Will County Gazette

Will County Committee of the Whole met June 4.

Here is the minutes provided by the committee:

Attendee Name	Title	Status	Arrived
Judy Ogalla	District 1 (R - Monee)	Present
Sherry Newquist	District 1 (D - Steger)	Absent
Amanda Koch	District 2 (D - Frankfort)	Present
Jim Moustis	District 2 (R - Frankfort)	Present
Beth Rice	District 3 (D - Bolingbrook)	Present
Margaret Tyson	District 3 (D - Bolingbrook)	Present
Kenneth E. Harris	District 4 (D - Bolingbrook)	Present
Jacqueline Traynere	District 4 (D - Bolingbrook)	Present
Gretchen Fritz	District 5 (R - Plainfield)	Absent
Meta Mueller	District 5 (D - Aurora)	Present
Donald Gould	District 6 (R - Shorewood)	Present
Joe VanDuyne	District 6 (D - Wilmington)	Present
Steve Balich	District 7 (R - Homer Glen)	Present
Mike Fricilone	District 7 (R - Homer Glen)	Present
Herbert Brooks Jr.	District 8 (D - Joliet)	Present
Denise E. Winfrey	Speaker	Present
Annette Parker	District 9 (R - Crest Hill)	Present
Rachel Ventura	District 9 (D - Joliet)	Present
Gloria Dollinger	District 10 (R - Joliet)	Present
Tyler Marcum	District 10 (D - Joliet)	Absent
Julie Berkowicz	District 11 (R - Naperville)	Present
Mimi Cowan	District 11 (D - Naperville)	Present
Ray Tuminello	District 12 (R - New Lenox)	Present
Tom Weige	District 12 (R - New Lenox)	Present
Mark Ferry	District 13 (D - Plainfield)	Present
Tim Kraulidis	District 13 (R - Joliet)	Absent

Also Present: M. Dunn, M. Johannsen and B. Adams. Present from the State's Attorney's Office: M. Tatroe.

I. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE TO THE FLAG

A moment of silence was held in remembrance of County Executive Walsh.

Ms. Ventura led the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag.

II. OLD BUSINESS

III. NEW BUSINESS

Mrs. Tatroe stated I am asking for a motion and vote to hold a special meeting in view of the passing of County Executive Walsh. By statute one-third of the County Board must request to call a special meeting. My recommendation is that someone make a motion to call a special meeting and that we have an actual roll call.

Motion to Call a Special County Board Meeting to Declare and Fill the Vacancy in the County Executive Position

RESULT: APPROVED [UNANIMOUS]

MOVER: Donald Gould, District 6 (R - Shorewood)

SECONDER: Julie Berkowicz, District 11 (R - Naperville)

AYES: Ogalla, Koch, Moustis, Rice, Tyson, Harris, Traynere, Mueller, Gould, VanDuyne, Balich, Fricilone, Brooks Jr., Winfrey, Parker, Ventura, Dollinger, Berkowicz, Cowan, Tuminello, Weigel, Ferry

ABSENT: Newquist, Fritz, Marcum, Kraulidis

1. Update on Will County Rapid Rehousing Efforts

(Mike Hennessy and Kristy McNichol)

Ms. Sarah Oprzedek and Ms. Kristy McNichols reviewed the attached spreadsheet.

Ms. McNichols stated each person housed through rapid rehousing, sign a 12 month lease and that is 12 months of rent. From the initial $60,000 we received from the county and the $26,000 spent has turned into $136,800 added to Will County’s economy. The average rent in Will County is $950 per month for a one- bedroom apartment. Not all of those housed were singles. There is one case in Channahon with a single mother and four children so she did not get a one- bedroom. I am proud you trusted us and Will County’s community partners with this investment. It is an investment back into Will County.

Update from Elected Officials and Department Heads Re: COVID-19

(Discussion)

Mr. Brian Conser stated to control COVID spread, we have required masks for our staff since the start of the pandemic in March. We require temperature checks for all staff upon entering the jail or Public Safety Complex. If calls for service can be handled through the phone they are. Dispatch screens callers to see if any household members have any COVID symptoms or tested positive. All in-person calls are handled with all PPE recommended by the CDC. The jail currently has no COVID cases. We have had 10 positive employee cases and as of June 1st they have all returned to work. A spreadsheet of information is attached. The Sheriff’s Office requires a negative test for employees to return to work. To prevent COVID from entering the jail, our medical providers screen and take temperatures in the sallyport. If an inmate has symptoms, before entering the facility they are required to wear a mask and are immediately taken to a negative airflow cell in our medical area. This is also the case for any inmates suspected of COVID already in the jail. We have used two pods for quarantine. Once admitted, inmates are required to spend 14 days in the first intake pod followed by an additional 14 days in the second pod before being allowed into the general population. We have separated the work stations and ordered glass partitions for the cubicles in several divisions at the Public Safety Complex.

Mr. Conser stated detectives have been monitoring threats and posts in relation to the George Floyd protests 24/7. I have received calls from County Board Members regarding threats of neighborhoods being vandalized or damaged and all have been proved false. We are incurring some extra overtime costs to protect the current and new courthouse due to continued social media posts indicating the possibility of damage to the courthouse. We received one yesterday that said “look at all that pretty glass at the new courthouse. It would be a shame if somebody broke all that glass”. On Sunday a rock was thrown through the rear door of the county office building. We are hiring additional personnel in other areas of the County. On June 2nd during a peaceful protest in Homer Glen, the rear of the Jewel on Bell Road was vandalized with graffiti. We have information on the offender.

