Will County Democratic Caucus Committee Met March 15.
Here is the minutes provided by the committee:
I. CALL TO ORDER
II. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE TO THE FLAG
Mr. Van Duyne led the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag.
III. ROLL CALL
Majority Leader Meta Mueller called the meeting to order at 6:05 PM
| Attendee Name | Title | Status | Arrived |
| Meta Mueller | Majority Leader | Present | |
| Sherry Newquist | Member | Present | |
| Amanda Koch | Member | Absent | |
| Margaret Tyson | Majority Whip | Absent | |
| Kenneth E. Harris | Member | Present | |
| Jacqueline Traynere | Member | Present | |
| Joe VanDuyne | Member | Present | |
| Herbert Brooks Jr. | Member | Present | |
| Denise E. Winfrey | Member | Present | |
| Rachel Ventura | Member | Present | |
| Natalie Coleman | Member | Present | |
| Tyler Marcum | Member | Present | |
| Mimi Cowan | Speaker | Present | |
| Mica Freeman | Member | Present |
Present from the State's Attorney's Office: M. Tatroe.
IV. APPROVAL OF MINUTES
1. WC Democratic Caucus - Special Meeting - Feb 16, 2021 6:00 PM
| RESULT: APPROVED [10 TO 0]
MOVER: Mimi Cowan, Speaker SECONDER: Herbert Brooks Jr., Member AYES: Mueller, Newquist, Harris, VanDuyne, Brooks Jr., Winfrey, Ventura, Marcum, Cowan, Freeman AWAY: Traynere, Coleman |
VI. NEW BUSINESS
1. Discussion of County Board Agenda
Land Use & Development
Mr. Marcum stated the only thing out of the ordinary is the third resolution; which is the overturning of the decision of the Planning and Zoning Commission. It is a variance for an accessory building from 3,000 square feet to 11,098 square feet. The committee voted unanimously to overturn the PZC and therefore approving the request to overturn. Does anyone have any questions?
Speaker Cowan asked if at the full Board that is going to be a vote where we vote no to vote yes.
Mr. Marcum replied this is the one that we traditionally had issues with in the past. Usually we don’t vote to deny. The motion will be to approve the appeal; if you want to overturn you would vote yes. I will make the motion and then explain how it will work to refresh everybody.
Finance
Mr. Harris stated we have some routine items; and the Finance Report to place on file. We have eight resolutions to bring forward. We will be appropriating grant funds in the County Clerk’s FY2021 Budget. There will also be appropriation of expungement funds in the Circuit Clerk’s FY2021 Budget. The Health Department will be appropriating grant funds for them in their FY2021 Budget; this is form the IDPH for COVID-19 Mass Vaccination. There are also funds form the Health Department for the HRSA for the Will County Community Health Center. We will also be transferring money within the various county budgets; these are FY2021 items. Also authorizing funds for the Quest Food Management Services; this is the food service for the Will County Courthouse. The last item is authorizing the County Executive to execute the necessary documents for the Delinquent Tax Program.
Ms. Mueller stated I wanted to clarify to everyone that item #3 under the Finance Committee about the Cannabis Regulation & Tax Act. That is money that the State is sending to the Circuit Clerk’s Office; not money from the funds that we set up.
Mr. Harris added the County portion for the Cannabis Funds is now $502,000; it is gradually building.
Ms. Mueller stated I hope we can get a report on that at the next Finance Committee Meeting. I would like to get some follow up on how those numbers have been; if they remain consistent or are changing.
Mr. Harris stated Ms. Hennessy is the one that updates that. I will make sure that gets out to everyone.
Public Works & Transportation
Mr. Van Duyne stated we only had a few items that came through committee this month; they were pretty straight forward. Less than $300,000 contract to repair guardrails throughout the entire county; then a resolution to use the MFT Funds to pay for that. We also have authorizing the use of the County Bridge Tax funds; they are in the third phase; the County is on the hook for $20,000 of that. Lastly a resolution to approve the Professional Services Agreement with HR Green for a one year contract. They do all of our second phase engineering; it is not to exceed $735,000 for the year. Everything is pretty straight forward and not any heavy discussion.
