Rock Island County Governance, Health, And Administration Committee met December 11.
Here is the minutes provided by the Committee:
1) Call to order and roll call
Committee members present: Mia Mayberry, Pat Moreno, Kim Callaway-Thompson, Drue Mielke, Cecilia O’Brien (via phone), Ron Oelke, Mike Steffen, Scott Terry (arrived at 10:02 a.m.)
Committee members absent: None
Others present: Kenneth Maranda, Kurt Davis, Hayleigh Covella, Trent Vandersnick, Ed Langdon, Nita Ludwig, Bill Long, Ed Langdon, Clayton Naylor, DeAnne Bloomberg, Diane Baker, Amanda Van Daele, Darren Hart, Larry Wilson, Karen Kinney, Tammy Weikert, Chris Payne
2) Public comments
There were no public comments.
3) Approval of minutes from the November 13, 2017 meeting
Motion to approve: Mike Steffen
2nd: Pat Moreno
Voice vote
Motion carried
4) Reports to the committee
Administrator-
Mr. Davis noted that he emailed everyone his update, which included updates about Hope Creek, but he wanted to share a few things with the committee. Hope Creek is in full compliance with IDPH regulatory guidelines since the survey on June 13 this year. They have been out to Hope Creek seven times since that survey. Two of those visits were follow-ups to the survey; five were complaints by residents’ family members. There were no findings at all. Hope Creek is doing well. They had some vital positions filled.
They have a new Director of Nursing, Assistant Director of Nursing, a lead supervisor, and unit managers. They are focusing on ensuring quality of care. They have generated an average of $1.1 million monthly over the past six months in just collections. That’s a lot higher than in the past. That usually ranges from $600,000-700,000 per month but is now at $1.1 million. They have brought their total debt down about $750,000. They’re doing their best at collecting past debts and are doing well with their surveys from the state. They are doing pretty good.
Mr. Steffen asked if the fine they received has been paid and if there is a chance of reducing it. Mr. Davis said it has been paid. Hope Creek was fined $27,000 and it was reduced 35%, so Hope Creek paid $17,500ish.
Mr. Terry is present.
Ms. Callaway-Thompson asked if Mr. Davis said they have a new D.O.N. and asked as of when. Mr. Davis said they do, but he does not have that information. They have a new A.D.O.N. and new D.O.N. He did meet with them and they seem knowledgeable.
Mr. Moreno asked if the debt they are reducing is the debt to vendors. Mr. Davis said no. They’re going after the families and trying to reduce how much money families owe. Mr. Moreno asked if the vendor debt is about the same. Mr. Davis said vendor debt is reducing, but his update is talking about going after families to collect money from them. The vendor debt is a couple months behind now; it’s getting there.
Ms. Callaway-Thompson asked about the Hope Creek minutes the committee was promised. Ms. Covella said she emailed them with the packets. Ms. Mayberry explained that they have October Hope Creek Board meeting minutes, but do not have November. November’s minutes need to be approved this month and their meeting has not taken place yet. She was going to discuss that with the committee, but she thinks it’s probably best to get the official minutes rather than anything that has not been approved yet. Ms. Covella did email the October Hope Creek Board meeting minutes.
County Clerk:
Ms. Kinney provided her monthly report. She reported that births are up from October and marriages are down. She’s hoping that marriages will increase as they normally do for the holiday season. People like to get married on Christmas and New Year’s, so she’s thinking those will start coming in.
