Will County Executive Committee Met March 15.
Here is the minutes provided by the committee:
I. CALL TO ORDER
II. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE TO THE FLAG
Mr. Pretzel led the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag.
III. ROLL CALL
Chair Mimi Cowan called the meeting to order at 10:37 AM
| Attendee Name | Title | Status | Arrived |
| Mimi Cowan | Chair | Present | |
| Meta Mueller | Vice Chair | Present | |
| Herbert Brooks Jr. | Member | Present | |
| Mike Fricilone | Member | Present | |
| Kenneth E. Harris | Member | Present | |
| Tyler Marcum | Member | Present | |
| Jim Moustis | Member | Absent | |
| Judy Ogalla | Member | Present | |
| Annette Parker | Member | Present | |
| Margaret Tyson | Member | Present | |
| Joe VanDuyne | Member | Present | |
| Rachel Ventura | Member | Present | |
| Denise E. Winfrey | Member | Present |
Present from State's Attorney's Office: M. Tatroe and K. Meyers.
IV. APPROVAL OF MINUTES
V. OLD BUSINESS
VI. NEW BUSINESS
1. Discussion Re: COVID-19 Equity Coordinator/Manager
(Mimi Cowan)
Speaker Cowan stated as a reminder, we are not voting on anything today. This discussion was prompted by requests of Board Members and staff that we have a further, in-depth discussion about a couple of items before Thursday’s meeting. I appreciate everyone making time for this meeting so we can have some good discussions. The first item is discussion of the COVID-19 Equity Coordinator/Manger. The draft job posting was attached to the agenda. Lots of people have been asking how did we vote on this if there was no job posting. This came from the Joint Public Health and Diversity meeting. The motion at the Joint meeting was to direct staff in the Executive’s Office to come up with something, which they have. We want to discuss this before the full Board Meeting when it is on the agenda for a vote. That is the purpose of this meeting; to discuss the issue, make sure we understand the job posting and to raise any questions we have about it.
Mr. Schaben stated the job posting was sent to the HR Department to add a little bit of detail. There was not a lot of information out there to work from. I know Mr. Tidwell did his best to draft something and go in the direction the County Board discussed. He provided enough information to give us direction. I would be happy to answer any questions.
Ms. Tyson stated I think it should have bilingual in it. Perhaps we should be looking for a bilingual manager.
Mr. Fricilone stated this position is going to report to the Executive’s leadership team, but also support the Health Department. I don’t know what that means. Are they telling them something specific? Are they working in conjunction with the Health Department, or on their own with the Executive’s Office? I don’t see a length of time for this position. I believe it should be a temporary position; perhaps until the end of the year. Hopefully, by then everyone will have their vaccine and that is what this is about. I would like to hear from the Health Department about how they are going to interface with this person or if they feel they have this covered at this point.
Speaker Cowan stated similar to the communications firm we put under the Executive’s Office, this person would be working in conjunction with the Health Department, under the guidance of the Executive’s Office, because it also reaches out to other departments. I agree with Mr. Fricilone about putting in the expected timeframe of the position.
Mr. Schaben replied the contract with the communications firm was six months and that was our best guess on the length after talking with the Health Department. We don’t have a specific time length in mind. If the Board wants to give us direction on what they are thinking, we would be happy to put something in there.
Mr. Fricilone stated it should be the same as the communications firm, if they are all working in conjunction and we assume over the next six months we will have our vaccines out. The communication firm is working with the Health Department to get the word out, but this is a little different. Is this person going to tell the Health Department what to do? Are they under any obligation to do what this person says, since they don’t work for the Health Department? It is a little different animal than the communications director.
Mr. Schaben replied I don’t have any answers to who is directing whom. Based on my discussions, there was a desire to keep this position under the authority of the County Executive’s Office. The direction we would give them would be to work in concert with the Health Department. I don’t believe this person would have the ability to provide authority over the Health Department.
Mr. Fricilone asked could the Health Department tell us what they are going to do with this person?
Ms. Olenek replied at the previous meeting we had a discussion regarding an equity individual. We were clear, this is something we could use help with. There are hard to reach communities and we don’t have the level of expertise that somebody in this positon might have. I noticed in the job description there is no specific experience required in equity within communities or equity in healthcare or anything like that. If we are going to bring someone onboard to target these hard to reach communities, they really need to have some experience. If they just have a bachelor’s degree and three years in program coordination, was that supposed to mean equity program coordination. I think they would have to have experience. We have a diverse population in Will County, a large geographical area and a lot of people we need to reach. Certainly, someone with equity experience and equal distribution of programs could be helpful.
Mr. Fricilone stated I am confused; if we already have a communications director, are they not communicating to the population to this person will communicate to? I thought they were supposed to communicate with everyone. I would think they are targeting groups to communicate to. Are we going to be double communicating with certain populations and only singly with other populations? I am not clear on how these two people will work. Ms. Olenek what information do you expect them to be giving you?
Ms. Olenek stated yes the communications firm we will be working with them in messaging in different languages and trying to target different populations. In discussions that took place at our BOH committee meeting as well as our BOH meeting we have some community groups who are looking for more of a grassroots approach, getting into the communities and providing information, people with bilingual abilities into the communities. The communications firm certainly could assist, but would not have that grassroots approach. This equity person would help us be able to target those hard to reach communities in a grassroots approach.
