Day is Tuesday March the 3rd, 2026.

In addition to being able to attend in person, remote attendant had been made available to the public by Zoom at the link on the agenda.

This meeting is being recorded through Zoom.

And I have uh Member Dan for us.

He's here.

He on Zoom due to WIC relate.

And uh member vice chair Gina Roberts, she's on Zoom due to illness.

Okay.

Is there's pull county board rules and open meeting act?

Attendance remote meaning is permitted for qualifying reason as long as the majority of the committee members are physical pleasant.

And uh we do have a quantum.

We do have a quantum.

We have notified, we have been notified in advance by members Dan for Member Gina Robinson.

They are electronic uh state qualified as there's any members have anything that is there, so we see the on here and uh a fifth of quant is present, so they may be marked as president uh elder to vote on matters before the committee today.

As a reminder to members attending remote, please ensure your camera is on at all times.

Okay, so we have a person.

Okay, okay, may we stand for the pledge, please.

I pledge in the plague of the United States of America and to the Republic or what you stand on nation on the guy in this call.

Amen.

Okay.

Okay.

May I have a roll call, please.

Member Albert?

Here.

Chair Cunningham?

Here.

Member Danforth.

Present.

Music?

Here.

Um Rakyle is absent.

Member Peterson.

I haven't heard from him.

Vice Chair Roberts.

Here.

We heard you.

She ain't feeling well.

Okay.

There's a dendra to the agenda.

No addenda to the agenda.

Public comment.

There's any public comment.

No public comment today.

Oh, great.

Chair remarks.

The chair.

Only remarks.

We just uh keep praying for Reverend Jesse Jackson family.

We did send a county board.

The county did send a proclamation to the family.

Okay.

Unfinished business.

No unfinished business.

Oh, I'm sorry.

I'm so easy to saying that's like a little bit total thing.

So yes, we do have one item.

Sorry.

Consolidated domestic violence courtroom at an estimated cost of approximately 135,000 for the remaining of the fisher year 2026.

Okay.

I need a motion.

Motion by Member Ma, second by Member Peterson.

Okay.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Um, I'm back.

Um, so we were uh sent back from FNA for I guess L and J to take a longer look at um my needs as well as the other justice partners uh involved in the opening of this new courtroom that the courts have decided to consolidate the domestic violence cases in.

So my needs remain the same.

I would need the two additional felony assistance.

Uh I believe uh the state attorneys uh has the request following later today.

Um I don't believe any of the other justice partners uh needed any additional personnel based on our discussions.

Any question from the committee member Peterson?

I I don't have a problem with this, but my my only concern is um are we opening up the door for this to happen a lot?

That's my only concern.

Just so you know that I know we had talked about this.

Uh and we know that the public defender need employees there.

We know that and the employees are very professional, and it's good for the county because they bagged up, you know.

I'm just they bagged up all in for I mean it backed up before.

So they backed up and they need to move those cases, and this is why they ask I guess a month two ago to wait because again, somebody in the people see it.

So we uh uh we do need them.

We need them to get those cases because I got a lot of cases in there, you know, because I'm most time I'm in court, you know, uh calling the director of public defender, you know, for a person.

So we just have to go along with it.

And uh, you know, I'm for I I know I know what you're saying.

I just I want to put that out there because it is a concern.

Yeah, I mean, are we opening up the door for anybody else to come and you know yes for this money that wasn't in their butt, you know, in their budget.

That's my only concern.

And don't have a problem with them with the domestic violence.

Yeah, goes this.

I want to put that up there.

Okay.

Thank you.

Speaking of mine, okay.

Yeah, uh Memo Altonber, you have well I just wanted to address what member Peterson was saying.

So the reason that we're this came to us now, though, is because of a change in the judicial branch, right?

And that's why that which hadn't been in effect when we did our budget.

Is that how this came to pass?

That's correct.

I learned uh probably I think it was November of last year that he decided that the chief judge decided to open this courtroom, so I did not have an opportunity to put that in my budget for this year.

Right.

Okay, so I think that member Peterson is just saying we'd hope in the future that all the departments would have some foresight, maybe maybe you didn't, but we hope they would have some foresight about these types of changes, you know, when they're doing their budget, really kind of look ahead in the coming year.

