Will County Finance Committee Met April 6.
Here is the minutes provided by the committee:
I. CALL TO ORDER
II. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE TO THE FLAG
Ms. Tyson led the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag.
III. ROLL CALL
Chair Kenneth E. Harris called the meeting to order at 11:06 AM
| Attendee Name | Title | Status | Arrived |
| Kenneth E. Harris | Chair | Present | |
| Margaret Tyson | Vice Chair | Present | |
| Mike Fricilone | Member | Present | |
| Tyler Marcum | Member | Present | |
| Jim Moustis | Member | Present | |
| Judy Ogalla | Member | Absent | |
| Frankie Pretzel | Member | Present | |
| Jacqueline Traynere | Member | Present | |
| Rachel Ventura | Member | Absent |
Present from State's Attorney's Office: M. Tatroe.
IV. APPROVAL OF MINUTES
1. WC Finance Committee - Regular Meeting - Mar 2, 2021 11:00 AM
| RESULT: APPROVED [UNANIMOUS]
MOVER: Jacqueline Traynere, Member SECONDER: Jim Moustis, Member AYES: Harris, Tyson, Fricilone, Marcum, Moustis, Pretzel, Traynere ABSENT: Ogalla, Ventura |
1. Update of Sales Tax and Cannabis Tax Collections
(Karen Hennessy)
Ms. Hennessy reviewed the attachment in the agenda packet. The average is just over $100,000 per month. For planning purposes probably $1.2 million per year would be a safe bet. I have been reading in the paper that cannabis sales are going through the roof. I guess we will have to watch the revenue and see if it continues to grow. The payment we received in March was a little bigger.
Mrs. Traynere asked the county option taxes that is on any part of the county, not just the unincorporated, is that correct?
Ms. Hennessy replied yes.
Mr. Harris asked Ms. Hennessy to give an update on what the state distribution money can be used for.
Ms. Hennessy replied off the top of my head, I can’t remember, but it is quite restrictive. I believe it includes training for the Sheriff’s department. I don’t have that in front in me, but I believe it is very limited as to what we can do. We have more options for the county distribution. I can find that and send it to you and the Board Members, whatever would be easier.
Mr. Harris stated you can make a note on this spreadsheet as we go forward with the updates.
Ms. Hennessy indicated she would add that to future spreadsheets.
Ms. Mueller stated we have on the Executive Committee agenda to have a conversation about the cannabis funds, much like we did the American Rescue Plan. It would probably be beneficial for us during that conversation to know what we have to spend the state funds on so we are clear on that from the beginning of the discussion.
Mr. Palmer stated I will confirm. I agree with Ms. Hennessy, it is very restrictive for the state portion. The county options for the cannabis sales tax revenue is much more open for flexibility. I will get the requirements for the state portion, so I am accurate.
Ms. Mueller stated that would be very handy to have for that conversation, since it goes hand in hand with that discussion.
2. Update of the CARES Act Fund - Added
(Discussion)
Mr. Harris stated I was hoping to get an update on the balance left in the CARES fund and what is pending and what is obligated.
Ms. Hennessy stated I can share what I did for Leadership. This is still being reviewed, but it is the most current information I have. I am in the middle of getting the Treasury reporting done.
Mr. Moustis asked are we done with Bronner or are they going to give us some final reports? Perhaps Ms. Hennessy can update us also. Are they finished with all the programs we put in place? I think Bronner should give us a final report.
Ms. Hennessy reviewed the attached spreadsheet. The Bronner contract was not extended, but we added some money to it. I am going to share this with them today so they can double check. I used their updates for some of this. The other things the Board decided to use CARES funds for was the communications firm and the EMA assistance for the vaccine rollout. We have either spent or committed, so far, almost $117 million which gives us $3.6 million remaining. The social service and food pantries are still in process. The Board talked previously about reopening the small business grant program. However, we have no agreement in place with anyone to do that. Our ACCION agreement has ended. I was under the impression we were going to wait for the American Rescue Plan and maybe combine the two. We have to have an agreement for someone to manage that grant program. The increase to the Bronner contract is listed. Whether they will use all of that by the time this is completed, we will have to see how the timing works. The communications firm was $75,000 and we have paid $19,000, which is listed above and this is the remaining. EMA is just starting to submit invoices for the vaccine program. With all that taken care of, it leaves us with just over $100,000 unidentified or uncommitted.
