McLean County Finance Committee met Aug. 5.
Here is the minutes provided by the committee:
The Finance Committee of the McLean County Board met at 4:30 p.m. in Room 404 of the Government Center, 115 East Washington Street, Bloomington, IL.
Members Present: Chairman Jim Soeldner (in-person) Members Josh Barnett, Catherine Metsker, Chuck Erickson, Laurie Wollrab, Carlo Robustelli and Jacob Beard (by remote attendance)
Members Absent: None
Other Members Present:
Staff Present: Ms. Camille Rodriguez, County Administrator; Ms. Cassy Taylor, Assistant County Administrator, Ms. Cathy Dreyer, Assistant County Administrator; Ms. Julie A. Morlock, Recording Secretary; Ms. Jessica Woods First Assistant Civil State’s Attorney (remote attendance)
Department Heads/Elected
Officials Present: Ms. Becky McNeil, Treasurer; Ms. Kathy Michael, County Clerk
Others Present:
Chairman Soeldner called the meeting to order at 4:30 p.m. and declared a quorum
Chairman Soeldner presented the Minutes of the June 16, 2020 special meeting, July 1, 2020 regular meeting of the Finance Committee for approval.
Motion by Wollrab/Barnett to approve the Minutes of the June 16, 2020 special meeting, July 1, 2020 regular meeting.
Motion carried. Roll call vote – all members present voted yes including the
Chairman.
Chairman Soeldner confirmed there was no members of the public to appear before the Committee.
Chairman Soeldner asked the Committee if it would be ok to move an item from under the Administrator’s section to this point in the agenda so the person presenting did not have to stay on the line for the meeting. The Committee concurred.
Ms. Camille Rodriguez, County Administrator presented for action a request to approve a Resolution of the County of McLean Authorizing the Execution of an Intergovernmental Cooperation Agreement between the County and The Town of Normal (“Normal”), McLean County, Illinois and Authorizing Normal to Exercise the Powers of the County of McLean in Connection with an MCC Program and a Loan finance Program. Ms. Rodriguez indicated that McLean County has been involved in the program for years but there is going to be a new administrator than in the past so need to bring forward as Normal becomes the new Administrator. She indicated there is no financial obligation on the part of the County.
Motion by Beard/Barnett to recommend approval of a Resolution of the County of McLean Authorizing the Execution of an Intergovernmental Cooperation Agreement between the County and The Town of Normal (“Normal”), McLean County, Illinois and Authorizing Normal to Exercise the Powers of the County of McLean in Connection with an MCC Program and a Loan finance Program. Motion Carried. Roll call vote – all present voted yes including the Chairman.
Chairman Soeldner indicated that Ms. Marshell Thomson of Animal Control was not present, but her monthly reports were in the packet. He stated that he noted an increase in registrations. Chairman Soeldner asked if there were any questions, hearing none he moved to the next item on the Agenda.
Mr. Soeldner indicated next on the agenda was the Auditor and there was nothing to be presented. He stated that he invited her to join us but she had other obligations. Mr. Barnett asked about an update on Auditor posting the bills on the website. Mr. Seoldner indicated that he had not heard anything further. Ms. Rodriguez indicated she had emailed her several times making the request to update the website. Mr. Soeldner stated that as far as the Public Building Commission issue he had received an email back from the Auditor that stated “In short the delay on the PBC is that Administration has yet to bring us an original invoice. Original Invoices are needed to process the payment. Every prior Administrator for 13 years has delivered paper invoices to us to prove and release the 1.4 million. If Ms. Rodriguez and her staff bring an invoice we will gladly review and approve.” Mr. Soeldner asked Ms. Rodriguez if she wanted to respond. Ms. Rodriguez stated that County Administration did deliver a paper invoice as well as an electronic invoice on more than one occasion, so when Public Building Commission was asking where their payment was she felt she needed to take action. She stated that she emailed County Board Chairman McIntyre and Chairman Soeldner to make sure she had their support in approving payment. She indicated that she and her staff followed same course of action that other administrations prior to her had. Mr. Soeldner moved on to the next item on the agenda.
