Good morning.

Today is what is today?

Oh, it's May 29th, 2026, and I call the Lake County Technology Committee meeting to order at 8:33 a.m.

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

This meeting is being recorded through Zoom.

Can you please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance?

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands.

One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

All right.

Member Altenberg is gonna be here in a few minutes.

Vice Chair Kasmin here.

Chair Clark.

Here.

Member Dan Ford.

Absent.

Member Frank?

Here.

Okay.

Member Peterson.

She gave yeah, she gave notice that she would be absent today.

And Member Robert.

Also gave us she would be absent today too.

And we do have Member Altenberg coming in a few minutes.

And until then, we do not have quorum.

But we will be getting quorum.

It's coming.

So because of that, we are going to start with some present.

We'll start with addenda to the agenda.

Oh, yeah.

Is there any addendum to the agenda?

No addenda to the agenda.

Is there any because we can still do this part?

Are there any public comments?

No public comments.

All right.

So Chair's remarks says we're gonna start with our broadband update.

So, which is I believe item nine point two.

Welcome.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Kay Crandall, Digital Equity Manager.

Hello, Kim Lunt, digital equity coordinator.

All right.

Well, good morning, everyone.

Thank you for the opportunity to provide an update on our programs and initiatives.

Um we are going to uh focus on several of our strategies here, including public Wi-Fi, device distribution, our digital navigator program, digital literacy programs, our digital equity coalition, and our marketing initiative.

Starting with public Wi-Fi.

So uh as you may know, we have been working on two public Wi-Fi projects, one with the city of Waukegan and one with the city of North Chicago.

And we have passed an intergovernmental agreement with the city of North Chicago.

And so we've been working and collaborating with the city on those efforts uh to launch the public Wi-Fi network.

And so right now we're working on the project implementation timeline and equipment orders.

And so um we've been able to spend some time while we're planning uh those pieces to um look at the community outreach and engagement.

And so um we're working on some instructional signage and um making sure that we have uh information to get out to the community about how to access the network.

And uh so we're really excited about this collaboration and to see things moving forward.

Can I ask one question about that?

I've had some um really great you know feedback from people in the community.

And so they were wondering how to log on.

So that's what I told them.

So there's going to be signs like in public areas, and so it really is free public Wi-Fi access, right?

People come in that whole area that we have, there'll be information in people just log on right there.

Is that correct?

Yes, that's correct.

So there will be a launch with materials that will go out to the community to describe how to access the network, the intention um for use of the network, and um we'll also be putting up signage so there will be some uh semi-permanent um actual signs posted on polls, and uh we'll also have window clings for businesses and um stickers that have like access information and so those are the types of materials we're working on.

So we'll be able to post them up in the physical area and then also distribute them to folks uh for them to have that information on hand.

Oh, great.

And is there like a catchy name for this network?

Or is it just called like free Wi-Fi, which is totally fine.

There will be a different network name for the Waukeegan and North Chicago site.

So that'll be a part of the launch.

Yeah, sorry.

I'm refraining.

Thank you here.

Yeah, congrats.

Exciting.

Um what will the utilization reports look like?

And will that come to us or to the municipalities and we'll get copies?

Like how will we know how many logins accessing per day, et cetera?

Yeah, absolutely.

So um there are some requirements for the ARPA funding uh under the US Treasury guidelines to collect uh base uh data of the network utilization.

And there will be a network dashboard developed by uh CDW or contractor.

And so primarily the city will be managing the network dashboard, but we will have access to it uh through the end of 2026.

And I'm sure they'll be happy to share the information with us about the utilization of the network.

But yes, we'll be able to see the uh unique user logins, duplicate um pings, and then um overall utilization of like time spent by users on the network and finer details of what the speeds upload, download speeds, latency, those types of things.

Thank you.

Thanks, Jair.

Um I'm so excited about this.

Um, as you know, it's very uh it's lovely to see that some of these access equities that the inequities that I saw um years ago um are being addressed in these communities.

I'm super excited.

Thank you so much for your work on it.

Um when we send out information about the networks, um, is there any will there be any link to information about how to use the network safely?

Yes, absolutely.

Thank you for that question.

Um we will be sharing information about um best practices to use the network and uh logging on.

And I believe we're also working on a a web page that will have some of those details.

So in addition to the materials that we'll be sharing out, uh, we'll have uh a web page with that information that will be linked through uh the digital growth initiative webpage and to the cities respectively, the municipalities websites.

Will that be available uh bilingually?

Because it's there's a significant Latino population in North Chicago and Joaquin both.

I anticipate we'll be able to translate the materials in Spanish.

Yes.

Yes, this is very exciting.

And when is is this is this up now or when is it?

Not yet.

Um, but the projects will launch this year.

And can we have like a ribbon cutting?

We'll think about this.

We are planning ribbon cuttings for both locations.

So you will certainly be notified um with the possibility of attending uh both of those events.

Yeah, thank you.

And thank you again.

I mean, for all your work on this.

This is so exciting.

Thank you.

So we have an upcoming laptop distribution event uh coming up at the end of June, June 26th and 27th.

Eligible Lake County residents will be able to who are enrolled in NORSTAR can end up uh acquiring a laptop by hitting some criteria that we have with regards to completing some work through NORSTAR.

And so then after they do that, uh we uh they're invited to come and uh get their brand new laptop.

So very exciting.

We also plan on holding the next device distribution event in October with more details to follow.

All right.

Uh and then for our digital navigator program, we do have a role on our team open.

And so folks that are interested in working as a digital navigator through the end of 2026 can apply through MGT.

