Will County Finance Committee Met March 2.
Here is the minutes provided by the committee:
I. CALL TO ORDER
II. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE TO THE FLAG
Mrs. Ogalla led the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag.
III. ROLL CALL
Chair Kenneth E. Harris called the meeting to order at 11:02 AM
| Attendee Name | Title | Status | Arrived |
| Kenneth E. Harris | Chair | Present | |
| Margaret Tyson | Vice Chair | Present | |
| Mike Fricilone | Member | Present | |
| Tyler Marcum | Member | Present | |
| Jim Moustis | Member | Present | |
| Judy Ogalla | Member | Present | |
| Frankie Pretzel | Member | Present | |
| Jacqueline Traynere | Member | Present | |
| Rachel Ventura | Member | Present |
Present from State's Attorney's Office: M. Tatroe.
IV. APPROVAL OF MINUTES
1. WC Finance Committee - Regular Meeting - Feb 2, 2021 11:00 AM
| RESULT: APPROVED [UNANIMOUS]
MOVER: Rachel Ventura, Member SECONDER: Mike Fricilone, Member AYES: Harris, Tyson, Fricilone, Marcum, Moustis, Ogalla, Pretzel, Traynere, Ventura |
VI. NEW BUSINESS
1. Appropriating Funds in the 9-1-1 Department Budget for Reimbursement for COVID-19 Related Expenses - Overtime
(Discussion)
Mr. Harris stated this item has been discussed at the CARES Committee, but never approved. It is coming through the Finance Committee as we moved some money over to the corporate fund to address these situations.
Mr. Fricilone asked were these the items we approved in the spreadsheet?
Mr. Harris replied we tried to get these approved at the last Finance Committee meeting, but they went back to the CARES Committee. Then the CARES Committee sent it back to the Executive Committee. Now they are coming before the Finance Committee to get appropriated and to give authorization to address these issues.
Mr. Fricilone stated the agenda does not have any backup on it at all. There are no numbers.
Ms. Howard stated these are the requests that had come forth. They were new requests, sent to the Bronner Group to be reviewed for CARES funds eligibility. They were presented last month, then brought to the CARES Committee last month and are being presented here today. Mrs. Adams should have the backup, but I can walk through what the requests are, if that would be helpful. The 9-1-1 overtime request, they are requesting overtime reimbursement for their staff who spent time doing COVID related work outside their normal day-to-day duties. The amount is $61,740.00.
Mrs. Ogalla stated you said this was for work done outside of their normal duties; what does that mean?
Ms. Howard replied according to the request, it was COVID related work that was done outside of their day-to-day responsibilities.
Mr. Fricilone asked is that what we give them $1 million for?
Ms. Howard replied we gave $1 million each to WESCOM, LCC and 9-1-1. That was not related to overtime.
Mr. Fricilone asked what was it for? I thought it was to take care of their expenses and this would have been one.
Mr. Palmer replied that was for the dispatch centers, this is for the ETSB. Mr. Fricilone asked does ETSB have overtime of $60,000?
Mr. Palmer stated they did a lot to support the police, fire and the dispatch centers as far as the technology that supports it.
Mrs. Ogalla asked isn’t that part of their regular job?
Mr. Palmer responded this is for overtime. If they can’t get it done within the regular hours, I guess that it is what they are paying overtime for.
Ms. Howard stated we have had some other requests come forward. These are the last requests that were submitted to the Bronner Group. That is why they are being presented here today. These are all new requests.
Mr. Moustis asked what is in their current budget? Are they going to have a shortfall in their budget? That is what I am looking at. If this has created a real shortfall in their personnel budget, then that is what we take a look at. They may have already budgeted in some overtime. Maybe they are going to exceed their budgeted payroll by $60,000; but I would like to see what is in their budget and whether it has created a shortfall for them. I assume they have some overtime regularly anyway.
Ms. Mueller stated I have the request Mr. Anthony Marzano sent to the Executive’s Office. I thought it was given to someone else besides me to add to the agenda. I will get that to staff right away. The purpose for the data entry person was in March 2020, 9-1-1 began the effort to coordinate entering COVID
19 case data into the countywide computer aided dispatch system. Doing that would give the first responders the information they needed. Data entry of the information came from a list provided by the Will County Health Department in the form of a spreadsheet that was transmitted daily. They entered the information into the CADs system. I hope that gives you an idea of what that extra data entry going on for this reimbursement.
