Thank you.

Good morning, everyone.

Today is Tuesday, August 12, 2025, and I called Lake County Board meeting to order at 9.02 a.m.

The meeting is being recorded and live streamed on our website, Comcast Channels 18 or 30, and ATTU versus Channel 99, as well as on Zoom at the link on the agenda.

In addition to being able to attend in person, remote attendance has been made available to the public via Zoom.

I did not receive any notification that anybody wants to attend electronically.

So we can start our agenda.

Before we begin, though, is there anyone board members would like to remember today during our moment of silence, please?

Vice Chair Cunningham, Five by Member Hewitt.

Yes, I would like for everyone to pray for Tony Koval.

Longtime, lifetime resident of Lake County, Waukegan.

He worked for the Waukegan City Waqegan.

And we was at his gone away service last week, Diane and I.

So a very nice young man.

His daddy was Peak of all.

His dad was the um Walking Township Democrat chair for many years and tearing.

So couldn't have a pray for Tony Kuball.

Great guy.

Thank you.

Grew up under me.

Nice guy.

Thank you.

Member Hewitt.

On August 3rd, Tanner Cross was involved in a fatal motorcycle accident in Sturgett, South Dakota.

Tanner was a very generous young man, and his organs are with others today.

He is survived by his parents, Betty and Jason, and a sister, his in-laws, Timothy and Katie, but most of all his wife Sydney, my granddaughter.

So please keep the families that are involved in your prayers and thoughts.

But I have to say that if you know anyone, anyone at all who rides a motorcycle, please take the time to ask them to wear a helmet.

If he was wearing a helmet, he would be alive today.

Longtime Lake Forest resident Jim Lovell died a few days ago at the age of 97.

I met him once at a service academy night.

Jim Lovell was a hero for rescuing the failed Apollo 13 mission under dire circumstances.

Captain Lovell once said, in reality, we often say we hope to go to heaven when we die.

In reality, we go to heaven when we're born.

Feel the breeze in your cheek.

And know that God has given us the ability to be here, he said.

Our deepest condolences to his family and countless friends.

Yet his courage, focus, and ingenuity and compassion are still very much with us.

Grace has a gravity that not only anchors us to this planet, but to each other.

Thank you.

Anyone else?

If you join me in the Pledge of Allegiance, please.

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.

May I have a roll call, please, Clerk?

Here.

Member Cambo.

Here.

Member Clark.

Here.

Member Cunningham.

Here.

Member Dancourt.

Present.

Member Frank.

Here.

Member Hart.

Here.

Member Hewitt.

Here.

Member Hunter.

Here.

Member Knishnik.

Here.

Member Kyle.

Member May.

Present.

Member Correct.

Did let me know that he will be coming in later.

Member Peterson.

Present.

Member Roberts.

Here.

Member Schlick.

Here.

Member Bulitzik.

Here.

Member Watson.

Here.

18 present.

Thank you.

We have no addenda to the agenda.

We do have a special recognition, but unfortunately, they got caught up in traffic.

So I'm gonna move past uh the first item on our agenda, if that's okay.

If I have consensus, thank you.

Um and we do have public comment, I understand today.

Yes, we do.

Thank you.

For those making public comment in person.

Uh public comment must be related to agenda items or otherwise germane to the business of the county board and must not be redundant.

Each person making public comment will have a maximum of three minutes to make their comments.

The three minute time limit is cumulative.

So if a person makes comment on more than one item, then they will have a total maximum of three minutes for all of their public comments.

For those attending in person, there will be a three-minute timer up here at the podium.

And when you have 20 seconds left, the yellow light on that podium will come on.

When the red light comes on, your time has expired.

For those attending via Zoom, uh well we have anybody today.

Uh when appropriate matters raised by public comment, maybe referred to the appropriate standing committee.

Those making public comments shall refrain from commenting about private activities, lifestyles, or beliefs of others, including county employees and elected officials, if those comments are unrelated to the business of the county board or the county government.

Comments that are uncivil, rude, vulgar, profane, or otherwise disruptive will not be allowed.

And then finally, candidates running for public office must refrain from including comments that promote or support a candidate, including refraining from identifying oneself as a candidate for public office.

But I'm I'm sorry, I can't read the first name.

Okay.

Next, uh Wayne Thorin.

Morning.

Morning.

Uh good morning, Lake County board members, and thank you for allowing me to discuss two important transportation issues in Mundalein.

Uh issue one.

I've struggled to get any traction regarding the unsafe intersection of Route 6083 in Hawley and Mundalein.

During nighttime hours, this intersection is extremely dark, making for uh sight line difficulty when making turns, especially when foggy.

And please know that this is an intersection that lends itself to fog because it's got uh golf courses around it.

So it's uh really uh very uh unsafe.

I'm pushing for one overhead lighting at the intersection now and not waiting for the much anticipated Route 6083 redo somewhere down the road, and two a reduced speed limit of 40 miles per hour all the way from Midlothian to Route 176.

Currently, um, there is a stretch of uh the road from Midlothian that is 40, but uh it goes up to 50 before the intersection.

So again, very uh unsafe.

Um I started this process in quarter four of 2024 by attending monthly coffee with the mayor meetings and with the uh village of Mundaline saying it's not their responsibility, as Route 60 is a state road, and Holly is a county road.

I want to loudly say thank you to Jennifer Clark, who's been very helpful, but question whether Adam Schlick cares much because I've sent many uh a number of emails, and he hasn't seen fit to even respond.

I did my homework on this, including FOIA details showing 11 accidents from January 2019 through September 24.

Um, where 31% of those accidents were in nighttime hours.

This is very frustrating.

I'm begging you to please help get things moving for overhead lighting at that intersection and speed limit reduction all the way uh from Midlothian Droute 176.

Um Route 176, um west of 6083 is another stretch of road that needs speed reduction.

So the 45 mile an hour speed limit currently in place until just east of the new Sheldon Woods subdivision is extended until west past the Grand Dominion entrance.

Grand Dominions of 55 and over community.

Uh site lines are poor because it's not a flat chunk of road.

Uh traffic levels are increased per the new housing uh construction, and the current 55 uh limit poses a threat to increased accidents.

Please, please, please.

Uh collaborate with your state reps to fix this thing.

It's really not that hard.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh calling again Mr.

Blanks.

I'm sorry, sorry, I couldn't read your first.

All right, could you state the right?

If you can state that for the record, that's not good.

That'd be great.

All right, Brother Blanks.

Okay, thank you.

Okay.

Brother Blanks, founding chief president of Black Abolition Movement for the mine.

It's been a while since I've been here.

However, we're having a countywide event.

Uh, it's the first time that we've attempted to do this in the Lake County area.

It is a Taste of Africa event.

Uh we have a very huge African population from the continent uh in the county.

So what we are doing now, we are trying to, with everything that's going on, trying to bridge a unity uh between our Africans from the continents, our African Americans here and our uh I um Lake County citizens.

So we're gonna be having this event and um letting you guys know it's the first time we did it, so I probably want to follow up with someone out, probably my commissioner, and uh just to make sure we're in compliance with whatever we have to uh as far as the food service.

Uh we we do have our sanitations license and some of our vendors have their permits, but they told me there's some other I's and T's we have to adopt to make sure we're in compliance with our outside event.

Uh, this event is going to be August uh the 16th.

This is going to be at our location at 801 McAllister Avenue.

We it is uh on the side street as a block party, so we have our permit for that.

And so that's gonna be off McAllister Avenue, and it's gonna be between uh Lenox and McAllister on 8th Street.

So letting you all know uh y'all are invited, and uh if no one has any fears or phobias about coming to our first ward Southside community, uh you can stop through there.

Uh so that's uh let's see.

I think that's about it.

Yeah, that's from uh 12 noon to 7 p.m.

Like I said, it's the first time we're doing it.

You know, the first time uh we pioneered open mic poetry in this area.

So this will be uh uh Lake County Taste of Africa and poetry for the people.

We are an arts organization.

Uh we started with poetry and we uh pioneered poetry back in uh 2000.

So this is uh this is that was in 2000, and so excuse me.

This is uh for our organization, this is our 30th anniversary celebration this year.

Uh we acquired our 501c3 in 1995, so this will be our 30th anniversary for that, as well as uh as I said with our open mic poetry that we started in uh 2000.

So just letting you all know, um, and that's pretty much all I have for now, and uh follow it with my commissioner to make sure that we have everything and compliance that we need uh for our event.

Thank you all.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Oh, we do have some flyers here.

Uh pluggers if anybody's interested.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Oh, thank you.

No other public comment.

Yes, we have one more.

Oh, excuse me.

Yeah.

Rayon Edwards.

Good morning, County Board.

Thank you to the gentleman for talking about the speed and the reducing of the speeds, which is one of the reasons why I'm here to act as county board.

