It's 8 30 a.m.

on Thursday, May 28th, 2026.

Call to order, the Financial Administrative Committee.

Please rise and join me and recite in Pledge Felix.

And just stands.

Why under God?

Liberty for all.

Can we have a roll call, please?

Yes.

Frank here.

Member Balitzik.

Member Peterson.

Member Maine.

Member Hewitt.

And Member Clark.

Okay.

We have a quorum.

Do we have any addenda to the agenda?

We do not.

Do we have any public comment on items not on or on the agenda?

There is no public comment this morning.

Okay.

I have no chair's remarks.

Unfinished business.

We have none.

Our new business begins with our consent agenda items 8.1 through 8.14.

Motion to approve by member Clark.

Second by member Maine.

Anything we need to pull, discuss, comments, questions.

Seeing none, all in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Those items are approved.

8.15 is committee action approving job order contracting project exceeding $350,000 for the Naval Station, Great Lakes, Halsey Village Demolition Phase 1 in a not-to-exceed amount of 11,379,000.

Motion to approve this item by member Hewitt, second by member Clark.

Good morning, Director Carr.

Morning.

Carl Carrar, Director of Facilities and Construction Services.

So before we get into any questions you might have, let me give you some background on this a little bit of history, just so we're all on the same page.

So it took a little while to get everything set put forth and set together and set up.

Following the IGSA, the county modified the job order contract to increase the capacity of each job contract or the $26 million to support this demo project.

And then as part of the fiscal year 26 federal government's budget process, the budgeted $11,000 $379,000.

That was appropriated for the demolition of Halloween village housing area for the first phase.

And we facilities and construction services, we've uh selected McDonough Demolition as a contractor to perform this first phase of construction.

If there are follow-on phases, we may look at the other two JOC contractors, but they are the one that we selected for this one.

So as a reminder, the Navy is fully funding this project.

10.9 is going to the JOC contractor.

There's a program project management software fees that are also part of that.

And we also have some administrative fees that we pay for our staff and our time doing that.

That's what the administrative fees that we will receive, and we'll be working with the name the Navy to get that invoice and process pretty much right away.

So we have that so we can pay those initial bills right away.

So the agreement between the two agencies as part of the uh IGSA is then Lake County will provide the administrative oversight of the project, and that means that we're going to be managing the project information and invoices.

We'll be processing the payments from the Navy to the contractor.

And we'll ensure we'll also be ensuring the contractor adheres to the all the construction requirements that we have in the terms of the jock contract.

The Navy on their behalf, they'll be providing the funding, which is great.

And as well as the day-to-day oversight of the contractor.

So they're going to have the boots on ground, be doing some of the really day-to-day management of the folks there.

But we'll be doing the administrative side.

So this contract adheres to all the Navy's environmental and construction standards.

They're a little bit tighter than ours, as you might imagine.

It's their property.

So we're going to hear those and uh the contract is written in such a way.

So our actions today is what we're asking you today is really to approve the use of the JOC contract for this project, and that's per the terms of the uh county policy, the jock policy we put together uh a couple of years ago, but anything over 350,000 that wasn't discussed and approved by the the board and the committee ahead of time or previously, that's why we're bringing it to you today.

So uh with us today is Mike Quinlan.

He's uh Naval Station Great Lakes community uh planning liaison officer.

He's just here to observe and see what we do on the municipal uh municipal level.

Uh but beyond that, uh take any questions you might have on this project.

Thank you, Director Carr.

Can you elaborate a little bit about the uh administrative percentage of the contract and then also talk about contract oversight that you mentioned, like are is there a cost associated with us, you know, doing that work?

Yes.

So the initial negotiated uh amount within the inter intergovernmental support agreement was 3.47% of the over our overall project order.

Uh and that would cover all the estimated costs.

Um as it turns out, we had some elevated costs with the project management software, so it went up a little bit.

Um but the administrative oversight that we will provide is we did the negotiations with the jock contractor for the demolition of this project.

We worked with the Navy hand in hand on that.

Uh, but for the most of our administrative fees are to do the paperwork side of things and the Navy's gonna be doing the boots on ground sort of things.

Uh, but we're processing some middles, anything coming from the contractor to get approval.

We work with the Navy to get those approvals and so we're doing more more or less the pushing information back and forth with with the Navy.

Uh on the funding side, it there is a lot of work that we will be doing, and that's what the part of that admin fee is for is that our it's for our time.

Uh and it's not just facilities time, finance is gonna have a big role in this because of course they've set up the management centers.

That's the next item you're gonna talk about.

Uh the budget management centers, they will be doing the uh the processing of the invoices as we pay the contractor.

Our staff, facility staff will be working with the Navy specifically on reviewing all the information, reviewing invoices as they come in and working with the Navy's program for funding, which is of course outside of our system, but as those dollars are pushed back and forth, uh we will all be collectively working, but that's what that admin fee is paying for.

Okay, so just as a follow-up.

Will we see some sort of a report?

Would it be possible for us to be able to see like this is county staff hours spent in terms of contract management oversight?

I know, I understand we're not doing construction management, but we are doing the contract oversight.

And uh, you know, cross run that against the admin fee that we're being paid.

I mean, I'm just I think the goal of us and you know, participating in this partnership is that it wouldn't cost us anything, right?

So I think we just would want to see that at some point.

Uh we do not track our individual employees' hours to down to the project level, but we can provide you know, come up with some estimates, whether it's facilities time or finances time doing that.

Uh we are learning this first time out.

Uh, this is new for both us and the Navy going through this process.

So they're that we will we will adjust as we move along.

Uh, I think we'll get better as we move along.

But this initial first initial phase is gonna be a very much a learning process.

But yes, tracking our hours as we put towards this is uh is gonna be necessary just to keep to just to improve and and kind of have that that process of uh really process improvement as we move forward.

Great.

Thank you.

Member Maine.

Yeah, that's excellent.

And that's actually the direction of that my question is gonna be.

So I was wondering um from uh accounting point of view, that 2.5 or 2.55%.

You said it was 3.55%.

Oh 3.55.

Okay.

An accounting point of view, where does that money go?

Where where is that shown in our budget?

Which is it's a great question.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Which is exactly what that is the next item.

So that's 8.16.

That is what that item is going to do to be.

So the creation of a management center, the emergency appropriation to show the the credits, the the uh the revenue coming in and the debit and the cost going out.

So that is what the next one is.

So it's going to be uh it's a general fund.

It's looking like if I look at eight, it says resolution of approves inner IG.

It's okay.

I'm just going with this fair.

Go ahead.

Yeah.

Intergovernment blah.

Revenues and various expenses in the general fund 101.

So it's going into the general fund.

Yes.

I can only I will speak to what I know, but I think I believe I thought it was capital fund 106, but that I could be mistaken.

I think yes, I need to phone a friend with Gina or Chinese financial.

Well, okay, we we could yeah, I could stick more on this one.

I don't I don't know.

We could get that.

They are very much related.

Okay, so if we may, yes, Chair, yes, I think he says okay.

Good morning.

Uh members of the committee, Chair Frank, uh Gina Tuzak, Chief Financial Officer.

They the way that we have the budget in the next item set up is that it would be um this, the revenues, and I hate to call it revenues, but the reimbursements are coming into 106.

So we've set up the entry, the budget uh emergency appropriation uh to have the revenues coming in to 106.

We did set up a separate management center for this project, and then the expenses uh would be all in contractuals also in 106.

The goal would be that at the end of the project, the anticipated personnel fees of 37,109 and 4 cents would be a transfer out.

A contract also in the 7x contractual account class, we would transfer that out to fund 101 at the end of the project.

But at this time, the emergency appropriation is balanced in 106 with the um uh 11,379,000.

Okay.

Maybe it's in the connection.

I'm just looking at this and it says fund 101.

Am I missing something in the connection?

It's not saying 106.

Uh, thank you.

Uh you're correct.

That should say 106.

My apologies.

That is because that's saying general fund 101, which is a can also I my apologies.

It should say 106.

Eventually, at the conclusion, the personnel fee that would be received would be transferred from 106 to 101.

Okay, so uh I I have some more.

I mean, well, so I I guess related to this.

So um it it's not it's really the the monies, it's not it's not the concept uh behind um 8.15.

So I was just wondering if that now that I have it 3.5, how that amount was arrived at.

Like when we have IGAs, um, the sheriff's department or other things, we have IGAs, and that's been a big bugaboo of that's a technical term of mine for many years.

Of are we recovering our costs?

Like have we full folded in, you know, IMRF and all those sorts of things like that.

That's a little in some ways easier to track because you're contracting 20 hours of fair if coverage uh a week, and we know what the they get paid, and we can roll all that in.

This is more moving parts and perhaps may more amorphous in terms of how many hours.

So I was just wondering is that is that percentage um a standard?

Is it kind of uh a ratchet up?

Because no matter how big a project is, there's gonna be a set amount of costs in there because whether it's a big contract or a small contract, somebody still needs to write up that contract.

So I was just wondering how we arrived at that percentage of the contract.

Sure.

Um so there are hard costs with that.

So the one you have the project order itself, which that is the cost to the contractor.

With every jot contract, there is a uh fee that goes to the Gordian company, and that is the the owners of the software, they own all the uh all the estimating everything that put together the jock contract or they own that.

So there's that percentage is 2.95% of that overall job order.

So that is a set cost.

So that's subtracted from that 3.5.

So we're looking at 0.6.

Correct.

So that is the percentage that we that is a set bill that goes to Gordian.

Uh and then we also because of it we're increasing the value of our all overall construction, our project management software that we use.

There's an increased cost of that.

