NWH omits online story about sheriff's plan

On Wednesday, October 21, the Northwest Herald carried a story in its print edition (Page 3C) about the plans of McHenry County Sheriff Nygren to appeal an arbitrator's decision to a circuit court judge.

For some reason, the Northwest Herald omitted to carry that story online. Or perhaps I looked so hard for it that I just didn't see it. The last story online is about Zane Seipler and the positive decision by the arbitrator (i.e., that Seipler should have had a three-day suspension, not termination, and that he was awarded all back pay, except for three days).

A reader searching for information would conclude that Seipler was going back to work and would receive his back pay.

According to the print edition, however, Nygren plans to appeal the arbitrator's decision to a circuit court judge.

How long will this take and how much will it cost taxpayers?

My guess? Over a year and tens of thousands of dollars.

Sheriff to appeal Seipler arbitration decision

The Northwest Herald will have a story shortly that Sheriff Nygren didn't like the decision of the arbitrator in Zane Seipler's case and will be appealing that decision to Circuit Court.

Man! Talk about being a sore loser!

Nygren fired Seipler last November. Seipler went to arbitration in July. The decision this week was Seipler 1, Nygren 0. The arbitrator concluded that Nygren should not have fired Seipler and that a three-day unpaid suspension was appropriate and sufficient discipline. The arbitrator awarded Seipler all back pay, except for the three-day period.

On Friday the Sheriff's Department Merit Commission is to meet. So, is it the Sheriff who fires deputies, or does the Merit Commission fire them?

If the Merit Commission is the public body that decides whether to appeal, how can the Sheriff jump in ahead of time and say the matter is going to Circuit Court?

Unless the Merit Commission is a paid, rubber-stamp operation for the Sheriff. Is it? Surely, a $75.00 per diem can't gain an elected official that much influence over a public body.

But, then, how much of a public body is the Merit Commission, since its members are appointed by the Sheriff? Perhaps it's time for the County Board to assume authority over the Merit Commission and make independent appointments.

Zane already has 11 months' pay coming. How long will it take to get a decision in Circuit Court? A year? Let's see; that'll be November 2010. Bingo! Election time! And by then Zane will have two years' coming.

Today I emailed the Merit Commission to request that they put the Seipler reinstatement on the Agenda for Friday's meeting. I sent the request through the HR Department of the County, because the Chairperson of the Merit Commission told me previously that she didn't want me to email her at her Woodstock City government job.

I wonder if that means that she never conducts Merit Commission business during normal working hours for her Woodstock job. In a perfect world that would be true. Are we in a perfect world?

If the Sheriff is worried about having a guy "like Zane" in his department, let me ask you this.

Suppose you were Sheriff and a Captain with the State Police called you and told you that he had received information that deputies were going to have a big drinking party at a bar that night and that a DUI checkpoint had been requested to catch any drunk drivers. What would you do?

If I were Sheriff, I'd have asked that Captain why he was calling me! "You've got a complaint? Go out and do something about it. Need some extra help?" And I sure as heck would not have spread the name of the caller around roll call the next week!!!

Seipler Wins Arbitration!!!

Zane Seipler has won his arbitration hearing!

In a decision released this morning, the arbitrator rendered his decision that Seipler should not have been fired almost a year ago by McHenry County Sheriff Keith Nygren. The arbitrator indicated that a three-day suspension would have been the appropriate discipline.

Seipler was awarded all back pay, except for three days.

Seipler, who was suspended on July 21, 2008 and fired on November 17, 2008, expects reinstatement to his position as Deputy Sheriff with the Department.

The McHenry County Sheriff's Department Merit Commission was unable to meet last Wednesday, because a quorum of its members did not show up for the regularly-scheduled meeting. According to the County Board Calendars, it has not re-scheduled that meeting, although one of the members present had indicated it would be re-scheduled.

No regular meeting is scheduled (yet) for November, because the Merit Commission's regular meeting day (second Wednesday of the month) falls on Veterans Day, November 11, a Federal and County holiday. Was it an oversight not to schedule its meeting on the first available business day after November 11?

