Will County Ad-Hoc Complete Count Census Committee met Jan. 8.
Here is the minutes provided by the committee:
I. CALL TO ORDER/ROLL CALL
Chair Amanda Koch called the meeting to order at 9:04 AM
| Attendee Name | Title | Status | Arrived |
| Amanda Koch | Chair | Present | |
| Rachel Ventura | Vice Chair | Present | |
| Julie Berkowicz | Member | Absent | |
| Herbert Brooks Jr. | Member | Present | |
| Annette Parker | Member | Present | |
| Jacqueline Traynere | Member | Present | |
| Tom Weigel | Member | Present |
II. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE TO THE FLAG
Mr. Weigel led the Pledge Allegiance to the Flag.
III. APPROVAL OF MINUTES
1. WC Ad-Hoc Modern Housing Solutions Committee - Regular Meeting - Dec 5, 2019 11:00 AM
RESULT: APPROVED [UNANIMOUS]
MOVER: Jacqueline Traynere, Member
SECONDER: Rachel Ventura, Vice Chair
AYES: Koch, Ventura, Brooks Jr., Parker, Traynere, Weigel
IV. OLD BUSINESS
V. NEW BUSINESS
1. Discussion on the County Housing Policy
(Discussion)
Ms. Koch stated I wanted to bring back the discussion of the County Housing Policy. We are going to be crafting this from the ground up.
Ms. Traynere said I reviewed the NACo website and found nothing on housing.
Mr. Pullman said this afternoon we will be having a conversation with NACo through Ms. Winfrey. It is going to be about a Community of Economic Development Committee. They bring up the topic of Workforce Housing and supporting some of the HUD Grant Programs.
Ms. Koch stated Counties are a little bit unique in approaching housing as a County issue. I feel it should be even if we can’t do a lot to change things; at least we should be talking about what we want to see. Let’s hope we are changing the culture here.
Ms. Traynere replied when you travel the Country and go to other Counties they are far more in charge of their residents everyday lives. They provide water, sewer, schools and housing.
Ms. Sojka said you asked to bring back some of the policies that were recommended based on the different data from Economic and Development, Realtors and from the Waste Management Division. We will provide them on the screen and go through them together and make any changes we feel fix. I feel first we should draft a needs statement. That way when we start formulating the document that will eventually be presented before the County Board that there will be substance behind it and that it came from this Committee. I looked at our 2040 Transportation Plan and there isn’t anything on housing; but there are definitely linkages that we can make. We want to make sure that we are in tandem with those other plans that the County has already established.
Ms. Koch said we did receive some bad news from CMAP; but in the absence of our CMAP Grant and Study. We have a lot of different studies like the 2040 Transportation Plan, Freight Mobility and CED has done a lot of work that we can use to craft our own housing policy, and have some data to back it up.
Ms. Sojka stated we knew when we first approached CMAP about the Homes for a Changing Region that it was a grant that typically given to municipalities as they work on their housing challenges. They start with a needs and then they come up with an action plan. We approached CMAP because we needed the same thing; a housing assessment and some action steps. At the time it was pitched from the Housing Development Thought Leadership Group. We had the City of Joliet around the table so they agreed to come and talk to us and consider it. After hearing all we have done and seeing the different players at the table. They wanted to see more municipal participation at the onset; so having someone from the Mayors Caucus or the Metropolitan members. If that is something you want to do when crafting these Housing Policies that perhaps we could go back to them in 6 months and they would help with the outreach to get the Municipalities. CMAP also said that they can see that there is a wealth of information already here; we have a lot of experts that have already provided a lot of data. It seemed that they were impressed with the fact that we already have a lot going. There is then the other option that we draft it ourselves. We have the resources here with Mr. Greuling’s group that can speak to Workforce Housing needs, Three Rivers that can speak to the demand changes or the shift in demographics, and what does that mean. And our division with the Federal Funds with the Continuum of Care funds; we can demonstrate the need for housing and back up some of the policies that we have already discussed. That would be some of the other options and approaches that you can take.
Ms. Koch stated we want to do a little of both; we want the buy in of the Municipalities but we probably know that it won’t happen immediately. I think part of it is crafting our policy and what we want to do; if we are going to convince people to come along with us we want to show them what we are interested in doing. We did speak briefly about having staff put together some of the existing resources for us to back up our policy with data. Maybe we can circle back with CMAP and get that Homes for a Changing Region later on.
Ms. Sojka said if we just keep in mind some of the regional initiatives or objectives that CMAP has out there for their 2050 plan. If you stay in step with those there are a lot of municipalities that are also in step with those objectives. Then the opportunity for collective impact is a lot greater.
Ms. Koch said the idea here is we are going to go through some suggestions that we got from staff and in real time we will edit them.
Ms. Sojka said when you think about the need what the purpose of a policy is; generally it provides direction when it comes time for a board to make a decision. It is what guides them to making the decision that was previously decided in the direction you want to go.
At this juncture the Committee collaborated to craft a Mission Statement and to review, write and discus a Housing Policy for Will County.
Handout from Martha Sojka at Committee
VI. OTHER NEW BUSINESS
VII. PUBLIC COMMENT
VIII. CHAIRMAN'S REPORT / ANNOUNCEMENTS
IX. EXECUTIVE SESSION
X. ADJOURNMENT
1. Motion to Adjourn @ 10:35 AM
RESULT: APPROVED [UNANIMOUS]
MOVER: Herbert Brooks Jr., Member
SECONDER: Rachel Ventura, Vice Chair
AYES: Koch, Ventura, Brooks Jr., Parker, Traynere, Weigel
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