Will County Gazette

Will County Board Ad-hoc Ordinance Review Committee met May 21.

Here are the minutes provided by the committee:

County Board Committee Room Special Meeting 9:00 AM

THE PURPOSE OF THIS AD-HOC COMMITTEE IS TO REVIEW PROPOSED CHANGES TO WILL COUNTY ORDINANCES. THE COMMITTEE SHALL STUDY AND EVALUATE THE PROPOSED CHANGES (ONE CHAPTER AT A TIME); THE REASON THE CHANGE IS BEING REQUESTED; WHETHER THE PROPOSED CHANGE IS REQUIRED (BY LAW OR OTHERWISE) AND WHAT IMPACT THE PROPOSED CHANGE WILL HAVE ON WILL COUNTY. THE COMMITTEE SHALL PREPARE RECOMMENDATIONS TO THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE AS TO EACH CHANGE REQUESTED..

I. CALL TO ORDER

II. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE

Mr. Butler led the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag

III. ROLL CALL

Chair Vince Logan called the meeting to order at 9:04 AM

Attendee Name	Title	Status	Arrived
Vince Logan	Chair	Present
Sherry Newquist	Vice Chair	Present
Daniel J. Butler	District 3 (R - Frankfort)	Present
Mica Freeman	District 8 (D - Plainfield)	Present
Mark Revis	District 8 (R - Plainfield)	Absent
Sherry Williams	District 5 (D - Crest Hill)	Present

Present from the State's Attorney's Office: P. Mock

Also Present: K. Fladhammer, and J. Traynere

Minutes Provided by: S. Ceci

IV. APPROVAL OF MINUTES

1. WC Ad-Hoc Old Courthouse Committee - Regular Meeting - Apr 16, 2024 10:30 AM

Mr. Logan announced that the approval of the minutes will be moved to next meeting, there was an error and the Old Courthouse minutes were provided in error.

V. OLD BUSINESS

1. Previously Reviewed Changes to the Will County Ordinances Chapters 37, 38, and 39 (Phil Mock)

Mr. Mock stated he wanted to talk about some things that have already been discussed and approved last time. On §36.81 for Passwords, when we talked last time, I said I would check with IT about password policy. IT does have a super password so they can get into the system if someone was to pass away, and their Supervisor doesn’t have their password. They could get into wherever you have password protection. The other thing I said I would investigate is §36.085 Email Addresses, we discussed if this committee, and then the ultimate Board should have a standard to put into emails when people are no longer working here. The trouble is with all the offices controlling the internal operations of their office they have one set policy. What may work at the Sheriff’s Office may not necessarily work at the Recorders Office. Basically, they are leaving it up to every group to come up with what their own messages are. They confirmed after three years they archived all the messages, and there is no access to them.

Mr. Logan said I would think that every department would have the next person in line, so if you left the State’s Attorney’s Office all the emails would go to somebody else.

Mr. Mock stated that is not how it is done, the department had a secretary that would review them for a certain period and then just ignored them and they are still out there. Not all departments have them automatically forwarded.

Ms. Williams added, “I’m not sure what the Sheriff’s Office does but probably the same thing.

Mr. Mock said in some instances the new employee would review the messages for a certain amount of time, but then they would kick back messages to their own stating that person is no longer here, whoever is taking over that position is, and instructs to send to the new person. Each department by state statute controls the internal operations of their office that is what makes them responsible for their own. IT said they encourage leaving the emails open instead of closing them right away. Now we can pick up at New Business under §37.03 Special Funds.

VI. OTHER OLD BUSINESS

VII. NEW BUSINESS

1. Review of Changes to the Will County Ordinance Chapters 40, 41, 42, 43 (Phil Mock)

Mr. Mock said next under New Business §37.03 Special Funds, Ms. Fladhammer brought up last time and I checked, there is no Neutral Sight Exchange Fund any longer, so that has been stricken. The Public Act 100 987 General Fund, we have taken that out as well, it is no longer necessary because the general fund is a general fund, and money just goes into the general fund because it is not a special fund. The whole fund sections, all §37 are current, they are what the statutes require, and what the County has already done. I don’t see a big need to change any of these because they involve revenue, and we always make sure our revenue items are current. So, §37.04 there should be no changes other than how we do the statutes.

Ms. Newquist asked about item B, which was the repeal of Ordinances.

Mr. Mock stated because we have old funds that are sitting there with money in them that are not authorized by statute, but the Treasurer still has those funds.

Ms. Newquist stated that was created by repealing these ordinances.

Mr. Mock explained the Legislature changed a lot of these funds. The Circuit Clerk used to have about 50 different funds and the Legislature said let’s cut it down to 12 funds, but you are only going to have one fee other than that and then the County Board can determine if they want to have funds. For a $500 fine it use to be the $500 fine and then they would have several fees on top of that. They said that is too many fees.

Ms. Newquist asked if there is still money left in those funds, what are we going to do with that money. To me it sounds like you must carry the balance forward, but then it says crediting those funds as provided by this chapter. Does that mean distributing those funds amongst the other allowed accounts.

