Will County Democratic Caucus Committee met May 18.
Here are the minutes provided by the committee:
I. CALL TO ORDER
II. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE TO THE FLAG
Ms. Traynere led the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag.
III. ROLL CALL
Majority Leader Meta Mueller called the meeting to order at 6:03 PM
| Attendee Name | Title | Status | Arrived |
| Meta Mueller | Majority Leader | Present | |
| Sherry Newquist | Member | Present | |
| Amanda Koch | Member | Present | |
| Margaret Tyson | Majority Whip | Present | |
| Kenneth E. Harris | Member | Present | |
| Jacqueline Traynere | Member | Present | |
| Joe VanDuyne | Member | Absent | |
| 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 States Attorney's Office. P. Mock
IV. APPROVAL OF MINUTES
V. OLD BUSINESS
VI. NEW BUSINESS
1. Discussion of County Board Agenda
Ms. Mueller stated the first thing I wanted to let you folks know; after a few conversations with both Mr. Fricilone and Speaker Cowan about honorary resolutions and proclamations; the three of us agreed that we would only move forward with proclamations, if all three of us are unanimously in agreement. We are trying to keep things more to what we do in the county; and a little less things outside of our county jurisdiction. Speaker Cowan may have some comments regarding this as well. The only proclamation that we have is recognizing Julie McCabe Sterr on her retirement. Does anybody have any questions about that?
Ms. Traynere said I just wanted to say that I think that is a wonderful idea.
Ms. Ventura said I have no problem as a group if that is what we decide. It just seems weird to me; because the times that the Republicans had majority nobody censored them on any resolutions. I would just question if it is the betterment of everything; or is it that they don’t want Democrats talking about things that matter? I know you’re saying if it doesn’t affect the county; then by all means perhaps that’s the way we go. We weren’t given that opportunity when we didn’t have the majority. I’m not sure that giving away our power to the Republicans is the best solution; I just wanted that on record.
Ms. Mueller stated their response to this news from their Caucus Leader was that they want to abolish the proclamations all together. Speaker Cowan did you want to give any input on this?
Speaker Cowan responded no; I though you explained it very well.
Ms. Traynere said to tag on to what Ms. Ventura said; you are always welcome to say what you want to say in County Board Member Comments at the end of the meeting. You can talk about whatever you want to talk about. You can read your own proclamation; although it isn’t an official proclamation. Certainly we have seen the Republicans do that on more than one occasion.
Ms. Mueller said that is a great point; you are right in our board rules; we all have three minutes to do Board Member Comments. I would strongly say use that wisely; but at the same time that is a spot that each of us does have the right to speak on our proclamations; or things that we feel strongly about. We are going to move onto Land Use. Mr. Marcum do you have anything you want to go over with us?
Mr. Marcum stated it is a pretty easy month. We have two planned unit developments; one is on Hollyhock Ln. in Wilmington. The other one is on Cherry Hill Rd. in District 8; they both passed committee unanimously. We also had a request for a special use permit for outdoor storage with one condition; that was in Plainfield at 12045 Spaulding School Drive.
Ms. Mueller said next we have Finance Committee.
Mr. Harris stated I will be placing the monthly Financial Report on file; I have four resolutions to bring forward. One is appropriating funds for the purchase of additional body cams for the Sheriff’s Department. The other is designating First Secure Bank & Trust Company of Mokena as a County Depository; I believe it was a name change that the Treasurer's Office needed. We have two standard transfers; one is appropriating money within FY2021 County Budget; the other is authorizing the County Executive to execute the necessary documents for the Delinquent Tax Program. The next meeting is scheduled for June 1, 2021.
Ms. Mueller said next we are going to move on to Public Works & Transportation Committee; Ms. Newquist since you are Vice Chair do you want to handle this. Mr. Van Duyne told me it was all pretty standard items for this month.
Ms. Newquist stated it was; we really didn’t have much discussion at all. The only thing that might need a little bit of explanation is item # 9; authorizing approval of abandonment and declination of dedication of a portion of 143rd St. From what I recall; we had a right of way and essentially we don’t need all of it; We are giving some of it back. Everything else was pretty cut and dried. Mr. Ronaldson is going to ask for approval of Transportation Improvement Program that he has presented. Although I am not 100% sure if we are going to vote on that; or if he is going to present it; does anyone know?
Mrs. Adams stated I don’t think that moved forward to the full Board this month. I think it will be coming back to committee next month before it comes to the full Board.
Ms. Mueller stated next we have Diversity & Inclusion Committee.
Ms. Tyson said good evening everyone; the County Executive is going to bring forth the resolution to negotiate a contract with the Diversity & Inclusion Consultant. That is what is going to happen on Thursday; I can’t wait I am so excited. That concludes my report.