Mr. Steffen asked if Ms. Kinney is done with her report. Ms. Kinney said yes. Mr. Steffen said he would like to bring up an observation and a question. Mr. Steffen stated, “On November 17th in the morning, John Brown was observed behind the counter in the County Clerk’s Office weeks after he retired. I was just wondering, is he is still running the County Clerk’s office or are you?” Ms. Kinney replied, “You know what? I’m tired of being harassed at these meetings. I don’t understand why. I don’t see you harassing anyone else. John visits our office from time to time and I don’t see a problem with that, but no he is not running anything.” Mr. Steffen said, “I see a lot of county employees here who do not go behind the counter. Why would a non-county employee go behind the counter?” Ms. Kinney said, “Why would a non.John is always welcome to visit our office. He comes in and goes to lunch with Nick. Do I need your approval?” Mr. Steffen said, “That’s great, but I don’t think non-county employees should be behind the counter.” Ms. Kinney said, “I don’t think that’s up to you.” Mr. Steffen said, “No. It’s your decision.” Ms. Kinney said, “That’s right.” Mr. Steffen said, “I’m just making the facts known. Thank you.” Ms. Kinney said, “I didn’t think that we were supposed to air political discussions at these meetings. I thought it was to take care of the business of the county.” Ms. Mayberry said they really have to stick to the agenda and the reports on the agenda. Ms. Kinney said, “I’m really not understanding why I have to come up here to be attacked.” Mr. Steffen said, “I don’t think you have to come up here.” Ms. Kinney said, “Well, I was attacked last month. Now I’m being attacked this month. I don’t see you attacking any of the menfolk.” Mr. Steffen said, “I don’t see them making glaring errors. When that’s brought to my attention.”
[Overlapping conversations]
Ms. Mayberry called for order and said to move on.
Ms. Callaway-Thompson noted that the committee has already approved the minutes, but she wanted to strike from the minutes the comments Mr. Steffen made about Ms. Kinney last month and she forgot to make that motion. Ms. Mayberry said Ms. Covella will note Ms. Callaway-Thompson’s comment, but the committee has already approved the minutes under Item 3.
Circuit Clerk-
Ms. Weikert reported that it’s an exciting time in the Clerk’s office right now. She’s excited to announce that her office should be fully integrated with their e-filing solution beginning Monday. That is per the mandate set for all the clerks within the state of Illinois to be integrated by January 1. Ms. Weikert’s office should be fully integrated by Monday.
This week they are spending time getting staff trained. They have many new staff members in her office and she expects that to be a huge advantage going forward into 2018. She is excited about that. They have been spending a lot of time getting the software, workstations, and hardware upgraded on all of the clerk stations and judges’ benches. The judges will have access on the bench to the electronic record, which is the official court record. This is probably the largest transition the court system has seen since going live on the computer system back in 1989. She is really excited about that.
Mr. Terry thanked Ms. Weikert and her office for their due diligence on this issue. They all know how it is with these mandates from the state. It seems like this is probably a good one and her office has tackled it well. He’s just curious from the article, as a caveat this was in the Dispatch, he understands that the attorneys have been utilizing this system for some time. Mr. Terry asked if that is correct. Ms. Weikert confirmed and explained that she has been live on e-file Illinois since November 8, 2016. It was a permissive stage where anyone, including self-represented litigants, could electronically file prior to the hard mandate of January 1, 2018. It was allowed but not required in the last year. That let her office have a slow start to this and gave staff, judges, attorneys, and the filing community time to get used to it. The first mandate was July 1, 2017. Clerks were required to file for appellate court electronically. They hit that mandate and that process is going really smooth. Now they are up against the second mandate and have been doing that for the last year or so. Now most of the filing community is up and running. They are also partnering with the Rock Island Library for electronic access for self-represented litigants who don’t have access to a computer. They can go to the library or come to the courthouse to electronically file documents.
Mr. Terry asked if there have been any hang ups, issues, or anything this last year with the attorneys utilizing it. Ms. Weikert said there were a lot of issues because the initiative began so quickly. They wanted the clerk’s offices to comply by January 1, 2018. In order to hit that mandate, they really had to start as soon as possible. There wasn’t a clear set guideline. There were standards, but those didn’t include every possible scenario that could come into play. The court system is very diverse. There are a lot of issues and challenges to tackle. This year gave them an opportunity to identify those challenges. They recommended new standards. Now those new standards are available for criminal cases as well. When criminal e*filing begins, she’s sure there will be other changes to those standards. That’s why they were allowed the permissive stage: to work through the challenges prior to the mandate.
Ms. Mayberry noted that there was a great article in the Argus on e-filing and encouraged everyone to check it out.