Judge Schoenstedt stated on May 20th the Illinois Supreme Court gave Chief Judges the authority to reopen the courts as we saw fit. That was done to ensure everyone’s safety while still providing necessary and constitutionally required services. We have 37 courtrooms in three facilities, plus branch courts. When this started we went to six courtrooms for emergencies only. On June 1st most, but not all of our courtroom are active on at least a part time basis. We are transitioning back slowly. We are staggering cases and using a lot of video, with the goal to regulate the number of people coming into the facilities. It is too early to tell, but our planning seems to be working so far. We constantly clean and disinfect, we require facial coverings and social distancing in all facilities. Recently, two judges tested positive. The other judges in that division have been tested and were negative. Both judges believe they were infected outside of courthouse related activities. The earliest I anticipate criminal jury trials is early July and civil juries in August. I secured the Rialto Square Theater for our highest volume, traffic court. There was no way to establish social distancing and reasonably conduct traffic court at the same time. That will start June 8th.

Ms. Karen Stukel stated we had one employee who tested positive for COVID. She has been off for five weeks and returned to work today. Our office is different than most, because all of our cubicles are attached to one another and employees are not six feet from one another. We worked with Midwest Office and we are in the process of having extensions put on the cubicles. They will be clear so employees will see from the back to the front with no obstruction. We anticipate opening to the public in the beginning of July. We are sending a letter to our searchers notifying them their time will be limited, because the computers in the public area are very close together. We will allow two searchers at a time, with a one hour limit and they can make a reservation. The limit is to accommodate walk-in customers. We are still working with half of our staff in each day. Once the glass is installed employees will not have to wear masks at their desk, but will be required to wear a mask if they are walking around the office. Once we open to the public, even though there is a barrier, we will still require employees to wear masks and gloves when taking documents and currency from customers. We have starting accepting documents electronically. The best part of the e-recording is if a document comes in wrong, they can get it back immediately. The only thing we cannot e-record is plats because they have to be brought in and signed.

Mr. Chuck Pelkie stated the Clerk’s Office has never closed, we have been opened on a limited basis since the beginning. We recommended people communicate with our vital records and tax extension departments by phone, e-mail or on-line. Our tax redemption remained open. We required appointments for marriage licenses to limit the number of people in the office. We tried to reduce staff, but for the most part they have been in the office. The front counter staff have been given masks and gloves and are required to wear them. The public entering our office are required to wear protective face coverings. Protective shields have been installed to limit exposure at the front counter. Staff is encouraged to wipe down the commonly used surfaces regularly. Daily, every staff member is required to answer a few quick questions to make sure they are healthy and we take their temperature before the day begins.

Mr. Pelkie gave a brief update on the vote by mail legislation passed in response to COVID-19. Our office is reviewing the legislation and responding. The legislation requires us to mail out a vote by mail application to everyone who applied to vote since the 2018 general election. This is a very large segment of the Will County voting population. We are looking at the costs. This year we will be doing our mass mailing of voter cards to every registered voter in Will County. We are looking at combining the voter card mailing with the vote by mail application. We expect to save over $100,000 in postage costs. We have added equipment to increase our capacity to print and assemble ballots. We expect to process up to 125,000 vote by mail ballots in the upcoming election cycle. It will put a significant strain on our staff, but they are up to the challenge. We are looking to hire election judges to process returned vote by mail ballots.

Mr. Chuck Squires stated our full staff is back as of June 1st, with the exception of some high risk employees. We have had no cases at this time. Four employees were tested after we were learned of two judges testing positive. One employee tested negative and we are awaiting results for the others. We have been working on getting signage up at the Rialto and preparing for traffic court. We purchased a lot of portable plexi-glass windows to provide some separation for the Clerk from people in the courtroom. We already have glass at the front counters. Our common areas are being cleaned. We insist on people wearing masks and maintaining a six foot distance from others.

Mr. Brophy stated the Treasurer’s Office is up and running. The tax receipts are coming in at a good pace. It is hard to do a comparison because the second distribution this year went out one week short of last year. Last year we sent out $768 million and today we are sending out $522 million. The first distribution was up versus last year. I have received an average of 32.5% of the total levy for school districts and some has high as 39%. I believe they should all be fine as far as making debt payments and regular expenses.

Mr. Blackburn stated all of the Auditor’s staff are back working in the office. There are a few mandated audits that will not be done in person; the Landfill audit, the fixed inventory audit and the assets of the county for the different federal programs will be done remotely. Details of the fraud hotline were given. The risk of fraud is going up and government is number two in line only behind the banking sector. I have received a number of requests for COVID expenses, vendors and checks paid; I wanted to remind you the checkbook is on-line. A Memo regarding the CARES funding is also attached.

Mr. Palmer stated on behalf of the Walsh family I would like to thank everyone who has offered their thoughts and prayers. It is a very difficult time for the family. We continue to meet twice a week with many of the people on this call as a clearing house for information sharing. Our HR Department, with the guidance and support from the Health Department put out guidance on the COVID. We are encouraging people to follow social distancing, wear masks and wash hands. Everyone says we know that, but people don’t do it. We are reminding people when they walk through the public spaces of the building to wear masks. It is a guide and we try to follow it. We have offered the Executive branch guidance on telework as we still have some people working remotely. We are learning a lot from this experience and it has been documented. If we have something similar in the future we have additional best practices. The Executive branch has had people working throughout; a number of people worked remotely and we have brought some of them back. We have had to adjust and we are giving some flexibility to different departments based on medical needs of employees and/or spacing in the offices. Regarding the social disturbances, we have been using common sense about sending people out on the street. We continue to do our work while not endangering employees if there is risk. We would rather delay a service than have an employee put at risk. We have used very prudent, sensible practices. The County Building had one damaged window. We are working to get that repaired, but there was a delay due to the number of broken windows. We are working very closely with the County Board leadership on the CARES money. There is a meeting tomorrow. There will be a formal process for departments and elected officials to submit additional requests so we can do this in the most responsible, accountable way.

