Good morning, everyone.

Today is Tuesday, September 2nd at 8:30 a.m.

And I call to order the lake county health and community services committee meeting.

Did we just start the recorder?

Oh, I thought they said okay.

In addition to being able 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.

Per county board rules in the open meeting act, attendance via remote means is permitted for qualifying reasons.

As long as the majority of the committee members are physically present, which we do have.

Oh, good, both.

So we've been notified in advance by members, uh, vice chair Altenberg and Member Kniesnik that they will have requested to participate electronically due to one of the qualifying reasons.

A fill a physical court is present, so they may be marked as present and are eligible to vote on matters before the committee today.

As a reminder, two members attending remotely, please ensure your camera's on at all times.

All right.

And I think we can then go to item number two, which is the Pledge of Allegiance.

If I could ask Member Kasman to join me.

One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you.

Can I have a roll call of members today, please?

Sure.

Vice Chair Altenberg.

Here.

Member Kasmund.

Here.

Member Cunningham.

Here.

Member Danforth.

Member Kenniesnik.

Here.

Member Maine.

Present.

Chair Park.

Here.

All right.

Item number four.

Is any is there any addenda to the agenda today?

No addenda to the agenda.

Any public comments?

No public comments.

No chair's remarks.

Any unfinished business?

No unfinished business.

All right.

New business is the consent agenda.

Can I have a motion?

Motion by Cunningham, second by member Kasbin.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

The motion passes.

8.3 is regular agenda.

Joint is 8.3.

Is a joint resolution approving an agreement between Lake County and North Chicago School District 187 for the completion of an environmental review record.

And we welcome Dominic Strozo, community development administrator.

Motion by, oh yeah, I forgot.

Motion by Member Cunningham, second by member Maine.

Welcome.

Good morning, committee.

Uh, we are seeking approval to enter an agreement with the North Chicago School District to perform an environmental review.

Uh the school district is a recipient of community project funding that fully flows directly from HUD to the school district.

Um, per the federal requirements, they don't meet the definition of a responsible entity to perform the required environmental review report.

We do.

Um, so we are entering into an agreement to perform that service for them.

We've entered into, I'd say roughly about 10 of these agreements since about 2022.

This would be the second one with North Chicago School District.

The first one I think was in 2022 for demolition.

This is for uh retrofitting one of their a different property on Green Bay Road.

Any questions from the committee?

I just have a minor question for you, Dominic.

Do we do we charge them an hourly rate or something to for the review?

We do.

We are reimbursed for time and materials on these reports.

Yep.

Excellent.

All right, member main.

So are we our employees doing this, or are we contracting out or both?

A little bit of both.

I mean, if needed, we do sometimes require third-party reports, like from a consultant.

Um, but it is completed by I sign the report.

So it is signed off by Lake County staff.

All right.

So health department is doing it.

Um, PB, you know, development staff.

I'm just curious, like who's in-house doing this for them?

Community development staff.

Um when I first started at the county.

This was my kind of my sole function doing these environmental reviews.

Now there's other staff within community development that helps put them together.

Huh.

Okay.

Member Cunningham.

This is great for us.

And I chered.

Excellent.

Well said.

Any other questions?

Comments.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

The motion passes.

8.4 is a joint resolution approving extension to an intergovernment intergovernmental agreement between Lake County and the Lake County Housing Authority for the completion of the 24 CFR Part 58 environmental review records.

Can I have a motion?

Motion by Member Kasmin, second by member vice chair.

Uh Cunningham.

So very similar request.

Um, same type of service we provide.

We would be providing for the school district.

In this case, it would be for the housing authority.

Slight difference here is the agreement with the school district is for one specific project.

Their agreement for the housing authority is for all their funding streams across um what a one-year calendar year.

So there could be multiple projects that come through.

Um but in terms of the terms of the agreement and getting reimbursed, all the terms and responsibilities are the same as the previous agreement.

Excellent.

Any questions from the committee?

No.

All right.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

The motion passes.

All right.

8.5 is a joint resolution accepting the emergency solutions grant from Illinois Department of Human of Human Services and authorizing emergency appropriation in the amount of 32,776 dollars for grant administration and management of the homeless management information system.

