Good morning, everybody.

Today is Tuesday, May 5th.

And I call this at 1030, and I call this Lake County Law and Judicial Committee to order.

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

This meeting is being recorded through Zoom.

Per the county board rules and open meetings act.

Attendance via remote means is permitted to qualified reasons as long as the majority of the committee members are present.

We have been notified in advance that Member Danforth has requested to participate electronically due to qualifying reasons, which is work.

As a reminder, the members attending remotely, please be ensure that your camera is on during all times.

All right.

Would you please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance?

I pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands with one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

Member Dan Forth.

Present.

Member Kniesnik.

Here.

Member Kyle.

Absence.

Member Peterson.

Vice Chair Roberts here.

And Chair Hart.

Thank you.

Is there an addenda to the agenda?

No addenda to the agenda.

Public comments.

There are none.

No public comment.

Chair remarks.

I have no remarks.

Unfinished business.

No unfinished business.

New business.

Let's I'm going on to I need a motion and a second for the consent agenda.

Items 81 through 8 and 88, excuse me.

Motion by Kanishnik, second by Peterson.

All in favor.

Aye.

Motion passes.

Excuse me.

Okay.

Item 8.9 is a report by public defender Greg Tixay.

Welcome.

Good morning, everybody.

Good morning.

Let's see if I mess this up.

All right.

So this is the annual report.

Um regard to current uh projects.

Pretty much status quo.

The public defender's office is dedicated to providing quality representation in criminal juvenile court proceedings and related matters as a fundamental right of the people without distinction based upon a person's ability to pay.

Regarding the priorities of the county, such as safe community and healthy and inclusive communities, our office is guided by the highest professional standards and a commitment to justice.

We protect the dignity of our clients, strengthen public trust, and help build safer, more equitable communities.

By reducing recidivism through behavioral health support, addressing health inequities, and helping clients secure stable housing and treatment.

Superior County operations and services.

The public defender's office strives for excellence in every aspect of our work.

We're improving continuously, innovating thoughtfully and responding effectively.

And treating every client with the dignity and compassion.

Aligning workloads with the national caseload standards will enhance client outcomes, shorten time to disposition and bolster recruitment and retention amid a statewide shortage of public defenders.

And it will position the office to meet the rising appointment demands created by the pretrial fairness act.

Our fiscal year 2026 new program request was the addition of a Spanish-speaking forensic social worker.

This MPR has been implemented through the hiring of a licensed clinical social worker who started on February 2nd of 2026.

Over the first few months, the new hire has been trained alongside an experienced coworker, and the workload is being redistributed so as to alleviate the demands upon the other social workers and make the caseloads more manageable.

Once fully integrated, this additional forensic social worker will reduce the caseloads of the other social workers by one-third and reduce the demand upon other personnel for interpreter services and assistance.

The addition of the forensic social worker advances several strategic priorities.

With that, I'm happy to entertain any questions you may have.

Any questions?

Oh, I'm sorry, Chair.

Did you have your hand?

Thank you.

Um first, thank you for this presentation.

And as always, I'm super grateful for the work that the public defender's office does.

I recall that there was a bill that is now law that will change some of the authorities for the public defender.

Um, because right now the public defender essentially works for or whatever enters to the judiciary.

And was there a change to that?

Yes, the FAIR Act, uh, also known as the Statewide Public Defender Act, has changed the appointment process.

So starting in January 2027, the appointment of my successor will be uh through a committee that has yet to be formed.

Um starting in I'd say, I think in a month, they're going to form the committee to select the statewide public defender, and then they will build a committee from there to create uh selection committees when an opening does become available.

But it does shift the appointment process from the courts to the statewide public defender system.

Thank you.

If I may just follow up, so when you say your successor, so it is only kicks in when there is a change in the position or is an automatic start date.

Oh, so uh I mean, just if I understand your question, starting January 2027, the removal of the public defender can only be through the statewide public defender system.

It is not is no longer under the courts.

So right now I serve under uh the court system at their pleasure, as it's described.

Um, I mean, arguably, if I don't make it to January one, uh they could terminate me before then.

Um, and they would have one more shot at replacing me.

But after that, starting in January 2027, um, we are out from underneath the court system with regard to appointment and dismissal.

Got it.

Thank you.

And I just really want to comment.

I I think that this, and this is nothing against any of the uh fine judges that work across the state of Illinois.

It's just to recognize that the state of Illinois is one of, I think it was like seven, maybe eight states in the United States in which the public defender uh essentially worked for the judge, which you can imagine that would be quite odd, right?

