McHenry County Blog

When we last left yesterday's article about the “first we say we will, then we say we won't” activity of McHenry County College board members and top employee President Walt Packard, two security officers had completed their assigned task to block the view from the hall inside the boardroom.

The room was wrapped up like a son's Christmas gift to his mom using whatever wrapping material was available.

Shortly thereafter I went to the bathroom.

As we were standing at urinals, the younger of the two security guys informed that I would have to leave the building, that only employees (and, he may have said students) were allowed inside after ten o'clock.

I asked him about the non-employees in the board room and he told me that he had been told they were all college employees.

I informed him that was not the case.

We both made our way out into the hall where Town Crier editor Iris Bryan, Kim Willis and Jane Collins were talking outside the boardroom, waiting for the board to adjourn.

The officer who had previously been securing the visual privacy of the Broadcast Tower Proposers then proceeded to inform us that we would have to leave the building.

“After 10 o'clock everyone who is not an employee has to leave the building...The campus is closed after 10 o'clock to everyone who isn't an employee,”

he repeated as various of the women pointed out the presence of the non-employees on the other side of the masked windows.

“If you are not a student or employee you can't be in the meeting,” are what my notes say he said next.

By then we had learned his name was William Schultz.

He was a pleasant enough young man sent to do what whoever called him from inside the room (at least once President Packard) told him to do.

He had been on the job two weeks.

I reminded Schultz that he had told me that all in the board room were college employees. I pointed out that attorney Tom Zanck was certainly not a college employee.

It didn't matter.

Iris Bryan was livid.

And she should have been.

I have know Iris for over 40 years. At one point she worked for my father's weekly newspaper, The Star Reporter.

I have never seen her as angry.

As I said, she should have been.

The public cannot be evicted from a hall outside a secret meeting because they have the right to see the board go back into open session and observe any action, even if it is merely to adjourn.

Now, those of you who have been reading McHenry County Blog for a long while will remember my eviction from the Prairie Grove very Grade School during a secret meeting at which I was also taking pictures through the window.

The effort of Karen Bowman, now school board president, to lower the Venetian blinds while in a fit of rage was even funnier than Packard's moving the American Flag to block my view of the power point presentation by the BMB high tower folks.

At least this time the person who accompanied me to the door This time wasn't armed. (Considering what happened at NIU, carrying a firearm probably should be a requirement for college security officers.)

That incident led to this memorable wanted poster, a creation of Heck of a Guy blog's Allan Showalter, who lives north of Crystal Lake.

Iris and I were certainly the only two people in the building who were in on the formation of McHenry County College. Iris was in charge of publicity for the April 1, 1968 referendum campaign and I assisted her. My father called the meeting to organize the committee that successfully proposed the ballot question that was passed. I know I was at the meeting and I'll bet Iris was also.

So, she and I have as much stake in this college as any of the current board members or employees.

She was angry. Here is what she wrote for her Town Crier.

I was more amused at how the dysfunctional group of people running things behind the blocked windows had managed to negate any good will they achieved when they posted the board packet on the internet so taxpayers, as well as MCC employees could see the material that the board members would consider Thursday night.

Needless to say, I filed a complaint with both the McHenry County State's Attorney and the Illinois Attorney General.

Labels: BMB, Iris Bryan, Jane Collins, Kim Willis, MCC, McHenry County College, Open Meetings Act, Tom Zanck, Town Crier, Walt Packard, William Schultz

First a step forward with the publishing on the college web site the board packet for that evening and the woefully unconvincing second feasibility study (more analysis to follow) prepared and re-prepared after being reviewed by MCC President Walt Packard.

Then, the board majority took its first step back by refusing to allow those with rejected Freedom of Information requests to appeal to the elected college board trustees.

Then the board went into secret session, which turned into a super-secret session.

At the beginning, I made sure that MCC Board President George Lowe lived up to his promise of a prior meeting to reveal who was going to be in the executive session before I left the room.

As I do with every meeting I'm forced to leave, I started taking pictures.

When the privileged few inside saw that I was trying to take a picture of the subject of the secret meeting, the coat rack you see above was moved between my vantage point and the TV screen where the power point presentation was being projected.

Two days ago McHenry County Blog began chronicling the little the 24-hour transparency dance that McHenry County College performed last Thursday.

When I went around to the other side of the room, President Packard used his body to block my view and, then, moved the American Flag we had just pledged allegiance to (“with liberty and justice to all”) between the window and the other screen.

I took some pictures of the main speaker, BMB's John McGuire. All were fuzzy because I didn't use a flash.

Then opaque plastic was put on the window by the new Freedom of Information Officer. Other duties as assigned, I guess.

Then two security officers showed up with a large piece of material.

Then, they duct taped it over the main door so one could not see in its window.

Guess the coat rack wasn't good enough to hide a Mr. Kirchner, whose first name I didn't get, who was sitting in the audience, plus MCC attorney Sandy Kerrick.

Maybe they think I can read lips.

I went up and scratched it to try to figure out what it was made up. I think it was canvas. Maybe they found it in the art department.

Later the two came back and removed it.

They taped a smaller piece over the vertical window next to the door.