That cost was transferred directly to the Navy for for uh their payment.

Correct.

And so of that total, the admin fee that we have that we estimated at really a minimum amount of staff time to to process invoices, submittals, and and other things, uh, that that would be the uh we came up with that as an estimate of the amount of time it would take finance or for facilities to do.

So of that, it was of this amount it's $37,000 to cover our our staff fees.

So that 11 million going into 106.

Yeah.

Lots of that is then coming out to go to Gordian, yes.

And then sorry.

Right, sorry.

So that's going out, and then net for the county is going to be 37,000.

Yes.

Of the 11 million.

Yes.

Wow.

Um I'll be really interested to see uh a back of the envelope of how many hours our staff is putting into this project, and we're netting not even a net.

It's like to cover costs, $37,000.

That that seems de minimis to me, but we'll see.

Yeah.

Thanks, Member Maine.

I share that concern.

And um, you know, if we were to make a policy decision to say, hey, this project's important, we're gonna invest in it.

That's that's one decision.

But to say that we're covering our costs, I I'm not sure that we are.

Yes.

Vice Chair Parks.

Yeah, I just had a more of a kind of a general, I mean, in in theme, but I guess my more question is when we're looking, they were looking to partner and we were willing to accept what was the expertise that that we were bringing that they that they decided that we were the best partner.

I'm just more on a curiosity, like what was the impetus for part because we're not doing we're not managing the construction portion, we're managing the contract portion of it.

And so I'm just wondering why why Lake County.

Not that I'm against it, just more questionable.

The the overall requirement is the the scope of the project was to demolish the structures that were on this this this part of the naval installation.

Uh and they had asked if we had a contract vehicle that could support that, and we do.

That is the job contract are capable of doing that.

Okay.

So our expertise and our ability as a county is to provide a a contract source for that.

And that's what we are providing.

So part of that year and a half it took from concept to actual agreement.

Uh there was a negotiation between the two agencies to come up with that solution of okay, you can use a job contract, the Navy, you're going to do this amount of administrative work, and the county is going to do, we're going to own the contract, and we're going to do this amount of administrative work.

So there's been a lot of discussions back and forth of just setting up that agreement and how that process is going to work.

Uh, but yeah, so our what we bring to the table is the contract.

We bring our expertise with running that contract, uh, and in the benefit to the community and to the areas that the the housing is demolished and it can be used for whatever the Navy or the North Chicago community wants to use it for.

So in essence, that that what you set up I don't can't remember how many years ago now was been a year and a half.

Year and a half.

That's was it it's a great use case, I guess, for it.

Though it doesn't benefit us directly, it it's helpful for others in the community.

So got it.

Okay, thank you.

Any other comments or questions?

Member Clark.

Yeah, thank you.

Um yeah, I mean, obviously, this is a terrific project, right?

I mean, this is something that I think will benefit the entire region.

It's I mean, I'm glad that the the Navy and um and thank you for all your work on this and bringing this together.

I mean, it's kind of unprecedented in a way, like uh Vice Chair Park was saying.

So I'm glad we're moving ahead.

I I do have I have to say I do share a little bit of the concerns.

Um I was trying to figure out what percentage was our administrative fee.

And it seems like it's so if we get 37,000, is that like 0.2% or something?

It's pretty small.

Yeah, and I don't, and and again, I want this to happen.

Like I think this is great and this will benefit us.

I I don't know how we agreed on the 0.2%, because it seems like they're you know, then they should cover our costs more or so.

I'm hoping maybe going forward, and like you said, maybe this is the first phase, obviously it's phase one, and maybe going forward, we can see maybe um 0.2% seems very slow low as an administrative fee for us.

Um, and so maybe we can look at that going forward.

I don't know, like in future contracts, but I do hope you know maybe you can chart we can have this be like our pilot and see like did this bet could reflect our real cost.

I also, but on the project itself, so it says phase one.

I'm um curious, is um is this gonna demolition everything, or are we gonna come back for another demolition project soon too?

The tourist, so is this um because is this phase one mean phase one of a certain area in there, or is it like everything's gonna be demolitioned and then it's gonna phase two is like rebuilding it or something?

Uh so two parts, two questions there.

So the first one uh with with the administrative fee.

So you're exactly right.

So our uh our IGSA provides it's a minimum percentage that we've agreed to.

So each one of the task orders, the one that was just submitted to us, that isn't that number can change and shift based on our our additional negotiation.

So each one of these phases that we're doing, we can negotiate that.

So yes, we if we are wildly off on our administrative fee, we can come back to the Navy and have that conversation of changing that for the next phase.

For the next phase.

So there's a whole you know block there that is the military housing.

They have divided that into three different parcels within that, uh, to three different phases.

So we this one is just uh for phase one, it's a near, it's really on the corner of Green Bay and Buckley.

It's that smaller section, and is there other two other phases within there?

Now we believe that we have uh enough Navy funding that we could go into portions of phase two of their of the work.

Um, but there's no guarantee that that money is going to come forward, but really it's just a demolition of the buildings, the utilities, the roadways, and some of the other items there to really to to make it a call that a brown field.

It doesn't clean the soil.

We're not remediating the soil, we're just taking down the structures that any of the follow-on remediation that would be either a separate phase or a separate contract, whatever the Navy tree would be.

So there is gonna be then so it's not demolishing everything because there's you said there's three different areas.

Am I hearing right?

So the next phase might be more demolition then.

Yes, okay.

Oh, that's good.

And so this will take a while as a project, obviously.

I guess it depends on funding, but I'm really glad to see it moving forward.

I think this is such an important thing.

So okay, thank you.

Thank you, member main.

Thank you.

Um yeah, I think at some point it would behoove this committee to have a conversation about what our policy direction is related to how we're using staff in these situations.

And that is totally outside of how good a project is, right?

We can all say this is a good project, and we can make also related to what um Vice Chair Parek was saying of how we're using our expertise.

And again, it it does go back to and most of the crowd here.

If I say broken record, that is a reference that they might understand.

The younger people wouldn't understand a broken record, um, of the how we're using our staff and and how we balance the sharing our expertise um in the wider community, especially smaller communities that are not gonna have our expertise, how we balance that sharing our expertise, but also husbanding our own resources, making sure that our staff is right sized for our goals and not larger.

That's one of the issues I've had in general with other sorts of IGAs.

I'm like, how are you able to keep adding on all these IGAs and telling me that we have the right size staff if we're able to do all these other things?

If we make a policy decision to say, hey, this is what we want to do, that's fine.

And there may be the capacity, but uh I I think we need to talk about that to say how uh how much staff time or this was the point.

Um, and then perhaps eventually again, the first time you're not gonna have um uh a dollar amount as well to to your point, chair of how many hours is this taking.

But uh, I think we need to think about that because um it's easy in some ways to look to us because we have staff that can do all these things, but we have to look in these tight budget times, we have to look and make sure that our staff is also right sized for what the county's needs are, the smaller county with a smaller C.

So those are my thoughts.

Thank you for sharing that thought.

I think it's really important for us to think about that.

I I think we would probably not land on a single metric or formula for any single department because there's a lot of other factors that weigh into it, you know, at the planning and um building folks, you know, they're they're a shared resource, but they also, you know, they have partnership agreements.

SMC, they get, you know, have partnership agreements as well.

And we have a lot of IGAs across different departments, and there's probably different costs and different benefits associated with each of them, but understanding it and uh uh sort of setting our policy, like, hey, there are some areas where we expect to cover our costs, or uh even if we did is it is it worth it to us in terms of the head count man hours, things like that.

So that's I really appreciate the thought.

Thank you for for suggesting that.

Any other comments or questions?

I'll just note per uh CFO two's acts comment about the fund that was noted in the following item and the attachment, it does say fund 106.

It's just simply the bullet point on the agenda that is that is incorrect that says fund 101.

So I don't think we need to make an amendment to the actual resolution.

I'll just note that the attachment for item 8.16 is correct.

Okay.

So uh seeing no other comments or questions on 8.15, all in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

8.15 is approved.

8.16 is a resolution authorizing an emergency appropriation in the amount of 11,379,000 for the Naval Station, Great Lakes, Halsey Village Demolition Phase One project.

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

Thank you, Chair Frank.

Uh, this is simply the uh the emergency appropriation budget for the the project that was just discussed.

Um, as indicated, we set up a new management center um to track the incoming um funds and then of course the outgoing funds as well, with the expectation that at the end of the project there would be $37,000 that could be transferred out of fund 106 uh to fund 101.

Comments or questions on the companion item, member main.

So the tra the eventual transfer to the general fund, that's that's just kind of our standing standard operating procedure, that these monies come in and they're gonna go to the general fund.

Um, well, as far like I guess I'm I'm I'm envisioning that um as far as usual procedure.

I think this is just a little bit of a different project.

Uh, but I I would that that's my intention, yeah, that that that would be consistent with with practice that the monies are all coming into 106.

Um, but at the end, when this is all completed, there should be um 37,000 to cover staff time that doesn't reside in 106, really should go to 101, which is where we are, we which is where we are paid from.

Because the one the 106, so Carl and his department are paid out of 101.

Correct.

Okay.

Okay.

Administrator just informed me that the resolution does in fact say fund 101.

So is it is it accurate to say we want to amend that?

We and it should say 106.

Yeah, staff staff would request an amendment to the item to the resolution to change it from general fund 101 to capital fund 106.

Yeah.

Is there a motion to that effect by member main, second by member Peterson?

Comments or questions on the amendment.

Member Clark.

Okay.

So it because on the thing it says that the fund is 106, but I'm assuming maybe in the resolution language.

So we need to amend that.

