Good morning.

Today is Tuesday, November 18, 2025.

I called the Lake County Board meeting to order at 9.04 a.m.

The meeting is being recorded and live streamed on our website, Comcast Channels 18 or 30 and ATT U verse 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.

Per county board rules and the open meetings act, attendance via remote means is permitted for qualifying reasons as long as the majority of the board members are physically present.

We have been notified in advance by Member Adam Schlick that he requests to participate electronically for work reasons.

If there's no discussion, I will ask county staff to know to the minutes that Member Schlick is present and eligible to vote on matters before the county board today.

And as a reminder to Member Schlick, he already has his camera on, uh just ensure it's on at all times.

Thank you very much.

Um before we begin, um, I'm gonna ask for a moment of silence.

Uh, please.

Is there anyone board members would like us to remember today?

Thank you.

Uh member Hewitt, followed by member vice chair Cunningham.

Thank you, Member Chair.

Um, I would like us all to remember and keep in prayers.

Um, Officer Michael Shinakki this past month.

I had a uh celebration of life for him.

He worked many years at the Waukegan Township Highway Department, and then he transferred to the Waukegan Police Department where he finished his career.

Um, due to health reasons that seem to be cut short.

So uh I would like everybody please keep him and his family in their prayers.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Vice Chair Cunningham.

Thank you.

And I would like everyone to remember a long time Otterman.

We had his saying this weekend.

And also Rosa Staben daughter.

We had her saying this weekend.

Her little daughter passed away.

So uh we'd like to keep the prayer.

All right.

Thank you.

Member Altenburg.

Thank you.

I'd like to remember um somebody from Buffalo Grove, Leanne Blue.

She died suddenly in the last week.

And um she was an incredible Jewish educator in the Chicago community.

And um she's we've suffered a big loss.

She it was um she's done tremendous work and affected a lot of people over the last 30 years.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Member Clark.

Yeah, I'd like us to keep in mind a few people today.

I'd like us to keep in uh our in our thoughts.

Jose, who was kidnapped on November 3rd while he was unloading his tools to do yard work.

He did not resist, and he provided his documents to the agents.

They didn't let him explain his situation, and they detained him.

He's currently in the process of adjusting status to become a per legal permanent resident and doesn't have a criminal record.

He's pre-diabetic, takes his medicine daily, and he was the sole provider for his family.

I'd also like us to remember a community member who called to see guidance for their brother Jose.

He was kidnapped on October 14th.

He was driving a landscaping truck and was pulled over by immigration enforcement officers in front of a police station on the western part of the county.

The community member also called a report that their father-in-law, who was in the truck with their brother Jose.

The father-in-law is now in Kentucky.

And then finally, Miguel, who was kidnapped on October 25th in Joaquin at his landscaping job.

He has a pending U visa case and he has authorization to work here.

He was able to speak with his wife and told her the agents are pressuring him to sign self-deprecation at the detention center.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chair.

Like what Member Clark said, the three individuals I'd like to remember haven't passed, but their whereabouts are unknown.

Gregario of Lake County was kidnapped on October 31st while doing landscaping work in Evanston.

His co-worker saw ICE and ran inside the client's home.

The owner of the house let both of them stay inside the home and told ICE to get off the property.

After some time passed, Gregorio opened the door, and two ICE agents grabbed him and kidnapped him.

He had been in the United States for 24 years with no criminal record.

Miguel and his brother were kidnapped on November 7th in Joaquin.

Miguel's wife was able to get communication with him and learned that Miguel had signed his deportation order, even though he has a valid employment authorization document.

ICE told him he'd be freed if he signed the deportation order.

They have no idea where the brother-in-law is at, and they have no information on him from the ICE locator website.

Ruben was kidnapped on October 17th in the eastern part of Lake County.

His family has not been able to reach him.

On October 20th, the ICE locator showed he was in El Paso, Texas, but representatives at the detention facility claim he is not there and are unable to confirm his whereabouts.

Thank you.

Member Kasbin, followed by Member Volitzek.

I'd like to remember Donna Radke.

She's from my district.

For over 30 years, Donna served as a dedicated trustee for Warren Township, where her commitment and compassion made a lasting difference in the community.

She was instrumental in organizing the annual Santa Parade alongside her daughter Jennifer, bringing joy to countless families every year.

Donna also supported Ann and Robert H.

Lurry's Children's Hospital of Chicago in memory of her daughter, Michelle Radke.

A cause that held a very special place in her heart.

I want to honor Donna's memory and let her family know that I so appreciate her service to the community.

I'd also like for us to keep in our thoughts.

Andres of Lake County, who was kidnapped in Chicago, Illinois on October 21st while doing landscaping work in Chicago.

His wife has a short video of Andres being placed in into the ICE truck.

Andres does not have previous criminal history, and he expressed to his wife that ICE forcefully tried to get him to sign the documents to self-report, but he denied signing them.

They believe Andres was being transferred to the Indiana Detention Center, but ICE Locator shows that he is only in ICE custody.

Orlando from the western part of Lake County was kidnapped on October 17th in McHenry.

His family was unable to locate him using the ICE locator.

Orlando was still unable to be located the following day.

Arturo lived 30 years in Lake County and had been employed at the same landscaping company for 30 years.

He and a co-worker were kidnapped on November 8th in Rosemont while working.

The head of his crew delivered his lunchbox to his home.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Member Wasick, followed by Member Roberts, and then Paris.

Perrect.

Chair.

Oh, pardon me.

I'm so sorry.

Member Volitsick, followed by Member Wasick Roberts.

Correct.

I'd like us to keep in our minds a father of four from Lake County who was detained outside of his home in October.

He entered the country legally, had valid documents, including a social security number and a driver's license.

His U.S.

citizen wife passed away this year, leaving him as the sole caregiver to their four U.S.

citizen children.

But after several days of enduring the conditions inside the Broadview Detention Center, after threats he said officers made to him for his safety and his physical well-being, and after being given a quote, translator who was an ICE agent.

He signed his own deportation papers and is now on the other side of the border.

Thank you.

Member Wasick, followed by Member Roberts.

Thank you, Chair.

I'd like to uh acknowledge and recognize uh two local people who were part of the Midway Blitz.

Uh Alejandro was kidnapped on October 17th while working as a personal shopper in the Round Lake area.

He was only able to make one phone call letting his partner know that he was being transferred to Texas.

Eduardo from the Round Lake area was kidnapped while working landscaping on October 17th.

He has not been able to contact anyone since he does not know anyone's phone number.

He's currently being held at Broadway, Broadview, and we demand and pray for humane and just treatment of these people.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Member Roberts, followed by Member Parrick.

Thank you, Chair.

I'd like to recognize Jefferson, who was kidnapped on October 16th during his ICE check-in.

He has an asylum application submitted and was attending his appointment because he was following the requirements to check in for his asylum process.

He doesn't have a criminal record or existing removal order.

His wife is eight months pregnant and was present at the check-in.

Also Louis, he was kidnapped on October 29th on the way to work.

He was a passenger in a car that was pulled over by an agent.

He has a pending asylum case and was sent to and was set to have his court hearing in 2026.

He has a 14 and a 15-year-old children who are who are under his custody.

And he was the sole provider for his family.

He cared for his mother who has cancer.

And lastly, Jose, who was kidnapped on October 21st and 21st in Zion.

His stepdaughter called on his behalf, stating that they now need financial assistance due to his kidnapping.

Thank you.

Member Parek.

Thank you, Chair.

I'd also like to recognize several individuals who were taken as part of the recent midway blitz.

First is Jorge was kidnapped on October 24th while he was walking to his car at Home Depot.

He has a minor child who he cares for, and Jorge is the parent who the child lives with the majority of the time.

He's currently at Broadview in need of medication.

His family was unable to contact him.

Saul was kidnapped on October 17th in Lake Villa.

Saul was transferred to Texas, and his wife is scared to leave her to leave her home.

She's worried about leaving her children at home.

Saul also has a medical condition that requires daily medication.

And lastly, Adan was kidnapped in Lake Zurich.

His daughter called to try and figure out where her father has been taken.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I have Member Campos, followed by Member Kennisnik.

Thank you, Chair.

Um want us to remember Cesar, who was kidnapped in Round Lake while he was at work on October 17th.

He has a wife and a child, and who are currently experiencing financial hardship.

I want us to remember Alejandro, who was kidnapped on October 17th at the Home Depot in Round Lake.

Alejandro does not have any family here, and no one who could advocate for him.

Also, want us to remember Rodolfo, who was kidnapped in Round Lake at a local gas station on October 17th.

His family shared that he felt he was being watched and he was being followed.

And Rodolfo disappeared for many hours with his family not knowing his whereabouts.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Member Kenisnik, Fabi Member Kyle.

I'd like to ask that we please remember Lake County residents Francisco in Guadalupe.

Francisco was kidnapped at his workplace in Gray's Lake on October 17th.

Federal agents entered the workplace and chased after him.

All communication has been with his brother as his wife expressed being severely traumatized by the situation.

Guadalupe was kidnapped while he was walking outside of Aldi in Joaquin after getting groceries.

His family has not been able to contact him because they do not know his A number.

After finally being able to locate him, they found out he had been taken to Texas.

Thank you.

Member Kyle, followed by Vice Chair Cunningham.

Bernas was kidnapped in North Chicago on October the 11th while working outside.

Her family only knows what happened to her through a video witness that was recorded.

She was in the asylum seeking process and has a work permit.

Thank you.

Vice Chair Cunningham.

Thank you.

And uh unsure of his whereabout.

MRC Fernandez was kidnapped on October 15th in Joaquin.

His family was unable to locate him for days.

Fernanda suffered from medical condition and taking daily medication when his family finally heard from him.

He had already been deployed to Mexico.

ICE agency denied him the opportunity to make a phone call.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chair.

Edwin was kidnapped on October 9th while working as a landscaper.

He was detained on October 9th and was transferred immediately to Louisiana.

He has a work permit and was in the process of asylum.

Also, Rosa was kidnapped on October 18th in Waukegan.

She was immediately taken to Texas without her family knowing.

And lastly, George was kidnapped while working outside walking outside a grocery store in Joaquin around 9 a.m.

on October 13th.

His family only knows what happened because witnesses took videos.

George does not have an existing removal order.

Thank you.

Member Altenberg.

Thank you, Chair.

Let's try to keep all of the people mentioned today in our thoughts and prayers.

And you know, let's hope that something good will come for them.

Federico was kidnapped while working in Evanston on October 31st.

His wife shared that her children have been asking where their dad is, and she doesn't have the heart to tell them that he was kidnapped.

She told them he is off working someplace else and will be gone for a while.

Soto, father of two, was kidnapped while working landscaping in Park Ridge.

He was kidnapped on November 7th and was in the process of applying for his green card through his U.S.

citizen wife.

And lastly, Pedro from Lake County was kidnapped at his job in Wakanda on October 17th.

Pedro has a wife who is pregnant and a one-year-old child.

Thank you.

I have a few people I'd like for us to remember as well.

Jesus worked in Round Lake.

He was outside taking out the trash when ICE agents saw him and chased after him on October 17th.

Feliciano was kidnapped on October 28th at a restaurant in Gurney.

He was being chased down while driving until he ultimately decided to park at the restaurant and was then kidnapped.

And lastly, Reuben was kidnapped while working in Lakemore.

He is 56 years old and neurodivergent.

His family was unable to drop off his medication at the Broadview facility.

Conditions at the detention center were too unbearable for him.

And his family made the decision to have him sign the self-deportation documents to return to his home country.

And so I want to thank Dulce for providing us with some of these stories so that we can give voice to them in a more public way of what is happening.

So if you would join me in a moment of silence, please.

Good morning, everybody.

Member Altenburg?

Here.

Member Campos.

Member Kasman.

Here.

Member Clark?

Here.

Vice Chair Cunningham.

Here.

Member Danforth.

Member Frank.

Here.

Chair Hart.

Here.

Member Hewitt.

Here.

Member Hunter?

Here.

Member Knisznick.

Here.

Member Kyle.

Member Maine.

Present.

Member Perat.

Here.

Member Peterson.

Present.

Member Roberts.

Here.

Member Schlick.

Here.

Member Militzik.

Here.

Member Wasick.

Here.

Great.

Thank you.

We have 19 present.

Thank you so much.

Okay, we have no addenda to the agenda.

We do have several special recognitions and presentations today.

The first one is a special recognition honoring April Sulak Andrews, founder of the Penny's Purpose for her deep commitment to giving, to be read by Member Peterson.

Thank you.

The special recognition is whereas April Sulek Andrews, a lifelong resident of Antioch, has made giving back to the community she loves a core part of her life, with the importance of service to others instilled in her by her mother, Penny Sulak, and her grandmother, Carol Jorgenson.

And whereas April's grandmother and mother were devoted volunteers at several local organizations in Antioch, and inspired by this family tradition of volunteer volunteerism.

She founded the Penny's Purpose in loving tribute to her late mother to bring the gift of giving to those in need, offering warmth and comfort through handmade blankets and other acts of kindness.

And whereas the Penny's Purpose Mission, learn to give, even when blessed with less, was directly inspired by how Penny lived her life and is meant to inspire volunteers, donors, and community members to reach out to neighbors experiencing hardship and to embrace the value of compassion and service.

And whereas, through its blanket making and blanket gifting programs, the Penny's Purpose has provided tangible comfort to individuals and families in need in Lake County and Kenosha County, Wisconsin, while fostering community connection, volunteerism, and generosity.

And whereas the Penny's Purpose engages the community in hands-on activities to make non-sofleeze blankets and provide the opportunity to sponsor, donate, or make a blanket, allowing individuals of all ages to give, collecting more than 1200 five thousand five hundred blankets since its funding in 2019 or founding, excuse me, in 2019.

Whereas, beyond her charity work, April works at life safety company and previously served as an emergency medical technician for the Lake Villa and Antioch Fire Protection District, and was a county Lake County Fire Department honor guard.

And whereas a sports fan, April enjoys watching the Chicago Cubs, Milwaukee Bucks, and Notre Dame with her husband of 13 years, Greg, and her two sons, Jake and Adam, in her free time while trying to live every day as grateful, thankful, and blessed.

And now, therefore, be it recognized that the county board of Lake County, Illinois, that April Sulek Andrews and the Penny's Purpose, highlighted by board member Linda Peterson, be commended for their outstanding contributions, unwavering support, and community outreach to the residents of Lake County and beyond.

Dated at Waukegan, Illinois, November 18th, 2025.

This is for you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you for being here.

Thank you.

Hello, thank you, Linda, for the kind words.

Okay, just don't make sure.

Thank you for having me here today and for allowing me to share this moment with my husband, our boys, our family, and our friends.

I want to thank Linda Peterson for nominating and the late county board for recognizing me.

I truly appreciate it.

I happily accept this award on behalf of my mom, the heart and inspiration behind everything we do.

And on behalf of myself, my husband, our boys, our family and friends, and for everyone who's been part of the Penny's Purpose, this recognition belongs to all of us.

