Sheriff's race on the move

Yes, Virginia, there really will be a race for Sheriff in McHenry County!

Democratic candidate Mike Mahon has his website up and running. You can view it at www.mikemahon.org

Friends of Mike Mahon will hold two fundraisers this week. The first will be in Huntley tomorrow, Thursday, November 19, and the other will be in Chicago on Tuesday, November 24.

For information regarding those events or to support Mike Mahon for Sheriff, visit www.mikemahon.org, e-mail info@mikemahon.org or call Mike's campaign phone number: 847.515.4772

Republican candidate for McHenry County Sheriff Zane Seipler is busy, too. For information about Zane and his campaign, visit http://sites.google.com/site/zaneformchenrycountysheriff/, e-mail Zane at zaneseipler@yahoo.com or call him at 847.561.1180

Green Party candidate for Sheriff is Gus Philpott (yours truly). My starter website is at www.gusphilpott.com. You can e-mail me at gus@gusphilpott.com or call me at 815.338.2666

The important race in the February 2nd Primary Election is the Republican challenge by Zane Seipler to the incumbent Republican sheriff.

If voters elect me on November 2, 2010, I can assure you that you will not have to chase me down by cell phone in Wisconsin or Florida. I promise not to charge taxpayers for vacation mileage in my Beetle, even though I still get 30MPG after 175,000 miles. I won't even charge ANY mileage, and I certainly won't expect you to provide a big SUV for me to drive around.

And, if I go to the airport for a vacation trip, I'll take a cab or hire a limo service at my own expense. I shall not ask a Department employee to drive me to the airport or allow one to do so. Any staffer needs to be at his place of business in McHenry County, not playing taxi driver to O'Hare. If we have business to discuss while I'm on the way to the airport, we can do it by phone.
But we won't have any business to discuss then, because I'll be on vacation. And, while I'm on vacation, I'll have competent staffers in place to run the Department in my absence. I will not be your "Cell Phone Sheriff."

What if you enter another country illegally?

Got this one by e-mail today. It caused me to think of the hikers who got off the trail recently in (where was it?).

"Let me see if I understand all this....

"IF YOU CROSS THE NORTH KOREAN BORDER ILLEGALLY, YOU GET 12 YEARS HARD LABOR......

"IF YOU GO INTO CHINA ILLEGALLY, YOU'RE CONSIDERED A SPY AND GET HARD PRISON TIME.....

"IF YOU GO INTO GERMANY ILLEGALLY, YOU GET A HEFTY FINE, WORK IT OFF OR PAY IT OFF, THEN GET DEPORTED........

"IF YOU GO INTO ENGLAND ILLEGALLY, YOU ARE IMMEDIATELY JAILED AND THEN DEPORTED........

"IF YOU CROSS THE IRANIAN BORDER ILLEGALLY, YOU ARE DETAINED INDEFINITELY....

"IF YOU CROSS INTO MEXICO ILLEGALLY, YOU ARE JAILED IMMEDIATELY (CAN BE UP TO 20 YEARS) AND THEN DEPORTED....

"BUT, IF YOU CROSS THE U.S. BORDER ILLEGALLY, YOU GET:

1. A DRIVERS LICENSE
2. A SOCIAL SECURITY CARD
3. WELFARE
4. FOOD STAMPS
5. FREE HEALTH CARE
6. EDUCATION FOR YOUR CHILDREN
7. U.S. CITIZENSHIP FOR YOUR CHILDREN BORN HERE

"I guess I still don't understand...maybe we need to VOTE OUR LAWMAKERS OUT."

Even if it is partially inaccurate, the U.S. handling of illegal aliens is abominable.

Customer wins - churners lose

Check out this morning's article in the Daily Herald about the 90-year-old Inverness (Ill.) woman who won $1.1 million in her legal action against two brokers and a Chicago stock brokerage firm involved in churning her account.

Her lawyer discovered that a Yahoo! account had been set up, to which stock transactions and account records could be emailed. The customer had not set up the email address! Through that account the brokerage firm could meet the requirement to send out confirmation notices. The problem? The customer never received them!

You can read the story here: www.dailyherald.com/story/comments/?id=337617

I was a stockbroker in 1981 in Denver when the penny stock market was hot. Do you know why it was called the Penny Stock market? It's where you could turn dollars into pennies!

It took me a while to figure out the market, and I got out. Customers would call and tell me that they wanted to invest. I wasn't too popular in the office, because I would caution customers that they weren't "investing"; they were speculating. Often I would discourage customers from buying stocks.

Managers would make statements like "The market is firming up", and I would ask if we were making Jello or something.

I remember asking one day if penny stocks could be sold short. It felt like the temperature in the room dropped about 30 degrees.

Good for Josephine DesParte, 90, of Inverness and her lawyer, Andrew Stoltmann, of Barrington Hills! According to the Daily Herald article, an arbitration panel awarded DesParte "her stock losses of $655,146, all capital gains taxes paid by the liquidation of long-held stocks of $380,000, and the return of $82,719 in fees that the brokers had charged."

FOUND: Husky pup

If you live on the north side of Woodstock near Clay and Bagley Streets and lost a Husky pup yesterday, call the Woodstock Police Dept. or the McHenry County Animal Control. Your dog was found last evening and taken in for the night.

Or email me at gus@woodstockadvocate.com or call me at 815.338.2666

The dog is currently confined in a neighbor's backyard. They recognized the husky's habit to roam and didn't want it to get hit by a car. So call right away, and I'll connect you with the family who rescued your dog.

"YOU LIE, driver of 39 759H!"

Remember last week's summary of a traffic incident on McHenry Avenue and Raffel Road? And the driver of a blue Toyota pick-up with Illinois license 39 759H?