Mr. Mock explained the Treasure is working on this currently, they have what they call Special Trust Funds. They have some of those Special Trust Funds that have been held since 1964 when they put Interstate 80 through. Because the State would deposit with them $100,000 to buy a lot, and then the Court awarded it at $80,000. The remaining money is still sitting there, I talked to the Treasures Office, and we are going to work on clearing up all those special funds, they all still exist, because this authorizes them to still exist. That is why this provision says by court order, we must go back into all those court files and file what is called an Interpleader and notify both parties that we have $20,000 that is not our money and would one of them claim it.

Ms. Traynere asked why it wasn’t our money, they gave it to us. Couldn’t we just transfer that money to another general account and keep it.

Mr. Mock advised her that it was never our money, it was held in trust for a purpose. When the Current Treasure came in, they eliminated a lot of old funds that they had.

Ms. Traynere asked if we get notified when they do that.

Mr. Mock stated no, it is just administrative work. The only fund you can put money into like that is a general fund, it just raises your general fund total. If they have a statute to tell them what to do, they just do it. Or they go to the Treasure Association Meetings, and they instruct them what to do with those funds.

Ms. Newquist asked if we must create an ordinance to transfer that money into these other buckets.

Mr. Mock said you shouldn’t, but you may have to. When the Treasure comes to you, and they would like authorization from you to send it from one item to another item like a budget transfer then they would do that.

Ms. Freeman said we are striking out (14) Public Act 100 987 General Fund, but then it is mentioned in (B) Public Act 100 0987 and general fund is mentioned in it several times. Do we need to do something about that.

Mr. Mock said no you shouldn’t, what I am saying you don’t have a need to create a Public Act 100 987 General Fund anymore because it is already part of the General Fund. That was added on when they added that new statute, and we are not putting money in anymore. On §37.04 other than the statutory sights there really isn’t a need to change anything. The same with §37.05 the Civil Fees.

Ms. Freeman asked on §37.05 item (4) Schedule 4: $0.00, is that wrong.

Mr. Mock stated no, they don’t have Schedule 4 anymore we can scratch that. I will do some clean-up on this section and then when we come back for your final approval Ms. Fladhammer and myself will double check this section. That is something we can’t do until we go through these items, numbering is the last part that is adjusted. As I explained in the past meetings, that is because we need to follow the same format throughout the entire ordinance.

Ms. Freeman said I have a question on number 7, for Collections. My language background says there are a lot of errors in this section. There are no commas and grammatically it doesn’t look right.

Mr. Mock asked how you suggest cleaning it up, because those are two separate things. State and County is one thing, and Maintenance and Child Support is another.

The committee had a discussion and the members advised Mr. Mock what they thought would look better and where they wanted commas and semicolons.

Mr. Logan asked where administrative codes go, are they an ordinance for us or just something for the Sheriff’s Department.

Mr. Mock stated it is way farther back in our ordinances. When we get to the Administrative Code which is a separate section there will be some new codes that the Sheriff has asked me to change. We will discuss that when we get to that section.

Ms. Freeman said what is CASA fund, do we need to say what CASA is.

Mr. Mock stated I will do what I did with the other abbreviations, it will be added the first time it is written so that people know what it stands for.

Ms. Freeman said the item I am questioning, she then read to the committee, Section 14 item C.

Mr. Mock said we haven’t gotten that far for me to tell you that yet. The entire last sentence will be taken out.

Ms. Traynere asked if we had ever done this.

Mr. Mock said yes, that helped us to get money to help build the Court House. Mr. Logan said next is Chapter §38.0 Public Records

Mr. Mock said in §38.02 I checked with the Recorder they are collecting and has been authorized by the statute to collect $8.25 instead of 2 or 3 dollars I struck those, and I put in $8.25 to match what they do.

Mr. Mock reviewed the other items in the section explaining the change was from the statute and is being made in the other sections. The committee members didn’t have any other questions on this section.

Mr. Logan said moving on to Chapter §39 County Policies.

Ms. Freeman said I am back to the Section part, where it lists all of them and then there is a space from 39.07 to 39.99, I am very curious what is between 07 and 99.

Mr. Mock stated nothing because 99 is always used as penalties, there is usually a space, so it is easy to find when searching for the penalties.

Ms. Freeman said I have a question about §39.01 section B, WBE what that is, and where did you get the 1% and 10%, where did you come up with those numbers.

Mr. Mock stated in (A) we entered what it meant, and in (B) we used the abbreviations. It talks about depending on the scope of work and availability of disadvantaged business enterprises; if it is a small patch job you may only get 1% because the whole contract may only be $20,000. If it is redoing Laraway Road, and it is going to be $20 million, then you can try and get a bigger percentage because with a bigger pool of money it is easier to spread around.

Mr. Logan asked are you saying that we can’t have women owned businesses doing our contracts.

Mr. Mock replied no, they get an advantage in the bidding process. If they are 10% over somebody else you could hire the woman and then it is equal, and you can only do up to 10% you can’t change it to 11%.

