Jack Franks Copies Springfield Short Time for Consideration Modus Operandi
McHenry County Board members received an extensive re-write of their Rules this afternoon right before the 4:30 close of business.
I recognize the game that Chairman Jack Franks is playing.
In Springfield Mike Madigan dumps major legislation into State Represntatives’ computers at the last minute.
At least in Illinois state government, the public can read a bill’s content the same time as their elected officials.
That is not the case in McHenry County.
The Rules are not posted on the County’s web site as I write this article at 5:15 Tuesday afternoon.
Twenty-eight pages accompany the following email from Franks:
Jack Franks
County Board Members –As discussed that the County Board organizational meeting yesterday, attached please find a draft version of the revised County Board Rules. The modifications are intended to be a starting point for discussiontomorrow with the Temporary Rules Committee meeting.
The meeting will be at 11:00 a.m. in the County Board Room.
I look forward to hearing your thoughts.
Very Truly yours,
Jack D. Franks, Chairman
McHery (sic) County Board
Will the 11 o’clock meeting of the Temporary Rules Committee be nothing more than a rubber stamp by a committee dominated by members from the western part of McHenry County?
Will the meeting be held in the County Board room where members’ comments can be heard on one’s home computer via live streaming?
Will the meeting be recorded and posted on the County web site?
Or will Jack Franks’ lack of transparency continue?
I do not envy the board members that have to sit there and take this with a straight face.
If he actually believes he is in charge of the McHery County Board, maybe that’s a good thing.
Mr.Fantasy king of the world is a digusting human being.
And that’s putting it nicely.
McHenry County Board Meeting Portal
December 7, 2016
11 AM
Temporary Rules Committee – Public Meeting
http://mchenrycountyil.iqm2.com/Citizens/default.aspx
– Agenda
– Agenda Packet
This changes the Chair position to an Executive position by page 1.
The Agenda and Agenda Packet are identical and both dated December 5, 2016 at 10:54AM.
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1. The email Jack Franks sent, which was today December 6, 2016 at approximately 4:30 PM?, should, if this was a transparent operation, be in the Agenda packet at least 48 hours prior to the meeting, but that is apparently not the current board policy.
This is not a transparent operation.
Current board policy should be change to make it a transparent operation.
2. Any content deriving from the email should introduced at the meeting, not voted on at the meeting.
3. Votes should not take place until the public and the board has had at least two weeks to deliberate on any agenda item up for vote.
The idea is to introduce an agenda item during a meeting, and vote on it at least two weeks later.
For example:
a. Put an exact item on the agenda at least 48 hours prior to the meeting, with supporting documentation in the form of an agenda packet.
b. hold the meeting. Discuss the agenda item. Let the public comment on the item. do not vote on the item at the meeting.
c. hold a meeting in two weeks to vote on the item.
f. if the item is changed, no vote in two weeks, rather, the item would be re-introduced in two weeks using the above process, then voted on two weeks after that 2nd introduction.
Something along those lines.
This process is happening way too fast to the detriment of transparency and taxpayers.
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Here are the members of the Temporary Rules Committee as appointed by Jack Franks on December 5, 2016, during the same meeting in which he took his oath of office, that being, during the first 1 hour 15 minutes he was in office.
McHenry County Blog
Jack Franks Temporary Rules Committee
December 5, 2016
Franks appointed the following nine people to this Temporary Rules Committee:
– Robert Nowak, District 1
– Jim Heisler, District 2
– Joe Gottemoller, District 3
– Chuck Wheeler, District 4
– Paula Yensen, District 5,
– Mike Skala, District 5
– Michelle Aavang, District 6
– Larry Smith, District 6
– Jim Kearns, District 6
http://www.mchenrycountyblog.com/2016/12/05/jack-franks-temperary-rules-committee
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Jack Franks is also a voting member of the Temporary Rules Committee?
Jack Franks resides in District 6.
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And where is the Cut 10 plan that Jack Franks promised to introduce his first day of office.
Apparently, no rush to get that plan out to the public.
U need a shovel for all this Bs!
I see things in here that are so wrong on so many levels I dearly hope the board puts this right down the toilet can u say power hungry ?
McHenry County Board
County Board District Map
http://www.co.mchenry.il.us/county-government/departments-a-i/county-board/district-maps
McHenry County Board
Temporary Rules Committee
Public Meeting
12/7/2016 11AM
County Board Conference Room, Administration Building, 667 Ware Rd, Woodstock, IL 60098
Downloads:
– Agenda
– Agenda Packet
(The Agenda and Agenda Packet were identical and both dated December 5, 2016 at 10:54AM. Jack Franks his hiding the above email from the public.)
I. Call to Order
II. New Business
1. Review and Consideration of Proposed Modifications to the McHenry County Board Rules
III. Adjournment
http://www.mchenrycountyil.iqm2.com/Citizens/Detail_Meeting.aspx?ID=4276
“Public Comments” are not listed on the agenda.
Will the public be allowed to comment at the meeting?
Page 17 is missing in the email above.
Can it be added?
