Good morning.

Today is Tuesday, November 4th at 8:32 in the morning.

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

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

This means meeting is being recorded through Zoom per county board rules and the open meetings act attendance via remote means is permitted for qualified reasons for qualifying reasons as long as the majority of the committee members are physically present, which we have today.

We've been notified in advance that member Kniesnik has requested to participate electronically due to a personal illness.

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

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

All right.

Could I ask for uh member Kasmin to join me in the Pledge of Allegiance?

I got yeah.

For which it stands.

One nation.

Liberty and justice for all.

All right.

Item number three is a call, roll call of members.

Uh Bester Altenberg is absent.

Member Kasman?

Here.

Member Cunningham.

Here.

Member Ganford.

Member Kinesek?

Here.

Chair Park.

Here.

All right.

Item four.

Is there any addenda to the today's agenda?

No addenda to the agenda.

Do we have public comments?

No public comment.

Thought we had the public email.

No.

Um any emails that are received for public comment in advance are per the board rules, are sent out to all county board members, and they're not read allowed.

They're not.

Okay, but she's not here.

Correct.

Okay.

Thought she was coming, right?

No.

All right.

Um I don't have any chairs' remarks.

Do we have any unfinished business today?

No unfinished business.

All right.

Let's move to item to a new business.

Item 8.18.1 is our consent agenda from our meetings from October 7th.

May I have a motion?

Motion by Vice Chair Cunningham, second by member Kasbin.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

The motion passes.

Item 8.2 is a joint resolution approving an emergency appropriation of 74,642 for fiscal year 2026, accepting additional funding for the Illinois Department of Health Care and Family Service Care Coordination and Support Organization Program.

May I have a motion?

Motion by Member Cunningham, second by member.

Member Maine.

Before we get started, I would like to make uh essentially a small amendment.

It was a just an error that we need to fix in the motion.

Um can I'm gonna make a motion?

Can I have a second?

Okay, motion.

Yeah.

Sorry, motion to amend the the whereas clause in the resolution to read as follows.

Whereas the Lake County Health Department and Community Health Service Center notice of increased reimbursement rates from the Illinois Department of Health Care and Family Service to help support the sustainability of the pathway to success care coordination support organization program.

Second by member Cunningham.

So essentially, this uh amendment is it says here this was due to additional grant funding.

That is not correct.

It was due to the fact that we had the uh reimbursement rates were increased from the Department of Healthcare and Family Services.

So we had additional funding available to support this care coordinator.

Um so just from grant funding to the fact that the rates were increased, that's where the additional funding came from.

All right, shall we need a motion?

You're the motion, and then we need a second for that.

That was we do though.

Okay.

As a the amendment.

She I voted she seconded, and then I think we'll just vote on the motion at the end as amended.

Vote on the amendment first.

All those in favor say aye.

Any agrees?

All right.

Okay.

Welcome.

Thank you.

Uh, thank you for that amendment.

Uh that was uh we presented as a grant.

It is increased reimbursement rates from Medicaid to provide these services, uh, which allows us to hire additional staff.

With me today is Michelle Esser to give you a quick background on the program.

Sure.

Um so CCSO is a home and community-based program for Medicaid enrolled youth under the age of 21 who have significant behavioral health uh challenges.

So care coordinators work with the youth um and their families and any supports that they have, caregivers to um connect them to needed resources and treatment.

Um the goal is to improve the youth's functioning across settings, like at home, at school, in community settings, and to keep the youth in their home in the least restrictive level of care.

Care coordination also um stabilizes the overall family units to prevent um future uh crises and decompensation.

So since the program started in January of 2023, we've had um increasing referrals steadily increasing.

Um right now we have a pretty large queue of kids waiting to be served.

So this care coordinator would help meet the demand for the services and for this program and to help us adhere to HFS um requirements.

So we are asking for the approval of this emergency appropriation to fund one new position, compute computer equipment, contractual services, and supplies starting in um county fiscal year 26.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Any questions from the committee?

Member Main.

Yes, my question is just more.

So the bullets are wrong too.

The bullet points are wrong, and that will be yes, the the bullet correct because that first bullet says additional grant funding.

So um I believe the agenda has already been sent to FNA.

Yes, with these bullet points with the inaccurate bullet point.

They are they will how's that gonna work?

They're gonna have to vote on it as amended by um HCS.

Okay, and then we will correct the bullet point and the resolution for the final county board action.

Okay, thank you.

Any questions?

I just out of curiosity about how many um uh individuals do we get to support in a general in a in a given year through the grant or through the through the funding?

Through the funding, about um, I believe we served 260 in the past two years.

Wow.

So nice.

Yeah, and we have um 72 open right now.

Okay.

Great.

Any any questions?

No, all those in favor is voting for as amended, say aye.

Aye, aye.

Opposed.

Motion passes.

All right.

Thank you, Michelle, for coming.

Oh, who had his hand up?

Paul Frank.

Paul Frank.

Sorry, Paul.

Member Frank.

Thank you, Chair.

