couple years ago good morning everyone i'll call the Cook County Board of Commissioners regular meeting to order on this day of April 8th at 8:30 a.m we begin our meeting with a pledge please rise
i pledge allegiance 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 are there any adjustments to
the any adjustments to the agenda what I mean then I'll ask for a motion to approve madame chair I make a motion to approve the agenda as written support all in favor i opposed same sign
motion passes at this time we have a public comment period and we invite um citizens to come before us are there anybody in the audience who would like to have a five minutes good morning morning well I'd like to start today by
um talking about the hiring process for the county administrator um it was refreshing to see you guys follow through and encourage everyone to be a part of that process the staff and the public um with the next process coming up very
soon I think we are all looking forward to being a part of that again being included and have our insights valued so thank you i would like you to consider um adding the
um item called public comment to the published minutes the fact that there is input is encouraging for others to even consider doing the same names and subject are not
necessarily the issue but the fact that there is input and that there are responses I think is very valuable for the rest of the community to know now how does the county publicize its information about events and
meetings there is a significant population that uses the Cook County News Herald as its information resource the reliance by the county on only technology computers smartphones Facebook boreal deprivives many
households of this public information and thus participation i don't know why we would assume that computers and smartphones are in every household cost is one consideration if electronics exist do
you know that the public is literate in their use it's called digital literacy skills and it's actually measured by those in the education field and then there's the issue of
connectivity so there are really three reasons for you to think about another way of getting information out and that's cost the digital digital skills and the connections how do you reach the far corners of your
county we have a newspaper with circulation around 3,000 so here you have a resource that can reach more households if you give it the opportunity small town newspapers need to be supported all avenues of
communication need to be utilized for the good of your people please consider adding county board information to the calendar of events and do what you've said you always wanted to do and that is to keep your
public aware of what government is and inviting citizen input thank you thank you is there anyone else in the audience who would like to come forward has anyone on the board received any
comments they would need to um read to us madame Chair yes i have a comment from Don Davidson 583 Southshore Drive what the hell are you doing to county taxpayers we have retired our income is
fixed but you your entire board doesn't seem to give a care about your incredible increase in taxes look at our property you gave it nearly $100,000 increase in value when we haven't done an improvement in 30 years and not one
county employee has set foot on our property for at least 10 years and our property taxes increase by nearly 30% i'm disabled i can hardly walk some days and I cannot attend board meetings you and the entire county board are purposely trying to destroy our way of
life and for that you should be ashamed please make this public comment at your next meeting then I have another one from Mr davidson as well i don't know who came up with the idea but getting Reena back in the mix is the best choice in your
commissioner tenure you can choose or not to identify me in your public comments god bless that Reena has consented anyone else okay thank you on that we'll move on to the consent agenda
uh which has claims um minutes of our regular meeting gunflint Lake raffle permit application approve the hire of Andrea Parent Smith as custodian hire um Abel Abigail Prom as environmental
technician approve the hire of Marissa Chapman as adult and home community-based service supervisor does anybody want to pull anything thank you Madam Chair i'd like to pull item B please e
B E oh E okay okay um let's put that then um toward the end uh maybe under human resources as item B okay and that'll be item E but
B under that ABC D okay anything else then a motion to approve as as amended madam sure oh go ahead so moved support all in favor i oppose same sign motion
passes item number four we'll move into emergency management with um Mike uh Keeport a request from the Luden Township Emergency Shelter this is called arriving on time isn't it
whoa good morning good morning good morning Madam Chair commissioners uh community members um I have uh with me today Sharon Hexum Platzer representing Looten Township today um a little a
little history about the uh the document in front of you um uh what I nicknamed the uh Christmas what did I the Christmas blizzard of 2022 the Christmas gift blizzard yeah blizzard um was an
extended uh power outage uh blizzard not well travel for almost four days in a row over the Christmas weekend um it affected the whole county uh but
in Ludson's case they they they as a township decided that being how they already have a very nice town hall that they would like to make improvements to that to make it at least uh a warming
house and an emergency shelter should be needed so they did the proper thing they put together a nice uh proposal as to get uh generators in there uh CS and uh other things they would need to have
that building more accessible should we have an extended power outage uh down that way again um so what I did from my end they reached out to me and I think I spoke to the board before about this we do have a
hazard mitigation plan if anything within that plan um is uh is affected in our county there is funding available now since that happened we had to start updating our hazard mitigation
plan uh backing up shelters are designated in our plan so that would be a that would be a something this money could be used for now having said that um since then our plan is in the middle of being updated
we cannot access any of those funds until our plan is updated approved by the state and approved by FEMA that likely will not happen until I'm guessing November of this year hopefully by year's
end so I did I did submit what's called a notice of interest so we're in the queue for this funding when the plan is approved um so now having said all that just yesterday
I got an email from FEMA saying that this funding is in jeopardy of of uh being cut by FEMA they've already cut it up to 2023 and they're looking at years ahead so any any projects that were in
the queue from 20 to 2023 that did not get finished that money has to go back to FEMA believe it or not so and they're looking ahead so it shouldn't affect We are using this same money to update our hazard
mitigation plan so it's kind of a big deal in my world um but that it shouldn't affect the the continuation of getting our plan updated and then hopefully um our uh this funding will be
available so that's where I'm at from a from a funding standpoint from my office so we're kind of on the back burner for Looten Township uh so I'll let uh I'll let Sharon speak speak for the township
thank you for having me thank you for doing the job you do um I know it's not always easy and I know that from my understanding um when our supervisor Lai Cooper came three years ago that she got verbal
support from um and I see nods of heads um at that time and then when we decided to you know wait for a grant to be written things happen with grants i
understand that so uh instead I also decided to uh see what else so we our former fire chief worked at the um Norshshire Health and the hospital and got cuts delivered free so we have those so
our cost is going down we got $7,000 from Toy because they will not make the whole school into an emergency shelter because the generator for that size building would be
spendy and um we have set aside some of our ARPA fund money in other words it probably would have bought the propane tank and poured the slab had the weather agreed with us um in other words we're moving forward what we would like from
you is some support and in in that vein I will tell you that I did download the um mitigation plan current mitigation plan and there in there is uh 4.2
vulnerability assessment county departments and jurisdictions were invited to respond to the questionnaire so it's in there and it talks about the different um plan updates that are needed and a firewise so we're not
talking just about the power going out because we also know about possible fire uh we are just in a county of woods right forests in the second part 4.2.1 2.1 the asset inventory listed uh the
fire stations and specifically named fire stations and yes Luden Town Hall and Luden Fire Department were mentioned but not as an short-term that's a key word there short-term emergency shelter
um putting in the generator would then allow that facility to run on propane for as long as needed okay well um I decided perhaps you would like to see that there are other people
who think that way these are all pages of signed petition that says "I as a Luden Tafty or Schroeder resident wish you to move forward on providing support for the Luden Town Hall to be used as a short-term emergency shelter." Um we
have a kitchen we have bathrooms we have shower facilities please understand that this would provide a place for people to stay if storms or fires impact their home for a short stay until they can secure other housing a nominal amount of
support would help the Luden Township in this endeavor in speaking with one of our residents who works for public health here um she said "Well there is an emergency shelter uh accommodations at the community center that's a little
hard for people up the Kramer Road to get there." I even heard "Well but what if it's snowing and they can't get out?" I said "I know a fire department that'll get you regardless." And that's because there is a particular device attached to a snowmobile that can go in and take
people out securely so I'm guessing that I have as many as I didn't count sorry because they keep coming in um over 200 signatures from the West End folks one
way that I received some of these was through the Tate Lake Association um and through Caribou Lake Association they sent me emails saying we support but there is one particular one I if you don't mind my reading it um the location
of the town hall allows property owners to stay in the area while determining their next steps from the town hall property owners could have access to public announcements about the emergency as well as access to internet allowing communication with concerned relatives
or neighbors the structure itself is a safe environment large enough to temporarily house numerous people it has restrooms and a small kitchen area for food prep it's close to the dog park as such displaced pet owners could utilize
the area for any four-legged animal family members excuse me in addition that that location is close to emergency services and perhaps if needed search and rescue could provide triage for injured people i there are people here that really want to have this done and
we can't wait um you know especially Mike's news now makes me a little nervous in that aspect of financial support um one of our members uh contacted Arrowhead Electric about Roundup funds but it's not the time for
roundup but they donated another,000 toward this um endeavor i know what uh we provided you three years ago was a cost of about 27,000 that was three years ago and you know what that means things
could go up just a little bit i'm thinking particularly um the wiring and the tubing for the generator to be connected to the current town um we have a um firefighter who is an electrician
and another fire former firefighter just retired who does plumbing work and they both want are willing to work on it which brings prices down because they too want to protect the community so with that um I was hoping that our um
uh fire our chairperson uh Carl Fzner was here because he's would present you the cost of that um generator he found that out with the electrician and the and the plumber um just recently so
beyond that do you have questions for me thank you for the presentation we've been working on this for a long time since we had the power outage of 29 hours i went before the township and started talking about some type of a shelter not only for the citizens but
for folks who are visiting in the area to know that their electricity is off at their motel and condo and they would have a safe place to go so it really is farreaching and um things happen over the years and
Mike's news this morning was not encouraging but um you know I think we should move forward and talk about some possibilities so I'll open it up for any questions to Mike or to um Sharon commissioner White um a question I have
because I hadn't this really got me to thinking about it and I I do recollect I was here for the mattress part so that was two years ago or something um what about and what do they have up
the Gunflint Trail do they have a shelter up the trail and then I don't know what there is in the east end i mean I know there's I I don't know excuse me no I wouldn't expect that you would i don't know about the east end but I have been to the fire the town
hall fire area up the gunflint and um I know that they have the facilities there for a short-term stay um I don't know about CS for them some of the CS that you got from Northshore Health Gunflint
Trail also has a has I don't know how many a dozen or so CS up the trail uh East and Grand Portage has their community center which in my opinion is probably the one of the best shelters in the that I know of in the whole region
it has everything so wait did you build that i didn't i didn't i like that question and to that question to that statement um Grand Portage is a sovereign nation
and so I would make no assumption and and very hospitable and everything but I that would be for the Grand Portage community and I do know that they have welcomed the other community pe other
people beyond the Grand Portage to come and use that facility sure but I would never assume that it would be an emergency this is more than that so it goes to the question should there be some efforts made to create um which
would be much harder to create a shelter in Hovind or Kovville Town Hall now neither one has water but um that's just a question i mean is it is it I'm not disputing the value of this
at all but should we have another one on the east end of the county consider developing something on the east end commissioner Gamble thank you Madam Chair thank you for the presentation the
information um to your point Commissioner White the u if if we do something on on the west end uh then in effect it it sets a precedent it's the same way of taking over road
responsibilities in in areas that we have to look at it in the context of what would this decision say that makes us um accountable for others that have similar you know situations so
um I think identifying you know what we do have up the trail and what we have on on the east end if there is a relationship and Mike certainly would understand that in his position there before that is an an understood respectful agreement then we might be
able to do that an assessment overall I think is good and it's healthy to understand if in fact what we are providing is meeting present- day needs um so that's a consideration the the bigger picture consideration in the
context of setting precedent or an evaluation of the county overall uh if I were sitting in your position in Luden I would not want to uh delay a response to our present need
so while there's respect for the bigger context which we must be aware of there's also the realization that you've been working on this and this is something that we want to address the next question is and what you were talking about Mike is the funding source
and if our funding source is is tied up in a requirement for compliance in order to have those funds released uh it's looking as we often do at funding sources that we typically uh attempt to use in funding some of these
things that come before the board and so if we find resourcefulness uh on and Luden and its citizens in trying to come up some of this money partnering with our other agencies or entities uh those are good things uh the
the money that is the money that you're referring to Mike that is state funding or is that federal it's federal funding that comes through the state yes okay and is the uh ARPA funds which are the mess American Rescue Act federal funding