What is a County Board Administrator?
Is this a new position?
Page 23 of the document.
“The request should come from one of the following: the County Board Chair, Committee Chair, or, at the direction of the County Board Chair, the County Board Administrator.”
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Elsewhere in the document there is reference to the County Administrator.
So the County Board Administrator is different than the County Administrator?
In the document there are additions to, “Code of Honor.”
As a reminder, Jack Franks supporter Democrat Jeffery Lichte just ran as a Republican candidate in the State House 63rd District primary election that was held March 15, 2016.
The same election which Jack Franks ran unopposed as the Democrat candidate for the State House 63rd District.
If Jeffery Lichte had prevailed in that election, and if Jack Franks had not withdrawn as the Democrat candidate for the State House 63rd District on July 7, 2016 (the first day the withdrawal appeared on the State Board of Elections website), the general election would have featured Democrat Jack Franks v Democrat (running as a Republican) Jeffery Lichte.
Or, if Jeffery Lichte had previaled in that election, and if Jack Franks did withdraw and given that the McHenry County Democrat party on July 9, 2016 selected John Bartman as the replacement for Jack Franks, the general election would have featured Democrat John Bartman v Democrat (running as a Republican) Jeffery Lichte.
An entirely new section named “Transparency, Accountability, and Efficiency” is proposed to the Board Rules.
Here is the outline:
Article V Transparency, Accountability, and Efficiency
Section I Fiscal Impact Review
(a) Impact Note Required
(b) Responsibility and deadline for furnishing the fiscal note.
(c) Form and Content
(d) Preparation of Fiscal Note
Section 2 Debt Impact Review
(a) Long-Term Debt Authorization
(b) Impact Note Required
(c) Responsibility and Deadline for Furnishing Note
(d) Form and Content
(e) Preparation of Debt Impact Note
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The Illinois General Assembly (State House and Senate), where Jack Franks was a State Representative for 18 years, has debt impact notes.
They are basically worthless, and one evidence of that is that fiscal condition of the State of Illinois and all the unfunded mandates that have been passed in the form of legislative pension benefit hikes and retiree healthcare benefit hikes to pension and retiree healthcare systems that were already underfunded.
Well the pensions and retiree healthcare benefit hikes are probably not technically classified as debt by the state but the basic point is made.
Even though the Illinois General Assembly has debt impact notes, the State of Illinois is in miserable financial condition, with plenty of bond debt.
Jack Franks receives an F for transparency and more specifically an F for not placing the document in the agenda packet and therefore an F for not having a searchable board agenda packet.
That’s a Triple F Transparency Rating for the Board Chair on his 2nd day in office.
He is not required to place the document in the agenda packet but there is nothing prohibiting him from doing so in the name of transparency.
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Here are the Board Rules that Jack Franks is proposing to change.
McHenry County Board Rules
May 1, 2015 (Revised July 7, 2015)
http://www.co.mchenry.il.us/home/showdocument?id=14296
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Instead of a searchable board agenda packet on the county board website, once again, the document is not even in the agenda packet.
The public has to be lucky enough to read the local blog the day before the meeting to come across the marked up document which reflects the proposed changes.
Page 17 has been added.
“The Chairman shall be responsible for the operation of the County Administrator’s Office and County Board Staff.”
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Jack Franks is proposing that sentence be added to page 1 of the County Board Rules.
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Remember, Jack Franks pushed for the County Executive form of government that was voted down by voters on November 6, 2012.
The voters approved an elected County Board Chair on March 18, 2014 (that went into effect with the November 8, 2016 election).
Now that he was elected County Board Chair on November 8, 2016, Jack Franks, with the above quoted sentence, is proposing to make the County Board Chair more like a County Executive in a County Executive Form of Government.
In other words, since the County Executive form of government fails, Jack is attempting to ignore the will of the voters on that issue, and impose Jack’s will, by proposing to change the Board Rules to make the County Board more like a County Executive form of government.
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And he is attempting to do this by forming an ad hoc committee he calls a “Temporary Rules Committee” rather than the previous methodology used by the Board to change Board Rules.
This is not just changing Board Rules.
That quoted sentence is changing the way the entire county operates.
The County Administrator’s Office is outside of the Board, not within it.
This is a power play by Jack Franks to change county government by changing board rules.
Why have rules, neither side follows them anyway.
Nob: The Board Members very definitely follow the Rules, I can tell you that.
Chairman Franks told numerous Members that the “Temporary Rules Committee” would only consider revamping of the committee structure and something about a fiscal impact statement and then he proceeded to do a major re-write and drop it on us at 4:30 the night before the meeting.
The re-write includes the following: ” THE CHAIRMAN SHALL BE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE OPERATION OF THE COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR’S OFFICE AND THE COUNTY BOARD STAFF”.
This is in small type at the beginning of the Rules.
In other words, he will “run McHenry County.”
This is to be considered by a committee that he hand picked and that no one voted for or had a real opportunity to discuss.
Normally these types of things are hashed out over several meetings in the Spring of the new term by Management Services and are fully vetted and discussed by the Board.