Ms. Novak stated we have had staff in the office since March when COVID began. Currently, 80% of our staff are working, with rotating hours. Midwest Office is working with us on separating cubicles with plexi-glass. This is not a big time for us to have public foot traffic. Appeal time is around the corner and that will change how we will handle face to face appeals on assessments. I expect to have many of them. I am told by Mr. Brent Hassert that SB685 is sitting on the Governor’s desk and should be signed at any time. Once that is signed we intend to do a mailing so our seniors and disabled know they need do nothing this year. We continue to keep up with the Recorder’s Office. Everything is on schedule with regard to the tax cycle. We are working with Ms. Howard on the budget. I will be working with Mr. Harris and Mrs. Johannsen to give them estimates as to where our assessed values are going to be so they can work on levies. I don’t anticipate opening to the public until the end of June. We continue to meet with our assessors via WebEx every two weeks and everything seems to be going very smoothly.

Mrs. Tatroe stated as the Courts open more, we have brought more employees back into the office. We are trying to strike a prudent balance between allowing people to work at home when they can and bringing them in. Having laptops and the case management system, allows people to work from home significantly more than if we had not had that system. We appreciate that County Board financed it. It was providence it came when it did and we had the laptops we needed. We are adding extensions to the secretaries’ cubicles. We have arranged additional sanitation, once a week, of the offices and require everyone to wear face masks if they are outside of their cubicles or offices. We have placed hand sanitizer everywhere and antiseptic sprays to clean as much as possible. We have posted a tremendous amount of reminder signage as to social distancing, not to gather in crowds and wash their hands.

Mr. Dubois stated the department has maintained normal business operations, with a few exceptions. We have combined limited in office employees and employees working remotely with field work. On June 1st we began a phased approach for staff to return to office. It includes the return of additional employees and allowing limited public access for permit related activities. We continue to provide business with the very effective use of our web portal, allowing for work to be done remotely. We are following the guidelines from HR, Health Department, State, IDPH and CDC regarding masks and social distancing. Since March 23rd we have received over 800 building permit applications, issued over 400 building permits and performed over 1,200 inspections. Resource Recovery has been working on the RNG plant design pipe line off-taker agreements. They also have other IEPA delegated activities. We have done 90 unpermitted site inspections and 38 permitted site inspections. Community Development continues to work with the COC, EMA and Health Department on alternative housing for those affected by COVID-19. There is continued work with the CARES Act funding that comes to different programs we administer. Our Code Division has opened 225 cases and closed 121 cases. We monitor the current circumstances daily and we will refrain from some field and have advised our staff to be observant. If they feel uncomfortable or unsafe at any time to refrain from inspections in the field and to talk with the manager who can revaluate and reassess. We are implementing a return to office plan, it is not a return to work because all of our staff has been working.

Mr. Mike Shay stated the ICT staff, with a few exceptions have all returned to location. During COVID we have been working on WebEx and getting work from home instituted. We are looking at things we can do to better prepare us for telework. If there was another work from home situation, there are things could do to be better prepared. We will work with the CARES Committee to outline those. The case management system is up and running. The Motorola Karpel interface is operating and the State’s Attorney’s Office will mandate it for all law enforcements agencies in the next couple of months; a number of agencies are already using it. It makes the transmission of data from the law enforcement to the State’s Attorney’s Office more efficient. The ERP is on-going. We have experienced some delays because of COVID. We will need to discuss those with the CARES Committee and others. We still anticipate going live for all functions for FY2021. The budget portion will go live on Monday. They will be switching some services over to managed services. The payroll project kicks off today with a meeting with the project manager and vendor. We are physically installing equipment in the courthouse. We have a large group from CDW onsite helping us with that. During the storms in May, our phone system was severely damaged, as well as a number of other things. All of the phone system equipment has been replaced and operating, we did not see a significant interruption in operations. We have an overhead link between here and the EMCO Building, one end of the link on the EMCO penthouse was torn off. We are waiting on quotes to replace the backup link. We still have AT&T fiber connection issues that has not been fully resolved, but is in progress.

Ms. Summers stated we are following all our protocol. None of our employees have tested COVID positive. The three people showing symptoms were tested and were all negative. We will continue to do what we are doing. We still having employees work from home. It is working well and has not interfered with getting things done.

Mr. Ronaldson stated not much has changed at the DOT since last month. All services remain provided. There is approximately one-third occupancy at the building because our field engineers are out on the job. Our permit and project managers are working remotely. I have two zones of maintenance with staggered shifts. All of our construction projects remain in full force; with the exception of Briggs Street north of I-80. We have had a two month delay because Nicor has been unable to get into the houses to make final connections due to COVID. We are hoping we can work with the contractor to get back in and make up some time.

