Will County Legislative & Judicial Committee met Dec. 14.
Here are the minutes provided by the committee:
I. CALL TO ORDER
II. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE TO THE FLAG
Ms. Coleman led the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag.
III. ROLL CALL
Chair Denise E. Winfrey called the meeting to order at 9:03 AM
| Attendee Name | Title | Status | Arrived |
| Denise E. Winfrey | Chair | Present | |
| Natalie Coleman | Vice Chair | Present | |
| Julie Berkowicz | Member | Present | |
| Amanda Koch | Member | Present | |
| Debbie Kraulidis | Member | Present | |
| Tyler Marcum | Member | Present | |
| Sherry Newquist | Member | Present | |
| Judy Ogalla | Member | Present | |
| Tom Weigel | Member | Present |
Also Present: Speaker Cowan, N. Palmer, and M. Mueller
Present from the State's Attorney's Office: M. Tatroe
IV. APPROVAL OF MINUTES
1. WC Legislative & Judicial Committee - Regular Meeting - Nov 9, 2021 9:00 AM
| RESULT: APPROVED [UNANIMOUS]
MOVER: Tom Weigel, Member SECONDER: Sherry Newquist, Member AYES: Winfrey, Coleman, Berkowicz, Koch, Kraulidis, Marcum, Newquist, Ogalla, Weigel |
1. ISACo Updates
(Information)
Ms. Winfrey stated just a reminder that the annual meeting for ISACo will be this Friday. Member Pete Silvestri from Cook County will be hosting us there.
VI. OLD BUSINESS
1. Federal Legislative Update
(Smith, Dawson & Andrews)
Ms. Winfrey stated we have Smith Dawson of the line this morning who will go through the Federal Update with us this morning.
Mr. Garson stated I will kick it off and if Mr. Smith, and Ms. Beal have comments they can follow up and then we will open for discussion. It is great to be with all of you, and I know it is getting towards the end of the year and things are hopefully slowing down as we get to enjoy the holiday with family and friends. Congress seems to be busy right now as you are aware they have signed the Infrastructure Bill into law in the middle of November. They have moved on to what they are calling the Build Back Better Act, which is the reconciliation bill. A combination of tax incentives, spending programs, and it covers a wide range of jurisdictions and areas of the federal government. It sounds like they are going to try to make a push to get it done this year; but that seems unlikely. We really haven’t put out any major legislative updates on the bill because it is still very much up in air what will get into the final legislation. If they do come to an agreement this year, or early next year, which the majorities are trying to make a push do. We will certainly make sure that you are aware of what is included; and how it may benefit the county. As I mentioned earlier, we have sent several updates related to the infrastructure law that was passed; and that you were a very strong advocate for. We think that the county is going to do very well as it addresses a lot of important infrastructure investments across all modes; whether it’s surface, water, electricity, and broadband. It covers a lot, and we think that you can be very competitive when it comes to discretionary in formulating dollars under that program. The other area that Congress has moved to next year unfortunately is the spending bills for FY2022. Right now, the current law under the continuing resolution goes thru February 18th; they are hopeful to try and pass the spending bill prior to that; they may have a slight delay and must pass another continuing resolution; but that seems to be a priority early next year. I think they were focused on the National Defense Authorization Act, and the Build Back Better Act reconciliation bill as well as a few other items at the end of this year. They didn’t have the time or attention to get to those spending bills; Unfortunately, that runs into preparing for FY2023 spending bills. the good news is we are always thinking forward and making sure that you are going to be positioned in know that we’re going to be focused on the implementation of some of the infrastructure of the infrastructure bill, and other legislative items. as well as focusing on what was included and spending priorities in past years; and how we need to update that to make sure the county is well positioned. The other item I would like to touch on before I turn it over to others or open it up for discussion. I know Ms. Winfrey that you have been hugely important on this as your role with NACo; is the S3011HR 5735 flexibility language or the state and local money under the American Rescue Plan Act. Right now, we’ve heard that Leadership in the House is holding up the legislation; it is unlikely to get a vote this year they would like to take it up early next year. That doesn’t mean that we have stopped advocating; we’ve reached out to the entire delegation again about the importance of this legislation and why it would bring flexibility to the county. I have gotten some feedback such as thank you for flagging this for us; we looked earlier and just forgot about it because of all the other activity. As well as some folks just asking for more details on the legislation; not being as aware of what it does. We will be continuing to monitor and track that and hopefully they can work and get that done by the end this year, or early next year. I think that covers most of what we wanted to discuss today. We can certainly get into the Federal Legislative Agenda and other items based off your questions.
