It is 8 30 on Thursday, December 4th, 2025.

A call to order the Lake County Board's Financial and Administrative Committee.

Please rise.

Member Clark, would you lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance?

I believe I paid the and to the Republic for which it stands.

I did receive advanced notice from Vice Chair Parek that he's unable to be here due to another obligation today.

And I'd like to record him as having an excused absence if that's possible.

We have a roll call, please.

Member Clark.

Here.

Chair Frank?

Here.

Member Hewitt.

Member Main.

Vice Chair Park is absent with excuse absence.

Member Peterson.

Member Bolitzik.

Thank you.

We have quorum.

Chair.

I'm sorry.

For excused absence.

I'm not familiar with any.

I mean, we have that at school and it lists four items, but without having the rules in front of me, uh, I believe there is there is a term in somewhere in the rules that references unaccused absences.

And so just off the top of my head, I have referenced that when members had provided advance notice.

Well, that's just absolutely happy to have a discussion with you about it later on, but I don't want to delay the meeting agenda.

Okay.

Thank you.

Um Chair's remarks, I just want to note that I uh happened to listen to the PWPT committee yesterday.

There's a really good discussion about the um materials that go into road building because there was a contract for a road section that had to be redone probably sooner than what we anticipated.

And the questions from the committee uh to Director Schneider were really interesting.

And it was a conversation around what what's the guidance is on the materials.

And I learned for the first time that the state establishes the guidance for the roadbuilding materials, and they are informed by the science that takes place by the materials science research folks at the University of Illinois.

And um, I just wanted to highlight that to say that good science informs good policy.

And um I I heard that conversation on the same day that I learned that Governor Pritzker signed into a law, a bill championed by my state rep, representative Morgan, uh, which empowers the Illinois Department of Public Health to establish our own state uh vaccination guidelines to be informed by science.

And I think it's really important because those guidelines will save lives.

And I appreciate you indulging me in the comment this morning.

Do we have any unfinished business?

Um we do not going back to addenda to the agenda, though.

I do want to note that item 8.23 was postponed for a second time from the PWT committee yesterday.

It is listed on our agenda today under the consent agenda, but um we will note when we're voting on the consent agenda that it does not include 8.23 because that was postponed at the PWT committee.

Thank you.

Okay.

New business is our consent agenda items 8.1 through 8.35, not including a point two three as noted by county administrator Sutton.

Do we have any other items that are going to be pulled?

Member Main.

Yes, uh I had it marked on my other pen.

I want to remove the item related to the state's attorney.

That would be item 819, please.

That's item 8.19, also off the consent agenda, and thank you for the advanced notice of your intent to pull that.

Um motion to approve items 8.1 through 8.35 minus those two items that we referenced by member Clark, second by member Hewitt.

Comments or questions on the other items.

All in favor, please say aye.

Any opposed?

The those items are approved.

We'll now proceed to 8.19.

Item 8.19 is a joint resolution authorizing an emergency appropriation of $98,000 from the state's attorney's office asset forfeiture fund to reimburse a general fund for salary and fringe costs for certain employees through November 30th, 2026.

Motion on this item by member Clark, second by member Volitzik.

Good morning.

Um, so this resolution is doing a couple of different things.

So for one, we are emergency appropriating $98,000 from the cash balance in the asset forfeiture fund to be used to offset 6% of salary and benefits for 10 different felony ASAs.

Sorry, assistant states attorneys.

The second movement is then emergency appropriating 82,000 of those felony funds that are not being used by the 10 ASAs.

So the proposed 82,000, we are proposing for all of fiscal year 26, but we do not anticipate needing it for all of 26.

We fully expect the approval of a budget modification on a grant with the Illinois Innocence Project in which we are the subgrantees.

So this is merely a stop gap.

Of course, with the uh government shutdown, there's been a delay in just about everything.

And so that is the reason why we are still waiting for this modification to be approved.

Um and then the remaining, excuse me, the the uh remaining 16,000 of relief in the felony fund, we will just keep in the felony fund to reduce the burden on the general fund.

Okay.

And so as I understand this is a grant that was being uh modified, and the federal government shutdown has delayed that modification.

Is that correct?

That is correct, yes.

Okay, member Maine.

Yes, thank you.

And I did listen to the law and judicial discussion about this.

So my question is so this the shutdown isn't new.

How does this fit with the budget that we just passed?

We just passed a budget, did everything with salaries, shutdown was going on.

Was this accounted for in the budget, or this is outside of the budget that we just passed two weeks ago?

Well, it is included.

This position is included in the budget.

Yes.

The funds, the funds for this, or these funds accounted for in the budget that we just passed.

The forfeiture dollars.

I mean, is there a line item in that you understand what I'm asking?

Right.

Of course.

Yeah, yeah.

Is that accounted for in the budget?

Not as asset forfeiture dollars, no.

Okay.

So I'm concerned that we just passed the budget that we had a long discussion with the state's attorney's office about um the need for additional money from the general fund.

There was uh conversation around, well, budgets, uh, grants when they align or they don't align with um the county fiscal year, which is not a meaningful statement because none of the Board of Health um grants align necessarily with the the county budget.

And so here we are two weeks later, changing things up for a situation that was known at that time, right?

This is this is not new.

The shutdown is not new.

So this process is concerning to me.

Um appreciate the fact that um, you know, looking for monies, but I don't understand why this wasn't part of our October discussion.

Okay.

Okay.

Um administrator Sutton, can you clarify the the first question that member main asked?

Like, this is not a new fund.

Is this fund in our budget anywhere?

The asset forfeiture fund.

Yeah, I think the answer is the fund is definitely in the budget.

Was this particular um use of the fund there?

That is no, and that's why we have to be emergency appropriate it for the fiscal year 26 budget, because um we actually came to the committee um in the middle of the year, or were you able to do that under your department?

Because we had to use uh different funding for a segment.

So um there is a little bit of a history on this.

The the money ran out in the middle of fiscal year 25, and they used money laundering to cover the rest of the So to speak, so to speak.

The uh the a fund known currently as the money laundering fund, which means that we obtained the funds um because they were used for money laundering.

It is not any indication of what Lake County is doing with the funds.

So thank you for it to me.

It's just second nature, so I appreciate I couldn't revisit.

So at that time when we put that uh when the state's attorney's office um, you know, approved that use of that special revenue fund, which is completely under his authority.

He at that time thought that we would hear about the grant so that that money would kick in as of December 1st.

The money has still not kicked in.

And so now he's utilizing a different funding stream to bridge the gap again, um, using a source that is completely under the state's attorney's control.

Did that answer the question?

Yes.

Helpful.

Thank you.

So uh right.

There's I'm not questioning it at all the um legality of how the funds are being used.

It sounds like these positions are, and that's fine, being backfilled by a variety of funds for which the state's attorney has access to those dollars.

I'm not understanding why some of that is not part of our budget conversations, because it's it's essentially a use of cash, which is kind of a plus minus, kind of is it, and I heard I listened to the um conversation at law and judicial.

It's about 80,000 a year that comes into this fund into the um forfeiture fund.

More recently, yes.

So I actually did do the average over the last five years, and the average is about 62,000, which makes it unsustainable.

Exactly.

You made my point for me, right?

I mean, because I was concerned that this is using one-time funds for operating expenses, and one-time funds really should be used for capital expense because this is not these monies are then gone.

What do you do the next time?

I I just have an overall concern that there are pots of money out there and there are positions and we're we're hearing about a crisis situation almost monthly, um, and why the state's attorney needs um additional funds.

And it seems like there needs to be um a broader look at this, and I understand they have some important grants going on.

So does the health department, and they're doing this and they are managing this.

So I I just have grave, I'm I'm not gonna support this, not that I I don't think there's anything nefarious about how the funds are being used or anything like that.

I'm very disappointed in the process that we just had a budget passed two weeks ago, and now it's like, oh, federal government shutdown.

That had been going on for a while.

There was no reason that this shouldn't have been addressed in our budget.

Member Clark.

Yeah, thank you.

Yeah, I know, and after on the during the budget discussions, I know that some other departments we talked about, there seems like there's all these different funds with which people have different controls over.

But from what I understand, so this fund is in the budget.

Like yes, yes.

So I like that.

So at least it's not like a fund that is outside.

So I really appreciate that.

And I can see why, because I agree, it shouldn't be an operating fund.