I know all of you guys represent a certain city, certain area of Lake County.

And I'm coming to all of you guys today to plead with you guys to talk to these local mayors about these liquor licensing.

I don't know if anybody actually does the data and bought a research by alcohol as the number one drug in the world.

And if you got people that live in your community that look like me or Brown, it's killing us.

It is killing us, y'all.

Our homeless population is so high right now.

And when we talk about speeding, when you look at the accidents, look at Northern Illinois scanner.

Look at Lake County McHenry County scanner.

Every time there's an accident, alcohol is involved.

Most people think it's a good source of bringing money in.

But when we're talking about urban development, we're talking about bringing people to our area.

They don't want to see that.

I know around me and everywhere I go, there's kids.

What are we teaching them?

What are we preparing them for?

Second piece, I want to talk about the homelessness.

I've been coming here to this meeting, we've been talking about pads and the lack of.

Send them over their past gonna help them do this.

Send them over their past, gonna help them do that.

Pats ain't doing nothing, y'all.

I could take any one of y'all to an area where I got about 55 homeless people sleeping.

It's me partnering with Millie, the store owner at McDonald's, taking my tools and cues to feed them.

You go talk to the library director, Miss Jennifer, I'm there every day talking to them.

And we don't even have a past representative in that library when we know this is where they be at.

Before I close, I would like to invite my four members that represents my area, Walkegan, North Chicago, and so forth, Mayor Ross Cunningham, Mr.

Kyle, Ms.

Hewitt, Ms.

Roberts, August the 31st, we have the South Side Reunion at King Park.

It's one of the biggest events you're gonna see on the South Side.

Last year I brought almost 2,000 people out there.

I do this event so we can come back and love on each other and remember what it's like to be used to be like.

Thank you so much and have an amazing day.

Thank you.

Thank you.

No more public on it.

Okay, thank you.

I am gonna move back to our first item on the agenda, which is a special recognition honoring Helen Hammond Reading and Michael Reading Sr.

for their work establishing and leading the Christopher D.

Reading Youth Asthma Foundation.

And that will be read by member Sarah Kanisnik, who put them forward to be recognized today.

Thank you.

Whereas asthma is a chronic respiratory condition that affects millions of youths across the United States, disproportionately impacting communities of color and underserved neighborhoods.

And whereas Christopher D.

Redding was an exceptional young man who distinguished himself at Lake Zurich High School as an outstanding athlete, scholar, and peer leader, while exemplifying the ideals of character, leadership, and perseverance through every aspect of his life.

And whereas, despite living with asthma, Christopher excelled as a wrestler, discus thrower, and as a running back and captain on the football team, leading Lake Zurich High School to the IHSA class 7A semifinals while becoming the school's second highest rusher and scorer in history, despite playing only two years on the varsity team.

And whereas Christopher was a member of the National Honor Society, elected homecoming king in his senior year, helped his peers through mediation and mentoring programs, and is remembered by coaches, classmates, and teachers as a student of strong moral character, quiet leadership, and unwavering integrity.

And whereas, after graduating high school in 2003, Christopher was home for Thanksgiving break during his freshman year while attending Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, when he suffered a fatal asthma attack at only 18 years old while jogging.

And whereas Helen Hammond Redding and Michael Redding Sr.

founded the Christopher D.

Redding Youth Asthma Foundation in loving memory of their son in 2013 with the mission of preventing similar tragedies through education, advocacy, and direct support for youth suffering from asthma.

And whereas the foundation has since worked tirelessly in the Chicagoland area, particularly within underserved communities where asthma rates are high and access to care is limited, to provide asthma screenings, education, access to asthma control devices, and scholarships for student athletes with asthma.

And whereas Helen Hammond Redding, the foundation's founding board president, has been the driving force behind the organization's mission and a tireless advocate for youth health equity to ensure that no student athlete in the region dies needlessly from asthma related complications.

And whereas the foundation's mission to educate, advocate, and provide services for youth suffering from asthma, especially those involved in athletics, is rooted in a vision of a more equitable and safer environment for all youth to thrive in sports and beyond, regardless of chronic health conditions.

Now, therefore, be it recognized by this county board of Lake County, Illinois, that Helen Hammond Redding, Michael Redding Sr., and Christopher D.

Redding Youth Asthma Foundation, highlighted by myself, Sarah Kenijnik, be commended for their valuable contributions to public health, youth advocacy, and community empowerment.

The foundation is a tribute to Christopher's memory and a call to action for continued awareness, education, and support for youth living with asthma.

Dated at Waukegan, Illinois on August 12th, 2025.

Thank you.

Miss Redding is here.

This is doing this.

Okay.

Sarah, would you like to hold thank you?

Oh, thank you.

I didn't catch that.

There we go.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Yeah, thank you.

And thank you for being here.

Good morning.

Good morning.

And thank you, Chairman Hart.

And also thank you to Sarah and to Mary.

Initially, they uh I think Mary recommended us last year for our recognition.

And also attended our opening.

Our opening ceremonies when we had the ribbon cutting for our Lake County asthma ban, along with Chairman Hart.

In April of 2023, we launched our first clinic at Lion Magnet High School by bringing our mobile asthma band there to assist the children there with asthma and allergies.

Since that time, we have enrolled 26 schools.

We have uh scheduled over 130 clinics at various schools throughout Lake County.

And our primary communities are Walkegan, North Chicago, and Zion.

And we are still enrolling schools.

We have scheduled over 800 students and served almost 600 students at those schools.

And so we feel that this is an important and critical area for us because asthma is so prevalent in our communities.

Our students are treated aboard our Lake County asthma van at no cost.

We schedule them where they are at their schools so that they can have convenience and not only being diagnosed and treated for their initial visit, but we do go back to those schools on an ongoing basis every two to three months to see those children.

And we can see those children until they become 21 years old, you know, wherever they are.

And so we are so proud to be able to offer this service to Lake County, and we will continue to grow.

It's been over just over a year and a half that we've been doing this.

And so we're honored today to accept this award on behalf of the Christopher D.

Redding Youth Asthma Foundation and the Lake County Asthma Band.

So thank you all very much.

Oh my goodness.

Okay, thank you.

We understand her so much.

Helen has to uh has to run right away, but thank you so much for being here.

And um, yes, I did get to see the asthma van when it was in um Waukegan, and it was so impressive everything that it had to offer.

It was outfitted with everything you could possibly need, and um I was so moved by their story.

I mean, what a terrible tragedy to lose your child to something that is uh preventable, right?

And then for them to take that tragedy and to help other children.

Um it well, it just kind of gives me goosebumps, really.

Uh, they're an amazing couple, and uh, and thank you, Sarah, for putting them forward to honor them today.

And thank you, Vice Chair.

Yes, go ahead, Vice Chair.

It was a coincidence how I met uh Miss Helen and her husband through state Rita Mayfield, and when she told me the story about her son, we set up a grand opening at State Rita Mayfield office, which in my district, and she came and Lil But.

I asked her where you live, and she's told me what I was thinking it was in um Calvin Honibus, but I didn't know it was in Sarah's district.

She just we looked it up, and I said, Sarah, so yes, that's when we brought her here last year, and Sarah got got with her and been working with her, supporting her.

She always called me up and said she's a great commissioner.

And uh, so I'm very close to that to those people there, very close, very close.

And her husband and my son, the Mayor Walk Kegan is very, very close.

You never know who know who.

And uh uh so uh she calls me up and she's like, I ain't I said, just keep doing what you're done because the Lord is working with you, you know, because I lost a son, and her and I was talking about it.

You never know how it feels until you lose a child.

Nobody knows how it feels until you lose a child.

I lost my baby, she lost her baby, and we talked about it, we talked about it.

So uh uh, it ain't nothing nice because it never goes away.

And she done so with us on to help somebody else's child.

Thank you.

Thank you, Vice Chair.

Um moving on to chair's remarks.

Um, I attended several different things over the last week.

The Alliance for Human Services Legislative Breakfast with several of our state legislators.

Um, the Alliance, as I'm sure our county board members know, but the audience may not, uh, is made up of nonprofits that really focus on basic human needs, shelter, food, health care.

Um, and really their point was hey, what is this federal bill that recently passed going to do to those who are most in need?

And uh the analysis has really shown that um that bill will gut those services.

Uh, it will be um likely to be a good bill for those people in the upper income brackets, but quite devastating for those who are uh lower income levels.

So I would say the overarching question that we were faced with was what can the county and or the state do when people can't get the food that they need, the medical care that they require or the shelter.

We already know that if they can't get the medical care they need from say our health department, right, which is going to be experiencing their own cuts uh beyond what they've already experienced on their behavioral health.

Um, likely many of those people will end up in our emergency rooms, right?

