Prospect Heights Blame Game

Sunday, Prospect Heights city officials tried to place the arsonist blame on disgruntled city residents, of which the town has plenty.

This is what appeared in the Daily Herald article:

Generally, (2nd Ward Alderman John) Styler said the vandals were not believed to be rowdy teenagers, but someone with a beef against the city. At no point did the vandals enter the building, he said.

The way I read that, it is the citizens who have been critical of the city fathers who are having the finger of blame pointed toward them.

One of the citizen finger pointers—architect Kurt Giehler--sent the following email:

I am stunned by the disclosure that arson was the cause of the fire.

While I have contempt for the mismanagement and corruption of the present administration, I never seriously considered arson as a possibility.

I figured cause would be lightning, faulty electrical, or a coffee pot. I figured they got caught with their pants down--didn't remedy the known building defects out of hubris and arrogance--and that they would try to cover up their malfeasance, which is what they, apparently, are trying to do.

At the last council meeting on 17 April, Mayor Pace, Administrator Zimmerman, and City Attorney Zimmermann, were so brazen as to not allow any citizen input whatsoever. This was in direct violation of the Open Meetings Act.

It is very interesting that records used for the audits as well as building permits and plans were casualties of the fire. Documents affecting the two areas where residents have the most beef were destroyed. Other residents, the local group at the website "PHinform.com", and I have been after City officials to disclose information for years. Now, unfortunately, most of these records will be permanently unavailable.

Other than the disturbed actions of a disgruntled employee, I suppose the investigation will focus on who had the most to gain by destroying the building and the records it contained. This makes it hard for investigators in that, with the exception of the intellectually-challenged aldermen, there are many Prospect Heights officials with something to hide.

I doubt if the culprit is a resident.

Almost all residents are very unhappy with the way the Pace Administration spends money; it seems odd that a resident would create a bigger financial burden by burning the place down. Residents want more information, not less.

As for Prospect Heights officials, look for someone who has something to lose.

Take your pick as to affected parties:

· we have the City's missing regular audits.

· Then we have the TIF audits for the ill-fated 12,000 seat arena project which have never been done.

· We have the illicit travel junket by private jet with arena Developer #2. We have the alleged $100,000 "bribe" to our former City Attorney, Donald Kreger (Schiff Hardin) described by Developer #1 in his ongoing lawsuit against the City.

· We have the illegal commingling of specific funds with the City's General Fund.

· We have the patronage outlet, otherwise known as the City's Convention & Visitor's Bureau, which serves as a slush fund for the Administration - (travel to Disney World, vacation islands, etc. in hopes of luring convention business to Prospect Heights?).

· We have a Palwaukee vendor that was charging rent to a Hertz Rental Outlet for land that belonged to the city.

There is so much, how does one whittle it down to just one crook?

So, who do you think is to blame?

Read the first story about Prospect Heights at McHenry County Blog, not to mention the most recent reprint of Lawrence County's Erma Bombeck, Susan Sovereign here.