Ms. Newquist said it is like a handicap.

Ms. Traynere asked why we are using the word “Highway”.

Mr. Mock stated Highway is a term of art under the stated statutes, all municipal road districts, township road districts, county road districts, and state department and transportation it all falls under highway.

The committee members had a discussion giving their own opinions and learning how their highway work is bid, who bids and how the DBE and WBE works, and where it came from.

Mr. Logan asked if there was anything on §39.02.

Ms. Freeman asked if we can up the $10.00 fine on visitors and the No Smoking Policy or is that a State fine.

Mr. Mock stated I was going to ask if we even needed it, nobody has been fined for a very long time. This was passed before the State mandated that there was no smoking in all buildings. People can still smoke outside, they just must be 15 feet from the entrance.

The committee members debated raising the fine to not having a fine anymore. People know better to smoke in buildings anymore. Some of the committee members thought it would be best to remove it all together, that will eliminate §39.02. Mr. Mock advised the members the reason it was added in the first place was to prohibit inmates from smoking in the building. After discussion the committee members decided to leave it in because they are all non-smokers and it will be a way to prohibit smoking in the building even though it is mandated by state statute, but to allow it outside because they didn’t want to upset the Union. Ultimately it was decided to leave it in and put it under old business for next month, and that Mr. Mock will write new language and bring it back next month to review again. That also wanted to up the fee to $100 so it can give us the ability to change a persistent offender if they were to smoke.

Mr. Logan said next is Section §39.03.

Will County, Illinois Posted: 6/18/2024 Page 6

Minutes WC Ad-Hoc Ordinance Review Committee May 21, 2024

Ms. Freeman said Health Insurance Benefits for Elected Retirees.

Mr. Mock explained the policy that is in place at this time is; if I was 55 and I retired the County will cover my insurance until I am 65. If I am retired at 55 as an Assistant States Attorney and was to run for Treasurer and elected, I would have the ability to take my insurance as the Elected Treasurer and not mess with my retiree insurance, after out of office I could go back to my retiree insurance.

Ms. Freeman stated the County Board doesn’t get a pension.

Ms. Traynere said I am in favor of dumping the entire insurance for Elected County Board members since we don’t get the pension.

Mr. Mock said what it is saying is; for instance, Ms. Williams who is retired, she could elect to get Elected Official insurance instead of retiree insurance and could go back to the other once not elected or if she quit.

Ms. Freeman said my issue is in the title itself, Health Insurance Benefits for Elected Retirees. Making it sound like I can retire as an Elected Official. The real meaning is that you are an employee with the County, and you retire, and then you become elected.

Mr. Mock stated what I can change it to is Health Insurance Benefits for Retirees who become Elected Officials. It then gives them the choice of what they want. They want to say once you become an Elected Official, you don’t necessarily have to lose your retiree insurance, it is always only for a short window, at 65 it is gone anyway because you are then Medicare.

Ms. Traynere said, “I thought if you turned 65 and you were still an Elected Official or an employee you would go on Medicare.

Mr. Mock stated not if you are working.

Ms. Williams said I have a question about §39.03 section B, it says and cannot change insurance coverage during their term, what does that mean.

Mr. Mock said of your four-year term of the election, you only have the sixty-day window when you started, and it cannot be changed during open enrollment.

Mr. Logan asked in section §39.04, do we have county owned cell phones.

Mr. Mock stated I would like to make a change to paragraph B, where it says sign the attached, I would rather it say accompany.

The committee members discussed moving the whole section to another section in the ordinances.

Mr. Mock recommended it be moved after §36.076 and before §36.077 and then renumbered. For next meeting could we put under Old Business, Email and Internet usage §36.075-76 and §36.077 and I will present a new number for those, with the new language.

Ms. Newquist said for §39.05 Senior Citizen Homestead Exemption, we talked about the Senior Exemption saying that you only must apply for it once. I know this causes confusion for many people the Senior Freeze I believe that you must apply for it annually. Should that be added here or is that not needed.

The committee members were good with §39.06, 39.07, the committee wanted the cell phone item that will be moved over to the electronic section.

Mr. Mock stated that is a State Statute, you must apply annually for the Senior Exemption unless the County Board authorizes it, that is the reason it is in here. §39.99 there is section B it will be moved.

VIII. OTHER NEW BUSINESS

IX. PUBLIC COMMENT

X. ANNOUNCEMENTS/REPORTS BY THE CHAIR

XI. EXECUITIVE SESSION

XII. ADJOURNMENT

1. Motion to Adjourn @ 10:20 AM

RESULT: APPROVED [UNANIMOUS] MOVER: Mica Freeman, District 8 (D - Plainfield) SECONDER: Sherry Newquist, Vice Chair AYES: Logan, Newquist, Butler, Freeman, Williams ABSENT: Revis

XIII. NEXT SCHEDULED MEETING JUNE 18, 2024

https://willcountyil.iqm2.com/Citizens/FileOpen.aspx?Type=15&ID=4829&Inline=True