Will County Gazette

Will County Republican Caucus Committee met Nov. 30.

Here are

I. CALL TO ORDER

II. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE TO THE FLAG

Mrs. Adams led the Pledge of Allegiance.

III. ROLL CALL

Minority Whip Judy Ogalla called the meeting to order at 6:12 PM

Attendee Name	Title	Status	Arrived
Judy Ogalla	Minority Whip	Present
Frankie Pretzel	Member	Absent
Annette Parker	Member	Present
Raquel M. Mitchell	Member	Absent
Julie Berkowicz	Member	Absent
Steve Balich	Member	Present
Mike Fricilone	Member	Absent
Jim Moustis	Member	Absent
Gretchen Fritz	Member	Absent
Donald Gould	Member	Absent
Tom Weigel	Member	Absent
Debbie Kraulidis	Member	Absent

Present from State's Attorney's Office: M. Tatroe, K. Grey, K. Meyers

Also Present: N. Palmer, B. Adams

NO QUORUM.

IV. APPROVAL OF MINUTES

V. OLD BUSINESS

VI. NEW BUSINESS

1. Review of County Board Rules

(Discussion)

Mrs. Ogalla asked Mrs. Adams if she would go over what each committee does. Mrs. Adams stated I sent out the committee assignment sheets and if anyone had any questions, they could go to the rules to see what the committee is and where their interest lies and what works in your schedule.

A brief discussion followed regarding replacement hires and appointment to boards and commissions.

Mrs. Ogalla commented most of the times the appointments go through a lot of them are reappointments someone serving on the board.

Mrs. Ogalla stated since we are an 11/11 board, they don’t have majority. They get a tie breaking vote, but they don’t get majority. I said maybe we should do a 3/3 committee, 3 democrats and 3 republicans. That way it’s a 50/50 board. Mrs. Tatroe said she would have to see how that works and if it could work or not and if it’s a tie vote how does it come out of committee.

Mrs. Adams stated the next few pages break down the responsibilities for each of the committees. We added the report on the Prairie View Landfill and the Requests for the State’s Attorney’s Opinion.

Mrs. Ogalla asked does anyone have any questions about the committees because it’s straightforward.

Mr. Butler stated that I think judicial and legislative should be its own and should stay separate.

Mrs. Ogalla replied we did have a brief conversation about that, but we didn’t think about prior, and Mrs. Adams is going to look at that.

Mrs. Adams stated as far a legislative I can see that being too long but judicial very rarely met; there was very little business brought forward. The Sheriff would bring any issues to the Public Health & Public Safety Committee. Mr. Meyers stated you have very little if any oversite over the courts, so the judicial is kind of on its own because you can’t tell the judge to do anything. Mrs. Ogalla replied I remember having the Sheriff doing a report when I chaired that committee. Nobody has done anything with the Sheriff’s department for the past 4 years.

Mr. Meyers stated you really don’t have oversite over the elected officials. Mrs. Ogalla stated it is important to have different parts of the Sheriff’s department come and give a little presentation so that you understood what they did.

Mr. Butler stated just for the record I like legislative and judicial to be together. Mrs. Ogalla replied again it depends on the chair. The only thing that we must do is when we must pay bills or Sunny Hill a lot of times, we approve their bids. Sometimes they have a 3-year bid, but we must approve it every year for 3 years. We must do that and that’s the only thing that we must do.

Mrs. Adams commented even like the health department that reports to Public Health you, have no responsibility to them because they have their own health board. You set their budget, their levy, but they come every month with updates. I always found that to be informative and helpful because you are the ones who will be getting calls on that.

Mrs. Ogalla stated that’s why it’s good to have those other elected officials come and give you an informational update because we get the calls. The residents don’t call the Sheriff’s department, they don’ call the health department, they typically call you and say, what are they doing or what’s going on. So, when you get an update at least you know what the situation is. And we do have influence on like vaccinations for instance. Back when we were doing mass vaccinations sites they called and asked me do you think you need a mass vaccination site in eastern Will County, maybe in Frankfort? I said, absolutely; because I’m not having my 80-year old’s from Beecher and Crete drive into Frankfort, we have to have something closer, so they put a mass vaccination site in Monee. So, while we don’t have a say in most things that was something I had influence in having setup in my area because it’s a long way from Beecher to Frankfort when you’re 80 something years old. It’s easier for them to go from Beecher to Monee. Although, you don’t make policies for them you can influence things that happens. Mrs. Parker asked when we did the courthouse, we kind of referred to the day-to day activities. Didn’t the State’s Attorney come up with something and the County Executive kind of took that over?