And so uh we've got that link there.

And um, so we're we're excited to look for someone to add to our team.

Uh we had someone that was in the role as a digital navigator move on to a new role, and we're really happy for them and um really grateful for all the work that they've done on our team.

So um please spread the word if you know anyone that's interested or maybe interested.

And then I'll go through some metrics here.

So this graph is the Lake County Digital Navigator Program Monthly Metrics, and it shows the totals to date at the top.

So these are from the beginning of the program in 2024 to April 2026, and the graph uh points are from April 2025 to April 2026.

So in April of this year, we have served uh 363 residents.

And um that is over the course of 434 one-on-one and group learning sessions, and in April we distributed 52 laptops.

And so you can see the cumulative totals at the top are making great progress, and um the folks that we've been able to serve in the community over those learning sessions, and we're I think at this point, you know, we'll see it with the May metrics, but over 1,500 laptops distributed in the community, which is incredible.

And we're, I think at this point, you know, we'll see it with the May metrics, but over 1,500 laptops distributed in the community, which is incredible.

And then here, this is our digital navigator program, instruction and engagement.

And so this is a new metric kind of framing that we've developed.

And it shows both the hours of digital navigator instruction.

So the time that staff have invested in one-on-one and group sessions, and then the hours of participant engagement.

So the resident time investment back.

And I think this is really powerful because it shows over time, you know, the investment of the community back to the work that we've been doing.

So if you look at this, um, you see almost 4,000 hours of digital navigator instruction matched with the fifth over 15,000 hours of participant engagement.

So every one hour that a digital navigator is instructing digital literacy, a community member has put 3.89 hours back of their own time investments.

So we really see a powerful investment of time and resources on behalf of residents.

And I really appreciate that.

Both we can see that our staff are dedicated and the community is dedicated to the initiative as well.

And then just a couple of pictures here of recent cohorts on the left are May 2026, Waikegan Public Library cohort with two of our digital navigators, Wilner and Chanel.

And that was a big group, lots of happy faces.

Everyone received their certificates and their laptops.

And then on the right at the job center of Lake County, also the May 2026 cohort there with Anna and her participants.

So they're doing great work and helping lots of folks in the community.

We've seen an uptick in engagement for registration and attendance since the weather has been getting warm again.

So it's great to see.

All right.

So this slide highlights monthly North Star metrics across the entire digital uh growth initiative network.

And we've seen strong participation growth over time as more organizations begin integrating digital literacy programming into their services.

You can see a little blip there with in March where the assessments went up, and that was the first month of our that we did the device distribution.

So you saw a lot of activity going on.

I anticipate that happening again in June.

Thank you.

Okay, so these cumulative metrics demonstrate the broader scale of digital literacy engagement across the network.

Um beyond the numbers, we continue seeing increased learner confidence and greater willing willingness to engage with technology independently.

You could yeah, thank you.

Um this slide highlights some of the organizations and participants involved in digital literacy programming throughout the county.

We're so grateful for all of the partner organizations that are helping to expand the access to these opportunities.

In fact, in the last week, we've had three new organizations apply for for the NORSTAR license.

So one thing that we consistently hear from participants is how meaningful it feels to earn those certificates and see that tangible progress in their learning journey.

Uh often these moments of confidence building become the starting point for larger goals like education, employment, communication, and simply feeling connected.

And our most recent uh digital equity coalition meeting took place on May 19th last week and brought together, we brought together partners from across the county.

Uh we had 42 attendees total with uh representing 20 organizations with a few community members joining us.

Uh the meeting included updates from the Illinois Office of Broadband, uh North Star Partner Highlights and participant success stories, which is always great.

Uh, we did metrics updates and we did some collaborative goal setting activities.

One thing that we value about the coalition is that it creates space for that cross-sector collaboration, and no single organization can close the digital divide alone.

So ultimately building these relationships through the coalition meetings is uh essential.

Yes, and thank you, member uh Clerk Chair Clark and uh Vice Chair Kasman for attending and providing the opening and closing at those meetings, um, and this most recent meeting in particular.

I was really excellent.

We had the meeting at the central permit facility in Libertyville, which we hadn't hosted there before, and we had a lot of new faces come to the meeting, uh, which was very exciting.

So thank you for your continued support on that.

Thank you.

All right.

And then uh we also have continued to expanding our outreach and communication efforts.

Uh this includes community-facing materials, partner tool kits, as you can see here, uh social media outreach and ongoing efforts to make information accessible and easy to share.

Our coalition toolkit up here is a helpful resource for the part for our partners who want to amplify digital equity information within their own communities and networks.

Uh ultimately outreach is critical because opportunities only matter if residents know they exist and feel comfortable accessing them.

Yeah, thank you uh for your time and continued support of our work.

Do you have any additional questions beyond the Wi-Fi question?

Please, Chair.

It's not a question, it's just a comment.

I was speaking um at the uh digital equity coalition meeting with Daryl from Comcast, and he had done work like this um in Rockford, where he previously was stationed.

Um he helped me understand just how many light years ahead we are.

Um, I think sometimes it's hard for us to contextualize these numbers because we don't know, we don't know what good is.

I mean, he said that the amount of devices you've been able to distribute has been extraordinary.

Um he just down the metrics, he helped me understand and contextualize just how amazing you guys have it the amazing work you've done.

I think building the partnerships, um, building the coalition is critical, and you've put so much energy and effort into it.

I know it's it's organizing and organizing is very um challenging work and you constantly have to be after it.

So I'm so impressed um at your efforts and your ability to build this program in a relatively short period of time and make a huge difference in people's lives.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Oh, I agree.