And and there's a reason that we're not just putting them the 101 money right into 101 and the 10 the rest into 106.

I guess that's my question.

Like, why wouldn't we just do that?

I we could do that.

I I guess I I thought that we would we would set this up in 106 at the conclusion of the project, then we would transfer the the funds.

Um, but we could set it up that there is a transfer out of 106 to 101 for the 37,000.

I guess I just is there a reason that it's better to wait.

To me, it always seems like waiting means we have to remember to do it, which to me is I mean, and I'm not the CFO like so, but is there like an accounting reason it makes more sense to put it in one and then transfer?

Is it like a reimbursement thing maybe?

So this is the first time through.

Yeah.

Uh our intention is to our our once we are approved.

We will press forward and we will invoice the entire entire administrative fee to include our admin fee, the according fees, and the project management fees.

We'll we'll we will invoice for that in first thing.

Uh so right out of the gate, we'll do that.

And then we can we should be able to transfer almost immediately once those funds arrive to those different areas to pay for according to pay for the project managed software and also to transfer to 101.

So we don't have to wait to the end necessarily, but again, we are learning as we're going with this.

And the logistics of this is it's it's been challenging even to think about, let alone see it in practice.

So we're we're we're we're working very closely with finance to to really finalize those that that plan of attack and to get through this.

But our yes, our intention is to invoice right away so that those funds could be moved after that if funding is received.

Okay, that to me that may okay, that makes more sense.

My head I was thinking you're waiting to end of the project, and I was like, that seems like a very long time to remember.

So and you're right, I didn't think about it because other parts are gonna other things are going to be transferred out of here too, not just our part, right?

Because there's the other fees too that you have to work on.

And then I assume you have a list of those fees somewhere.

So you are I know this is our first time, so that you'll just process them afterwards.

Correct.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

Member Maine.

Yeah.

Um, to me, the 106 makes more sense.

Um, because it it just seems that we're going to be able to track our expenses in there a little more clearly.

And that was part of my concern of oh, if it just went to 101 right away, the great amorphous 101.

So um it just seems cleaner.

An extra step, but it seems like you can have your subsets.

Again, I'm not an accountant, but makes sense to me.

Okay.

So we have an amendment to change the resolution to indicate the use of fund 106, not fund 101.

You're comfortable with that, CFO?

Yes.

Yes, I am.

Thank you.

Any other comments or questions?

Okay.

For on the amendment to the resolution, all in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

The amendment is approved.

Any further questions on the overall item as amended?

Seeing none, all in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

None.

8.16 as meted is approved.

Thank you.

We have some annual updates.

8.17, Chief County Assessment Office annual update.

Please welcome for the last time our CAO, Bob Hooker.

Morning all.

So I've approached this last one.

I've approached this last one a little differently than I've I've approached all of the other ones.

I've still provided you with all of the information, which is kind of an annual one-year recap, which is in the handout that you're receiving.

Um, I don't have slides on this.

We wanted to make sure we were ADA compliant.

And so the data is there for you to look at.

For the members of public, it's available on our website.

And if you needed a hard copy, you're well more than welcome to call our office at 377 2050 to get a hard copy mailed out to you.

But this is basically very similar form to what you've seen from me before over the last three years now.

Um, kind of goes over all of the divisions of the C CAO, explains explains the processes.

But the slides that I wanted to focus on today, and I'll it hits a little bit into what's in the report, um, are the key areas that I'd like to call to the uh the committee's attention as I'm heading out the door.

There's a couple of areas that I think you guys should be aware of.

Uh and and so we're gonna start with the update.

And here is my machine.

Look at that.

I did it right on the first time after eight years.

This is pretty good.

So you're giving you a handout.

The handouts available online.

You can call the office, recaps all the CCAO, basically everything that I just said to you, and the four divisions that are underneath me.

That's all in that book.

There are a couple of key, there are four key ongoing activities that I wanted to bring to your attention.

And the first one is one that I've talked about a few times in committee.

It's been on my goals every year for the uh budget, and that is a review of the non-homestead, uh, an audit of all the non-homestead properties in Lake County.

Currently, there are 16,333 properties that are tax-free because they're designated with a non-homestead exemption.

Now, 50% of those I could pull off right off the bat because anything owned by Lake County, anything owned by um Illinois Department of Transportation, anything owned uh by local government, uh uh forest preserve, schools, all that is a is a valid, but they're the other 50% represent a number of different types of projects or properties and uses that are very different.

A lot of them are churches, some of them are churches that are in a house in the middle of Waukegan, you know.

Um, some of them are big complexes of churches.

Um, some of them are youth camps, some of a lot of different things.

The way non-homestead works is that you apply to to Lake County for the exemption, you provide all of your paperwork.

The board of review has a formal hearing on those exemptions and issues a recommendation to the department of revenue saying we agree or disagree with the approval of this exemption.

The final approvals down in the state.

So all we're saying is, hey, this looks good, this doesn't.

And the other 50% is taxable.

The state approves it, and it falls off everyone's radar.

Some of these things have been out there for 30 plus years.

So we did a sample a few years ago when I first came in and started looking at some of these non-homesteads, and then had to go through the tax code to find out exactly what can the CCA do or Lake County in the event that it's reported that the use of the property has changed.

Maybe it's a percentage, maybe the whole property is changed.

Who knows?

So I've just gotten into that.

All right, but it's not complete.

And I'm disappointed that I didn't get to that before I left.

The next administration coming in, hopefully with your reminder, we'll remind them to look at this issue.

It does need to be addressed.

Even things as simple as I'm a Catholic, but not to pick on a particular church.

Churches are consolidating.

All of them had rectories, all of them, a lot of them had schools.

Maybe they've consolidated all into one facility.

What's happening with the balance of those properties?

Are they now renting that what was a pastoral home, which was a tax exempt situation?

Are they renting it to generate income?

That would be a taxable scenario.

What's happening with the school?

Has it become a daycare?

Is it a private daycare?

Um, or is it one that's, you know, something that's generating income?

All those things need to be re-looked at again.

And we're just started to scratch the furpose.

Again, it's my point here not to pick on a particular organization or a particular property, but to point out that this is an audit that I think is important to Lake County and needs to move forward.

That's up to the assessor.

My my question, Bob, is so when a property is sold, does it automatically re-trigger or trigger anything?

Okay, so it does.

Sale of the property starts starts the process all over again.

And right now, that's the only audit that Lake County is involved in.

We need to take it a next step further.

So that's my slide number one.

Number two, open space.

Open space is something that I've turned around and talked to you about.

Sorry, this gets a little small here.

The reason why what I've written in that first thing is the total code for open space in the Illinois tax code.

It's one of the smallest tax code provisions.

When you have pages and pages explaining things like senior exemptions and veterans' exemptions, this is all that it's referred to in terms of open space.

The keys here, land is considered open space if it's 10 acres or more.

So the parcel has to be 10 acres.

Protects air or streams of water supplies, promotes conservation of soils, wetlands, beaches, whether man-made or you know, natural, conserves landscapes.

This is the key to this one, conserves landscapes such as public or private golf courses.

So originally the concept in the land was that in the in this in this thing years ago was that if you had a parcel that was 10 acres or greater and you were buying it to conserve it, regardless of what the market value is of the property, which would have been your purchase price essentially, you're assessed on application at 10, $4,000 an acre.

And that's been like that in Lake County since 2008.

Every county has a different valuation.

All of us on my level at the CCA area are talking about looking at the valuations.

And where I am today with this is that we have hired an appraiser who's gone out and provided me with an appraisal of open space in a range and not a specific value, because obviously an acre of property in Highland Park is going to be worth significantly less than an acre of property in Round Lake.

So from the standpoint right now, all of the counties are looking at it as a single value that they place on this open space, open space valuation.

It's touchy because we're going to touch on all the golf courses.

And right now it's at 4,000 an acre.

A public golf course that's owned by the Forest Preserve, for example, is tax exempt.

But the parcels on a private golf course are at that open space value or 4,000 an acre.

It's interesting to point out about open space as well, is that let's say I bought 10 acres of property on speculation and was going to sit on it for 10 years because I really thought there was some beautiful nature issues or amenities, whatever.

The land was pretty.

Matt comes up to me and he says, I want to buy that for you.

I want to develop it.

If you've enjoyed open space and you sell it to a buyer who does not intend on continuing the open space valuation, there's a three-year payback of the full valuation of the tax bill at full market price.

So if you've been paying $4,000 an acre, you know, on an assessed on an as an assessment, now all the assessment is $60,000 an acre.

There's a big tax bill catch.

We catch probably, or not catch.

We probably do and we work alongside Holly Kim's office, the treasurer, we probably do maybe seven to ten of those a year.

Last one was out on Rand Road in Ela Township where someone was building and uh was going to develop another parcel that's been sitting empty for some long for some time.

The bottom line is that this project that I started and I've talked about now to you all for several years is in process.

And we have the data.

I've talked to the state's attorney.

We need to be very careful about when we do this because there's a question of valuation, uh revaluation and equalization depending on what year you are in the assessment cycle.

So the most logical time to do this is in tax year 2027 next year, because there's no challenge about revaluation at that point.

It is a general revaluation year at that point.

So again, I call this to your attention because I want you to take a look at it.

And there's ramifications for touching this.

And maybe you all have an opinion, but it should be something that's discussed.

I wasn't going to move forward without direction from you one way or the other.

Thank you for the explanation.

Um elements there previously unaware of certainly understand the need to properly value something that's being used on a either for-profit or recreational basis, right?

Like a golf course.

