County Board - Regular Meeting

everyone it is 5 30 so i will call this county board regular meeting to order the invocation if everyone will rise good evening everyone this month we mark the 25th anniversary of september 11th It's a time of reflection and collective mourning, and throughout this tragedy and recovery, we saw resilience in our neighbors as we supported each other in the rebuilding process. This is what we do time after time as a community. When devastation occurs in our corner of the world, but it was the first time in my life that we responded this way as a country. We were one nation. Please bow your heads for a moment of silence for those individuals and first responders who perished from the attacks, those who lost family and friends, and those who served their community without hesitation.

Their commitment and sacrifice will never be forgotten. Thank you.

I pledge allegiance to the flag

Madam Clerk, if you'll call the roll. Alex Duffy. Here. Sean Fagan.

Here.

Buck Farley. Here. William John Frederick. Present. Eric Hansen.

Present.

William Bezler. Here. Val Lehman.

Present.

Brian Leffler. Here. Mike O'Neill. Here. Adam Reeves. Here. Jim Rogal. Natalie Rosamond-Mendoza.

Present.

Jeff Tompkins. Here. Andy Zebarth. Here. Brian Bangert. Corey Byrne. Present. Beverly Bell.

Present.

Mark Claus. Absent. Leah Klein.

Present.

Chair Elizabeth Johnston.

And I am here.

All right.

Having conducted the opening roll call and declared a quorum as physically present, I would like to inform the board that member Vice Chair Rogel has requested to participate remotely under County Board Rule 2020 and in accordance with the Open Meetings Act. Notice was received from Vice Chair Rogel in accordance with our rules per Board Rule 2020 member Vice Chair Rogal will be authorized to attend the meeting electronically if a motion to approve the members electronic attendance is made, seconded, and adopted by a majority of the members of the board. May I have a motion to approve Vice Chair Rogal's attendance? Motion by Bessler, second by Farley. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion is passed and the record will show that Vice Chair Rogal present for the meeting. Okay, moving on to the next item. We have item number five, appearance by member of the public or county employees. Ms. Taylor?

We've had one request this evening from Chad Burke. I don't see him in the audience. Chad Burke, are you here?

And we'll move on. All right, moving on to item number six. This is the consent agenda. May I have a motion? Motion by Natalie Rosemond-Mendoza, second by Member Fagan. Any comments or questions? Yes, Member Lehman.

Thank you, Chair Johnson. May I go ahead and pull item 2F from the consent agenda?

Are you talking about 6E2F?

Yes, please.

Okay. Thank you. Any other comments or questions? Seeing none, all in favor of item 6 as amended, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes. And with that, we do have a resolution of congratulation and commendation this week or this month. So I would ask that members from our coroner's office join me at the podium. I'd like to welcome Dr. Denton and Dr. Yoder to be here with us today. This is something that we like to do occasionally, and this week we are proclaiming the McLean County Board Proclamation, proclaiming September 20th, 2020, September 20th to the 26th of 2026 Forensic Science Week. Whereas forensic science can be defined as the application of scientific principles, methods, and techniques to matters aiding the pursuit of truth in the criminal justice system, especially in regards to collection, examination, and the analysis of physical evidence. Whereas McLean County is committed to the use of forensic science in the investigation of crimes, the prosecution and conviction of correct perpetrators of crimes, and the exoneration of innocent individuals falsely accused of crimes. And whereas forensic science serves providers, their service providers serve a role in the criminal justice system by providing scientific information to investigators and officers of the court. And whereas the forensic science service providers address critical questions in civil and criminal investigations and trials in McLean County, including by providing scientific conclusions relating to forensic evidence, and whereas forensic science service providers partner, one, with county, state, and federal agencies to build and maintain criminal databases, relating to latent prints, DNA, and other information relevant to criminal cases, and to federal, state, and local agencies to ensure public safety. Now, therefore, the McLean County Board does hereby recognize the efforts of the coroner, deputy coroners, forensic autopsy assistants, laboratory and crime scene technicians, as well as all other forensic science professionals for their professionalism, expertise, dedication, and commitment when analyzing evidence and assisting at crime scenes. And now, further therefore, the McLean County Board does hereby recognize and thank local forensic pathologist Dr. Scott Denton for his contributions in the investigation of crimes, And the exoneration of innocent individuals falsely accused of crimes. Now, therefore, the McLean County Board does proclaim September 20 to the 26th of 2026 to be Forensic Science Week in McLean County. This is approved by the McLean County Board, 17th day of September 2026. Thank you so much. Thank you. And then if you would, I'd like you to take a little bit of time out. What does it mean to you? help people to... You're on the spot now. There's a microphone.

