The Rock Island County Budget Committee met Oct. 26 to discuss public defender funding.
Here are the meeting's minutes, as provided by the committee:
Budget Committee Minutes Wednesday October 26, 2016 5:00 p.m.
The Budget Committee of the Rock Island County Board met at the above date and time in the Committee Room of the Administration Office on the second floor of the County Building, 1504 Third Ave, Rock Island, IL. Chair Richard Brunk called the meeting to order at 5:00 p.m. Minutes as follows:
1) Call to order and roll call
Committee members present: Richard Brunk, Nick Camlin, Mia Mayberry, Ginny Shelton, Kai Swanson (arrived at 5:05 p.m.)
Committee members absent: Don Johnston, Rod Simmer
Others present: Jeff Deppe, Dave Ross, Kenneth Maranda, Hayleigh Covella, April Palmer, Amanda Van Daele, Dewayne Cremeens, Tom Geyer
2) Consider minutes from the October 25, 2016 meeting
Motion to approve: Ginny Shelton 2nd: Mia Mayberry Voice vote Motion carried
3) Public Comments
There were no public comments.
4) Consider FY17 budget
Mr. Ross explained that he’d like to do is hit the Public Defender’s budget first. He noted that he’s going to do that for Mr. Heintz. Then he’ll do Hope Creek, Veteran’s Assistance, IMRF, FICA, County Extension Education, and Child Advocacy. After that, he’ll hit the highlights of how he thinks tomorrow should go and the committee can let him know if they agree. Hopefully that will wrap today up.
Public Defender Mr. Ross explained that under revenues, Salary Reimbursement is what the state pays. They pay what they pay. That’s budgeted in there. Public Defender Fees are Rule 18 fees that the court orders defendants to pay if the Public Defender’s Office works the case. Mr. Ross explained that just because a person is assigned a public defender doesn’t mean they necessarily get a free ride. If they have certain assets, the court orders them to pay through Rule 18. The county collects those fees as shown.
Expenses for Public Defender salaries and wages are budgeted higher for FY17 because in this budget, this is as if the tax passes, he is actually filling positions he’s holding open. He’s been operating at a ridiculously low level considering their work level. Ms. Mayberry asked how many he’s holding open. Mr. Ross said two that he knows of: one attorney and one investigator. There may be another one. Mr. Maranda said he thought there were three. Mr. Ross said there might be.
Mr. Swanson is present.
Mr. Ross continued that Public Defender’s Office Supplies are remaining the same. Professional Services, they bumped up to $10,000. It has been less. That is a necessary expense if they need to hire experts for court testimony. If he doesn’t need it he doesn’t spend it, but he definitely wants that budgeted. Travel he wants to leave at $2,500. Mr. Ross doesn’t blame him. If he has new attorneys that come, they’ll need training.
Mr. Brunk noted that Publishing increased to $2,500 from $0 and asked why. Mr. Ross said he does not remember. Mr. Heintz had a reason.
Mr. Ross noted that those are the majority of the increases. That reserve essentially is set aside in case he needs expert witnesses.
Under Capital Improvements, Mr. Ross explained that Mr. Heintz wants to buy one computer and monitor and the appropriate software for that.
Veteran’s Assistance Mr. Ross explained that this is a special revenue fund. They have their own board. Rock Island County really just sets their levy. Their levy has been was $350,000 in 2016. Mr. Ross talked at length with Mr. Harlow and he talked to their board. They agreed to a 0% increase next year to help the county. Even doing so leaves them with an ending fund balance of $427,000. Considering total expenses are $400,000, they’ll have over a 100% reserve. That’s very healthy. Mr. Brunk asked for confirmation that they don’t need it. Mr. Ross said they don’t. They recommended that. They’re drawing it down a little bit in the next two years. Anything in the red draws it down. They are doing that intentionally. Mr. Ross noted that they all agree that Veteran’s Assistance does excellent work. IMRF/FICA Mr. Ross explained that last year, this is what they increased the levy for so those funds could stop borrowing. The levy last year was $5,135,477. Next year, Mr. Ross has it at $3,335,000. That is a drop of 35.06%. Mr. Swanson noted that it’s also a drop below the 2015 levels. Mr. Ross confirmed.