If the state's attorney worked for the judge and the public defender like that makes no sense.

So I think this was a really important uh change.

And I think the uh Department of Justice and I think the National Public Defenders Association had that on essentially their top tenants of having that separation from over sight from the judiciary.

So it is not a complaint about the judiciary.

Just want to be really clear about that.

It's just a uh a fair um justice change.

So um, so thank you for that, and thank you for the great work you guys do.

And um, now we'll have those separate domestic violence courtrooms, and you needed additional staff for that.

And uh, I'm glad we were able to do that.

Yes, I appreciate this board support.

I think it've always helped out.

Thank you.

And Chair, I wanted to say that was an issue at NACO as well.

Oh great.

Yeah.

Chair.

I mean, come.

Thank you, Chair.

Um really appreciate the update on the position that was added.

Uh, you know, I think it's really helpful for us to understand.

Hey, this is what we did with that request that was funded, and here's the impact uh that this person is having uh on the people that they work with and their caseload, et cetera.

So it was really helpful.

There's one bullet point you had on there.

I'm wondering if you could obviously not any names, but give an example of I think it said reduced recidivism through strict, you know, behavioral health interventions.

Could you maybe just describe what an example of that would look like so we understand a little better?

Sure.

Again, I can't get into the specifics, but on any given day, we will have a former client or you know, current client come in, you know, with in distress, so to speak.

Um, oftentimes it's housing issues, employment issues, or mental health issues.

And by interacting with our social workers, we're able to get them that immediate assistance.

Oftentimes they're not on probation at that point in time.

They're maybe on pretrial.

And so they're not getting those uh one-on-one services unless we provide them.

Um, and so I mean, quite frankly, earlier this week, um, you know, this is only Tuesday.

We had someone in yesterday that were able to quickly intervene and get them the services they need, um, get them off the street, um, get them housing at times or at least a place to stay overnight that we believe impacts them in a positive way to keep them from recidivating.

Um, you know, the numbers have borne out that the social workers um it embedded within public defenders' offices reduces recidivism.

And we now have three of them.

Um, it was a big boon for us to be able to find a Spanish-speaking uh social worker.

Uh we borrowed her permanently from this uh the health department.

Uh appreciate uh her connections with the health department and her knowledge there.

And so she brings those connections uh with those resources, and we're able to interact with our client and get them those resources right away rather than um leave them to the you know to the harsh world that is causing them to make bad choices.

Thank you.

Thank you for the update.

It was very um informative, and I just want to say thank you to you and your staff.

I know you all work tires tirelessly in defending the people of our county that really need to have um a defense attorney when they can't afford one privately.

So thank you to you and your staff.

I appreciate it.

The credit goes to the staff.

They work very hard on any given day.

You drive by our office, you're gonna see cars in that lot late into the evening.

It's uh it's a lot of work.

Um, but they are dedicated professionals, and I appreciate having them.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um, item 8.10 is um chief deputy administrative services, CAO, Joe Greb Grivetter joint resolution authorizing and accepted.

I should wait till you sit down.

I'm sorry.

This is a joint resolution authorizing the acceptance and exception of an Illinois criminal justice information authority, uh, deferred prosecution grant assisting the Lake County State's attorney's office with the enhancing.

Excuse me, I need my glasses with enhancing the deferred prosecution program and approving emergency appropriation of 72,738 dollars in grant funds.

I need a motion and a second.

Motion by conditionist, second by heart.

Good morning.

I'm uh Joe Grabitter, Chief Deputy of uh Admin for the state's attorney's office.

And with me today is uh state's attorney Reinhardt to answer some program specific questions and discuss the deferred prosecution program a little bit with you.

Um so this grant expires June 30th.

Um, and um as stated was received for the purposes of enhancing our deferred prosecution program.

It currently is funding both a uh the salary and benefits for a diversion coordinator as well as a deflection coordinator, and um along with some training and some outreach supplies, things of that nature.

Thank you.

This is a great program.

Good morning, Chair Roberts.

How are you?

Chair Hart, friends on the board.

Um, I haven't spoken to this this group or really uh any, I think part of the board in a formal way about diversion in some time, and it seemed like a good day to do it.

Um this grant, as you know, only funds us until July 1.

So I'll focus on what's really going on here.

Um there will be it is already built in that there will be a request on a part of us, is it two or three years, Joe?

The next the next part of the ICG grant.

Is it two to three years?

You remember?

I believe it's two.

I think it's two.

Yes.

