John Coonen went to the McHenry County Board meeting last night and wrote the article I wish I could have.
He describes the meeting as a “meltdown.”
Coonen says that 15 people spoke in the public comment period, none in favor of the baseball stadium and, then, the board used what I would call the “old let’s-have-a- closed–session-so-the-audience-will-go-home” ploy and all but five did.
You can see the four angry MCC trustees in the Crystal Lake City Council picture above. It was taken just before the council’s negative vote on the baseball stadium zoning. On the first row are Mary Miller (Crystal Lake), Carol Larson (Harvard) and Barbara Walters (Crystal Lake).
On the second row, sitting next to Scott Summers (Harvard), the guy they are mad at, is board member George Lowe (Cary). At the bottom, you can see another photo of the group. Summers has his head bowed. Somehow I don’t think it is because of his colleages’ disapproval Monday night. Donna Kurtz, the other trustee in the MCC board majority doghouse, is sitting elsewhere.
Partial comments from the audience on the Northwest Herald’s little (very little) article last night follow:
Pat Kennedy, 1:07 AM: Summers and Kurtz. Carol Larson, George Lowe, Mary Miller and Barbara Walters voted to (censure Donna Kurtz and Scott Summers).
Notquixotic at 1:51 AM: Sounds to me like the McHenry County College Board has taken poor decision making lessons from the City Council.
luckymortal1 at 2:17 AM: And what NWH “reporter” put their name to this “story?!!!” None as of 2:10 am!… the story is AGAIN factually wrong. There was no “vote” to censure,.. ambushing board members were explicit that they were “not VOTING” because this was not an agenda item and they had no business bringing it up!
luckymortal1 at 2:24 AM: …was this just an incredible string of “coincidences?” …I’m also going to be contacting the Citizen Advocacy Center on this. Enough is enough!
luckymortal1 at 2:37 AM: …cepted journalistic codes of ethics such as the SPJ code require statements of disclosure on all stories with even “the appearance of conflict of interest…
luckymortal1at 2:48 AM: …NWH “news” story doesn’t disclose it’s conflict of interest…I also says a recording of the meeting will be posted on the internet. (When I find out where, I’ll let you know.)
luckymortal1 at 2:55 AM: … when you take a listen, be sure to notice how positive and cooperative the whole room was when the meeting began. The public was incredibly supportive! Everyone was there out of concern for their college and making this stadium/hwac plan work. Good luck getting that kind of goodwill again! Now everyone will know that it was Barbra Walters, Carol Larson, George Lowe and Mary Miller who effectively killed the stadium plan. There is NO WAY they will be able to build a consensus after what they pulled tonight!
And mark your calendars. luckymortal1 suggests the Thursday night meeting will be worth attending.