Ms. Winfrey stated I will just add to that Mr. Garson mentioned the lobbying for 5635; we have sent some letters. I have sent letters as my role as Legislative Chair and as First Vice President of NACo. I know the Speaker and the County Executive have also sent letters to the entire Illinois Delegation asking them to support this. NACo also is lobbying on behalf of 5735 because of the flexibility it allows counties in terms of how we use the money; and how we can put it to the best possible use for our residents. Each of you can also send letters to our delegation to support this; to encourage people to vote in favor of this legislation, because we do need it. I am thankful for that. You mentioned the Federal Agenda and I just want to say for those people on the line; so far, we have gotten information from Land Use Committee only in terms of our Federal and our State Agenda. we have sent this letter out and we have asked for this, this is a yearly thing. We need the information from each of the departments about what the federal priorities are going to be. For Smith Dawson to craft us a Federal Agenda and to make it look like something from a county that knows what its business is; and be able to get it there on time instead of scrambling at the last minute. We need each of the departments to get those to us. Just a reminder that County Board is responsible for putting that together; sending that to the Executive’s Office so that it can go through the delegation. I am asking all the people online to get that information to us. Unless Mr. Palmer have you gotten anything else besides Land Use?
Mr. Palmer replied Land Use is the only thing we’ve officially received thus far.
Ms. Winfrey said so there are quite a few outliers there since we only got one. We need that information for Smith Dawson to do the job that we hired them to do; they need the help from us. I encourage everybody to get on board with that; If you haven’t yet contacted Mr. Palmer, arrange a meeting, if you have the documents send them over. Was there any last thing that you wanted to add Mr. Garson?
Mr. Garson said we are so grateful to you all and that you are continuing the partnership with Smith Dawson & Andrews. It’s been incredible for both of us for the work that we have gotten to do. The accomplishments and successes we have had as well as the friendships that we have built with the county and really getting to know the Board Members. We look forward to 2022 and we think that there is going to be a lot of success in 2022; Especially because a lot of what we will be doing out of Washington and the implementation of the Infrastructure Bill. We think there is going to be a lot of opportunity; I think we just want to say thank you to Will County to the County Board for all your help; your friendship and the partnership and wish everyone Happy Holidays. You know we are always here to answer questions if things come up, we want to be as helpful as possible. You know you can always get a hold of us, and we respond quickly. I know it is going to be a busy 2022 just like it has been a busy 2020 and 2021
Mr. Winfrey said thank you Mr. Garson and we wish all the best for you and Ms. Beal and Mr. Smith as well. We will be looking forward to the new year. We are looking to you to help us leverage the NACo Presidency, so we get the most possible advantage for Will County. I know that you have said you would already do that; but that work is coming forward too. All the best for you over the holidays and we’ll be talking to you shortly into the new year. Hopefully we will have the information for the Federal Agenda so that we can get that organized and we can arrange for the delegation meeting. Take care and thank you so much.
2. Establishing FY2023 Federal Legislative Agenda & Priorities
(Mitch Schaben/Nick Palmer)
3. S. 3011/H.R. 5735: State, Local, Tribal and Territorial Fiscal Recovery, Infrastructure, and Disaster Relief Flexibility Act
(Nick Palmer and Smith Dawson & Andrews)
4. Update on State Legislative Issues
(Curry & Associates)
Ms. Winfrey stated next up we have Ms. Curry on the line with the State Updates; as you all know the state has been quiet; so, there’s not a lot of updates because everyone is trying to get home and get to their districts because of the changes in the elections; and the dates on that. Ms. Curry said my report is going to be simple this morning; since we last met in November the General Assembly had their Veto Session; the focus like many years of local government is the redistricting, it is still a priority in the General Assembly. There have been a few committee hearings in the last month dealing with nursing home reform, mental health reform, and a few legislative re-map hearings. The General Assembly goes back into session on January 4th. In my report that I provided in the last week there are key dates that I just want to remind everyone as we prepare our State Agenda, that we are keeping in mind that the Illinois House and Illinois Senate has established deadlines. The legislators go back into session on January 4th and has a scheduled adjournment date of April 8th, all the deadlines have been pushed up. If there are any bills on behalf of the County that need to be introduced or drafted; there are drafting deadlines through the Legislative Reference Bureau. In the Senate it is January 7th, and in the House, it is the following week on the 14th. That means if you don’t have your ideas to the Legislative Reference Bureau at that time, you’re not going to get it done; unless you can find a shell bill or something like that to put the language on. I would encourage the Board; I know that the holidays are approaching in the next couple of weeks and then the new year so, we will be off and running. Even though there is a condensed schedule for the General Assembly, they are going to be in session more days in January to April 8th then they were last year; if they are in session all the days that they say they will be. It is going to be a quick session; we look forward to working with the board and hearing the ideas that the committee is going to propose.
