What Do John Maguire, Mark Saladin and Cindi McDonald Want To Lease or Sell the McHenry County College Taxpayers?

Never heard of them?

Neither had I until I stayed around for secret meeting of the MCC Board on January 21st.

Why wait so long to tell the story?

Well, the other reporters had better things to do with their time than stick around and I’ve been swamped with election stories.

One woman who observes county government recognized Mark Saladin when he walked in and told me he is “a big real estate attorney.”

Offices in downtown Crystal Lake, I see.

After the meeting MCC Board President George Lowe read their names, along with a number of MCC employees who were allowed to stay for the discussion.

I think I heard it said that the leasing of land was going to be discussed.

At the next Monday’s meeting, however, attorney Sandy Kerrick said they would discuss “lease and acquisition of property.”

I asked her because I didn’t hear “acquisition” the week before.

Were they related?

Only time will tell.

In any event, after the public was kicked out of the meeting about 9 PM,

it was the same drill as the night the three baseball promoters appeared out of the MCC president’s office, where they had been hiding.

While there were three men at the secret baseball stadium meeting, there were two men and a woman this time. (Click to enlarge. John Maguire’s eyes really are open.)

They were standing in the hall, instead of hiding in the president’s office.

They stayed in the room for a long time.

Attorney Saladin made a presentation at the podium while the other two sat at the table where the administrators sit during meetings. The ones who usually sit there moved back to the second row of chairs.

A map of the college and surrounding areas was on the big plasma screens in the boardroom.

After the presentation, the three left, being pointed somewhere to wait.

Others who were waiting and I watched through the safety glass in the windows.

We saw MCC Trustee Scott Summer stand up and point to the property south of the Gilger and college property.

I tried to get a picture of his pointing, but he didn’t point long enough.

It was the area between Tartan Road (the one that goes from the campus to Ridgefield Road) and Route 14.

There is a horse farm in the area, a beef raising operation, and a church, on that west side of Ridgefield Road, if memory serves me correctly.

Next Board President George Lowe walked over to the big map and pointed at the same area.

I tried to get a picture of his pointing, but he didn’t point long enough.

You can see that my camera focused on the window, instead of Lowe and the map. But, if you look closely and enlarge the photo by clicking on it, you can see Lowe’s right hand in front of the bottom part of the map. I think he was lowering it after having pointed higher on the map.

A handout was passed around to the staffers sitting in the second row.

Eventually, the three folks trying to get the college trustees to spend our money on leasing or buying some property returned.

They were asked some questions by MCC attorney Sandy Kerrick and, I presume, some board members.

And, then, they left.

Board President Lowe said,

“I didn’t read this in the beginning,”

and read something about the closed session that state law probably mandates that he read before the board goes into closed session.

Then he rattled off the names of the people who had been allowed to stay and hear how the three presenters wanted the board to spend the taxpayers’ money.

Besides the board members and the administrators, the people making the pitch were identified.

They were

  • John Maguire
  • Cindi McDonald and
  • Mark Saladin.

Lowe said the name of McDonald so indistinctly I had to ask someone what her last name was.

Having apparently somehow broken state law before going into the secret session on January 21st, Lowe changed course a week later.

He was a absolute stickler at following the law on January 28th.

Lowe insisted that trustees who did not want to vote for an expenditure because they might have a conflict of interest had to leave the room during the discussion, rather than just recuse themselves from the discussion and vote “Present.”

He noted that “Present” votes were always counted with the majority.

Apparently, one can always learn something new about parliamentary procedure and state law, even after having served many years in public office.

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The pictures are in sequential order, except for the almost clear shot of the map that was the focus point of the meeting. That was taken about the time MCC Board President George Lowe was warning me not to take any more flash pictures. That picture was, ironically, not taken with the help of a flash.


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