Mr. Ross noted that expenses are $4.1 million. That’s higher than in 2016 because there are additional positions the county has held open that can be filled and get those offices back up to minimum staffing. He wants to keep a 50% reserve so they don’t have to borrow. Half of that is $2,075,000. They’ll start year with just under $3 million and end it right where they need to. In 2018-2021, they’d maintain that ratio and monitor it every year. It’s right where they need it to be.
For FICA this year, the county levied $3.2 million. That’s getting cut in half to $1.6 million. Again, expenses are $2.2 million. That fund needs to maintain $1.1 million. For the next five years, Mr. Ross has it set to maintain $1.2 million, which is a healthy number but not too much.
Ms. Palmer asked if those amounts figure in all of the extra people that will be in the General Fund. Mr. Ross said yes. Everybody in the General Fund comes out of FICA and IMRF. Ms. Palmer asked if it provides for increased costs in retirees. Mr. Ross said yes, for insurance. Mr. Swanson noted that the strategy paid off, then. Mr. Ross said yes and noted that this is good business practice.
County Extension Education and Child Advocacy Mr. Ross explained that these funds are pass throughs. The county levies on behalf of these agencies and is merely the fiduciary. County Extension Education is $225,000/year. Child Advocacy is $70,000/year. They’re going to continue that unless anyone has serious concerns.
Ms. Mayberry asked for confirmation that the county has no control over how much and it just passes through. Mr. Ross confirmed. The county is literally the fiduciary. They collect it for them and hand it over.
Ms. Palmer noted that Illinois Extension Education comes to the committee meetings and gives a report every month. They don’t hear much from Child Advocacy. They come in once a year and tell them, usually at one of these meetings, what they did over past year and what their future is going to be. Ms. Shelton noted that Extension programs are good programs. She sits on that board. Ms. Mayberry added that so is Child Advocacy. She used to sit on there and they do great work.
Hope Creek Mr. Ross noted that in 2015, Hope Creek lost $713,519. He estimates that in 2016, they will have $600,000 surplus. In 2017, he estimates a $420,000 surplus. Mr. Ross noted that they haven’t finished the year yet but they are close. Mr. Camlin asked if that means they’ll be under budget by those numbers. Mr. Ross confirmed. He explained that the $627,000 is how much more revenue than expenses they’ll have. The additional money will go into the fund balance. Each of these two years they expect revenues to be more than expenses. That is not easy.
Mr. Ross noted that he talks with Ms. Vogt just about every day about strategy, issues, business matters. They set up key performance indicators and audit expenses. They do something different every day. They were auditing revenues today and found where Hope Creek was not billing private pay patients for shelf drugs or over-the-counter drugs such as aspirin, Tylenol, Tums, etc. Those are things they clearly buy a lot of and distribute. They have never billed for it. Mr. Camlin asked if everybody else pays for it – the other types of patients. Mr. Ross explained that for Medicare, it’s built into the rate automatically. They’ve always been able to for private pay and haven’t. Those are things that as they take a business mind to running Hope Creek, they start finding these things. This is just one example of things they’re finding, correcting, and working on to improve the bottom line.
Mr. Ross added that he can’t speak for anybody other than himself, but if the county says it’s keeping Hope Creek he wants to see them do everything they can to manage it in the most efficient way possible. Ultimately the County Board will have in front of them the decision to that lower levy because of that healthy fund balance.
Ms. Mayberry asked if things like Mr. Ross just touched on are contributing to these expectations. Mr. Ross said yes. They’re working on a lot of different things. Ms. Mayberry asked if Mr. Ross has an estimate of how much that might have been. Mr. Ross said they haven’t talked specifically about that yet. Mr. Maranda noted that when he was over there three years ago with his hip, they’d give him a pain pill and blood pressure medicine. That was on private pay. He wondered if that was ever billed. Mr. Swanson said it is standard industry practice. They charge you for a Tylenol anywhere. They’re not doing that.