Because I I mean, like to your point, you don't know how much money you're gonna get each year, right?

Because asset forfeiture.

That is true.

So I do think it makes for me, it makes sense because it sounds like you think the grant is gonna come through.

There's just a delay.

And so I actually kind of appreciate that instead of asking us to take like temporary money out of the general fund, you found money, and and I feel like this is an appropriate use of a fund for a short-term thing, because you're not looking at using this as an operating fund going forward, right?

This is like a gap filler.

Is that correct?

This is a gap filler.

However, I mean, we will be discussing, you know, because these 10 ASAs do, you know, they do handle drug arrests and things of that nature.

So the thought is, well, perhaps we could relieve some of the general fund by continuing to do a small portion of their salary and benefits.

You know, we are currently doing that with uh four other staff um in our civil unit to have a small percentage coming out of our environmental fund and then to do have it coming out of our asset forfeiture fund.

And it's because of, you know, we we want to try to utilize the dollars that we have to the best of our ability.

And we understand that these funds aren't sustainable for entire salaries over periods of years because they are, you know, very it fluctuates as you've stated, you know, as we all know.

Um, but the state's attorney is trying to find other ways of relieving that burden and you know, trying to be a little bit creative on using the funds that he has the jurisdiction of using in order to kind of yes, fill in the gaps or relieve the the burden or you know, different things like that.

I appreciate you acknowledging this is not a sustainable approach.

I think that's important that we're on the same page there, right?

And that uh at the same time, you know, we we do want to make sure that um we're sustaining important prosecutorial services if there are funds available to do that in the interim.

So um I I'm supportive of the request.

I see Steve Fagnolo from the state attorney's office has his hand up.

Um did you have something you wanted to add, Steve?

Thank you, Chair.

I just wanted to um add a quick point.

Um that this wasn't a extremely simple calculation to figure out percentages.

Um I believe that the CIU director might have been an NPR as well.

So obviously going through that process.

Uh we've I don't think we're anticipating needing to necessarily immediately look at the asset forfeiture fund.

Um, I also wanted to add that I don't believe that the asset forfeiture fund can be used on capital funds as the statute specifically dictates what um the fund needs to be utilized towards, which would be for prosecution of uh drug offenses and and that sort of uh activity.

So what we're looking to do aligns specifically with the statute, which obviously all has to be vetted by Sybil as well.

Uh so I just wanted to make that point clear.

Thank you.

Other comments or questions.

Great.

Thank you for the discussion.

Thank you for uh being so responsive to the questions.

Appreciate it.

Um we do have a motion and a second.

All in favor, please indicate by saying aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Okay.

And the opinion of the chair, the ayes have it, and item 8.19 is approved.

Thank you.

Item 8.23 as uh Mr.

Sutton was removed uh because it was postponed by the other committees.

So we're gonna proceed to our regular agenda.

Soon as I can find it.

There we go.

8.36.

8.36 is an ordinance amending previous ordinance designating voting sites assigned to 40 of the 431 precincts in Lake County Townships.

Motion by member Bolitzik, second by member Clark.

Good morning.

And I know we do have an amendment on this as well.

Me too.

Um, you want to just present first and then we'll hear the amendment.

Yes, hi, good morning.

Cynthia Prime Haran, Chief Deputy of the County Clerk's office.

I have with me Dan Thielen.

Uh, he is our director of civic engagement who does oversee elections.

Uh, we presented this ordinance today, amending a previous ordinance designating voting sites assigned to 40 of the 431 precincts.

However, due to a last-minute change, we are asking that be amended as we are only looking to amend 36 of those polling places.

Great.

Thank you.

Member Clark.

Item to ordinance amending a previous ordinance designating the voting sites assigned to 36 of the 431 precincts in Lake County Townships and amending the proposed amended ordinance in the seventh whereas clause to strike precincts 305, 306, 307, and 308.

Be cool events replaces encore events due to their closure for and to remove the reference to those precincts from the attached exhibit A as discussed by the county clerk's office.

And ISO move.

Okay.

Motion to amend by member Clark and second.

Are you making a second member?

Second by member main members, do you have copies of the text amendment so we can reference it?

Okay, great.

Thank you.

So speaking to the amendment, are there any comments or questions on the proposed amendment?

Seeing none all in favor of the, I'm sorry, Member Altenberg, did you wish to speak to the amendment or the the or the full item?

I wish to speak to the full item.

Okay, I'll be back to you in a second.

Great.

Thank you.

Okay.

Uh member uh Hewitt.

Yes.

Good morning.

Good morning.

We've eliminated according to this now.

We've eliminated be cool events, which is quite a way south of the current closed location.

So I know there was some discussion on the church on the corner.

Do we have any update on that?

So we are actually so this is being changed because when we filed this, St.

Mark's Church chose not to be a polling site.

They had been previously approved.

We've used them in the past.

That's why we were going to move over to Be Cool.

However, since then, St.

Mark has changed their mind.

And now they are willing to be a polling site.

We don't need to use Be Cool, and we're going back to St.

Mark's.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Thank you.

Seeing no other questions on the amendment.

All in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed.

The amendment is approved.

Back to the main item, 8.36 member Altenberg.

Thank you, Chair.

I had a f a few different um remarks about the changes that are coming.

So I know that Clerk Vega is working very diligently to get some new polling places around the county.

His concerns are that the current polling places that we're changing, some of them have children in them during the election day, and he's trying to get away from those uh situations.

So I understand that, and I'm supportive of that.

Um, but for instance, in my area, we're getting away or taking away a prairie school for the primary, and that's a major polling place for many of my people.

Um so they're moving to a church.

Um, so I have asked Clerk Vega for the main election, the school is going to be closed, and if we could use that polling place for the main election and look for um, I really want to look for municipal buildings, buildings that are familiar to people where we could hold election polling instead of moving everything to churches.

Because I feel that um we are using public money for these municipal buildings, they are familiar to our voters, and I feel that that's just a better option in general.

But I also wanted to mention something new that we're gonna be publicizing to all constituents in Lake County, that now any voter can vote in any polling place in their community.

So we are going to be publicizing that heavily.

You don't have to go to the same voting place, or if they've switched your voting place, you can go to another school or another voting site in your community, and that will be acceptable.

And we wanted people to know that.

So if there's something more familiar to them and they want to go vote there, that will also be available to to people, which I think is a great thing.

So um, yeah, so I so Clerk Vega has assured me that for uh the election in November, the prairie school will be available as a voting site.

And we're gonna be looking, uh, we're gonna be working in all the communities to look for municipal sites, sites um that the public is familiar with for future elections.

Thank you, Chair.

Great.

Thanks, Member Altenberg.

Um, I have a polling paint polling change site in my community as well.

I had a similar conversation with Clerk Vega, and I understand the challenges.

He doesn't have authority to compel public entities to participate.

Um, and so you know, you have park districts with accessible buildings with parking lots with all the amenities that uh the clerk's office would like to see for polling place, and they're not often to get uh able to get that cooperation, which is uh, you know, confounding.

Member Maine.

Thank you.

Uh yeah, I think it's really important to go away from the schools because the schools are now just closing.

And so then it's just another day of they don't have school, and parents are looking for daycare, you know, it's it's just a mess, and it's unfortunate.

It's been that way for a while.

Um, I think it's great to look for municipal buildings.

I'll just say in my community, um, our municipal building could not possibly serve as a voting place, not enough parking.

The easiest places to get to are there's a variety, like four possibly churches up and down River Woods Road, they have way more parking, and you're just going into like a you're not going into worship space.

You're going into like a community room or something like that.

So I think it's great to look for those municipal ones, but let's keep in mind some of them do not have sufficient parking at all.

And the churches or religious um facilities do have that space.

If I may, I just want to give a little bit of background just to fill in.

Um to the first point as to schools.

We do have a number of schools who just do not want voting in the buildings, which we can all understand why.

You know, it's almost it's so difficult for even parents to get into the buildings now, IDs and buzzed in and as it should be.

So to open the building for voters, which we all I think are inclined to say that's our neighbors.

They can come in and vote.

But when you open the building to vote, you don't know who's coming in.

As, you know, so realistically, the schools do become less and less of a an appealing place.

So we also have schools who have not yet said they do not want us in the polling place, but it is our own theory that we need to move forward without using the schools for the reasons you cited.