Um, this same grant has the ability to be extended by two years.

And so it is the same granting authority.

Uh, as you all know, ICEGIA happens to be really the preeminent organization in Illinois that deals with deals with uh granting uh granting uh funds and obviously keeping a track of of uh criminal data as best it can.

Um, if uh you don't recall uh the importance of diversion and deflection, uh, those are both separate ideas to to the office.

Um, let me remind you, um, it is incredibly important.

Um, it is the policy of the office to think intentionally about every single disposition.

Um, each state's attorney is encouraged to use their discretion in how they think about this.

But at the end of the day, our goal is long-term safety, rehabilitation, and addressing the root causes of crime.

Convictions and financial costs disproportionately impact underserved communities, but we can achieve accountability and rehabilitation through a diversion and deflection program.

Uh, specifically when it comes to how the board interacts with this, aside from caring about safety, which I know each and every member does, we believe that this will have a great impact on docket pressure.

Uh by engaging in diversion and deflection, we can decrease our docket pressure and hopefully decrease uh our resources that we are spending on court time as opposed to helping people.

I believe that a fulsome diversion and deflection program helps victims in violent cases.

I believe that a full diversion and deflection program allows prosecutors, judges, and public defenders to focus on the bigger cases.

Diversion and deflection is straightforward.

It gives rehabilitation to individuals up front.

If we wait for probation to be the main arbiter of diversion of rehabilitation, then you are waiting for the average disposition time on every single case.

Chair Robert, I'm not going to really ask you to do this.

If Chair Roberts gives me a case right now, let's say it's 10 months.

Let's say it's 10 months on a theft.

We don't start rehabilitation for 10 months.

Now let's pretend it's a 19-year-old.

Who has a 19-year-old?

I don't yet, but they think they're 19.

Um, I think 19-year-olds should be a rehabilitated, not 10 months later, but as soon as we can.

That is one of the goals of diversion and deflection is to front load the rehabilitation without waiting on court disposition time.

That's just one of the many advantages.

And so this program is only going to be this, you know, we have been funding diversion deflection for as long as I've been state's attorney, and the prior state's attorney had a smaller diversion program that I'm really proud that we have grown.

Um, with two staff members now, we've never had that before.

With two staff members, we have a diversion coordinator, we have a deflection coordinator that's never been in the state's attorney's office before.

And I want to give credit to the MacArthur Safety and Justice Challenge because that's how we funded them before this grant.

This grant is essentially taking over that funding, uh, and we'll go even longer than the MacArthur grant.

Because of this grant, we will be able to help people faster.

We will decrease docket size, and we will help victims better.

We have amazing victim specialists.

We have amazing victim contact.

The number one complaint I hear in this court system is that cases take too long.

And that is on the state's attorney's office to do everything we can to come up with programs that end that complaint that all cases take too long.

Diversion and deflection decreases docket pressure, it incentivizes defendants to enter into the rehabilitation.

When they complete the rehabilitation, we drop the case.

Notice I never said the word guilty plea.

I never said the word judge.

When the rehabilitation is done, according to the prosecutor's office, the case is over, and I will end with this.

We are 10 years behind King County.

I've been working really hard on this for five years, and we're 10 behind Kane.

You don't want to know how many years we are behind some other counties outside of the state of Illinois.

Kane County has implemented a successful diversion and deflection program through both parties, through all types of prosecutors, through all types of judges, through all types of chief judges.

We are 10 years behind Kane County.

I don't have a time machine.

I can never catch up, even though I think we've been doing good over the last five years.

We're still 10 years behind King County.

So what I would ask is that the court can is the court that the board consider this resolution.

And I'd like to present again on this resolution with more numbers about what we've been able to do in the last couple of years.

And I may even ask this committee to maybe even consider a sense of the committee or a um some sort of resolution that supports uh diversion and deflection in this county because it is so important.

Finally, as of today, we have over 60 individuals in felony diversion programs.

Uh in prior years, it's been in the 20s and 30s.

Um it has been as low as in the 10s.

But because of these staffers, we have over 60 individuals just in felony diversion uh who are getting the upfront treatment.

These are all nonviolent cases, these are drug cases, these are theft cases, and uh the program is going uh the program is going really, really well.

And we've worked really hard to make sure that those individuals also reflect the racial makeup of the people who are charged.

Some years in the past, before I was state's attorney, there were no African American defendants in the diversion program.

Today, 32% of our participants in felony diversion are African American, which roughly matches the percentage of people charged with a felony in Lake County.

I look forward to your questions.