All right, just briefly. I mean, this is very overwhelming. Thank you very much. We didn't expect this. Forensic Science Week is important to us and our small little group and community of forensic scientists and forensic medicine professionals, but we don't really think other people are going to pay it much attention. So this was a really nice thing to do, a nice gesture. And I will just say that it's more than just me or Coroner Yoder. It's the full-time deputy coroners who go to every scene and see things that a lot of us don't really think about seeing in our daily lives. Molly Sullivan, the Longfellows, Jeff and Lisa, Caitlin Little are the full-time deputy coroners. There's more than enough deputy coroners who have full-time jobs that work weekends and on nights. They all devote tons of time. Yeah, lots and lots of deputy coroners. So I mean, it's very important. You know, for me, because I just do one part of it. So everything I do has to have a context. I've got to have information in the beginning, which are Kathy's people and then stuff in the follow up that comes. We talked about justice to make sure, you know, the right person is convicted if they did it and the innocent are not wrongly convicted. So we work very hard at that. So that's what it means to me. I also just say, and Justice reports once a month that Coroner Yoder provides, every one of those little dots and dashes and numbers is a human being to us. And it's about the living. The deceased move on, but there's a whole wake. It's like a drop of water, a drop in water. There's ripples that go out. So Kathy and I, we deal with the living mostly all the time. And also the last thing I want to thank you is for your regional morgue facility that you support. I mean, there are about two dozen counties that really depend on McLean County for this morgue facility. And so I'm very fortunate to have a great place to work and, you know, practice my medical skills. So I thank you all very much.

I second what Scott says. I don't think people realize what we see every day and what we do. Since I've been coroner, 15,000 deaths have been called to my office, and I don't think people realize how many deaths that we deal with on a daily basis. And without Dr. Denton, we couldn't do our job, and Dr. Denton is one of the best, and we are blessed here. And we thank all of you for supporting us, and this is kind of an honor that Scott and I usually don't get, because we're kind of the quiet ones behind. The stuff that we see, I think, would shock most of you. But I think we have such a great team. And again, my chief deputy, Molly, the Long Fellows, Caitlin Little, and I have about 25 part-time employees. And then we deal with death every day. But we are probably the happiest people you'll ever meet, don't you think, Scott?

It's a good group. Thank you.

It's a really good group. So we appreciate everything that you do in all the counties that we take care of and allowing us to do that to bring just great forensic evidence to this community, which we are really top notch, I think. And we try to strive for five and customer service, I think.

Yeah. The last thing I forgot was my two autopsy assistants. Yeah. Brian Peterson and Stephen. Skinner who are outstanding. I can't, I didn't go to medical school. Kai was strong. So they are, they are my physical, physical support. So I wanted to thank them.

And we have x-ray.

We have everything. Yeah. You give us everything we need. So if we have a, you know, so it's really, really come in and x-ray.

So there's, there's a whole team and we appreciate this so much. And I'm so glad that you recognize that we're, we're, We do a lot more than people realize, I think. So we appreciate this. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. We appreciate it.

Thank you very much.

All right. Thank you, everyone. We'll move on to item number seven, standing committees. 7A1, Vice Chair Rogel is remote, but we have no items for action. Our reports can be found in the minutes. If you have any questions, please let us know. But we'll move on to item 7B, that is Finance Committee, with Member Lehman.

Thank you, Chair Johnston. The Finance Committee has now four items to be presented for action this evening. 7B1A is the request approval of an Emergency Appropriation Ordinance amending the McLean County Fiscal Year 2026 Combined Annual Appropriation and Budget Ordinance. for Fund 1001, County Clerk Department 1005, and I so move.

Thank you. May I have a second? Second by Member Loeffler. Comments or questions? Seeing none, all in favor of Item 7B1A, say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed? Motion passes. Okay, back to you, Member Lehman.

Thank you, Chair. 7B1B is the request approval of a resolution of the McLean County Board authorizing the county to acquire delinquent property tax liens and certificates as trustee for the taxing districts and ISO move.

Thank you. May I have a second? Second by Member Bessler. Comments or questions? Seeing none, all in favor of item 7B1B, say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes.

