I'm going to call the meeting of the Corp Services Committee, the meeting, I'm going to call it to order, Wednesday, July 8, 2026, it's 630.

The first item is prayer, I'll take care of that, join me in prayer.

Father, Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to get together tonight.

Thank you for all the dedicated staff that we have, all the leaders, and we just ask that you would guide us as we make decisions to do the best thing for our residents of Seeds County.

In Jesus' name, amen.

Amen.

Okay, 3.0, approval of the agenda.

Can I get a motion?

Motion to approve.

I'll second it.

Yeah.

Any discussion?

Say none. All those in favor, say aye.

Aye.

Those opposed, same sign. Motion passes.

5.0 is the, no, 4.0 is the review and approval of the meeting minutes from June 10, 2026.

Can I get a motion?

Motion and approval.

and I will second it.

Okay.

We're honorable.

Any discussion?

Seeing none.

All those in favor, say aye.

Aye.

Those opposed, same sign.

Motion passes.

5.0 is the approval of the claims.

And they're $52,094.74.

Can I do the motion?

Motion to approve.

And I'll second it.

any discussion? I do have just some questions. Okay. There is an $8,775 charge or an expense to King County and I'm wondering how many juveniles were housing over there right now? It's on the report. It's zero. I think it's a housing right now.

So that must have been from the previous month. Last month it was two. So that was probably that expense, is that correct? Yes. Okay. The Twin Imaging Counseling was the program you told us about that time? Yes. Is that the fee for him?

And I just wanted to make just a comment, probably for maybe the entire person who might be listening to this $10,872 for an interpreter services, which I thought was extraordinary. So we all need to learn how to speak Spanish, you know, Guatemalan or whatever it is we're using.

I found out that that's a court expense. I thought that was extraordinary. That's reimbursed from the state. I thought the same thing. Because the last two months it was $11,000. Oh, wow. So it does get reimbursed from the state. At 100%? It's not my department. It did earlier, starting July 1st, things have changed. I don't know if They're reimbursing as much, but they're going to be reimbursing almost all of it.

It's my understanding.

Wow.

Okay.

Yeah, I thought that number was.

Yeah, I would have thought 11,000, too, was extraordinary.

So that's all.

That's the only things I had.

Okay.

A lot of that is live people here.

Yes.

I was thinking that it probably was, you know, they're physically here within the county building.

And they're very good at what they do, I'm told.

Well, we've seen the amounts for the transcripts is the same thing.

You know, there's just a lot of, it would be varying amounts.

Okay.

So can I, any other questions?

No.

No.

Oh, okay.

So I guess we've done a first and a second.

Yes, we're just going to take a vote now.

Yes.

All those in favor of passing the approval of the claims?

All right.

If anybody say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Those opposed, same sign.

Motion passes.

Here's a sign in that bill.

10.

6.0, public comment.

Seeing none.

7.0.

Forced to the committee.

Judge Hauser did call me this morning and said things are going, going well and told me a couple of things that we'll discuss a little bit later on during the meeting, but, you know, who's sitting there going to talk soon.

Move on to Dr. McGee.

Good evening.

I'm sorry, I'm not my, I'm sorry, the public defender is supposed to be next.

I know public defender.

No public defender.

Okay, well, I'm good then.

Dr. McGee, I'm sorry, go ahead.

That's okay.

Good evening.

So I do have some good news. We did get someone hired for the supervisor position. Her name is Bernadette McGarvey. She resides in Leaf River, Illinois. I've never been to Leaf River, but she's a very nice woman and she has her master's degree in criminal justice, a bachelor's in sociology.

She's got a great blend of experience. She's worked at Cook County Probation. So that right there is a cell. I'm like, you can survive Cook County for numerous years. That's saying quite a bit. She's also worked for the Dixon Correctional Center. She has experience as a social service director, as well as a psychiatric coordinator, and most recently a case manager.

said she always wanted to do supervision and probation but she was waiting for her kids to get out of the house to speak so she was ready to move in that direction. So she will be starting with the department on August 10th. That process is done.

Yeah, I don't know.

Friber's a nice little town, but yeah, that's a stretch.

Well, thank you for that report.

We would like to congratulate you and thank you on your 25 years of service.

Thank you.

As of 7 to 26.

20, yeah, correct.

The judge told me you started at the bottom I'm starting from the bottom now I guess that's one way of saying it, yes, yes We were talking earlier at the department head meeting how nowadays I said the younger generations come in and they're like I want six figures and this and that and if I don't get it within a year or two I'm out So, yeah, I think in our time, that's kind of a natural progression.

But you were blessed to be able to work on two degrees, too, while I was there.

What you've accomplished, you know, in your personal life, these degrees, and what, you know, you're doing a great job at the probation.

Yeah, it's gone by fast, thank you.