Ms. Traynere said you said the County Executive is going to bring forth a resolution; usually we bring forth the resolution; and the resolution is giving the County Executive permission to negotiate the contract. Did I misunderstand?
Ms. Tyson replied that is what I said; the County Executive wrote the resolution. Maybe she wrote it on our behalf.
Mrs. Adams stated Ms. Traynere you are correct; the County Board is authorizing the County Executive; as we normally do.
Ms. Mueller stated I am excited about this too. Next we have Public Health & Safety.
Ms. Ventura said we have a resolution; if we pass it that will authorize Sunny Hill to temporarily open up to non Will County residents. There was already a resolution on the books; but it was to lower that amount. We haven’t reached that bed amount; I think it was 156 or 170; we are just giving that authority. They are doing a PR push first; to make sure the people of Will County are aware that these beds are open. This is only for six months; then we will revisit it if we still need to fill beds at that time. We then can extend it for another six months, or look at the wording of it. If the waiting list of individuals on there are from Will County; and have decided that they do want a bed and we fill that; then we might go ahead and do away with that after the six months. That will be coming forward; we also have the quarterly report for Regional Office of Education if you would like to highlight that to read. The CDC and our Will County Health Department did put out a press release recently about the wearing of masks. I thought it would be good to just highlight one or two sentences from that press release; so people understand the restrictions for fully vaccinated individuals; and what that means for some places you don’t have to wear a mask.
Ms. Traynere asked who our Communications Department is; we received a flier about the J & J Vaccine and there were missing letters and typos.
Ms. Ventura said that particular press release came from the Health Department. The Forge is working with the Executive to get information out. I believe that neither of those agencies gave us the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. Maybe Mr. Palmer can answer about communications; because it is supposed to be Mack Communications.
Mr. Palmer said I think the thing you are referring to came from the HR Department; I can double check.
Ms. Traynere stated Regina Malone sent the email out; but she claims that it was being sent back to the Communications Department for corrections. Who is the Communications Department; I’m just curious.
Mr. Palmer replied if it’s the Executive Branch; they have staff and they have consultants working for them on some of these projects. For the County Board we have Gary Mack.
Ms. Traynere stated maybe they sent a draft not the final. I didn’t know we had a Communications Department and that was her response to me; she was sending that back to the Communications Department.
Mr. Palmer stated we have always had communications staff in the Executive’s Office; for all of the County Executive I believe. There are Public Communications Officers, a communications person. The County Board has always employed a consultant; some things are done internally. That particular item that you are referring to; I don’t know where it originated, but it was the HR Department that distributed that. Ms. Malone is the Assistant HR Director.
Speaker Cowan said I don’t know how we get more information about this; but the Health Department press release about mask wearing that Mr. Tidwell sent out to us. I was a little confused by that frankly; because it came out before the Governors announcement; it doesn’t reference the Governors announcement. Frankly, it is not lining up with what the Governor said. I am not saying that the Health Department has to do exactly what the Governor says. It seems it was written before they took into account what the Governor was saying. It was emailed to us within minutes of when the Governor was speaking. I don’t know how we can get some clarification about that.
Ms. Traynere stated I missed that one; who sent that one?
Speaker Cowan replied Mr. Tidwell and it is titled Mask Wearing.
Ms. Ventura stated I do believe that Mrs. Adams sent it out to us. I think ultimately there is just going to be confusion. I was at a place yesterday that still had the sign up; then the next one said fully vaccinated didn’t need a mask. Until businesses change their signage I think people will be compelled to follow the sign on the business regardless of the State. I just thought I would highlight the points that the Governor made; if you are fully vaccinated after two weeks of getting your second vaccine or the Johnson & Johnson first vaccine; that in some places you do not have to wear a mask. I was going to take the quote out of there and read that one. If you prefer me not to I can; I am just trying to get more information out to the public.
Mrs. Adams stated it was sent out Monday at 3:14 p.m. it went out to the Full Board.
Speaker Cowan stated it says to maintain status quo; that’s not what the Governor said to do. I don’t want to as the County Board be either saying don’t follow what the Governor said, or what the Health Department says.
Ms. Ventura said it says status quo to mean; what I just said if a store has a sign on the door it is their store; wear the mask. The Governor is saying if you are fully vaccinated after two weeks you don’t have to wear a mask in those places is what his press release said. His press release didn’t specify the other places were that you did have to keep wearing one. It was also equally confusing.
Speaker Cowan stated what I am saying is that status quo does not mean what you just said. It very clearly says in the press release that Ms. Olenek says that businesses an organizations should continue to require mask wearing and social distancing. That is not what the Governor said. This press release came out before the Governor made his statement. I don’t know if the Governors statement trumps what our Health Department says because it came after. Or if our Health Department still disagrees with the Governor. I don’t want to muddy the waters on that. Maybe we need Ms. Olenek to weigh in and clarify at some point before we weigh in.
