Late last year after a plan to switch Board salaries from flat annual to per-diem, District 6 Member Ersel Schuster pushed through a measure to at least track attendance. Public Information Officer Adam Lehman's been updating a spreadsheet on the County's website weekly. (http://www.co.mchenry.il.us/departments/countyboard/PDFDocs/MeetingAttendance.pdf) "I wasn't sure if anyone was reading it," he said, when FEN called about a minor discrepancy.
FEN's been reading it. And manipulating the data, too, since Lehman's page is only a raw attendance record. FEN grouped the numbers to see which members showed up at Board meetings, which showed up at Committee meetings, how they did at both together, and how they compared to average in each category. The process was enervating but the results were interesting.
Only two Board members made 100 percent across the board. One was Schuster. The other was District 3's Kathy Bergan Schmidt. Fourteen of the Board's current members demonstrated higher level of engagement by scoring above average for combined attendance. Ten didn't.
Some members with good attendance records rarely have much to say. Others talk a lot but don't have much to say, either. The numbers just show who showed up. That's worth something, though, since it's hard to make a difference if you're not actually there.
Board Meets Committees Combined AVG
District 1
Robert "Bob" Nowak 20/24--83% 13/19--68% 33/43--77% -
Anna May Miller 23/24--96% 41/52--79% 64/76--84% -
Marc J. Munaretto * 22/24--92% 32/58--55% 64/82--78% -
Robert "Bob" Bless 22/24--92% 29/40--72% 51/64--79% -
District 2
JS "Scott" Breeden * 24/24-100% 41/54--76% 65/78--83% -
James L. Heisler 24/24-100% 63/67--96% 87/91--95% +
Kenneth D. Koehler*** 21/24--88% 0/ 0--88% 21/24--88% +
Donna Kurtz 23/24--96% 42/45--93% 65/69--94% +
District 3
Nick Provenzano 23/24--96% 33/38--87% 56/61--91% +
Kathleen Bergan Schmidt 24/24-100% 56/56-100% 80/80-100% +
Barbara Wheeler * 22/24--92% 34/38--89% 56/62--90% +
Mary L. Donner * 21/24--88% 49/65--75% 70/89--78% -
District 4
Sue Draffkorn 23/24--96% 38/44--86% 61/68--91% +
John D. Hammerand 19/24--79% 29/34--85% 48/58--83% -
Peter J. Merkel * 19/24--79% 13/23--52% 32/47--68% -
Sandra Fay Salgado 19/24--79% 38/42--90% 57/61--93% +
District 5
Tina Hill 23/24--96% 48/49--98% 71/73--97% +
Paula Yensen 23/24--96% 45/45-100% 68/69--98% +
John Jung, Jr. 22/24--92% 35/40--88% 57/64--89% +
Virginia Peschke * 21/24--88% 41/46--89% 62/70--89% +
District 6
Randall Donley * 23/24--96% 36/49--73% 59/73--80% -
Mary T. McCann 22/24--92% 33/36--92% 55/60--92% +
Diane Evertsen 24/24-100% 38/39--97% 62/63--98% +
Ersel Schuster 24/24-100% 52/52-100% 76/76-100% +
AVERAGE 91.5% 84.1% 87.9%
*not running
**lost primary
***Chairman of Board
Editor's note: FEN overcounted Mary McCann's possible committee meetings, therefore calculating an attendance figure below the average. It was, in fact, higher. FEN regrets the error.
8 comments:
Diane Evertsen Ersel Schuster both Linda Moore supporters. YUCK!!!!!!
Great analysis, Peter. Keep up the good work.
I seriously underestimated the time it would take.--ed.
thanks for doing the math for us. and, thank you for your hunorous observation that "showing up" and "talking" doesn't necessarily equate with meaningful discussion. the heavy lifting is still done by the smart Board Members who aren't intimidated by Chairman and sidekicks.
There was a time that county board members were paid per diem - only for the time they showed up for meetings. No attendance = no pay.
Good going FEN
Keep them on their toes!
Just to complicate things, this only shows Board meetings. Some members, for instance, are ex-officio members of other County agency boards but those meetings aren't included here. Some members spend a lot of time on committee work not in official meetings, too.
Be that as it may, even if they're not as precise as they might be, these numbers are sort of like the crooked poker game: "It's the only game in town."--ed.
Interesting tidbit extracted from your data - only two incumbents currently running have combined attendance percentages of less than 83% each.
Both are in District 1:
Bob Nowak @ 77% and Bob Bless @ 78%
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