I have a big dissent today. This dissent is with our president. He pardoned 39 people and commuted 1499 others last week for various offenses. https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/12/12/clemency-recipient-list-7/

I got a beef with Biden on one of these commutations. Her name is Rita Crundwell. I have $54M reasons to justify my beef with Biden. I’m sure I’m not alone in this either. This clemency list is probably the only thing that he has done that has made me question his decision making. What can I do about it? Not a damn thing. Anyway, here is my experience with the Queen of embezzlement in the city of Dixon, IL.

In 2007 I was hired to be the next conductor of the Dixon Municipal Band. This was a dream come true as I had played in the band every year since 1986. I loved the city nearly as much as I loved the band. Dixon was in my mind the best of the three small cities that made up the Sauk Valley region, and I grew up in a different one. The first couple of summers went without a hitch. I worked on theme programs, diversifying the instrumentation, and tried to recruit the best high school players from the neighboring communities.

In the fall 2008 I emailed Mayor James Burke about the centennial of President Ronald Reagan’s birth. Since Dixon was his hometown and he was the only president to have been born in Illinois, it seemed fitting we should do something. He was overjoyed to include me into the commission he was forming for the centennial. For the next three years the commission worked on various projects to honor the 100th birthday, but my project received the most attention. The city of Dixon, IL commissioned a symphony for band and choir with President Reagan’s life as the subject matter. We hired David Holsinger to write the commission. The reason I recommended him after reaching out to 20 composers was his political and religious background. Mr. Holsinger would deliver the most honest piece of music in tribute to the president. Keep in mind, I am no fan of the president politically. I carry a deep bias for the man. What I did for the next five years was place my personal bias to the side, and do what was appropriate for the community I worked for. Moral and civil obligations always override my personal beliefs. My father and the righteous man (earlier blog) taught me how to do that.

In 2010 and 2011 Mayor Burke, Rita Crundwell, the Reagan Centennial Commission (I was a member) and the City Council worked on a collaborative budget for the “Reagan” Project. Our budget for the two year period including our summer seasons and winter concerts was around $150K. We had about $75-80K budgeted strictly for the “Reagan” project. This included the commission, extra rehearsals, guest soloist and conductor per diems, recording, and videography. We made a compact disc recording and a documentary of the project for public sale. We had about 250 people from six different states collaborating on the venture. We brought this massive project in under budget.

The money for the project came from the Municipal Band’s property tax ordinance. The city taxed property owners one cent per $1,000 assessed value using an ordinance passed by the community in a general election six decades before or so. The city generated about $75K per year with this ordinance. The band only used about $45K per year. Any money left unspent from a fiscal year was placed in a dead account for special expenditures. Conservative spending by my predecessors enabled us to pay for the project using money saved in this dead account. Or so we thought!!!

On February 19, 2011 we gave the premiere of Reagan of Illinois by David Holsinger with the composer conducting. The concert featured performances by the Eureka College Choir, Riverchor from Clinton, IA and the Dixon Municipal Band with guest soloist Brian Bowman on euphonium. The grand finale was the symphony with Holsinger leading the band and choirs. The performance was successful one and then post-production began in earnest. The product is still for sale on Amazon and Mark Custom Recording from Clarence, NY. I am quite proud of the final product. It was submitted for Grammy consideration in several categories. Even though we didn’t win, a mightly little community created something special for their favored son.

During budget discussions of 2012 I asked for a modest increase to the band budget. I wanted to see an increase in salary as I did the “Reagan” project pro-bono. I also wanted to increase the band’s size as the project attracted interest in the band. The salary increase attracted negative attention and the press ran with it. I was then called into a meeting in late February with the Mayor and a couple new councilman elected the previous November. My band manager was there and she brought our paperwork. During the meeting we were criticized for spending too much money, and it was inferred that we embezzled money from the city during the “Reagan” Project. Things got heated in the meeting with me challenging one councilman to provide evidence when we had paperwork in triplicate outlining every penny spent… Only Mayor Burke knew about the FBI investigation as it started the previous fall… Three weeks later we were given a budget of $15K to do our normal series of parades and concerts despite having the best musical and artistic year ever in the band. Fundraising began in earnest…

On April 17, 2012 I was sitting at my desk at my teaching job when a colleague from the band texted me informing me that the FBI was at city hall. Within hours of that text and before the press reported it I found out that Rita Crundwell had been arrested for embezzling money.

That summer we struggled on. We still made good music and tried to feed off the “Reagan” project press. Unfortunately Rita destroyed everything. Our city was dejected. Dateline from NBC came and did a piece on Rita. They interviewed us in the band and recorded us playing some music that made us look like a small town with little sophistication. We managed to persevere and survive.

Then the healing began, sort of. Mayor Burke retired due to health concerns. A new comptroller, mayor, and city council did not value the band at all. We lobbied and worked hard to keep it going despite every manipulation to defeat us. There were some interesting leaps in law interpretation by the leadership to justify their actions. Once the stolen money started to be returned the budgets tensions eased, but we still had to raise money to meet the original budgets from just five years previously. I am forever grateful of my colleagues in the band for collaborating with leadership to save the band. Rita put all of us through hell. I can only imagine what it was like in the police, fire, water, sewer, streets, and other municipal departments. I’m just thankful the stress of the situation was abating. We all aged a few years thanks to the Rita’s thievery

When I left the Dixon Municipal Band in 2018 the group was in better shape financially than in 2012 and 2013. A new mayor was elected a year ago in Dixon and it appears things will be as they are with the ordinance once again. Fingers crossed this is the case as the band moves forward.

I still can’t believe I am sitting here in December of 2024 learning about Rita’s sentence being commuted. This woman holds the record for embezzling. She is a case study for fraud. She still hasn’t paid off all she has stolen. Yet she earns clemency? Why? President Biden, I have been pretty supportive of many of your administrations programs and improvements coming out of the pandemic, but this lame duck decision is just bad. Really bad! I’m sure democrats and republicans alike who suffered from her criminality are in agreement with me when I say… “I dissent!!!”

Ubi iustitia hic?

…so it goes