Health Department-
Ms. Ludwig reported that there is a lot going on at the Health Department. The Silvis School Health LINK did close November 30, so the Rock Island School Health LINK is the only one running at this time. All the staff were moved over there from Silvis. There was only one Health Department employee and there was a vacancy, so she is still full time at the Health Department. The Health Department just hired a new School Health Supervisor, which is a full-time supervisor, for the Rock Island clinic. She will start after the new year. Ms. Ludwig is very glad about that.
Ms. Ludwig reported that the Chief Nurse Officer, Linda Livengood, is resigning. This is her last week. She and her husband have decided to move to South Carolina and onto greener pastures. That’s a very key role at the Health Department. She oversees the Infectious Disease and Communicable Disease sections. Ms. Ludwig reported that they do have a replacement for her coming from Aledo. She is a nurse of 27 years with a lot of background in infectious diseases as well. She is starting December 18. Ms. Ludwig is happy to have her starting. In the same program, infectious diseases, they have three full-time nurses. Right now they have two full-time vacancies. They are still looking to fill a couple of important infectious disease nurse positions, but do have some interviews lined up. They are hopeful to get those going. That’s a very vital program to track diseases and contain outbreaks and that sort of thing. They are still working on that.
Mr. Mielke asked for the name of the new Chief Nurse. Ms. Ludwig her name is Sharon Langley. The new School Health Supervisor’s name is John Weeks. She looks forward to both of them starting.
University of Illinois Extension-
Ms. Baker introduced herself and said she is pleased to bring a little bit of an update. Ms. Baker noted that this is kind of a transitional time of year. They have wrapped up a lot of their fall programs and are getting ready to kick off the new ones after the new year.
The Extension had the pleasure last week of hosting Dean Kim Kidwell from the University of Illinois. That is a very rare thing. Ms. Baker noted that in her 30 years here, this is the only time a dean has come out and visited the program. It was quite an honor to have her here. Ms. Baker thanked the Chairman and Mr. Cremeens for joining them for that visit and lunch. She hopes they enjoyed their time with her. She heard through the grapevine that one of the dean’s entourage is a former 4Her from Northwestern Illinois. Ms. Baker saw her Saturday and she said what a good time the dean had.
The Teen Leadership Program is wrapping up its Fall Leadership Squad at Edison Junior High in Rock Island. That program is a partnership with 21st Century Community Learning Center. Susan Whitmer has been the volunteer there working with that for the last several years. Ms. Baker said she really wants to highlight that program and the work she does there. It’s a really, really good partnership for 4H. They have a number of kids who stay involved in 4H and have several seniors at Rock Island High School doing some really cool things that Ms. Baker is proud of that they attribute to things they have learned in 4H. Ms. Baker thanked Ms. Whitmer for getting them into the program. She’s excited that they’ve stayed in.
Ms. Baker reported that in Illinois there is an Illinois 4H Youth/Teen Leadership Team. They have to interview and compete for positions on that 22 member board. There are 22 teams from across Illinois selected every year. Four of those are from Rock Island County. Ms. Baker said she is pretty proud that a number of kids from this county are selected for that youth leadership team. This year they also had a fifth kid from this unit selected, so over 20% of the kids on that team come from our area. There are also three teens who were selected for the Illini Summer Academy, which is five days at the University of Illinois every summer. Three Rock Island County teens are helping to plan that. There are only nine on that team. Rock Island County also has three who are part of the new Sankofa Conference, which is going to be a conference in Illinois focused on African and African American cultures. They are working on rolling that out for the first time.
Something new they have coming up, thanks to financial support from Global Communities, is they are launching a 4H Juntos Program in Moline right after the first of the year. It’s a program targeted to 8th grade students to focus on college or the career readiness path they need to take to finish high school and successfully launch into the career of their choice. They will start the parent engagement series in January. That’s five sessions for 8th graders and their parents focused on why do you finish high school in the first place and then what is next after high school for you and how you attain that, whether it’s trade school, apprenticeships, college, or whatever it may be. They have hired a part time staff person through the grant to work with that. The program is offered in Spanish and English. Once that parent engagement series is finished, they will start a 4H club that is very career-focused for the kids and intend to maintain them through their high school career.
