County Board - Regular Meeting

Good evening everyone. It is 5:30 and I will call the May County Board meeting to order. Uh can we all rise for the invocation or moment of silence from member Layman?

Thank you. So May is mental health awareness month. As you may or may not be aware, uh mental health awareness month is a great opportunity to not only check in with ourselves, but to check in with our friends, our neighbors, and our community. Whether it be sharing the awareness of the suicide crisis lifeline with texting or calling 988, attending the community mental health field day on uh May 30th from 11 to 2 at Normandy Village, or taking some intentional time for mental and physical well-being on the Constitution Trail or Kamar Park. U these are all great ways to check in with ourselves. One way that I personally like to check in and to make sure that I'm focusing on my mental well-being. I've shared in years in the past, but is with a box breathing exercise. This is a great way to center in times of uh heading into a meeting in moments where your mind is just really going wild and thinking about a lot of things or even before sleep. So, I'd like to go ahead and lead uh the room, if I may, in a box breathing exercise as we anticipate uh our meeting this evening, so that way we can be most planful and aware. Some tips to make sure that you're comfortable uh is to make sure that you're standing or sitting uh upright with your feet flat on the floor. Uh sometimes it's helpful uh to close your eyes. Sometimes it's helpful to stare in one particular direction. With box breathing, what we're going to do is we're going to take a deep breath. I'm going to count to four. So, you'll breathe for four, hold that breath for the count of four, exhale for the count of four, and hold it again for the count of four. We'll go ahead and do two rounds of box breathing, and I'll count

for us. So, if you would inhale, one, two, three, four. Hold it. 1 2 3 4. Exhale. 1 2 3 4. Hold it. 1 2 3 4. Again. Inhale. 1 2 3 4. Hold your breath. 1 2 3 4. And exhale. 1 2 3 4. Hold your breath. One 2 3 4. It's recommended to repeat this cycle three to five times to help clear your mind and to help prepare you for the situation. Thank you. Madame clerk, if you'll call the role.

Eric Hansen, present. William Beasler here. Valon, present. Brian Leler, here. Mike O'Neal here. Adam Reeves here. Jim Rogal here. Natalie Roseman Mendoza here. Jeff Tommpkins here. Andy Zebarth is absent. Brian Bangert here. Corey Burn present. Beverly Bell present. Mark Claus present. Leah Klene is absent. Alex Duffy here. Sean Fagan here. Buck Farley is absent. William John Frederick here. Elizabeth Johnston and I am here.

And we do have a quorum. So we will move on to item number five and this appearance by member of the public or county employees. Miss Taylor, I believe we have two. Is that correct? That is correct. All right. So first up we have uh Sarah Atig. If I mispronounced that, I apologize.

And thank you for leading the black box breathing. That's going to help me out tonight. I appreciate that. Thank you so much for um allowing me to be here this evening. Um, my name is Sarah Addict and I am a health and family educator with the University of Illinois Extension serving Livingston, Mlan, and Woodford counties. Um, I'm here tonight uh with Katherine Johnson and she's a community leaison with the East Central Illinois Area Agency on Aging and I'm here to speak with you tonight about um the dementia friendly Bloomington Normal initiative that we're working on. Dementia affects millions of Americans today and that number is expected to grow significantly in the coming years. As our population ages, dementia increasingly impacts not only individuals and families, but also workplaces, first responders, health and social services, and local government. Communities that take proactive steps now to build awareness and supportive systems are better prepared to meet these challenges and to strengthen overall community well-being. We're partnering with uh community members, caregivers, businesses, and local organizations through the dementia friendly um Bloomington Normal initiative. Following an initial community meeting that we had in March, um we formed a dementia friendly Bloomington Normal task force and this group brings together representatives from multiple sectors who are committed to improving the awareness, understanding, and support related to dementia in our community. A dementia friendly community is one where individuals living with dementia are understood and respected and supported and where their caregivers are not navigating these challenges alone. These communities work intentionally to reduce stigma, increase awareness and create supportive environments um across public services and businesses and community

spaces. And this allows people to remain engaged and safe and connected for as long as possible. As an early step in this effort, the task force has launched a brief community survey uh to help us better understand uh the current knowledge and awareness and perceptions of dementia across the area. Um the the results will help guide uh the task force's planning and inform future education, training, and outreach efforts. So, uh, we're here tonight to respectfully encourage council members to complete the survey themselves and to share it with those in your sphere of influence, um, including residents, businesses, organizations, as well as community partners. Uh, participation from trusted community leaders is critical to hear the a broad range of voices and building momentum more momentum for this work. Um, the survey is open now and ends June 15th. And we we do appreciate the county's continued support in efforts that promote inclusion, understanding, and community well-being. And we look forward to working together as this uh important initiative moves forward. I've provided you with a postcard that has a QR code on it um that takes you directly to the survey. I have several others here uh if you'd like to spread the word. And also I left at your area um uh the our impact report, our extension impact report. it tells kind of tells you the story of what extension has been up to in our communities in 2025. So, I thank you for your time and wish you a good evening. Thank you. Uh, next up we have Susan Adams. Thank you. And I have um um something to

leave with your secretary. I'm uh Susan Adams from Atlanta, Illinois. And even though I live outside of uh Mlan County, my husband and I do own several hundred acres of farm ground in the very southwest corner of Mlan County. And yes, we did get the tax bill. Um, I wanted to indicate that I am uh the current chair of the Illinois Water Authority Association and the chair of the Muhammad Aquifer Consortium. The uh what I've wanted to share is bring you up to date on what's been happening with CCS in in our area because I'm not sure that that information gets out much. Uh the Vervane pore space lease in our area has been terminated in a letter to land owners as of March 5 of this year, but the sequestration well leases have not been terminated and the well permits have not been pulled from the US EPA. They are simply put on hold and you can find that information on the US uh EPA dashboard. Land owners that have signed leases will no longer receive payments. Some people are still waiting for their 2025 payment. Land owners that signed leases will now uh be waiting for the company to remove the lean for the easement from their deeds. If sequestration had taken place, the sequestration company would place a document in perpetuity on the owner's land deed stating that the CO2, which is hazardous waste, is stored under the land. Now, and uh much uh the uh and how much is there and when it was injected. This part is part of the code of federal

regulation and land owners were not aware of this when they signed uh the lease agreement with the company. Once a company finishes injecting and that hasn't happened yet, um there will be a post injection period and that's called a PISK a post injection site care and that's the monitoring time that the company is required to uh see what the conditions are for the injection site. After that all liability will be left to the landowner. The state does not want the liability and the companies are asking for a 10 to 12 year PISK and getting it even though the US EPA uh regulations specify a 50-year uh PISK as a default. The US EPA is granting this request as a mi as the minimal monitoring and what land owner in your county can afford the potential costs uh when or if there is a leak in contamination of water or land. What we are learning is Champagne County has Well, thank you very much for the information. I will be sending out my comments and if you have questions, please feel free to ask.