This is such this is important work, and I'm really proud that you're doing this and you answered my question because I wanted to know how many have been going through this.

And do you have um statistics on how successful this is?

Thank you.

Thank you, uh, Chair.

Um the 60 participants, so those 60 participants entered in the year 2025.

It can be a little hard because you could enter in December of 2024 or December of 2025.

What year should we count you in?

The prior years.

Uh, so the prior years are counted by entry year.

We just got to pick, you know, we got to pick a uh some way to do it.

So sit over 60 people have entered felony diversion in 2025.

90% of those individuals are successful.

That's great.

90% of those people are successful.

And some people are unsuccessful if they violate a condition of release.

Uh, I don't have the percentage, but I will by the next time I come back on this topic about how many of those have a new charge.

Um, but I think I think most of those are probably some condition.

For example, you're not allowed, uh, you you can't you can't use drugs, let's say.

So you might get moved out of the diversion program, but you get moved into the you get moved back into the regular, you know, into the regular court track.

So um, yeah, that's uh we're looking at 90% success rate on those 60.

And obviously, um, obviously uh we think that we've put together a program that will uh we have amazing, amazing staff, and we think we put together a program that will continue to see those types of successes.

Thank you.

Yep.

Umber Kenizhnik and then Chair Howard.

Thank you.

Um I I have several questions.

First, I just want to say um, you know, this is really compelling evidence.

I mean, 90% is kind of mind-blowing.

Uh, it's wonderful to hear.

I just would like to make a comment to the rest of the committee.

Um, state's attorney Reinhardt mentioned that he would like to come back and present again on this on this uh topic.

And I, for one, would love to uh see that happen.

Uh and as far as my questions go, I'm gonna start with my questions about Kane County.

Yes.

Um, can you please explain?

Um, you said that uh we're 10 years behind Kane County in this type of initiative.

Can you explain what in what sense are we behind?

Is that mean they have more people participating in the program?

Uh and then the second part of my question regarding Kane County is what do you think accounts for the fact that we're so far behind?

Kane County and all their counties around the country.

So when I say that we're 10 years behind, this number comes from the fact that they have been running what they would report.

And these are, you know, their reported numbers, but I've looked at their uh their uh annual reports.

Uh their state's attorney does a good job with annual reports.

Um I sort of come in here more often and give you power points.

I'd love to move into their to the resources of doing an annual report.

I'm still working on that.

Uh, I'm always available to you.

Um, the state's attorney's annual reports will take them anywhere from 20 to 25% of their felonies being diverted.

Um, and so when I say we're 10 years behind, um uh our program, you know, our program did start under the prior state's attorney, but there were years where they had eight people in the program, eight felon uh people in the program, frankly, as I said, some years where they had no individuals of color in the program.

And so um their program has moved into the 20s and 30s already.

So I I say we're 10 years behind because I think it will take us another five years, you know, it may take us another may take us a while to get into those types of percentages.

Um, they probably both started in 2015, but for reasons I don't fully understand.

Uh, Kane County has ramped up its diversion and deflection much faster.

I would encourage any of you to reach out to judges you know in Kane County, uh board board chairs that you know in Kane County.

This has been a relatively uh easy process for Kane County.

And that's okay.

I'll answer your next question if somebody's going to ask me.

Has has crime skyrocketed in Kane County because they are 10 years ahead of us on diversion?

Of course not.

Of course not.

Kane County hasn't seen an increase in crime because they have a massive diversion program.

I think they have a better disposition rate of felony cases because of it.

And so uh the uh the Kane County comp is important.

It's about the same size as us.

It's a very similar demographic as everybody knows.

I'm sure you all look at Kane uh quite a bit.

Is there funding that I'm sorry, can I exercise like that?

I think the funding and that's a great question.

I think I think that's a great question.

I think the funding in Cain is just main SAO funding, taxpayer SAO funding.

I'm not positive of that.

They they definitely applied for this grant too with ICG, and I think they got some money also.

So I'm sure they've been looking at, I'm sure they've been looking at ICGA funding throughout the years.

I don't think they were a MacArthur recipient.

We were, we became a MacArthur recipient on this in 2024 to fund our 2025 work, our ICGA work will go forward uh, you know, if we continue to get the fund the support from uh ICJ.

Thank you.

I'm sorry, Member Kenishneck, did you?

That's okay.

Yeah, uh, I wanted um to just check.

Uh, is this an accurate summary?

Would you say of the comments that you just made?