Back to you. 7B1C is the request approval of an ordinance of the McLean County Board providing that surplus equity awards shall be paid from the tort liability fund and ISO move.

Thank you. May I have a second? Second by Farley. Comments or questions? Seeing none, all in favor of item 7B1C, say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed? Motion passes.

Your last item. And finally, item 7B1D is the request approval of a resolution amending the funded full-time equivalent positions resolution for fund 1001, department 0005, and ISO move.

Thank you. May I have a second? Second by Farley. Thank you, Member Farley. Comments or questions?

Yes. Member Lehman. Thank you, Chair Johnston. So this is a particular item that we did have some conversation on during the Finance Committee, but had some additional questions kind of bubbling up afterwards. So the information that was provided in the packet presents this particular item as a corrective budget amendment to recognize an employee who has already been hired and is working in the clerk's office, end quote. And it also states that this discrepancy should have been identified during the hiring and FTE review process. So in taking a look at it, this particular item really indicates to me that the position was not actually already in place and available at the time that the particular FTE employee was hired and brought in for so essentially I was reading that as perhaps not being a vacant role that the person was brought in and hired when there wasn't necessarily a role that was vacant at that particular time During the finance committee, when asked about it, the county clerk said that she didn't categorize that as an error, but the language that's presented in the packet kind of presents it essentially as an error. So I reached out to the HR department to better understand the particular situation, and I'd like to go ahead and read if I can, what our representative from HR Ms. Neisler shared. She said, this additional hire on part of the clerk's office was indeed an error. Typically human resources is responsible for verifying that new employees are being compensated according to the policies outlined in a general compensation plan and handling the associated onboarding process. We primarily rely on departments to know and be aware of the actual number of FTE positions budgeted to them. Ms. Michael and her staff were either unaware of the correct number of budgeted positions or did not communicate with HR to indicate that they wanted to add an additional FTE at the time that they hired the employee. So with this particular situation, I know mistakes happen along the way. I understand personnel adjustments perhaps happen along the way. But one of the things that we've talked about as a common theme that when mistakes happen, and particularly we've had conversations in finance committee when a mistake has come out of the clerk's office that it's really important to be able to have clear communication. Clear communication between department heads, administration, the committee members, to really understand what the steps are, what led to a particular mistake, and what we can all do together as a group, as a workforce, to make sure that mistakes don't happen again in the future. So I had reached out to Ms. Michael and she was unable to share the kind of end-to-end workflow and suggested that I reached out to HR, which was very helpful. HR team provided some great information and insight for me. But if I could, I'd like to ask Ms. Michael a question, if that's appropriate for this item. Thank you. So, Ms. Michael, I was just wondering if you can help me understand the discrepancy between how you hold the situation and how HR holds the situation. In committee, you had mentioned that you didn't think it was a mistake at all, that it seemed to be like a planning thing. I think you had specifically said that you didn't hold it as a mistake. But the HR team has confirmed that it was in fact a mistake. So I'm just curious if you can help me understand the discrepancy on how two departments hold something like this when there was a position that was essentially created that wasn't available. And especially knowing that our way forward, we really do a lot better when we have Clear communication, if there is a mistake, that we own it. And if somebody is misunderstanding, that we're really clear with one another to make sure that that misunderstanding is kind of put to bed.

Absolutely, totally agree with you. And thank you. One thing that was left out was HR was very nice to also apologize that we both missed this. And so we appreciate that. And those things happen on both levels. So we appreciate HR working with us. admitting that they missed it as well as we did. And it says it's a corrective budget amendment, and those have been done before. And we thank you, and we look forward to always improving our processes. Thank you.

Okay, certainly. And thank you very much for owning that, as it was, in fact, a mistake.

May I add that I got your email at 6 o'clock at night and another one at 10 o'clock last night and was in training all day, so please forgive my delay in responding to you.

Yeah, that's absolutely a-okay. I just appreciate that you found a moment and were able to respond. So that's great. When I'm thinking about how we have that clear communication going forward, I would just say that as much as I do appreciate that you've owned that it was a mistake, HR has owned that it was a mistake on their end, That would have been a helpful part of the conversation when we were in finance, when you specifically said that you didn't hold that as a mistake. I think we could have had a little bit more of a productive conversation to really get to the root and understand it a little bit better. Sure, absolutely.