So much for the Kumbaya.
McHenry County Board Rules
March 1, 2011
3. Chairman
“The Chairman shall be responsible for the operation of the County Administrator’s Office and the County Board Staff.”
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Jack Franks copied the sentence from a previous version of the County Board Rules.
McHenry County Board Rules
March 1, 2011
http://www.co.mchenry.il.us/Home/ShowDocument?id=46864
Changing Board Rules was previously initiated in the Management Services Committee.
Jack Franks has replaced that process.
Jack Franks initiated Board Rule changes in an ad hoc committee he formed named the “Temporary Rules Committee.”
Here is a comparison of who was on the Management Services Committee, and who is on Temporary Rules Committee, in the context of changing Board Rules.
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Member – Management Services Committee – Temporary Rules Committee
Tina Hill (District 5) – yes (Chairman) – no (no longer on Board, did not run for re-election)
Michael Skala (District 5) – yes (Vice-Chairman) – yes
Jim Heisler (District 2) – yes – yes
Bob Martens (District 4)- yes – no (no longer on Board, did not run for re-election)
Michael Walkup (District 3) – yes – no (remains on Board, defeated by Franks for Board Chair)
Anna May Miller (District 1) – yes – no (no longer on Board, defeated in primary election)
Michele Aavang (District 6) – yes – yes
Robert Nowak (District 1) – no – yes (incumbent, was not up for re-election this year)
Joe Gottemoller (District 3) – no – yes (incumbent, defeated by Walkup in primary for Board Chair)
Chuck Wheeler (District 4) – no – yes (incumbent, was not up for re-election this year)
Paula Yensen (District 5) – no – yes (newly elected to Board, only Democrat on Board)
Larry Smith (District 6) – no – yes (incumbent, was not up for re-election this year)
Jim Kearns (District 6) – no – yes (newly elected to Board, also Grafton Twp Supervisor)
Newly elected Democrat Board Chair Jack Franks is attempting to change the process that is used to modify Board Rules when he created the Temporary Rules Committee his first day on the job.
The members of the Temporary Rules Committee could say no, lets go about this in a more transparent and Democratic fashion.
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Jack Franks is using a newly formed ad hoc committee, which he named the Temporary Rules Committee, he alone created with no approval from other board members.
There was no transparent discussion about changing the way, in which board rules are changed.
Instead, Jack Franks said, this is what we are doing.
Basically, he can create an ad hoc committee to change board rules, so did.
Has there ever been a discussion prior to this about using an ad hoc committee to change board rules?
Was there an intent in allowing the Board Chair to create ad hoc committees, that ad hoc committees would be used to propose changes to board rules?
Was there an intent that the Board Chair himself would propose changes to board rules, and not even post those rules in the agenda packet?
Basically Jack Franks is using every loophole he can find to change board rules to his liking, and his wishes come at the expense of Transparency and a more Democratic process.
But just because Jack Franks wants these changes, does not mean the members of the Temporary Rules Committee has to submit to his will.
And it does not mean the full Board has to approve the changes.
Just say no.
Hit the reset button.
Jack Franks can present to the public why he thinks the process should be changed, instead of shoving all these changes through in a rush.
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Learn how Michael Madigan uses the Rules Committee in the State House to gain power.
http://www.MichaelMadigan.com
Democrat Jack Franks has spent the last 18 years of his life under Democrat Michael Madigan.
Plus, Jack Franks named the members to committee he created.
There was no transparent discussion on who is selected to the Temporary Rules Committee.
In the past, using the Management Services Committee, which is a standing on-going committee, not a temporary ad hoc committee, seems to have been a more transparent and Democratic process of proposing changes to Board Rules.
Mark you need to shut up and read what Mike said, again.
Your drivel is confusing and useless.
The board is getting rolled over easily.
Pray for these board members to get smart REAL fast.
They have been foolish elites for so long that it will take a major miracle for them to listen and pay attention to what is really going on here.
Jack had to change Chair Comments to after Member Comments so he can always get last word?
Yes
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McHenry County Blog
In Quest for Power, Jack Franks Tries to Backdoor Executive Form of Government
December 7, 2016
Comments:
[Regarding Jack Franks’ proposal to add the following sentence back to the McHenry County Board Rules:
“The Chairman shall be responsible for the operation of the County Administrator’s Office and the County Board Staff.”
– Mike Walkup on 12/07/2016 at 12:21 PM said:
“We took that out as it would allow the Chairman to have too much power.
We had gone through a period prior to Peter when there was no County Administrator and the Chairman was performing that function.
This was a hold over from that.
Now that we do have an Administrator, we wanted to make it clear that the Administrator called the shots on day to day business while the Chairman just worked with the Board setting policy and doing oversight and not be able to meddle in daily operations in competition with the professional staff.”
http://www.mchenrycountyblog.com/2016/12/07/in-quest-for-power-jack-franks-tries-to-backdoor-county-executive-form-of-government/#comment-451656
Frank’s is such a CREEPY SWAMP MONSTER !