I'll let you all know if Tuesday's meeting of the McHenry County Board gets moved from Woodstock to the MGM Grand arena.

As I wrote in today's paper, a showdown is brewing between new County Board Chairwoman Tina Hill and a majority of the Public Health and Human Services Committee regarding that vacant seat on the Mental Health Board.

After the County Board rejected the committee's first pick on a 6-18 thrashing May 7, Hill took the unorthodox step of invoking her right under board rules to advance her own candidate. The committee went ahead and advanced another candidate Tuesday on a 4-0 vote, but Hill said she would not put him on next Tuesday's agenda, again her prerogative under board rules.

The second shocker that came out of Tuesday's meeting was confirmation that Hill would ask the board to remove Sandra Fay Salgado from the committee, validating rumors that have swirled in recent weeks.

I attended the meeting, and spoke with Hill and several committee members afterward. Here are some of the things that didn't make my story:

• THORSEN'S PICK: The four committee members in attendance Tuesday picked their first-runner up from the last vote – Crystal Lake City Council member and bank vice president Jeff Thorsen.

Thorsen's financial skills – he also has an MBA – clinched it for the committee. As John Hammerand, R-Wonder Lake, said, Thorsen uses that knowledge daily. For the record, the rejected candidate – former McHenry County College trustee Scott Summers – also has an MBA.

Thorsen was one of six candidates from the pool left when Summers won the last nod.

"I'm very comfortable with the high-integrity, honest person he is, and I think he'll make an exceptional candidate," committee Chairwoman Donna Kurtz, R-Crystal Lake, said.

Salgado said Thorsen was in fact her first pick, but that she ultimately went with Summers in the name of consensus. That consensus was needed last month, because Summers squeaked through on a 4-3 vote.

• NO BOYCOTT: Noticeably absent from the meeting were the three committee members – Paula Yensen, Anna May Miller and Mary McCann – who voted against Summers. Miller and McCann had previously voted, without success, to try to keep ousted President Lee Ellis on the Mental Health Board.

But they did not boycott the meeting, as other county news sources have reported.

Yensen, who is executive director of the United Way of Central Kane County, had a work obligation she could not skip, namely the annual Build-A-Bike giveaway for needy children. McCann was right next door to the public health committee, as chairwoman of the Finance and Audit Committee that oversees county government's spending. That meeting ran until 1 p.m.

I could not reach Miller, but she is recovering from a bad car accident. The last time I saw her was last Friday's committee meeting, and she had to leave early – with assistance. I'll give her the benefit of the doubt, and then some, regarding her absence.

So there was no collaboration on their part to skip the meeting.

I did in fact point this out in my story, but it bears repeating, because an allegation that they intentionally blew off the meeting is a serious one.

• WHO WILL HILL PICK? Salgado before the vote asked Hill which of the six candidates she likes. Hill has said she is looking at the list, and one or two outside candidates, for her final choice.

Hill said she liked Cathryn Perfetti and David Barber. Perfetti is a CEO of a mental health provider agency and is a member of the county's Community Development Block Grant Commission and the board of the McHenry County Housing Authority. Barber is former head of the United Way of Greater McHenry County.

We'll know tomorrow who Hill recommends – board rules mandate that nominees for boards and commissions be presented no later than five days before the meeting at which the vote will take place.

• SHE SAID, SHE SAID: Hill told me after the meeting that her decision to take Salgado off of the committee is not new.

As I wrote today, the issue has arisen every so often over the years that Salgado's presence on the committee is a conflict of interest because she is human resources director for Pioneer Center for Human Services. Pioneer Center receives Mental Health Board funding, and is one of the loudest critics alleging that the board spends far too much money on administration and overhead.

Hill said she told Kurtz of her intention six weeks ago, but that Kurtz told her to hold off. Hill alleged that Kurtz wanted and needed Salgado's vote to ram through her changes to the Mental Health Board.

