Tuesday, June 27, 2006
Chicanery in Wonder Lake
Chicanery in Wonder Lake
I was trying to think of a headline for this story and the word “chicanery” came to be last night.
It was not until I typed it this morning that I realized how much it resembled “Chicago.”
And Chicago politics is what this little article is about.
The village of Wonder Lake, non-partisan like Chicago, but controlled by Democrats to the best of my knowledge, convinced three subdivisions to join its municipal corporation. They are
· Wooded Shores,
· White Oaks Bay and
· Hickory Falls 1 & 2
But, in order to have their roads accepted into the village system, thus relieving the homeowners of maintenance costs, the subdivisions had to bring their roads up to village standards.
Bringing private subdivision roads up to township standards for similar purposes is an issue that goes back to my first public meeting in McHenry County. It was in unincorporated Cary’s Silver Lakes subdivision. That meeting was held at the Algonquin Township garage.
There were problems with the constitutionality of the special assessment project, so, in the 1970 constitution, language was developed to allow Special Service Area (SSA) assessments. Essentially, if an area had a special infrastructure need, the local county or municipality could levy a special tax.
Wonder Lake officials and leaders of the subdivisions apparently agreed to use the SSA process to raise the money necessary to bring their roads up to standard.
I’m certainly not aware of the details, but the cost came in way higher than the homeowners had expected. Maybe it was because the price of asphalt increased so much as the price of oil increased 50% or so.
In any event citizens in the three subdivisions started passing petitions to invalidate the Special Service Area assessments. They had 60 days to get the signatures of more than 50% of the property owners.
The 60 days were to be up last Sunday. In election law, if a due date falls on a weekend, the deadline is rolled over until Monday.
When Wooded Shores resident Tom Foss tried to turn in his petitions at the Wonder Lake Village Hall, it was locked. He finally went to Crystal Lake and took them to village attorney Richard Curran’s office and I’m told that Curran accepted them. Later, I’m told Curran called him and told him to take them to the village clerk’s office, but the village clerk refused to accept all he had in his possession, which were copies.
White Oaks Bay petition passer Dale Schultz also tried to turn in her petitions to invalidate her SSA. She also found the doors locked.
I don’t have time to call the participants right now, so I don’t know whether she tried to turn hers in Friday or Monday or both days, but the result would have been the same.
The Wonder Lake Village Hall was locked both Monday and Friday when the petitioners tried to turn in their petitions.
Does this sound like Chicago-politics or what?
One Wonder Lake resident said the following:
I call it a monarchy or a dictatorship.
The office was locked Friday and Monday. Now the newly-annexed subdivisions have been shown what the village is like.
I would add that Wonder Lake has an election next spring. My experience is that when new people move into a new subdivision, they end up taking over the village board.
These new people in Wonder Lake, of course, have not moved into new homes, so they don’t have to get organized to develop an effective campaign organization. The contacts already exist in the three subdivisions and viable candidates—the petition passers—already exist.
It is going to be a really interesting political season between now and next April in Wonder Lake.
The Establishment up there may raise a lot of money from the bond houses and asphalt companies that will pave the roads, but it will take more than thousands of dollars to beat a grass roots campaign.
I’ll bet the spurned petition passers will be making homemade signs this summer.
And, if they want cardboard and yard sign wire, I have some I have accumulated that my wife would be happy to get out of the garage.
I was trying to think of a headline for this story and the word “chicanery” came to be last night.
It was not until I typed it this morning that I realized how much it resembled “Chicago.”
And Chicago politics is what this little article is about.
The village of Wonder Lake, non-partisan like Chicago, but controlled by Democrats to the best of my knowledge, convinced three subdivisions to join its municipal corporation. They are
· Wooded Shores,
· White Oaks Bay and
· Hickory Falls 1 & 2
But, in order to have their roads accepted into the village system, thus relieving the homeowners of maintenance costs, the subdivisions had to bring their roads up to village standards.
Bringing private subdivision roads up to township standards for similar purposes is an issue that goes back to my first public meeting in McHenry County. It was in unincorporated Cary’s Silver Lakes subdivision. That meeting was held at the Algonquin Township garage.
There were problems with the constitutionality of the special assessment project, so, in the 1970 constitution, language was developed to allow Special Service Area (SSA) assessments. Essentially, if an area had a special infrastructure need, the local county or municipality could levy a special tax.
Wonder Lake officials and leaders of the subdivisions apparently agreed to use the SSA process to raise the money necessary to bring their roads up to standard.
I’m certainly not aware of the details, but the cost came in way higher than the homeowners had expected. Maybe it was because the price of asphalt increased so much as the price of oil increased 50% or so.
In any event citizens in the three subdivisions started passing petitions to invalidate the Special Service Area assessments. They had 60 days to get the signatures of more than 50% of the property owners.
The 60 days were to be up last Sunday. In election law, if a due date falls on a weekend, the deadline is rolled over until Monday.
When Wooded Shores resident Tom Foss tried to turn in his petitions at the Wonder Lake Village Hall, it was locked. He finally went to Crystal Lake and took them to village attorney Richard Curran’s office and I’m told that Curran accepted them. Later, I’m told Curran called him and told him to take them to the village clerk’s office, but the village clerk refused to accept all he had in his possession, which were copies.
White Oaks Bay petition passer Dale Schultz also tried to turn in her petitions to invalidate her SSA. She also found the doors locked.
I don’t have time to call the participants right now, so I don’t know whether she tried to turn hers in Friday or Monday or both days, but the result would have been the same.
The Wonder Lake Village Hall was locked both Monday and Friday when the petitioners tried to turn in their petitions.
Does this sound like Chicago-politics or what?
One Wonder Lake resident said the following:
I call it a monarchy or a dictatorship.
The office was locked Friday and Monday. Now the newly-annexed subdivisions have been shown what the village is like.
I would add that Wonder Lake has an election next spring. My experience is that when new people move into a new subdivision, they end up taking over the village board.
These new people in Wonder Lake, of course, have not moved into new homes, so they don’t have to get organized to develop an effective campaign organization. The contacts already exist in the three subdivisions and viable candidates—the petition passers—already exist.
It is going to be a really interesting political season between now and next April in Wonder Lake.
The Establishment up there may raise a lot of money from the bond houses and asphalt companies that will pave the roads, but it will take more than thousands of dollars to beat a grass roots campaign.
I’ll bet the spurned petition passers will be making homemade signs this summer.
And, if they want cardboard and yard sign wire, I have some I have accumulated that my wife would be happy to get out of the garage.