Thank you, Miss Adams.

All right, we will move on to item number six, the consent agenda. May I get a motion? Motion by Fagan. May I have a second? Second by Bessler. Comments or questions on the consent agenda? Seeing none, all in favor of item six say I. Any opposed? Motion passes. Uh we did have one resolution of congratulation commendation and I will ask Mr. Fagan to come to the podium to read to read it for us. Thank you chair. resolution of congratulations honoring Dr. Brem and the students of Illinois State University Stephvenson Center for Applied Community and Economic Development. Whereas the MLAN County Board wishes to recognize and thank Dr. Joan M. Bren, Ph.D., department chair and professor of sociology, and the nine students in the Illinois State University's Steven Center Applied Community and Economic Development Program for their efforts in the spring 2026 semester in beginning the park and recreation master plan process in support of Kamlara's park future. And whereas Kamlara Park's most recent master plan was created in 1974 and the county wishes to embark on crafting a new master plan in line with county strategic plan mission, vision, values, and priority areas. And whereas before beginning the work of crafting a park and recreation master plan, the county recognized the need for an understanding of the impact of usage and

features of the park as well as desires and feedback from park guests. And whereas Dr. Brem in conjunction with county staff recognized the community partnership opportunity for the M's program students in the Stevenson Center applied community and economic development program to use their expertise and learning to support their community by taking on a project to gather community usage experiences and assessments for Kam Laura Park. Whereas the students spent the spring semester interviewing administration and park staff, researching other parks in like municipal areas, crafting and executing a survey that was sent via email, community flyer, and posted on the Kamlara Park website, which reached more than 15,000 past park users and was taken by 1,222 residents of Mlan County and neighboring counties. And whereas the students then compiled all findings and presented a summary to the community on May 7th, 2026, where they shared out park user demographics, feedback on existing services and amenities and desires for future park offerings, all of which will lay the foundation for the forthcoming park and recreation master plan. And whereas we wish to thank Dr. Rem for taking on the project to support the future of Klara Park, for her leadership and guidance of the students throughout the semester, for her dedication to excellence in education, and for her passion for community support and partnership. And whereas we also wish to thank the following students who spent their semester tirelessly researching, designing the survey, analyzing data, and crafting the formal presentation of

results. Selena Coffee Mcishu Katsim Puyu sorry Pumu I apologize for that. Cara Gray Audrey List Ernestine Indor Dylan Qualss Noah Sada NatalyiaChaikovski and Casper Trainer. Now therefore be it resolved that this achievement reflects excellence not only in the education but in the community passion and partnership that exists in Mlan County. setting a positive example not only for today but for years to come as the master plan is crafted and lived out. And be it further resolved that the MLAN County Board hereby thanks and congratulates the students of the Illinois State University Stevenson Center Applied uh Community and Economic Development Program and Dr. Joan M. Brim, Ph.D. for their support and dedication to the future of Kamlara Park and Mlan County and adopted by MLAN County Board this 14th day of May, 2026. Dr. Brim. Oh, there they Oh, you guys snuck in on me. Thank you.

This uh the congratulations really goes to my students. Um unfortunately this is the one week that they have between some intensive work. So a lot of them couldn't be here tonight but they really deserve all the credit for taking on a project that normally I would take almost a year to do this kind of work and we did it in 15 weeks and they did an amazingly professional job. Um, I'm grateful to Kamlara Park for the opportunity to collaborate with them. Uh, the opportunity to give our students this kind of experience where they can do work that they see the impact in the community. They have a connection to what's happening in our community is really invaluable and it's going to play into their experience as future community development specialists. So, thank you all very much. All right. Thank you. Moving on, we will move on to item seven, standing committees. Uh 7A is executive committee with Vice Chair Roguel.

Thank you, Madam Chair. The executive committee has five items tonight for action. First one is 7A1A which is request approval of an ordinance by the MLAN County Board amend amending chapter 205 fees section 205-31 chapter 160 alcoholic beverages and MLAN county code and I so move. Thank you. May I have a second? Second by Bell. Comments or questions? Seeing none, all in favor of item 7A1A say I. I. Any opposed? Motion passes.

Next up, we have 7A1B, which is request approval of an ordinance of the MLAN County Board setting salaries of the MLAN of the members of the MLAN County Board. And I so move.

Thank you. May I have a second, second by Fagan. Comments or questions? Member Reeves? Oh, microphone. Um, after reviewing this, um, a 25% pay increase compared to, uh, cost of living and stuff like that seems a little excessive, uh, to me, especially when people are hurting and uh, trying to make ends meet.

Member Frederick Yeah. Um, bad week to get real estate taxes and then ask for a pay raise for public elected officials. I understand that it's been a long time since we've reviewed this and it's two years in the future before it's enacted. Uh, but my constituents in my area uh beat me up pretty regular and I cannot get behind this and support it. So, I will be voting no on this proposal. Other comments or questions? Member Bell,

you look pretty good to be beaten up. But I'm telling you, the cost that is costing me out of pocket just to be on this board, it's like I don't really get a paycheck every two weeks. There is other counties that have just done an increase up north. and their board is larger than our board. So, uh I will be voting yes. Other comments or questions? Member class.