Yeah, so you graduated when you're 10 years old, right?

Yeah, right, yeah.

That's my sense, like, well, how has it been 25 years?

are only 25. I'm like, yeah, exactly. I said, God is a miracle worker. So, yeah, and I do want to just thank my department, too, for the luncheon and gift, and Judge Hauser did come down and acknowledge it as well, so I did appreciate that. It was nice.

Thanks. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Moving on. I just lost my agenda. There it is. Moving on to the state's attorney.

Good evening, guys. I'm going to be fairly brief. The first thing I would mention is Tom Madigan is here with me today. He's our first assistant state's attorney.

He was at his desk working at 6.15 when I left to come over and he was kind of the brains behind one of our new business action items. So I invited him and he agreed. So he's here.

We're lucky to have him. He's got a lot of years of experience in law enforcement and has made a seamless transition into the state's attorney's office, does a ton of work for us and comes up with good ideas. So we're glad to have him around.

The next action or the next item I would mention is since we last met, our office has had two or maybe even two and a half weddings.

Our victim and witness coordinator and one of our support staff got married and then one of our ASAs who subsequently resigned to go be an ASA in Lee County got married to one of the assistant public defense receivers.

So two, two and a half weapons So two, two and a half weddings, which helped spirits quite a bit around the office, I think.

You all have our numbers of cases open and closed, nothing too shocking there, but we're closing about as many cases as we open and would love to be able to report that.

Since I have 66.6% of your new business, I'll reserve the rest of my time for that.

Thank you, guys. I'll answer any questions you may have.

I think I have any questions.

Okay.

Thank you.

Circuit Clerk.

Good evening.

You should have my report.

If you have any questions, let me know.

Starting next week, there is going to be a statewide Circuit Court user experience survey that we are required to have people complete.

So there will be paper copies in the courthouse and there will be QR code. People can complete that online. It's for any civil case, criminal defendants, lawyers, including states' attorneys, public defenders, jurors, witnesses, and anybody else who utilizes the Illinois court system. Judges and court staff cannot do the survey.

survey. So we'll have that out. And then I'm sure in probably six or nine months, we'll have results of that survey.

And I also completed a certified court manager class that was offered through the National Center for State Courts, along with the Illinois Judicial College. So I had that class and graduated in Springfield.

and there's 22 circuit clerks that took the class and there was around 40 and all that were in the class.

So it's a good experience.

Judge said you're the only one in District 15.

I was, yes.

Certified.

Yeah.

That's awesome.

We really appreciate your, you know, taking the time to do that and try and better our department.

Yep, there was a lot of good ideas and can network with other people, so that was good.

So they give you a good hotel down there?

No, it wasn't that.

It's okay, yeah.

It wasn't the Lincoln Hotel, but it was good.

Okay.

Like I said, we do appreciate what you do on a dedicated basis.

said, but several things to get better and learn more about your problem.

So we do appreciate all of that.

Wonderful.

Anybody have any questions for Chanel?

How long will the surveys be available?

Just one week?

Monday through Friday of next week.

Okay.

As long as I get the stuff by Friday or Monday.

and I, we don't have it, the papers, the boxes are supposed to arrive by Friday.

Okay.

Okay, 7.6 is used to urgent fees and we have $492.50 added this month.

I don't see, is it total?

Do you know what total total is?

31, 13, 28 cents.

Okay, thank you.

Did everybody come and get there?

Have we made all the checks?

There's still one outstanding check, but they've all been delivered.

Oh, you just haven't been cashed.

Yeah, so $16.60 off of that balance.

Yeah.

Whether or not cashed.

Interesting.

You have no control.

Okay.

I see now.

9.0 is new business approval of the resolution establishing the salary of the office of state's attorney and this is paid by the state 100%. All right. You're not paid enough. Well, you know, the most rewarding thing is the work, not the salary. That aspect is certainly true.

That's 4.1 cost of living raise, which is salary up to $2,28317.97, and I certainly appreciate what you in the office do.

Well, thank you.

Do we need to vote on this?

Yeah, we need to vote.

I need a motion to approve.

And I'll second.

Okay.

Any questions?

No.

Seeing none, all those in favor, say aye. Aye. Those opposed, same sign. Seeing none, she passes. And then resolution establishing the salary for the Office of Public Defender.

The way I was understanding that resolution was that the public defender receives 90% of what the state's attorney's salary is.

July 1st, it's 90%.

January 1st, it's 95%.

Like, it's changing.

Oh, it's changing.

I'm sorry to interrupt.

No, no, I'm glad you did because apparently I'm not reading it like I should be reading it.

And then we get a reimbursement at 66%.

Okay.

Motion to approve.

And I'll make a second.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

With opposed, same time.

Hearing none, motion passes. Approval of job description for discovery and disclosure of compliance officer for state's attorney's office.

