Will County Republican Caucus Committee met March 16.
Here are the minutes provided by the committee:
I. CALL TO ORDER
II. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE TO THE FLAG
Mr. Balich led the Pledge of Allegiance.
III. ROLL CALL
Minority Leader Mike Fricilone called the meeting to order at 5:37 PM
| Attendee Name | Title | Status | Arrived |
| Sandy Ceci | Present | ||
| Mike Fricilone | Minority Leader | Present | |
| Judy Ogalla | Minority Whip | Present | |
| Jim Moustis | Member | Present | |
| Raquel M. Mitchell | Member | Absent | |
| Gretchen Fritz | Member | Absent | |
| Donald Gould | Member | Present | |
| Steve Balich | Member | Present | |
| Annette Parker | Member | Present | |
| Julie Berkowicz | Member | Absent | |
| Frankie Pretzel | Member | Present | |
| Tom Weigel | Member | Present | |
| Debbie Kraulidis | Member | Absent |
IV. APPROVAL OF MINUTES
V. OLD BUSINESS
VI. NEW BUSINESS
1. Discussion of County Board Agenda
Land Use & Development Committee
Mr. Weigel stated he had talked to the neighbors on either side of the people who want the goats. The one to the west side objected because the pen might be on their side of the property. He talked to the people who had the goats and they agreed to put a pen for the goats at the back end of the property, towards the middle and be over 100 feet from any resident. The neighbors just don’t like what is going on there; they have chickens and they do not keep up their property properly so they are against anything additional. He was going to propose a condition that the pen be put at the back end of the property in the middle, which is far enough away from any property.
Mr. Moustis asked how many goats they are requesting.
Mr. Weigel answered 2 pygmy goats. The village did not object to it. Mrs. Ogalla indicated the first zoning case; there were no objections. These are the bowling alley lots. She does not like those type of lots because they are long and narrow and they cause a lot of problems out in the county. That is the current condition we have right now, so we would need an ordinance change. Finance Committee
Mr. Fricilone stated we are appropriating grant funds.
Public Works & Transportation Committee
Mr. Fricilone asked if there are any questions.
Diversity & Inclusion Committee
Mrs. Ogalla stated she believes they have completely gotten away from looking at the practices within the county, to make sure we are not excluding anyone from bidding or applying for a job. The consultant is looking into the community and helping people to get jobs with state contracts that come through for small business. That is not our purpose to make sure that these small businesses make it.
Mr. Fricilone noted this is a closed contact.
Mrs. Ogalla indicated there are 6 steps and they will have 3 of them done by the end of the year.
Mr. Moustis agreed; the plan was to look at the county’s practices. Legislative & Judicial Committee
Mr. Fricilone stated we sent a letter out with our objections to a couple of things on the County Executive Form of Government legislation that is going out. We have not received anything back. Both sides of the aisle in Springfield are aware of it. They know our feelings on that. They may hold it over to next session, so we will have more time to look at it.
Mr. Moustis stated he would have liked to see a little stronger letter. It is kind of a soft letter. But now you have the County Executive asking what changes do you want.
Mr. Fricilone noted Speaker Cowan did respond to that and the County Executive just ignored it.
Mr. Moustis indicated his position is to withdraw the whole thing; we are opposed to all the changes. I don’t think anything needs to be changed. We certainly oppose that 2 counties who have the Executive Form of Government will have different rules. With these changes there would be no oversite; that is the responsibility of the County Board.
Mrs. Ogalla noted we sent that letter a couple of weeks ago; maybe we should draft another letter to say we have taken the time, we have looked into some things and we feel that the legislation should be pulled. We could create an ad-hoc committee to see if there are any changes that are necessary.
Mr. Moustis commented the board should consider going back to the Township Form of Government. When the question for the Executive Form of Government was put on the ballot, the County Board put it on; you did not have to go out for signatures. Would the same process apply?
Mr. Meyers answered he is not familiar; he does not recall anything in the state statute.
Mr. Moustis noted that Rock Island County had the County Executive Form of Government; after 2 years, they got rid of it. How did they do that?