Mr. Swanson noted that regardless of anyone’s stance is on keeping or selling Hope Creek, they want the performance to improve. If they choose to sell it, they’ll get a better asking price for a high-functioning organization. If they keep it, it’s in the public interest to make it as high-functioning as possible. Mr. Ross said that no matter what, they’ll keep on course.
Mr. Ross noted that Medicare A and B revenues are going up significantly. They’re working on that and on marketing efforts. Ms. Shelton noted that marketing is the big thing. Mr. Ross explained that a lot of the marketing efforts they’re addressing are designed to help that. Some of them already are. There are a lot more they’re still working to do.
Mr. Ross noted that Medicare B is clearly not as much revenue, but they are working on that as well. He’s been talking with Ms. Vogt on Medicare B they are confident that the budgeted number of $184,000 next year is low. Public Aid Medicaid is staying relatively flat. Mr. Ross noted that Illinois Medicaid owes Hope Creek a lot of money. They are very slow in paying. The county just got a check a couple of days ago for $273,000 or something. Ms. Palmer thought that was for going back to August of 2015. Mr. Ross said they paid a big chunk of what they owed on aging. That’s staying relatively flat. They’re working to control the amount of Medicaid beds in the facility while still understanding that it’s a public facility. Mr. Ross hopes this number will remain static and Medicare Private Pay will continue to increase.
Mr. Ross explained that IGT is intergovernmental revenue that Hope Creek gets. In speaking with Tom Dryg, he is the one who gave him the $800,000 number for this year. That’s what he estimates they’ll get next year for state.
Medicare Coinsurance, Private Pay, Illinois Public Aid, and Patient Fees, they are trying to be very conservative in budgeting for those. A lot of the efforts they’re working on are to increase Private Pay. They are being conservative by leaving it where it’s at this year even though a lot of marketing efforts haven’t been implemented yet and that billing Mr. Ross just talked about hasn’t been corrected yet. They are doing it right now. He believes they’re being conservative in revenue numbers and estimates that the ending fund balance should be better than that.
For VA revenues, $315,000 is the estimate. Ms. Vogt believes it will be higher than that. They have high VA occupancy now and are working to maintain that. Ms. Shelton said they should market that more. She has always said that. That money’s is there.
Mr. Ross noted that the tax levy stays a dime. The slight increase is based on increased EAV. Ms. Mayberry asked how many Private Pay patients they have. Mr. Ross said there are 245 beds. They’re at 87% occupancy, which is a little lower than he wants it. Private Pay he thinks was in the 23% or 24% range. Medicaid is right at 53%. Medicare and a combination of the others made up that other 25%.
Mr. Ross noted that phone reimbursements and cable reimbursements are something he has asked Ms. Vogt to audit. In 2012-2014, the phone reimbursements were up in the $14,000 range. He is curious why they’ve dropped so much. She believes they went with a new contract that didn’t allow them to separate phone and cable, but the cable reimbursements haven’t increased. Mr. Ross thinks that something isn’t right and has asked her to look into that. That is what they’re looking at so far this year. He was conservative with next year’s numbers.
Ms. Palmer said it won’t make any net difference at all, but today she got the audit entry that’s always required for the bond refunding for Hope Creek, so the revenues are going to go up and expenses are going to go up to record those issuance costs and premiums. She just did that today. They’ll see like $9 million numbers in there in both revenues and expenses when they rerun that. Mr. Ross said he doesn’t know if they’re amortizing the premium. He is assuming they are. If they do, that will go out in future years as well. Ms. Palmer said they are.
Mr. Ross explained that for expenses, Admin is going up quite a bit. They added an Admissions RN and an HR Assistant. That’s what the difference is. They did that on purpose and with every intent that those positions will drive occupancy and reduce the turnover they’ve had in order to ultimately save money. Ms. Shelton noted that the new Admissions RN was averaging bringing in five a week in new admissions. Mr. Ross said she’s doing even better than that right now. Ms. Shelton noted that hers was one of the new positions they voted in. Mr. Ross said they just created that position.