Which is more expensive and has uh a ripple effect throughout all of the communities.

Um when we do not care for the people who have the least, uh everybody should know that impacts everyone here in our society.

So you know, their question really was hey county government, will you be able to make up for that shortfall for the federal from the federal government and state will you be able to make up for that shortfall?

I think most of us here in this room know that the money that we give back to the federal government, the state of Illinois gets back a fraction of that money.

So with the passage of this bill, we will get back even less.

So we do have our budgets coming up, and uh this board will need to make very difficult decisions on where we put our money and what we choose to prioritize.

So we already know we had speakers come and talk.

We already know that there's not enough housing, which brings me to my next uh meeting that we attended, which was the Lake County Housing Coalition's attainable housing task force, which was the kickoff that I attended with several county board members.

The purpose of those meetings is to develop local solutions to the national crisis of not enough housing.

I'm sure everyone here uh heard on the news that the uh President Trump is going to be putting uh National Guard on the streets of Washington, DC.

Uh, and in addition to trying to tackle crime, we'll be targeting homeless people.

There are homeless people in every city across the United States.

There is not enough housing.

So these homeless people will be treated as criminals.

We are uncertain as to what will happen.

My sister works for the National Alliance to end homelessness in Washington, D.C.

I can tell you that it is a uh a very frightening time for anyone who uh works and cares about people who are our most vulnerable.

So sorry, it gets a little emotional.

Um, but this team is bringing together uh business leaders, local government leaders, developers, and housing advocates for this six month collaborative workshop, I would call it, to create some strategies for attainable housing production.

Kevin Considine, others were on the panel.

Um, our regional superintendent of schools, Dr.

Carner, and Kevin Considine was also on the panel.

Um, our executive director of Lake County Health Department, Christopher Hoff was on the panel as well.

But I wanted to point out Kevin Considine because of that important link between attainable housing, the the availability of housing and that direct link to economic development.

Lake County was recently named one of the top 10 counties in the United States for economic development.

And that's even in face of not enough housing because that is a problem that exists across the country.

So we need to have more housing for people who can work in manufacturing, who can be first responders, who can teach our children.

We need more housing for everyone so that they can call Lake County home.

So that will be coming up for those of you who'd like more information.

You can visit housing lakeco.com, and the next meeting is September 10th, one to three in Mundaline.

I also attended a ribbon cutting for the Sylvan Lake Dam uh project with Jessica Volitzik and Mara Altenberg.

That it was to celebrate the completion of the rebuild of a 100-year-old earthen dam, and they were describing how it really was put together with like old logs, right?

Logs and dirt, and it was holding it together, and it would be quite dangerous if that dam had had what's the right word, if it had fallen, uh, because there was also an environmental risk because they're exposed sanitary sewer lines running through the walls of that dam.

So I want to thank Congresswoman Lauren Underwood for the funding that made that possible, along with our SMC team and the folks that serve on SMC.

And I especially want to thank Alicia Dodd.

She is the Fremont Township Highway Supervisor for their partnership and hard work on this.

We have been talking in our committee meetings about the implementation of workday.

We're calling out our project one lake, and I wanted to bring it up here because we do talk a lot about uh finding efficiencies in government and making sure that we have appropriate checks and balances.

And so this is a monumental effort that goes across all different departments, and it has finally moved into the end-to-end testing phase, and that means it is taking processes from start to finish, using some scenarios that we have in certain departments, like how transactions flow between departments.

Think about planning, building and development and how the work they do flows into other departments.

Same thing with LCDOT and how that needs to flow into public works, even some of those things come into from PBD into the liquor commission, right?

So looking at all of those transactions, and this is a really important phase because it focuses on those quality assurances and make sure that our testing teams are replicating those real scenarios that face our departments on a regular basis in order to verify that core functionality before we are ready to, I would just say, flip the switch and get it going across all the all of the departments.

And aside from just having those internal controls and efficiency, it I would argue that it allows for greater opportunity and flexibility for employees, right?

So if you work in one department and you're familiar with workday and there is an opportunity for advancement in another department, they're already familiar with that system.

They don't need to relearn something.

And then lastly, yesterday I attended an event with Governor Pritzker, some medical professionals, and several others to stress the importance of getting our kids vaccinated as they prepare to go back to school.

And there was one parent who's a parent in the district, but a former pediatric nurse practitioner who talked about when she was working in the pediatric ICU several years ago over Christmas, and she was caring for a five-year-old little girl who was in the ICU with the flu.

And unfortunately, that little girl died on Christmas morning.

She could have been vaccinated.

She did not receive that vaccination.

And while certainly some people will survive an illness because of one of these viruses that go around for which we do have vaccines, not everyone will.

And we don't, it doesn't have to be the case anymore.

So please get your child vaccinated, not just for your child, but for your family, for your friends, your neighbors, and really the general public.

And then my last part, which is often my most favorite, is we have two employee year of service awards.

The first is Wendy Anta Ramian Powell for her 35 years of service to Lake County.

Whereas Wendy and Tamarian Powell joined the Lake County Health Department and Community Health Center in 1990 and has been dedicated to her work and clients for 35 years.

And whereas Wendy began as a residential counselor in the Lake County Group Home in Behavioral Health Services.

And whereas she has demonstrated her continued commitment to health department clients by working in various capacities across behavioral health and administration.

First as a residential counselor, then as a senior therapist and intake coordinator, and now she is a behavioral health educator.

And whereas Wendy's dedication to her clients and fellow staff as a behavioral health professional is apparent through her years of service and daily work that has supported and improved the health department.

Now, therefore, be it recognized by this county board of Lake County, Illinois, that Wendy and Tamarian Powell is celebrating 35 years of dedicated service to the Lake County Health Department and Community Health Center.

Wendy is a recognized and treasured asset to all programs in the Lake County Health Department, thanks to her experience and knowledge.

We are grateful for her years of service dated at Waukegan, Illinois on August 12, 2025.

And we are fortunate to have Wendy here with us today.

Come join me.

Oh good.

Come on over.

Okay, and then we'll take a photo.

Would you mind holding that for me?

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

And you're welcome to say the orders want to speak once.

Or Chris or everybody.

Good morning, everyone.

My name is Alison Jacytis.

I am our learning development manager at the Lake County Health Department.

And I'm so excited to be here to celebrate one of my staff members' amazing accomplishments the past 35 years of dedicated work at the Lake County Health Department.

So for nearly 30 years of the beginning of her career at the Lake County Health Department, Wendy served our behavioral health clients in this extremely dedicated capacity.

However, for the past six years, Wendy has shifted her focus to be more employee-based.

So she is a dedicated trainer for our behavioral health services.

She is assisting in many capacities throughout the agency, anywhere from our IT services, she's providing assistance.

She's providing ground level support to our employees when they're dealing with behavioral health crises with our patients.

She's even providing mentorship to some of our fellow staff.

So I really want to thank her for all of the empowering that she does for our staff because in turn that translates to better care for our clients and our patients.

So for her 35 years of dedicated service, we are so grateful for you.

I'm so proud to call you one of my fellow team members, and everyone else on my team will echo that sentiment as well sometime during this week.

And officially on August 30, 21st is her official anniversary.

So thank you so much for that.

I'd just like to say someone once told me that people leave.

People do not leave agencies, they leave managers, correct?

So I would just like to attribute my longevity to my managers.

The late Ed Esser, Kathy Costac, Bill Jackson, Sam Johnson, Colleen Santos, and now Alison Jacetus.

Oh thank you for honoring me today.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next, we have a special recognition of Paget Rollins for her 30 years of service.

Whereas Paget Rollins has dedicated 30 years of service to the Lake County community, which she has proudly called home her entire life.

And whereas Paget initially joined the state's attorney's office in July 1994 as a temporary employee before becoming a legal assistant the next year, then advancing to records coordinator, supervisor, and manager with the last two years serving as the chief of support services.

And whereas she leads a team of outstanding legal assistants and contributes significantly to the overall operation of the office by managing and facilitating the success of the day-to-day operations, projects, and workflows.

Whereas Paget is deeply committed to leading and supervising the office's high school internship programs, with her having personally mentored over 100 students to build employee empowering relationships that inspire teens to grow, uplift themselves, and become active contributors to their communities.

Whereas she also serves the project manager for the office's paperless paperless initiative, which included coordinating and managing the scanning of thousands of physical case files to transition to a fully digital workflow.

And whereas over the years, Paget received invaluable mentorship from her office's leadership, and she credits the steadfast support she's received from her colleagues and the connections she's made within the legal community with her work-related achievements, and they have empowered her to remain a dedicated and loyal ambassador for the state's attorney's office.

Now, therefore, be it recognized by this county board of Lake County, Illinois, that Paget Rollins is celebrating 30 years of dedicated service plus one additional year as a temp, bringing her total time with the Lake County State's Attorney's Office to 31 years of valued contributions.