is that what you're referring to or is that separate i am not this is hazard mitigation okay and so um I guess a question to Brady is do we have monies that have come through ARPA the American Rescue Act federal funding yeah we have
most of it's been allocated but there's a little bit left out of the one allocation okay and so what I would say is looking at at funding as it exists in that fund which I'm assuming is you know relates to this um yeah the sec the one
that's unallocated because we got two sources um has no restrictions um we have used it for fund balance or I mean for uh levy reduction bond payments
uh it's gone housing it's gone many places some of the uh preparations for some of our building projects pre pre-bonding costs and things like that so it's it's had many uses okay thank you so
um I guess if we look all at you know if there's grants grant writing that we've done where we we've benefited considerably uh if that's been something that's been looked at and I apologize coming into this you know midstream I
don't know what has been done i just know that there's um there's an informed intentional process that's involved the community and and certainly as representatives of the community and and certainly Commissioner Stley and her position on the on the west end there
that if if we can find funding sources that do not tap into our general fund in the levy uh that I think is what we want to work at to understand um how can we do this without it
becoming a tax burden and um if we can be creative and resourceful in that regard if there are in some cases purchases that are made that are done through the opaces of our our maintenance department or anything else
that reduces cost if that's explored um anything that we can do to reduce cost and find sources of money to be able to respond that would be my recommendation and certainly would support it with the understanding that in the bigger picture
it would be good to look at providing um this um throughout the county so that we have that that need met and understanding that if in doing this we set precedent then we have to evaluate on the same criteria anybody else that
comes before us [Music] um so I guess that's um that would that would be my position the other question I would have is that when we when our lived experience define for defines for
us our reality then we respond by we need to do something because of the occurrence so if you look at the incidences historically we can have one big one that we learn a lot from and we respond to that we can have multiple so
that for the public as a whole we're looking at warrant the warrant for this being provided in other words the identified need and um the overall umbrella of governance is to pro protect
its people and uh so we have that obligation it just how can we do this without adding burden to financial cost I appreciate that commissioner Gamble I'd like to introduce our uh Lootson Township Chairperson Carl Friezner carl
do you have some information for them um I missed the first few minutes of of this so I don't know what you went over everything okay well then I will leave it in the trusting arms of Sharon for all of that thanks for seeing us i appreciate the time yes do Do we have an
um an idea for the size of the generator yeah estimated cost would be helpful i think that's what I asked so it was it was less expensive two years ago obviously um currently the generator that would be
needed would be right now it's uh $6,769 for the generator to to feed the supply of the town hall um and that's from what my electricians have told me that's that'll cover the needs
carl would that cover the installation too and no that's just the So then the labor the installation cost at least three years ago from from one of our former firefighters was $15,000 and I don't know if that included the
connections not not the generated you know I mean the pieces parts i'm sorry that that's so technical yeah that that included in 2023 the installing of three propane heaters the running of the gas lines inside the building and to the generator was
$15,000 correct so even if that's up a ways it's not up lots right yeah that's correct commissioner Gamble yeah thank you Madam Chair uh in looking at generator was there any consideration given for finding something that's in
good condition that might be used on the market and certainly in today's marketplace there are a lot of people that are buying up good used generators but I'm just saying if that's something that's looked at usually the argument is if you buy something used unless you know its
history you might be asking for problems but it is part of the stewardship of just looking at options and seeing what's there um you have in your presentation right now a request a financial number that number is
you're right there there because I didn't know that but um I would say with that cost and the possible cost of the installation being up a little bit to be uh maybe 8,500 right yeah we're talking
overall yes because we have raised other money toward this correct and what do we have in that fund Brady about 150,000 okay so 8,500 kind of fits in there in just a little squeak yeah yeah every little
squeak is I know yeah which is not to minimize you know the request i I I I feel that when when entities whatever they whomver they might be show their resourcefulness and they're willing to work hard for what they want as opposed
to just simply coming and asking for money that that that speaks volumes to us as decision makers to show that your stewardship is backed up by your efforts and so I certainly appreciate that
so and you're looking for a motion of support and a check as soon as possible yeah okay uh I would like to refute the used um generator idea i if they have got an an
electrician and obviously I mean it sounds like they're getting this at cost i would go with your com with your with your electrician who's supplying who's doing this for the community because you never know i I
recollect years ago borrowing an air compressor to work on the first hockey rink and it died it died and so we the we were responsible for replacing this air compressor which
wasn't worth it to start with but anyway I I believe the investment in new equipment for a long-term facility like this for the community if it's 1,000 3,000 whatever it is and then it would have the uh the warranty of the company
and of the installer it would be well worth it for peace of mind and reliability commissioner Gamble thank you Madam Chair so uh before the board right now is is uh looking at funding sources if the
figure that is being presented to us the request to ask is a certain amount of money and you're comfortable with that and its current figures and you would move forward with that with locked in agreements then uh what Mike is talking about money in the mitigation plan we
have to comply with that which is November in order for those monies to be to come up um if those monies with compliance built into that would be funding for this
unfortunately it's it's not a reimbursement type thing it's got to be a moving forward type thing so I so I couldn't do that i do have another project in the queue with the city so we're we will be having the same
conversation with the city but yeah and that's sort of where I was going to see if if those monies were designated in that but knowing that we have multiple multiple needs uh obviously if we can tap monies that are designated for
things like this from those funding source without it becoming part of the levy then that's that's a good thing so then it it comes back to if we've looked at our resources and that's not something that could reimburse funds
that we take from this fund then we're looking at this point in time taking from this fund so it's from the fund that that we have right now from the ARPA fund yes and so it's it's whether the the board would agree to
move forward and tap those funds are there other things we talked about relative to those funds uh other than that that they're not designated and they're subjective they're not designated but the
consideration is always uh for levy reduction other than that so well that's would sort of be robbing Peter to pay Paul in this situation uh if if what we're trying to do is is
mitigate impact on levy and if we take monies that impact levy to pay it just yeah like it's just numbers on paper then yeah we have we have the money now so and it's available for any use so in effect you could say it's like fund
balance in our case do we have any other sources of revenue that are laying around like like this Um we do have we do have some funds um I have to look it up to remember the
language it's been a while but it would take some analysis as to the the use so I'll let Brady go ahead and kind of tweak on that and look and see what there would be available so the
understanding is Mike that probably there will not be money available you won't know till November you know it's I I I hate to make I hate to make light of it but I think you have to in the world we're in today that somebody described
it as uh doing the hoke pokey sometimes it's in and then sometimes it's out so we just really don't know what this is going to look like until things just keep moving forward here so I wish I had a better answer for you but I I just do not that's an honest answer it's a It's
my best answer and either way this funding won't be available till almost years end so so what I was wondering is if if the township would do the 8,500 would it be easier to reimburse them or
We can't We can't reimburse with this program it has to be a project in the queue that in the queue that that Yeah it's not a reimburseable type thing unfortunately no other way to go at this right fema money doesn't work that way
arpa money that you have could help us for 8,500 that'd be wonderful okay all righty well any further comments or questions just one little how many how many um people could
shelter in that space like because west I mean the population swells at different times and I'm thinking like cold you know in the winter time and I would imagine they've got generators up on the hill too to help in the event of
a weather emergency mhm so I don't know that they have one running their fire hall and town hall up there however Oh no i'm talking about the hill not the gunfluent trail i'm talking about up at the ski hill so if people on on the west
end get stranded for some reason it's just a question not how many people would fit in the town hall thank you thank you for that um I will tell you that um last June there was a severe thunder and rain and um there was a
group of uh scouts with their adult supervisors going to stay up the sawill not so they came to the town hall and there were you know we were there when they came in to um shelter for the night
and there were 25 25 that and that's that was without crowding at all you know um so it was just a curiosity I I know it it can seat 200 I don't think that it could sleep 200 however right
and the American Red Cross does have a designation as to square foot for each individual so and we did have the red Oh sorry it would hold quite a few more than you would imagine and and the Red Cross did go through with our supervisor
um and it's not a designated Red Cross it is a designated short-term shelter different use completely and and historically in our county we have opened shelters over the years since in my 14 years that I've
been here in town here in Grand Portage they typically turn out to be more of a warming house uh kind of a reunification center if you will it's just a place to go to make a plan and have internet and
have heat and you know possibly stay overnight but and so we have everything in place to do that but it's the biggest thing in my eyes is just to have that place to go that everybody's aware of this is where you go the doors will be
open and and you and you can make a plan for yourself how how to move forward in a disaster in the mid uh 2012 13 14 when I was uh township supervisor we rebuilt the whole building
the fireh hall and that room thinking back then it would be for weddings and quilting parties and all of that not realizing that the climate now was changing and that we needed to have a larger facility for that also so it
included a variety of things not so much the climate back then so that's why it does hold quite a few people commissioner Gamble thank you Madam Chair brady did you We have a couple of a couple of sources of funds um that
come from our tax forfeited revenue that in the in the past that the the titles would not suggest this timber Development is the statutory title of this funding and in the past we used it to start a GIS program years and years
ago um related to land i remember the language was well they left it up to us the DNR used to have to approve these and then they said well you do it but you follow the statute as close as you can basically so we used it for things
like that um so in budget discussions previously uh if there were pockets of money available that were designated for something it could be technology it could be something else that if we knew we weren't going to use it for the
specific language when we set up the fund we would in good faith use those monies for similar expenditures related and then that that used that money with good
intention and it and it didn't affect levy so in your opinion if we were to look at pockets of money that tend to send stand latent but could be related not tongue and cheek but in good faith
common sense what would your recommendation be as to where we would take this money this This is the only one I'm aware of frankly the timber one okay so we need to put a timber sign
above the door or something timber burning that works timber burning um you may want to get an opinion from our county attorney okay because uh we do get this funding we may get less in the future because of
discussions you've heard about uh excess revenue from tax forfeit sales so um this may be the last of its kind um and is there anything that in
the foreseeable future you see these monies being used for given its restrictions um well GIS for example since that was the historical use but um again I think I think we I think I'd
like to at least bring it forward with the county attorney before we made a decision on this madam chair if the board is in agreement if if we were to get an opinion on that uh unless the board chooses to use the
monies that are not restricted that we've used to reduce levy i I would feel more comfortable if we were to get an opinion and we could use these funds uh and designate them so I would make a recommendation we get we table it get a an opinion from the attorney if in fact
the attorney says it's agreeable then we could make a motion to support it with the use of those funds if that that would be for our next meeting if that's not properly so two weeks from today yeah right so my understanding is you would do the
motion then to either take it from the ARPA funds or from timber development timber the timber yes if that's a consens I'd be comfortable making a motion taking it from the timber fund upon approval of the attorney else the
ARP for $8,500 so moved thank you d support any further comments or questions all in favor i oppose same sign motion passes mrs e500 and I would say that it does
open up the fact that we should now look at other areas in the county and it's a going to be a good conversation about um the safety of everybody whether it's a wildfire you know a blizzard power outages whatever the climate is going to be um in the future we need to be
prepared for that for sure and and to Commissioners White's point um let's get this plan updated and approved by FEMA and then let's let's take our time and look at these other possible for should that funding be available that that we
can fix commissioner um it just went away um do we know I think that the the Hovindland town hall it's a new one and do would you know if they have any plans for in case of an
emergency for people to shelter in Hovland in the Hovland Oh in the Hovind fire hall oh fire hall yeah I do not know that but that it was just it's a question their their their office
space area would be adequate likely mhm okay so yeah that's a that's a very good possibility okay thanks so much and I will leave all the signatures with Madam Chair and and Ed if I could just comment that uh I
appreciate the the involvement of part of the citizens in the community that participated and often times we have emotional appeals that are not substantiated with the evidence that comes from the people whose lives are
affected so I I applaud the efforts and I applaud the participation and we are here to hear the voice and and to make reasonable and good faith decision so thank you thank you i will say that you know signatures from from the far end of
the county Schroeder Township um all the way um into and closer to Grand Marray because I I'd asked before they signed is it closer for you to go to Grand Marray or come to to Luton so from all over even the unorganized territories so
