Board - Regular Meeting

[Music] I'm going to call and ask you [Music] that. All right. Good evening. You guys working? Hear me? Yes. All right. Good evening. I've got uh 7:00. Going to go ahead and call to order the October 9th, 2025 Shelby County Board meeting. Um you stand with the pledge of allegiance, please. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Dear Lord, as we begin this meeting, we ask for your guidance and wisdom. Help us to work together in harmony and purpose. Grant us clarity of thought and unity of mind so that our decisions may reflect your will and contribute to the greater good of all involved. Bless our decisions and efforts with your grace. All this we ask in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Okay, moving on to item two. Roll call, please. Teresa B present. Tim Brown. Carol Cole here. Julie Edwards here. Chrissy Grant. Jeff Gray here. Clay Hardy here. Keith McCormick. Christine Matlock here. Tad Mayo

here. Trisha Miller here. James Mitchell here. Tim Moors here. Jean Price here. Austin Pritchard. Sunny Ross here. Larry Cyper here. Dante here. Christy Walker here. Brent Wallace. Judy Wood here. Chad Giannis here.

We have a good Thank you. Item three, approval of the minutes from the September 11th, 2025 meeting. Have a motion on the minutes, Mr. Gandis in the back. Second. Any questions or discussion on the minutes last month? Seeing none, all those in favor say I. Any opposed? This passed. Thank you. On to item four, public body comment. Public body comment. Yes, sir. Yeah. Um, I haven't been sleeping for months very well. So, I just have to get this off my chest. Hope I don't go too bad. You understand me? Um, about 6 years ago, I took a trip, one week trip to uh Washington DC. Um, 16 hours there. And uh, I got to see Charlie Kirk there. I didn't even know his name actually. uh he was an act for America conference uh hosted by Breijie Gabriel. Does anybody know Breijie? Anyway, we hosted she hosted this conference and uh they had different sets of speakers and and uh Charlie was in the middle of these speakers and so there was people talk to people talked before him so and he then he spoke and some people spoke after they had an intermission and people got up and uh was visiting their favorite u speaker and I looked over and Charlie was standing by himself and I walked up to him. I stuck out my hand and I said, "I want to thank you for coming. I mean, God bless your work, you know, and but he wasn't real happy. It didn't seem to be his uh venue, you know, uh or he he didn't I don't think his speech resonated that

night, you know, but he but you know, he became a great speaker. He uh spoke to people and you know I think he cared about people too. Uh he was called a hater. Uh he called all kinds of bad names and and uh but you know he couldn't show up. uh he would always say uh prove me wrong you know and uh but you know I think when you confront people that shows you care you know um and uh so that's why I want I want to think about something here um whenever you whenever you confront people uh you know not only you care about them but you care about maybe the the others that ual effect. Um, and uh, so I've been thinking for a long time and uh, I could be wrong. And actually, the one thing I spoke to Charlie about, I I I I was going to sit there and talk to him longer because when I walked away from him, nobody else is walking up to him. And I thought, you know, I could have asked him a question, but I thought me and him had the same mindset, you know, so what would I ask him? And later I seen a after he was killed, he was talking talking to Bill Maher and I found out there was one thing that we didn't just agree on. I thought, man, if I could just if I could have debated with him on that one subject, I think I could have changed his mind, you know. Um but the people he to spoke to he cared about and he was hated. So, uh I think about at night I think about uh the decisions we make and uh one of the decisions

you know that that big debate we had about the county farm and uh you know there's there's some things they never told you about that uh some things that weren't spoken uh because they were afraid that you would hate him even more than you did, I think. And one of them um is the the president or the number uh it's a section I'm sorry, article 7 section 7 which says you know that the county or the of government cannot do anything that's not enumerated in the constitution. Now if counties do do things that are are not enumerated in their constitution, what can they do? They could I mean they could just what can they do? They can do almost anything but if it's but what we have is we have a precedent that's set

and it's a dangerous precedent I think. And uh another thing is the unintended consequences of our actions. If you if you lay out um see if you lay out um capitalism, socialism, and communism, and you lay out what we're doing with the county farm, it does not match capitalism. Now, it's been good for us. It's been good for all of us for 70 years, but how is it going to be for our kids? How is it going to be when our kids grow up? Where are they going to get the money? Have you ever read this magazine here? And they got they got an answer for everything that's going on. They they can fix everything. So, is that it?

So, where's the money going to come from? Are you guys ready for more taxes? If you're not, I mean, we can't we can't tax gambling anymore. I mean, we got gambling. We got the the marijuana. So, where are they going to come for more money? Where's the money going to come from in the future? Is the government going to start saying, "Hey, look, we don't waste. We can make money in the future. How's it going to look?" And I'd like to have a debate about that. I hope I can hear better than speaking now. I'd like to debate Jeff Greg on this.

No, you time's up. One time's up and also I prefer you not be mentioning other people. If you want to address, address me. Okay. Yeah. But your time was up. Okay. Thank you. Yeah.