Mr. Meyers replied I don’t recall. I remember when we were building the courthouse initially you were designated by the County Board as the agent. Mrs. Adams replied purchasing it yes; what goes in there and how it’s renovated, that falls under the County Executive.

Mr. Meyers stated I can say the County Executive does the management day-to day of county properties. Before the courthouse going back a little bit the board didn’t have a whole lot to do with it because of the Public Building Commission. They oversaw the projects.

Mrs. Parker asked why that changed.

Mrs. Adams replied I think part of it depended on the size of the project that allowed you to do the agreement with the contractors to be owners/agents. The board was for the courthouse, and I believe for Sheriff’s facility too. Those were two very large projects so there was a lot more involvement there. That was something that we normally wouldn’t have been involved with at all.

Mr. Butler asked the County Executive is the department that hires everybody. Right?

Mrs. Adams replied to those departments that fall under her. Each elected official is responsible for their own departments, and she heads several departments that is under the County Executive. Sunny Hill is under there, Land Use, Highway Department, EMA, animal control.

Mrs. Ogalla stated the H.R. Department still does a lot of hiring through us. Mrs. Adams stated invocation is highlighted in the rules with a question mark to remove and what I told them on Monday night is that we had gone over all these changes with you and with Mrs. Mueller and you agreed on everything except that was her request and that’s why it’s marked because it had not been brought to you and you were not aware of it. That they were asking to remove invocation. Mrs. Ogalla replied they have done that, and we never had an issue before and we have had people on the other side of the aisle that didn’t want to have it at all, so sometimes instead of invocation they would have a moment of silence. Typically, what happens is we split the year and the staff will tell us democrats have the evens, and republicans have the odds or whatever.

Mrs. Adams commented I let Mrs. Ogalla know at the beginning of the month you have clergy this month and next month is Democrats. It’s up to the board member to get someone from your district that’s willing to come. There have been times when we didn’t have someone show up and luckily before we had a Democrat and Republican that were both clergy.

Mr. Balich stated it doesn’t have to be a clergy. According to the Supreme Court ruling am I correct when you’re doing invocation you can have any person. Mr. Meyers replied to you can have anyone. Invocation is not bound by any legal grounds. You can do whatever you want.

Mrs. Ogalla stated that’s one of the things that we’re talking about I said my caucus is not going to support removing the invocation.

Mrs. Adams stated they will have a moment of silence instead once they get done with the pledge.

Mrs. Ogalla stated what I usually do is have one of our staff people send out an email out and say we have these months and sign up for the months Mrs. Adams stated regarding the time and place for the board meetings; there have been discussion about moving the board meeting to the evening on Thursday. I can tell you there were some Democrats for that and there are some that are against it. Also moving Forest Preserve board meeting to that same 3rd Thursday and start at 3:00 p.m. and the Board meeting at 5:00 p.m. Mr. Balich stated I’m against changing to nights period. It’s not going to get us more people and it’s going to be a pain in the neck for people who have jobs. Everyone here ran knowing the times of the meetings.

Mrs. Adams replied I can tell you Mr. Balich that this comes up every 2 years. This would require that everyone does flex time.

Mr. Revis asked is it possible to put something into the rules that would put a cap on the amount of time for these board meetings.

Mrs. Ogalla replied why would you want to do that. You don’t know what’s going to be on the agenda. It’s kind of a nice idea in concept but we don’t know what’s going to be on the agenda and sometimes things pop up we don’t know sometimes they bring it.