Ms. Winfrey said thank you Ms. Curry; the same is true for Ms. Curry and the State Agenda. We don’t have the information from the departments, and we need that for Curry and Associates to put that State Agenda together and help us shape that; we need the information. Now while things are quiet in the State would be a perfect time for her to have all that information while there is a little bit of a lull to get that ready for us, because that it going to come up soon. We need departments to get on board and get that done before you go home for the holidays.
5. Establishing FY2022 State Legislative Agenda & Priorities
(Mitch Schaben/Nick Palmer)
VII. OTHER OLD BUSINESS
VIII. NEW BUSINESS
1. Placement of County Highway Route signage on all County Highways (Jeff Ronaldson)
Ms. Winfrey said next up we have Mr. Ronaldson on the line from Public Works. The other day an issue around highway signage came up. It was moved to this committee so that there could be a discussion around it; and see if there is legislation that needs to be put forward.
Mr. Ronaldson stated I am not sure exactly why it is on there; but we did talk about it at Public Works, and it is just a County Highway Route sign; there is a picture attached for you to see. Our neighboring counties all have them, we do not. They are not required; but they are something to denote when you come to a County Highway as to which one it is. So, it is kind of a convenience. As I mentioned at committee 640 signs is what we are estimating. The material is about $32,000. It is something I can do administratively; I just didn’t want to go ahead and do it without the committee’s saying it is fine, or if you had any objection to doing it. It is something that’s under authority that I can do. That is why I brought it up in the committee and they didn’t voice any concerns or objections with doing that. That is where we left it at Public Works; that I would start installing them in the 2022 season as soon as our sign crews get caught up with their work. It wasn’t anything legislative attached to it. I think there was a question about truck signage tacked on there; but it was an unrelated issue. Maybe that is where the discussion is.
Ms. Winfrey replied that could be. In terms of labeling the highways you don’t need anything from us for that piece; you already have that mapped out for 2022.
Mr. Ronaldson replied correct.
Ms. Winfrey said I am not remembering what the issue was around the truck signage.
Mr. Ronaldson stated it has just always been trucks going where they shouldn’t be going. That’s more of an enforcement issue; and trucks needing us to get it in the Truck GPS Systems; to know where they are going. There is talk about putting up signs that would say in short; obey the law; your truck is 80,000 lbs. you shouldn’t be here. But those kinds of signs are not MUTCD (Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices) or even denoting our Class II truck routes. IDOT’s direction is that we don’t put signs like that up. Which seems kind of counter intuitive but that is their direction. I guess they want people to use the GPS systems and the Class II designations that are available on the IDOT’s website. That is where it has been left so far.
Ms. Winfrey said I believe we already have that on most of the side roads; we have the weight limits posted. Is that correct?
Mr. Ronaldson said in a few locations that the County Highway has posted; yes, those are all up per statute. They must be up to enforce the tickets; that is why we have those. Townships do the same thing and those are already in place.
Ms. Ventura stated I just wanted to know; Mr. Ronaldson are you asking for direction of this committee to be able to put those signs up. Is that the wishes of the Transportation Department?
Mr. Ronaldson said I was just looking for a consensus from the committee to have a policy to put those up. It is not a requirement; just that the committee is fine with doing that.
Ms. Ventura stated, and this is in hopes that trucks will not use those roads then?
Mr. Ronaldson said no, I think this is where the message is getting a little confused. Those blue signs are just County Highway Routes. They are just the names of the route.
Ms. Ventura said not the blue signs, the truck ones, the ones about the weights.
Mr. Ronaldson said we have the ones for weight limits but there are no signs MUTCD or otherwise that say legal load only.
Ms. Ventura said I guess what I am asking; are we doing that as a reminder, so trucks don’t use this road. Or are we doing that so that we can increase going at them. You said with the weight limits we can already go after them for a ticket, right?
Mr. Ronaldson said correct; we absolutely we can. The residents and local officials often want signage to tell trucks that this is a legal road, and you shouldn’t be coming on here if you are overweight. It is already state statute, so you don’t need a sign for that. But some people think that if we have more signs up, they will obey. That is kind of an argument as well. They don’t obey the signs that are out there now. Again, there is no state legislation that talks about signage for overweight trucks.
