I'd like to call the Financial Administrative Committee meeting to order today is Tuesday or Tuesday, Thursday, August 28th at 8 30 AM.

In addition to being available to attend in person, remote attendance has been made available to the public via Zoom at the link on the agenda.

This meeting is being recorded through Zoom.

I don't believe any members are joining via Zoom today.

Nope.

All right.

So we will go to item number two, which is the Pledge of Allegiance.

If I can ask Member Maine to join me.

For which it's been one nation under the Investors for All.

Thank you.

May I have a roll call of members, please?

Yes.

Member Clark.

Chair Frank is absent.

Member Hewitt.

Member Maine.

Present.

Vice Chair Park.

Here.

Member Peterson.

Member Volitzek.

All right.

Let it be shown that we have a quorum.

Are there any addenda to the agenda today?

No, there's not.

All right.

Public comment as part of our meeting agenda.

Public comment was invited through person and in remote attendance and also in writing.

Do we have any public comments for today?

No public comments.

All right.

Six is chair's remarks.

I don't have any remarks.

So then welcome everyone.

Excited for today's agenda.

Do we have any unfinished business?

No unfinished business.

All right.

Let's go to new business.

Uh item 81283, our consent agenda.

I can take those all together.

Right.

May I have a motion?

Motion from Member Clark, second by member Hewitt.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

The motion passes.

We'll move now to our regular agenda.

8.4 is a quarterly update from the president CEO of Lake County Partners, Kevin Considine.

Welcome, Kevin.

Thank you.

Good morning.

Uh morning.

Nice to be here this morning.

And I run up to a holiday weekend.

And I'm excited because uh I get to uh share a bunch of good news, which is always fun, right?

Um and it'll be uh uh fairly brief update, but there were some really important things I wanted to uh to share.

Um admittedly, some of it is we're gonna, I'm gonna pat LCP on the back a little bit, but we've had some pretty fun recognition this summer.

Um in addition to the Illinois Manufacturers Association, we were a finalist for their economic development organization of the year award.

We were one of three finalists.

We we did not win.

Anybody who starts out saying we were a finalist, that's because you you didn't you didn't win.

So I'm just gonna assume we were second.

Um, but we uh uh intersect Illinois, now known as Illinois Economic Development Corporation.

Um they won the award and very fittingly so.

They've been on a great roll.

But we were we were honored to be uh uh selected and you know they always say on the Oscars it's an honor to be nominated, so let's just assume that's true.

Um, but even better, uh, that the site selection magazine, which is our economic development sort of primary trade magazine and commercial real estate.

Uh they do a ranking every year of counties in the country for economic development.

And we were ranked number 10 nationwide uh for economic development.

And that's a uh that's based on the data of uh kind of the the stats that I always report of you know, new jobs and investment and projects that we talk about.

It's the the same data that uh if you remember that Chicagoland has been number one in the country for the last 12 years, I think.

Uh so we were pretty excited to make the top 10, particularly looking at that at the company we're in.

So Maricopa County, that's Phoenix.

There are six counties in Texas and us.

Uh well yeah, Cook County was number three, but we don't need to talk about that.

Uh so we're we're pretty excited for that recognition, and it's really uh a testament to the hard work of the team and a lot of news like this that we've been able to share over the last couple of years.

So we've there have been uh a couple great wins announced.

You might have seen the news last week.

So Abvi has announced uh an investment in their uh Sheridan Road North Chicago plant.

So they are investing 195 million dollars, which is a lot.

Um and it'll be 50 new jobs, uh, which might not sound like a lot, but that investment number is huge.

And the fact that they're investing in this site is a pretty big deal.

So we're excited about that.

It's enhancing their uh production capacity, um, which is a big deal for pharma companies nationwide.

Uh that's bringing a lot of production that maybe had been done internationally back to the US.

So we're excited to see some of that land here in Lake County.

Big investment from Appy.

That's a big construction project.

And Tough Tight is a maker of um mostly uh plastic and PVC uh sewer and septic uh uh materials and tools and things.

Um they are uh they're in Lake Zurich today.

Uh they have committed to stay this side of the line, and they are moving to an expanded facility in Gurney, which we're very excited to uh to keep them here.

Um so that'll be 70 new jobs, uh keeping the 175 that are here in Lake County today and a pretty good investment of 75 million dollars.

So um, and taking a uh building that had been vacant for a couple of years.

So we're excited to activate that building as well.

And this just kind of looking at the the roundup of the year.

There have been a couple announcements.

I'm trying to think of what the couple new ones on this slide um have been uh Flex.

So uh Flex is a contract manufacturer, which means the stuff that they make doesn't carry their brand.

It might ultimately carry uh uh an Apple or an Abbott or a Baxter brand, things like that.

They've uh they're one of the largest contract manufacturers in the world.

Uh they have uh they've had a sizable facility in Buffalo Grove for some time, uh 15 years or so.

Um, but have grown tremendously.

They took an additional site in uh Vernon Hills uh year or so ago and have just taken another one.

So they've really grown.

Um so that is a that's a great win here.

We're excited to see that growth here.

And uh also with the uh you all know you're probably sick of hearing me talk about from the SEDs our uh our housing need and the fact that we uh we have uh sort of knowingly gotten out of our lane and gotten into helping to spark housing um here in Lake County.

So Charles Hall construction and the Fox Lake Crossing apartments.

Uh they've just broken ground sort of unofficially, they're starting to move some move some dirt, but that is uh a new market rate uh multifamily complex in Fox Lake that we are excited to uh to get that built.

There will be more coming in Fox Lake and elsewhere uh as well.

So here's the uh, you know, I kind of sound like a broken record often kind of saying, like, hey, we're on this great five year run.

And I've been saying that for like seven years.

Um it it continues.

And I think I said at the beginning of the year, like, you know, hey, we're not sure how to 2025, there's some uncertainty.

Let's, you know, and it it's it continues to be a great year.

So halfway through the year, um, we are well ahead of several of the of the last couple of years.

So 1,800 new jobs and uh over 500 million dollars in capital investment.

There are a couple pretty big projects that, you know, you always you start to get to this time of year and you start to think like, all right, are we gonna get this one in before December 31st?

I think there are a couple that could cross that finish line uh to kind of make these numbers like almost comical.

But uh we're excited it's been a great year.

Um, you know, not knock on wood.

Things can continue at a at a great pace.

Um we've got a couple exciting events coming up.

Hopefully, September 11th, our invested together event is on all of your calendars.

Um, this is at Independence Grove uh in the evening.

Uh we've we'll have uh, I think we've we've got about 110 folks coming today.

I think we'll get that number that number all climb up a little bit.

Um, this is always an exciting event.

It's a chance to uh to meet and network and get a chance to just discuss in a casual atmosphere kind of things that are going on in the county and always a fun one in a phenomenal setting on a beautiful autumn afternoon and uh in Libertyville.

Um we continue our uh quarterly municipal uh uh workshop series.

We've got one coming up in a couple weeks.

We have this is always a good one.

Uh, we haven't had these two gentlemen uh back in uh in a little bit, but uh Joe Schweederman is a professor at DePaul who runs the Chaddock Institute, which is all about sort of urban planning and uh transportation and development.

Um he and a uh gentleman named Chris Brewer, who's uh uh planner and engineer with a big firm called AECOM.

So they're gonna come in and just kind of do a trends and development and planning and growth uh presentation for our municipal municipal folks.

Uh always a pretty interesting one, which uh we're excited to we haven't done in probably five years.

