County Board - Regular Meeting

All right, good evening everyone. It is 5:30, so I'm going to call the January County Board meeting to order. Um, we will open with the invocation of moment of silence from member Eric Hansen. Let us take a moment to reflect on our shared responsibility to serve all members of our community with fairness, compassion, and respect. May our work today be guided in a spirit of service and a commitment to the common good. January is National Blood Donor Month, and we pause to thank those that give so generously to help others in moments of need. One donation can save up to three lives and eligible donors can donate every eight weeks. May we be mindful of the life-saving impact of blood donation and in be encouraged to support this vital act of care that streng that strengthens the health and well-being of our entire community. Thank you. Madame clerk, if you can call the role.

Brian Leler here. Mike O'Neal here. Adam Reeves here. Jim Rogal here. Natalie Roseman Mendoza here. Jeff Tomkins here. Andy Zebar here. Brian Bangert here. Corey Burn present. Beverly Bell here. Mark Claus here. Leah Klene here. Alex Duffy here. Sean Fagan here. Buck Farley here. William John Frederick Eric Hansen here. William Beasler here. Val Layman present. Elizabeth Johnston

and I am here. We have all members present um and accounted for. and we'll move on to item number five, appearance by members of the public or county employees. Administrator Taylor, we've had no requests this evening, Chair Johnston. All right. Thank you. We'll move on to item number six, the consent agenda. May I have a motion? Motion by Vice Chair Rogal. May I have a second? Second by Hansen. Any comments or questions? Seeing none, all in favor of item six say I. I.

Any opposed? Motion passes. All right. Uh moving on. Item seven, the executive committee. Uh Vice Chair Roguel. Thank you, Madam Chair. Uh the executive committee has three items for action. First one is 7A1A request approval of an ordinance by the MLAN County Board amending the MLAN County Code Chapter 108. And I so move. Thank you. May I have a second? Second by member Fagan. Any comments or questions? Seeing none, all in favor of item 7 A1A, say I. I.

Any opposed? Motion passes. Next up, we have 7 A1B, request approval of a memorandum of understanding regarding clarified scope of mental health and public safety fund audit. And I so move. Thank you. May I have a second? Second by member Duffy. Comments or questions? Yes, member Bessler. I will need to abstain from this vote. Thank you. Any other comments or questions? Seeing none, all in favor of item 7 A1B, say I. I. Any opposed? Motion passes with one abstension.

Last up, we have 7 A1C. Request approval of a letter of engagement with Clifton Larson Allen. And I so move. Thank you. May I have a second? Second by member Leler. Any comments or questions? Member Bessler. I will need to abstain from this vote as well. Thank you. Any further comments or questions? Um just for the record, I want to clarify with Miss Taylor. Um once we do approve this uh will we be uh engaging immediately or will we be holding on to the engagement until the city and town have also approved theou? We are expecting that the city and the town will be approving that at a at a upcoming meeting and so we will be uh waiting for action until we have those signed by all three parties.

Okay. Thank you for that clarification. Any other comments or questions? Seeing none, all in favor of item 7 A1C say I. I. Any opposed? Motion passes with one abstension. Vice Shergo. The executive committee has no other items for action. Our general report can be found on pages 27 to 33 of the unapproved minutes. I can answer any questions if anyone has any. Thank you so much. Moving on to item 7B, finance committee with member Layman.

Thank you very much, Chair Johnston. The finance committee has uh two items to be presented for action this evening. I uh the first item is 7B1A, the request approval of or an ordinance by the MLAN County Board amending chapter 50 in the MLAN County Code and ISO move. Thank you. May I have a second? Second by member Bessler. Comments or questions? Seeing none, all in favor of item 7B1A say I.

Any opposed? Motion passes. Back to you. Thank you again. Our next item uh for action is item 7B1B, the request approval of an ordinance by the MLAN County Board amending chapter 116 in the MLAN County Code and ISO move. Thank you. May I have a second? Second by member Farley. Any comments or questions? Seeing none, all in favor of item 7B1B say I. I.