Padgett is a true asset to Lake County, and we are thankful for her continued service dated at Waukegan, Illinois on August 12, 2025.

If you join me, this is just a little token of our appreciation.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Good morning, and thank you so much for taking a few minutes to acknowledge Padgett this morning.

The recognition, you know, kind of went through it all, but I would like to say a few additional words.

I am thankful every day to have Padgett on our leadership team the past two years.

She has done such amazing work, and I just want to highlight a few additional things that weren't mentioned.

Paget uh truly cares about the office, the staff, Lake County, and so it's not just our office that is really thankful to have her, but it's really Lake County as a whole.

Um, she has had so many support staff kind of cross her path, and even before her more recent position in leadership, she really was a true mentor, um, not only to our interns, but our staff throughout the office, and we just could not be more proud of her and more grateful to have her on the team.

So thank you again, and we'll let her say I didn't realize this was such a big thing.

So I really didn't prepare anything.

Um, and that extra year I got in was a temp, and that was before we got really willy-nilly with the budget, so I was like a fake tub for a year.

So 31 years in, um, I never thought it's it's a little bit surreal just because I was taught you give back to the community that you grew up in, and I've grown up here, and so what I'm doing doesn't feel like an honor.

So thank you.

It just feels like what I'm supposed to do.

And so they say when you love what you do, you're not working.

That's not completely true.

I'm working my butt off, but I still love what I do every day.

And I wish my legal team, my legal assistants were here because without them, I I would not be here.

And after you know, 31 years in, you have a lot of managers and a lot of supervisors, so they've all been very good to me, and they've helped me with my journey.

So thank you very much.

This is great.

I wasn't expecting this, and go take it back to my brand new office.

No, and put it up.

All right, so thank you.

Thank you very much.

Thank you for being here.

See, it's such a nice thing that we get to do every month, right?

To thank our employees.

So thank you so much for making time out of your schedule to be here today.

Um, we have no unfinished business.

New business is consent agenda for items two through 39.

We have a motion, please.

Motion by Vice Chair Cunningham, second by member Hewitt.

Um, yes, Member Belitzik.

Item 21.

Sure.

Okay, item 21 will come off of the agenda.

Thank you.

I'll come off the consent agenda, excuse me.

May I have a roll call, please for consent agenda items two through 39 with the removal of 21.

Member Altenberg.

Aye.

Member Campos, Member Kasmin.

Aye.

Member Clark.

Aye.

Member Cunningham.

Aye.

Member Denforth.

Member Frank.

Aye.

Member Hart.

Aye.

Member Hewitt.

Aye.

Member Hunter.

Aye.

Member Knishnik.

Aye.

Member Kyle.

Aye.

Member Maine.

Aye.

Member Correct.

Member Peterson.

Aye.

Member Roberts.

Aye.

Member Schlick.

Aye.

Member Belitzik.

Aye.

Member Wasick.

All right.

Member Campos.

18.

Aye.

Thank you.

Motion passes.

Uh, moving on to our regular agenda.

We have a board of health report to be read by Member Maine today.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I have uh four brief items for you today.

Just wanted to give you an update on West Nile virus.

This is the time of year where we see it.

The mosquito is breeding in the pools.

The health department did report its first case of neuroinvasive West Nile virus, which is a more serious form of the infection.

Overall, the health department has seen a higher than average number of West Nile virus positive mosquitoes from the mosquito pool, say test each week across the county.

We're finding the um positive mosquitoes in more places across the county than we've ever found before.

So it's really important to remember to protect yourself and your family from mosquitoes.

And you can visit Fight the Bite.

It's um, you know, we've had a lot of um these short rainstorms lately, so good idea to walk around outside, clean out those bird bass, find you know, children's pools or flower if flower.

I saw one of my flower pots had filled up the basin with water.

So um they can breed, they don't need much water to breed in.

So um, if we can all be part of that, it would be very helpful.

August 31st is international overdose awareness day, and we want to share the information on the tragedy of drug overdose death, and we've talked a lot about that at this board.

Drug overdoses are preventable.

So if you or someone you know is struggling with opioid use, we are here to help.

The Lake County Health Department has naloxone and other overdose prevention resources available for community members.

Visit Lake County IL.gov backslash naloxone to find the resources in Lake County.

You can also visit overdose day.com to get more information.

Interestingly, I was reading an article the other day that talked about emergency kits that people should have on hand, and it was talking about food supplies and medical supplies.

And it really suggested that naloxone or something like that should be as part of people's emergency medical kits because you don't know who's going to need it.

So I thought that was a really good point.

Vaccines give you the power to protect your family against serious disease.

Remember, many times getting the vaccine is making sure that other vulnerable people do not get sick.

People who for um medical reasons can got not get vaccinated.

So those are the medical things.

I want to let me open this up.

So I've got two more things to share with you.

And oh, let me get it right here.

The first is um I want to invite everyone.

Uh I think it's our second um behavioral health services art show, um, national recovery month.

So September 9th from 1230 to 3:30 at 310 Grand Avenue.

It's um uh art show based on art that clients and staff have done.

So it's really a great opportunity.

So we hope you can come to that.

And then I want to close it's uh with um thanking Larry Mackey from the health department.

Larry is our director of environmental health, he'll be retiring in a few weeks.

So this is his last county board meeting.

I know that many of you have interacted with Larry over the years as I have.

He's always been such a great source, not only of information, but sort of the wider context in which you need to understand an issue.

He's we're gonna miss that background a lot.

Anyone can look at the facts, but he has the context.

So anything related to environmental health, food safety, animal control.

He he's done a lot with animal control over the years.

So Larry, thank you so very much for your service to this board, to the people and the animals of Lake County.

Uh, we appreciate all your hard work and your dedication.

So thank you very much, Larry.

Get them later.

Just thought I would ask.

Yeah.

All right.

Thank you.

All right, thank you.

Thank you, Member Maine, for reading that, and congratulations on your retirement.

I'm sure you will miss these county board meetings the most.

Um, but really, we've been very, very fortunate to have you.

Um, I am one of those people who made phone calls to you and asked you for information on things about my district.

So thanks so much for for all of your help, and I wish you well in your retirement.

So thank you.

Okay, moving on to uh item number 41 and vice chair of our health and community services committee, vice chair Altenberg will read that item.

Thank you.

41 is a joint resolution accepting the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act program year 2025 formula grant and authorizing an emergency appropriation and the amount of 8,500, excuse me, 8,516,791 dollars for the Lake County Workforce Development Department.

And ISO move.

Thank you.

Motion by Member Altenberg.

Second by Member Frank.

Any discussion on this item?

Seeing none, may I have a leave for the previous roll call?

Yes.

Thank you.

Motion passes.

Moving to law and judicial, pardon me, yes.

I believe member's here.

You know, uh Clerk Vega added him at the very end of the case.

Okay, I didn't hear no problem.

Yep, thank you.

Uh so we will go to item number 21 first, Vice Chair.

Uh because uh member Blitzick had requested it to be pulled off the consent.

So item number 21.

Okay, thank you, Chair.

Thank you.

Adam number 21, Law and Dish Committee.

Joint resolution authority renewal of the Lake County Chair and Africa Center, victim of crime fund awarded by the Chairman Africa Center of Illinois, official year 2026, including an emergency appropriation of grant fund of 219,591 dollars.

And uh so move we this is a renewal.

Uh they guess it every year, so uh okay.

Motion by vice chair?

Yes, thank you.

That was oh, certainly poison off.

She is up there.

Okay, oh, perfect.

Thank you.

She can ask whatever.

Perfect.

But this is just a renewable when doing it every year.

Thank you.

Motion by Vice Chair Cunningham, second by member Altenburg.

Uh discussion on this item, Member Volitzik.

I just need your excuse myself for the state's attorney's office advice because I serve on their board.

Thank you.

Member Robertson.

I also mean to recuse myself since I circle.

Thank you.

Okay, this does require a roll call vote.

May I have a leave for the previous roll call with the removal of member Roberts and Member Volitzik?

Yes.

Yes.

Thank you.

Motion passes.

And then if they're removed, would they just be a Matt?

This is a question for you.

Would they just be just the plain recusal?

And that's how the clerk will put that down.

Perfect.

Okay.

Thank you.

Right.

The 19 vote roll calls.

Perfect.

Okay.

Thank you for that reminder.

In case that comes up again.

Um, and now uh back to the regular agenda for item 42, please, Vice Chair.

Lord issue.

This 42.

So ordinance adopted a revised fee schedule for the Lake County Sheriff Office.

The sheriff office is conjunction with the finance department, complete a fee study analyze on the calls of site and service.

The sheriff of advers included.

And I saw move.

Thank you.