Ms. Ventura stated I will make a comment; the Governor did say if you are not vaccinated you are to follow those guide lines. I won’t make the comment at the County Board Meeting; we will get clarification; I think that’s a fair point. We can clarify it at the next Public Health & Safety committee meeting.
Ms. Mueller stated I appreciate the point that you are making Speaker Cowan; I think it is important to have consistency in messaging. It seems it is all for naught if we are not consistent. Ms. Winfrey could you go ahead for Legislative & Judicial.
Ms. Winfrey said I was out of town last week; Ms. Coleman filled in for me. If there is anything special she will give that update. I will just remind people we have arranged for everybody to get the updates from Curry & Associates that gives you all of the bills that are going through the State right now; and what their status is. It is also available on your ISACo News and Views letter; you should be up to speed on that. If you have some special things that you want to put forward; some bills you want to put forward or a bill you are questioning or challenging; let me know that and we will have Curry & Associates take care of it for us. Or if it is at a federal level we will have Smith Dawson take care of it for us. Ms. Coleman if you are on and you have something else to add go ahead.
Ms. Coleman stated she had nothing else to add.
Speaker Cowan stated I see that on the agenda the County is opposing SB-1602; I just checked the status and it has been in assignment since February 26th. I don’t think it is going anywhere; could you explain exactly why we want to oppose the spirit of the bill. Could you explain what our opposition is?
Ms. Winfrey said SB-1602 is the Land Use bill; it takes the authority away from the County as to how we manage Land Use.
Mr. Palmer stated it came both from Julie Curry and some of the other Counties in the State, but also a few Board Members were made aware of this. It is removing some of the local control on this issue. I used the example at Committee of cell towers in past; there’s restrictions in municipalities but in the unincorporated areas there aren’t as many restrictions. Some of those are just outside of municipal boundary. In this case this is about wind farms; it is probably not as relevant to Will County because we don’t have massive wind farms like other parts of the state. In some parts of the state it has windmills that are as large as the St. Louis Arch. This is largely a local control issue; it is limiting the comment times and the ability to take action. There is a fear that the provisions are going to get inserted into the Energy Bill that is being moved through; so that people won’t notice or won’t vote against the bill and this gets inserted. We as a county are just stating our position to maintaining local control and jurisdiction.
Ms. Mueller stated we are now going to move on to Capital Improvements.
Mr. Brooks stated I don’t have any resolutions to bring forward. We do have ongoing discussions about the RNG Plant and new to the table for discussion is the over cost of the Will County Courthouse; we will be furthering that.
Ms. Mueller stated we will move on to Executive Committee.
Speaker Cowan said the first thing is the potable water supply. Mr. Mock would you like to give us an update on this one at all.
Mrs. Adams stated I spoke with Mrs. Tatroe and I am not sure if Mr. Mock has been brought up to speed on that. Mrs. Tatroe had some issues with this; we will have to hold a public hearing since it was published. Mrs. Tatroe is asking us to just remove that item from the agenda. She will research it; she wants to make sure that notification has gone out to all of the residents. We haven’t gotten confirmation on that. She said if you could just remove it from the agenda and we will bring it back at a later date.
Speaker Cowan stated #3 is the Agricultural Area committee discussion. I know we’ve had tons of discussion about this; I don’t know if anyone has and outstanding questions on this subject?
Mr. Harris stated I do; I have just read through the minutes from the Executive Committee; It moved forward without recommendation. I have had some time to think about it; I have had some conversation with Mrs. Ogalla and I am not clear as to why it is needed. I am not sure what this will accomplish.
Speaker Cowan said I am on the same page as you Mr. Harris.
Ms. Freeman said I have been also giving this some consideration; we already have steps to protect the agricultural area in the zoning department. I am not sure why we would need this. I am afraid that this might tie up things for the landowners and any progress. I have definite reservations with this.
Ms. Newquist stated I have to really be on the fence about this; one of the things that I talked to Mrs. Ogalla about; for example I asked her is this something that her husband and she would consider for their farm? I didn’t really want a yes or no answer; I really wanted to know what her thought process was. She brought up something that I hadn’t really thought of; her point was her farm would probably not be approved by the committee. Due to its location and other developable areas around it. I never really thought about it that the committee would have to approve anybody who applied to be in this Agricultural Area. That raised a whole bunch more questions for me; like what would the criteria be for approval, what if somebody doesn’t get approved. I did look over the information and everything but I still don’t really understand how this is any different than just saying no you don’t really want to sell your land. Other than the ad valorem taxes and the idea that you could prevent your kids from selling for a number of years if you passed away. I am still on the fence about it; if anyone has some more insight I am open to it.