Is there any possible change that we you know they need to be um aware of because it's hard for us to to keep finding money for everybody once the budget is done?

Yeah, okay.

Okay.

I'm gonna go to uh uh Mama Robas.

She got a hand up and handed up for thank you, Chair.

Um I you know, I supported it last time.

I will support it again this time.

I'm just a little, I just want to understand a little more understanding why F and A brought it back to us.

Can you clarify?

I didn't watch that um their meeting.

Okay, uh Tris, don't I explain?

I don't know why I come back to either.

I'll give my answer.

Uh Patrice Sutton, County Administrator.

Uh the direction that I felt like I heard at FA was that um we had focused in primarily on the public defender's office, but uh they the committee wanted some assurance that we had checked with all the judicial partners to ensure that um the you know the ramifications of this change were fully vetted.

So we did have a meeting with all of the judicial partners that are involved in court proceedings on February 9th, and um obviously the public defenders' needs remained the same.

Uh we met with the circuit clerk, the um court security, um, and they expressed that while they do have vacancies that they would like to fill, they're not related to this particular issue, and therefore they don't need any more staffing.

However, the state's attorney's office will explain a need shortly on the agenda um that they believe that they need as a result of this change.

So we did our due diligence with all of the partners and um are bringing forward one other proposed change from the departments, and um that was the results of the work that the FNA committee asked us to do.

Okay, thank you.

That's clear now.

Okay, Chia.

Thank you very much.

I um really appreciate uh Patrice's explanation, and I I guess I just want to clarify there was not a grant that the courts received.

Um the chief judge made a decision to uh do things differently after the budget was complete, and to me, as as member Peterson had said, that's really my hang up, right?

Like, and I think the chief judge had said, well, you know, it's really difficult for us to work within the budget time frame.

Everybody else works within the budget time frame.

So um that's really the issue that I have.

Of course, if the court structure changes, the public defender is going to need more people.

I just am saying to everybody in this room, whomever is listening.

My colleagues on the county board, it's pretty difficult to adhere to a budget when we have these things that occur after the budget has been approved.

We don't have money kind of squirreled away for things, right?

So um, that's really been the point.

And again, to uh member Peterson's point on 8.7 because finance kicked it back.

Patrice and her team had to have meetings again with departments again, as they would normally do during the budget cycle to say, okay, what will this change do to your budget?

And so you'll see on 8.7, there is a request for more money for the state's attorney's office.

So, and I think Patrice said there's some vacancies, maybe that was in the clerk of the circuit court.

I'm I'm not sure, but it is highly likely that in November of 2026, we will see more budget, more money requested as a result of this change.

I'm just asking that our partners um, you know, be mindful that we have to work within a budget.

So that's me.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you.

Oh, you know, I'm hearing everybody with this hundred and thirty-five thousand dollars.

This is not the first time I've been here 25 years, and we have found money, money that we gave that wasn't they weren't in the budget.

Uh uh, this is to me, this is not a big deal if this department needs help.

I'm in the courtrooms with these unfortunate people that can't pay a real lawyer that represents them and the public defender point somebody to keep down over there.

You know, I believe in helping people what where the help needed it.

That's me.

I'm not speaking for the other.

I don't heard the other commissioners, but this ain't the first time, and I don't think it'll be the last time that it didn't get in the budget.

So uh um actually this committee, let's not make a big deal out of it.

Let's do what we're supposed to do because like she has we got another one coming up in the in the and in uh uh state's attorney's office.

If we see the help there, it ain't like that.

We broke, it ain't like that.

Um we we uh uh I know this many of the commission said they're not against the nice thing to hear that they're not, but they was wondering why it wasn't in the budget.

If it wasn't in the we know the public defender was down, it ain't like that the commission didn't know that they down over there.

They've been down for joy left it.

We go went through the same thing when Joy was there that she asked and for funds because they come and go.

They come and get the to me.

I'm thinking me out the box, they get their resume and they go somewhere else while they're getting paid more.

So this is our county.

We have to take care of our county.

We have to make sure that our people be served right.