Motion by Vice Chair Cunningham, second by member Roberts.

Any discussion on this item?

Seeing none, all those in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed?

Motion passes.

Thank you.

Moving on to public works and transportation committee to be read by Chair Clark.

Item 43.

Thank you, Chair.

Item 43 is a joint resolution authorizing execution of a contract with Boulder contractors in Caperry, Illinois, in the amount of $7 million 20,250 for the Vernon Hills West Pump Station Forest Main Replacement Project and an emergency appropriation of $7 million 250 of public works reserve funds.

This is a budgeted capital improvement, and I really want to thank Director Austin McFarland and the Village of Vernon Hills for working together.

They had requested that we move it up just a few months so that it would work better with their schedule.

So I'm really glad that we got to work out with them.

And um I so move.

Thank you.

Motion by member Clark, second by member uh Kanisnik.

Uh, any discussion on this item?

This does require a roll call vote.

May I have a leave for the previous roll call?

Yes.

Thank you.

Motion passes.

And moving to um actually we have a lake county partners update to be read by member Hunter this morning for item 44.

Thank you, Chair.

Um Lake County and Illinois and Illinois received national recognition.

Lake County's been honored as one of the top 10 counties in the nation for economic development by site selection magazine, a reflection of Lake County's exceptional performance in attracting corporate facility projects, driving capital investment, and creating jobs.

This success showcases the community's strong leadership, resources, and strategic approach to business attraction and retention.

Lake County Partners recently published its 2024 annual report, which was filed with business growth and talent development success stories and is posted on the Lake County Lake County Partners website.

Um over the last five years, Lake County Partners has fueled 1.33 billion dollars in direct capital investment, 4600 plus jobs, and nearly 5,000 retained jobs.

Lake County Partners is currently managing a robust project pipeline, which is heavy in life sciences, advanced manufacturing, and housing.

Economic activity is very strong and expected to continue into the back half of the year.

This track record led to Lake County Partners being named a finalist for the top top economic development partner of the year by the Illinois Manufacturers Association and IEMC at the recent award ceremony.

Illinois has also been recognized as a top state for business by CNBC, highlighting the state's incredible business client climate, talent, resources, and commitment to economic growth.

Illinois continues to climb in key categories, coming in number three for education, up one spot from 2024, top 10 for infrastructure being number eight, um, technology and innovation being number six, and access to capital being number five.

Top 10 for infrastructure being number eight, technology and innovation being number six, and access to capital being number five.

Top 20 in the workforce, which is up 18 spots from 2024.

The cost of business number 19, which is up 13 spots from 2024.

Lake County Partners hosted 50 plus public sector partners for communications workshop as part of this outgo ongoing quarterly workshop series for public sector partners.

Lake County Partners recently convened experts for a panel presentation on branding, digital marketing, and events.

This event showcased Lake County strong leadership, community pride, and spirit of collaboration, all which have contributed to Lake County's reputation as being a national model for economic development.

Thank you.

Thank you.

They've got a lot to be proud of, as we all do since we really support the work of Lake County Partners.

So moving on to item 45, I'll turn to our chair of Financial Financial Administrative Committee, Chair Frank, to introduce item 45, please.

Thank you, Chair.

We have an update on the Lake County American Rescue Plan Act implementation from staff.

Great.

I wasn't sure if you wanted to do it or if I wanted to do it.

So I have nothing else prepared about in that.

Yeah, I'm sorry, thank you.

And I just want to say thank you to our communications team and uh to Matt Myers for putting this together for us.

Um and I really want to commend our special committee who worked countless hours and had so many meetings on this.

Um, you know, we had a lot of uh dollars that came in, grant dollars, and it's very difficult to determine the best way to use that money, right?

There is a lot of um, I would say different agencies and different ideas, and so there's got to be a lot of evaluation to make those determinations.

And while there are recommendations that come before our board, um, it was really up to that committee to carefully look over each one of those recommendations and uh and make those decisions.

So I want to thank our special committee on ARPA members, uh Paul Frank who chaired it, Mike Danforth, Angelo Kyle, Linda Peterson, and Jessica Litzik.

Um so thank you.

Go ahead, Matt.

Thank you, Chair.

Matt Myers, Deputy County Administrator.

July 31st was a big deadline for staff for our reporting that um, you know, we don't we don't typically report out to the board as to how we're doing with respect to our compliance.

There hasn't been any challenges, I'll go ahead and say, but uh July 31st is an annual day in which we have to file a recovery plan with uh the U.S.

Treasury in addition to other reporting that we do on a quarterly basis.

So just going through the the July 31st deadline and getting a lot of the updated metrics together.

We thought it was a great opportune time to uh take five minutes out of the board meeting and um just talk about some of the great things that we've done and kind of our journey that we've taken to get here.

This will go.

It has been four years, believe it or not, since uh we received money from the American Rescue Plan Act.

If you remember, Lee kind of received 135 million dollars to address immediate pandemic response needs and long-term initiatives with that that needed to fit within that compliance bubble that we were provided by the U.S.

Treasury.

There was a uh we just recently talked about this as there was a compliance deadline of um uh December 31st, 2024, in which we needed to have everything contracted.

So I reported out to this board previously that we met the deadline.

Everything is contracted.

We haven't provided any funds back to the U.S.

Treasury, and uh we continue to work as uh our next deadline is at the end of next year, uh, December 31st, 2026, in which every single dollar that we received needs to be spent.

So plenty of work that still needs to be done over the next year and a half on ensuring that these contracts are spending at the rate that they need to spend, and um, if not, is there an opportunity to move and shift some funds around?

So that'll be information that we bring forward to you all over the next year to talk about how we're doing and and how we're going to work to get all that money spent and into our communities.

Uh Chair Hart did a great introduction.

We had a uh a COVID committee, I'm sorry, an ARPA committee uh that talked uh specifically about strategies and and uh not spending the the funds kind of willy-nilly, and we set forth guiding tenants where we were going to ensure that we were aligning these things with the county strategic plan, that we were going to make sure that if there's other funding available, we were going to focus on that first before we just start spending the ARPA money.

Um, and we're gonna look regionally and work with our partners to ensure that we're doing this collectively and we're not needlessly spending money that others may be spending on the same exact thing.

So it was it was a uh a long number of years in which it took us to contract 87 different projects and initiatives that we're currently still managing and overseeing and reporting on on a quarterly basis and annually in this recovery plan that I spoke of at the beginning of this meeting.

Just talking a little bit about um how we've allocated those funds.

These are the quote unquote buckets that we started with.

These are specific to what the US Treasury requires us to report on.

They call everything we have to take every single project of those 87 and report it as uh within some kind of eligible expenditure category.

So uh 25% of it is revenue replacement dollars.

Those are the funds, if you remember, that we could use on quote unquote government services, those were the funds that didn't have a significant amount of um uh requirements uh placed on them, other than just government use, government services.

Large majority of of that 25% was the ROC facility and the ERP project that uh were we funded with those projects.

Public health, things like the COVID call center and other initiatives like that.

You have a book in front of you that we created as part of the update that'll list the projects in the back, negative economic impacts, uh support to that would be like support to small businesses that would be um uh our our supporting workforce and our um what was it the the Lake County the supporting the the hotels, the county's hotels, uh, and those initiatives disproportionately impacted communities would be things like uh food and uh shelter, uh affordable housing, premium pay, small percentage.

We had a premium pay program that we went through uh for our staff that were on the front lines, infrastructure is our water and sewer projects that we've invested in, and we're pretty proud of that administrative um expenses there.

That little orange sliver on the left is 0.91%.

Uh, administration, Patrice and I have put a lot of time and effort into uh managing a lot of what we could in-house with some small support from some consultants for uh some compliance related questions that we have, but overall the reporting and um the management has been handled by staff over the last four years, and we'll do so through the uh end of 26.

So that has allowed us obviously to take those funds which could have gone up to 10 percent uh into administrative and be focused and pushed out into our communities and into Lake County.

This is our rate of spend.

This is something we haven't reported on, but um, it was a great update just based on the recent reporting that we did.

You can see we started slow at just as we did with CARES funds for for those that remember that year of enjoyment.

The we had to spend that all by the end of uh 20, which was quite a project, but uh we started slow as we worked on our strategies as we started the contract, and uh the the spend has significantly increased over the last year, and we'll continue to do so as we get it.

We need to get it fully spent by the end of next year.

We wanted to just take a moment and just talk about some of the numbers, the big picture numbers uh as to what we've done with this 53,000 nights provided for individuals that were experiencing homelessness during the pandemic, over 7 million allocated to mental health programs, uh, six and a half million uh units of PPE distributed during the pandemic, almost two million meals provided, 4,000 trees planted, um, and uh this this is in the booklet in front of you.