Ms. Callaway-Thompson asked if the Juntos Program is focused mostly on the Floreciente Neighborhood. Ms. Baker explained that it is hosted at the Floreciente Boys and Girls Club. It is open to anyone, but it will be hosted there in the neighborhood. Ms. Callaway-Thompson asked if Ms. Baker can email her that information. Ms. Baker said she can and noted that she does have a meeting right after this to set some of those logistics in place. Ms. Mayberry asked her to email that information to all the County Board members.
5) Update and final report on Partnerships to Improve Community Health grant
Mr. Naylor noted that he sees a lot of new faces from last time he was here, so he reintroduced himself. He is a retired principal from Rock Ridge School District. He has been working at the Regional Office of Education since 2009 in a variety of roles and capacities. The last project he has been involved with is a project where the ROE has partnered with the Quad City Health Initiative for school wellness in school districts. He has been helping them move forward with their program. They felt the ROE was a good fit because they already had built relationships with school districts and the doors are open to them. Mr. Naylor noted that he has relationships with superintendents and principals in the district and was able to utilize and leverage that to help them move forward with school wellness.
Mr. Naylor noted that he provided a little packet. Pages 2-4 are graphics pages that will be coming out as part of an end-of-project booklet. Those will be professionally printed. At a subsequent meeting when they get those back from the printer, the committee will get one and will be able to see the entire project. The project is called Partnerships for Improving Community Health and had four facets. The ROE’s was school wellness. Bi- State Commission did safe routes to schools. They also worked on the Quad City Trails online program. Mr. Naylor noted that he provided a card that has the website to find every single trail in the Quad Cities. If you aren’t sure where you are, you can get it on your phone. It’s not an app; it’s actually a website. An app would have been much more expensive. The last facet was done by Broadway Presbyterian. They handle school gardens in the west end in an area they call a “food desert.” Access to healthy food is a large issue for certain sections of the Quad Cities community due to low income, transportation issues, etc. Some folks have to go a long way to a grocery store and end up getting food from convenience stores typically. There is not a lot of healthy food in convenience stores, although that is changing.
Mr. Naylor noted that his role was to work with the school districts. Knowing how they operate, he didn’t want to walk in cold. He started out by meeting with the superintendent of each school district and showing them respect and asking them for permission to work with their staff. Once that was accomplished, each district assigned a School Wellness Coordinator. Every public school district in Rock Island County now has a School Wellness Coordinator. Once he met with them, they formed School Wellness Committees to look at the issue of what to do for kids to send different messages to them that promote proper nutrition and proper physical fitness. The ROE’s portion was proper nutrition. They narrowed in on that. Once the School Wellness Committee started meeting in 11 school districts, Mr. Naylor was part of each Wellness Committee. Sometimes he facilitated, sometimes he set the agendas, and sometimes he sat back and kept his mouth shut. The idea was to provide whatever they needed in terms of support. Every district is different and has different clientele. Their decisions were all different based on what they felt their particular needs were.
Once all the Wellness Committees got rolling, it was time to take a look at school districts’ school wellness policies and if they were meeting government guidelines, and then talk about model wellness policies. Mr. Naylor provided a lot of that research and information for them. His role was to fill in the cracks and provide the support that people need because most districts don’t have the resources to do the research to find what they need. Every time a question came up, Mr. Naylor would go and get the information for them. He was at their service. He was a half-time employee from May 2015 and ended September 2017.
Mr. Naylor directed the committee to the list of the program’s accomplishments. They hope and believe a conversation has been started to the effect that school districts realize total wellness and total health are essential to raising academic achievement, raising self-esteem, and ultimately being a more productive citizen. There’s also less negative impact on medical facilities because of the effects of obesity, etc.
