Bill Cellini Works Crystal Lake

Every week the number of people who have looked at the 30-second YouTube posting of Crystal Lake Mayor Aaron Shepley and successful businessman Bill Cellini creeps up.

When I looked Sunday, 77 had looked at it. Those viewing the extended version is up to 33.

Always more on McHenry County Blog.

Here's the background.

There's an amazing thing about Shepley’s reiteration that the council would not use condemnation on properties in the Vulcan Tax Increment Financing district.

The Crystal Lake City Council, with Councilman Howie Christensen absent, voted to condemn three properties in that TIF district two months before what you hear on this video.

I first heard him make the promise eleven months before.

Cellini, whom people at the meeting said was clearly in charge, made the presentation four days before Stuart Levine's plea agreemeent. Newspapers subsequently said that Cellini was named as Individual A. (My work on the 1971 Springfield mayoral campaign with him is in the same linked story.)

At the end of the month Cellini's firm wrote a letter saying he would not be involved in the project. I thought it strange that the person most likely to pull off what the city wants would be allowed to leave the team.