Uh, in Kane County, it sounds to me, I'm inferring from what you said, that there's just a lot of buy-in across many different departments within the county um supporting this type of program.

Yes.

Great.

Uh, and then my next question is are there things in addition to facilit facilitating the funding stream, of course, that uh this committee and the board could do to uh support the efforts to sort of bring us up to the same level of effectiveness as Kane County.

I think hold me accountable on the data.

We only have one data coordinator.

She works as hard as she can uh in a lot of areas.

And so I think uh pushing me on the holding me accountable on the data.

It's okay, you know, friend friends and family hold each other accountable.

Uh, you know, it's like having a personal trainer.

Uh, you know, hey, Eric, why isn't that dashboard updated?

Um, so hold me accountable on the data.

The funding is primarily for the two program officers that I've mentioned.

Uh, our MacArthur grant does fund our data coordinator for a while.

Um, and so yeah, I think the support we need is um this, you know, this type of uh platform to discuss this and and potentially uh potentially increase conversations with all stakeholders about efficiencies and uh ways to uh clear up the court docket because the court docket isn't only a problem for the nonviolent cases.

I might argue it's not a problem for the nonviolent cases because those folks aren't in custody anyway.

Um it backloads rehabilitation, which is unsafe for the community.

But the problem, the problem is that the more court dates we have on a retail theft, the less resource, and by the way, we still prosecute retail thefts just because I want it to go fast doesn't mean I don't want to prosecute it.

Um but the more court dates we take on a retail theft or a driving on revoked, uh, we just have to be practical that we have less court time, less prosecutor time uh for uh the trauma-informed approach that we should bring to every domestic violence case that we should bring to every sex case, that we should bring to every shooting case.

And so we aren't being realistic if we say that we can we can spend the same amount of time on all cases.

We should spend the most time on violent cases, sex cases, and domestic violence.

Okay, thank you.

Um can I you also mentioned in your original remarks that um you would be interested in a resolution supporting this.

Uh, can you talk a little bit more about that and what a resolution like that would look like and how you know I don't want to, I don't, you know, I would make suggestions to to other branches of government, but far be it from me to you know to impinge.

But if if the if at some point the L and J committee or the the board committee indicated that it's its sense of it was that this made sense, that this was supported by the data, then I think we would assist in our conversations with all stakeholders about what the desire of the the sort of non-binding desire of the board is.

Look, you don't have to take my data for it.

Go research diversion in any county that's using it anywhere in the country.

This isn't um something I came up with.

I stand on the shoulders of other people who've been working on this in Kane and in other places.

And so this is this isn't the future.

This was the past for Kane County.

This is the present in Lake County, but it is obviously the evidence-based way to go forward to help people and to clear up our dockets.

Please research it in in other areas.

I I would love for there to be a research organization that wasn't, oh, well, State's attorney Reinhardt is advocating again for more funding.

Go look it up somewhere else, whether it's the University of Chicago, whether it's Johns Hopkins, whatever it is, this is a this is an approach that works and that helps people.

Thank you.

My last question, I understand that deflection and diversion is a really important part of the gun violence prevention initiative model.

And I ask that you please kind of explain how that all fits together in order to serve the larger goal of preventing violence before it occurs.

Yeah, the diversion and deflection work is considered to be part of our gun violence prevention initiative in the sense that we want to make sure that people from all backgrounds and all communities have this opportunity at restorative justice.

As you may have indicated earlier, there have been past years before I was state's attorney in which it was not being spread around in a in an equitable way.

And so that only perpetuates that only perpetuates uh cycles of uh cycles of racism cycles of under uh serving those populations and then it just cycles on itself so if we can make sure that we are giving people restorative justice and giving people rehabilitation in in a in a thoughtful way that is equitable and fair uh then I think we decrease violence and crime and really turbulence in in all communities.

Thank you.

Well thank you very much I'm incredibly proud of this program.

I will do everything I can to support it like to see this committee do as much as possible to support it.

I tend to get very competitive when people tell me Lake County is not quite as good as some other county on anything so you know sign me up for that fight.

I'd really like to bring this work up to the level that we're seeing in King County and in other counties.

And then my last comment and I'll end here is I don't think we can repeat often enough that 32% of the participants in Lake County's deflection and diversion programs are African American and that mirrors their representation and involvement in the criminal justice system.

Congratulations should be very proud thank you thank you I I just want to say great job I recall before becoming chair I served on law and judicial and took a special interest in the folks who are in our jail the deferred excuse me the um not the deferred prosecution but the diversion program and how important that was and and here we are fast forward 10 years later.