Mrs. Ogalla stated that does not really give us a great answer. I know the information they were entering from the Health Department was so first responders would know if someone in the house had COVID. That does not prove there was additional work. I assume most departments budget in overtime, because you will always have some overtime throughout the year. Did they exceed the overtime in their budget and are they short this amount?
Mr. Fricilone stated granted we have a lot of meetings and at the CARES meetings we discussed this over and over, but there is no way for me to refresh my brain when the first six items have nothing but a title and there is nothing behind them. The only thing you see is County Board Admin and miscellaneous Will County on each one of these items, it is hard to approve something when you don’t remember what it is. We all can’t remember every single thing we talked about at the last meeting or two weeks ago. I hate approving things when all I see 9-1-1 Department Overtime Request or 9-1-1 Center Barriers or just a title with no information.
Mr. Harris stated I agree. This is the committee to address these. If we need to bring these back with more detail so we can make a decision, we can. As Ms. Howard said, these are new requests that were hanging out at the end of December or some that have recently come in. We definitely need more backup to look at so we came make the proper decision.
Mr. Fricilone continued we can break these out. I am sure the barriers are so people are not breathing on each other. If it is a $5,000 expense we can get it done, but we should still have the backup on there.
Mr. Palmer stated these things have been tossed back and forth. They went to the Ad-Hoc Committee but there was no discussion and they just came to the Board. The county corporate fund is basically where we are paying this money out from. I don’t believe Mrs. Adams received any backup for these, which may have just been an oversight. To Mr. Fricilone’s point, we can pay some of this out, if the Board agrees, but we have to have the documentation. Some of these are pretty minor expenses. I think the handcarts and licenses are just a few thousand dollars each. For the other items we need to get the backup and invite the people to present what this is, especially since they are new requests. There was a whole slew of things Bronner had approved last year that we are still paying out. I heard Board Members say if Bronner approved these items and the department incurred the cost, we are going to pay those; but these are new requests. Board Members need to have the information and an explanation so you can decide. This is all coming out of the County Board contingency fund that was defederalized.
Mrs. Adams stated I have not received any backup on any of these. You may want to consider moving this to the Executive Committee next Thursday and we can get the backup for each of these. You could hear it at Executive and still move it forward for this month instead of pushing it over to April.
Ms. Tyson stated based on what Mrs. Adams and Mr. Palmer said, I agree we need some documentation to go with these items. These are just simple line items. If we were audited, we would be in trouble because we have no documentation. I agree we need some type of documentation before we can pay something. Even if it is only $5,000; it is not petty cash.
Ms. Howard stated rather than bring these back next month, we can attach the backup so you have the information you need, it is spelled out and you can see the dollar amounts so we can get this approved, if you approve them. They have all been reviewed by Bronner and all of them, with the exception of two items have been deemed eligible under the CRF funds. The two deemed not eligible are items #4 and #7. I will make sure the County Board staff has the backup so we can move these requests forward. I believe the total of all the requests was $627,000, when we brought these forward for the first time in February.
Mr. Moustis stated Ms. Howard answered part of my question that was, would these qualify under the Treasury guidelines for the CARES money. She said all but two, thank you for that information. We all agree we would like to see more information. I would like to see if some of these items were actually budgeted, especially the ETSB. In my opinion this should not say 9-1-1 they are the ETSB Board, because it is confusing when you say 9-1-1. Certainly, more information of whether these would have been eligible under the Treasury guidelines would be helpful. Even though we defederalized the money, it was not to get around the guidelines, it was because we were running out of time. For example; the County Clerk had no training budget? Is it a CARES qualified item? I think we need to look at that harder, but certainly we need more information. The way the CARES money worked; Bronner would just come back and say these are the requests form the departments. They did not necessarily itemize it, they just said whether they were qualified or not. The CARES Committee did not get into the nitty-gritty of the department requests. I want to point out to Mr. Fricilone that is why we may not have a recollection because we just saw it as a department request and it was not broken down for us. That is why we need the information.