Ms. Ventura said I am not sure if the committee has an opinion one way or the other. I don’t have an issue with signage. The question then becomes if we are being asked by cities or townships to put additional signs up; are they going help us pay for it, because signs do end up getting expensive. As you said, if they don’t pay attention to the ones that we have now that allow us to give citations; what’s to say that they will listen to them. One might argue that perhaps they missed the sign the first time that they drove onto the road. So, an additional sign one or two miles down might help them see that they are not supposed to be on there. Especially if you strategically put that sign close to where they can turn around; It doesn’t help to have it in the middle of a corn field if they can’t turn around there. I’m okay if the committee decides something to the legislators to allow us to put more signage; I don’t see anything negative on that. But I would caution us to throw a ton of signs up just because we have the power to, that can get expensive.
Mrs. Ogalla said I know that in the communities in my area; they have lots of signs so that trucks don’t go on to those. But the trucks do go all over everywhere; They take whatever route the GPS says. I think that the signs would be very helpful because even though the road might appear to be paved most of them are tarred and chipped. Then they might lead to a gravel road, which a semi should not be on. I think that these signs would be very beneficial, and I think it is well worth the investment especially most of these truck routes here in the unincorporated roads. The local townships have some money so they could possibly help with that. I think we need to have the ability to put some more signs out because they do travel everywhere, wherever the GPS tells them to go. I think that is something that we should support.
Mr. Palmer stated I think the reason this came to the committee is technically the Legislative Committee is also judicial and policy. I think when this was being discussed at Public Works since it is kind of a policy. Mr. Ronaldson you are saying you can do this administratively on your own; but you just were coming to inform the Board and make sure they didn’t have any strong opposition to doing any of this.
Mr. Ronaldson replied correct; I have the authority to put any signage up on the County Highway. It could be a policy thing because we are doing it Countywide. It is something that I have not done before; I was looking for the committees blessing on doing that.
Mr. Palmer said so related to that I guess we still as a county are probably going to bring some of the end studies; the Land Use is probably not going to bring to the Board for approval. But the truck routing study; I believe the Executive’s Office and the consultants are going to bring that to the Board for approval or acknowledgment; and that may bring this conversation back up as far truck routing and signage. Then I guess with the earlier comments about creating the agendas if there was any legislative thing that we need to be concerned about; this would be a good time to talk about those. But it doesn’t sound like you have any pressing legislative concerns right now, right Mr. Ronaldson.
Mr. Ronaldson said no, as far as legislative we are just waiting for the Construction Bill to figure out how to get the money. As far as the signage, if the committee wants to look at that when the truck routing comes forward; it might be worth legislatively looking at enforcement, ticket prices, costs, and something to make those have more meat to them to be a deterrent. There may be some discussion there in the future.
Mr. Palmer said one last comment that will tie them all together. We have talked about this Federal Agenda, and we are obviously working on the ARP Funding through the Executive Committee. One of the things with NACo; if this legislation is approved that we talked about earlier; or the ARP Money that we have some of that can be used to do the primary work on transportation projects. That wouldn’t be necessarily this committee that is dealing with that. It is something to be aware of; it is related to the Federal Legislation and the spending of ARP Funds. We maybe wanting to do as a County, to do some of that preliminary work so we are ready for those infrastructure competitive grants, And or the Build Back Better stuff. That is something that we will be talking about as a Board as a whole. Not necessarily in Legislative and Judicial Committee but it ties to the Federal Bills and things that are passed. Just for Board Members’ sake that is something in 2022 that we are going to be talking more about.
Mrs. Tatroe stated I think my point has been addressed. It sounded like you’re bringing up the questions of the road signs back. I was going to indicate that we might want to investigate the consequences if we put a sign up that we don’t have to put up. For some reason it’s not there or on other roads where we choose not to put it; will there be any enforcement issues on those roads where there aren’t signs. It was just a question that I thought should be investigated.
Ms. Berkowicz said obviously we are not following the committee member order first. But thank you for allowing me to ask a question. I think that we need to allow our staff to proceed to put up this signage. It is important; signs are one way to at least remind these drivers that there are limitations and hopefully that will allow enforcement when they break these weight restrictions; or go on these roads that they shouldn’t be on them. I think that if we allow Mr. Ronaldson and his crew to go out there and put up the signage that they feel they need that also allows or Law Enforcement the ability to enforce and penalize people who break these laws, and don’t follow the rules. I don’t know why this must be so difficult; but I think we need to do whatever we can to give our staff the ability to do their job and to prevent these situations from occurring. It is only going to get worse the more development we get down the road. We need to give them the tools and support in whatever way that they need; so, they can get their job done. That is one thing I want to make clear we’ve talked about this multiple times so Mr. Ronaldson whatever you need to do let’s figure out how we can support you. I also just want to ask Mr. Palmer you mentioned something about the Executive Office coming back with some consulting with a consultant and then coming back to staff regarding the sign policy. Can you explain what you were talking about there?