Mr. Fricilone asked why couldn’t the communications people do the same thing? You just said they were multilingual and they are getting out into the different communities. If it is just them printing up flyers and going to some churches or something; I just don’t understand. We have a communications person who is supposed to communicate with everybody. Maybe they can target some communities more than others. Have we asked them to get a little more finite with some of the more diverse population? It seems like we are doubling efforts.
Ms. Olenek replied I would ask others who were at the meeting to offer their explanations. This was brought to our attention for movement on. I guess hearing from others; perhaps I am missing the point here a little bit.
Speaker Cowan stated I think you addressed it from your standpoint
Mr. Harris stated I am a little unclear. I feel this position should be under the Health Department. Perhaps the Health Department can work closely with the Executive’s Office. I think that is where some of the confusion is coming from. It sounds like Board Members are telling the Health Department what they need and we are going to get it for you. They are telling us this may or may not help. If it is a matter of funding and this is for COVID relief or vaccine relief, the CARES funding is there if they go six months or one year. There is a lot of confusion here. What are we dealing with? Are we dealing with the vaccine or are we dealing with trying to get an equity manager or an equity plan in place? I support all of it, but which road do we want to go down? There seems to be a lot of confusion as to exactly what we are going to be considering Thursday.
Speaker Cowan stated to clarify we are talking specifically about a vaccine equity coordinator. This is not the overall equity manager or Diversity & Equity consultant we have been talking about for the County. They are two separate things.
Mrs. Parker stated I thought the vote for this position was going to be a one year timeline. There is no salary listed, it says DOQ. At the Committee meeting $70,000 was thrown out so I would like to clarify that. I thought this person would be working with Ms. Jackson.
Speaker Cowan stated I agree. I thought we were talking about through the end of the fiscal year. I have a question about the salary range issue.
Ms. Ventura stated when we moved it forward for staff to prepare, it was a one year contract. This position would be working with Ms. Jackson. She specifically said in the meeting she could use some help. I agree with Ms. Olenek that this job requirement needs to have some type of equity to it. That is the expertise they will bring to Ms. Jackson and it is to help her with that. If it doesn’t have that, we are missing the boat. I agree with Ms. Tyson we should definitely have someone who is multilingual.
Mrs. Ogalla stated I think what Mr. Harris was saying, which he did not get to finish, is this position should work under the Health Department. I agree with that. Ms. Jackson and Ms. Olenek said they could use some help with this coordination effort. I think this person should report to Ms. Olenek and Ms. Jackson that way they are working together all the time and not have this person sitting in the County Executive’s Office, it would make more sense for that to happen. There is a limited base to draw a job description from, because this is a new push for equity. This has always been an issue throughout the County. If you come to eastern Will County residents are all the time saying they are the stepchildren of the county, nobody cares about us. I think everybody feels like that, because unless they are getting their hands touched all the time, they feel like that. I think we should hire it under the Health Department. If they need the help, it should be under the Health Department. I don’t think it should be for a year. I can’t believe we are going to be giving vaccines a year from when this person is hired. This person has yet to be hired, unless there is someone standing in the wings to be hired tomorrow and even if there were, I can’t imagine we will be dealing with this vaccine situation for a year. It does not seem like it should take a year for that person to do that job. That person should be able to get out there and reach the communities well within a year. I think the job description should be contractual, based on the need and how long the need should be, with a minimum of six months. People work as consultants all the time and have a limited time and often times that is extended. Why extend ourselves for one year when we don’t know if we will need that because this has currently not been done. We really need to understand that certain people and certain departments have a project plan before them or in their mind or within their own department and they are not used to sharing it. Something I would love for County Executive Bertino-Tarrant and Mr. Schaben to get involved with, is to work with the leaders of the different departments and help them understand how presenting the Board with a project plan is a step that is going to be done and when they anticipate they might start. This is a new approach that has not been done before or asked of before. I think it is the changing times where people want more information upfront and I think that would make sense. As far as the person being bilingual, they are going to be working with community leaders within these different groups and I certainly hope those leaders would be bilingual and they should be speaking English, or how do you communicate with anybody. We have people who work all the time to represent their different communities. They get out there and do it on behalf of their communities, they want this for their community and so they should be helping with distributing flyers, like everyone does everywhere. When someone in my area has something they are working on, groups get together and help them disseminate the information. It would be a team effort for that to happen. I would like the salary to be determined if we are going to move forward because it should be based on what we feel this person’s experience level is; three years of experience is not a lot.
Speaker Cowan stated I agree almost 100% with what you said. Staff clarified and the motion was to hire a COVID-19 equity coordinator/manager for one year, under the Executive’s Office to collaborate with all departments and community groups.
Mr. Van Duyne stated I appreciate members wanting to have this person work for six months; but my fear is, it might be hard to find someone with our qualifications, to have someone step into the professional field for only a six month job. A year sounds good to me.
Ms. Winfrey stated I think one year or one year as needed is a good answer. If there should be a spike, we will need that person to stay on so we continue to reach those communities. As for the salary, it should be negotiable based on qualifications. One qualification must be a person who is bilingual. We will not get the type of penetration without that. The person needs to work for the Health Department. This is about the Health Department being able to reach all the people who need to be reached to get the information, to be able to get where they need to be in order to get vaccinated and understand what is going on. So it needs to be there. Our previous conversation was about help for Ms. Jackson and putting this person at the Health Department or maybe two people makes more sense.