Mr. Harold Damron submitted a written report and it is attached. We continue to distribute PPE to a host of public safety agencies and long term facilities, in a joint effort with the Health Department and Silver Cross EMS system. We have personnel handling the receipt, inventory tracking, distribution and delivery into those locations. We have distributed approximately 650,000 PPE pieces to those entities. Eventually, we will phase that out and get to these organizations back into the regular supply chain. We are under the fourth consecutive COVID disaster proclamation by the Governor. Earlier this week the Governor included Will County in a separate disaster proclamation due to the civil disturbance issues happening across the state.

Ms. Susan Flessner submitted a written report and it is attached.

Ms. McDowell stated we have seen a flattening of the curve with regard to the development and prevalence of any new positive cases. We have six positive residents on our dedicated COVID unit. All six of them were asymptomatic, meaning no symptoms, but they are testing positive. Twelve residents have converted to a negative status and we have no residents in the hospital with COVID related issues. We have one positive employee in quarantine but doing well at home. We have had no new resident cases since May 21st, approximately two weeks ago. We have had no new staff cases since May 16th, three weeks ago. The most pressing issue for us are the emergency rules issued by the IDPH and the Governor mandating COVID testing compliance in all long term facilities. The testing has to be done on all residents and staff. We have been busy developing our plan and how to implement it. Today is day two of testing all residents and staff. The requirement is we have to obtain a baseline for everybody. This called a point prevalent survey that involves PCR testing of everybody. Our biggest issue has been procurement of the actual testing kits in order to get this completed. We have approximately 210 staff and 140 residents and we need to test everybody. The baseline is a snap shot in time of where everybody is currently. Once we test residents and staff we must continue to test staff every week. The issue is making sure we have the test kits to do that. The IDPH provided test kits to do the overall baseline testing. However, it will be our responsibility going forward to provide those. We have been able to send those to the IDPH test lab in Chicago to get results within 48 to 72 hours. One issue we encountered has been the availability and supply of PPE. Testing this many people on an on-going basis will deplete our supplies very rapidly. This is not specific just to Sunny Hill, it is nationwide. Staff will be tested weekly, but we will not be testing our residents weekly. We will just be getting the baseline on the residents. There is quite a bit more going on in the long term care sector and I will include that in an e-mail.

Dr. Burke gave a brief update of COVID on substance use. Several treatment agencies in Will County were not taking patients because of COVID. Stepping Stones and Brandon House are accepting patients, but their capacity was cut in third. We see people relapsing because of the inability to get treatment and the impact of virtual treatment being rendered. Outpatient treatment has gone to a virtual capacity versus in-person meetings. COVID is the direct opposite of the treatment you want to render to a behavioral health patient. We are starting to work in the motels where folks were relocated. The funding has run out and we are now dealing with where do people go. The treatment homes asked people to leave and they had to be rehoused. I have a fund to support people looking for treatment for a short period of time. I am not able to keep someone in a hotel. I want to make the Board aware that we have taken steps back when it comes to the opioid epidemic and behavioral health in general. This was not anticipated nor was it avoidable, but we have work to do as we move forward. I am going to be working closely with the housing folks to make sure we can find the funding to keep people in a safe place. We started the Rapid Deployment group that will get naloxone to the high risk people in the hotels, tent city and locations in Joliet that are at high risk. We are responding through my grant, but there has been no additional CARES money that has been allocated toward this. The non-profits in the area have suffered and we should be aware of it.

Mr. Marzano stated 9-1-1 is beginning to phase staff back into the office. We expect to be completely back to normal in terms of staff and office hours no later than the end of the month. We are continuing to process information as it is received from the Health Department and our surrounding 9-1-1 systems with respect to COVID positive information to protect and inform our emergency responders. We are lending additional resources to stay on top of the civil disturbance issues. We are exchanging information with surrounding 9-1-1 systems and law enforcement authorities to make sure we are prepared to support the responders having to deal with the front line issues. We are working on items with respect to potential CARES funding and working through the challenges presented.

Mrs. Traynere stated I have a number of questions. Who is getting the vote by mail applications? Mr. Pelkie stated it was anyone who voted in 2018, 2019 or 2020. Could he clarify that? I reached out to Ms. McDowell last week about the N95 masks. PPE is hard to come by and I have a source with over 1 million of them. I appreciate Mr. Damron doing everything he can to take care of our departments, but there may be people or organizations within the County in need of these resources and I assume they contact the Health Department. These masks are available locally. Are the permit numbers comparable to numbers we have had in past years at this same time? I am disappointed Ms. Olenek is not on the call this morning. I understand she is busy, but I thought there would be a representative in case there were questions specific to the Health Department.

Mr. Pelkie replied it is anyone who voted in those elections, but there are additional people. It includes anyone who applied to obtain a vote by mail ballot who did not vote the ballot, are eligible to receive an application. It is anyone who voted in those elections because in order to vote you had to apply to vote and anyone who applied to vote but chose not to vote.

Mr. Dubois replied the numbers for building permits and inspections for the month of May; inspections performed in 2019 was 673 and 2020 was 594. Permits submitted in May 2019 were 471 and May 2020 were 454. The issuance is down a little more than the inspections, but considering everything that has been going on it is pretty good.

Ms. McDowell replied I appreciate the information you forwarded. I had our inventory person reach out and he clarified he does not have N-95 masks he only has procedural masks. The two items we are most in need of are N-95 masks because they are mandated and required in our COVID unit and gowns. We are looking to stockpile PPE because as we go into September and flu season, I want to make sure we are not in a similar situation we are currently. I am sure every nursing home in the county is trying to do the same.