So that's the school issue.

The other issue is it is very difficult to find buildings.

Um, I think it's very easy to say, let's just find a municipal building or a park district.

What I think um, and I know we've mentioned before, we have a team in our office that first you have to look at that cluster of precincts and where is it?

Is it residential?

Is it farmland?

Where is it and what buildings are accessible?

Once you can pinpoint the number of buildings in that area, our team has to go in and take a look at the building.

Is the space big enough?

Is there enough electricity?

Is it ADA compliant?

Is there enough parking?

So we have these teams that go into each building that is a possibility if they're willing to have us, and they do site surveys.

So after that, then the building will confirm whether they want to be used or not.

So we do do a very lengthy research into each building that is available.

So I would, you know, I just want to make sure no one thinks we're just randomly willy-nilly changing precincts and voting places and picking this one or that one.

It is difficult.

We do take a lot of thought and effort, and we appreciate everyone's feedback into that.

Um, and we will keep doing that.

And of course, um, after the primary, we will look at how all of these changes went and be very open to talk to anybody about possibilities moving forward.

We would never be willing-nilly.

That was my word of the week.

Thank you.

Thanks for the discussion.

Appreciate the responsiveness.

Thanks to your office.

Thanks to Clerk Vega.

Thank you.

Um, see no other comments or questions.

All in favor and uh item 8.36 as amended, say aye.

I any opposed, 8.36 as amended is approved.

8.37 resolution authorizing execution of a contract with Verde Solutions of Chicago and the amount of 758,101 dollars for the purchase of a photovoltaic array for the Joaquin campus, 18 North County Street building.

Motion on this item by member Bolitzik, second by for a second, member Maine.

Good morning, Director Carr.

Good morning, Carl Carrar, director of facilities and construction services.

Uh, this project was budgeted and funded as part of the FY25 capital budget process.

As it says in the title there is installs uh solar photovoltaic system on center courts building and building B of the walkwalking campus right here.

And the contractor will install the electrical infrastructure as well as the solar panels to support uh 220 kilowatt solar photovoltaic system.

This is an exciting uh moment to see it coming forward.

I think it was just in last year's budget.

Chair Hart.

How did you know I wanted to talk on that?

Because I know it's close to your heart and really really glad you brought it up.

Well, I'm so pleased to see this come forward and board members who've been on the board for a while.

I would say we we um approached this when I think shortly after I became chair, and you know, we can look out over this floor and see all of the flat buildings around here and think, boy, wouldn't it be terrific um to have solar?

And so I know staff has worked on this for several years, and we came close to something and it didn't work out.

And I'm just so thrilled to have this here.

Um, you know, this is uh Waukegan is a community that has uh high rates of pollution and whatever we can do uh to install clean energy and follow our plan and our values about um uh uh um excuse me about supporting that and starting in this community in our county seat, I think is really terrific.

So thank you so much for your work on this, Carl.

Great.

I just want to say thank you for your leadership on this, Chair Hart.

Um, I think that's exciting for all the reasons you stated.

I do have a specific question, and I see Member Clark has a question.

Go ahead, Member Clark.

Actually, I just wanted to say I've been like actually, I think I had a dream about this project.

I was so excited.

I really did.

I know um in my other job, we've been talking a lot about how utility costs are going up so much, you know, between data center usage increasing for electricity costs, and also the Trump administration has taken a lot of renewable energy projects offline, which is decreasing the amount of electricity available.

And so electric rates are going up, some areas 100%, you know, easily 30%.

So I think in my dream, I was like worried about it, and then I I saw the our our our solar race.

And I know when we discussed it, and I do want to thank Chair Hart and this committee for doing this, because it was a push to get this done because it is money, but the amount of money we're going to save is just even going to be more for taxpayers.

So it's good for the earth.

It's uh, you know, to invest in these renewable technologies, it increases the demand for them, which makes them more efficient, but also it is just gonna save us so much money.

But also it is just going to save us so much money.

I'm looking into doing it now for my house.

But so yes, thank you, everyone.

And it's very exciting to see this today.

Thank you.

Okay.

Thank you.

So with this contract, we're going to own the solar array and the equipment.

This contractor is going to do the installation.

What does that mean for future either maintenance or in terms of let's just say one of the sections has to be uh you're gonna do, you know, some other type of maintenance that requires panels to be moved or part of the array to be moved.

Is that something that our team could do, or is it something we would have to get back in touch with a vendor that's qualified to, you know, uh uninstall and reinstall or or move part of the array if possible?

We will go with qualified vendors, uh maintenance personnel to to really manage and maintain the these solar panels because you're as you as you said that we're going to own them.

Uh the good thing is is that we can extend the services that we're already contracting out uh with the rock facility because we also own those solar panels.

So we can extend very similar services to the maintenance of uh the panels here.

Uh if we have to move or change things around to accommodate other capital work, uh, we'll have to have that be part of the construction projects that we that we do in the future.

Okay.

And are the panels going to be at a fixed angle, or are they the type that sort of rotate depending on the position of the room?

They will be fixed.

Uh they're actually on skids.

They just sit on top of the the roof itself via ballast or weighted down.

They're very low, but yeah, they have a fixed angle.

Okay.

And has the contractor or has your team at all examined the angle in terms of unintended consequences from reflection due to you know nearby buildings and facilities.

Uh, we actually uh in May, we had a design contractor, uh, an architect engineer who specialized in solar uh photovoltaic projects, and they set the angles and reconfigured or configured our roofing to accommodate not only just the angle and those and the shadows that come with the tall buildings that we have around here, but also with the other supports that we have on there.

We do have rough anchors for doing like window washing and so on.

So we had to arrange it in such a way that we can still maintain the rest of our buildings and move around on the buildings as well as uh maximizing the amount of solar that we can great.

Thank you.

My last question is what's what's the timing?

When do you expect to see insulation begin?

Uh the timing is uh design and permitting is gonna be from now until about March.

And the material procurement takes uh about three, four months after that, or two or three months after that.

So that'll go through May.

And then so we're looking at June to October for construction and commissioning of the system.

And that includes a lot of work inside of the buildings where we had the connection points, but the uh you start seeing things, I would think probably late summer.

Great, exciting, Chair Hart.

Thank you.

Just a before.

Um what do you have a sense of the how much solar will be generated and what percentage that is for the campus or in terms of our usage?

The system's gonna be rated at about 220 kilowatts.

I don't have a percentage, uh, but it's it's not very high, to be honest with you.

Okay.

I mean, we have uh I'll have to get those numbers for you.

I don't have those numbers in my head.

It's certainly not gonna make us net zero.

We would need many more solar panels to get there, but I was just curious.

And then just one other thing.

I see the county says we're only going to accept bids from two agencies from Sun Peak and Verde Solutions, and the cost difference was enormous, which was really interesting.

So can you help me understand just why the Sun Peak and the Verade Solutions were the only ones we would accept bids from?

We did a two-step uh acquisition process or procurement process.

So we had a pre-qualification of multiple contractors, and then we took the second step was to get pricing from them.

Got it.

Thank you very much.

I saw another hand.

Remember Volitic, yeah.

Yeah, I thank you for asking that question.

I had I had a similar question, so I would love to learn um those details as well.

And then just um adding on, I'm super excited.

We've been we've been talking about this for years, and I'm really happy to see it on the agenda um and and thankful to staff for their work.

I think um for those, you know, worldwide who maybe didn't buy into or didn't weren't persuaded or moved enough by the environmental reasons behind clean energy.

Um, it is now just clearly um heads and shoulders above um other forms of energy in terms of affordability.

And so um I think many of us are also just pleased to see that it is uh there are now really very few arguments um uh for not using clean energy, and um really happy to see this.

So thank you.

Great.

Thank you.

All in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed, 8.37 is approved.

8.38 is uh presentation and follow up discussion regarding the naming of Lake County facilities.

Facilities.

Um and members, you'll recall that we've had this discussion previously, and uh when discussing it with deputy administrator Myers, he indicated that uh we need to provide some more precise and clear direction before the policy could come forward.

Member Maine.

Thanks.

I have a question, and I was just wondering is this covering only facilities, or are we also talking about roads?

Because it seems like we should also be talking about roads.

Because in my tenure on the board, that's the only thing we've actually named after a person in my time is a road.