This recognition belongs to all of us.

What began as a simple act of love to honor my mom has turned in something that bigger than any of us could have ever imagined.

She was given a simple blanket on the night she went into hospice, and that stayed with her through her entire illness.

Today that blanket belongs with me.

I sleep with it every night.

Our boys have used it.

My husband has used it, and even our four pets have used it.

It's warm, it's worn and well loved, but it holds her memory and her warmth.

My mom lived a life of giving, and even when she didn't have a lot to give, she found a way to give back.

And that is what inspired our mission statement.

To continue to guide every blanket we collect, every connection we make, and every person we try, learn to give when blessed with less.

Because of her example, over the last six years, we've collected more than 12,500 blankets and shared them through Lake County and Wisconsin.

Through our blanket gifting program, we have sent hugs from Penny to people facing medical or mental health challenges, alas a beloved one, or somebody that just needs a little bit of warmth and comfort.

And through our scholarships, we provide it Annie Akin Lakes High School.

We continue to honor her by recognizing young people who give back the way she did.

Every blanket we kept carries a piece of her story, her love, her warmth, her heart.

And why she's not here physically, I know she's looking down, smiling and saying, that's my April Ann.

Sorry.

I'll be honest, I didn't feel I don't feel very worthy of this recognition.

There are so many more remarkable people in our community that do amazing things.

But I'm truly honored to stand here today.

I'm honored to share her legacy and honored together.

We are spreading comfort, hope, and kindness one blanket at a time.

Thank you again for having me here today.

And thank you for helping me honor my mom through our work.

Thank you.

Well, thank you so much for being here, and thank you to her friends and family.

Um, you know, this is uh something we just started, I think at the beginning of 2025.

And it's uh it's been really great to hear about the wonderful things that people are doing, not because they want any recognition, as April said, but because they want to give back to people in need or their community.

So thank you so much for being here.

Thank you, Member Peterson, for putting her name forward.

Um, any comments?

Okay, thank you very much.

Um moving on to the second item on our agenda.

It's a presentation and discussion regarding the current status of the Latecom consolidation.

We have Jason Kern, he's the executive director of Lake Comm, and Kevin Timony is here, he's the chair of Lake Comm and also serves as the village manager for uh Vernon Hills.

And the reason why I wanted to add this today, and and feel free to come up to the podium, please, gentlemen, uh, to add this today is because I think it was just last week that we heard um it's fully operational.

And I think the press release that I saw is that it's the largest consolidation in the nation.

So you'll have to say yay or nay on that one, but that's what I thought I'd read.

I know the state, I'm not sure of the nation.

Darn it.

Okay, state.

All right, thank you.

Well, good morning, everyone, and thank you very much for having us.

Again, my name is Kevin Timony.

I'm the village manager for the village of Vernon Hills, and also the chair of the LakeCon member board of directors.

I'm joined by Jason Kern, who's our executive director.

Um, Jason's gonna provide an update on our current status of Latecom in just a moment, but before it does that, um, just wanted to take a moment to to thank all of you.

Um it goes without saying that we would not be here today with LACOM fully up and operational without the support and cooperation of of the Lake County Board.

Um this this this process has been has been going on for almost a decade, believe it or not.

Um, it's been a true government collaboration.

It's not an exaggeration to say that there have literally been dozens of government agencies involved, hundreds of people involved, and if it were not for the support and leadership of the people in this room, this would not have been become a reality.

Um I'd especially like to thank uh Cheer Hart for your leadership.

I know that you've been key in in helping us uh secure the Rock facility, which is the new home to LACOM, um, staying keeping this initiative in the forefront and helping us uh get where we are today.

I'd also like to especially thank uh two Lake County board members, uh board member Hunter, he's currently serving as the chair of our new uh Lake County JETSB and was also a big cheerleader of this project uh for many years.

I'd also like to recognize Member Peterson for your for your leadership and support on the policy planning committee.

And then I'd also like to extend a sincere thank you to the Lake County administration, um administrator administrator Sutton, um Deputy Matt Myers, former Deputy Jim Hawkins, and Jenna Phillip.

Um LACOM, believe it or not, has been only up and operational with an employee for about nine months.

So a year ago, we existed, but only on paper.

And so the county and the administration were instrumental in helping us to have all the resources we needed uh to keep things moving, whether it was finance, human resources, letting us use your facilities for all of our meetings.

Uh again, we we could not have done it without you.

So my sincere thank you on behalf of the LACOM member board.

I'll turn over to Jason now for brief update thank you, sir.

Good morning again, everybody.

My name is Jason Kern.

I'm the executive director with LACOM, and and the best news for you is uh Chair uh Chair Timiny has taken most of my comments away.

So we'll make this pretty brief for you all and let you get to your meeting.

Um but on October 28th at 6 a.m., we started a two-week uh coordinated process uh to integrate uh one of the largest consolidations, and I'll say single consolidations in the state of Illinois, all done at one time like that.

Um on Tuesday, October 28th, Lake Zurich's emergency communications center consolidated into LACOM.

On Thursday, October 30th, Countryside, Mundaline, and Vernon Hills ECCs uh joined with us.

Uh Tuesday, November 4th, CENCOM and Foxcom joined us.

And we ended on Thursday, November 6th with Gurney's ECC.

Um, so really this this was 10 years plus of work.

I was still with the city of Highland Park as their communications director back in 2014.

I remember going to meetings and hearing about this.

Um the vision is is truly come a reality.

Uh it took a village, the village stood up and really helped and made this happen.

Um, but in that 10-day period, uh, we took seven emergency communications centers, six emergency telephone system boards, and 30 police and fire agencies and brought them into one umbrella.

Um, and a lot of people asked me how that went, and and I'll tell you it was long hours.

It was a good thing my wife was on vacation the first week, so she doesn't know truly how many hours it was.

Um, but those days were fairly anticlimactic, which I think speaks highly of the team that we had together.

And I want to thank the deputy directors, the managers, and all our support people that we had.

And quite honestly, the uh roughly 80 telecommunicators that we have on staff right now that um there was no complaining.

It was getting in the seat, answering the calls, and dispatching the calls.

Um just to give you some very quick statistics.

And this went from October 20th, 28th at 6 a.m.

to yesterday at 6 a.m.

But altogether we've taken 13,349 phone calls, 5600 of them were 911 calls.

In terms of processing or dispatching those calls for calls for service, dispatchable calls, a total of 11,551 calls.

Uh 8,500 were law enforcement, about 2,000 were fire fire EMS and some other uh routine items that we handle within Lakecom.

Um so I just want to give you the snapshot in about two and a half weeks.

That's what we've done.

It's been a lot.

I echo the sentiments to thank you all for what you've done to help us get here.

Thank you very much.

Any comments from anybody?

Okay, I know.

Gina's like, can we clap?

Well, thank you.

I I also just want to thank that the two of you uh for your leadership throughout and and really for all of the partners.

Um it was very difficult.

I I said when I first came on this board, I could have sworn it was like 14, 13 years ago, but um it's been a really long time.

Member Peterson served for a very long time on that um consolidation effort.

Amy McEwen served on it uh for a long time trying to put this together.

Uh, and of course, Kevin Hunter for his leadership as well.

You know, we're just really really proud of it.

The whole point of it is um it is to decrease the amount of time it takes for people to get help in times of emergency.

And uh I'm really proud of our board for for having the vision to to do this for Lake County and potentially surrounding areas um because it is going to make a difference.

I think it already makes a difference, and it also does save municipalities money when you consolidate.

This is uh an effort driven by the state of Illinois, and um little by little, it's been happening around the state, and I'm just so pleased to see it up and running uh so well already.

So thank you so much for taking time out of your day to be here and to give us this really important update.

Um, anybody else?

Oh, oh, thank you very much.

Thank you, Member Schlick.

Thank you, Chair.

I just want to, as a as an active user of LACOM, I wanted to give you all a firsthand account of uh my dealings with the transition.

I've been through a few dispatch transitions in my life.

I've been through a few dispatch transitions in my life, um, and it has been extremely smooth.

Uh the late comm staff has been professional.

I have noticed no drop in service.

The efficiencies that were promised uh are being delivered.

I think it's just a tremendous thing for our residents, and I can't wait for more agencies to jump on the latecom when they realize it is the best thing for their residents.

So thank you, and thank you to Jason and Kevin and the entire staff over there for doing an outstanding job on this uh Herculean task.

So thank you again.

Thank you.

And you know what?

I was remiss because I do you you said thank you to Patrice, but I also do want to give another special call out.

Board members will remember that when she became county administrator, um, she immediately had to jump into really what was going on with Lake Hom and the ROC, and I would say you spent a good year really um getting into the nitty-gritty of that, and uh I give you tremendous uh gratitude for everything that you did while uh undertaking a totally new role.

So thank you, Patrice.

Uh somebody had their hand up, Kevin.

Member Hunter.

Thanks, Chair.

Um really proud moment.

You guys have done great.

This has been an ambition for decades for me to save taxpayer dollars, round up technology, um, get it to a point where it's manageable.

And I think the day that I called on the 28th and talked to Jason and said to him, hey, if you have some time, give me a buzz today.

About noon he called me, and everything was calm.

It was cool, it was collective.

I said, Can I stop by?

He says, Absolutely.

And I stopped by.

Everything was running great.

It was such a proud moment for this board to see while all the rest of the things that are going on in this world.

This was a big deal to get done, and it happened.

And it happened why everybody was sleeping, happened when everybody was taking care of their families.

It just happened.

Those are the guys that made it happen.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Well said.

Thank you so much for being here.

We really appreciate it.

Look forward to hearing more good news.

Thank you.

All right, thank you both.

Okay, item number three is a uh regional transportation authority 2026 budget presentation.

Um, it's going to be presented by Pat Carey and the CFO of RTA, Kevin Busso.

And maybe I say this every time, but Pat Carey is a former member of the Lee County Board.

So if anybody doesn't know that.

Good morning.

Good morning.

I am not going to do most of the presentation.

I'm gonna let uh Kevin do the heavy lifting.

But I do want to thank you uh for having us this morning.

Thank you, Chair Hart, members of the board.

Um a new era, we're all well aware a bill was passed a couple weeks ago, and a new era has begun for transit in the Chicago region.

The General Assembly has taken a major step forward to ensure stable, reliable public transit in uh the North in the Chicago area region.

Local elected officials from across Metro Chicago contributed to a historic victory for public transit that will allow the RTA and service boards to move forward in 2026 with no service cuts, no layoffs, and no fare increases.

Instead, riders will see continued service improvements and upgrades to the rider experience.

I'd like to thank Chair Hart and members of the board and staff for their hard work and advocacy on behalf of your communities over the last two years.

It's been a long time coming, and there was a lot of hard work involved.

Building on three years of rider show ridership growth, and we will finish 2025 with an overall 72% recovery ratio uh against pre-COVID, um, which has been steadily increasing, and we expect it to continue in the years ahead.

Um we are uh, but what will happen?

The new funding, what happened in the bill is we got governance that will allow us to operate as a uh cohesive regional transit system, and we also got funding long overdue that will allow CTA Metro and PACE to increase hiring, improve employee and rider experience, and uh increase frequency of service and create a pathway for additional improvements to public safety and reliability that riders have been asking for over the past few years.

We expect this to be transformative for the city and also very much so for the suburbs.

The reforms will strengthen coordination across all three operators to make it easy to transfer between different services and travel from suburb to suburb.

You'll hear more about uh what Pays and uh Metro have to look forward to in terms of uh service improvements when they present.

But I want to thank you again for your tireless efforts in support of sustainable transit funding and reform in our region.

We look forward to continuing this work together to improve the transit in our region.

And I'll introduce Kevin Weisso, our CFO to tell you all about it.

All right.

Um thank you, uh Director Kerry.

I'm gonna move these here.

I did ask for permission before I before I moved it.

So as director carry mentioned, my name is Kevin Buessa, and I'm the I'm the uh CFO for DRTA.

Um with me today, I do have uh director of government affairs, Rob Nash, who will answer some of the tougher questions.

And um, and again, uh the service boards uh Metra and PACE will be doing their uh more detailed budget presentations.

Um so again, our presentation is more of an overview of the regional uh regional budget.

So as Director Kerry mentioned, this is a new transform transformative uh funding that has come to the region.

Um what that means is um there's no service cuts, no layoffs plans, there is no fare increases uh per the legislature that were originally proposed to take effect on February 1st.

Um these new funds will mean there's new new opportunities to fund uh further improvements on service quality um and as well as user experience in the years to to come as these funds become available.

Uh it is it is um also um funding wrap and tap services, which again was were part of the discussion during the ADA budget um conversations that we had at the RTA board.

So these funding is covering um some of that as well.

Um building on uh this year's uh average weekday ridership um has increased over 1.3 million per per day, building on several years of this ridership growth.

Uh the new funding will allow CTA Metro and Pace to increase employ employee um hiring improved the rider experience as well, uh increase the frequency and also create pathways to additional improvements to public safety and reliability that again um the riders have been asking for for several years.

In terms of the um main operating funding sources, um this slide covers some of that, but the RTA region can expect an estimated 1.25 billion dollars annually in these new operating funding.

This comes from a combination of uh of tech at sales taxes on motor fuel and an increase on the region wide RTA sales tax.

So the first item, meaning the sales tax and the motor fuel, that's estimated to generate about 731 million dollars starting on July 1st of 2026.

So that increase of 5%, the RTA region is expected to get 85% of it, 15% of that um will go down uh to downstate transit.

So there's there's a lot of improvements uh there are um scheduled for that funding in in downstate transit as well.

The quarter percent increase um in the region wide will generate an estimated 478 million dollars for the system.

Now the RTA board is required to approve uh or to vote on the proposed increase within 60 days of June 1st, uh 2026.

These sales tax will not be matched by the state.

Um, as you may know, sales tax one and two are currently matched by the public transportation fund.

Um, those will continue to be matched, but uh sales tax three, which is why we're calling these, uh, will not.

One thing that is important to remember is that funding from this bill will not um is not expected to arrive to the system until the third or fourth quarter of uh 2026.

So uh between now and then we're gonna have to operate with the current funding model um and use the reserves that we currently have.

Looking at funding over the next three years, um this more more or less covers what that means for the for the region.

In 2026, our existing operating public funding stands at 2.568 billion dollars with the new quarter percent and the reallocated state um sales tax on motor fuel.

We are uh we are adding a projected 199 million and 366 million respectively in new funding for 2026.

Uh by 2027-2028, we as you can see there, we are expecting that 1.2 billion uh to 5 billion to kick in.

Uh that will mean about 4 billion dollars um funding for the region as uh as we get into 2027-2028, which again is uh significant transformative uh funding for transit.

Uh as a note in there, there is interest on the road fund that will come to transit that's estimated at 180 million.

Um, and that's coming for uh for capital.

Um, again, that will start to kick in uh fully in 2027, 2028.

The the RTA board um did approve uh we did have a special meeting six days after the the Illinois General Assembly approved these.