If the Merit Commission does not meet before its regular meeting on December 9, will Seipler have to wait that long to be reinstated? Or will the Merit Commission hold a Special Meeting to handle its October Agenda business, approve its meeting schedule for 2010, and reinstate Seipler?

Or will the Sheriff try to get the Merit Commission to appeal the decision of the arbitrator, and incur additional legal costs to fight what was obviously a wrongful termination?

Will the appointees on the Merit Commission have the "intestinal fortitude" to stand against the Sheriff and order Seipler's reinstatement and immediate payment of all awarded back pay without delay or further waste of County taxpayer's monies for legal expense?

Woodstock PD Contract Yet?

Has the City completed its labor negotiations with the officers of the Woodstock Police Department yet?

It's my understanding that the officers have been working without a contract for over a year. Longer? Is there an officer of the department who would like to comment here on what it feels like to work in a department that cannot (will not) complete union negotiations for over a year?

What is the cost to have negotiators/mediators involved? Is the City actually paying $250.00 per hour for a mediator to try to move things off dead-center? How many hours have been paid for, so far? And will the rate increase when a different category of negotiations is reached?

What is the hourly rate for an arbitrator?

In the early 1980s in Denver I met John Marks, founder of Search for Common Ground, a Washington, D.C.-based international mediation firm. http://www.sfcg.org/

From its website I read today, "We began in 1982 at the height of the Cold War, and we focused on building bridges between East and West. Back then, we had two employees, a handful of supporters, and a minuscule budget. And we had the audacity to think we could change the world - from a win-lose, you-or-me environment, to a win-win, you-and-me place.

"Today, that audacity still shapes our work. "

I recall one of John's comments about establishing a relationship between parties who were never going to agree. He said that the first thing you do is to find something on which they can agree. It might be that they cannot agree. So there actually is something on which they can agree, and you build from there.

We need some of that around here!

Woodstock Legal Actions

Just how many legal actions is Woodstock involved in? What's the breakdown of legal fees paid by the City of Woodstock? What categories and how many dollars?

Every business tracks its legal exposure and the expense of that exposure? Is the City of Woodstock - surely, a business - tracking this exposure and forecasting its probable expenses?

It is critical to forecast legal expenses and to determine just how much it is likely to cost to wage the battle, as well as the likelihood of winning. There are legal expenses, whether you win or lose. It's all a matter of degree.

The stewards of the money of Woodstock are the City Manager and the City Council. Just how much is discussed and decided in the Executive Sessions of the City Council - those closed sessions from which the public and the press are excluded. When does the public get an accounting of the decisions and the expense of those decisions?

It has come to my attention that on Thursday, June 26, at 10:00AM there will be another (!) meeting to discuss the employment/reinstatement of a female police dispatcher who was (wrongfully?) terminated two years ago. The information provided to me is that the City of Woodstock was ordered by a Federal arbitrator a year ago to put her back to work with full back pay for the year she was off.

When parties agree to arbitration, don't they agree to accept the decision of the arbitrator? Arbitration agreed-to is assumed to be fair and a less-expensive proceeding than an all-out court case.

So, what's wrong with this picture? If she was ordered back to work a year ago with full back pay - and she hasn't been back at work - now it looks like she is owed two years' back pay.

For a City that is facing a severe financial strain with expected reduced revenues, will we end up paying an employee for two years not to work? Why wasn't the direction of the Arbitrator accepted and followed? Is the case now that there is going to be an arbitration meeting about the arbitration meeting???

Is it time to begin questioning in great detail just how much Woodstock pays for legal advice? Who is doing the feasibility study to determine whether we might get more legal services for the same or less money? The City does that with the trucks and the salt it buys. Why not do it for the services it contracts.

More residents need to get involved in Woodstock government. Too few show up at City Council meetings. The only way for government to be Government of the People, for the People, by the People is for the PEOPLE to show up!