Good afternoon.

Today's Tuesday, October 20, 2025.

And I call it diverse inclusion, inclusion committed order at one o'clock.

May we stand for the pledge, please.

And to the republic for which it stands.

One nation.

Amen.

Okay.

Roll call, please.

Plaster Campos?

Here.

Chair Cunningham?

Here.

Member Dan Forth is absent.

Member Hewitt.

Member Kyle.

Okay.

We have a physical quo.

There's an addendit.

No addenda to the agenda.

Any public comments.

No public comments.

Chair remarks.

At this time, chair don't hear no remarks.

Unfinished business.

No unfinished business.

I need a motion to consent agenda 8.1 for this is the May 2025 minutes.

Motion.

Motion by memo.

Second by memo.

Okay.

Regular gym 8.2.

Okay.

It was uh Paul Frank was joining us online.

Oh.

And we have a system count administration presentation.

And that's Ruth Ian.

Thank you so much.

So today I'm going to give you an update on a couple of ongoing initiatives that this committee has approved previously, our ADA transition plan and our organizational assessment.

Okay.

So for start first with the ADA transition plan.

In October of 2024, the county board approved a contract with Kimley Horn to complete the comprehensive ADA transition plan.

It builds on work that Lake County did back in 2016 and 2018, which focused on a review of our public rights of way and buildings.

The goal of this plan is to improve accessibility and connectivity for everyone in the community.

And the project has two major components gathering public input and conducting a third-party review of our county facilities, public rights of ways, our policies, practices, and services of the county.

The final product is going to be a countywide master plan for accessibility, a roadmap to guide improvements for existing affiliate facilities and ensure future projects meet ADA standards and best practices.

One of the first steps in launching it was identifying the county's ADA coordinator, which is myself, and establishing our grievance procedures.

Both were completed as part of the project kickoff and are posted online on the county's website for transparency.

Next, the consultant reviewed our previous work that we did in 2016 and 2018, which I said earlier focused on our public rights of way and county facilities.

Throughout the project, the county has sought feedback from the public through online surveys, an interactive mapping tool, and a public meeting.

And this phase expanded on the 2018 work and included reviews of over a thousand pedestrian crossings, 95 miles of sidewalk corridors, and 89 signalized intersections.

All the field data and photos were synced with ARCIS, and it's going to be transferred to LC DOT once we've completed the plan.

The consultant is now focusing on the review of public service areas.

This is a new component that we've not done before, and that's what really makes us truly a comprehensive ADA transition plan.

It looks at every county department's programs, services, and activities.

The data was gathered through surveys, web content reviews, and staff interviews to evaluate the current ADA compliance.

As we shared in the prior DEI committee, one of the um major deadlines that the county is facing coming up in 2026 is a requirement to make sure that the county's web content is.

And communications has been working with our consultant.

And a shout out to Chris Cell, who's here as well as Alex Carr.

They've been doing a lot of work to make sure that the county is going to be able to meet that goal.

And then all of this information comes together in the final transition plan where we prioritize the improvements, estimate the cost, and establish a realistic implementation schedule.

The intent is to present this data to this DEI committee in at the next meeting in February of 2026.

The other project we've been working on is the operational assessment.

In June of 25, the county board approved a contract with Carter Development Group to conduct the organizational assessment.

This project is also a data-driven initiative that's designed to give the county a clearer picture of who we are as an organization and to help us understand the employee experience here at Lake County and to make informed measurable improvements.

The goals of the project and objectives of the project focus on gathering data on employee demographics, perspectives, and experiences to learn how staff feel about their experience as an employee at Lake County and the county culture overall.

Carter Development Group will develop an implementation roadmap with measurable outcomes, giving the county a practical plan we can follow to turn this feedback into action and track our progress over time.

Ultimately, this effort is about listening, learning, and creating a workplace where everyone feels valued and connected to our mission.

Looking at the project timeline, we began the project in June of 25.

