Continue reading

Palmer Convinces Finance Committee To Keep Dental Audit Secret

Wednesday McHenry County Blog ran a piece entitled, “Should Misdeeds Uncovered by Internal Audits Be Made Public?” There has apparently been double billing for providing dental care to Veterans. Both the Veterans department and the County Health Department have been … Continue reading

Munaretto Fails to Get County Real Estate Contract

Former McHenry County Board member Marc Munaretto failed to get a contract to handle real estate deals with the County at Tuesday night’s meeting. This was the second time the resolution to approve him made it to the Board floor. … Continue reading

Gottemoller Committee Assignments – To the Winners Go the Spoils

Newly-elected McHenry County Board Chairman Joe Gottemoller has a chance to build a coalition for an at-large race for County Board in the fall of 2016, but he decided to please his current supporters instead. (See “Joe Gottemoller’s Quandary.”) Gottemoller … Continue reading

County Money-Saving Possibilities

There was a very, very long McHenry County Board Finance Committee meeting on Tuesday. I went to encourage its members to encourage Governor Pat Quinn to veto the Pam Althoff-Karen McConnaughay-Mike Tryon bill to allow the McHenry County Conservation District … Continue reading

The County Board Debate on the $9 Million Randall Road Expansion Resolution – 3

This is the third installment of the debate which occurred at the McHenry County Board Tuesday morning over the resolution to approve a contract to continue the widening of Randall Road from four to six lanes, plus revamping its intersection … Continue reading