Mr. Ross explained that there’s really not a lot else that stands out other than a lot of Professional Service charges deal with some of the expenses they had for HDG and who they chose to hire and contract with. They are ending most of those contracts and bringing the numbers back down to where they were in 2015. Outside Contractual is HDG. That was $884,104 this year. The $501,788 from 2015 is so high because they had them for a third of the year in 2015. $160,000 is where Mr. Ross anticipates that will be in future years.
Mr. Ross noted that for expenses under capital projects, they want them budgeted. If it turns out that they can push them off another year, they will do that.
Mr. Ross explained that the total bond interest paid was $583,600. That’s going down to $473,905 because of the refinancing. In 2018, the total principal and interest is going to drop half a million. He doesn’t have 2018’s budget open on here. That’s when they’ll see a significant savings in debt service. There is clearly some right here where they’re going down about $60,000. That’s going down half a million next year. To reiterate, that is in no small part because Moody’s maintained the county’s A3 credit rating. They thanked the county for the reforms the County Board did and for moving toward long-term financial planning. The Admin budget will be down significantly.
For Marketing, Mr. Ross put $25,000 in there. He wants additional marketing money for the facility. He doesn’t want to be ridiculous with it, but he wants additional marketing money. Some of that they’ll use that on is redoing the website. They are going to have Google Analytics and that will drive marketing efforts. They’ll know who looks at the website, what pages and what sections they look at, and where they’re at. If they see a whole bunch of Davenport residents but nobody in Bettendorf, they can concentrate other marketing efforts in Bettendorf because they’re not getting out there. That website would normally be in $20,000-25,000 range. He’s doing it for $3,500. Mr. Ross thanked him very much for that.
Mr. Ross noted that Facilities and Maintenance is essentially the same. It’s within a couple thousand dollars.
Mr. Ross explained that Household is up a little bit. He believes that’s to fill one or two positions they haven’t had filled out there. Other than that, it’s staying relatively the same.
Under Patient Care, Hope Creek spent $5 million in nursing in 2015. This year, they’re on pace for $4.75 million. That is in no small part a decrease because they have so many open positions on shifts. This is what they talked in committee about and why they implemented second shift hiring bonuses and increased second and third shift LPN, RN, and CNA shift differential pay. Mr. Ross explained that they cannot keep paying agency. Not only does it cost a ridiculous amount of money, almost as much it’s because of patient care and continuity of care. When a patient has a different nurse every day, the nurse can’t get to know that patient and doesn’t understand their needs. Mr. Ross goes to resident councils and the families and residents really appreciate having the same staff there. The state has mandated, and Mr. Ross doesn’t have those numbers, different staffing ratios. Hope Creek has to increase staffing, as will everyone else. Mr. Ross honestly believes they will lower overtime by $510,000 to $275,000 because a lot of that overtime is because they don’t have staff. They’re either paying overtime or hiring agency. Mr. Ross noted that they’ll always have some overtime, but he believes they’ll cut that down. He actually believes it will even be lower than that, but he doesn’t want to be too presumptuous.
Mr. Ross noted that Total Supplies is staying relatively flat. He went over every number with Ms. Vogt and she’s comfortable with all of them.
Mr. Ross noted that Agency is at $940,000 for this year. Ms. Shelton said there’s such a demand for nurses that they’re setting their own prices. Mr. Ross believes that will be better than $375,000 in 2017 if they can get those positions filled. One way or another, that money will just shift down to agency or overtime. Ms. Palmer said that’s what they did this year. Mr. Ross explained that the goal is to have it where they’re not paying agency or overtime. The analysis he worked on and presented to the Board of Directors showed that it was upwards of a couple of dollars per hour more that they pay for agency than even if they have their own staff working overtime including benefits. Agency is killing them. Ms. Shelton explained that it’s because there’s such a shortage of nurses out there that they’re really in demand. Mr. Ross added that they just raised their rates, too. They are the only game in town. Hope Creek held off about three months until they said they wouldn’t fill their shifts anymore. Ms. Vogt signed and agreed to that today.
