Will County Committee of the Whole met July 21.
Here are the minutes provided by the committee:
I. CALL TO ORDER
II. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE TO THE FLAG
Ms. Freeman led the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag.
III. ROLL CALL
Speaker Mimi Cowan called the meeting to order at 9:32 AM
| Attendee Name | Title | Status | Arrived |
| Sherry Newquist | District 1 (D - Steger) | Present | |
| Judy Ogalla | District 1 (R - Monee) | Present | |
| Amanda Koch | District 2 (D - Frankfort) | Absent | |
| Jim Moustis | District 2 (R - Frankfort) | Present | |
| Raquel M. Mitchell | District 3 (R - Bolingbrook) | Present | |
| Margaret Tyson | District 3 (D - Bolingbrook) | Present | |
| Kenneth E. Harris | District 4 (D - Bolingbrook) | Present | |
| Jacqueline Traynere | District 4 (D - Bolingbrook) | Present | |
| Gretchen Fritz | District 5 (R - Plainfield) | Absent | |
| Meta Mueller | District 5 (D - Aurora) | Present | |
| Donald Gould | District 6 (R - Shorewood) | Absent | |
| Joe VanDuyne | District 6 (D - Wilmington) | Absent | |
| Steve Balich | District 7 (R - Homer Glen) | Present | |
| Mike Fricilone | District 7 (R - Homer Glen) | Present | |
| Herbert Brooks Jr. | District 8 (D - Joliet) | Present | |
| Denise E. Winfrey | District 8 (D - Joliet) | Present | |
| Annette Parker | District 9 (R - Crest Hill) | Present | |
| Rachel Ventura | District 9 (D - Joliet) | Present | |
| Natalie Coleman | District 10 (D - Plainfield) | Present | |
| Tyler Marcum | District 10 (D - Joliet) | Absent | |
| Julie Berkowicz | District 11 (R - Naperville) | Present | |
| Mimi Cowan | Speaker | Present | |
| Frankie Pretzel | District 12 (R - New Lenox) | Present | |
| Tom Weigel | District 12 (R - New Lenox) | Absent | |
| Mica Freeman | District 13 (D - Plainfield) | Present | |
| Debbie Kraulidis | District 13 (R - Joliet) | Present |
Also Present: M. Johannsen and N. Palmer.
Present from State's Attorney's Office: M. Tatroe and K. Meyers.
IV. PUBLIC COMMENT FOR AGENDA ITEMS ONLY
V. OLD BUSINESS
VI. NEW BUSINESS
1. Will County Center for Economic Development Overview
(John Greuling/Doug Pryor)
Speaker Cowan welcomed everyone to the meeting and stated this is part of our on-going orientation sessions. Both of our guests would normally do an update around this time of the year. They have a lot to do with one another and that is why we paired them together. These are two groups that are very important for Will County and County Government. These introductions will be useful for new members. Even returning members, who are well acquainted with Dr. Schneider and the CED, will get some useful updates about what is going on in the County, what we have to look forward to and what we have to work on in the next few months.
Mr. John Greuling, Ms. Julie Wilkinson and Mr. Doug Pryor reviewed the attached PowerPoint Presentation.
Speaker Cowan thanked Mr. Greuling, Ms. Wilkinson and Mr. Pryor for their presentation.
Speaker Cowan continued for clarification, the CED is a separate entity; they are their own organization, separate from the County. However, they are an integral part of this, because it often overlaps with our mission. The Speaker of the County Board is a member of their Board, as is the County Executive. My understanding is Mr. Moustis fought hard to make sure the Board had a role in the CED and I am thankful for that. Since I became Speaker, I have found this organization to be most helpful. When I became Speaker, they reached out to bring me into the group. Since then, I have gotten to know Mr. Greuling, Ms. Wilkinson and Mr. Pryor quite well. They are very helpful to me individually and to us as an organization, so I appreciate them being here today. They are one of the groups that anytime I have a question about something in the County, I get an unvarnished truth from them. I appreciate that.
Mr. Brooks stated you mentioned a total of 68 Board of Directors; 57 and 11. Of those 68 Board of Directors, are there any nonprofit Board of Directors that sit on the CED Board?
