Will County Board Republican Caucus Committee Met March 17.
Here is the minutes provided by the committee:
I. CALL TO ORDER
II. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE TO THE FLAG
Mrs. Parker led the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag.
III. ROLL CALL
Minority Leader Mike Fricilone called the meeting to order at 5:35 PM
| Attendee Name | Title | Status | Arrived |
| Mike Fricilone | Minority Leader | Present | |
| Judy Ogalla | Minority Whip | Late | |
| Jim Moustis | Member | Present | |
| Raquel M. Mitchell | Member | Present | |
| Gretchen Fritz | Member | Late | |
| Donald Gould | Member | Absent | |
| Steve Balich | Member | Absent | |
| Annette Parker | Member | Present | |
| Julie Berkowicz | Member | Present | |
| Frankie Pretzel | Member | Present | |
| Tom Weigel | Member | Present | |
| Debbie Kraulidis | Member | Present |
Present from State's Attorney's Office: K. Meyers.
IV. APPROVAL OF MINUTES
1. WC Republican Caucus - Special Meeting - Feb 17, 2021 5:30 PM
| RESULT: APPROVED [UNANIMOUS]
MOVER: Jim Moustis, Member SECONDER: Debbie Kraulidis, Member AYES: Fricilone, Moustis, Mitchell, Parker, Berkowicz, Pretzel, Weigel, Kraulidis ABSENT: Ogalla, Fritz, Gould, Balich |
VI. NEW BUSINESS
1. Discussion of County Board Agenda
Land Use & Development Committee:
Mr. Weigel stated there we no issues and all items were approved unanimously.
Mrs. Berkowicz stated the Land Use Committee had a discussion about the new cost of construction based permit fees. There was a vote. Mr. Balich and Mrs. Ogalla wanted a base fee rather than a cost of construction fee. They said it will go to public hearing. What does that mean? Do we have the ability to bring it back to have another conversation?
Mr. Fricilone replied that is not on this agenda, so it will have to go to public hearing next month.
Mrs. Adams replied Mr. Fricilone is correct. It will probably go to PZC for the public hearing and it should come back through Land Use again before it comes to the full Board.
Finance Committee:
Mr. Fricilone reviewed the Resolutions.
Public Works & Transportation Committee: No discussion
Diversity & Inclusion Committee:
Mr. Fricilone stated Resolution #21-74 was removed from the County Board agenda.
Public Health & Safety Committee:
Mr. Fricilone reviewed the Resolutions.
Legislative & Judicial Committee:
Mr. Fricilone stated we are establishing the State Legislative Agenda and opposing Bill HB2804, which says no County Board Member can serve as a member of the Board of Health. Mr. Hassert is aware of that and he is championing that cause for us to oppose the Bill.
Capital Improvements Committee: No discussion.
Executive Committee:
Mr. Fricilone reviewed the public hearing and Resolutions. Resolutions #21-79 and #21-80 we will postponing a vote. This was on the agenda because we anticipated getting back the amendments nice and clean on everything we had agreed to. That is not the case yet. They will be coming off and we will go into executive session tomorrow to talk a little bit more about that. It will probably come back next month for a vote.
Ms. Fritz arrived at this juncture.
Mr. Fricilone continued with a review of the Resolutions. On Resolution #21-98, we are well into the start of the RNG facility and part of that are transmission lines which have to be done right away; so we will be expending some money for the RNG facility now. Unfortunately, the bonding may take another two months and we need to pay some bills ahead of that. We are going to loan the department money from reserves and when we get the bonding money, it will be put back. There was a potential cost of $15 million just for the transmission lines. So we are just approving a temporary loan.
VII. COMMITTEE REPORTS
1. Land Use & Development
2. Finance
3. Public Works & Transportation
4. Diversity & Inclusion
5. Public Health & Safety
6. Legislative & Judicial
7. Capital Improvements
8. Executive
VIII. OTHER NEW BUSINESS
IX. PUBLIC COMMENTS
Mrs. Jakaitis announced there are no public comments.
Mr. Palmer stated we have been talking about a design/build at the morgue for a while and we directed the Executive’s Office to put that out. It was put on the street yesterday and then the State’s Attorney’s office said we don’t have the authority to do a design/build.
Mr. Meyers stated that was my conversation with Mrs. Tatroe. I don’t know if anything has changed. She had not spoken with the County Executive when we spoke. The statutory authority for design/build is pretty narrow. It does not include the county unless some other things occur. I am not sure we want to talk about those in an open session.