I would be supportive of the policy being inclusive of roads because it seems like if we have authority to grant naming and we're using uh our budgetary authority to build something or you know, install a name.

I I think it's I think it's appropriate to include.

And so before we even get to Matt's presentation, let's just get some consensus.

Are we in agreement that we should also be talking about roads as part of the naming policy?

County roads, county roads.

Yeah, right.

Yeah, yeah.

Great.

Okay.

Okay.

Thank you.

Great.

We just broadened your scope.

Thank you, Matt.

Is uh which road specifically, Member Maine?

It was Audrey Nixon Belouvar.

So I I believe the the history on that, and I and if Shane is on, I'd love to support on this.

I thought that that was named by the city of Waukegan before it was transferred to the county of Lake because the county of Lake cannot name its roads based on what Shane or what DOT has in place.

So this presentation that I have for you this morning leaves out roads and sets.

That's fine.

That's fine.

But if that's the direction of the committee, we can investigate it further.

We can find out more.

I I perhaps forgot the the timing on that, but we should look at that.

Thanks.

Okay.

So let's just note that as we're interested.

Okay, very good.

I will come back with further information on that one then and I'll get started here.

Um and uh chair, you already kind of lined it up that that we had come with initial research that Carl had completed.

And I think our initial recommendation was just let's draft an ordinance that any changes to um the naming of our facilities is going to be done by ordinance by the county board.

There was interest by this committee to um put some criteria around it.

Um so that's what we had kind of looked at.

One of the questions that came up at the previous committee meeting as well was hey, what what are our name facilities?

And we had the road on here, and then I corrected myself and took the road off.

But these are the names of the facilities that Carl has done a good tried his best uh to get a collective list of everything that we have currently in place um around the county.

I'll leave that up for a second.

And then what we did was take a look at um kind of expanding that that recommendation that we had last time where it was just very specific to let's draft an ordinance whenever we want to do a name, is now we're gonna have some proposed criteria around the the name.

This what we've stated, this is gonna be specific to our land, parks, buildings, and structures only.

I did put at the bottom no roads or public streets, but that's up for discussion, obviously.

Um, but some of the recommended the recommendation is we'll we'll come up, we'll come, we would come back with an ordinance that um any naming of facilities is going to be done by some official board action, which could be an ordinance or a resolution that the nomination uh for the naming of any of those facilities should be in writing by a minimum of three members to the board chair.

So now we're trying to get a little more specific as exactly how we would put forth those nominations, and then we have some of these criteria here, which is has to be a positive image, um, has broad public support, has to be an uh uh uh uh uh outstanding accomplishment for the good of the community, should be of good quality and length of service should be considered.

Uh we shouldn't be commercializing our facilities.

Um there was comments about uh should the individual be alive or deceased.

So um we put that it can be somebody that's still alive or can be an individual that's deceased, and uh they should not be currently in any public office or any government office as of uh the at the point of nomination.

And then the current names for property belonging to the county should only be changed uh via action.

I think we had maybe a little bit discussion on well, we can change it if the operations change of the facility or if we're gonna move the facility, but we felt that there may be other circumstances that may come up in which we may want to change the name regardless.

Member Maine.

Thanks.

Well, this is a great uh start, and I I recognize how difficult this could be.

I'll just start with one, and I think it should be like stamps.

I think the person needs to be deceased.

Um, because to your next point there that they're not currently in public office, well, they're alive, they could run for public office again, right?

And then you're in that quandary and they can have their campaign kick off in front of the building or whatever with their name is.

So um I I'm not the other things, I want to hear everyone else, but I feel pretty strongly that I do not think that buildings should be named after or structures after living people.

They still have a chance to do things that we would be very upset about, and then what do you do?

Member Clark.

Thank you.

I agree.

I have to say I do agree.

I think we've all seen that happen.

And people, you can use it for different things.

So I agree with that.

Um, I also uh a couple things.

I do think a minimum of three board members is too low.

I don't, I don't want this to just be true.

I mean, it just seems like people could just be throwing out this is a really big deal.

So I would suggest at least half the board members.

I I wouldn't even, even if it has to be unanimous, I I really wouldn't mind, but I would say a minimum of at least 10 of the nine, if not all, because it's a really big deal to name a building after someone.

So I would definitely think it should be more um so it doesn't just constantly like, oh, let's try this building now.

So I I say a higher level, and also I'd really like to put something in there that it should be some they did something for Lake County.

I I to me, I think to name a Lake County building after someone, they should have something that they've done for Lake County.

And I know I might be in the minority, like there's might be just important people out there, but we don't have that many buildings in Lake County.

And so I think for us to name something, I think I would put in their criteria would be, you know, uh service to Lake County should be one of the things.

I probably have more, but I'll stop there.

Member of Let's Thank you.

I 100% agree the person should not be, but should not be living.

Um I sorry to be a wet uh wet blanket.

Um I think I said this when we first brought up the topic a few months ago.

Um, I don't think we should name after people at all.

I think it should just be events or places or you know, I don't know what other criteria, but I just think um that would be my preference.

Um, but understanding it sounds like it wouldn't be in the majority, although I will throw that out there for discussion if anyone has any comments.

Um and and if we did name after people, then yeah, I think it would have to be very tight, certainly deceased, certainly late, I would feel late county related.

Um, but generally I don't I don't think that we should name after people.

And then I agree with some more um some more um more board members behind that push would be required.

Member Peters.

Well, I certainly agree.

I'm I mean, I'm I agree that um my mind's drawing a blank here.

I'm sorry.

Yes, absolutely, absolutely.

I am 100% on board with that.

And to be honest with you, I'm on board with Jessica.

I I don't think we should be naming buildings.

I I just I don't but if we're going to, I'm really glad to see that we've got we've started with some criteria.

But anyway.

That's that's where we're at.

We're at a starting point.

So appreciate you uh acknowledging that, yeah.

Um member Hewitt, then Member Main.

I would definitely agree with my other board members that um I believe the person should be deceased, but I also believe we should not be naming any one of our buildings after a particular person.

The county is too large.

We only have a certain number of buildings that this may apply to, but I believe it should be Lake County, not an individual.

Yeah, that's that's a really interesting idea.

And I think of it's slightly different, but if I think about like naming forest preserves, and we have a lot of criteria, and there are a few, very few that are named after people.

But I think about the service.

I think at times though, I mean at times you can use a name to inform and educate people.

And so like one of the things that are commemorate places, people or events that are continued importance to the county.

Um so this is this like a checklist, like all these things need to be met?

Because some of them are going to be in con, or you need six of the eight, because if we say of service to Lake County, that service can come in a lot of different ways, right?

I mean teachers provide service.

There could be people from before Lake County was Lake County who we would want to honor.

So I I think it is tricky.

We're not going to be building a lot of buildings, but you can see on that previous list.

Could we go back to the list?

Like I forgot about the pedestrian bridge.

Okay.

So I was wrong.

So there was one thing.

Um people, if they want to, can find things to give names to, right?

It's not just buildings.

There is the um the library, right?

So you can find subsections of a building that can also be named.

So I think we just want to be cautious in thinking, well, we're not going to have that many buildings, which I agree with.

Therefore, you know, uh I don't know.

I there may be more things that could be named than than we realize.

So which is why I appreciate this being brought forward.

So I get not wanting to name things after people, but then if we do have something, you know, we don't want it to sound like uh, and I'm being facetious here, but we don't want to sound like a camp, like, you know, the woodland room, or I mean that's uh or something like that, you know, um the the prairie building or something like that.

So um I really uh like the idea that it needs to be more than three board members.

Um I would also say um that bullet point have a strong positive image and should stand the test of time.

I think that's great.

I think that's tricky of standing the test of time.

So I don't know, maybe it's even like look, you need to be dead for five years.

I'm just going on this dead thing here.

But but really like but there is um when someone dies, there's like, oh, kind of a rush, like let's commemorate them at that moment.

And they may deserve it.

I'm not saying that people don't, but kind of that test of time, I like that.

Like, hey, let's let's sit back there and make sure it's not eight people who knew that person really well and want to commemorate someone.

Whereas if you go back five years, you know, if you go into the future a couple years, people are like, oh yeah, you know, they did this, they did this, that you can you can look on to that.

So that that that could be kind of awkward to put in there, but I just I I like that staying the test of time, but I think as we've seen, and this probably goes to member of Volet's ex point, standing the test of time is difficult because as um opinions change as our understanding of situations, and we may feel like we right now are very enlightened about things, and I dare say that people in the future will go, oh my goodness gracious, I can't believe they thought that.