Ms. Ventura stated I guess I don’t understand the reservation; you have to sign up for it like Ms. Newquist just said; then the committee has to approve it. We have had this before in the County; the farmers are the ones asking for this. The Farm Bureau is supporting it; nobody is saying they are against this. Why are we not allowing the farmers to be represented in the way they wish to be represented? We did this once before in the 70’s; if this is what they want then I will be voting for it because the representatives coming forward are saying they want this. We have been told it is not going to hold up development or anything like that. If the farmers want a protected area then let them have a protected area.
Ms. Traynere said I heard Ms. Newquist say something and I do need some clarification. So I own a farm and its 100 acres; it’s in this protected area; and I croak and I leave it to my kids. I don’t think I should have the right by law mandate what they do with the land. If say in my will please don’t do anything; can I say in my will you have to hold it for x number of years. But if somebody just dies I don’t quite understand how they get held up for selling land that they might just need the money to pay the taxes. That is just poor estate planning.
Ms. Ventura stated they can still sell the land; it just has to remain as farmland until it is removed by the committee.
Ms. Mueller said that is not true; they have to still leave a certain percentage in that area. I am going to be no on this. I am not in favor of tying future generation’s hands on what they can do with property that they rightfully own. Sorry, honestly it feels to me like what we are being asked to do is put people in a position voluntarily to let other people around them decide what they’re going to do with the property that they own. What if you don’t like the person and you just decide you are going to hold up their property sale. That is a legitimate concern; well tell me that can’t happen, yes it can. It has happened before.
Ms. Traynere said unless that gets clarified somewhere I just don’t see myself voting for it. I don’t want to tie the hands of a future generation. I just got done trying to finally sell a piece of land that my parents owned when they died; it was just a lot of work.
Ms. Ventura said Mrs. Ogalla is on the meeting and would be happy to answer any questions; but she is an attendee.
Ms. Mueller stated Mrs. Ogalla can wait until public comment.
Speaker Cowan said the only other monkey wrench I’ll throw into this is that we are still trying to figure out if we might be legally required to do it; updates to come. We also have what we met about today; which was the potential purchase of the YMCA building for a VAC project. I am sure that conversation was fairly fresh; if you weren’t able to attend the Special Executive Committee today and you have questions about what that is, or what we are doing. I am happy to take questions about that right now.
Ms. Newquist said I wasn’t at the meeting so if you could give a one minute high level explanation that would be great.
Speaker Cowan said the Smith YMCA building is for sale; it is on the Southeast side of Joliet. It is in Ms. Winfrey and Mr. Brook’s District 8. The building is up for sale; instead of just a normal real estate sale where you bid and you’re accepted or not. They want proposals on what you are going to do with the building and the land. That proposal is in the form of a letter of intent. These letters of intent are due to the YMCA by Friday. It is not a contract and it’s not a final real estate sale by any means. Kristi Mc Nichol and some of our other county departments put together a proposal that this would be turned into veterans housing and a food hub. The food hub would really be about production, distribution, and providing services in a food desert. This is all in that letter of intent they need to demonstrate that they have funding and the ability to purchase the building; if their offer is essentially selected. They are projecting they will need about $3.5 million; that was sort of the ask today. The letter of intent sets out what we would need to do in terms of due diligence before we would enter into a contract with them as well. If their offer was selected their closing date could possibly not be for six months. This letter of intent moves this process along; and allows the County to be considered for this slot. One of the things we talked about today was the language in the letter of intent; it gives us an out if this isn’t right for us. I felt pretty good; the State’s Attorney Chris Wise was talking about what the letter of intent wording was; I felt pretty good about what he offered to us in terms of that. He seemed fairly confident about what they were crafting in order to protect the County. I feel we still need to work that out the details of the program. There is some planning, some approval process, and the regular process of how we go about these things still need to be followed. We had this special meeting today because of the time line of the deadline of the letter of intent. Normally, I think we would all be more comfortable with a longer timeline with this kind of thing. We could hash out the details in the process that we are familiar with. But we also didn’t want to let this opportunity go by if it was something we wanted to consider. We did vote in Executive Committee; there was one no and the rest were yeses on moving this to the full County Board. The full County Board is going to be voting on whether or not to issue this letter of intent for this project.
Ms. Traynere said I guess we are in competition with some other potential use proposals; did I understand that correctly.
Speaker Cowan stated I don’t think we know what the other ones are. I know Mr. Palmer called over there to ask some questions.