Mr. Soeldner stated that the Auditor had a reason for not attending today, but we know well in advance when the Committee’s meet and he felt that she has had ample opportunity to respond. He stated that his biggest concern is that she is not willing to respond to emails from administration. He stated that she had responded to his, but he felt that we can’t fix anything if we can’t communicate. Ms. Metsker stated that we had a situation with Show Bus and another situation where she is the only person that has access to an online release and she asked if that had been resolved, so she is not the only one involved as there was a delay in filing paperwork for Show Bus. Ms. Rodriguez indicated that is the grant accountability and transparency Act or GATA portal that is through the State of Illinois. It is where we would receive notice of state award or we enter certain financial documents and Ms. Anderson is the only individual who has access to that portal. She indicated that with their support she might need to contact he government office of budgeted management and ask for an override so that more than one person has access as she felt it would be best practice.
Ms. Wollrab stated that to resolve the bills paid situation where they are not on the website, it might be included in the packet and the minutes, so we do not have to wait for the auditor. Mr. Soeldner asked if that would ask to our packets. Ms. Rodriguez indicated that it would add some pages, but could try to work with the Treasurer’s office to provide us reports that could be put in the packets. She indicated that Mr. Barnett had already asked for reports for the Property Committee. Mr. Robustelli asked him to confirm that Mr. Soeldner had been able to get responses from the County Auditor but Administrator is not able to get responses, so curious if the auditor is in the building and you could go down to get a response from her, or are social distancing requirements not allowing for that. Ms. Rodriguez indicated that even with social distancing sometimes go and visit with departments heads depending on the situation and she had not seen Ms. Anderson for several months, but she does not go down there every day, so can’t say that she had not been here in the last few months. She indicated that she has one person in the office who has been here and has worked to assist us as much as they can, but Ms. Anderson is her supervisor so use respect with how much we ask of that person. Mr. Robustelli asked if there is a work from home policy for the County, that people apply for so we know who is working from home. Ms. Rodriguez indicated that they had brought a work from home policy to the Board at the end of march which would allow the County Administrator’s office the discretion to allow certain classifications from employees to work from home relative to the pandemic. She indicated she would have to consult with the attorneys to see if policies apply to an elected official as she did not feel she might be able to hold those policies to an elected official. Mr. Robustelli stated that under that how do we hold an elected official accountable to any of the policies such as vacation or sick leave policy and asked if they fill out paperwork for those situations. Ms. Rodriguez stated that other employees have to fill out paperwork for such things as FMLA but not sure whether elected officials need to do the same. She stated that she does not complete evaluations on elected officials but do on appointed department head. She stated that she would want to check into that. Mr. Robustelli stated that he felt it is important for them to know who in leadership roles are working from home versus in the office. He stated that he did not feel should have to guess if they are in the office or not, so that you know how best communicate with that department head. Mr. Robustelli stated that maybe communication could be improved if we knew whether she was working from home or not. Ms. Rodriguez stated that a reasonable person would believe that Ms. Anderson is working from home because when customer services station was open for the government center she was dropping off invoices there. She stated that she had also requested a link to go to meeting for her budget meeting which would also lead us to believe she is working from home.
Ms. Metsker supported Ms. Wollrab and Mr. BArnetts request to see invoices in the packets. Ms. Rodriguez indicated that was Mr. Barnett’s request for Property and feel that would be the case for other committees. Ms. Metsker asked if these were entered by the Treasurer’s office or the Auditor’s office. Ms. Rodriguez indicated that the Treasurer would need to respond to that. Ms. Metsker asked about state statutes related to elected officials and stated that sometimes the only way to correct is for the voters to not reelect them. She felt that the State’s Attorney could probably provide us those statutes as she felt that she probably did not have to bein the office if she is getting the work done. Ms. Wollrab stated that the bills had been posted on the Auditor’s website for years and for some reason that stopped after September so now there is no way for public to see it now that she was aware of. Mr. Soeldner stated that he would communicate with Auditor.
