Let's go ahead and call this meeting to order.
If you would please acknowledge your presence here by voting on the electronic device.
That's all right.
It looks like we have 13 present.
Mr. Brandt is excused, and Mr. Moderow is also excused.
He was in Washington, DC.
Mr. Fricke, would you lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance?
And Ms. Baker, Frer, either one of you.
Thank you to everyone that's here this evening as we discuss the business of our county.
We thank you for the wisdom of each person that's here this evening.
We ask that we can work together and discuss our needs.
Thank you.
United States of America, which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
Before I ask for an approval of the agenda, I will be removing the second item under Finance, of the Mapper Health Agreement as we work through that process.
With that can I get a motion to approve by Mr. Diddens?
Is there a second?
By Mrs. Hayes.
Is there any discussion on it?
Mr. Fricke and Mr. Diddens, both of you have your microphone buttons if you want just there you go.
Yep seeing no discussion if you would please cast your vote on the approval and that passes 13 to 0 thank you very much for the consent agenda would any board member like to remove either item A or B if not is there a motion to approve by mr. Didn't second by mr. Jogerst any discussion on A or B seeing none please cast your vote and that passes unanimously thank you is there any public comment tonight come on up to microphone if you would you'll be given three minutes and the clock will start when you say your name I'm Karen Rivers the quarry located at 466 West Fairview Road Freeport owned by Zach Jeffrey was issued an occupancy permit on August 11 2026 without compliance to the requirements sent by the county and should be voided one unmet requirement is fencing three times in writing with at the Zoning Department and now tonight is the second time in person at a county meeting that I have requested a License Inspector inspect the improperly constructed fence on the east side of the property.
County Board members have been sent email copies of two nuisance complaint investigation requests I submitted to the Building and Zoning Department.
I will read in part concerns listed on the complaint.
Long screws have been used with over an inch of exposed pointed tips facing the adjacent property present a severe puncture and or laceration hazard the fence has been constructed in part using damaged scrap steel panels that are rusted perforated and unsuitable creating a hazardous condition near residences earth-to-wood footings is inadequate and sufficient to properly and the anchor, the 12 foot post.
Multiple posts are set and recently piled on packed dirt.
The fence is loose and wobbly with less than one third of the total post length not underground to ensure structural stability.
The fence is out of plumb and is very visibly leaning in areas toward the adjacent east property.
In places the fence is 14 inches out of plumb measured at six foot.
At 10 foot exposed post height that is 22.33 inches of lean.
Dirt has been piled alongside the length of the lowest 12 foot horizontal support rails in an unsuccessful attempt to stabilize the wobbly leaning fence.
Correct spacing between posts for this type of solid fence is eight foot maximum, not the 12 foot spacing used.
Broken 12 foot horizontal rail is patched with a short one by four.
Where 12-foot support rails are too short between posts.
A small two-by-four is screwed into the posts to make up the length.
Due to the fence being significantly deficient, I again request a licensed inspector inspect the fence.
Upon confirmation of the inadequate and dangerous construction, I request appropriate corrective action and immediate repairs be made to eliminate the identified hazard to ensure normal function and safety.
Should anyone here be interested in the issue, please contact me.
Mr. Clay, this is in District G. Thank you for your attention.
Thank you.
Is there any other public comment?
All right, seeing none, we'll move on to new business.
The first is the approval of the appointment of Jerry Clay to fill the vacancy in County Board District G.
The Republic's Central Committee brought his name forward to fill that seat.
Is there a motion to approve?
Mr. Hadley, second by Mr. Jogerst.
Is there any discussion?
Seeing none, please cast your vote for that appointment.
And that passes unanimously.
Congratulations, Mr. Clay.
If you wouldn't mind coming forward, Judge Hauser.
Raise your right hand and repeat after me.
I, Jerry Clay, Have they been appointed?
Have been appointed.
Have been appointed to the Stephenson County Board, District G, in the County of Stevenson, do solemnly swear or affirm that I will support the Constitution of the United States, and and the Constitution of the State of Illinois and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of the Stephenson County Board.
Duties of the Stephenson County Board.