Diversity & Inclusion
Ms. Mueller stated Ms. Tyson couldn’t be here tonight; Ms. Winfrey would you please fill in.
Ms. Winfrey said we sent our RFQ (Request for Qualifications) out for a Diversity & Inclusion Officer. We accepted a Mission Statement; our next piece will be to begin to look at the proposals that come back for the Diversity & Inclusion Officer position.
Speaker Cowan added since the one agenda item that was on Diversity & Inclusion was removed today. If you don’t mind I will go through a quick explanation of what was done and what was removed; in case people weren’t on the Executive Committee meeting today. On the County Board agenda under Diversity & Inclusion the one agenda item was the equity manager position. Last week we had a joint meeting of Diversity & Inclusion and Public Health & Safety. Out of that committee came a resolution to create a position of a diversity equity manager in the County Executive’s Office for one year time. This would be to help assure that vaccine distribution was done in as equitable fashion as possible. A number of people wanted to have greater conversation about this; we did get a draft job description from the County Executive’s Office. Today at our Special Executive Committee meeting we had a very hardy conversation about this position. Mostly it came down to where this position should be housed. I will very honest I think it should have been in the Executive’s department. My reasoning for that is this is somebody who is going to work with the Health Department, EMA who is under the Executive. With the communications department; who we have already housed with the Executive; and with community based orginizations and other departments. I felt that having the umbrella of the Executive’s Office made more since to me; because this is really a broad ranging point person who is in-between at lot departments. However, that was not the feeling of the majority of the committee members. We did hear from the Director of the Health Department Ms. Olenek who seems very supportive of the idea of bring someone on to her team. The committee voted instead of bring forward this job description and having the Executive hire this person; that we would support the Health Department doing it. The secondary to that is in a normal situation the Health Department would then ask for funding for this position. We’ve already given the Health Department $3 million bank account to drawn down on for vaccine needs. The really don’t have to come to us for anything now; which I think was also one of the questionable considerations in all of this. We take Director Olenek at her word that she is going to follow through with this. Now the Board of Health and the Health Department will come up with a job description. Ms. Olenek indicated that she would take the draft that was created on County Executive, County Board side and hew closely to that job description. They will get this rolling I hope sooner rather than later. Since it was the will of this committee to move this position to the Health Department; as we all know we don’t have control over the Health Department specifically. That is now for them to bring forward and deal with. I know some people are disappointed; like I said my feeling was different than the majority of the committee. I will say that I think overall this is a win. I think that the goal is to get somebody who is focused on equity and working towards equity when it comes to COVID-19 and vaccine distribution. We have moved the ball in that direction and I am very pleased about that. It is now up to the Health Department to follow through on that request. Therefore since all of those changes were made there was a motion made to remove from the agenda the job description and the resolution to create this position under the County Executive. This is all a little unusual they way this is all happening because as we all know as we have been dealing with COVID-19 everything has been unusual for the last year. The Executive Committee last Thursday typically as we do votes to approve the County Board agenda. Therefore the Executive Committee also has the power to change the agenda; we are more than 48 hours in advance of that Thursday meeting. The Executive Committee holds that power and to that end since the majority of the committee felt it was appropriate to move this over to the Health Department that removing the agenda item from our agenda was the appropriate thing to do. That is a very long explanation but therefore there are no items to consider under the Diversity & Inclusion Committee on our County Board agenda. Does anybody have any questions with what has transpired in the last week with that; how it happened, why it happened or where we are at now?
Ms. Mueller stated I just wanted to follow up on what Speaker Cowan was saying; I was the one who make the original motion to hire somebody and though I am a little disappointed. I do feel that we did make a good choice like Speaker Cowan said it is moving us forward. I think it goes without say that almost all of us is really to help the folks who are underserved in our community; and make sure they are protected and taken care of. I think we will be reaching that goal.
Ms. Freemen said I thought that today’s discussion was positive and I would like to think she Ms. Olenek appears to be very willing to work with us and maintain the same wording as our job description. There was a great deal of discussion about duel languages being a requirement or being by lingual which ever you prefer. I think that was a positive addition.
Ms. Mueller replied me to and I do think that Ms. Olenek is really receptive to this position. I am looking forward to see how this helps us grow in our services in our community to serve people better.