Mr. Meyers answered he is aware of that but is not sure how it was done.
Mr. Moustis provided a history of the County Executive Form of Government Executive Committee
Mr. Fricilone reviewed the resolutions.
VII. COMMITTEE REPORTS
1. Land Use & Development
2. Finance
3. Public Works & Transportation
4. Diversity & Inclusion
5. Public Health & Safety
6. Legislative & Judicial
7. Capital Improvements
8. Executive
VIII. OTHER NEW BUSINESS
Mr. Fricilone stated regarding the ARPA funds; we are hoping to bring forward next month the water projects that we know we are going to move forward on, so we can get some dollars out. We should be getting our second allocation next month. We will have a discussion on what we are doing on the infrastructure and economic development.
Mr. Fricilone stated we lost Mrs. Johannsen who was our finance director for the board. It was decided by leadership that we were going to look at 2 people; one for communications and one for finance. Interviews were done; they have 2 people they made offers and they have been accepted. It will give us a communications director that will be working for us. In the newspaper this week, the County Executive touted 3 great projects that the feds are giving us money for - the Joliet water, the Narcan and the behavioral health money. The County Executive put out a press release and took all the credit. We will have someone now who will be pretty aggressive and can get information out quickly. We will also have a finance person on our side that can be our watchdog and make sure that money is being spent correctly. No matter what happens with the legislation, we are still in charge of the budget.
Mr. Moustis commented it did unify the board.
Mr. Fricilone indicated even if we can’t get everybody together, there are enough people, when it comes to budget time, we will be able to push initiatives to make sure that things aren’t going off the rails. Like when we asked why they hired a lobbyist. Mr. Schaben’s answer was to support the legislation they are pushing.
Mr. Moustis noted they hired a lobbyist for legislative reasons when they don’t have any legislative function. It was totally inappropriate for them to use the money for those purposes because it’s not a function of the Executive branch to initiate legislation under the Executive Form of Government. All lobbyists have been hired by the County Board and were answerable to the County Board.
Mrs. Ogalla agreed; that is not their responsibility to create legislation.
Mr. Fricilone commented another question for the State’s Attorney’s office is what the definition of professional services is.
Mr. Moustis noted it is pretty much anything you want it to be.
Mr. Fricilone indicated the money came from professional services to hire the lobbyist.
Mr. Moustis commented years ago we used to have a personnel budget that went line item by line item; that is something we should think about. We would have to do it for the entire county.
Mrs. Ogalla stated the new software that we have would have that capability. We are supposed to be able to access on our devices all the pieces, but they have never given us that access.
Mr. Fricilone noted we will be talking with the finance chair; she understands we have to get control of what the County Executive is doing with the money. We have to work with the other side of the aisle so there are enough of us in concert.
Mr. Fricilone stated we are in the process of interviewing for Mrs. Jakaitis’ replacement; hopefully we will have someone in place very soon. They have several candidates they are looking at. Also, we will get a discussion item on the executive committee about what is going on with the ERP system.
A brief discussion followed regarding the new ERP system.
Mr. Fricilone stated he doesn’t know how many people will go to NACo this year.
Speaker Cowan did say she was going to try to have the maximum number of people going, since this is the ascension of Mrs. Winfrey to the presidency. We would like to have a large contingency. It is July 21 to 24 in Denver, CO.
Mrs. Parker asked for the status of the ad-hoc adjudication committee.
Mr. Fricilone answered he has not heard anything on it.
IX. PUBLIC COMMENTS
X. ANNOUNCEMENTS/REPORTS BY CHAIR
XI. ADJOURNMENT
1. Motion to adjourn at 6:23 PM
| RESULT: APPROVED [UNANIMOUS]
MOVER: Judy Ogalla, Minority Whip SECONDER: Annette Parker, Member AYES: Ceci, Fricilone, Ogalla, Moustis, Gould, Balich, Parker, Pretzel, Weigel ABSENT: Mitchell, Fritz, Berkowicz, Kraulidis |
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