County Board August Updates

A few points of interest from the agenda packet for tonight's Committee of the Whole meeting include:

• A possible update on the County Clerk and Recorder's Restrictive Covenants Project.
  
  
• Possible updates from the Sheriff's Office on boarding County Jail inmates in other facilities. See latest jail construction update links towards the end of this Cheat Sheet post.
  
  
• An agreement between the County and METCAD for a traffic e-citation system.
  
  
• Numerous appointments related to area drainage districts. You can find additional details about the various Drainage District commissioners on the County Executive's boards and commissions lookup tool.

July County Board Meeting:

A lot of the issues mentioned in last month's Cheat Sheet post came to a head or a vote in the (nearly 4 hour long) July regular meeting (agenda packet). The meeting video on the County's YouTube page appears to begin in the middle of a discussion on the amending the agenda order. There are a couple short clips available before that with partial recordings of the Call to Order, Prayer, Pledge of Allegiance, etc. I'm assuming there was a bit of a technical issue.

The infighting between several County Board members and the County Board Chair continued in the Democratic Caucus meeting and the County Board meeting itself. This resulted in calls during the regular meeting for an official parliamentarian to hold the board to its own rules and civility standards by Republican member Farney. It also resulted in open calls for the Chair’s resignation by members of her own party.

The controversies with the County Auditor were also mixed into those arguments as both the County Board Chair and Auditor made inquiries into the “residency qualifications” of the sole latina member of the Board. Accusations and counter-accusations of racism ensued. The auditor’s role went further as he had directly contacted her landlord, under the guise of his official duties as auditor to “audit her residential qualifications.” He even inquired to see if her rent was paid up, according to copies of the emails he sent.

Jim Dey of the News-Gazette has continued his series of opinion articles on the Democratic Party infighting, including at the July County Board meeting here. Board Member Lokshin wrote a Letter to the Editor expanding on and criticizing the County Auditor's inquiry here.

Referendum and DEIA+ Task Force Votes:

The Board passed ballot referendums to put both the Public Safety Sales Tax ¼ cent tax increase and making the County Auditor’s office an appointed position on the November ballot. They also passed a version of the DEIA+ Task Force that would create a subcommittee of the Labor Committee and Justice & Social Services Committee, as opposed to a new committee. While the Chair remains an ex officio member of this and all other committees, her role in selecting the task force members was more limited with the subcommittee option. 

There were numerous public (e.g. social media) and in-meeting arguments over emails and scheduling meetings in the creation of the DEIA+ Task Force and the recommendations for its members. The Chair believes she was cut out of the process, start to finish, while most of the other board members pointed to email exchanges about scheduling and availability to deny those claims.

A list of those invited to participate in the DEIA+ Task Force were listed on page 99 (page 102 of the PDF file) of the agenda packet. More updates are likely to come on who on that list confirmed their participation and a final roster.

Replacing the County's Case Management System:

A consultant from BerryDunn presented recommendations for replacing and updating the County's case management system, from their Case Management System Study (video jump to link). The good news appears to be that replacing these systems may end up being cheaper than expected (a topic of debate with the need for the increased tax revenue). The bad news from the discussion appeared to be that there is not a one-size fits all solution for different County Offices and their needs.

There was an extended conversation between the County Board members, the BerryDunn consultant, and the Circuit Clerk, on exactly what may be needed moving forward.

More County Government News:

• There is growing controversy about the appropriateness of "mob action" charges against campus protesters by the State's Attorney's Office. The News-Gazette had a recent perspective piece here. The ACLU of Illinois highlighted their concerns with using the "mob action" statute here. There will be a separate Cheat Sheet post on this issue soon.
  
  
• The Broadband Task Force met last week (agenda packet, video, action summary). Mark Sheldon used the Public Comment opportunity to give updates from Pavlov Media. There was a discussion about the funding sources and what areas are eligible for using those funds. It focused quite a bit on the nitty gritty details of Broadband Equity Access and Deployment Program (BEAD) eligible homes. These meetings are jargon heavy, so be ready to look up terms like RDOF and ARPA.
  
  
• There was an update on the Satellite Jail construction at this month's County Board's Facilities Committee meeting. The agenda item and presentation is available on the County's youtube page here (jump to link). Construction appears to be coming along and the packet included numerous pictures of a lot of the completed work thus far.
  
  
• Dey had additional opinion pieces on County government and especially Democratic infighting. His column on the infighting at the July County Board meeting was mentioned above. He also had another opinion piece on the auditor referendum here, Board Member Owen no longer running for re-election here, and two more opinion pieces on the County Auditor drama.