Can I have a motion?

Motion by Member Kasman, second by member Cunningham.

Thank you.

So that's an appropriation of federal dollars that flow through the state.

The emergency solutions grant or ESG comes from HUD.

We also are recipient of that grant funding.

We apply to the state for a slice of their uh appropriation as well.

The funds will be used to manage our homeless management information system or HMIS, essentially staff cost.

We have a HMIS coordinator on staff and CD.

And this will help offset um some of their staffing costs.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but this seems to be just an annual grant we receive.

Thankfully, yes, uh, it is an entitlement grant.

Um, but yes, correct.

All right.

Any questions from the committee?

All those in favor say aye.

Aye, any opposed?

The motion passes.

Quick efficient.

Thank you, Dominic.

All right.

Welcome, gentlemen.

8.6 is a joint resolution authorizing an environment and uh in intergovernmental agreement between the county of Lake through the Lake County Health Department and the village of Lakemore pertaining to the delegation of enforcing authority for on-site waste treatment system provisions in the port of Sullivan Lake.

Any motion by member Cunningham, second by member Kasman.

Welcome, gentlemen.

Good morning.

Chris Hoff, executive director of the health department.

Just here to uh remind you all that uh Mike Adam uh is our taking over as the deputy, the director of environmental health when Larry Mackey retires.

Uh, you'll see a lot more of him here in this role, um, introducing these resolutions and answering questions for you.

So I just want to thank Mike for taking into that role.

Uh share with you all, make sure you saw that news and uh welcome Mike.

Thank you very much and glad to be here and looking forward to working with all of you.

Uh work with some of you in the past and certainly in the future.

So this resolution in the governmental agreement with the ports of the lake village of Lakemore regarding the ports of Sullivan.

Um, this is kind of an unusual situation.

This is a uh area that used to be an RV park, uh seasonal RV park back in the 1980s, which was regulated by the Illinois Department of Public Health.

Uh, that I guess the best word to use is evolved into permanent residence, uh, trailers and different things.

They turn it over to the health department.

Uh a couple decades ago, we have had repeated issues out there with the homeowners association trying to deal with their holding tanks because they are such small lots, they have to have for their sewage is a holding tank, and that requires a lot more maintenance.

And so we've had some issues uh various agreements that did not work out.

So the village of Lake Moore, because they're it's within their village.

They decided that, or they asked us if they could be have the regulatory authority to enforce our chapter 171, which is our on-site wastewater uh ordinance basically with septic system.

So they can uh with this agreement go out and do some enforcement.

We will still be involved in that.

Um, but they will have that authority to issue any fines or anything like that if there are issues out there.

And we did have this uh valid with a state's attorney uh who provided a lot of input for us.

I have a general question if anyone doesn't have one to start, but I guess my question is is the health department the right is going forward.

Are you guys the right entity to be doing this, or is there other departments within the health?

I just kind of thought maybe public works or someone else might be.

You guys are the right on-site wastewater, so that includes any septic on-site, yes, not like a public sewer.

Yeah, that would be within like the village of Lake Moore or County or wherever the entity is, yeah.

But on site guys, okay.

All right.

Good.

Good to know.

I was just gonna say that our public works is an enterprise system.

So that's only people who have contracts with us to do their to do their waste or some of those other things.

These are wait, they're on.

Yeah, yeah.

No, but that they don't have anything with us.

They've got those tanks and they can contract with people to come pump them out.

Yeah, pump out their tanks.

So public works wouldn't get involved at that level.

No.

And do we do others?

Are there other parts of the county where we do a similar thing then?

So yeah, okay.

Good to know.

Any questions?

Wouldn't it?

Anybody who's on septic, right?

Correct.

Not like an agreement.

No, that's just agreement.

But anybody who has a septic, we're in charge.

We health department is in charge of monitoring that, or if they need a permit for a new septic.

Yep, for alteration or new thing.

Okay.

Member Danforth.

These aren't homes.

These are just RV facilities.

Uh well, they've morphed into homes.

So there are some like double wide trailers, regular, you know, trailers, permanent places.

And each each lot, if you will, has its own holding tank.

Yes.

So there are a lot of them out there.

There's a lot.

