Last week the lame duck board posted their plan, late on Friday afternoon, to extend Vicky Smith’s contract for 27 more months — through June 2015 — at a “special” meeting.

The lame duck board’s action was a despicable act of Chicago style politics, and it can cause nothing but mistrust on the part of the new board members, of their remaining peers and of Vicky Smith.

More than 80 people showed up, God bless them, to protest this naked attempt to saddle the new board with an administrator they may not want.

The first thing the lame duck board did when all those people showed up at their last meeting was . . . Postpone action, hoping people would leave, not come back, and the board could carry out its action in near secrecy.

The ONLY thing that can result from extending Vicky Smith’s contract now instead of letting the new board decide is to cost the taxpayers $300,000 or more to buy out Vicky Smith’s bloated contract. (See my previous email.)

So I was not shocked when yet another meeting agenda was posted late on THIS Friday afternoon, indicating that, once again, the lame duck board will try to vote to extend Vicky Smith’s contract – as their final action! They do not care if they cost the taxpayers money.

They do not care if they poison relations with the new board members.

They are blatantly thumbing their noses at the voters.

But who should be surprised?

When Cynthia Kisser ran for office in November 2011, she was asked by the Daily Herald if she would support a tax hike. She responded,

“In these tough economic times, and in light of the recent state income tax increase, any future tax increase at the county level should be avoided, and we should focus on wise financial management and developing new sources of funding.”

It took her four months to do a 180 and to vote for a 9.9% property tax hike.

She was also asked how she would manage the need for more space at MCC. She responded,

“An exciting way to meet this challenge is by fully utilizing emerging technologies to develop more quality “distance learning” options…. We can also continue to partner with the community to provide work-study and off-site education in specialized fields.”

But as a board member, she has consistently voted in favor of doubling classroom space at MCC at a cost of $42 million despite the fact that current space is used an only 45% of each school day, and to fund that expansion with bonds without giving the citizens of McHenry County a chance to vote on the issue.

She voted to raise tuition to cover a horrendous budget error, despite the fact the College is sitting on a huge fund balance, a stash of taxpayer money they have built up over the years by taxing more than they needed.

So, this is business as usual.

But, no matter what this lame duck board does, “business as usual” is about to change.

I do not believe the new board members will EVER engage in these types of actions.

Let her walk.

As i said before the taxpayers cannot afford smith and her expensive ideas.