Ms. Mueller stated one reason I suggested one year, is I suspect we will be vaccinating children eventually. We will need to have our game up on that as well. I agree with Ms. Tyson and Ms. Winfrey; this person absolutely must be bilingual, absolutely, no question about it. I agree with Ms. Olenek I would like to see something in this job description about equity work experience. This is new work in the last decade. Three years of experience that is a person with a decent amount of experience. I know it may not seem like it to folks who are not aware of this type of work, but it is newer. The one year is imperative. It helps keep us safe to have this going steady through any spikes we may have and the possibility of being able to vaccinate children.
Mr. Harris stated I agree with all of the discussion regarding bilingual and echo what Ms. Winfrey said about being able to work effectively. How are we going to evaluate this person? Could we start thinking of goals; how effective is this person going to work in both the black and Hispanic communities? It may not have to be part of the job description, but how would we evaluate this person? I agree with the one year term. But, we need to put measures in place so we can evaluate how effective this is going to be or how effective we would like it to be.
Mrs. Ogalla stated having worked in the business world for a very long time, a contractor works for a specified amount of time and contractors understand their position might be extended for a certain amount of time. If this person is going to be working every day and that is their role and their job they need to be able to get that done in six months. I guarantee you if I got this job, I would be able to get into these communities within six months. Will County is large, but it is not so large it should take a year when you are working five days a weeks and you have support from other people within the Health Department. It should be six months with the understanding it could go longer. Other people are very well aware of equity. Equity reaches everywhere. If you think about the conversation we had about the agricultural area; how about the equity for farmers. Farmers are an entirely different group. Farmers have a different lifestyle. Having friends who are black and Hispanic; those two communities are very different from each other and probably require different approaches. I am not sure if one person could do it. Perhaps it is two people part time. I think you need to look longer at this. As far as the motion coming out of Committee, it is the role of the Executive Committee to determine if that is the right way for the County to go, not a subcommittee. It is our job here to do that. I think we have a lot of questions to be answered before we move forward. Plus, we are asking for changes to the job description.
Speaker Cowan stated I understand what Mrs. Ogalla was saying. I think we have a different concept of how the work happens and what the work involves. When Ms. Mueller mentioned vaccinating children, I think this is unfortunately going to go on longer than we think. My perspective was putting it under the Executive made sense. I think this person would be working with EMA, who is under the Executive, the communications firm who is under the Executive and this person would be working with the Health Department. I saw it as a position that branches into a lot of different county departments, organizations and also community organizations. To me that just make more sense with a framework in the Executive’s Office. However, if the will of the Committee is that we have this under the Health Department and Ms. Olenek would be open to that; we could certainly reconsider that. I agree, the job description should talk about experience in equity or experience in grassroots organizing in our community. The first thing the Bronner Group did when we hired them for the CARES management was they hired someone from Will County, because they knew they needed someone with experience in our community. I look at this as a very similar thing. I don’t believe this as position would be duplicating efforts, to Mr. Fricilone’s concern. I think I have a little different vision of what this person would be doing with the message the communications firm is designing and putting out. The equity manger would say in order to reach a certain population, you need to think about tweaking your message this way or we need to put extra emphasis in this area because they are not getting the message the way you are sending it out. I see it as a complimentary role and not necessarily depletive. I would be fine with a strong preference for bilingual. I hesitate about hard and fast in job descriptions, but if the will of the Committee is the person is absolutely bilingual then we put that in there. To Mr. Harris’ comments about evaluation, I understand that is important. I wonder if that is the role of the County Board or the role of whoever would be supervising this position. If it is in the Health Department that would be Ms. Olenek’s job to decide whether this person is being effective. If it is in the Executive’s Office the County Executive would decide how to quantify, critique and evaluate employee output. I loved Mrs. Ogalla’s point about helping someone understand how to present a plan to the County Board and to our constituents so that it is open and accessible to all our residents and Board Members so we understand what is going on and how it is being done. Mrs. Ogalla, I would love to talk with you more about that; I think you were talking in broad strokes and I have a sense there is probably more details behind what you were saying and I would love to have a further conversation about that so we can make that happen.
Ms. Ventura stated I am not comfortable having this position under the Health Department. If that is the case, then this meeting is done because there is nothing for us to evaluate as far as a job description; the Board of Health and Ms. Olenek decide their own employees and direction when it comes to those things. Equally, we would not be discussing this if it had already been handled. The biggest issue I have is the Health Department has aligned with private partners more than the public. Our government is aligning private industry to give out the vaccines but we have not put an emphasis on public. When it comes to people who don’t have resources, whether they don’t have a computer, don’t speak the language, maybe they are a farmer and they have not been in tune with what is happening here; whatever the case may be, just going to private industry is not the way to reach these people. It is through a grassroots and better communications. That means working with the communications firm or getting out there and knocking on doors, which is why the bilingual part makes a difference. Each community is going to need different things to be addressed. I feel if this was part of the public plan or roll out to make sure the public can go to the Health Department and get their shots, then we would not be seeing the problems we are seeing today. Instead, we are seeing a heavy emphasis on those who have the resources to pick up the phone, who have insurance and can ask Walgreens for their shot. They are advocating for themselves and they are getting their shots; whether it is the United Center or Tinley Park or wherever they are going. It is not okay. It is a sign our government has failed the public when we do not put the public first. I am not comfortable having this job under the direction of the Health Department because I don’t think they have done an adequate job of serving the public equally.
Mr. Harris asked could you please repeat the motion that will be presented to us? Speaker Cowan read the motion.