To the best of my ability.
To the best of my abilities.
Congratulations, sir.
It's been a great year.
There you go.
You're going to sign right here, please.
Right there.
As long as I use two hands, you might be able to read it.
You're just fine.
It was my honor to swear you in, sir.
OK.
Congratulations, Steve.
Thanks, Steve.
Thanks, Adam.
Thanks, Judge.
Thank you, Chair.
Thank you.
The next item on new business is the approval of bids for the purchase of vehicles for the Sheriff's Department.
Sheriff Stovall.
Mr. Chairman, County Board Members, on August 11th, I submitted an RFP for three squad cars, Chevy Tahoe's.
I presented that to the committee on the 11th.
The bids went out on August 12th.
They were in the paper on August 16th, 18th, 19th, 20th, and 21st in the Freeport Journal Standard.
The bids started to come in August 20th, September 2nd, and September 10th, so we received three bids.
The bidding was closed on September 16th, which is 35 days, a 35-day period.
I then opened the bids on September 16th at 3.30.
In attendance were myself, my assistant Heather Becker, and Georgia newcomer.
The bids came out as from Jared Campbell, I'm sorry I'm at the wrong page, from Curry Motors Chevrolet out of At Frankfort, Illinois, the three squad cars totaled $173,790.70.
From Mile Chevrolet, the total for three vehicles were $176,562.00 even.
And from Barco Automotive, the three bids came in at $170,758.89.
Was the low bidder by approximately $3,000.
Sheriff, what is your recommendation?
My recommendation is Barkow.
They are local and they are the local, the lowest bidder by $3,000, $1,000 a vehicle.
Very good.
Is there a motion to approve the Sheriff's recommendation by Mr. Bush?
Is there a second?
Mr. Busker, discussion?
Mr. Fricke, Go ahead.
I'm sorry, can you press your button one more time?
I apologize.
There we go.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Sheriff, as we look at these three vehicles, are these three vehicles replacing ones or are they just going to be added to the fleet?
They're replacing ones.
I have two that are out of service right now, so we're short.
Okay, and these vehicles will be vehicles that will be in the home Garaging System.
They'll go home with them staff.
Oh yes, yes the take-home cart.
Mm-hmm and the the third vehicle you said two of your vehicles were out of service, the third one will be disposed of some way or mean?
Yes, traded in with a high mileage, yes.
And I don't know if the committee has asked this question or not and I've never seen the report, but I was wondering just out of as we look at the number of vehicles, what does those vehicles cost us in insurance?
I mean we're saying we're purchasing luxury vehicles for employees to take home.
How much do they cost us in insurance a year?
These are police package vehicles they're not luxury.
A Tahoe is a top-of-the-line vehicle.
No it's not.
Only a Cadillac.
I think you probably should look at your research a little bit closer.
This is a police vehicle.
It has nothing on the inside.
It's completely plain.
All it has is a empty council so that we can put our radio system.
So when When you say luxury vehicle, that's misleading.
Again, that's an opinion.
How many vehicles in our county at this point in your department, because that's the only one you can answer to, go home with a staff member every night?
Do you know that?
I mean, I don't know that you can maybe you can't answer that.
I can put it in approximate.
Sure.
Approximate, probably 33.
Thank you.
That's all the questions I have.
All right, any other questions?
Seeing none, you may vote for the motion on the floor, please.
Thank you, Sheriff.
And that passes 12 to one.
Mr. Zimmerman, I believe you voted no, correct?
No.
I was chair.
No, we have one no vote.
It did pass.
Is the one no vote, is that by you, Jerry?
Okay, perfect.
Thank you, Jerry.
All right, we'll move into executive session.
5ILCS 120 slash 2C11 litigation, when an action against, affecting, or on behalf of a particular public body has been filed and is pending before a court or administrative tribunal, when the public body finds that an action is probable or imminent.
Is there a motion to go into executive session?
Mr. Busker, is there a second?
Mr. Jogerst, any discussion on going into executive session?
Seeing none, please cast your vote.
And that passes unanimously.
Nate, would you let me know when we're off air please?
Resume regular session September 17th, 2026.