Any opposed? Motion passes. Thank you again. Um, we have no other items to be presented for action, but to be presented for information would be our general report, which can be found on pages 15 to 26 of the unapproved minutes packet. And I'm happy to answer any questions anyone has. Thank you so much. Any questions for member Layman. All right, moving on. Item 7 C, Health Committee with member Burn. Thank you, Madam Chair. Health Committee brings one item for action today. Item 7 C1A request approval of an emergency appropriation ordinance amending the fiscal year 2026 combined annual appropriation and budget ordinance for fund 0401. Uh this will require a 2/3 uh approval vote and I so move.

Thank you. May I have a second? Second by member Bell. Any comments or questions? Seeing none, all in favor of item 7 C1A say I. I. Any opposed? Motion passes unanimously meeting our two-thirds requirement. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Is a uh some general interest items. There was a relatively light month for health committee, although there were several major issu initiatives that were approved for funding for 2026, including grants for Project Oz, Easter Seals, Center for Human Services, Babyfold, Lifelong Access, Easter Seals, and Best Buddies among many others. These efforts support a wide range of residents and needs, and we are pleased to continue these efforts. Uh, congratulations to the Mlean County Nursing Home for their recent four-star rating. This rating is the result of a robust process ensuring staff radio uh, adequate staff ratios, quality of care. These ratings and additional detail can be found on the CMS nursing home compare website. The health department awarded its annual employee of the year award to Miss Sabrina Lawrence. Miss Lawrence has shown unwavering commitment to during a challenging period for the health works program. She took on additional responsibilities while also balancing her own workload. She ensured continuity, stability, and support for her team and brought compassion during a difficult time, honoring the legacy of a beloved co-orker with sensitivity and respect. Sabrina exemplifies what it means to be a leader, a teammate, and a person of character, and we wish her the heartiest of congratulations. Unfortunately, as with many local governments, we find ourselves putting out a lot of fires caused by the federal government with sunden capriccious cuts to grant funding. We note this week's announced cut to over $500,000 supporting mental health efforts for MLAN County's children only to be reinstated less than 24 hours later. We are fortunate that careful planning, fiscal preparedness, and particularly our own staff's professionalism puts us in a position to be a buffer for our residents against the misinformation and retaliatory actions that are now the norm unfortunately for the federal government. Particular thanks to Marita Landwith and her staff for their work to en ensure continuity of services to our residents. The MLAN County Health Department had a very successful 2025 and looks forward to 2026 as we embark on a multi-year accreditation process for the first time and implementing a new strategic plan. In local health news, the state of Illinois and MLAN County continue to maintain its own childhood vaccine policy which is not affected by federal vaccine policy.

Respiratory illnesses continue to rise, so residents are encouraged to wash hands, cover sneezes, and stay home when sick. And as a non-scientific anecdotal note, I can report that in my classroom, we've gone through two boxes of Kleenex in only two weeks, which is way more than we usually do. So, it is definitely on the rise. So, wash your hands, everybody. All right. Thank you so much. Uh, moving on to item 7D, Justice Committee with Vice Chair Roguel. Thank you again, Madam Chair. Justice Committee has five items tonight for action. Our first one is 7D1A which is request approval of a 2026 Illinois CASA membership agreement between Illinois CASA and CAS of MLAN and Logan counties and I so move.

Thank you. May I have a second? Second by member Farley. Any comments or questions? Seeing none, all in favor of 7D1A say I. I. Any opposed? Motion passes. Back to you. Next up, we have 7D1B, request approval of a lease between Dorothy Warner Business Center LLC and MLAN County. And I so move. Thank you. May I have a second? Second by member Leler. Any comments or questions from the board? Seeing none, all in favor of item 7D1B say I. I.

Any opposed? Motion passes. Next up, we have 7D1C. Requests approval of an emergency appropriation ordinance amending the MLAN County fiscal year 2026 combined annual appropriation and budget ordinance for the sheriff's department 0029 and jury commission 0018. Uh, this vote requires a twothirds approval by the board. And I so move. Thank you. May I have a second? Second by member Duffy. Any comments or questions? Seeing none, all in favor of item 7D1C say I. I.