I mean, yeah, the meeting was amazing and I agree.

Like, see, there were so many new faces and people were like the energy in the room and the connections that were being made in the room.

I think everyone met somebody I know I did that helped you know make these connections and grow it here.

And I did, and so many compliments.

So, really, so many compliments to you both to everyone that's been involved in this.

Um, it just hearing the stories from people.

And I wish all board members could go to one of these meetings just like once to hear from people whose lives are truly changed for the better by the training, by the devices, and just by having these, you know, these resources.

It's what we really decided to do those years ago when we sat there with the ARPA money, is like really do transformational change.

And that's what this whole program has done.

And I also want to give a shout out to the toolkit, which I don't know if you have any of you have, I know you probably have.

If you've checked out the toolkit, it's amazing.

If you want to have like a poster in like Spanish or English, if you win a social media thing, anything that in this toolkit you can download to put on your own social media to put um on like a for county things to print out to send to people, it's amazing.

Because if we don't communicate with people, they don't know it's there.

So, you know, kudos for all the communication too.

So I'm um looking forward to the next one.

I think in person just has a special uh it's just special getting to see everyone.

So thank you both.

All right.

Now we can go back to all right.

So now we uh do have a quorum.

So we're gonna do here.

All right, so we're gonna start with our regular agenda, which is item 8.1, a joint resolution authorizing a one-year agreement with renewal options with co-file technologies of Dallas, Texas for digital solutions and records management for the Lake County Clerk of the Circuit Court in the estimated annual amount of 400,000 for the first year and 300,000 for each subsubsequent year.

Can I get a motion in a second?

Motion by Altonberg, second by Frank.

Good morning.

Morning.

So we are um looking to work with CO-File going forward to work on our microphone project.

We've been working with another company to do the other digital scanning, but Co-File has better technology to help with the quality of the images coming through on the um microphone because some of it is not great.

So we've been working with them over the last year, negotiating with them, and uh this looks like the best option for us at this point with the microphone.

And is this for which I mean, I am which type of records?

Is this like records for people are looking at for court right now?

Correct.

Okay, yep.

Yep.

So it's state law so it's really like literally microfilm like this old and we still have to put things on microfilm.

We don't have to do the newer stuff because it's electronic now through the case management system but prior to this case management system we did.

And is this putting I just I'm fascinated by the microfilm so is this you're welcome to come down and see it again it would be really interesting.

So are you so I guess are you putting these records on microfilm or are these just being digitalized.

They're being digitalized.

Okay.

No more micro mic okay we're trying to get out of it it's just that this company is a little bit more expensive because of the quality of the images so it's gonna take us a while to finish.

So you're moving stuff off microfilm into digital world and this gives you better resolution.

Yes that's what they're gonna go through and check the resolution on these.

And how long do you think it'll take I mean how many records do you have so this is only one set of the microphone we have three different sets.

We have duplex, simplex and oracle this is only simplex so it unfortunately with our document storage um fund that we're using to do this we can only afford three to four hundred thousand dollars a year to be able to um do it and it's just gonna take a long time with this company.

Like yeah I mean years like decade like yeah it could be a long time.

Right, right.

Yeah.

And we we love it if the county has money to help yeah I know and we have I think it's it's like it's fascinating.

And then you'll have so then after they're digitized you can get rid of the microfilm.

Yes we our plan is to get rid of the microphone.

Yes and as you go okay yes please even though it's fun watching the little kids come through and it's C microfilm for the first time that what is that this is what digital was before there was computers.

All right well thank you for the explanation yeah vice chair um on behalf of all those who have tried to look at digitized records from hyperfilm microphone I thank you for getting high quality resolution images because it it doesn't matter if you digitize them if you can't read them.

So I appreciate that.

Well thank you for that yeah this is a little bit more pricey and was not my favorite route but if you can't read it it's worthless.

And I don't want people to have to go back and do it again.

No, we do not want that.

And these are important records.

Yeah.

All right.

Thank you any other questions?

All right all in favor?

Aye any opposed thanks motion carry that was easy.

Thank you.

I like easy ones.

Yeah.

It's interesting one.

All right item 8.2 is a joint resolution authorizing an agreement with DLZ Illinois Inc.

Chicago Illinois for the 2026 ITS Passage Field Elements phase two design engineering services to expand and enhance the Lake County Passage intelligent transportation system infrastructure along various routes in Lake County at a maximum cost of 1334 dollars and appropriating 160500 of the quarter percent sales tax for transportation funds.

Can I get a motion in a second motion by um Frank uh second by Altenberg.

Good morning.

Morning John Nelson, assistant county engineer.

Uh so item yeah before you hear is a design contract to update and expand on the passage field network.

We have a location map up for you.

Um just go through a little bit about the design that we're planning on doing.

So first off we're gonna be uh looking to replace some existing fiber and steel conduit with some uh new fiber and some plastic conduit to replace some damaged uh fiber areas we're also looking to install uh underground fiber optic enclosures uh right now our fiber optic enclosure enclosures are inside the traffic signal cabinets um those are can be prone to um being damaged by uh vehicles if it can if the cabin gets hit or if a uh equipment malfunctions so we're putting those on enclosures underground um we're looking to do that on uh corridors we're doing that right now in construction projects so or we're gonna start doing that along major corridors as well uh the third aspect of the design will be installing some uh cameras on poles so we do that today already on like fearful and gilmer some of the roundabouts at street light poles um over 994 some of the bridges so we're gonna be and it's more cameras on poles away from traffic signals along some routes we don't have visibility so along Rowlands and area Butterfield Gilmer also over the display's river at some of our bridges and on the Fox uh over the Fox Lake as well.