Totally agree with you and would have loved to have those questions at finance and then again at executive. And that's why we have those committees. So really appreciate your follow up. Thank you.

Any other comments or questions from the committee, from the board? Yes, Member Byrne.

thank you for that just to clarify a couple things having checked out the Finance Committee meeting last week I got the impression that you were very very clear that this was not an error so just to clarify and reiterate there was an error committed by your office in addition to HR in the hiring of this position is that correct yes I think maybe perhaps I misspoke and certainly it's obviously it was an error on both parts

and it's been corrected through the process, so appreciate that.

Sure thing. So I'm a little concerned that we've had a lot of discussions about this, about actions that have been taken by your office, done a while ago where proper authorization was not sought, and then the timeline has progressed to a point where we can't do anything about it. And so in the, excuse me, the email that I had sent to you, excuse me, had, reiterated a couple questions that you had uh responded to during finance committee meeting about the number of employees that you had in your office uh you said you believed it was about 12 in checking the paperwork it looks like it's about 16. and so my first question is if you don't have an accurate idea of how many employees you have in your department then why did you hire another one oh

Well, you're wrong, with all due respect, and I just verified this today. We do have 12 employees, 13 with this amendment.

Well, I'm happy to double check on that. So you're saying you do not have 16 employees?

Yeah, I verified that today, so thank you. But it's always good to check, and we appreciate it, and we will adhere in the future to all things that we need to appropriately, as every department will. And we appreciate people following up and checking to see that we are conducting in the way that the county board would like us and the public. Thank you.

Okay. Well, great. Well, thank you. Just one follow-up question. You did not indicate that the staffing levels in your office were set and finalized, and you indicated that you wanted some flexibility, particularly going into an election season, which is obviously understandably a very volatile time, and there is a need to be flexible. Just to clarify, you didn't indicate whether or not specifically you would seek authorization for additional hiring should you feel that is necessary going forward. So can we assume that if you feel like additional employees are needed in your office that you will go through the proper channels in the future?

Well, and you may not have seen yours today, but I did respond to that, and of course we will, and we always try to, and we can't authorize anything. We turn in paperwork to HR, and they sign off on it.

For sure. I'm looking at the response I got right now, and I didn't see an answer there.

Right, and I unfortunately didn't see yours at 10 o'clock last night. that you sent last night and was happy to respond to it later this morning. So hopefully we've covered everything. And if you have any other questions, why? And as usual, it would help also, I think, all of us to remember that you're invited to come and talk to us anytime. You don't have to talk to me if you don't want to. We have Democrats and Republicans, and I know it's not political. But it's a very great group that we work with. And if you feel comfortable coming down and talking to anyone at any time to get further verification and if we need to bring HR in, I know that we're all happy to do that to help clarify everything for everybody and the public.

Thanks. Okay. We look forward to seeing those in the future then. Thank you.

Any other comments or questions? Yes, Member Lehman.

The only other thing that I wanted to share that I failed to share previously is an additional piece that Ms. Neisler shared. And that's with the McFred system. It seems like moving forward, things like this, errors like this are going to be completely null and void because everything is going to be entered. Everything will be automated. So I certainly know that administration department heads, et cetera, IT team have put a ton of work into the ERP system and to bring it to Bright. And all of that work is certainly going to pay us in dividends, right? Because it's really going to make it as easy as possible to track information and to make sure that if there is a silly mistake to be had, that it won't happen in the future because everything is captured in the same system. So definite big thumbs up and thank you to all department heads, administration, IT team and partners like Mr. Hess who have been bringing that one over the finish line.

Thank you. Any further comments or questions? Seeing none, all in favor of item 7B1D say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed? Motion passes. Back to Member Lehman.

Thank you very much, Chair. The Finance Committee has no other items to be presented for action this evening. Our unapproved minutes can be found in our general report. I'm happy to answer any additional questions. Thank you.

Thank you. We'll move on to Item 7C, and that is Health Committee with Member Byrne.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Health Committee brings one item for action tonight. Item C1A, request approval of an emergency appropriation ordinance amending the McLean County Almost had it there. McLean County fiscal year 2026 combined annual appropriation and budget ordinance for the Health Department Fund 2105. And I so motion.