Any opposed? Motion passes unanimously. Next up is 7D1D. Request approval of emergency appropriation ordinance amending MLAN County fiscal year 2026 combined annual appropriation budget ordinance for fund 0170. This also requires a twothirds vote from the board and I so move. Thank you. May I have a second? Second by Natalie Rosema Mendoza. Any comments or questions? Seeing none, all in favor of item 7D1D, say I. I. Any opposed? Motion passes unanimously. Last item.

Next up, we have 7D1E, which is request approval and emerge approval and amendment to the neutral site custody exchange and supervised visitation center agreement. And I so move. Thank you. May I have a second? Second by member Zebarth. Any comments or questions? Seeing none, all in favor of item 71E say I. I. Any opposed? Motion passes.

The justice committee has no further items for action. Our general report can be found on pages 11 through 14 of the unapproved minutes. Um, and I can answer any questions if anyone has any. Thank you. We'll move on item 7E and property committee with uh member Layman. Thank you again, Chair Johnston. The property committee has no items to be presented for action this evening. As far as information, you can find our general report on pages 9 to 10 of the unapproved minutes packet and again happy to answer any questions you might have. Thank you so much. Uh moving on, item 7F, land use and transportation committee with member Klein.

Thank you, Chairperson Johnston. The land use and transportation committee brings one item for action this evening. Um, it is seven F1A, request approval of a three-year solid waste program agreement between the Ecology Action Center, MLAN County, the city of Bloomington, and the town of Normal. And I so move. May I have a second? Second by member Farley. Comments or questions? I will need to abstain from this vote. Thank you, Member Bessler. Member Klein, did you also want to abstain from this one? According to the state's attorney's office, I don't have to because I'm an exeicio member of the board. Excellent. But I will if anybody wants me to. [laughter]

So, member Bessler will be obstaining. Any other comments or questions regarding this item? Seeing none, all in favor of item 7F1A say I. I. Any opposed? Motion passes with one absention. Thank you so much, chair. Um, the land, use, and transportation committee does not have any other items for action this evening. Our minutes can be found on pages two to five of the general report and I'm happy to answer any questions that anyone has. Thank you so much. Moving on item 7G and county administrator Miss Taylor. Thank you, Madam Chair. I have nothing to present this evening.

Thank you. Uh moving on to item eight, other business and communication. We do have two small presentations today and so I'd like to invite uh Mr. Hoben to come um to give his presentation. Um we ask him to come occasionally to give us updates on the EDC. Um, this is one of our partners. We do invest in the EDC. We So, we are an investor and it is good to come um and let us know what he's been up to on behalf of the county.

Awesome. Thank you. You weren't kidding. You guys are efficient. 15 minutes. Next slide, please. All right. This is my education. Next slide. This is my experience. Next slide. Just I'm not making this up. I actually know to do this. All right. So, what does the EDC do? If anybody asks you on the street, we do retention, expansion, and attraction of jobs and investment. Why do we do it? Grow the economy, increase wealth for all, and then stabilize the tax base. Next slide. Uh, this is how. So, this is what I teach all across the nation. I'm the director of SIO's basic economic development course where we teach everybody how we do economic development in Bloomington, Normal, Mlane County. And the goal is we develop the community. If we got a solid community, your businesses will grow. If the businesses grow, then your economy grows and that money goes right back in the community. Keep that flywheel going. Next slide, please. And whenever trying to prioritize things, I love starting at the bottom. Bas like a hierarchy of needs. Got to have solid infrastructure, available real estate, placemaking, skilled workforce is the number one thing right now besides um power and electricity to close a deal. Uh then you can retain your businesses, help them grow, do entrepreneurship, advocate in their behalf, create incentives, market those, sell those, and at the very top do the deals. Next slide. So, what I wanted to give you guys a preview of, this isn't even out to the public yet. We're going to announce the full thing at our January 30th being by the numbers. This is our strategic plan for this year. We go through the process every single year. Um, there's four things that we do every year, but the short term those can rotate. Uh, so we're going to go through these just the newer ones that I think that you guys would have interest in. Uh, specifically the size of MLAN County, which we got launched yesterday just for this presentation. Um, next slide, please. Okay, so to start, uh, community development. This is really more of the nonprofit government world, uh, that you guys are in. Uh, but we've got to have, like I said, solid infrastructure, um, in order to have real estate and work our way around. Next slide. So, the number one thing that we do for this is