Mr. Palmer said I talked to the CEO of the YMCA; and as Speaker Cowan said they didn’t do a formal bid process. They actually tried to do an appraisal; so that they could get ready for bidding. It is kind of a unique building; it is not like selling a house where there are a lot of comps. I was hoping that we were the only one interested; she informed me there were quite a few that were interested. We can’t just offer whatever as a governmental body; we have to do an appraisal. My hope was if we wanted to do this; we put in a letter of interest. The State’s
Attorney had a lot of provisions; we have to go through a process. We would do an appraisal, we would negotiate a final price; this is not the final action on this. This is more to keep the County in the game for this property. Worst case scenario; this doesn’t work out and we can do this somewhere else. This is a time sensitive item because this property is on the market even though it doesn’t have a sign out front; there are other people interested allegedly. They are going to have a committee to review these letters of intent and then decide who is worth pursuing. The County has a significant chunk of change that we could spend on this if we wanted to; we are not doing that by this action. I think we could potentially stand out as a more favorable buyer than most.
Mr. Brooks said to answer the question about other interests; there are other interests. There is a church a couple of blocks north of that facility; I am part of a group of clergy that are interested, and are putting their bit coins together in trying to buy it. However, I think Mr. Palmer is absolutely right; there is no bidding process. When they do apprise the project for themselves; I do believe a lot of those interested parties will be knocked out of the box. I do believe the Veteran’s Project is one of the best offers that they have right now. I don’t think the others will be able to come up with the money. But to answer your question there are other non for profit agencies that are interested that I don’t think will have a chance.
Speaker Cowan stated the other thing in the appointments; we did have some discussion about CBDG under appointments letter L, Michael Simelton. He is not a Will County resident; he is the head of the Joliet Housing Authority so I believe his appointment was in that capacity. There was some concern about him not being a Will County resident. Any questions about that?
Ms. Ventura stated I did talk to the County Executive about this. I do believe the second in charge is a Will County resident. I had suggested maybe just putting them on; nobody else seems to have an issue with it. I just feel that it is a principle issue; we have somebody else who represents that organization. My understanding is the CBDG Board says that he is the top person of that organization; like a mayor of a city for example. I am not looking to split hairs so if everyone else is fine that he doesn’t live in Will County but the second in charge does. I do think if at all possible; if there are people who live in Will County that is who appointments should go to. I think that is a principle that we should have. That is why I raised the concern; but nobody else seems to be concerned about it.
Ms. Mueller said if there are no other questions then let’s move on to other new business.
VII. OTHER NEW BUSINESS
Mr. Marcum stated my only thing is as a Caucus we are coming up on decision time on the number of people we would like to see on the Board; so we can move forward with a number in mind that we can all agree on. I personally very strongly dislike 13 Districts with 2 people. As a Caucus we need to decide what we want. If you really love 13-2; we can formulate an idea of what we need to do going forward. We need to hear from everybody with your preference.
Ms. Mueller state I think that Ms. Tyson and I can work on that with everyone and have some conversations.
Ms. Venture state I am going to echo what Mr. Marcum said. I am not comfortable with 13-2; I listened to the argument that Mr. Pretzel put out there today about how smaller districts would make it harder to represent people; I completely disagree. All of the questions he asked; I thought aligned better with our constituents. If you have a smaller district you have more time and energy to spend on each individual person. You have more time to go to events; whether it’s Community Neighborhood meeting, Township meetings, or City meetings. I run into the issue that Joliet has their meetings on some of the days as Crest Hill. I have to make a decision on which meeting I can go to. This means I am splitting my time with representatives. If I had a smaller district like I saw today it only included Joliet. I could easily make the decision to show up at the Joliet meeting; represent my constituents, be open for them and handle 33,000 as opposed to the 46,000. Even some of the questions that came up today doesn’t support the 13-2 map. We have an opportunity to keep communities of interest together, have better representation across the board. Whether you are talking about communities of interest or racial divide or whatever. We have the ability right now to create a map for 10 years. I think it is our responsibility to make sure we are creating fair maps and getting on the same page. I don’t think we are doing any justice to the county if we just say nobody can figure anything out so we will do 13-2 because it is the least change. We never grow unless we are in a place of uncomfortableness. I am going to ask everyone to be a little more uncomfortable and really take a hard look. If you really cannot stand a single district now is the time to say it. I think we need to come together as a Caucus and decide what we would like to see for the next 10 years. I truly believe smaller districts can help us best represent them; it can help us get a handle on what is happening on all of the county issues; and be more engaged as a County Board Member. I am pushing heavily for a single district; if that means we need to somehow come up with a different map then let’s have that conversation in the next day or two and flush that out. But to just sit back and say let’s just keep doing what we have always done. That is not why I ran; I hope that is not why you ran. It is our turn to do it; and we need to do it together. Please reach out if you are a 13-2 person and talk about what you might want to do in order to get on board with a single member district.