So there's a lot of tanks.

And the nature of the violations is what?

Just seepage or spillage or it could be uh the tank has to be pumped every you know a few weeks.

So if they don't do that, it may start to overtop.

Uh or they in some cases, not that thankfully this doesn't happen very often, but some of them might pump their own tank out into the wetland or something like that.

So obviously those are a major violations.

We don't want that happening.

So but they do require a lot more maintenance.

But isn't there an overseeing authority that manages the property that the people are, I think it they're renting lots within the facility.

They do own those lots, they pay taxes on them.

Um, so it's it's within the village of Lakemore.

Um, and so they're the ones that would kind of if they wanted to do something else with that.

They and part of the reason we want to do this is they have a lot of staff already in there keeping an eye on this location anyway.

So they would be able to better better identify if there's some sources going.

So there is no overseen overarching authority that is making sure that like an HOA or something like that.

There is an HOA, and part of the reason we had a lot of agreements with the HOA over the years, but they would never really kind of follow through on it.

And so that's why we've kind of gone to this method.

You know, we were like, we want to try something else because it hasn't been that successful, and we're gonna see how this goes.

And there is a clause, obviously, in there if this doesn't work according to our health codes, we we can then say we're gonna try something else.

How many units are we there are approximately 150 or so?

There's quite a few on there.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I'm remaining yeah, the HOA is that one of those paper ones, like it's a it's a voluntary one, and you can pay in a 25 year whatever.

It's not a legal HOA in which they are required in covenants and stuff to pay in.

Is that what it is?

I'm not really sure that my guess is if it's at all.

My guess is that it's probably one of those voluntary HOAs that can be as strong as the person who's trying to corral everybody, and that's pretty common to have those too.

All right, any other comments?

Oh, yeah, sorry, Paul Frank has his hand raised.

Member Frank.

Yeah, thank you, Chair.

I just want to follow up on member Danforth's questions.

Um, in terms of the nature of the violations, the name of the property has the word port in it.

Is it adjacent to a body of water, or is it just the wetlands that you mentioned?

Uh there is a body of water called Sullivan Lake.

So why it's called the ports of Sullivan Lake.

Uh Sullivan Lake is a very wetland, basically, it's only like four or five feet deep.

But yes, it is adjacent to that, which eventually drains then into the chain of lakes.

And so you're estimating that that that has been an issue, or do we know for sure that people have been discharging into the wetlands?

Uh we don't not have uh concrete information that they have.

We know that there have been issues where the tank is overflowed, whether it actually gets to the body of water or not, it is uh subject to debate.

But we have had issues with mostly overflowing tanks.

Okay, Chair, if I may, just one more comment.

Um I I appreciate you highlighting the section of the agreement that allows us to pivot to alternative methods if not successful, because the goal obviously is compliance, right?

We we need to protect the water and we need to ensure that waste is properly disposed of.

Um there's nothing in this agreement that supersedes or prevents our authority for taking from taking additional action if anything that the village does is not successful, correct?

To my knowledge, yes.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you.

Chair Hart.

Thank you.

And I appreciate all these questions.

It's interesting.

Uh, member Peterson and I have had several conversations over the years, that um, especially out along the chain, there's a lot of these tanks.

And um, the state of Illinois does not require any inspection of these tanks.

Um, there are, I think maybe Mike, it was you who told me, or maybe it was Eric Wagner, that there's a lot of um homeowners, maybe I don't want to say a lot, maybe a dozen or so at any one time in administrative adjudication to have uh because we have found either failing tanks, right?

Or uh it's going into the water, right?

Well, we've had so let me want to clarify some we're talking when we say tanks.

That's different than holding tanks.

If you're talking about all septic systems, there's probably you know 30,000 or so in the county.

And so the holding tanks are very unique, and there's not that many of them other than force of Sullivan.

Um, other than that, there are a few here and there, but primarily we don't really want those.

We want in-ground septic systems because the ground does a very good job actually of eliminating a lot of the bacteria and other things that are in sewage.

So, but we do get occasionally, you know, failures that we are notified.

We could then proceed with our, you know, either adjudication or legal things.

We could go have to go to the state's attorney to do that.

So, but most of the time it's just very, you know, surface on the ground.