We're just waiting on the video.
Alright, we are back in session.
No action was taken while in the executive session.
We'll move on to the next item.
The approval of settlement and claim number 250828W003-0001.
Is there a motion to approve?
By Mr. Jogerst, second by Mr. Diddens.
Any discussion?
Saying none, you may cast your vote.
And that is approved with one no vote.
I'm assuming that was you, Mr. Clay?
Correct.
All right, thank you very much.
All right, we'll move on then to the auditors report to receive and approve the 2025 audit.
We have Lindsay from Sickich here.
Lindsay, if you wouldn't mind coming up, please.
Thank you for spending your Thursday night with us.
Well, good evening.
Thank you for inviting me to your meeting this evening to present to you the results of the audit for the year ended December 31st, 2025.
As a result of the audit, we have issued several different reports.
It looks like everyone does have hard copies.
My comments tonight will focus on the annual financial reports.
That's the largest of the reports that's in front of you.
Turning a couple pages into that report, you'll come to page number one on sickage letterhead.
This is our audit opinion.
Second paragraph down includes the opinion that was issued as a result of the audit.
Pleased to report that Stephenson County received an unmodified opinion on its 2025 financial statements.
This could also be referred to as a clean opinion, so this is the outcome that you want as a result of your audit.
This means that the financial statements are presented fairly in all material respects in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles.
If you flip forward a couple pages from there to page number five.
There is another report that is on sickage letterhead.
So this is the independent auditor's report on internal control over financial reporting and on compliance with laws and regulations.
So this second opinion is required due to the amount of state and federal funding that the county spends on an annual basis.
We're required to, the county's required to undergo what's called a single audit.
So we do specific compliance testing on major federal programs, which is required under law there.
And then within that report, we noted that we had no noncompliance with any grants or laws or regulations.
However, during our review of internal controls, we did have three findings that we considered to be material weaknesses in internal control.
And those start on page 7.
So of those material weaknesses, those are all repeated from the previous year.
So there were no new findings this year.
They were repeat findings from the prior year.
Last year, there were four findings.
This year, there were three findings.
So to go over those findings, the first one relates to material audit adjustments.
So during the audit, we proposed several financial statement adjustments to ensure that the financial statements were properly stated in the courts generally accepted accounting principles because your auditors can't be considered to be a part of the county's internal controls whenever we post material audit adjustments.
That means there is a material weakness in internal control there.
So that's the first one.
The second one relates to capital assets.
And this just relates to how the county tracks the capital assets.
I will say that we have seen some steps in the right direction here with the maintenance of the capital asset records.
There were just a few assets this year that we noted maybe related to prior year capital assets that didn't get added and that were added this year, or there were current year assets that didn't get added to that listing.
So nothing that was significant enough to have to restate the prior financial statements or anything of that nature.
But just continuing to emphasize the importance of maintaining that capital asset records.
And then the last one is on the bottom of page eight, relates to nursing home payables.
Because of the nature of the operations with the nursing home and the cash flow circumstances there, the balances within the county's accounting system for accounts payable doesn't agree to what actually was payable at year end.
So that kind of goes hand in hand with the material audit adjustments.
We did have to record some material audit adjustments to properly state that payable balance at year end.
With things winding down with how that's structured, anticipate that one would likely roll off next year going forward.
The next few pages just show the prior year comments and the status.
So on page number 10 and 11, bottom of page 10 on top of page 11.
There was a comment last year related to the nursing home receivables.
So that comment has been considered implemented because that has been outsourced and transitioned out there.
So that one has been implemented.
So from there, I would just go over a few financial highlights with you this evening.
So the financial statements start on page 13 and 14.
Page 13 and 14 is your statement of net position.
So I would say this is your high 10,000 foot view of the county's financial picture and the reason that I say that is that this includes capital assets.
Those aren't included within your funds themselves, it's just included on this statement of net position.
Also includes any long-term liabilities, any long-term debt, compensated absences payable.
I would say that absences payable pension items are all included within this so again kind of a high-level picture this is not used in day-to-day operations this is required to be presented to get that unmodified opinion though.
Next question is before 2014, what's that for?