Ms. Wilkinson replied among those 57 voting members, there are businesses with a nonprofit status. They include colleges, universities and the hospitals in our County. Among the Advisory Board Members, there are 11 seats reserved for the Board, without the same investment level. Our nonprofit participants include United Way, the Farm Bureau and the ROE.
Mr. Brooks stated I was looking for the nonprofits such as Morning Star Mission and Daybreak.
Ms. Wilkinson replied we have the entire list on the website.
Mr. Greuling stated Mr. Brooks, historically, we have not had those particular agencies. We look to entities that bring something to the table. We are open to bringing more into the fold. If you have a suggestion, we would be happy to talk to you about it.
Mrs. Berkowicz stated for the different business clusters in Will County, retail, industrial and transportation; do you know how many of their employees reside in Will County? The Farm Bureau sits on the Advisory Board, which indicates that it is not a voting Member and I think it would be important for them to be a voting Board Member. Is there a reason they are reflected as an Advisory Board Members versus a Board Member?
Mr. Greuling replied it is more of a historical thing. When we have a Board Meeting and the Farm Bureau, the United Way and the school districts are there, we don’t separate them out and say you can’t speak, because your vote does not count. They participate in the meetings. The voting issue goes back to a by-laws condition from when we were trying to be more expansive and make sure that groups who could not afford to join or did not have the inclination to write us a check, still had their voices heard. It is an archaic provision in our by-laws and we could take a look at that. One of our biggest challenges is the size of our Board. We continually have investors and non-investors look to step up to be a Board Member or join as a Board Member. It is a nice problem to have, but at some point there are only so many people that can receive value from being on a Board that big. We are very educated about where that number may go.
Mr. Pryor stated we don’t have individual payroll data for any entities or specific industries. But, we have a data set we can utilize for that. The Census Bureau publishes a Longitudinal Employer Household Dynamics (LEHD) program that measures the number of people that leave an area for work and the number of people who come to an area for work. Will County, just like any other major metro county, has an extraordinary amount of cross traffic. Over half of the people in Will County, leave Will County to go to work and half of the people who work in Will County come from somewhere else. This is not new, nor is it industry specific, nor is it Will County specific. Any region that has a large urban core, has tremendous cross traffic across the boundaries to work.
Mr. Greuling added the Workforce Investment Board has always used a number of 62% leave the County every day for their job. Something a little less than that comes in. We would love to have 50-50, but that is not attainable given the size of our metro area.
Ms. Tyson asked do you have an internship with the local universities?
Mr. Greuling responded we have in the past, but we don’t currently have one. Since we have four university presidents on our Board, I am surprised about that. Part of our challenge is giving interns meaningful work. When we had interns in the past, it was project specific; they come in during the summer and were given a specific task. They are not coming in to make copies, answer phones, they are doing meaningful work. Another problem we have is space; we don’t have a lot of room to bring in interns. When we have work that warrants it, we will occasionally go out and seek it.
Mr. Moustis stated an industry that is extremely important to Will County, and one of our largest outside of government, is the healthcare industry. I feel we should promote a medical research corridor. Can you give us a presentation about the healthcare industry? It is an important component of the Will County economy and certainly a major employer and I hope that continues. There has been some generic growth coming from what is already here. What are we doing on that front?
Mr. Pryor replied you are right, they are always near the top in terms of total employment in this region. We have seen strong growth in healthcare jobs over the last couple of decades, for a lot of reasons. The most important is, we grew people. Healthcare tends to follow rooftops. As the County has grown, our healthcare has grown as well. In addition to what I call the retail healthcare, our hospitals continue to grow. Silver Cross has a couple of important projects on going in the County right now, as they add to their facility. They have done a tremendous job of adding real estate and adding people in that space. Silver Cross and St. Joe’s are currently the second and third largest employers in the County, both have more than 2,500 employees and they are incredibly important clusters. I would love to see some outgrowth around the hospitals. Joliet has set up a TIF district around St. Joes and Silver Cross has green field sites that have not been developed, but I have every confidence they will. It is an important growth sector for us and it continues to grow.