know that we were trying to make sure that we were talking about all of the West End not just Luton thank you i'll leave it with Andrea thank you very much thank you thank you thank you okay moving on to item number five mis
purchase of replacement VHF paging repeater thank you Madam Chair uh today we have before you a request to purchase a single repeater that is one
of nine that makes up the paging system which is used to call out our uh volunteer first responders firefighters ambulance EMS search and rescue throughout the county uh these is
$6,812 it is a uh out of budgeted radio capital fund and it is a replacement for a unit uh we have a spare but the the unit uh has failed and so this is
replacing the spare so there we're not in a down position but we've we're using a spare to keep us going and um the kind of additional context with this is is over the last several years uh since
Armor has come forward the 800 meghertz radio system we've talked a lot about it's been continued to provide better coverage throughout the county uh we looked at several years ago the potential to shift away from this
separate system this VHF system and rolled out a handful of Armor 800 megahertz pagers where the idea would be that we wouldn't replace the VHF system anymore and the armor would serve as both the radio and the pagers throughout
the county the pagers excuse me being smaller and and without the antennas and the foresight of the the people who preceded the radio communication program here at the county uh securing a
narrowbandexempt VHF frequency license across the county to facilitate that paging resulted in a system that even with almost double the number of tower sites uh the coverage from the VHF site
guide still outperforms the armor site and so after years of testing with different fire departments using these pagers um as we just recently saw at this board we got another round of reinvestment uh for the armor radios some fire departments are taking this
opportunity to reinvest in their VHF pagers as well and I I bring all that context forward just to say that you know we've been in kind of a an in between spot where we're considering as to whether or not we would move away
from VHF and go solely with the armor system um but based on those results and the feedback from the different fire departments and first responders we're we're going to move forward with maintaining this this VH system VHF system into the foreseeable future and
so it's something that we'll be continuing to invest in and and budget for um but this is this is just a normal replacement of a of a single unit for the quoted price listed in the board
packet of $6,812 i'm seeking approval to purchase this per the policy that says over a $5,000 capital purchase comes before the board for approval um but again it's
budgeted funds that are are available and just part of the normal process for us i stand for any questions any questions Commissioner Sullivan i was going to make a
motion that um we approve at the rate of $6,812 the necessary replacement parts for the county emergency paging system support any further comments or questions
commissioner Gamble thank you Madam Chair rowan you mentioned that um the armor system and the VHS they're two different systems correct and um that we've been using the VHS and then the armor system came along yep and um so
looking forward if we're investing in something and you mentioned that the feedback that you got is that we'd like to stay with this if it's if they're comfortable with it if inevitably it's a it's a program that won't be supported or isn't as efficient as other means
obviously your evaluation or assessment of this is that it it warrants it at this point realizing at some point we might want to just have one system and and it'll meet our needs but if if the
system it is right now with all the nuance says that the VHS is still something we need to keep so I trust your evaluation but that evaluation is something if we respond yeah but the reality is this is where should we should be going yeah it it is and I
would say I mean what what facilitated our kind of on hold and and rolling out these units to fire departments to test was a change in technology um several years ago i think probably 2015 it was
it was actually right after we had been due and and allocated funds to replace the equipment of the paging system just kind of a regular replacement um that we went to a conference and they had 800 meghertz paging it was something that
didn't exist in the in the field before and so it was a new technology that came forward and then required us to say I mean we need to take a serious look at this because it would eliminate the need to replace VHF systems that supports
this throughout the county and over several years you know we we rolled them out and we still had more armor sites to build back then and the coverage was not adequate we're done building armor sites the the state's been clear about that and the radio coverage that we get is is
really good but currently the available technology for pagers um it would be a step backwards in coverage for our first responders and that's that's not something that we we want to do and so to your point I think we'll continue as technology changes if if this improves
we'll follow that model and ask our volunteer departments to reconsider so that we're making the right choices yeah thank you do we have a motion is there a second yep
commissioner Mills is seconding okay any further questions or comments all in favor i oppose same sign motion passes unanimously okay we're moving on to some maintenance work by Brook Lassard with
the Y equipment replacement thank you Madam Chair thank you commissioners um up today we have the uh YMCA equipment replacement um this process started before I came online
and when it was turned over to me it was a much larger project we started off in the $200,000 range for a full equipment replacement and I walked that with Alex and we have got it down
to everything he wants to get done and then we're going to reupholster some of the older equipment just because the uh upholstery is just worn out and cracked and nobody likes to use it anymore so we're going to reupholster some of the existing stuff that will work just fine in the free weights division and then
we're going to replace some of it with some pin weights and consolidate some of the equipment to make more room for some other equipment that uh was requested by YMCA members so it looks like you're asking that the
total amount is 36,60544 yep so what it comes down to I I got competing bids from Matrix and Precor so the total number is with Matrix is $80,852.94 the precore quote came in at
$99,428.11 and what so what I'm looking for is the 938 monthly is a lease for the cardio equipment so that we get a a semianual maintenance agreement with the company that provides it and then we
will we'll replace it every four to five years when the lease comes up and then we get we get some money for trade in so it's two purchases one one will do a lease and that one is the 938 that's a total
cost of 45,000 44 with with delivery $44,247.50 and then that that's what we'll lease that will be all the step machines ellip
um treadmills all of that equipment and then for the 36 we'll get all the pin weight equipment which doesn't wear out we can use for a long time and that's the 36 605 44
i believe the Y was open was it 2015 when the Y opened actually about it's 2014 14 okay so there's been some obviously updating over the years this is kind of a major one do you feel Yeah
yeah no it's a lot of the equipment was old when they got it but we're going to reupholster some of that and then some of the other equipment is is worn out yeah mhm there will be there is two pieces of equipment that I have not included in this because
I'm still working on on pricing their specialty equipment that is for our our older demographic that works out up there it's a recumbent um True Fitness is the only one who makes one of them and that is a
recumbent elliptical base workout machine and then the other one is the new step which again is a easy one to get into and and does other works other workout parts
so you see a need to um shall we say um update for the generations that are using it correct correct i'm still trying to find some they're they're expensive pieces of equipment i mean that's one is 5,000 and one is almost 8,000 so I'm still looking at see if
there's any other options with other manufacturers that do the same thing on those two pieces okay but I'd like to move forward and and start the process on the larger larger picture is always good
questions or comments because white um year and a half ago at least Ann would remember you might remember anyway um the city and the county had three contracts that we needed to review
because they had not been reviewed for quite a while one was with the city and the highway department for uh street maintenance and and plowing the other one was with the law enforcement center
and we were supposed to be uh it was uh Commissioner Hawkins then Johnson now we were to meet with two city commissioners to go over the Y contract and we I'm requesting we do
this so we can see uh well couple of things to be able to review those contracts i'm just I would like the information about who is actually using the YMCA by demographics by ge geography by residents and
non-residents and and this is not the school's contract this is just what the county and the city pay and I got the numbers from our auditor and we pay $260,325 dollars a year for the Y and
the city is playing paying 110,000 a year for the YMCA on an annual yeah on an annual basis of course per year um so I am requesting that we this will be going to Reena I suppose
but that we get this reviewed because um this is a lot of money that uh it's a lot of money for our taxpayers and I don't I I'm curious as to how many
of our taxpayers benefit from the YMCA take advantage of it plus also with the um how much I would like the YMCA to let us know on a regular
basis what their expenses are now maybe they they don't have to i don't know but how much of our county dollars are used to subsidize memberships and to pay and to give out free passes that is definitely taxpayer
money being given away so um not for the facility but for the use of it and I have questions on that so someone make a note on that so we can get going brady could you tell us where that where the money would come from the monthly
payments we have a couple different pots that have come from it yeah we've got uh we set aside money for parks and recreation through our annual state uh pilt state in lie of
taxes and we'd used all of that uh years ago and it was uh there was nothing there so we've uh but over the last few years we have not and that fund has built up there's about 159,000 in there for the parks and
trails commission for things like this and is any money coming out of capital funding for this uh no i mean like bonding no I wouldn't take it from bonding yes if I
could just to Commissioner White's comments and points um first I believe Arena in the last round of being the interm looked at the YMCA contract and so she'll have a level of familiarity and some experience there
to to exchange with you on that request i'd also just like to share that Brooke and I both meet regularly with representatives from the Y and Alec I think Brooke would agree with me that um Alex the program director up there in particular has been really great to work
with um and he's provided us the annual budget which is a a line item within the existing contract so that we can see what the wise budgeting and we reciprocate which were required per the contract to provide to them and he does provide a lot of updates on the the sort
of demographic questions of who uses uh that so that that's information that is available and coming to us already that will be able to help answer your questions and I just wanted to to share with you and publicly that the the Y has been very helpful in that way in particularly Alex I would say
and so Brooke you um could deal with delays or would you you really need to move forward with this i'd like to move forward but I mean it's I I it's not the end of the world if we wait till Okay you know it might get cheaper
i don't think so but um yeah no it's it's it's been a a long time in the works so I think a month or a couple weeks if we need to if we need to get some more information together that's not a problem at all it's not a problem i mean I might come I'll probably come
back with a little bigger ask then by then I'll have some more quotes on the new step and the and the true fitness the two pieces of equipment so Commissioner Gamble thank you Madam Chair um I did request Brady that uh the
original contract and our current contract for the Y because I wanted to do a comparison i was with you Commissioner Sturley when the the Y began and when our contract was negotiated and in our first initial meeting with all of the partners which
was the city and the school and the Y and the county and um um our commitments as we have known and gone through this um has significantly changed and it
changed significantly from not only a financial standpoint and and the responsibility on part of the citizens of Cook County all of the citizens of Cook County but also the accountability issue and so to Commissioner White's
point uh re-evaluating things are healthy they're healthy to look at these things and make sure that in good faith and with common sense that that this is rightly ordered and uh there's been some very frustrating experiences over the
years and the lack of accountability and the increasing cost and the misrepresentation of things from people in positions as administrator here and that has not sat well with the with the public when you consider that we're looking at equipment whose upholstery is
problematic and people don't like to use it and we want to update every four or five years and we've got people that are funding to the tune of the 200,000 something that we're paying that impacts their levy and they can't fix their windows or fix their roof and they
couldn't afford a membership at the Y that that's a difficult thing and we need to be mindful of that that uh responsibility as in it can be said just generically leadership is um has either you have
confidence or you don't have confidence in leadership and I did meet with Alex and and I would agree and coming out of the building and a facilities you know advisory board that um I we have a good individual in that position i think the
indicators are that he's forthright and he wants to build the credibility he wants to hear what the feedback is because he wants to align the YMCA and that their purpose to build that trust relationship with the community and certainly financial is a big part of it
but we need to realize that that that burden is falling on taxpayers and uh when they can't make decisions and we make decisions that upgrade things and make things better and it falls on them that's that's a very difficult thing
because we have a contract that this board has agreed to we have an obligation from an integrity standpoint and until we revisit that and find a balance that I think is more in line with intention when it was sold to us
initially we we have we can't abdicate our responsibility on under contract and the way it's written right now anything that comes up that they need we got to foot the bill that's the way it is so I'm I'm well aware of that
and our inte integrity is predicated on adherence to a contract that this board has agreed to at some point in time point point in time but I I agree we we need to re-evaluate and look at this so that
we're we're sensitive to the impacts um and and I've said many times when we when we call ourselves a community we will we need to realize that that community is made up of of diversity
which is demographic financial ability and interests and so in any decision we need to be aware of the impacts of those decisions on that community as a whole thank you Commissioner Sullivan i just want to
thank Brooke for the work that he's done to get these costs down um thinking that you know we're looking at the possibility of $200,000 and we're now down to around 81,000 is really commendable and so I want to thank you
for your work um I think it's amazing that you've you've done that and that we're looking at things in a little bit different way as how to proceed i like the idea of leasing and um your idea of reupholstering rather than just
replacing it's really wise i remember back in the decision making years back in 2011 12 13 14 when they were talking about a Y here and the controversy that was a different board now we have the why and it's our