Oh, and I appreciate Greg for doing this, and I'm full supporter of it.

Okay, as uh Anna Moore.

I'm carrying the motion.

All in favor, do I need a roll call?

Uh no, I don't need a roll code.

All in favor, I have it non-opposed, none opposed motion approved.

Thank you, committee.

Thank you.

Okay, I need a motion for consent agenda.

8.18.6.

Motion by memo.

Second by memo canise.

Okay.

All in favor.

I think okay.

Okay.

We're going to the regular agenda.

Uh state's attorney's office.

And this is a joint resolution, not the right and addition.

Sing your victim special for the state attorney over to staff a nearly consolidated domestic violent courtroom and estimate calls approximately $64,000 for the remaining official year 2026.

And in a motion.

Motion by Memo Temperator, second by memories.

Okay, you um States Attorney.

Good morning.

Good morning, Chair.

How are you?

Good morning, Chair Hart.

Good morning, Administrator Sutton and the members of the board.

We're here today to make a request that the state's attorney's office receive an additional headcount for one victim specialist, similar to public defender tick sci.

We learned in November of 2025 of the court's plans with respect to adding a new domestic violence courtroom.

We are generally supportive of that approach as it centralizes uh centralizes these complex but important cases and allows all of the justice partners uh to specialize in the reaction to the problem of domestic violence in our county and in our state.

Uh so we are generally supportive of the court's approach.

Um it is from a separation of powers perspective, as you have heard Judge Shaynes refer to, it is fully the decisions of the court in terms of how to manage its dock and its caseload.

Our request is similar to the public defenders in that it requires an additional victim specialist because of the current way in which we assign victim specialists, obviously, to both individual victims and to individual courtrooms.

And so the addition of a essentially a sixth felony courtroom.

I'm kind of keeping out felony uh DUIs, you could say seventh, but with respect to a sixth felony courtroom in which domestic violence cases could be assigned.

Now it would be or felonies, actually.

In that way, the creation of this sixth courtroom requires us to need a new victim specialist to assign to that room.

We are currently at capacity with about 188 victims per victim specialists, and so that number actually will slightly decrease by spreading that out, but we are not able to send our current victim specialists who are assigned to those five courtrooms into a sixth courtroom without um that that's not gonna work.

They need to be assigned on this courtroom level, and so we need a we need an additional victim specialist to be assigned to this new courtroom.

I look forward to your questions.

We are in the exact same position as the public defender.

It is the same build in which he needs a new assistant public defender not to be running around between courtrooms, but to be in this new courtroom.

Any question on this?

Thank you.

Well, maybe it is a question.

Um I appreciate you coming back.

I appreciate finance kicking it back so we can have this more robust conversation with all of the different partners.

Um, I did have, I guess, a general, so we have these victim specialists, and I know they do a great job.

Can you help me understand?

Is this um, and I'm not saying we don't need victim specialists, but help us understand what of the victim specialists do.

Is there like state law and victim specialists that do X and our victim specialists do X plus Y?

Yeah.

What does that look like?

Um, so under the victim's Bill of Rights, uh, there's a very important set of, there's a very important set of Illinois constitutional requirements.

Um, and we happily take those on.

I don't like it when stakeholders say, well, we gotta follow this law.

Um, or they call it an unfunded mandate.

Um we happily, of course, morally uh take on this heavy responsibility to apprise victims of what is going on in these cases.

And so that victim's bill of rights uh is important to us, it's sacred to us, and Chair Hart, it requires us to notify the victim in every case uh of all um substantive things that are happening to get their opinions before we uh tender an offer, for example, uh to an offender.

And Chair Hart, it requires us to notify the victim in every case of all substantive things that are happening to get their opinions before we uh tender an offer, for example, uh to an offender.

Uh, we are required uh to um consult with them.

We would do it if it wasn't required by the victim's bill of rights.

Uh our victim specialists uh were honored last year in 2025 with a statewide award uh for the from Marcy's Law for the amazing work that we do.

Uh, we've been recognized by a safe place repeatedly for this work, and we're doing a great job with it.

But to answer your question directly, there is a law that requires us to meaningfully consult with all victims of violent crime, including domestic violence.