But Kurtz countered that the issue was not an agenda, but timing.

"I said hold off because I thought it was completely inappropriate to do that when we were in the middle of conducting interviews," Kurtz said.

• COURT IS NOT IN SESSION: I asked Hill how she thinks these two issues – picking her own Mental Health Board candidate and replacing Salgado – looks in the court of public opinion.

She answered, politely but resolutely, that only a small segment of that court is following this issue or considers it a priority.

I also asked Hill about the point that Salgado made, elaborated on at the end of my story, that members of other committees have faced conflict-of-interest questions surrounding their assignments.

She answered that those alleged conflicts would get a fresh review.

Salgado, who sat down with Hill before I did, told me after her meeting that she told Hill that it's all or nothing when it comes to reassigning committee seats for perceived conflicts of interest.

"If we do it for me, we do it for everybody or not at all," Salgado said.

Hammerand said after the meeting that the timing looks suspect.

"If a conflict of interest didn't exist in December [when committee assignments were hashed out], how come it suddenly appeared in May?" Hammerand said.

•X-FACTORS: There are several issues at play when it comes to what will happen next Tuesday evening.

The biggest variables are yet unknown: who Hill will recommend to fill the vacancy on the Mental Health Board, and who she will recommend to replace Salgado.

Both will require the consent of a majority of the County Board. And from what I've seen and heard, many board members are conflicted. A number of them are uncomfortable both with Hill for her actions, and with the blunt and direct way Kurtz has handled the Mental Health Board.

So who they will eventually side with will very likely come down to whom Hill recommends for both posts.

The other x-factor is the Mental Health Board itself, namely if it attempts to affect the outcome.

As I have written and blogged about since January, the Mental Health Board has tried to insert itself into the process since it became apparent that Kurtz would, immediately upon her appointment as committee chairwoman, embark on a reform campaign.

One can argue that this whole mess started in earnest because of the Mental Health Board's gross overreaction to a story I wrote in January based on a 3-minute-long speech that Pioneer Director Pat Maynard gave to the County Board about the need for new faces on the nine-member, unpaid board.

The Mental Health Board fought back as if I wrote that every single board member and employee should be slaughtered and rendered into grease.

I haven't seen any attempted influence since the Mental Health Board failed to keep former President Lee Ellis from being ousted. But with that vacant seat up for grabs, two more terms expiring at year's end and that vacant executive director seat it needs to fill – maybe by giving the present interim director the job – they might see this as a last and best opportunity to stop Kurtz.

Senior Writer Kevin Craver can be reached at kcraver@shawmedia.com.

I have no idea who McHenry County Board Chairwoman Tina Hill will nominate to fill an open seat on the Mental Health Board, but I can tell you who she won't.

I bluntly asked Hill this morning whether she will bring forth ousted Mental Health Board President Lee Ellis. She was just as blunt when she said no.

"I do not think Lee Ellis could be appointed by this County Board. I need to find a candidate that I could put through this County Board," Hill said.

There were fireworks aplenty Tuesday when the County Board voted, 18-6, against the recommendation of the Public Health and Human Services Committee to appoint former McHenry County College trustee Scott Summers to the open seat. And Hill raised more than a few eyebrows – and some tempers to match – when she invoked her right under County Board rules to bring forth a nominee of her own for the County Board to approve at its next meeting.

Here are some of the quotes, facts and interviews that I could not shoehorn into my 30-inch story on Tuesday's unprecedented moves.

• DUELING NOMINEES? Public Health and Human Services Committee Chairwoman Donna Kurtz has called a special meeting Friday morning to discuss what the committee should do next.

The committee nominated Summers last month on a narrow 4-3 split. The next move, Kurtz told me Tuesday afternoon, could be reopening interviews and bringing forth a nominee independent of Hill.

Kurtz, a longtime critic of the Mental Health Board's size and how it spends its money, has been on a mission since being appointed committee chairwoman in January to clean house on the nine-member board.