Mr. Camlin asked how they’ll cut the Medical Waste line in half. Mr. Ross explained that they were using a provider that he has no idea how they got that contract. They were analyzing the contracts and looking through everything and found another provider that can do it for less than half the cost. That was one of the many things they’ve been looking at and have implemented. Mr. Swanson noted that the Sheriff made similar reference when he was here. They found they had been overpaying. Mr. Ross said it’s the same thing. Ms. Van Daele noted that hopefully the Health Department moved as well. Mr. Ross said that saves significant money for Medical Waste. It is $1.27 million this year and they’re cutting it in half.
Mr. Ross explained that the Machinery and Equipment increase is for a washer or dryer. Ms. Shelton noted that the washer they had out there is one that moved from Oak Glenn.
Mr. Ross noted that for Dietary/Culinary/Food, everything is staying relatively flat. It’s a little higher, but that’s the natural increase in expenses since a lot of that is vendors. Some of that is certainly for inventory they have to bring in.
For Laundry, they believe that number will be down. Ms. Vogt is also auditing that one. Mr. Ross is leaving it in for now, but may end up lowering it. They had an employee who was supervising a department out there. That employee is no longer with Hope Creek.
Mr. Ross said he’d leave it at that. They assigned the additional work responsibilities to two other Department Heads who will share the responsibility for this one. In so doing, they eliminated that position. He’s questioning if that is on here since it’s higher. Ms. Vogt is checking on it. There’s no harm in having it in there, but Mr. Ross believes it will be less.
Occupational Therapy expenses are staying pretty much same. Ms. Vogt is hopeful that these numbers will be even better because they are hitting this hard in their marketing efforts. This is where they can make a lot of money. Mr. Maranda noted that he was the first one to come in from outside. Mr. Swanson said he is grateful to Ms. Shelton who encouraged him to ask the Health Insurance Committee and the health insurance providers why they aren’t using Hope Creek more for rehabilitation services. They said they’re starting to make some headway, but they need to get the clinical quality outcomes up just a little bit. If Hope Creek can do as Mr. Ross is saying here, he totally supports that. If they can get that ramped up, they’ll get more business. Ms. Shelton noted that rehab is where the money is. Mr. Maranda asked about the Times rating that put Hope Creek at number one in rehab. Mr. Ross said that was Reader’s Choice.
Ms. Shelton noted that things are moving out there – morale and everything. She’s an optimist when it comes to Hope Creek.
Mr. Ross continued that under the Activity Fund, nothing is standing out. It’s actually decreasing. That’s primarily because they’re not spending on some equipment they had.
In Social Services, they had a shakeup in the department a little bit. They switched positions around and that is saving a little bit of money.
Mr. Camlin said, “Long live Hope Creek.” Ms. Shelton explained that they can’t correct problems boom, like that. It takes time. She used to get people from Iowa City to come down and talk about eligibility for nursing home care and what they had to do. She doesn’t have those contacts anymore, but she wondered if that’s something.
Mr. Ross moved on to Hope Creek’s capital improvement projects for 2017. They’re asking for $15,000 to seal all the exterior windows. The existing windows are not properly sealed. That will prevent moisture from entering the facility. That’s a project they may or may not do, but definitely want to budget for.
They have parking lot sealing and striping. The parking lot was last sealed three years ago. It will be four years. It’s just time to do that. That’s routine maintenance. They don’t want issues with people getting out of their cars and tripping in holes.
The exterior lot drain replacement is to replace an existing drain in back of the facility and also to install new drain in one of the courtyards. That’s not draining. One of them repeatedly backs up. They have tried to fix it and snake it. It needs to be replaced. They also need another one because it’s possible the facility should have been designed with another to start with. It saved money back then but creates flooding issues.
They have sidewalk repair at $5,000 to fix sidewalk safety issues.
They have dining room carpet replacement. The intent may not be to use carpet; they may use vinyl. They want something Ms. Vogt is comfortable with. Ms. Shelton said it amazed her that they have carpeting in the dining room. Mr. Ross said they have spills constantly. They want to maintain that facility and want it to look good. The dining room is one area when people come in that they may look at. They look at the chapel, dining room, and front hall. They need those areas really looking good. All of it of course, but that is a high traffic and high profile area.