These are long, difficult conversations, particularly those who are stuck in the cycles uh of intimate partner violence.

And so not only do we have to fully explain this, but we have to make uh what we call a warm handoff uh between people who've been victimizing a crime with our social service providers, we have to assist them when we do trials.

Uh one of the issues in this courtroom is going to be that there are a lot of trials in this courtroom because you're kind of moving every you're kind of moving the most litigious part of our criminal justice system into one courtroom.

Um that's something that we're gonna have to deal with as we go forward in terms of how many trials are going to be in this courtroom.

So this would probably be a problem if we were doing it in all burglaries, if we had a burglary call.

Uh, but it's particularly a problem uh with a in terms of needing additional support in a domestic violence case.

Um, so I'd say it's statutorily and constitutionally required that there is a certain level of uh consultation in these difficult cases.

Perfect.

Thank you.

And if I may, just one follow-up question.

I I might be wrong, but I thought I had heard in previous discussions hey, this is a best practice.

So if anybody has a document that shows these are the best, you know, this is a best practice.

And maybe that document might include other best practices for how courts are organized, if you will.

Certainly it is the chief judge's prerogative uh to organize it, you know, and and it's our prerogative to manage the budget.

But if anybody has any sort of document on not just this best practice, although I'm interested in that, but the other best practices, that'd be great.

Yeah, we want to want to be very clear about that.

Uh, our office from our perspective, and first assistant Callahan can talk more about this if anyone else has a question, or if I don't answer the question well, um, which is possible.

Um, that uh we see this as a step forward, as a centralization and specialization as a step forward.

The goal of this office, and I'm not speaking for the courts.

The goal of this office is to eventually have a fully integrated domestic violence uh courtroom.

This is a centralized domestic violence courtroom, is a specialized domestic violence courtroom, but to eventually have an integrated domestic violence specialty court, which is dealing with all of the problems that we may see in juvenile abuse and neglect, family court.

Uh, this is the model in is it New York?

Yeah, in New York, they have been very successful about this.

I always love to add this, by the way.

I think New York is probably doing better with crime than Illinois.

Um Winnebago County, Winnebaga County has some form of this.

So I'm not speaking for the courts.

I'm talking for this office.

For this office, we would like to see an even more integrated approach than what we have.

So some of the good news with this, I'm aware of the board's concerns with some of this in terms of costing.

Some of the good news is that this seems to be a half step towards what the state's attorney's office believes is an even more integrated approach than even what this would be.

I'm trying to find a, I'm trying to find some lemonade.

Uh, I'm trying to find some lemonade from the from the budget lemons that this may be.

That's fine.

Yeah.

Thank you.

And I would get you material on on all of that, Chair.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay.

Uh Chair Rob.

Thank you.

Um the question I have will this help move cases along faster since they'll all be centralized in one in one courtroom.

I think the answer would be yes, but I don't know if I'm correct.

But I think that that might help get every, you know, especially these are such um sensitive cases.

And you maybe you're going to get people in and out of that system quicker.

One of the the number one concern I hear about the justice system, at least from our perspective, is not whether our VS's victim specialists are doing an amazing job.

They truly are.

The number one concern I hear uh from those who've been most impacted by crime, that is the victims who I who I'm here to speak for, is that cases take too long.

And so I love uh uh Vice Chair Roberts' question, because I think that that we'd never want to rush through justice, particularly from any of the justice partners' perspectives, whether it's the courts or the um the public defender's office or our office.

But having said that, we are not having a full conversation about our justice system unless we talk about the delays slowing down justice, slowing down rehabilitation, slowing down punishment, slowing down accountability.

And so it is our hope, uh Vice Chair Roberts, that this will improve not only uh case disposition time in these courts, though I do think there will be a lot of trials in this courtroom, but it may help disposition time in other courtrooms.

I am happy to say that we should increase disposition time on cases that don't have victims.

We should increase all disposition time, but we could focus on cases that don't have victims uh because they should move faster because there is less consultation.

I don't have to consult with a brick of cocaine.

If somebody is possessing cocaine, that case should move faster than a complicated domestic violence case.

There's nobody to call about the cocaine.