Public body comment. Public body comment. Public body comment. Thank you. On to item five, which is the county highway report and engineers report with a discussion and vote to approve the following items. A the engineering agreement with Gonzalez engineering for uh railroad crossing in Clarksport Township located at intersection of CR500 North also known as TR 367 with an estimated cost of 25,500 to be paid 100% from state ICC. Item B is a 50-50 petition from Cole Spring Township Highway Commissioner to replace a culvert on 300 Northeast of 1100 East. Estimated cost will be $12,778. A 50/50 petition from Driveoint Township Highway Commissioner to replace a culvert. Estimated cost are $16,521. D. a 50-50 petition from the village of Stewartson to replace a culvert. Estimated cost to be $9,897 and e a resolution approving additional replacement of no parking signage on County Highway 2 north of 2475 North motion. A second Mr. price up front.

Um, with that, I'd be happy to entertain any questions on the five five items. Any questions on the item? We have a couple more things from Mr. Tendorf, but get this part done first. So, you want me to go over anything? I'd be happy to have any questions on that. And the resolution was included in your pack. Okay. Okay. Seeing none, roll call, please. B, yes. Cole, yes. Edwards, yes. Greg, yes. Hardy, yes. Yes. Mayhal, yes. Miller, yes. Mitchell, yes. Morris, yes. Bryce, yes. Pritchard,

yes. Cyber, yes. Tate, yes. Walker, yes. Wood, yes. Janice, yes. Motion passes unanimously. Thank you.

All right. Uh, one other item real quick. In the engineering report, it is listed that we are the recipients. Actually, Shelby County is a recipient of four grants. One of them is with a local city. And uh I won't take any credit from that. They they did their own application from that. But we did receive three grants through the county. Three of which I we applied for me and my team. Um, one was a joint effort with Moltry County. Alto together we received $2.3 million to do renovations to the Finley Bridge and the Coal Shaft Bridge. And we have two other bridge projects. In Ashgrove Township, we got $62,000. in Clarksburg Township where we received $900,000. That should fully reconstruct the two bridges and and uh be the maintenance we needed for the Finley Bridge that we would have had struggles with to come up with a basically $1.5 million there. So, it is good news for Shelby County. And

you said to reconstruct both bridges. Is that what you said? Uh yeah, we're going to reconstruct Holi two bridges and then the F Finley bridge we're going to do repairs on. So

yeah, so just wanted to bring that to your attention and if you have any questions on that, we have your attention as well. Yeah, thank you for that. Again, big accomplishment. That's a lot of money to come in here to to continue to to work on the infrastructure without us having to find other resources for that. So before you go anywhere, I received a phone call uh it was probably shortly after the meeting last month um from from a resident who said he had reached out to you about some drainage issues on his property. Um some work that had been done before. It just wasn't working out very well and there was some drainage challenges. Um, so he discussed it linked over the phone and he said he wasn't sure how far it would go, right? He just wanted to let you know, but he wanted me to pass on that he was really pleased and impressed that you showed up the next morning early to actually assess what he had talked about. So, um, again, he he he felt it necessary and important for me to to know and also think it's important that everybody else knows as well. So again, that's the that's the level of certitude that we that we like to see with our folks and the attention to detail for that. So thank you for that.

Yeah, I got a good team. So I guess it's not all just me. We got good support. Well, in this situation, it was you. So thank you. Thank you. Thanks. Could I also make a comment to him? Absolutely. Um I feel like I I don't drive the road that often, but I might if this gets in in November, December, I will be. Um the Finley Road seems to really be I mean it's just improved a lot and feel I feel like it's a little wider maybe but yeah. Yeah. I'm very happy and it looks really good. So thank you.

Thank you. Okay. Move on to item six. Discussion will vote to approve the annual resolution for services of the state's attorney appellet prosecutor's offices from 121 of 2025 through 11:30 of 2026 for $10,000 per 725 ILCS 210-1-seq have a motion on this please I've got in the back I've got Miss Cole up front um for those that were here last last year those weren't. We discussed this quite a bit that the appellant um this this contract gives the state's attorney access to additional resources and I'm pretty sure that we in our first couple months of this last year paid for itself. Um so is there anything you want to add to that?

I would just point out that the the um price for lack of a better word did not go up this year. So it's the same as it was last year. Um so that was great to see. Um, and just as an example, this past week, um, they've actually picked up two criminal appeals, um, that I don't have to worry about briefing and dedicating all that time and energy into. I can focus on the county business as well as the daily, uh, court. So, definitely worth every penny in my opinion. Any questions, comments? Okay, see, roll call vote, please. Bang. Yes. Cole, yes. Edward, yes. Greg,

yes. Hardy, yes. Matlock, yes. May, yes. Miller, yes. Mitchell, yes. Morris, yes. Fries, yes. Richard, yes. Cipher, yes. Kate, yes. Wford, yes. Wood, yes. Yanis, yes. Motion pass.

Thank you. Move on to item seven. discussion will vote to approve the resolution establishing the authorized number of sheriff's deputies. Can I have a motion on this? I've got Mr. Pritchard. Have a second, please. Miss Cole. Um, again, this was put in the read aheads. Um, the statute, the reference is in there. We have a we have a duty to periodically review to to review the man, the sheriff, and he requested that we go ahead and get something um in writing for this. So, with that, I'll entertain any questions that I might be able to answer if not on defer. I have one. Yes.