responsibility as a board to move forward with understanding of yes review contracts make sure that if the city was going to be involved with any kind of equipment that we understand that if not but I think the request right now is
that we need to uh update um some of the equipment it's wellused um I became not a member in the beginning but I use it a lot and I have my little card that I pay for and uh I believe at one time there was around 800
um members i don't know what the number is now um from talking to folks I would think that the number has increased but you know irregardless of numbers it is really well used and a lot of people
both ages find that um it's really um allowing them to um feel better go to the pool feel better use the equipment otherwise they would not have anything like that because we lost our community pool and that's how the Y idea came up
so that's more background than you probably want oh that's all right that's all right commissioner Gamble thank you Madam Chair the other thing in the building of facilities discussion on this issue is that the benefit of the leasing it it it is a
um a cost that is distributed and and it's also the the maintenance that comes with it so if we outright purchase we will have costs that we incur that are the unknowns but we're buying that um
warranty so to speak my recommendation would be that the board would table this however uh putting more work and I agree the resourcefulness you demonstrated is good it's it's a combination you working with Alex and the willingness of you two to be sensitive to the financial
component so that that's admirable i would like the other components when we're looking at this and stepping back overall as you mentioned i'd like to have that figure brought to us before we make a decision on this so that we're looking at it and it it's not
necessarily and I I won't say it's intended it's just you got a lot of things that you're doing but uh so that we're not little by little growing that figure i'd like to see the full figure presented and then let the board make a decision informed
so we have a suggestion that we table this yes does anybody else have another suggestion commissioner Mills yeah I would make a motion to approve the purchase of new equipment and sign the lease for new cardio equipment
so we have second any further discussion or comments commissioner I just want to thank uh Brooke for for the work much like Commissioner Sullivan did and I know there's a lot of work going into this and and I think it's very important that we um respect the the agreement that we have in place and I believe
that's the third iteration of the contract and uh you know Rowan is absolutely right when when Reena was interim administrator she liked to call the Y contract some lowhanging fruit because there was some ways to clean it up and to make it make it nicer and so
at this point the wise costs are all on the operations sides of things and the county's costs are all on the facility and the building side of things we are the landlord they are the tenant uh they don't pay money to rent but we don't pay them money for operations we do give
money in grants for child care uh that was something we decided as a board but it's not just for the Y it's for any childcare center in the community um as well as those free passes are through a grant through through public health and I think that might be from uh the youth prevention funds but I'm not sure but
it's not coming from levy dollars and so I want to make that very clear that the levy dollars are used for the facility and that's something that we own and need to take care of much like highway department or the courthouse or the community center um and then the operations themselves that's the Y
dollars so uh I believe that's the case also with the city's dollars that goes to the facility costs not operations so two very different things and I think that's important to have that kind of clean cut because that's where a lot of the um confusion and concern I think
that Commissioner Gamble was referencing uh came from was just it was a little messy and intertwined and so I think there's been some real good work done and more to happen and healthy to review but um where this is coming from I think is spot on so thank you
uh question for Brooke can you still in the next couple of weeks be able to get us those additional costs oh yeah all right and those are new it's like we hadn't had those before in the community right right they're Well the it's
replacing something they're they're currently broken and don't work they're in the room they they were well used when we received them is my understanding they were not purchased new and they get a lot of use from the older demographic so they're they're
currently missing that's the recumbent elliptical and the stairs there's the two pieces of equipment right when you walk into that upper room the first two right in front of you they're very easy access to get in and out of
and does a lot of the same workout as a treadmill and the stair climbers and and the ellipticals just in a recumbent comfortable position designed specifically for that demographic sure or maybe physical
therapy or something okay gotcha okay so we've had a motion and a second that we move forward with this project with the additional costs um in a couple weeks okay all right all in favor i I
oppose same sign we have four u four and one against in the vote thank you very much Brooke thank you lot your work lot of work really appreciate it okay so we're going to move on and she disappeared
well disappeared should we take a break you want to break okay sure we'll have a five to eight minute break i think I just Welcome back we'll resume our board meeting going on to
uh item seven A we also have a B but we'll start with A human resources hello good morning good morning um apologies first for my oversight um I thought I had attached the uh agreement to the board agenda also announcing this to the
public for your viewing pleasure um so I have printed them out and we've handed them out to the board but we'll make sure that we get that attached for minute purposes um so in front of you uh we have the employment agreement for uh our new
interim county administrator Reena Rogers um so I was on vacation during the last board meeting in March in which action was taken uh for that transition Rowan moving back to his MIS director position and bringing Rona uh Reena on
excuse me I'm combining words in my head reena on as the new interim administrator um and starting last Monday the 31st and that the board wanted Rowan and I to meet with Reena to develop a contract really negotiate the
pay and any additional benefits so uh therefore we have the agreement that lays out those discussions uh for you um I'll just kind of summarize some of the big things um that are included in that agreement um the salary her pay um we negotiated
and uh we have Reena starting off at uh grade 270 which is the grade associated with the county administrator job description um and putting her kind of in the middle of the range at a step four which would equate to $6869 per hour um and then that would
just be paid just like any other payroll on a bi-weekly schedule um and then we also have uh we discussed benefits insuranceances those optional items available um so those some of those items are summarized
as well and addressed in the agreement uh something to note with uh parah uh the public employees retirement association that's the pension uh plan for public employees uh typically that is mandatory however since Reena is a
parah retiree um she's actually exempt we are exempt from paying that so that is money that the county doesn't have to pay out um on that behalf um paid leave we also discussed uh given kind of the quick nature of bringing Reena in she
already had some pre-existing um uh appointments and time scheduled off and we wanted to honor that um so we're kind of figuring out the the potential accumulation of paid leave and frontloading um up to 32 hours of that
time off for her to be able to utilize right away uh other other than that um some other things uh Reena is waving uh health insurance dental vision insurance so there are some uh savings also on
behalf of the county for not uh having to pay for the employer portion of those benefits [Applause] okay thank you for working on all this with everybody
and any questions or comments at this time oh I should just add to that we did have County Attorney Peterson review the agreement as well to make sure that everything was kosher and and um meeting requirements law requirements statute
requirements and she has given her thumbs up for that commissioner Sullivan madam Chair I'd like to make a motion to approve the interim county attorney employment agreement for Reena Rogers support
any questions or comments otherwise all in favor i opposed same sign motion passes unanimously well thank you okay and if you will stay for a minute um we had an item pulled
from the um consent agenda uh Commissioner Gamble had a question about hiring Abigail Promise environmental technician commissioner G thank you Madam Chair yes um this position previously and my
previous term as commissioner was handled um by the county engineer and I believe that the state funded it at uh 6,000 i think since uh the requirement for a county inspector agriculture
inspector was initiated uh since 1929 there's been no funding unless there's an appropriation made by the legislature to help fund but but as I recall that our uh county engineer
would handle those responsibilities and 6,000 is what we were given and that's what we we paid since that time now um we've hired uh an individual and then we
changed that title to agriculture inspector when we proposed this environmental position so when we when we look at the the funding and I know in 2023 and I think again in February 2025 that the state has
proposed some fundings um I I believe a million dollars each of those years which only 3% of that money can be used for this position my question is if we to Brady as if we are and if you're
aware Allison of any monies that are going to defay the cost for these positions but in this position there when I look at where we were and where we have moved to we've created a position agriculture inspector over and
above the responsibility for noxious weeds and things that amongst other things that if you look at the legislation that the state has proposed that there's compliance requirements in order to get any of those monies and so
you go through that list and if we meet that then we get those monies to help defay this cost but we've created that separate position which has provided some benefits because it and significant not insignificant
because our county engineer has secured more grant monies and monies and funding for our roads than before and maybe it's because it's freed up his time in this but an assessment of that time involvement and things relative to the
cost and then hiring an additional position which this position that is before us today those costs relative to questionable funding to supply that because of the supervisory role that has
now bumped that agriculture inspector up i I just and and again respectfully I'll say that to the extent I don't have all of the information that informed this decision coming in when I came in but I
uh I I have I have trouble adding layers of financial responsibility if they aren't well intended i mean I I shouldn't say that because they certainly are well intended
it's just whether they're well informed when I looked at this and it was on the agenda previously I looked at the 87 counties and how many of them had more than one person handling that position and a significant number of the counties
do not so if we look at comparable counties and how we staff this it would be interesting to see that to inform this decision the other thing we're all aware of if we are growing additional layers of financial
responsibility with what we're seeing at the state and federal level and the cutting that is going on and there won't be monies and we look at 92% of our property being governmentowned which is payment in lie of taxes as a revenue
source that it's not looking good on that front when we have state and federal government wanting to pull out their obligations in order to mitigate some of their financial pressures with the increasing costs that we're seeing seeing in the billion of
dollars in shortfall and so our public health human services our PILT our Tylnic all of these things are be affected and we as a county out of 87 counties in this state are probably more affected by that than many of the other
counties and then Brady said that our revenue when we look at other revenue sources that come from our investments they performed well but there's years where they have not performed well when Brady says we really aren't getting what we anticipated in projecting our
revenues so my point is in a market that shows downfall and uncertainties as far as funding sources we cannot continue to add additional costs that put burdens on
taxpayers when we have so few that that fund our operations up here in Cook County so Allison could you give us a little background into the um folks that are involved in this with Tia and and now um
looking at Abigail right um so being fairly new in this position I didn't necessarily have all of the back information so I was chatting with county engineer Robbie Hos this morning to kind of get some information of like if there's these questions what can I
tell them um so I just want to share with you to kind of address um not only the questions uh Commissioner Gamble that you had about the A inspector role being separated from the county engineer but then also a little backstory of kind of the transition um in the seasonal
position to a permanent part-time um or excuse me permanent full-time uh it's just reduced hours um with the hire of Abigail so in terms of the A inspector typically being paired with the county engineer which we've seen historically in our county um and what you see you
you mentioned comparables um in other counties that is accurate um however the only the only task that Robbie was able to do as the A inspector also in his role at the as the county engineer at
the time was actually put out the noxious weed notice beyond that he was never able to accomplish anything else that is uh required of the a inspector um or those additional tasks uh that are written into state statute so um they
recognized the need to be able to split that so there was actual more action that was able to be taken outside of his capacity he just didn't have uh doing the county engineer role um so the the work of the environmental division um it
that they're now doing has benefited the county by removing noxious weeds organizing native replanting efforts garnered positive intergovernmental relationships with the US forest service mind DNR grammar and Grand Portage and has dramatically expanded the outreach
they're able to do about how important persevering and maint excuse me not persevering maybe persevering preserving uh and maintaining our environment is um so a lot more has been accomplished uh especially fulfilling the requirements
in state statute than what usually is able to be accomplished when the a inspector position is paired with a county engineer position and then in terms of this specific position uh for Abigail uh let's see so Robbie writes
"Quick backstory uh the board recognized a need in the county to preserve our natural environment and approved the creation of the A inspector role three years ago." So that's when TIA was hired after the first year of having someone full-time in that role it was apparent additional help was needed so we phased
in the creation of the environmental technician position over the next three years to minimize levy impacts the environmental tech position started as a seasonal job um I think think as I mentioned um in the packet that Abigail was also in that seasonal role and it
has now expanded into uh a permanent full-time role but full-time as in 30 hours and I believe Robbie had budgeted for 9 months so by the time that uh the new year rolled around we would do the recruitment efforts that person could
fill out and work those 30 hours full-time through the end of the year and then Robbie's goal in 2026 is is hopefully to extend extend that and make it a year round full-time position so
Robbie is being um thoughtful in how that does impact the levy he also wants to uh note that let me find it um these changes have been worked through and discussed at the highway
advisory committee and the cow uh to gather that input and support in those transitions and it's the first time the highway department is expanding its FTEEs in over 20 years so uh still kind of thinking of the levy they've kind of
modified and shuffled things around but they've never they have not added FTEEs over the last 20 plus years so this is the first change that they are seeing thank you does that help answer good background yes some of the points I had forgotten about so very good any