They’re going to replace 200 residential lighting units. Some of those get pretty hot at the ends of them. It’s as much a resident safety issue as anything else. Mr. Maranda asked if they can get grant money for that. Mr. Swanson noted that MidAmerican, too, has something when you do it on an institutional level and go to CFCs where you can get savings. The college has done it. Mr. Deppe said they can do that for the windows too.
Ms. Palmer asked if Mr. Ross can specify what the carpet in the main dining room is. In February of this year, they just did some carpeting in the main dining room for $20,000 almost. Mr. Ross said he can’t. He just knows they were confident this needed to be done next year. Ms. Palmer said she was wondering if it already needs to be redone or if half was done. Mr. Ross said that from him just going out there, he’s out there frequently, a good portion of it needs to be addressed. They are also working on good maintenance. They are going to be renting a really good commercial cleaner. They were looking at buying it, but can rent it much cheaper.
Mr. Deppe noted that where he worked last year, they replaced lights in the building for $30,000 and got a $22,000 rebate for doing LEDs. It was that high. Mr. Ross said he will make sure they address that side of it first.
Mr. Brunk asked Ms. Palmer if she said that was in February. Ms. Palmer said on February 26, 2016, they spent $17,000 and then a couple thousand more a month later to Dave’s Floor Trends on resident dining room floor carpet. Mr. Ross said he’d check on that and make sure it still needs to be done. From his looking at it, there are certainly some areas that need to be addressed. Ms. Palmer said she hopes that’s not going to be an annual thing. Ms. Shelton said that’s what bothers her. There has to be a lot of spillage. Mr. Ross said they are looking at options other than carpet as well so they don’t have to keep doing this. Mr. Ross explained that this is a special revenue fund. He and Ms. Vogt are not going to spend if it doesn’t need it. Mr. Brunk said he wants to know where the $17,000 went. If this needs to be done and $17,000 was already spent in February.Mr. Ross said that when he did this with staff, it needed to be done then. Looking at the flooring, there are some issues. Mr. Brunk said maybe that’s an indication they do need to move away from carpeting. Ms. Shelton said that it’s mind-boggling to her. Even in her dining room at home when food gets spilled on the floor when you have carpeting.if you’re in a nursing home, you have more problems. Ms. Mayberry suggested that they don’t even consider carpet. Even if it’s the cheaper option, it will just keep getting more expensive. Mr. Ross said they want to do the lowest long-term cost and look at lifecycle costing. Ms. Shelton added that it’s more sanitary to go with vinyl. Mr. Maranda pointed out that a lot of these people, 90% are in wheelchairs and they need traction when they put their feet down and pull themselves along. Mr. Ross agreed that there are other issues. Ms. Shelton said there are other types of flooring. It’s not just the slick vinyl. They have flooring that helps with that. Mr. Maranda said they all have their little Cushies on.
Mr. Ross explained that the washing machine replacement is to replace a 250 lb. load limit washing machine. They can’t get parts for it anymore. They’ve been putting duct tape on it for years. They can’t do it anymore. Ms. Shelton said they moved that one from the old facility.
Mr. Ross continued that they want to replace an existing kitchen steamer unit as soon as possible. That was installed when the facility was built, but there were a lot of problems early on. They’ve had numerous repairs to it. It’s been down for several months. They’re tired of making repairs to it. It’s costing them a fortune. Mr. Cremeens asked if that’s a food steamer. Mr. Ross said yes. It’s a commercial heavy duty one.