To date, Carter Development Group has completed a review of the county's employee policies and procedures and provided guidance on recommended changes to ensure that they are effective, up to date, compliant, and aligned with the county's organizational goals.

They've also reviewed a completed review of the county's communications and provided a draft marketing, communications, and social media analysis report, including identifying gaps and areas for improvement.

And then the next stage of this project is beginning in next month in November with the development of the organizational assessment.

Staff's been working with the consultant to develop and finalize an anonymous survey tool that will be sent out to employees via email.

Results from the anonymous survey will drive the development of the implementation roadmap and drafts of the roadmap will be developed and vetted with departments to ensure that we're in alignment with organizational goals.

The final product will be a comprehensive written report that will be presented to county administration in July of 26 that incorporates all recommendations and an implementation plan.

With that, I will open it up for questions on the two initiatives.

Thank you.

You had spoken about you said the date was April 25th, 2026.

Is that correct?

April 24th.

April 24th.

Okay.

So the compliance, the deadline for the compliance for the website for ADA.

What is it?

What is the difference between what we have and what we need to be at?

So with the compliance for ADA, you need to make sure that all of your content, and that includes everything that we're posting online, like our agendas here, our budget are able to meet ADA requirements to be able to be read by a reader.

So it is very complicated, but it even goes as far as when you're putting tables into a document, making sure that you've got data in each cell.

So you the screen reader can be able to read it in the correct language.

So it really, we have thousands of documents on our website right now.

We've got a ruling that says anything before April of 2024, 2026 doesn't need to be made ADA compliant.

But those items that are that was again, can you say that again?

Any items that were created prior to that date.

April 24th.

Don't need to be ADA compliant unless they are a primary and an active document that you're searching.

So things such as like our budget document.

We need to make sure as we're developing it that it is ADA compliant.

So someone who may have a need to have a screen reader can read it.

So it really kind of changes our perspective and how we're we're doing things.

And also we've got a lot of websites that are linked through our website.

A good example is Legistar.

We've had to reach out to vendors such as that and make sure that they too meet that same ADA standard.

Understood.

Now, is there a specific program that the consultants are saying we should use?

So we County Communications has worked with our website vendor, Civic Plus, and they've been able to do a scan and identify.

And Civic Plus, our website is compliant with ADA requirements.

And then communications has an online tool that they can use to scan the websites and identify any ones that need to be addressed.

And that can be done on a monthly basis.

All right.

Thank you.

I'm looking at Chris to make sure I answered everything correct.

Sound good.

Excellent.

Thank you, Ruth.

No problem.

This is a just presentation.

We don't need a 8.3 and this HR director.

Good afternoon, can I card with me today?

Is Crystal Adams, our organizational development and compensation manager.

I think I got all the words in there this time.

Today we have a presentation for you.

Okay.

So today we'll be referencing some data from the US Census.

The most recent census information was collected in 2020.

The next census isn't scheduled to be completed until 2030.

So some of the data that will be referenced today is slightly dated.

However, the Lake County data that you'll be seeing today is current.

Today we'll do a brief comparison of the Lake County Census data and the employee data, as it's important for us to represent the community for which we serve.

This slide will provide a comparison of the 2020 census data for Lake County residents in comparison to our current employees.

The gray represents the residents of Lake County according to the 2020.

The blue represents our employees, and the green is our managers.

Overall, our Lake County workforce mirrors the Lake County demographics based on census data.

In comparison to our last presentation on this data in July of 24, for the most part, we haven't experienced a huge variance in change.

In most categories, the data remained the same or changed only by a percent or maybe two in most cases.

While not a large number, an area of change was within the white manager group, which decreased 5% from 72% to 67%, which I'll show you in another slide.

Also, we have seen an increase in the number of unknown demographics, as you'll see on the right.

Previously it was 12%, up 7% to 19% this time.