questions or further comments yeah thank you um Chair and thank you for the background thank you Commissioner Gamble for for the questions and concerns and this is something that we had talked about before and strategically and intentionally um pursued um it's really
looking at the upstream i mean when we're talking about costs the cost of trying to um um eliminate uh invasives after they are a much stronger foothold in in a community is much much higher if not
impossible uh to accomplish than than the preventative ones and so part of this strategy also uh enables the rest of the department to be able to um kind of have eyes on our ditches and boots on the ground for for taking care of this and kind of developing more of a team
effort um along this front and so I think it's just a very well thought out and certainly it is higher costs but um I'd also say other counties aren't are probably uh further along the line of impacts uh already uh so I you know I
appreciate that they're spending less but um I think it's important to recognize that they're maybe not as effective either um and that that impacts our environment and our lives and I like the idea that this will be evaluated at the end of the year so it's
not a commitment that's going on for years and years and see where it goes commissioner Gamble thank you Madam Chair um when you look at the state statute that defines this and the responsibilities and the roles on it uh
it it's pretty straightforward as to what the responsibility is and if you look at comparable counties and when I say comparable I mean apples to apples which is looking at how much land mass we have and and uh the effects of invasive all of those things that when
you talk to them and you wait which counties are comparable with the effects of invasives well when you if you look at Lake County and and you look at St louis County and you look at just the arrowhead just look at the arrowhead well I think St louis County is a lot more invasives than we do well I'm just
saying when you look at comparable counties on the exposure as well as as the financial stand and the the tax base to support these things which are all comparisons well Lake St louis wouldn't be in that in that case then the tax
base well I I'm I'm saying if you want to look at the arrowhead I granted that's my point it's just us and Lake that we're comparing pardon it's just us and Lake County that we're comparing oh no you can compare you can compare others and when you're comparing
apples to apples which is based upon the the issue we're talking about here which is the susceptibility to invasive yeah i'm just looking for the apples like Yeah that's right and and I and I'm saying that that you can put forth those apples and when you look at
what the state statute defines as roles and responsibilities that uh we can always talk about the element that is bigger and broader that from the emotional standpoint of invasives which is a bad
word and a bad thing and so how many dollars do we throw at it and I'm just saying I'm not comfortable with with the the the backstory given the responsibility and the role and the and
when I look at the comparables people have to find we pride ourselves on being resourceful i need to see the resourcefulness that demonstrates that we find a way to do what we do without having to put more tax dollars at it and
it is not just simply saying that putting more tax dollars at it is a mantra that you just say without awareness what I mean by that is that if we if we just look at at Brooke and and his resourcefulness relative to the
equipment we just talked that is the discipline that we need to see that those decisions that we make that affect taxpayer dollars are substantiated with wellreasoned understood factual connected to requirements my question is
are there any monies that we are getting of the monies that have been allocated by the legislature to contribute to this cost those monies in 2023 and 2025 February have come before the
legislature to say are we going to do this 3% of that million dollars during that period of time can be used but you have to comply and go through these requirements it's on us to request them my question is have we requested it and
are we getting any money to defay these increased costs my understanding is that he's set money aside for this in his department in the highway department in the budget i am not familiar with their funding sources
or grant opportunities and I would uh recommend that those questions be deferred to Robbie and Lisa Sorley the highway accountant um to their the subject matters or even TIA if you have questions about
um the functions the successfulness of the invasive species program um that these two positions uh um run that I would defer to those subject matters um those questions that you have
and they'll come before the board with an extensive um budget plan in a few months and that'd be a good time to um ask that question commissioner Mills yeah I mean I don't know the answer to that question um but if we're talking
about like $6,000 or or triple it or quadruple it say it's $25,000 um when we had the discussion at the committee whole about uh opportunities impacts um uh you know um
opportunity cost um and having engineer H um show the $12 million in grants that he brought in because he had the time to look for that because he outsourced some
of the engineering uh projects i think it really demonstrated um his ability and and aptitude for finding dollars when there is the the capacity to do so and so in my mind that
was a really great reason to allow for this expansion is well this hopefully will bring in a lot more dollars maybe not 25,000 maybe it'll be a h 100,000 or you know there's larger grants for for doing this regardless of what the state
is requiring um we still need to do it um and it and if we can recoup some from the state awesome that's less off the levy um and that's always something we want but um I don't think we want to hold up uh our potential um because of
um just some of the uncertainties especially when we've budgeted for it already commissioner White well in light of things past discussions in case for any reason no one's been paying attention we have these tariffs worldwide we have worldwide
economic issues going on and in all of the committees that I have been on in the last two weeks that involve some of them involve DNR um forest service uh health uh
I with the health department with mental health the funding is being cut off they cannot they're saying well it's been delayed highway it's been delayed Well delay is an maybe just a euphan euphanism
for we hope we get it but there's a darn good chance it's not coming again at least not for the near future people talking heads on the national level are talking about recessions and I hardly believe this is the time for us to be
increasing our our payroll i mean yes things that are out there and what Tia does and what Robbie is doing and has done and continues to do have great value but sometimes we can't afford everything
that's good you know we can't afford it our taxpayers can't afford it sometimes we can't afford not to too we will be overrun with tanzy and we'll wake up some morning choked out because of the tanzy that's over in this particular inst aqua aquatic invasive
species with the damage to our waters and the number of waters in this along the northshore that that's a different thing that will really be changing the ecology the in the environments inside
lakes when they have invasive species that wipe about other native plant matters but things are good but sometimes you can't afford everything you want or even you can't afford things that would really make it easier going
down the road the the impending recession or whatever might be coming is frightening and and we have not just it is something
that has to be taken very seriously we can't just say well we live in Cook County well yeah we live in Cook County with 92% of the property not privately owned dependent on our health service dependent on federal dollars federal
dollars federal dollars and when when those pots of money dry up we're going to be in a world of hurt you know and so I think at this point in time and again I am not denigrating the
value of what TIA has done and how it has expanded but I believe we need to hold the line on expenditures where we can't at this point in time give it six months maybe everything will be better
again great great but as far as this particular position at this moment in time I think we should just if nothing else have Robbie come and explain to us one more time how
because Tia is in that position he is able to bring in or spend X amount of time to bring in X more money but as he has also said he's got projects that are not happening because his funding source from the feds is on hold for who knows
how long so Mr sullivan yes i'd just like to to make a comment that this is a 30-hour position which we have talked about at the committee of the whole and prior to that discussion at the highway department um about being phased in over
time and this is something that's budgeted for for the rest of the year i would agree Commissioner White that if things happen at a federal and a state level once those budgets are determined these are the kinds of things we may all be forced to look at and may be forced
to cut but I think today with what we have and what we know that this at least gives us one more season to attack terrestrial invasive species and I would argue they are just as critical to our
environment here along the Northshore as are aquatic invasive species they're both important so I've heard all your comments and questions explanations and um messaging with Robbie he can be here in just a few minutes um if you would
like to follow up with him on these questions if you want clarification more explanation sounds like that'd be helpful okay sounds good
so okay then we'll put that on hold mr gamble thank you Madam Chair just another comment we have before us on our agenda today a resolution appealing to the legislature to make sure that our
Tylnik funding doesn't go away or isn't cut and that's a re reality and it just seems that we're not connecting the dots when when when we are so dependent on these monies and we've got federal and
state that are trying to cut their problems on our backs which translates to our that's that's a reality that is a a reality and do you think that there are legislators down there people in Washington and the state legislature
that are not groaning over these realities and having to make hard decisions but they see the realities and they're wrestling with it and we need to feel that we need to wrestle with these realities so Robbie will be coming he's
turning on to Fifth Avenue right now okay we'll put this on hold for a few minutes uh maybe Brady can just update us on a um on the um public hearing that will be requested thank you Madam Chair so this is part of the the bonding
process for the solid waste bonds and because the facility we want it to be a taxexempt facility there's something in the statutes the bond attorney filed that to have this be a taxexempt
facility we need to hold a public hearing first before we can say "Okay we're going to go bond for this." So that's what this is is to set that public hearing for the public to come in and have a chance to comment on this on April 22nd at 9:00 a.m and then at that
point you can uh take action if you so desire on starting a bonding process okay very good commissioner W could you explain one more time why Northshore
Waste should be nonprofit is it because they're county owned it's not nonprofit it's this is for the the bonding uh of the facility the bonds themselves to be taxexempt yes sorry
um and the the cost of building that Okay sorry Mr gamble thank you Madam Chair uh I make a motion to support the public hearing for the bonding second that motion any further questions
or comments um I expected a question what's a gross revenue bond what uh because we don't hear that term very often but that's that's just referring to the fact that the bond payments are expected to be paid by the solid waste fees that we'll be collecting that's the
gross revenue so anyway thanks okay that's all clear now yes okay okay we have a motion and a second all in favor i I oppose same sign motion passes unanimously welcome Robbie i hope you didn't you know have to do any speed
limits on this we just want to answer that thank you for coming absolutely yeah uh there I missed the brunt of the conversation just cuz I was in my truck uh but it sounds like there's questions on on funding or on why we're doing this is
that what are the questions commissioner Gamble who would start yes yeah thank you Madam Chair sure yeah thank you Robbie so um what we had talked about or what I had expressed before is that in your position uh when I in my first term then
the highway engineer did this and we had monies allocated I believe allocated from the state although that's not been the case that the state necessarily makes monies available since 1929 because it was an unfunded mandate
however uh we the highway engineer at that time would do what whatever they did for the 6,000 and that was it right uh since that time and I understand things change in 10 years and uh so when
I look at the requirements as defined by state statute and I look at um any potential funding that comes available from the legislature if we are in compliance with meeting certain requirements in that position then we
can get that those revenues to help defay some of these costs when I looked at the 87 counties in comparison when this first was on the agenda and how many staff individuals they had in the position there were not the greater
majority did not have multiple positions when we went with the independent decision and it freed you up there's real benefit there i don't discount that when I look at uh with the money that you're able to generate because you're not distracted it's similar with a
county administrator that's putting out fires and can't do any strategic planning um so that has to be evaluated but um we we seem to be based upon the requirements of the position by
state statute and the additional hires and positions in a market that is questionable with revenues and if we've even tapped any of the revenues that come available I I'm I'm opposed to
growing additional positions in a a very very difficult market let alone an assessments to see with similar counties how they manage it and the intangibles certainly are something when we look at
and we've had this conversation that in the history of you know uh our county engineer you've generated so many more dollars and projects which is beneficial right uh but tens of millions yeah so so
I don't I don't want to Yeah i don't want to That doesn't mean that the scrutiny and the fiscal discipline that needs to be applied to every position should be ruled out right that's a lot to unpack um yeah there's 87 counties historically
the the egg inspector role has sat either in my chair or soil and water or land services something like that um I didn't do anything uh so that's that's a big difference i don't know anything about plants so I collected $6,000 a
year to put out the noxious weed notice which is one email and and that's it and so what this board decided about 3 years ago after we worked it through highway committee several times committee the whole several times discussions here several times um was the importance of
preserving our natural environment up here while you're correct there might not be large large quote you know we're looking at two people in an environmental division um I'm sure you know I could look at St louis County you could look at other rural counties um and whether or not they have one or not
but we made the decision here that preserving our natural environment was important and that this came up a lot in conversations with constituents um it's why we all live here frankly uh and also why a lot of people visit is that and so I don't know if you've ever been in a
lake you know infect infested with mil foil for example i don't know if Allison gave that example already um or you know my lake Pike Lake it's infested with rusty blue crayfish there's no more fish you can't go fishing anymore and so you know it's preventing that type of stuff from spreading and so the environmental
side of things we get a lot of push back on because people just say "Well it's the environment it's fine it's all there." Well if we don't try and prevent a lot of those things it gets worse and it goes away um and so that's where three years ago we felt that you know developing the the independent egg
inspector position was important and I want to hammer the point home that that wasn't a new FTE we're reshuffling the deck of cards that we have actually the highway department and I think Allison mentioned it we haven't added an FTE in over two decades and so this is the