One component of this CDC grant was that it also had large marketing piece, which is rare. It’s awful hard to get that. That allowed the program to use TAG, an advertising group on the other side of the river that created, with the help of the schoolchildren that voted, these big strawberries Skip and Scout. They are brother and sister. They have been on TV promoting proper nutrition and physical fitness. They are also on billboards around town. Every school has a full-size cut out, posters, and some stickers. They got 13,000 stickers to hand out to principals as a nonfood reward for making right decisions. They also got some refrigerator magnets. That made a big difference. The TAG group did a pretty comprehensive survey. They met with people in malls and asked them questions about visibility like, “Do you know who Skip is? Do you know who Scout is?” They found that the marketing was good. They also used Facebook, Twitter, and electronic media.
As a result of this, the Community Foundation of the Great River Bend contacted them and said they have a foundation with the Falwell family that wishes to have their endowment fund used toward community health and education in the Quad Cities. They asked if the Quad Cities Health Initiative would be interested in some money. Mr. Naylor said yes. They asked how it would be used. Mr. Naylor explained, from his interactions with schools, that he found that over the years the schools have fallen off in nutrition education at the lower grades. There’s a lack of resources and curriculum materials. With the focus on reading and math and achievements, other things have fallen by the wayside and nutrition is one of them. They formed a committee and asked teachers in the Quad Cities what they would like and they said they didn’t want another curriculum or another layer; they needed resource materials. They needed visual materials, games, things they can use for five minute activities, and that kind of thing. The Initiative was able to use over $37,000 just for Rock Island County alone. They also did do Scott County under a different grant, but $37,000 materials went into K-4 school districts for the teachers to use in their classrooms in Rock Island County. That was a great bonus, something they didn’t anticipate, and they were able to facilitate and get it.
For school districts now, the federal law was revised. The federal government actually backed off on mandates related to the amount salt in food and some of the other kinds of things and left it more up to the districts and gave them flexibility. What they did say is that each state is responsible for holding school districts accountable. At least every year, they take a hard look at what the districts are doing, talk about what is working and what isn’t, and make decisions and set goals for the following year. The compliance agency in Illinois that holds schools accountable is the Rock Island County ROE. That’s one of Mr. Naylor’s roles: to head up the compliance division. In the future, he’ll be going out to the school districts and seeing if the Wellness Committee has been meeting and looking at things and setting goals. A good thing is the federal government has decided that each school district has its own clientele and its own mores and should make their decisions on how far to go on certain things in terms of birthday snacks, concessions, and marketing in the building. Mr. Naylor found that Rock Island County’s school districts were far along on the curve already and had done a nice job and had done it hand in hand with parents. Some things that the school districts moved forward on that they were nervous about backlash on, they found the opposite. They had people coming in and saying, “Thank you, this is the right thing to do.”
Mr. Terry thanked Mr. Naylor and said now he knows who to hold accountable for his daughter making him eat more vegetables. Mr. Terry said this is a great program and he appreciates everything the ROE is doing. They have great leadership.
6) Resolution Authorizing Execution and Amendment of Federal 5311 Grant Agreement
Ms. Mayberry explained that this is a resolution to approve the Downstate Operating Assistance Program grant for FY18. This is a pass through grant that helps provide transportation in Rock Island County.
Motion to approve: Scott Terry
2nd: Kim Callaway-Thompson
Voice vote
Motion carried
7) Consider resolution to put a special county retailer’s occupation tax for capital improvement projects on the March 2018 ballot
Ms. Mayberry noted that this is something they have discussed previously. If they are going to approve this, it has to be done this month as it has to be put on the ballot by January 4 for the March primary. As it says in the committee notes, this is an item to consider placing a referendum for a facilities sales tax on the March ballot. Rock Island County is requesting a half cent sales tax to cover capital improvement projects. The Capital Improvement Plan as approved with the FY18 budget would serve as a guide to taxpayers as to what projects need to be completed at various county facilities to repair, update, and maintain county property. These are long deferred projects that the county desperately needs and cannot complete without additional revenue. Mr. Davis provided a Q&A on what the sales tax will entail, what the referendum question will be, and how much it will generate in tax.