Mr. Fricilone stated I know this money is in the corporate fund, but why do we show the RNG loan on that sheet? It is confusing.
Ms. Hennessy replied these are two different things. The CARES fund is on the left and the corporate fund on the right. We committed to the loan, so it has to come from somewhere.
Mr. Fricilone stated I understand, but when we are looking at the money we have earmarked for CARES projects and they are under Will County, including the morgue, it confuses me as to the remaining balance. How is there a $2 million balance when the loan, is coming from the general corporate fund, it is really not part of the CARES Act portion of that money.
Ms. Hennessy responded it has to come from somewhere. I viewed it as this is a $40 million anticipated or contingency and this would be used for this temporary loan and we need to acknowledge it. It is not CARES related, I understand but, there is only one lump of $40 million.
Mr. Moustis stated I don’t understand why you show that here. It is no longer CARES money, it is corporate money.
Ms. Hennessy replied I know it is not CARES money, but this $40 million cannot all be committed to CARES if you are going to use $13 million as a temporary loan for the RNG. It will be repaid, but I can’t control the timing.
Mr. Moustis continued the $40 million is not CARES money, it is all corporate money. We keep identifying it as CARES, but CARES paid that money to the general fund.
Ms. Hennessy stated we have a $40 million contingency and we have committed $13 million of it as a loan until we get the bond proceeds. Until we get the bond proceeds, the commitment stands.
Mr. Fricilone stated I thought we were taking it out of reserves.
Mr. Moustis stated it is reserves, it is no longer CARES money. I don’t know why Ms. Hennessy keeps showing it, it should be separate.
Ms. Hennessy stated it is separate.
Mr. Moustis stated you are showing it along with the CARES money.
Ms. Hennessy stated normally I do it separately and I apologize if there is confusion. They are two separate things; one is the CARES fund and the other is the corporate fund. I am showing the corporate fund as things we have committed the $40 million contingency for. They are listed there and I included the loan for the RNG Facility. If you want to take it off because it is going to be repaid with bond proceeds, I can do that. Currently, we have not expended it. If that is not what you want to look at, I can certainly take it off.
Mrs. Traynere stated I thought we were getting a whole bunch more money for recovery. Since we used Bronner to distribute the CARES money because we did not want to hire employees, I am unclear as to why we are not going to use Bronner to hand out the new pile of money. I get we get a lot longer to hand it out and perhaps they have done enough preliminary work for us that we know the suspects of who should be getting this money. I would like to understand why we are not continuing with Bronner.
Ms. Hennessy stated this does not address the American Rescue Plan. The Board has not decided what those funds will be committed for.
Mrs. Traynere asked are we going to rehire them?
Ms. Hennessy replied I would hope we would have them onboard. This is not something our current staff can handle without support. This does not address that at all. The additional Bronner contract was until the end of June, when their current contract expires.
Mrs. Traynere stated the way other Board Members spoke it sounded like we were wrapping this up and we were going to get a final report from Bronner.
Ms. Hennessy stated we are wrapping up the CRF funds. The American Rescue Plan is completely separate. We have not received the money nor have we received any guidance for it. I believe the Board has started to discuss options, but it seems like every time we have a discussion another bill comes forward addressing the same topics.