Mr. Pretzel asked is it common practice for a department come to us after they have already spent the money and ask for it? What if we said no, hasn’t the money already been spent?
Mr. Harris stated some of these requests are reimbursements under the CARES Fund. I would imagine the overtime has been worked, expended and they are trying to get reimbursed for those costs to address other issues. As far as common practice, they should get prior approval under our procurement rules or other rules, before it is expended.
Mr. Pretzel asked do we have a choice? Do we have to reimburse them for this?
Mr. Harris replied we definitely have a choice. Once we get the documentation we can review it, look into it and see if it is appropriate to reimburse. I imagine they are waiting for approval on the handcarts and Zoom licenses from the State’s Attorney’s office.
Mr. Moustis added occasionally, departments can over spend their budgets; in other words spend money that has not been budgeted, but we usually take care of those minor things at the end of the year because we just have to shift money around. They are not allowed to overspend their budgets, if that was your question.
Ms. Ventura stated Ms. Howard said two items did not qualify. I don’t know if the Committee wants to move this forward with the documentation, but I would imagine those need to be removed. If there are things in there that do not qualify, like training, they need to specify how this training is COVID training, something they did differently that was needed or that needs to be removed. If that is a normal budget item, then to Mr. Moustis’ point, I agree. This is not to skirt the requirements of the federal government. I am not comfortable moving forward things that do not qualify. I would be okay moving forward things that do qualify, but we need to make sure all the documentation is there for the meeting, otherwise, it will be sent back to Committee.
Mrs. Tatroe stated I wanted to address the State’s Attorney’s request and say yes, we have already purchased them because we got these under the last budget year. We submitted for reimbursement to Bronner and they were approved by Bronner, but by the time we got the invoices, the money had been moved to the corporate fund. It was a timing issue where we did not get reimbursed under the normal COVID process. The handcarts were purchased for secretaries who are working at home and have to take a large number of files home to do their work. The Zoom licenses are needed because for some of our civil court calls in particular, the State’s Attorney has to open those court calls with Zoom, so we needed licenses to function. These were approved under the normal Bronner procedure it was just the money was moved before they could get paid.
Mr. Moustis stated those are different, they were approved, they are not new requests. I am fine with moving that forward, because we already approved it. It is just the money got moved. There were timing issues with waiting on invoices or backup information to let the payments go forward. I would approve those, because Bronner approved it. If that is the case with some of these, like the handcarts and Zoom for the State’s Attorney’s Office, I think we should move forward with those. I can make that motion and get a second and we can have the discussion.
Ms. Staley Ferry stated for the County Clerk Training and Seminars, we submitted a request to Bronner Group for on-line training of our Election Judges since we could not have large groups to train in person. The original request was for $53,000, the actual training and implementation was $19,000 and that is what we actually put through and that was approved. The other portion was an on-going cost for them to continue maintenance for the on-line training. The actual creation and implementation of the on-line training for our Election Judges is what we put through and was approved by Bronner Group. We sent the documentation to the Finance Department that we had from Bronner so I am not sure exactly if that is what #4 is. I would assume that is what it is. I wanted to make sure to speak up and say something about this. The $19,000 was approved by Bronner for on line Election Judge training.
Mr. Ronaldson stated I won’t go into all the details because it might be a longer discussion. Back in May we submitted the acceleration costs scenario because of COVID, the stay at home shutdown and issues with Nicor. In July we submitted the actual documentation. Bronner has been looking at it and they asked for more information. It did not fit the guidelines they had for health and safety, but they thought it would get moved forward to a Committee for a hearing, but it has never gone anywhere. I am glad to see it is finally on an agenda. If it is taken off again, we don’t get our day in court. I have been trying to get this talked about for almost a year. Please let us make the claim, whether it is today or next week, and we will explain why we feel it is eligible.
Mrs. Ogalla stated whether they were approved or not, I still need to have documentation besides an agenda item with absolutely nothing attached. I would like to know what the amounts are. I would like to know if the ETSB Board overtime is part of their budget and if they are over their budget and the needs for that. The carts and licenses I understand the needs, but I have no idea, except for Mrs. Tatroe telling me but I could not prepare beforehand by reading that. The 9-1-1 barriers seem feasible, but we need documentation. I don’t think it is right for us to go ahead and approve things. I would make the motion to send them all forward to the Executive Committee for next week, but with supporting documentation and we can make the decision there. That is what I would like to see.