Public Health & Safety
Ms. Ventura stated we just have two renewal contracts that is all. Legislative & Judicial
Ms. Winfrey stated we are moving forward with the State Agenda; nothing unusual there.
Ms. Mueller asked if you would like to talk about HB-2804, which provides that no County Board Member may serve as a Board of Health Member. Did we ever get any follow up on that?
Ms. Winfrey stated I asked Mr. Hassert to check on that; I do not have any feedback as of yet. What Ms. Mueller is referring to is HB-2804; it was put in most likely as a retaliatory item. Somebody downstate may have been mad at somebody else down in Shelbyville; it was more specific to that area. They put it in as a State item that no County Board Member while sitting could serve; obviously it is not how we do it here; and that’s not the way we want to continue doing it. Mr. Hassert will be keeping an eye on it for us and see if it actually does move out of committee. If it goes any further then we will be filing against that.
Capital Improvements
Mr. Brooks stated I don’t have any resolutions to bring forward; as Ms. Mueller said I do have on my agenda continued discussion on the Will County Morgue and the RNG Facility.
Ms. Mueller asked Speaker Cowan to reiterate for folks about the committee that was formed.
Speaker Cowan stated we have the committee that will be hearing proposals for the Will County Morgue; design and build. It will be the County Executive or her designee. Myself, Ms. Mueller, Mr. Fricilone, Chairman Brooks, Mr. Van Duyne, Ms. Berkowicz, Mr. Pretzel and Coroner Summers. We are the folks that will narrow things down just like we did with the RNG process. We will hear the proposals; those will be open meetings so you all are welcome to attend; but those will be the voting members. Then we will shortly be also constituting a similar kind of committee for the Diversity & Inclusion position that Ms. Winfrey spoke about earlier.
Ms. Mueller stated thank you; does anyone else have any Capitol Improvement questions?
Ms. Freeman said the morgue is under Capital Improvements correct. Is this something that has been in the planning much before my joining the Board or is this a new thing and we are starting from scratch.
Mr. Brooks stated I am not sure when this came about but I know when Coroner Summers was elected in November she brought it to our attention.
Ms. Mueller stated that Coroner Summers would be happy to give you a tour; so you can see what the current facility is.
Ms. Freeman asked what the process that is going to occur is. I am new to this and it would be interesting to know.
Speaker Cowan asked Mr. Palmer if he would like to give a high level brief overview; and certainly do a more in depth explanation at some point of the process of capital projects; and how they go from idea to ribbon cutting. If you could give a quick answer to that question.
Mr. Palmer stated there was a lot of discussion about this previously because there’s multiple ways to do this. You could do a design first; and then bring back and approve the design; and then go out to bid on that. We are doing a design build on this project. This is shortening the time frame a little bit; it is still going to be bid out but it is just combining some of that together. To Ms. Freeman’s question, bids are going on the street; I think they went out today possibly. The potential bidders will come in and put a proposal forward. We will select a qualified firm first; and we will negotiate a contract. I believe the goal is for a guaranteed max price for this project. The construction firm and the design team will have to get a good price in their mind of what they can do. Once they guarantee it they’ve got to live by that price. Once we select the firm the Executive’s Office will negotiate the contract. They will bring back the final contract and the Board will approve that; and we will be on our way. It is bid out; so don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. We are going to bid it out and we are going to get the best price; but we are going to get the best product if you will, with both design and build of the facility. There has been a need for this for a number of years; but Coroner Summers really came in and made this a priority for her team. I think this board has been responsive to that request; so that is why we are moving forward. If there are any questions I will try to answer them. Mr. Tkac is really the expert on this; if you have more specific questions feel free to ask him; he really is knowledgeable about this. If you haven’t been to the Will County Morgue I can help you set that up; you will see the need when you are over there. A County of our size should have a better quality both for the employees and for the public facility.
Executive
Speaker Cowan stated we have a hearty list of 22 items on Executive Committee. We will be doing the Public Hearing on the bonds for the RNG Facility. That is the final step before we can start getting the funding that we need to get the RNG Facility up and going. Hopefully we will have some amendments for the agreement for getting the RNG Facility up and done. We have talked about this at the Executive Committee meeting today but in case anybody wasn’t there; Mr. Palmer do you want to give a high level overview of what we are waiting on.