Thanks, Madam Chair. Yeah, I don't have all the full context. I did try to read through the minutes and so I saw it had been 10 years and I can appreciate that and I can appreciate member Bell's sentiment that I think it does probably, you know, cost some some money to to fulfill the role. I think it's more about public service. I don't think anybody's in it for the money. If it was, you know, I you're in the wrong wrong line of business. We're trying to, you know, offset some of that. But yeah, to to some of the other members comments, if there's one thing I see people commenting on, especially with the tax bills going out, it's like where is all our tax money going? And we're trying to change the way we we look at some of this stuff and change behavior and it starts with us. So, I got to vote no. Member Tomkins.

Yes, I'll be voting no on this. And this is from someone that felt and approached several members on this county board, including the administrator two years ago with perhaps or four years ago with the desiraability of increasing these amounts. Times are different today. The economic situation is different today. I think it is extremely tonedeaf of this board to turn to the citizens of this county, especially in the district I live in, and tell them, "Well, we're going to we're going to pay our county chairman $25,000." And I'll just say it flat out. I don't think $25,000 worth of value is being added to this county by this chairman. And I don't know what things will be in the future, but I don't I'm not voting for this. No. No. Thank you.

Other comments or questions? Member Friedrich?

I understand the cost and there's some county boards where they make over $100,000 as board members. A lot of them, you know, in the 30s. I don't think that's where we got to be. Um I remember my colleague Mr. Reeves when he was on the board uh the month after he's like what's this what's this uh check that I got from the county government and isn't that right and uh he's uh asked administration that and she's like well that's your predium your salary for being a county board member and and Mr. Reeves was like, "Oh, I thought this we do this for free and I'm willing to do it for free and I'm not asking people do this for free." Um, but I'm I'm just not on board with it. So, we'll just leave it at that. Thank you.

Other comments or questions? Member Bell?

I live off of my social security and my my husband's military retirement and I have served my country. I have been overseas for almost 20 years. I've done my due diligence and my family's been here 160s something years. I don't have any extra income except for I own my house and I own my car. So, everybody's getting hit. And I want you to know that I do not have land that I can just all of a sudden settle it or sell it or whatever. This has been coming up for years. This has been laid dormant for years. So, I'm just letting you know as a board member to board member, I am doing my best. But every time I turn around, I've been to three functions today and I came to my board meeting. Did I get paid for those functions? They all had to do with the county board. And you guys know I've always been there. You asked me to come. I will be there. So, if you want to talk about farming and all your other people, I'm on the job 24 hours a day. and I'm proud to be a MLAN County board member.

Comments, question, Mr. Tomkins.

Yes. I also wish to add that I think it is extremely inequitable the amount of raise given to the chairman, the vice chairman's and others with a regular county board. Those of us sitting down on the folding card tables that also represent and are elected to represent the constituents of their district do not get a proportional raise. So if I remember correctly when we ran through this, we uh compared salaries of the county board here to other counties in the area. Uh and there was a calculation percentage-wise and that's how we ended up at the numbers that we did. So the percentage wise is commisserate. What we looked at for county board members and I guess Miss Taylor if you'd like to speak to it. um was to try to bring us in line with the counties near us. Keeping in mind that this pay raise is going to go into effect in two years. It does not go into effect immediately for the chair either. So this is not for this current chair. It is for the future chair. There is an incredible amount of work that goes into this. There are a lot of hours that go into this. When you look at my pay stub, I am well below par of minimum wage for the hours that I put in. That is not a complaint. It is a fact. So looking at and trying to create some parody with the other counties and the work that gets done, that is what we considered and have presented to the board. Miss Taylor.

Yes. I just um have in front of me uh the elected salary comparison for some of our comparable counties. Uh this was one of the documents that we used when we were reviewing the county board member salary as well as the chair's salary. Uh I will note that in this document, this ordinance, it does list out the vice chairman separately. However, that is the same uh uh salary that he is getting today. It just states it in a in a in a way that is um uh easier to understand. So, uh, for our comparable counties, for county board members in Poria for 2026, they make $11,000, uh, and $6. Rock Island makes $2,400. Tazwell makes $2,400. Lasal County makes $6,200. Champagne County makes $60 a meeting. and Cana Key makes $85 per meeting in attendance. For the county board chair for 2026, Poria County makes 20. The county board chair in Poria County makes $25,681 for Rock Island 24,400. Tazwell County, $33,255. Champagne County 12,180. Lasowl County 79,641 and I believe Kanka Key was 63654 um compared to our uh 19,522 for MLAN. That is correct. And for people that were watching the executive committee passing this today with a two-year start

period, the ident the intention was that the next board would consider doing an equitable pay raise so that we don't have half of the board making one salary and the other half making a lower salary. But an executive committee and the discussion was even passing this today does not mean that we can't undo it if economic conditions are not palatable for an increase. If we feel like it is too much at that point, it can always be pulled back. But it has been over 10 years since it's even been contemplated. Member Leler,

and I I get what you're saying. I guess I just I struggle when you look at a volunteer fireman getting 10 bucks to show up at a lifethreatening situation all hours of the day and night. uh you know who whoever's out there doing their job especially volunteer some of this is volunteer some of this is a little extra effort and I just I struggle with uh looking at it as a salary I mean if Tazwell and Champagne can get by on a per meeting $80 I just I I just I didn't know how much discussion went on at exec and I just it just feels a little a little much or a a lot much actually.

Okay. Any further comments or questions? Member Layman.

Thank you. Yeah, one of the the questions that I had asked at exec um was if if this is something that has to be done now um for this this particular board. So knowing that it wouldn't go into effect for for two years. Uh, and so I'm just curious, is there, and I I guess I would maybe lean on our assistant states attorney to see, uh, is there anything that if we decide to not pass this today, uh, that we might be able to do to amend it, that if in two years time we feel that there is a it's an appropriate time to reook at the, uh, look at the the salaries that we can do it at that time as opposed to passing it today. for something that's not even going to be in play for two years that at that point in time we might not even feel is is appropriate. Is there is there any wiggle room? Is there anything to be considered about looking for for future uh bringing the conversation back up? The primary rule with um something like this is that the uh the sitting board cannot give itself a raise. So any um any ordinance to increase board member salaries would have to apply uh after the next board is seated. Um that's the general rule. Um I believe there are some depending on the year that an action like this takes place. I think there is some um time frames that have to be adhered to. I don't recall what they are off the top of my head. But um if your question was can this be evaluated in the future or does it have to happen now? Um I I think the uh answer would be that that should be generally acceptable. um

paying attention to when in during the the calendar year that that action would have to take place. There are some uh time frames in play there, but I don't recall those off the top of my head. Yes.