Um another cool one.

And if anybody's interested in attending this one, um, please let me know.

Oh, actually, I skipped one, but I'll stick with that.

The uh Chicagoland Innovation Summit, which is an event that uh World Business Chicago does.

They do two a year.

This one is uh the future of food.

So this is all about food-based uh startups and investors and venture capital.

Got about 700 people coming from really across the country.

Uh Chicago is the food capital really of the world.

Um, so it gets great attendance, and its whole point is about introducing startups and new concepts and investors and making that connection.

Uh, but it's always a uh fascinating event.

So if anybody wants to go, please let me know.

It's a fun one.

That is down in Fulton Market.

Um, I forget the address, but actually in a uh unsurprisingly in Fulton Market, uh really cool space uh uh there.

Um happy to get uh to get that information out.

Uh we are also co-sponsoring uh with the Village of Liberty Bill, uh the Chicago Land Manufacturing Summit, which is a uh commercial real estate focused event.

Um it'll be about a half day series of uh panel discussions that uh that we're excited about.

And it's uh these are always really well attended in the commercial real estate community.

It's common to host them in an empty building.

So it's a chance to also, hey, show off this really cool building that one of your you know clients could fill.

Um so that's a good one.

That's coming up in October.

Uh a couple of interesting things in the run up, uh, our marketing program and kudos to Barbara Priscilla for the great work that she and our partners have done here.

Um the the metrics continue to increase and particularly as we sharpen the audience.

Um, but what I thought was really cool, and I know that this is hard to see, um, but this was asking uh Google's AI.

Um, I think the question was, how do I expand my business in Lake County?

And one, I love that the first couple sentences of the AI response was about LCP.

So that's a function of all of the work that that she's done with Google to build that in there.

And actually, it's a really interesting read then of as you expand, hey, tell me more about business in Lake County.

Um, what uh I think it's Gemini is Google's uh AI term, what what uh what Gemini thought.

So uh I think you've got this in your packet too.

It's easier to read there.

I just thought it was really interesting.

Uh the handful of other things that uh that we're working on, these are sort of our SEDS updates.

You are probably all familiar with what's going on in the housing space.

The we had the first meeting of the bless you, uh, of the Lake County housing task force.

Uh, I realize that I don't have that brand name quite right, but um, which was off to a uh great start, and we've got the the second round of that coming up soon.

Uh, we continue to work with a number of municipalities um and developers and sites on you know what we can do to help make things happen.

The answers to that question are sometimes varied.

Um, and this is uh we believe, as particularly as we look at our workforce numbers, this is probably still our our biggest economic issue.

Um we have the uh Navigate Lake, which is the um eighth grade and high school career fair, uh, predominantly run by the regional office of education, but with the other partners of the workforce ecosystem.

Really cool event.

The first one was last fall.

They had 4,000, you know, students kind of roll through.

Um the next one, I think we're up to 4600 students registered.

So I believe it's all eighth graders uh come through and then many, not all the high school students.

I think we have all the high schools participating.

How many students uh Dr.

Carner would be best to field?

But uh I think we're up to about 70 companies participating, always a really cool event.

Really fun to see the energy in the room.

Um we can also get that scheduled.

That would be it's at the fairgrounds.

Um, would be a fun drive-by if you're available that day.

It's it's pretty cool to see.

Um, we are also continuing to work on the uh the next phase of the Greater Chicagoland Economic Partnership, uh, or effectually known as GSEP.

Um we are coming to the end of the three-year pilot period.

We are looking to um we've gone back and forth on hey, do we roll, you know, is the next, what's the next phase?

Is it another three years?

What does that look like?

For a number of reasons, some of it around let's just call it geopolitical uncertainty, um, and some of the other factors we're looking at now at doing a one-year extension in order to implement what we're calling sort of the the 2.0, like you know, what we learned, what worked, what didn't, those things.

Um so we are uh we'll be pretty I'll be presenting that to the Lake County Partners Board uh at our September meeting.

Um and so just looking at that one year extension so we can get those things implemented and then we'll look at what makes sense longer term.

But the uh the program continues to go really well.

We had a goal of 150, what we call pro-Chicago land decisions.

So the goal is 150 over three years, and we hit 205.

So pretty pretty excited about that.

That was the quick spin.

Happy to field any questions if you have them.

Uh well, member Clark.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I think he was always for your update to highlight.

I and I had a question.

I remember about how we all know housing has been you know so important for our area and our region.

And there have been a number of projects that have come online in the last couple of years, and there's a lot in the pipeline as you showed.

So I remember you being here a couple years ago when you were like, people, the feedback we're getting from companies is we just need any housing.

So do you what's the feedback you're getting now?

Does it seem like that's eased up a bit, or is it still a huge barrier for people locating here?

It's a really good question.

And I hate that the answer is it depends, but the from the question of what do you hear back from companies, it it depends.

So it depends a little bit on how many people they need to hire and kind of what kinds of folks.

So from maybe some of our largest, more established employers, that may or may not feel like a pain point if they're you know hiring in the tens, you know, every year or things like that, or they tend to be maybe senior folks.

Um when we offered the opportunity to Fortune Brands Innovations who needs to grow from 150 to 1200 to participate in the task force, they leapt at the opportunity.

Um, literally, thank you, thank you, thank you for for letting us participate.

So they see the need because they have such a big hiring need.

Um if you talk to manufacturers, um like they see the need as they need to to recruit more and would like their employees to uh to be able to live closer.

Yeah.

Interestingly, and this is a I can't paint this for all school districts, so sort of focus group of one, and it was in a uh uh planning uh task force at a particular municipality, but we asked the the superintendent of the school district was there.

And when this question came up, and obviously this is always uh uh double-edged sword for the school districts, but when asked, like, hey, where do your new teachers live?

And the answer was Wisconsin or mom and dad.

Yeah.

Um, and so there are opportunities there.

And so that was acknowledged of yeah, it would be nice if we had some opportunities for for them as well.

So um depends a little bit, and the and rents are through the roof.

Um so if you're a landlord, life life's pretty good.

Um, if you're looking for an apartment, we have a one of our team members has had to move farther and farther away uh a couple of times over the last couple of years.

So it's still a challenge.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Chair Hart.

Thank you.

I just really want to say thank you for this great presentation and for all the wins that um that you share and and what you don't share, but you've talked about in years past is you know, we can we can present as well as we can, and sometimes there's going to be things that are beyond our control or other things that come up and we don't get um those deals, if you will.

So um, I know you guys are working hard beyond just the wins that we see here today.

Um, the one year extension, Kevin and I had had talked a little bit about this.

I know it's something that you didn't want to have to come to the county board and and ask for, hey, I need that additional funding for that year.

But um, I would say for you, just for me and my perspective, boy, your timing is pretty good.

Considering you're in the top 10 in the country for economic development, considering you had a goal of 150, you got to 205.

And I I guess I just want all of us to be cognizant of the fact that um if we don't do a one-year extension, well, I guess I'll just ask, if you were not to do a one year extension with GSEP, then essentially you would not be working with your colleagues to page Kane, Will, Chicago, Will Business Chicago, and we would again be on our own.

Correct.

Right.

Yeah.

So are you the you're the are you the president of GSAP right now?

I am the chair.

So he's the chair of GSAP right now.

Um so I uh I am fortunate to get to sit on the executive board of Lake County Partners.

So I I do need to sort of gather up some of my information that not everybody sees, right?

Which are the balance sheets and um all of those pieces to show how your dollars are being spent in order to bring uh opportunities here in Lake County.