Mr. Erickson stated that some of our discussion is speculation and solution is to continually invite her and if she comes she comes and if she doesn’t then she doesn’t and the voters can decide what they want to do with that. He asked Chairman to continue to invite her. Mr. Soeldner stated he would be happy to do that.
Ms. Becky McNeil, County Treasurer presented for action a request for authority to authorize and approve vendor maintenance. Ms. McNeil stated that request is a result of AP being transferred to the Treasurer and lack of cooperation we are seeing. She indicated that vendor maintenance is important to them being able to do their job and so feel there needs to be another individual who can do vendor maintenance. Mr. Soeldner asked if she was asking to take this from the Auditor. Ms. McNeil indicated she was not, that she was just asking that she be added. She indicated that when updates are not made in timely manner then there are delays in payments and ACH issues and they would like to update as soon as they notice them. Mr. Soeldner asked how this will be switched. Ms. McNeil indicated that she would work with IT to get that function delegated to her department and will be consulting with New World. Mr. Beard stated that he would like Administration to continue to bring forward ways that we can get away from a single point of failure, such as only one person having access to something. He asked if this created a situation where only one or two people see a bill come in because part of having auditor and treasurer was so it was not where one person could receive and pay the invoice without someone else seeing it or approving it. Ms. McNeil went over the bill payment process including department coding, sending to auditor, auditor reviews and stamps approved for payment, then sent to Treasurer office, AP staff entered into financial system. Scan invoice and attach to transaction, then another person edits that work and then invoices are released and checks are written, copy check and attach to invoice and then when all done the original invoice and check register goes back to Auditor. So there are a number of people that review invoices for the checks and balances. She indicated that she would like for it to be more automated, but they are working on that by scanning items into the system. This request coming when times when bill gets to them for payment and her staff sees that an ACH account number needs to be updated, or vendor not activated, and now have to wait for the Auditor to update those items before we can make payment.
Mr. Barnett asked her to confirm that some times when they receive from Auditor office things are not correct such as an address or an account number but have been approved for payment. Ms. McNeil indicated that Auditor does not go into the system to check those things in the system, and she was not asking them to check that, but that is why she would like to have ability to make update. Mr. Erickson stated that he was not hearing from the Treasurer that there are mistakes being made in the Auditor’s office, but that these are part of human processes, but that this would be easier for them to correct issues when it is noticed. He stated that it would be nice if the Auditor was here to address the subject. He stated that he would ask that if the Auditor is listening that he would prefer to not get an email explaining her position but best way to handle this is for her to come to the meetings and address things in person. He said he would like to hear both sides of the story and would like to hear from the Auditor on this before voting and asked if that would cause any issues. Ms. McNeil stated that this is a work flow solution and she had asked the auditor if she would like for them to make updates. She stated that there are requests that have taken several emails to resolve and she feels that as an organization we can do better than that. Mr. Erickson stated he was not disputing that, he would just like to hear both sides and that is not anyone’s fault as she was invited but has not attended. He stated that he would not be voting yes until he could hear from her. He stated that giving someone the chance to respond to what is being said is not an open ended invitation, so either get here at the next meeting and address it or else because this is not the first time that she has been asked to appear at meetings and it is hard to assess situations when we can’t get her opinion, which is a situation she creates on her own. He stated that the reason he would be voting no is not because he disagrees with the Treasurer’s assessment. He is not questioning anybody’s integrity, not saying that the Treasurer is wrong, he is only saying is that he would like to hear someone else’s opinion on it. He just wanted to exlain the reason for his vote.
Mr. Robustelli stated that he would be supporting this and appreciated the Treasurer’s bringing this forward and explaining how this will solve problems. He also appreciated Mr. Erickson’s concern about speculation but he felt this is one case where we do not have speculation; they have had a difficutl time in engaging in direct conversation with our auditor, have requeste din multiple committees over certain over the last 7 1⁄2 years for him her presence so that she can come and have these conversatiosn and often times she does not show up. He stated that we have heard from multiple people in the county organization, the Treasurer, the Chairman, the Chairman of the Board, the County Administrato r that she is unresponsive in email communication, that is not speculation; those are direct people saying they have had this experience, so our job is make sure the county organization runs and runs appropriately and pays its bills and so will be supporting this, and hope that we can disucss with auditor in the future.
