Interested party steps forward for Dist. 11 County Board seat

Reader Don Mason dropped me a line today to acknowledge he's asking to be considered as Karen Elyea's (D-11) successor on the county board after Elyea was sworn in as a Rockford alderman last week.

Here's what he had to say:

Raoul:

I've submitted my name to both County Board Chairman Scott Christiansen and Democratic Central Committee Chairman Dan Lewandowski for consideration to fill the County Board District 11 vacancy created by the resignation of Karen Elyea.

Resumes have been sent to all of the Democratic Precinct Committeemen in District 11, to Chuck Sweeny at The Rockford Register Star, and to Frank Schier at The Rock River Times.

Some of my qualifications include:

1)Education (two Associate's degrees, a Bachelor's, a Doctorate, and post-Doctorate surgical training)

2)Entrepreneurial experience (including being awarded a United States patent)

3)Union experience (former member of Local 196 of the Musicians Union)

4)Community service (Steering Committee of Kishwaukee Corridor Weed and Seed; President of Northwest Midtown Neighborhood Association, also known as Now!Town)

5) Government experience: (Seven years on the Alden Township Planning Commission in McHenry County. Township planning commissions are extremely rare, but in my opinion lead to better land use planning - and Winnebago County could certainly use better land use planning. So I've written an article about how they work, and I've submitted it to The Rock River Times.)

My supporters for the District 11 appointment include Rockford Township Clerk Jeff Holt; 11th Ward Alderman Karen Elyea; and Deputy Director of Regional Planning and Economic Development, County of Winnebago, Jim Hughes.

Perhaps this new information will help to clear up some of the misunderstandings regarding the recent 11th Ward race.

Dr. Donald C. (Don) Mason

19 county board members shit on District 2 in Puri County

Before I headed out the door for a night of hedonism at the OTB, I just had to watch last night's county board meeting on cable to see exactly how the Cult of Puri goose-stepped all over the will of the people.
Children of Winnebago County, you've got a bunch of pushovers on the county board. The biggest ones are Bob Kinnison and Randy Olson, who didn't even bother to show up for the vote. (We'll count them as yes votes). At least everyone else had the balls to take a position.

Well, almost everyone else. Chairman Christiansen let developer Frank Gambino and banker Kyle Logan off the hook. Gambino said he has no financial interests in the project, but abstained anyway. Logan works for Amcore, which apparently asked him not to vote on the controversial subdivision. (Both would likely have voted yes, by the way). What in Winnebago County isn't somehow connected to Amcore Bank? Mr. Logan, you're the Wuss of the Week. Normally, I like what you have to say, but you still need to grow some balls, young one.

Steve Schultz, former president of the group that sued the county for granting the first permit in 2006, obviously had to abstain. That's unfortunate, because he's a good man and a good rep. I would have liked to hear what he had to say on behalf of constituents.

Schultz's Second District counterpart, Dave Yeske, waged a filibuster of sorts as the sole voice of reason, but it was futile in a room filled with the Cult of Puri.

Whether it's the city council or the county board, the rest of the body usually goes along with the wishes of those representing the ward or district that is affected by a vote. When the roll call goes another way, I usually smell bullshit, but I think Yeske was sincere, so he's my Patriot of the Week for trying like hell to convince his questionable colleagues to say no.

Paul Gorski was the only Democrat with the cajones to speak against the egomaniacal development, so I'll let him share Patriot of the Week with Yeske.

Shame on loudmouth, "double-dipping" Doug Aurand, tin-eared Ted Biondo, pushover George Anne Duckett, short-timer Karen Elyea, realtor Angie Goral, pro-labor Bob Hastings, Mother-of-Pearl Hawks, "property rights" Pete MacKay, puppet Tom Owens, big Mel Paris, glossy-eyed realtor Diane Parvin, Dorothy Redd, who said "pass" until she saw how others voted first, "manscaper" Dave Tassoni, tax-dollar-partier Fred Wescott and Uncle Tom LC Wilson.

As predicted only here before the vote, it was mostly Democrats who sided with the Puri/Cannell development. Big fucking surprise considering that Blago-pal Puri is a huge Dem-contributor lately. Republicans had the numbers to metaphorically sodomize him without the courtesy of a reacharound, but they didn't, which doesn't speak highly of their intellect or party loyalty. Way to go, guys and gals.

My suspicion is that this is the way Christiansen wanted it. His campaign has also accepted thousands from Puri. Nevermind the hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars invested in professional opinions on land use policies. Apparently, he was just throwing a bone to contributor Nicolosi & Associates for busy-work. It's clear the county has no will to follow the advice it's paid handsomely for. EVERY indication is that this subdivision is a bad idea. More importantly, people just don't want it. Last I checked, new housing like this was not in demand. I guess Sunil and that smug Chris Cannell didn't get the memo.

Potential challengers, I wait for your mission statements. I fully intend to start a PAC to support righteous candidates to replace these career deadbeats at the city and county levels.

"Death to the screwheads."

Patriot's note:
I guess the Cult of Puri didn't like what I had to say.

My Puerto Rican vacation skidded briefly to a halt today after I received a comment from an employee at a Rockford news outlet. He indicated his employer received an email from a county representative who alleged someone at the news outlet is behind this blog.