There has to be accountability, and then we have to deal with cocaine cases, and we deal with a lot of them, but it is a less complex situation, and so it is our hope that all of this will increase case disposition time.

I'm happy to talk offline with any member of the committee about a variety of projects that I think would increase case disposition time.

Okay.

Now this thing is uh victim special.

Is it coming out of your offer that you got the high?

Thank you.

Um we would have to hire a new position, Chair.

That's a really great question that I should have addressed.

Thank you for asking.

We will have to hire a new position.

We need this uh committee's approval to create a new head count.

We will do we cannot make any promises, but we will do everything we can to integrate that into our costs.

Uh, we are not asking uh and uh administrator Sutton can maybe help me with this.

We're not asking for a financial, there's no financial ask today, merely the head count position, and we hope that it will fit into other savings we have within the office.

By the way, uh member Peterson's question is still correct about the long-term budgeting, and I I'm not uh I'm not dismissing that because I understand the lemons as I called it to Chair Hart a moment ago.

I'm only commenting that for this year, our hope is that it's that it's um integrated into the cost, but obviously the long-term costs of a project like this always have to be addressed.

Okay, animal good question.

Okay, and we'll carry it a motion.

All in favor, aye.

Aye, no, as having no opposition.

Thank you, space attorney.

Okay, eight point eight is the 19 judicial circuit court, and this is a joint resolution accepting a funding agreement for the Supreme Court of Illinois, court technology, modernized and approving an emergency appropriation in amount of $50,000.

And I need a motion, motion by memo Altonbury's second by Mamma Panese.

Okay.

All right, Joan.

Good morning, Carl Waller from the executive director of the 19th.

Uh, good morning, Lisa Wolfe, Director of Finance for the 19th.

Um, we're here today with our funding agreement for our tech modernization program.

Um, this year the award is 50,000.

With that, we will be using those funds to replace the paging system in kids' corner, as well as upgrading some of the um equipment that our pretrial services use.

Um, right now, if you've walked by pretrial, you'll notice clipboards and pencils and paper out front of the door.

This will enable these um the staff to use surface tablets.

Excuse me.

Um we are also looking at replacing some of our older computers in the educational program at the um juvenile detention facility.

And also the um the interpreting devices that we use in courtrooms to make sure that you know the the services that our our interpreters are providing are coming through crystal clear.

So be happy to answer any questions.

This is great.

We we we receive in money, we're not giving no one out.

So this is this is a big for this committee.

Two in a row we had to give out this time we receive, and that's I think this is great.

All in favor?

No.

I got thank you.

Thank you, Chair.

Um, so the Microsoft Surface Tablets for pretrial services, were those already on a replacement schedule?

No, this will be new equipment that we're gonna be um adding in.

You know, of our our wish list, and we're slowly taking items off of that list.

Okay.

All right, thank you.

Thank you, Chair.

Okay, thank you.

Any more questions?

All in favor.

An opposition I got.

Okay.

Sheriff Office.

Thank you.

Eight point nine.

And this is a joint resolution approving an intergovernment agreement.

For the contract's police service by mom, the board of control of the Lake County Tech Campus.

District number eight forty-nine tech camp campus.

Lake County and the Lake County Sheriff Office.

And estimate annual mount of a hundred and twenty-three thousand nine hundred and forty-nine dollars ninety-seven cents.

And I need a motion.

Motion by Kenisha.

Second battle.

Member Peterson.

Okay.

Good morning, Jim Chairman.

Uh, from the sheriff's office.

Uh on with me uh remotely.

I have Lieutenant Sarah Walmus Flores and Dr.

Sebastian Cap Capala.

Sorry.

Um, this is a renewal contract.

This is our fourth uh uh contract that we are um asking approval for with uh tech campus and we have uh obviously run this past the state attorney risk and several people in finance and again it's a renewal.

Question This is this is just a renewal, right?

Yes.

Yes.

Yeah, we've been doing this a long time.

No question.

All in favor?

I have it, none opposed.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay.

County administrator report.

No county administration part.

No executive session.

Member remarks.

Next meeting is March the third of first, 2026, and I declare this meeting of June.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.