Ms. Wollrab called for question. Mr. Soeldner stated he would let Mr. Erickson respond and then will call question. Mr. Erickson stated that speculation was on another issue, not this issue. He stated that his point is that he would like to hear both sides before making a decision. He stated that he would concur with the idea that it would be awfully nice if our Auditor would come to our meetings and address it. He stated that he is hesitate to move forward with out giving her the opportunity but understand the frustration that some people are saying, how many opportunities would you like us to give her Chuck. He stated that at some point he agrees with that sentiment and would ask the chairman to continue to ask and then if she is a no that is up to her. He said he just does not want to get information from her in an email after the meeting as that is not the way to address the subject as he feels the way to address the subject is to come to the meeting. He said that he wanted to explain his vote as it is not a vote against the Treasurer just an idea of process for him as he is very adamant about process and sympathtic to the fact that we have made an effort to bring the auditor in here.
Motion by Wollrab/Robustelli to recommend to approve and authorize vendor maintenance.
Motion Carried. Roll call vote. Yes votes from Metsker, Wollrab, Robustelli, Beard, Barnett, Soeldner and No vote from Erickson
Ms. McNeil asked if she could address questions asked of the Administrator. The Committee agreed. Ms. McNeil stated that the auditor brings to the committee to approve a retroactive list of bills to approve. She stated that it is retroactive because otherwise there would be bills waiting to be paid for 30 to 40 days before going through committee and board. She indicated that they started putting a check register out on their website the bills that have been paid with vendor name and amount when AP came to her office She indicated that they can run reports from the system and provide to the County Administrator which can be loaded to the website.
Ms. McNeil presented her monthly reports including the sales tax report including sales tax, shared sales tax, motor fuel tax and property tax revenues indicating that the numbers reflect revenue that came in during the month of April. She said that was the full month we were in COVID so you can see there was a drop. She stated that overall down from last year. She stated that for property tax they are tracking about the same as they did in 2019. Ms. Metsker asked here what percentage of our budget is based on sales tax. Ms. McNeil indicated that she could get that information and send to her. Mr. Beard stated that a constituent asked about online retail and how we get the taxes that we pay when we order on line. Ms. McNeil indicated that they are submitted to us the same way as other taxes from the State. She stated that we do not see anything that separates those out from the other taxes that we receive. She stated that it is a three month lag. Ms. McNeil then went over the investment report and indicated that rates have dropped. She then went over Blue Cross Blue Shield report and indicated that premiums are lower than 2019 and feel that also may be due to COVID and individuals not going to have procedures done and she also went over the stop loss agreement and how much that has saved the County. Ms. McNeil went over the Nursing Home Fund report through the month of June. Ms. Metsker thanked her for reconciling reports between Finance and Health Committee numbers. Ms. McNeil explained that her reports were based on accrual in the system and the other was cash receipts. Mr. Robustelli stated that we are 134,000 in red at the nursing home but comparing that to previous years that is pretty good. Mr. Robustelli said that last year was 1.4 million in red so this is a significant change and want to acknowledge that we seem to be going in the right direction.
Motion by Barnett/Beard to accept and place on file the County Treasurer’s Monthly Financial Reports.
Motion Carried. Roll call vote – all present voted yes including the Chairman.
Mr. Soeldner asked about how she communicates when she is going to be on vacation or out sick, etc. Ms. McNeil indicated that she lets her staff and the County Administrator know and she puts her out of office on in email. She said that elected officials do not report hours taken due to vacation or sick because by State Statute the salary is set. She said that she did not believe there was anything in the statute to require an elected official to record hours worked.
