Rock Island Today

Rock Island County Committee of the Whole met June 14.

Here are the minutes provided by the committee:

The Committee of the Whole of the Rock Island County Board met at the above date and time in the Board Chambers of the Rock Island County Office Building; 1504 Third Avenue, Rock Island, Illinois. Per section 5e of the State of Illinois Open Meetings Act, members of the County Board were allowed to attend remotely if they preferred.

Members of the public were able to attend the meeting in person or call in the meeting.

Minutes as follow:

Call to Order and Roll Call

Vice-Chairman B. Vyncke called the meeting to order at 5:33 pm.

A roll call was taken as follows:

Members present: R. Morthland, D. Cremeens, , M. Moreno, L. Burns, L. Moreno, C. Enburg, Vice Chair B. Vyncke, P. McNeil, L. Thompson, D. Adams, Chairman R. Brunk, A. Normoyle, E. Sowards, K. Swanson, E. Langdon, R. Simmer, L. Boswell-Loftin, J. Woods, D. Beck, D. Mielke, K. Bogdonas, B. Westpfahl

Members absent: J. Deppe M. Burns, D. Clevenger (19/25)

Others Present: J. Grafton, A. Palmer, J. Massa, L. Ewert, A. McLaughlin (RSM), K. Davis, C. Przybyla

Public Comment (1)

There was one request for public comment from Nick Carlson of Silvis, Illinois in reference to the Greater Metropolitan Area Housing Authority/ Apoyo Village.

He stated “ some of you have probably gotten emails from me. I wanted to make the Greater Metro Area Housing Authority and their behavior towards members the public or lack thereof, would be a more accurate description. Obviously they have a project called the Apoyo Village that they are trying to build in Silvis, Illinois. That project uses about 7.5 million dollars in taxpayer money. There are a lot of issues surrounding it and there is obvious ,pushback from the community citizens as well as the local city government.

In response to … to that pushback and to find information, the board of commissioners response has been for the last 4 months to literally not communicate whatsoever with any members of the public failing to attend their own public hearing regarding the project itself, making threats against the public, as well as local elected officials… all of this is documented, if anyone needs any documentation please reach out to me… lying about what the project actually, lying about the target population is lie Open Meetings Act to the and violations thereof.. The latest, I guess, offense would be terms as well as their residents. Not only is this a violation of employee and tenant rights, it actually violates their own “no solicitation” policy.

The reason there are hundreds of signatures of opposition to the project. They intend to submit these to HUD showing there is public support for it--There is not. Um, the way they obtained these letters is questionable; I have a FOIA out figuring how they got them. I am willing to bet many of the signatures do not match the individuals who actually signed the documents; several of the individuals have mental disabilities, as well as one of them, for a fact is blind, so to read the two page document would be very hard. When we’ve tried to actually communicate with Greater Metro (Housing Authority) they have not

All of their board meetings are virtual, however on the last board meeting they left everyone on mute and they did not take public comment – it was not accepted. So, basically everything that has happened, their board has knowledge of—it has all been documented, sent to them, asked for clarification.. Never once have they responded to anything, they have simply had their attorneys send false accusations or misleading statements to the public information back.

I know this body—or understand that this body they come to you, you do approve their board They currently have 6 members. I find that hard to believe; so all of this is just to say, the more The more people that know there are a lot

All of it is documented from the department of corrections and what they are saying and their refusal to actually communication is insulting to the public. I think there are a lot of hard questions that need to be asked

Thank you.

Approval of Minutes

The minutes from the May meeting were approved with motion by L. Moreno seconded by D. Adams. A roll call was established.

M. Moreno, L. Burns,

Motion carried

Condition of Funds Report

Auditor Ms. Palmer gave her monthly report; she stated her report was emailed to the members as well as the RSM audit presentation, and financial graphs. She stated the ARPA funds all the ARPA funds had been received as of June 6th, and the funds were invested appropriately. She noted State of Illinois Payments to the general funds were up with revenue increases due to cannabis sales tax and online sales tax, continuing with the new state fiscal year starting July 1st. Sales tax, replacement tax and cannabis taxes were about 7.365 million dollars higher prior to April 2021 to May 2022.

