Thursday, January 27, 2011

CAHMCO - the Saga, Part 1

Or was Part 1 the first article about CAHMCO (Corporation for Affordable Homes in McHenry County) just this past Monday? OK, let's make this Part 1, since the smell of rats in the barn may persist a little longer.

The Page 1 headline in this morning's Northwest Herald was "Seidel: Politics forced my ouster".  Mary Lu Seidel was fired at last week's meeting of the CAHMCO Board of Directors. (An aside to Mary Lu: I've been fired several times, so I know what it feels like.)

Read the Northwest Herald article here: www.nwherald.com/2011/01/26/seidel-politics-forced-my-ouster/aqkx73e/  (N.B., the Northwest Herald's archiving policy is to stuff the article into a paid hiding vault in seven days; if you miss the reading window, use your Woodstock Public Library card to sneak into the vault for free). You'll see some interesting tidbits that ought to stir some of those tired, old brain cells.

On Monday, the CAHMCO website still showed Jeff Thorsen and Gay Szala as Board Members.

Today's article says that "...the Board underwent a shakeup (sic) after Seidel's firing - former president Jeff Thorsen resigned in protest, and another member became interim director."

No, I don't think that's how it was. Thorsen left the Board in November, two months before Seidel was fired.

On Monday afternoon, CAHMCO's website was changed to show that Art Wagoner is the interim Executive Director. I didn't see his name on the Board of Directors' listing on the website on Monday, so which Board Member was it who became interim director last Thursday?

Today Wagoner's title is Executive Director (the "interim" is gone). Was there a Board meeting since last week to elevate Wagoner from Interim Executive Director? Looks like he's the main man now. Executive Director is commonly a full-time, paid position. If they boot him now, won't he get unemployment and a severance package?

Another Board member left in November, but the paper didn't mention Gay Szala. Why did she leave the Board?

Don't miss this juicy part: The CEO of the McHenry County Community Foundation (MCCF), Kate Halma, had supported the formation of a new affordable housing organization in McHenry County, one to be run by Eric Koehler (hmmm, where do McHenry County residents know that last name from???) and "Chip" Eldredge. Eric is McHenry County Board Chairman Ken Koehler's son, and "Chip" is Charles Eldredge III, identified in the article as a "real estate consultant." Does that mean real estate salesman?

Back to Kate Halma, CEO of MCCF. According to the article, she carried the banner of the new organization (McHenry County Attainable Housing Corp.) to the MCCF Board. The Board didn't bite on January 4, and it fired Halma the next day. What did she do to rub the Board the wrong way?

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