Mr. Ross said they need to purchase 100 resident adjustable height beds. That’s an annual expense. They’re about $1,600 apiece. Several current beds are crank style and difficult to get in out safely and comfortably. They’re replacing them with new, state of the art beds that provide up to a 600 lb. weight capacity, autocontour for resident comfort, and the beds are mobile at any height with safety locks. In addition, they have regular depreciation on beds like at a hotel. They need to do that regularly. They are going to be replacing a certain amount every year. Ms. Mayberry asked if even after they replace these crank ones, they still have to replace them each year. Ms. Palmer said it looks like every two to two-and-a-half years. Mr. Ross said he has to confirm that. If it’s annual, they’ve obviously got 245 beds. So every three years a bed gets replaced. He can confirm that with Ms. Vogt since she wasn’t the one who did this that that is appropriate for a bed at such a facility – maybe it is. Ms. Mayberry noted that if each bed is only $1,600.Mr. Swanson said he’d think each bed would have to be $3,200. Mr. Brunk pointed out that it says, “Useful life: eight years.” Mr. Ross explained that it’s 100 total, 20 per year, $1,600 apiece over 5 years. He typed it in wrong. Ms. Palmer said that makes more sense.
Mr. Ross explained that the resident lift equipment capital project is to purchase Hoyer lifts to assist with lifting residents. This purchase is for staff. Hope Creek gets work comp claims as everyone knows. They have equipment for staff to use. They’re supposed to use it, but they don’t always use that. They will deal with that from a disciplinary side when that happens. These particular lifts are what the old administrator says are ideal for staff. Mr. Maranda noted that they don’t have enough for the floors. If one is down in one of the other wings and they need it, they have to run and get it. He thinks that’s part of it.
Mr. Maranda noted that he talked to Mr. Nelson when he saw him and he’s trading in a couple buses. He said they’re not usually worth anything, but Mr. Maranda asked him to give them some consideration. He said he’d give him a call. Hope Creek needs a bus.
5) Consider FY17-FY21 Capital Improvement Plan
Item 5 was discussed as part of Item 4.
6) Closed session as per 5 ILCS 120/2(c) (11) – Litigation: when an action against,
affecting, or on behalf of the particular public body has been filed and is pending before a court or administrative tribunal, or when the public body finds that an action is probable or imminent
There was no closed session.
7) Committee member opportunity for brief comments (no action can or will be taken
based on any comments from committee members but the matter might be placed on a future agenda for consideration)
Mr. Ross explained that tomorrow, they’ve got the full County Board special meeting to lay the budget on display. That’s in Room 320. The notes he gave the committee yesterday, he will update those. There are a couple of tweaks he needs to make to them. He will send those out to every Board member tomorrow first thing. Ms. Van Daele has graciously volunteered to redo Schedules B, C, D, E, and F. Mr. Ross will do Schedule G. They will double check all the schedules and make sure they are consistent and current with what the committee discussed and has changed. Mr. Camlin asked if Room 320 is the conference room off of the Board room. Mr. Ross said yes. Mr. Maranda explained that they’re doing voter training and need computers in the Chambers.
Mr. Ross continued that the budget books will be updated. Ms. Covella will put them in a.pdf with links in the Table of Contents so they can click where they want to go. Everyone will get an electronic copy. He will send one to Mr. Geyer. He already has that planned. Ms. Mayberry asked for confirmation that Mr. Ross won’t print them off one. Mr. Ross said he will print half a dozen. Some Board members want one. He needs one. They need to lay one on display. He will email the County Board everything as soon as they get the schedules done and can get everything updated. He will already have emailed them his notes. He will have available in Room 320 six hard copies.
Mr. Ross reiterated that the meeting tomorrow is just to lay the budget on display. That’s it. He talked to Mr. McGehee and he confirmed that they’re doing what they’re supposed to. They have to lay the budget by the 29th. The Board can change the budget without having to lay it on display again depending on the outcome of the vote. Regardless, the committee will meet again on the 10th of November.
Mr. Swanson asked if they need to address the liability insurance issue. Mr. Ross said he has hit everything in there.
Mr. Ross noted that tomorrow, he would presume the Budget Committee Chair will present to the Board. Everyone will have Mr. Ross’s notes, which is what the committee has seen minus some tweaks. He thinks that sums up everything.
Ms. Mayberry asked if there will be discussion by the full Board on everything. Mr. Ross said he doesn’t see a lot of discussion. He may be naïve, but they’ve had everything out there for months. Ms. Mayberry said they all know how that goes.
8) Adjourn
Meeting adjourned at 5:50 p.m. by Chair Richard Brunk
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