And so um with that, there came some a few amendments, and and what happened was CTA's funding was increased by 142 million, Metra by 28 million, uh pays by 19 million.

The board also allocated about 56.7 million dollars in additional um wrap and tap.

Uh, this is ADA uh subsidized uh services.

This is again reflecting our commitment to the ADA ridership.

Um in 2026, the RTA board will retain four uh full discretion per the Senate Bill 2111 to allocate the new funding.

This is estimated about 319 million dollars, um 319.2, which you see at the uh uh on the last um on 2026 proposed marks.

Uh that total increase in operating funding for 2026 is 560 uh 65 million.

This ensures that all service boards uh um have the resources they need to maintain the services that they have uh scheduled to deliver.

Uh the service boards will amend their budgets, and then they will come out to um present their budgets on November 20th, so Thursday this week to the RTA, and then the RTA board will consider their budgets for approval on December 18th as currently um proposed.

Uh one important change is the recovery ratio.

Uh so recovery ratio is the is a measure that um is supposed to cover um operating expenses with fares.

Um there's been a lot of conversations about these, but uh one of the significant changes is to reduce it to 25%.

So 25% of operations coming from fares for 2026 through 2029, and then subsequently that's lower to 20%.

Uh this change makes the recovery ratio more achievable for our service boards and the region as well.

It also aligns with our financial requirements and realities of our current ridership and our revenue forecasting.

Um the 50% recovery ratio was one of the highest in the nation.

Um, and it was just uh the way that we were achieving it was based on a lot of credits that were allowed.

Um now all those credits and calculation has been uh minimized and has been eased up now.

There's only two credits that are included, which is the capital funding for innovation coordination uh funding, uh and that's capital, as well as any expenses related to security.

Um on the terms, uh so mid mid and long-term goals of these new funding.

Uh, we wanted to highlight some of those some of the things that we are looking at right now.

And so one of them is as on the short term accelerating the operator hiring and training to support for expanded services such as higher frequency, um, as well as expanding the access pilot program to CTA and pays.

We have a program right now with uh Cook County, and there's been about 6,800 permits that have been issued, uh, over 220,000 uh rides have been taken.

So we're planning to expand that.

Uh as well as expanding access to transit projects uh that include improve includes improving sidewalks, lighting, uh shelters um around the some of the stations, and as well as beginning coordinating with the service planning to make it easier to transfer between the server between the operators, and um as well as part of that short term includes beginning planning for increased uh public safety programs, which are included in the bill.

Uh in the longer term, the bill recognizes that the region's uh transit system under the Northern Illinois uh transit authority.

This is a new board that's been set up.

Um these more or less covers some of the structure.

I'm not gonna go into a lot of the details here, but um highlight that we do have a summary page of this bill on our website.

Um so you're welcome to visit our website and download that document, which provides a lot more details on these.

Um as well as there's a lot of additional information that you can um link to if you if you need it.

Um so again, I'm not gonna go through all the details here.

Some of the key dates for uh deadlines or deadlines that we have is as I mentioned, November 6th, we had our special board meeting at the RTA that was six days after the Illinois General Assembly approved the bill.

Um and we made those adjustments to the to the budget, and then on December 18th, uh RTA board of directors will consider the the service board's budgets.

And June 1st, 2026.

So this this bill becomes law, this pending signature by the governor.

Um and RTA becomes Nita, and the new board members that are currently appointed, their terms are expire September 1st of 2026.

On October 1st, 2026, there is a transition working group that includes uh members from NITA, the service boards, and as well as labor to um drive some of that.

I've talked a lot about the operating and some of the logistics behind the new board, but there is uh a lot of there's there is a a lot of excitement about capital as well.

Um the 2026 through 2030 uh capital program, it's about 9.2 billion dollars of funding.

And so that includes a lot of very critical projects for um uh for Metra pace and NCTA, and some of these are highlighted here for Lake County.

Region wide, uh, we're starting to see some of those um new buses and paratransit vehicles as well.

Um, and then you'll see some of the by-level uh rail cars for Metro that are gonna benefit the the entire region.

Uh finally, um in terms of next steps, um these are some of the key dates for us.

Uh uh at this time, you know, I'll I'll wrap it up and um open it up for questions.

I'll also I'll also ask our director of government affairs to join me since I know there might be some questions about governance that we may want to address.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Member Main.

Thank you.

Thank you for your thank you for your presentation.

Um I I do have a question about the new funding.

I I can understand um why taking um money from um the um the uh interest on the road fund balance and things like that, why that funding could be used for um you can make an argument for that because it's transportation, we're looking at an integrated transportation system.

But I really don't understand the increase of the point uh 0.25% on the RTA um sales tax because that's being spread across people, uh everybody, right, in this region, and yet the users are not even asked to have an increase in their fares.

CTA hasn't had an increase in fares in in seven seven years, and I don't know about the other one.

So as I say, I can understand the other ones, but there seems to be actually kind of an injustice of increasing sales tax on everybody on on many items that are unrelated to um to that transportation, and yet not asking the users to be part of that solution also.

I mean is there not going to be looking at fair structure?

It's years, it's years, so it hasn't kept up with CPI or anything like that.

Yeah, no, I totally understand your question and comment.

Um so the RTA board did propose uh uh a 10% across the region increase that was uh eliminated by the by this bill, um, but only for a year.

So after that, um then the new NITA board will consider um a regional increase, uh you know, though it will be up to them.

But um, in short, this this sort of um stop the fare increase for for a year allows you know, kind of everybody to get into the same system to get these processes going as well.

Um, and then the final thing that I'll add to this is that uh fair policy now will come uh will come to NITA instead of being left to each individual individual service board, which will ensure that that doesn't happen because you're right, there is a the service boards have increased fares at different years, but CTA uh I believe last time was 2018, so it's been a while.

Um, and and we need to get to that.

One of the issues that it's also happening is part of the recovery ratio.

Um, you know, that's that's a big part of it as well.

So if we don't, if we're not allowed to increase fares, then we're not gonna meet that recovery ratio.

But um again, that's a discussion for NITA board and and again the new leg the new law that allows them to set fares.

Thank you.

Member Wasick.

Thank you, Chair.

Um I'm assuming that uh once you're you're fully integrated into NITA on June 1st of next year, that you'll be looking at a new strategic plan for capital improvements, ridership priorities.

Um, first of all, have you started that process, or do you have to wait for the new agency to be born?

Uh just kind of clean in on how that timeline would work.

But um, but that is one item to that we're we're covering because there are certain um initiatives that we need uh to maintain the you know the systems in place right now so that the transition to Nita is successful.

Uh there are some new initiatives that we under the current structure um just doesn't make a whole lot of sense to undertake.

But we are taking a lot of that into account right now.

Um and again, that discussion, broader discussion will happen at the RTA board meeting in terms of what is the appetite of the current board members to engage in um getting new initiatives going versus just maintaining the status quo to allow for that time to get in for the new board to get in.

Um so that's part of that discussion, but it is happening, and we are um proposing again.

These are initiatives that we need to get done, initiatives that uh would be nice to get going.

And then there are you know, wish list items that timing and funding and the current structures doesn't allow for it.

Thank you.

Yeah, thank you.

Member Hunter.

Thanks, Chair.

Uh can you elaborate on the 20-member board things I have read uh and it may be for the gentleman in behind you, because uh what I have read is is the mayor of Chicago gets five appointments, the governor gets five appointments, and that's 10 of the 20 already.

How many people are going to be available or will be mandated from Lake County to be sitting part of this since we're all we are the third largest county in the state and very involved in this.

Um good morning, Rob Nash, uh Director of Government Affairs with the RTA.

Uh the as noted here, the new Nita board will have 20 members, and as you alluded to, there'll be five members appointed by the mayor of the city of Chicago, five members by the Cook County Board President, and then five members uh from the governor, and then five members from uh each of the individual collar counties.

I will note that all of those entities are um need to also um seek the advice and consent of their relative uh legislative body.

So the city council, the cook county board, and all the boards in the collar counties, Illinois Senate for the governor.

And then 17 of those 20 will actually be sort of cross-pollinated where they will serve on the Nita board and then also serve on one of the individual service boards um boards of directors.

And at least the theory presented in the General Assembly is that that um hopefully will foster a regional perspective because we will have members sitting at the regional level who also have experience with an individual uh service board and and sort of the particular challenges that that service board has in delivering service uh in in their um you know scope.

So there will be that cross-pollination where different members are appointed to NITA and then will be required to serve on one of those boards.

Um the uh supermajority requirement that RTA has operated under since 1983 has been maintained, although changed slightly.

So there's sort of a two um two scenario supermajority requirement.

Um if the board can secure 15 of 20 votes, no matter where they're those votes are located, they can move forward with um major items.

If they cannot secure 15 uh votes outright, they need to secure 12 votes, and then there needs to be a minimum number of votes from each of those geographic subdivisions that I mentioned.

So a little clumsy, but that um approach you know sort of ensures that the region has said yes to a given item um with votes from each of those sub-regions, and that you know wasn't sort of um steamrolled.

Um so that uh supermajority requirement applies to the budget, the strategic plan, the five-year capital program, um, and our other two-year financial plan.

So all of the sort of key issues that the board wrestles with are gonna require that that supermajority requirement.

Um I don't know if I answered the last part of your question.

But if I could just have a follow-up, Chair.

Sure.

Um, so out of the 20 people, there'll be five people that are appointed by the mayor of Chicago, five people appointed by the chair of Cook County, five people appointed by the governor of the state of Illinois, and that re that remaining balance is five.

So we're only gonna have one person of the 20 people from Lake County on this NITA board, correct?

Correct.

Correct.

I just needed to have that clarified.

Thank you.

Yeah, thank you.

Any other questions?

Okay, thank you.

Oh, pardon me.

Member Parr.

One question, but the governor isn't required to appoint.

I mean, he he can appoint any in any of the geographies that are associated with the RTA.

Correct.

Okay, so maybe Member Hunter, maybe we could have more representation.

At least one, but maybe more.

Time will tell.

Thank you.

Yeah, and just to clarify on that point, the governor's five appointees also have to serve sort of on that cross-pollination concept.

So one of his appointees will be on Nita, but on the CTA board, one will also be on Nita and Pace, and then one will be on Nita and Metro.

So I think the anticipation would be that those serving on those um Metro and PACE boards are are likely to be suburban, but again, there's not a requirement that they be.

Great.

Thank you so much.

Thanks for being here.

Okay, next we have uh the Metra 2026 program and budget presentation to be given by the CFO of Metra, John Morris.

Thank you.

Okay.

Okay.

All right.

Good morning, uh Chairman Hart, members of the county board and uh citizens of Lake County.

My name's Sean Morris, and I'm the CFO for Metra, and I'm pleased to be able to present to you our 2026 budget as well as our 2027 and 2028 plan.

Uh echo uh RTA CFO's points that key features, there will be no fare increase, no service cuts, and our budget will give us the opportunity to enhance improved service over the next three years.

So we had proposed oh click it, sorry.

Yeah, okay.

So we had proposed a budget that did include a fare increase, did limit service expansion, and with the passage of SB 211, we were able to propose what's in the second column, which is the final budget, which includes no fare increase.

So we have 188 million in revenue from fares, 62 million, which is other operating revenue, and that's when we rent our tracks out to other railroads, advertising, interest on money, et cetera.

All right, and 55 million because we're doing a project for basically Northern Illinois commuter transit district, northern Indiana commuter transit district.

All right, so they're paying for that, and our operating expenses will be 1 billion 120 million dollars.

And of course, the expense, the NICD expense they're paying for.

That's the project to essentially increase the number of tracks coming in to Millennium Station to support expanding NICT uh services.

We'll be funding that we were given marks of 636 million originally from the RTA.

They will have increased that with new funding from SB 2111, bringing up to 28 million dollars, and that gives us a balanced budget.

We had previously had a transfer of 60 million dollars to fund capital needs.

That was requested that we not do that, so it's not included in the budget.

So our budget balances for 2026 again with no fare increase, no service cuts, and built in there as opportunity for service enhancements.

A point I will make in terms of service enhancements.

We run on a railroad, we mostly don't own the tracks that we run on.

So the railroads that own that have to give us permission for increased service, and that means more trains for us is less trains for them, and they're in it to make money.

So getting increased train service is more difficult than it may seem.

We can have more money, but we can't necessarily run more trains.

All right.

Okay.

So when we look across the three years of this plan, we'll see that we have no fare increases built in.

And again, as I believe Kevin mentioned, fair policy will be the purview of the NITA board moving forward, and it will be up to them to direct us to make changes to fair policy.

So that's not included in this funding.

And we have basically about two and a half percent increases due to projected inflation in our operating expenses.

And as you can see, our funding runs out.

We had emergency funding from the federal government that will run out in 2026.

So going forward, we have an increase in new funding from SB 2111 that's 246 and a half million in 2027 and 283.8 million in 2028 to enable us to have a balanced budget.

And again, the opportunity, the funding exists as we get the opportunity to make service enhancements and increases, but again, the limitation is what we can get in terms of slots from the um operating railroads, the uh CN and et cetera.

All right.

On the capital side, we have about 575 million in our capital program, which is about our normal amount, and it's largely funded.

And I won't go into all the details, and again, I direct you to Metro.com to look at details on our budget book, which goes into this in detail, but essentially we get the bulk of our funding from the federal government for capital.

We get a certain amount of formula funding, which we get every year, which is about 245 million.

Then we get grants, that's another almost 200 million from the federal government.

We get about 89 million from the state from the motor fuel taxes, and the rest are essentially grants that we can get from other agencies and a little bit from the RTA.

We're primarily gonna spend this money on various projects.

The biggest portion will go toward rolling stock.

I think some of you have written on some of our cars and know some of them date from 1955, and we are looking to replace those cars.

We have an order of cars, over 200 cars from Alstom, and they'll probably be online 2027, 2028, and we'll use those to replace some of the oldest cars.

We're also looking to get a battery-powered train set, about 16 of them that will run on the Rock Island initially, and we're gonna test basically these battery-powered trains.

Um, as you probably imagine, there's a lot of people want our lines electrified, that's very expensive.

This might be an alternative that's economically or ecologically friendly.

We're going to spend 68 million on bridges track and structure, and we're gonna spend 60 million on signals, 28 million on or 27 million on facilities and equipment, 60 million on stations and parking, and 92 million on support activities.

Overall, over five-year period, we're gonna spend 2.3 billion, which sounds like a lot, but I'll point out our backlog, our state of good repair backlog, which is the amount of money that would be required to bring all of our facilities and equipment up to the ideal standard, it's about 12 billion again.

Biggest pieces in here will be rail cars and the zero emission train sets.

In addition, we constantly rehabilitate our existing rolling stock and our locomotives again.

This shows the where our funding comes from.

Yes, thank you.

Member Wasick.

Thank you for your presentation.

I noticed in the last presentation, the Metro slide in the RTA program, there's a five-year capital program.

Uh, and there were two bullet points for Lake County projects.