Mrs. Adams commented it’s funny because I have people ask how long you think the board meeting is going to last. You know we can have 2 items on here and it could take 4 hours, or we can have 20 items on here and be out of here in a half hour. There’s no rhyme or reason what it’s going to be. Talking about that a lot of times the Land Use public hearing has been very lengthy because if it’s a controversial case you get a lot of people that is very concerned about that and the one thing, I do say is to me a big part of the board’s responsibility is zoning. You represent the unincorporated. Everybody is very passionate about their land and their going to show up around stuff. There was talk of there does not need to be a public hearing at County Board for Land Use cases, but Mrs. Tatroe has said, and I wish I had talked to her so I could fill you in this because I don’t know the legal means on it. You must provide due process at each step of the process. The Planning Zoning Commission is a public hearing and then it goes to Land Use which is your committee and then it goes to the Board. Land Use can sometimes go a few hours because that’s where the work is done. That’s where you get people hashing everything out but if they come to the Board Meeting, we had a couple in the last 6 months of so that been lengthy because there has been a lot of publics that want to comment, and you cannot limit them under the public hearing. Any other public comments are limited to 3 minutes, and I think Mrs. Bertino-Tarrant does a good job keeping people within this time frame but during public hearing you can’t stop that. What Mrs. Tatroe said the one suggestion would be you would have to move if you took off the public hearing the minute that someone was trying to talk in public comment you would have to shut them down. You can’t ask any questions you can’t have any developers come up and give any other information, so to move public comment to the end of the meeting or at least after the zoning cases I don’t see that the public is going to like that if they’ve come for an issue that they feel that strongly about and to come to the meeting they should have the opportunity to have their voice heard. I think it was more that the democrats weren’t in favor of both and taking it out.

Mrs. Ogalla commented what’s nice since COVID is we have Webex, and you can ask Mrs. Adams because what I do if I can’t make the meeting is listen to it while I’m driving sometimes because I’ll just put it on my phone and drive and listen. That way at least when I go to County Board, I know what was said or if I want to contact someone in-between, I can call and ask what about this or that. That way I’m not really missing anything at all because before it was just minutes that they had recorded.

Mrs. Adams commented a lot of times the minutes weren’t even available before you were voting on it.

Mrs. Ogalla replied correct.

Mrs. Adams stated I always liked the idea that Mr. Moustis had is that every board member should sit on Land Use at some time during your term. He would look at the agenda every month and if it’s something in his district then he would be there for the meeting or like Mrs. Ogalla listen to it if you can’t make it because there has been times and I think you can agree with this that other board members will say, Mrs. Ogalla this is in your district how do you feel about it.

Mrs. Ogalla stated so they don’t know how to vote so we respect everyone’s district and we would ask you what you think and if you want to oppose it then we would oppose it or if you want to support it then we would support it. Mrs. Adams commented on page 23, 3.06 after identifying themselves. Any permitted public comment at the County Board meeting should be held to less than three minutes unless on a motion to “suspend the rules”.

Mr. Butler asked is the general rule comments should stay at 3 minutes. Mrs. Adams stated we try to stick with Robert’s Rules. The one about written comments came about because of COVID and I believe Mrs. Tatroe came up with this and had researched it and she believes that 500 words is approximately 3 minutes.

Mrs. Ogalla replied which is good because our staff read for hours and hours and our meetings always went until 3:00 or 4:00 in the afternoon, always. We need that.

Mrs. Adams stated more people are submitting public comments as opposed to taking a trip down.

Mrs. Ogalla stated what I would like to point out on page 25 at one time we would always make a motion to table our agenda items and then someone new came in who said we shouldn’t be motioning to table we should be motioning to postpone. So, can you explain when they should table and when they should postpone.

Mr. Meyers replied under the new rules it doesn’t matter we’re going to handle it the same way.

Mrs. Adams stated Robert’s Rules doesn’t say there’s a table.

Mrs. Parkers asked what does it mean that it’s reduced to writing if requested by any member on the Board?

Mrs. Adams replied if it’s a confusing motion someone can ask, “can we please have that written out”.

Mrs. Ogalla stated if someone wanted to make a motion to amend something then it’s good to have a copy of it because of staff would like it and the State’s Attorney and sometimes media would like it. Not often will you do that but if you’re thinking about doing that and its last minute, I would contact staff, or my leader and they will help you prepare everything you need to do. Table and postpone will be handled the same way.

Mr. Butler asked is that a Robert Rules change or just our addendum change? Mrs. Adams replied it is our change.

Mr. Butler asked does it mean if you’re postponing that you’re postponing the vote?

Mr. Meyers replied there was a former board member who insisted that there was a difference between the 2. We’re just saying postpone and tabling is the same thing. We’re not going to split hairs over it. Stopping the vote for minute usually is made by like a motion to suspend the rules and add it to a different part of the agenda later or bring forward if there’s a speaker there on the topic. The motion to table was never used to pray but to put it hold on to it for further discussion. This just clarifies it so that we’re not fighting over semantics. If it’s not available whatever so it will be open for discussion for the next meeting.