But I I see a risk in increasing the taxable, you know, evaluation for parcels that are held by, you know, private entities, but they're maintained as open space because there's a financial incentive for them to do so.

By removing that, it it almost incentivizes uh development, which is, you know, not always in the best, you know, in the public interest.

I'm I'm thinking that, you know, we have several manufacturers in the county that have large parcels of open space.

I don't know if they're what their valuation is.

I don't, I'm not familiar with the details and how they have pins, et cetera.

But it occurs to me that could be an unintended consequence.

Uh are you restricted by statute to setting one single value for open space or can you differentiate the use?

I could definitely use is defined.

It's unless you're talking about golf course versus truly open space, just untouched natural land.

But I am not restricted to a single value.

Okay.

Yeah.

I mean, I think that's an important distinction because golf courses may be open, but they are not natural.

They're not preserved, right?

Correct.

Yeah, okay, okay.

Member main.

Yes, although they can take um a work for for water retention and things like that.

And then you could argue, and I don't play golf.

You could argue, is it Audubon or things like that?

So what about I see maybe the fourth bullet, fourth last bullet, talking about enhances the value to the public of a budding or neighboring parks, forests.

So a park, like with playground equipment, is that still considered open space?

No, because a bike ground would be part of a park district typically, and a park district is a government-owned parcel, so there would be no, there would be no taxable this it wouldn't fall under the space.

Yeah, I was just wondering how some of those things would get mixed together.

And I'll just add kind of that balance to what um Chair Frank was saying.

I thought it was $5,000, not $4,000.

I I thought that's what the Forest Preserve was using.

That at the Forest Preserve, or also for some of the things for SMC.

When we're in projects, there can be, and we're partners, we get value in kind.

And the value of that land can be charged against what our monetary partnership is.

Like let's say there's a project for 100,000 and we're responsible for 20,000.

If we have land that's worth 20,000, then we don't have to put any hard dollars in it because the value of our contribution is coming from that land.

So in some cases, that higher value could be an advantage to some organizations because that increases their value of in-kind donations.

So it's it's going to be really tricky.

And then make a decision on policy as to how you'd want to continue.

So that's my open space story.

Actually, this I didn't realize how timely this scre uh this slide was.

Member Main and I recently received an email, but Jennifer Clark and I all Jennifer Clark and I have all so I think nearly every board member on this committee at one point or another has come to me asking for assistance with TrueRole.

All right.

So True Roll has been utilized by Lake County.

I am going to read a little bit of this.

True role has been used by Lake County for three years as a tool to vet key here.

All exemption applications.

It does not specifically call out any particular group or subgroup.

True role presents data only from publicly accessible databases through the county.

So you're I can't see your tax return.

I can't see what your income level is.

I can't even see where you're filing your tax return.

I can see things like where's your driver's license issued out of.

When you pull a ballot in a general election, you are certifying to that government body that you have resided in that home for at least the 30 days prior to pulling that ballot, which means you've established residency in that address for that tax year.

If you have a driver's license pulled out, and this is where we run into problems, a lot of people don't change their driver's license.

Kids don't change their driver's license in some instances almost 20 years.

Every application, whether and Lake does them all online, has an affidavit at the end of the application that says, is everything that's in this application true to your best knowledge, blah, blah, blah.

Everybody signs yes.

This is the first time by using True Roll over the last three years that we've been able to verify that affidavit that the taxpayer is is presenting to us.

And although the true role does not, and I repeat this again, does not shoot for or try to attack a particular group, the senior freeze is the one that typically gets caught because it's residency and that total household income base.

To a senior, they think, well, my son lives here, he's 40 years old, but he doesn't, he doesn't contribute anything to the home.

Um, it doesn't make any difference whether he's contributing or not.

It's residence, and maybe it should be, but that's a problem for Springfield and how they've written the law and not I how I turn around and apply it.

So how many residents are in there?

How long have they been there before?

Um this becomes this becomes an issue.

We're we've got one now.

Um, it's gone all the way down to the state and to representatives asking the same questions, you know.

Um easy to say that one particular group may be um being pinpointed, but I'm trying to say is that we're using it on every application just to verify the data that's been submitted by the applicant.

And member Hewitt.

Yeah, please.

Okay.

Okay, member main and member here.

Um yeah, maybe everyone got that one.

It was that that sort of uh example.

So what and I can understand why somebody would be confused.

So, like, but the house is in my name and these other, but these other people are living there under that.

Are we having robust conversations with our state representatives and things like that so that they have the because it's a it is a little confusing at first?

So are are we having these conversations, Bob?

We are generated by responses to the things that you that you all have seen.

Yes, yes, we are.

Great.

You had mentioned maybe a family member living in a home.

Is there a way to get around, or how does you handle something where you have a child and that child moved away.

So now you're the senior that owns the property, you're within those guidelines because that child is gone.

What happens if that child refuses to do anything to help the parents out as far as a senior freeze?

Is there a way to get around that?

It's a tough one.

It's it's a tough one.

And not only, not only uh residents, but let's say at one point you had a son and his girlfriend living there who broke up and don't speak to each other.

The family has the stories I've heard are unbelievable.

You don't speak to them anymore.

Yeah, you could be.

You don't speak to them anymore.

And now how do you get a hold of them?

In that case, I've I've waved a uh a wand on it a little bit in terms of an affidavit, you know, a second affidavit specifically to relate it to that individual.

Um that that's when it gets that's when it gets that's when they get touchy because I can't I need to apply the law evenly to all of them, to everyone in the same way.

And in some instances, what I'll give them is a one-year deferral.

I'll say, all right, I'll I'll override and grant this, but we have this issue that's going to come back to haunt us again next year between now and then, and then we have a section in Tyler that I'm able to make those notes so that the next person that takes a look at it isn't starting with the same problem from square one again.

The notes are thorough and solid, and we knew they know at that point that we've that we've notified them.

The other point about the senior freeze that I'd like to point out is that the law is written in such a way that let's say Mr.

and Mrs.

Smith have had the exemption for 10 years, the freeze.

The freeze, the base is the assessed value in the year prior to application for the freeze itself.

So let's say 20 years ago, they applied for it, and their property was worth 89,000 at that point.

And some of these numbers could be real.

Today that property is worth 250,000.

Um true role shows us there's more people either living or registered in this house.

They don't qualify for the current year that they're applying for.

They have a year to get it resolved.

In the following year, the issue is resolved.

Well, they're gonna pay one tax bill that's exaggerated.

The base year, the first year you got the freeze is where the freeze will go back to.

So you don't lose the freeze permanently in terms of in terms of, you know, okay, now my house is worth 250,000.

If I freeze it, there's a difference between an $800 tax bill and a $4,000 tax bill.

It'll go back to that level.

And again, we're not freezing taxes, we're freezing assessed value.

That's why that assessed value is so important.

Year prior to application is where it freezes.

And even if you miss in my particular case, if you if you gave money to a grandchild or you wanted to, you had a wedding that you were providing dollars for seniors do that a lot, you know.

They pull that money out.

It's it's it's puts them over the household income level, maximum household income level, and they lose the freeze for that particular year.

In the following year, they go back to a normal financial pattern, takes them right back to that base.

I think it's amazing looking at how many of these exemptions were changed after looking at some of this data.

And you know, I think sometimes people don't realize that they're not in, you know, like they don't realize that or like the I've heard from people they did not realize having people live at their house was going to affect it.

But there's many different exemptions.

Um, and really, I mean, that just means people, other people were paying higher property taxes in a way.

So this is just to be equitable on making sure people are just paying what they are supposed to pay under their valuations.

So I really thank you for bringing true rule.

I remember having the discussion about this, and you're like, oh, it's gonna, and you're right.

I mean, it's just data.

And even people who maybe may be very upset.

I mean, that's like when you talk to them, and thank you so much for speaking to them, and is is really like these are the facts.

Like you have five people living here or whatever, like this is the law.

You know, if you can, and I really like that there's ways they can say, well, if they're not living here anymore, well, then just fill out the forms, and then you can say that they're not living there anymore.

So I want to thank you for bringing it to because it really obviously has a big effect on our um property tax base, and it really just makes it more equitable and fair.

So when you're talking about those numbers up top there, recovered indicates dollars that I caught on application, uh, assessed value, recaptured our dollars that I went back a year prior and caught and and re so I redid a tax bill as a result of finding out that there was, I don't do that that often.

I'm not looking to go back and slap your hand for the last 10 years.

And even when we find that senior that maybe has had the son that's lived there for 20 years, I'm not going backward.

I'm just saying in this year, you know, you've lost it this year.

This is what we need to do to catch it.

I'm to correct it.

I'm not going back.

They get letters, by the way, aside when they file online, they get a they get a very detailed letter that explains what we're looking for in the way of clarification on residency, you know.

Um, and if this person really does there live here, then we need we're asking for their federal income tax return, which is from the prior year, which is what the basis of the uh senior freeze is based on.

So I I think it was timely, especially with our letters that we've all experienced.

So thank you for a few extra minutes on that one.

The following slide, and then I'll get out of your hair here.

Um, a four affordable housing special assessment.

Three years ago in 2023, I came to talk to you about this.

This was a bill that was passed through the legislature, and it was essentially to uh improve uh the numbers of low-income housing units in a particular county.

The I brought it to you because the bill was unique in that it was a the first one that was ever adapted specifically or addressed specifically to the chief county assessment office, as opposed to fair housing or one of, you know, um, Eric's area or something like that.

This was CCAO related and assessment related.

Um, and counties had an opportunity to opt out should they choose to.

I was the first one in the collar counties.

Uh Cook immediately jumped in.

I was the first collar county to meet with you all, explain the program, and ask if you wanted to be in or out.