She continued the general fund increased balance in 7.668 million higher without any ARPA funds; staying independent of ARPA funds.

Aaron McLaughlin, manager of the external Audit with RMS US LLP informed the board that the audit was not complete. He stated once the report is complete, the board would receive a letter with final results. He stated the goals; there were two new government accounting standards; GASB-84 relating to County fiduciary funds, or agency funds and the GASB-98, or the annual comprehensive financial report.

General fund revenue for the past five years was covered comparing 2021 revenue to 2020 revenue and Mr. McLaughlin mentioned an overall strong increase in revenues of 4.5 million or 17%. Fee revenues suffered as a result of the pandemic last year but showed recovery to the pre pandemic baseline. Many fee categories suffered due to pandemic measures, covid shutdowns etc, specifically in jail related fees, and zoning fees.

Property taxes increased; and the largest increase was in intergovernmental revenue at 3.1 million totals. There were a variety of taxes (sales, replacement, cannabis, and state income taxes) increases at about 7-8 %.

Mr. Langdon asked if the audit would be available in hard copy to the members. Mr. McLaughlin stated the finalized copy would be received by the members

Ms. Palmer stated the audit slides were emailed to the members as well.

She also stated the averages for payrolls, TDs and end of months and cost of retro pay bonuses, increases for the collective bargaining unit for 2025A are in the members packets for reference.

Staff Reports

Treasurer L. Ewert reported on the monthly reports and the first tax due date and distribution had already occurred. She continued that monthly interest was increasing as the interest rates have increased. She stated the federal reserve would likely increase interest rates. She mentioned that on June 6th the County received the second and final tranche of American Rescue Plan Act money totaling $13,779,166.50.

She also noted attending a Illinois Department of Revenue local webinar workshop that their fiscal year 14.4 billion dollars distributed to local governments up almost 4 billion from the previous year ago. The suspension of the 1% grocery tax did not have an effect on sales tax that filtered to the County level. She continued Aug 5-14 there would be a sales tax holiday that would not effect the county revenue. The supplemental sales tax for the month of March was received totaling $399,117.30. From last year to this year there was a decrease of about $40,000 possibly due to the economic impact and increase in motor fuel taxes.

Finance and Personnel Committee Report

Given by Chairman L. Moreno

Governance, Health and Administration Committee Report

Given by GHA Vice-Chair M. Moreno due to Chairman J. Deppe’s absence.

Public Works and Facilities Committee Report

Given by Chairman L. Burns

Ms. Normoyle asked Mr. Massa about the motor fuel tax resolution as to where it was located. Mr. Massa stated that the project was located south of Milan.

Approval of the County Board Agenda

Motion to approve as presented by L. Moreno. Seconded K. Swanson.

Mr. Westpfahl inquired about having the Rock Ridge Girls Softball team to the County Board meeting for recognition of their back-to-back state championships. Chairman Brunk stated he would have someone reach out to invite them.

A roll call was taken:

R. Morthland, D. Cremeens , M. Moreno, L. Burns, L. Moreno, C. Enburg, Vice-Chair B. Vyncke, P. McNeil, L. Thompson, D. Adams, Chairman R. Brunk, A. Normoyle, E. Sowards, K. Swanson, E. Langdon, R. Simmer, L. Boswell-Loftin, J. Woods, D. Beck, D. Mielke, K. Bogdonas, B. Westpfahl—YES Motion carried

Closed Session

There were no items for Closed Session.

Committee Member Opportunity for Brief Comment (no decisions to be made) Ms. Beck stated that she was pleased to see a budget that was not terrifying, stating the last three years were quite scary.

Adjourn

With no further business, the Committee of the Whole adjourned at 6:21 PM with motion by L. Boswell-Loftin. Seconded by L. Thompson

Motion for previous roll call by M. Moreno Seconded K. Swanson.

Motion carried

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