Is there something about the the May meeting that makes it important to take this into discussion tonight? Um, or is it something that can be considered in in a few months if we say, you know what, the the current percent that we're focusing on to happen in two years is inappropriate and maybe we want to do uh a 10% raise, a 5% raise, whatever is is smaller and a little bit more palatable. Is that even part par part par for discussion or is this the timeline that this needs to to really be sorted?

Uh administrator Taylor just uh reminded me of the timeline. It needs to happen. It cannot happen after within 180 days from the election period. So that's the significance of it being brought forward in May. So supposing this is voted down, are we going to miss the deadline and is there something that needs to be officially passed for the incoming board members? So we would need to amend it and pass it tonight if it was going to be amended and not passed as it is. Is that correct?

Administrator Taylor's nodding yes. Um, so I'm trusting her judgment. I don't have the information related to the last ordinance. Um, so I'm assuming that the uh the last ordinance will be covered up to this point. Is that the case? I believe we still have to pass it though for the incoming board members. Yes. So, there has to be something that is passed this evening for the um 10 board members that are running for election this year. Okay.

So, can I ask a point of clarification? I thought I heard you say it can't be within 180 days of the election. Was that correct? It has to be prior. Okay. So, we're already within 180 days of the election because election day is going to be early November and this is middle of May already, right? So, I'm pretty sure we've passed 180, but anybody can check my math. Is it 180 before election or 180 before swearing in? Oh, oh, it might be 180 before swearing in.

We've always done it in May. We've always uh had our our board meeting in May uh for the setting of the salaries. We can check that but it may be swearing in. Other comments question member Friedrich. I'm just requesting a roll call vote please. Okay.

Member Hansen. I think one of the things about um this pay is that it allows um diverse individuals to do this role. Um younger individuals who may not have uh much of an income yet, older individuals who are working off of limited income. If we want a representative um body, having uh a uh an additional surplus income really really helps us to be able to do this. Um and furthermore, I think as this uh the pay has not been increased for the past 10 years, it is important that this also be adjusted for cost of living as well. I don't think that this is um an outrageous amount given the fact that we have denied an upgrade for so long

comments or questions member layman. And so I did just want to clarify that if we if we do go forward this evening um that in two years time we do have the opportunity to so we have to have something on the books in order to act as the the payment for the incoming board and then in two years time we have the opportunity to adjust that back. Correct. That's that's accurate. Yes, that is correct. Okay. We can go backwards but we can't go up.

Okay. Thank you. We can we can stop the pay increase but we can't add a pay increase. And that creates the question of do we have disparity between one set of board members and another set where half is making more than the other. As it is written we can pull back. Member Mendoza. President Mendoza. I just want to piggy back off of member Hansen's um remarks and say that if I weren't persuaded with the opportunity to to have a an extra income as a single mother and an educator who we all know are notoriously underpaid. Um I wouldn't have had the opportunity to run for the board. an opportunity I'm very grateful for and I like to believe that I contributed positively to the board. So this pay increase is an incentive for our members that are not in the predominant demographic of what politicians have have been. I think we're losing opportunities if we keep the keep the pay 10 years stagnant. How do we get that new board in? How do we get new people involved? And I think that's important to us. I will be voting yes

for further discussion. Mlaus.

So thanks Madam Chair. Um earlier you guys shared some of the the data from the other counties. So I of all people appreciate the data. So I think that was really good to have something to compare to. I think going back to our strategic planning sessions, we talked about wanting to be, you know, the best. We wanted to be a leader and not just be average. And so I think in this it's a little bit different. If we want to be best, we're actually going to be at the bottom, not at the top. Right? So if you're from a taxpayer perspective, I don't know that any of my constituents are wanting to say, "Hey, I think you've been doing so great. You deserve a raise." All they see is taxes going up. And I I know there's differing opinions, but I I think if we want to be a leader, it starts with setting the message. And I I still think if you want to be in the role, you'll find a way to get in the role. and it's not about the money, but it sends a very bad message to taxpayers when all they see is raises going up and we don't have anything in place to stop it. So, again, I I appreciate the data, but I don't want to be at the top of that list. I don't even know if we want to be in the middle. I I I'm I'm striving to hold us down and it might have been 10 years, but it just doesn't need to go up.

I believe we have some clarification on the role. Do you want to share what you found? Just to clarify, the statute says that the um compensation for uh the board members shall be fixed at least 180 days before the beginning of the terms of the officers whose compensation is to be fixed. So, it's uh 180 days before uh the next board members take their seats.

Correct. Correct. Um I know that when we were reviewing the policy, there were some corrections that you had found we needed to make to be in line with statute. If we're looking at amending this, can you review those? Because it's what we have outlined for some of the pieces, but can you review what those were if we're going to be editing? We want to make sure that we're editing within the proper code. uh their main issues I recall having pointed out were to um make sure that no increase in compensation would go into place during the terms of the members who would be voting on that. Um that's as I said kind of the primary uh rule and uh the other item I recall pointing out was um uh the statute allows for the chair to have a different compensation than other members but otherwise uh all the board members compensation uh is the same.

