McHenry County Blog

In today’s papers, a spokesman for U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert gives his side of the now unveiled secret land trust transaction near the Prairie Pathway that is said to have resulted in a $2 million profit for the trusts’ beneficiaries.

“An investigation” by reporter Matthew Defour of Aurora Beacon News--apparently independently of the article in the Sunlight Foundation I cited yesterday--found

that development would be about 3 miles west of the intersection of Galena Road and the proposed Prairie Parkway.

Hastert’s spokesman pointed out the land in question was 5½ miles away.

Hastert’s spokesman said that the Speaker had supported the Prairie Parthway since the 1980’s. The congressman has earmarked $207 million for the 4-land road, the Sun-Times reports. The Sun-Times, a big sister to the Courier News and the Aurora Beacon News, where DeFour works, says that Hastert’s attorney threatened legal action against the Sunlight Foundation.

The Fox River papers reported Hastert’s spokesman said

the other partners in the trust were Kendall County Republican Party Chairman Dallas Ingemunson and Tom Klatt, a former Bristol Township trustee.

Ingemunson was instrumental in Hastert’s career, as reported here yesterday. The Chicago Tribune added the fact that Klatt and a principal in the land development firm named Arthur Zwemke have been contributors to Hastert’s campaigns.

Zwenmke told the Tribune,

More important than the planned freeway are the land's location in the fast-growing western exurban Chicago corridor, a favorable political climate for growth, and the availability of good infrastructure like water and sewer.

The planned 1,600-home subdivision near Plano would require about 3 new grade schools, based on calculations I did in Crystal Lake in the late 1980’s.

A friend of mine asked some perceptive questions about the story:

(1) “Is it unethical (or illegal) to invest in land with a couple of partners?”

The answer is, of course, “No.”

(2) “Is it the fact that it was a blind trust that a public figure should not be involved in?“

My take is that secret land trusts have played a quite negative role in Illinois politics and, therefore, should be avoided by politicians.

They have been used to hide ownership interests of Illinois Supreme Court Justices, for example, as one of my links yesterday explained. The chicanery involved with the Civic Center Bank brought down Justices Roy Solfisburg and Ray Klingbiel in utter disgrace in 1969.

I am pleased that Hastert’s partners agreed to allow the details of the trust to be made public. But it seems to me that it would have served the public interest better for the information to have made it public from the beginning.

Think of such revelation from the beginning as a way to avoid the appearance of impropriety.

And making the partners’ names public probably would not have happened without the U.S. House economic interest reporting requirements and reporters’ stories.

McHenry County has its own example of how revelation of such information early on works. The land Mayor Jay Nolan sold ended up being the site of a Wal-Mart super store.

(3) “I don't understand how a man is supposed to ever be able to set aside money for retirement and work 24/7 for the public.”

Of course, as a former teacher, state legislator and current congressman, Hastert has public pension money coming.

And, the Hastert family was and may still own White Fence Farm, a large restaurant that used to advertise widely on Chicago radio. So I would not find it hard to believe that the family can afford to invest in land.

Considering the influence that members of Congress have and the extraordinary influence that the House Speaker has, I believe that more, rather than less openness should be expected regarding his financial affairs.