It's not like going into a water body.

We rarely find that to be the case.

Got it.

Thank you.

Uh I just know in the state of Wisconsin by law, they have to people have to have their tanks that are underground inspected to make sure that they're still um in working order, but that's not something that we do in the state of Illinois, which is a shame, particularly for us here in Lake County.

Um, 30,000 septic systems out there.

And if you have some that are leaking, especially into a body of water, it's a huge problem.

So anyway, we've talked about that too, haven't we, Mike?

Yeah.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chair Hart.

Fascinating conversation.

I'm not sure if you guys were expecting that, but that was very helpful.

Any other questions from the committee?

All right.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

The motion passes.

Thank you, gentlemen.

And great to have you coming here more, Mike.

All right.

We'll move on to our last agenda item.

What an efficient meeting.

I told you we were having one.

Yeah, no.

No, no, no, not yet.

Not yet.

Not yet.

Well, I think Director Serena hope this doesn't take an hour and a half.

All right, 8.7 is joint uh committee action approving contract modification one with North Chicago High School District 187 for a comprehensive career pathway program to workforce innovation and opportunity act youth in the amount of 137,900 with one year renewal option.

A motion by member Cosman and a second by member Maine.

Welcome.

Thank you.

Good morning.

Um, so part of our youth funding we receive through the workforce innovation opportunity act allows us to work with high school students.

And working with high school students, it's providing job readiness, career awareness, and exposure to work-based learning through a work experience, paid work experience.

Um, North Chicago High School has demonstrated success in this area.

This is would be their sixth year in delivering this program.

It has grown over those six years.

We started with 15 high school students, they target the seniors, and we're now at 35.

Um, the success of the program is based on earning a credential.

All of the students earn their high school diploma, skills gain.

They gain skills around career awareness, job readiness skills, understanding what it means to work in the workplace and through some paid work experience.

And then transitioning into post-secondary education, employment, or enlisting in the military.

A hundred percent of the students do graduate high school, about 70 to 80% transition onto post-secondary education, with the majority going on to CLC.

And those that are choosing to transition into employment, come to the job center for additional assistance.

And there they could also take advantage of our programming through additional work experiences, paid internships, or paid tuition through additional schooling.

So recommending this program to continue for another year.

Yeah.

I'm remember talking about it, I guess a year ago.

Is it been a year exactly?

Yeah.

Yeah, exciting.

Member Cunningham, did you have a comment?

I serve a workforce executive board in the board.

Well, and I have to excuse myself, but funds is involved.

Oh, okay.

Thank you for letting us know.

Any questions or comments?

I'm just excited.

This we talked about it at length quite a bit last year.

And so glad to see us doing this again this year.

Um, any questions from the committee?

No, we're good.

I just want to.

They've been doing this for a long time.

A long time.

It just up the funds.

You know, each year, the county up the funds.

And I think Audrey and I gave uh uh X accounting, they add it like six to five more different you guys wasn't here then and was here.

So uh this is something good for the school, and it went real it goes very well in it in my district, Chicago High School in the ninth district.

So uh, but uh and uh Jennifer went real well with them.

So it's this is something that and we had no problem.

Excellent.

Well, thank you.

All right, all those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Motion passes.

Oh, with one excused.

Yes, I can't.

All right.

Thank you, Director Serena.

Item nine is a county ministers.

Uh county administrators report.

Do we have one today?

Yes, a two-hour report.

No, I just want to make sure that everyone has had a chance to meet Lacey Simpson.

She's our new assistant county administrator.

This is our first time attending this committee.

So welcome to Lacey.

Welcome.

She worked before she did in human results.

She liked it so much she came back.

Well, welcome, Lacey.

Met you last week, obviously.

I forgot that some folks may not have.

So good to have you.

Oh, yeah.

Anything else on the administrator's report?

No.

No, we're good.

Okay.

Executive session.

I do not believe we have one today.

No need.

Member remarks.

Do we have any member remarks?

All right.

I think this is what let's mark the clock here.

Oh, don't.

Right.

This is I think the fastest we've had in two years, at least two years.

So all right.

All adjourned.

We will see everyone at the beginning of October.

Thank you.