Okay. Thank you. Okay. As we've had discussion, if we vote on this and it is uh it is it does not pass, we still need to pass something, which means somebody who votes no will have to bring it back for reconsideration. If there is an amendment that we want to discuss before we vote no on the policy as it stands, now would be the time to do that to be to make it as clean as possible. So, member Tomkins,

thank you. In light of the fact that this has to be done 180 days prior to the next board being seated, we would still be within the guidelines to table this for 30 days. Create a committee of Okay, so we have to do it tonight. It's another one of those things where we don't ever get to talk about it till the last minute. It's a pattern, Elizabeth. It's a pattern. Excuse me. This was a this was a discussion that we had at executive. It was put forth 48 hours. Wasn't it three months ago just like the uh many items tend to be deadline sensitive with this board. I've noticed

many items are that is correct but we are looking at the swearing in is going to be December 7th and so tableabling it to June would be beyond the deadline. It would be past that deadline. So, member Claus, can you just clarify what needs to be passed? You said, "Well, if we vote no, we're going to have to come up. We need to vote on the salaries of the incoming board members." So, they don't just automatically roll over. No is what we are. So, they have to be reestablished each time. So, we have to correct. Okay. Thank you. Because they are established based on the people that are elected that particular year. So in 2024 it was establishing for the people who were elected in 2024. It's not a salary that just rolls.

Right. So for the last 10 years then we've just said hey whatever it is we make a motion and we're going to keep it flat and everybody in favor right that is correct. Member Bell um excuse me. Didn't McIntyre get an increase before he resigned? I vaguely remember there was a big jump in his salary.

I don't I don't have the information. I don't remember that uh being increased. Other comments or questions? Yes. Um, it it seems to me that most jobs I've had when you got a raise, it was they called it a merit increase for going above and beyond. And with the tax rates beginning to go up all the time, which I hear about it from constituents I have, I don't know. So, we really deserve a raise. I mean, if we let tax rate taxes keep going up and up because of spending, we we're not doing our job.

Well, I will remind you that last year we kept our rate increase to half of inflation. We are continuing to work with departments to be efficient uh to stay within uh reasonable increases due to costs of services and due to increases in payroll tax like our payroll expenses. Um I feel like we have continued to do a strong job uh for the voters with the value that they're getting. Um, so to that point, uh, yes, taxes are going up, um, predominantly outside of our level of county, like county government. Just a reminder, if we vote and it votes down, somebody who says nay, we'll need to make a motion for reconsideration or we can make amendments at this point and have a discussion at that point.

Yes, member Burn like to call the vote, please. Okay, Madam Clerk. Eric H. Eric Hansen, yes. William Beasler, no. Val Layman, no. Brian Leler, no. Mike O'Neal, no. Adam Reeves, no. Jim Rogal, yes. Natalie Roseman Mendoza, yes. Jeff Tommpkins, no.

Brian Bangert, no. Corey Burn, yes. Beverly Bell, yes. Mark Claus, no. Alex Duffy, yes. Sean Fagan, yes. William Jan Frederick. No. Liz chair, do you vote? Vote in case of a a tie. I know.

So, the motion fails. Uh, this is a policy for setting members salaries that we do need to pass tonight. So I would entertain a motion to reconsider. Member Bler. I move to make a motion to reconsider to keep the salaries flat. All right. May I have a second? Second by member Friedrich. Okay.

Friedrich. So, what I have in front of me is the ordinance from 2024. Make sure I've got this right. So with the ordinance in your packet, what we would simply strike out is beyond 2027. It would read, "All members of the county board other than the chair of the county board shall receive an annual salary of $4,900 effective January 1, 2027 through 2020 2030." So it would be for the four years would have a flat increase.

Let's see what do we have in here before December of 2030. So in the previous ordinance in 2024, it just listed out each year. So it would say effective January 1, 2027, effective January 1, 2028. It's right there. Okay. Yep. Cross. Okay. So it would just retain instead of the 6,400 it would be 4,900. Correct.

Eight. Same for item two. The chair of the county board shall receive an annual salary of 19,522 effective January 1, 2027 and then continue through 1952 uh for effective January 1, 2028. Uh January 1, 2029 and January 1, 2030. Okay. Point of clarification, please. Yes.

If we took no action at all on this item, wouldn't it also just remain the same? No. There is no pay structure after this. So, we have to pass. That is correct. Bessler's motion is to keep it what it is now. Is that correct? That is correct. So, I'm currently walking through the ordinance to make sure everyone is on the same page.

Okay. Item number um under section three uh it does say in addition effective January 1, 2027 through December 31, 2030, the chair uh shall receive a as compensation a monthly 200 mileage and business expense allowance. The chairman shall not be eligible for to be reimbursed for mileage tolls or meal reimbursement for one day business travel under the provision of section 108-65 of the MLAN County Code. Any amendment at this point for this one? is what it was before. Okay. Um same thing for four and five. Okay. Any changes to five or six or seven or eight? Everything else is status quo. Okay. So, all we're doing is changing the amended the salaries back to what they are right now to continue it at its current level. Any comments or questions? Yes, member Burn.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, I'm finding this discussion very interesting and I think that uh there is immense merit to the points made by member Hansen, member Bell, and member Roseman Mendoza about uh this money is not throwaway money for a lot of people. Um, as a public school teacher, uh, my salary didn't get past the medium income median income in MLAN County until I was in my 40s. And that was working full-time for a lot of decades. And so we want to attract lots of people to this board. We want to not close this off to anybody. We want to make this available to everybody. And that means compensating people for their time. Not raising these salaries over this period is going to reject people and it's going to make people less interested in serving these boards. So I know that some folks that don't necessarily need this and that's great. That's fine. You can donate it. Do what you like with it. Donate to your favorite cause. There are some folks who need this money and that's real and that can't be ignored. I'm also a little interested in the we'll call it selective outrage over saving the taxpayers money when there's been a lot of instances where we can point out other things. We have 205 outstanding invoices waiting now in the auditor's office. There's been over a half million dollars in overbudget funds by other members of this county and there's not been that same amount of outrage. So, if we're truly interested in looking for ways to save money and preserve taxpayer monies, there's lots of other avenues to it. And I hope that we see the same amount of voseiferous outrage in meetings when we're discussing that. Thank you.

Thank you. Other comments or questions? Seeing none. Yes. Member Reeves.

Well, when uh I chose my career, no one held a gun to my head. And uh there's been many years where I haven't made a dime. So I understand exactly what my constituent or fellow board members are making. It's uh while a lot of us get claimed to be a rich farmer, there's been some bad times ahead and in the past as well. So it's not that this is an insignificant amount of money. Um there's a lot of outside factors that to us, not just us, other people as well. So the thought that it is insignificant to a few but not the other, I don't concur with any comments or questions.