A motion was made by Mrs. Ogalla, seconded by Mr. Fricilone to move items #1 through #7 to the Executive Committee next week, with supporting documentation for discussion.
Mr. Palmer stated the comments that have been made are on point. It is important to clarify this isn’t the CARES money anymore; this is the defederalized money we still want to spend on COVID related things. I think it would answer everyone’s questions if we knew they budgeted or did the expense cause them to go over budget? Hence, we would be reimbursing them so they stay within their budget. Another question is; has the money already been spent or are they looking to get approval before they spend it? This is corporate contingency money. If it was CARES money it would still be in the Ad-Hoc Committee. This is corporate money so we have money, but if it is spent on these things, it is not available to be spent on other things. I think the question is whether it was budgeted and whether it pushes people over budget or in excess of their normal activities. If they could provide Board Members all of that, it would be easier to make decisions. If they have already spent it and you are not going to approve it, then they have to make it work within their existing budget which could cause problems for some folks. If they were under the belief that because Bronner approved it they could go ahead, it is giving them conflicting signals; go ahead and spend it but we are not going to fund it. If it has not been spent at all, then maybe they don’t do it. It would be a good idea, if we can get this to next week’s Executive Committee agenda we can move some of this through and be done with it.
Ms. Howard stated I wanted to clarify a statement I said previously, just so the Committee understands and nobody is confused; all of the requests have been reviewed and approved by Bronner except for the County Clerk training and seminars and the WCDOT project acceleration. All of these requests came in after the funds had been moved to the corporate fund, the defederalized funds. That is why they are being brought forward. We will have the support so these can move forward. It would be helpful if departments could be on to answer questions Committee members have. Also, most of these items are for reimbursement and have not been included in the current budget. We will have clarification on whether the dollars have been already spent for some of these items or not. I hope that makes it a little clearer for everyone.
Mr. Harris asked if the motion to move these items to Executive can include all of them or if they each need a separate motion?
Mrs. Tatroe replied if you are moving all of them to Executive, you can do that with one vote.
Ms. Ventura asked for clarification on the motion. Mrs. Ogalla made a motion for all of them, but it sounded like Mr. Fricilone wanted to edit those; is this for all seven.
Mr. Fricilone stated I said items #1 through #7.
Mrs. Ogalla added the motion included adding the document so we can make a decision at that time.
Mr. Harris stated these items are eligible under the CARES funds. We are trying to let everyone have their day in court. It went back to the Ad-Hoc Committee and back to Executive. We have documentation and hopefully when that gets in front of the Board, we will be ready to vote. For those department heads that need to give additional information, hopefully they will be ready. Today we are voting to move items #1 through #7 to the Executive Committee for further discussion and hopefully approval or a vote.
A motion was made by Mrs. Ogalla, seconded by Mr. Fricilone to move items #1 through #7 to the Executive Committee next week, with supporting documentation for discussion. All in favor. MOTION CARRIES.
| RESULT: REFERRED [UNANIMOUS] Next: 3/11/2021 10:00 AM TO: Will County Executive Committee
MOVER: Judy Ogalla, Member SECONDER: Mike Fricilone, Member AYES: Harris, Tyson, Fricilone, Marcum, Moustis, Ogalla, Pretzel, Traynere, Ventura |
(Discussion)
Discussion of this item took place during discussion of Item #1.
| RESULT: REFERRED [UNANIMOUS] Next: 3/11/2021 10:00 AM TO: Will County Executive Committee
MOVER: Judy Ogalla, Member SECONDER: Mike Fricilone, Member AYES: Harris, Tyson, Fricilone, Marcum, Moustis, Ogalla, Pretzel, Traynere, Ventura |
(Discussion)
Discussion of this item took place during discussion of Item #1.
| RESULT: REFERRED [UNANIMOUS] Next: 3/11/2021 10:00 AM TO: Will County Executive Committee
MOVER: Judy Ogalla, Member SECONDER: Mike Fricilone, Member AYES: Harris, Tyson, Fricilone, Marcum, Moustis, Ogalla, Pretzel, Traynere, Ventura |
(Discussion)
Discussion of this item took place during discussion of Item #1.