Mr. Fricilone clarified we have an RFQ out that we cannot deal with at this point.
Mr. Meyers replied that is my understanding. I am not sure what actions the County Executive’s Office is taken since Mrs. Tatroe spoke with them this morning.
Mr. Fricilone asked will we be updated on this during the executive session?
Mr. Meyers replied it may not be an executive session topic, I don’t know if we want to go through all of our legal options in a public meeting. I will ask Mrs. Tatroe to update you.
Mrs. Adams stated Mr. Tkac may have some information when he does his update on the Capital projects. I believe Mr. Kevin Lynn was able to cancel the bid since it was only on the street since yesterday and they have not received any bids. It does not require any action by the Board.
Ms. Fritz asked to be removed from the Ad-Hoc Modern Housing Committee and replaced with someone else. This Committee meets in the afternoons. My boss is flexing my mornings and I can’t ask him to flex my afternoons also. I am never going to be able to make that meeting.
Mr. Fricilone stated if anyone is interested in being on this Committee, please let me know.
Mr. Weigel stated when you talked about the loan for the RNG facility you mentioned transmission lines. Is that gas or electric lines?
Mr. Fricilone replied it is gas lines for the transmission of the gas. We have to build the lines to transfer gas from the facility to the gas company’s lines. Mr. Palmer do you remember how long that line will be?
Mr. Palmer replied I am not sure of the exact distance, but we can get it. We are doing this as a precaution. It is possible the bonds could be sold in time that we would not have to loan the money. This is being proactive just so we don’t have to stop progress on this. This will keep everything moving, so we can get the plant built and get the revenues.
Mr. Moustis asked is the pipeline going to be owned by the County? Mr. Fricilone replied I believe we voted on us owning it.
Mr. Moustis continued I am bringing this up because there is a cost to send gas through pipelines. Once that transmission line is built, there should be a fee for the gas going through the transmission line.
Mr. Fricilone asked a fee for what?
Mr. Moustis replied for sending the gas through the line.
Mr. Fricilone asked a fee to who?
Mr. Moustis continued to us. We are producing gas and we have to send it through a line, but we have partners in the RNG plant. Maybe you would consider we are taking money from one hand and putting it in the other hand and that may be correct. It is almost an internal accounting. How are you going to recoup the money for the pipeline? Is this all part of the same bonding?
Mr. Fricilone responded yes.
Mr. Moustis stated so we are bonding for the RNG plant and the pipeline is part of the RNG plant?
Mr. Fricilone answered it is part of the cost.
Mr. Moustis asked what if the pipeline was sold or bought by a pipeline company, as an example. I think the pipeline should be treated separately from the RNG plant. It is a pipeline, it is not part of the RNG plant. I know it is a cost and we have to build it. How do you look at it? I don’t see it as a part of the RNG plant. I see it as a pipeline, separate from the RNG plant, whether we own it or not.
Mr. Fricilone asked Mr. Meyers to talk with Mrs. Tatroe and advise us of your thoughts. Mr. Meyers indicated he would.
Mr. Moustis continued I may be over simplifying this, but the pipeline is a pipeline, it not necessarily part of the RNG plant. We need a pipeline to transmit; but is the pipeline separate from the RNG plant? Should it be treated separately?
Mr. Palmer replied the county owns the plant and we probably own the pipeline. The partners are operating and maintaining the plant.
Mr. Moustis asked what if a future County Board and the County decides to sell the RNG plant but we are going to keep the pipeline. What I am saying is the pipeline is separate from the RNG plant. This is something that may be an issue down the road. We should set this up and structurally the pipeline should be treated separate, differently than the RNG plant; it is not part of the RNG plant it is a pipeline.
Mrs. Ogalla arrived at this juncture.
Mr. Fricilone indicated the State’s Attorney’s office would take a look at this and see what the ramifications would be if we kept those two items together or do them separately.
Mr. Weigel stated the federal government is pushing solar and wind energy. They say gas energy is polluting the air and they want to eliminate that down the road. Are we really going to have this plant for 30 years or whatever we are basing our bonds on?
Mr. Moustis stated there is not enough wind or solar to run the country.
Mr. Fricilone stated they will eliminate oil before they eliminate gas. I think we have enough time on that.
Mr. Palmer stated Mr. Brett Garson just shared a story that biofuels are taking off right now. I think it is an up and down market.
Mr. Fricilone stated I saw the RINS are going up.
Mr. Palmer stated we need a few years to pay off the plant and then we will start to see some revenue.