So there we can watch moder monitor the water levels as well and look for flooding and um be able to see what's going on on the roadways.

And the last part of the design is just replacing some of our analog uh traffic cameras and also some old detection cameras and some old switches.

Some of them are almost 20 years old out there.

So just um going through process of upgrading some equipment.

And that's the design.

Thank you, Chair.

I'm hoping you could explain to me a little bit about system and the program and the value generally.

Okay.

Because it it seems to me, and I I know I've asked this question in the past that there's some redundancies between passage and other technologies that monitor um you know traffic, report traffic to not not only to consumers and drivers, but you know, agencies as well.

Can you explain why it's still important that we have our own?

Yeah.

And are there part two of my question is are there uh other uh customers of this data that that we're either in a contract or a partnership with you mentioned monitoring flooding?

I'm assuming that's mostly for traffic and roads for for DOT, but like, hey, is there value that the municipalities want to access those cameras?

Is that something that they contract with, they pay us for any of that data?

So the two levels of questions all right.

I'm gonna start with the second one first.

Thank you.

Um, so users of the data, so we do not charge anybody for the data that we have, the camera access.

So most of the 911 centers and the rock, EMA, SMC, uh Public Works now, uh the sheriff, EMA, all have access to the cameras.

So they all haven't able to monitor, view them in real time to monitor for their own purposes.

So whether it's the flooding, the levees, and it can disasters, they all have access to the camera for response as well.

Um we also share that video with um like some like Lake Forest College that's also able to do they want to see what's going on approaching their campus as well.

So they have access to the video as well.

Um third parties.

So you think of um like Waze, Google, Apple, they use our data that we have on our website, they actually take data from us.

We have a contract with them, they take data from us to post, because they trust our data because they know it's verified.

So if construction projects going on, they ask us, hey, what's going on with this project?

And they use that to update their map.

So they use our information from our website.

Um the snapshots, the cameras.

They pay us for that.

No.

It's a two-way agreement, so we get data from them.

So we get um data access to all like for Waze example, for example.

We get all their data.

So what we get from them is really um travel times on roadways.

And we create a program now where we can input all that travel times and then we will alarm it to ourselves.

Hey, if this travel time is above normal, so we know Waze knows like typical day rush hour, it's gonna US 41 is gonna go from five minutes up to eight minutes.

That's normal.

It goes up to 20 minutes, there's an issue.

We get an automatic alert from that.

We created to alert ourselves, hey, there's something going out there.

Let's see, is there a lane closure they're not aware of?

There's a utility working in the way, is there a crash?

We're not aware of our stall.

We can look at that, we'll see that we'll talk to law enforcement as well, make sure they're aware of it.

So it's a two-way where waves machine trained data with us, and they're also posting event data and construction data to their website.

So we have that um method as well.

Um, as far as their benefit of this is the traffic signal data.

So that's something that their parties third parties don't do, but allows us to communicate with all our signals in real time.

So by creating that fiber network, we can monitor not only our signals, but all the state signals and most municipal signals as well.

So the system has 700 signals in it right now of the about 750 in the county.

So with that, we know when the detection's failing, if there's a communication error, if the signal goes in flash, we can respond to it 24 hours a day.

Um we can alert goes right to the contractor, they respond at two in the morning, fix the signal before rush hour even happens.

So is that all your yeah?

Okay.

Thank you.

Yep.

I I guess my my first part of my question was the the value of us having our own system versus the available data.

I think the other value is uh the camera images that you don't have on the uh the public side of as much.

So the the snapshots, we walk we look at our uh website data and our app data and the users on the normal day we get three, four or five hundred people using it.

There's this snowstorm weather event, we're in the 20, 50, 100,000 people looking at it because they want to see the snapshots.

They want to see it's snowing, but how bad is my route to work?

And so those images are very popular and very um productive.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you.

Yeah, it is interesting to think about like our data.

If we could like if these companies are using our data, is there a way we can especially for privately held companies versus you know, obviously we want to have the data shared for our residents so they can use it.

And they share data with us for the same way.

So yeah, I don't know, something to think about for the future though, if they're gonna be using all our data, maybe there's some value in that that we should be, you know, we're like kind of subsidizing them a bit, maybe, maybe not.

Um also I could so these new cameras, um, excited to see them.

So do they have any um and it's okay if they do, but like artificial intelligence parts, or do we have to worry about them from cybersecurity world, or they just like you stick them on there and they just do their job.

Camera, they they do their job, they move around when we when we tell them to move around, there's no Yeah.

I saw that you can pan.

So these ones you can actually move, or those you can like kind of move around and see what's going on.

Yep.

And for the um, and my other question is when people do use I assume we have some kind of privacy policies because we do not keep recordings.

People always ask me this.

Yes.

Like we don't keep recordings of the traffic, it's just live.

It's why we do keep snapshots.

So we do know we do not record it all.

Yeah.

Would you take snapshot that we post to the website every five to seven minutes?

And those we keep for about 10 days.

And then our partners that use it, like let's just, you know, like some police or what other police um area or something.

Do we have like a uh policies that say that they also can't just record it on their own?

Like is there so everybody who is involved in it, like it's not like they can just record it off, you know, on a different site.

It's like we have policies.

Yeah, we have a policy of an agreement that we signed with them, and then there's a policy that says video use, and then there it says do not record.

Okay, yeah.

I do I get a lot of questions about that about the recording part.

So I can assure people that um at least from this, people we are not recording things in the can you go back and look at what happened in there?