At this juncture Ms. Coleman joined the meeting.
Speaker Cowan stated we don’t have the details on the agenda yet of exactly what the amendments are.
Mr. Palmers asked Mrs. Adams if they had been attached yet.
Mrs. Adams stated we have not received anything yet.
Mr. Palmer stated there are two agreements; one dealing with a gas contract; that is the first amendment I believe. The other is the 5th amendment to our Prairie View Landfill operating agreement. All this is existing; nothing has changed since our previous actions on this. This is just formalizing both of these. The reason this is a 5th amendment is because we have had this agreement with Waste Management for many years at the landfill since we first sited it. This is just formalizing what the Board has previously approved; via our letter of intent. That was allowing us to move forward with confidence with our RNG Plant. This is just the formal document; the lawyers have been working; and we are waiting to hear back from the Waste Management Leadership in Houston. If we have that by Thursday it can go forward; if the Board approves it. If for some reason we don’t have the final document; we talked earlier today with Mrs. Tatroe, the County Executive’s Office and I suggested that we could amend the resolution on Thursday. This gives the State’s Attorney the ability to do one final review once we get the final document. If it hasn’t changed substantially from that we can still authorize the County Executive to sign the agreement. If there was something more substantial which we don’t expect; then we would have to wait and bring it back. This is really the formal vehicle but none of the substance really has changed; it’s just the lawyers from Waste Management reviewing it and taking their time; it’s part of the process. Item 3 is just the first amendment to the gas; I think that amendment is really just siting where the actual plant is going to go on the property; I think it may have some other terms there. Nothing that I think anyone should be worried about. If Mrs. Tatroe wants to add anything.
Mrs. Tatroe stated I think you’ve pretty much covered it Mr. Palmer. It would just be subject to both the approval of Waste Management and the State’s Attorney.
Speaker Cowan stated item 4 is an amendment to the previous existing boundary with Diamond. Item 6 we heard the presentation about this at the Executive Committee; this is helping make available loans to low income first time homeowners. It is issued through McClean County Illinois; this is our IGA to allow this process to happen and afford our residence this service as well.
Ms. Mueller stated I believe it was done this way because they already had something going already.
Speaker Cowan stated items 7 through 12 were all COVID-19 related expenses that were discussed by the Cares Committee and we are moving those through completion so that they can get paid out. Item 13 is the beginning of starting our Emergency Rental Assistance program; in coordination with the Illinois Housing Authority. Everything else is fairly standard.
Ms. Mueller stated if you have any questions on number 6; I was just looking at the agenda links and it looks like it is thoroughly explained in there; so check out your agenda for answers on that one.
VII. OTHER NEW BUSINESS
VIII. COMMITTEE REPORTS
Ms. Mueller stated I know all the Chairs just told us everything that is going on your committees on the agenda; but I would like to hear about anything that is coming up in your committees that you want us to be prepared for or study up on; or what you are working on. I would like us all to keep in touch with each other on some of these things. I think it makes for a smoother transition when we are actually getting to the point of talking about these things in committees too. I would like to offer if any committee chairs right now have anything like that that they would like to share and maybe this is something we can expand on next time.
1. Land Use & Development
Mr. Marcum said Land Use has been going over our building code updates. I would recommend if you have any time to look through the building code update. There aren’t any major changes. The building code updates go into Public Hearing and part of that is our fee structure; at our last committee we had a very in depth conversation about how our fees for building permits are paid and how we calculate them. We are competitively priced low and our permits are not expensive; we are actually lowering the price. There are a few different options that we had; so if you are interested in that I would recommend going through it. That is the big thing that we started doing when the pandemic happened; this has been going on for over a year. That is always a big thing that the County has to do every few years; I would recommend that everyone looks through that in the next month or so to get your bearings.
