Packed house with a lot of people wanting to encourage the board NOT to extend the contract. Their pleas were ignored.
Last night the out going McHenry County College (MCC) board usurped the incoming MCC board. Lets just call it what it is. The outgoing board basically said, “we know the voters decided to remove us from office, but before we leave, here you go.” The new board at MCC will not be given the opportunity to decide on the future direction in regards to Dr. Smith.
To be fair, if there is such a thing in politics, Dr. Vicky Smith has done some marvelous things for our community college. No one can deny that she has helped right the ship at MCC. You can look at some of the initiatives around the campus and see that the college has improved.
However, to be fair, there are also serious fiscal concerns with the college as well. When we hear the issue of non-referendum bonds come up – there should be pause. The reason Molly Walsh, Tom Wilbeck, and Chris Jenner were elected was because of fears of massive tax increases put to the citizenry of McHenry County without a vote to the people. This board has the power to drop a $42 million dollar tax levy on you. It is why we need to stay informed.
It is why we must stay vigilant. Despite many concerned constituents of the board, five members voted to extend the contract. They are:
- Barbara Walters – lost election
- Carol Larson – lost election
- Mary Miller – up for election in 2015
- Linda Liddell – up for election in 2017
- Cynthia Kisser – up for election in 2017
Voting against the contract extension was Ron Parrish who is now the MCC Board President and Dennis Adams who has retired from the board.
People were packed into the room. Moreover, the overflow room had frequent outages of the video feed.
Thank you to the outgoing board members who voted no and thank you to all the wonderful people who came out to speak. We have a lot of work to do in the county. McHenry County Blog has a story about the events of last night and I recommend you read it.