Mr. Pelkie stated I wanted to clarify the definition of applied to vote. We are talking about registered voters who actually filled out an application for a ballot. At the polling place or early voting site, when you sign your name that is an application to receive a ballot. When you apply for a vote by mail ballot you fill out an application. We are not talking about people who just applied to registered to vote; we are talking about people who filled out an application for a ballot.

Mrs. Traynere stated people don’t realize that and that is why I wanted you to clarify what that means.

Mr. Palmer stated regarding the PPE issue, the County has purchased a larger quantity of masks. There are lots of sources and many times they were not what we needed because there are different qualities of masks. EMA has done a great job; they have the skills because they distribute things all the time in emergencies, as does the Health Department. In this case, the Health Department agreed to defer to EMA or allow EMA to take that on. They are not just serving county people; they have served 200 plus entities. The hope is to buy a significant quantity of PPE for distribution to all the county agencies, municipalities, nursing homes and other folks. Where there is a need we are going to try and meet it. The Health Department had the ability to obtain things, but the EMA has been carrying out the distribution.

Mr. Fricilone stated at our last meeting Ms. Staley Ferry reported and said there was no way she could handle a total vote by mail. That concerns me. You mentioned you are starting to get things together; but are we anticipating having all the precinct locations open? How are we going to do vote by mail if we are overwhelmed as Ms. Staley Ferry thought we might be? Since we put our plan into effect for the four installments, we are hearing there are issues with paying one- quarter. The banks are telling them they had to pay one-half or they would not accept payment and the on-line was not set up. Have those situations been rectified so people can pay a quarter of their payment.

Mr. Brophy replied banks are not able to take anything but the full installment. The Board’s action in May was too late to get those changes to the banks for the June installment. Taxpayers can do it on-line. We have instructions and those having problems will call. We will walk them through it or e-mail instructions; thousands have successfully applied payment in the smaller amount.

Mr. Fricilone asked do the banks have the information to tell people how they can go on-line and make the quarter payment?

Mr. Brophy answered yes, they have been told they cannot take the partial payment and to refer them to our office.

Mr. Pelkie stated when Ms. Staley Ferry spoke at the last Committee of the Whole, the concern was that the general assembly or Governor might mandate we mail a ballot out to every registered voted in Will County. That would be in excess of 450,000 ballots. The general assembly did not and instead required that we mail out a vote by mail application. We fully expect that to drive up the interest in vote by mail as well as COVID. We are preparing for and getting ready to process up to 125,000 vote by mail ballots. The high water mark for Will County is the 2018 general election which was 30,000 ballots and 27,000 returned. We are expecting a lot more than that. It will task our staff, but they are up to the task. We have purchased equipment to increase our printing capacity; adding election judges that will increase our capacity to assemble the vote by mail ballots, mail and process them when they are returned. We are getting a positive response from all of our polling places. Some had concerns about the pandemic and whether they want to continue. For those who do not want to continue, we will find an alternate polling place for them. We anticipate having all 245 polling places up and running on Election Day, in additional to all of our early voting locations.

Mr. Fricilone asked isn’t the Governor looking at making Election Day a school holiday so you could get back into the schools?

Mr. Pelkie replied the legislation makes it a school holiday and gives us flexibility with regard to schools. We can cover a lot of ground with one school. If a polling place is not interested because they are worried about COVID, if there is a school in the area that would be one of the first places we will look. Voters don’t like it when their polling places are changed. We try our best to keep them where they have been. The pandemic threw things up in the air. We had six or seven bail at the last minute in the primary election. We expect to lose a handful more in the general election.

Ms. Olenek stated I have been sending out my reports on Tuesdays and Thursdays. You would have received my most recent report yesterday. We are going to be submitting our large grant tomorrow for the $4.9 million. We are working through all the work we need to get done in order to bring these to the Board of Health this month as well as the County Board.

Mrs. Berkowicz asked Ms. Summers mentioned their previous protocol and the procedures they have. Could she provide the Board with those details? Several county coroners have made announcements regarding the impact on the community; in particular with suicide and drug overdoses. I have not seen anything from our Coroner. Has there been an increase and any impact on the data. I would suspect it would be similar to what the Kane and DuPage County Coroners are reporting.

Ms. Summers replied I gave a complete report at the last Committee of the Whole. We have a pending list and we don’t know until we get back toxicology on these cases, which can take up to six weeks to get back. We have 15 pending possible OD with more just added. We have put out the numbers. As soon as we get the results on those they will be put out. The staff member who keeps track of that information is working remotely. We had a huge increase in cremation permits and our priority is to get our decedents taken care of first and foremost. When this started we put together a protocol; we treat every call into the field as a suspected case of COVID just as we would any other disease. They wear gloves, goggles, gowns, booties, N-95 masks which are carried in their field bag. We double bag the decedents’ body and transport back to the morgue. At autopsies it is gowns, gloves, goggles and booties, N-95 masks as well as the face shield. When we complete our examination at the morgue we use appropriate PPE and minimizing the number of people who come in contact with the body. At times there are police that come in and take pictures, now if we can avoid doing that, we do. Since we don’t take jurisdiction of COVID cases diagnosed in a hospital or long term facility where there has been a death, we send them directly to a funeral home. That prevents four more moves and it helps to prevent exposure to anyone else. That has worked out well and the hospitals have cooperated with us.

We communicate with funeral homes and let them know if these are confirmed or suspected COVID cases. We obtained a temporary morgue. The pathologist and pathology tech protocol is that for any suspected COVID cases we are doing and keeping nasal swabs. We only have a few of those because we are not taking jurisdiction over any COVID cases. When a person dies at the hospital most have been tested and we know if they are positive or negative.