Mrs. Adams stated it will be on the agenda and there’s a motion to remove from table and then there’s discussion but what we recommend is if it’s something big like Land Use case because those are the ones a lot of times that get tabled is that something came up and like we don’t have that information so staff or the developers, or the attorneys is going to provide that. Table it until the next board meeting and then they come back give you that information and you make your decision. If it’s something you still want to hash out about the request send it back to committee because that’s where the work should be done, and we do that on occasion as well. Then its remanded back to committee, committee takes it back, looks at whatever questions came up and then it comes back to full board.

Mr. Balich asking 3.10 if a board member chooses not to vote when called upon, they will be considered as not voting. One of the issues we had was people saying come back to me so when they call on you and you don’t vote then you’re considered you say, you either must vote yes, no, or abstain.

Mrs. Adams replied technically if you’re abstaining you should provide a reason why you are abstaining.

Mr. Balich stated abstaining isn’t counted as a vote. It’s counted as a 0. Mr. Meyers commented they’re certain statutes the way they are worded that the extension becomes a problem because it’s said it passes by a majority of all members some say those present voting. It becomes a nightmare if you’re abstaining just to say I don’t want to weigh in on it.

Mrs. Ogalla stated but you can change your vote, right.

Mrs. Adams replied to you can change your vote as long as the vote has not moved on.

Mrs. Ogalla stated if you aren’t sure how you want to vote then you can say yes or no, even abstain and then you can say and raise your hand I like to change my vote to a yes or no or whatever.

Mrs. Adams commented and not everything is a roll call vote either we do a previous roll call on many things. The other thing that we’re going to encourage too especially with having 9 new board member is that if you are making a motion or second that you state your name. The new people; we are going to have a hard time recognizing your voices for a while so stating your name helps us with typing minutes plus is much easier for the clerk. The only other thing is towards the end on page 28, if a board member cannot attend in person due to County business, they may attend virtually only if a quorum is present in compliance with 5 ILCS 120/7 (a-c). There was a lot of discussion about this at the Democratic caucus and what they would like is that if it is allowed, they would like to see that it’s just for county business.

Mr. Balich stated I would be against it because I would ask the State’s Attorney to check the US Constitution under ERPA protection under the law correct that if you let one person do that everybody in the room can do it and say it’s county business.

Mrs. Adams replied but you must have a quorum in the room according to state statutes.

Mr. Balich stated you get a quorum there and the rest of the people don’t show up. It’s a bad precedence if they can’t be there, they don’t vote. This is a way because I get what’s going on and these guys don’t, but Ms. Winfrey is a NACO representative, and she chose to do that and I’m glad she on it but at the same time just because she chose that doesn't mean that we going to let her be a member of board and vote from her suite in Las Vegas.

Mrs. Adams commented but the board did support her in that nomination, and they passed a resolution for it. If someone wants to do it virtual the committee votes on whether to allow that person or not. Most of the public body may allow a member to attend a meeting by other means. Mrs. Tatroe said this would require a vote then.

Mr. Balich asked so there would be a vote each time if somebody wanted to do that.

Mrs. Adams replied yes, each time. It must be a physical quorum. Mr. Balich asked why would the Board vote.

Mrs. Adams replied that’s written in the statute.

Mrs. Parker asked is that a state statute?

Mr. Meyers replied yes.

Mr. Balich stated it doesn’t make sense to me but okay. According to the state we have to vote on every time somebody is absent.

Mr. Meyers stated no. We don’t have to deal with that. Only if someone is requesting to attend. We have the Webex setup if one of you are gone and you just want to watch it. The attendance is like attending as a board member voting on this and those types of things.

Mrs. Ogalla stated we may not include this in our rules either because it’s all part of negotiations.

Mrs. Ogalla stated most meetings of ours we will have someone from the State’s Attorney’s Office, Mr. Meyers boss is Mrs. Tatroe she’s typically in our meetings. Mrs. Adams and she’s the resident genius. Ms. Dantzler is the administrative assistant. We also have Ms. Ceci and Mrs. Hamann who’s our financial person. You can ask them any question. So, if you need immediate assistance, please call the staff; they are good at getting you what you want. You can also call me and Mr. Balich. We also have a Chief of Staff, who is currently Mr. Palmer. I don’t know if he’s going to remain but currently, he is our Chief of Staff. Typically, when we get a new board, they bring in who they want to be the Chief of Staff. We normally keep our staff. They staff is there to help you with anything you may need, and they are very helpful.