Uh I I read the hard copy of your your budget book, and I didn't see like how those any details on those projects could you provide those to us so we could see you know where you're gonna do these improvements, where the bridges are gonna be fixed, things like that.

Caitlin, can we provide that to them?

Yeah.

Thank you.

Okay.

Just so other people can hear, they're going to send an email out to the full board.

Yeah.

Thank you.

I had member Clark, followed by Member Maine.

Thank you.

Yeah, thank you for this presentation.

Yeah, I worked in the city many years.

I'm very familiar with those 1950s train cars.

Um, but they did last a long time.

So my question is are you looking when you're talking about getting new train cars?

Are those going to replace the existing ones?

And or are we revamping the existing ones?

And what do you do with the old cars?

Like are they auctioned?

Are they, because it seems like they have some life maybe still in them.

Well, what we do with the cars that we have is at a period of time, I think it's like 15-ish years, they go through a extensive rehabilitation.

And some of these cars have been through several rehabilitations.

And as they get rehabilitated, some of the things are easy.

You know, the the windows, the seats, um, those are easy.

Maybe that's the first time.

Then the second time you get more into the electronics and some of the truck uh what they call trucks, the where the wheels are hit the rail.

But then you get further, and now almost the whole car has to be redone.

And that's when you're basically buying the car over again.

And unfortunately, you're rebuilding an old car with old technology.

So we're looking for some of the oldest cars in 1955 cars to just get rid of them.

They're basically, we've worn through it's like how many of you are trying to drive a 1950s car.

Even if you could rehab it constantly, you're gonna say it's outdated.

So what we would do is we look to dispose of those cars, most likely they'll be scrapped, but I'm sure we would attempt to if if someone wants to buy a 1955 car, see me afterwards, and I'll see what I can do to help you.

But seriously, uh the cars that we'll look to scrap will be our most uh poorly conditioned cars, and they're probably not gonna be of much use to another agency.

The ones that have life in them, because again, we have close to a thousand cars.

We're only gonna buy about 200 of them, maybe 300 when we exercise more options.

So there's gonna be plenty of cars that are gonna have to continue to be rehabilitated.

And part of what we talked about, Amaril and Nippon Charyu rehabilitation are to rehabilitate older cars to keep them in service and keep them up to speed.

Okay, thank you.

I do I do hope you just at least look.

I know I've been in other countries, other areas that maybe those cars would be appropriate instead of just scrapping them.

So I just hope it's looked at if there's another way to reuse them somewhere else.

Yeah, we we we do that.

I mean, obviously, we don't want to just scrap a car for nothing if we could get to it, but on the other hand, you may give somebody a car for free that they wind up having to spend as much to buy a new car to get it up to speed, and we're not really doing them a favor.

Thank you.

Member Maine.

Thank you.

Um, at first, when you were talking about things in the 1950s getting old and worn out, I was afraid you were going to ask how many of us were born in the 1950s, but luckily you stuck with cars.

Um I do have a question about, well, it's more of a comment for sustainability, and member Wasick undercut me by mentioning reading the hard copy of the budget.

But many of us have requested from you and from all of the service boards that we really would appreciate a link instead of mailing us those budget annual, unless you legally have to mail those to us, because it's we're not gonna honestly we're not gonna keep them, but if you mailed us something that had a link, then it's a lot easier for us to reference and just seems like a lot better for the environment.

So if that's something you could consider any of the boards, all of the boards could consider that.

I think many of us would prefer to not get your paper copies, except Member Wassa.

Okay.

Yes, uh, to use our uh legislative or um government liaison will take that into account.

I believe right now we still don't have any printed up right now because we just did it.

Am I correct?

Yeah, just easy uh budget book, right?

Well, for you just the the book that we just received that that member Wasick referred to that he read is a multi-page color bound.

From Metro or maybe it's a sorry if I may maybe it's an annual report, but same same point.

Same point.

A link would be sufficient.

Yeah.

Okay.

Thank you.

Oh, we'll take that into account, and it's I'm sure less expensive for us.

That's right.

Save some money on mailing and printing.

Right, thank you.

All right, seeing no further questions.

Thank you.

Thank you so much for being here.

I really appreciate it.

Uh next item is um the Pace Suburban Bus 2026 budget presentation to be given by um our board member for PACE, Linda Soto, and um I think Melinda Metzger might be available online, right?

But also Ed Gallagher is here.

I should know if Melinda's available on okay, no problem.

I just had that in my notes.

All right, thank you.

Good morning, Chair Hart and members of the board and Lake County staff.

My name is Linda Soto, and I represent Lake County on the base board of directors.

On behalf of the PACE board, uh, I thank you and we thank you for the opportunity to present PACE's 2026 operating budget and capital program.

Also joining me from PACE staff today.

I do have an at Gallagher, uh, who I think most of you know, and also Jessica Ribberzik.

I always butcher your name.

Say your name.

Rybajek, okay.

Um, and they are from our uh Pace Community Relations Department, and they'll help me with any uh questions that you may have that are more intricate on specific service operations.

Um, but first I must acknowledge the recent passing of Senate Bill 211.

We are deeply grateful to the legislators who recognize the essential role public transportation plays in connecting communities and improving lives, and who understand the devastating impact that a lack of new funding would have had on our passengers, our regional economy, and our employees.

This legislation ensures that PACE can not only maintain service but also enhance it.

With this new investment, we can deliver more services, increase frequency, expand bus-on-shoulder operations, and explore innovative solutions to meet the growing demand.

And long-term system improvements like those included in PACE's revision plan can now become a reality.

This reimagining of our network will expand service, increase frequency, and deliver a better transit system for our entire region.

Uh we have been working on preparing uh various service concepts for the region.

Uh, and then that was put in a holding pattern.

And now with the passing of this bill and the funding, we'll be able to consider the uh uh expand that work, and we will be able to release a draft network plan in 2026.

This is a new chapter for PACE and for transit across northeastern Illinois.

We look forward to the opportunity to improve our system for our writers and our communities.

Before updating you about the PACE 2026 budget, please let me update you about how the challenges stemming from the fiscal year or fiscal cliff uh did not stop PACE from delivering needed improvements for our writers today and planning for the future.

Places PACE has continued to make thoughtful strategic investments in our system to enhance service on routes with increasing demand in 2025.

PACE improved service throughout the region, including multiple routes serving Lake County.

In September 2025, over 150,000 rides were provided on PACE, operated fixed routes.

That is a 3% increase compared to the year prior.

However, for the routes with recent service improvements and investments, ridership on these routes was up about 5% in September 2025 compared to the year prior.

Pace Route 563 between downtown Waukegan and North Chicago in Lake County saw new weekend service to better meet writers' travel needs.

Route 563 serves several key destinations in the area, including Naval Stations, Great Lakes, the level Federal Health Care Center, and three separate Metro UP North line stations.

Route 564 saw longer hours of service and more trips on weekends and uh weekdays and weekends, providing increased opportunities for riders traveling between downtown Waukegan and Fountain Square.

Route 565, which provides daily service from the Waukeegan Metro Station to the College of Lake County campus in Grays Lake, saw new trips added on Saturdays to strengthen service in the area.

More trips were added on weekdays and Saturdays along Route 569 to Lovell Federal Health Care Center in North Chicago and along 571 between Waukegan and Zion.

And last year, we expanded the Round Lake Area On Demand Service, and just yesterday, PACE staff took a group of seniors from Avon Township on a trip using the on-demand between the Grays Lake Senior Center and Avon Township office, where we held an educational seminar giving seniors in our community real life experience learning how to ride the Round Lake Area on demand.

In 2026, as part of our revision project, we plan to expand our on-demand services.

We continue to see growth in the PACE Van Pool program in Lake County, and we can proudly say that the Captain James A.

Level Federal Health Care Center in North Chicago is the highest utilizer of the program in the entire region with 37 van pools currently in operation.

Van Gogh in Lake County continues to grow.

Commuters traveling from Metro stations in Deerfield and Lake Forest to nearby workplaces reserve PACE owned vans parked at Metro stations via remote access.

This program has provided a flexible first mile, last mile transit option for commuters looking for convenient connections to Metro.

This year, through the end of September, there were already 766 Van Gogh trips provided on our Lake County Van Gogh service.

We have also worked collaboratively with two local service agencies, Lamb's Farm and Pioneer Center.

Now Pioneer Center is located in McHenry, but it does serve portions of Lake County.

And this expands our advantage van program, which helps not for profit human service organizations, workshops, and agencies provide work-related transportation for individuals with disabilities.

We have four different bus routes in the area that are within roughly a half mile of that location.

We need to figure that out.

And now with getting back to revision, we'll be able to do that.

And also, of course, have to thank you, Chair Hart, members of the board, and county staff for a great partnership with Ride Lake County, which provides an essential service for seniors and individuals with disabilities throughout the county.

PACE manages the rider reservations and dispatching through the PACE Call Center, and we have also made the reservation process finally easier for riders with PACE trip check.

So that is an app.

You can access it on your smartphone and also through your computer and now suburban ADA paratransit riders as well as users of PACE operated dialogue services can use TripCheck to view information and cancel trips without having to call the PACE Call Center.

We conducted our ADA customer satisfaction survey this year, and the results were positive with 89% of respondents reporting being satisfied or very satisfied with the ADA paratransit service.

In particular, riders were satisfied with customer service, especially driver performance.

Also, the perception of on-time performance has improved significantly compared to last year.

We also learned from riders what they want us to continue to focus on, of course, scheduling, on-time pickups, and travel times.

Now that the legislators have acted, there are, of course, been modifications to our initial proposed 2026 budget.

Senate Bill 2111 is expected to provide over 1.2 billion in new operating funding for our region.

While this is a transformational level of funding, it will take time for the new money to flow.

RTA has estimated that there will be an additional 564.7 million available to support service in 2026.

Of that funding, 56.7 million has been added, increasing the available funding for the regional ADA program from 280.1 million to 336.8 million, which will allow us to operate the taxi access and ride share access programs throughout next year.

The possible suspension of the Tap and RAP programs due to funding shortfalls was a major concern voiced by PACE and our riders over the past six months.

So far, this year, there have been 1.9 million RAP rides.

The loss of these services would have affected riders who depend on this service to get to work, medical appointments, or to just simply live their lives.

I am happy to report that I have lost my place.

That happens.

So far this year, there have been 1.9 million RAP rides.

The loss of the service would have affected riders who depend on them to get to work, et cetera.

I am happy to report that now with funding secured, these essential programs for ADA certified riders will continue.

And that was very near and dear to my heart.

PACE will see $18.9 million in additional funding to support suburban bus service, increasing the funding from $257 million to $275.9 million, which will allow us to be able to maintain scheduled service levels and continue to make target service improvements throughout the region, which also, with planning robust, more robust service enhancements as part of our revision process.

And the fare increase that had been proposed has indeed been put on hold, and that is at the direction of Senate Bill 2111.

And I'm just going to add a comment on that.

While the RTA had really originally suggested a 10% increase across the board on all fares, which made sense given the situation.

We're offering more express service.

The question is will there be more premium services?

And also with the apps of fluid transfers from whether it's between Metra, CTA and PACE.

I think it's waiting worth waiting the year and then take a deeper look at what the fares really should be and what is truly fair for the public to pay.

This year we're celebrating major milestones with our capital program.

One of PACE's top priorities is to reduce our carbon footprint and improve the quality of our community's environment.

With Project Zero, PACE's goal is to operate a full fleet of zero emission vehicles for the year 2040, and this year's capital program takes a positive step towards meeting this goal.

We're pushing forward on procuring hybrid and battery electric buses to further our commitment to a cleaner, more sustainable future.

In April, we broke around on the electrification of PACE North Division in Waukegan, which will become home to the region first all-electric bus facility.

I thank Chair Hart, Vice Chair Ross Cunningham, and members Wasick and Altenburg for celebrating that groundbreaking with us.

North Division has always been a major contributor Lake County, providing public transit to residents, including essential workers, seniors, people with disabilities, and students.

What you may not know is PACE has a partnership with Waukegan School District, whereby students ride PACE buses to school and beyond, raising the next generation of transit riders.

So I'm glad we can make this critical investment in the county.

Phase one of the project, which includes exterior charging infrastructure and site improvements, including a bus canopy, is already nearing completion, and we will be inviting all of you to a ribbon cutting within the next month or two.

And we'll be celebrating that important milestone.

Phase two of the project will totally rebuild the interior of the garage for indoor charging infrastructure and expand the building's footprint.

Once completed, North Division will have the capacity to charge and house a fleet of 60 zero emission buses.

We also continue to invest in bus shelters and other rider amenities throughout the county.

We installed a new shelter at Rosalind Franklin University along Green Bay Road in March, and we have three no locations, new locations scheduled to be improved in both Waukegan and Gurney over the coming months.

These are at Delaney and Sunset and Gurney, Martin Luther Kane and Illinois 120 and Waukegan, and Lewis Avenue and Illinois 120 and Waukeegan.

In closing, I must point out that despite the new funding, all of our agency successes would not be possible without our frontline employees, including our bus operators who interact with our riders every day.

This includes an elite group of bus operators, the million milers.

These drivers are honored for driving at least a million miles without a preventable accident.

PACE has inducted 350 1 million milers, 89 2 million milers, and 8 3 million milers.

This group collectively represents 552 million miles of safe driving.

These million milers are line instructors and mentors to our operators and help ensure the safety and comfort of our riders every day.

And we cannot thank them enough for their commitment to our mission at PACE.

PACE's mission remains unchanged to serve our customers with safe, equitable, efficient, and reliable public transportation, and we will do that now more that we have funding.

On behalf of myself and the entire PACE board, I want to thank you again for your time this morning.

Before we move on to any questions that you may have, um, and Ann Maine, I did hear your comment.

I had even called headquarters a couple days ago, and I said, I know we have paper going out.

Some of it is required by law, but we're trying to get that changed.

But I said we need to send them electronic copies, and I asked for a few uh other pieces of information to be sent to you.

Uh so I hope you've all received it electronically.

If you have it, you should sometime today.

Um, and that's in regard to the pace revision.

You know, that is our uh uh uh shortened long-term plan and really transition to the way we provide bus service in our region.

And um, so we've been in a holding pattern for several months.

Jarrett Walker, our consultant, was just given the update on the funding.

Uh, we are working on uh setting a date for the planning committee meeting uh at PACE, which I am a member of uh to meet with them and to regroup, if you will, and then move forward uh with getting those uh initial uh concept plans out, and those will be distributed, and of course, they'll go to Lake County and the its transportation department for additional comments.

And once we've reviewed all those, then we will again also go out to the public and get more feedback and again also fine-tune those concepts and then later in 2026 have a true plan.

So I just want to cover briefly.

Um you have a page you received about revision.

It just kind of is a summary of what it is and what it could do.

It's something that we had put together when we were talking to the less legislators about the uh needed additional funding, and so uh they do see obviously the importance of the revision plan, and then there's a quick update sheet, just giving you an update of where we are and how we're gonna go back and get those concept plans done and get those distributed to you.