And you uh very much interested in promoting affordable housing and you wanted to be involved.

All right.

So this law has changed a few times since it's originally been out.

First of all, it was originally supposed to expire in a five-year time frame.

It's actually been extended now through 2034 by legislation.

Um currently we have 10.

So in the last three years, we have 10 applicants.

Only a handful of new units, a residential unit, uh new low-income units.

What the majority are are rehabs of existing affordable housing things.

So low income, low-income housing, where they've rehab them and then they apply for the credit.

The credit is based on the number of units in the building and how long that the owner is going to guarantee that they're gonna dedicate these units to low-income families.

Uh if you're a you you have to you have to prove that you're continuing every year.

So there's a big application process that you still have that number that you cited year after year.

We charge an application fee for them to even fill it to because it's the data that comes along with it is unbelievable.

The initial system is for 10 years.

So if you get approved in 2023, you are guaranteed somewhere between either a 25% or a 35% reduction in your total EAV.

So that's land and building for 10 years.

The new changes to this law have turned around and got given the owner the opportunity to extend for an additional 10 years twice.

So a property that originally uh was approved in 2020, has a 30-year guaranteed reduction in assessed value.

It's a lot of money.

It it adds up to a lot of EAB.

Right now, with 10 properties, it's a few cents in terms of a tax bill across the county.

But the areas where we're seeing the most activity is in the townships that truthfully can least afford it.

In Moraine, for example, it's not an issue.

There's one unit out of a building of seven, one unit applied.

And and so it's granted in Zion, it's a complex.

It's two complex in Waukegan, it's a couple of complexes.

In Wakanda, one of these buildings is a life care senior facility, a life care senior facility.

The state entitles you to the general and the senior homestead exemption.

After we take off the 35% reduction and take off the exemptions, the ending tax value on that property was zero.

Additionally, this law does not turn around and dictate where the funds that you're investing into your property are coming from.

They can be state funds.

They can be state grants.

So it's I've gotten my money on out of a legitimate program offered by the state.

There's enough money there to qualify me for the affordable housing.

Now I'm guaranteed as long as I stay with the population that I'm already renting to for up to 30 years.

This is an issue.

We we we just are scratching the surface with data.

I don't want to draw any conclusions here yet, but I'm I really think that this is I think the last point that I um other than graphic GIS.

This is really the last point I had for you.

I wanted to bring you your attention to this.

It's something that the next administration needs to follow as more data con.

We do have one big new project coming that I believe will come in in 2026.

See, I'm not privy to what's happening until it hits the assessment rolls.

But I believe that in talking with Dominic and his team, there is a new actually a new venture that's being built.

I believe it's out in either round Lake or or the Lake Villa area.

But there is there is one new building.

But looking at how this is used, where the money is coming from, um, can an owner take state money, invest all this money into the into the project, and then turn around and be granted this potentially a 30-year reduction in assessment.

And in a place like Zion, and that's the last point that I'll make, the majority of their rental units are low-income rentals.

So you're taking an eraser to a big percentage of their EAV that they don't have to give away to begin with.

So something for you guys to look at moving forward.

I, you know, I think it's important, and that's why I brought it forward for for you today.

All right.

Any questions?

Yeah.

So um I'm not clear why so few properties are impacted with this.

That's question one.

It seems like you're saying there's only a handful now.

Um that's kind of question one.

Two is will do you think this will drive development of more affordable housing?

And three, given this reduction.

Are we gonna have to make it up elsewhere?

Is kind of your point.

Is that your point then?

So yeah, I guess three three three parts to the question.

Yeah.

So I'll start with the last one.

Yeah, you're gonna have to make that EAV up, but it's difficult to make that EAV up in areas that are kind of blighted to begin with in terms of what they have as a base, you know, um, because that seems to be the focus that Walkegan or the heavy emphasis in that Waukegan Zion market.

And that's really my biggest, my biggest concern in terms of overall EAV.

Um in terms of um, and no, I've forgotten the other two.

Well, the first one is why are so few property eligible?

There's a long process.

First of all, you have to complete construction.

So you are doing renovation to the existing properties, and that's positive.

So they are improving, you know.

Um, updates in HVAC, updates in in electric, you name it.

All of that qualifies as part of or new or brand new.

Okay.

But predominantly that's why that's what's either you got to you gotta update or or brand.

They're up, they're updating.

The question becomes are these updates that are required or updates that ultimately qualify you then for the 30 years of an EAB reduction.

It's something to pay attention to.

And your third one, if I've um I should have written.

Would we would we see then more increase in affordable housing?

Do we think this will drive more affordable?

Because we've been wanting more portable housing.

I agree.

And that's a mission.

It's part of the goals that you guys came up with.

Um tell.

More data, more data needs to come out, which is why I'm calling it to your attention.

Watch it.

Take a that's something you want to ask to see what's happening in another two years and see what this project has generated, what the actual reduction overall in these townships is of EAV is.

And you know, you can break it down to what's what's the effect on the tax rate.

And my only comment is that it's great to see properties getting to have them rehabbed, but it doesn't necessarily increase the pool, right?

And so I think the goal is to increase the number of the pool versus just rehabbing existing units.

So it'll be interesting to see what this does.

So thank you.

Member Maine.

Thank you.

My questions were somewhat related to member Perek, but I'll make it different enough.

I was thinking hey, if it's onerous enough that if it were less onerous, you would probably have more applicants, is what you're thinking.

Or not necessarily.

Okay.

I'm actually, I'll answer that.

I'm actually thinking that that because of the pro it's new to everyone.

Yeah.

And I think I've seen a couple of the big corporations start this and become successful.

And I see it a domino effect moving forward.

So that sort of relates to my next question, whether it's something that favors larger projects.

They've got more people.

It it's more worth it to them as opposed to somebody going, you know, that the moraine one is is sort of a one-off.

So that it's not as worthwhile for somebody to go, oh, I'll just put one or two in here, and I've got to do all that work.

I don't have enough data to draw that conclusion yet.

All right.

I appreciate that.

And then finally, and maybe it's gonna this could be a segue for the GIS.

Um, do you have GIS overlays that would show like three data sets, like a senior-free, well, really taking all of these, like where are the tax exempt properties?

Kind of those government ones.

Where are the senior freeze?

Because you can envision areas in which there's an older population, might be more likely to meet that senior freeze.

Where are the TIFF districts?

Because that's kind of like what this is is doing.

It's freezing it.

And then where's this?

It would be kind of interesting to see all those layers and kind of where it may pull up, it might even accentuate the burger burdens that you're already talking about for those townships, and it might show, you know, some other ones.

You know, when we get tax exempt, there are places where there's a lot of forest preserve.

Now you could say open space, there's less demand for services, right?

Because you're gonna use the the they're not using the library, right?

Um, but you know, things like that.

So to answer your question, currently, no, the GIS does not have the ability to layer by exemption.

It does a lot of different things.

It'll show up ta tips.

You you'll be able to get your taxing districts and your tips off of it, but exemptions isn't something that we've that we've connected.

It's a good point though, and something that I should I should ask about.

And that is a good segue then into the final thing I was going to talk about with GIS.

GIS has continued to be an unbelievable success under the C CAO's office.

I'm just gonna say that.

Almost uh about almost 900, 889,000 visits to the Lake County GIS site in the last 12 months alone.

Um the team downstairs has upgraded maps online.

I think you will probably all saw the announcement on that, and the parcel viewer have all been updated to the latest technology that's out there.

Um before I left, I decided that I was gonna take one last look at the dual addressing ordinance and a few issues that we had with addresses.

Linda, you've been in my office to discuss your street.

Um the bottom line is we were very, very careful.

State's attorney ultimately believed that we had the power to do that based on the ordinance that you signed.

We had to change 14 addresses in the last six months, is all.

And the balance, again, I didn't want to leave this to a new crew.

If there was any more dirty work that needed to be cleaned up, I wanted it cleaned up before I walked out the door.

So that has gone successfully.

We have not had a lot of bark back, but we gave people advanced warning that it was coming.

Um we sent them a final letter with the an affidavit, which we recorded against their titles so that there would be no confusion when a title transfer occurred as to what the prior address is to what the current address is.

Very similar to what we did when we did the 3600 a few years ago.

My first year here, actually.

Um, and then we we writed some of the oops that went through that.

So that seemed to have gone fairly smoothly.

Again, that's important for the nine.

It's it's basically to ensure if you have a call today and everything's relying on an advanced 911 and GPS, that the emergency services people are going to show up at your house if you need it.

So and that, and that's all I've got for you.

I've taken way too much time.

I'm sorry.

You were you have not.

Let me just say in away and now I this was a uh a great handoff.

And I really appreciate the fact that you spent some time talking about some of your initiatives that that are ongoing.

Um, you know, I'll just say you've done such a phenomenal job in this role as a communicator with us.

You've educated us on so many things.

Um you really have brought an outstanding level of cooperation and collaboration with your peers and units of local government and professionalism to the role, and you'll be missed.

Uh, congratulations on all your work and thank you for everything you've done.

Member Peterson.

You are gonna sorely be missed, and I wish you luck in retirement.

Thank you.

Thank you all.

I so far.

I appreciate you.

Thank you too.

We've had some very interesting people we've talked to.

And every time over the years, between the addressing from this the freeze things, I just appreciate you've always been so responsive, so lovely to work with.

And it's always people have always understood.

And so I really appreciate you are really going to need this.

So enjoy not having to deal with that anymore.

Thank you all so much.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Item 8.19 is our treasurer's office annual report.

Welcome, Treasurer Kim.

And deputy treasurer, Gray.