But um I I personally think a one-year extension is important.

Um Intersect Illinois, which is now the Illinois Economic Development Partnership, I think, or Illinois, a corporation.

Corporation, yeah.

Yeah.

So there's changes there, and I personally think we're going to need a year um in order to figure out next steps.

But it's my hope that those next steps is that we just have a statewide economic development entity with sort of a um department, if you will, that is made up of the Chicago land area.

And I know that's something you and I have talked about, and I've spoken to Intersect Illinois about that.

Um, it just makes a lot of sense, right?

So anyway, thank you for mentioning that one year extension.

Um, it was not what you had wanted, but I uh I'm in support of it because I think your um results really speak for themselves.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Appreciate that.

Never mean.

Thank you.

Great report, Kevin.

I have a question and then a comment.

And the question is, and I don't know if you can uh answer this or or not.

And that is um, do you have any sense or does somebody hopefully somewhere someone has a sense?

If we look at the uh rental market in Lake County, like what percent are um sm you know, someone who just has a few units that they're renting out, like in Chicago, you'd have a that's a big percent, right?

That people um it's just they live on one floor and they're renting out, and so sometimes you think, oh, the landlords, but this could be just somebody's supplemental income as opposed to uh you know a much larger organization that like a corporation or something like that.

Do we have any sense of that here?

I I don't know the answer off the top of my head.

Okay, that's fine.

I think that data is available though.

Yeah it could be broken down sort of what are sort of corporate entities and what are sort of independent individuals who I think that's an important idea to keep in mind, you know, this idea that hey, they are higher, but sometimes that is another family's income to supplement their ability to live someplace.

It's it's a lot more complicated and dynamic many times.

Uh and then I just want to say great thing about the AB.

Um, especially because Ab V is such a good corporate neighbor that they do they go above and beyond with what they do with their investment in the schools, in the forest preserve, what they have their employees do um for work days, again at schools and forest preserve.

I mean, Abvi really is a community partner in I don't know that there's somebody else, certainly at that scale that does what Abvi does.

And that we're really fortunate and we're so appreciative of their commitment to their community.

And we just hope other businesses would um within their own means take that as a model and be that really good um community um partner.

Yeah.

For sure.

Yeah, thank you.

They they're a tremendous partner of ours and so many organizations in the county.

Yeah, thank you.

That's well said.

Any questions?

I just had I had one question, and I know you've answered this one before.

Yeah, but just um I wanted to just since I saw an article, I was reading an article yesterday.

And I'm not saying we should do this in any way.

Um but data centers, I believe have overtaken office construction as of this year.

And the foreseeable future is that they will be overtaking office construction for the because of the whole AI boom.

Do we have is that I think you said because of the land we have available and the energy use and the environmental, it's not something that we're we're geared for in this county, but it is possible in Chicago.

We have uh uh a little bit.

We have one site really where there was a combination of uh power capacity and and land.

Um, and that was uh it's actually in Gray's Lake, so the cornerstone development where the Medline Distribution Center is.

So many of you we've probably all driven by it.

Some have maybe been inside.

It's a cool tour if you haven't had it.

Um so that site, uh a company called T5, who's a major data center developer out of Atlanta.

They've got other sites here around Chicago.

Uh so they did acquire uh several hundred acres, basically the rest of that land around Medline to build um the the numbers moved around a little bit.

Let's let's go with 8 million square feet of data center there.

So that's a lot.

Um they will be um they are a better.

There was a time when data centers from a job standpoint, like literally it would be like five people in the giant box.

Um that's not really true anymore.

It's not as many as a manufacturing facility would have in that same amount of space, but there might be 50 to 100 in there now.

They're also much better jobs from uh when you think about the cybersecurity needs and the other tech needs, like those are pretty good gigs in there now.

Um so in that sense, we'll be happy to have them.

So that might end up being a thousand jobs in there.

Good tech jobs that actually align really nicely with the new uh cyber security and IT programs that CLC has developed.

Um they are there's lots of discussion uh, of course, around the power needs, and they are significant.

I don't think can't kid anybody about that.

Um I'm not an expert on this.

I'm told that they don't use the water that they used to, that there are other ways to cool, and that's all about cooling the uh the servers.

There are other ways to to cool it.

And I know that T5 has actually been a pioneer in using some of those new ways.

Um the big benefit is they're gonna be really good uh from a property tax levy standpoint, and those are two school districts.

Um this is right across the street from the proposed Ivanhoe Farms uh uh housing development.

So it's those same school districts, Fremont and um Mundaline, Fremont Elementary and Mundaline High School.

Um so there's a pretty pretty shiny silver lining there.

Kevin, when is that gonna materialize?

Um the first step is actually Comed needs to build a substation.

Uh and I believe that dirt is moving now.

I think it started in in the last week or so, just for the commed pieces.

So part of it was that I was just reading this article was that the numbers of people that are needed to build these all is also like getting a lot of work done for union related like electrical engineers and some of that skill.

So there's a lot of work to be done, or just not putting up walls and the infrastructure itself requires some technical training.

And so those those are jobs that will end at some point as they finish it, but they're good jobs.

Yeah.

It's a big project.

So eight to ten million square feet is big.

So to give you an idea, that medline distribution center is about a million and a half square feet.

Um some of it there'll be two stories in some places, but so that there's that's a lot of construction work, actually, starting with the the comed work that's not small.

So the the owner the I'll leave it at that.

There's a there's a big substation to be built.

Um so there's a lot of good work there.

I know that our friends at the Building Trades Council have been in communication and they're excited about that opportunity.

Great.

Okay.

Thank you so much.

Any other questions?

All right.

Again, enjoyed it and congratulations on all the wins, Kevin.

Thank you.

Appreciate it.

All right, 8.5 is uh, I think we're gonna take a vote on this.

So it's 8.5 is a committee action approving a contract modification for agreement 2307 for unforeseen conditions in the executive in the execution of a contract with engineering services, DBA power link, electric verden hills, Illinois in the amount of 299,754 and 71 cents for a total contract amount of 2,062,414 and three cents.

Can I have a motion?

Motion by member mains, second by member Clark.

Welcome, Kev, or welcome, Carl.

Good morning, Carl Carrar, Director of Facilities and Construction Services.

Uh so this contract was originally awarded in February 2023.

And this modification is for the emergency generator and electrical improvements project, which is at Debkey Juvenile Center.

Uh, this modification is being executed because we have exceeded the 10 10% threshold of the original contract amount.

And this 299,000 brings the total to 24.2% above the original awarded amount.

Uh the modification is necessary to resolve an electro electrical code update and a safety issue with the electrical panel.

So pause there for any questions.

Yeah, I was sorry, is there any like reason this wasn't seen ahead of time?

Like was this a surprise that we needed this or why uh two issues that that they have come up.

The the code, the electrical code issue is a change.

Uh it was a grounding issue where original design had it grounded appropriately, but the code changed over the last year and requires us to do some trenching to actually connect the grounding to the water main, which is actually attached to the new DEPC courthouse.

So that that's an additional uh change.

And the other is a safety issue is an arc flash actual problem.

And then what that is is uh it the system as designed, uh did not contemplate an upgrade of a upsizing of a transformer.

So with the overlap of construction happening now with the DEPC ARPA funded DEPC project that also is doing some work within WRS.

Uh Comed has directed us to go ahead and consolidate transformers.

They both had smaller transformers.

Now we're going to a larger one.

And the original design didn't contemplate that as a possibility.

