Fireworks at Dorr Township meeting

At tonight's Dorr Township meeting it didn't take long for the shouting to get underway. Shortly after the Pledge of Allegiance and the approval of the February Minutes, after slight corrections, a resident asked if it was illegal for the January Minutes to be changed to include an item that had not been discussed.

You'd have thought it was the Fourth of July. One Trustee and Township Attorney Saladin took offense and went on the defensive. The resident claimed that the topic of "soil borings" was never discussed in January, yet soil borings are now mentioned in the Minutes as having been discussed.

Supervisor Bob Pierce declared that this meeting "will not become another Grafton Township" and cut off discussion before the matter really got resolved. A woman corroborated the man's comments about the January Minutes and then brought up a report by a Citizens' committee that had been formed by the Board a year ago to explore space needs of the Township offices.

As the meeting progressed, it appeared that the Committee's written report had not been forwarded to the Township's architect, but was only orally transmitted. Two dissenting letters were provided to the architects.

The citizens' committee, which was disbanded after its work was completed, wants the Township to refund $1,000,000 in taxes it collected and wants consideration of a refund on the agenda for the Township Annual Meeting in April.

The members of the former committee will present their report at the April 13th Township Annual Meeting, although the Trustees and Supervisor want them to present it as electors, not as members of the committee, since the committee has been disbanded. Tempers had calmed down by the point and the rest of the meeting was pretty civil.

The Annual Town Meeting will be held on April 13, 2010, at 7:00PM in the auditorium of the Woodstock High School. Two other venues were considered: the Opera House ($800 plus an hourly charge) and the Library (maximum capacity 60).

The Township approved a $500 donation to the McHenry County Historical Society. Watch for the Dorr Township "free" day there later this year.

Watch for news of senior services and youth services on the Township's website at www.dorrtownship.com/ A March 18 meeting will feature the topic of reverse mortgages and Medicare supplements; an April meeting will feature grandparenting skills. Bus trips for seniors will be available, too.

Tonight's meeting was SRO.

Political office, anyone?

Have you decided to run for County Board, other County elected office or State political office, but you missed the filing period before the Primary on 2/2/10?

It's not too late.

If you are serious about wanting to enter the fray for a County or State office and you'd like to be considered by the Green Party, now is the time to step up and say so.

The Green Party would like to slate candidates for County and State offices, including Treasurer, County Clerk and judge(s?) under the following deadlines.

The filing deadline for all offices is April 17th, except candidates for the Illinois General Assembly (if any) must be designated no later than 60 days after the Feb. 2nd primary date. So that's somewhere around April 1-2. Don't wait until the last minute.

After slating, signatures must be collected within a certain time-frame. For complete requirements, contact Scott Summers, Green Party candidate for Illinois Treasurer, at Scott@SummersForTreasurer.org

Frank Wedig is the Green Party candidate for McHenry County Board District 5, and Gus Philpott is the Green Party candidate for McHenry County Sheriff.

Hunting on the County's website

Over the week-end I wanted to provide information to a resident about the new transportation system available here in McHenry County.

Easy as pie, right?

Just go to the County's website at http://www.mchenrycountyil.gov/ and look under "T" for Transportation under the Departments tab. Errrr, wrong.

Well, okay; how about in the A-Z Services? Certainly, Transportation could be found there.

Wrong again.

Where is it? I searched for "Transportation", found it and clicked on the link. The link was broken.

This morning I learned that Transportation is found under Departments, but you have to look under "D" for Division of Transportation!

Why doesn't McHenry County just combine Departments and A-Z Services and give residents just one place to look up what they are trying to find?

By the way, here's the link for the new transportation service: http://www.mchenrycountyil.gov/departments/dot/Pages/PaceService.aspx

Texas deputy injured in shooting outside Walmart

An off-duty deputy sheriff was shot and injured in Texas northeast of Dallas on Sunday. The deputy, who was believed to be shopping at Walmart, found himself involved after a man with a long gun and a handgun was chased by local officers in the Walmart parking lot. That man had reportedly fired at least three shots from his car in a town about 12 miles away.

The shooter was killed, and the deputy was transported to a hospital. The full story can be read at www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/030710dnmetcommerce.1858a0ede.html

The article doesn't report exactly who fired the shot that injured Delta County Deputy Paul Robertson. One of the most dangerous situations for all law enforcement officers is when a suspect is in the middle of opposite lines of fire. Add to that that the deputy was off-duty and presumably not in uniform. Cops are trained to look beyond the target to avoid shooting bystanders, should their bullets miss the target.