Dr. Burke stated at the Public Health & Safety Committee I submitted a report on the impact of COVID in the community over the last quarter. We have seen an increase in overdoses and overdose deaths. We have seen an uptick in overdoses, not ending in death, a relapse is as significant as an overdose death. The treatment agencies closed, treatment modalities changed and people are suffering. We launched a rapid response team to go into locations with a high number of active users to deliver naloxone that is the most effective way to keep people alive. We were funded for that. I have 10 recovery coaches working at all the agencies in Will County to continue contact with an individual in recovery to lessen the chances they will relapse. Our warm hand offs in the hospitals have stopped because of COVID. The State Public Health Department reported COVID is in direct conflict for someone with a substance use problem. Ms. Summers and I are in contact to manage what has been going on.

Ms. Cowan asked we voted to have a special meeting, could someone explain what will happen and a timeline?

Mrs. Tatroe replied I would encourage you to schedule a meeting as soon as possible because there is quite a bit of business that needs to be taken care of. The first thing is to hold a meeting where you will declare a vacancy. After the vacancy is declared you are required to notify the central committees of both political parties. There is no statutory time period as to when you could call a second meeting. If you called a special meeting for Monday, you could have on the agenda to declare the vacancy and you could add an appointment, you could not vote on it that day because you have to notify the parties. You could continue the meeting to the next day, since this is rather urgent and make the appointment then. Otherwise, you would have to call a second special meeting and give two days’ notice. At the next meeting you would take nominations to appoint an acting County Executive.

Mrs. Parker asked Mr. Pelkie; it sounds like we are going back one election cycle. Is there anything that prevents us from going pack two cycles, to 2016? Secondly, Will County’s policy is to give notification or information to first responders prior to them going to a household with a possible infectious disease. I know there are divisions such as Land Use, the Coroner’s Office that have to enter houses, is there something we can do to give those departments the same consideration.

Mr. Dubois responded one of the precautions is we do not do inspections in an occupied, residential structure. To accommodate those that are time sensitive, we have done virtual inspections through video or photographs. We have not discussed notification to our office of COVID positives. That would be an issue that would have to be taken up by the Executive’s Office or the State’s Attorney’s Office because it is above us on the legality of such notice.

Ms. Olenek stated I am in agreement with Mr. Dubois regarding the need for legal counsel. Disclosing this type of information to anyone other than agency use or on a specific need to know is not typical. Some counties are not sharing this information with 9-1-1 for their first responders. The Lake County Sheriff was suing the Lake County Health Department for not sharing the information. This is protected health information. We went through a couple of hoops to assure that what we provide to the 9-1-1 center is lawful. I would have to ask legal, but I don’t think we can go further than that. Our field staff is going into the field and having contact with individuals. They are trying to limit their contact, they are social distancing and wearing masks. We don’t tell them of these cases either. I would need to have a discussion with the State’s Attorney’s Office.

Mrs. Summers stated we are recommending every home you walk into be treated as though there is COVID, HIV or hepatitis. That is just best practice and that is what everyone is using.

Mr. Pelkie stated the legislation only requires going back to the 2018 general election. Going back further creates further complications with creating the database. We are going back and complying with the legislation.

Ms. Fritz asked I asked at the last meeting for information from the Sheriff or State’s Attorney about their enforcement or non-enforcement of business closures. The Sheriff said he would be putting something out. If it was in our e- mail I missed it. I am looking for confirmation of whether that came out or not. My second question can a link be sent out to the property tax payment information? I am looking for something I can send to constituents because I am still getting phone calls. Who is handling Mr. Van Essen’s work load and how is it going? How are we going to handle finding a replacement for Mr. Van Essen?

Mrs. Adams replied I have not seen an update from the Sheriff’s Office since our last update. Regarding the property tax link, it is on our home page, it gives the dates and tells residents they can pay half. There is also information on the Treasurer’s website.

Mr. Brophy stated I e-mail the instructions for taxpayers to go on line and make those payments. There are instructions on making the partial payment.

Mr. Palmer stated Mr. Van Essen just left on Friday. He was hired to help oversee some of the capital project, the consolidation of maintenance and other project.

His position is vacant at the moment. Mr. Tkac is continuing to do all the work he has been doing with the courthouse and he has a full load and more. We are utilizing another County management staff person to assist Mr. Tkac on an interim basis, but there is no official replacement of Mr. Van Essen. Our intent is to post for the position and find a qualified person to continue that work. We can have a discussion with County Board on the scope of work for the future. There is still lots of work to be done with the courthouse, capital projects and supervision of maintenance workers.

Mr. Fricilone added Mr. Van Essen set up all the protocols, spreadsheets, reporting, putting tickets in and that is all set up so Mr. Miglorini and his crew can just follow those programs for right now and we are good.

Mr. Palmer added there are still a number of projects on-going and Mr. Tkac cannot do all of them by himself. Mr. Tkac is the Deputy Chief of Staff and Mr. Van Essen was under Mr. Tkac’s supervision. Then Mr. Miglorini and the maintenance staff were under Mr. Van Essen’s supervision. There was a chain of control. We do have other projects, some may move quicker or slower. It is a management decision that needs to be made.