All right, I see.

Can I say something nice?

8.18.

Can I say something nice about Bob real quick?

Sorry.

Um when he put out true roll, we got a call from this lady because another tax bill went out to her.

And she's like, I've already paid my taxes.

What's this additional bill?

And I looked and I was like, well, it looks like your exemption was removed.

I go, do you have another house?

And she goes, Well, that never mattered before.

And that was the exact moment that I was like, that's true.

It's working phenomenally.

So great job, Bob.

And uh, we have a great relationship.

One of the things we love to see each other is how when he started, we didn't realize how uh one's the left hand, one's the right hand, and we worked together so well.

And that relationship was never that close with any assessor in any treasurer's office here before.

Um, but when I first started, especially when they were implementing Tyler, this was like a thing where we had to work together because the treasurer's office was also rolling out Tyler at that time.

And so it just became like hand-glov.

But so we're here now to talk about my office.

Right.

Full effect.

All right.

So uh thank you, everyone, for your time and attention.

Um, Stephen Gray, Chief W treasurer, accompanied by Treasurer Kim as always.

Um, just uh this was uh I believe a requirement last year.

So I just kind of threw it in there um just as a visual aid, um, our org chart.

I don't know.

Um feel free to jump in with any questions at any time.

Um but I'll just breeze through that quickly.

All right.

Um, so the first slides and the structure of the deck that we were provided was status of current projects.

Um so uh we typically refer to um the time, um, the space uh in between to bring Dave Matthews into it.

Um between the end of the tax sale and the beginning of the next year's collection is kind of the off season.

Uh administratively, uh it's not really ever, you know, a full off or slow season.

Um, but it is a time to kind of reflect, lick some wounds and and see if there's anything um that we can do to improve upon um our processes um and make the upcoming collection year even smoother.

Um so this year we actually had two projects.

Um, one our hand was kind of forced on.

Um, and then another one was just kind of a pet project that was something that really we needed to get done.

Um so this one is is is the pet project.

Uh so really kind of fits along with the strategic priority of providing superior county operations and services, um aligning with the strategic plan.

Tyler technologies rolled out the tax suite.

So they had a partner that they recommended, which is a company called RICO.

And so they kind of came in and we're just, you know, this supplemental additional vendor, small company out of Georgia that provided that service and communicated with Tyler.

My guess is it was just a company that they kind of acquired along the way or became a good partner with them along the way.

But there was many issues with Rico, primarily that uh they were just very prone to crashing and prone to crashing during our heaviest times of collection.

Um so it was a complaint when I first started, uh, kind of from staff, and you know, um complaints grew, and then I became looped in on more and more um escalated issues with them.

Um, and really it was uh you know, kind of became apparent how fragile of an ecosystem it was when there was a hurricane on the Eastern City Board that um actually made made its way inland into Georgia and caused for a power outage at a time when we were experiencing an outage with the system and like we it ended up being like one guy, like lived an hour away and happened to have power still and was able to walk us through it, but um it just wasn't wasn't a good setup.

Um luckily Tyler did develop their own cash posting software.

Um, and because we are already under contract with them, we were able to just kind of work with purchasing, added as a supplemental.

Um we're able to use the slow time to kind of get it get it up and rolling while we're not taking a heavy flow of traffic in.

Um, and it's been pretty pretty seamless.

Umbody is uh missing Rico or losing any sleep, and we have had um very, very little hiccups um throughout the transition.

One of the things um during our slow period, as you said, which isn't all that slow, but it's our time for like retooling every winter.

I asked the staff, is there any process improvement that you would suggest in the past?

Um we've listened to them.

It was actually staff my first year that recommended the penalty reduction for mobile home, which we passed at um at the state, and so we're the only county that has that.

Um so the software we we test it too.

We test like a one-off like one dollar, see if it works.

And so that way during the tax collection season, we're not testing it while it's live.

Yep.

All right.

Uh the second one um was something that was really brought to our attention from purchasing, um, just that we uh were kind of overdue for going out to bid um in terms of our tax bill vendor.

We were fairly happy with our tax bill bender.

I mean, really, it's kind of the the you can evaluate a situation.

What is it is there a ton of issues?

How well do you know the people there?

Um, and and it it worked, it worked well.

Um, and you know, in terms of being compliant with state statute, uh getting that tax bill out, which is an enormous file and enormous undertaking every year.

Um it's a it's a huge crunch for time as uh all of municipalities within the county have a window from the clerk tax extension office in order to get their levies and everything in.

The clerk then has an even tighter window to get those all approved and then into the Tyler system, and then we have an even tighter window to help quality check all that data and then get the tax bill um filed to the vendor and then then get another file back, which is the proofs of the actual tax bills that'll be going out.

Um so all this is happening in a matter of like two months.

Um, so it's very, very tight, very, very little room for air.

Um, so to say I was uh nervous and stressed about having to switch vendors is a little bit of an understatement.

Um, but we got uh we're work very well uh with the purchasing department.

They understood the priority of getting this um in front of you all as early as we possibly could.

I'm sure you guys remember me coming and talking about it last year.

Um, but it it we I made a point to have project meetings and checking in and make sure we were testing everything possible and the actual paper copy of the tax bills went out without a hitch.

The this new vendor's been great.

So um I guess it's a good it's always been a really important dance to have that great relationship with the clerk's office, the assessor's office and ours because during COVID time when the Department of Revenue was like really, I don't know if they just weren't meeting or what, but they were late with their numbers by like a month and a half or like two months, and we had a 48-hour turnaround time to take the numbers from the clerk's office and the assessors and build the tax bill.

It was absolutely crazy.

And so um kudos to all our partner departments, but that's just really how important that tax bill dance is.

So that concludes the status of current projects.

So as you guys remember from years in the past, you know, we we talk about how uh the treasurer's office is really broken into two different sides of the house.

We have the collector dealing with the property tax side of things, and then we have the treasurer, which is the banking and investment mechanism for the county.

Um so we'll start with the treasurer side.

Um we're investing responsibly, maximizing interest revenue.

Um numbers pulled from Boss in fiscal year 2025, uh over 20 million dollars in interest revenue.

Uh we uh collaborate uh well with uh all county departments.

We manage over 30 different bank accounts, um, some some just on the treasurer side, which is really you know under our purview, and then there's other accounts that we help manage uh for various different agencies and departments within the county.

Um we also partner with all county departments that are um able to invest.

Um, and we are a partner for them in managing those investments and making sure that um uh you know all their questions are answered, and that really comes, you know, uh full circle in time for for budget prep when they're trying to calculate anticipated revenue and for audit when they need to collect statements and financials.

Um and so we work well um with with uh the finance arm of all all county departments.

Is that my seeing question or no?

Yeah, so just pause for a second there, member Clark.

Thanks.

Um, so it's interesting.

So you're managing bank accounts for county departments.

What does it mean that you manage them?

Is it like something where you're like every month?

Like, yeah, what is the management?

So if if if it's a department that needs to uh cut checks, uh like a um sanitary district, um, so we handle that mechanism for them.

Um we uh handle that relationship with the bank for them, unless it's a specific custodial account.

For example, the clerk has uh a custodial account that they manage themselves that we're not involved in at all.

Um, but other department and circuit clerk as well, um, you know, have the ability to have their own bank accounts.

But aside from that, you know, if there's you know another like um another account that uh a department is essentially in charge of, um, you know, they don't maintain that relationship with the client manager at the bank.

Uh if there's a fee that they need negotiated, if there's a question about a statement, a transaction, um, if they need to set up any automatic payments to be debited or credited to or from that account.

Um basically anything you could imagine that goes along the lines of like having that business banking account or investment account, um, the day-to-day operations of that account is us.

Very interesting.

I didn't realize that.

So, yeah, so if someone needs an account for a purchasing something in their or like their department, then you guys you would set it up for them and manage it.

Also, too, um, for example, if a different department had CDs, right?

We would come to them and say, hey, your CD's about to mature at blah blah blah bank.

Here are a couple different options we've also found.

Here's one at your bank at the bank it's currently at, but here's some other ones.

So, like, what would you like to pick?

But like we we're like that middle person.

Thank you.

Any other questions?

All right.

Um, so why do you guys just see this so bad?

So it's a little thank you.

A little a little small and hard to make out, but this is um uh financials uh taken from Boss, and then I put into a bar graph uh so we can kind of visualize uh what interest revenue was later looked year over year.

Um it took uh 15-year snapshot, so you can see there's uh you know, really not not too much going on uh 2010 to 2015.

Uh you can see a little bit of an uptick there, and then um really in 2019, um, which uh is uh reflect of the first.

I can see you were you were you were elected in 2018, right?

So the low parts during my time were during COVID, and we couldn't help that everyone had uh federal funds, and so no place wanted to give interest on federal funds because all banks were flush with cash.

Um, but for the other years, including the first year after I got here, the huge jump and our investment earnings for the county.

I'm very proud of um a lot of it is relationship based and me bringing every single financial institution in on the first year, and they could tell you out their mouth that um when they were going through their binder and going like we have existed since and our relationship with the county, and I was like, I am so sorry, and this is really more me than you, but can we just skip to the last page where you say how our money is doing?

And going forward, that's all I want to hear.

Because if you're not performing, then we're not gonna be working together.

So, in addition to that, I asked them for data files and other things as well.

I asked more out of our collector banks.

And so they all know by now exactly what I want.

And when CDs mature, it's like give me what your manager is offering as a percentage rate.

And so I have probably not played any golf with any of them, but you can see our investment returns doing really well for the county during the time I've been here.

Which uh shout out to you were a four-year for your varsity golfer.