Mr. Harris stated my concern was the part where it is under the Executive’s Office. I don’t know if it is cut and dry that we have to vote on it or if there is any leeway to make a motion for the Health Department. I had a conversation with Mr. Jose Vera, one of the leads who presented the proposal. We discussed some things about trying to make a positive approach and making the changes needed in our community. I am hoping that whichever way we go with this vote, it is a starting point. We are all realizing we need some changes and that there is much more outreach that needs to be done. They are willing to work with the Health Department as well as the community based organizations in Bolingbrook. We have an R-3 zone in Bolingbrook. I support this equity coordinator/manager position, but I am in favor of putting it under the Health Department.
Mrs. Parker asked will funding for this come from the relief package?
Mr. Schaben replied I think it would come from the County Board contingency because that is where the CRF funds are being housed currently.
Speaker Cowan clarified it would be the remainder of the CARES funding.
Mrs. Ogalla stated I want to reiterate, in my area, everybody feels exactly the same as everybody in all these other communities; nobody is hearing them, nothing is happening out here, why do I have to drive to Joliet. Now, we have a place in Monee, but prior to that, they didn’t know how to get out here. One of the biggest things that has prevented the Health Department from moving forward is the inconsistency in the number of vaccines available to them on a regular basis. I think that is the fault of the State of Illinois by not providing information to them on a regular basis so they can do a good job at planning. I don’t know if we can say this is all a Health Department issue. I chaired the Public Health & Safety Committee for four years, was on it for two years prior, and I still attend the meetings although I am not on the Committee. Ms. Olenek has always done a great job. The Health Department reached out during the opioid crisis. They have reached out to different partners who do this and providing services to residents is one of the things the Health Department is supposed to and be to make sure that these things happen in the community. They are working with CVS, Walgreens and different partners to provide the vaccines to everybody and people are having some luck getting them. They were not getting them a month ago because so many people wanted them, but they are getting them now. I think it is unfair to say the Health Department has done an extremely bad job with this. It is not all in their hands. They don’t have a pile of vaccines sitting around and they are not saying maybe we will give them out or maybe we won’t. I think they have done a great job with trying to get the teen pregnancy rate down. I think it is unfair for us to say they are doing a terrible job. If you are saying they are doing a terrible job about this, they must be doing a terrible job about everything else. As far as where this person would be designated, the Health Department works with other departments all the time in getting things done. Like all department heads, there is crossover all the time. I think it would be best if this person would work with Ms. Jackson who is the Vaccine Director. It makes sense that this person would work under her to help her and provide some guidance.
Mr. Balich stated I am listening to the conversation, but I still have a question about the need of hiring anybody. We have a Health Department that is up and running and EMA has been helping them. Why do we have hire another employee when the biggest problem is not what everybody is talking about, the biggest problem is getting the medicine to give the shots. You can say whatever you want, but if you don’t have the doses to give to people, where are you at? You are hiring someone to say we don’t have the doses. It does not make sense to me to hire anybody.
Ms. Mitchell stated Mrs. Ogalla touched on something very important and that was the two communities, the black and brown communities, are very different. I am not saying you can’t be bilingual and be one type of person or another. I can speak two other languages outside of English. But, not everybody can, not everybody in the industry can. You might want to rethink how you do the bilingual.
Mr. Pretzel stated I agree with Mr. Balich on this. We heard from the President that everyone who wants a vaccine will have access to a vaccine in about 45 days from now. Is the Health Department asking for an equity manager or are we pushing this because we think it is necessary? I don’t know if I see a need to hire someone for 12 months when I think a lot of these issues will work themselves out in the next couple of weeks, where if you want a vaccine you can go and get a vaccine. Is this something we are trying to do because there is so much confusion around this right now? Is this something we really need long term?
Speaker Cowan stated my understanding and feeling is this is not necessarily responding to what happened in the past, but the fact we know there are inequities in how COVID has hit minority populations. This is not about what has gone on in the last eleven months, but saying we want to have a plan going forward so we don’t screw this up. In my mind, a Vaccine Equity Coordinator would be working to make sure that happen. I think it is lovely when we say there is going to be enough vaccines for everyone and everyone can just go get it. But, the reality is it is not that simple. Perhaps that is my opinion and where Mr. Pretzel and I differ. He thinks it simple that the vaccine will be available and everybody will be able to go get it. My experience in these things is it is never that simple. I would like to see us be proactive about creating a plan, addressing problems and creating solutions before they really impact our communities. When we talk about impact in this area we are not talking about something low key, we are talking about higher death rates. I think the potential for negative outcomes is so great that it really makes our motivation for acting proactively all that more important. Mr. Pretzel asked does the Health Department want this? Ms. Jackson said the other day this is an area we could use support in. She is a community outreach coordinator and she is saying she would like specialized help in the equity area. I have to commend her for saying that. It is hard when you are specialist in an area to say I need help. That is the mark of a true leader; who says this is not my specialty, I need someone whose specialty it is to come in and add value to what I am doing. Frankly, that is what I heard Director Olenek say a few minutes ago as well. We still have the question about whether this position makes more sense in the Executive’s Office or the Health Department. I still feel it makes sense in the Executive’s Office. At this point, I think we need the position and if it is the will of the Committee or the Board that it be in the Health Department and the Health Department is willing to accept this support, then that is certainly, better than nothing. I think this is broad ranging enough position, touching different county departments and community organizations that it makes sense in the Executive’s Office. I can understand how others may differ on that.