That is for the nursing home fund so if you give me like two minutes I'm gonna go over that in a little more detail.
A little bit further in the report it's kind of easier to read in a couple pages here.
Yep.
So page 15 and 16 is your statement of activities.
So still that high level focus there.
Focus would be on change in net position, which is kind of towards the middle of the page on page number 16.
So overall, your governmental activities did have a positive increase in net position of about $2 million.
And then your business type activities, nursing center operations, did have a deficit of about $2.6 million this year.
And again I'll go over that in a little more detail in a couple of pages where it's a little easier to read.
Page 17 is your balance sheet for your governmental funds.
So this is different from that statement of net position where this does not include any long-term assets, does not include any long-term debt, so more of a current focus.
So this is probably more the type of information that you're used to seeing.
Just one thing I would like to highlight here is for your general fund, total fund balance, you had about $9.5 million of fund balance.
When you compare that to your annual expenditures, which are on page 19, you had about $13.8 million of annual expenditures.
That puts you, I don't know, somewhere around nine months, I'd say, of reserve.
So kind of right in that range of where you'd expect to be and where you'd like to be as far as reserves having nine months in place there for your general fund.
And then continuing on page 19, just a couple more highlights.
Net change and fund balance is the third lineup from the bottom.
So your general fund had a positive increase in fund balance of $716,000.
ARPA and IMRF funds both had increases as well.
Your non-major governmental funds, which is the remaining of your funds, they're aggregated together on this schedule.
There's details on each of those funds in the back of the report, had a decline of $317,000.
So overall, your governmental funds did show a positive increase of about $800,000.
Fund balance went from $30.1 million to $30.9 million.
So then page 21, 22, and 23 include the nursing center fund.
So I think let's focus on page 23.
That is your income statement.
So you have two columns here, your nursing center fund, which is your business type activities, and then your internal service fund.
That's your health insurance fund.
That rolls into the governmental activities on the statement of net position, so that didn't account for that negative balance we were seeing.
So overall, Nursing Home Fund, as I had mentioned, had a change in net position, a decline of about 2.6 million.
In addition to that, we did have a prior year restatement of about $130,000.
So that related to some prior year accounts payable that weren't recognized in last year's financial statements.
We noticed during the audit this year that those amounts were paid that really related to previous fiscal years.
We do restate the beginning balances when something like that comes up and that kind of goes hand-in-hand with that material weakness over the nursing home payables Just ensuring that those all get properly reported in the right period So overall fund balance for that nursing center fund went from about 1 million to a deficit of 1.6 million The activity here relates to operations through I believe it was 930 and then after that operations began to be outsourced So going forward what you'll likely see will be a lot less activity in here and your financials going forward what you'll continue to see is the capital assets the building is still owned by the county so you'll continue to see those assets and the related depreciation expense you'll continue to see any potential investment income and property taxes in this fund but should not see any you know charges for services or any other operating expenses going forward since all the payables are recognized as expenses now even if they're not being paid So that's my comments on the nursing center, so I'll pause if there's any follow-up questions there.
If not, I just have one more page I would like to cover.
That is page 69 and 70.
So at page 69 is your schedule of changes in your net pension liability for the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund or IMRF.
So this is one of the main pension plans that the county participates in.
Payton.
I always think it's interesting just to give a quick update as far as where you stand with, you know, funding your pension plans.
The focus here would be probably the top right corner of page number 70, and this is your funded percentage.
So as of December 31st, 2024, you report IMRF's data one year in arrears.
You actually had a net pension asset rather than a net pension liability.
So what that means is that you have sent, you plus the employees have sent more to IMRF than what they currently estimate that you'll need to fund your pension plan.
And what that means for you is just that could change what your employer required contribution percentage would be in future years.
So this number tends to kind of go up and down.
It's not always just going to be a net pension asset.
There's a lot of variables that go into the calculation.
You know, actuaries calculate what your liability will be based upon a variety of Assumptions and then you know what you have set aside that varies based on market performance as well.
But as of December 31st, 2024, you did have a net pension asset and 104% funded there.
Next page from there is page 71 and 72.