Thank you. May I have a second? Second by Member Bell. Any comments or questions? Seeing none, all in favor of item 7C1A say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed? Motion passes.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Health Committee brings no other items for action. In brief announcements, we have a lot of positivity coming out of Health Committee. The McLean County Nursing Home has completed its renovations and move-ins have begun. So there is a lot of excitement surrounding all the new features and facilities, much of which are out of view, but that is positive news. We got that done ahead of schedule. We got that done relatively quickly. Inspections are done and we are very, very proud to support a new and upgraded facility that happily serves our residents. In other news, the third quarter emergent fund awards have recently handed out benefiting groups, including the Boys and Girls Club, YouthBuild McLean County, Center for Youth and Family Services, the Parent and Young Adult Advisory Board, the leadership team, the McLean County Regional Office of Education serving four counties, the Baby Fold Center for Human Services, Wellbeing in Action. So we're pleased to see that process running smoothly and the support going for all these fabulous organizations.

Thank you for that report. We'll move on to item 70, and that is Justice Committee with Vice Chair Regal Remote. I will ask that his Vice Chair of Justice Committee, Member Rosamond Mendoza, bring these items to action.

Thank you, Chair. The Justice Committee has four items to present for action. The first being D1A, request approval of an ordinance of the McLean County amending the McLean County Code Chapter 205 Article 1, Section 2052, Subsections B and C for Clerk of Circuit Court Fees. And I so move.

Thank you. May I have a second? Second by Member Duffy. Comments or questions? Seeing none, all in favor of Item 7D1A, say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed? Motion passes.

Aye. Item D1B, request approval of an emergency appropriation ordinance amending 233 to 236, the McLean County fiscal year 2026 combined annual appropriation and budget ordinance for court services. 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 item 7D1B say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed? Motion passes.

All right. Item D1C, request approval of a grant agreement between the Children's Advocacy Centers of Illinois and McLean County Children's Advocacy Center. And I so move.

Thank you. May I have a second? Second by Member Bassler. Comments or questions? Seeing none, all in favor of item 7D1C, say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed? Motion passes.

All right. Finally, we have D1D, request approval of an emergency appropriation ordinance amending the McLean County fiscal year 2026 combined annual appropriation and budget ordinance for the CASA program 2129. And I so move.

Thank you. May I have a second? Second, Member Fagan. Comments or questions? Seeing none, all in favor of item 7D1D, say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes.

All right. D2, we have our general report and no items to be presented for information.

Thank you so much. Move on to item 7E. That is property committee with member Layman.

Thank you very much, Chair Johnston. The property committee has three items to be presented for action. 7E1A is the first. Request approval of an emergency appropriation ordinance amending the McLean County fiscal year 2026 combined annual appropriation and budget ordinance for fund 1001 facilities management 1041 GC conference room and ISO move.

Thank you. May I have a second? Second by member Duffy. Comments or questions? Seeing none, all in favor of item 7E1A say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes.

Thank you again, Chair. Item 7E1B is the request approval of an emergency appropriation ordinance amending the McLean County Fiscal Year 2026 combined annual appropriation budget ordinance for Fund 1001, Facilities Management 1041, IT Data Center, and ISO.

Thank you. May I have a second? Second by Member Byrne. Any comments or questions? Seeing none, all in favor of Item 7E1B say aye. Any opposed? Motion passes.

Back to you. Our final action item is 7E1C, the request approval of an emergency appropriation ordinance amending the McLean County fiscal year 2026 combined annual appropriation and budget ordinance for fund 1001 facilities management 1041 utility services and ISO move.

Thank you. May I have a second? Second by Rosamund Mendoza. Any comments or questions? Seeing none, all in favor of item 7E1C say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed? Motion passes.

All right. Thank you, Chair Johnston. The property committee has no other items for action this evening. Our general report can be found in the unapproved minutes packet and two things I'd like to draw your attention to that were passed in the consent agenda. that you might be interested in is number one, if you recall from last spring when the ISU students from the Stevenson Center had their presentation on Kamlara Park and information for the feedback and survey and like that from Kamlara Park, we have moved on to the next part of the process here with the strategic plan this evening. When we voted for the RVI Hitchcock group for the comprehensive parks in strategic Recreation plan work to begin so that'll be something really exciting stay tuned We'll let you know when we have more information coming out of the property committee, but this is something that Is is quite exciting for the county to be able to plan long term for our parks department another thing It's just a quick little heads up that wasn't so little but was a mailed out to everybody as a link along with the packet. And that was focusing on the acknowledgement of the Ecology Action Center for the contributions to the EECBG funded community energy strategic planning process. We got a really fantastic report with a ton of information giving us information. on basically what can we do as a community? What are the ways that we can potentially improve our energy usage? What are the ways that we can improve our practices and processes to make sure that we are taking the best care of our county that we can? So that'll be information that I am certain we will be consulting into the future and perhaps use for some of our future planning as we go through. If you've not had an opportunity to check that one out yet, please take a moment to do so, or you can go back through and catch the quick presentation that took place during the property committee. And that is all I have today. Thank you.