one voice. This is coming up. Um, these are the four projects that our board has approved that we're going to take out there and basically beg for our money back. Um, we've been pretty successful with this over the years and, uh, bringing back close to over $200 million. So, I want to keep that one going. So, just for clarification, the water lift is the um the project out by the airport um that we worked on. Yeah. Colonial Meadows that um is desperately in need of uh to get off septics and onto sewer and onto water and off their defunct um well system. So, uh we are going out to ask for the water because the Benward has already gotten money for the to get off of and onto the sewer system. So just for clarification,

collaborative effort. Uh the city's East Street Basin is one that we've taken before. Uh there's been some of these projects we've taken for 10 years before we finally got money, but we still go back every year to make sure we have solid relationships. And a lot of times, uh we also like to meet with our elected, but sometimes staff, the admin themselves from different agencies, if we have projects and they hear from enough enough other um economic developers and communities having the same issues, they'll actually create programs to allocate for the next year. So we try to stay ahead of the game to bring those dollars home. Um, next slide, please. Uh, we've got three, uh, tactics that we're doing this year. Uh, one of them is called a digital twin. We want to replicate every available site in town. Historically, we've only focused on non- retail economic development. I've been here almost seven years now, and I get asked about the mall at least once a week. So, we said in order for us to tackle the mall, we need to add retail. Our board finally did that. If you guys have ideas for the mall, the next thing is a feedback and a listening tour. Please tell me if you see any type of revitalization projects for any available sites that we have. Let us know. And we also need to update our housing study because we do have projects underway. That was done in 2022. So, we're going to update those numbers to make sure that we're not overbuilding. Next slide, please. Uh business development for this. We definitely want to retain our businesses. So, we have a full-time person that works on that where we basically ask the businesses number one, just thank you for doing business here in MLAN County. Two, are you growing? And if not, what's in the way? And if we have enough of those issues together, we can advocate on their behalf. Um, if they're growing, we want to help them expand. And then we wanted to do uh entrepreneurship, which is one of your programs. How about all the startups that are here and advocate in their behalf? Next slide. So, uh, speaking of which, uh, size up MLAN County is something that we knew that we needed to get because we partner with our SBDC over at Illinois Westland right now. And one of the biggest hang-ups, we might have someone who's really good at making coffee or really good at barbecue, but they don't know strategy or how to do a business plan. So they'll show up at the SBDC and say, "Hey, can you help me write a plan?" And they'll say, "Well, where's your research?" They don't have

the research. So the size up MLAN County is a new program that is live right now on soft launch. Um there'll be a slide later on to show you guys where you can use it, but you can type in barbershop, you can type in nonprofit, anything you want. It'll show you how we stack up compared to the rest of the county, the city, the state, and the nation for all the different data points that a business needs in order to write a business plan. So, it's a really cool business intelligence program um that we're doing thanks to you guys. Other than that, uh the next one is technical assistance and that is helping everybody really on the financial analysis because just because you've got a construction proform does not mean you're going to get incentive locally or from the state. So, we're going to help out with that and the incentive assistance. Um, next slide, please. So, this is where you can go right now on your phone. It is mobile. It works there as well. It's called bnbiz.orgsizeup. If you go underneath, if you just go to our website and then go underneath um programs, you'll see size up MLAN County. Um, it does a lot of different things. You can do business insights. You can actually use it as an advisor. Um, there's a shop and eat local campaign, but then also local industry pulse, which is really good for um industry data. Next slide. So, this is an example of just a barbecue restaurant that I typed in in MLAN. Um, but you can just type in where you're at if you're an existing business. Or if you don't know yet and you're starting up, you can click that drop down. It'll give you the averages um for that industry. So, this is really good for any of my financial friends that are out there. If you've got a startup or business that's coming in looking to grow, have them start here so at least they'll have the data and then they can go work with the SPDC to get that business plan. A lot of times, like they've got a solid idea, but they're not bankable. So our goal is to give them a plan that will make them bankable and this data will help them do that. Next slide please. All right. Now to traditional economic development where we help craft incentives, we market those, we do sales and then we close the deals. Next slide. Uh so for this one, um develop entrepreneurial incentives. Um we just completed a child care study. It is in draft form right now. I'm going to present it to the YWCA

