Since fools always rush in where angels fear to tread, I decided to take a shot at negotiating a settlement to the MacRunnels v. McConnaughy lawsuit. Remember, it’s the one where our staunch activist is suing the chairman over those potentially illegal and infamous pension bumping 50 percent raises she passed out to managers and department heads that reported directly to her.
All I can say is, now I now exactly what a Israeli-Palestinian negotiator feels like on a daily basis. 
My thought was McRunnels had already backed McConnaughay into a dark corner and if the board issued a reasonable resolution apologizing for those pay hikes – ostensibly on the Chairman’s behalf – the original lawsuit point would’ve been well made and all those salivating lawyers would have had to walk away despondent over the lack of billable hours.
Though he was eminently reasonable throughout the whole process, and partly because the chairman kept poking him in the press, MacRunnels has decided to stick to his guns. So as it stands now, he won’t drop the suit unless the chairman herself apologizes for handing out those raises in the first place.
I’m sure all those Kane County prosecutors, who are getting paid at least 22 percent below the going rate, just love it when McConnaughay continues shrieking that the reason she issued those pay hikes was to be competitive with other counties.
But even if MacRunnels had agreed to the board apology, I doubt the resolution would’ve passed. You see, what’s really frosting my cookies is that some of the opposition board members, who were around for those raises, wouldn’t acquiesce to any of the language that made it more likely to pass.
As one told me, this was all the chairman, we shouldn’t have to apologize! To which I replied, “NO IT WASN’T AND YES YOU SHOULD!”
As I wrote in this Beacon-News column, those raises were clearly in the county budget and, whether it’s out of ignorance or fear, those multi-term board members just rubber stamped ’em. Either they didn’t read the budget or they weren’t willing to take the political hit of making them public.
As for the board members who say “let the judge decide,” those three appellate court judges may have ruled in MacRunnels favor, but there’s no guarantee that trend will continue. Not only will the move to a higher court cost the taxpayers even more cash, but those justices may well decide the fact that budget passed amounts to tacit approval. And McConnaughay wins!
But what really puts the icing on my Oreos is the chairman herself. Think about it! She’s heading down to the Springfield Senate and has no KC political capital left to lose. All she has to do is issue some half-assed apology and this whole thing ends. She could even make political hay by claiming that, while she’s not sure she was wrong, she’s going to issue the mea culpa on behalf of the Kane County taxpayer who shouldn’t have to foot any further legal bills.
But Karen McConnaughay is constitutionally incapable of doing that because she cannot admit she was wrong about anything. And it doesn’t matter if preserving her fragile self-image means bankrupting Kane County and dashing her hope of becoming Lt. Governor – she will take this one to the wall.
Now, she wants the board to commit political hara-kiri by retroactively approving those raises.
C’mon! Every red blooded American husband knows – if you don’t want to be celibate the rest of your life – there’s a time to issue an apology even if you’re not sure exactly what you’re apologizing for. You do it with the big picture in mind – you don’t want your wife to walk away with half your stuff.
Hoist by her own petard, I can just see the chairman eventually reciting Tony Malloy’s On the Waterfront lament, “You don’t understand! I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender. I could’ve been somebody…”