I requested Woodstock Police Department to contact the driver, since he had reported, anonymously, to WPD that I was speeding north on Raffel Road.

Just had a visit from Ofc. L. Vasquez to fill me in on his contact with that driver. Get this!

According to Ofc. Vasquez, that driver told him that I had been tailgating him eastbound on McHenry Avenue from Irving and that I had passed him in the no-passing zone at Broadway. Then at Raffel Road that I made a left turn first and started north on Raffel Road. He said that he was behind me and pulled over to write down my license plate number, after which he followed me north on Raffel Road and then turned right on Banford.

Somebody has got to know who that clown is and who he works for. That guy has a serious problem with lying to police officers. I still wonder how he is connected.

This makes two times that I should have had my camera out and ready on the seat of the car. I'd make a lousy Boy Scout; right? Never prepared. Wouldn't it be nice to have a video of a driver passing me in a no-passing zone? Guess there wouldn't be any question about who passed whom!

I was glad to know that Woodstock P.D. has identified that other driver and that his name will appear in WPD records, even if he did lie and provide false information directly to a police officer. One of these days I'll probably come across somebody that that guy bragged to before Ofc. Vasquez showed up and who will testify that that driver had told a different story until the cop showed up.

And then he'll get charged with two incidents of lying to police: 1) when he phoned in an false report last Thursday and 2) when he lied directly to Ofc. Vasquez today.

The way it's done in Iowa

Check out how business is done in Iowa.

City cop follows driver at unsafe distance with bright lights on.
Driver speeds up a little.
Cop stops driver, issues tickets, cites driver for OWI (Operating While Intoxicated).
Driver refuses breathalyzer, because he's not drunk.
DMV revokes driver's license for refusal to take breathalyzer.
Driver can't afford attorney and gets court-appointed attorney. Attorney doesn't show up in court and forges driver's signature. Driver gets second court-appointed attorney.
Attorney #2 tells him to plead guilty. Driver gets third court-appointed attorney.
Attorney #3 tells him to plead guilty.
Driver is able to borrow $5,000 and gets private attorney.
Jury trial is conducted. Driver is found NOT Guilty on all charges.

I have written about this, but here's what's new.

The driver cannot get his driver's license back until October 2011, says the DMV, because the alleged DUI was his second and he refused the breathalyzer. It's an administrative action by the DMV, not a legal action in court. So says the DMV.

And the Not Guilty verdict? "Doesn't matter," says the DMV.

Well, the DMV is dead wrong. When you are not guilty, you are Not guilty. The cop's charge didn't stand, and all go back to Square 1. Like, when the driver had his license.

In this case I am helping the driver, who will get his license back. The revocation needs to be lifted, and without payment of any fees or costs, since he was found Not Guilty. And, as I always tell those I help, I am not a lawyer. Anything I say or tell you to do is not legal advice. I'm just your advocate.

How long will it take the Iowa DMV to get this picture right and return this driver's license?

It turns out that this practice by local police in Bettendorf, Iowa, may not be uncommon. So, be warned if you are driving at night in Bettendorf. Do not get "pushed" to speed up by a car behind you with its bright lights on.

Woodstock's website needs CPR

I've commented on our City's website before, and I'll sling another arrow today, after reading dated information about the Transportation Committee that is almost a month out-of-date. Our website is stagnant and boring.

Surely, there are resources, even volunteer opportunities, to put some LIFE in our website. When information on websites grows stale, readers stop visiting them. And even when they do, if nothing causes an item to leap out, a visitor will move right along and click away to something more interesting. Attention spans are short.

The City's website could use more photos and fresh photos. City employees could be featured, such as on the Police Department webpages. Officers' photos and short bios could be published. Geographic outlines for beat assignments could be shown. The City could recognize career employees and compliment (or commiserate with) those who have been employed by the City of Woodstock for 20-25-30 years.

Check out the photos of the Divisions on the PD's webpage, in particular the poster on the wall behind the officer speaking to students in a classroom. It reads, "WHOO'S (sic) DOING GOOD WORK?" This was (hopefully) on the wall when the officer arrived; then only the school and the teacher should be embarrassed. Even so, once the background was checked, should the photo have been used without explanation of the misspelled word?

I'll bet there is plenty of brainpower right on the PD staff to liven up the webpages, like maybe with a video of Brinx or of one of the motorcycle officers. The K-9 unit isn't even shown on the Patrol Division webpage. Does Woodstock still have the dog? Show the dog snuggling with kids and then attacking in a training set-up.

Several years ago I suggested (several times) that the patrol "beats" be shown on the City's police web pages. Make it easy for residents to ascertain the "beat" in which their home or office is located.

Beat assignments and officers' names and email addresses could also be shown online, making it very easy for residents to communicate about crime problems. What would be so hard about that? Has it happened? If so, I can't find the pages. If the public wishes to email all the officers of a particular beat, notice of the "group" email address could be published.

For your information, the Permanent Beat Officer "group" email address is "pbo@woodstockil.gov"; ex., pbo21@woodstockil.gov will get your email to all three beat officers for Beat 21 and their supervisors.

I remember a billboard in Albuquerque with the flashing lights of a police car behind a violation and the message, "Don't let there be bright lights in your future." No reason we couldn't have something clever like that around here, at least on our website.

Take a look at the Community Calendar at the bottom of the homepage. "Letters to Santa?" From November 16 on? Was it there earlier? Can't tell, because the City wipes out events on all days past. What is the "community" value of that?

If you have an opinion or suggestion for improvements in the City's website, post your comment here and also email it to CityManager@woodstockil.gov