McHenry County Blog

McHenry County Blog has submitted Freedom of Information requests asking Carpentersville District 300 to reveal which among a list of companies that have made contributions to its political action committees have been paid for District 300 work.

The purpose was to determine whether evidence of a “pay to play” relationship might exist among those financing campaigns to extract additional property tax dollars from district real estate owners.

Some are obvious:

Burnidge Cassell & Associates, Inc., has photographs of Lincoln Prairie Elementary School in Lake in the Hills, Carpentersville’s Liberty Elementary School,
its Carpentersville Middle School Remodeling,
says Dundee and Algonquin Middle School re-modeling is “coming soon,” and Dundee-Crown and Jacobs High School
Addition & Remodeling of District 300 schools.

Lamp, Inc., lists District 300 as a client.

Turner Construction says it provided construction management services for the following District 300 schools: Eastview, Huntley/Miller, Algonquin Lakes, and Lake in the Hills Elementary.

While requesting that the information be provided without cost, the FOI letter puts it more delicately than what statewide media say about Governor Rod Blagojevich’s receiving contributions from companies who receive state contracts:

Because this request and your response will result in an internet article or articles on McHenry County Blog, I request that any fees be waived in the public interest, that public interest being that citizens should know of any connection between District 300 expenditures and campaign contributions made to committees supporting tax increases or the passage of bond issues prior to the March primary election.

The campaign check writing companies—some of whom reveal the business they do with District 300 on their web sites--follow:

· Burnidge Cassell & Associates, Inc., Elgin (Click here, and here,too. 1/30/02 - $10,000, 2/14/02 - $1,613, 1/21/03 - $5,000
· Carey Electric, McHenry 2/28/02 - $1,000
· Cruise Boiler & Repair, Elmhurst 3/26/02 - $500
· Elgin Roofing, Elgin 3/04/02 - $300
· First American Bank, Elk Grove Village 12/26/03 - $845
· Freund International, Huntley 3/25/02 - $250
· Hawks Auto Parts, Elgin 3/01/02 - $200
· J&E Duff Inc. Mason Contractors, West Chicago 3/04/02 - $1,000
· Kane County Associates LLC, Chicago 3/08/02 - $5,000
· Lamp Inc., Elgin (Click here, too.) 4/29/02 -$725, 4/29/02 - $5,642.56, 4/2/03 - $5,000
· MFB Development, 558 McLean Blvd, Elgin 2/05/02 -$250
· PMA Financial Network, Aurora 3/20/02 - $250
· Rage Management Inc., Elgin 11/20/03 - $200
· Randall Huntley Partners LLC, Elgin 3/06/02 - $1,000
· RWS Inc, Markham 3/18/02 - $200
· Seigle’s, Elgin 2/12/02 - $2,500, 2/06/03 - $2,500
· Taylor Johnson & Assoc., Chicago 11/27/02 - $1,650
· Techstar America Corp, Grayslake 2/07/02 - $850
· Tessendorf Mechanical Industries, Inc., Gilberts 3/21/02 - $1,000
· The Trane Company, Willowbrook 3/12/02 - $1,000
· Turner Construction, Arlington Heights 4/2/03 - $4,000

# posted by Cal Skinner : 9:50 AM