So okay.

So um I see a couple more hands up, but I want to see if we can focus on the areas where where we have some decisions to make.

I'm hearing broad agreement for the criteria as you have listed here, Matt, for the most part, except for I heard a few individuals say that we want to change a library decease to just be deceased.

Um I I'm hesitant to put a time criteria on that.

I know I know uh I understand the suggestion, but I also think um there's some value in doing that honor while there are people around who understand the impact and and understand the meaning of it.

Um I'm not so sure how many Evanstonians know who John Evans was or why the town is named after him, right?

So that there's too much time could pass where where the impact, the value doesn't matter as much.

So I think um that's one question.

I just want to make sure we get consensus on the alive or deceased if we're just gonna eliminate that that people cannot be alive, and then the question of could a whole building be named after someone.

I think that was your suggestion, member of Litzik, and then uh the comment that you made, Member Clark about the numbers uh instead of three, should we make it seven, you know, which is I know is uh used elsewhere in our rules to to call for a special meeting.

Um, or do we want to just direct that it has to be recommended by the you know, FNA committee to the board uh or as a nomination or something like that.

I I'm open to other processes there, but I think the most important change that we should be aware of that we're starting here is that it it would then require, you know, uh at the very top action by the board by ordinance, because that's currently not our our process, and some things have been named in the past by you know, direction of administration or the chair.

Um member Clark, member Altamberg and then I'll come back to you.

Yeah, I really appreciate this discussion.

I think everyone had some really good points to me, really think about this.

And it and actually if some of the things people have brought up, you know, I actually would support not allowing us not having not we don't name buildings after people.

And I know other people would too.

And I I kind of feel like after having this discussion, some things that you said, member main, is that there's almost like two discussions here.

It's like we've got buildings, and then like you said, like that there could be like a room or a bridge or something like that.

And because even like you just said too, Chair, about how we should do it when people, I mean, there is something to be said when people die because that's when people know.

Well, then maybe like this rush to do it in 10 years, people don't know who it is.

And so I I feel like maybe our building should just be lake county, you know, like this is a lake county conference, you know, regional center or whatever versus that.

So I would actually really I would support having it where we don't name buildings after people.

Um, and then but I actually would be I I'd be supportive of not naming it after anyone, but I also be supportive of having a having a policy like this for naming other things like a pedestrian bridge or a conference room or something like that.

But it just doesn't, it is hard, you know.

And and I look at the people that we name things after, and I have to say I don't I don't know some, I know who some of those people are, I don't know others.

And so um just because someone happens to die at a time that we build a building and they have people on the board that like them and know them, that just seems like that's how it ends up.

And I and it's because that's and so I would rather just not have that happen.

I would rather so I would vote if someone does what have if we have the uh I don't know, the votes here is to say no no naming of buildings.

Yeah, people we have to vote on it, but I would say based on your comment, I think we have majority uh consensus to say no no buildings uh after after people.

Member of Litzik, then member Altamir, yeah.

100% that's exactly what I was gonna say is that um the comment about whether there or not should should be time between the naming and the death.

Um whether you meant to or not, your comment um Chair Frank illustrated why I I thought it shouldn't be named after people because of the emotion behind that because you happen to have friends on a board who decide that um you're worthy of it.

Um listen, I would love to see more women on that list and um have the opportunity to to name, but I I still strongly yeah feel that we shouldn't be naming buildings after after people.

Um and I forgot the other I was gonna have another comment on one of your questions.

Okay, okay.

Member of Olitz.

Uh member Altamirg.

Okay, can you hear me?

Yes.

Okay.

I don't know if I'm showing up.

Can you see me?

Yes.

Go ahead.

Okay, okay, good.

Okay.

So um I think this has been a great discussion.

You know, people have come approached me, approached uh Chair Frank.

I know, you know, there's there's been discussion out there about naming things in the county after people.

And um, I think this was great that Chair Frank brought this forward so we could uh all have a discussion on it.

I think this has been a really interesting discussion for me.

Um I agree that it should be somebody who is not alive.

But um maybe you wait like maybe we say you wait, there's a waiting period, like a year or two.

Um, and then you know, and then there could be a discussion about it.

But I wouldn't, I I agree.

I think there's a big consensus not to name a building after somebody.

And I'm I'm for that.

Um, but I would love to see like a room or a bridge or something like that.

I think it's still to leave that on the table.

Um, even a street that's like a count, you know, uh a street near a county building or something like that.

I think that that, you know, those could be left on the table.

And it should be somebody though, who's made very significant contributions to the county.

It shouldn't just be anybody, it should be somebody who's really contributed in very, very significant ways.

Um I like the thing about you know, stay having a positive image and standing the test of time, you know, somebody who embodies that um to people.

And I would say to raise the number maybe to like seven.

I thought that that was a good idea.

Um, either that or or the majority, but you know, I thought seven was a good number.

I wouldn't just say three.

But um, but if you could add something in, maybe uh Chair Frank about the fact that we, you know, there's a waiting period, some kind of waiting period, and then that could they can be discussed, you know, that might be helpful.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you, Member Alterburg.

Uh Ember City, remember the last point you wanted to be.

Okay, seven.

Okay, member Maine.

Yeah, um, I was going to address the um the number.

I think that I think that we should construct that in a way that it says the finance committee or the majority of a quorum, because the number of members on the board could change.

And so we don't want to have a number that then you go back and go, oh, wait a minute, that doesn't really make sense anymore.

So I think we should look at what it is, and then um you see you understand what I'm saying.

Like we don't want a specific number.

The only reason I would not want to support of saying, hey, the majority or something like that is because people's minds can be educated and changed, right?

So if you say it's a majority, then that's a de facto decision, essentially.

You're saying everybody's already half the people have decided, but if you had something majority of the quorum or or something like that, then you could have the discussion and people could change their minds either way.

People who were for it might go, oh, maybe I'm not so for it, or something like that.

So that's my suggestion.

Okay, so uh we're about to wrap up.

I'm gonna call in you chart in just one second.

But Matt, it sounds like we're landing on the nomination can be made by either recommendation of the FNA committee or majority of the quorum of the board.

And uh it sounds like we have consensus for the individual must be deceased and all the other items you have in here, um, and no buildings, no buildings may be named after Sharp.

So that was a really good point.

And then I'm just gonna say as we went from 21, probably what we had before 23 and then 21, and now we're at 19.

I think that was a really good point because sometimes when you look in some of these employee handbooks, you're like, oh shoot, this has to get changed.

So that change is a good one.

The only thought that I had was uh, and maybe I miss it if Matt spoke to it, is if you do have a majority of a quorum or whatever, and that's your minimum, then obviously there are conversations that are occurring outside of an open meeting.

So in order to kind of get, even though they're one off conversations, so perhaps it is something that is um sort of no more than a majority of a quorum to ensure that the conversations that are happening are happening in committee.

Sorry to throw that out there, but and whatever everybody chooses.

No, I I totally appreciate the point.

I'm totally fine with it, but it just has to come through committee as well.

But but again, we're just looking at you know where the nomination comes from to initiate the process, right?

So if it has to be actioned by the board, I think it makes sense to me that it would come through committee, but we still we still want to indicate, you know, a nomination process so that if a board member says, okay, if it's just one board member, so I want to name something after my cousin, and now all of a sudden that's on the FNA agenda.

Yeah, right.

So um, I think we do need to have a threshold.

I understand the OMA concerns, but I think we'd be naive to say that conversations don't happen between individuals, maybe not all together.

I I see what you're saying, and I and I think you're right, because like I was thinking, okay, well, then five if based on the 19 or whatever, but you're right.

If the way it could be worded, it could be one person.

So I think that's a really good point.

So all right, thank you.

All right.

So I think we've landed on some good spots.

And do you feel like we've given you enough direction to come back to us with the proposed ordinance?

We do.

I and and the one thing that I feel the note in the beginning of this uh discussion is that the other component that we were talking about with this was the display policy.

We purposely kind of split those two items up and just talking about naming today.

We'll come back later with the display one as well.

Great.

But we called it that would be an ordinance.

I just wanted to um clarify.

So the the nomination by a majority of a quorum, would that be would that would still head through FA then to the board?

