Woodstock posts City Council 12/17 Minutes

City Clerk Dianne Mitchell got a real work-out after the December 17th meeting of the Woodstock City Council. The Minutes of that meeting required 17 pages of transcription!

The Minutes for that meeting have been posted, and she did a great job of compiling an accurate record of the comments by many Woodstock residents.

The Minutes can be viewed by going to the City's website at
www.woodstockil.gov
Then hover over City Council (left side)
Then click on City Council Minutes
Then click on December 17, 2013 City Council Minutes
Click on that link again, and then click OK to open the document

The Woodstock City Council is one of the few public bodies that follows the Open Meetings Act requirement of rollcall votes to enter Executive (Closed) Sessions and to return to Open Sessions.

These Minutes do not reflect anything that was discussed during the Executive Session, which started at 9:53PM and ended at 11:32PM.

Several Council members made statements to the media the following day.

The next City Council Regular Meeting will be January 21. If you are interested in the issue that received so much attention on December 17, you might wish to attend the January 21 meeting and ask the Council to make a formal statement about action it can or will take, or will not.

NWH corrects date in jail story, but nothing else

Late yesterday afternoon the Northwest Herald updated its January 3rd story about the breach in security at the McHenry County Jail. The breach was a male inmate's getting into the women's section of the jail for a little "afternoon delight" with one of the women inmates.

The Northwest Herald inserted the correct date of the breach (Dec. 21) and placed a note at the bottom of the article: "• Note to readers: The original story required a correction. The incident happened on Dec. 21. The Northwest Herald regrets the error."

Unfortunately, the paper did not correct the many errors in the story.

Jailers are seething at how this story was reported. They would like for the public to be informed of the truth, because the public's opinion of the management of the Jail and of the Sheriff's Department might begin to change.

If the Northwest Herald opened the Comment Box below the article, then some brave souls might contribute valuable information about jail operations. They'd have to be extra careful, though, because retaliation would quite likely be swift.

Say it's not so, Andy.

Let's take the door between the men's and women's lock-ups. Rumor has it that jailers have complained for ten years that the door does not operate properly. Further, the door is directly between the two sections. Is there an Illinois County Jail Standard that male and female inmates are to be housed out of sight and sound of one another? But isn't it routine that the inmates communicate with one another by notes and voice?

Whenever a secure door is opened, shouldn't this draw the immediate attention of the guard paid to monitor the closed-circuit television monitors? Sure, there is a lot to watch on several monitors but, if a guard opens a secure door, shouldn't the guard pay direct attention to that monitor until the guard has safely passed through and re-secured the door?

In the Northwest Herald, the reporter wrote, "The Sheriff's Office is modifying procedures 'to make it impossible to ever happen again,' Undersheriff Andy Zinke said." To make sure what will never happen again?

The article continued, "For starters, the access door no longer will be used."

Want to bet? Is it going to welded shut? I doubt it!

And then, "All correctional officers were required to attend mandatory security training." Is that since the breach on December 21? Funny how the guards don't know about any new security training since December 21.

The County Board should make an independent operations and financial audit of the Jail and determine the true extent of operations income and expense. Jail population is down, especially the number of Federal prisoners being held and the number of I.C.E. detainees. But word is that staffing has not been reduced accordingly.

Are administrative and supervisory costs up, with all the new CERT teams? What did the ACA accreditation cost? What are the benefits, if any? Nice plaque to put on the wall. Somebody went on a paid vacation to Washington to pick up the plaque that could have been shipped for $10.

Not to worry. It's "just" taxpayer funds.

Wdstk BOFPC is short one member; want the "job"?

The Woodstock Board of Fire and Police Commissioners (BOFPC) is short one member. Interested? Civic-minded residents serve as volunteers - without pay (unless the City Council and Mayor).

A common misconception is that a resident on the BOFPC must be a police officer. This is incorrect. At the current time, one of the commissioners does happen to be a police officer. Larry Howell, a Woodstock resident, is Chief of Police for the Lakewood Police Department.

The second current commissioner is Ron Giordano. He serves as Chairman.

Tom Schroeder was a commissioner for several years. Then Janelle Crowley, former HR Director of the City of Woodstock, was appointed to succeed Schroeder, after she resigned from the City's job. Then she moved out of Woodstock and became ineligible to serve.

Crowley was also the Chairperson of the McHenry County Sheriff's Department Merit Commission. I don't know if she still lives in McHenry County or if residency is even a requirement for a County Commission appointment, but a little thing like residency would never slow Keith Nygren down.

Crowley's resignation from the BOFPC was announced at the September 16th meeting, and the third commission appointment has remained unfilled since then.
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Why would Mayor Sager not appoint the third required Commissioner promptly?

When the Amati issue came before the BOFPC, there were only two commissioners, Giordano and Howell. Wouldn't you have wanted to be a fly on the wall during that hearing?