And the booklet in front of you, I'll say is just a summary, a snapshot of where we're at currently based on this recent reporting.

It has this this numbers slide in it, and then it does some project highlights that I think I've included two here.

One is the food distribution program that I just spoke on, uh providing almost two million meals to individuals in need at the height of the pandemic, and the other is uh an infrastructure project.

Um the county did invest over 22 million dollars in infrastructure projects uh with the ARPA funding, and this is obviously supporting the project that's bringing Lake Michigan water to uh homes in the Pacara Subway under Buffalo Grove.

That booklet is available as is our uh 2025 recovery plan that we just had to submit to the U.S.

Treasury on our website at lakecountyle.gov slash ARPA.

And um, I think that that's the end of like I don't think I had a question slide.

This was more of just a report out and um to talk about the great things that we have done.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Any comments on this?

Member Frank.

Yeah, thank you, Chair.

Thanks for giving me a moment to gather my thoughts on this.

Um it's really extraordinary what we were able to accomplish.

And I really want to thank Deputy Administrator Myers, Administrator Sutton, even our former administrative team, all of our board members, uh current and and former, for participating in the conversation.

Um, you know, we we reacted quickly with cares, but we didn't have, you know, it wasn't as comprehensive of a plan to be very clear, but we had a little bit more time to be deliberative, and uh the investments we made here fully align with our strategic goals as a county, and it's the second page of this book that Matt just showed on the slide that I really want to highlight so often in budgeting, it's really um hard to understand the impact that we have on people.

And I would often talk about the ARPA committee's work as investing in people or services that help people, but that's a real oversimplification.

These are some great real concrete examples of how we touch people's lives and the decisions we made with these investments again.

Uh thanks to our federal government partners for uh recognizing the need and um congratulations to all of you and our team and county administration.

Really proud of the work we did here.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you.

Member Altenberg.

I want to echo what Member Frank just discussed.

We are so fortunate to receive these funds.

Um not only were we able to help people in the immediate sense of COVID, and there were so many shortfalls going on, and we were able to jump in and send money to food pantries and send money to the food bank and send money for housing.

We were able to house all our people who needed housing during COVID, but this money also helped us launch some projects that have been sitting on the shelf that we weren't able to get to, such as the PCA water system that's been waiting years and years, and those people really didn't have the best water.

So I was so pleased that we were able to upgrade that system and give them Lake Michigan water finally.

But there's a lot of projects like that that we were really able to make a concrete difference with this money, and we're very fortunate to have been able to been able to allocate it to very, very important projects.

So, and thank you to our wonderful county team who worked so so hard on all of these projects on helping us decide where the money needed to go, and um, and thanks to everybody on our board.

I think this was like a labor of love using all this ARPA money and trying to get it to the places that needed it the most.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Anyone else?

Thank you, member Clark, Father by Vice Chair Cunningham.

Yeah, thank you.

Yeah, I do.

I you know, when we I remember when this all started, and you and when we got the ARPA money, and you know, really I think the theme here was always about change, change.

This is like change that will last for generations, a lot of these projects in addressing now and in the future.

And I want to thank our county administrator Patrice Sutton, Deputy County Minister Matt Matt Myers, you know, uh chair of the Carbor Committee Frank, and everyone who was on it, and this whole board, because you know, I I know when we went to NACO talking to other counties, not every county I think was potentially as strategic, but not every county was able to use the amount of fund that use the funds, and these are and honestly, looking at our administrative costs, it is I don't know how you did it, because that it is true labor of love that shows how much that I think everyone here cares so much about the people of Lake County and making sure we can really make a difference.

I was gonna try to highlight you know some of the things, everything from vote by mail equipment to fresh water to the rock to planting trees and in our digital, I would in our digital growth initiative, which hearing the stories of people's lives that are changed by the training they're receiving and their the laptops and equipment, it is so much.

And so I really want to also thank the Biden administration for passing this and helping counties across the whole country having this really it shows how important the that um our public govern governments are.

This is the role we play, and this allowed us to have the tools to really do this.

And I am just so proud of every single one of these projects.

And I really want to thank our whole board for all this work.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I am very, very proud of our county for taking this money.

Uh um Matt, you did a great job with the finance chair, Paul Frank, and other ones that had a part and making this is I'm happy to see this on here, the agencies that we helped.

This was truly truly uh uh a lake county board.

Uh Lake County Board that helped these agencies, and every agency on here needed this money, needed this.

So uh with all the agency was, and they have because I have some of them here in my district, and you did a great job by sitting down, you're taking your time going through seeing who who needed and who didn't, and all these agency was eligible and was needed.

These was uh needed agency that got this money and get back to Pads, you know, it sort of hurts my heart when I hear someone say something about PAS ain't doing nothing.

Pad is doing something.

We can't.

I was in uh NACO in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania last month.

These people need to see all over the United States it's it's homeless peoples.

That we can't stop.

We can't stop that that that, but we took care.

The county of Lake Takes Care Pads, and they're doing the best that they can do.

Pad shelters and member Diane district, and uh we have uh uh board member serves on Pad board, and that board member should know what Pad does.

You know, it's we've done the best that we can do.

We're putting the funds where it's supposed to go.

We're getting ready for a grand opening, a ribbon cutting uh of uh Lewis Avenue uh travel lodge getting ready.

I I deal with pass every day with with Allen, every day.

I deal with him, and they helped everybody that coming in.

And in the ninth district, we're gonna always have homeless people.

We are never not having, and that's all over Lake County, and that's why we go out every year looking for the homeless.

The coldest night in the year.

So I'm just so pleased to see these agencies here that got funded, and this is honest, and this is fair.

This is this is really fair, and I thank the county board for we all voted on this.

So we I thank the county board for funding these because they see what a need was, and everybody district got some of this money.

So not just one went one way, everybody.

And uh, I just thank you all and Matt.

Matt does a great job on who who get what.

So this is great, and I'm happy to see this.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I have member Wasek, five by member campos.

Thank you, Chair.

I I think it's appropriate to say that not only did Chair Frank do a great job uh with the committee, all the committee members, everybody in this room, and of course, Patrice and Matt worked so hard on this.

This was just uh a really compassionate effort to address human needs and echo what Chair Frank was saying.

Um, for example, the people in Highland Lake are gonna get a new uh water system, which was out of compliance, uh, so they'll get clean water.

Uh our first responders and vets are going to get mental health wellness services uh at the new frontline center.

So we know the people are being helped.

We know that what we did was was try to expand the the reach of compassionate government and service, and and I think that's that's what we need to keep in mind uh as we go forward in this new era, and uh we'll have to be more creative and we'll face more challenges.

But I think everybody in this room is has their heart and and their soul in it.

So and I think this is a good demonstration of that.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Member Campos, followed by Member Roberts.

Uh thank you, Chair.

I just wanted to um give my turn to speak to say thank you to everybody who was on the ARPA committee as well as all the board members for all of the work that they've done, and and and everybody can point to something in the side of their district that they championed, and it's uh wonderful to uh be able to be a part of uh uh a board that uh was collaborative during this process and uh uh everybody got a little piece of the pie.

Uh the premium pay for our sheriff's officers when I first got onto the board, that was a big uh accomplishment, and and it leaves a smile on my face every time I see Teamster 700 members that they were denied their COVID pay.

So I'm I'm glad they got that premium pay.

Uh and I'm also glad to see the uh uh the the wellness center in inside round lake me and me and Wasikt and uh Brad Schneider and everybody else worked on that.

So uh it's every time I drive by in the in the district, I always uh uh it always brings a smile to my face.

But uh no, I just do want to echo that um it feels nice.

Uh keep this book.

This is good memories because we are now dealing with a hostile uh hostile federal government um going into uh going into the next uh two three years.

So um it's gonna be nice to look back, and then uh you know, the real work is gonna start to you know be ahead of us.

So uh, but I think thank you everybody for uh for all their work on this.

So thank you.

Member Roberts.

Thank you, Chair.

I just would like to uh thank Member Frank for chairing that committee and everybody on that committee.

What great work you've done along with the staff, and I just want to say this is incredible.

I cannot wait to share this with my community.

I wish I could have thousands of them, but I guess I'll just take a picture and put it on social media and share it with my community.

So thank you for putting this together.

Thank you, Member Kazman.

Thank you.

I also want to thank this board.

I want to thank the staff.

Um, I think when I look at this, I see our priorities in a document.

Um, I see our priorities in funding going out to our struggling community members, and I'm really proud of what we decided to prioritize as a board for our community.

Um, just to touch on uh the homelessness issue.

I am the I am on the PATS board of directors, and what this board did by allocating the funds that they've that they allocated to the hotel shelter program when congregate sheltering became impossible to do was nothing short of and then by um allocating funding for the fixed site shelter.