Mr. Fricilone stated what has been key to me is; we need to pay the bonds off as early as possible. The faster we pay it off, the plant is taken care of, it is covered and if something happens down the line, we would just shut it off, but it will be paid off from the proceeds we are getting.
Mr. Moustis asked is the bond issue going to be structured that way?
Mrs. Johannsen replied we intend on paying the bonds off as early as possible; if we could, in five years. There are no pre-pay penalties and that was the way we were going to structure it depending on the costs.
Mr. Moustis asked are you doing a 10-year bond issues callable in 5-years? Generally, we have not structured our bond issuances that way. We should make sure that is what we are doing. Is Wells Fargo doing this?
Mr. Schaben replied I believe so, but I can check.
Mr. Moustis continued it has to be Wells Fargo because they are the only ones we have authorized. Is anyone else authorized to do bond issuance for the County? There may have been another company we said we could use.
Mrs. Johannsen stated I think you are right, but we can look into it. I don’t have that information in front of me.
Mr. Moustis stated we can structure the bonds in different ways and we don’t have to do just one issuance. We can do $10 million of bank eligible issues.
Mr. Fricilone replied we are not doing that.
Mr. Moustis asked should that be considered? If the pipeline is only $10 million; maybe you do a bank qualified issued for the pipeline and a different issue for the plant.
Mrs. Johannsen replied I don’t think we were doing that, but I can find out.
Mr. Moustis stated I am sure it was not contemplated or even suggested. There are different ways of looking at it. For a bank qualified you might be able to do a five year bond issue, recallable at any point without penalty. Who has had the discussion about the structure? Are they just telling us what to do?
Mrs. Johannsen replied I believe Ms. Hennessy wanted several scenarios from them.
Mr. Fricilone asked Mr. Palmer to remind him to talk about that at the Leadership meeting and we will get it on one of the Committee agendas so we can get an explanation of what the thoughts are.
Mr. Palmer stated I was just looking at the bond ordinance. Tomorrow we are authorizing to go forward, we are not authorizing structure yet. We will check out what Mr. Moustis is asking.
Mr. Fricilone stated we will ask the Executive Committee to have a discussion about the proposal from the Executive’s Office.
Mr. Moustis stated when I was more involved we talked about the structure with Wells Fargo and we talked about different structures and we should do that.
Mrs. Ogalla stated I can’t believe the movement to green energy is going to move as fast as they think or as fast as they would like it to move. I just don’t see it happening. I think moving forward with the RNG plant is a good idea.
Mr. Fricilone stated I agree. I am on the Energy Generation subcommittee for the updated energy and conservation plan that we are working on. We started ranking different types of energy and actually ranked nuclear first because it is the cleanest. A lot of people are against that because they think it is a nuclear bomb. It is the cleanest and most efficient gas and energy producer. There are going to be a lot of changes in the next several years, but gas is not going away. Nuclear can produce a lot of energy with no emissions at all.
Mrs. Ogalla stated I wanted to talk about a discussion we had at Land Use. The Committee is looking at going over different ordinances and permit fees.
Mr. Fricilone stated we talked about that. It is going to public hearing during the PZC meeting.
Mrs. Ogalla stated I was really opposed to them doing the permit fees based on construction costs. If two people are building 1,800 square foot homes and one person is building a home with vinyl siding and laminate counter tops, their construction costs will be less than someone building with brick and granite, even though the house would be the same. I think it is unfair to charge anybody for something where the work done by the Land Use Department is nearly identical. This came from members who support the Modern Housing Committee. There were comments about not wanting to have slumlords coming in. It is the most ridiculous thing ever. If they want to be fair, then I think we need to be fair to everybody. I certainly hope we can get some people to speak at the public hearing because it is unfair to put the fee based on construction costs, especially when the cost of two by fours have gone up astronomically. The cost of the materials have gone up so the cost of construction will be much higher than it was a couple of years ago. Why would the permit fee be based on that? The permit fee should be based on the work done by the Land Use inspection people.
Mr. Moustis agreed. I think that using a flat fee or square footage fee would be more appropriate. We should not be charging more because commodity prices have gone up.
Mrs. Berkowicz stated I shared that when one of the subdivisions going up in my district put the sign in the ground last year the homes started in the $300,000. If you go to that development now to buy a home the homes start in the $400,000. They have not made the houses any larger, it is basically the same house but because of the rising costs they cannot build the house for the same price anymore. That is hard for the residents and the people who are paying taxes. It is hard for everybody involved. Our permit fees are going to rise if we keep that type of formula and it is defeating the purpose. I think it would be good for us to encourage a base price based on a flat rate or square footage. I agree with this.