Seeing none, all in favor of item 7 A1B as amended, say I. I. Any opposed? I believe that was three Naz.

Do we want to do a roll call vote then to make sure that we have the count correct? Okay. Roll call vote for the amended. Yes. Eric Hansen, yes. William Beasler, yes. Bell Layman, yes. Brian Leler, yes. Mike O'Neal, yes. Adam Reeves, yes. Jim Rogal, no. Natalie Roseman Mendoza, yes. I'm sorry. Yes, Jeff Tommpkins.

Brian Bangert. Yes. Corey Burn. No. Beverly Bell. Yes. Mark Claus. Yes. Alex Duffy? No. Sean Fagan? Yes. William John Frederick. Yes. And the chair, you don't vote unless there's a tie.

There's 12 yeses and four nos. So motion passes. Moving on to item 7 A1C. May and then we'll have Vice Chair Rogal. Yep. 7 A1C is request approval of an ordinance of the MLAN County Board establishing the annual salary for the county clerk and county treasurer. And do you move or may I have a motion? Motion by Klaus. May I have a second by Leler? Comments or questions? Can I? No.

Yes. I have a question. I just noticed a differential in the uh percentages between the two officers, and I was wondering what if there was any background on that. The salary seemed pretty bearable, but one was a much more significant increase than the other.

That is correct. Um I can go through that. Uh in 2018, the treasurer's office was assigned accounts payable. it was removed from the auditor's office to the treasurer's office. There was no change in her compensation even though taking on an entire different department. Uh and that has not changed uh since 2018. The request was uh made to reconsider that for a one time uh we to try to bring her up to par with the other treasurers in our region. uh looking at the salary study, reviewing it, we uh looked at doing a 7% initial to try to come to try to bring to some kind of parody for taking on that additional department and operation uh oversight of those staff members and then returning to the standard 3% uh for the following three years of her of her term.

Member Duffy. Yes. Uh, I plan on voting yes for this. Um, I just had a clarifying question and maybe this was something that occurred before my time. Um, I noticed the clerk is getting the raise uh at the treasur office as well. Um, I was just wondering about the sheriff's role. I didn't know if that was something that had been raised um again before my time or if if this is more kind of important or not important but more pressing than a than a sheriff's race. The sheriff falls under a different category and that is set by the state. We we don't pass that. That's set by the state. Member Friedrich. Uh in that question, the same with the coroner.

She is not up for election. We're only voting on elected officials and we only have three countywides this term. But we we do not decide the sheriff's. That is all set by the state. Other comments or questions? Seeing none, all in favor of item 7 A1C say I any opposed. There's three nos. Motion passes. Vice Chair Regal.

Yep. Uh, next up we have 7A1D, request approval of an ordinance of MLAN County Board amending MLAN County Code Chapter 116, article 1, section 116-4. And I so move. Thank you. May I have a second? Second by Hansen, comments or questions? Seeing none, all in favor of item 7 A1D say I.

Any opposed? Motion passes. Last up, we have 7A1E, request approval and emergency appropriation ordinance amending the MLAN County fiscal year 2026 combined annual appropriation and budget ordinance for cost sharing of the city of Bloomington. I'm going to butcher that. Um, drone project. This requires a twothirds vote. Thank you. May I have a second? Second by Fagan. Comments or questions? Semiquentennial. Member Bessler.

I will need to abstain due to a conflict of interest with my employer. Thank you. Any other comments or questions? Seeing none, all in favor of item 7 A1E say I. Any opposed? One abstension and the motion passes. The executive committee have has no other items for action. Our general report can be found on pages 33 through 40 of the unapproved minutes and I can answer any questions if anyone has any. Thank you so much. Uh we'll move on to item 7B and that is finance committee with finance chair val.

Thank you chair Johnston. The finance committee has three items to be presented for action this evening. The first is 7B1A, the request approval of an emergency appropriation ordinance amending the MLAN County fiscal year 2026 combined annual appropriation and budget ordinance for annual ser or animal services which requires a twoth3 county board approval pursuant 55 ILCS5610003 and I so move. Thank you. May I have a second? Second by comments or questions? Seeing none. All in favor of item 7B 1A say I.

Any opposed? Motion passes. 7B1B is the request approval of a resolution establishing the budget policy for fiscal year 2027. And I so move.

Thank you. May I have a second? Second by member Bell. Comments or questions? Just like to remind everybody this is our uh budgetary policy that we set forward. Uh this is the code established to direct the process with the intention of keeping our taxes stable in the face of rising cost for staff, services, and supplies. The initial outlay is to maintain the same level budget with established supply lines unless external circumstances require increases. expectation that staffing levels remain the same and policy remains consistent in asking staff to minimize overtime language clearly prohibitate prohibits overages on budget line items without county board engagement and approval. These are the things that we have put into place to man to manage our budget and to make sure that our taxes are kept uh at reasonable levels and preferably not increased excessively um within reason is to be expected a bit but we try to keep that in check as much as possible with this policy. Any other comments or questions? This the same policy we passed last year with the change of the year only to apply to next year. Seeing no other comments or questions, all in favor of item 7B1B say I.

Any opposed? Motion passes. All right. Item 7B1C is the request approval of the schedule A calendar for preparation of the fiscal year 2027 budget and 5-year capital improvement budget. And I so move. Thank you. May I have a second? Second by Leler. Comments or questions? Seeing none, all in favor of item 7B 1 C say I.

Any opposed? Motion passes. And we will move on to item 7 C and that is health committee with health committee chair burn. Sorry Val, did you have something that you wanted to bring up in the general report? I do not other than if you're curious the page numbers to find at 17 to 29. Thank you. Appreciate it. All right. Moving on to 7C health committee with health committee chair burn.