Saturday. We're going to get their feedback. Um we'll wrap that up. I I didn't know because my kids are 20 and 22 how much child care costs right now. But we're literally the second highest in the state of Illinois and uh one of the numbers showed that it's actually more expensive for an infant in child care here than it is to send your kid to college, which is absolutely wild. So, we need to figure that out. A lot of this is a ripple effect. We've had some really good growth, but with that good growth and new jobs, you're losing the child care teachers to Rivians and Ferreros and everybody else because they pay more, which means they have to pay more, which means they have to charge more. Um, so this is a a really cool study that Norah Harrison and my office did in a partnership with a lot of different organizations including ISU. All that to say that will be ready also at our being by the numbers. Um, there is a copy of this on the governor's desk right now too because we have some state asks that are in there to help offset it. Um, so that'll be good to go forward. Working on food deserts, but also launching an angel investor incentive hopefully with the state. Next slide. All right. Uh, marketing attraction wise, we're still trying to retain our students. We have 25,000 the best and brightest here. We want to keep them around. I know we need houses to keep them, but until we build those houses, we're letting them know that there are a lot of cool things happening in this community off campus, so please leave campus. Uh, we did a study with the students and they said, "It'd be really cool if you guys had a farmers market." I'm like, "Please leave Uptown Normal and get to downtown Bloomington. We have a farmers market." Um, they also said it was it'd be nice if we had more than one brewery. And I'm like, "We have seven. Come on, guys. Let's So, it's it's really on us to go where they're at, you know?" So, we we really push things out to Tik Tok and Instagram and things I'm not on, but they are. Um, then for the awareness campaign, we just need to let everybody know what we do because most of the times if there is a ribbon cutting, if there is a groundbreaking, we're not in the photos, we're off to the side. So, we want to do a better job educating. A lot of you attended our Econ Dev 101 course. We're going to do a 2011 course where we talk about some of the data that's behind it all. We're going to map out that flywheel so everybody knows what agencies do what because we don't do everything in the flywheel. And then I

want to create a community scorecard that aligns everybody's strategic plan. Everyone's saying we're going to do this. I want to look back and say did we do it or not? We update ours every single year. So we want to have some accountability on where some of these dollars are going. Next slide. And then the deal making finally. So um yeah, we've been very very successful. I think we're averaging a billion dollars a year and 2,000 jobs a year um for the past six years, which is honestly too much growth for a community our size. Um so we like doing the big deals, but also next slide. This is your program. So these not only do we help the big companies like the Ferrero and Rivian, but you've also helped all of these smaller companies. So we've done 20 of these lease grants across the county thanks to um your dollars and your program. And this is one that honestly I stole from the uh city of Monaceel because they had this Shark Tank style where you come in with a business plan and if there's a vacant building, we will pay your lease up to a year up to $10,000. So we've done 20 of those so far. Anyone that's in the light gray, they are no longer open. So we have 17 um out of the 20 that are still open, but it's a great way to fill vacant spaces. You know, I've seen economic development and that flywheel go the other way where if you start losing businesses, you lose more businesses. Um, so we want to fill those vacant spaces, give some people a shot. Um, please go, you know, uh, participate and help out these businesses as well. But, um, it's been a really cool program. In fact, the state's SBA wants to duplicate this across the state. They came down to our entrepreneurship being by the numbers. They saw it. We had uh, one of the speakers there uh, Kobe Revolving Sushi talked about how it helped her get in there and then we need they just said basically we need to replicate this. So, great job. Um, next slide please. And I also want to invite all of you, if you did not know, our uh real estate investment or sorry, annual real estate development summit, the Red Summit is coming up on the 30th. The state of Illinois has some new incentive programs that they're going to announce at this, but also we're going to get a residential update from Ed Neeves, who