Um, and I want to start out by saying I am in no way opposed to the hiring of an additional sheriff. Um many of you were not here when we had a close um session meeting where we were advised at that time that within the budget you know there was some question if we could pay the the deputies that we had on staff at that time and so I just want to and I'm sure you've already but I want to verify that with this additional the money is in the budget to pay

there is one more in this one than I budget for. So, I'll only hire what I budget for. However, there is one additional above that. Um, couple reasons for that is one, if I have someone gives me notice that they're leaving, I could go ahead and hire the replacement and start training them. The other thing is there could be some funding opportunities coming up possibly in this next year that will fully fund a position. And if that happens, I've got it in the headcount and don't have to come back and we don't have to do anything different then. But, but I'm only going to hire what I can afford to pay. And I think you were aware of that. We were advised at that time by bellweather that with the ARPA money going away, there would be some question in the future if we'd be able to fund this the deputies that we had at that time. So I just wanted clarification on that that

anybody else questions. Okay, seeing none, all those in favor say I. Opposed?

Okay, motion passes. Thank you. Move on to item eight. Discussion will go vote to approve the resolutions to transfer parcels from the county of Shelby as trustee to the new owners as listed. Number 0723-16-14-312-007 [Music] to Wesley Riley for $850. Parcel 249-36-15-44-010 to Sabai Sabiri for $1,750 and parcel 2311-22-16-42-002 to Curtis Morrison for $2,150. I have a motion on this item, please. I get Mr. Tape this Matlock any questions discussion? No. Okay. Roll call vote, please.

Okay. Bang. Yes. Cole, yes. Edwards, yes. Greg, yes. Hardy, yes. Matlock, yes. Mayhall, yes. Miller, yes. Mitchell, yes. Morris, yes. Bryce, yes. Richard, yes. Cyber, yes. Tate, yes. Wford, yes. Wood, yes. Janice, yes. Motion pass.

Thank you. We move on to item 10. Discussion of vote to approve the proposed fiscal year 2026 budget and post the require proposed for the required public viewing. Can I have a motion on this, please? I've got Miss Bane. I've got this one in the back on the second. Um, so before we get too far into this, I do have a couple of amendments that I'm going to make myself on for discussion purposes. Um, and I think that you were sent all these already. Yeah. And they all they were all in there. Okay. I don't know if you're going to discuss the email without this morning about the server. That's not in there.

Okay.

Okay. So, um, there there were there were some adjustments that have been made that were put in. So, it's it's in the documents that you have, but I just want to make sure that there was a change to that. One of them is from animal control. Um, as it relates to the pet population account, which is 055 if you're going to reference it. um the accounts required by the Illinois Animal Control Act and can only be used for sterilizing and raies vaccinating adoptable pets, community cats, and low-income persons pets. Um so the rest of the the email kind of summarizes where they've been this year. Animal Control has done an awful lot of pet population uh activities this year. So bringing in cats to reduce population by sterilization. And so with the activity level that she's had, she's looking at next year probably being even more because she's pretty much going up to the budget amount at this point. And so she wants to make sure she can continue this service. This service is paid for by the fees. So we're going to increase both pieces of this, which is the spending, but the spending is paid for by the revenue of the of the program. So, um, she just wants to make sure she has an additional 5,000 in her budget. So, it was previously 15,000, but she wants to take it up to 20. Um, again, it's an offset because the the fees are offset or offset the the spending on that. So, any questions on that? Okay. And then we also had one from um Judge Harlo which was to increase the 017 assist court to a total of 65,000 uh with a breakdown of courthouse security at 35,000 uh transferred the general fund of 15,000 the law library of five and court assistance uh at 10,000 and this really

comes from money that's already in the accounts that she has available to spend. office. So with that, they are looking at additional projects in the courthouse, some ADA compliance related issues. The sheriff's working uh closely with them as well as far as construction projects and some of the stuff we approved through ARPA and an additional grant as well. So this would help facilitate some of that process. Any questions on either one of those? Okay. So those were the big updates that I had. Before we get too far into the discussions um on the the budget proposal, I asked Jessica to send me today where we were for fiscal year 25. So again, for those that were here last year, there was concerns that the budget we were passing was significantly unbalanced and um on paper it was. So I want to give you an update on on where we are year to date as of today. So we are 88% through the year as it relates to today's date in the general fund. The general fund spending we are at 69.61% of spending. So to repeat that, we are 88% through the year and we've spent just a little under 70% of what was budgeted. So again, this is my math. It will not be completely accurate, right? So bear with me. But my what I forecast where we should be then through the rest of this fiscal year, the remaining six, seven weeks that we have left is we've spent on average $551,000 a month, which would put us at rough spending

somewhere between $820 to $850,000 left through the rest of this fiscal year. If that stands to be true or or relatively true, that means we would have underspent the budget by about $1.7 million this year. Right? So, what the budget showed for spending that would put us in line with with u or 1.7 under what that number was at, I don't remember exactly. I'm sure Mr. Nantis I've talked about this exhaustively, but I'm pretty sure that it's maybe even higher than the number that we were looking at to begin with. So, um, there there's a caveat to that to the point of pay, right? So, ARP is not paying our folks anymore, right? That's that's on the budgets of our department. And that includes three months of back pay for contract negotiations for not only the FOP but also absentee that should have been paid on last fiscal year but since the contracts weren't done that that money came off of this year's budget. So all the back pay put a quarter of last year's back pay raises was put on this year's budget and we're still 1.7 million you know trending anyway to be $1.7 million under the forecasted budget with that and this will be in the the additional numbers is so this year's sole budget the special fund and general fund um total funds. So special fund, general fund for the year. Again, we're still 88% through the year and I'm showing this at 76% of spending for all funds across the county. So special and