| RESULT: REFERRED [UNANIMOUS] Next: 3/11/2021 10:00 AM TO: Will County Executive Committee
MOVER: Judy Ogalla, Member SECONDER: Mike Fricilone, Member AYES: Harris, Tyson, Fricilone, Marcum, Moustis, Ogalla, Pretzel, Traynere, Ventura |
(Discussion)
Discussion of this item took place during discussion of Item #1.
| RESULT: REFERRED [UNANIMOUS] Next: 3/11/2021 10:00 AM TO: Will County Executive Committee
MOVER: Judy Ogalla, Member SECONDER: Mike Fricilone, Member AYES: Harris, Tyson, Fricilone, Marcum, Moustis, Ogalla, Pretzel, Traynere, Ventura |
Discussion of this item took place during discussion of Item #1.
| RESULT: REFERRED [UNANIMOUS] Next: 3/11/2021 10:00 AM TO: Will County Executive Committee
MOVER: Judy Ogalla, Member SECONDER: Mike Fricilone, Member AYES: Harris, Tyson, Fricilone, Marcum, Moustis, Ogalla, Pretzel, Traynere, Ventura |
Discussion of this item took place during discussion of Item #1.
| RESULT: REFERRED [UNANIMOUS] Next: 3/11/2021 10:00 AM TO: Will County Executive Committee
MOVER: Judy Ogalla, Member SECONDER: Mike Fricilone, Member AYES: Harris, Tyson, Fricilone, Marcum, Moustis, Ogalla, Pretzel, Traynere, Ventura |
(County Clerk)
Ms. Staley Ferry gave a brief explanation of this grant.
| RESULT: MOVED FORWARD [UNANIMOUS]
TO: Will County Board MOVER: Mike Fricilone, Member SECONDER: Judy Ogalla, Member AYES: Harris, Tyson, Fricilone, Marcum, Moustis, Ogalla, Pretzel, Traynere, Ventura |
(ReShawn Howard)
| RESULT: MOVED FORWARD [UNANIMOUS]
TO: Will County Board MOVER: Jim Moustis, Member SECONDER: Mike Fricilone, Member AYES: Harris, Tyson, Fricilone, Marcum, Moustis, Ogalla, Pretzel, Traynere, Ventura |
(Susan Olenek)
| RESULT: MOVED FORWARD [UNANIMOUS]
TO: Will County Board MOVER: Mike Fricilone, Member SECONDER: Frankie Pretzel, Member AYES: Harris, Tyson, Fricilone, Marcum, Moustis, Ogalla, Pretzel, Traynere, Ventura |
(Susan Olenek)
Ms. Ventura stated this is a grant from IDPH.
A brief discussion took place regarding the amount listed in the title versus the Resolution. The correct amount should be $1,750,000. The title of the Resolution will be corrected before moving to the full County Board for approval.
| RESULT: MOVED FORWARD [UNANIMOUS]
TO: Will County Board MOVER: Rachel Ventura, Member SECONDER: Mike Fricilone, Member AYES: Harris, Tyson, Fricilone, Marcum, Moustis, Ogalla, Pretzel, Traynere, Ventura |
(Susan Olenek)
Ms. Tyson stated in the Resolution it says an award of $122,580.00 does it matter that we don’t have an itemized entry that equals $122,580.00.
Mrs. Adams stated it says this is over three years, so this is what they are appropriating for this year.
Ms. Olenek stated that is the entire amount we are eligible for over the three year period. There was a budget we presented to our BOH for the $64,376.00 for this next fiscal year. That is all we are asking to appropriate right now is the $64,376.00.
| RESULT: MOVED FORWARD [UNANIMOUS]
TO: Will County Board MOVER: Mike Fricilone, Member SECONDER: Judy Ogalla, Member AYES: Harris, Tyson, Fricilone, Marcum, Moustis, Ogalla, Pretzel, Traynere, Ventura |
(ReShawn Howard)
Ms. Howard stated this is routine year end budget transfers. There are just a few items on the list. We will be wrapping up with the final transfers next month.
| RESULT: MOVED FORWARD [UNANIMOUS]
TO: Will County Board MOVER: Judy Ogalla, Member SECONDER: Rachel Ventura, Member AYES: Harris, Tyson, Fricilone, Marcum, Moustis, Ogalla, Pretzel, Traynere, Ventura |
Ms. Howard stated this funding request is for the contracted services for Quest Food Management. This was not included in the FY2021 budget. In order to continue to pay invoices or fund the contracted services through the remainder of the fiscal year we are asking the Committee to appropriate $200,000 for this.