Very similar data, but this is for the Sheriff's Law Enforcement Personnel Plan through IMRF as well.
So just wanted to give you some highlights for that one as as well.
Top right corner of page 72, you'll see that you were 96% funded.
So also very well positioned for your SLEP plan as well.
So that concludes my comments that I had for you this evening.
I would be happy to answer any questions.
Any questions?
I'm going to lie reading for you later.
All right.
Thank you, Lindsay.
Thank you.
Is there a motion to approve?
So moved.
Mr. Diddens is there second by Mr. Fricke.
Any discussion?
Seeing none, please cast your vote and that's approved unanimously.
Thank you for that.
Move on to the zoning report.
Director Williams.
Good evening.
The Zoning Board of Appeals met Thursday, September 10th with the forum present.
The only hearing of the night was for the approval of 400-22B, Wind Energy Conversion System, 400-23.3, Commercial Energy Solar Facility, 400-23.7, Energy Storage Systems, 400-92, Special Uses, and the Table of Special Uses.
The Zoning Board of Appeals voted 4-0 to approve all amendments.
Is there a motion to approve?
Mr. Diddens is there second by Mrs. Lawfer.
Any discussion?
Seeing none, please cast your vote.
Passes with one no vote.
Mr. Clay, was that you?
Correct.
All right, welcome back.
Mr. Fricke, is that a D. A. For you?
I was out.
Okay.
I can say yes.
Anything else, Director Williams?
No, sir.
All right, thank you very much.
Move on quickly to the Chairman's report.
I'll keep it brief.
The Highway Department is looking We've got approximately 13 million in unfunded roads and bridges coming up.
I did meet with Representative Darren LaHood last week, scheduled to meet with Representative Sorensen sometime before the middle of October to talk about these roads, which are mostly in District 16 and 17 of the Congressional District.
Mr. Newton and Mr. Moderow just returned from Washington, D. C., or at least you have.
Mr. Moderow indicated that he did, or you both spoke with Congressman Sorenson's office.
Anything you'd like to share with them on that effort?
They just made mention of that funding and that we were one of the first ones to approach about a project and it should.
On a project and it should be good and they're planning on scheduling a meeting with you personally when they're in the area.
Perfect.
All right, thank you very much.
With that, we'll move on to action items and information from standing committees.
First up is finance.
Mrs. Baker, you have two items.
If you wouldn't mind pressing your microphone button for me, thank you.
Go ahead.
Yes, approval of quote for employee health insurance.
We have Carrie McWright here.
And of course you will be coming up to do a briefing of interns.
Thank you for the Blue Cross Blue Shield medical and dental plans that the county has.
And on page two of the board materials that I submitted this week, you will find a summary of what we discussed and what we recommend.
I will go through that here quickly.
Let me know if you have questions.
This year in 2026 the projected total medical cost for the county and its employees and dependents is around $4.496 million.
The renewal came in at about $4.885 million, that is an 8.7 percent increase assuming the Blue Cross Blue Shield dental program is also implemented.
As your insurance agent, this is an incredibly great renewal.
The last several, maybe even four years, these renewals have gone up in the double digits teens to almost 20% every year.
So we're extremely happy about this.
We did go out to quote for several other plans.
All of them were either declined, could not compete due to pricing, or the pricing came in at even more than the and their renewal amount.
The plans that we are offering are continuing to be the same design as are currently in place.
There is one change, the deductible that was $1,000 PPO plan will be moved to 1250.
What that means is Blue Cross Blue Shield won't offer a low deductible down to 1,000.
The lowest deductible they will offer is 1250.
Also several of the plans have a couple of changes within them.
We shared and talked about a detailed document that compared last year to this year.
Some of the co-pays and out-of-pockets have changed and have gone up slightly.
Myself and my staff will be reviewing those with each employee as needed during open enrollment.
The reasoning for such a good renewal are a couple of reasons.
The net claims decreased by 2% per capita, which is good.
That is a direction that we have been trying to make each year in terms of the outs, the extra programming that we have in place.
So we're very proud of that.
And we want to see that direction keep going down.