The Mayor and the City Council would have been informed promptly that Crowley had resigned by September 16th. But no replacement was appointed in October, November or December. The next opportunity for the Mayor and City Council to appoint the third commissioner will be January 21.

If you are interested in being appointed, express that interest now. Without delay. You can print the form from the City's website at www.woodstockil.gov

See "Boards and Commissions" on the left, and click on it.
Scroll all the way to the bottom and click on the link for "Application for Board Appointment"

Do not be intimidated by the experience requirements. Be creative about your skills, traits, characteristics, abilities, insight, dedication, enthusiasm, civic-mindedness.

2014 People in Need Forum - Jan. 25

The 11th People in Need Forum will be held on Saturday,
January 25, at McHenry County College.

Hours for this year's Forum will be 8:00AM-12:30PM. The Forum is for helpers; it is to exchange information about services that will help people-in-need. The Forum is not for those with a need, unless they wish to attend to find out how to help others.

There are opportunities for volunteers to help at the Forum. You can come and suck up information, or you can pitch in and make it happen.

See www.mchenry.edu/peopleinneed/index.asp for complete details and to register for this free Forum.

Woodstock tenant-landlord issues escalate

Remember the squabble last fall, when some Woodstock renters decided that they'd had enough?

Certain tenants felt their landlords had fallen down on their jobs, and they banded together and went to City Hall. The City Council listened and began modifying the City Code.

An article in this morning's Northwest Herald describes a lawsuit filed by Bill Zieske and Denise Halverson against Advantage Plus, a landlord in Woodstock with multiple properties. In the legal action, Zieske and Halverson allege property damage from nelgect of needs, consumer fraud, breach of the lease, and assault.

In a comment already posted to the story, someone using the name of Oscar Clayton wrote, "All business owners please note names Zieske and Halverson probably to 2 people you do not want as customers.Scum. Landlords in this county need to organize and rate tenants and share that information. Tenants destroy property and move on to next one. Often when there rent is paid by taxpayers."

I don't know Oscar Clayton, but I am acquainted with Bill Zieske. Any landlord ought to be happy to have him as a tenant. He's a lawyer, and I'll bet he pays his rent on time. Why? Because his signature on the lease means something to him. If landlords rated Bill Zieske, they'd rate him A-1.

I knew a landlord in Denver in the 1980s. At one meeting, a person in the audience asked him how he got his tenants to pay their rent on time. He said he had a deal with tenants. Their end of the deal was to pay their rent by the fourth day of each month, without his asking for it. His end of the deal was to keep the property in good repair. If there was a water leak or a roof leak or a sticky lock, all they had to do was let him know and he would have it fixed the same day.

Open Letter to Sheriff Nygren and Undersheriff Zinke

Dear Sheriff Nygren and Undersheriff Zinke,

I am writing to ask you to provide corrected information to the Northwest Herald regarding the security breach at the McHenry County Jail on December 21, 2013.

The Northwest Herald article posted on Friday, January 3, 2014, stated that the breach was "About 6 p.m. Saturday...", confusing and misleading readers to believe the breach was on the previous Saturday, December 28. As you know, it occurred on December 21.

Please clarify for readers that there have been locking problems with the door between the men's and women's sections for years, perhaps more than 5-10 years. Why would the door have to be "slammed"? Why wasn't the door repaired?

Please clarify that the door was not for use only in emergencies. Jail administration have allowed jailers to use that door on a regular basis.

Please clarify the reporter's sentence, "All correctional officers were required to attend mandatory security training." Does it mean that all COs have been required to attend mandatory security training since the breach, or only that they were all required at some time after hiring to attend such training?

Did you have anything to do with the decision by the Northwest Herald management or editors to remove the Comment Box below the jail-breach article? Did you ask them to remove the Comment Box or suggest its removal? Will you ask them to restore the Comment Box?

Please provide the Northwest Herald with the correct time of the first notification to a guard that a male inmate was in the female inmate section and the time that guards arrived at the female's cell to remove him.

How will this very serious breach affect the jail's accreditation with the American Correctional Association and the housing of prisoners and detainees by the Federal Marshals and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agencies?

Where are the Minutes?

Usually the City of Woodstock posts Minutes of City Council pretty quickly after the meetings on the City's website. When they do, then residents of Woodstock can read them and know what happened at the meetings.

It is surprising that no Minutes have been posted since November 19.

Two City Council meetings have been held since November 19. On December 3 and December 17 the City Council met.

The December 17th meeting is of interest to many residents, because this was the first public meeting after the news of the Chip Amati discipline hit town.

There were concerned residents at the meeting who spoke up. They and others want to read what got recorded in the Minutes. Perhaps they will be posted soon.

Where can you find the Minutes?

Go to www.woodstockil.gov
Hover over City Council
Click on City Council Minutes
Click on the date for the Minutes you wish to view
Keep clicking until the Minutes appear