Lest you think I’m above saying “I told you so,” rest assured that’s not nearly the case, because I did, indeed, tell you so when I warned you not to vote for in-over-her-head Kane County Chairman Corinne Pierog and clueless Auditor Penny Wegman.
But despite 15 stellar investigative journalistic years, does anyone ever fuckin’ listen to me? Of course not! Then the general sweaty public has the nerve to bitch about the politicians I’ve long since raised the red flag about! And here are two perfect examples!
On Chairman Pierog’s vast hypocrisy
In fact, if you look up “hypocrite” in the Miriam-Webster, you’ll quickly note Chairman Pierog’s smiling countenance adjoining that definition.
Soon after the original 2020 federal COVID relief check hit Kane County, the then campaigning Pierog issued all manner of baseless accusations and wolf-crying warnings about then Chairman Chris Lauzen’s “failure” to disperse those funds in a timely manner. She even went as far as insinuating that those scurrilous County Board Republicans were gonna keep it for themselves.
As is always par for the course, fake journalist Brenda Schory and the Kane County Chronicle jumped on the story without ever attempting to determine if it had merit because they couldn’t be bothered and even artificial controversies breed Internet hits.
The truth was, having served in the Illinois Senate for 20 long years, Lauzen knew turning the distribution of millions of federal dollars over to a 24-member governing gaggle was a lot like trying to get 24 middle school girls to agree on their favorite boy band member. All it does is lead to an incessant amount of fighting and crying.
Instead, he wisely asked former Auditor Terry Hunt to come up with plan first, and only then did he turn the process over to the County Board. Oh! the Board bitched endlessly about it until they actually saw Hunt’s plan, agreed with it, and the money was equitably distributed well before the federal deadline.
Fast forward to summer 2021 and suddenly it’s Chairman Pierog who’s under scrutiny for the glacial pace at which the County Board is doing their best NOT to come up with a distribution plan for the second $103 million check. It would seem that the Chairman is suddenly discovering that getting a gaggle of self-important politicians to reach any kind of consensus on anything is a virtually impossibility.
This, of course, reminds me of one my favorite jokes. What’s the difference between a Kane County board member and God? God doesn’t think She’s a Kane County board member.
And Pierog’s inability to see the forest for the political trees may have dire fiscal effects, too! The first fed reports are due by the end of the month and the Chairman and Board are suddenly scrambling to complete them. If they don’t, every last penny of that ash goes right back where it came from. Word is that Pierog is desperately trying to avoid that kind of default by hiring a project manager and bringing in a consulting firm to do what Terry Hunt did on his own.
Pierog can’t count on Auditor Wegman for direction because her entire financial skillset consists of spending money at Target.
The vast irony is, after Pierog falsely accused those scurrilous Republican board members of trying to keep that money for themselves, that’s exactly what her Board is doing. They’ve basically decided to keep all but $17 million of that money to make up lost revenue and pay off the County’s coronavirus expenses.
But after some minor digging (the Chronicle couldn’t be bothered) those plague “expenses” include adding $20 million to the Sheriff’s budget and some board members want to allocate $30 million of that cash to move their Geneva campus to Peck and Randall Roads. Who knew capital expenses were related to COVID-19?
When the local non-profits, who’ve borne the brunt of the pandemic mental fallout, got wind of this possibility, they dispatched dire email and social media missives encouraging the faithful to inundate the Board with pleas to be a bit more generous those relief funds. County Board member, Vern Tepe, a man who will never be a threat to MENSA, responded thusly:
This was one of the most unprofessional emails I’ve seen from a 501(c)(3) organization in this county. For them to do a call to arms and send this out without even proper discussion with board members is extremely inappropriate. It makes them look pretty bad.
So, when are they supposed to protest it Vern? After the Board votes to keep the bulk of the money for themselves? And you know what looks worse that “pretty bad,” Vern? A county board voting to keep 87 percent of COVID relief funds for themselves regardless of any possible fiscal justification. We’ve all taken a hit from the plague and for the Kane County Board to somehow believe they’re the only ones who should be made whole is so far beyond the pale it’s a level of arrogance that’s quite difficult to comprehend.
And it’s particularly difficult to comprehend when you consider that Chairman Pierog maliciously accused the previous administration of doing EXACTLY what she and her Board are doing right now.
As is always the case, I provided the Chairman with ample opportunity to respond to this column, but she’s been even quieter than an Andrew Cuomo supporter at a #MeToo seminar.
So, I’ll ask the question one more time! What’s the difference between God and a Kane County Board member?
Having hit our time and word limit, we’ll cover the younger Ms. Wegman and her particularly absurd brand of shenanigans on Thursday. Suffice it to say that she’s even worse than the Chairman.
. . . ‘god’ is Imaginary and the Kane County Board is a plague upon the land . . . .