-Not true. As I've mentioned previously, I am a public employee. But for the sake of my own job, I'd prefer not to say which entity I work for.

This blog is not about me; it's about the incompetence that politics in Winnebago County is rife with, and this is a classic example.

Point 2: The media employee asked me to clarify my "death to screwheads" comment. As it turns out, the county official suggested this to be some sort of threat, so I would like to dispel that right now, and then get back to my rum-soaked spot on the beach.

Jesus, I'd better not wear my "Eat the Rich" t-shirt for fear wealthy folks will feel threatened.

If one were to peruse other posts here, you'll find I've used the phrase at other times as a motto or mantra, of sorts - never as a threat.

For instance, I closed another post with something like, "Stay tuned, stay off your knees and death to the screwheads."

As you can see, it's really a stylistic device, but I'm glad to know county officials are reading! Data from my site meter and the comment from the media employee only confirm this.

Alas, the employee didn't want to give me any names yet, but I suspect I can trace IP addresses easily enough to find out which county folks are reading blogs on the taxpayers' dime. Stay tuned for that.

Now, if it were meant to be a threat, I would have implored, "Death to [insert specific name here]," and even then it would be difficult to construe it as a threat, considering my admittedly ridiculous writing style.

Stand down, Winnebago County government - you're not reading a terrorist manifesto here. I'm just some asshole with a blog. You can take us back to DefCon 5. All is well.

The only action I call upon readers for is through the democratic process to clean up local government.

I also gave the gentleman the number for a great little lawyer with a big hardon for government bullies, should the county official cause further problems.

By the way, look who I ran into today:

First Rockford not just first in Rockford anymore

I was finally able to sedate myself for a few days of respite and decompression. Quite literally, I came up too fast and got a case of the political bends. Feeling better now after much self-prescribed medication. Thanks for your cards and flowers.

Mr. Correa, I'm sorry if I pissed off your friend, but someone had to pay for the day I had. Luck of the draw. I'll talk more about Jesus in my next post.

You might say I awoke from the American Dream. While glad to be back at it after my coma, the problem is that I awoke to an uglier place than I'd fallen unconscious in, atop piles of uncashed checks no bank would honor. I've been meaning to assure my bank I'm good for every penny I write checks to myself for, some day. I'm sure they'll see things my way.

The daily and weekly both rang the bell on Sunil Puri's plan to get his special use permit pushed through again before anyone realized the court threw out the first one. But it seems no one is listening. RRStar later reported the zoning committee voted in favor of it again. Now I see the board is set to vote on it April 9, and Steve Schultz is learning he had more power as a civilian than on the board, where he can't say a thing about it.

And the makeup of the zoning committee is a joke, but nobody is laughing except for realtors, developers and other land-raping, sprawl-mongering, greed-heads, which arguably account for a majority of the committee's members. Oh yeah, they're also the ones tweaking the land use plan as we speak, and it appears that's the way Scott Christiansen likes it.

Keep in mind this is exactly the type of sprawl, a "leapfrog" subdivision on septic no less, that the county's new land use plan is supposed to prevent. That means Sunil's gotta get his permit passed again before the 2030 plan is adopted this spring, and he's not getting much resistance from board members. Absolutely fucking disgusting. Somebody oughta have the balls to say no to that donkey-humping (as in Democrats) apparent egomaniac who wants his name on everything.

Paul Nicolosi should be crying foul and directing attention to this, because he's gotten a lot of bad press from RRT for the same type of contributions-for-influence stuff. He can't fart without them writing about it, and Sunil deserves at least as much scrutiny. But I suppose Puri's lineage doesn't jibe with RRT's evident fixation with the Italian mafia.

Anyway, the last time the board voted on this, it was approved 19-4. Unfortunately, I doubt it'll be close this time, either, and it will speak volumes about the power of money over the wills of good Patriots like you and me.

I wish I didn't have so much corruption and utter incompetence to write about. You think there aren't other activities I'd rather be doing? Fuck-n-A.

County reducing workforce by about 10 percent

Well, the county has a little over 500 employees, and it's reported about 50 of them will be laid off.

What bugs me most about this is that the elected officials (Chairman Scott Christiansen and the Winnebago County Board, whose mismanagement has led to this) are trying to avoid responsibility for the layoffs. Instead, they forced department heads to do the dirty work for them.

When the board voted for this, not one of them had the cajones to stand up and say, "You realize, of course, this means we are voting for layoffs." No, instead they pretended they were just making "budget cuts." They told themselves people would just work less and have more time to spend with their starving families.

Others will still have their jobs at least, but they won't be making as much money. Hours are being rolled back, some are being forced to take mandatory unpaid vacations and some will take the early-retirement money and run, but it won't get them far enough down the road to fuck the mouth of a $20 lot lizard at the nearest truck stop.

My old man, a Patriot, once counseled, "Save the last metaphorical bullet for yourself."

Elyea plans to hoarde seats?

Sources are telling me Karen Elyea does not plan to step down from her County Board seat if elected to the City Council in April. She and sugardaddy Jim Hughes must feel awfully slick. Now she can be an ineffectual component of two governmental bodies!

I'm checking into this with the attorney general to see whether these two offices are really compatible.

"Stay tuned, stay off your knees, and death to the screwheads."