It is nothing short than funding a paradigm shift for how we treat unhoused people in Lake County.

The rotating church model, though it was an extraordinary labor of love for so many people in Lake County, was about four percent successful.

What we found out was when we when this board funded these hotel nights, the hotel shelter model is in the I think 44 percent in the 40s percent successful in getting people into um long-term housing.

The fixed site shelter model will be in the 80s percent successful, probably 85 percent successful in in getting people into permanent um housing.

So this what this board did for the unhoused population of Lake County and for how we see unhoused people as people who are going through a rough patch, who can rebuild their lives and can move on, is extraordinary.

And I'm so proud of um all of us for helping to do that.

I'm proud of the staff for um helping us to prioritize that and all the work that they've done on this hundreds and hundreds of hours.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Anyone else?

Thank you.

I just want to highlight one thing uh that member Wasick had said, and I I really liked it.

It was uh this is an example of compassionate effort to address human needs, and I think that's what our board stands for.

How do we uh tackle problems?

And pardon me, I should say this board and certainly our county administration and really everybody who works in Lake County government, and of course that includes Lake County Health Department, stormwater management, and our other partners.

Um, how do we address human needs?

How do we make life better in Lake County?

How do we partner to lift up everyone?

And um, you know, to me that's what government is really about, and you can see the difference between uh one administration and another.

Uh previous administration, I think led with compassion, and the current administration, I think, is leading with cruelty.

So uh I'm just really proud of this work, and I want to thank uh Congressman Schneider, Foster, Quigley, and Congresswoman Chikowski and Underwood and Senators Durbin and Duckworth who really made this possible so that we could in turn um help those who needed it the most.

So thank you very much.

There is no vote on that item.

So thank you for this great conversation.

And I am uh thank you, Member Kasman, for talking about the fixed site shelter.

When I joined uh Lake County board, I was so surprised to hear that we did not have a fixed site shelter here in Lake County, and that the churches were doing their very best to provide shelter, but they could really only do it over the winter.

So I don't know, you know, what were people doing in the summer?

I guess it was okay to sleep outside in the heat and the rain and the humidity, right?

So having this fixed site shelter, it is the humane thing for us to do, and I'm really proud of our board uh for putting that putting that forward to be funded.

So thank you.

Uh moving on to item 46, please, Chair Frank.

Item 46 is resolution authorizing an intergovernmental support agreement between Naval Station Great Lakes and Lake County for demolition and installation support services.

And I move to approve.

Thank you.

Motion by Member Frank, second by member Kyle.

Any discussion on this item?

All right.

Seeing none, I am just gonna say a few words.

I am really thrilled to see this uh agreement move forward.

While this can um perhaps be utilized for other things, really the purpose of it is to demolish um Halsey Village, and uh I think it was almost 70 percent of the homes in Halsey Village were actually condemned.

This was housing for military families that was opened up to anybody who wanted to live in that housing.

Um it is in my district.

It shocked me to see the kind of housing that our military families were asked to live in with black mold climbing up on the exterior.

I did not go inside, but uh gutters filled with debris roofs caving in, um, dilapidated homes near the playgrounds, uh playgrounds that were falling apart, and um such a huge difference in what the folks of Halsey Village were living in, and and for those of you who don't know, Halsey Village is located just north of 137 and just east of Green Bay Road.

Um, there was also a whole section that had been cordoned off, but the um fencing was in such disarray, it was easy for people to get through there, and um it was like a dystopian movie to to walk back there.

Um, and then when you compare that to the other uh housing that Hunt military communities also manage, which was in Fort, which is in Fort Sheridan, which is a beautiful, lovely neighborhood on the shores of Lake Michigan.

Um it is uh really an embarrassment and an insult uh to the people of North Chicago that they were asked and and had to live with that.

And I'm not talking for a few years, I'm talking decades.

So I'm thrilled to see this move forward and really grateful to our staff who've been working with the naval base uh to get this done.

And I want to uh do a special shout out to the folks at the Navy base for their uh collaboration and efforts to make a difference because you know they have friends, they have family who were living in Halsey Village too.

So thank you.

Uh all those in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed?

Motion passes.

Thank you.

Moving on to item 47, please.

Item 47 is resolution approving the execution of a sub-reciprient agreement with the city of North Chicago for environmental remediation at the Sheridan Crossing property.

And I move to approve.

Thank you.

Motion by member Frank, second by member Kyle.

Any discussion on this item?

All right, seeing none, I just want to thank Matt Myers for being the lead on this project.

Uh, he spoke about it at FA.

There was just a little, it's almost like uh Scrivener's error where um Lake County government was in there, and I think Matt said it was going to take literally an act of Congress uh for it to move over to the city of North Chicago to manage it.

And so um Matt Myers is going to manage this project or this this process for in partnership with City of North Chicago.

Uh this area is a very important project.

That Sheridan Crossing area has been uh an economic development opportunity for the city of North Chicago for decades.

They have wanted that to get up and coming.

Um, there is a lot of environmental remediation.

It is one of many brownfield sites that I would say the cities of Waukegan, North Chicago, Zion have been saddled with, and this is an effort to uh to really level the playing field for these communities so that they can have some viable businesses uh to locate in the city of North Chicago, and I know it will be transformational for them.

So thank you very much, and thank you, Member Kyle, for all of your leadership and advocacy for this project over the years.

I really appreciate it.

Um all those in favor?

Aye.

Thank you.

Any opposed?

Motion passes.

Thank you.

Item 48, please.

Item 48 is an ordinance proposing the dissolution of the South Lake Mosquito Abatement District, and I move to approve.

Thank you.

Motion by member Frank.

I'll second that motion.

Uh any discussion on this item, Member Frank.

Yeah, thank you, Chair.

Um members, this is uh one step in the process.

This is not the final action that would dissolve this district.

We've only heard directly from one of the impacted municipalities so far.

So I think it's really important that if we move forward with this step and approve this resolution today, that we know hear from the other impacted municipalities in this district.

And I know for certain that they want to see the audit report, which will be generated if we approve this resolution.

Our team will uh you know go forward with the audit as required by statute and share that with us and with the municipalities.

And I would just say one of the reasons I'm supportive is I believe that local control is important for this service, that the municipalities should have the ability to to control and contract on their own.

And this is the only district like this in the county.

And as I said in committee, uh my neighbors and I definitely feel like we are special, but not so special that in terms of governance that we that we merit the only district like this in the entire county.

And so I I believe in terms of local control, it's probably better and more appropriate to have the municipalities responsible for the service if if that's what they're uh indicating their supportive of.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you.

Member Maine.

Thank you.

Um actually we've heard from two communities because Bannickburn also spoke up at the first um finance meeting to say that they had concerns about this.

So we have heard from two.

I think it's also important that they are two of the smaller ones.

Um I'm against this for um for a number of reasons.

Um I want to make clear that the audit is just gonna show us where money is spent.

It is not gonna say whether it was an effective use of money spent or not.

So you're you're not getting an analysis with any um judgment values to make there.

This is simply a step.

So for a dissolution, excuse me, um the monetary assets could be divided up.

I think it's also important to know that this district includes unincorporated areas, and they will then they will have no recourse.

The township's not gonna pick it up.

I don't see the county picking this up.

So removing this district will remove services from some people, and they will no longer get those services.

Um, and uh it's uh was brought up at finance last couple meetings.

I'm I'm struck by the sudden concern that many members have voiced about local control, and that I find curious in two ways.

Uh twice over the last four years, the mayor of Riverwoods has been here and has requested of us that we appoint a member from River Woods to this district so that they had representation, and I have spoken about that, and I voted against those uh nominations because the last four or five years has seen a change that didn't exist for more than 20 years before that, and that is that each community got representation.

So to suddenly say that you're concerned that people have local representation in which you have systematically shut out representation from one area, strikes me as curious.

Secondly, related to this, I and I most people I believe think it's really important to model the behavior that we want to see, and I think members of this board have been treated the board, the SM, the mosquito abatement district board is what I'm talking about, have um been treated poorly by this board.

Members of that board were told that they were going to be reappointed, and then only when uh somebody else's name appeared on our county board agenda, did they find out that they weren't being reappointed?

No, thank you for your service.

We're gonna appoint somebody else.

Not until it was public did they find out.

That's just disrespectful to people who have volunteered their time.

At least twice appointments have appeared on the agenda in which I, as somebody who represents that area, had not been told that there was even a vacancy, which is a violation of our rules.

So I just see a lot of challenges with how this board has not been treated with respect.

And so to say, well, now we want representation and more uh have people be more involved.

Um, that's not what we've shown these people.

And then finally, um I I just want to close with saying that probably not close right away.

Uh I just want to say uh we were all given um shared a letter from a member of that board who said that the district was not run well.

Uh I would point out that no one on that board has been there, I think more than four years.