In this past year, there were 14 high dollar or high cost claimants.
That is a big driver of the costs and claims of the program.
There are 10 large claimants in the current period and eight are considering ongoing.
What that means is two was a temporary just one one-off high claim type claim claimant and then there are 10 that are or 8 that are ongoing.
Also the prior period loss ratios that means loss ratio is the number of dollars of claims paid versus the premiums collected has always been high.
The prior loss ratio was 113.5% and in this period was 97.5.
Again that is a direction we definitely want to see so we're really really happy going on to the next page you can see the various there's four plans the monthly cost in total that will be shared by the county and the employees and their families and also down there there is a blurb about the county contributions to those who are enrolled in HSA plans going on to the next page page four the dental renewal was flat the exact the projected cost will be the Finally, the MAPR Health Program, which we implemented starting January 1st of this year.
At the beginning of the program, there was only an RX MAPR piece.
This past August, they also implemented, included in the plan, a DX MAPR piece.
The RX MAPR right now has saved the county $67,000 in prescription and medical claims at a cost to the county of about $7700.
So that's an eight times ROI.
So we're excited about that.
And I think that this program will definitely go a long way in decreasing prescription claims.
So we recommend keeping that.
This mid-year, they launched DXMapper.
That is a voluntary program that just has started.
And that is a genetic mapping program that is voluntary for any employee or dependent to have their genes mapped against the top 11 chronic conditions that cause either early death or high cost claimants, such as breast cancer, colon cancer, Alzheimer's, diabetes, things of that nature.
We're really, really excited about this piece.
The employees have just received information about that this past August, so we're hoping a lot of employees join that.
So we recommend or Diamond Brothers recommend that we renew the Blue Cross Blue Shield Medical and Dental Plans.
Incidentally, the ancillary, the rest of the items, vision, life, AD&D, et cetera, we're in a rate guarantee through 2027.
So we're just gonna continue that plan that was approved last year.
We also recommend continuing the HSA contributions by the county to encourage folks to enroll in HSA Plans.
And you can see the dollar amounts there.
We also recommend renewing the MAPR Health Program.
With that, I will open it up to any questions.
Thank you for your time.
Thank you, Carrie.
If there's no questions, is there a motion to approve?
So moved.
Is there a second?
Second.
Second by Mr. Bush, motion made by Mrs. Baker.
Any other discussion?
Mrs. Williams, did you have a question?
I did.
Do you want to press your button again, please?
You did before Mr. Hadley, so go ahead.
Okay The question I had what didn't we do some kind of an approval for a testing program of people's Genes or something last year that was the RX mapper that she just spoke about that she just spoke about so okay I'm just trying to hook the two of them together.
Thank you Mr. Hadley go ahead I think we have too many.
Give me one second.
Try it again.
Try it one more time, Mr. Hadley.
Here we go.
Okay, thank you.
Well, I'm happy that our ratio's gone down and our claims have gone down and everything, but what I want to recommend to the County Board for near future is that we We have a great organization, UCCI.
And when I used to go to the meetings, and I recommend to any board member that goes to these meetings, network with other counties, boards, ask them, you know, what kind of insurance you got?
Do you have self insurance?
Who's your insurance carrier?
Who's your broker?
We might get some good ideas to bring back and maybe we can do better.
Maybe we can't do better, but we should obligate to the taxpayers and look and see if we can do better by networking with other counties.
Thank you, Chairman.
Any other questions?
All right, you may go ahead and cast your vote.
All right, looks like it's passed 12 to two.
Mr. Hadley and Mr. Clay both voted no, is that correct?
Yes.
All right, very good, thank you, that does pass.
Mrs. Baker, your final item, please.
Yes, approval of sale of surplus properties.
There are four resolutions before you tonight.
All four go back to the owners.
This is the best possible outcome that can happen.
So with that, I make a motion to approve.
Thank you.
Is there a second by Mr. Jogerst?
Any discussion on this?
Seeing none, please cast your vote.
And that passes unanimously, thank you.
Any other information on your committee, Mrs. Baker?
Yes, so as we head into October meetings, I encourage everyone to come prepared, ask questions, take part in conversations.