used to be the head of the Realtors Association in the state. I will do a longer economic update if you want to hear me talk some more, but really going over some of the demographics and some of the economic indicators in the community and releasing the full strategic plan, some more talking points on the child study, and then also going over an annual report, just what we did last year. I do have data from the past six years. Um, but we've been very, very successful at what we do. The problem is we haven't really kept up with all the housing and child care services to keep this sustainable. I know Rivian's R2 is under construction now. I think they just rolled off some test um product today. Uh they they announced when that thing is done, we're going to see a lot more jobs in the supplier park and there and we still don't have the houses. So, that's going to that's going to inflate the prices a little bit more. So, we're all working on these things in the background. Um but yeah, more information to come on the 30th and then tomorrow I'm going to try and get out the newsletter which you guys are a part of that will have links to all the studies and the background information. But with that, like this is a partnership. If you guys have ideas, if you travel, you see things in other communities you want to hear, let me know. I will go hunt. But other than that, I'll open it up for questions.

Any questions? Um, and as I'm sitting here looking in and your sweatshirt says BN economic development council, but you do more than just Bloomington Normal. Um Patrick is also the one that you go to when we are looking at um

uh economic the the development zones um the enterprise zones which expand even beyond the boundaries of MLAN county. So, as he has now added retail, um if especially if you're in the rural and you're looking for some retail, we we are looking at um the food deserts, uh very difficult, I know in some of the rural areas to get into town, especially when there's bad weather. Um so, if you have ideas and you want to be working, this is our partner for economic development. So, please reach out. Um he is a wonderful resource. Um don't be afraid to use them, but if you have questions tonight, feel free to ask. hate to put you on the spot. Cory's got a question. Yes, member Burn.

Um, so Mr. Hoben, you sound very very excited about everything that's coming up, and that's that's really encouraging to hear. Um, so what would you say is something you're looking forward to most that you see is coming down the pipeline, say, in the next 5 years or so.

Oo. Um, I don't want to get ahead of myself, but I will anyway. [laughter] Yesterday, um, we met with the mall. So, right off the bat, like that's the elephant in the room. You drive by it. In my mind, that's a blighted property. You can't I mean Kohl's is a happening place. It's in the back. I wish that was in the front. Uh so for us looking at that property seeing the potential. Um one of the things that we want to do and I'm going to need help um from the the assessor's office if you're listening as well. I would love to get a map made that would show what the assessed value of every parcel in town was 5 to 10 years ago compared to now. Take that difference in percentage and then turn that into a heat map. I guarantee you it's going to look like a dart board. You will see red areas followed by yellow then green where the growth actually is. So having that will help us determine with traffic counts highest and best use for different areas. So you pull up one property, it should bring up the value of everywhere around it. So to me, it's just it's the potential. It's why I took the job in the first place. I did this indicator. Um that's very industrial town. I did it in Tinley Park, which was landlocked. I looked at this and I was like, this is the largest county in the state of Illinois. You've got, you know, Twin Cities. It's a you got all the talent in the world. And then I noticed a lot of holes all around the community. There's literally farm ground in the middle of neighborhoods. So, it's like there's better uses. So, to me, it's right now it's the mall and um yeah, just maximizing her some of our infrastructure.

Excellent. Thank you. Any other questions? All right, seeing none, thank you so much for coming and giving the presentation. Appreciate it. Uh next up, other business and communication. We have a repeat visit uh from Miss Thompson from animal services. Um, it was such an excellent video. I did ask her to come play it again because unfortunately, as much as I like to think our committee meetings are riveting, uh, the community doesn't always see what's going on. And so, I asked her to come and, uh, reshow the video and do the narration. Um, this is a video she created thanking her volunteers. So, I will turn it over to you. Thank you.

