Why does civilian at MCSD get take-home car?

Gus Philpott
Woodstock Advocate
March 1, 2011

Why would the McHenry County Sheriff's Department assign a take-home vehicle to its civilian business manager, Angela Wood-Zuzevich? Does she have some "pull" in the Department? Does she get it because nobody questions it? Because nobody will question it?

She gets an unmarked car, a 2008 Honda for her commute; silver in color, I hear. I've also heard that she lives in Rockford. If so, then that's approximately 80 miles/day that the McHenry County taxpayers are paying for. Does she get to use the fuel pump at the service garage and buy tax-free gasoline for her commute? And aren't take-home cars only for employees who live in McHenry County?

I can see no reason whatsoever for a civilian desk jockey to get a take-home car. She probably works a standard 40-hour week. If she did have an occasional trip in after-hours for some extraordinary, but business-related, purpose, she could drive her own car and, possibly, be reimbursed for gas or maybe even mileage at the IRS reimbursement level of $0.50/mile.

If she used her own car to come in after-hours, what would the cost be? 80 miles at $0.50 = $40.00, if the Department reimbursed her at the IRS mileage rate. If she used her own car and gets 30MPG, she'd use about 3 gallons of gas. At today's $3.55/gallon price, that's $10.65.

Special Prosecutor Henry Tonigan is making a big deal (grand jury indictment) about the accusation that an investigator in the State's Attorney's Office may have used his department vehicle for personal use.

What do you call this?

Did Sheriff Nygren approve this arrangement?

Now I'll have to go and search on http://www.mchenrycountyblog.com/ for the list of take-home vehicles that Cal Skinner received in response to his FOIA request. I don't recall seeing Wood-Zuzevich's name on that list. Did you?