We're getting close to wrapping up the budget.
So having everybody involved will make things remain and move a little bit long, a little smoothly.
Great, thank you very much.
Mr. Bush, public property and safety, no action items.
Safety.
No action items.
Any information out of your committee, sir?
No.
Okay, thank you.
Administration committee.
Mr. Jogerst, looks like you have two action items.
Go ahead.
Yeah, the first one is approval resolution authorizing acquisition of all tax certificates for the tax year 2025 payable in 2026.
I'll make a motion to to approve.
I did send that out to the board.
They can kind of get a synapsis or summary of what we're doing here.
Is there a second to Mr. Jogerst's motion by Mr. Fricke?
Is there any further discussion?
Mr. Clay, go ahead.
Yeah, can you give me an explanation of what that means?
Yeah, so basically we're going to change the way it's, well, it's a It's a long story.
The Treasurer did a great job at the administration committee.
I did send this out, but you were on there at that point.
They're going to change the way we're doing things.
It's going to go to where no money changes hands at the sale.
Basically, we're going to take some of the buyers out of that, and then also it's a much lower interest rate for the taxpayers who redeem.
Otherwise they're gonna be they would have to go to like a up to 9% rate and this would be like a 0.75 kind of thing.
Basically what happened is that the state was about two years behind on the change in the law and there was a bunch of lawsuits going so this is a kind of rectify that then get us positioned for the future here.
The other benefit of doing this is we don't have to have the extra staff for state's attorneys on time and to run the traditional tax sale.
It changes the impact on taxing districts.
They lose a small premium.
However, 90 to 95 percent of the parcels are redeemed.
So it's basically kind of cleaning this up.
There's some more coming here down the pipe.
Probably gonna have to set some money aside in the next year or so for some of these sales that have happened in the past.
Thank you.
So, yep.
Anything else, Mr. Clay?
No.
Anyone else?
All right, you may go ahead and cast your vote.
All right, that passes with one no vote, Mr. Clay.
All right, thank you very much.
Next to action item Mr. Jogerst.
The approval of County Board and committee meeting calendar for 2027.
The county clerk has put this together right and kind of had to move a few things around with some Monday holidays and things but I think it's a very good calendar so I'll make a motion to approve.
Thank you is there a second?
Mrs. Lawfer is there any discussion?
Seeing none go ahead and cast your vote please.
That passes unanimously.
Any other information out of have your committee Mr. Jogerst?
Yeah we're going through the budgets I think we got one more to do yet next month and then we should be good to go.
So thank you.
Thank you.
Move on to court services.
Mr. Diddens, you have an action item I believe.
Yes.
Go ahead.
Thank you Mr. Chairman.
We are looking to approve a contract with Robert Half for professional recruitment services.
This This is for Mr. Larsen's department, so I asked him if he would just speak to that.
Sure.
Thank you.
Let me get your microphone turned on.
Karl, go ahead.
So we've had a lot of difficulty hiring since at least 2019, but it's only gotten worse.
We're down to, as of the end of the day tomorrow, we'll have three attorneys working in the state's attorney's office that should have seven.
I've posted at every law school in the Midwest.
I've worked through LinkedIn, Indeed, ZipRecruiter, LawCrossing.
Com and we're just not getting any resumes at all.
Less than two or three in the last two years and of those you know in years gone by I wouldn't even have interviewed most of those folks and now that's you know we're lucky to get.
So at this point I've contacted Robert Half, they're a recruiter, a legal recruiter and they're gonna look for assistant state's attorneys for us.
For that they will charge us a fee.
That fee will be 20% of the first year's starting salary.
They're recommending advertising the initial job posting at between 75 and 90 thousand dollars, but they expect to get somebody that will be satisfied with somewhere between 80 and 85 is actually where we'll land.
So you can do the math on what the fee they're looking for is but at this point if you want to keep having a state's attorney's office we're gonna have to do something different than what we've done.
One upside of being chronically understaffed is that we do have the money in our budget to pay for this because we haven't been paying attorneys so I'd be happy to answer any questions you might have.