Acting on instructions from inside, they systematically covered every window.

As they taped up what looked like a yellow piece of plastic, a burly guy with a full beard walked by and made this comment:

”It just doesn't go. It's the wrong color.”

When they were finished the room reminded me of a Christmas present that a little boy had wrapped using whatever he could find to hide the important parts of the box containing his mother's present.

All that was missing was a bow.

Tomorrow's "MCC - One Step Forward, Two Steps Back – Part 4" begins in the men's room.

Labels: BMB, George Lowe, John McGuire, MCC, McHenry County College, Walt Packard, William Schultz

After kicking out the public, the McHenry County College Board listened to John McGuire propose using the institution's public land for a television and FM radio broadcast tower.

How much land?

Hold your breath.

The figure I've heard is 38 acres!

Remember the college is buying the 67 acres between the current campus and Ridgefield Road, identified as the Gilger property, for $67,000 per acre. The college owns 112 acres now.

The Crystal Lake Planning and Zoning Commission unanimously recommended allowing the college to cover 50% of its entire site (including the Gilger property) with impervious surfaces. If approved, the tower and guy wires would seem to occupy a substantial part--about 40%--of the required open space. The city council is due to consider that recommendation next Tuesday.

Maybe MCC could built a track underneath the guy wires, but the massive FM radio/TV booster tower would seem to seriously compromise the use of the land on which it would stand.

If I am on the right track, this would be the second lease that the board has considered without public input.

A year ago, the board was well on the way to agreeing to lease part of its current property to baseball promoter Pete Heitman for a stadium without even finding out who would financially benefit, not to mention not giving the Harvard college league baseball stadium promoters a chance to even make a board presentation.

Then, to add insult to injury, the board voted to give baseball promoter Heitman's buddy Mark Houser of EquityOne a second no-bid contract and Houser's choices for various parts of the baseball stadium and Health, Wellness, Athletic Complex (HWAC) construction project.

Presumably representing a company identified as “BMB,” Thursday night McGuire made a power point presentation which McHenry County Blog photographer managed to captured with two non-flash photos before visual access was denied by the placement of

• first, a coat rack and,


• then, the American flag

in front of windows to the hall through which the slides could be seen being projected on large television screens.

The introductory slide said,


After I took that photo, Trustee Barbara Walters stood up and help a document in front of the screen.

Then the screen in the southwest corner of the board's meeting room went blank.

I walked around to the vertical windows on the southwest corner of the room behind the now-non-functioning screen so I could see the other screen.

While standing at the window, I took a picture of the second partial slide you see below.

It says,

ABOUT BMB
COMPLETED TOWERS

...the construction of eleven towers from the date of the...
of the company in 2003.

...the highlights of BMB's portfolio:

Tower was built for two FM broadcast stations at close to...
...with a 12' X 20' transmitter building...
...at the site.
This tower was built for...
tower 6,000'. BMB was...
where in the county...
tower was built near...

You will also see the head of MCC President Walt Packard moving toward the window, blocking the right side of the slide.

First, Packard used his body to shield the slides from view.

Then, using the American Flag that stood behind the college board members, Packard proceeded to block visual access on a permanent basis.

I have to admit to thinking that was ironic.

So I moved over to the other vertical window.

I took a series of non- flash photos of McGuire making his presentation. Regrettably, the one you see is the most focused. It shows McGuire looking directly at me while I was taking his picture.

Walters again stood up, this time in front of the window. You can see attorney Tom Zanck sitting in the audience.

The next thing I saw was opaque plastic film being applied to the window from the inside by new Freedom of Information Officer Pat Kriegermeir.

More irony.

Kriegermeir types virtually verbatim notes of what is said at the meetings.
This is the second time that McGuire and team have appeared in a secret meeting.

Last time Trustees Scott Summers and George Lowe seemed to point to land south of the current and proposed property, a picture of which you can see at the top of the page. It was taken the meeting before the board decided to ban flash photography.

If there is an attempt to build a system of towers, as there was by cellular phone companies in the 1990's, a big circle is drawn on a map to identify potential sites. Depending on how big the targeted area is, other nearby landowners might be possibilities.

Based on the giveaway deal cut with the minor league baseball team, it would not be absurd to assume that BMB thinks the college would not be as aggressive in negotiating a leasing price than nearby private property owners.

38 acres is a lot of land in the pricey Crystal Lake market.

The meeting ended after midnight.

Of course, there is undoubtedly more to this story than I know or surmise. Maybe this possible partnership--that's the word that MCC Board President George Lowe used generally again before the secret meeting--will entirely pay for the HWAC.

If that's so, perhaps someone could enlighten me why we in the unwashed public were prohibited from hearing the proposal and the board's questions and discussion.

Or, maybe this McHenry County Blog article will prompt a quick unloading to the Northwest Herald of whatever favorable arguments can be made.

That's what happened the day after McHenry County Blog revealed that MCC was planning to build a baseball stadium.

Tomorrow - An article entitled, "MCC - One Step Forward, Two Steps Back."

Labels: BMB, FM Radio, George Lowe, John McGuire, MCC, McHenry County College