"The objective is to take a situation that has now gotten murky and tainted, and reassessing that whole process, and I think what we're going to end up doing is reopening the process again," Kurtz said.

Can the committee do this? The short answer is yes. But it would not at all be easy.

The committee would have a matter of days to hold a meeting, conduct interviews and vote on a nominee. County Board rules mandate that board members be notified of recommended appointees to boards and commissions no sooner than five days before the meeting at which a vote will be taken.

So if the committee decides to give it a whirl, they would have until Thursday to finish the process prior to the May 21 meeting at which Hill said she would submit her own nominee.

Exceptions to this rule can be granted ... by the chairwoman. So suffice it to say, the deadline is Thursday.

On top of this, the rules also appear to give the chairman some leeway when it comes to a committee choice even making it to the agenda – board rules state that all appointments subject to County Board approval "will be presented to the County Board by the Chairman." Hill, the way I read the rule, could decide not to allow any decision the committee makes from even coming to a vote.

• I (DON'T) GOT THE POWER: An angry Michael Walkup told Hill after she announced her decision that he would do his best to strip the chairman's seat of the power to directly bring its own nominees for boards and commissions directly to the County Board floor.

Walkup, a public health committee member who backed Summers, is also a member of the Management Services Committee that is putting the finishing touches on the review of County Board rules that is done after every November election.

The threat has weight. Public health committee member John Hammerand, R-Wonder Lake, is vice-chairman of Management Services, and he, too, voted for Summers and expressed disappointment in Hill's decision. Kurtz also has a Management Services seat, as does Ersel Schuster, who said she was similarly outraged.

That's four votes on a seven-member committee, meaning a majority vote for changing the rules to take the appointment power away from Hill.

Can it be done? Again, the answer is yes, but it may not be easy.

While state law allows the county board chairman to bring forth nominees to mental health boards, that authority can be tempered by county board rules. Assistant State's Attorney Jana Blake Dickson told me Tuesday that the rules could be changed to require any such nominee Hill chooses to  go through committee first.

And as I wrote in my story today, the County Board almost always scales back the scope of rule changes that Management Services brings forth every two years. But the very fact that Hill invoked her authority in this case – which I cannot remember ever happening in the five years I've covered county government – could concern enough board members to make the difference.

• QUOTES FROM TUESDAY'S MEETNG: As I wrote, the 18 board members who opposed Summers' nomination didn't say a word before and immediately after the vote. But Summers supporters made up for it.

"Not one County Board member reached out to me asking me about this process, and 18 of them voted no." – Sandra Fay Salgado, R-McHenry.

"If you [Chairwoman Hill] are willing to take such a political step, I think ... you should give that a second thought." – John Hammerand, R-Wonder Lake.

"For us to stoop this low at the county, this just tears my heart out." – Ersel Schuster, R-Woodstock.

"This points to an undercurrent of political activity of which I was completely unaware." – Nick Chirikos, D-Algonquin.

• PUBLIC COMMENT: Seven speakers signed up to address the County Board on the Mental Health Board issue, citing ongoing coverage of the issues it is facing and allegations that money that could be spent on services is being spent on administration and overhead.

All seven argued that reform and change are needed. Three of them cited Summers by name and urged approval of his appointment.

• NO CONFIDENCE: Hammerand suggested to Hill that she consider changing the membership of the Public Health and Human Services Committee, alleging that her decision amounted to a "vote of no confidence."

• SCORECARD: For those of you keeping track at home, five of the nine seats on the Mental Health Board have changed hands since January.

The County Board in March approved filling three four-year seats with newcomers Robert Routzahn, Carrie Smith and Heather Murgatroyd. They ousted Ellis, who sought reappointment, denied a four-year term to incumbent Connee Meschini, and filled a third vacancy of a member who did not seek reappointment.