Mr. Palmer stated I am going to attempt to connect the dots. I appreciate Ms. Hennessy has to track all of this somewhere and you put it in this spreadsheet to do it as you said. I think the confusion comes because we have CARES money that is still technically CARES, we have defederalize money and now we have the new pot of American Rescue Plan money coming. I think that is why Mr. Harris asked for the update today, just to know where we are with the CARES funds. We can close out the CARES money; that is reported separately and once that is closed out, it is done. I think that was Mr. Moustis’ point. We are closing out the Bronner work as it relates to CARES. The American Rescue has to be a joint effort and I think the Executive’s Office will bring a proposal forward if we want to continue. Bronner was selected through a bid process. Do we want to continue the American Rescue with them and if so, we would do a separate contract. There are two distinct pots of money, the CARES money which we are discussing today and the American Rescue which we have not begun spending yet. To the point about the RNG, it has to come from somewhere. Is that even going to be used? We might get the bond sale completed and maybe get the money before we have to spend any money. I thought it was more of a contingency if the bond sales was not done, we would lend the money. That is to be determined. We don’t have to make a decision today, but it is there if they need it and we have to use money from somewhere. Chair Harris asked me and this is why we talked with Mr. Schaben about giving a report today, because several Board Members have asked where we are with spending down the CARES and the corporate fund money. To the point about the remaining balance on the corporate fund side, that was talked about before the American Rescue Plan was passed and using that to fund the business program. We were so close to passage of the American Rescue Plan that we were waiting. It could confuse some Board Members if they see $2.2 million left when it is more like $15.2 million, if you don’t do the loan.
Ms. Hennessy stated you are correct. Let’s not look at the corporate fund, because it is a separate issue. The CARES fund is on the left side. I hope by June 30th we are done with CARES, we can close it, do our final reporting and it will be over. At about that same time, I think we should be starting with the American Rescue Plan. We don’t have the money nor do we have the guidelines yet. There is not a lot we can do other than have preliminary discussions about what the Board would like to do with the money to support the community.
Mr. Palmer stated to that point, we asked elected officials and department heads to submit ideas to the Board; including other elected local governments. We asked for a soft deadline on Friday and we have only had a few submission thus far. We will have more ideas for the Board to review soon.
Mr. Moustis asked Ms. Hennessy to go back to the slide which shows the closed and open programs.
Ms. Hennessy explained this is what is pending. We are considering the local government, initial phase of the small business grants, the not-for-profits and the behavioral health closed. The only things still open are social service grants, which was the last to start and some pending food pantry support. The Board talked about reopening the small business grant program, but we don’t have anyone to work with. We would need a contract with ACCION; they have a new name, Assistance for Business, because their contract has ended. We are not able to do this on our own. The other three things are things the Board decided would come out of the CARES fund.
Mr. Moustis stated we basically have $3,539,468.50 in proposed expenditures, but it has not been expended as of yet, is that correct?
Ms. Hennessy replied correct.
Mr. Moustis continued and after those expenditures there is $118,000 left. I think we need to go back and review. I don’t remember what Bronner’s contract says, but was there a time limit?
Ms. Hennessy replied their contract ends June 30, 2021.
Mr. Moustis stated when you put $205,000 in for Bronner, is that after June 30th? Ms. Hennessy answered no, that gets them through June 30th.
Mr. Moustis asked what were they obligated to prior to that?
Ms. Hennessy replied I believe it was $660,000.
Mr. Moustis stated I think you, the State’s Attorney’s Office and others need to look at that contract to see what they are obligated to before we start giving them more money. I think there was an obligation to finish the program we set up and they agreed to that. Everything left on here, Bronner should be committed to doing.
Ms. Hennessy replied they are. They are doing the social service grants and food pantry support. They are actively working on that stuff. The end of their contract ties in with where I see the CARES fund being completely spent. I will reach out to the State’s Attorney’s Office and ask Mrs. Tatroe to look at their contract and see if there is an issue if we go beyond June 30th.
Mr. Moustis continued I don’t want to give them more money for something I feel they were already obligated to do, under the original contract. We did an extension already, so I am not so quick to give them another $200,000. The bulk of this is the social service grants, are we going to have enough demand for the $2.2 million? I don’t know if Bronner has already accumulated data on this.
Ms. Hennessy responded they have $2.7 million in interest from social service agencies. We are processing $420,000 of it, so this is the remainder. Our experience is sometimes people are interested and after pulling the paperwork together they don’t complete the grant application, but that is the interest they have had in the program so far.
Mr. Moustis stated they also may not qualify because they have gotten money from another agency, the federal government or the state.
Ms. Hennessy stated I will confirm with Bronner, where those $2.7 million applications are in the process.
