Sheriff wastes over $300,000

According to the Northwest Herald this morning, the McHenry County Sheriff's Department is finally squaring up with Deputy Bob Schlenkert, and it's costing the Sheriff's Department over $300,000 to do so.

Schlenkert is to receive $185,684 in back wages for the period September 13, 2007 to April 12, 2010, plus $5,646.12 for medical expense reimbursement. That's $191,000+. Estimating the cost of the Sheriff's wasteful legal actions at another $100,000 and the possibility that the sheriff's department might have to pay Schlenkert's legal costs, the Department wasted over $300,000.

The Northwest Herald said, "Because Schlenkert's position was held open, his pay already was part of the office's budget." The newspaper article attempted to minimize the outlay, for people who just read the first paragraph of a story, by first reporting it as "$130,000 in lost wages," because Schlenkert must reimburse IDES for $51,764 unemployment pay he received.

Does that mean that the sheriff expected to lose? If the position was "held open", does that mean that the County did without a deputy on patrol in that position? If it doesn't mean that, then where did the money come from to pay for the replacement deputy who filled in for Schlenkert? And was that deputy laid off, when Schlenkert returned to duty?

Taxpayers should keep in mind that at least two other deputies are cooling their heels and expect to win back their positions. Zane Seipler has won legal actions before an arbitrator and a McHenry County judge. Yet Sheriff Nygren continues to fight an uphill battle and has his outside lawyers in Elgin now, hoping for a victory in the Appellate Court. When he loses there, will he head for the Illinois Supreme Court and waste more taxpayer dollars?

And Deputy Scott Milliman, who was paid while on administrative leave, is now off pay status. Yet the sheriff hasn't fired him. He had taken him off active duty and then stopped paying him.

Now, how does this work in the wonderful world of HR rules? Can you just send somebody home, pay him for a while, then stop paying him, but never tell him that you are firing him? Seems like this should have been presented to the Merit Commission a long time ago?

Milliman ought to show back up at the office, dressed for duty and ready to go to work. Otherwise, the sheriff might say that Milliman didn't come to work, so he is letting him go. Milliman would have a problem now dressing for work, because the Department recently confiscated his uniforms.

Maybe the battery is dead in the sheriff's cell phone and he can't be reached to make decisions. Why doesn't Undersheriff Zinke take action? Isn't he in charge when the sheriff is on vacation and out of the country? Of course, it could be hazardous to his own position, if he made an independent decision to go against his boss's (wrong) decisions.

Is the Undersheriff even around? Last week I sent an email to him and also to the general email address for the sheriff? It was a politely-worded request about an incomplete press release, but no one had the courtesy of replying.