It says 25 but then later it says like but you get the discount like is that that's like at the top of the second page is that I'm asking is that where you're looking okay sorry let's let's just make sure but I'm pretty sure here let's take a look please please press your button to be recognized before you speak so I can get the microphones turned on all right let's get it all right so second page you're right 25% their regular is 35 and they're going down to 25 for us is what they're saying so 25% all right mr. Frick go ahead all right anyone else all right is there a motion to approve I wouldn't make that motion mr. Diddens is there a second mr. Jogerst any further discussion I just like to thank mr. Larson for taking the initiative to do this and it's really getting to a critical point in his department being understaffed you know so I appreciate your diligence.
Mr. Larson thank you.
If there are no other questions or comments you may go ahead and cast your vote and that passes with one no vote.
Is that you Mr. Clay?
All right any other information out of your committee Mr. Diddens?
Not at this time thank you.
All right thank you.
We'll move on to nursing home.
Mrs. Lawfer there is no action items.
Any information out of your committee.
Well there you go.
Okay the census update is it was 85 residents last week it's up to 91 as of today so that's a good thing.
Agency hours has decreased to 25 hours as of last week and Cody from the union continues to visit for the intermittent union visits.
Two new washers have been delivered and a and Dishwasher and last week was EVS Appreciation Week and the retirement of Annette Williams after I think 30 or 31 years and the new Director of Nursing was at a committee meeting as of last week.
Her name is Stephanie, that's all I know.
That's all I have.
All right.
Great.
Thank you very much.
Planning and Development, Mr. Fricke, no action items, any information of your committee?
Just one thing Mr. Chairman, thank you.
We had talked to a few months back about a building that we looked at just down the street here.
I had had several questions and comments about that along the way, but just so that everyone knows that building is no longer available.
So, that's all I have, thank you.
Alright, thank you very much.
We'll move on to Public Works.
Mr. Newton, there are two action items.
Is mine final?
It was.
That's all right.
Go ahead, sir.
For your consideration tonight, we have approval of manual check for final balancing of the ARPA funds.
And I so move.
All right, sir.
All right, sir, a second to Mr. Newton's motion.
Mr., Mrs. Williams, Mr. Jogerst, seconded by Mr. Jogerst.
Discussion?
Any discussion?
Mr. Clay, go ahead.
Could you just explain what the purpose of that is?
Well, we receive ARPA funds and I think this is the balance that we had to have them spent by the end of the year and so the check, the manual check will balance our accounts.
So am I close?
Yes, I believe these funds actually need to be expended before the end of September in this case.
Okay.
But they are ARPA funds.
So this is just to balance the account?
Basically, yes.
Okay.
Yep.
Any other questions Mr. Clay?
No.
Any other discussion?
Seeing none, please cast your vote.
That passes unanimously, thank you.
Mr. Newton, your final item.
Our second item of the evening is HD 26-18, approval of the 2026 Route 26 and McConnell Road intersection reconstruction project, a nice little move.
Is there a second to that motion?
Mr. Jogerst, any discussion?
Mr. Hadley, go ahead.
Oops, I'm sorry, press your button again, please.
Go ahead, sir.
One quick question.
Does anybody know how many bids were on this project?
I don't recall.
Don't quote me.
Maybe three?
That's all.
Just a rough number.
Thank you.
That's it.
All right.
Mr. Clay, go ahead.
And the cost of this project and when it will be accomplished?
Just a general.
I can tell you for the completion, the engineer has said that we would have it done by the end of and he's committed that if he's not finished by then he's going to work for another five years.
That is the plan to get it done before the end of the year.
Anything on the amount, Sam?
I'm looking at them, let me see.
He doesn't have access to that, Mrs. Williams, if you want to roll that, they've got it.
Any other discussion on this?
Seeing none, you may go ahead and cast your vote.
Passes unanimously, thank you.
Any other information out of the committee, Mr. Newton?
Not at this time, thank you.
All right, I would entertain a motion to adjourn by Mr. Bush, second by Mrs. Hayes.
Any discussion?
Seeing none, please cast your vote to adjourn.
Passes unanimously, thank you everyone.
We'll see you next month on October 15th.