first one um in over 20 years of potentially adding one and so we felt too as I've talked about with you know strategic planning and looking ahead into the future and the additional needs that our county sees you know we've talked about adding a maintenance worker position and saying we know how much
that costs that's $400,000 right off the bat between a person with benefits and a truck well that's ridiculous to come here in one year and say "Hey I need $400,000 to add a person in a truck so let's phase it in over seven plus years slowly increment it to minimize that
impact." And so now when we pivot to this environmental technician position that's exactly what we've done it's been three years in the making not only to prove that hey there's a need for it we're doing work we're coordinating with Mindot and Portage and uh the DNR and
the Forest Service to do these outreach programs to do work we're treating over 50 plus sites every year in the county preventing the spread of invasive species um helping the aquatic invasive species side as well with soil and water do do all of this work to preserve our
environment up here and so this isn't something knee-jerk this isn't something that we just thought of and wanted to do and wanted to add a person or you know this is years in the making and then the last thing that I'll say is um you know this was approved in our 2025 budget so
it's there um already um and so we had a great robust um uh candidates that had applied we had nine people apply for it which was wonderful i haven't had nine people apply for anything um and so it was great and so we we ended up interviewing three people great
interviewees and then and so this is where we landed on on Abigail and she's wonderfully qualified for it she's already been doing a great job with us um and I hope that I hope that answers a lot of different things yeah um oh I can
add too um I know Commissioner Gamble had questions on the funding so I've been messaging with uh Lisa Sorly the highway accountant um so I just want to add too um that certain parts of both this position and the a inspector's
position um are covered by the Great Lakes Restorative the the GLR there's a GLRI fund that we pursue every single year and so if we get it we can use those funds to offset their salaries um but regardless my my goal was to not have a grant-f funed
position a lot of places do have that and all that position ends up worrying about is finding grants to get so they get paid um and I didn't want that and that was something we had talked about here historically um that CCIT coordinator position was grant funded uh and people rotated in and out of it I
think every one or two years uh and then it was just unstable and completely fell apart and so by really making this you know a levy funded position um where it's guarant you're guaranteed your salary you don't have to worry about it just do the good work um we were able to
fill these roles and and do a lot of like I said all the work that we've been doing with that and then in addition to that recently um implemented were the pesticide applicator testing fees right um Tia is able to do host a testing site for those right um and then she
mentioned project engineering fees when Tia and Abigail collaborate on invasives and planting plans right yep there's that too yep there you go okay thank you Robbie for coming thank you Ellison for all the
good background i've heard all of your comments and questions we have pulled this and we need to act upon it so I will make a motion to hire Abigail Prom as environmental technician support any further comments or
questions alen thank you Madam Chair just just a comment that uh whether it's governance or whether it's industry evidence-based is u is a lot which
informs decisions and um in corrections we look at different programming and Minnesota is is huge under certain approach when it comes to corrections and you compare other states in their corrections programs and we can see through evidencebased the effects of our
programming and when it comes to identifying a problem to the extent that we can when the scope of the the problem is is huge um we need to see the evidence that is tangible over and above those things
that are uh not so tangible what I mean by that is that we've had more opportunity i there's been departments that have requested to go full-time and then I say "Well what would you do?" And they tell me what they're going to do and it it doesn't it doesn't warrant it i mean
getting information out partnershipping certainly is important looking at where we have duplication of effort within our you know departments as they are right now soil and water whatever it might be um we need to find efficiencies we need to be mindful of the funding source i
understand it takes work uh when we get grant monies and often times before the board somebody gets grant monies they come up and say we got these monies so we can have this position and I would uh continually say well let the person know that when the monies go away the
position goes away but we establish a relationship we feel bad and so we create a position and then we layer that on the taxpayer and so I would say tangibly I'd like to look at at the revenue source if we have those revenue
sources just like you've been you know very enterprising when it comes to finding monies to do roads uh are we where are we looking for monies to defay some of this cost so everything isn't impacting our levy and I'd like to see
the evidence that's tangible evidence as to the effects of that position being what it is and I I would invite you out for the a field visit this summer sure uh we have about 50 different sites that they're they're inspecting and so everybody is welcome we can identify
them uh in in all of your districts um of the different invasive species that we're treating and going out um you're welcome to hop in the canoe too for some of the aquatic invasive stuff that they're doing but um yeah it's it's u like I said we apply for the GLRI grant
that's the big one that's the main one um that helps offset cost so if we get it great and if we don't you know try again yeah and the other the other thing is just again the state funding revenue it requires compliance with a list of about six or seven things that have to
be done not just the posting thing as you mentioned but these things and uh if we if we're doing that so we can try to defay defay that cost that's beneficial but anyway I I appreciate the
conversation and and my intent certainly is not to be mindful of of the need to address this issue it's just looking at overall things in our our limited budget and the impacts of declining dollars
that everybody else makes hard hard decisions i don't think it's a time to be growing additional positions so and when we say well it's in the budget that that's not a that yeah it's in the budget but uh should it be in the
budget and u when we see that state and federal say "Yeah it's in the budget." Well yeah but we don't have the money then that's that's a reality so I'm not trying to over dramatize it but I am trying to demonstrate the responsibility and requirement for fiscal
responsibility evaluation and making hard decisions so we have a motion and a second i will call for a vote all in favor i I oppose same sign passes three in favor two
against thank you for coming i will more than happy uh to travel with you to see the tanzi yes in the west end and all over right thank you all thank you thank you okie dokie so item number eight moving
on to administrator hiring discussion administrator updates yeah thank you Madam Chair uh we'll have uh Pat from DDA join the conversation and uh talk about any changes that the the board would like to make to the
hiring process before we uh repost and put it back out of the search for the full-time county administrator position good morning speaking good morning Pat this is Rowan Watkins i got the full board here with us and we're we're ready
to have the discussion on next steps for hiring the county administrator wonderful thank you so I'll frame it up a little bit um the board received uh some information from
Commissioner Gamble on items uh to consider for uh to be included within or incorporated within the hiring process this was something that we had made reference to at our our last meeting and then sort of ended the conversation by
saying it could be uh addressed at this meeting on the 8th and we're we've had time to review that information and we're we're here now to have that conversation i would I've shared that information as well with uh Pat so that
DDA has it for reference and with that I'll turn it over to the to the board chair and let you go through from there good morning Pat good morning good morning board members yes we're hoping to um get the wheels
going again and I'm just wondering if any of the board members have any questions or comments about moving forward with certain items um and to have a discussion on that then so Commissioner Sullivan thank you Madam Chair um to begin with I'd like to thank
Commissioner Grant Gamble for putting together his materials and what was absolutely amazing to me as I read through this and I'm sure for other board members um you appreciate it as well it was like deja vu looking back at our time with Pat over a couple of days
last fall and the kinds of input that were received from staff and from board members um so it was really reaffirming to feel like we're on the same page um in spite of the fact that you weren't there for that particular part of the
process um I also felt really comforted um with the fact that Commissioner Storyley and I attended a leadership training from AMC and um in the materials that we had it very much supported everything that
we have in our process um it was just really um reaffirming and I'm sure she has the book that um I have as well outperform the norm for leaders um but I would really like to down the line as we
move forward with this process before we actually engage in our hiring u make sure that members of the board have an opportunity to read this book um it's a a one afternoon read it's real quick but it really confirms the important things
the values um that we hold dear to us um the mission of our organization and how to take different um personality traits and characteristics observations written work from people who are applying for
these positions and take that all into account um so I just feel very good that everything is lining up as it should thank you Commissioner Sullivan i feel the same way also um the only thing that I had a little conversation with Pat was
the questions and um because I had done the first question and the last question I wanted to kind of redo the first question i thought I got too deep all of a sudden and so I'll work with Pat on that and get back to you on how we'll kind of re refigure the first and last
question that's the only input I have commissioner Sullivan and um Commissioner Stley maybe you want to talk about the questions I shared with you that you shared with Pat about um potentially candidates having an opportunity to observe an interview
on a live stream we had a discussion about that um and um the conversation went what like this I think Pat um that we talked about that and you said you were going to redo that uh at the next
interview with bringing a candidate in yes yes you know in this situation yeah we had individuals that you know uh came right into the boardroom i think in the future we'll have kind of a waiting area
i think there's also a possibility um of if you're recording also delaying the playback until later time so that there's no opportunity for individuals to you know
learn some of the questions in advance uh there there's there there's a number of things where we can maybe do things a little differently if that's the interest of the of the board and and certainly you know I'm just listening to kind of hear
what your thoughts are at this point but uh um there's I have a couple thoughts on things that would maybe improve the process having been through it the first time and the way things flow but yes we can certainly make changes to the questions
uh you know I you know in just reviewing Gary's material you know maybe Commissioner Gamble I apologize uh his material you know maybe if you want more scenario questions we can certainly do that there's there's a lot of different
options but yes we can certainly make those changes uh to the questions and and how that is all set up in the morning with individuals coming in for the interviews mhm i think with the even
in the four years that we've been between administrators technology really gives an opportunity for candidates to really look us over and so I think we want to make it as smooth as possible and and um not have any hiccups along
the way and so we recognize that any other comments for Pat anything else that you need from us Pat so uh it sounds like then with regards to the profile the profile as it stands right now is something that the whole
board supports what we will do is we will then uh repost it and I'll start doing the outreach is that kind of what I'm hearing is that everybody's happy with the the current profile and then doing a similar process to what we did
last time which you know we don't have to determine that right now but hopefully formulating our thoughts on do we wish to have the the value statement in there again and and obviously as we go forward talking about are there other
small changes that you'd like to make in the process commissioner Gamble thank you Madam Chair thank you Pat this is uh Commissioner Gamble uh you mentioned in your conversation now that uh there were some thoughts that you had i guess I'd
like to hear those thoughts on process sure sure and you know I chatted a little bit with uh with staff and uh some things that I think if the board is interested in doing we can certainly do
uh one of those is to maybe allow a little more time in between interviews and maybe have a more in-depth discussion with the board about asking follow-up questions um you know obviously we want to try and
stick with the the same set of questions but in terms of how people respond you know some people are are more forthcoming sometimes you have to dig a little deeper with candidates i think maybe allowing time in between interviews
would allow the commissioners to have a more meaningful discussion and not that you always have to ask a follow-up question but certainly give you more comfort uh asking follow-up questions if
the candidates don't ask or you want further clarification so maybe revisiting that topic and just not being pressed for time would be one one way that we could improve the process another idea that came up was maybe
having the questions available to the candidates either at the interview or possibly you know 10 15 minutes beforehand uh it you know as long as they're all treated the
same uh that's the key thing but that might you know help break down some of the nervousness that you know people do uh experience as they're dealing with an interview and certainly you know having the questions and being able to look at
them is not going to significantly impact their responses but it will help them when they're up there at the interview table and then as I mentioned earlier you know delaying the replay uh so that you know the third
candidate isn't able to watch and see what the questions are that are being asked um and then it was the possibility of me doing maybe a little better
summary in terms of how we go from for instance 41 candidates to 10 candidates uh which is basically where I go through and I filter um but maybe having just a
very brief summary from me on what the candidates that did not make it to the board what those candidates uh you know what their background or what their their experience or education look like just so that you can kind of
get a glimpse into why did these candidates get forwarded onto the board and why did these not obviously you have a minimum of qualifications that you're looking for but uh just further kind of helping you to
understand how I come to that conclusion okay Watkins you madam chair thank you Pat thank you and I I think the mechanics that you're talking about are are really important something that I'd like to throw out for consideration for
the board is just to to zoom out a little bit and it's it's because of the experience that I had in the conversations with individual commissioners through this last process was to is to we put a lot of emphasis on administrator experience and kind of to your last point about who made it
through to be a semi- finalist and and who didn't and how does the board uh you know have feel good about that those decisions and that process that we're turning over to to DDA to make for us um I guess I kind of two things look for