Thank you so much. We'll move on to item 7F, that is Land Use and Transportation Committee with Member Klein.

Thank you so much, Chairperson Johnson. The Land Use and Transportation Committee has one item for action this evening. Item 7F1A, request approval of an agreement for the Tree Corps program between the City of Bloomington Town of Normal, Bloomington Normal Water Reclamation District, McLean County, and the Ecology Action Center. And I so move.

Thank you. May I have a second? Second Member Fagan. Comments or questions? Member Bessler.

I will need to abstain from this vote due to a conflict of interest with my employer.

Thank you. Any other comments or questions? Seeing none, all in favor of item 7F1A say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed? Motion passes.

Thank you so much, Chair Johnston. The Land Use and Transportation Committee has no further items for action. Our general report can be found on pages two through five of the unapproved minutes, and I'm happy to answer any questions should anyone have any.

Thank you so much. We'll move on to item 7G with our County Administrator, Ms. Taylor.

Thank you, Chair Johnston. I have one item to present for action this evening, and that is the request approval of resolution of the McLean County Board continuing

declaration of a local disaster in McLean County may I get a motion motion by Hanson in a second by Rosamond Mendoza comments or questions we are still having residents in our community who are struggling with repair even though it has now been a month since the last meeting they are still trying to do cleanup they're still trying to find resources and so We do want to continue to extend this declaration so that they will continue to have access to resources as they become available. Is there any other comments or questions? Now would be the time. Otherwise, all in favor of item 7G1A, say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes.

