Merit Commission - its purpose?

What is the McHenry County Sheriff's Department Merit Commission?

From the sheriff's website at www.mchenrysheriff.org comes the answer.

McHenry County Sheriff Merit Commission
Purpose: To ensure the citizens of McHenry County that there is a fair and equal opportunity system for the employment, promotion, discipline and discharge of full-time Deputy Sheriffs.

Notice the Purpose. It is to ensure the citizens that ...

Is there a "fair and equal opportunity system"? Is that how the Commission works?

Like anything else, the "big print" gives it to you; the "little print" takes it away. In this case, you're seeing the "big print". You aren't even going to see the "little print".

In the "little print" the sheriff - that would be McHenry County Sheriff Keith Nygren - has the first choice, perhaps the only choice, in whether the five-member Commission is even going to get a crack at ensuring the "citizens of McHenry County" that there is a fair ... system.

When an employee of the sheriff's department screws up, the sheriff will make the initial decision how bad the screw-up is. If he decides that the offending employee deserves only 30 days off without pay, then Nygren can assess that penalty, and the matter will never come before the Merit Commission. But if the discipline is greater than 30 days, then Nygren is to submit the discipline to the Merit Commission, where he will expect his hand-picked five to support his decision. They don't have to, but ...

What if an employee screws up, maybe more than once, maybe 3-4 times, and gets 30 days off without pay? Are the citizens being ensured that there is a fair system in place? What if a "fair system" would mean canning the errant employee, but that employee is really on the A-list? The Do-No-Wrong List. Or the Even-if-you-do-wrong-you-ain't-gonna-get-canned" list.

What if that employee is a jailer (okay, a Corrections Officer) who is more than friendly with some gang members who are inmates? Like, maybe slipping into a corner out of sight of a video camera and getting in a little hootchie-cootchie time. And maybe that jailer gets quite a bit of unpaid time off, more than once.

Are the citizens of the County ensured of a fair system? Well, in this case the Merit Commission is not going to hear about it because, if a jailer is the employee involved, the Merit Commission doesn't hear problems concerning jailers. But let's say that a "merited" officer (a deputy) is involved. If the employee is on the A-list and discipline is kept to "30 days or less", the Merit Commission won't ever see the case.

And when the Merit Commission doesn't see the case, the public is not going to hear about it. The Merit Commission is a "public body"; its meetings records are open to the public. Even if "crimes" occur. You know, like criminal offenses? Why can those get handled "administratively", whereas any other resident would get charged with the crime and find himself engaged in the criminal justice process?

The very first Merit Commission meeting that I attended involved a huge violation of the Illinois Open Meetings Act. Not one of the five Commissioners showed up. They intended to conduct the meeting by telephone. And they would have gotten away with it, had I not been there. Should the public care? Of course!

What's on the Agenda for this week's meeting, which will be Thursday, May 10 (not Wednesday, May 9)? Do any of the Honjacki problems (McHenry P.D.) overflow into the Evidence Room at our Sheriff's Department? Or into arrests made by deputies? Did Hojnacki have a drug problem himself, or was he just stealing drugs (as alleged)?

Should there be random drug testing for deputies and jailers, or even all employees of the McHenry County Sheriff's Department? Yes? No? Why not? Who would object to a fair system of random drug testing? Only someone using drugs.