We do get those requests.

Yeah.

So you look back to the snapshots, so we use them, share them with law enforcement before a crash or users will email us to send FOIA requests, and if we have them, we'll for the snapshots, right?

But we don't sit there and just record everything.

Correct.

Which is good.

And it's interesting.

So you're moving the fiber optics into the out of the cabinet into the There's still gonna be a like a pigtail going into the cabinet, but the big major splice enclosure will be underground.

So if the cabinet gets hit, yeah, the fiber can continue on instead of right now.

It all goes up into the cabinet.

Yeah, I've seen some of those cabinets.

They're really full.

Are full.

They are full.

All right, thank you.

Yeah, back to chair.

Um, in our user agreements, um, do we have prohibitions against sharing our information with third parties or selling it or something like that?

No, because I don't think most of our agreements are with all you're all with government agencies.

So we've not gone down that road.

I mean, that might be something to explore.

Like if we want, well, yeah, as we were talking, yeah, like other agencies or yeah.

So thanks.

All right.

All right, thank you.

All right.

Any other questions?

All right, all in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed?

Motion carries.

Thank you.

So interesting to committee.

All right, yeah, item 8.3 is a joint resolution to enter into a contract with Global Telink Corporation DBA via Path Technologies Falls Church, Virginia, to provide inmate phone video visitation tablets and mail scanning for the Lake County jail.

Can I get a motion in a second?

Motion Beltenberg, second by Kasvin.

Good morning.

Morning, everyone.

Uh Katie Latis, I'm the contract manager for the sheriff's office.

I have Chief Klaus with me here to answer any operational questions you may have.

Um, we are here to present the Vipath contract.

It is phone video visitation, tablets, and mail scanning for the inmates.

Our current contract expires August 1st of this year, and Via Path is our incumbent vendor.

Um, this is a zero dollar contract, and it doesn't utilize any taxpayer funding.

There will be no change in equipment operations or pricing to the inmates and family and friends.

Um, the contract includes an on-site technician full-time Monday through Friday and on call basically 24-7.

If there's any major outings, if they need to come on site to respond.

Um this allows little to no staff involvement on our end, which is huge for us.

Um I know there was uh a few initial questions, so I just want to talk about that.

Uh, this contract is only for the Lake County jail.

It does not involve the inmates that are at McHenry, but they are they have the same technology at McHenry.

So this is a very standardized type of contract amongst jails.

So we're not offering anything that they don't have access to there.

Um, another question that came up was in regards to the mail scanning.

So I just kind of want to explain that process.

So all legal mail is handled in-house by correctional staff.

The only mail that's sent out is what I call regular mail.

Um, so what happens is family and friends address the postal envelope to the inmate with their L number.

It says, you know, Lake County jail, and then there's a PO box that it's sent to.

And once that PO box, who uh who's I'm sorry, text behind is the third-party vendor that does that.

Um, once they get that envelope, they will scan it into their system at an off-site processing facility.

And it then gets directed to our correctional staff to review the letter to make sure there's nothing inappropriate in there.

And then once approved, it is transferred onto the inmates' tablet for them to look at for free.

And it stays on the tablet for the entirety of their stay.

Um, sorry.

Another question that was brought up was um regarding cellular data versus Wi-Fi.

So the tablets use cellular data, but there is also a Wi-Fi connection to cover in case of an outage.

Uh, we haven't had really any issues with it at all.

And it allows a wider range of tablet use in the pods with that method.

Um I also want to point out that it is a one-to-one tablet ratio.

So every inmate has access to a tablet.

Uh, there's no, there's no sharing, there's no fighting over access.

Um yeah.

So does anybody have any questions?

Yeah, yeah, vice chair.

Um, not a question, but a comment.

I I love the way that you guys use the tablets as an incentive for good behavior.

I think it's helpful from everything I've heard from personnel.

Um, and I I'm really glad that you offer that.

And you do it.

Thanks.

Thank you.

Yeah, I know I've got I've gotten a lot of questions from people about the cost.

You know, I mean, when people are you because there's no visitors, right?

You can't, is that right?

There's a no visitor policy.

On site, on site for here and in McHenry County.

So if if people go to McHenry County, there's also new visitors.

And you know, it's what is it, eight, 19 cents a minute for video visits.

Um, and so is there like I mean, is there cost like do we make people always ask me, are you making money off this contract?

I mean, that's what they say.

They're like, are you making money off this?

I know it's not a cost to us, but does this cost more like is there profit or extra money going somewhere, or is this just the cost of what it costs to run this?

You know, from the with the company.

Yeah.

So um, so the FCC actually just changed the regulations, which they they eliminated the commission on phone calls and video visitation.

However, they do allow a, they're calling it a cost recovery fee of two cents that is baked into that seven cents per minute for the phone calls, and it's baked into the 19 cents for the video visitations.

That cost recovery fee goes into the inmate welfare and it's redistributed back to the inmates.

It's not something that goes into our budget that we're able to use for anything else.

Um, and there is still a commission on the premium tablet content.

So that includes uh music, movies, games.

Anything else on the tablet is free.

We do not receive any commission on that.

Right.

And I assume I mean, this is like a you've shopped around on pricing.

This is considered to be a good pricing because um, you know, it does this per minute cost adds up a lot, you know, 25 cents a minute for premium tablet cost, you know, that's when you watch a movie, I don't even know how much that's gonna cost.

Well, for watching a movie, it's five cents per minute.

Okay.

So there's a free section of the tablet that has the mail, it has uh they can look at pictures that were sent.