So I really appreciate um the work on this you had talked about and I we we discussed it actually during our budget policies excuse me our budget hearings uh in whenever that was October uh when the chief judge was here and we talked about hey a great measure I think uh member Volitsik brought it up a great measure would be how many cases how long does it take for a case to close right but we don't have that information we have information about oh here's how many new filings there are but that's not really a relevant measure I would say so um I know you have your own uh person who does some of this data I'm just interested if there's something cases that the state's attorney is involved in could we get some sort of information on hey how long does it take in general for cases like this to close so that's just a little bit aside from this you know because I think that's important like that is a legitimate data point that other counties are pursuing Cook County and Kane County are pursuing those so we we we will do that if you again hold me accountable remind me and Chair Roberts at Chair Hart uh remind me that you know Cammy is amazing um if she's working on a lot of projects she has completed she has completed this formula that's the only thing I can call it is a formula uh and this is not this is not a criticism this is probably a criticism of the um maybe the the Supreme Court coding rules um this is not a criticism of of the current docketing system it doesn't have anything to do with anything local it is very hard to count how long a case takes I know that's really probably surprising to hear but cases cases can end in a lot of ways and so you have to decide warrant versus the start of probation versus the dropping of count two but count one kept going um because we count so much on the count basis as opposed to the case basis I know that's really complicated but we do have we do have answers for these we can give you answers as best we can there may be disagreements from how uh AOIC would would count it but we're gonna give you our best we're gonna give you our best estimate um as terms of how long these count and by the way if AOIC has their numbers and they want to send us the lake county numbers that's fantastic too even if we were just looking at that I would feel like we made a step forward made a step forward in data.

So I I think, and I will tell you this.

The goal is that the diversion programs are shorter than your average case time.

So if you're so I think roughly a drug case, a low level drug case takes about nine and a half months.

I would like to see that case diverted in six.

I mean, open and closed in six.

So we can look at what our we can look at what our disposition times are and then go lower than that in our diversion programs without hurting anyone because all we've done is take Docket time off.

We front loaded rehabilitation.

Um, and so that's the type of metric I'm just giving you one example.

That's the type of metric that I think we should have all over the place.

And then we're not gonna we're not gonna do it on violent cases.

I mean, I'll still get you the counts, but but we're not gonna compare diversion to our murder length of time, right?

Totally but you should have all that, Chair.

You should have how long the murders take, right?

I just think, and I and I would just offer up and then I'll move on as however Kane County is doing it with to uh member Knisnik's point.

So we have a comparison.

They're already doing it.

Let's just do it that way.

And then if somebody higher up AIOC or whatever you call them, decides it should be done differently than we do that.

And then my follow-up, did you say we're losing the McCarth?

Did I should I infer that we are losing the McArthur grant?

Because I thought you said something about this takes the place of.

Yeah, so the MacArthur grant is a full ramp down.

They've been going for 10 years now.

I think they started in 2017.

It was always a 10 year project.

Got it.

We're not losing our money.

I uh we're not losing the money, but not what I meant.

Yeah, is it is the MacArthur grant coming to an end?

It sounds like the answer is yes.

Okay, great.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, member.

Frank.

Thank you, Chair.

Uh Reinhart.

Um related but not related to this.

Prime in the county is down.

Yes.

Prime in the county is down.

Yes.

Okay, those are great things.

Congratulations on the interventions that your office has led on that contribute to those things.

Thank you.

I know it's not just the whole picture, but it's part of the picture.

Um but thinking about this item in terms of cost to the county.

If there was no grant, we were gonna fund a full for a full year.

I'm you know, estimating it's like 280 something thousand dollars, right?

Well, yeah, that's about is that about right?

For two for two, yeah.

That's correct.

But isn't there also an accompanying operational savings, right?

I know you talked about caseload and mitigating and getting, you know, uh getting people uh dealt with in a more timely manner is a better disposition of justice.

But also in terms of operating costs, if you're diverting some cases, you're not prosecuting all of them.

There's there's some operational savings in that.

Do you have a metric for that?

Is there any way to see that?

No, I think that's I think I think that's a great question.

I think that that's something we would come back with when we hopefully ask for the two-year extension, and I would have had one full year of MacArthur funding and and this funding to give you the the sort of metrics.

We'll work on that.

I mean, there are cost of gun violence studies, right?

That that are going on in our G VPI to understand how much a single uh murder uh or shooting costs.

And so we can work on we can work on that metric, but I will only push back on you in this way, Chair Frank.