So with a larger transformer, we needed to, we need to increase the size of the breakers within the panel that we just installed.

Uh, and that's an additional expense there to get there.

So, in order to make it safe for the equipment and the people inside Debkey, we have to have to do this work.

We want to make it safe.

So it's a code change then, like a code change and a com ed requirement change.

Yes.

And just in general, I mean, there's been a lot of overages we haven't seen, obviously, to get to this point.

Is there just like a general why there's been so much overages?

Because the for the first 10%, you don't have to come to us, correct?

Correct.

So just in general, I'm just curious why there's been like is there like a general theme?

Has it been a lot of more code changes or changes in the specs in general for the other change order?

No, I wouldn't say so.

We do run across some problems here and there.

Uh, this is the biggest change within the this contract.

Uh and this safety issue is the largest change.

And it of course it comes right at the end.

And this is after everything's been installed.

We had an inspector out, and then they they flagged these two issues.

And that's I mean, the system is fully up and running, it's safe now, but once we upsize that transformer from commed, that's when this other issue will be created, and we have to you have to fix it now in order to do that other work.

And will these changes affect any of our other work?

Like if the code changes and comment, like is it now will be out of code and other like similar things since you said the code changed?

Once you touch it, you have to change it.

But but you don't otherwise.

But because this work is underway, we have to keep up with the current electrical code.

Okay.

I'm sure you're looking into safety for all of it.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

I think member main, you had a question.

Pretty much answered, but I was just thinking, and I was looking at the bullets here.

Is that I just wondered if that had also involved um that really old part because part of that building used to be part of like a mental hospital.

I mean, it was really really old.

So it seems to me like that could be scary when you go back and there would be all sorts of things unknown once you start go.

So is that kind of related to that, like the older part or not really?

I mean, your explanation was good.

I just didn't know if if that really old part of the complex out there was tied into some of this.

I would tell you that this project is fixing a lot of those properties.

So we have cleaned up the power.

The electrical room is as modern as it could possibly be right now.

Yeah.

Uh it's just that this last issue, the safety issue, is the thing that that surprised us, quite frankly, and that's we have to we have to fix now.

We've we've spent the last 60 days engineering a solution to get us to this point.

And now that it's it's become more critical in time because it is delaying the ARS and DEPKE project, the ARPA funder project.

We have to get this done as fast as possible now and done safely.

Okay, good.

Thanks.

All right.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

The motion passes.

Thank you, Carl.

All right.

8.6 is a discussion on the estimated tax levy for tax year 2025.

Good morning.

I'm going to cover that this morning.

Patrice Sutton, County Administrator.

Um state statute calls for the fact that the county must pass an estimate of its tax levy in September of every single year.

This is just an estimate, and the amount that you actually pass in November can be higher or lower than that estimate, as long as it doesn't surpass the maximum allowed under PTEL, the property tax extension limitation law.

That percentage this year is 2.9%.

I want to remind you that in the budget development policy that you gave us for fiscal year 26.

You did ask for us to balance the budget using only half of that allowable PTAL amount.

So we are balancing the fiscal year 26 budget with only 1.45% or half of the allowable CPI.

So the direction that we're seeking today is to clarify what we should present at next week's committee meeting.

Again, this is just the estimated levy.

And the question is whether we should present it using the full amount of the allowable levy, which is what we have historically done.

The reason for that is because it is the most transparent.

It it sets the cap um up to which the county board would be able to pass.

And it provides us a little bit of wiggle room because as you may recall, last year we didn't settle on the half that we um presented the budget to you with.

We came back with a few additions later on, and we did utilize a little bit of that portion of the property tax.

So we feel that coming to you with the 2.9% maximum allowable percentage would be the most transparent.

But because this would be a little bit of a complex amendment on the floor, we wanted to have this discussion today and get your guidance.

This is what we've done every year, and it's worked well because that I mean, as you said, it is an estimate.

We all know we'll have our budget hearings.

We'll go through all of this piece by piece.

And so I think for just for transparency, you know, that it could potentially go there.

I think it's the best our best way to go forward.

Any other thoughts?

I mean, I don't see any reason not to go, knowing that we're likely to come in under.

Any other thoughts?

Thank you have direction.

Awesome.

Thank you so much.

All right.

8.7 is a presentation and discussion on Monsanto's settlement funds.

We have Deputy County Administrator Matt Myers.

Good morning.

Thank you, Chair.

Good morning, FNA committee members.

And there is a brief presentation that we have regarding funds that the county received due to a settlement in 2023 that we appropriated.

Um the intent of this this morning is to provide a little background on the funds, why we received them, what potential uses are available, and talk about it in sort of a response to the previous FA committee's meeting with respect to a um economic development uh opportunity in Lake County.

So Monsanto was a company that manufactured PCBs between the 30s and 77.

They stopped in 1977.

Um and uh there was there was uh the case in which they they were knowingly manufacturing these, knowing that they caused harm to uh human beings and the environment.

And there was a class action settlement initiated by the city of Long Beach, and they asserted that um they impaired certain things that were responsibilities of municipalities through things like the NPDES permit process, in which um um municipalities like counties or cities were responsible for monitoring water quality and making improvements, and what they were stating was that these the fact that these PCVs were there were costing these municipalities and organizations much more money because we had to clean it up.

So they were seeking compensatory damages and a junctive equitable relief at the time, and there was a settlement of 550 million dollars, and um there was a process that was put in place in which there was an analysis of all these different impaired water bodies and municipalities that um had some kind of touch to them or um relation to them in which they were spending or exerting funds to clean uh the water body up, and Lake County received as a MPDES county, and we touched um one of those watersheds, which was the Lake Michigan watershed and Lake Michigan, and so a lot of the communities along the Lake Michigan water line, like um Zion, North Chicago, and Waukegan also receive these Monsanto funds as well.

And so a lot of the communities along the Lake Michigan water line, like um Zion, North Chicago, and Waukegan also receive these Monsanto funds as well.

We received the max that you could receive under it, which was seven and a half million dollars.

And um diving into the settlement agreement a bit with the state's attorney's office, there is no real specific um use restriction.

So you could use the funds for uh anything at this point.

It's intended to compensate members for restitution and remediation, including mitigation of contaminated property, stormwater and or stormwater systems, but there are no restrictions on the funds.

It's been a couple of years, but we did you receive and appropriate the funds.

It's but they've been in the general fund, they've been carried over year after year.

So there's seven and a half million dollars sitting there.

Um and our intention was, and I think we said at the time that we were going to do some research, see what other folks were doing, ensure that we really understand if there were any use restrictions on the funds before we started talking about using them.

And there are communities that have been using them for stormwater infrastructure related improvements, environmental uses, water quality related um initiatives, education, and then those that are just placing them in reserves.

And we've also kind of consulted the the uh strategic plan as we try and come up with some recommendations to the board uh on the use of the funds.

But in in response to um a discussion at a previous meeting regarding economic development opportunities, staff did want to provide an option to fund such initiatives.

There's no current fund available uh in Lake County's budget.

So um one options, recommendations would be to reserve two million of those for superfund site cleanup and cost related to site preparation for economic development opportunities.

So we could say that we could reserve up to two million dollars for um site prep.

So it's not going to be in the actual um maybe construction of a facility or something like that, but it'd be to use for some um for potential proposed projects that um just to get the site ready for said project.

And then five and a half million dollars would still remain where it is now.

Um, and uh as we continue to develop a process uh to come back recommendations for the use of those funds.