general fund related expenses. We are currently 5.6 million under the the forecast or the budgeted amount for the year. Uh again trending to where overall budget will come in less than what the amount was budgeted for. I'm not sure that again the budget process last year wasn't exactly great, right? Anybody was involved in that process, it was much later than it is today. Um you know just it was very rocky. Um, in this process this year, I want to thank first and foremost the committee because the committee showed up. The committee did their job and the committee took the assignment to go out and meet with every single department head. So, all the committee members went out met with the department heads and had a touch point with all of them to discuss their budget to see um what their needs were. I did get a lot of feedback from some from several department heads as well appreciating the fact that they were engaged and listened to and heard. Um so I think it's very important for us to do that um you know every year at least on on this topic because we need to understand what it is they're doing. And then in addition to that I want to thank um the the other board members that are on committee that did tag along with some of those committee members as well. So, in a lot of cases, department heads had a visit from two two individuals. One on the committee and in some cases not on committee. Um, so I appreciate the dedication to get out there and get an understanding because it does make this process a lot easier to understand when you've gone through this and you've helped shape what this looks like. It makes this evening a little easier to understand. Um, and then also a huge thank you to all the department heads who were cooperative and and willing to have that discussion. So, um, it did mean a lot. and gave me a lot of feedback on both sides of it that the

engagement was was there um and appreciated. So, uh thank you to everybody who's been involved into that up to this point. So, with that to also clarify what we are voting on tonight is not to to approve the final budget. What we are doing is we're taking the proposed budget and we're we're allowing the community to now see what it is we're proposing for next year. We will now come back next month to vote on the final product. So if there's amendments that need to be made between now and then, those amendments can be made in next month's meeting. But this this meeting this vote allows for this to be published on the website. And I believe you got is a paper requirement too.

No, I just have to leave it for public view.

Okay. So it'll be out for public view which is important because we want the public to see again the work that we put in to this. Um so again we are it's not the final budget amendments and adjustments can still be made. Um, but this is so the public can see what we intend to do for next year. So with that, maybe some rules of engagement on this as well, right? So if there's questions, I'd like to stick with the person and all of their questions versus pingpong back and forth if that's okay. Um, just for efficiency and and overlap. So, um, with that, I will entertain any questions and discussions at this point.

Yes, sir. All right. So, uh, I know an invitation went out to our treasur be here tonight to answer some questions about our income and that didn't happen. So to put this out there for everybody, we have an account uh local use, state of Illinois local use 42040. It has trended over the last few years uh well over 300,000. In some cases, it got over 400,000. And the estimation for the budget for 2026 is listed at $66,000. I don't understand how that could happen unless it was just a typo and again I would love to have some explanation this evening. Also on the same report we got this report on 107 and it said the 2025 current actual uh monies was a little over $97,000. Then today at almost 11:00 it was changed to $160,000. We cannot accurately figure a budget if we don't have numbers until basically 8 hours before this meeting happens. This was been this should have been information that we had every budget meeting going forward throughout this year that we were given none. Then there's another account. It's the same one. 42 over40 account. Uh it's just it's frightening to sit here and see that these numbers change at the last second. At what point do we I should say what options do we have

moving forward to where we can get correct information so we can accurately do this budget? Can I? Yes. One of the I had sent some reports to you guys and Michelle buzzed me and said, "Hey, go in and there's I didn't realize it, but in the budget prep part there's a place where you could um update the funds, the current." So, I updated it and then we sent those reports. So that that would have been a change. So that's that's one answer.

Okay. But that still don't doesn't get to me why it was off $60ome,000. Oh, I I can't speak to the

That That's my That's my point. You know, I I understand it got updated, but why was it off that far? That that's my question because it it ultimately reflects revenue that we were counting on for the budget. Now it's off. So, but that it has been fixed. I mean, to what you're saying, but we shouldn't be having to sit here and and debate this month after month after month without accurate reporting. And then I won't even get into the the different formats that we've had to deal with on this budget. I I I just don't understand how we're how we're how we can actually get valid actual numbers to base our budget on. That's all I got.

So, I want to clarify what I think that you're saying, and if I'm wrong, please tell me. Um, you're referencing interest earned. Uh, yeah. Okay. And so, two reports you're referencing, the one sent to us, 106 or 10, was it 107? They're reflecting around $90,000 of interest earned for the year. But I think the other document you're referencing is the one that came on 925 that reflected 148,000 558 year to date. That's on the 48,000 count I believe. Ted, I'm on 42040.