You'll get those probably sometime in the first quarter of the new year.

And then the other thing that I I wanted to educate you because it's so overwhelming to think how do you change transit services, how do you decide where to go and where not to go?

And um, so you are provided two samples, and I want to emphasize that these are samples.

These are not proposed concept plans.

We do not have a proposed concept plan.

But what it is showing you for our PACE region is um PACE plus 50.

What that means if we if we receive 50% additional funding to put towards our service, okay.

There's two thoughts of mind.

You can look at it from the ridership aspect of where is the most ridership needed, and then the second page is for coverage, just looking at the land lay of the land and where are you trying to cover.

Now, do you do one or the other?

No.

Ultimately, this becomes a combination of ridership and coverage.

And the question is what is that split?

Are you going to focus on 60% ridership and 40% coverage?

Are you going to focus on you know 6535?

That that's what we'll be hemming and hawing about.

So again, in each corner explains what the concept is.

And this map is just fixed route service.

I want to emphasize that only.

There is a legend in the bottom that shows different colored lines.

And that shows how frequently, based on the color that bus would run or stop.

Could you expect a bus every 15 minutes?

Would it be every 30 minutes?

When you first look at this plan and you say, well, Linda, on the coverage concept sheet, it looks like there's less coverage, where in the ridership there's more going around the lay of the land.

But you have to look closer, and on your computers, you can hone in and blow this up.

There's lines that are very light because the frequency of those lines is much less.

So what we'll then look at is when you have the transportation deserts, if you will, and say, Well, how could there be no service there?

On demand services is probably going to be the answer and other innovative.

So with that, I just look at that at your leisure.

And if you have any questions about that, feel free to contact me.

Are there any other questions?

Any questions from the board?

Thank you.

Member Hunter, follow by Member Campos.

Thank you.

Thanks, Linda.

Nice presentation.

Um, a few years ago, we fought to have a shelter put up at Veterans Closet because there was an absolute need for it.

Now that the Veterans Closets moved down the road, can you make a note so that we get a shelter?

When everyone you just figure out which bus service is going.

Yeah, we just put that shelter in a year and a half ago, and we were told at that time we knew they were moving.

Um the expected window at that time was the move would probably be two to five years.

Um we we did ask uh if and when they were moving if they would contact us so we could talk about is there bus service there or what?

But you know, things happen, and I think this was just a tremendous opportunity for them, and they snatched it.

So we found out after the fact that they had moved.

Um, and of course, uh, this is at the tail end of uh we have no funding, we're waiting for the legislators to act.

Um you know uh change costs money, number one.

But the uh other question was we didn't even know where to make the change.

We have four, as I mentioned, four different bus routes that all are approximately within a half mile of that location.

The question is how many are using which line, and so where would change best serve that need.

And so that's the conversation that we've uh started exploring with them, and now with the funding and revision, that will really pick up pace, and we will get that addressed.

And of course, the yes, that would absolutely include a shelter.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Member Campos.

Thank you, Chair.

Um, so I had a constituent with concern um regarding the electrification of the bus of the bus fleet.

Um I just wanted to clear up some some some things.

His issue uh or his concern rather was more about the the pace's ability to uh charge the entire fleet without having to tap into the power grid because of data centers uh by 2030 taking up 12 percent of the the US uh grid just for data centers.

So uh he was concerned that it would cause rolling blackouts, whatnot, but so I just wanted a uh opportunity to ask so we can just clear clearly.

Well, from the get-go, we have been working uh very closely uh with Comed and the area, so we don't have any concerns of that type at all at this point.

Um, quite frankly, our biggest concern is getting delivery of the electric buses.

I'm not gonna kid you.

These buses have been on order since 21.

The delivery date keeps changing.

Um we do expect to finally have some buses in 26.

Will it be this summer?

Will it be the fall?

I don't know.

But our sincere hope is that we would have 12 buses uh in the North Garage by the fall.

We are actually putting one electric bus up there that we have, and that's uh also just to start training and experimenting with it.

As I mentioned, you'll be getting invitation for that canopy and the charging infrastructure, so that's the other reason for the bus going up there.

And then if you also notice recall earlier in our presentation, I mentioned that now we're looking at buying um some more uh hybrid buses, you know.

Um while I don't expect that to be in Waukegan, I think the focus will still be fully electric there.

Um, because of this taking longer to get electric buses for our other projects, I think we're gonna really rely as part of the transition on some of these hybrid buses to get us through that change.

I appreciate it.

That's great to hear.

Um just wanted the I didn't think that that was going to be a concern, but I wanted the the ability to point to this video to uh hear from an expert such as yourself.

Okay.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you so much.

All right, seeing no further questions, thank you very much for being here.

All right.

Really appreciate it, and thank you for your help with Midwest Veterans Closet and the Rosalind Franklin bus stops.

Okay, thank you.

Shelters, I should say.

Shelter, okay.

Thank you so much.

Okay, uh, I do not believe we have any public comment today.

I've not received any.

Okay, thank you.

I'm gonna start actually with our special recognition of years of service.

Uh, we have two to recognize today in chair's remarks.

The first is a special recognition of Christy Hartford for her 30 years of service, whereas Christy Hartford began her service with the Lake County State's Attorney's Office in October 1995.

And whereas over the course of 30 years, Christy has exemplified professionalism, dedication, and a steadfast commitment to the mission and values of the Lake County State's Attorney's Office.

And whereas Christie has made impactful contributions across multiple divisions, including the traffic division, misdemeanor division, felony review division, felony drug division, and currently serves in the felony division as a senior executive legal assistant.

And whereas Christy is recognized for on her unwavering integrity, strong work ethic, and pursuit of excellence in every role she's undertaken.

And whereas she has earned the respect of her colleagues through her exceptional support in high profile cases, her expertise in facilitating out-of-state extraditions, and her assistance in the production of FOIA requests.

And whereas Christie's collaborative spirit and tireless dedication stand as a shining example of public service done with pride, purpose, and professionalism.

Now, therefore, be it recognized by this county board of Lake County, Illinois, that Christie Hartford is celebrating 30 years of distinguished service to the Lake County State's Attorney's Office.

Her commitment, contributions, and impact are appreciated, and we extend our sincere, our sincere gratitude for her continued service dated at Waukegan, Illinois, on November 18, 2025.

Thank you.

This is for you.

Thank you so much for being here.

Does anybody want to come down and stand for a photo?

That'd be great.

Oh, and Vice Chair Cunningham, why don't you join us as chair of law and traditional piece?

Thank you.

Sorry about that.

I'm gonna be back up here.

Candy's gonna want us to come all over and I can get you in.

There you go.

And yeah, somebody if they're not standing next to her if they want to hold this for her, that'd be great.

Thank you.

Perfect.

Okay.

You're ready.

One, two, three.

One more.

And one, two, three.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And would you have some green ones?

No.

Okay.

Anyone else on her behalf, you're welcome to it.

I'll just say my name's Jeff Facklum.

I'm the chief deputy of the criminal division.

Just on behalf of Lake County State Senior Reinhardt, First Assistant Lauren Cowanan.

We thank Christy Hartford for 30 years of public service.

She spent 30 years at the Lake County States Attorney's Office.

She's invaluable.

I've been with the office for five years myself.

She was invaluable with my transition into the office.

She dedicates the people of Lake to her service to the people of Blake County every day, and we just thank her very much.

Thank you.

Okay, next, I have a special recognition of Jennifer Rathunda for her 30 years of service.

Whereas Jennifer Rathunda began her career with the Lake County Circuit Clerk's Office as a summer intern and has since contributed her talents to the traffic, IT, criminal, and finance divisions.

And whereas throughout her career, Jennifer has gained an extensive knowledge of the office and is known across many county departments for her insight, professionalism, and ability to view challenges from all perspectives.

And whereas Jennifer's thoughtful approach and commitment to problem solving have allowed her to collaborate successfully with the 19th Judicial Circuit on numerous initiatives, earning her the respect of the judiciary.

And whereas Jennifer's resilience and sense of humor are well known among her colleagues who affectionately refer to her as the bionic woman due to her four joint replacements with a fifth on the way.

And whereas beyond her professional accomplishments, Jennifer is the glue that holds her family together and her husband and sons, fondly known as the boys, know they can always count on her to have their backs no matter what.

Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Lake County Board hereby celebrates Jennifer Rothunda for 30 years of dedicated service to the Lake County Circuit Clerk's office and the residents of Lake County.

She is a treasured member of the Circuit Clerk's office, and we're thankful for her continued service dated at Waukegan, Illinois on November 18, 2025.

You want to hold that one.

Anybody want to hold this one?

Great.

Thank you.

And uh Vice Chair Cunningham, come on.

Oh, yes, thank you.

Yeah, great.

Okay.

One, two, three, and one more.

One, two, three.

Great.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

I'm going to.

Okay.

Good morning.

My name is Tara Neemi.

I'm the chief deputy of the circuit clerk's office, and I'm happy to be here to say a few words about Jennifer.

Um, as she's recognized for 30 years of service to Lake County.

I've worked with Jennifer for nearly 30 years, including sharing office with her for several years when we both worked in our IT department.

I first met Jennifer when I started in 1994 as an intern with the office.

Jen quickly befriended me and made me feel right at home.

Jen has a very strong work ethic.

She is known for her desire to get projects completed and procedures documented in a timely and accurate manner.

With wearing so many hats over the years, everyone knows they can count on Jen to have answers to questions.

She has been known to have a memo from 25 years ago because of how organized she is.

I'm not joking when I say that if you need something from years past, Jen is your gal.

She will have what you're looking for and won't stop until she finds it.

She has dedicated to the office in a way that I have never seen.

She truly cares about the staff and ensuring that they have the resources they need to perform their tasks.

Jenna's also very passionate about helping the public, attorneys, and judges.

In fact, Jen was hand-selected by one of our circuit judges to be a member of a committee that focuses on data collection for the administrative office of Illinois courts.

In addition to her work with the courts, Jennifer developed and continues to have meaningful relationships with staff from EIT, State's Attorney, Public Defender, HR, and Finance.

I'm sure they would all agree that Jen is extremely knowledgeable, dependable, and a joy to work with.

Last, I would like to mention Jennifer's creativity.

Jen is known to create exceptional documentation, office signs and flyers, and has been called upon many times to write poems for special events such as office-wide trainings and celebrations.

I am truly grateful for all of Jen's hard work and drive to make the circuit clerk's office a wonderful place to work.

Thank you, Jen.

You are truly one of a kind.

All right, thank you.

Um just have a few more chairs' remarks.

Um, board members already know this, but I'm really pleased that Lake County was recently recognized by the Civic Federation as I quote, a consolidation leader in the state of Illinois.

It states in part that Lake County's emerged as a leader in reducing duplication and streamlining local services.

Um board members have a list of what we've already done, but South Lake Mosquito Abatement District recently voted to consolidate with North Shore Mosquito Abatement District.

I know Paris has been working closely with staff to eliminate the Del Mar Woods Sanitary District and Avon Fremont Sanitary Drainage District, excuse me, will be on the December agenda for dissolution.

All of the partner municipalities have already voted as of last night, and um the Avon Fremont drainage district supports that dissolution as well.

And as Civic Federation stated, they applaud our efforts to reduce duplication of effort, cut costs, and streamline operations for the delivery of public services.

I really want to thank Deputy County Administrator Matt Myers for his many years of work on this.

And state's attorney Steve Rice as well for the consolidation dissolution efforts.

And most recently, thank you to Assistant County Administrator Ruth Ann Hall.

We've been talking, well, we said during our moment of silence, there's many people for us to remember.

There's been significant immigration activity in across Lake County.

And while we have learned that DHS has left the naval station, I am certain, and um that immigration enforcement activity will continue in Lake County.

And I think it's vitally important that people understand that many of those who are being erected, excuse me, arrested have no criminal record.

Many of them are here with valid work permits, have been residents of the United States for decades, and as we heard during our moment of silence, uh some of them are working their way through that asylum process.

Um the federal government is falsely stating that they are targeting the worst criminals, but their very own Department of Justice shows that of the 614 immigrants that were arrested in Chicago, over 97% of them had no criminal record.

That leaves 16 people with criminal histories that present a high public safety risk.

What if they had just targeted those 16 people?

Right?

We've been hearing about um things that have been happening, people getting injured, somebody was killed, um, car chases, uh, people went into chase somebody right into uh Warren Township High School.

Uh there it's been extremely dangerous.

And I just sincerely hope that none of us, no one in the United States ever get used to seeing people.

And I'm gonna say maybe law enforcement and maybe not, because their badges are covered, their faces are covered, and I don't know if anybody was looking around during Halloween, but you go on Amazon or any of these other sites, it's actually quite easy to find a pretty good replica of some of the uniforms that you can see out there, and pretty simple to get some iron on letters.

So if we talk about uh dangerous gang activity, perhaps it would be really easy for people to to utilize this um this way of men or you know, or parroting these men mostly who are out there totally masked with their badges covered.

So um, and I think personally I'm just watching on video, but uh seeing a car window being broken, uh dragging and carrying people in the back seats of unmarked vehicles, putting people in chokeholds here in Illinois, using tear gas, pointing guns at people and striking protesters in the head, and including a pastor who was praying uh with pepper balls is uh is truly shocking.

Um a few years ago, several county board members and the state's attorney sent a letter to the chief judge and the sheriff requesting that they announce that warrantless arrests cannot be made in and around our courthouses.

And while no action was taken, I am pleased that the Illinois General Assembly recently took action to pass a bill that will restrict immigration enforcement from making warrantless arrests in several areas across Illinois, including courthouses.

Uh, the governor has not yet signed that bill.

I'm certain that he will, and that will help keep our courthouses and the surrounding areas safe.

And importantly, encourage or allow people to continue to show up to court for domestic violence cases for orders of protection and as witnesses in uh to violent crime, which we have seen a dramatic decrease in people showing up.

So that's it for my chair's remarks.

Uh moving on to unfinished business item number six is a presentation on the completion of the emergency rental assistance program to be given by Dominic Strezzo, and we also have Eric Wagner here as well.

Morning, Chair, good morning board.

On September 30th, marked the expenditure deadline for the emergency rental assistance fund allocated to Lake County by the U.S.

Department of the Treasury.

Happy to report that all funds were dispersed on time.

I appreciate this opportunity to briefly brief the board on how uh we went about spending those dollars.

Here's the detail on the funding sources.

In total, Lake County received approximately 37 million dollars of rental assistance funds.

That initial award of 20 million dollars was signed into law in December of 2020.

At that time, there was a lot going on.

Pandemic related housing needs were soaring.

So this was indeed some very much needed federal relief.

However, uh accepting those funds came with some serious strings attached, the main one being around the performance period.

The initial performance period for those ERA one dollars was 12 months, meaning we had to have all dollars spent by December 31st, just for reference.

The entire entitlement amount that community development receives from HUD on an annual basis, about five million dollars.

So we were looking at about four years worth of spending in a one-year time frame.

