News
JoCo treasurer candidates explain what ‘counts’ to them- October 22, 2008
Dale Matthews
Candidate for county treasurer Dale Matthews has stated to commissioners that he
doesn’t believe the county’s financial worries are its number-one problem.
“The biggest problem,” Matthews said, “is that people don’t trust that we’re doing the
right thing with the money.” If elected, his answer is to shine the bright light of scrutiny,
roll cameras during every county meeting, and involve the public in the process of
determining appropriate investments for public money.
“And once they’ve said what they like and they see us doing it,” Matthews said, “I think
that will go a long way to restoring some trust in (the county). We’ll have wonderful
forests and we’ll have wonderful rivers and a government that you can sort of believe in.
Can I have a better task that that?”
Matthews’ own distrust of county government developed since he tried to investigate an
episode from 2006, wherein the county spent some $11,000 from the Public, Education
& Government (PEG) account for video equipment. Concerned persons like Matthews
and commissioner candidate Sandy Cassanelli contend that the equipment purchased
at near-new prices was found old and unserviceable.
Even the Citizens Financial Review Committee (CFRC), commissioned by the board to
investigate the county’s departments and expenditures, reported that it found that the
issue warranted an investigation by the state police for fraud.
“We don’t just suspect, we know it for sure, but nothing happened,” he said. “I think I’m
probably going to spend the first year and a half doing forensic accounting, digging up
the financial skeletons and revealing these things,” Matthews said. “I’m just talking
about the ones I’ve seen with my own eyes, where it’s just so obvious. The times where
they’ve admitted, ‘Yes, we’ve been cheated, but we’re not going to do anything about it’.”
Matthews espouses an expansive notion about the position for which he is running:
“The way I define the treasury is: We have trees, we have water, we have books in
closed libraries, we have police cars, we’ve got people, and we have buildings and
potential.
“The treasurer is supposed to watch over those things and make sure that they are
protected and that they grow.
“If you’re satisfied with the way things have been going in county government you
should probably vote for people who represent the status quo. If you are dissatisfied
with the way things are going, you should probably take a chance on voting on some of
the new people, or as I like to call them, the ‘Monkeywrench Gang.’
“We can’t afford the luxury of the ‘old boys’ way of doing business anymore,” he said
another time. “It’s not quaint, it’s not picturesque, it is bad for us and because we are in
such dire financial straits, we can’t afford that anymore.”
Matthews is founder of a nonprofit charity, Inter School Television which provides
broadcast-quality cameras to teach video skills to youth and for public use.
~Michelle Binker
Candidate for county treasurer Dale Matthews has stated to commissioners that he
doesn’t believe the county’s financial worries are its number-one problem.
“The biggest problem,” Matthews said, “is that people don’t trust that we’re doing the
right thing with the money.” If elected, his answer is to shine the bright light of scrutiny,
roll cameras during every county meeting, and involve the public in the process of
determining appropriate investments for public money.
“And once they’ve said what they like and they see us doing it,” Matthews said, “I think
that will go a long way to restoring some trust in (the county). We’ll have wonderful
forests and we’ll have wonderful rivers and a government that you can sort of believe in.
Can I have a better task that that?”
Matthews’ own distrust of county government developed since he tried to investigate an
episode from 2006, wherein the county spent some $11,000 from the Public, Education
& Government (PEG) account for video equipment. Concerned persons like Matthews
and commissioner candidate Sandy Cassanelli contend that the equipment purchased
at near-new prices was found old and unserviceable.
Even the Citizens Financial Review Committee (CFRC), commissioned by the board to
investigate the county’s departments and expenditures, reported that it found that the
issue warranted an investigation by the state police for fraud.
“We don’t just suspect, we know it for sure, but nothing happened,” he said. “I think I’m
probably going to spend the first year and a half doing forensic accounting, digging up
the financial skeletons and revealing these things,” Matthews said. “I’m just talking
about the ones I’ve seen with my own eyes, where it’s just so obvious. The times where
they’ve admitted, ‘Yes, we’ve been cheated, but we’re not going to do anything about it’.”
Matthews espouses an expansive notion about the position for which he is running:
“The way I define the treasury is: We have trees, we have water, we have books in
closed libraries, we have police cars, we’ve got people, and we have buildings and
potential.
“The treasurer is supposed to watch over those things and make sure that they are
protected and that they grow.
“If you’re satisfied with the way things have been going in county government you
should probably vote for people who represent the status quo. If you are dissatisfied
with the way things are going, you should probably take a chance on voting on some of
the new people, or as I like to call them, the ‘Monkeywrench Gang.’
“We can’t afford the luxury of the ‘old boys’ way of doing business anymore,” he said
another time. “It’s not quaint, it’s not picturesque, it is bad for us and because we are in
such dire financial straits, we can’t afford that anymore.”
Matthews is founder of a nonprofit charity, Inter School Television which provides
broadcast-quality cameras to teach video skills to youth and for public use.
~Michelle Binker
Illinois Valley News