Okay. Oh, the Oh, so so the first one you were referencing was the local use tax. Yes. Yes. And there's so so you're you're you're questioning the $300,000 Yeah. difference on that one. Yeah. We only have an estimated or I should say the treasur's office has estimated at $66,000 for fiscal year 26. And if you look at the trends on it, it's always been over 300,000. So is it a typo or are we just guessing at a number? But $300,000 is a lot of cash.

Okay. I' I've noted that one and I will I will request some information on that one. Um but you mentioned the second one. Were you referencing interest earned? Yes. Okay. So the report we got was 925 if I'm hearing you correctly referenced 148,000. Mhm. 558. And the report that we've received previous even though we've got an updated version today referenced 90,841. Yes.

Okay. So, the $58,000 difference. Okay. Okay. I will add those to the list of questions I can I can request answers for. Good. I'm good. Thank you. Yes, sir. Yes, ma'am.

I want to touch on interest earned as well. Um the estimate for fiscal year 26 interest earned the 4,800 account or 48,000 account sorry is 140,000 and interest to earn other funds is 15,000. We're talking 155,000. Uh I'll say it again. We can do better than that. I don't care how we do it but we need to do better on our investments. I'm disappointed that we invited our treasur to meetings. In fact, gave her the grace of her choosing a day for budget audit legislated an email that's anybody can read. Um, and she just basically said she wasn't coming. Then for this, she was invited at least twice that I know of and she said, "I'm not coming." It comes really right down to this. It's her job and we need her to show up if I have a question about something or we are, you know, we've had budget audit legislative meetings that last a couple hours and we go through it line by line, page by page. Groups of us are, you know, one or two people together would go to the different department heads and hammer through it once or twice, talk on the phone, send an email, confirm numbers, etc. We did our job as best we could and none of very few of us are getting paid for this. There's no glory in being a board member. Those department heads were wonderful. I did not have one bad experience with any of them. They were all very receptive and very good at pointing out areas we could change a little bit or make a little more money or um save a little more by, you know, being reimbured for part of the salary, that sort of thing. I find it very upsetting that we do all this work to try to do the best thing for our taxpayers. And they're our taxpayers. and we can't get our treasurer to come in and even have a discussion in a budget meeting when we're all sitting there ready to work and we sit down all

of us show up. We all most of us have jobs and stuff. We come and we sit and go through these numbers and then she doesn't show up. I think that's a real shame and I think it's really um it's a lack of communication. If she doesn't know how to get the numbers, if CIC doesn't provide her the documents that she needs or she needs extra training, then we need to provide that so she can come to a meeting and we can go through these just like we do in budget. We could have gone through it in budget and had no no questions tonight. We could have got our answers. I think that's important that we stress that it's not ours to decide those numbers. We're doing the best with what we've got and everybody here has done a really good job. our department have done a good job, but that's only part of the we have to have both sides working together and right now we don't. So, any other comments or questions as it relates to again and I I know that the the documents are lengthy, right? I know there's a lot to go through and I know it's broken down by, you know, the revenue side, the spending side in addition to being split with general fund and special fund. I know there's a lot there to go through. Um, and those that weren't that that that either didn't tag along or weren't at the meetings for for budget if you have questions. Um, I may not have all the answers, but I can tell you that I've got some we have some fantastic folk up here that put in the work. So, um, somebody will be able to answer answer question if you've got it.

I just have one. Chad, did you see the email that Erica or that the treasurer had said to email her any question? Just just to get your answer. I'm not disputing what you said. I just didn't know if you saw that. She had sent out an email asking that um sometimes she doesn't like it's hard to be put on the spot when it comes to numbers and she asked that any questions be emailed to her. I in fact care if I answer Yeah.

I I in fact did reach out to Okay. the treasur's office and I had questions and she in fact did answer my questions on how she calculates revenue for the budget. My one of my concerns with that is she says she takes a 5-year average. Well, that's that's fine. You can average 5 years, but when you're only using four years of income to average across five, your numbers are skewed by a lot. Then you're not figuring in inflation on top of that because the money goes up every year after that. And and as far as being put on the spot, the building we're in has Wi-Fi. I'm pretty certain she can bring her computer here, and we would give her ample time to answer any questions. So, there's questions posed to her. She did answer my question. I don't know if she answered everyone's question. She did answer mine, but the excuse of I can't be here because I don't have my computer and stuff to me is an invalid answer. It's her It's her civic duty. elected duty to be here at this board meeting when requested to discuss financials and in fact she did not show up tonight as and she was put on the agenda. She was notified to be put on the agenda. She was requested to be at the last budget meeting and we even offered to move it from whatever night we we give her three days to choose from and flat out refused. So to me, that is somebody that is derelct in their duties of of trying to get this done. She flat out refuses to work with this board and and I don't understand how 22,000 people in this county, you know, that we have to answer to would be happy with that when we say we don't have accurate numbers because our treasurer won't give them to us. And if she couldn't answer the question here tonight, the words I can get back

to you tomorrow on that would suffice with me. But to just blow us off and not even show up when requested. And it is state statute that when she is requested to be at a county board meeting, she has to attend. And you can see she is not here. Yeah. I was just asking if you saw that so that you could get your question answered.

