$400,000 for Oversight and Coordination of MCC Baseball Stadium Addition

McHenry County Blog once compared Mark Houser, Pete Heitman and Bill Lee as Music Men marching into River City sans the 76 trombones.

On Tuesday, a mere six days after requesting what McHenry County College Board members received by email, I got an email with the same information.

Of course, I asked for the documents before the board meeting and they arrived five days afterward.

Transparency is not a big value in the pantheon of MCC gods.

Even so, McHenry County Blog can be the first to report that Mark Houser’s business—Equity One Development Corporation—will receive $400,000 for his no bid work.

What will he do?

“The primary role of EquityOne Development Corporation will be to oversee and coordinate the development, construction, operation, and marketing processes for the Health, Wellness, and Athletic Complex, not to exceed $400,000,“ according to MCC President Walt Packard’s recommendation to the board, which was unanimously approved.

You may remember that Houser first dipped into the college honey pot last Septembe 27th, when Packard signed a $70,000 no-bid contract with his firm.

That contract, I shall continue to remind readers, contained this extraordinary clause:

“At the completion of the feasibility study and independent review, if the College elects to proceed with the project, the College will contract with EquityOne or it’s (sic) assigns to develop the project on the College’s behalf.”

WILL CONTRACT,” is how the verbs should have appeared.

And Equity One said it did more that it did more than $70,000 worth of work.

So, Mark Houser’s income transfer from the college to himself may total $470,000.

Oh, yes.

The college also hired a construction management firm from Itasca named FCL Builders Inc., because of its “unique qualifications,” according to President Packard.

And another Itasca firm, Cornerstone Architects was also hired on Packard’s recommendation, also for unspecified “unique qualifications.

How unique.


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