Mr. Tuminello thanked Mr. Harris, Ms. Hennessy and Ms. Howard for putting together the report he requested regarding financial discrepancies from 2019 to 2020 so we can start helping to plan. Regarding the Local Distribution Fund 33569 it looked like May 2019 was over $2 million and this May was only $1,063,000; that is a loss of nearly 50%, it is a big loss. It could be a function of when people paid their taxes because it was moved back. But we need to make sure we are going to get that money back. The sales tax, month over month; looks like we are down over 18% from the previous May. As a Board we need to make sure we are addressing this and making sure we are on the same page because there are going to have to be changes made. I want to be proactive and not reactive. I think this reports sums it up. Can you explain the 18% loss in sales taxes and the 49% LD funds; is it part of the shelter in place or the new norm.

Ms. Hennessy replied the amount of local distribution of income tax fluctuates from month to month. If you look at YTD for FY2019 we received $5.6 million; YTD for FY2020 is $4.8 million so the different is $850,000. It is hard to determine if last year in May was a makeup payment or if there was something else going on. We will do a little more research and see if this is tied to the delay in the state income tax payments.

Mr. Tuminello stated it appears we had over an 18% decline in month over month sales tax. I want to see if we are building a trend line that shows the County Board that our budget will have holes. I would rather know this sooner than later so we can make the necessary changes moving forward if there is going to be an issue.

Ms. Hennessy replied we have been using percentages to estimate what we think could be a drop in sales tax. We won’t see actual numbers March sales tax numbers until June. If we go another month or two we will have numbers to project through the end of the year a little more accurately. Certainly that information will be used to make some changes for this year and possibly the FY2021 budget.

Mr. Tuminello asked are you saying when we look at the numbers in May that is actually the receipts from February?

Ms. Hennessy replied yes.

Mr. Tuminello stated I was thinking we are down 18% with the shelter in place. This means we had a loss of 18% in February. Once March, April and May monies are received it could potentially be disastrous.

Ms. Ventura posted a question in the chat box. In normal years when we send out the sample ballots how is it selected who we send to; is it all registered voters? Could we also send the application to vote by mail or a letter assuming these are sent in the appropriate timeline?

Mr. Pelkie replied the Voter Information Guides are sent to every household with a registered voter. There are 450,000 registered voters in Will County and around 210,000 Voter Guides are sent. They are personalized with the voter information to that particular household. The goal is to get the Voter Information Guides out prior to or at the beginning of Early Voting so people have enough time to research and decide who to vote for. Every two years the County Clerk is mandated to mail voter registration cards to every registered voter. Ms. Staley Ferry streamlined the voter information part and made it smaller to reduce the mailing costs. We were looking forward to a significant savings. Then came the mandate to send out the vote by mail applications. Those have to go out by August 1st. Later this month or early next month we are going to combine the mass mailing of voter registration cards and the application for vote by mail into one mailing to avoid two very costly mailings. Combining those two mailings should save in excess of $110,000 in postage alone. There will be prep work done by our mailing house.

Mrs. Traynere asked are there going to be drop off spots for people who are not confident about the USPS.

Mr. Pelkie replied right now, our office is a drop off location. I need to look at the legislation to determine whether Early Voting locations could be a drop off location for the vote by mail ballots. We are also looking at what the security issues might be. Our office is open 8:30 to 4:30 with expanded hours during the weeks prior to the election. Ms. Staley Ferry is concerned about the security with allowing people to drop their ballots into boxes. We have seen what has happened with the instability on streets and I don’t know if anybody really trusts that for the ballots. We want to make it as easy as possible for people to return those ballots, we will continue to look at options.

Mrs. Dollinger stated at the last Legislative meeting someone spoke about the vote from home. Will we have any type of tracking on the ballots so people can see; if they dropped it off at a site the voter would know the ballot got to the Clerk’s Office?

Mr. Pelkie responded we have tracking of the ballots right now. People can go on- line and track when the ballot is mailed, when it is received back in the Clerk’s Office. We put that information up when the ballots begin to come in.

Mr. Balich asked if we are going to automatically mail ballots out; how will we know the people still live there? Is there a way to make sure the ballots are not sent to an empty house or to people who are new to the house? I think there will be a lot of voter fraud.

Mr. Pelkie replied we are not mailing a ballot to every registered voter in Will County. We are mailing an application to a large segment of the voters in Will County, per the legislation. They are getting the applications, they can complete and return it to our office, they can complete the on-line application or come to our office. The vote by mail ballot can only be sent after the application is completed and received by our office. It is sent by the mail to the address requested by that voter. Vote by mail ballots are returned in sealed envelopes and those sealed envelopes require the voter’s signature. Our election staff compares the signature on the ballot envelope with the signature in our database. These are the same secure measures in place at a polling place or at an early voting site. It is the signature that determines whether or not a ballot will be counted. The State created a procedure to examine those signatures. If a ballot comes back and a team of election judge determines the signatures don’t match there is a process where the voter is notified and they can provide the information needed to get their vote counted. It is safe and secure. We are doing everything we can to make sure we are protecting the integrity of the election.

Mr. Balich asked will third party people be collecting applications for vote by mail?

Mr. Pelkie replied the Clerk’s office will not mail an application to a third party. People are supposed to fill out their own applications and ballots.

Mr. Balich asked have the penalties for voter fraud increased?

Mr. Pelkie responded the legislation that requires us to mail out the applications, provides no additional provisions with regard to voter fraud.

Mr. Balich stated I am concerned about the safety but you seem to have a handle on it.