Ms. Mueller said I will say we are too large as a 26 member board. I am not a fan of the 13- 2 Board either; I do like smaller districts. I find it fascinating that today we have two member districts; when we have all kinds of people who run one district. Granted they
have staff and they have all of these extra people. It was very interesting to hear all of the backup that was needed by folks that generally don’t want that kind of support. The 21 District map was very intriguing to me today; I am not sure if 21 is low enough for me. I would have preferred to see 19. It is a small enough number to me; and it is not divisible by two. To give you some background that is what I was thinking about Ms. Ventura; I just wanted to speak up because I know that you are looking for folks to be brave with that; so here I am. I see that Speaker Cowan has her hand up.
Speaker Cowan stated I would be inclined to agree with both Ms. Mueller and Ms. Ventura. You just said that State Legislators and Congress people are just one person for their district; and they manage it. I would also add; we heard a lot today from Republicans that we would be decreasing representation and somehow we wouldn’t be able to adequately represent our constituents with 4, 5, 6, or 7 fewer County Board Members. I look at our neighboring counties and DuPage County has 30% more population than we do; and has 18 Board Members. Grundy County has fewer per capita than we do; and Cook County has fewer per capita than we do. Everybody has fewer per capita representatives than we do; and they seem to do a perfectly decent job representing their constituents. I think that’s a lovely argument; but it is not founded in reality at all. The fact is I am floored that our Republican counterparts want to continue this bloated government; because that is what it is. It is bloated government; it doesn’t need to be this big. I’m open to 21; I would be interested in seeing a 19. I would want to make sure that we’re not screwing up diversity representation with a 19. If we did do 21; there are some tweaks I would like to see. The 21 map today acknowledged that we have in Wheatland Township a substantial Asian population; but it split that Asian population into three different districts. For instance I would like to see; since that is the only area where we have that 25% or above Asian population. I would really like to see that more condensed into one district. That is one of the things I have been thinking about.
Ms. Mueller said there was one other thing I wanted to mention too that I noticed during today’s presentation; was that Plainfield Township is divided into six different districts. I am waiting for my Plainfield Township folks to call me up when they notice that in the maps. I think that is a big problem having that township divided into six different County Board Districts; really they will lose their representation. Little things like that I want to go and look at closer. I definitely am for anyone who wants to meet with Mr. Schaben or the County Executive to talk about this; to take advantage of this opportunity; I know I am going to be and I know some of you already have.
Ms. Newquist stated I just wanted to say I liked the map; I definitely think it needs some tweaking. I thought in general it did a pretty good job at keeping people of interest together; whether that was rural, suburban, racial lines, whatever the case may be. I actually really liked it; having said that with the district I would be in I’m sure I would be primaried; but I probably would have been primaried anyway so I am trying not to let that color my decision on this map. I could defiantly live with this map. I am actually interested in seeing a 19 person also; but I could definitely live with this map.
Ms. Koch said I also was very intrigued by this map that was presented today. I would also be interested in seeing 19; maybe some of these issues with borders could be better fixed. However my original vision was for something much smaller; maybe 9 or 11 single member Districts. It is my intent to make a more professional board. Right now we all work this part time; pretty much everybody except folks that are retired; they have some other job or occupation on some kind. Even if that is just raising a child. It would be cool if maybe we had a board that had more staff to assist us. Perhaps a board that was small enough to justify a larger paycheck; so a person could make this their sole occupation. To devote more time to it and therefore honestly undercut some of those arguments; that would be better representation to have somebody who is doing it all of the time. Somebody who has more staff support; because now the way that it stands if somebody goes on vacation there is another representative. You know what there should be is; people could email and there should be staff that could help them immediately. Things always don’t go according to plan; I’ve had several constituents that couldn’t get through to Mr. Moustis; and he’s probably had the same thing for me. My point with that is I would like to see more money put toward more staff members. Ideally a truly professional board; more like Cook County where each member has their own staff member but baby steps. Even if it was a few staff members that County Board members could share with researching and all of that. Then paying County Board members more to attend more of these meetings. Be part of all of the different committee discussions. Of course more time researching topics, looking into the agenda items, and just basically better understanding what the county does. I mentioned this last time in causes and some folks said they would be interested in more of a professional board. If you are interested in it and have any ideas of how to make that happen or what you think that would look like: I’m all ears. It is really more of a big idea than a detail oriented idea at this point.
Ms. Mueller stated I want people to keep talking to me, Mr. Marcum and Ms. Tyson so we can get this together. Voice your opinions; we want to hear what you think about this.
VIII. COMMITTEE REPORTS
1. Land Use & Development
Mr. Marcum stated the building code updates are getting close to coming to the full County Board. We did vote in committee for the fee structure to look at a flat rate fee. There are a couple of exotic animals that we have had discussion on; if you have any thoughts on that. That is pretty much what is coming down the pipeline.