Yep. One thing I want to add and this will so part of this I can tell you that we will have some adjustments to a couple of numbers and it's going to be insurance related. Um Jessica's waiting on some answers for I believe liability and some others. What's not reflecting in here because I didn't get it in time to put this on the agenda for today. Um I mentioned last month that we've had some conversations regarding health insurance as well as some options that would not only improve access to providers and prescriptions as a part of that. Um but it would reduce our cost and some of our fixed cost. And so I can get this in everybody's hands, but where we stood for the renewal for this year for health insurance was just shy of a 9% increase for the year. And 9% on nearly half a million dollars is it starts to add up real quick. Um and then there was an increase in our administrative costs. And so total cost across the board for our renewal for next year was going to go up 7.7% which was about $280,000 for next year with the proposed changes in the the adjustments and the additions. Right. So again, some increase to our employee access to to things, but it reduces our fixed cost by about 9%.

And reduces the overall by just a little under 9%. Um, and you might not understand insurance. If you understand it more than I, you will certainly get some benefit out of this. But the the proposed changes from the insurance company takes us back to a level that was lower than this year's expenses. So even with a 9% increase trending in there, we're able to go back to cost being lower than what they were last year. And this is just one part of their proposed changes that we'll have. So what the total would be for the year would be about 260 $270,000 less on on the healthcare expense that we have from the county. Um, I think that's everything I have bar any questions

on that on that insurance tab. Does that have to be uh approved through the unions? It doesn't change the benefit. Okay. So, it it's not um we're not reducing benefit. We're not reducing cost. All right. Perfect.

Yeah, it's a good question though. Yes, sir. So, that that $270,000 savings you talked about, you know, like like you just told Chad, it's we're not losing coverage. In fact, we're gaining better coverage for less money. But I'll point out that that $270,000 savings um came about only because chairman asked the right questions. um they were not um hiding anything or not forthcoming once you asked the questions. But I I don't think those savings would have been on the table and um I think we saved over a quarter of a million dollars because you personally asked the right questions. So that was that was a that was a nice savings and an additional coverage for the employees just by asking a couple questions that were that were poignant and right on the spot. I want to commend you personally for for that. That that was that's what took place.

I appreciate that, but I also have to thank Jessica for facilitating that because again with her having these responsibilities in her office now, you know, she facilitated the meeting that led to this discovery and these and these questions. Again, this is part of it. I think there there's more to come. Um I can only hold so much in a day. So, uh, and I don't understand all this stuff. So, I appreciate you being there that day, but also appreciate Jessica and what she did and making sure that we facilitated this as well. So, and this is here for anyone that wants to look at it. And I will I will make sure that everybody gets gets what I had sent to me from Associates and Dan as well. Right there as well.

In your own words, Mr. Chairman, you were there. You showed up. Yes. Um when I was looking at the numbers on the budget, we received a report um on the 25th and then we received another report on Monday. Um it was the uh FY26 estimated revenue and the GF FY26. response. One said on the 25th and then another one said and there was like $50,000 difference doing on those reports. And those are the questions that you know when you're looking and you're finding some discrepancies um that that we need to be able to figure out as close as we can the the right amount and being a team player is important. um you know, being able to ask those questions. And some emails were getting up to the night of the board meeting. And when you're getting your emails the night of the board meeting or even the day before the board meeting and you have and you're reviewing 85 pages, I might not have my questions until I come into this meeting because I just received more information on the budget. And that's why it's important um that that our treasures here when we're receiving information the day of and or the day before and it's 85 plus pages or 200 pages. It takes time to go through that a lot of time and sometimes um we're going through that all the way up until we head in to come to the meeting. And so, you know, for our taxpayers, you know, I hope people can set aside

their differences with each other to work together to so we can provide the best possible result. And so, you know, I hope in the future that we can get more we can we can work together in a better way so that the taxpayers get uh a budget that that we've worked on and looks right. There's not a question when of why do we have 50,000 a week later and it's you know there's there's a lot of things I noticed like that on the the budget and and like I said before I even came in I was reviewing there was 85 pages now. So I was looking through that and any question I would have had I don't I wouldn't be able to get an answer tonight. So that's my

Thank you. Um, I I think I want to point out one thing again for for those who weren't a part of the the committee or the process is um we had a line item in there this year for u audit expense and I think we had $150,000 budgeted and we we we we cut that down by 120 something like that give or take because we set aside article funds last year to cover audit expense. And so we took that out of the budget for this year because we still have ARPA money set aside and obligated to pay for audit expense. So we still have 23 to get wrapped up, 24 25 to pay for next year. We left a cushion in there just in case there's some additional expense. Um but we were able to again by setting aside that money in December, we were able to remove that from this year's budget. So, and there's still a system about social security, right? So, we don't end up in a shortfall again in early spring or late spring, early summer next year. And um I did speak with Sikage today. They are working on helping us figure out what that could look like. So, there may be an amendment to this next month as well as they are looking at our levy items. So, hopefully we can actually get the levy taken care of this month as well. So in November, but she but and sage is good work on that for us to make sure that we get the best data so we can actually levy the right amounts against the appropriate accounts to make sure we don't have any shortfalls for next year. So money well spent put those folks very helpful on that. Anybody else questions or comments?

Yes, ma'am. I have a comment about all the department heads working so diligently on their budget for this year and sticking with it and cutting the costs if they could and stuff to come in the way they have and stuff. We started out last year really afraid of where we would end up at this point this year and they've all helped immensely.