Thank you madam chair. Health committee brings no items for action tonight but want to update you on things that have been going on. Uh renovations at the MLAN County Nursing Home continued to proceed are now nearing completion ahead of schedule. Uh we're pleased to announce the original impetus for the renovations was to update the hot water system. Previously, uh the home only had one hot water system for the entire facility. That system is nearing the end of its lifespan and presented a risk of failure that could have prompted major disruptions to residents. Now, with the hot water system expanded to three systems serving different wings of the home, redundancies and efficiencies are now built in, offering future cost savings and a more effective system. Uh, detention facility health services administrator Storm recently recognized two members of the nursing team, Stacy Sutton and Melissa Schmidt, who are nominated for Daisy Awards in recognition of their compassionate patient- centered care and commitment to excellence. Lastly, the health department released its strategic plan for this year with the following mission. The health department strives to build a healthier MLAN county by preventing disease, protecting our shared community, and serving as a trusted and proactive public health partner. In other news, the board of health met yesterday. Uh, one thing that we're seeing is an increase in applications for cottage food permits, allowing residents to sell food prepared at home. Environmental services professionals in the health department review menus and provide guidance to those starting off in the food industry. The professionals in that department are providing a valuable service keeping residents safe from foodborne illness outbreaks that can occur with foods commonly seen in the cottage food industry, particularly when canning or preparing fermented foods. Some may recall uh a bachelism outbreak that s almost 30 people in Poria who had eaten at one restaurant over a course of a couple days. The health department does serve as a resource for those wishing to enter enter this industry and can help folks navigate this process and ensure safe food production. Finally, special congratulations to shout out and shout out to all the hardworking nurses in our community celebrating nurses week last week. Props and thanks to our correctional officer staff celebrating correctional officers week. Thanks and support to Sheriff's Lane and the MLAN County Sheriff's Deputies during police

week earlier this month. And finally, to all my colleagues in classrooms and anyone who shares new knowledge with others, happy teacher appreciation week as well. Thank you. Thank you. All right, we'll move on to item 7D and that is justice committee. And back to Vice Chair Rogal. Justice committee has one item tonight for action. It's 7D1A, which is request approval of an intergovernmental agreement between the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services in the MLAN County States Attorney's Office. And I so move. Thank you. May I have a second by Duffy? Any comments or questions? Yes.

Just a heads up. We This is uh the exact agreement we approved about a month ago. The Department of uh human service or healthcare and family services actually changed a few terms. They use different terms than they had before. It's a contract that we've had with them previous years. So, this is just showing an updating of the terms that they use. Everything else in it is is exactly the same. Thank you. Any other comments or questions? Seeing none, all in favor of item 7D1A say I. Any opposed? Motion passes.

Justice committee has no other items to be presented for action. Our general report can be found on pages 13 through 16 of the unapproved minutes and I can answer any questions if anyone has any. Thank you so much. We'll move on to item 7E, property committee with property committee chair Val Layman. Thank you, Chair Johnston. Uh the property committee has one item to be presented for action this evening. Uh 7E1A is the request approval of an ordinance of the MLAN County Board amending chapter 282 parks and chapter 205 fees of the MLAN county code and I so move. Thank you. May I have a second? Second by Fagan. Comments or questions? Seeing none, all in favor of item 7E1A say I.

Any opposed? Motion passes.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. I do have some notes from the property committee. Uh just to give everybody a heads up and a little reminder, uh we have uh scheduled on Friday, May 29th the property tour. Uh we're going to be highlighting some current and future projects that are going on around the county. Things that you've seen in uh in our our action planning as well as things that we'll be taking a look at and doing some uh planning for 2027 and beyond. So uh if you have not already shared your RSVP, please get that to Julie as soon as possible. Uh as a heads up for those of you with challenging schedules, you're more than welcome to join for whatever segment uh of the tour that you're able. just let her know uh if you're only going to be there for part of it so that way we can have planning appropriately. Uh another thing that you uh likely already heard about and saw with the uh proclamation uh from member Fagan a little bit earlier uh this evening uh but last Thursday

Oh goodness. Thank you. Over the limit.

Yeah. Cut off. No more. Uh last Thursday there was a presentation at ISU where nine students from the Stevenson Center uh presented feedback that they had gathered on Kamlara Park. It's rather exciting to not only have uh some engagement with our ISU students along with uh our our county park uh but to also be able to get some great feedback from those folks who are uh regular users or who have experienced Kamlara Park uh over the the last few years. So there was some really fantastic findings uh that will inform some future work and considerations for the park. Uh we'll be having uh I think the uh administration will will get all of that information and will be uh a part of some future conversations. Uh but again just wanted to say a big thank you to those students and to Dr. Brem who led that work. Uh and rather excited to see what comes of it uh as the master plan uh for the park is uh is considered uh and is crafted. Also, uh, a little reminder, page 30 to 32 is where you can find the unapproved minutes. Uh, thank you very much.

Thank you so much. Uh, we'll move on. Item 7F, uh, this land use and transportation committee. With, uh, member Klein out, I will turn to member Reeves as the vice chair. Uh, land use and transportation committee has no items to be presented for action. Thank you so much. Moving on to item 7G, county administrator, Miss Taylor. Thank you. I have no items for the consideration of the board this evening.

Thank you. Moving on to item eight. Um before I open it up to the board, um I know that to put them on the spot, but Mr. Liry if you had um if you could go back to our agenda. Uh it is apparent that there are members of the board who do not watch executive committee but it is something that uh we approved earlier this year and uh part of our effort to meet the department of justice accessibility for websites. Uh, we included a document reader for PDFs, which is notoriously one of the hardest things for people with accessibility issues have on websites. Um, so I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Liry to demonstrate um how this new application is going to help.