Mr. Moustis stated Mr. Harris, I think Ms. Hennessy needs to give regular reports to the Finance Committee to see where we are at. Unless we are going to continue the CARES Committee to go over this, but I thought the CARES Committee was done. This cannot go on forever. Since social services is the biggest number; have we cut it off or do we continue to take applications for the grants?
Ms. Hennessy replied I will reach out to Bronner. I believe we had agreed upon a cutoff date. I hope everyone realizes it is easier to get the CARES completed and then move forward with the American Rescue Plan. Otherwise, there is too much going on at the same time. I will confirm and I will let Chair Harris know.
Mr. Moustis asked is the CARES Committee going to meet? We also have the rental assistance grant funding of $21 million and we have not discussed that. That grant is basically for rental and other utility assistance. We moved along with that because we partnered with IDHA. It would be nice to get an update on that, even if it is at the Executive Committee, since the Finance Committee will not meet again for another month. If the CARES Committee is doing work with the CARES money, I think there is a greater need for food in this County and I would rather see less money go to social services, especially if the demand is not there. I still think the two largest pending issues will be food and shelter. The $100,000 we put in for food is a pitiful amount. We need to figure out how best to do this; whether it is food pantries, popup pantries or whether we tell people to come here and we will give you a $50 grocery store certificate.
Ms. Hennessy stated we have already spent almost $1.4 million on food assistance. The $100,000 is what is left.
Mr. Moustis stated I understand that. I am comparing numbers, and I still think the two largest issues are going to be food and shelter. For shelter we received the $21 million. I still think we should put in additional funding, something that gives longer range funding. I realize we can do that with the American Rescue Plan. I would like to see from the CARES money more food type programs. Maybe the County needs to think outside the box and look at other ways of getting food to people and not just food pantries. I think an update from Bronner is absolutely needed so we know how the social service program is going.
Mr. Harris stated I like the things you are saying; I am on the same page with you.
Speaker Cowan stated I am on the same page with you. If we need to have a CARES Committee meeting to wrap this up, absolutely we can schedule that. I think Chair Harris’ purpose today was to get a clear picture, because we need the clear picture of where we stand in order to make decisions going forward. I hope, if we plan a CARES Act Committee meeting we can get the clear picture of where we stand with the funds out to all of the members ahead of time so we are prepared to make concrete and final decisions.
Mr. Moustis stated we need Bronner to give us those numbers. So it is crucial that Bronner wrap this up so we know where we stand.
Mrs. Traynere stated I want to go back to reopening the small business program and the comment about ACCION. They were involved in administering this and now they are done, is that what I heard? I know there are still small businesses that need help. I have to believe there is some way we can do something. I know there were some businesses in Bolingbrook that got turned down because they did not have the right paperwork or things were not written properly. I want to make sure we don’t lose any more businesses in Will County. We still have a sizable amount of money left in this fund, is there any way around that?
Ms. Hennessy stated the ACCION contract ended March 31st. They have reorganized and are a different organization. I don’t know if we could amend their contract. My understanding is in the American Rescue Plan we would also be doing a small business grant program. Hopefully, that will be larger because we are getting more money and we can learn from our experience with this one. I don’t know if it makes sense to do a small one now, with no support or contract with an agency, when we have not defined what we want to do going forward. The Board talked about doing another small business program with the American Rescue Plan, but there are no guidelines; there are no definitions for how the businesses would qualify, so how do we open it?
Mr. Harris stated Mrs. Traynere that is a good question. We talked about opening this up for 40 additional businesses at $10,000 each. We put a press release out that they should be businesses that would be covered under the old criteria. Now, we are waiting on the American Rescue Plan money and I am not sure we are going to be able to combine them.
Mrs. Traynere stated that was part of my question, can we do that?
Mr. Harris stated we have $118,000 left and we need to contract with a local banker or whoever can get this out for us.