Mr. Harris stated I echo everything you just said about being proactive. Regarding Mr. Pretzel’s comments it is working itself out, it has not yet. That is why we are here today to discuss this. This is needed in our community. We have a coalition that has been established; we have community members telling us what is needed, so we have to listen to those concerns, address those concerns and move forward. As the Speaker just said, we are now to the point of determining where this position is going to fall; under the Executive’s Office or the Health Department. I think this is a good starting point. We have issues in our community with equity, not just for the Health Department, but in other areas. I think this is a good start and I support the position.
Speaker Cowan read a comment from the chat from Mr. Jose Vera. EMA and the communications firm is already under the County Executive's office and Jennifer Bertino herself has shared she is working closely with the Director of Mass Vaccination at the health department to ensure equitable distribution. The vaccine equity manager is a position that works across departments because equitable vaccine distribution requires everyone possible beyond the health department.
Mr. Marcum agreed this is a much needed position. It is my understanding that our vaccine lead is the Health Department and this person would have more authority to get vaccines out and have more direct input with the actual distribution of where vaccines go if they are in the Health Department and working directly with our vaccine coordinator. It makes sense to me to put them in the Health Department where they can do more good and have more teeth with where the actual vaccines go.
Ms. Olenek stated some people asked about the need for this position, the fact that we already have staff and we are providing vaccines. I think an additional person that can work with us to target these communities, it is beyond knowing what phone number to call and it is beyond knowing what the address is of the community based organization. It is developing a relationship. It is developing a connection with a community through an individual who understands how to do that. It is something that has to happen. In a meeting my staff had with some community based organization they outright told my staff they did not trust us. So it is really difficult to work with communities that don’t trust you. We have to find a way to foster trust and to foster a relationship with the communities that don’t trust us. I think that is an important point. In terms of the bilingual required, we have a lot of position that are not only bilingual required but bilingual preferred. We have a lot of experience in recruiting for these positions. If you put on there bilingual required, you may have to eliminate a candidate you think is outstanding, but is not bilingual, but has done the job, can do the job, you have to eliminate that person because you have to hire what you posted for, otherwise you will be sued. If we have a requirement for bilingual we have to hire a bilingual. I would like to have some flexibility. To Mrs. Ogalla’s point, I am sure the community leaders in these areas area bilingual and they would be helping us with the connection as well. I don’t know if this position would be an independent contractor or an employee. Obviously, the employee is more expensive because of benefits. An independent contractor would come in with a specific goal or task. I will caution, when you look at an independent contractor it can’t be someone in the community who wants to do this as an independent contractor. These have to be people who have a shingle out. They have this business and this is what they do for a living, they do this with other groups. You can’t just hire somebody and call them an independent contractor. There are limitations there. I am open to whatever you decide.
Speaker Cowan stated I understand the benefits are slightly more expensive, but I think it would be absolutely imperative that this person be an employee, even if it is a temporary employee. We can put the one year limit on it and have it be a temporary employee, but I would have to have it be an employee.
Ms. Olenek stated a temporary employee would not work. A temporary employee under our county requirements can only work 999 hours, which is approximately half a year. That is a requirement we all deal with. We can’t have a fulltime, temporary person working for a year. We don’t have that structure.
Speaker Cowan stated you ran into that with the contact tracers.
Ms. Olenek continued yes. We knew we would, we were surprised that many of them still wanted to continue working. There is no way around that; there is a limitation of 999 hours per year.
Mrs. Parker stated the vote at the Joint meeting was to move it forward to County Board. Now there has been a lot of discussion and it sounds like somethings are going to be tweaked. How are we going to move forward on Thursday? Is it still going what was put motioned at the Joint Committee meeting?
Speaker Cowan asked for clarification on the process.
Mrs. Adams replied we have this job description for the Vaccine Equity Coordinator on the County Board agenda currently.
Speaker Cowan asked could we make amendments to that in this meeting?
Mrs. Tatroe replied you can basically come up with your plan, it just basically needs to go to County Board. You can vote and change the job description and ask that the changed job description be added to the County Board agenda.
Speaker Cowan stated we could certainly hear motions today to make amendments for Thursday’s County Board meeting.
Ms. Olenek stated if the position is under the County Executive’s Office then you would have to move forward with your process, with amendments to the Resolution. If the decision is to put it under my agency, then you would have to do whatever process necessary to put the funding in our budget. I would work with my Board and get it on our agenda for Wednesday, and work with my Board in doing the rest of the details in terms of the posting. We would use a bulk of this posting.
Speaker Cowan stated if we decided this position would be under the Health Department, we don’t make the job description, Ms. Olenek and the BOH will.
Ms. Olenek stated I will align with what you have here and keep in mind the comments made by Committee Members. I will not go off on a tangent and go completely rogue. I respect the work that has been done and I am in alignment with the thoughts.
Speaker Cowan stated to clarify if it is the will of the Committee and the Board that this position be under the Health Department, we would need a Resolution to put funding into the Health Department’s budget for this position. Ms. Olenek would work out the details of the job description, getting it on the street and the hiring. If we decide it will be kept under the Executive’s Office, today we can make amendments to what we have right now and we would then move forward on Thursday with a Resolution.
Ms. Ventura stated I am comfortable making a motion to change this to a six month contract under the Executive’s Office with a possible continuation as needed, until the entirety of our county, who wants to be vaccinated is vaccinated. We should add, at least, a strong preference, it does not have to be required, but I see a lot of applications say preferred bilingual and a salary added to the job description.
Mr. Fricilone stated if we put this under the Health Department, we don’t need to allocate any money. They have $3 million to draw off of that we allocated to them, this could be part of that. They would just draw the money for the salary.