With the implementation of workday coming up in 2026, we're looking forward to the opportunity to clean up our data and offer additional opportunities to collect more data.

So if we break, it's a little bit tiny.

If we break out this type of work, if we break out the type of work of what employees do as defined by their EEO status, the top three categories of our workers we have are professionals, administrative support, and protective service workers.

It is important to know that each category of work does require different experience, education, and skills.

Additional data on Lake County education levels, certifications, et cetera, um by applicant diversity would be appropriate to gather and analyze in comparison to our workforce in the future.

Workday will allow us to collect some of this information as employees will be able to add their work history, education, and certifications to the platform on a voluntary basis.

Here we will take a look at gender.

Again, the gray represents Lake County per the census, blue represents the employees, and then green is our manager group.

Blue represents the employees, and then green is our manager group.

Our lake county workforce again, pretty much mirrors um Lake County demographics based on the census data is our leadership is split 50-50 between males and females.

Again, if we break this data out, uh per the type of work that employees do for us here as defined by their EEO category.

The top three categories of workers again are professionals, administrative support, and protective service workers.

Females do hold the majority of administrative support roles currently, and males hold the majority of protective service worker and skilled maintenance roles currently.

Okay, this is going to take a look at age, um, looking at the age across our workhorse.

The bulk of our workforce ranges from ages 25 to 64 years, which is to be expected.

Um, however, the majority of our managers, which is in green, are between the ages of 45 to 54 years of age.

Um, we do have a significantly lower number of managers under the age of 34, which speaks to the value that Lake County does place on years of experience.

When looking at years of service, which is what we have here, um, over 60% of our managers have been with Lake County for over 10 plus years.

Again, this speaks to the value that Lake County places on Lake County specific experience and um the subsequent tenure that we do see in management positions.

We are really excited about some new initiatives that will help us collect, track um, and analyze additional data points.

And I'll turn it over to Crystal to give some more information on that.

Sure.

So as we move into workday, there really is a lot of opportunity for both employees to review their current demographic information as well as make updates.

So in addition to that, having that demographic information and having one system, we're going to be able to more closely track the information in relation to the employee life cycle, enabling us to identify and correct any conscious or unconscious um bias.

So additionally, we'll have the tracking of employee education as Darcy mentioned, and experience requirements, both from employees being able to add that data to their profile, as well as when applicants are hired into Lake County, they'll actually bring all of the application data with them.

Continuing on, we also will have expanding training resources.

So we're looking at expanded training resources on how to be the both the best version of ourselves, both personally and professionally.

We'll also have equitable professional development opportunities for employees on technical, so such as Microsoft Office or job specific skills, soft skills, and leadership skills.

And then finally, looking to do an engagement survey to help give insight into the different experiences across varying point employee groups across Lake County.

That is the end of our presentation.

We can answer any questions.

Okay.

Any question?

Thank you.

I just wanted to say thank you so much for the analysis you gave us on the graphs and also how ERP is going to be more helpful in the future.

I um frequently see people when I'm in the basement, they're coming out of like an ERP.

I can't remember what you call essentially the testing.

Um I think Patrice had mentioned that that your team and others around the county are spending a great deal of time working on that.

And um I think it's going to be really beneficial for for all of us, all of Lake County.

And I just want to say thank you for your work, and I'm sure it'll make it much easier, as you say, to collect more data for this, you know, this committee and our board to understand.

Absolutely.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Okay.

Now I got to go back and get I didn't do the vote on 8.1 minutes from me.

And then the question from Diane.

Yep.

Okay.

All in favor.

As have it.

Not opposed.

Motion been approved.

All right.

Thank you.

No.

Forget that.

Okay.

County Metroid report.

No county administrators report.

You don't want to date about the training, we're going to have four and pull a lot of um.

Not yet.

Okay.

Okay.

No executive section.

No executive session.

Memorages.

Memes have any remarks.

Okay.

Add a clearest meeting is drawn to February 24th, 2026.

Thank you.