Casciaro to be in court again on Mar. 19

How will the disappearance and probable murder of Brian Carrick be handled in McHenry County?

Mario Casciaro is sitting in McHenry County Jail on murder charges, unable to bond out on his $5,000,000 bail. His charges? Five counts of murder and one of concealing a homicide.

According to Saturday’s Northwest Herald, “The indictment alleged that Casciaro, or someone for whose conduct he was legally responsible, hit Brian Carrick on the head while committing the offenses of intimidation, mob action and unlawful restraint.”

Robert Render was previously accused of concealing a homicide in this case, but the charges were dropped in mid-January. As I recall, they were dropped without prejudice, meaning that they can be re-filed.

Further on in the article, there was printed, “Another man, Alan Lippert, testified in August that Casciaro had told him what happened to Carrick. Casciaro told (Shane) Lamb to ‘scare’ Carrick over an outstanding debt and ‘things got out of hand’.”

Lamb has reportedly cut an immunity deal with the McHenry County State’s Attorney’s office. If he testifies truthfully and completely in the Casciaro case, he will not be charged in connection with the Carrick case.

Now, what’s wrong with this picture?

If one connects the dots from news stories, then it would be easy to infer that Lamb may be the one for whom things got out of hand. If “getting out of hand” means that Lamb didn’t just “intimidate” Carrick to get him to square up on his debt (what was that debt for?), does it mean that Lamb's actions resulted in Carrick's death?

If that is what happened, should an immunity deal be offered to the one who is suspected of actually causing a death? Could this mean that an actual killer could skate on a murder charge, as long as he testifies truthfully that someone else got him to do something?

Keep in mind that anyone accused of a crime is innocent until proven guilty. Casciaro should not be tried in the press.

Maybe there shouldn’t be any news in the press about what leads up to a trial. It wasn’t all that long ago that Gary Gauger was tried, convicted, imprisoned, and sent to Death Row. And then released and then exonerated, when the real killers were caught.

Casciaro is due in Judge Prather's court again on March 19. And on March 26 Judge Prather will hear a motion for a subpoena request.

Letter to the Editor - a Must Read

In this morning's Northwest Herald is a Letter to the Editor from Huntley resident Dottie Bobzin. There is a woman who knows how to speak her mind.

You can read it in the print edition or go to www.nwherald.com and search for Bobzin. Better hurry. After seven days the NWH can be expected to archive it and will want to charge you $2.95 to read it.

What does she have to say about the Moore-Fender-Trustees battle of words and wit? Try a few of these on for size: "ashamed, petty, wasteful, immature, ludicrous, nasty, dysfunctional, unproductive"

Ms. Bobzin is a woman who says what she means, and I'll bet that she means what she says.

Undersheriff - who and when?

McHenry County residents and department employees are waiting to hear who will be tapped for the position of Undersheriff of the McHenry County Sheriff's Department. Gene Lowery is departing for the Crystal Lake Police Department, where he is scheduled to start on March 29 as Deputy Chief, filling the spot vacated by Dennis Harris when he retired at the end of January.

How is the appointment (promotion?) made within the Sheriff's Department? Is there a slate of qualified employees from which the sheriff will choose? Is there a short list of outside candidates that the sheriff is considering?

It might be a good morale booster within the department for an employee to be promoted, but who are those qualified to move up? Has anyone be trained along the way, in the event of a sudden vacancy in either the position of sheriff or undersheriff?

CALEA might call it "management depth." That's the same concept that a large corporation ought to follow, in case a plane goes down with the senior management staff aboard. Or even a small business, if the business is to survive the owner.

The sheriff's department Merit Commission was to meet on February 10, and I had intended to ask what the procedure is for filling the undersheriff's spot. The Commission canceled that meeting.

So far the Commission is scheduled to meet for its Regular Meeting on March 10. No agenda item includes any discussion or vote on the Undersheriff's position. Does the Merit Commission have any voice in this matter? Is there an Eligibility List for Undersheriff, as there is for sergeants and lieutenants?

Incidentally, although "Executive Session" appears on the agenda, there is no agenda item for Action on Executive Session matters. Would the absence of that agenda item prevent a vote on any topic discussed in Executive Session?