Mr. Greuling added we are focused on the quality of the healthcare. One of the things we sell, as a community asset, is the quality of our healthcare. The investments the healthcare industries are bringing to Will County is incredible. There is a new Silver Cross facility in Mokena. The Bolingbrook hospital has really rebounded and doing extremely well. We also have the Edward Elmhurst cluster in Plainfield. You are on to something with let’s bring in non-retail healthcare; laboratory, machines and equipment or research; things that offer a nice addition to the cluster we have right now.
Mr. Moustis asked do businesses that are considering locating in Will County look at healthcare? Do they look to see if we have quality healthcare for their employees? Is that an important component?
Mr. Pryor replied it is definitely a factor. Sometimes it is as simple as checking a box to make sure there are healthcare units available to them. Lately, site selectors have taken over and they will often have very specific questions about miles from the nearest hospital and miles from the nearest trauma center. So it has become more of a factor, particularly with companies that emphasize employee and quality of life therapy.
Mrs. Ogalla stated we have so many warehouses; are we looking to bring in other types of business parks? Have we tried to attract professional office buildings, where we might have technology? A lot of people in our area drive to Chicago, Oak Brook and Schaumburg for their IT jobs. Are we trying to get those type of businesses? Those are higher paying jobs than warehouses.
Mr. Pryor responded I wake up thinking about it every day. The diversification of our economy is important. Lion Electric is an important flag in the ground and things like that are incredibly important; jumping into that cluster development is important. You said specifically office, we have seen office demand fall off in the urban core, but we are looking at suburban opportunities to redevelop that. We have had luck in some parts of the county in developing corporate headquarters and developing offices, but suburban office space has been a tough push for the last two or three decades; since the I-88 corridor built out. We look for users and specific opportunities; companies that are growing here and people we can bring in who will be impactful in Will County. I went to an Office Developers Conference and I asked about developing speculative offices in the suburbs and it ended up looking like a cartoon where they hoist you out of the room. I don’t think that is a thing quite yet. User specific office development and user specific professional development, we have seen a little bit of growth and some small clusters. We have some corridors east on I-80 and on I-355 where we could do a lot of good in that space and we definitely want to continue to try to find those users.
Mr. Moustis stated we have more office development than people might think, especially in my district. Office space is being built on Route 30 and we have the corridor off of I-80 and 183rd Street. Is Will County now fighting the image that we are a bunch of warehouses? I think there is a danger of that. In the 1960’s, 1970’s and 1980’s we had the image that we were part of the rust bucket economy. Is there a danger that we are just logistics and warehouses; which we are not? People may think that, because that is part of our economy, but it is certainly not the dominant part of our economy. How do we overcome that image or do we need to overcome it?
Mr. Greuling replied I think we do. The reality we are faced with is, we are in a time and space where the type of development we have seen over the last 20 years, since the first intermodal opened, is very desirable in many places. They are preparing to tear down office buildings on the I-88 corridor and replace them with distribution centers. This is how hot that particular market is. The key is let’s plan our future. Let’s look at doing a comprehensive economic development strategy; get more people at the table and start talking about what makes sense, what would we like, what are the real opportunities for us and how do we get there? We wanted to launch a branding campaign before COVID hit; “Live, Work & Play in Will County”. It sounds silly, but that is exactly what we want. When COVID hit, we said it was not the right time to do that, but it is something we will go back to. We need to tell our story. We don’t want other people branding us and that is exactly what has happened to Will County.
Speaker Cowan agreed a community economic development survey would help folks with understanding and promoting the right things.
Mr. Pryor replied that is correct. It has to be data driven and also we need a wide base of stakeholders to help shape what happens next. Marketing is important.
2. Will County Transportation Briefing
(Ann Schneider, Will County's Transportation Consultant)
Dr. Ann Schneider reviewed the attached PowerPoint presentation.
Ms. Mueller stated my question might be for the County Executive’s Office; can we receive an update on the Federal Grants we have applied for and the status; just so we are aware of where things are. You mentioned a hiccup and I am looking to avoid things like that, by us having more eyes on that.
Mr. Fricilone replied we should be able to get that out of the County Executive’s Office.