I uh not taking not taking part in the golf.

Um I've never been on a course myself.

So all right.

Any questions on this slide?

Uh yeah, the the the big upticks, uh, you know, we see uh 23, 24, 25, you know, obviously interest rates were very high uh during that time.

Um, but also there was changes that we made.

You guys probably remember uh a few years back, us uh consolidating moving some things over to PTMA.

Um part of that was you know, uh administrative ease.

Part of that was the aggressive strategy that we were able to partner with them on.

Um as money um as investments, um, you know, fixed rate investments mature.

Uh, we have sub accounts for each and every fund that um are money market accounts that match Illinois fund rate.

And so as soon as that money, as soon as those investments mature on the PMA side, that money is then deposited directly into the corresponding money market account for that fund, and then it's able to just continue to make money.

Additionally, within those last three years, what we started to do is um negotiate a higher um a higher interest rate on our um our main cash liquidity account, so that um you know, in times you know, of the summer while we're while we're taking in considerable amount of property tax revenue, um, and we're gonna be you know holding it as as general fund operating budget uh operating funds throughout the year.

It's sitting now in a liquidity account for for as much money as we possibly can sits in that money market account, um, waiting to go to general fund or um ACH uh disbursements to to go out to pay what it needs to pay.

So we're making we're making money in in in new in new ways as well that we weren't really doing a uh from what I could tell before I started.

Um so it was the first year that everyone was kind of rebuffed about it, but now they know exactly what we want.

Right.

And then this you should be pretty familiar with now.

It's our cover sheet with the FSG every month, the cash and investment report, um, just a quick snapshot of what the portfolio or the county portfolio looks like, what what financial institutions um different amounts are at, um, what percentage of the total portfolio those are, and then what the average percent of yield is, and then um when applicable days of maturity.

All right, switching uh I should ask any other questions on the treasurer side before we switch gears.

Uh I don't have any further questions.

I'll just I'll just note since you guys are touching on it and our CFO is here as well.

I think you know, when we get into our budget, it'd be useful for us to understand where where the funds are coming from that are the interest earning uh funds and how that plays into our fund balance management because those are discussions that we have a lot here, and I think it would be helpful for us to just have a better understanding of those those flows.

Yeah, I just want to note that for future.

Thank you.

And I think we I think we budget for you know a certain anticipated amount of of interest revenue.

Um, but you know, one one one seed I'll I'll plant because uh you know we gave gave gave a shout out to Bob is also Treasurer Kim's last annual update here is more presentation though for our not leaving uh anytime soon, but we we have time for our for our right.

We'll have a grand for relations to you for sure.

Um, but um uh now I lost my train of thought.

What was I saying?

It was about the interest uh oh yeah.

So one thing we talk about, you know, is is is that's a that's a sizable portfolio.

Um and you know it's it's it's it's it's it's you know, to bring JJ Wentworth into it, you know, it's your money and you can have it now.

There's definitely projects that we can think of the comment was more along the lines of us understanding what is the basic portfolio, where are the funds coming from, what what actual funds on the county budget ledger side are are we managing here that are interest-based.

So we don't need to get into that now.

I'm just saying for for your reference and for CFO Tuesday, I think that would be helpful for us to understand that going forward.

Okay.

Understood.

Okay.

All right.

So the collector side.

Uh so uh in tax year uh 2024, collectible in 2025.

Uh we collected uh over 2.9 billion dollars in property taxes that were levied by local schools, uh other municipalities, um including the county.

We distribute that money back out to them over 288 different taxing authorities, including SSAs and then uh 53 TIFF districts.

Uh now I believe um we might be up to 54.

Um at the end of the year, um, so we collect uh those those tax uh tax bills from you know a month before they're due when the statements go out and all the way up until the day before the tax sale.

So um as many of you may have encountered with your constituents or hopefully not yourself, as soon as it's a day late, you know, that interest for the month um is is assessed on the parcel account.

Um, and that's really what the the lion's share of penalties and interest is.

Um so that is a transfer that I make to general fund um at the end of the year.

Um this last year for tax year 2024, it was five million dollars transferred from the collector account.

That's real real dollars transferred to the general fund um for um various different needs.

And then uh the last little bit that we're able to do um somewhat aggressively is negotiate.

We have a few different institutions that are kind of um elbowing to try to hold that 2.9 billion dollars.

Um you know, we don't get 2.9 million billion dollars in one day.

Um it's it's collect, you know, slowly with you know, um heights heights on the you know, the bell curve at the due dates, um, especially the first due date in June, where we will hold over a billion dollars for for a month or so.

Um so from a financial institution perspective, that's nice.

That's nice to have, even though they know it's hot money and it's not gonna be invested, it's not gonna be parked anywhere.

Um, it still kind of makes their end of month, you know, end a quarter look well.

So they're willing to offer you know competitive interest rates.

When I first started, it wasn't something that was really um aggressively gone after.

Um, but now um, you know, I kind of uh kind of landed at a at a rate for for both of our accounts this year that are pretty pretty aggressive for where where rates are right now.

Um but last year we were at uh $3.2 million in total collector interest, and all that is is that money sits in a liquidity account waiting to be distributed to those taxing authorities.

So that money is obviously the taxing authorities' money, which you know, I'm I'm happy and proud to do that work for them.

And um at the end of the year, uh state uh legislation dictates that it has to go out before the final distribution.

So before the we'll have one final distribution in December that will have handle the the 20 odd million dollars that we collected during the tax sale.

Um before that happens, I'll send out the interest revenue uh for the year.

Um, and of that 3.2, uh that point two um stayed stayed at home, went from one account to another um for Lake County.

So it's money that you can go.

So um I would I would say during the winters when we have like how can we do better, what else can we improve?

Um in my second term, this is one of the things we looked at is that the collector account is one of those interest bearing checking accounts at 1%.

And so in the past, we we give out something like 900 something thousand to all our taxing bodies.

And that was one where I had that relationship talk with our collector bank going, hey, could you raise this from one percent to higher?

Because you know, it's paying five percent in the regular investment market.

What can you do as a as a bank account?

And they're like, well, if you look at the pamphlet, it's a collector or it's a interest bearing checking at 1%.

That's just what it is.

And I was like, that's cool.

I think we will then maybe shop around.

And it was one of those, hold on, let me talk to my manager moments where they raised it to four percent that year.

And I think now it's three point something.

Yeah.

So the 3.2 million was from asking the question.

And that was starting a few years ago.

And I remember member Perak uh said it last year, like, so you just got extra like a hundred thousand dollars just for asking, you know, for Lake County.

And that's what it is.

We just asked uh for hire.

And so now they they know where the bar is sets.

And so we're very proud of that.

Last year, uh Waukegan Schools got 90,000, which is Chromebooks, which is make our labs.

So we're with that extra interest distribution, you know, all these taxing bodies are able to do projects they couldn't afford to do before.

Yeah, and it and you never know what it is, so it's hard to it's hard to really budget for it.

So it's always kind of uh a cherry on top.

Um, and there's a few districts that I keep an eye on, um, you know, that are just relevant in my personal life.

And you know, there's been times where uh, you know, at the end of the year, as I'm going through and balancing the the books to close the tax year, you know, um uh due to oh Bob left due to all the the P tabs and CEs that go on in Bob's office, you know, that's money that the those taxing districts are are then missing.

So, you know, whether whatever they were actually expecting 95, 90 per 6% of what they budgeted uh or levied for, um, you know, so there's been several instances where I've looked and this interest revenue has taken them from um uh uh a small deficit in their levy to to actually being completely even.

So it's definitely it's definitely useful and appreciated uh countywide.

Yeah, that's great to hear.

And how I always wondered how long does the money sit there on average before the taxing buy.

So I I uh every winter I publish a um a calendar.

Um so state statute says I have to distribute uh once a month.

We do twice a month.

Um and just I mean it's really important early on in the tax season, as especially for school districts that are wrapping up their financial year and need that money to get summer programs going.

Um, because you know it's the end of the fiscal year.

They haven't had tax revenue in in seven months, and you know, they need they need to get that money out.

Um he was on a school board, so he knows the suffering.

Um so uh it's um it is just it's just different, you know.

Um so the amounts are always gonna be different, but I am aggressive in terms of making weekly transfers sometimes during the height of collections, like two or three transfers a week where I might not have a distribution scheduled for the week that's ongoing, and I'm gonna move as much money as I can from the the collector main cash that everything's kind of funneling into after payments are posted, um, and then moving that into our liquidity account because it doesn't happen automatically.

So, yeah, so it could just be a couple days then.

Sometimes yeah, it doesn't fit there for this money.

They've all gone short.

Yeah, yeah, the the the lion share is you know, like we get maybe like five or ten days of three percent on a billion dollars, which is uh it's a very lucrative five or ten days.

But it the rest of the time, you know, it's holding small balances like 70, 80 million dollars, like that just was not accounted for for that specific distribution, it's gonna go out in the next one.

So that's still, you know, in term in and you know, in terms of things like not it's not pennies.

Uh any of the nope.

All right.

All right.

This is just a quick breakdown of um the metrics of of what we of what we took in from that 2.9 billion.

Um 91,000 payments were made via our lockbox.

That's people mailing in their payments.

We provide, we have a relationship with old national bank.

They provide a free lockbox service.

Um, so when we send out those tax bills, the return envelopes that are inside of them are actually addressed not to not to AT North County, but to our lockbox um and Juliet.

Uh then we have the escrow payments.

Uh that's uh over a billion dollars, 216,000 um parcels, um, just you know, have have their mortgage service or take care of it.

Um those payments come in via wire a couple days before the due dates.