Mr. Moustis stated this is why the CARES Committee needs to make this determination. I thought we did a program of $10,000 for 40 additional businesses and I thought we were committed to that and we did not waiver. These are the things we have to make sure are on the agenda, specifically to see how we wrap this up. Are we going to do the $400,000 for small business? Are we are going to leave the same criteria or are we going to expand it? Whatever we think we are going to do, we need to make final decisions because we need to close this up. That includes the $118,000 that is left. We can’t just leave it as a balance, so let’s put it into one of the programs. The CARES Committee will meet and I think it will be fairly lengthy meeting, but I think we can close it up and put a nice bow on it.
Mr. Palmer stated Chair Harris asked for a report on what was left in the CARES fund, because when we discussed this previously, we had money obligated to the social service agencies and to the food and shelter programs. At the time, numerous people said we don’t know that all of this is going to get spent. Once that was spent we would have a balance. On the sheet before us is an $118,000 balance, which is available to be spent on things. The small business program talked about by the Board, was going to be funded out of the defederalized money. There were certain elected officials and others concerned about the County allocating all this money and we defederalized it to preserve it. Never, was it said, we were going to use it for other purposes such as to fill a budget hole. It was going to be used for CARES related things. The discussion at the time was we were going to wait because even though we had the $400,000 to engage someone like ACCION to do this, it did not make sense to just do it for 40 when we were potentially going to get another $134 million. I think there were some ideas of connecting them somehow. At the time Board Members and others were talking about giving priority to those businesses who had not received any aid. I think we need to have some discussion about what exactly we want to do with the remaining CARES money and what we can do with the American Rescue. The corporate money, is being used for something else in the short term. We have to decide what we want to do with the money.
Mr. Moustis stated I think we should be focusing on the CARES money that is left. Everything else seems to confuse the conversation. Let’s just focus on the CARES money.
Mr. Palmer stated the CARES money that is left, is $118,000. If we are counting the corporate fund money that is no longer CARES money that is the money going to pay for the expansion of the business program. Because that is the only money we have available.
Mr. Moustis stated we won’t know that until we hear back from Bronner. You can take the social service money and we may only go through $1 million or $1.5 million. This is why we need to make a determination if these balances or the appropriations for these programs are going to get spent. There is a timeline here.
Mr. Palmer stated there is a timeline for the CARES money, not the corporate.
Mr. Moustis continued I am only talking about the CARES money. We need to finish that up. If we say we are going to move more money to corporate, we need to look at these programs and see if these expenditures are going to be spent, where we are and what will the new balance be based on the demand for the programs. Then decide how we are going to use that money. It can be for small business programs, additional money for food security, you can move it to corporate; whatever is decided, but let’s close the CARES fund. Let’s give Ms. Hennessy one less thing to do.
Mr. Harris stated I will get with Speaker Cowan and Mr. Palmer and come up with a date for a CARES Committee meeting to see where we are, what decisions need to be made and we will go from there. I think we have a good idea about what we have left and what is pending. My recommendation would be to move forward.
Mrs. Berkowicz stated if we have $400,000 sitting there, there are many local businesses that would like the opportunity to participate and apply and they would prefer to do it now versus in two or three months because they are struggling to keep their doors open. I would encourage the Committee, if we have $400,000 sitting there, let’s get it going. There are businesses that need it now. In two or three months they may not be here any longer.
Mr. Harris stated we have quite a few Board Members on the same page with you. Hopefully, at the next CARES Committee meeting we can make sure everything is cleared up.
Speaker Cowan stated Mrs. Berkowicz is right. I think we are all in agreement with this. This is also why the last time we talked about this, the Board directed that the applications should be reopened so we would have an idea of how many people need the funds and then we could go from there. If that process has not been executed for some reason, then we have a different conversation to be had. Apparently, there is some non-clarity on what the Board directed. I will work with staff, we will go through and figure what the Board did and when the Board directed certain steps to be taken. If they have not been taken, then we are going to have another conversation. We can have that conversation at a CARES Act Committee meeting and we will move forward from there.