2. Finance
3. Public Works & Transportation
Mr. Van Duyne said Mr. Palmer is the expert on this and I would like to bring up the study that we are launching; Moving Will County. We are trying to get as much input as we can from all of our residents. I think the first part had to do with the truck routing which has been complete. Now they are focused on Land Use for the County. We had a presentation a week and a half ago; I sat in on and listened to it. It was phenomenal; the mapping and everything showed where they believe different uses of land in our county should be used for. I think it is a great model for our County Board and other Municipalities throughout the County to look at this study once it is complete. That way we are all pushing in the same direction and not putting up spotty developments here and there; then we all can have kind of have one big plan. It’s very important that the residents get involved because we need their support as well; we make decisions on their behalf; we need to know what their input is. Once again I hope everybody can share it with their residents and try and get as much feedback as we can.
Speaker Cowan stated I have posted a number of times on the Caucus Facebook page a link to that website; where people can actually view the presentation video and also can take the survey. If people want to share it in their circles; go the Caucus Facebook page and look for it.
Mr. Van Duyne said I think there were over 100 people listening to the presentation that they gave the other night. If people take this serious and they want developments in certain areas; we have to get people involved. Thank you.
4. Diversity & Inclusion
5. Public Health & Safety
6. Legislative & Judicial
7. Capital Improvements
Mr. Brooks stated Mr. Palmer brought up a very good point is that we do have new County Board Members on both sides of the aisle. I talked to Mr. Tkac quite a bit on issues on my agenda. If we move forward with the Will County Morgue; in order for everybody to be informed we can invite Mr. Tkac in on this Caucus Meeting with any updates later on down the road if the new people think that it would be helpful.
Ms. Mueller stated I love that idea; and I think it is a great idea not only for the new people but for some of us that didn’t start out on ground level of building the Will County Court house and things like that. Maybe we have some questions that we want to ask too. I love that suggestion. I will probably reach out to Mr. Tkac sometime and talk about when it would be appropriate to do that.
8. Executive
Speaker Cowan stated I talked about this today in Executive Committee; we have funding now on the horizon from the Federal Government for the American Relief Act. Our understanding is and I haven’t seen this completely confirmed yet; that Will County will be getting about $135 million but I believe it is in two payments. One now and one in a year; I don’t know for sure that the split will be 50/50 but either way we have some funding coming towards us. The rules are different than they were for the CARES Fund; I think they are a little more expansive. For instance you can spend these funds on water, sewer and broadband projects; to illustrate how it is a little different then CARES Act. I think a lot of the things that we did with the CARES Act funding we can do with this too. Payments to small businesses, payments to non-profit orginizations and payments to households. What I am asking is that everyone start to think about where you see a need and how we might structure this program going forward. To that end we are going to have another Special Executive Committee meeting next Thursday; a week from the County Board Meeting on the 25th at 10:00 a.m. Executive Committee Members will start the process of discussing what we want this to look like. Whether or not you are on Executive Committee if you have ideas, feelings or plans; please bring them forward to Ms. Mueller or me; or come and voice your own opinion if you are not on the committee. I would really like to be able to see us not just retro actively writing checks to folks; which is part of this. To help small businesses that have been hurt by this; but thinking about ways that we can use this money to create some really substantial important positive changes going forward. I think it is a good chunk of change that we can really use as a building block. I hope everybody will join us in that conversation and give it some thought. I haven’t checked my email since Mrs. Adams said she was going to send out some details about the American Relief Act; when that gets there read those details do some Googling, find out about the bill. We’ll try to have some stuff presented at the next Executive Committee Meeting as well to help guide the conversations.
Mrs. Adams stated just a heads up I have not set that out yet it will probably be first thing tomorrow morning.
IX. ANNOUNCEMENTS/REPORTS BY CHAIR
1. Speakers Update
Speaker Cowan stated I am going to send out an email tonight or tomorrow that has a compiled list of every way that people can find a COVID-19 Vaccine; all of the different links. If you have one that you know of; please send it to me. I try and post on the Caucus Facebook page; I am going to send out to County Board Members a composite list.
Ms. Mueller stated thank you I really appreciate how everyone is coming to these prepared lately so we can keep moving.
X. PUBLIC COMMENT
XI. EXECUTIVE SESSION
XII. ADJOURNMENT
1. Motion to Adjourn @ 6:55 PM
| RESULT: APPROVED [UNANIMOUS]
AYES: Mueller, Newquist, Harris, Traynere, VanDuyne, Brooks Jr., Winfrey, Ventura, Coleman, Marcum, Cowan, Freeman |
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