My goal is to make sure that we are giving the best service we can to the people of Lake County.

And so if we get more time, whether it's in court or in our office to have a more trauma-informed approach for a victim who we should be working with as opposed to a driving on revoke case, um, which is also important.

It's just we have to think about how much court time to spend on it.

Um we want to make sure that we're giving the best service that we can.

So there are, I think, savings here and there, whether it leads to a full head count, whether it leads to the closing of a uh wing in the jail.

I'm just using an example.

I think that's really hard stuff to figure out whether it leads to a any other operational change.

I just it's always hard to figure out, right?

It's the where's uh where's a Dr.

Clark when we need her?

It's the the sunk cost problem, right?

Is that when you make a savings, if you reduce something by 10%, that doesn't necessarily mean you know what I mean?

It doesn't mean you reduce your head count automatically.

Okay, appreciate that.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you.

Um I think your 90% successful rate speaks volume, and that this is successful.

And I know we're we're all competitive.

We all want to be the first, you know, Lake County is a leader.

So I'm I'm sure if um Chair Cunningham was here, she'd be saying we're on this 150%.

So um we support you.

Thank you.

Well, we'll support you with our vote.

All in favor.

Aye.

None opposed.

Motion to get these.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Item 8.11 is an executive um executive direct director, 19th judicial court, Kurt Waldorf.

Thank you.

This is a joint resolution increasing the head count for the 19th judicial court and authorizing four new juvenile detention officers positions in the Colc detention center at the estimated cost of approximately 44,692 dollars for the remainder of the fiscal year 2026.

Good morning.

And I'm Dennis McMahon, the superintendent of the juvenile detention center.

Last week we had a little bit uh stroke of luck in that communications and facilities put out their regular newsletter, which updates everyone, all of us on uh construction projects.

And the reason I pointed out is it has the first three or four pages is really a really good summary of all the work we and you have been doing at the juvenile center over the last few years.

Um, and it segues right into our topic for today, which is the girls face it program.

Obviously, one of the goals of the reconstruction was to be able to create an area to run girls' face it um with construction scheduled to complete by the end of this year.

Staff has been turning our attention towards setting up that program.

Uh they've been looking throughout, well, more than 2026 for at least uh I would say eight to ten months for a consultant uh to help us establish the program um as well as to review boys face it uh to make sure we're on the right track.

It's a long established program.

But uh we're looking for a consultant for both uh both ends, but with construction uh uh ending before the beginning of fiscal year 2027 in the normal course of events, we would have been appearing uh in front of you with a new program request this summer or late fall for these four detention officers so that we can establish the girls' facing program to staff the program.

Um we consider ourselves lucky because earlier this year, the spring corps through the AOIC reached out to us and offered us uh uh additional staffing if we would agree to begin taking in um some juveniles from other counties.

We've talked about in these meetings before how some of the other counties juvenile detention centers, which are much smaller generally than ours, have been slowly closing over the years.

Um, and so what AOIC was really looking for is if we would agree uh to take in now and again a uh juvenile from another county, that they would fund these four positions for us.

Um the good news for us is we're already staffed at a level that allows us to take in juveniles, and in fact, um Dennis and his team have been taking in the occasional juvenile from other counties for years.

Um we have established MOUs with quite a few counties.

Um we do renew them where we uh we increase the daily fee that we charge those counties.

Um, and Dennis and his staff have been renewing those roughly the last 12 months on a rotating basis.

Um and so it was really good timing for us that we could come to you with this uh offer from AOIC in which they would pay all the salary for these four positions, and we would be responsible for the fringe benefits.

Um it also allows us to maybe on board this staff a little earlier, um, because normally if we had asked for them for 27 fiscal year 27, we wouldn't hire, we wouldn't start looking until December, and it might be delayed.

So our hope is uh not only can we we subsidize uh the girls face it program, but also get it going a little earlier.

I I and this is incredible.

I remember just when I was first elected um at in my first, I think one of the first meetings, um uh Jessica Velitzig was so I mean just pound, you know, this was one of her priorities, and all of us, and so it's finally gonna take off, and I'm happy to see this.

And the question I have, and it's probably oh, I need to make a motion and a second first motion by Peterson, second by Kanishnik.

Um, you're bringing them from all over the county.

These um are they too far away that their parents can't come and visit?

It's a good question, and that's really for those counties to determine.

Um, it is a drive for some of them, and so I'm sure they're factoring that into the decision whether to reach out to Dennis and his staff.

Um, the fact that it might be uh let's say three hour drive for them each way.