The county instead gave Meschini the one-year unexpired term left by Rev. James Swarthout, who stepped down to take a job with Rosecrance Health Network, which receives Mental Health Board funding. The move was a compromise between her supporters on the public health committee, who felt she asks tough questions, and her opponents, who alleged her words and her deeds – and her votes – did not match.

County Board member Paula Yensen, D-Lake in the Hills, now holds the County Board's voting seat on the Mental Health Board. The previous member, Mary Donner, lost her 2012 re-election bid. Yensen, who has earned a reputation as a fiscal hawk, has actively questioned Mental Health Board expenses, especially the bills paid to the board attorney.

This latest vacancy was left by former member Sam Tenuto, who stepped down shortly after Ellis' ouster to take a job with Pioneer Center for Human Services, which accepts Mental Health Board funding.

Senior Writer Kevin Craver can be reached at kcraver@shawmedia.com.
 

Gov. Pat Quinn added another losing Democratic congressional candidate to the state payroll.

It's better than getting a six-figure state job and even more luxurious pension for raising our income tax, I guess.

Quinn announced today that he appointed Dr. David Gill, an emergency room doctor from Bloomington, to be an assistant director of the Illinois Department of Public Health. The job, which requires Senate confirmation, pays $127,800.

Gill lost his bid last November to represent the 13th Congressional District. It was his fourth failed attempt to win election to Congress.

And the appointment was the fourth in recent years in which Quinn named a losing Democratic candidate for a state job: (*)

• Quinn named Dan Seals in 2011 to be assistant director of the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, shortly after his third unsuccessful run for the 10th Congressional District.

• Quinn named former Rep. Julie Hamos, who stepped down to run for the 10th District as well but lost to Seals in the primary, to be assistant director of the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services.

• Former state Rep. David Miller, a dentist who lost his 2010 bid for comptroller, was hired as oral health chief for the IDPH.

More than a few critics have pointed out Quinn's predilection for appointing unsuccessful Democratic candidates to state jobs.

"The governor tends to put people on the payroll who have lost elections," State Rep. Jack Franks, D-Marengo, told me for a February 2012 story. "I don't know that that's a good way to choose who is going to be in the upper echelons of our government."

But he story in which I quoted Franks was about Quinn's annoying predilection for appointing lame-duck lawmakers who voted for the historic 67 percent income tax increase to very cushy state jobs.

That dishonor roll includes:

• Former Rep. Robert Flider, who was confirmed last year to head the Illinois Department of Agriculture. He campaigned against a tax increase, but lost his re-election bid and voted for it.

• Former Rep. Careen Gordon, who is now an attorney for the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation. She, too, campaigned against the tax increase but voted for it after losing her re-election bid.

Quinn originally nominated her for the Illinois Prisoner Review Board – just days after her vote – but she withdrew after Republicans promised to grill her over the perceived quid pro quo.

• The aforementioned David Miller, who voted for the tax hike and ended up with his state job.

• Former Rep. Michael Smith, who was confirmed last year to a seat on the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board. The board pays almost six figures, meets once a month and can be attended by telephone.

• Two other lame-duck lawmakers who approved the tax hike – John O'Sullivan and Michael Carberry – subsequently landed Cook County government jobs.

(*) - Quinn in 2011 appointed former Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias, who unsuccessfully ran for President Obama's old U.S. Senate seat, to the Illinois Community Colleges Board. That seat is unpaid except for expense reimbursement.

Senior Writer Kevin Craver can be reached at kcraver@shawmedia.com.

The decision by the McHenry County College Board of Trustees to put off its April 16 vote to extend President Vicky Smith's contract bollixed the Northwest Herald's request to investigate its compliance with the Illinois Open Meetings Act.

The MCC board called the April 16 special meeting barely four days after voters tossed out two incumbents and elected three reform candidates. While the board's ever-growing chorus of critics blasted the meeting as not playing according to Hoyle, I took the tack that the agenda did not conform to new and more stringent Open Meetings Act requirements.