That's what I have this morning.

Matt, I just had a had a question for you.

Does it sorry, any questions?

I have a question.

Matt, um the two million, obviously, we've we've heard from um a few weeks ago about that um opportunity.

The the five point five that could be used for that one opportunity because right.

So it was it's not specific two million for that.

It's it's could be used as a few.

Right, that could be used for that opportunity.

The 5.5, are there other opportunities along the lake front that are not being developed because of pollution and you know the mitigation that would need to occur?

Um I'm thinking yes.

Right.

I mean, we've been involved in a number of started to try to tap into them and saying, hey, we we might have this this funding available if you're willing to develop it either in a commercial or residential or manufacturing.

So that hasn't been a priority, but we have certainly been involved in other um initiatives, not not just necessarily along the lakefront, but other other large cleanup sites like Sheridan Crossing and the Halsey Village properties in North Chicago that have been kind of on our work plan, things that we're supporting these municipalities that don't have the resources that are obtaining the resources to clean them up, but but certainly uh the support of the county is helping move those sites along.

So if we could jump start some of that, right?

Um I think that would be at least some my thoughts that would be something that fits into the spirit of why we receive these funds.

Um member Volitzik, member and then chair or member main and chair Hart.

Thank you.

First, I just want to thank Chair Hart.

I know this has been something she's um been passionate about for many years, is using this Monsanto funds to clean up the super fund site.

And sorry if I'm speaking out of turn, but it's my understanding that it's one of the reasons it's taken so long is that the previous administration was a little bit um resistant, might be too strong a word, but just didn't see the urgency um in using some of these funds.

I have a couple of questions.

One is why two million.

You said it's not related to the previous economic development proposal, but I would assume that that's what they're asking for, or did you just two million a shot in the dark?

And so why two million?

I mean, there's some thought around it.

I wouldn't say that there's certainly math around it.

There hasn't been discussions around it.

There hasn't been a specific ask.

So I think starting there and and at least locking some of those funds down to say that yes, this is a priority for the county, and we're interested to supporting these sites is kind of the the reason for it.

But there wasn't, there's not a specific um uh formula that was used to come up with that dollar value.

But just taking a look at the projects, having some discussions, um, just kind of spitballing.

That seemed like a reasonable number to start with that uh shows that the county is committed to to doing it and supporting these projects.

Okay, got it.

Thanks for clarifying that.

And then just um following on um vice chair Parks, I had just the same question, but can you uh talk a little bit more about what your process understanding it's not fully developed yet, it sounds like, but what it might be to determine what sites uh well, we know what sites probably need to be cleaned up, but what a process would look like to like which municipalities or government bodies need aid, how we could help, what's the process gonna look like?

This is great feedback.

I mean, this is this is some of this discussion here is also what we were looking for today to to kind of understand the priorities of the committee.

Um, and if that's something that that that isn't something necessarily that we were considering, and that wasn't just an avenue that we were going down, but administration obviously has a lot of experience with coming up with neat processes to solicit projects going through CARES and ARPA funding over the last uh five years.

So um that could be some that could be a model that we use to solicit those types of projects um from those municipal partners along the the Lake Michigan shoreline that have certainly have these sites in their in their um within their municipal boundaries.

Okay, thank you.

Um member Maine, yeah.

A couple questions.

So when did this money become available?

23.

23.

We appropriated it in 23.

But when did we get it?

It was it was then it was.

Oh, I was just confused because you said previous administrations hadn't wanted.

Oh, okay.

All right, thanks.

Um, so um I would be interested to know how much the other communities along um that that receive these funds, like how much they got, how they're using it.

Um, I mean, I could see us doing like a matching thing, but I also want to know that there it always concerns me.

I'm surprised that the money was given out without restriction as to how it should be used.

I would hope that people would look at this as a as we would.

We're an unfortunate economic position to say, hey, let's use these for projects to not fill in gaps or operating costs or something like that.

So I think as we look to partner, I would I would want us out there.

I personally saying, hey, you got this lump sum.

Here's your ability to do something big, right?

To to make a change long term.

We can match you if you do this, but if if you're just gonna use it, if they're just gonna use it all to backfill other projects unrelated to this, I'm less likely to say, yeah, well, now we'll go in and help you clean up when you got funds and you didn't use those funds for anything related to this original cause.

So I'm just curious as to how other people are using those funds.

Um so I just think when you help out that whatever level you need some skin in the game.

And I want to know how much they have to put in the game and how they've been using that.

So the other thing, um, and I talked to administrator Sutton um about this to clarify my own mind of how we use interest, like this is a big piece of money, and this is just sitting there in the general fund.

And I just wonder if we should would we want to have um some boxes on it to say, hey, interest accrue is a lot of money, right?

Interest accruing on that should go back into the uses related to this fund and not spinning off for money for the general fund.

That's what I would want because again, I just like it when you have these specific uses to maximize our ability and to not use one-time funds for other things.

So this is this is a real opportunity for us to do some good here in the county, and I would like us to maximize this.

And and I think I'm gonna turn it over to administrator Sutton.

I I broached it with her beforehand, so I wasn't surprising her right now.

And could you expand on what we talked about?

Absolutely.

So when we first appropriated the funds, we did not have a specific use.

And so it didn't really meet the definition of a special revenue fund, which is what we would need to create to be able to put this into its own fund, and then it would earn interest and it would be allocated to that fund.

I think you know what I what we may be hearing today is that we may want to create a special revenue fund that has to be used for specific purposes, and that would put the fences around this money.

Um we would intentionally specify the use that um Matt has talked about today, and then the rest of the 5.5 million dollars would be sitting there for discussion and analysis of how we want to proceed with the rest of it.

So we would have to define what the county board's restrictions on the use are so that we have, you know, a legitimate need to create the special revenue fund, but we could certainly do that to um make the fences much more formal.

Thank you.

I I think it's something worth discussing, because I think what I'm hearing is that we are thinking, hey, we want specific uses, targeted use of this funds.

And I think this committee could definitely, you know, given the work staff has already done, come up with some parameters that are narrow enough to allow it to be a special fund, but broad enough to allow us to use the money for a variety of things that are addressing some of these consequences of the PCB and their pollution.

That's all.

Thank you.

So I feel like there's two things here, right?

That we're deciding.

One is the $2 million for this potential super fund site.

And then the other thing is what to do with the rest of the money.

And so I have a couple of questions about both.

So one with the two million dollars.

So it sounds like two million dollars is in the realm of potentially, because we've from our meeting last month, we know that this company's interested and they want to move fast.

And so from what you understand, two million dollars seems to be in the realm of possibilities of with the I would think so.

Um, just based on some preliminary discussions held.

Uh, I I think the dollar value shows that the county's serious and that we're willing to um uh kind of uh put our money where our priorities lie, which is this environmental site cleanup, correct?

So I feel like it's it's almost like a statement at this point, but until we kind of get a specific ask or something then it would be an effective amount or we think it'll be effective.

Yes.

And then how would and I think because we have to move quickly on this, is that how would this work?

I mean, would we restrict the use of the funds to this one super fund site?

Would we be doing the remediation?

Would we contract it out to a village or a town?

I mean, I those are the questions I have.

You know, if it's not used, if we do specify the money is for this fund, but then it turns out the project doesn't happen, then do we have to unspecify the money for this fund?

So I guess logistically, it seems like we're gonna have to move quickly.

So do we have ideas about how it literally would work?

I don't know if you won't respond, but I mean, I have thoughts, but I I I uh I I it's it's something we've certainly talked about it.