Yeah. And to that point, me and the committee was engaged, you know, starting in January, you know, and was was quickly tracking the monthly spending, right? What percentage of the year were we in? Where were we spent? Um, and and again, that the committee did a good job of staying on on track with that. And department heads have done a good job of keeping spending at bay, right? They had they had a lot of leash to spend all that money that was put in the budget. They didn't, right? We we gave the authority to, they didn't. So credit goes there, but also to your point as it relates to the timeliness of this. Department heads are certainly responsible um for the timeliness, which is greatly appreciated, but I also again have to thank Jessica for proddding that along. You know, the process was started well in advance, which gave the committee the ability to begin their work in August. So again, it took everybody kind of together to be able to get us to this point to where we're not scrambling just before Thanksgiving to pass the budget. Anybody else? Okay, see all vote, please.

Bane, yes. Cole, yes. Edwards, yes. Greg, yes. Hardy, yes. Matt, yes. Mayhoff, yes. Miller, yes. Mitchell, yes. Morse, yes. Price, yes. Pritchard, yes. Cyber, yes. Tate, yes. Waford, yes. Wood, yes. Y, yes. Motion passes unanimous.

Thank you. Thank you again, everybody that's been a part of this process. I really appreciate it. Uh, item 11, committee reports. Committee reports. Okay, seeing none chairman updates and correspondence. All right, so bear with me. I apologize in advance. Um, some of this might be a little lengthy, but I will do my best to get through it. Um, I have a thank you note here from the Shelby County Farm Bureau. Shelby County Board, we wanted to thank you for your for passing the proag resolution at the September County Board meeting. Your support affirms the importance of agriculture in our community and strengthens the future of our farmers and farm families. We deeply appreciate your dedication and we look forward to working with you in the future. Thank you again. Signed, Shelby County Farm Bureau Board of Directors and staff. Um, I've also got an invitation here to the fall conference and membership and meeting notice for the United Counties Council of Illinois. Um, looks like dinner reception is October 24th and a meeting on October 25th for additional information. Uh, it is up here and it's on file with the clerk. This is where it might get a little bit lengthy. So, I do apologize in advance. Um, but I think it's important this email, a couple of emails references a phone call and subsequent communications that I got from I do um last month after the meeting on se September 17th uh specifically as it relates to um our grant funding that comes in through ID do for public transit. So again, bear with me. It is a little lengthy uh but I think it's important. This was sent to me uh Wednesday evening uh September 17th at 10:19.

Good evening. I spoke with Chairman May Hall today regarding Shelby County's delinquent fiscal year 2023 and fiscal year 2024 audits. As a result of these outstanding items, I have not approved Shelby County's state fiscal year 2026 DOAP and 5311 grant applications. We are willing to meet Shelby County halfway if the county's auditor can complete the transit portion of the audit and sign off on the ASRE for the fiscical year 23 DOAP of 5311 program. I will move forward with approving the state fiscal year 26 DOAP and 5311 applications. However, please note that I do will not approve state fiscal year 27 applications if both the fiscical year 23 and fiscical year 24 audits remain incomplete. Due to the following reasons, Shelby County is a high-risisk grantee. one fiscal year 23 24 audits remained eliquid in state fiscal year 25 over 10 months of budget summaries were submitted late no fiscal year 25 quarterly reports have been submitted fiscical year 25 annual reports due August 1st remain outstanding a total of 20 compliance findings from the 2024 5311 review remain unresolved for Shelby County and CFS. Because of this high-risisk designation, IDOT will require 100% of source documentation to be submitted with each requisition. This requirement is outlined in section 7.4 4 of the state fiscal year 26 DOAP agreement and section 7.5 of the state

fiscal year 26 5311 agreement which state and it goes on to to explain the source documentation accounting records must be supported by such source documentation as canceled checks bank statements invoices paid bills donor letters time and attendance records activity reports travel reports contractual and consultant agreements and subword documentation. All supporting documentation should be clearly identified with the award and general ledger accounts which are to be changed or excuse me charged or credited. This requirement will be enforced in full for all of Shelby County's transit operating grant requisitions beginning immediately with state fiscal year 26 and will remain in place for the duration of their state fiscal year 26 dout and 5311 grant agreements. In addition, further speci specific conditions will include in the exhibit F portion of the Shelby County's fiscal year 26 DOAP and 531 agreements. ID do will re-evaluate Shelby County's risk status with fiscal year 27 grant applications at which timely audits reports and resolution of findings will be taken into account. If you have any questions, concerns regarding these requirements, please contact me directly. Thanks. Signed, David Schaefer, Bureau Chief of Transit Operations at the Illinois Department of Transportation. After Mr. Schaefer and I spoke that earlier that day, I immediately contacted Sikage and Lbach and Amy on the 17th as well. Those two organizations got together, communicated