Mr. Tkac explained the business model being used for cafeteria-food service commonly known as the Side Bar Café in the new courthouse. This business model included the following; all of the expenses incurred for this operation will be those of the county, all of the revenue derived from this operation will belong to the county. Essentially, the vendor has a lot of challenges; any vendor going into that business situation would be facing a lot of challenges, mainly you have a captive audience with limited hours of operation; you have breakfast and lunch and then possibly an afternoon snack and that is it. At the time, the feeling of the Capital Improvements Committee was the last thing we wanted to do was put something up there that is not going to be sustainable. So we liked the idea of the business model which essentially is payment to play and it was approved by Board Resolution. We opened the Side Bar Café in November. November was not a particularly good month, we showed some improvements in December and more in January. The projections for this were never to make money or to break even until the third quarter of this calendar year. It is a good place to eat, if I can put a plug in for this venue. It is a great venue and I think you will like it there. As the weather breaks and we depart from COVID restrictions, I think it is a great experience for all of us. I encourage everyone to go over there because of what I just described.
| RESULT: MOVED FORWARD [UNANIMOUS]
TO: Will County Board MOVER: Jim Moustis, Member SECONDER: Judy Ogalla, Member AYES: Harris, Tyson, Fricilone, Marcum, Moustis, Ogalla, Pretzel, Traynere, Ventura |
(ReShawn Howard)
Ms. Howard reviewed the memo in the agenda packet. The LGDF is our state income tax revenue we receive from the State. This was just to bring this to your attention and keep it on the radar and see what happens if it actually goes forward.
Mr. Fricilone stated this brings up a point I wanted to mention to Ms. Howard. It looks like in the American Relief Act there will be revenue replacement. I know we faired pretty well last year, but I think it behooves us, or you, to do a study with all departments on any losses they had based on fees there were unable to collect, showing us down, so we are ready to say we lost $500,000 or whatever in fees last year. Then we will know what we can shift over. If we get the word we are losing 10%, we know that number right off the bat and we can use revenue replacement money for that as well. Just like when we started talking about the business program again we probably should get ready what our revenue losses may have been. If we lost revenue in one area, although we made it somewhere else, we lost revenue in that area and I think we should be prepared so we can easily shift that money over when we get the American Relief Act money.
Mrs. Ogalla stated with regard to what Mr. Fricilone said, I think we need to make the department heads aware of that so they can go back and see where they had losses. It will make it easier and faster for us once those dollars come in for us to begin appropriating them. I would like it to be a directive from this Committee to the department heads to look through your area and see where you had a loss of dollars and see if we could replace those.
16. Authorizing County Executive to Execute Necessary Documents for Delinquent Tax Program
(Jen Alberico/ Julie Shetina)
| RESULT: MOVED FORWARD [UNANIMOUS]
TO: Will County Board MOVER: Judy Ogalla, Member SECONDER: Mike Fricilone, Member AYES: Harris, Tyson, Fricilone, Marcum, Moustis, Ogalla, Pretzel, Traynere, Ventura |
VIII. PUBLIC COMMENT
Mrs. Jakaitis read the attached e-mail into the record.
1. E-Mail from Ellen S. Walsh Read into the Record March 2, 2021
(E-Mail)
IX. CHAIRMAN'S REPORT / ANNOUNCEMENTS
X. EXECUTIVE SESSION
XI. ADJOURNMENT
1. Motion to Adjourn at 11:57 AM
| RESULT: APPROVED [UNANIMOUS]
MOVER: Mike Fricilone, Member SECONDER: Judy Ogalla, Member AYES: Harris, Tyson, Fricilone, Marcum, Moustis, Ogalla, Pretzel, Traynere, Ventura |
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