McHenry County Blog

The taxpayer suit in Jersey County, Illinois, is not too complicated, but it could be of widespread significance.

Citizen spark plug Jeff Ferguson and others in Jersey and Greene Counties (located northeast of St. Louis) are outraged that their local school board found a way to build two schools after 69% of the voters sounding rejected a $21 million high school proposal in 1999. (The state was going to kick in another $8 million.)

The school board found a way to build it and a grade school anyway.

Enter outside advisors trying to make a buck.

The school board is told that it can issue bonds without a referendum by issuing fire prevention and safety fund bonds, commonly called life safety bonds.

But, first, according to state law (105 ILCS 5/17-2.11),

a school district may replace a school building or build additions to replace portions of a building when it is determined that the effectuation of the recommendations for the existing building will cost more than the replacement costs. Such determination shall be based on a comparison of estimated costs made by an architect or engineer licensed in the State of Illinois. The new building or addition shall be equivalent in area (square feet) and comparable in purpose and grades served and may be on the same site or another site. (emphasis added)

That’s typical legislative gobble-de-gook. What it means is that if one can get an architect to say that fixing the old building to meet life safety standards is more expensive than building a new one, the school board may borrow money and build a new school.

And, that’s what this school board did.

But, there was a hitch.

The first architect said it would only cost $742,590.42 to fix up the high school.

The board decided to go for a slightly lower amount for the high school, added in a grade school and got permission for life safety improvements locally and by the State Board of Education in 2001.

Almost immediately afterwards, the board hired a second architect who would give the “right” answer.

$12.7 to $13.9 million was the “better” answer from the second architect.

That’s only 17 times as high as the first architect’s estimate.

Architecture is called a profession and this disparity gives an indication of what profession at least the high guy modeled his services after.

Larry Pfeiffer, the local regional superintendent approved the much, much higher figures for the high school and the grade school, but, according to the suit,

did not issue certificates of condemnation for the high school or grade school.

In February, 2003, the State Board of Ed approved the issuance of $14.2 million in life safety bonds less than 3 months later. In September, the Capital Development Board agreed to kick in over $6 million more tax dollars.

After a perfunctory public hearing, the school board voted 6-1 to sell $14.7 million for the two projects.

The suit asks that the responsible county officials be prohibited from collecting taxes to pay back the non-referendum bonds because

in order to issue bonds for the construction of a new school, a district must first be required to reconstruct a school building by an agency having authority to enforce the school building code.

The suit further contends.

The school district sold bonds without legal authority because the approved repair costs did not exceed the estimated replacement costs nor were the new buildings comparable in size and purpose as required by law.

The approval by the school district to sell fire prevention and safety fund bonds was not in compliance with 105 ILCS 5/17-2.11, was unlawful and was a mere ploy to circumvent the referendum results on the construction of a new high school.

Then comes what I, definitely a non-lawyer, think is the weakest part of the case:

The plaintiffs have no adequate remedy at law in that the tax protest remedy would require individual suits annually for the life of the bonds, the individual tax payments are not large enough to justify such action annually.

I suggest that is weak, because when I was McHenry County Treasurer (1966-70), 10% of the tax bills I collected were paid under protest. And, protestors invariably won something. That meant those who did not pay their taxes under protest paid illegal taxes, but they had the opportunity to join the other 10% and, for whatever reason, did not.

I see no reason that some enterprising attorney could not solicit clients and file a tax protest suit each year taxes are levied by the school board.

Here's the web site for the Jersey County Coalition for Public Awareness. More info there.

You can find a copy of the suit here.

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My hope is that this atrocity would lead to a second round of reforms of the life safety bond laws.

Back in the late 1980’s, East Dundee State Representative Delores Doederlein successfully championed what were thought to be major reforms in the life safety code. She found that a rubberized track had been approved by the state to replace a cinder one at an Elgin high school, for example. A major Tribune story outlined other atrocities.

However, what Ferguson has documented so well indicates that the loopholes have gotten larger, not smaller.

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A local angle on Monday.