the board to maybe reaffirm that or or kind of put those two pieces together i think we've had a lot of conversations about um the importance of it but that you can you can fall off on either side of the road so to speak that you know
you just having the experience alone isn't maybe enough that if you you don't have the the soft skills and the personality and the values and the relational qualities that that that can present an issue and I think we we saw some of that in the last uh interview
process and so you know should the board affirm that I' I'd look to you Pat for recommendations on how through this process we could incorporate that where we're were not an eitheror but a an an and how are we making sure that we get
candidates that both have the level of experience that we we need because we know that that's a something that's important to do this job but also that are going to have the the softer skills and the values and the and the other things that we've talked so much about to make sure that that gets incorporated
into into the candidates that get moved forward certainly I'd be more than happy to work with you and the board on that commissioner Gamble thank you Madam Chair this is Commissioner Gamble i think to the extent that that uh the
board identifies through the participation of staff and the community the values and the qualities that we want to see in candidates uh the more that we clearly understand
those things and the importance of them the more that in in the document that I presented in calling respected individuals and asking staff um who responded uh the things that they
are looking for and the things they're concerned about those are things that are to help us refine so that we are very focused and the nature of our questions should
um enable us to be able to mine out those things that we've identified as the qualifications and the the the qualities that we're looking for so you've you've got hard side skills which
is education and experience and you've got soft side skills i've always maintained the soft side skills are largely more important than the hard side skills because who a person is if they are the right person they will
handle changing circumstances and everything because of who they are and um I think that our questions need to reflect more of that mining out who are you as a person and u because I believe
that that is foundational uh to the ability of a person to be successful in the position and I think it's borne out in the responses from respected individuals and staff when you ask the question what's the one quality
and what's the one red flag and um in our experience as a county when we transitioned into the form of county governance which I was a part of um our first administrator was not had no
experience as a county administrator but they were the right person so the who bore out uh the fact that that is integral to the success of an individual in the position and I think it's borne
out by others in their responses and saying it all depends upon if they are this type of person the individual that I included from Shboan Wisconsin the woman administrator i just happened on
that uh and boy in reading that that that gave testimony to the fact that who she as a person even though she was young and everything else it would say well this is the person we want but who she was she is highly regarded highly
respected and recognized in the broader context in her governance role uh by people that uh that you know put her up uh for recognition um so I I felt that because the county
administrator form of governance was new to us in Cook County that we would have been better served had we had an administrator who has was well respected had been long tenured and was on the verge of
retirement that would come in and would be strong in who they are as an individual in a healthy way and mentor us into this form of governance our first individual was an excellent individual who unfortunately we lost due to
cancer and then we had two other administrators that came in and we I I think that the the role and the experience is a matter of weighing what
that experience has taught us and that doesn't rule out the fact that when we look at all the applicants that come in if we have identified our values and what we're looking for in the WHO we can look at these applicants and I believe
we took the applicants and went through based upon responses that we got from questions and we graded each question for a total assessment of which applicant we felt we wanted to move
forward with and I I believe that our questions need to reflect again and enable us as decision makers to be able to mine out those things we said we feel are important and uh that's
why some of these other instruments that are used in measuring that are I believe very important and I think that our questions uh should be revisited i think there's some redundancy in the nature of the questions we've had and I think that
many of those questions do not address the issue of who they are as a person but more what they've done i need to know who they are as a person and that's why the core values is a very important thing the other things that that I had
suggested are also very important things in measuring who are you as a person and if we got all of those applicants in and we looked at it if your narrative is there to help us understand but we we did not even look at it to know whether
there might be somebody as a person even though they didn't have the experience that we were willing to explore further as we did in the case of our first administrator who did not have the experience anybody you talked to in the
county that he came from that you'd bump into just said "You're going to love him." And it it was because of the WHO and I I had the privilege of speaking at his celebration of life service after he passed and when I walked into that church the number of attributes and
things that whole foyer was loaded with things that spoke to who this person was and I believe it's important that we have the ability to be able to see who these individuals are in that context of
their values and what they bring to the table and uh and then have questions that help us to mind that out and and I I'm not opposed to Well I think the questions if you do a a video interview you get to see the person and
how they respond uh not just their verbal or their written response but um I I would like to I'd like to see the the questions revisited so Pat I think um right now um you're
going to need um all the information putting out the job request it's the county who we are as a county and then posting all the information about us that's the first step and then when we get to the second step about people um
responding to that I also uh hope we did have some interest locally too so I'm hoping that perhaps they will apply so then when we get to we got we have candidates and all that then that's the next step how do we define and
refine some of the qualities that um Commissioner Gamble is talking about so we have step one two three maybe four the actual hiring so um anything so you're going to start tomorrow right april 12th
correct we with with your approval we will go ahead and we will post uh for a period of about four weeks similar to what we did the first time in the during those four weeks I will send over questions and uh uh work with you to to
revise those and come up with something that the uh board is in full agreement on so yes that that won't be a problem at all but similar to last time you know I will provide all those I'll provide a
a sample and then obviously uh the board you can revise and make those specific to what you're looking for at in Cook County and I can certainly help with that as well so okay so I think maybe when you have time if you could just
send out a new timeline because we're we're kind of already to the top um the top part is the dates are a little bit off so starting with April 12th new timeline yes okay yep i will put together a new timeline and get that out
to you in the next couple days so Okay commissioner White is taking notes here but we if we had a timeline on a piece of paper it would help you out all I didn't even write down oh dear i just wrote down starting tomorrow okay so all right yes just a point of clarification
and Pat are you able to post tomorrow or are you not able to post until the 12th uh today you know what we will go ahead we will post tomorrow i'm pretty sure that we'll be able to Okay on the 9th pretty sure that we'll be able to go
ahead and get it posted yeah okay madam Chair and and Pat did we have a list of the postings in other words do we know all of the places that we've posted yes yes that was that was sent out for
the last one i will be uh similar again and just to add to that we we take the posting that DDA does and our public information coordinator Todd Ford will share it locally through our our resources as well so that'll happen too and the board will be something I missed
i don't know okay anything else Pat you need from us no I I think we're good to go um and I will yeah I will continue to reach out to individuals and find leads and uh again if the board members have any
individuals in mind that didn't uh apply in the first time please reach out and encourage them to apply now thank you okay very good thanks for your time you bet have a great meeting
thanks thanks thanks bye bye bye now anything else in updating not for not for that item okay all right then we'll move on to commissioner report meeting updates uh the Did you want to do item B the
resolution i think we did that right oh we skipped over that we I don't believe so oh we did not do the resolution we talked about it but we So yeah we voted you mean on um the resolution in support of Tai Black oh I'm sorry i'm sorry we
haven't talked about it no that's why we need to think of the bonding i don't I don't think we're on the background if you want to get it done quick this this came from the Arrowhead um association meeting that we have with uh eight counties um John Angaro is our liaison
between us and um the um legislature and um so we formed this together and then the next day it was like hold on just wait a minute and that's why it didn't come up on March 25th so now I'm asking for support now and I'll go ahead and um
uh I will work with Jana on just on this paper having the date and the and my signature and send this off to Barb Casy who's our secretary that agreeable commissioner Gamble yeah thank you Madam Chair and I had spoke with
with John and uh he was I think this past Monday he was down there and they were testifying and right and I think he just needs some support so all the support we can give and make a motion to support the resolution behalf of Tai Black make funds and I second that
motion okay any further discussion all in favor i I oppose same sign motion passes unanimously thank you if anyone has ever tuned into a committee meeting it's really interesting so I did um last week they
have the um elevator music first everybody's coming in talking getting their coffee whatever so Rowan in the meantime could we have a little music here while we're all getting our coffee and chitchat let's see if we can agree on what type of music it's going to be well it has to be you know elevator
music soft and in the background Commissioner and just just I don't mean to be picky um this is for state pilt not state correct correct right yeah yep yep
okay have I missed anything else up to commissioner concerns i don't think so just administrator updates administrator updates yes all right thank you Madam Chair um briefly just to share there we talked about the the basement remodel
project and our facilities director Brook Lassard shared that and pulling a a plumbing permit uh there's a slight delay there uh pushing it out about 30 days so the new updated time of completion for that project and when we can move staff into that area is before
the 4th of July and so we pushed it out a little bit and wanted to share that update with the board and then just take the opportunity to thank all the staff who spent so much time um going through records retention and all the other things that were in storage to make this possible they they pulled out literal
truckloads of documentation and things from the basement to to facilitate that and it's it's something that you know we we need we're in need of the space and it's a it's a good project so I'm again thanking the staff for the commitment and the yeah the work done there and
then on to the law enforcement uh expansion project we have a a meeting two meetings actually this week on Thursday the 10th and a early one in the morning where we'll we'll reach we've reached out to the city of Grammar we're going to talk to them about sort of a a
pre-p permitting meeting as well as how the project relates to their climate action plan to make sure we're all on the same page there moving forward with this project as well as an afternoon meeting that will have to do with the the grading and and parking lots and uh
interior options for the the facility itself um a whole list of other meetings in between uh then and uh June uh well actually May 27th is still the targeted date for when we would come back to the
board uh requesting to put the project out for bid we've talked about this a couple different times about when an a good time would be to bring the public in kind of as a a town hall or open house setting to talk about the project
one more time where where we're at with the project what's the up most up-to-date cost projections for this project and to provide that public with an opportunity to do that i've I've talked with BKV and I've talked with Sheriff Elias uh about this and
tenatively we're looking at Thursday May 22nd which would be when BKV will be here for an afternoon meeting anyway the Thursday before the board meeting on May 27th where they we would be coming before the board asking to put it out
for bid so the thought being there that that's as close as we can get where we'll have all those other meetings and as most up-to-date information we can about the project and to set a a public meeting since BKV will already have been here you know that they could stay into
the evening and and help us facilitate a uh public meeting where we would invite the public and they could come in and ask questions and and see the you know where the project at is in terms of design and cost and and ask the questions of the the stakeholders here
from the county as well as uh the subject matter experts that we've we've hired through the process commissioner Gamble thank you Madam Chair rowan I I think it it would be important in that meeting
um that uh not not to to belabor and to overwhelm but to give a context of how we got to where we're at right now yeah and because there's been a number of proposals and I I think what's hugely
important in this is I'll use the word balancing the identified need in law enforcement and the concerns of citizens relative to trying to be fiscally responsible and um so
uh when we when we see that that that we've actively listened to all of those that have a vested interest in it um I think it's important to bring that out in the public meeting this is what we did we listened we looked at it and Pat
staff you know whatever commissioners and so we we see that because I I it building integrity and process substantively is huge I think um and uh
that that to me when we show just like you know with Brooke with the YMC with Ludson these are things that are showing that the evidence of fiscal responsibility pairing things down trying to do this cutting this out and
da da da da says we're hearing and I think that's hugely important to identify that on the front end as we go into the rest of it so we aren't just assuming that everybody's going to you know be comfortable with this without having context to see that this has not
been easy yeah yeah you know I appreciate the comments and I think um as mentioned the the the right people will be there in the room to do that that and and then with Reena Roger stepping into this role and getting her up to speed on the project that's very
much in line with how she approaches that kind of communication to talk about the purpose from the beginning and go through those things again that we've talked about how did we get here why and you know really the the things we've talked about many times but important in that I agree in that in that setting to
make sure that that's forefront to talk about why we need a change in the Sallyport to accommodate the ambulances why we need to have some place an appropriate place to process evidence why we need an appropriate place for storing firearms and other things and and staff spacing and all the other
things that we've talked about before and and it it's it the intention is is to to be authentic and not to be positioning as far as messaging you know what I'm saying in other words we're not figuring a strategy here we just want it