We've certainly contemplated all the different ways that we could set something up like that.

I think right now we just want to make sure that we're locking the two million dollars down.

We would come back with an action next week to do so.

Um action would address this, right?

The action would state that it's locked for this fund, and then we would just have we would have to have some process in which we would solicit um uh potential projects for the use of the funds, and then regarding like the contracting, the agreements, that's something that we would have to work on as to the best way to set up um that we could set it up with you know in conversations with the state attorney's office.

So anyone could apply for this fund the way it's been.

Based on the way that I'm I I have stated it, it's for that specific use and that we will lock it up for that specific use.

And do we have a definition of what CSI remediation means?

We can be clear on that, and we will be clear on that in the actual action.

All right, and we will be live, yeah.

Yeah, if I could just be maybe um restated a different way.

We would have to come back to you with the actual agreement later on, which would have all of these um stipulations in it.

So this is just setting the budget and um, you know, signaling a commitment at this time because of the time being of the essence.

Um, there are a lot of details and a formal ask that would need to come to be able to start working through all of these details, which of course would come back to you for your formal approval.

So we feel like this is a necessary first step to meet the time frame, but there are a lot of details that we would still work through and of course um ensure meet your specifications.

Okay, so we still have time for that part because I remember they said something about September, and I was like, okay, we should get this locked down.

Okay, so that and then the second on the money, the rest of the funds.

I I know, I know we're talking about economic development, but I'm kind of loath to just give away this money.

I mean, we have a lot of internal projects that we could look at that address water issues, stormwater issues.

And I I don't know why we wouldn't look at instead of just putting it as a pot for people to bid on, look at our own stormwater issues, our tree initiative.

I mean, this money is from you know, P uh this um whatever the this it's pollution.

So why are we just giving away for economic development?

So I just think as a discussion for this board, like I know I personally am not ready just to say, well, let's put this out for people to bid on.

I'd really like like to look at our internal projects.

Some of our ARPA projects are running out of funding.

And maybe we could put money toward that.

We've got water quality issues, we've got, you know, a lot of projects that we're doing that I would like to look at for this five million dollars instead of just I I just think it's worth a bigger conversation.

So today I'm like today, I'm not ready to say I just want this to go to economic development.

Because as Member Maine brought up, you know, I have some of the same concerns.

If other towns already have this money, and you know, you all know I struggle with this is why are we giving this these people money for their economic development project and not others, where you know, for this money is about pollution.

Why aren't we looking at our internal projects and all the things we're doing as a county?

We do a lot of these things.

So, you know, I don't know today what we're deciding on that, but um, you know, the way it's worded, it sounds like are we just like we're gonna come back to things.

Yeah.

Today for the five and a half million, I mean, today was was an opportunity to hear from members.

So I've heard some great feedback already uh as to where we should go.

Um, but staff's recommendation at this time was to let us continue to work on some kind of process for the five and a half million dollars.

Right.

If that's what we want to do.

So I guess my feedback is I don't, I'm not ready to move forward with trying to just let this go out for like people to bid on.

I really would encourage us to look at our lake county priorities and see if this is money we can use internally with our projects.

Um, because it's late county money.

Those other cities could have gotten money for this.

And so as member main pointed out.

So I I'm not saying I wouldn't go ahead with like putting it out for like anyone can bid on this money, but I'd really like us to look at our own projects, our own you know, strategic plan and see how this could fit in with some of our things that I'm seeing money running out of and federal funding is very in jeopardy.

So I don't know why I would suggest that we look at what how we could use this um strategically for us.

So that's my feedback.

Thank you.

Can I ask a question?

Maybe a member member Clark and the committee.

The way I kind of interpreted the conversation was more that the money would be used, not necessarily for economic development, yes, but for remediation purposes, so we can further economic development that hasn't been stalled in certain areas along the lakefront or or other areas.

So it wouldn't be, hey, let's just use this to extend uh something or give it to a company, but saying we need to jumpstart some areas of the county that have been not we just haven't had the funding to maybe remediate to to give that incentive, like that early stage seeding money to give them, say, okay, if I can get this, then we can start to do more economic development.

That's how I kind of interpreted the conversation.

And and I agree, there maybe there's like very strict funding or formula matching saying if North Chicago, for example, I'm not saying they would do this, but if they didn't, if they decided not to use any of their money for any of this, well, they would not be in the pool of participants, right?

That or they would have a much lower score relative to others that could participate in this funding.

That I think the point being maybe member main brought up that it's a shared opportunity, and so we should make sure that we're all sharing in something like this.

How we design it, I think we need to figure out that's that's how I took the conversation.

Yeah, yeah, I under yeah, I totally understand that.

I guess yeah, for me, I'm still when like we, it's still their towns.

We're not looking at unincorporated Lake County, right?

So for me, I still would like us to look at late county uses for it first with because we have some great projects, great things we're investing in that could use this money that involve like water quality and things like that.

So I just would like us to at least thoughtfully look at our projects to see if we could use it.

Like, do we have me, maybe we could bid on this money too.

But I I'm just kind of loath just to push it away to other towns and cities where um I think we should look at our projects first.

Right.

Uh member Volitzik and then Chair Hart.

Thanks.

I'm I'm glad that you you clarify that because that's not I was thinking that if we had specific water quality watershed projects that we would include those in a consideration.

So I want to be clear about that.

Um to the economic development point, I suppose that that is that is the um the uh maybe in some cases the obvious result.

But in my mind, this is this is largely an environmental issue that I I'm concerned about using the funds appropriately for those watershed, water quality um super fun cleanup site um.

But I and I would be, I didn't realize that this wasn't, you know, I maybe I had my ARPA brain on where I'm thinking the county received this money to allocate.

I think we need to see what other governmental bodies received these Monsanto funds, like if Waukegan or Chicago, if they all also receive funds, then that's part of the discussion too.

They do.

Yeah, okay.

So I didn't that wasn't clear to me until I think Member Maine's question.

So yeah, that's I think an important part of the conversation.

Yeah, I mean, so maybe maybe we're not saying we're we're I guess the question is how open are we to not to working with others, right?

Versus only solely focusing on our projects.

And I would say I'm kind of open to the idea of like if we could partner, great.

If we don't want to partner, we have our own needs, great.

I just think if we leave it open enough, we can the policy goals are around environmental sustainability.

And if that yields economic development, awesome, right?

But how do we that's what the original Monsanto funds were?

And I mean, they didn't say you had to use them in a certain capacity, but ultimately we're being provided those funds for environmental degradation, right?

That occurred.

So sorry, uh Chair Hart.

That's okay.

That was really the biggest part of my point.

Why did we get the money?

Because of the PCBs in Lake Michigan.

Who are those communities that are most direly impacted by those PCBs?

Waukegan, North Chicago, Zion.

I remember learning about superfund sites in the early 1980s, and some of these super fund sites here in Lake County probably date from that time.

So while some I agree with Member Main, like, hey, how how much did they get?

How did they spend it?

In my mind, um, you know, these are communities that have had a really uh devastating impacts in terms of losses of jobs, some that occurred as a result of the very companies that were polluting that water.

So enormous loss of jobs, they can't do the economic development or even create a park because of what's happened in the land.

And we got this, and it is sort of interesting, right?

We're we're Lake County, we're the county, so we got it, but how much property does Lake County itself have along the waterfront, right?

I mean, that's sort of a rhetorical question or whatever.

I don't think we really need to know the answer to that.