Um, and obviously uh the parents are involved in all aspects of of um juvenile detention in a way obviously that adults aren't.

So certainly the parents factor into those considerations.

Good, because that's so important for success for those kids.

Yeah.

Um, thank you.

Can member Kijnik Kanishnik?

Thank you.

I'm just curious.

Are you able to share any insight as to why other counties are shutting down their juvenile detention facilities?

They are the two, there's been two counties who've shut down recently.

There's been new standards that have come out, new laws that have come into place where they haven't been able to um come in compliance with the standards.

We're now um AOIC reviews us every two years.

DJJ is every year, and then we also have pre- uh audits that we go through every three years.

So we have to be in compliance with all three of those, and those two detention centers struggled to get into compliance.

We also have the room confinement bill that came into effect two years ago, limiting uh solitary confinement and detention centers, and they also struggled to be in compliance with that as well.

Any other questions, Chair Kai?

Um I just want to say thank you so much.

I'm glad you mentioned member Volitza because it was really important to her.

And thank you for bringing up that this is something that we've been doing for years, and now we can actually get um some compensation for that.

And then I think the juvenile facility is different, right?

Because you can have in-person visitation, they are not allowed electronic communication, or is that has that changed?

We allow Zoom visitation.

So a lot of the out-of-county kids, if the parents can't get here, we offer Zoom visitation as well.

Only for for any kid.

And we do, yeah.

So if we also have kids in our county and the parents for some reason, either they don't have transportation or from medical issues, can't get here.

We also offer Zoom visitation as well.

Great.

I'm happy to hear that because I don't know that that was the case, which is different from the jail where there is no uh in-person visitation at all for the jail.

So okay, thank you.

Thank you for asking that question because that's really important.

They have that connection with their parents.

Yeah.

All right.

Um, thank you.

All in favor.

An opposed motion carries.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Um, item 8.12.

Um, we have finance director of the 19th Judicial Circuit, Lisa Wolf.

This is a joint resolution authorizing emergency appropriation in the amount of 50,000 in funding from the Illinois Department of Health Care and Family Services and the approval of the renewal of intergovernmental agreement for the 19th Judicial Circuit Access and Visitation for State Fiscal Year 2027.

Um motion by Kyle, second by Peterson.

Go ahead.

Hi, good morning.

Good morning.

Director of Finance for the 19th Circuit Court.

As you said, this is a renewal of an existing program that we currently have in process.

We use uh the $50,000 funding from the Department of Human Services to fund four mediators, which then coordinate with um families who are going through different custody disputes or visitation issues.

We utilize the funding to provide um supervised and neutral drop-off sites, um possible educational services if needed.

Um so the funding is definitely going to the the parents that are are in need and helping getting through the court system.

Okay.

I see none.

All in favor, non-opposed.

Motion carries.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Is there a county administrator report?

No county administrators report.

There's executive session.

Is we need to state the reason why we're going into executive session.

This um it's right here.

I'm sorry, 10 point.

Oh, excuse me.

Uh 10.1 executive session to review closed session minutes pursuant to five ILCS.

One three.

I'm sorry.

Oh gosh, I'm getting I I've got to realize I need these.

Um one twenty-two C21.

Right.

So we'll have a motion and a second.

I need a motion by Peterson, second by Kyle.

All in favor?

Nope.

I am going to do a roll call.

Oh, you're going to be doing a roll call.

And that is uh member also she's left.

Uh member Dan Forth.

Member Kniesnik.

Member Kyle.

Member Peterson.

Vice Chair Robert.

Aye.

And Chair Hart.

I don't have a vote because I think you have a quorum.

Okay.

Yeah.

Thank you.

All right.

So with that, we'll be now outside of closed session.

Items 11.1 is committee action approving law and judicial committee executive session minutes from October 7th, 2025.

May I get a motion and a second.

Motion by Kaniznik, second by Kyle.

All in favor, aye.

None opposed.

Motion carries.

Committee action regarding periodic review of closed session minutes.

The state's attorney's office has reviewed the executive session minutes for the law and judicial committee.

The state's attorney's office has provided recommendations for which executive session meetings to release and which executive session minutes to remain confidential at this time.

Those recommendations are as follows.

For the law and judicial committee, there are four items, and the state's attorney's office recommends, based on their legal um opinion, that none of the items should be released or open to the public, and all of the items should remain closed at this time.

All in favor?

None opposed.

Motion carries.

Seeing none, I call this meeting adjourned.

Our next meeting is May 26, 2026.