Um, I know you I know it already approved the item, but I'm just curious.

Will this care coordinator be involved in helping the clients, the Medicaid beneficiaries maintain their coverage because starting at the end of next year, in its wisdom, the Congress has made it more difficult for Medicaid beneficiaries to maintain their coverage with twice a year verification and verification of employment, even though 70% of Medicaid enrollees are employed.

I'm just curious if if if this position will have any role in that process.

Yeah, absolutely.

And that's something that they do now.

Um, they do go into the homes.

So I mean, it's kind of nice because you know, if the families have questions, they can get their mail.

They can you know show the care coordinator, you know, exactly what they're talking about.

And the care coordinator will help them link to navigators or any other services.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you.

Great question.

All right.

Thank you, Michelle, for joining.

We'll move on to the next item, which is 8.3, which is a joint resolution approving emergency appropriation of 46,000 and 804, 46,804 and 37 cents for fiscal year 2025, accepting additional funding from the Illinois Department of Public Health Disease Intervention Specialist Workforce Development Support Grant.

And I believe Director Kritz will also be joining.

Yes, no?

All right.

Can I have a motion?

Motion by Member Kasman, second by member Cunningham.

Welcome.

Great.

Thank you.

Uh, this is uh increase in an existing grant from Illinois Department of Public Health.

Uh, they had additional funds to carry over, and so they awarded those to us to expand the work of the program, allow us to do a little bit extra and expand the existing program.

And it has to be spent by December.

And it has to be spent by December.

So it has to be spent by December.

Excellent.

All right.

Um, any questions from the committee?

No.

All right.

Excellent.

This will be kind of assumed.

So we'll take it.

All right.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

The motion passes.

Thank you.

All right.

Now I did say we were going to potentially end by nine o'clock today, didn't I?

No, you did.

All right.

So we have 18 minutes of members' remarks coming up.

17 minutes.

Do we have a county administrative report?

No county administrators report.

Do we have a need for executive session?

No need for executive session.

All right.

Let's hear some member remarks and requests.

Member Maine.

I actually do have a member remark.

Um, I just wanted to um, I know when we had the budget hearings and we had um the health department here, and we were talking about um vacancy factors, and an issue was raised because the health department calculates their vacancy factors in one way, and the county does it in another way.

But I followed up on that, and it's just two different formulas to get to the same thing.

So if they use because the question was sort of like, hey, health department, use our formula, not your own formula, but if they used your formula, the county formula, they got they got to the same number.

So I just wanted everyone to be aware of that.

And also that I mean, there are some things, um, like there are some physician um positions like psychiatrists, sometimes dentists that are really, really hard to fill.

And if they were to be vacant for a year and then follow that policy of take them off because it's been vacant, then they don't have the ability to fill that need.

And those needs are not only important, there's they're just difficult to fill, and you just have to keep trying and sometimes look out that someone's going for partial retirement or something like that.

So I do think in some of those things we need to keep some of those, some of those issues in mind and understand um why they need to do certain things the way they do, and that that I think sometimes there's the desire to have every department do everything exactly the same, but um that's not really how it should be.

I mean, if you think of a classroom, you have a differentiated classroom, you don't teach every child the same way.

You have to look at the needs.

So I think that we need to keep that in mind with our different departments that they have different needs, and that we do have experts that are trying to manage so that they can carry out their goals and our goals for the improved health and safety of of everyone who lives in Lake County.

Thank you.

I think um member Hart has her hand up.

Thank you.

I'm gonna keep my camera off because I'm in the car, and I appreciate Member Maine bringing that up.

I just wanted to ask, I'm not sure who's in the room.

I'm sorry, but I thought we had made that change with this year's budget cycle for that exact reason.

Is that correct?

Well, allowing for additional time.

Is that what you mean?

So exactly like exactly what what member Maine said.

Yeah, like keeping it open, we recognize that there are roles that are difficult to fill.

And so we were making as we're reviewing those positions, we're speaking with the department or like the board of health or you know, Chris Hoff to say, hey, is this one of those positions?

Am I am I correct in that?

For the 2020 uh sixth budget year.

That's correct.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you, Member Maine, for bringing that up.

I think it's really important.

Thank you.

Yeah, I mean, I I think we strive for uniformity where it makes sense, but we don't want to work our against ourselves, right?

And in certain situations where we know that hey, we may not be able to fill this, but we don't want to go through the the challenges of removing it and then having to go through it all again when we do finally get someone, right?

Right.

But they were questioned saying, hey, you guys did it a different way.

The committee was asking questions saying, well, you should be doing it our way.

And and it was never explained by admin or anybody else to say, hey, there's reasons.

And so I just in a public forum wanted to bring it up that in fact, you know, it's like there's different ways to get to four, right?

And they may use a different formula, and people were kind of questioning them.

Well, why do you use a different formula?

So I just wanted that clarified and in public.

Excellent.

All right.

Any other member remarks today?

No?

All right.

We are adjourned.

Our next meeting will be on December.

Wow, December, huh?

December 2nd, 2025.