The following letter to the Northwest Herald is reprinted with permission of its author:
To the editor:
Regarding the proposal in McHenry Township to eliminate the road district taxing body and having it taken over by the township board, why is there so much discussion about a cost benefit study when saving costs isn’t the reason for the proposal?
The issue is the need for oversight and supervision.
A system that permits a $100,000.00 per year public employee to operate with no supervisor or board to answer to is simply ripe for abuse and exploitation.
It is that system that allowed all of the nepotism and abuse that we’ve been hearing about to happen.
It’s not very complicated Intentional confusion is being generated.
It has nothing to do with costs or the county or who is going to plow our roads. It is all internal McHenry Township.
It has to do with who it is that the township road district employees work for.
Do they work for a single individual with no oversight or do they work for the director of township roads who is engaged by the McHenry Township Supervisor and Board of Trustees.
The same drivers will drive the same trucks out of the same garages and plow the same roads that they do presently but their ultimate boss will be a group of elected officials rather than a single individual with no oversight.
Whoever the board hires to run the operation will now have a board of elected officials standing over their shoulder.
That is probably why the present Highway Commissioner is slamming the proposal so strongly.
Who in their right mind if they had that job would want that gig to end?
Highway Commissioners can come and go at will with no one to report to or explain their absence to if they’re not there.
They can hold another full time job or run their own business without any approval needed.
We have the opportunity in McHenry Township in November to vote to clean up this poorly designed taxing body that is so ripe for abuse.
Vote yes to consolidate in McHenry Township.
Dave Bussell, McHenry
Was Gandhi talking about townships here?:
https://i.pinimg.com/736x/71/5b/5b/715b5b77a0d887dd31b09edb8ecb8c4f–mahatma-gandhi-republican-party.jpg
Mr. Bussell are you blind?
The township financial records are all on line if you’d ever look at them.
Township officials have to be bonded, so if 1 out 10,000 is bad, the tax-payers are fully covered.
Mr. Bussell do you even live in McHenry Township or are you a negative person living somewhere else.
People can write anything without investigating the facts. Townships are closest to the people. That’s a fact Mr. Bussell. You must be getting clipped by Barber Bob. Get the straight facts from the township itself.
Mr. Townshipper, Are YOU blind, or do you work for a township?
You are a township human leach.
And I will detach you and dispatch you.
I meant to write ‘Mr. Townshipper, Are YOU blind, or do you ‘work’ for a township?
Townships, Townships, Townships!
I’m sick of all the corruption.
I’ll vote to abolish, just so I don’t have to hear about the crooks anymore.
The founding fathers enshrined the principle of checks and balances in our federal constitution to prevent the abuse of power.
ALL elected administrative positions violate this principle.
Not Ronald Reagan, he never violated.
Nob, allow me to clarify:
All administrative positions that are not subject to oversight by a legislative body violate the principle of checks and balances.
The President is subject to oversight by Congress.
Sarcasm Steve, I know what you meant.
Road Commissioners do have some over sight, but most boards way to often just rubber stamp everything unfortunately.
Voters like us who don’t participate regularly in our gov are also to blame for lack of over sight.
Road Commissioners have a license to steal ……and they do!!!
just look what went in Algonquin Township for decades.
Nob, because the Commissioner is a legally elected office distinct from the Township, the board has very limited power of oversight.
This also true of all other ministerial offices, such as the two County clerks, the assessors, the coroner, the education superintendent and the sheriff.
A quick quiz about government spending:
Should the purchase of a $329 Levenger purse be regarded as a legitimate government expense?
What about bills for dinner and drinks at Hooters, or tickets to Disneyland?
Or $349 for cashmere and cardigan sweaters, and a wool coat?
The answer is no way, underlined and in bold.
Yet these were expenses charged to township credit cards at the Algonquin Township highway commissioner’s office, when it was led by Robert Miller, the Tribune’s Robert McCoppin reports.
Those and other expenses paid for with taxpayer money under Miller’s watch are now the subject of a lawsuit filed by the current highway commissioner, Andrew Gasser, who is challenging their validity.
Misuse of taxpayer money happens everywhere in government, but township governments are especially prone to it.
Why?
Because when it comes to visibility, townships are the dark web of local government in Illinois.
It’s a fair bet that most Illinoisans don’t know who their township officials are, let alone what townships do.
read more at: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/editorials/ct-edit-township-government-abolition-20180313-story.html
I would not have used the term ‘dark web’ in the above Tribune exposé,
I would have written: ‘vortex of corruption’
And our ‘great’ States’ Atty: Pat ‘Pattycakes’ Kenneally is a defender of corruption, plain and simple!
Why would Kenneally really cover up Miller’s corruption?
You betcha!
It’s quite simple, if he started on the crooked louse Miller, other, more ‘skilled’ and far bigger fish could get caught up in the dragnet.
And that is a no-no in dear little McHenry County.
And that includes alot of really sickening crimes.
Weren’t people listening when Miller said (paraphrasing) ‘If I go down there are other officials far worse than me.”
Why was Miller’s lawyer meeting with certain judges at the Government Center?
The Miller ‘hot potato’ would become a plutonium potato threatening too many officials and long-standing rings of corruption.
That Reason #1 why Bianchi was charged so many times. He was the State’s Atty charged by McHenry County’s real government.
Why would Kenneally really cover up Miller’s corruption?
You betcha!
It’s quite simple, if he started on the crooked louse Miller, other, more ‘skilled’ and far bigger fish could get caught up in the dragnet. And that is a no-no in dear little McHenry County.
And that includes alot of really sickening crimes.
Weren’t people listening when Miller said (paraphrasing) ‘If I go down there are other officials far worse than me.”
Why was Miller’s lawyer meeting with certain judges at the Government Center?
The Miller ‘hot potato’ would become a plutonium potato threatening too many officials and long-standing rings of corruption.
That Reason #1 why Bianchi was charged so many times. He was the State’s Atty charged by McHenry County’s real government.
Another blubbering barber Bob sycophant letter to the editor.
It must be time for another Ned Neuman whiney letter to the editor.