I'm excited to carry on the excitement from the previous speakers. So, um, love to share good news. Thomas Bell brought dog and cat food donations to the animal shelter. Thomas has been bringing these donations since 2018. So, I want to thank him and his daughter Dana. They got to tour the facility and they were very impressed and proud of the community and how that they've embraced the animal services program and they thanked our staff for all the hard work and dedication. And here's Bo. He's available for adoption. He's super friendly. He loves to go on walks. He has a very good personality. He works really well on a leash. he sits good um getting all um leashed up there to go on his long walks. I want to thank our new volunteer Joe who comes when it's cold and walks Joe out in our beautiful property. She's also helping us do some of our new um adoption promotions. Also wanted to help McKenna with Wishbone K9 Rescue. Um she's a shelter director and I want to thank her for coming to the animal shelter services pulling dogs into their adoption program. It's a rewarding and joyful moment to see the dogs connect with McKenna and transition into the new phase of their journey into a forever home. Last year, Wishbone K9 Rescue pulled nearly 50 dogs. So, we are so thankful for these collaborations and cooperations and helping the animals get their next journey started. And then uh there's Javeet doing some loading there. So, we appreciate all the hard work and dedication. thanking Coco, our new young volunteer, for coming out and socializing. Raina, thank you for adopting Uno, my favorite kitten of the year so far. So, thank you Ann for coming and cleaning and the cat spaces a pretty regular. She's coming on Tuesdays. And I also wanted to thank Humane Society of Central Illinois for pulling 38 cats just this month into their adoption program. It was a beautiful moment watching the joy and

happiness for the cats at the facility taking the next step into their forever homes. I have observed the cats and dogs show less signs of stress and respiratory illness while housed at the facility. I believe the design and quality of the air circulation system at the new facility is a direct benefit to the overall health and well-being of the animals. You can just see it in their faces, in their behaviors. They're happier, healthier, and you can just tell that they're thriving better, and I can see it just instantly. You know, the animals are getting what they need. The new facility contributes to a better overall experience for the people and the animals. Look at that face, those beautiful eyes. The cats are doing a great job. The kennels are fantastic and they're easy to manage and um the public gets to be able to interface with them in a different way and they're more attractable and um highly desirable and um they're doing a really good job and so I'm proud to be a part of what we've created and what we've all been working on so long together for Shelly. She's my second favorite. Did you bring a guest with you today?

Oh, I did. I'm just going to showcase them at the end. All right, we'll get there. Sorry. Would you like me to bring them up? Sure. Sure. Come on, Larry. Come on, Andy. So, Larry Applebomb is here tonight representing Wishbone K9 Rescue. Larry is a Wishbone K9 Rescue volunteer and former Wishbone uh K9 Rescue board member. I wanted to thank and recognize Wishbone K9 Rescue for supporting animal services and transferring many animals into their adoption program. So, thank you very much for helping us. [applause] Thank you for your commitment to helping the animals in this county. We're very, very fortunate to have such wonderful groups. I agree. Partnerships.

Absolutely. The collaborations are fantastic. This is Mandy Hawker. She is here tonight. She is representing the Humane Society of Central Illinois and is the operations manager. I wanted to thank and recognize HSCI, Humane Society of Central Illinois, for supporting animal services and transferring many animals into their adoption program. So, thank you for helping. [applause] We're super excited. The building is beautiful. We were I was blown away by it. So, thank you. And the animals do look healthier and happier and it's just immaculate. So, thank you. Well, thank you both so much for all you do and I can't wait to what we're going to do together. So, thank you. [laughter] Thank you again.

Thank you. Thank you.

So, I just wanted to briefly mention I mean in addition to the animals um being happier, being healthier um and being adopted faster um it's it is strengthening the partnerships. Um, one of the things that that Marshall Thompson also mentioned at the health committee, uh, at the, I'm sorry, finance meeting, um, was that the staff is spending less time, they're having to spend less time, um, getting the animals healthy. So, that is saving on their time, that is saving on medication and pet and vet care. Um, and so this building has has just kind of turned a lot of things around down with animal services. We are, she said that she mentioned that we were bringing in more volunteers. people are excited to be there. Um, and so it would be one thing if we said, well, we had moved it into into the city limits, but literally it's just around the corner. So, it's wasn't the distance that was keeping people away. The beautiful facility is bringing people in. So, I'm very excited um to bring that up. Uh, there were a couple other things that came up during committee meetings. Um, member Burn mentioned the four-star rating at the nursing home. Um, but there were a couple other things that I wanted to highlight. Um many many thanks to the sheriff's department with their uh narcotics investigation team that they have opened up. Um if you didn't hear that uh in the last 9 10 months um they have created a narcotics investigation team that has netted 37 felony arrests. Um really tackling the drug trafficking that's happening in the county, creating uh better safety for our community. Uh very proud of the team that's there and that was with current employees. So thank them from us uh for all their efforts. The other piece that I wanted to bring up um we continue to see growth in the um with the behavioral health coordinating council the fuse program which is the frequent utilizer program um which keeps people and we've got new reports out statistics out keeping people out of the jail keeping people out of shelters and out of the