Um, that's where the education, the law library, they can submit grievances, sit calls, they have access to any documentation that that command decides to upload for them.

So PRIA, um, even copies of contracts if they want to look at it.

So that's all free.

If they move on to the premium section, that is only five cents per minute for the inmates.

So watching a movie, it would be five cents a minute.

The 25 cents, that is for messaging.

And it's it's basically like a text message is how you can view it.

So there's, I mean, the character limit, I think is over like 2,000 characters.

It's essentially an email function.

Um, so that's what the 25 cents is for.

So that's like for each like per email more.

Correct.

Because that wouldn't be that wouldn't be like as you're using the email.

It's like if you send an email, it's probably like one time.

Yes.

Like the 25 minutes.

A one 30-minute visit and two free phone calls.

Okay.

Oh, that's good to know too.

Yes.

And no matter what if you're in McHenry County or here, you get the phone truck contract has that as well.

Okay, yeah.

So at least one a week and two phone calls a week.

Okay, that's that's good to know.

And so, and so the people who are in McHenry County though would have similar pricing and similar access to all these things.

Yes, it's kind of a standard.

And with the FCC ruling that just passed, they're really trying to get all correctional facilities on the same page.

Oh, hang on.

And I do want to point out um we do acknowledge that it, you know, it is kind of a sticker shock for some people, but we really did fight for the lowest cost possible.

And just one figure I want to put out there is before Sheriff Eidelberg took office, um, the first minute of a phone call was around $2.71.

So just that alone, we brought it down to that would be a 38-minute phone call.

That's the equivalent of it.

And we also eliminate eliminated any deposit fees, funding fees.

So that's all off the table too.

So we are really trying to bring the cost down as much as possible.

Yeah, I really appreciate that.

And that, yeah, that is good to hear.

And from a from a technology standpoint, this sounds like this this network is totally on their these people's networks.

So you don't have any concerns about security or you know, people, I mean, it sounds like they're pretty much on lockdown.

You can't get like you can't get messages in and out.

Yes.

And on the mail, good to know too, because I've heard a lot of things about mail, but it's on the people aren't getting like paper mail.

Correct.

That's a safety concern for our staff and the MA.

Yeah.

I know we've been reading some interesting uh articles about paper mail, and if you all have, but yes, lots of interesting things you could do with paper.

So um good to hear that.

All right, thank you.

Any other questions?

All right, all in favor?

Aye, any opposed?

Motion carry.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Yeah, learn something every day.

All right, item 8.4 is a joint resolution authorizing a contract with C DWG of Vernon Hills, Illinois in the amount of 73,954 for end user visibility and performance monitoring.

Can I get a motion in a second?

Motion by Kasbin, second by Altenberg.

Good morning.

Good morning, Chris Blinding, CIO.

Morning, Eric Carlson, CTO.

This item is uh we talked about it in the department update.

It's part of our technology improvement program, part of CIP funding.

Um support tool.

It falls in under the county strategic initiative of um superior county operations, the values of operational excellence and exceptional service.

Um we are gonna have some slides.

We're gonna try something as visual aids to try to give a little more context.

Um, we'll see if it works.

Maybe it'll confuse you more, but we're gonna try it.

So Eric is going to go into uh detail.

I'll flip the slides for you.

You may be the slide flipper.

There you go.

All right.

So thank you.

Um the industry calls this tool um autonomous digital experience management.

Uh we're gonna refer to it as AIDAM in the presentation, um, just as the acronym, but in simple terms, what it does is it gives IT visibility into the actual end user experience, how they're experiencing getting it into their applications.

Um the distinction is important.

Uh usually a system can appear that it's online, everything's good from an IT perspective.

We're like, yep, everything's great, but the employee is still having a poor experience.

Maybe it's slow, maybe it's unstable or inconsistent.

And so ADAM is going to help us measure and understand the experience from the employee's perspective.

So what we usually see uh is is a common complaint.

As a I was a network engineer for 15 years, and I've heard this my whole life that the network is slow.

Um and so from there, IT really has to do a full investigation.

Is it is it are you having the problem?

Is it some are other people having the problem?

And then if they do think it's a network problem, they'll pass the ticket to the network team.

Um, there's a lot of back and forth, and sometimes this can take hours.

Um, meanwhile, the end user is sitting there, or maybe multiple people are waiting waiting for a response from us.

Go to the next one.

Um so we have traditional tools, and they're really siloed tools.

They show the network.

So the network team gets the complaint, something slow over here.

They open up their dashboards, they see the network's green, everything's online.

We don't see any warnings or issues, so they'll pass to ticket back to the application team.

Maybe they go into their dashboard.

Again, things look good from their point of view.

So it becomes a very much of a handing off back and forth support ticket problem.

So while our tools are great, they only show it from our the IT perspective, not what the end user's seeing.

So what does ADAM do?

Well, Aidum, it's an agent.

It's installed on on all of our devices.

It's part of our Palo platform, so it's already um integrated into everyone's computers.

Um, and what it does is really connects the dots between the end user um out through the local network or if they're connected to Wi-Fi out to the internet and even out to the cloud hosted application.

So it gives us an experience score for the user.

So we see this person is a high green high score.

So they're having a good experience across all the different domains.

Um can use that then to narrow down to where it where is the experience bad.

Um and have have the good it go to the right team to narrow it down.

So why do we need it?

Well, I think the biggest reason is we're we're responsible for the experience that users are having, not just keeping the network online.

Um even if the application isn't hosted here.

So we're responsible for other applications that are hosted out in cloud providers.

Um so when a user has trouble, they call us first.