Mrs. Adams stated there will be a swearing in ceremony at the County Board meeting.

Mrs. Ogalla explained how leadership is voted on at the reorganization meeting. Mrs. Adams replied right after the board meeting. You won’t get your county ID until you have your employee orientation and that’s on December 14, at 1:00. If you want to come on December 28, you’ll get your packet before then and if you have any questions on your benefits let me know and I’ll get you in touch with someone before you come on December 28. If you have a picture that you want to use for the website, please send it to me. If you don’t you will take a picture on Monday. You will also get an access swipe card to get into the building by security. I will have all your paperwork to fill out. Just remember to bring I’ll need a copy of your driver’s license, social security card, direct deposit, so I’ll need two check stubs, blank checks, or voided check. Lisa from the Forest Preserve will be here as well to have you complete the paperwork. If you are doing it into a savings account, we will need a sheet from the bank. I need a voided check that I can attach to the paperwork. You will also order your business cards so; I’ll need to know what you want on them. Also, if someone call the office for you, we don’t take messages at the office. You will get 250 business cards to start out. We will give you another 250 throughout the year but we won’t do more than that. Whatever information you want on your cards just write it down. And again, like I said we don’t take messages so you need something where your constituents can reach you. If not a phone number an email address. You will have a name badge with your district on there. You can be as formal or informal as you want to be with your name. That’s all depend on you and how you want it.

Mrs. Ogalla commented we have a Forest Preserve; we will do a reorganization there as well. Forest Preserve there’s only 2 committees there’s Finance and Operations. Typically, in the past what leadership has done if you served on Finance and County Board, they put you on Operations for Forest Preserve. It doesn’t matter to me. Forest Preserve we have President, Vice President, secretary and treasurer. Those 4 positions get an extra stipend. The only 4 positions that get a stipend.

Mrs. Adams stated you all are entitled to be reimbursed for mileage. We keep track of committee attendance so, any committee that you are on we will have a record of it. Once the minutes are approved, we go into our spreadsheet list you present or absent then you can submit mileage. You can submit it monthly, quarterly, or yearly. It must be in the same fiscal year.

Mr. Revis asked is it for going to meetings?

Mrs. Adams replied if you’re going to a township meeting to somewhere in your district on County business. Anytime you’re going anywhere on County business you can submit mileage. You will have to keep up with it. If you come to a meeting that you’re not on the committee, you will have to keep track of those because we only keep track of the committee members only for that committee.

Mrs. Ogalla stated Forest Preserve is a direct deposit payment to your banking account.

Mrs. Ogalla asked what did the Democrats do about voting for chair? Mrs. Adams replied they had a quorum, so they were able to vote. Mr. Balich asked who did they chose?

Mrs. Adams replied Mr. Van Duyne the speaker and Mrs. Traynere as leader. Then there’s Mrs. Freeman and Mrs. Williams that both expressed interest for whip which Mrs. Traynere will choose. The rules say the leader picks.

Mrs. Ogalla asked so when can we do it?

Mr. Meyers stated more than 48 hours from now by Monday.

Mr. Balich asked we have to do it in person?

Mrs. Adams asked can’t they just do a consensus instead of an actual vote?

Mr. Meyers asked when you say consensus you mean like an all YEA?

Mrs. Adams replied yes if everyone’s in agreement without there being a formal vote.

Mr. Meyers stated I can honestly say there’s no case law that says you can’t.

Mrs. Ogalla asked so what do we have to do Mr. Meyers?

Mr. Meyers replied we should probably meet Monday morning.

Mr. Balich stated maybe after we get sworn in we take a 5 minute break and go vote.

Mr. Meyers replied as long as it’s a public posted meeting.

Mrs. Adams stated a Republican Caucus at 10:00, on Monday.

Mrs. Ogalla stated meeting ends.

VII. COMMITTEE REPORTS

VIII. OTHER NEW BUSINESS

IX. PUBLIC COMMENTS

X. ANNOUNCEMENTS/REPORTS BY CHAIR

XI. ADJOURNMENT

1. Motion to adjourn at 8:11 p.m.

RESULT: APPROVED [UNANIMOUS] MOVER: Annette Parker, Member SECONDER: Steve Balich, Member AYES: Ogalla, Parker, Balich ABSENT: Pretzel, Mitchell, Berkowicz

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