I can speak to that briefly. That would be helpful. That would be very helpful. Yes.

We've been presented with a very, in my opinion, rare opportunity.

The credit for this definitely goes to Tom. He came up with the idea, worked out the agreements with the people involved and brought it to me.

And then I reached out to Georgia and she helped me work with liability to make sure this job description was appropriate.

Well, and although it's called an approval of the job description, what I'm actually seeking is approval to hire someone who isn't hasn't been hired before in the state's attorney's office. Essentially, are and but we're not looking for any more money. But essentially, the there's kind of two issues here. One, we can't find attorneys to hire. We're still down two positions. And it's, it's very much a burden.

on the office. The second thing is with the proliferation of cameras, you know, you've got surveillance videos, body-worn cameras, ring doorbells, the major cases in particular, but all cases, just have an enormous amount of evidence, and I know I personally spent more than a week on a major case just going through the reports, making sure every time somebody said they took a photograph we have that photograph everyone who was wearing a body worn camera we have that camera it ends up being in a major case 1500 pieces of evidence which takes a very long time to go through but you can't really just hire someone off the street to do that because they're you kind of have to speak the language you have to understand the systems if something's missing you got to go to people to get and so it's not something that we really considered doing before but this week Detective Lieutenant Brian Polish retired from the Freeport Police Department. This is an individual with more than two decades of experience and he spent at least the last year or two years running the detective bureau and he's still a relatively young man and he's looking for a part-time job and so he's willing for $25 an hour to come and go over our felony files and just make sure all the discovery is there. And if we're missing

anything, he'll get it for us and get it disclosed. I mean, it's a pretty serious thing. If evidence doesn't get disclosed, convictions can be overturned, new trials can be granted, all sorts of expensive and Bad Things Happen. So given that on the horizon, there's no kind of end in sight for our hiring of the two open attorney positions, we like to alleviate some of the burden on the attorney.

some of the burden on the attorneys that we do have by hiring this individual who's, if we had to pay him what he was forced, we could never afford.

And so we're looking for your approval to do that today.

Did that make sense?

Okay.

Sounds like a great opportunity.

It is.

Sure.

And he gets along well with us.

We get along well with him.

He's a nice guy.

Yeah, when I was reading through it, I was thinking about myself, you know, sometimes you, you've been doing a job a long time, but you just don't really want to step out and do nothing.

Yeah, I think that's exactly.

You want to step into something that highlights your skills, highlights, and you're willing to take less because of that and the flexibility of the job. And it sounded good to me. Yeah. If I had the knowledge, but I don't. I think for him, it'll be a whole lot less stress. But then also, there's, it's a little bit comforting to be around people that kind of speak your language. Yes. You know, so I think it's a win-win. Yeah, I do think so, too.

Motion to approve And I'll make a second All right, then I got a couple questions Okay, go ahead So are we going to I know it's not going to be any extra but are we going to have a line item for him or I'll just pay him out of the ASA line items The assistant state's attorney So will that interfere if we were able to hire two more state's attorneys Well, our thought I mean, we'll have to see how everything works out But my thought is if we were able to hire two of the system of state's attorneys, then this position would cease to exist.

You know, we're always open to discussion, but the big problem we're trying to solve with this right now is that we're understaffed.

If we weren't understaffed, that wouldn't be a problem as much to solve.

Has any counties done this? I'm just curious. It sounds like a good program and everything.

I don't know, but I can tell you that they don't have the opportunity that we have.

I mean, I'm sure that there aren't detective lieutenants with two decades of experience walking around looking to work for $25 an hour.

Yeah.

So, I mean, I'm sure they have some version of it.

You know, it's probably less effective version, but I don't know.

So it's $25 an hour and he's going to be working approximately 20 hours.

What's that come out to a yearly thing, you know, in case I figured that out. I thought it was in the 20s, I think, but how many hours per week? One? It'll be 20 hours a week. Yeah. How much? Gross. That's $21.50 a month. If you multiply by that, by 12, it's $25,800. And well, that's, you know, even when you do have two more states attorneys, this might still come in handy.

also down the road.

Yeah, we'll have to see how it goes, but that would be a discussion for another day.

Yeah, I know.

I just, I mean, this is a good situation for you guys and everything.

I mean, we would have to change our budget to do that.

So that's a August conversation, not a July conversation.

But you don't foresee, you still have the openings for two assistants.

Is he aware that if you fill those positions that he could possibly be laid, you know, laid off?

I don't think he would mind, yeah, he's also going to be a bailiff, I think, part-time, maybe eight hours a week, so, okay, thank you, okay, any other questions?

No, so we'll take both, thank you, Paul and Barry, aye, aye, we'll confess, is it back to the agenda at the end? 10.0 is adjourned. I move to adjourn. Second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Thank you very much. Carlton, did you say that