Thank you. I have no other items to present for action this evening, but I do have a little thing called the presentation of the fiscal year 2027 recommended budget and five-year capital improvement plan. So I'll draw your attention to the screens. If you will oblige me, it is my privilege to submit the recommended budget for fiscal year 2027. This budget was created with direction from county board leadership and is an expression of our mission to provide exceptional public service. The fyi 2027 recommended budget continues mclean county's long standing commitment to financial stewardship, while also embracing the values of people innovation and accountability, how we define these areas is included on this slide. The recommended budget includes strategic investments that position the county for the future, as well as maintaining routine operating expenditures. So in our strategic priority areas, you will see that we have two goals under operational excellence, three under safe and healthy communities, three as well under facilities and infrastructure, three under fiscal stewardship, Communication and engagement shows four goals, and community and economic vitality also has three. For a bit of review, our total all fund budget for 2026 was $144,484,603. For the first six months of the year, which is halfway through our fiscal year, 46.2% of the budgeted revenues have been collected, and we have paid 44% of the budgeted expenditures. We do expect revenues to increase in the coming months with our property tax distributions. For next steps and showing you where we are in our budget cycle, in May of this year, you adopted the budget policy. Tonight, you're hearing our recommendations from county administration from September 18th through October 12th. Those are important dates because that is the public review and oversight committee meeting discussion on the budget. And then on November 12th, we will have the adoption of the 2027 budget. Some key considerations that were made during the development of this budget, we considered state revenue sources, the impact of property tax on our citizens, the use of fund balance to cover general fund one-time expenses, avoiding the use of fund balance for operating expenses that are ongoing, We considered our employees reviewing salaries and benefits and analyzing position requests. There are no new general obligation debt to be issued in 2027. And we also considered our strategic plan priorities. The recommended all funds budget for 2027 totals $150,418,948. This budget strategically allocates resources to staffing, statutorily required services, and addresses the board priority areas. We have used prudent revenue assumptions, ensured our investments are sustainable, and we maintain a healthy reserve level to safeguard against uncertain economic times. It is a balanced budget. Continued economic growth in McLean County and activity in the housing market has contributed to a 6.72% increase in the county's EAV. We show you several bits of information on this slide, the annual change in the EAV as a graph, but also the annual change in our tax rate. The increase in the EAV has allowed us to lower the tax rate from last year. As a reminder, the increase in EAV lets us drop the tax rate for the third consecutive year in a row. The FY2027 recommended budget proposes the lowest tax rate in over 20 years. The county's estimated overall property tax rate decreased to 0.81761%. excuse me, 0.81761 per $100 of equalized assessed value compared with 0.8367 in the previous year. This means for a fair market home valued at $255,000, which is close to our current median home value, the county's portion of the property tax bill will be $600,000. $94.97 this year, or for next year. The county has a variety of revenue sources supporting our budget. General fund revenues consist of property taxes, service fees, revenue from court fines or fees, intergovernmental grants, and interest investments. The county's 39 special revenue funds come from restricted levies, grants, enterprise fees, or special taxes imposed under Illinois law. Combined, the general fund and special funds support the maintenance of core county services. Collectively, these revenue sources make up the McLean County FY 2027 budget. Property taxes make up 34.7% of the total revenue, which is similar in percentage to last year. Other taxes include sales tax, state income tax, and personal property replacement tax, which make up 12% of revenue and have increased by 1%. That accounts for about $321,147 from last year as an increase. The FY2027 recommended budget includes salaries and benefits across all funds, capital expenses, and professional and contractual services. 47.4% of the total budget is comprised of salary and fringe benefits for employees. Salaries were adjusted in FY2027 with attention to recruitment and retention. Findings from the county's second employee compensation survey conducted in the first quarter of this year, 2026, showed a consistent response from employees in lower pay grades indicating concern that wages were not keeping pace with the cost of living, impacting the quality of life and the retention with the county. Data also shows that 54% of our current workforce has been with the county for five years or less. To address recruitment and retention, a uniform wage increase of 1.5% was implemented across all non-union employee classifications with union salaries following the collective bargaining agreements in place. Merit increases tied to annual evaluation scores remain in effect as in prior years. Staying with the County General Fund, this slide shows our base revenue projections. The General Fund is the primary fund for county operations, and not surprisingly, it is also our largest fund. It is used to support operations including general government, facilities, administration, criminal justice, and law enforcement, and parks and recreation services. The General Fund includes a variety of revenue sources to finance the operations in McLean County. General Fund revenues include property taxes, other taxes such as sales tax and state income tax, licenses and permits, intergovernmental revenues, charges for services, fines, interest income, miscellaneous revenues, and transfers. General fund revenues for FY2027 increased 8.8% from FY2026. The four major revenue sources are shown on this slide. It should be noted, however, that property tax which is the tallest line there, is a 4.3% increase. Capital improvements. The county continues its focus on integrating energy efficiencies into repairs and updates to our capital assets for current and future use. The FY2027 recommended budget proposes 38 projects totaling approximately $12,669,524 for renovations to existing facilities. This slide shows some of those projects highlighted. The planned projects include plumbing, fire pump control panels, window replacements, HVAC and mechanical upgrades, data recabling, JDC control room upgrades, and eight county highway projects. In addition to the FY2027, project funding, the county has developed a five-year capital improvement plan for years 2027 to 2031. This plan includes the design and implementation of 117 projects and will provide for key improvements to sustain our current quality of service and support the county moving forward in the future. I'd like to highlight that the majority of departments showed minimal increase to operating expenses. With regard to salary and benefits, our organizational health depends on our employees and personnel costs increased 4.7% and benefits overall increased 18.5% for our employees from fiscal year 2026. Health insurance alone increased 22% this year. Key considerations for the FY2027 budget review, including review of the employee benefit package, maintaining staff in significantly impacted positions, and finding efficiencies instead of FTE increases wherever possible. The budget also includes a new incentive encouraging employees to consider transitioning from the existing PPO health plan to our existing BCO health plan, which has a health savings account attached. Employees who elect to transition from the PPO to the BCO plan will receive an initial county contribution of $250 for individual coverage or $500 for family coverage into their HSA. This approach provides employees with funds to help offset initial healthcare expenses that they may experience and offers the potential for lower monthly employee premiums while also potentially reducing healthcare costs to the county. We maintain our fleet management rotation and made additions to our safety equipment. We also look forward to system improvements, enhanced security software, and other strategic plan priorities. Here is a breakdown of our general fund expenditures for fiscal year 2027. The total general fund budget is $62,965,420, representing an increase of approximately $5 million, or 8.8%. The special revenue funds are next. So listed here are the three largest special revenue funds out of the county's 39 special funds. Overall, these special funds account for $87,453,528, which is a 1% increase from the prior fiscal year. The anticipated revenue for the health department is $10.8 million. For the nursing home, $13.4 million. And for the highway department, $19 million. Shown here is a breakdown of the types of expenses by category. The funds are balanced with the expenses from the previous chart. So for the public health department, the salaries account for 44% of their budget with contracted services as the second largest category at 37% of the budget. For the nursing home, salaries make up 54% of the expenses. If you add in the fringe benefits, personnel costs account for 69% of their budget with contractual services making up 22%. And then for highway department, projects make up the lion's share of their expenses, as shown in the capital assets portion of the pie chart, which is 56% of the budget, with contracted services and salaries as the next largest expense categories, accounting for 21% and 15%, respectively. The 2026 combined property tax levy is approved concurrently with the FY 2027 budget. Attached is a pie chart to illustrate the individual levies that are included in that combined property tax levy. You can see there we have the larger funds like the general fund and our County Highway Department, on down to our smaller levies, for example, Cooperative Extension, Historical Museum, our Veterans Assistance, and IMRF and FICA. In summary, the budget recommends $59.1 million for government operations, $45 million for public safety, $24.3 million for health and social services, $20.3 million for highways and community planning, and $1.5 million for recreation and conservation. Stated again, the FY2027 recommended budget totals $150,418,948, an increase of $5,934,345 last year's budget. This budget is based upon a 0.81761 property tax rate, which is a 2.2% decrease from the tax rate utilized for fiscal year 26. The tax amount charged per $100 of equalized assessed value is decreased by 0.186 cents. So in this slide, you can see that McLean County's portion of the property tax for a home valued at $255,000 is $15.86 less for the same valued home last year. Guided by the priorities established by this board, the FY2027 recommended budget sustains the ambitious work across multiple county departments and strengthens the county's workforce as it serves the public. I thank the administration staff and county departments for their input and assistance in developing the recommended budget and capital improvement plan. Members of the county board, I respectfully request that the FY 2027 recommended budget, the five-year capital improvement plan, and the 2026 combined property tax levy be referred to the appropriate oversight committees for review and the FY 2027 recommended budget be laying on the table for public review and comments. Thank you.