That tight timeline was something that all um recipients were trying to deal with.

And um, a lot of entities ended up relinquishing their funds to the state.

This was a conversation that Lake County was having as well.

It got to the point where an MOU was drafted with the states.

Eventually, those negotiations broke down because they couldn't guarantee that all 20 million dollars would be spent here in Lake County.

So the decision was made to stand up our own program.

That was a decision not without some risk.

Fortunately, that risk paid off.

I think that's depicted in that additional funding column.

Although those dollar amounts are relatively small, just to be eligible for additional funding was a pretty significant achievement.

Many entities ended up having funds recaptured by the state in total across the country of just ERA $1, about $360 million was involuntary recaptured from other entities.

So good work there.

So about $36 of the $37 million went to support these three programs with the overwhelming majority of those funds for that first one, the Federal Emergency Rental Assistance Program or FARA.

Far was up and running by April.

Um provided up to 12 months of assistance.

The program in total cost about 35 million dollars.

We worked with 15 community partners, including eight townships to assist 4800 households with an average amount of about $7,000 per household.

That second program was a step-down version of FARA, provided up to six months of assistance in total about $5 million, working with six providers for a thousand households with an average amount of about $4,800 per household.

And lastly, I do want to mention the Lake County eviction prevention program.

There was a small amount of ERA dollars to support that program, but it's the majority was ARPA funded.

Um ERA, the main difference is there, eligibility wise, you had to have an active eviction case with the courts to be eligible for those dollars, which provided up to 12 months of assistance, um, a total of about $2 million for that program, assisting 250 households with an average of about $7,000 per household.

So just some funding specific metrics around the ERA one and ERA two.

Over $11,000, $11,000 applications were manually reviewed to provide over $38,000 months of assistance to assist over $12,000 Lake County residents.

So that's both ER ERA one and ERA two across all three programs.

And then toward the end of 2023, we're looking for a way to sunset the program.

The appropriation language in ERA two allowed for additional eligible uses, including the development of affordable housing.

So with the permission of this board, we allocated the final 1.1 million dollars of ERA2 to the development of a senior rental project in Lake Villa.

That project, known as Starlink Senior Apartments, broke around in September of 2024.

Construction has been completed.

They're about to receive their certificate of occupancy, and they're currently accepting rental applications.

So just a great way for us to provide some permanent housing here in Lake County and Sunset the ERA program.

And that was the end of our program.

Great.

Thank you very much.

Dominic had made this presentation at our HCS meeting, I think it was.

And I just think it's a really important thing to bring to our county board to really highlight the great work of our team.

The fact that more money came to us because of how what a great job they did.

And right now there is tremendous need in housing.

And I'm just, we already know this right from the work that Lake County Partners is doing.

Um and then there are going to be some changes to the federal government that is no longer to be uh about housing first.

Um, and housing first is a model in which uh you help somebody get housing and then they are better able to tackle their substance abuse issues or what it mental health issues, things like that.

Uh, that is likely to be reversed, um, which research says it's it's extremely difficult then.

If you if you don't uh help people at those basic needs of food and shelter, it's very difficult for them to kind of uh move up that pyramid.

So um thank you very much, Dominic, for the work you guys for your team, and thank you to the board.

Uh, several of you serve on housing community development commission, and uh, it's a lot of time and uh research and analysis that goes into where this money should be spent, and I'm just really grateful to you and your team.

So thank you.

Any uh comments from thank you, member Volitzik.

May I want to say that that that fact that you that we you through your work was you were eligible for extra funds as everything, so really well done.

Yeah, thank you.

Okay, thank you.

Thanks so much, Domack, for being here.

Thank you, Eric too.

All right, seeing nothing further.

Okay, moving on to our consent agenda.

I did send an email out to the board.

Uh, I'd like to remove number 14 from the consent agenda.

Uh so we'll tackle that at the very end of our meeting.

Uh may I have a motion, please?

Thank you.

Motion by Member Kenisnik, second by member campos.

Uh, may I have a roll call, please?

Member Altenburg, aye.

Member Campos, Member Kasbin, aye.

Member Clark.

Aye.

Vice Chair Cunningham.

Aye.

Member Danforth.

Aye.

Member Frank?

Aye.

Chair Hart.

Aye.

Member Hewitt.

Aye.

Member Hunter?

Aye.

Member Kanisnik.

Aye.

Member Kyle?

Aye.

Member Main.

Member Pareth.

Aye.

Member Peterson.

Aye.

Member Roberts.

Aye.

Member Schlick?

Aye.

Member Volitzik.

Aye.

Member Wasick.

All right.

All right.

Thank you.

Motion passes.

Moving on to our regular agenda.

Thank you, Member Kasman.

I understand since it's due to the length of the meeting.

I would like to move item 44, which is the budget discussion and vote up to uh right now, just before item 35, please.

Okay.

Thank you.

I don't think we need a second on that, do I?

Okay.

Two thirds vote.

And a two-thirds vote.

Thank you.

A second by member Maine.

Um, and then thank you, Member Dan Forth.

Sure.

I'm just curious.

Don't 43 and 44 kind of run together.

They do.

Do you have an interest in uh maybe making an I don't even know if it's really a motion to amend, but do you want to move 43 and 44?

Is that okay with you, member uh Casen?

So moved.

Okay, thank you, and Member Maine.

Okay, thank you, Member Dan Forth.

So this will I I need to how about we'll just do all those in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed?

Uh thank you.

Motion passes.

So let's start with item 43, please.

Providing for the apportionment of taxes and the amount of 186 million 114,787 dollars across the various items for fiscal year 2026 appropriation ordinance as adopted by the county board of Lake County, Illinois, and I move to approve.

Thank you.

Motion by Member Frank, second by member uh Park.

Any dis well, sorry, there's gonna be discussion, I would assume.

Uh any discussion on the side.

All right, seeing none, all those in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed?

Motion passes.

Thank you.

Moving on to item 44.

Oh, you know what?

I'm sorry, this does require a roll call vote.

May I have a leave for the previous roll call?

Yes.

Thank you.

Motion passes.

Oh, we've got a no.

Oh, I'm so sorry.

You're in no.

Thank you.

Sorry about that, Member Danforth.

So did I do that appropriately?

So a leave for the previous roll call.

Yes, minus minus number Dan Ford.

Minus Member Danforth.

Okay, thank you.

Item 40.

Yeah, it's 43.

That is correct.

Yes, thank you very much.

Uh item 44, please.

Yeah, thank you, Chair.

And I know we are gonna have a brief overview of the budget, so we'll uh I and I have some remarks I'd like to make as well.

Um item 44 is an ordinance recommending the fiscal year 2026 annual budget appropriation ordinance for Lake County, Illinois said budget having been made conveniently available for public inspection at least 15 days by posting in the office of the county clerk and on the county website.

And I move to approve.

Okay, motion by member Frank, second by member Kyle.

And then you had some comments.

Sure, that's totally fine.

Thank you, Chair.

Good morning, Teresa and County Administrator.

And I'm very proud this morning to present the 2026 annual budget for Lake County.

Our theme this year was building a sustainable and collaborative future, and we focused on sustainability from several different perspectives.

Environmental sustainability, economic sustainability, and finally social sustainability, showing concern for our residents and visitors, well-being, and community resilience.

This has been a very detailed process starting back in the spring when you, our county board, set our policies and board guidance for the um for the budget process.

Next, departments entered their budget requests using the targets set for each department, and then they worked with the finance team as well as county administration to work out all of the details.

As you are well aware, we also spent two long days in October going through our committee process, working through each one of the departmental budgets in detail.

And finally, we're here today for final approval.

We are very grateful to the staff, department heads, elected officials, and you, our board members, for your diligence throughout this process.

Lake County's overall revenue budget is nearly $655 million, including all funds.

Of this total, less than one third comes from property taxes, and another 22% comes from other taxes.

It is important to note that our operating funds, those that specifically fund most of our governmental operations, total just over $390 million.

This year, a point of emphasis was ensuring that the best possible revenue source was being used for each expense.

Lake County has budgeted over 104 million dollars in special revenue funds, funds that have a dedicated revenue source for a very specific purpose.

It's also important to note that despite the fact that Lake County sends out our property tax bills and we collect those property tax funds, only about 7% of a tax bill goes to fund the important operations of Lake County.

The remainder funds schools, municipalities, libraries, park districts, the forest preserve, and other special districts.

I'd also like to note that Lake County chose not to take the full allowable increase in its property tax.

The average house value in Lake County is $330,000.

It's estimated that the home's property taxes will go up approximately $8.74 compared to last year.

On the expense side, our expense total is $676.6 million.

As is often the case in a governmental organization, one of our most prized resources and biggest expenditures are our employees.

Our 2,644 full-time budgeted employees and 105 part-time employees make up 42% of our overall budget.

Services and contracts make up 35%, with 18% being invested in capital.

This year we're including roads, non-motorized transit, public works infrastructure, and our county facilities and our capital projects.

Only 3% of the overall budget pays for outstanding debt.

As I mentioned, our operating budget is balanced at 390 million, 390.2 million dollars.

This is the portion that pays for most of the government services that only counties provide, such as elections, recording deeds, the courts, the jail, our health department, the public defender's office, and much, much more.

The strategic plan guides all of our budget decisions, particularly when looking to expand or provide new new programs.

These priorities are reflected in the investment in new positions that are included in our 26 budget.

These include a social worker in the public defender's office, a grant coordinator in the finance department, a system manager for the justice partners, a new field inspector for building and code enforcement, and three new positions in the sheriff's department to assist with a growing warrants workload.

Consistent with prior years, departments placed vehicles with replaced vehicles with e-vehicals or hybrids where it was possible to do so, and new equipment funded in this budget include radios for the sheriff's office, the emergency management agency, and all of our county departments, and a body body scanner for the jail.

As always, our workforce is first and foremost in this budget.

Included in this budget is an annual increase of 3% for our non-union employees and all scheduled increases for our union employees, as well as a comprehensive benefit package, including a fully funded pension obligation and funding for professional development and tuition reimbursement.

Lake County is proud of its strong fiscal management practices.

The fiscal year 2025 budget earned the GFOA's Distinguished Budget Presentation Award, which ensures that the budget has all the necessary components to be a solid financial plan as well as a good communication tool, putting the budget into easily understandable terms.

We will submit our 26 budget as well and expect that it will meet the high criteria for another award.

And Lake County is triple A rated with both SP and Moody's, which is the highest possible rating, which is another testament to our financial position.

This presentation includes only a few of the details that are included in the whole 26 budget.

For more information, please visit our website or call the numbers on the screen.

Once again, I'd like to thank the budget team, communications, and all of the departments and elected offices for their efforts in putting this budget together.

Thank you.

Any questions about the presentation?

Okay, member Frank.

Thank you, Chair.

Um, I'd also like to take a moment to thank County Administrator Patrice Sutton and all of her team and the county administrator's office, uh CFO Tuchek, uh Michael Wheeler and the entire finance department, all the department directors uh for their great work and collaboration on the budget.

I also want to thank and acknowledge the members of the uh Financial Administration Committee, members Maine, Peterson, Parek, Clark, Politic, Hewitt, and I'm I'm really afraid I'm gonna forget someone, but we had several members who stuck around beyond their committees to contribute to the discussion throughout the entire uh budget committee uh process.

Uh as I recall, it was Member Roberts, member Kasman, um Member Altenburg, who else was there?

Yeah, member Hunter.

I'm sorry if I forgot anyone else who was there, but thank you for putting in the extra time.

Um really a good discussion and process there.

Um, and there's one item that's included in the recommended budget that's that's before us that I just wanted to explain in greater detail for for a moment, which is some additional funding for the Lake County State's attorney's office gun violence prevention initiative.

It was discussed extensively during the budget hearing process.

We uh on the first day asked for more information because the initial request was for upwards of $850,000 uh for six months to carry the program forward while state funding was pending uh through some really good work between the state's attorney's office and the county administrator's office.

Um that number was refined, and it's now I believe in the $650,000 range for six months, and it doesn't uh convert one of the contracted positions to a full-time employee, it's still a contracted position.

And I know that the the state attorney is still working uh aggressively on the state funding.

This is funded with a one-time um transfer within the budget, so it doesn't impact the the levy.

So we are still at the um the you know the reduced amount of the levy that that levy increase that uh Mr.

Sutton mentioned in the presentation, and so one of the concerns that came up during our discussions in FA and through the budget hearings was hey, we've never had a conversation and a decision as a board that we were going to fully support with county funds the entire uh size and program of the G VPI, which has always historically been grant funded.

And so that's a probably a discussion we'll have to have in the future if those funding sources are no longer available.

But this budget does include six months to support it for the rest of 2026.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you.

Any discussion on items in the budget?

Thank you, Member Maine.

Thank you.

Uh, thanks for the great presentation, and there was a lot of um great work done on this uh budget.

I I think the amount is appropriate, which is why I supported um 43.

I will not be supporting the budget for uh two reasons.

The main reason is the item that um uh chair Frank brought up, and that is that this is a complete departure.

It doesn't matter how many dollars or how many months it's for, it's a complete departure from our policy that if the grant funding is not there, the positions go away.

The health department has millions of dollars of grant funding, and they have to live within those structures.

The chair has said, well, we'll have a conversation about this in the future.

To me, that is the backwards approach to it.

We should have had a conversation before the budget to determine if that was something we wanted to do, uh, not after the fact.

Um, the state's attorney was given multiple bytes at this apple.

One of the things the state's attorney said was well, this will never align because their budget is not the same time as our budget, that the calendar cycle.

Because all you all see it, like every month, there's grants coming through related to health department function that are not on the same schedule as our budget.

So that that's to me that's nonsensical, saying, well, their schedule is different than ours.

I think that this is an important change, an important precedent that we're setting, and it should not be done in a vacuum.

So I'll be um that's the reason I'll be voting against uh this budget.

There's other things related to the extension service.

I don't know if there's going to be amendments related to that.

If there are, I'll address that then.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Member Hunter.

I I completely agree with Member Maine.

Um this has nothing to do with the line item itself, it has everything to do with the procedure and how what it was done.

I applaud my colleagues.

I sat there through the entire two days in October.

But I think the one slide that was important that Patrice put up there was this process started in April.

It started in April with with the department heads and everything else.

And at the last minute, we get from the state's attorney, oh, we need this because we can't figure, we can't place this timeline properly.

A couple things like the health department.

The health department roughly has about 950 employees.

Okay.

You know how many of those are on grant programs right now out of those 950?

About 300.

We have 300 employees that are basically year to year based on the ability to fund.

This is a normal everyday function that happens all the time.

Um in the last two years with the same state's attorney, we've had two different things that have come up, and it's always last minute, and it's always breaking from what the traditionally what it is.

My personal feeling is he's leveraged his relationship with the members on this board, that he's he goes around the administration, and what the administration has the ability to be able to work with them, figure out plan A, Plan V, plan C.

He waits until he gets here.

And when he gets here, now we have this discussion, and it's the last point of discussion for the last three years.