to be evident that the authentic process shows this influence in how we got to where we're at anything else um no other than that I just uh spent the last week with um largely doing a transition with Reena
Rogers and I'd take the opportunity to to thank her and the board and and the staff and individuals from the community who have all reached out it's been a been a really good experience for me and I'm happy to move back to my MIS
director role um but very grateful and and thankful for the opportunity and the experience we are too thank you okay so we'll move on then to commission report meeting updates anybody have
anything to offer i do we need to give some recognition to Amanda Wyberg from Aquatic Invasive Weber weber Weeberg she should have an E in there then um Amanda Weeberg because she's
with the aquatic invasive species and she thanks to her squirreling away monies that and when she got monies every year and didn't need to spend them all and she was able to save them at
least she thinks she could save them she didn't say they weren't spent but she didn't ask anybody so she has a pot of money that she can use to continue to function at full level this year and maybe even next year which also includes
the hiring of the four um boat landing people and um paying them more than any other in inspectors in the state of Minnesota which truly isn't much but um
so she did a fantastic job on that which is so aquatic invasive species is well funded going forward so and I do not know how she collaborates with uh uh
Eileena holy cow great no neighbor uh anyway and then so there's that um when it comes to well actually here's she can operate for five
years is what she said if all the funding disappears she can keep going in that program staffed as it is for the next five years way to go so there's that um active
living safe routes to school there is a thread that goes through all of these programs that I have been committee have been part of funding the federal fundings channeled through the state they are on hold missing withdrawn
entirely highway department also so uh it's something to be really serious about and I gave the sheriff a heads up and told him it wasn't personal But I'm going to throw this out here in
light of the um economics of our coming forward with the tariffs and the chaos and the upheaval maybe we should not go forward with the law enforcement addition and everything
this year i know how much money we have invested i know it will cost more later but maybe and this goes to Brady where I gave him a heads up the other day maybe we can't afford to put that extra burden
on our taxpayers if it's all if we don't need to and no one has as I have heard Sheriff Elias and other people everyone agrees and is and in favor of the
upgrades for law enforcement for the safety of our community and that also includes an emergency management area so we can be in place all the equipment ready when we're needed and and instead of moving around and having to set up at
the community center or wherever it might be but I'm just throwing this out here that it should we need to think about our funding is really precarious at this moment in time maybe in a week it'll all be better maybe in five months
it'll be better but right now I'm concerned about it not only on a personal level and for the people that I know uh that live here but for our entities that here from school everywhere from our hospital so there's
that i there was a the other thing uh again it came up with the act of living we have great concern there is great concern that's been discussed about pedestrians and the harbor view and the
fact that when the contractors uh was were to get a permit if I understood what Robbie has said now they were to include plans for road access from that property onto the Gunflint Trail and that shouldn't be a surprise
at this moment in not this moment in time but there are not plans in place for managing pedestrians and truck traffic going up and down the trail loaded or loaded with
gravel or going up with logs it hasn't been as thoroughly um discussed and there's not a solution at this moment in time it's to be determined and that's not the way it
should be so um anybody else have any meetings to report commissioner Gamble madam Chair just a couple of comments one is you referenced Harborview and it's Gunflint oh yeah just just for the public record so we
know in that that regard and then the other thing is uh madam chair if if allowable if if Brady could just speak to the financing relative to the law
enforcement center in combination with the transfer station and some of those things that we've talked about in committee i think just to have a context with what we know right now and the concerns you're expressing on the
financing right now how that just give us a little context for that if that's okay on short notice yeah well we know the uh the transfer station we've already approved the the fees structure
for that and and those fees should cover that cost as as we know them right now and regarding law enforcement center that doesn't have a specific fee it's
going to be a levy item and we know that uh upcoming we have uh potential funding through sales tax when we end that uh 1%
local sales tax which I believe uh we're on track to do next February if we decided to and the way the legislature wrote that um we'll continue to collect those sales taxes and we've had that in our
financial management plan to help with these bonding costs and in fact they looked previously when we looked at it they were to cover not only law enforcement but uh subsequent
bonding not forever but these fees are available through 2030 so I think that gives us since we don't have any other projects uh in the works for community center uh
public health human services the other things we've talked about hopefully uh between now and when those other fees become available we'll have a lot more clarity um and can feel more comfortable
uh doing it or not doing it given what we'll learn between now and uh potentially those other project the other project and the other um our deferred maintenance because we haven't finished that plan either so so both of
those may depend somewhat on that sales tax but of course you know it this is real speculation on the economy given that we know it's like kind of like the weather and it uh especially lately it
goes up and down and up and down so um getting real clarity on that uh even by the end of the year may not be easy but um we'll we'll take it as as it comes but we're in a I think currently with
what's coming up even with changes I feel like we're in a pretty strong position on the on the projects in the pipeline commission Madam Chair as a follow up on that thank you Brady and and to
Commissioner White's point u uh in in your narrative you said that you know people see the need whatever but just the financial concern at this point in time is is a real financial concern so there should should be pause uh to help alleviate
that meaningfully so if it wouldn't be too much Brady to ask if if we could look at the projections on revenue u and the funding issue which is the big
issue we're not saying the need hasn't been identified it's just can we afford to fund it right now so that's why raising the question the first point if if you could do a projection scenario that would show how the funding would be
managed which based upon what you've said is going to be largely uh the monies available to us through the sales tax in representing that if you show the high and you show the very lowest of what we've collected
in sales tax so we aren't projecting a high number but we're projecting you know a number that's reasonable relative to what we could anticipate for monies and then any that would be over and above that would affect our levy we want
to see the effect on the levy relative to the financing of this if that's something if that's framed well enough to be understood that you could present to us that would help address some of the concerns yeah I would have have to
come up with uh you know the the high the projected high and low well yeah you what is you're you're going to have to make a decision okay let's uh let's say the
high is this and the low is uh 30% 50% what's the what's the low so um it'll just get stated and then you can uh look at it see where where that what that tells you and then we we don't
know what the high and low is going to be but isn't that just our financial management plan it's in the financial management plan now you've seen it you've seen the projections in there and and if if it's something that I just not but things have changed i mean every
time you look at one it's changed our sales tax uh collections in 2024 were not what we thought there there was some drop towards the end and then how do you project from that so one answer is to update the financial management plan but
I could do a simpler one without engaging them i think it'd be beneficial if you're willing to do it just to address you know response to the concern yeah thank you any other committee or meeting updates commissioner Sullivan
surely well um Rowan has already mentioned um BKV and the work we did there um and soil and water um met last Thursday we talked again about funding and concerns about the reduction of
federal funding as well as state funding on programs um but the biggest question and concern I think that we discussed was the impact of um the Army Corps's work with East Bay and um right now we're
just on a kind of a hold a wait and see to see how that's going to move forward or if it will at this time but we do know that we definitely need that base stabilized um we need to have a study and um as far as work that will be done
in the future we'll have to see um I did want to comment on um something outside of our work as commissioners i had the privilege on Saturday night to go to the violence prevention center
fundraiser and our former county attorney won the Jordan Drury Award for her work to um prevent and stop domestic violence and sexual violence and I just really want to commend her for all the work that she's done um it's a really
great honor and then lastly um as we've talked about state pilt and we know that all our northern counties are really concerned about that I wanted to try something to go a little step further than just being part of this group and
so Commissioner Stroley maybe you want to distribute i wrote a letter that I thought we could send to the committees that are actually looking at the PILT bills um to talk about what it means in particular to Cook County um the
legislators get all kinds of emails um all kinds of information from groups but I thought something specific from our county might be really helpful and I want to thank um auditor powers
treasure for looking at um my figures to make sure that they were accurate but I really went back to the statute and what the intent is of um PILT and I really went back and included that in this letter um because
I felt that the 34% reduction that's proposed in PILT really undermines the purpose of that legislation a number of years ago which was to compensate us for the loss of our tax base due to state-owned lands to address the
disproportionate impact on counties with high percentages of public land like Cook County and to support the management of those state lands that's held in trust for local taxing districts so um this is a letter that I thought potentially could be sent on behalf of
our board to members of the committees that will actually look at the PIL bills great thank you so much for doing that thank you um we have a list or how do you want to
move forward with this do you want to I would think it would it would probably need to be something that would be approved by a motion and a vote and um then we could easily access the names of all the people that are on that committee or on those committees both in
the Senate and the House um through talking with Senator Hoschild and Representative Scraba's aids okay and it'll be sent to them then correct and Janna would do that we could ask her to do that okay put it on county letterhead
all right commissioner Gamble yeah thank you Madam Chair thank you Commissioner for taking the initiative to to do this um if my recommendation with uh let's just say the the concert of voices uh
that are advocating for this and John Angarrow's significant role in this if if uh it would be acceptable i recommend maybe that we we would ask him if he'd review this and if there's anything that
he that could strengthen it in that concert of voices given his their representation before the legislature on this uh so not that it's becomes a form letter because I think the uniqueness in our voice is hugely important but I
think we would benefit because of the context that he's been years on this and working with the individuals that have advocated so my recommendation would be that that we would send it to John ask him to give his opinion anything that
might strengthen this and then get that back and then move forward okay so I could do that then okay that I think that'd be appreciated if you're Sure absolutely my fear is that that's too too late this
isn't this is like now well I I I think we could make a motion to approve it subject to asking John just to review you know I could send it this afternoon yeah just and and if he is willing to and he says "Man I haven't got time for that," then then we'll move forward but
I I think we can benefit from again that collective voice that has that context sure so if make a motion that we would move forward subject to any input that John and Garl might provide for us and then mail it okay so I'll hear a motion
so moved okay any other questions or comments all in favor we need a second we need a second i think Oh no you made the motion mhm i'll second all right thanks anyone can second i don't
I think the force in which you made the motion was the first second and third my sophomore so we have a motion and a second motion by uh Commissioner second by Commissioner White got it i thought Commissioner Gamble actually made the
motion that's what I thought at first and then and then I didn't I would agree and then I thought that Commissioner Mills had seconded but Okay okay i can run with that okay commissioner Gamble the motion yeah
which I said subject to on and Commissioner White second no no gamble Mills and Mills okay oh my okay thank you that was a hard one i guess I missed the part about I'll make a motion
okay we're clear on that all in favor i motion passes good thank you we got that too okay any other meetings to update i'm going to just mention one thing
briefly about the importance of leadership workshop this is a book that u commissioner Sullivan brought and then we had our own workbook to uh work with this fellow was uh excellent in leading us through each day about having a clear
path in our leadership and being um how we communicate effectively and all that one of the quotes that I took away from was that we um try to allow others to see more by casting a vision and I thought that was pretty
profound so I'm going to cast a vision just to think about this no discussion now but I think now that we're into April we're going to start u budgeting and we're going to start looking at things and we're going to need to have a lot of talk about that
but also I think besides that we should start looking at our strategic planning we have it laid before us and we'll make sure that um Commissioner Gamble has that and then that could be done at a committee the whole also that we start
looking at our policies for example the YouTube how long do we keep that on our website those types of things that um we should start discussing one by one as we go along no decisions now but I'm
casting a vision Okay okay anything else to update then we'll move on to We have a lot of meetings coming up planning Commission Board of Adjustment Cook County Extension Committee
um Cook County um Grand Marray EDA Housing Development Highway Advisory and so forth so now we're going to recognize our staff the April staff anniversaries are this for one year lily Gruber Schultz in
um public health and human services michael Coningig and recycle center for one year dana Logan public health and human services two years jana Ko Miller Burka administration for two
years great diana Demetriov attorney office for three years matt Olsen Highway Department three years kirk Oberg MIS 18 years thank you everybody in all of your
anniversaries and then we have milestones so we have Daniel Bergland Highway Department 15 years and this is really something bev Wokei auditor's office 20 years
kurt Labota Highway Department 20 years and Steve Bunts Highway Department 30 years thank you all for your milestones in your anniversaries and all the great work that you do and with no further
business um our meeting is adjourned thank you everyone