Another bill from the Special Prosecutor after Lou Bianchi has finally turned up, but it's only for three (maybe 3 1/2) months, with three months billings accrued but unbilled as yet.
McHenry County Blog (www.mchenrycountyblog.com/) reproduces Judge Gordon Graham's court order, filed March 14 (yesterday), approving billings of $90,783.24 for work done in August, September, October and November 2010. The Northwest Herald reported the newest bill online at 9:22PM.
The previous bill included work in August. What's up with two billings for August? Is someone (anyone?) minding the store?
The total for two earlier billings for the Special Prosecutor's work was $221,476.28. With the new $90,783.24, the County will now have paid $312,259.52, even though the County Board members have approved only $200,000 for this work.
BILLINGS ARE STILL OUTSTANDING FOR DECEMBER 2010, AND JANUARY AND FEBRUARY 2011. What's that? Another $90,000?
Why hasn't the County Board put a stop to this? Why hasn't the County Board sent the most highly-skilled, most-experienced attorney it can find, into Judge Graham's court to tell him "No more money." If Judge Graham wants the hounds to keep running, let him pay the bill.
Oh, one more thing. The Order directs that the legal bill is to be paid "promptly". Why? Why didn't the lawyers submit it months ago (say, about December 15) and then expect to wait the standard 30-60 days for payment? They would have had the money by now. But they waltz in on Monday, slide the word "promptly" into the Order, smile (I'd be smiling, too) with a "Please sign here, your honor", and then probably hoped that the Order would show up tonight at the County Board meeting for approval.
Guess I'll have to wait for Wednesday's Northwest Herald to find out if the County Board figured out how to slip the bill into tonight's agenda for payment. If they follow the Open Meetings Act, it didn't get approved tonight for payment.
The next County Board meeting will be the first Tuesday in April. Wait! Scratch that. There is no 9AM County Board meeting scheduled for that day, which is election day in McHenry County.
The April morning meeting of the County Board will be Thursday, April 7, at 9:00AM.
You never know who is interested…
3 months ago
2 comments:
This whole situation is downright nauseating - the people of McHenry County are forking over hard-earned tax money to pay for this investigation.
If this doesn't make the people of McHenry County stand up and ask the County Board what the heck is going on, I don't know what will.
Someone - anyone - needs to point out to the Judge that there will not be unlimited funds available for this investigation. (and if the investigators can't get the billing done within a reasonable amount of time - let's say 1 month - they should be SOL getting payment.)
When will the County Board wake up and do the right thing for the people they represent?
Does the latest Tonigan/McQueen bill even have to be approved by the County Board?
Or is Judge Graham's Order adequate for the County to have to pay, without County Board approval even though 100% of it is over the $200,000 limit on Special Prosecutor expenses authorized by the County Board?
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