Thank you. Did you have any other items or information for the board? I have no other items for information.

You probably heard me talking enough.

Thank you. Well, I'll move on to item number eight, other business and communication. I do want to encourage you again this month, be aware of the budgeting process. If you are on a committee, please take time. Look through the budgets. If you are not on a committee, you are still able to come. But if you have questions, please work with the committee chair or work with a member on that committee to bring some of those questions to light. The committee is where we have time to dig in, understand what the questions are, If there are alternative solutions, that is the place to be having the discussions. So please bring them to those oversight committees. I encourage you to all come and ask those questions if you have them. I want to also, as your representative on the Behavioral Health and Mental Health Public Safety Fund Advisory Committee, I wanted to give you guys an update. We did have our, as part of the budgeting process, we have our annual meeting in August. And that sets the budget for the BHC for the following year. This year we actually met twice in August. The first meeting was to pass the budget recommendations for spending of the shared sales tax dollars. This is for behavioral health expenditures, the community, behavioral health programs were allocated 3.9 million dollars and to be utilized and within the justice system, just over $2 million. It was a unanimous vote on both and the clarification we did get established on funding priorities, allocating community behavioral health grants based on recommendations from the Behavioral Health Coordinating Council work groups. The supplemental meeting that we had, the unexpected meeting, was a week later. What we did in that meeting was to establish a policy, and this was a request at the annual meeting. It was a policy to allow for multi-year projects, for two- or three-year projects, if they're just getting off the ground, often need more than one year to kind of get established in making an impact on behavioral health. So one of it was to allow for two to three year projects. The other was to allow for organizations who have budget cycles that do not align with the counties. They may have a fiscal year that runs from July to June. and how do they apply for a one-year grant funding. So we brought that back for the following week. That was also approved unanimously. So very grateful to our partners to see that coming. We do have up on the screen, you can see our favorite little animals over at Animal Services who are looking for their forever homes. So while those scroll, I want to open it up to anyone else on the board who had items for business and communication for the good of the community. Seeing none, I look forward to seeing you all at committee meetings next month, and this meeting is adjourned.