Ms. Mueller said the exotic verses wild animal discussion was really funny that day; I really enjoyed it. 2. Finance
No Report.
3. Public Works & Transportation
No Report.
4. Diversity & Inclusion
No Report.
5. Public Health & Safety
Ms. Ventura said I did bring up at the last meeting that I was hoping to continue to talk about homelessness. There have been some webinars I have been attending; especially with American Relief Fund. I was supposed to talk with Ms. Sojka; I had brought that up before the YMCA presentation. I am not sure where we stand on that. I did bring it up and I did ask Mrs. Jakaitis to maybe run it by Mr. Palmer and Speaker Cowan for one of our future meetings to discuss homelessness generally in the county. I might be putting a pause on that for this month until we can figure out some of these other plans; and how that all works together. I guess if anybody has concerns about homelessness or any other interests about these webinars that I am doing; I’m happy to discuss it. At some point in a future meeting it might come up on Public Health & Safety or possibly Modern Housing Solutions. I am just throwing that out there for future discussions.
Ms. Mueller said I am glad that you did; I’ve been wondering what happens now since the hotel didn’t happen in Joliet; there are still people in need. I know maybe some will be supported with this new project; I want to make sure nobody falls through the cracks.
Ms. Ventura said I had a meeting with Mr. Palmer on that; on what can we do next. We had some ideas I just need to follow up on some of that. Once we have something more concrete I will be happy to report it at my committee.
6. Legislative & Judicial
No Report.
7. Capital Improvements
No Report
8. Executive
No Report.
IX. ANNOUNCEMENTS/REPORTS BY CHAIR
Ms. Mueller stated Ms. Tyson just asked me about meeting in person as a Caucus. I am happy for us to go ahead and start doing that once Governor Pritzker lifts his orders. There are few enough of us that we could meet in person somewhere. I understand folks are still getting used to getting back into person. What do you think about starting to get back in person next month; or would you like to wait another month.
Speaker Cowan state once the Governors order is lifted we don’t have the option.
Ms. Ventura said I am comfortable in settings like this; I am fully vaccinated now so I feel more comfortable doing that. I think there is a certain amount of energy that being in person brings that is missed on the WebEx meetings. I’m also to blame, I don’t have my camera on. I’m driving now; I’m typically doing something else during our meetings. That is another point focuses the attention when we have to be there in person; I think that is only fair to our jobs. I will be the first to admit I am always multi-tasking.
Ms. Mueller said I’m with you; it would be nice to get to see each other. I will think about locations and things that like to have ready to execute as soon as we get the Governors order. We don’t want to be behind the eight ball on that one.
Ms. Freeman said Ms. Ventura and I are taking the Leadership Courses and one of the things that has really come out is the comradery in the work place; granted I was elected during a pandemic. I think that it is missing and by meeting in person maybe it will help take care of some of that. Just being able to bounce ideas off of another person face to face is very helpful. That is one of the things that they keep talking about is engagement; that empowerment and being informed and I think that will be very helpful especially if we are meeting in person.
Ms. Mueller said I think a lot of folks feel that way; and you are not alone.
Ms. Newquist stated I just want to say I just want to renew my quest to potentially have some committee meetings in the evening. Particularly some of the ones that might be better attended by the public; like Diversity & Inclusion for example. That is a selfish thing for me; but it is also if we really want public input it’s a nice thing to hold some of these meetings outside of day to day working hours. I realize I am fighting a losing battle; but that is my perennial request.
Ms. Mueller said I don’t think it is a losing battle; we all keep talking about it. It’s not lost don’t worry yet.
Ms. Ventura said I wanted to piggy back off of what Ms. Freeman said a little bit differently though. I know some of you have also taken the NACo Leadership training; I think we are in week four. I think there is a lot of good aspects of that; it is weird as an Elected Official that we can’t always engage in the same way or empower one another per se. There are so many really good points that are made in this leadership course. Those who haven’t had a chance to take it I know in the fall there is another one. This is my annual ask; about goals, whether we do that as very specific goals in a government caucus like this. Or more just broad goals in a Political Caucus; I think it is time that we get back to some of that team building and some of that comradery. It is a lot eaiser to do it in person; but even if we decide not to do it in person for whatever reason; the order isn’t lifted or what not. I think it is something that we need to do so we have better communication. Maybe we may see some more streamlining of our thoughts and ideas when we know where everyone stands. I am going to go back to asking about that; if we want to do it broader and talk about just general stuff in the political one, I am okay with that. It just needs to be done; we need to find a way to come together.
Ms. Koch said I also requested us to look at having meetings in the evening. My question for today is now that we are past the new members being sworn in; we are past our reorganization with the different committees. How would we even approach putting meetings at a different time of day at this point; basically between election cycles?