Ms. Olenek stated if we are going to look for an independent contractor we have to follow the procurement guidelines of the County. We would have to put out an RFQ or RFP because this is over $25,000. This is not a doctor or a psychiatrist, it is not one of the specialties where they are assumed an independent contractor. That further complicates things and will lengthen the timeframe. These are all things people don’t understand we have to go through. It takes time, it takes energy and it would be another thing. We are talking another month. We cannot just ignore our rules. If can take it out of the $3 million. We have that earmarked for certain things and if we can redirect some of that money, it will be no problem.
Ms. Ventura stated if we don’t want to do a contract, you could contract for the 999 hours and hope we are done by then. I don’t understand why we can’t hire a fulltime person for 2,000 hours like every other fulltime person. I am confused.
Mrs. Tatroe stated because we are a 1,000 hour unit of government under the IMRF rules, once you hit 999 hours, then you would have to get a pension benefit. Part of what Ms. Olenek is addressing is a temporary employee under the IMRF rules. I think people are using that term in a more generic sense that the intent is to hire this person for a definitive period of time, but not necessarily talking about someone who is or is not eligible for a pension.
Ms. Ventura asked could we hire the person to do the job until the job is done, without listing a timeframe, with the intent this is a particular job? Just like any other status of employment, if that job is no longer needed, we have the ability to cut the job. Could we be sued for that? If the job is done, the job goes away.
Ms. Olenek replied we can do it based on funding. We put on our postings now that once the specific funding for this position is no longer there, then the job disappears. We can do this that way.
Ms. Ventura asked Mrs. Tatroe, if we hired this person as a fulltime person, with the intent this is until the job is finished; then when the job is done, we eliminate the position, is there anything illegal or wrong about that? Does it tie our hands in any way
Mrs. Tatroe replied typically yes. We are not talking about a union position, so we are not involving the union contract. Yes, that is typically correct, we can eliminate the position and typically we do that through funding, as Ms. Olenek pointed out. The other thing of concern is some of the verbiage is being mixed up of hiring employees and hiring an independent contractor. I think Ms. Olenek is trying to be very clear about the differences and trying to make sure people use the proper terminology when they are talking about this position.
Ms. Ventura stated I appreciate that. I was trying to make a compromise of my position we need to hire an employee and this employee needs to work for the County until the job is done. If it happens to be six months, great; we should all celebrate that, if we get everyone vaccinated in six months. I think we hire the employee and don’t use the term temporary or contract, just say this is the position for an equity manager. When the position is no longer needed, we cut the position.
Ms. Olenek replied we can do that. This is how we brought on our community manager partner of engagement. The other individual working as our call center liaison and operations improvements process is through a temp agency. We do things all different ways here and certainly we can structure it the way Ms. Ventura mentioned.
Ms. Ventura continued to be clear I still think this person should be under the Executive’s Office.
Mrs. Ogalla stated I think there are a lot of independent contractors working for different consulting agencies and they would have someone on their list of people they can consult out with that has this skillset. It is a preference as to what the length of time will be. I don’t think waiting a month to go through the procurement process and guidelines the County has for an independent contractor matters that much. I don’t know when we are going to be getting a big influx of vaccines. I am not sure Ms. Olenek even know when that will happen. Right now we are not getting a lot of vaccines. I think the idea of saying a bilingual person would be preferred; I just want to make sure even though this person is bilingual they should have a good understanding of the black community. We need someone who has worked with a variety of different people regardless of their language and people can reach out to them. Someone who speaks multiple languages would be out there. I am positive a person can do this job if they have that within them, if it is their drive and their goal and they know what they are doing. My preference is that it goes under the Health Department, therefore that person can work directly in sync with Ms. Jackson. Our people reach out across the board and work together all the time.
Ms. Mueller stated we did a similar thing with the census in having community partnership. There was a partnership specialist who covered Will County and some other counties. I believe she was bilingual. I foresee this being very similar to what we had to do with the census because part of our issue was the lack of trust in the communities as well when filling out their census. We did this sort of thing with the census and we have seen this work before.
Mrs. Berkowicz stated regarding the conversation we are having on equity and diversity; I would like to to speak up for the large population of Filipinos in Will County. Many have serious health issues and have not been vaccinated, but they are patiently waiting their turn to get a vaccination. I am concerned about many of the statement directed at and about the Will County Health Department and its dedicated employees. I feel there is a lot of unhappiness and issues being created. I would like to ask the Board to consider working together in a positive manner in the best interest of our residents. Could we send a Resolution to Governor Pritzker and IDPH asking them to immediately provide Will County for a greater number of vaccines? I would like us to use our voice in a positive and united nature. I believe that would help us achieve that. I am just throwing that idea out there. I really would like to do something in a positive fashion that would perhaps help to solve some of the problems we are having; that is we are just not getting enough of the vaccines to begin with.
Ms. Freeman stated I know the Health Department is working super hard. They are extending their workdays, they are trying to get shots in arms, they are tracking the virus and maintain all of their other programs and I cannot even imagine how overwhelming all of that has been. I think anything the Board can do to help relieve any of that load for the Health Department will be a good thing. It sounds like Ms. Olenek is very open to having that help. Doses will be available for the vaccine, hopefully at an overwhelming rate. Right now we are lagging, but I am hoping, based on what the President said, we are going to have more doses than we know what to do with. When that happens it will be like a hurricane coming upon us. I am glad to see we are planning ahead. What is keeping the coordinator we hire from answering to both the Health Department and the Executive’s Office? Would it be more beneficial to have it with the Executive just to keep the extra load off the Health Department during this hurricane?