But you know, when I look at our strategic plan, when I look at our mission and our values, it is about sustainability, it is about creating a better um county for everybody.

And I know this board has really talked a lot.

And and Linda, thank you for your words.

I don't even know.

Was it two weeks ago or whenever when you said, hey, I remember what Joaquegan used to be like.

I remember the vibrant community.

My mother-in-law talks about Joaquegan was the place to go.

If we can make a difference with some of this money to, you know, to bring to fix this, what's been done, I I would be so proud because you know, we do a lot of economic development all the time with road expansions, road development, further west, right?

We're always spending money and public works and which is great.

And that is economic development for communities out there.

So it's really hard for Lake County to have an economic development here because a lot of these roads, they're not county roads, right?

So to me, you know, when you learn about suburban sprawl and everything going out that way, and that's great, and development is great, and all the business we're we have businesses that are out west that Kevin just talked about.

But my goodness, it would be transformational if we can help the communities along the lakefront try to dig their way out of sort of this yoke that they've been carrying, which are these super fund sites, you know.

So clearly I feel really strongly about it.

That, you know, we got this money for a reason and we should be giving it back.

And what's good for Joaquegan or Chicago and Zion is good for Lake County, is my point.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Oh, wow, we have a lot of hands up.

I don't, I didn't I should have been being paying more attention on the who was first, but uh member Hewitt hasn't spoken, so let's go to Member Hewitt, and then we can go to member Main member Clark.

Thank you.

Being um, well, let's start by saying living all my life in Waukegan area, knowing uh what our lakefront is like, knowing what our brown fields are like, how they came to be in the past was not the best of choices, um putting it mildly.

Um, but when you look at our lakefront, you know, take a look at John Mansfield site.

See what it's like.

You have a field, and I mean a field that's contaminated and it's been capped, and you have a chain link, six-foot-high chain link fence around it.

That's that's next to our lake front.

The city's site front.

So you see that when you're driving on Seahorse Drive to get to our lake front.

You see those issues.

You see it on um Gled Flora.

There's so many sites we have that are in town, and they're in town with homes around it.

All of these things make a difference to our water quality.

And I like to know how many communities do we have that gets like um Lake Michigan water?

That's your drinking water, and what we have at the lakefront makes a difference on our quality of water.

So for me, I see a lot of things that we need in the city of Waukegan with our brownfields, and we need help.

We cannot afford to do what needs to be done to clean up those sites.

We need help.

And this is help.

And I'm sorry, member Clark, but you know what?

Yes, we need things, but we're a very fortunate county to be able to handle things that we need to do.

This is something that's very special for the city of Wauking.

Thank you.

Memory.

Yeah, um, yeah, I think it needs to be used things related to PCB, they said the original um cost.

Most of the super fund sites in Lake County are along the lakefront.

There are some.

Well, Wakanda's got one.

There are a few others, but most of them are here.

And and I was wondering, and I don't know who brought it up, maybe Chair Hart.

Um of the early language, one of those first slides that you had, Matt delineated, hey, who got a bite at that apple?

And it talked about unincorporated boundaries.

So I was thinking, is that because of Illinois Beach State Park is unincorporated?

I just try to figure out why Lake County was available to get money.

And is that because Illinois Beach State Park is unincorporated and it's a boundary to Lake Michigan, and therefore we got that money.

Do you know?

I'll say it's not specific at all.

There's a giant table of all the municipalities that received and how much they received if they were eligible.

Yeah.

And that was my initial thought too.

Is because we're adjacent, unincorporated is adjacent to Lake Michigan because of Illinois Beach State Park.

Okay.

I I was just kind of thinking of that broader, like, why did we even get invited to this party?

Right.

And um, and those sites, the Johns Manville and other ones, um they about Illinois Beach, Illinois Beach State Park and those things going on there.

And that is uh an incredibly underutilized resource.

I mean, a lot of people use it.

I go up and go to Illinois Beach State Park a couple times a year um and try to buy buy food anywhere, but you know, in those communities up there, you know, spend a little money because of those resources up there.

But um I I'm gonna go back to why did we get the money and what was the original cause?

And for me, that's gonna be my priority of how we create how the money should be used.

And I know it's a phrase that isn't always popular, but I I do think it's it's true in this instance that you know the rising tide and all boats, like bringing up bringing up our county seat or our adjacent communities, that is good for the county as a whole.

That's good for all the residents.

And so there is definitely economic development, people can have jobs, they're less dependent on other sources resources, maybe health department, other things like that.

So I think um, but I still want them to have some skin in the game.

Member Clark.

And I can tell that I am not that I'm just I and I go back to what you said, maybe remember mean it also is I go back to why we got this money, and it really is because of water pollution.

And so, you know, to the one thing is I don't know if building factories, are we going to make sure these factories or whatever aren't polluting the water?

I mean, there's going to be runoff from asphalt.

Like what kind of uses?

I mean, I mean, like, if this really is about let's make sure the water is clean, I don't know if building factories is gonna are are we gonna have restrictions that they can't have overflow into the lake or whatever.

Like I don't know if that necessarily makes the water cleaner.

Um, you know, because there are projects that really can make the water cleaner, like planting trees, like restoring land like we do with the forest reserves.

Those things make water cleaner.

Where I'm not, I mean, I am so pro economic development.

I'm literally an economist, but when we look at where we got this money, it really is about clean water, and I'm just concerned that this isn't gonna lead to clean water if we're just and and I'm all for economic development, but it to me the disconnect is there is like building factories is not to me equal cleaner water.

And the other thing is for super fund sites, you know, there's tons of development grants.

I mean, I just quick search.

There's and so I would hope that if we do, because I can tell, I mean, obviously, people don't agree with me.

So I can tell we're gonna go in this.

I hope that we at least say if you're gonna apply, you really need to also apply for these federal grants.

There's huge EPA grants, there's redevelopment grants on super fund sites.

There's lots of money that goes into super fund sites redevelopment.

And so I would hope that we would at least require that they get those grants and don't, you know, just wait for us, or at least kind of like you said, have skin in the game, they have to make sure they do that because there is a lot of money out there for that.

You know, I just want queen clean water, and I don't know, and that's where I'm really focused on with this money because I really do believe in why the money was given.

And I I just have a hard time, you know, that the sites now like are afield, but it's been cleaned.

So it's so it's not including where I would say building construction and all those things aren't exactly great for Lake Michigan.

But I'm as I said I'm for economic development, but it, you know, I just hope that we I don't know, have some one is I hope that they have to apply for these grants also, and that also we at least sort of hope that the uses are good, don't pollute the water.

So if they're gonna build a big factory, can we make sure they're not polluting more?

Because we're just gonna end up with more pollution in the lake with some of these uses.

And I don't know if we can make that contingent on these grants, but that would be my because I really would like to have a cleaner Lake Michigan.

Thank you.

Sure.

Thank you so much.

I just meant to circle back.

I I also want, and this is a lot of discussion.

We're not even, you know, you're gonna be figuring out later, but um, you know, I also just want to be mindful.

It'll be really interesting to hear how they spent that money.

And just knowing it's like uh it brings me back to sort of video gaming revenue, right?

Here in Lake County, we've set aside, you know, we've always set aside 100%.

And now recently we've kind of put a cap on it as the amount of money that we receive grows and grows as more people use video gaming.

And we've often said to, or we, you know, hey, other municipalities, you guys should do the same.

And I personally have spoken with um the city of North Chicago, and they're like, look, we'd love to be able to spend it on on behavioral health.

We can't.