I can't support the budget based on that 650 million that's there.

Has nothing to do with the line item, has everything to do with the structure and how we it how it got ignored again.

And it just screams to me intentional.

And um that's that's how I feel.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Any other comments?

Thank you.

Um, so I'll make a comment.

I last night sent a message out to the board stating um that I would be proposing an amendment to the budget budget that impacts the additional 10,000 that the University of Illinois extension did not ask for, but did receive in um during our uh FA, one of our FA meetings.

So uh what had happened was that 10,000 in funding for the Lake County Transportation Alliance was removed and transferred to the extension, increasing their funding from 39,000 to 49,000.

And um, while I of course have enormous respect for the work that the extension does, um I would like to keep the extension budget at 39,000.

I have an interest in putting 10,000 to the Northern Illinois Food Bank.

Um just gonna give you some background and then, but I want to make sure that I tell you guys a little something.

So um right now we give them zero dollars to the Northern Illinois Food Bank.

Uh, yesterday afternoon, member Frank pointed out to me that he had seen that DuPage is looking to uh move about 2.1 million dollars to the uh Northern Illinois Food Bank in their budget uh due to the federal cuts that are happening.

Uh I happened to see somebody from Cook County last Friday.

They said they too were almost done with their budget, uh, but we're just trying to figure out how they can move more money into the uh Greater Chicago land food uh food bank, which is the one that services Cook County and the city of Chicago.

And I just was thinking to myself, wow, we don't give any money other than ARPEN CARES to the food bank.

Um they distribute food to pantries and programs across Lake County and other counties in the area.

Um Midwest Veterans Closet, uh Catholic Charities, Waukegan Housing Authority, Mount Sinate Baptist Food Pantry, they are doing three mobile markets this week alone in Lake County.

One is this afternoon in Round Lake at the John T.

McGee Middle School this evening.

Then there's another one in Friday on Friday afternoon in Highwood.

There's one on Saturday at Zion Benton High School.

Northern Illinois Food Bank on their website, they said they've done significant auditing and they believe they can give groceries to people for about an eighth of what it would cost to purchase an equivalent amount at retail.

And so, you know, I have again immense respect for the work that the extension does.

But given the two most recent cuts to uh that occurred, one in the big quote unquote beautiful bill, uh, many people who currently receive SNAP benefits will no longer receive those benefits.

And so the food banks are um are expecting to have an increased need.

At the same time, there's going to be a cut uh through an agricultural program.

It's like CCC, I looked it up last night, but essentially limiting uh the ability for people to utilize SNAP benefits on locally grown uh produce.

So I may not have that.

I apologize if I don't have that perfectly correct.

Um, however, in making this motion, I I do want it to be clear and thank you to member Clark, and I did check with um County Administrator Sutton.

We do not traditionally give money directly out of our budget to a nonprofit, right?

Uh nonprofits get money from Lake County through the work of Housing Community Development Commission.

We did it through ARPA, we did it through the CARES Act, and so I I am concerned about doing that.

Um, it sounds like other counties do it, they've been giving to food bank uh food banks for years, and it's just not something that uh we have made a practice out of.

So, you know, I I guess what I'll do is I'll make a motion to move $10,000.

The extension will remain whole at 39,000, and uh put that $10,000 to the Northern Illinois Food Bank.

Um, but I do understand if people are concerned about that because we've never given to nonprofits before.

Yes, thank you.

Sure.

I'm just curious.

So we have $10,000 addition that was added to the extension's budget that was not requested, but somehow it got in the budget.

And so what would be the normal course of taking that $10,000 and putting it back in to the general fund as opposed to reallocating it to yet another thing that didn't go through a proper process.

And I might say this is different from a point of order, your question.

So let me get a motion and same thing.

Yeah.

So uh let me get to see if I even have a second on this motion, uh, and maybe somebody might amend my motion to have it go back to the general fund.

So that's the motion I'm making.

Um, is there a second for that motion?

Thank you.

Second by member Kenisnik, and now there's discussion on the motion.

Member Frank.

Thank you, Chair.

Uh, to Member Danforth's point, I am going to make a motion to amend the amendment.

Um I I think it's important that we continue to sustain level funding for the U by extension as we have for the last three or more fiscal years.

Um, and the Northern Illinois Food Bank and many other organizations that are serving people in need directly have critical needs.

There's nobody can argue with that.

But I think that we're probably going to want to consider a more well-developed and substantial, much more substantial investment in human services, not just food, but housing and other urgent needs that the community is gonna face.

And I think we'll want to put a little bit more time into it.

And so my motion is to amend uh the the existing motion so that the $10,000 that we added um uh and just to be clear, this was $10,000 that was sort of uh found from uh uh the committee recommended cancellation of a membership, so it was additional money that was available uh from the recommended budget.

Um, and then I just and that my motion is to put that 10 back into the general fund and that we find the U of I extension at the same level as we have the last three fiscal years.

Okay, thank you.

So there's a motion to amend the amendment.

Do I have a second on that motion?

You raise it a second, second by member main.

Thank you, and a comment, absolutely.

Yes, um, thank you.

I appreciate Member Frank's um motion.

I think that's uh that's what should happen.

Uh I understand the um goodwill meant by the original motion.

But that is again too big a change, something that we haven't talked about.

Um, I know that many members here contribute and member Frank spoke very well, excuse me, about the need um to look at something holistically.

And Member Frank spoke very well, excuse me, about the need to look at something holistically.

So that's why I'll do that.

I do want to say that the budget that is in front of us is exactly the same as that was passed November 6th by the finance committee.

So this budget has been out there 12 days.

This $10,000, which I never agreed with because I didn't like the process there, had been put in even before that.

So while I appreciate these change, it seems a little and these sentiments.

Things related to the big beautiful bill, that was a long time ago.

It seems for this very long process to be making amendments the night before when the entire budget has been out there literally for weeks.

It seems like things could have been done in a more timely fashion all along.

Thank you.

Member Wasick.

Thank you, Chair.

And I would like to primarily comment on the first amendment.

Well, I agree with uh Chair Frank.

Oh you have to stick with the second one.

Oh, the second.

Because it's a there's been a motion to amend.

Yeah.

Well, I wanted to read this into the record about the extension funding.

Well, I praise food pantries, uh, religious groups and food banks for the noble work they do every day.

I will argue that teaching people how to reap their own bounty in their own gardens is even more sustainable long term.

We face unspeakable cruelty today.

Yes.

It was disregarding the amendment.

The amendment to be amended.

It is, yes, because it's still, he's still speaking about my assumption is about not taking the 10,000 out of the extension.

If I may continue, of course, yeah.

Uh but no one should go hungry in our country.

I've seen the face of hunger in my grandmother's face.

Every line was the indelible pain of raising three children as a single mother during the depression.

Although she spoke little English, she learned one important skill how to grow her own food.

That's why we'll be voting against this amendment and supporting University of Illinois Extension because they bless people with the knowledge of hyperlocal food production.

The Diamond War County extension is the Master Gardener program, which helps people grow their own food.

Last year, our local Master Gardeners distributed seeds at two seed expo events, reaching 2700 residents.

Not only did Master Gardeners give away tens of thousands of seeds, they volunteered their knowledge.

Master Gardener volunteers supported nine community gardens, resulting in 20,461 pound of food donated to local pantries.

They also assisted young people through the 4-H program, guiding and encouraging 622 4-H members, 42% of that identifying as minorities.

All told extension 4-H programs reach community youth with important life skills with 853 club memberships and 8,772 experiences.

As we wonder when Washington will fully fund SNP benefits, extension SNEP education team held 255 education classes with over 630 nutrition education participants last year.

Not only are they educating people about this essential anti-hunger program, they are in the front line in every one of our communities.

More recently, I saw the face of hunger again.

I was in our local township food pantry.

A little girl was with her mother.

She gently smiled when she heard that there was fresh food available.

A group of my neighbors and I had just picked one ton of surplus produce from a local farm.

We delivered some of the most beautiful apples, squash, onions, and potatoes I've ever seen.

But the loveliest thing I saw that evening was the little girl's smile.

When you support the extension, you support families who are yearning to support themselves.

I've never experienced hunger, but I know how we can prevent it.

We're surrounded by some of the most fertile and productive soil on the planet.

We are blessed by the prosperity that flows from our earth.

We are twice blessed when we learn how to share it.

Great.

Thank you.

Member Clark.

Anyway, when we discussed this at committee, and there aren't that many organizations that depend on the county for funding.

I mean, there's a lot of organizations that want funding that we have nothing to do with.

So when we look at the U of I extension, by state statute or state law, they have their funding is based on the funding that we give them.

And I have also said I feel like on our legislative agenda, we should talk to our legislators so we can uncouple this.

So the fact that their funding is based on our funding them is, I think, unprecedented.

I don't think there's anything else like that.

Um, but because it is what it is, and it's a group that we are responsible for helping to fund.

They hadn't had it increase in many years.

The programs they do for gardening for nutrition counseling, I know I've taken the tours, I think is really important our community.

We had the discussion in committee, and it passed through committee.

And then I know we'd said that we'd like more information.

I know you by extension sent us all information.

I read all the information.

I kind of felt everyone read it and thought, okay, this makes sense.

And I thought that's where we're at.

So I was disappointed to see that this out of all things in the budget, it was like, let's not fund these programs.

Um and so I encourage people to go with the process and the discussion and the information you by extension has given us with their very unique situation where they are dependent on us for funding.

Um, and um I I really support them what they do.

So I would encourage people to, I'm not, I will not vote for this amendment.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Member Bulitic, did you have your hand up?

I'm sorry I had missed you before.

Member Volitzik followed by Member Kasman.

Thank you.

Um when we first discussed this, I can't remember which meeting or budget hearing at FA staff presented to the committee a list of four or five memberships that we held in different organizations in order for us to review it and take out anything we thought we didn't want to be part of anymore, or that was superfluous or or or whatever.

And some of these memberships were in the low thousands of dollars, um, just looking for any um amount of money we could trim in this razor thin budget.

And so um it was clear, at least to me, through the discussion, that our membership to LCTA wasn't quite necessary or serving us.

We didn't have a vote on in that on that board, and so I made the motion to remove that ten thousand dollar membership from our budget.

Um it passed, and um, and then fairly quickly there was a an uh a motion to to move it into U of I extension.

I voted no for it.

I think I was the only one, but I don't know.

Um I voted no on that because of the the process, the sort of last minute of it, they they hadn't asked for it.

We had you know listened to many of our department staff people come in um and um and I know you know, as someone's I think maybe Member Maine, months long process of requesting money for new programs or new positions.

Um so I didn't support it then, and I I still don't support it much for those reasons.

I know that the they do good work.

I know that the motion to um but all motions and all votes in support of moving it to you of I is for the best of reasons and with the best of intentions, but I I do think if if they if it is a unique situation where they are reliant on us, it does puzzle me why they didn't come with a very um vetted and thorough proposal for that funding.

I did read the letters after I I wasn't persuaded or moved, even though I know of course they could use the money.

Everyone can use the money, um, but I won't be supporting that.

I do prefer to the amendment that um Chair Frank made.

I do prefer them for the money to go back to the general fund.

So I will support that.

Thank you.

Member Kasman.

And then perhaps we'll vote on that amendment.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um I'm gonna speak to the amendment first.

We seem to be discussing them all at the same time.

Um, we're speaking to the amendment that member Frank had made.

Right, but everybody seems to be talking about the we're in some way and ways to if you're in favor of the uh money going to the general fund, you're by definition kind of speaking to both uh not really, because you can be in favor of wanting to move it back to the general fund, but not be in favor like you know what I'm saying, because that's a different issue.

Anyway, I'm just gonna talk, it'll be fine.

Sure, just speak on the okay, what member Frank's motion of moving it back to the general fund?

Sure.

Um, so I am very much in favor of us uh using some of our um emergency uh reserves money to uh smooth the path of some of these uh changes that have occurred with the federal administration.

Um there have been so many, and so many of our Lake County residents will be adversely impacted.

Um just recently, uh last week, um, those uh changes will be were announced to um the housing first model that's been uh in effect for I don't know how many years but that will adversely affect our continuum of care and likely result in more people on the street um unhoused.

So um I am in favor in general of us using some of our emergency reserves to create a smoothing of the path for a number of on a number of these issues.

Um I think it's a bigger question than ten thousand dollars, and I don't I don't like the process of creating a precedent based on a last minute amendment.

So I'm I'm in favor of member Frank's amendment.

I am not in favor of the original motion because I think that particular discussion happened twice, it was exhaustive.

Um though I technically um the U of I extension may not have asked for an increase this year, they asked repeatedly for a number of years and made very impassioned pleas.

Um so I I don't think we can knock them.

I think they kind of gave up asking.

Um so I I think they do uh give important programming.

We haven't increased their funding for a long time.

Um I think this was settled in the budget, the budget's been on display.

I don't like this last minute just before close of business yesterday amendment being thrown in when this was settled in the in the um budget hearings first, and then it at F and A committee afterwards.

So I just I I don't like that process.

I don't like either process.

So um I'm I guess I'll vote no on both because it seems like one is connected to the other, but I just I I would encourage people.

I mean, I uh it was my understanding that committee of the whole was taken away because people were tired of committee work being undone at the committee of the whole, and now for the second month in a row, we are doing committee work on the floor, that's what this is, and so I I just don't love this process.

So I I hope that we can be mindful moving forward to give members more notice to give them an opportunity to reflect to maybe talk to other members to maybe talk to staff.

Um but I just I can't, I'm not going to support either amendment.

Thanks.

Thank you.

Uh why don't we take a motion?

Uh excuse me, a vote, uh a roll call on member Frank's motion to amend for the money to go back to the general fund.

That's the $10,000, and that would keep the U of I extension money same as it was in prior year.

Member Otter?

Aye.

Member Campos?

No.

Member Kasman, no.

Member Clark, aye.

Vice Chair Cunningham, no.

Member Dan Ford.

Aye.

Member Frank?

Aye.

Chair Hart?

Aye.

Member Hewitt.

Aye.

Member Hunter.

Aye.

Member Kanisnik.

Aye.

Member Kyle?

Aye.

Member Maid.

Aye.

Member Prep.

Aye.

Member Peterson?

Aye.

Member Roberts?

Aye.

Member Schlick has left the meeting at 11:32.

Member Volitzing?

Aye.

And Member Wasick.

No.

Four carries.

Okay.

I think maybe I saw five.

No.

Three, five, or four.

So I have no Casmin Campos.

Campos Clark.

Oh, sorry.

Casmill Campbell.

Okay.

I must have miscounted.

Pardon me.

Okay.

Uh, motion to amend passes.

So this is discussion now, if any, on the motion to amend.

Um about all those.

What do I mean?

The effect of which would be to the effect of which is to move.

Thank you.

Thank you, uh Parliamentarian.

So the effect of it would be to move the $10,000 uh into the general fund.

Um may I have a roll call, please.

Member Altenberg?

Aye.

Member Campos.