Um and so that means we have to spend hours sometimes troubleshooting and making ruling out that we're not the problem, that maybe the problem's over there.

Um so ADAM is gonna give us the ability to respond faster because it's better visibility.

Um, I'll just walk through a quick demo uh or or an example.

Um let's say uh users start calling and they're saying boss is slow.

Um, from our perspective, it would come to the help desk.

They could open up uh the ADAM dashboard and they can look at the overall boss experience score.

Um if the score is poor for many users across multiple locations, this tells us it's probably not something happening in our location.

From there we can uh drill into details.

If the county network looks healthy, but the application response time is degraded.

We now have the evidence to escalate to the vendor.

And then a second example is um let's say the application score is fine, but when they look at it, they see that actually the the local user or even a specific location is having a poor experience score.

And as they drill in, they may see latency, packet loss, and then eventually they they come down to it's it's Wi-Fi.

They see that there's a poor Wi-Fi score.

Um and then they can look and see if is it affecting more users or is it just this user?

It's them, maybe they just restart their Wi-Fi or move to a better location.

If it's multiple users being affected, then we can bring it right to the Wi-Fi team.

They may have to restart the access point or something like that.

So overall, um, ADAM uh will help us be more proactive, more efficient, it reduces the time spent guessing and helps resolve um issues faster.

That's pretty much it.

Questions?

So it sounds like thank you for this explanation.

And I love seeing the dashboard and everything because actually looking at the dashboard, it kind of made it I mean it helps it make sense with your example.

So basically, from what I'm understanding, this will is more like more proactive.

So instead of like just waiting for people to say there's a problem, you'll be much or if they say there's a problem, then you'll be able to see it holistically.

100%.

We can put all of our critical applications in there, and then we will get alerted that a the experience score dropped across whatever.

Yeah.

We'll see that and so we can immediately be proactive and start working on it before end users start calling.

Wow, that's kind of amazing.

So you can so like if I'm having like sometimes you know it's slow.

You're right, everyone always thinks it's too slow, right?

And then, but so now if I think it's slow, but I don't have time to deal with it or whatever, you could like maybe you would get an alert saying there is a problem, and it's with and there's those different things.

It could have been with security, it could have been with you know this, and then you can like fix it.

But so I wouldn't even have to do it.

It's especially useful for remote workers and people working from home and they're having a poor experience and they're trying and we're and and we're like, well, we're good here.

Yeah, we can actually define like you're having a Wi-Fi problem, or your local network is slow.

So we'll see that their internet connection is actually degraded.

Yeah, and the tool could tell us that.

And so that'll help us, you know, say maybe you need to call your local Comcast provider and have them troubleshoot.

So there'll be less troubleshooting on the end users.

That's the goal.

That's the goal, right?

Don't just turn on and off the thing so many times.

Focus focusing the support offered quicker on the problem is it helps that you know.

You call a large corporation or a company and they don't know what the right doesn't know what the left's doing.

That happens at a small scale inside an organization too, and in our team.

So Eric said, hey, it goes to the network slow, and the network guys go, it's not slow, it's fine, you know.

Right.

This would help avoid some of that back and forth.

Oh, it's an application.

Oh no, it's your machine at the memory's full.

Okay, let's reboot that instead of so it's an efficiency tool, and so uh maturing of the support operations, really.

And it'll be put on everybody's computer.

So it'll be is it like kind of a background thing running?

We called it an agent when we uh talk about it.

It's it exists as part of our security platform.

We're gonna talk about pieces of that.

Um so it exists on laptops and computers right now.

Or we can push it if it's uh is not.

Yeah.

I'd be interesting to see how your the response, I mean, like how the response, like how much faster, like if there's metrics after implementing this.

That's our goal is to start tracking mean time to resolution.

Yeah, how long tickets are open and repeated tickets come back.

Um, there's a lot of different statistics that we can start to capture to see if this is a value.

If it's not, then we we don't renew it.

But if it is, it's it should really help us.

The industry is saying that it provides like a 50% uh faster resolution.

Um that's a lot.

And if you look at um like 80% of people lose one to three days uh per month in basically technical fiction.

Yeah.

Now you don't have that excuse of I can't figure out my Wi-Fi's not working.

You're like, oh no, it's not your Wi-Fi.

I can see right now, like you can fix it for them.

Interesting.

Any other questions?

All right, all in favor?

Aye, any opposed?

Motion carries.

So everything is so interesting today.

Um, all right.

And then I think our item 9.1 is our project update for the ERP system update.

Hopefully, Patrice Evans is online.

You there, Patrice?

I am.

Yeah.

Welcome.

Good morning.

I'm gonna hand it right to you, Patrice.

Take it away.

Okay.

Well, I did have a presentation.

Just three slides.

Thank you.

Jump to the very next one.

Got it.

Thanks.

And again, full transparency, simply sharing the slides that are implementer strata strata presented at the most recent executive steering committee.

So here is the high-level timeline.

You can see by the purple arrow represents about the that line where we're at this week.

We are um deep still into the configuration, um, marching towards our end-to-end testing, which is going to begin at the end of June.

The build of that tenant, that environment, our sandbox, our our space of work day with our data will begin on June 8th.

Big thing last week was we had an on-site workshop with our implementer strata and most of the project work stream leads where they got together.

They were working on test scenario build and test scenario identification.

And that went for four days last week, and a lot of good positive feedback, collaboration amongst the work streams and amongst the two pillars, so that the finance teams and the HR teams getting together for big blocks of time to work through those testing scenarios, getting ready to prepare when that launches at the end of June.

So this is a three-week build of those scenarios.