Namely, as you can read in my blog post, that the agenda was so vague that an ordinary person could not conclude that the board intended to actually vote on a contract. The new requirements mandate that any final action on a meeting agenda be sufficiently descriptive.

As soon as I wrote that post, I asked the Attorney General Public Access Counselor to examine whether the vote would violate the spirit of the law.

But the MCC board, in response to public outcry, pushed off the vote until April 25, which was the final meeting of the old board – the new members were sworn in minutes after the old board extended Smith's contract through June 2015.

That delay means that the public access counselor had nothing to investigate, given that no final action was taken. The letter from the counselor's office telling me that no further action can be taken arrived at my desk this morning.

Before you ask, I'm not going to challenge the agenda for the April 25 meeting with the counselor. While it does not explicitly state that a vote will be taken, it reads to me like an average person would reach that conclusion independently.

Hopefully, the MCC board will take advantage of this dodged bullet – I'm pretty sure the Northwest Herald would have prevailed had the board voted – and be more descriptive when it lays out what it intends to do at its meetings.

Of course, it's not like MCC doesn't have a history of dodging bullets from the Attorney General's office when we had the college dead to rights.

Which is probably one of the reasons why the MCC board has that aforementioned ever-growing chorus of critics.

•••

I'll also take a moment to update you on another request for review that the newspaper filed regarding a March 6 "emergency" meeting called by outgoing Grafton Township Supervisor Linda Moore.

Reporter Stephen Di Benedetto filed a request for review shortly after the meeting, arguing that it did not meet the criteria under the Open Meetings Act for a "bona fide" emergency that allows governments to waive advance notice requirements.

The counselor's office asked the township on March 13 for copies of the meeting agenda and minutes so it could investigate the matter further.

On April 22, the counselor's office wrote again to ask why it had not received the information. The Open Meetings Act requires a public body to furnish information within seven business days of receiving a request for review.

We'll keep you posted on how that one turns out.

Senior Writer Kevin Craver can be reached at kcraver@shawmedia.com.


 

Pennsylvania lawmakers are moving to revoke Penn State University's exemption from the state FOIA law in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky scandal.

The state's House State Government Committee earlier today forwarded a bill to the full House, 17-6, that would make Penn State and three other previously exempt universities subject to FOIA, which in Pennsylvania is called the Right to Know Law.

A full House vote on the bill, which you can read here, could come as early as Wednesday.

Penn State is one of four universities that are privately managed yet receive taxpayer funding. Penn State in the most recent fiscal year received $227.7 million, just under half of the $514.8 million taxpayers paid to the four schools.

When Pennsylvania lawmakers beefed up the Right to Know Law in the wake of several scandals, then-University President (and now indicted fired Ex-President) Graham Spanier successfully wrangled Penn State an exemption from the law.

I blogged at great length last year about how Sandusky could have been stopped years earlier had the university not been given a free pass from disclosure.

The bill's sponsor, Republican Kerry Benninghoff, echoed those concerns in his memo to lawmakers expressing support for the reform.

"It is disturbing to think what we and the public could have known about the revelations at Penn State if the Right to Know Law had offered greater access to that institution’s records," Benninghoff wrote.

Should the reform clear both houses, hopefully Gov. Tom Corbett does the right thing and sign it into law, despte the fact that he's suing to have the NCAA's much-deserved sanctions against Penn State thrown out.

This bill is a win-win-win, in my opinion. The government wins because it regains some trust. Pennsylvania's taxpayers win because they get some more accountability.

And I win, because I just love watching the alumni and young "adults" at Penn State put on a show by pulling their hair, flopping to the ground and crying, "But it's not faaaaaiiiiir!"

Don't disappoint me should this become law, kids.

Senior Writer Kevin Craver can be reached at kcraver@shawmedia.com.