Mrs. Ogalla asked when will you have an update for eastern Will County? We have some new mayors out my way and they have not been part of any conversation. Could we get something together to have a meeting with everyone to get an update?
Dr. Schneider replied yes, absolutely. It has been a couple of years since we did one out there. I will pass that along. Previously, the Executive’s Office coordinated some of that with the County Board. I had a conversation with the County Executive’s Office and it is on their radar, but I will follow up and make sure we get that done.
Mrs. Ogalla stated we have a new mayor in Monee and Beecher and I would like for them to get up to speed, meet everyone and see what has been talked about, where we are in the process and how we are moving forward in the future.
Dr. Schneider stated that makes sense, especially with the study currently going on in eastern Will County. Many times when there is a change in local leadership they are not brought onboard, so we need to do that.
Mr. Fricilone asked we have been touting a number of 3% GDP; when do we update that number?
Dr. Schneider replied that number came from a specific study and we would have to purchase the data; I am not saying we can’t do that. I will talk to the CED and figure out if there is a way between us we can get that. Post-pandemic I think it is important to illustrate that.
Mr. Fricilone stated it could be down now, but it could go crazy nuts in the next year. If the numbers get bigger for us, we want to fit that into the program.
Dr. Schneider stated given the effects the pandemic had on consumption patterns where people moved to purchasing things on-line, that number might even be higher.
Mrs. Berkowicz asked on page 26 you mentioned for the Port Infrastructure Development that we did not have anything pending in the County, why is that?
Dr. Schneider responded those are for public ports, on rivers on the inland waterway system. You are on the inland waterway system, but there are no public port facilities. There is a Port Authority, but they manage the airport.
Mrs. Berkowicz stated in a previous meeting, there was a conversation regarding issues in the waterways concerning Asian Carp and mussels. I would think that might be an issue.
Dr. Schneider stated this grant could not go towards that. There is an effort in Congress to fund some programs to address the Brandon Road lock and Asian Carp issue. I am not up to speed on that, but I am aware there are things moving through Congress that would help address that. The biggest concern on the Brandon lock issue is not shutting down the waterway. This is something I can monitor and look into.
Mrs. Berkowicz asked could you define grade separation?
Dr. Schneider replied a grade separation is where you go over the railroad tracks, it is in the road. Doing a separation means you are building an overpass or underpass so you don’t have the conflict with the railway any more.
Mrs. Berkowicz asked how many of those do we have?
Dr. Schneider responded I have no idea, but I can guarantee you there are a lot of them. For that program, they are looking at places where the crossing creates a significant safety issue; there has been a lot of accidents or sight line issues that could create accidents. Prioritizing and deciding where to compete for those dollars is important.
Ms. Mitchell asked is Plainfield in the line for any improvements in travel as far as roads, overpasses or underpasses?
Dr. Schneider replied I am not aware of Plainfield having anything. One of the things Plainfield did to avoid grade crossing issues where train and vehicular traffic meets was the 143rd Street extension, which removed one of the conflicts for certain traffic patterns. That is the only thing I am aware Plainfield has going on.
Mr. Fricilone stated if anyone has questions, Dr. Schneider is always available to answer them.
VII. OTHER NEW BUSINESS
VIII. PUBLIC COMMENT RELEVANT TO MATTERS UNDER THE JURISDICTION OF THE COUNTY
Mrs. Adams announced there were no public comments.
IX. ANNOUNCEMENTS/REPORTS BY CHAIR
X. EXECUTIVE SESSION
XI. ADJOURNMENT
1. Motion to Adjourn at 11:50 AM
| RESULT: APPROVED [UNANIMOUS]
MOVER: Denise E. Winfrey, District 8 (D - Joliet) SECONDER: Jim Moustis, District 2 (R - Frankfort) AYES: Newquist, Ogalla, Moustis, Mitchell, Tyson, Harris, Traynere, Mueller, Balich, Fricilone, Brooks Jr., Winfrey, Parker, Ventura, Coleman, Berkowicz, Cowan, Pretzel, Freeman, Kraulidis ABSENT: Koch, Fritz, Gould, VanDuyne, Marcum, Weigel |
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