Quick Hits – March 2, 2018

More #MeToo at the KCSAO

It just keeps getting worse for Joe McMahon! As I await the Kane County State’s Attorney’s inevitable denial of my sexual harassment FOIA request, the sources and their stories keep rolling in.

It would appear our recently fired prosecutor made a habit out of grabbing female prosecutors’ breasts at outside-of-the-office get-togethers. The woman referenced in Monday’s Quick Hits may have been the first to file a formal complaint about being inappropriately touched, but she wasn’t nearly the first female prosecutor to suffer that indignity.

You see, the earlier victim informally reported her attack to State’s Attorney Joe McMahon and First Assistant Jody Gleason, who brushed it off with their typical, “It didn’t happen at the office” excuse en route to doing absolutely nothing about it.

Emboldened, our newly-terminated prosecutor groped again.

Meanwhile, around the same 2014-ish time, the female KSCAO prosecutors collectively dubbed a group of their male counterparts as “The Welcoming Committee.” They named them thus for their propensity to competitively “date” new female prosecutors as soon as they were hired.

These “gentlemen” eventually married off and The Welcoming Committee did become extinct.

So, once again! I’m calling on:

• State’s Attorney Joe McMahon
• First Assistant Jody Gleason
• Chief Felony Prosecutor Bill Engerman, and
• Traffic and Misdemeanor Chief Joe Cullen

to resign for allowing this kind of unconscionable harassment to occur for as long as it has. Shouldn’t the people who enforce the standard be held to a higher one?

Vote for Steve Weber

I don’t weigh in on county board races much these days because nobody cares about their county board member and, despite what I’d like to think, The First Ward doesn’t carry that much weight.

But, since I live in the 13th board district, I’m going to make an exception.

I’ve been regularly talking with GOP primary contender Steve Weber and I think he would make an excellent addition to the Kane County Board. He’s smart, he has a great campaign work ethic, and he gets it at a time when too many politicians don’t get it.

Because, when it comes to not getting it, Weber’s opponent, three-term incumbent County Board member, Phil Lewis, is the champion.

I’m not saying Phil is a bad guy, but some of the things that come out of his mouth at board meetings make me want to bang my head against the wall really really hard. Those strange proclamations include:

• Pushing a 20-billion-dollar monorail when the county budget is a mere $250 million
• Suggesting each County department cut a random employee to plug a deficit
• Increasing building permit fees to plug a deficit because so many were issued in 2004
• Investing a million of your tax dollars in a county-owned equestrian stable
• Voting in favor of a budget one month, and against its implementation the next month – twice
• Regularly attempting to raid the county reserves for really strange reasons
• And my personal favorite, trying to vote “no” on a presentation

Apparently Phil missed the Great Recession on the building permit thing.

To make matters worse, Phil never met a tax hike or fee increase he didn’t like. His schtick was funny for a while, but I really don’t want my County Board member to be a complete embarrassment.

If you live in the 13th, please vote for Steve Weber! He truly is the best candidate.

The surest sign of spring!

Some folks say a groundhog predicts it. Some folks say the sudden and swift appearance of the first robin heralds it, but I would respectfully disagree with both hypotheses. To me, it’s the glorious trill of the red wing blackbird wafting across those subdivision ponds and waterways that says the vernal season has arrived.

My winter malaise magically evaporated when I heard that delightful sound emanating from one of our crimson epaulette-ed friends on this morning’s dog walk.

So, let’s all offer a hearty welcome to spring 2018!