That's my understanding.

I think that we're treating as like a board action, so it would come through committee.

Yes.

Okay.

That's my understanding.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Okay.

Great.

Thank you.

Thank you all for the discussion.

Appreciate it.

8.39 is a director's report.

Morning again.

And uh as the presentation is being pulled up, uh my report today is going to be on the annual jock report, how we how we did, and a procurement strategy for this fiscal year.

So it's part of uh part of the policy that we passed uh that I'm sorry, that the board passed a couple years ago.

A couple requirements were to provide a procurement strategy for the to the FNA committee prior to the start of the fiscal year, and to provide an annual and quarterly quarterly reports on the jock contract.

Uh so just as a reminder, we have three different types of contracts that we utilize open bid, job order contract, and a joint purchasing agreement, which is primarily for goods and equipment.

Uh so I'll jump into the job order contract annual report.

Uh so as a reminder, it's a multiple source contract, uh competitively solicited and awarded to three general contractors.

You can see them there.

Contract terms started in Jen on January 1st, 2024, and uh current contract term is through this December, and we have three potential renewals remaining.

Contract value, uh $50,000 is guaranteed as a minimum per year.

Uh we have added a uh I guess an additional $4 million per contract per year, but really that's focused for the US Navy demolition project.

Uh otherwise uh there's two million dollars of that that we will focus on our uh facilities asset assessment projects or a capital projects here.

Go into the statistics.

Uh this information is in your it is in on the agenda, so you can pull that up as you wish, but I'll kind of start on the top.

Uh and column that we're worried about is the far right, which is 2025.

So the value of the job order contractors that carried over from 24 to 20 2025 was 1.8 million dollars.

The number of job orders executed in fiscal year 25, excuse me, yeah, fiscal year 25 was 27.

Of those, 18 were over 30,000.

And of those, uh only four were over 350,000 dollars.

Uh the total value of the job orders awarded last year was uh $3.4 million with an average value of 126,000 dollars per job order.

Um value of Lake County participation, $835,000 of that was focused uh to contractors within Lake County.

Uh that represents 24%.

Minority-owned subcontractor participation is 18.3%, and women-owned subcontractor uh participation was at 1.3%.

And it just uh always note that the calculation of the minor minority owned and women-owned was really based on the information that we were able to publicly find.

Uh there wasn't a qualifying system of certificate or certified system that we were able to pull that information from.

So we went under websites.

We know the we have the contractor information, and that's how we were pull that.

So it's really us gathering that data, not a state run or county run.

So I'll pause here if you have any questions.

We do have the spreadsheet of all the different work and all the different subcontractors is attached to the agenda item.

Uh, as you might imagine, that is a definite eye chart that uh we did not pull up here, but I can answer any questions you have.

Thank you.

You know, it's interesting how much lower the local lake county participation rate is.

I mean, it's half of last year, which is less than the year before, which is is there a reason it's trending down so much, do you think?

Was it a different, you know, vendor?

Like, you know, who who had the contract?

I mean, that's a lot less.

It is a lot less.

Uh it's primarily because one of the prime contractors, homestead uh is no longer our vendor that we use, and they were a local or they are a locally owned contractor.

So them not being a job order contractor, they do subcontracting work for our current jock contractors, but uh that's primarily a reason.

Okay, so we have just a different one of the bid on the who got the one correct.

Okay.

Thanks.

Okay.

With that, I'll move on to the procurement strategy for this year.

Go through the different contracts.

Uh so what we have done is uh we've essentially split our program into two different sides.

I'm sorry, I went one slide too many.

Uh we have split it between construction and design.

Uh so I'll talk about the construction contracts that we're we're looking to do.

And these are what amounts to shovel ready contracts ready to go.

We should award these within the first uh first quarter because they are ready to go.

Uh the first one is a continuation of security improvements across the county.

The second one is a continuation of the center court's interior improvements, and that is the asbestos abatement and renovation of the different courtrooms.

Uh the third one is uh continuation, the basement renovations, and this is gonna add locker rooms, the security office, and some other other work down there.

And then the fourth one would be the uh phase two or a continuation of different paving and seal coating around the county.

So those four we are looking to use jock for, uh, primarily because they are in secure areas, and it's a continuation in somewhat I wouldn't call simple work, but it's a really we know the work and they're already under jock contracts.

That's why we're gonna do that.

The last one on there is uh is a new annual buy, and it's a more of a general uh budget budget item to replace furniture as needed and upgrade furniture across the county.

Um that will that will be used in our furniture contract uh BOS.

Uh as I mentioned, we did split the program essentially in two.

Uh so our projects will be two-year funded.

So we'll design one year and then execute the following year.

Uh that will really better align and better better provide the kind of administrator and you that just those decision points when we have improved government estimates as we as we put the budget together.

Uh so we have a whole list of different designs here uh that would have been projects uh within the budget, but we have designs here set up uh for really focus on those designs to move forward on construction next fiscal year.

So you'll see these again when we bring them forward for the capital or for the budgeting process.

So I'll pause if you have any questions.

Sorry, just one personal question about what's happening at Halsey.

It looks like a lot of fencing has been taken down, and maybe that's in preparation for um some demolition.

Not familiar with that.

That's an excellent question.

Is that along Buckley DC?

It is, yeah.

Have you seen it?

Uh I haven't been done Buckley in a while, but uh having knowledge of those fence is a plastic fence.

Yeah, what tends to happen with that is when the slow put snow plows go by, that's the first thing to get whacked.

Uh so those the fence doesn't do well with heavy snow being thrown against it.

Got it.

That maybe it looks like they left the um, what would you call it, the the stakes, the heavier things, but these are quite far off of the but it doesn't matter.

Have you been the public works officer of the bit the base there?

That was a continual problem.

Gotcha.

Big heavy snowfalls and the thing, it just gets wiped out.

Got it.

Okay, thank you.

I'm sure they'll have to repair that.

Yeah, okay, thanks.

All right, thank you very much.

I have no nothing else uh to add unless you're any other questions for director.

Great report.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Item 8.40 is a director's report from Director Tusek.

CFO Tuesday.

Good morning.

Hi, good morning, Chair Frank and members of the committee.

Regina Tuzak, Chief Financial Officer.

I have just one item to report to you today.

Um, in accordance with the budget edu execution policy 3.6.

Um, the CFO does have authority uh to approve intrafund line item transfers between what we call uh account classifications, uh, particularly in connection with the closeout of the fiscal year.

Uh I am report required to come back to you and report what those are.

Um so in front of you is the list of the line item transfers that I have um approved as of November 30th uh 2025.

There will be more to come as we close out the fiscal year, and I do intend to come back to you monthly uh till the end of the fiscal year closeout process and then a summary at the very end of the process as well.

So uh that concludes my remarks.

Happy to take any questions.

Thanks.

Looking at them, I mean it all makes sense.

Did they start in August because this is like the end of the year close transfers?

Is this like something that you just I guess my question is are you been doing them all along, or is it something like the last couple months?

That's when you do the the final transfers.

Um we do um have to execute some of them during the year in the event that there is a um an invoice that needs to be paid where there isn't uh budget capacity in that line item.

It happens more frequently and at the end of the year when we're trying to close things out, and frankly, the budgets are near the end.

The one in August was the first one that I approved coming here in July.

Um, so that's on there.

Uh but there's a lot more coming now.

Okay, thank you.

That makes sense.

Thank you.

Any other comments or questions?

Great.

Thank you.

8.41 is a resolution authorizing collective bargaining agreement between Lake County Board, Lake County Health Department, and the Illinois Council of Police, ICOPS, Animal Care and Control Unit.

Motion to approve this item by member Clark, second by Member Bolitic.

Good morning.

Good morning, Darcy Edcock, HR director.

Caitlin Over, Deputy HR Director.

Uh so good morning, committee members.

Thank you for having us today.

Um, today we're proposing a resolution for a successor agreement between the Lake County Health Department Board, the Lake County Board, and the Illinois Council of Police or ICOPS Animal Care and Control Unit.

Uh this is a four-year agreement dated retroactively just back to December 1st of this year and covers 10 employees.

So through the course of this negotiation, we've come to agreement on a couple of economic issues that I wanted to touch on.

Um, starting with wages, uh, we need to bring this group into closer alignment with the results of the county compensation study that was conducted in 2024.