We have they have they just remediated 100 um or a lead pipe that serves 100 homes.

How many more homes do they have to go?

900.

900 homes in North Chicago still have lead pipes.

So I do want us at least to be mindful that if they spent it somewhere else, I'm sure it's because it was needed.

But I mean, maybe sometimes in some cases we'll find that it wasn't, right?

My guess is that they had to spend it someplace else.

And I think um member Clark's point is a really good one.

We don't want a company that's gonna come in and and pollute the water.

What I am uh, you know, really happy about is that the EPA is in a far different place, maybe not under the current administration, but certainly over the last 30 years, um, there's many rules around protecting um the water, water runoff, um, all of those things.

So uh, you know, anyway, that's that was just one thing I wanted for us to be mindful of, you know, because these communities had these uh difficult parcels, you know, their revenue plummeted, right?

So sometimes they maybe had to had to spend that in a different way.

And the Johns Mansville Corporation, yeah, it's been cleaned up and it's been capped, but I just I think I just sent you guys this link.

Is the site wide ready for anticipated use?

No.

Uh is human exposure under control, yes, because the capped, right?

And it's fenced.

So, you know, anyway, I just think um what a what a great opportunity.

That's all.

Yeah.

And the more we sit on these super fund sites, the more expensive it becomes to clean them up.

So thank you.

Yeah, and I'll just add one last comment.

I know we've talked quite a bit, and then I want to know if you guys have enough direction, but I was even thinking economic opportunity could be more parkland, more, you know, access to the beach and things like that.

So for me, it's more about the remediation of those that the people get more access to ultimately.

And all of us, like I would love, you know, leave this meeting and head over there, right?

You know, right.

Yeah.

Very pretty.

So do you feel you have enough direction on this?

I do.

I have the direction I need, absolutely on the two million.

Staff will be back next week for an action on that to lock that down.

Okay.

Just have to determine what action we're going to use.

And then for the five and a half, I think we'll continue to gather data based on some of the feedback today.

And we'll we'll sit with members too and talk about some potential priorities that they would have.

And then we'll come back with recommendations on that at a future meeting.

Great.

Thank you, man.

If there's consensus on that, I guess I should ask.

Okay.

All right.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right.

Item 8.8 is a discussion regarding grocery tax.

Right.

Thank you very much.

As part of the state fiscal year 25 budget under public act 103-0781, the 1% state grocery tax was eliminated starting January 1st, 2026.

At the same time, the new law provided authority for the local governments to impose the 1% grocery tax locally.

If the county were to want to impose this tax for effect on January 1st, 2026, so that there would be no lapse, we would need to take action at our September board meeting because we would need to submit that to the state no later than October 1st.

However, staff is not recommending that we implement this tax at this time.

We currently budget approximately six, we currently budget six million dollars for uh the 1% municipal tax in unincorporated Lake County.

But based on our research and analysis, only approximately 155,000 of this revenue was associated with grocery tax or food related items because of the makeup of the um tax paying entities within our unincorporated area.

And given our current projections on the other state shared revenues in our fiscal year 26 budget, we do not feel like it's necessary to enact this uh grocery tax at this time.

Should the county decide to implement the tax later, um, it is possible to do so twice a year.

If you want it to go into effect in July, it has to be filed by April.

And again, if it wants to go into effect in January, we have to file by October.

So at this time, it's staff's recommendation that we not move forward with a grocery tax, but I did want to open that up to this committee because uh time is of the F sense.

If you'd like for us to bring that back for action next week.

So I have a comment and member Maine has a comment.

I I just think personally the the dollar amount is so small that the symbolism of doing it is negates it, right?

I mean, if we were talking about millions of dollars because we had many grocery stores and we could really do something fundamental with that money, then perhaps we could that then I could see us doing it.

But for such a small amount, I think the symbolism of what we're doing outweighs any benefit of collecting 100,000.

So but I'd obviously want to hear from others.

Member Maine.

Yeah, I agree.

And and grocery taxes are notoriously regressive anyway.

Um, I was just more surprised about the process because we're not home rule, has the state allowed because they're taking something away.

They've created a process that we are able to enact this because normally as non-home rule, we can't go enacting additional taxes, right?

Yeah, this one was established as a local tax that even non-home rule entities would be able to implement.

So it kind of follows that same um process as for all of those types of taxes.

Um, as we did research for what other entities were doing, there are a number that have a much bigger financial impact and therefore have opted to um go forward with the grocery tax.

Some home rule entities have instead decided to do uh a slightly higher sales tax across the board.

So you are seeing um different responses, and of course, um there's a a much bigger financial impact in some other entities.

Member Clark.

Yeah, I'm glad to hear this.

I mean, grocery taxes are notoriously regressive, and um, I think people, you know, when they buy their food, they'd really like to save some money.

So I'm glad that we can do this.

It's because of our financial planning, it's not just luck, right?

I'm not seeing anyone feeling strongly about this.

So is the next step to um do we have to do any action on this?

Or we if we don't do anything, we don't do anything.

If we don't do anything, um our portion of that tax will just disappear on um December 31st, 2025.

Excellent.

Okay.

Well, I think from the committee, we're not uh interested in in moving forward with this.

Thank you.

All right.

Um do we have a county administrator's report?

I do.

I'm very pleased to introduce Lacey Simpson um this morning.

She is our new assistant county administrator.

Um, welcome.

Very, very fresh into the job, but very excited to have Lacey join the team.

She previously had been with Lake County earlier in our human resources department.

Um, has gotten some private sector experience that we think will be extremely valuable in our office and are really excited to have her join our team.

Welcome.

And and can I ask what what committees?

Do we know that yet or not yet?

That's secret still.

Yep, no.

At this time, um, we're not going to uh divvy up the committees because we have a backlog of projects and Lacey's um skills and the the capabilities that she brings to the table are really going to be able to put some of those projects over the finish line.

So we're having her really help us with that backlog first, and then um in the new year, we'll take a look at uh committee responsibilities.

Okay.

Excellent.

Welcome.

Glad to have you.

Thank you.

Is that was that it, Patrice?

That's it.

Okay.

Thank you.

All right.

I believe we are going to be going into executive session.

Is that correct?

Yes.

All right.

And I think I need to read something.

Yep.

Where's my little script?

All right.

I get a motion.

Can I have a motion?

Enter into executive session for the purpose of disc uh 10.

10.1 is an executive session.

Discuss a personal matter pursuant to uh five Illinois CS 120-2 C1.

And do I read the second one then too?

As well as an executive session to discuss pending litigation pursuant to five Illinois CS 120-2C11.

Can I have a motion?

Motion by Member Clark, second by member Hewitt.

All those in favor say aye.

Oh, do I need a roll call?

Roll call, please.

Clark.

Member Hewitt.

Uh member Maine.

Uh.

Aye.

Member Peterson.

Aye.

Member Falitzek.

All in favor.

Yep.

Oh, I mean, yes.

Okay.

We're we voted in favor.

We'll now go into executive session.

All right.

We're now outside of closed session.

Uh item 11.1 is committee action author authorizing the reclassification of position number 37017 in the county clerk's office.

May have a motion.

Motion by member Hewitt, second by member Clark.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

The motion passes.

11.2 is committee action authorizing settlement authority for case number two three C V 5945.

Can I have a motion?

Motion by Member Clark, second by member of Litzik.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

The motion passes.

Do we have any member remarks or comments?

No?

We're good.

All right.

We are adjourned.

We will see everyone next Thursday.

Thank you.