VI. OTHER OLD BUSINESS
VII. NEW BUSINESS
1. Appropriating Funds in the Will County Treasurer's Budget for Reimbursement for COVID Related Expenses - Attachment Added
(Tim Brophy)
Mr. Harris stated an e-mail was sent to everyone with the new tax bills. If you have any questions, please communicate them through the channels.
| RESULT: MOVED FORWARD [UNANIMOUS]
TO: Will County Board MOVER: Jim Moustis, Member SECONDER: Jacqueline Traynere, Member AYES: Harris, Tyson, Fricilone, Marcum, Moustis, Pretzel, Traynere ABSENT: Ogalla, Ventura |
(Susan Olenek)
| RESULT: MOVED FORWARD [UNANIMOUS]
TO: Will County Executive Committee MOVER: Jim Moustis, Member SECONDER: Mike Fricilone, Member AYES: Harris, Tyson, Fricilone, Marcum, Moustis, Pretzel, Traynere ABSENT: Ogalla, Ventura |
| RESULT: MOVED FORWARD [UNANIMOUS]
TO: Will County Board MOVER: Jim Moustis, Member SECONDER: Frankie Pretzel, Member AYES: Harris, Tyson, Fricilone, Marcum, Moustis, Pretzel, Traynere ABSENT: Ogalla, Ventura |
(Tim Mack)
| RESULT: MOVED FORWARD [UNANIMOUS]
TO: Will County Board MOVER: Jim Moustis, Member SECONDER: Mike Fricilone, Member AYES: Harris, Tyson, Fricilone, Marcum, Moustis, Pretzel, Traynere ABSENT: Ogalla, Ventura |
| RESULT: MOVED FORWARD [UNANIMOUS]
TO: Will County Board MOVER: Mike Fricilone, Member SECONDER: Jacqueline Traynere, Member AYES: Harris, Tyson, Fricilone, Marcum, Moustis, Pretzel, Traynere ABSENT: Ogalla, Ventura |
(ReShawn Howard)
Ms. Howard reviewed the final levy numbers in the agenda packet.
Mr. Moustis asked does the Board set the final levy?
Ms. Howard replied the Board does not have to set the final levy. The estimated levy is set in October and these are just the final results. This is just a regular update, normally done, once we receive the report from the County Clerk's Office at the end of March. Then I provide an update in April as to what the final numbers are. This is just for your information.
Mr. Moustis asked who signs off on the final levy?
Ms. Howard responded it is the Budget Director, which would be me. Mr. Harris asked when do the budget guidelines go out to the department heads? Ms. Howard replied they will be going out later this month. The time is fast approaching. The budget planning process will get underway toward the end of next month, but the guidelines normally go out in mid-May.
7. Authorizing County Executive to Execute Necessary Documents for Delinquent Tax Program
(Jen Alberico/Julie Shetina)
| RESULT: MOVED FORWARD [UNANIMOUS]
TO: Will County Board MOVER: Jim Moustis, Member SECONDER: Mike Fricilone, Member AYES: Harris, Tyson, Fricilone, Marcum, Moustis, Pretzel, Traynere ABSENT: Ogalla, Ventura |
Mr. Harris asked Mr. Brophy to explain how the vendor for printing tax bills was selected.
Mr. Brophy stated we have been using this vendor for years. They are an expert in the printing process of combining the tax file with the required printing. We have been using The Master’s Touch long before I got here. We have not bid that out in a long time, that I am aware of.
Mr. Harris asked do we have any vendors in Illinois or possibly Will County that can do the same thing? Please look at that. When I think of diversity and inclusion I think of local businesses, especially when we have out of state vendors providing us services. Could you look to see if there is anything available in Will County?
Mr. Brophy replied we will certainly ask. This firm is in Washington. This is the fourth or fifth year we have used them.
IX. PUBLIC COMMENT
Mrs. Jakaitis announced there were no public comments.
X. CHAIRMAN'S REPORT / ANNOUNCEMENTS
XI. EXECUTIVE SESSION
XII. ADJOURNMENT
1. Motion to Adjourn at 12:05 PM
| RESULT: APPROVED [UNANIMOUS]
MOVER: Mike Fricilone, Member SECONDER: Frankie Pretzel, Member AYES: Harris, Tyson, Fricilone, Marcum, Moustis, Pretzel, Traynere ABSENT: Ogalla, Ventura |
Alerts Sign-up