Speaker Cowan replied I am assuming because of reporting structures, we can’t have someone officially reporting to two different department heads. I think we could ask Ms. Olenek, if the person was under the Health Department, ask this person to make reports to the Public Health & Safety Committee or the Diversity & Inclusion Committee. We can certainly ask for that information and correspondence.
Ms. Olenek stated we could give regular updates to the County Executive’s Office and the County Board, through the Public Health & Safety Committee. We had a conversation with our communications firm and they are going to be preparing a newsletter. I have asked them to work with me to replace my updates and give you a different, better and flashier update and this can be part of it or just a whole different report.
Ms. Freeman continued to me the whole idea is to help Ms. Olenek get though half of the hurricane season and be able to focus on the other programs that Will County needs and to get us all vaccinated. Your input is very valuable and anything that we can do, I want to be sure with this coordinator we actually put it in the right place.
Mrs. Ogalla asked does Ms. Olenek know how many vaccines is she expecting weekly?
Ms. Olenek replied fortunately, we have been getting vaccine on a weekly basis for the last three weeks. We have seen a slight increase, although not exactly a huge increase. We have about 16,000 on hand; but we are giving out almost 16,000 and using 16,000 this week at our clinics and the clinics our community providers are facilitating. It comes in and it goes out. I will be on a panel today Senator Julie Morrison is putting this together. I will be on the panel along with Dr. Ezike and Mr. Andrew Friend the Deputy Director of the IDPH for emergency preparedness. The discussion is vaccine availability. I am prepared; I have some information I want to share and data I will be sharing with them as well. We are going to again, make the request as we have numerous times, to send us more vaccines.
Mrs. Ogalla stated if we got someone hired they could begin reaching out to communities. Another topic that has been brought up is the vaccination of children. I hope by the time they start vaccinating children the kids are getting the vaccines with their own pediatrician as they get their flu shot and everything else. The FDA approved these for emergency use they have not been vetted to the same extent as other vaccines have we give to children. I don’t know that we will be having vaccination sites like this for children. Children go into the doctor all the time for their vaccines and checkup and I hope that is happening. If you do reading they have done studies for older teens and they don’t seem concerned. They are looking at children 12 and over. Younger children are so different so the vaccine must change because of the dosage and the impacts to their little bodies is quite different. I don’t think we should be thinking of our process for children at this moment until it comes to us from other areas.
A motion was made by Mrs. Ogalla by that the person hired as an independent contractor and is hired under the Health Department for six months with a possible continuation with a preference for someone who is bilingual but it is not a requirement. There was no second for this motion.
Mrs. Tatroe stated if this is something you are moving to the Health Department, it should just be a motion to move it to the Health Department along with funding or if it is within the money already given to them, that is fine; for the Health Department to decide whether it is an independent contractor or an employee. It should just be a motion to move it to the Health Department.
A motion was made by Mrs. Ogalla, seconded by Mr. Fricilone to move this specific job requirement, task and hiring to the Health Department and let them handle the process from there. On a rollcall vote Mueller, Fricilone, Harris, Marcum, Ogalla, Parker, Tyson, Van Duyne, Winfrey and Cowan voting yes and Ventura voting no. MOTION CARRIES.
Mrs. Adams asked Mrs. Tatroe do we need a motion to remove this from the County Board agenda?
Mrs. Tatroe replied someone should motion to remove it from the County Board agenda.
A motion was made by Mr. Fricilone, second by Mrs. Ogalla to remove the COVID equity coordinator/manager job posting from the County Board agenda. On a rollcall vote Mueller, Fricilone, Harris, Marcum, Ogalla, Parker, Tyson, Van Duyne, Ventura and Cowan voting yes. MOTION CARRIES.
Speaker Cowan thanked everyone for a very fruitful conversation. I know we have a lot of different opinions on how this rolls out, but I think the one thing that is really positive is each and every one of us is focused on moving forward, making sure we are getting the vaccine out and there is an equity component to this. I want to thank Ms. Olenek for her comments and her work on this in the past, present and future.
2. Discussion Re: Amendments to Waste Management Agreements for the Prairie View Landfill and the RNG Facility
(Mimi Cowan)
Mr. Schaben stated we are still waiting on the amendments to the Waste Management agreement. We checked with their attorney this morning and we still don’t have them. There is really no discussion at this time for this item.
Mr. Fricilone asked isn’t the amendment just related to where we are locating the RNG plant?
Mr. Olson replied there are two amendments and Mr. Helston decided to separate the two. They were connected but he felt it was better to have the gas purchase agreement as a first amendment. The first amendment is the agreement Mr. Fricilone is speaking about, where the location has now been determined. It basically mimics what was in the LOI the Board passed a few months ago and the Host Agreement. He just took those from the LOI, separated them and made them into two amendments. He has not heard back yet from Waste Management. The initial response was good, but we have not gotten the final response.
Mr. Fricilone clarified nothing is changing other than we have broken it into two amendments. They are going to add the actual site for the RNG plant, which was not in any of the amendments we presented because they did not know where they were going to build it. Now they know, so they have added that. Realistically, we are not changing anything other than putting it into two amendments instead of one.
Mr. Olson added it is just defining it a little more and that is it.
