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ANALYSIS
Playing politics on mental health How county government workings shielded board with mission to heal from reform By KEVIN P. CRAVER kcraver@shawmedia.com The “politicization” of the McHenry County Mental Health Board became too much for former member Brett Wisnauski. When he resigned last August – one of eight members to quit or be
forced out over the past 12 months – he alleged that County Board politics over the past year was hampering the board’s mission to help the county’s mentally ill and disabled. Recent upheaval comes after years of allegations that the agency has become a top-heavy bureaucracy that spends too much on itself.
But history tells a different story from the idea that the intertwining of the Mental Health Board and county politics is a new development. It has gone on for decades. And until now, the Mental Health Board very much benefited from it. Profligacy with public money – 90 percent of the board’s revenue comes
straight from taxes – has been a recurring accusation for the agency’s critics. It flared when the board gave raises and racked up questionable expenses during the County Board’s budget crisis in the late 1990s, and again in 2010 when it borrowed $4 million to almost quadruple the size of its Crystal Lake headquarters.
Accusations of bureaucratic bloating are nothing new. They arose as the Mental Health Board’s staff grew from 14 employees in the late 1990s to 50 full-time equivalents when the County Board approved the building expansion.
See POLITICS, page A13
Obama struggles to save his health law
RAINY DAYS STIFLE THE FLAMES
Administration still seeks broad acceptance By RICARDO ALONSO–ZALDIVAR The Associated Press
Northwest Herald file photo
A firefighter with the Davey Resource Group is surrounded by smoke and flames Nov. 13, 2012, during a prescribed burn at The Sanctuary of Bull Valley housing community in Woodstock.
Weather putting burns on hold Damp, cold days delaying usual fall grassland restoration work By JOSEPH BUSTOS jbustos@shawmedia.com During a short time frame in the fall, crews of eight from the McHenry County Conservation
District start burning brush in three to four events to help replenish nutrients in the ground. However, the cold temperatures and rainy days have stifled the district’s efforts to conduct pre-
scribed burns on district property. As of Nov. 11, the district had yet to conduct any controlled burns this fall. However, district staffers are on call the next three to four weeks in case they can drop other duties and conduct some burns. “The window of opportunity in the fall is very narrow from when things die back to when temperatures start regularly dipping
at and below the freezing mark,” Communications Manager Wendy Kummerer said. Burn season runs from Nov. 1 to early December, and from midMarch through the end of April. The district had planned to burn brush on about 400 to 500 acres, but weather patterns are not promising, Kummerer said.
WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama’s health care law risks coming unglued because of his administration’s bungles and his own inflated promises. To avoid that fate, Obama needs breakthroughs on three fronts: the cancellations mess, technology troubles and a crisis in confidence among his own supporters. Working in his favor are pent-up demands for the program’s benefits and an unlikely collaborator in the insurance industry. But even after Obama gets the enrollment website working, count on new controversies. On the horizon is the law’s potential impact on jobbased insurance. Its mandate that larger employers offer coverage will take effect in 2015. For now, odds still favor the Affordable Care Act’s survival. But after making it through the Supreme Court, a presidential election, numerous congressional repeal votes and a government shutdown, the law has yet to win broad acceptance. “There’s been nothing normal about this law from the start,” said Larry Levitt, an insurance expert with the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation. “There’s been no period of smooth sailing.” Other government mandates have taken root in American culture after initial resistance. It may be a simplistic comparison, but most people automatically fasten their
See BURN, page A10 See HEALTH CARE, page A10
LOCALLY SPEAKING
CRYSTAL LAKE
NEGOTIATIONS STALL IN DISTRICT 155 Both the District 155 school board and the teachers union posted their most recent contract offers on their respective websites, a step the entities had to take in the wake of both sides filing papers with the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board declaring they had reached an impasse. For more, see page B1.
Raina Shizas (left) and Natalie Trzeciak Lathan Goumas - lgoumas@shawmedia.com
HIGH
LOW
64 38 Complete forecast on A14
CRYSTAL LAKE: Library celebrates its centennial with EPIC Exploration event. Local&Region, B1
Where to find it Business D1-10 Classified F1-6 Local&Region B1-8
Vol. 28, Issue 321 Lottery Obituaries Opinion
A2 B6 A11
Planit Style Inside Puzzles F5 Sports C1-12
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