Tonight Crystal Lake Grade School District 47 Board is meeting at 7 at Canterbury School southwest of the intersection of Main Street and Virginia Street Road to consider the contract worked out with its teachers’ union.
Another contract has also been settled: that between McHenry County College and its faculty union.
While District 47 posted its contract information (apparently some time this weekend), MCC refuses to do so before it is ratified by the junior college board on Thursday night.
I asked public relations person Christina Haggerty whether the contract had been posted and, if so, if she would send me a link.
There will be no chance for taxpayers to see the details until after one of the biggest expenditures is already approved.
Her reply:
“No- the Board votes on it this Thursday, after which point the contract when approved will be posted.”
The McHenry County College Board.
I asked under whose authority it was not to be posted and have received no reply.
Quit funding the college and institutions that have secrecy and lobby against what the citizens want.
Gosh, why would you think the taxpayers have the right to see what they are paying for???????????
What can we do about it?
It is shameful that tax payers are being kept in the dark about exactly how our hard earned tax dollars are being used.
You can see the contract the Board will be voting on Thursday night. It’s at http://www.mchenry.edu/board/13_14/packets/042414final.pdf, click on Bd Rpt #14-80.
There needs to be a change document in addition to the proposed faculty contract.
An example of a change document would be the old faculty contract with strikethroughs for deletions, highlights for additions.
One would think the union and the administration has a change document.
Without a change document, it’s too time consuming to compare the old faculty contract to the new faculty contract for any changes.
State Reps Jeanne Ives and Tom Morrison are proposing legislation which would provide more transparency to public sector collective bargaining in Illinois.
Contact Ives, Morrison, your State Rep, your State Senator, and Governor Pat Quinn to Support House Bill 4268 in the 98th General Assembly.
Last years bill in 2013 also in the 98th General Assembly for the same legislation was House Bill 3303.
Asking the public to scramble at the last minute to review a public sector collective bargaining bill is shameful, especially when the board, administration, and union have typically been negotiating in secrecy for months, often providing their co-workers with updates.
The high priced highly educated people MCC Administration, with Vicki Smith front and center, and their allies that control the Board are keeping the taxpaying customers in virtual darkness!
Releasing the contract a few days before the vote is not transparency.
That is not being respectful for the public.
It’s all about them, all about their image.
How about a few Q&A sessions with the public on separate days BEFORE the Board votes on the contract?
How about allowing the public to review the proposed agreement a few weeks prior to the Board vote.
These last minute rush jobs pretending to do the taxpayers a favor by releasing a contract a few days before a board vote is hypocrisy.
The public needs more time and the opportunity to dialogue with the Board about the contract, and that doesn’t mean 3 minutes to talk to the board with no interactive dialogue on the day of the vote.
Too bad there are not more Chris Jenner’s on that Board and all the other public sector boards in Illinois.
When you think the Illinois public sector collective bargaining process through it’s blatantly evident that taxpayers are purposefully kept in the dark.
The laws were written to favor public sector unions and their political allies at the expense of taxpayers.