Mr. Palmer stated Mr. Schaben, Mrs. Tatroe and I have talked this morning. If we get the documents it would be ready to go, the way it is. If we don’t get it by Thursday we may want to tweak the Resolution to say “upon receipt of the document”, as we planned the Executive can still sign it rather than waiting another month. We hope we will have this by Thursday and it will all be ready to go. In the event we don’t, we have done this before where we have given the Executive the authority to execute something that has not been officially received and that is with the State’s Attorney’s approval. To Mr. Fricilone’s point, all of this has been agreed to via the LOI and the siting of the plant, so it is not changing anything for the Board’s sake. That way we can keep this moving and that would probably the recommendation if we don’t get it by Thursday that we just modify the Resolution to say the County Executive can sign it upon final approval by the State’s Attorney. If there was a change, we would have to come back. If there are no changes, we would sign it and move on.
Mrs. Tatroe stated we have a draft amendment to the Host Agreement that we could attach. Then it would just be a matter of whether or not there are further tweaks by Waste Management.
Mr. Palmer continued if the Speaker and County Executive agree, we can attach those drafts as is and then Board Members will have the opportunity to review and discuss at their caucus meetings.
3. Discussion Re: Temporary Loan to the Resource Recovery & Energy Department for RNG Facility Expenses (Mimi Cowan)
Mr. Schaben stated I had a discussion with our Land Use Department in terms of where we are time wise for the project. We were notified we could be running into some very large expenses for the project and the proceeds from the bonds might not be made available in time to meet some of these financial obligations. We are proposing a bridge loan through the end of July to get us through until we receive the bond proceeds to cover these expenses.
Mr. Fricilone asked is this on the County Board agenda or do we have to put it on?
Mrs. Adams replied it is on the full County Board agenda.
Speaker Cowan stated this was so we could have more conversation and see if people needed to ask questions.
Mr. Fricilone stated it makes sense, we are just bridging it.
Mrs. Ogalla asked for additional background. Are we giving them a loan; do we have funds in our contingency fund? How are we able to do this?
Mr. Schaben replied what we are proposing is moving money from corporate for upfront costs and equipment to the Resource, Recovery and Energy Division under Land Use. The expectation is the money would be returned once the proceeds from the bonds are secured. It is more of a timing issue. We have a lot of expenses coming up and we the bond is just not ready yet.
VII. OTHER NEW BUSINESS
VIII. PUBLIC COMMENTS
Mrs. Jakaitis announced there were no public comments.
IX. ANNOUNCEMENTS/REPORTS BY CHAIR
Speaker Cowan stated if you have not heard from me already or if you did not see the e mail; I sent a letter IDPH and copied the Governor and every single State Legislators that cover Will County. I sent this about a week ago. I certainly did not demand more vaccines for Will County, I asked what the metric is for deciding how the counties get vaccine distribution; how the amount is determined and for transparency in that process. It appears Will County has been low compared to basically all of the other counties in terms of how many vaccines doses we have been getting. I think it is important for us as Board Members, as representatives for the County and also for our constituents to understand if there is a reason the number is low and is it something we can fix internally or is it an arbitrary decision by the State, in which case I would ask them to reconsider that. We all hope there will be an abundance of vaccines and this is no longer a problem, but I would rather be proactive in trying to understand that process and exactly what is going on.
Ms. Ventura asked what happened to the letter the Public Health & Safety Committee asked staff prepare to those entities? I never saw anything go out and it was my understanding it was going to come from the full County Board to the Governor, IDPH and the State Legislators and Federal Legislators.
Speaker Cowan replied we can talk about that offline. The short answer is we wanted to get something out the door as soon as possible, so I signed something, under my signature rather than waiting for a vote by the full Board. We can certainly, still send something else from the full Board.
Speaker Cowan continued at the last Executive Committee meeting we talked about having an Executive Committee meeting to discuss the new relief act funds. Mr. Moustis pointed out that instead of waiting for our next meeting we might want to get a jump on it. Our next meeting is April 1st; but that is two and half weeks away. I am inclined to agree with Mr. Moustis and I would like start planning and talking so we have a plan ready to go. That leaves us with having a meeting the fourth week of the month. Will I have a full on revolt on my hands if I ask you to have a Special Executive Committee meeting next week? Do we want to move as quickly as possible and have something the beginning of next week?
Mr. Fricilone stated I don’t see a problem with next Thursday. We were doing the CARES Act Committee every week when we first started. If we do it next week it gives us another week until our next meeting.
Mr. Van Duyne stated we elected you as Speaker and if you feel there is a need, I will be there.
Ms. Mueller stated I am available and I think it is important we have this meeting because we need to get the help out to the people as fast as possible.
Speaker Cowan stated I would just ask that the Executive Committee members do a little reading on the relief act so you have a basic understanding of what we are looking at. We won’t know all the details, but if everybody could come in having just a little bit of understanding, write your own brainstorming list of things you would like to see or ways we want to do things this time around. I think we have the benefit of a year’s worth of experience in this. We did a great job with the CARES Act and I would like to see how we can tweak that process and be even better this time around. Please do a little homework in terms of what the relief act is, talk to people in your community, friends, neighbors and business owners and ask them where help is needed and get some interesting ideas about how we can start to structure this. With that, I want to thank everybody for coming today and for the great discussion.
X. EXECUTIVE SESSION
XI. ADJOURNMENT
1. Motion to Adjourn at 12:14 PM
| RESULT: APPROVED [UNANIMOUS]
MOVER: Mike Fricilone, Member SECONDER: Meta Mueller, Vice Chair AYES: Mueller, Fricilone, Harris, Marcum, Ogalla, Parker, Tyson, VanDuyne, Ventura, Winfrey ABSENT: Moustis LEFT MEETING: Brooks Jr. |
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