Motion to approve: Scott Terry
2nd: Pat Moreno
Mr. Terry noted the additional revenue on this cheat sheet Mr. Davis gave out. He noted that this is excellent and he wishes they had seen more of this in the public the last time they tried this. Additional revenue is critically needed for necessary building repairs and capital improvement throughout the county. Without this revenue, the buildings will continue to deteriorate and the existing revenue not satisfy this need. Mr. Terry asked why not wait for the Capital Bill in July. He is being told they have a Capital Bill that is going to save the courthouse. Ms. Mayberry said that’s obviously not a guarantee. She doesn’t think anyone has said it’s a guarantee. Mr. Terry said that’s another issue (inaudible) relying upon that.
Mr. Davis pointed out the neighboring county sales tax rates. He is still working on that. He’s not sure Scott County is correct on there, but this is kind of the template.
Mr. Steffen said his constituents are taxed out and there’s no way he can vote for this.
Ms. Callaway-Thompson asked for confirmation that this is just to place the question on the ballot. Ms. Mayberry confirmed. The voters will make the decision. Mr. Oelke noted that it still has to go to full board too. Ms. Mayberry said yes. That gives the full board the chance to vote and consider it.
Voice vote
Opposed: Mike Steffen, Scott Terry
Motion carried
8) Update on Policy Prohibiting Sexual Harassment per Illinois Public Act 100-0554
Ms. Mayberry explained that this item is something new that has come down from the state that Rock Island County has to implement by January. She will let Mr. Davis talk a little bit about it, but this is something that will go through and be looked at by the State’s Attorney and the HR department. It has to be implemented by the exact date of the full County Board meeting in January. The county just received word about this last week. This item is just bringing it to the committee’s attention to look over and for any discussion, but it will most likely have to come to a vote next month so all the right people have the opportunity to look it over before then. Staff didn’t think they had enough time from last week to get something put together to vote on this month.
Mr. Davis added that the county was notified last Thursday evening that they have to pass this sexual harassment policy. The state has given guidelines on what needs to be in it. Rock Island County does have a policy, so they have to merge them together. He will be presenting a new sexual harassment policy to be voted on next month at the January 16 meeting. This is something the state handed to the county. They did give a template, so Mr. Davis is going to work with the HR Department on creating the new merged policy.
Ms. Callaway-Thompson asked if the policy differs greatly from the one the county has in place. Mr. Davis said the example policy is a very specific, very detailed policy. Rock Island County’s is pretty short and sweet. Mr. Oelke pointed out the conduct and its specifics as an example. Mr. Davis noted that the template is four pages long. The county’s policy is two. Mr. Oelke explained that the current policy doesn’t list specific actions that are considered harassment. Mr. Davis confirmed.
Ms. Weikert asked if the new policy will be distributed to Elected Officials as well for review. Mr. Davis said yes. He will work with Ms. Gomez to get everything out.
Mr. Steffen asked for confirmation that there is no vote on this item today. Ms. Mayberry confirmed that it is just for information. It will most likely come back to this committee for a vote next month once the proper people have had a chance to put this together for County Board review.
9) Review of pending/proposed state legislation & policy matters affecting Rock Island County
There was no discussion of Item 9.
10) The committee may enter into closed session per 5 ILCS 120/2(c)(21) – Discussion of minutes of meetings lawfully closed under this Act, whether for purposes of approval by the body of the minutes or semi-annual review of the minutes as mandated by Section 2.06.
The committee did not enter into closed session.
11) Consider keeping closed session minutes closed
Ms. Mayberry explained that it’s time for the semiannual review of closed session minutes. There is just have one set for this committee and she recommends keeping them closed, but if the committee wishes to discuss it, they go into closed.
Motion to keep minutes closed: Mike Steffen
2nd: Pat Moreno
Voice vote
Motion carried
12) Committee member opportunity for brief comments (no decisions will be made)
There were none.
13) Adjourn
Chair Mia Mayberry adjourned the meeting at 10:40 a.m.
http://www.rockislandcounty.org/CountyBoard.aspx?id=40517#GHA
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