on the 19th and I can report that as of Tuesday, this Tuesday, that the requirement has been met and those audits have been completed to satisfy the immediate need. Mr. Mr. Schaefer and I spoke today confirming that this has taken place and he has the received the draft portions of those and sends an email stating good afternoon. Our team will review these documents and upload them into the state fiscal year 26 DOAP at 5311 applications. Provided that Perry and Glenn have no additional concerns with your submissions, I will approve the applications to move forward. Please note, while we will allow the agreements to proceed, no requisitions for fiscal year 26 will be approved until these documents are finalized, which is moved out of draft status and signed by the auditor. Please let me know if you have any questions. Again, signed David Schaefer, bureau chief at IDA. So, I will present these next month, right? At least this portion of the audit to be approved um by the board. So we don't have any more lags in our funding for public transit. Um we're still behind budgets. All right. Our audits are still behind. Um they're being worked on, but again I has been willing to to work with us on these items. So um I think that's it for those. And I don't think I have any other correspondents here either. So I will move on to chairman appointments item 13. Bill Hubbert as trustee of the Finley Fire

Protection District to replace Tim Off who resigned. The term is to expire April 30th of 2027. Have a motion. I've got Mr. Mors on the motion. I've got Mr. Greg on the second. Any questions on this appointment? See none. All those in favor say I. Opposed. Appointmented. Any old business? Yes.

I was just curious, you mentioned the social security in this new budget. Where do we sit as far as social security uh for the employees? We pass we uh had a vote in June, I believe it was, so that we could take money from here to pay for so where do we stand now? Are we okay? So I mean I might defer some of this if I speak slightly just let me know but with the tax collections over the summer and then the distributions we have money in the account. However we do face the same potential shortfall next year. So that's what we're trying to find a solution for this budget to make sure that we don't have a gap in there where we're coming back to the table to to bridge that gap for a certain period of time. Does that answer your question? Any other old business? Okay, seeing none, move on to approve the claims. We'll take a motion to pay the bills. Miss Bane, a second. Mr. price. Anything to add on bills?

No, we finance submitted and we didn't have any problems. So, any questions? See none. Roll follow, please. May, yes. Cole, yes. Edwards, yes. Greg, yes. Hardy, yes. Mattlock, yes. Mayh, yes. Miller, yes. Mitchell, yes. Yes. Horse. Yes. Price. Yes. Pritchard. Yes. Cipher. Yes. Tate. Yes. Walker. Yes. Wood. Yes. Janice. Yes. Thank you. Moving on to item 16. Body comment. Yes, sir.

Yes. Uh, one of my favorite subjects in school was logic. And I don't see much logic in Eric's reasoning. Carol or I are in business. Let's say we went a year, we sold 500 items of any particular thing, widgets, whatever you want to call them. The next year we sold 400. The third year we sold 300. The fourth year we sold 200. The fifth year we sold 100. That would be 1,500 items. So if we average that over five years, we sold 300 items a year. We only sold a hundred last year. So, would we order 300? It's a good thing she isn't working for someone in business because she would have a tremendous amount. She would have three times the inventory of what someone sold the year before. So, I'm I'm pretty sure I'm right. Uh, I was here at one of these about the same time of year last year and we were going to have to sell a farm by using some of these other non-logical averages that don't make any sense. But for some reason, we didn't have to sell it. And I think that might have been one of them. I don't think that makes any any sense. Thank you. public body comment. Yes, sir.

We didn't have a quorum at the public safety committee meeting, but I just go ahead give you a little update on where we are with performance services and current uh construction project. Well, I'm not going to put you on a timer because I was going to ask you while we go anyway.

Okay. Well, I don't think it'll take that long anyway, but um we're So, exterior construction is uh due to start um actually it was due to start on the 6th, which is a couple days ago, and I don't see them here yet, but they're they should be arriving soon. The uh this is going to be for the removal of the coating on the lower floor, fixing any limestone issues there are, putting a new uh permeable coating to replace it. Um so that exterior work was awarded to Autobomb out of Pure Illinois is going to be doing the work. The uh the contract price for that is $436,000. the amount we had set aside between ARPA and the the DCO grant was 786,000. Um so that leaves remaining $350,000 remaining after they do the exterior work. Then they have a interior plan they're going to be working on putting out some um some jobs for bid including probably number one's going to be fixing the plaster in the lower level in the interior. And so they they right now they're anticipating that starting on the 13th of January, but uh we'll know more as they get through the bid process. um plaster work and then from there is probably moving on to some restrooms depending on how much uh funds we have left. So to to go backwards to come back forwards all of that was prefaced by fixing the water problems. Right. Right. So so we had some water abatement that needed to be take place.

Correct. And they they saying the windows is or the windows are actually taking care of a lot of the water problem that it is not happening as much as it was. So so so exterior right the exterior and then the lower level. Yes. On that as well. And I know I spoke to the judge last week extensively and I know she's working with you as well on working on some accessibility um projects within the courthouse as well to not only countertops in the offices right to make them accessible but also courtroom access um for accessibility as well. So I know there's going to be some significant changes take place um this next year.

Great. So, thank you for everything on that. It's been it's been kind of a long road, but I but I know it's all worth hopefully we'll see them working here and uh soon. So, thank you, chair. Public body comment. Public body comment. Public body comment. Okay, moving on. Motion to adjurnn. Got a motion from Miss Latlock, second from Miss Miller. All those in favor of journ say I.

Oppos. All right, thank go [Music] [Music]