Um in person, that's 77,000 people in the lobby, uh totally been correct.

Yep, even even like I want to say like five or six thousand lower than last year, it just continues to trickle down as we as we work to train our residents to take advantage of more convenient um payment methods.

Um still though a sizable amount in terms of the total countywide levy at 402 million dollars.

Our our partner banks, uh 142,000 payments at 67 million, and then online, this is the big one, and this is the one that's growing fastest, 103,000 payments um for uh seven almost 800 million dollars.

So that's that's pushing up into the territory of um you know being being as large as escrow.

Most of them are taking advantage of the free um the free payment uh via eCheck, which is just entering in their bank's routing and checking account number and then processing the payment uh via via that way.

Um and then we have our own ACH program um which people can sign up for through our office through our website, um, in which uh our accounting team manages and um some people opt to just have it deducted the full year um on the due date in June.

Some people have half deducted June, half deducted in September.

Um, but that's still a sizable, I mean, in terms of people, um it's not that many.

Um, but really what we see is uh is um people that own multiple properties, rental properties, they like to take advantage of this where they can have everything kind of organized where they don't have to worry too much about it, um about 41 million dollars.

And then uh to get us all the way home, we have the annual tax sale, which is not listed, which was 20 million dollars this year.

Quick on this slide.

Just so you guys know, um, in person used to not only snake around the lobby, but go down the courthouse.

And so it affected many departments, including the courts.

Um we are lucky if we see a line on the day of the due date, and it is so different now.

And we worked with the comms department, I believe in the first term sometime making a commercial that's like pay at the bank buy your house, do not come all the way to the county.

And we really showed the security line that they have to go through and the metal detecting.

Um and once we negotiated the free e-check, because that wasn't that that wasn't base.

When I got here, there was a fee for it.

So now it's free.

More people gravitated that way.

And so it is literally, even if people are in line now, we hand them a bookmark with all the banks and the option to pay online, and we're like, please pay every other way.

Besides some of them, uh the first few years that we started the online payment, we set up laptops and said if anyone's willing to get out of line and pay online, I'll walk you to a laptop, we'll do it together.

And so we did, and they're like, I could do this from home, and we're like, Yeah.

So then they never came back.

It's it's been a monumental effort, but uh kudos to the comps department for helping us.

All right, and then uh the last slide on the DAX structure was new program requests.

Um, I put in two new program requests uh last year.

Um, and uh they were both kind of earmarked as not now, um, but um maybe maybe later.

Um, and then uh one of them is is is got some steam to potentially get in front of you guys um sometime soon.

Uh that's the document retention scanning project.

Uh we have a couple million documents um from tax bills older than 1977 that we have to retain per state statute that are very, very difficult to find.

Um, it would it comes up more often than you would think.

Um, I believe it kind of went through all this went with the NPR request, but there's a few loss years from 1997 to 2001 that we just don't want to see happen again.

Um, so we uh we're working with purchasing right now.

Um there's uh it didn't have to go out to bid because we have a few companies that are currently under um umbrella contracts with the county that we can utilize.

Um so both those quotes are in.

We've had both both uh finalist companies come in and take inventory.

Um, and um hopefully within the next month or two we have um an agenda item for you all to consider in terms of moving forward with that and and making sure that those documents are secure for years going forward.

Um, the tax sale analyst is something that really, you know, it's it the tax sale um is proving to become more and more of a full-time job.

Um, currently there's you know, federal lawsuits that have had implications, and and I I'm not sure how familiar everyone is with the treasurer's indemnity fund.

Um, but uh on a weekly basis, I'm meeting with Steven Rice and um uh some colleagues of his regarding um cases uh for potential withdrawals on the Demnity Fund.

Um, we have relationships with uh you know 50 different tax buyers.

Um there's administrative work that is year-round, and then it really gets very, very busy late summer into December.

Um, where this is something that there's tasks owned by five or six different people within the office um that takes them away from their other primary duties um on an annual basis, and it's um due due to several of those um areas being um customer service representatives, and we've had we've seen high turnover in in some of those desks on the customer service side, it's more of an entry-level position.

Um, it it becomes you know even more of a burden annually because then we have to go through and retrain new people every year on those different tasks.

So it's definitely something that we would still that we still see a need for and would love to have consideration, but it's not anything that's got any current steam.

Thank you, Deputy Treasurer Gray.

Thank you, Treasurer Kim.

Uh, as I said, we have more time to thank you for your service and for your work.

Uh, you're you're here with us through the end of the year, but I I do want to just say the creativity that you have brought to the office to the focus on improving the return on investments is impressive, notable, appreciated, and also the creativity brought to the way you communicate with us and with the public is really impressive.

So thank you for everything you've done, and we appreciate you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Back to uh tax or tax collections.

All right.

Thank you, Steve.

Thank you, Treasurer Kim.

Do we have a county administrators report?

I have a brief report, it's more informational to uh uh the committee members and see if there's any feedback.

Um, as you're all aware, the county has an ethics commission of five members that was established in 2021 at the time.

Uh in 2021, there were five members that were appointed via a pretty extensive process in which we pushed out communications requesting interested parties to apply to be an ethics commissioner.

We had 120 applicants at the time, and the county administrator's office in partnership with State Attorney's Office reviewed all those applications and came up with notes, and we came up with a great memo that I presented to the ethics and oversight committee at the time with here's all the backgrounds and experiences and education that we found when we did this review, and then I requested feedback from the ethics and oversight committee as to what types of applicants they would like in this finalist pool.

And I received that.

We went back into uh um executive session and a subsequent meeting, and we reviewed all the applicants on a massive spreadsheet that uh staff had put together with the committee members and the committee members, and then you know, there was a there was a prioritization based on the feedback I'd received as to what applicants we could potentially consider for appointments.

The ethics and oversight committee provided um their direction as to which ones they would like to review, and then we came back at a special call meeting uh and did interviews in executive session of 10 applicants, I think at like 15 minutes apiece.

And then based on that, we came up with the top five that were then put on the board.

The finance and administrative committee uh is now responsible for the appointment of those individuals, and there are three applicants, uh three appointees that are up for appointment, and one individual has stated that they would not like to be reconsidered for reappointment.

So they expire in August.

Staff is going to push out a communication requesting um or soliciting uh interested individuals to be potentially appointed or interviewed for appointment for the ethics and oversight committee, uh commission, the ethics commission.

I'm sorry, I'm confusing them a little bit, but that is at this point.

Staff's uh recommendation, if that's unless there's some other direction that the committee would like to provide, is staff will follow similar processes as created in 2021, in which we'll solicit applications, staff will do an initial uh summarization of what we received, and then we'll be coming back here for direction from the committees to what types of backgrounds and education or experiences you'd like to see as finalists that we would then do interviews of to come up with three individuals that would be uh put on a county board agenda for appointment to the ethics commission.

That was a lot, so I'm sorry it felt it was kind of all over the place.

But ultimately, ethics commissioners expiring.

We're gonna kick out communication uh and get interested parties, and then staff will be coming back to uh with uh direction for interviews.

Thank you.

And I'll just highlight something that Deputy Minister Meyer just said, which is basically that you know that responsibility falls to this committee now since we have dissolved the ethics committee, and these appointments are not appointments made by the board chair.

There's so they will be made by us at this committee, uh, you know, with the administrator's office uh facilitating interviews and applicants.

Member Clark.

So um, do you already have what so I wasn't on the committee before?

So you're gonna ask for applicants, and then do you already have what the Browns were like to evaluate people before?

Like, do you need us to come up with are you are asking us at the next meeting or whatever to come up with new grounds, or do you already kind of have the what you were looking for in people before?

So, what I had done was uh we the state attorney and the county minister's office came up with a large uh detailed spreadsheet of all the the experience, background, education, um, what we felt applicable or not, and then I summarized that in a memo that I brought back to the ethics and oversight committee and said, here's what we have.

Staff thinks that we should potentially focus on these individuals here, or not these individuals, but these experiences here because this individual worked on an ethics commission in corporate.

This person worked, and so we we came back and said, is this comfortable with the committee for us to consider?

And then we'll use that information that you're giving me, and I'll come up with the top 25 individuals that kind of fits that that box.

And then I come back with that top 25 to you all and say, are there top 10 that you would like to see or 15?

And then we'll line up the interviews and then just do them 15 minutes apiece in a special call meeting in executive session.

We did it virtual at the time.

Um, and then the committee then deliberates and says, Well, these are the top five because of XYZ reason, and then those top five.

There's only three this time, though.

I keep saying five, but there's only three individuals this time.

And so I I see.

So really you got the growth, you got that from looking at the applications.

That's kind of we came up and said, Here's what we got.

Yeah, okay.

So what do we have?

It's a very large number of applicants.

Yes.

And so based on the qualifications presented, we sort of refined it from there.

That makes okay.

I I understand now.

Okay.

So you look at all the people, and then that's where you get what we should be looking for.

Yeah, not us telling you what to look for.

Correct.

Yeah.

That makes sense.

No, no, no.

So next to the next step then would be you would come to you doing that.

They're gonna put out that the notice of uh position availability, right?

Right, correct.

And so we'll get applicants and we'll get the details from the administrator's office.

We'll decide who who we're gonna interview if if we're gonna limit the pool, and then we'll do the interviews and make the choices here.

So over the next couple months, you'll all start to see that.

Everyone comfortable with that approach.

Great.

Okay, anything else?

Um, Tristan, did you have something?

Okay, so sorry.

Uh that's it.

Okay, we have no executive session.

Any member remarks, requests, anything else?

Great.

We'll be back here next week on June 4th.

We're adjourned.

Thank you, everyone.