Speaker Cowan stated we just have to republish the schedule; it is doable.
Ms. Koch stated Speaker Cowan I am definitely not pointing any fingers at anybody; not at you either when I say this. I’ve been made to believe it would be too difficult to do that in the past. The first time I brought it up was actually in Forest Preserve Committees; because they are so short and such a long drive in the morning to go for 15 minutes. The conversation centered on how difficult it would be; once it has been published for the year that is it. If it is more doable then yes we can just change the schedule; how do I initiate that ask.
Speaker Cowan replied we actually just changed the meeting times of the Diversity & Inclusion and the Public Health & Safety committee; we swapped them. If you would like to have your committee meet at a different time what don’t you shoot an email to Mr. Palmer, Mrs. Adams and I; we will work that out. If other Chairs have similar opinions, let’s talk about it.
Ms. Koch said so really it is on the Chairperson of the Committee.
Speaker Cowan said theoretically could I decide the meeting is going to be at a different time; yes I wouldn’t do it unless the Chair was in agreement.
1. Speakers Update
Speaker Cowan said there are a couple of things; I mentioned this at a meeting earlier this week. About ten days ago; Mr. Van Duyne, Mr. Fricilone and I were present for a press conference with the Governor at the site of what is going to be the new Lion Electric Manufacturing Plant. It was on a Friday morning; we got the phone call from the guys from CED at 7 or 8 o’clock at night. That is certainly something we would normally try to reach out to everybody about; but there wasn’t the time. Also it was because of COVID-19 the Governors team was really strict about the number of people that were able to be invited. Just wanted everybody to understand how that unfolded. We certainly weren’t trying to leave anyone out; but because of COVID-19 and last minute stuff that is how that all happened. Part of the reason that it came about so quickly was the company was doing its IPO on Friday as well. They were kind of pushing for getting the announcement of the manufacturing plant in their select location. Normally it probably would have unfolded over a longer period of time. If you haven’t heard by now Lion Electric is a manufacturer of medium and large transport vehicles, school buses, Amazon delivery trucks, the whole range of basically commercial vehicles; but they are all electric. This is going to be the largest manufacturing plant of its kind in the United States; maybe the only one. They have guaranteed 700 jobs right now; we are hoping they will be able to up that. These are good paying manufacturing jobs in Will County; it is right off of I-55. We really received this project probably because of our location and our transportation highways. We are the center of that kind of business; this is what we were looking for and its green energy economy jobs. I think this was a really big win for everybody; and pretty exciting. The other thing that has been going on Ms. Winfrey, Mr. Fricilone and I have been meeting with our Congressional Leadership. We have been doing Zoom meetings; this would typically be the whole leadership team and going to Washington DC for these meetings. Because of COVID-19 we have met with Robin Kelly, Marie Newman, Bill Foster, Tammy Duckworth, and Bobby Rush. We have a couple more of those meetings to do. We have been talking about our Federal Agenda and especially talking about our transportation and infrastructure requests. Hopefully there is going to be an Infrastructure bill; we are hoping to get some federal dollars. Some of you may be aware the Congressional Delegates had a request process where they got to put forward transportation and infrastructure projects in their own districts for consideration for allocation of federal funds. We put forward seven projects; six of those projects have been selected and put on one or another members list for promotion. That doesn’t mean we are definitely getting those monies; it means the representative has selected our project to push forward, to push for, and to ask for money. Six out of seven is really great and we are excited about that. They include things like the Weber Rd. extending south from the interchange. There were six projects that we are looking at through the entire county. We made sure they were dispersed evenly throughout the entire county when we made the requests. Just to remind everyone if you didn’t hear the other day; our target date for bringing some proposals to the Board that we can discuss and change and I’m sure we will; for our ARP Fund Program. We are going to be doing that at the first Executive Meeting which is June 3rd. Leadership and I are going to be meeting after the County Board Meeting to hash out some possible plans. These are just meant as drafts to start the conversation. We will be able to adapt them as members see fit; but we wanted to give some bones to put some meat on. If you are interested in this topic please do come whether or not you are on the Executive Committee on June 3rd.
Ms. Mueller said thank you for doing all of those meetings.
X. PUBLIC COMMENT
XI. EXECUTIVE SESSION
XII. ADJOURNMENT
1. Motion to Adjourn @ 7:40 PM
| RESULT: APPROVED [UNANIMOUS]
MOVER: Margaret Tyson, Majority Whip SECONDER: Mica Freeman, Member AYES: Mueller, Newquist, Koch, Tyson, Harris, Traynere, Brooks Jr., Winfrey, Ventura, Coleman, Marcum, Cowan, Freeman ABSENT: VanDuyne |
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