Mr. Palmer stated Ms. Berkowicz it wasn’t so much directly with the sign policy but as you recall the county has been engaged in a couple of studies; the Joliet Intermodal Transportation Study which is largely funded by IDOT; and a separate study that was partially funded by CMAP, the County, and others on Moving Will County. Those two studies are wrapping up so at some point we would bring those back to the Board for acknowledgement, acceptance, approval and what have you. The one with CMAP directly deals with truck routing; part of it is how you get trucks from the Intermodal Facilities to the Highway in the most expeditious way. Without getting way into the weeds this is how you keep those trucks on the path. As Mrs. Ogalla has mentioned we can have routes and we can have signs; but that doesn’t mean that people will follow them. You must put the signage up, get it in the mapping system, and then enforce it to try and keep people on those roads. Then you are building those roads to support that. To your question it didn’t specifically speak to signage alone. It is more the whole the issue of trucks, movement, and our facilities.
Ms. Berkowicz stated thanks Mr. Palmer and that’s why time is of the essence here. We need to allow our staff to be able to get this done in a timely manner. Development is happening every day we are losing the space; we need to provide these roads. then we come forward in three months and say this would have been a great area to put a road but now it is already being developed. It seems like that is part of the problem that we are having here. You can’t replace land once somebody puts a stake there and takes that land; then you are always trying to move around it. I just see this as a common thread, and we really need to make sure we are doing it quickly.
Ms. Newquist stated I just wanted to go back to something Mr. Ronaldson said earlier. I would love to see this committee advocate for stricter penalties, broader penalties, or whatever we would need to do to provide an effective deterrent to the truckers. To prevent them from going off the designated truck routes. I don’t know if that is feasible or what we must do to accomplish that, but I think it would be a definite worthwhile goal.
Ms. Winfrey said so just a re statement; in the new year Mr. Ronaldson is going to be putting up signs that label county roads. That’s his administrative responsibility and purview and he will be doing that already. He was just making sure that everybody was on board with that. The truck routing in terms of weight loads; there are already signs up for the weight limit. Additional signs would be something that we would have to talk about. We could discuss that further in this committee and look at if we wanted to do some additional signage in that respect. The signs that he brought forward at Public Works & Transportation are already going to happen. It that correct Mr. Ronaldson.
Mr. Ronaldson said that is correct. Thank you.
2. NACo Update
(Denise Winfrey)
Ms. Winfrey stated we will move on to the NACo Update. Attached to your package was a list of NACo priorities and the list of resolutions for the steering committees. Just so you know the resolutions for each steering committee asks its members to give suggestions on resolutions. The liaison for the steering committee then puts them together and ranks them based on the information of the members. In February at the Legislative Conference each steering committee will sit as the resolutions body and approve or reject the resolutions that are shown on the packet that you’ve got. The NACo priorities have already been accepted and approved through the Board of Directors Meeting that just happened in December. Those are what we will be working on going forward in the new year unless there are any changes. There is also a provision that allows for emergency resolutions. If something unexpected comes up, any steering committee or any member can bring forward an emergency resolution to a steering committee. That would then go onto an agenda and get discussed; a decision would be made about whether it goes forward as a part of our overall priorities. The other thing that is coming up in December of 2022 Will County will host a Board of Directors Meeting and we have been lobbying to host the Large Urban Counties Caucus here as a part of that. Staff here has been working with NACo staff to look at hotel space and what can be done getting that together so that we can make the best possible presentation for Will County in December of this coming year. The only other thing that I want to say around that is to remind you all if you were to go on to NACo.org there is a wealth of information on any topic on the website. I encourage you to look through that and get familiar with what is going on there. Will County has been a member of NACo for years and we will continue; certainly now that we have the opportunity to put Will County in the spotlight.
IX. OTHER NEW BUSINESS
X. PUBLIC COMMENT
XI. ANNOUNCEMENTS/REPORTS BY CHAIR
XII. EXECUTIVE SESSION
XIII. ADJOURNMENT
1. Motion to Adjourn @ 9:40 AM
https://willcountyil.iqm2.com/Citizens/FileOpen.aspx?Type=12&ID=4218&Inline=True
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