Will County Board Democratic Caucus met June 18.
Here
Call To Order / Roll Call
Minority Leader
Attendee
Lauren Staley-Ferry Minority Whip Present
Mark Ferry Member Present
Kenneth E. Harris Member Present
Tyler Marcum Member Present
Donald A. Moran Member Present
Beth Rice Member Absent
Laurie Summers Member Present
Jacqueline Traynere Member Present
Denise E. Winfrey Member Present
Present from the State's Attorney's Office: K. Meyers
Also Present: Senator Bertino-Tarrant and N. Palmer
II. Pledge Of Allegiance To The Flag
Mrs. Traynere led the Pledge of Allegiance.
III. Approval Of Minutes
IV. Old Business
V. New Business
1. Discussion of County Board Agenda
Land Use & Development Committee:
Mrs. Summers stated there were 3 solar farms on the agenda this month. There were some residents that came out from Monee that were against them. Ms. Bluemer did a very good job of presenting and their concerns were addressed. We tabled the solar farms. Mrs. Adams noted one case for a solar farm was moving forward to the full board so it will be remanded back to committee and then you can determine what other conditions may be needed.
Mr. Ferry indicated there is a bill going through the state regarding the solar farms, which spells out the “do’s and the don’ts”
Mrs. Summers commented there is a note at the end of the guidelines which said the landowners did not have to follow the guidelines if they already had their lease with the solar company. However, the company has said they would follow whatever the state brought forth. They would commit to it now. She reviewed the rest of the zoning cases.
Finance:
Mrs. Traynere stated we are giving $35,000 again to the University of Illinois Cooperative Extension. They wanted more and we promised them more last year. Mr. Brooks commented we used to give them $50,000; they have been trying to get back to that.
Mrs. Traynere reviewed the rest of the finance resolutions.
Public Works & Transportation Committee:
Mr. Moran stated we are making changes to the overweight-oversize truck permitting process. We made it better for local contractors. One of the changes is that we now allow for daily, weekly or monthly permits.
Mr. Moran reviewed the balance of the public works resolutions.
Mrs. Traynere asked about the resolution regarding Nowell Park Community Center water main.
Mr. Moran answered this is an old park in Joliet; they put a new recreation center in there.
Mr. Palmer commented on the resolution adopting the transportation improvement program. This is our 5 year outlook that is done on an annual basis. One of the things that becomes very clear since our freight study is that we do not have enough projects ready to go. There could be grant funds available and we might not have any county project because our DOT is focused on county roads; not necessarily on state or municipal. We are working with WCGL and the state. Going forward we may have to think about a different way to do it, or be a little more aggressive in pushing projects through the pipeline. That is something to be aware of. You might want to look at the projects listed. We need to push to get the projects to a certain point; otherwise we miss the boat on the big grant money from the federal government. None of our projects are shovel ready. Ms. Winfrey arrived at this juncture.
Judicial Committee:
Mr. Marcum stated there is one resolution awarding the bid for food service at the River Valley Juvenile Center. Mr. Palmer indicated there was a meeting last week of the subset of the integrated justice committee. A number of years ago the county used a COPS grant to do a study on a master plan for the entire judicial system; improvements to make it more electronic. The State’s Attorney’s office and Public Defender were part of a bid for a case management system and there is an option to include Probation. We selected 3 vendors and we are going to conduct interviews in July. This is a multi-million dollar project bid; it is a good thing. Ms. Freitag and Mrs. Ogalla represent the county board on this committee
Public Health & Safety Committee:
Mrs. Summers stated the state task force came out with their final report. Dr. Burke will be meeting with police departments for the safe passage program. We also had people from Joliet West who work with the behavioral health programs at both high schools in Joliet. That was pretty interesting; they’ve done a lot of good things and it is all based off of grants.
Legislative & Policy Committee:
Mrs. Staley-Ferry noted there is one resolution supporting NACo for the FAA reauthorization.
Mr. Palmer indicated the county owns a land fill near Wilmington on the old Joliet Arsenal property that Waste Management operates. When it was originally created there was a restriction put on it that we could only have Will County generated waste and also a time limit was set. There is no other landfill in the country that has that kind of restriction. A couple of years back, we were able to get the time restriction extended; that was necessary because the county has done a really good job of recycling and diverting materials so it is not filling up as quickly as they originally projected. We went back this year to get the time restriction completely eliminated and the out of county waste restriction eliminated, or giving us local control to do that. That piece of legislation is on track; there is a possibility that we will get that time restriction and out of county restriction removed. That is a positive thing on the federal side.
Capital Improvements Committee:
Ms. Winfrey noted there is one resolution to amend the contract with Leopardo for pre-construction phase services the Health Department Building.
Executive Committee:
Mrs. Staley-Ferry reviewed the executive committee resolutions.
Appointments:
Mr. Harris asked if Mayor Claar wants the positon on the Pace board.
Mr. Palmer answered this position has to be a mayor to serve on the board. The County Executive nominated Mayor Claar for reappointment because he wants him appointed. We will not bring a name forward if we want you to vote it down; we will just not submit it. He is asking for your support for this. Mr. Harris questioned if you still require him to have references. Mr. Palmer replied even though some of these people are well known, we now require all of them to fill out paperwork.
VI. Committee Reports
Land Use & Development
Finance
Public Works & Transportation
Judicial
Public Health & Safety
Legislative & Policy
Capital Improvements
Executive
VII. Other New Business
VIII. Chairman's Report/Announcements
IX. Public Comment
X. Executive Session
XI. Adjournment
1. Motion to adjourn at 7:40 p.m.
https://willcountyil.iqm2.com/Citizens/FileOpen.aspx?Type=15&ID=3022&Inline=True
Alerts Sign-up