So, in order to accomplish this, we re-graded their um positions to be more closely aligned with county grades ranging between one and 10.

Um, those who were paid less than the minimum of these new grades is going to be brought up to that minimum.

Anybody who is currently paid within those grades is going to receive between a dollar and a dollar twelve per hour, the equivalent of four percent for those individuals.

Um, the cost of these adjustments is relatively low.

It's gonna cost less than 50,000 in the first year of the contract.

Um the following three years of the contract are going to be the same across the board increase as the non-unionized members of the county, uh, with a minimum increase of two and a half percent.

So that'll be for 12.126, 12.127, and 12.128.

Um, in addition to those increases, there is a weekend pay differential in place for this group.

Previously it was $2 per hour.

It has been raised to five.

Um, that actually happened during the last contract.

This was just our first opportunity to get that in writing.

Uh the terms of this agreement bring the unit closer to alignment with the county compensation plan, the external comparables, and ultimately we do recommend approval by the committee.

Great.

Thank you.

Comments or questions.

Member May.

Yes, I'm fine with this.

I was just asking, um, and I think I've asked this before.

If we could have a bullet of the um overall cost, usually we get something.

I mean, you explain you gave it to us, which is great, but I think it's helpful just to have that.

I was just checking.

Um I I don't think the attachment showed it.

So just so that we know what the cost is going to be.

Good request.

Other comments or questions.

All in favor, please say aye.

Any opposed?

8.41 is approved.

8.42 is a resolution authorizing the dissolution of the Avon Fremont drainage district.

Motion to approve by member Hewitt, second by member Bolitick.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Dan Hall, Assistant County Administrator.

If you recall on uh your meeting on July 31st, FNA gave direction to the staff to move forward with the dissolution of the Avon Fremont drainage district.

This is done under the Illinois Drainage Code.

So we reached out to all of the municipalities that had property within the drainage district, and they have all moved forward with passing their own resolution.

The final resolution will be passed by the village of Grays Lake, which has a little over 74% of the property, and also is the area in which the creek for the drainage district is in, and um the area in which the maintenance needs to occur is at.

They're going to be passing their resolution on uh their December 16th meeting.

You'll also see that I met with the Avon Fremont drainage district, and they too passed a resolution in support of dissolution of the drainage district.

Once the resolution is passed and the resolution from Grays Lake is sent in to us, we'll go ahead and send that to the circuit court and it'll move through the process to finalize the dissolution.

Thank you.

Um, I don't necessarily have an objection to this, but again, going back to process.

I really would like to see this dissolution have a process where there's, you know, where this committee gets something from SMC, showing that as that the SMC board has talked about it.

They've talked about any implications that might have to them.

Doesn't mean that we wouldn't pass it anyway, but I just feel like we're voting on something without the full import.

There's a reason we have a stormwater management commission.

Chart.

Thank you.

Um we do look at these, as I've said before, on a case-by-case basis.

And one of the things that, you know, I was talking with Kurt about is um hey, when you know, would you be in favor of more drainage districts?

The answer was no, right?

So some of these drainage districts that we are eliminating, or I can think of one, hadn't done any work in over a decade.

But people are still paying, I think it's called a levy, or that's not a tax, an assessment.

People are still paying money for those.

So I would argue that we do have a stormwater management commission.

They have received national awards for the work that they do.

Um, I I what I think happens with these drainage districts, if you you have residents paying twice.

If they live in a drainage district, they're paying this assessment, whatever, they're paying an assessment, and through their property taxes, they're also paying stormwater management commission.

So, you know, I I don't think that, and I could be wrong, but I don't think that we take a look when when we're giving money to stormwater management and saying, okay, here's all of your issues, and let's carve out you know, these drainage districts and all of these little spaces to say we want to make sure we don't give you money to help you work on these areas.

Think about Skokie Drainage or Avon Fremont or whatever, um, because they have a drainage district, right?

So if we didn't have a stormwater management commission, I would argue, yeah, we should be really holding on to these drainage districts.

But we do.

And we just heard at PBZNE that stormwater management is working on a drainage district or an area.

Um, you know, that's inter-jurisdictional, and they're going in there, right?

So I I think this is a good move.

I think it is important that we continue to look at it on a case-by-case basis.

Um I I think it's the right thing to do, and the municipalities have spoken and they know it better than anybody other than the people who serve on Avon Fremont drainage district.

Or maybe they probably even know it better because certainly there's some turnover there.

So that's all I have.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chair.

Any other comments or questions on this item?

Um, so Ruth Ann, this is um a dissolution that would then just go to the board for final approval by the county board, correct?

Correct.

Great.

Thank you.

All in favor, please say aye.

Any opposed?

And the opinion of the chair, the ayes have it, 8.42 is approved.

Item nine is county administrators report.

Good morning.

We do have a couple of items today.

First, I'd like to bring up Matt Myers, Deputy County Administrator to cover a topic that was brought up at the last meeting regarding Illinois 250.

Matt, I can hand those out while we go ahead and get started.

Thank you.

And members, I know you're gonna have uh thoughts and comments on this item and others, and we do have an item for executive session.

I'd just like us all to keep in mind a common goal if we can to try and be concluded here by 1015.

That would be great.

Okay.

Thank you.

Matt, go ahead.

Thank you, Chair.

Matt Mars, Deputy County Administrator.

Um, as uh um Patrice had stated on October 30th, uh discussion occurred at this uh committee related to um some requests that members Clark and Hewitt presented to allocate staff time to look into what the county should be doing to uh participate or celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the declaration of independence.

So staff has uh taken some time to meet with um those members and uh conducted some research as to what other communities are doing or what steps we could take to um put forth some some action items uh to celebrate and participate in the celebration of the signing of the declaration of independence.

So what I've done here is put forth some short-term recommendations and long-term uh planning options that the county has as it relates to based on the discussion we've had and based on some of the research we've done as it relates to how we can celebrate.

And um it's this is very timely as there was an announcement yesterday by the governor uh related to Illinois America 250 um uh commission, and he invited uh everyone to participate.

And uh the that's their efforts are to bring together um Illinois communities and residents to help in the uh commemoration and celebration of that signing.

Um so short term, one of the easiest things is to join that uh that um that commission and become an Illinois America 250 partner that requires a resolution that would be passed by the board uh that we were in support of that commemoration, which would signal alignment, uh willingness to collaborate and allows us to coordinate themes.

Um and then uh Lake County would create its own website uh where we can post that we have um uh joined uh in in the celebration with the American uh Illinois American 250, and that would be our place in which we can also put our different events and things, um, activities that we're gonna be working on and working towards.

We would have our own logo and branding for uh the celebration that we have.

And long term, what we would do is try and have some kind of activity or event planned for every month leading up to that July date, uh July 4th.

And that could include uh the reading of specific stories or events.

We can have a standard setting item on the county board agendas uh for Jan between January and July, in which we would uh have different readings or talk about the status of what we're uh currently working on.

We can have an essay and art contest.

I have had discussions with um uh Dr.

Carner uh if he would be willing to support and help us get the word out related to uh putting together some kinds of contests.

We could display the items in the in the lobby, we can read the essays at the county board meetings.

Um we can create uh content for the Lake County's channel related to that.

And we can uh develop a resident education program related to government that um uh is tied.

The educational components are tied to the ideals that are in uh located in the declaration of independence.

And uh it would all end in July with the final reading of the Declaration of Independence and event that we would hold in Lincoln Square.

Um this is really exactly where I think we need to be.

I appreciate you bringing this forward.

I want to just acknowledge and thank members Clark and Hewitt for bringing uh the question to us and and for working with it, Mr.

Accounty, Mr.

O'Maraj on it.

Um other comments, questions, feedback.

Member Clark, member Hewitt.

I want to thank you and I want to thank Member Hewitt and our committee for doing this.

I'm really excited.

I got my paper today and a whole front page story about Illinois in the count on to 250 and exactly what we're talking about here.

So that was very timely, excited to be a part of it.

And I'm really um my only, you know, I think all these activities are amazing to make sure we've got education involving you know children, but also all our residents and um really culminating and really honoring you know the the founding of this country.

Um so my question for you is what do is there what like what do you need from us?

Yeah, I I think as long as there's consensus today, which is what I'm looking for, and if there's anything that we should additionally, we should be looking into from the committee, uh, any direction we get today from the committee, staff will proceed in putting together the kind of the these is almost separate projects that would move forward and we would come back, I think, to determine if we determine at some point that we need any kind of budget um related to some of these things.