hospitals. Um when we started 2025, we were around 30 participants and that has grown substantially over the year to 50 participants. Um so we've got people getting very intensive care um and keeping them out of the services that we might need if we need to be in the ER um or other necessary spaces in the shelters and the jail. Um so very proud of the BHCC with the Fuse team doing that. Um, and then the last one, the one that's a little bit more complicated, and I'm I'm hoping to work with our assessor to get some, uh, clearer information out, uh, property tax in no way, shape, or form is easy to kind of wrap your head around. Um, the legislative subcommittee, yes, we did have a very successful breakfast again, but one of the items that we had been pushing for for many years was to raise the cap on household income, allowing for senior freezes of property taxes. um it had been stuck at 65,000 for many many years. The legislature finally did take it up. And the confusing part is that they are measuring this year's income. And if you are below this year, if your household income, if you're a senior and your household income is below 75,000 total income, not AGI, I did check, total income, then you are going to be eligible for a freeze on your property taxes payable in 2027. Okay. One of the other things that the state legislature did was because they were so far behind, they couldn't do the massive jump they wanted to. So, it is $75,000 of annual income this year. 77,000 next year and then the following year 79,000 is where it will stop. So just kind of keep that in mind if you've got constituents who are talking to you about property taxes and it is really putting the pinch on them. If they are below that household income and a senior, they are eligible for a freeze. The reason I bring this up now is the assessor's office does an excellent job

of reaching out to people. So you may be getting questions. He is notifying them this month. So, if constituents start reaching out and you're having trouble, please encourage them to reach out to the assessor's office. They will walk them through. They're an excellent team. Um they're always very gracious with their time working with residents. Um particularly for any um any breaks that they might be eligible for, whether they're a veteran, a senior, or a senior with low income. There are multiple opportunities for assistance with property taxes. And other than that, um, IT department was very pleased, um, that they finally were able to go live with their record management system and look forward to completing the other two pieces, the jail management and court management system, uh, to go live this by the end of this year. So that is my updates. If there is anything else uh, from the for the good of the community, from the board,

member Klaus. Thank you, Chair Johnson. Um we obviously had a very successful year in 25 but one of our challenges was uh some struggles around the audit process and I know in the executive report um that's a key role that was going into the ERP program. We're trying to push there's a lot of collaboration going there but I was wanting to just see if there's any progress. We're trying to prevent the same debacle from happening in 26. So, I know some steps have been taken, but if you can you or maybe administration can share any updates on both the ERP as well as the the auditor role with some things. I think we're waiting to still see.

Correct. Absolutely. Thank you for the question. Um, yes, that is I think on a lot of people's minds. Um, and so one of the things that we noticed last year was uh there were some communication breakdown between the auditor and some of our external vendors. Um we did have a very successful um kickoff meeting for this process with CLA uh where there was an agreement uh between all the partners about what was the deadline and what did we need to do so that this didn't happen again. Um and then other than that we we know what the deadlines are. So we are already trying to engage that communication um so that we stay on top of those deadlines. Uh the first major deadline is going to be the actuarial um to make sure that that engagement is happening so that the reports actuarial reports need to be done by the end of March so that when CLA comes the first week of April information is ready to stay on target. So thank you for asking that question. It is uppermost of many of our minds. Um and we are trying to facilitate that conversation so we don't get stuck.

Okay. And to follow up with our ERP transition, we are on schedule for that transition. We started training this week uh and we will be um uh doing a shutdown of the financial systems the first two weeks of February to do to complete the transition. We'll be live with the financial management pieces of uh requisitions, invoicing uh budgets for those processes um in February. And then uh that will continue we will continue continue training and integrating the additional pieces. Budgeting will come in April right before staff have to start with their um planning for the 2027 budget and then our HR systems are planned to go live uh in early summer and so we are on track um and have uh started to transition.

Okay, thanks for the update. Thank you. Any other questions? Any other comments for the good of good of the people? Seeing none, I thank you for your service to the county and we are adjourned.