All right.

Member Casbin.

No.

Member Clark?

No.

Vice Chair Cunningham.

No.

Member Dan Forth?

Yes.

Member Frank.

Aye.

Chair Hart?

Aye.

Member Hewitt.

Member Hunter.

Can you explain that?

Sure.

So here's what happened.

So the initial thing, my I made a motion, and then there was a motion to amend made by Member Frank.

And so that motion to amend was what we had to change my amendment to.

So now that that amendment has been changed to the $10,000 going back to the general fund.

Okay.

That's what we're voting on now.

Do you want the $10,000 to go back to the general fund, or would you like it to stay where it is with the addition to the University of Illinois extension?

I'd like it to go back to the general fund.

Okay.

If that is what you would like, you would vote aye.

I okay, thank you.

Member Kenisnik.

Aye.

Member Kyle.

Would you tell me that again?

Sure.

Sure.

Yes.

If you would like the money, the $10,000 to go back to the general fund.

You would uh vote yes.

If you would like for it to stay with the University of Illinois extension, you would vote no.

It's $10,000.

No wrong answer.

And I think you may pass, right?

He can pass or recuse.

You can pass if you would care to do that, Member Kyle.

Okay.

Okay.

Member Maine.

Aye.

Member Perak?

No.

Member Peterson.

Aye.

Member Roberts.

Aye.

Member Volitzik.

Aye.

Member Wasick.

No.

Five minutes.

Yes.

Oh, would you like since you passed, would you like to vote or would you stay or do would you like to abstain and not vote on this one?

Abstain?

Okay.

Thank you, Member Cow.

Thank you, Parliamentarian.

Appreciate it.

Okay.

Motion to amend passes.

So now this is uh discussion and a vote on the final excuse me, the budget as amended.

So this does require a well.

I'm gonna do a roll call.

I may have a roll call, please.

Member Altenburg.

All right, we're voting on this is on the budget as amended.

Okay.

Aye.

Member Campos?

Aye.

Member Casman.

Aye.

Member Clark.

Aye.

Vice Chair Cunningham.

What this one is.

The whole budget.

Oh aye.

Member Danforth.

No.

Member Frank?

Aye.

Chair Hart.

Aye.

Member Hewitt.

Aye.

Member Hunter.

No.

Member Kanisnik.

Aye.

Member Kyle?

Aye.

Member Maine.

No.

Member Peret.

Aye.

Member Peterson.

No.

Member Roberts?

Aye.

Member Volitzig?

Aye.

Member Wasick.

All right.

Okay.

Thank you.

Motion passes.

Um moving on.

Let's go back to the start of this.

Uh, we have a board of health report to be read by member Park.

Thank you, Chair.

This is the Board of Health Report for November 2025.

Supplemental nutrition assistance program from the SNAP and women and children program known as WIC food assistance programs have recently come into focus.

These programs offer support to individuals and families that meet certain criteria.

SNAP provides monthly funds to low-income individuals and families to use towards groceries.

WIC is specifically for pregnant and postpartum women, infants, and children up to the age of five who meet certain income requirements.

It provides specific nutritious foods such as formula, milk, fruit, whole grains, tailored to maternity and early childhood health.

WIC also provides nutritious nutrition education, breastfeeding support, and referrals.

IDHS is working to distribute full SNAP benefits now that the federal government shutdown has ended.

However, it will take some time for the full benefit payments to be made over the coming days.

For more information, visit the IDHS SNAP Federal Impact Center.

It's SNAP Federal Impact.gov.

Residents should be aware that SNAP and WIC are two different programs.

To learn more about WIC and find out if you're eligible, please call 847-377-8420.

Take appropriate precaution.

This respiratory season as RSV, COVID-19, and the flu start to circulate more.

One way to monitor respiratory illness in Lake County is through our weekly respiratory reports.

These reports strike the flu, COVID-19 and RSV specifically within Lake County.

The community can look at weekly reports to see if any of these respiratory illnesses are increasing in the area.

The report can be useful tool to help individuals stay informed and make decision, best decisions for themselves and their families, especially when traveling, gathering with family and friends, or deciding when to wear a mask.

Visit the health department's communicable disease program web page to access the reports, and that concludes my report.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

And next we have a uh Lake County Partners report to be read by Member Hunter.

Thanks, Chair.

Lake County will close out the year on a high note.

Lake County Partners is closing out in the best year ever with 1,862 new jobs, $1,333 in retained jobs, and $603 million in direct capital investment resulting from the organization's work.

The majority of this year's business wins have been expansions of existing Lake County based companies, a testament to the recognized benefits derived by being located and growing within Lake County.

Recent wins have included a groundbreaking uh for a new facility to support Bel Air Creations, continued expansion in Lake County.

The manufacturers invested in the community three times in the recent years to support growth in Libertyville and Round Lake Park.

On the office front, Fortune Brands Innovations opened a new headquarters in Deerfield with great news.

It's two years ahead of its hiring goal and have added 400 plus new hires within the capacity to support 1,000 more.

As of 2025 near a close, Lake County Partners continues to manage a robust active project pipeline of more than 37 with concentrations in the advanced manufacturing, life sciences, and house industry sectors.

Year to date economic activity and opportunity has remained strong, with Lake County partners having considered more than 75 unique project opportunities.

This strength is is anticipated to continue through the year end and into the early quarters of 2026.

Lake County Partners hosted 50 plus public sector partners for economic outlook as part of an ongoing quarterly workshop series for public sector partners.

Lake County Partners recently hosted a discussion featuring insights from Dr.

Joe Schweiderman at DePaul University and Chris Brewer at AECOM to explore how Lake County is balancing growth, resilience, and reinvention in a changing economy.

The discussion stressed the importance of expanding workhouse housing, investing in workforce development, repositioning commercial assets, and leveraging e-commerce trends.

Initiatives that directly align with the recommendation in SEDS.

There are upcoming events designed to support local business, including a Biz now industrial summit at Innovation Park in Libertyville on November 20th.

Visit Lake County Partners.com for more information on the opportunities.

And that concludes my report.

Thank you very much.

Okay.

Moving on to um let me see.

Where are we?

Item 37, please.

Member Frank.

Thank you, Chair.

Uh, unless there's objection, I'd like to move that we take items 37 through 42 together.

Great, thank you.

Item 37 ask for unanimous unanimous consent to move put all those together, all the SSAs.

Great, thank you.

Great.

Thank you.

Item 37 is an ordinance providing for a levy for the direct annual tax sufficient to provide $50,000 for SSA number eight.

Item 38 is an ordinance appropriating funds and providing for the levy for direct tax sufficient to reduce 164,892.32 cents for SSA number nine.

Item 39 is an ordinance providing for the levy of a direct annual tax sufficient to produce $34,400 for SSA number 12.

Item 40 is an ordinance providing for a levy for direct annual tax sufficient to produce 225,000 dollars for SSA number 13.

Item 41 is an ordinance providing for a levy for direct annual tax efficient to produce $13,925 for SSA number 14.

And item 42 is an ordinance providing for levy for direct annual tax admission to produce $14,160 for SSA number 17.

And I move to approve.

Thank you.

Motion by Member Frank.

Second by Member Kenisnik.

Any discussion on these SSAs?

And I just want to be clear, these are SSAs that uh the people who live there have requested that uh this levy be applied to their property taxes.

Uh these do require a roll call vote.

May I have a leave for the previous roll call with the exclusion of Member Clark and Member Schlick.

Yes, yes.

Thank you.

Oh, yep.

The last one I voted was the budget, and I voted against it.

I want to vote for this.

Oh, thank you.

Thank you for I thought it was like kind of that initial one.

My apologies.

You know, the very, very beginning one.

Right.

Yeah, thank you.

Roll call, please.

Thank you.

Thanks, Member Hunter.

Member Altenburg.

Member Campos.

Member Casmin.

Aye.

Member Clark.

Member Cunningham.

Vice Chair Cunningham.

Aye.

Member Dan Ford.

Member Frank.

Aye.

Chair Hart.

Aye.

Member Hewitt.

Aye.

Member Hunter.

Aye.

Member Kanisnik.

Aye.

Member Kyle.

Member Main.

Member Peret.

Aye.

Member Peterson.

Member Roberts.

Aye.

Member Volitzek.

Member Wasick.

All right.

Thank you.

Yes.

Motion passes.

Okay, moving on to the item I had pulled off of the consents agenda, which was an item number 14, resolution providing for the reappointment of Jerry Sonier as a member of the Manitou Creek Drainage District.

I did not receive her request to no longer serve.

And so I was contacted over the weekend.

So she is uh does not want to serve.

And so item 14 is uh I would like a motion to postpone this item indefinitely.

Thank you.

Motion by Member Hunter, second by member Roberts.

All those in favor?

Any opposed?

Motion passes.

Thank you.

Item number now, a new appointment item 45 is a resolution providing for the appointment of Michael Warner as a member of the Manitou Creek Drainage District.

Uh thank you.

Motion by Member Hunter, second by member Wasick.

Any discussion on this item?

Seeing none, all those in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed?

Motion passes.

Um I want everybody's uh thoughts on this, if you would.

We do have executive session to discuss a personnel matter and also to review review closed session minutes.

I do not uh one of them is definitely an important matter, and I don't want to rush through it.

Uh we can by county board rules move that discussion to December, or we can take it right now.

Can I just have people raise hands if they want to stick around and do that one right now?

Okay, one, two, three, four.

Okay, everybody else would like to postpone to December.

I yep, okay.

Okay, we're gonna postpone.

So um for the for items number 46 for items 46, 47, and 48.

If I'm doing that correctly, I would like a motion to postpone to the December meeting.

Motion by Member Frank, second by member Peterson.

Any discussion?

Uh seeing none, all those in favor?

Any opposed?

Motion passes, and I so adjourned this regular.

Oh, pardon me.

Any petitions, correspondence, and miscellaneous business.

Member Main.

Thank you.

I would just like to request in the future, perhaps employee recognition could be moved out of chairs remarks and into that earlier recognition because we had employees and their supervisors sitting here for two hours before we got to them, and it seems like if we're recognizing the public, perhaps that's the place to recognize them instead of having them sit here for a long time.

Yes, thank you.

Um and just to be clear, they would have essentially they were only behind the yeah, we can consider that.

Um we kind of go back and forth.

And so, since that's a member remark and request, we'll do these two things together.

Member Dan Forth.

Yeah.

But I'll try to be brief.

Uh Chair, yesterday I had a disturbing thing kind of happen.

I think the board needs to be made aware of it.

Um, as you know, I'm I'm sorry, excuse me, member speaker.

I am a practicing attorney.

Uh I do practice on occasion in this courthouse and had the opportunity to be up on the fourth floor yesterday to do a case at nine o'clock when the courtroom is supposed to be open.

The you could hear the judge through the door, and she was obviously doing Zoom calls, but the the courthouse door was not unlocked to that courtroom, which was I thought very odd.

So uh I'm like, what's going on?

And some of the other attorneys are saying a lot of these courtrooms are staying locked up because there's no court security to be in the courtroom so that people can go in.

Now the problem is is you've got attorneys on the clock clock.

That courtroom didn't open for a half hour past nine o'clock, and there was 40 people because this was self-represented litigants in the hallway who took off work and missing pay, waiting for a courtroom to open.

I was so upset about it.

I went to go track down Chief Judge Shanes, which he just happened to be on the first floor, and I nicely said to him, Judge, what's going on?

He says, Mike, I was just upstairs.

I saw it, and he says, this is an ongoing problem with all our courtrooms.

This happens to about six to seven courtrooms every single morning.

And it's because we don't have the staff, we don't have the deputy sheriffs that are able to be allocated, and because of the union contracts, they can only work a certain amount of overtime, and it can only be uh like in the afternoon and not the mornings, and so it's a real problem.

And the issue that I have is that the Illinois Supreme Court has constitutional authority to force the sheriff to provide security, and you know, we're gonna have a real problem because justice delayed is justice denied, and these poor people can't afford to be off work repeatedly because they can't get into a courtroom.

And you know, we're gonna have a real problem because justice delayed is justice denied, and these poor people can't afford to be off work repeatedly because they can't get into a courtroom.

And it's due to a lack of money, as we know, sitting on the law and judicial committee, is Vice Chair uh is Vice Chair Cunningham knows we've got to do something to get the bodies in the courtroom uh so that we can administer justice appropriately because we're gonna get into some, I think some potentially very serious trouble.

And if it's we had to increase the budget as much as I hate to say it in certain areas, we're gonna need to do something because the Illinois Supreme Court can tell us you have to do that.

They have total authority over the security and how the courtroom is run, even though it's the sheriff's responsibility, they can mandate the sheriff to do it.

So it's an issue I bring up because I see it's an issue that's long overdue to be addressed.

Thank you.

Vice Chair Cunningham.

I have ran into this too with the courts is not open, but you got to realize and I question it.

Would the would the sheep chief chain and uh these are retired in the courtroom?

They from the outside, some of them from Cook County, they are retired, and they part time, and a lot of them say, hey, I'm not going today.

So uh I agree with you.

We need to have a chef, our own staff that we fund to be in the courtroom because half of the time there's a judge is there, but you don't have no security in uh uh he's not gonna start the case.

I have been there with my with a lot of my presenters.

I'm in the courtroom every day.

Been doing it for years with some of my consent when the parents call me or somebody in jail.

I I hug support.

So I know how what you're saying, and it's so true.

I wish the other commissioner was to go in the courtroom and see we sitting out in the hallway.

Well, Gina knows we're sitting out in the hallway, waiting on the court to be open and nobody done locked the doors.

So uh uh uh and this is not a funny thing.

This is a serious thing.

Cause half the time the gym the uh lawyer have to go to another courtroom.

You have to be out of album, but this one don't open up until nine third the ten because you ain't got no court security in there.

They are not gonna do it.

I haven't done it going in the courtroom before I even got on the on the board with people from the community.

I mean, so in my community, and it's this is really bad.

We got that we need to look into it.

Because uh these are people retired.

They don't have to come.

A lot of them come out of Chicago.

They don't uh uh uh court security.

They ain't all from the jail house over there, but they come through the jail.

So uh I don't know what can we do.

We we need to do said I don't I think it's that from the court from the chief judge, and then I don't think it's start from us, the county commissioners.

Um if if I may, uh my assumption is that um and I'm sure staff, some staff listens to our meeting, uh, that they uh have heard Member Dan Forth and yourself, and I'm sure they'll be discussing uh Chief Judge Shan's and potentially the sheriff's office.

Thank you.

Uh so in our I was at a J Team meeting last week, and that did not come up, and maybe it was because it was prior to Member Dan Forth trying to get into that courtroom, but maybe that'll come up.

Thank you.

Anyone else on members' remarks or petitions correspondence and miscellaneous business?

All right, I'll just say I hope you guys have a great Thanksgiving.

So good to see you, and I so adjourned this regular five session and happy birthday to Vice Chair Cunningham tomorrow.

I adjourn the session of the county.

All right, I adjourn.