Mr. Fricilone stated there will be a public hearing at PZC and it will come back to the Land Use Committee for more discussion.
Mr. Moustis stated the public hearing is for everyone and we should make sure we go to the public hearing, I’m talking about the caucus to give comment why we feel this may not be the way to go. For example, I replaced the windows in my house and I bought good windows and they cost $30,000. I could have replaced them for $15,000. The inspection was not any more. When they did the inspection they came out and looked at the exterior of the house and approve it. It did not matter how much I spent for the windows, the inspection was the same.
Mr. Fricilone stated we will need to make sure we have someone from our caucus there.
X. CHAIRMAN'S REPORT / ANNOUNCEMENTS
Mr. Fricilone stated I was at the Board of Health meeting today. The Executive Committee decided to move forward with the vaccine equity coordinator, but to put it under the Health Department, rather than have the person report to the Executive’s Office. Ms. Olenek was okay with that. We also said, at the Executive meeting, since we have allocated $3 million and they have not used it all yet, they can just take the money from there. Ms. Olenek brought that forward today to the BOH. They still have to approve her hiring the person, they did not do that today because she doesn’t have the job duties laid out. I don’t know if she was using job description Mr. Palmer and the Executive’s Office worked on. It sounded like Ms. Olenek was tweaking that. Once she gets it finished she is taking it to the Committee meeting next week and more than likely they will approve it and start moving forward. The other good news was I got to see the updates to the website with the communications director and with all the work they are doing at the BOH. The website will be going live in the next day or two. It looks very good. It is very user friendly. It gives information about how many vaccines were given, who got them and there are big areas to click on to register if you haven’t registered. There is a lot of information in a very user friendly form. They have also done some branding. It is We Will Win with the “I” in Will being a syringe. They have green flags with that logo on them that will be placed at every location giving out vaccines so people know as they are driving through their neighborhoods where they can get the vaccines. If they have not looked at the website that will detail all the information out for them. It is another way to let people in Will County know we are doing everything we can. I am sure we will get a presentation on that at the Public Health meeting. The vaccine equity coordinator should be approved next week at their committee and they will then move forward.
Mr. Weigel asked is that a temporary position?
Mr. Fricilone replied it is a one-year position. It is not being called temporary, but it was authorized for one year.
Mr. Moustis asked did they talk about the call center and how that is going?
Mr. Fricilone replied I think they did, but I had to take a call so I did not get the information.
Mrs. Parker asked was it a one year position or a six month position with an extension? Mr. Fricilone replied it was a one year position.
Mrs. Ogalla stated that is what came out of Public Health because that is what Ms. Ventura wanted. At the Executive Committee we talked about it being a six month contract person with the ability to extend. What person thinks we will need this position for a year? Is this person going to be a consultant or an employee?
Mr. Fricilone responded I believe it is going to be an employee.
Mr. Schaben stated the new website should be up and running tomorrow at noon. There will be a weekly communication that goes out to everybody who has registered through the Health Department website and it will have a whole lot of information, but ultimately will refer them back to the website where there will be an updated blog. The blog is being updated almost daily with numbers, who to call and all the information a person will need to know where to get vaccinated. Finally, they are working on what we are calling a communication tool kits. Next week we will be sending information to the County Board Members, Mayors and all our elected officials showing what to post on Facebook and what to send out through e-mail. It will be your internal tool kit so you can share it information as well. We hope to have that available next week.
Mr. Fricilone stated those updates Mr. Schaben mentioned will eliminate and take the place of Ms. Olenek’s update. It is a very good and user friendly site that should be easy to navigate for anyone who does this on-line. Was there an update on the call center?
Mr. Schaben replied we are getting weekly updates from the call center. Last week they fielded on a low day just under 1,000 calls and that includes both scheduling calls and general questions from the hotline. On the high end they took about 1,300 calls. It is pretty consistent in terms of numbers right now. The feedback from the call center group is as communications go out about the Monee and Wilmington sites, the calls spiked. There is a correlation as information is being presented to the public they are seeing an increase in calls.
XI. ADJOURNMENT
1. Motion to Adjourn at 6:23 PM
| RESULT: APPROVED [UNANIMOUS]
MOVER: Annette Parker, Member SECONDER: Jim Moustis, Member AYES: Fricilone, Ogalla, Moustis, Mitchell, Fritz, Parker, Berkowicz, Pretzel, Weigel, Kraulidis ABSENT: Gould, Balich |
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