And um, so that was good effort, and they're continuing to work through that.

So presented um, Strata presented the project risks to the executive steering.

And again, it was about significant work as we're going through this rebuild on the configurations for the HR, HCM pillar, and for the fins.

Progress is being made, still working through a lot of the um changes.

And um, especially with the FDM, that foundation data model, which is an establishment of the chart of accounts for Lake County.

Again, progress is still being made, still working through it.

Um big week next week.

I'm pretty much we need to finalize a lot of these configurations so that the strata team can move forward with the build of the tenant we're going to use for testing at the end of June.

Sounds like uh a lot is going on as we took a thank you.

I mean, and everyone.

So this one lake eventually we're the we seem to be on track for making sure everybody is using this as our an ERP system.

And it sounds like so.

You're at the point where we're still looking like trying to figure out the final way, like the things that it's gonna do.

Is that kind of where you're at?

The configuration is correct.

So uh again, understanding how things, the flows are gonna happen, those approvals, the workflows, how we translate the information into work day, correct?

And and soon it'll be a time where like it's has to be done, right?

To move forward with actually finishing.

Is that like this this?

Correct.

Correct.

It is it is crunch time, if you will, right now.

So you're the configurations need to be finalized so that the tenant can be built.

Right.

Then soon after that, is testing all those configurations.

So the teams, and thankful again to everybody working hard behind the scenes on this, is they're trying to finish these configurations, which it's not gonna be perfect, right?

They're um that's why we're identifying priority configuration.

We have to get some things done so we can build the tenant, all right.

And and so they're they're faced with that stress, as well as building these test scenarios that they're gonna test the configurations with.

So understanding a highly stressful time for those folks right now, once we get the testing, then it's uh a process of test, find bugs, retest, fix, etc.

Um, and then move forward.

So it is very stressful right now.

All times are, but right now is crunch time for the teams.

It does.

So I really I mean, because this is the I mean, yes, this is sort of like the part where we you set it up, and then once it's set, you're gonna just go with it.

And that's what's gonna be at least for now.

Yeah.

So and part of that is change management that and and work day will tell you this and implement her.

Once you go live, that's it's not set, it's perfect.

It is you are doing work, cleaning things up, doing things.

So right now we got to prioritize to get there.

Yeah.

And then you have post-production support from them to help clean things up and then moving things on.

So um, yeah, it it's not gonna be perfect.

Um but that's the design, right?

It's just not gonna be, but it's whether it can we need to get payroll out, we need to get certain things right functions.

Yeah, but uh critical.

Sometimes people get stuck on well, this piece isn't working, and that's change management, and that's natural.

Well, it's not all perfect, yeah.

It's not going to be.

Um, but can we function?

And that's where the implementer guides us and helps give another perspective.

Well, I think it's good to set everyone's expectations of that is it isn't going to be perfect, but that's the beauty of work day and going forward is it can be reconfigurated, you know, you can change it, it can be modified.

But we just got to get the initial one out there.

So I I know I think I feel like the whole county's working on this.

So to everybody in every department and every one of you think it's everyone who's working on this, and this is so important and transformational going forward.

And we've got the December 1st go live, right?

So let us know if we can do anything to help and thank you for all your work.

And um, hopefully next month then we'll be when we see you, it'll be past this part, and you'll be maybe into testing or uh net testing, probably into we'll be heading toward it.

We'll know more about the configuration, how that went.

So that'll be a big uh it'll be obviously good to tell that story.

Yes, yeah, it'll be a good story.

I know I keep looking at that chart whenever you show that chart, and I look at the post uh implementation part, and it'll just look so calm in that part, and we're looking forward to that part of the thing.

So we'll have to have we'll have to have again ribbon cutting for the ERP system.

Maybe some cookies.

All right.

Thank you so much.

And for all your work, everybody on this.

So thank you.

Looking forward to hearing the next update.

Thanks, all right.

Okay, so then next is is this where we go into executive session?

Oh, director's report.

Yeah, I didn't have anything formally planned, but I wanted to take this moment to um uh today is the last day of our my IT uh deputy IT director, Terry Kath.

And I wanted to put it out in the universe.

She's leaving for personal reasons, uh just a time in her life, but I wanted to put it out there uh to thank her for all her contributions to Lake County.

Um she's been here for 11 and a half years.

She often reminds me that she was instrumental in hiring me because she was on an interview panel.

I quickly uh recognized Terry's just dedication and just true caring about people and things, and um quickly became a great uh partner.

I learned a lot from Terry.

She just um did anything she needed to do because she cares so much.

And I just wanted to say thank you to Terry and good luck in our future chapter.

Yes, thank you from all of us and all the work.

I know she every when she's come, she does like everything.

So I think I I wish her the best on whatever she's doing next.

So I'm glad we got thank you for saying that.

All right.

The next we have our county administrators report.

No county administrators report.

All right, so then we're going to go into executive session.

Um, can I have a motion in oh I have to read item 12.1, it's executive session pursuant to five ILCS 120 slash two C eight to discuss security procedures and the use of personnel and equipment to respond to an actual threatened or a reasonably potential danger to the safety of employees, staff, the public, or public property.

Can I get a motion in a second motion by Altenberg, second by Frank?

Can I get a roll call, please?

Altenberg.

Vice Chair Castan.

Hi.

Chair Clark.

Hi.

And member Frank.

All right.

So we'll go into the thing session.

All right.

Thank you.

All right.

Do we have any item 13?

Do we have any members remarks?

All right.

I declare this meeting adjourned.

Our next meeting apparently is July 31st.