Mr. Pelkie stated this is not new; the only new thing is the volume we anticipate. We anticipated a lot of interest because of COVID, now we estimate we will get even more requests from people for vote by mail. Again, we are not mailing a ballot to everyone, we are mailing an application to everybody.

Mr. Balich asked could a person vote at the polling place on Election Day if they returned the application?

Mr. Pelkie responded if someone received a ballot by mail and did not vote the ballot and decided to vote in person they could do that. There are two options; they could surrender the unvoted ballot to the Election Judges and would be given a full ballot. If they don’t have the ballot or don’t surrender it to the Election Judges, they could vote a provisional ballot. If we received a ballot in the mail and the provisional ballot we would have an interest in what they were attempting to do.

Mrs. Ogalla asked when Sunny Hill would begin allowing visits from family members?

Ms. McDowell replied there are five phases of reopening. A lot of families are calling because they think the opening of nursing homes coincides with the five phase opening. However, the nursing homes follow a different strategy, the guidelines are much more stringent. There are a lot of very definitive prerequisites to be met for nursing homes to open. We have been closed to the public since March and there has been no visitation. The first step is the baseline testing we are doing. All nursing homes have to complete this survey and check the status of all residents and staff before they can even move into the phase one. That is in progress here and will be completed this afternoon. We anticipating a turnaround time of 48 to 72 hours. We have a backup plan in regards to strategic staffing in the event we find a lot of our staff is positive. I am not anticipating that as we are not seeing the development of new cases. I would expect to see more positive cases with our patients if we had a lot of positive staff. I will not know until I get the results back. The next step would be to have no new positive cases within the facility for a period of 28 days. There is a requirement to have an adequate amount of PPE, adequate staffing, not a lot of COVID in the community and our nearby hospitals would be able to provide us with services if needed. There are a number of milestones we have to attain in order to be at a point where we could even consider reopening. Even then, the department has not shared with us what that will actually look like. One of the biggest struggles for nursing home is being able to complete the testing. We were lucky enough to have a contact at the IDPH and they were able to overnight us the 350 test kits we needed. Many nursing homes will lag behind because they either don’t have the test kits or the PPE supplies in order to execute it once they get them. There are a lot of unanswered questions. The AHCA and the Leading Age are both trying to get clarification on all the unanswered questions. As of the weekend we will have fulfilled the first milestone to get us moving in the right direction. We continue to work with the Will County Health Department and IDPH because they are the ones giving the guidance in terms of how to execute this. As I have found out over the last few months, the guidelines change daily. When I do my weekly calls with the families I will be keeping everyone abreast of that. Everyone is anxious to curtail the window and video visits and actually see their loved ones in person. We are working toward that goal.

Mrs. Ogalla stated I understand all the COVID requirements, it is just hard not being able to be there in person.

Ms. McDowell stated we understand we have COVID but because this has gone on for such a long time you have issues with depression, heightened anxiety and you wonder which is worse. The longer this goes on the more difficult it becomes for the residents and their families.

Department Head Updates for Committee of the Whole June 4, 2020

(Updates)

3. Record Keeping for COVID-19 Related Expenses

(Discussion)

Mr. Palmer stated the concern raised is a process going forward and how the Board would like to handle this. We have asked departments to tag stuff COVID related or may be eligible. We have set it up in the New World system. Going forward when we have to make decisions to spend money on certain items; some may be clearly COVID, but who will approve that. It is not like this money is in the individual department budgets. All of this has to meet regulations and if it doesn’t we have to pay it back. Having guidelines is important. Someone has to be a clearing house for this.

Mr. Harris stated that will be a discussion at the meeting tomorrow.

Mr. Palmer stated as an example cleaning of buildings. Because we could not wait, the Executive’s Office authorized some of that. A long time ago we cleaned Sunny Hill. In the County Clerk’s Office it was not a huge expense but it was something we had to do. We don’t want expenses to be made and then someone ask if it was the best use. We have money, but we want to do it in a responsible, disciplined way.

Ms. Hennessy stated we set up the COVID project code for departments that had to make immediate purchases. We had to buy masks, hand sanitizer, cleaning supplies and there is no question those are COVID related. One of the tasks for the Ad-Hoc Committee is to determine how to coordinate what the County needs to do going forward. If we need to support the work from home environment that will involve departments letting us know what type of equipment they need and IT department letting us know what type of licensing we need. That needs to be coordinated. There needs to be a determination of who will review those items or preapprove them. We have the money, but I don’t think anyone wants to tell departments to go out and buy whatever they want. We have some ideas about how to coordinate that and hopefully, we will have that discussion tomorrow.

IV. OTHER NEW BUSINESS

V. PUBLIC COMMENT

Mrs. Adams read an e-mail from Mr. Bruce Friefeld expressing condolences to the Walsh Family.

Mrs. Adams stated I sent an e-mail with information on the NACo appointments. They are due by June 14th. I received a few responses. A few indicated you had already submitted your application. Would you send an e-mail and let me know which committee you applied for. If you have not, I can complete the paperwork and send it to ISACo. We would like to get a handle on what committees people are looking for. We want to make sure we have members on all the committees and not a bunch of people on one committee. If we don't know which committee you have applied for, we can't help you in September when we check on it. We are being proactive. If you need the link to fill out the on-line form, let me know. If you have any questions let me know.

VI. CHAIRMAN'S REPORT/ANNOUNCEMENTS

VII. EXECUTIVE SESSION

VIII. ADJOURN

https://willcountyil.iqm2.com/Citizens/FileOpen.aspx?Type=15&ID=3784&Inline=True