There was a wholesale removal, some of board with decades of experience.

So a new board had to figure out everything for themselves.

So that's always a rough, that's always a rough go.

Uh but I'd also like to point out that the writer of that letter was appointed to that board in June.

So they attended one meeting before they made that indictment of the board.

So hardly time to get to know things.

So this step is not going to give us information.

We um there are other ways that we could get information that would let us know if monetarily it makes sense.

We're gonna be disenfranchising people, and finally, we're making arguments about representation that we ourselves on this board have not extended to that board or the residents of some of those communities.

Thank you.

Thank you.

If you don't mind, Member Clark, I'm just gonna respond to a few things.

Um I'm not aware of anybody who was told that they would be reappointed and then was not um then was surprised to find their name not on there.

If that was an oversight, certainly I apologize for that.

I will say uh that this board sends a thank you note to every single person who has ever served on a special service area signed by me.

So everybody is thanked for their service.

If it's possible that one of them got lost in the mail, I can't speak for that.

Um we did hear from a couple of communities.

Riverwoods is about six percent of that district, Bannockburn is about two percent, and so if we're talking that Riverwood should have a seat worth 20% on that district, I might argue that if that makes sense.

So the person that we're talking about, and I'll just say Kim Stone, former city council member for the City of Highland Park, is someone who has been uh looking at South Lake Mosquito Abatement District for many years, over 10 years, in fact.

I myself have spent a significant amount of time looking at South Lake Mosquito Abatement District, and I don't think you need to be an expert or to sit on a board to be able to take a look at the minutes and see how money is being spent.

There was a previous mosquito abatement district member of South Lake who traveled out west to attend a conference about mosquito abatement, and I think that the state had already passed a law saying that they could not do that, but that did occur.

Does that mean that that board wasn't managed well?

Maybe not, but maybe that municipal attorney who is serving there should have should have let that person know that.

Um, right now there were no contracts that were available, neither with the municipal attorney nor with Clark that anybody had any copies of.

When the person asked for a copy of the contract, they had to ask the sub the contractor to get it.

You would think that if there was like we have a contract with an agency, I'm pretty sure we keep it here in Lake County, and we don't ask for the vendor, hey, can you give me a copy of that contract?

Uh I can tell you that when I looked at Lake Bluff Mosquito Abatement District myself and asked somebody else to check the records, we found that Lake Bluff Mosquito Abatement District was spending far more than area municipalities were spending on mosquito abatement.

So this process is really, pardon me, this vote is to start the process.

The idea, and and that is by state statute.

So the idea that we don't want to have an audit just to take a look at where dollars are being spent makes no sense to me.

The state of Illinois has more units of government than any other state in the country.

I'm really proud of the work that our board has done, little by little, chipping away and saying, hey, is there another place that would be more effective to do this work?

And that doesn't mean we do it all the time.

It means that we look at it one by one.

To have a taxing body that only is looking at mosquitoes is outdated.

Are we gonna have a taxing body maybe that can look at maybe just ticks or just something else that doesn't make sense to me?

So I think moving forward just to look into the audit as a process is to me a good step.

There are 52 municipalities in Lake County.

Uh 47 of those municipalities manage mosquitoes on their own.

Can these other five municipalities figure out how to do that?

I think they can.

And I can tell you in Lake Bluff, it has been less expensive.

So I just uh wanted to take that prerogative.

I might have more to say, but thank you for your grace.

Uh and I'll turn it to you, Member Clark.

Thank you very much, Chair.

Yeah, as someone who lives in one of the 47 municipalities that doesn't have a mosquito abatement district, this was kind of a new concept to me when I first got on the board to think that, and to think that now would we take one thing and create a whole nother level of government, a whole other taxing body for something like this.

And I think there's really a number of reasons that I I believe we need to move forward with looking towards doing this audit and dissolving it.

And the main reason is really the things Member Maine was just saying.

I think the fact that we have all these people and are they represented and all this work putting this board together that's not responsive, very difficult to find, is exactly why we shouldn't have this.

You know, as my main issue with this is the lack of responsiveness and transparency.

If I have a question about mosquito spraying in my area, which is a true concern of many residents, I actually ran into people over the weekend that had heard about our conversation last week and thanked me for talking about this because this is an issue they really care about and they want to know what's going on in their community.

So I guess some people do watch our meetings.

And um, I found that for me, if I have a question, I go to my village, and I'm my elected trustees and mayor can answer it.

If you live in this district, where do you go?

I mean, honestly, where do you go?

How do you find people?

And they're not elected people.

They're put on the board with, and no matter how good and truly, all of our board uh appointments here are so I really feel like they're very well thought out.

We get the background, but then people complain.

Well, there's only five, we can't get this area represented.

That just shows why it is not an effective way for government.

Sorry, for government.

Um, and so there's the lack of transparency, there's a lack of accountability, these people are not, uh they're not voted for, and to get them, and then you know, as an economist, I have to look at this and think, well, in my village, if some when they look at mosquito spraying, the person who's in public works or someone organizes the mosquito spraying, how much of that time does that use?

Not very much.

But to create an entire system that has all this administrative costs, overhead costs that's not responsive to the residents to me, seems very outdated and antiquated, and I don't even know why it was started in the first place.

So for residents here, if they have concerns, I want them to be able to go to their town.

There are unincorporated areas in the rest of Lake County that do not have the mosquito issues.

And my town mosquitoes, I think I feel like are handled very efficiently and effectively, and I would like that with local control.

And that is what I believe that residents of this area also deserve.

They deserve to be have people that are accountable, and then also people that know it that are um uh educated and know what they're doing, and so I really believe we need to move forward with this.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Member Park.

Yep, thank you, Chair Hart.

Um, I don't want to be that redundant to what everyone said, but I'd like to just share a couple words.

First, uh I agree with uh member Frank, we are special, but not that special in the South uh east part of the district.

I support this step in the process to dissolve the South Lake Mosquito Abatement District because I believe communities with within the district would be better served through more direct representation, as several members have mentioned, and the efficient allocation of expertise through the municipalities.

While volunteer boards play an important role in fostering community involvement, my experience working on the Delmar Woods Sanitary District, which is something else that's been um will be discussed hopefully in the near future, has shown me that specialized services, particularly those with public health implications, can require more professional management.

The dedicated individuals serving on the mosquito abatement board, which many of us have uh uh asked Chair Hart to be on and have contributed quite immensely their valuable time and effort to this, but I believe that the work has been handled more effectively by our local municipalities, which already have an infrastructure experience and resources in place to cover a wide range of ecological services.

In addition, as mentioned, South Lake remains the only one maintaining its own mosquito district.

Consolidating this function with municipal operations would not only align us with how other neighboring communities are doing this, but potentially deliver cost savings to taxpayers.

For these reasons, I believe it is the best interest of our residents to dissolve the district and integrate mosquito abatement into our municipal framework.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Member Hewitt.

Thank you, Chair Hart.

Um I just want to say I am in support of this with resident resignation.

There's being a former employee of the township, I know firsthand the amount of um priority that townships put on mosquito abatement.

It's a very low scale.

It's not one of the top priorities.

And that makes me concerned that if we go ahead with this process and we eliminate the mosquito abatement as it stands right now, um, I think there's going to be a lot of people that are not happy with the services that they're lacking.

So I will vote yes on this to move forward, but at the same time, I'm very concerned with what the outcome will be.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Member Hunter.

Thanks, Chair.

You know, I this is a long way from my district, and I don't know the intimate details of the folks that are there.

But you know, one of the things that I've always appreciated is volunteerism.

It's unfortunate in our time and day that we see a lot less of volunteerism.

So for that, I I I can't speak to it.

But there's a couple of things that I do that I hold very dear.

Redundancy of services.

I was the president of Lakes Regent Sanitary District, and it was redundant to what the county was doing.

It needed to go away.

It was an extra tax that and efforts to the people in my area specifically.

They were a good organization, but it was redundancy of services.

We didn't need that.

And above all, I'm for smaller government.

Plain and simple.

Thank you.

Seeing anything?

Okay.

Nothing further.

Uh, all those in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed?

Opposed.

Member Main and Peterson are opposed.

Thank you.

Motion passes.

Moving on to new appointments.

Uh, item 49 is a resolution appointing additional qualified alternate members to the board of review.

May have a motion, please.

Motion by Vice Chair Cunningham, second by member Kenisnick.

Any discussion on this item, please.

Seeing none, all those in favor?

Any opposed?

Motion passes.

Thank you.

Any pet we have no petitions correspondence in miscellaneous business.

Do we have any members' remarks and requests, please?

Okay.

Seeing none, uh, I so adjourn this regular June 2025 session of the County Board of Lake County.

Our next board meeting will be held on September 9.

Thanks, everybody.