Uh Teresa, if you had anything to add.

I was just gonna add, we're probably gonna be looking for some content, you know, some people to help us do you know, execute some of these, and obviously we'll check with you if you are willing and able to be a participant in that as well.

But um, you know, we really need to get the resolution started and and you know, join the efforts.

Um I'm gonna encourage Matt to put together a team of staff members to execute this and then we'll um have more information about how y'all can help.

Okay, because I do hope we can all help, and I mean even our newsletters or I know member Hewitt, I'm sure you were talking about like, you know, if we can read um maybe all of the different people clips from these founding documents and maybe put an LCTV.

Um, you know, me and also maybe reading part of the the declaration of independence at our board meetings, you know, like a small portion, or having essay contest winners, you know, come.

I I do think this is such an important thing to recognize and honor.

So I'm very excited about this.

Um just yes, thank you so much for the work on this, and thanks to the committee, our committee and our whole board for supporting it.

Thank you.

Great work.

Anything to add member Hewitt.

Um, thank you so much.

Uh, there were so many things that we discussed at that meeting that we had was very helpful.

Um, and I really appreciate that.

Uh we had so many ideas, and the more you talk to people, the more ideas they have.

So to try to get things um curtained and and even on TV now, they're starting to do some of the things that are mentioned here.

So I think it's important that we do get started.

I feel like we're running out of time.

We January is just around the corner, and right now here we are today.

So I think there's a lot of work to be done and to be uh more organized than what we are right now.

So I really appreciate this coming to the board now.

So we just need to move quickly.

Thank you.

I really, really love the essay um and art, but particularly the essay contests.

And I think it's a lovely idea to have them read by the students if they can or by us um at the board meetings.

I'm happy to help with that.

If if Dr.

Carner or you guys need a panel of people reading these, um happy to participate.

Um, I think it's one of the most important reasons for doing stuff like this, um, not only to celebrate, but to foster that interest and love of country and civics from students and children.

Um, and to so to that end, is this number five, the resident education program?

Is this the civics academy that I brought for it?

Okay, so same thing or just like a version of a version of it.

Okay, okay.

Yeah.

And then maybe um we could because I know there's a lot of work now around this, but if we don't um start that civics academy before July, maybe it could be a kickoff point for announcing some sort of civics academy if it's if doing it in itself beforehand is too much.

It's just an idea to because it's so nicely tied in with the whole point of all of this.

Um, so just a thought.

I don't know exactly what you were planning with with number five, but yep.

Um yeah, unfortunately, we are still at the idea generation stage, and that takes a lot of collaboration with other departments.

So I think Matt and his to-be named team have some work to do um as to what's realistic um to uh make as part of this program because we have some really cool ideas that would tie in really well with some of the other things that we have on this.

Um, but we obviously need a lot of cooperation from some other departments to really carry it off.

And um, we really wanted to make sure we were on the right track here with this before we initiated any of that.

So more to come on that topic.

Perfect.

Thanks.

Yeah, I think it's um important for us to be mindful of the fact that we, you know, we still have limited financial and human resources.

It's a finite amount that we have.

And so we want to make sure that we're not creating uh, you know, activities that are outside of sort of I would say equilibrium, where it's like, hey, what's appropriate uh within within our abilities.

But this is, I think, uh the really good spot.

I think this is sort of where we need to be to recognize this important um celebration, commemoration.

So I think this is great.

I think we're in the right spot, Matty in the right to member Clark.

I just was wondering about the resolution.

What was were we thinking like this month, January?

I know because I feel like member like where the time is going by quickly.

So does there what were you thinking?

Looking for January, the January board, we'd pass it.

Okay.

So I'd bring it back to committee next month.

And then we'll have it at this committee, and then we can send it to so for January.

Okay, good.

But but you don't have to wait for that to happen to move forward with the other stuff.

Correct.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you.

You have other items.

I also am asking Darcy Adcock to just give you a very brief um like recap of of um our open enrollment and the upcoming changes to deductions that will go into effect in 2026.

Morning again, Darcy Edkack, HR director with me, Caitlin Everett, deputy director.

Um, as uh Patrice had mentioned, just wanted to provide a brief recap of some of the highlights.

Our open enrollment period did conclude on November 7th.

Roughly 430 employees participated in this open enrollment process in Boss.

Um, that includes new plan elections or changes.

Um, there were not a significant number of changes to the total number of employees enrolled.

Um, we did see some significant changes though.

Um, I wouldn't say significant, but noteworthy new enrollments in both the HMO plans and the traditional PPO.

64 new enrollments in the traditional plan um PPO and 83 new enrollments and two HMO plans.

And then there were 36 new enrollments in the CDHP plan, which is the high deductible plan.

Overall, in 2025, we currently have 1,882 total employees enrolled in one of our plans in January of 26th.

That will increase to 1,924 employees enrolled in one of our plans.

We did implement some changes for 2026, including, as we've talked about, a higher than average rate increase, ended at 10.1% for PPO, 4.7 for HMO.

Additionally, effect of the first check in January of 2026, insurance premiums will be deducted on each paycheck.

Previously, those months, sometimes two, sometimes three months of the year, depending on how the calendar falls, um, have three check dates.

And previously, um, some of our benefits did not come out of every single paycheck.

It only came out of 24.

Um this means is starting in January, we will have 26 deductions opposed to 24 for all of our benefits, medical, dental, envision.

Um, as I mentioned, there were other benefits that have historically always been based on 26.

So there was this, there was this variance, and you didn't know when what benefits were coming out when.

Um, the annual cost of these benefits is the same.

It's just divided over more pay periods, which in a year with a high increase actually was helpful too.

Um, as a result, it actually will appear that there was a decrease in the HMO because it spread over 26 instead of 24.

So this was also a requirement of the workday build, as the system would not allow for that variance in frequency of benefit deductions.

Um, the system does require consistent frequency, but in addition to the system aspect, um, this is also a recommended best practice and industry standard to have it aligned across the board.

Um, another change that we've talked about is the change in HSA distribution.

The county previously provided HSA seed money as a lump sum on that first week in January.

Starting in 26th, we will transition to a pay period by pay period distribution of those funds.

Um, so there were some changes, but we did host some in-person and virtual office hours to individuals to provide that one-on-one support to answer any questions.

Um, as well, we provided in-person and virtual training sessions to entire departments to do the same.

We also created a voiceover YouTube instructional video that was on our ESP and our Lake County website, and tons of other resource documents um to help employees with with their decisions.

So overall, it was successful and um looking forward to 26.

That was it.

Appreciate it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thanks, Darcy.

That was it.

No other items.

We do have two items for executive session.

Item 10.1 and 10.2.

And we please have a motion to go in executive session, discuss claims, loss, risk, management, information, records, data, advice, communications from or with respect to any insurer of the public body or intergovernmental risk management association sell poll insurance.

Motion by member clerk, second by member hewitt.

We have a roll call, please, Teresa.

Member Clark.

Chair Frank.

Aye.

Member Hewitt.

Aye.

Member Maine.

Yeah.

Member Peterson.

Aye.

Member Volitzek.

Aye.

Member Clark, did you want to amend your motion to also include review of closed session minutes?

Thank you.

Okay, that motion's been amended.

So it's both items for executive session.

Thank you.

We are motion is approved as amended.

We're going into executive session.

We are back in open session.

Are we?

Are we are we sorry?

I don't want to get ahead of you.

Are we okay?

We're good to go.

Great.

So we do have committee action.

Uh item 11.1.

Is this related to the case that we discussed in closed session, or is this a different case number?

Yes, we need action out of executive session for the settlement amount to be able to be utilized.

So yes.

Okay.

So item 11.1 committee action authorizing settlement authority for case number 220218W014.

Motion by member Clark, second by member Hewitt.

Additional comments or questions.

All in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

That item is approved.

11.2 is committee action to approve the FNA executive session minutes from November 6th.

Motion by Member Bolitzik, second by member Peterson.

Edits comments, questions.

Seeing none, all in favor, please say aye.

Any opposed?

The minutes are approved.

Any member remarks, comments, or questions.

Seeing none, we are adjourned until January 8th.

I hope you all have happy and festive holidays.

Thank you, everyone.