Ending Wasteful City Spending

You might not be taking yearly trips to Las Vegas, but your tax dollars are.

With the exception of 2020 and 2021, due to event cancellation and date change respectively, taxpayer money funds an annual trip to the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) in Las Vegas. Per the organization, the ICSC Las Vegas convention is a “two- to three-day gathering of dealmakers and industry experts, who are driving innovation and evolution in commercial real estate.” The City’s intended purpose for attending the convention is to attract national chains to McHenry.

Costs associated with the ICSC conference in 2024 for three attendees (the Mayor and two senior staff members) include: airfare, ground transportation, hotels, meals, program memberships, booth space registration, booth space set-up, promotional materials…. A noteworthy reimbursement submitted by the Mayor for the ICSC Las Vegas trip was for $245 at Loser’s Bar, a 21+ country-themed bar at the MGM Grand that serves only alcohol and limited bar snacks. The Mayor’s bar tab was reimbursed without an itemized receipt, instead a credit card statement for two entries on May 20th for $180 and $65 was provided.

While $245 is not a significant amount of money in terms of the City’s overall budget, it exhibits an incredible disrespect to the taxpayers and represents a lack of understanding about what is and is not an appropriate use of the City’s collective funds. A cost-benefit analysis should be done to gauge whether there is a sufficient return on taxpayer money, as well as whether this is a beneficial use of staff’s time, both in terms of travel and preparation, to justify continued attendance at the ICSC Las Vegas convention.

On April 29, 2024, a private bus was chartered by the City for 13 people (the Mayor, four members of City Council, eight members of staff) to tour multiple Shodeen developments in Geneva, Oswego, and St Charles. This tour was designated a closed meeting so was not open to members of the public and press despite a majority of a quorum of Council in attendance (in McHenry’s case, that number is three). Expenses for this private field trip totaled $2,547.66: $1,750.96 charter bus rental, $50 bus snacks and refreshments, and $746.70 buffet lunch at the Shodeen-owned Harrington Inn & Spa’s on-site farm-to-table Atwater Restaurant (cost of $57.44 per person).

$2,547.66 is, again, not a significant amount of money in term’s of the City’s overall budget, but, again, exhibits an incredible disrespect to the taxpayers and represents a lack of understanding about what is and is not an appropriate use of the City’s collective funds. This cost is uniquely objectionable too because of how inappropriate the private field trip was to begin with (read more about that HERE).

Any and all expenses, particularly outside of normal operating expenses, need to meet the criteria of either benefitting the residents or adding value to the City and must be the most cost-effective method to do that. None of the above mentioned expenses meet this criteria.

A larger expense that needs to be reevaluated is the City’s over-reliance on third-party consultants. In 2024, the City paid $300,000 for the Vision 2050 Comprehensive Plan and Downtown Plan and $54,700 for the Parks & Recreation Master Plan. Despite soliciting public feedback in the preliminary stages, the actual percentage of McHenry residents who participate in these surveys was limited.

Once these plans were completed and presented before City Council, it was necessary to approve in order to end the relationship so no additional taxpayer money was spent to make changes. It’s important to note that these plans are not a set blueprint for the direction the City must go, but rather a non-binding proposal for the direction the City could go. For example, in 2003, the City commissioned a Downtown Plan. This plan called for: establishing “a designated bike route/path in Downtown, linking it to the existing bike path,” “attractively landscaped and screened from adjacent uses” Downtown public parking areas, and recommended “the height of any new buildings should be consistent with and complement the height of existing buildings” in the Downtown area to maintain the “historic and traditional character of McHenry’s Downtown.”

The third-party consultants deliver an extremely thorough and well-presented plan but it is important to note that these consultants do not live in McHenry so are instead guided by national trends when formulating development concepts for the City rather than development concepts that are City-specific.

In the $54,700 Parks & Recreation Master Plan, a new aquatics center was identified as a need. As much as the City would enjoy a new aquatics center, it cannot happen without both a tax hike and a significant spending reduction, which means less attention to others parks and fewer roads and sidewalks maintained. This is also a proposal that has been twice rejected.

In the November 2018 election, a $30,000,000 referendum for an expansion of the McHenry Recreation Center to include an indoor and outdoor pool and gymnasium was overwhelmingly rejected by 61.13% of voters. In anticipation of the referendum, the City spent $19,500 of taxpayer’s money on a third-party Aquatics Feasibility Study. Following this vote, the Mayor was quoted in the Northwest Herald stating “I have no plans to recommend placing this topic on a future referendum… it was answered pretty well that it is not wanted right now. We will back off of it.”

In December 2023, City Council rejected placing a nearly identical referendum on the April 2024 ballot, but this time with a $45,000,000 price tag. Following this vote, the Mayor was quoted in the Northwest Herald stating he was “disappointed that the majority of Council denied residents the chance to vote on the Recreation Center expansion” and that he was “committed to bring the question to the residents on the General Election ballot.”

The $300,000 Vision 2050 Comprehensive Plan and Downtown Plan and $54,700 Parks & Recreation Master Plan are being selectively utilized by the administration to further an agenda already in place. The reality is that the Mayor sets the agenda and these expensive third-party plans are rarely, if ever consulted, if it does not support that agenda. While it won’t be as comprehensive, the most cost-effective approach for creating these types of city planning blueprints is to have them created by the salaried McHenry City Planner.

It is not uncommon for cities to commission these long-term plans but anyone who has looked at government spending knows there is a considerable amount of waste that is not unique to just federal and state spending. Third-party consultants and studies account for an enormous amount of spending that could otherwise be redirected towards more tangible City improvements. Tangible improvements, such as repaved roads and sidewalks and improved neighborhood parks meet the criteria of both benefitting the residents and adding value to the City.  $245 bar tabs, $2,547.66 private field trips, and multiple third-party studies and plans do not. .