Sorry about that. I wasn't prepared to speak, but yeah, I'll give you a quick rundown on this. So this solution is called doc access and what it does is it helps us comply with uh the DOJ mandated web content accessibility guidelines 2.1 level AA essentially um allowing us to comply with ADA section 508 and make all of our digital content as accessible to as many people as possible regardless of potential disabilities that they may have. Um, so PDF accessibility is one of the most difficult things when it comes to making digital content accessible. There is a certain degree of semantic markup that goes on in the background, which is uh pretty similar to HTML. So when you're asking your average document author who who's authoring content that's going to go out on our website to put markup that's similar to HTML, they really do struggle with it. Um, so what we've done is we've purchased this doc access solution which automatically creates an HTML transcript of literally every PDF on our website. We do have it set to uh to go back a certain number of years right now. But if say two users tried to look at the same document, it would ceue it up for automatic transcription. Uh, in addition to that, anyone uh that encounters a document that is not uh currently transcribed can request the transcribed version. So, I'm going to walk you through some of the features of this. It's very cool. Just looking at at a high level like this. Doesn't look like a whole lot, but what this is doing is it's it's got all of the markup in the background. So like list markup, um H tags, uh all all of the all of the uh HTML tags that most people don't know anything about are automatically applied to this, but it does come with some additional features. So I'll show you those real quick here uh kind of as like a baseline stuff.

We've got the dyslexia friendly font. We can increase line spacing for the visually impaired. We can invert colors, but where the uh the real meat of this, the substance is in this menu over here. So, it's going to give you just kind of an idea of what the document is about. And this doesn't only apply to agendas. It's on every document on our website. You can come in and you can ask a question. Now, this has this is powered by AI. So, I could say something like um what is on property committee? And it's going to take just a second to come up with the answer. Maybe a little bit longer than we'd like. So, we'll uh we'll move on to the next piece, which is our document outline. Um, so what it does is it essentially goes through every header in the document and it makes it clickable. So, if I wanted to see what's on consent agenda, I can just click Oh, it gave me an answer. Let's see what we got here. Okay, so it gives me an answer of of what the property committee is. Uh we have the chiller replacement. It's going to give you all the information that it can pull out of this. So this is the entire packet. So it went it went as deep as like going into um something that was submitted from Joe Gaither here. But go back to the document outline. We can click on anything and go automatically to that within the document. In addition to that, this is one of the cooler features. This is not only for accessibility but also for usability. Um, so that our content can be accessed by the the largest amount of of the public out there. But we can automatically translate any document on the website into over 130 languages. So, um, say that somebody of Filipino descent is is looking at our agenda.

Typically, they've only been in English. So, they would, uh, really have no way to read it if they don't speak English. Well, now we can just go ahead and click. And now we have the agenda in Filipino. We can do that, like I said, over 130 languages. But I'm going to pop back to English. And one more cool thing here is that it has builtin disability assistance. So, say somebody accessed the the uh document, whichever document they were looking at, and they were still having trouble with it even after looking at the accessible transcript. They can click here for disability assistance, call this phone number, provide the code, and they're going to have an accessibility expert join them on the line um for either a video call or a phone call. And every single user gets up to 30 minutes of free disability assistance um regardless of of what they're struggling with or how. So, pretty awesome stuff. In addition to that, you can download the uh the HTML transcript. You can also download the the PDF original print transcript. So, um we've been working on this accessibility stuff for going on like three years now. Um and documents were the biggest struggle that we've had this this whole time. So, we were doing pretty good uh with everything, but this uh as far as documents go, this puts us leaps and bounds ahead of where we were. So, sorry I wasn't prepared to speak. I hope that was okay.

No, that was excellent. In fact, you gave us more information. You gave us different information tonight, a little bit extra. So, I appreciate that. Um, so thank you for for going out your comfort zone and then you can now you can put up the animal services, our our monthly uh pets that we do have available. Um, so please encourage people. Uh, we've had excellent uh response to our new service uh to our new building. Uh we've got cats that are going out. Our partners are coming in and helping us out. Uh we've increased our volunteers. The animals are healthier. The animals are happier. The staff is happier. So uh feel free to share, like and share this on on social media um and help these animals find their forever homes. Um and with that, I will open it up to the board. Any other communication for things coming up? Yes, member Duffy. Yeah, I would just be remiss uh as I serve in district 6, we recently had um some Redbird graduates last week. Um ISU held their commencement ceremonies uh Friday and Saturday of last weekend. Tomorrow is also the commencement ceremony for Hartland Community College. Um it like I said, tomorrow the 15th at 5:00 p.m. um at Ginger Motor Arenas. So congratulations to those Hawks. And then the first week of this month, um, Illinois Wesley and University graduates, um, also were able to graduate. And so, um, hoping we can retain some of our Titans, Hawks, and Redbirds. So, congratulations.

Thank you. Any other comments? Any other for the good of the county? Yes, member Hansen. Um, I said this on Monday, but, uh, it bears repeating. I want to thank everybody uh my colleagues on the board uh administrators staff for the outpouring of support after the passing of my father. It truly truly touched me. Thank you. Thank you. Um anyone else? Member Claus.

Um thanks Madam Chair. So, I know we we spent a lot of time talking about fiscal responsibility tonight, and I think there was uh some comments even made about, you know, significant budget overages and how negative that is. And I don't know that anybody's happy about budget overages, but I think it's important to understand what that really means. Um, a budget is a plan, right? And so, you put some effort into it and we could maybe do better at that, but at the end of the day, things have to get done, things have to get paid. Um, so I think all the items that were quote over budget came through finance committee and through the board and had to be approved. So there wasn't any nefarious spending or really excessive spending. It was all stuff that like, hey, we got to do this. Was it in the budget? No, it wasn't. Can we do better in the future? Hopefully. And so we've got some new tools coming and and our processes are just not where they need to be and we're getting better. So, we've got ERP is coming and it's going to change and make some of these things more visible sooner. So, the board may have an opportunity to say, you know what, I agree we need to do that, but let's hold off and do it next year. Whereas now, it has to happen and we're paying. So, I think the key is we didn't overspend by $500,000 or whatever the number is. It can vary, but those were all necess necessary expenses. So focus on the actual spending and what's needed to execute the offices and everything that the county does. Um can the budget be better? Yeah, but that's not really the issue. It's a great story, but it's not really the issue. So um they come through finance committee, we ask questions, we've gotten answers. Um so I think it's going to continue to get better. So that's why I'm trying to focus on the process in the future um more than spinning the story out of that. So hopefully people will continue to ask questions and uh we'll we'll see where where it goes. But thank you. Other comments, other question, other communication? Seeing none, this meeting is adjourned.