Ms. Kathy Michael, County Clerk presented for action a request to approve an Intergovernmental Agreement between the City of Bloomington and the County of McLean for Use of the Arena as a Voting Center on Election Day, November 3, 2020. Ms. Michael stated that the vote center is mandated by the State where each jurisdiction has to have a vote center on election day. She stated that it is another avenue for voters to vote, but since it says jurisdiction we have to have special paperwork that says we can join Bloomington Election Commission at the Arena, if not, by statute we would have to have our vote center in Normal.
We feel that would be confusing to the voters so asked a way to combine. She stated that every registered voter in McLean County can come there to vote, but you can choose to go to your polling place to vote, you do not have to use this location. Mr. Soeldner asked her to confirm this would only be on election day. Ms. Michael stated that yes, election day only for this election only. She stated that they would be there for early voting but this just covers election day. Mr. Beard asked about parking situation. Ms. Michael indicated that free parking will be available and the Arena is not charging them. Ms. Metsker asked if early voting would be at the arena for Bloomington. Ms. Michael confirmed for all voters. Also stated that there would be early voting for all voters at Eastland Mall.
Motion by Wollrab/Metsker to recommend approval of an Intergovernmental Agreement between the City of Bloomington and the County of McLean for Use of the Arena as a Voting Center on Election Day, November 3, 2020.
Motion Carried. Roll call vote – all members present voted yes including the Chairman.
Ms. Michael presented her monthly reports. Ms. Michael indicated that vote by mail applications have been coming in a few hundred a day and have about 3,000 total so far when they usually only have about 1,500. Mr. Beard thanked her for putting information and videos out on social media about the new process. Mr. Beard stated that she had talked with the USPS and it came to light that there was a congressional race in New York that was just decided 6 weeks after the election and one of the issues was the vote by mail applications that were not stamped and got thousands that were not date stamped. He asked her for any updates on that. Ms. Michael asked him to confirm that post office did not post mark it. Ms. Michael stated that has been a concern because of the amount of mail they will be receiving. She stated that they started talking to them about three months ago and is impressed with the USPS and how organized they are regarding this matter, so feel very confident. Ms. Wollrab thanked her for her hard work on this. She indicated that she received the application in the mail and asked about dates on the application for receiving them by mail and in person deadlines. Ms. Michael stated that the dates are state mandated and if we get thousands of requests on Ocotber 29th then we are mandated to get those back out right away and mail get to the people and people get back to them. As for in-person if they come in November 2nd we will process application and print them a ballot and have them vote then. Ms. Wollrab stated that she was sure they would encourage voters to submit sooner. Ms. Michael confirmed but stated that they are prepared to assist voters up to and including election day if they come in to vote. Chairman Soeldner asked if there were any further questions for Ms. Michael, hearing none, he thanked her and moved to the next item on the agenda.
Mr. Soeldner stated that Mr. Rasch was now on the phone. Ms. Rodriguez let him know that the Committee unanimously supported the action. Mr. Soeldner asked if anyone had any questions. Ms. Wollrab asked if people find out about this through their banker or real estate agent. Mr. Rasch confirmed it is a combination of both. He stated that the program has been available in McLean County since 2003 and the County is the largest participating county in the State historically. He said strong lender, banking base and well versed in utilizing program. Mr. Beard thanked him as he had utilized the program and was glad to see it continue in the area. Mr. Erickson asked about claw back that you sometimes see with other programs. Mr. Rasch stated that is not the case in this program as they are providing a Federal tax credit.
Ms. Camille Rodriguez, County Administrator presented for action a request to approve a Reclassification for Nurses at Jail Medical. She stated that this is brought because there is disparaty between nurses at the nursing home and at Jail Medical, so we are not attracting applications for these jail medical positions.
Motion by Barnett/Beard to recommend approval of a Reclassification for Nurses at Jail Medical.
Motion Carried. Roll call vote – all present voted yes including the Chairman
Ms. Rodriguez presented for action a request to approve a Reclassification for Records Division Personnel in Sheriff Department. She indicated that that request is because it has been difficult to recruit for Office Support Specialist II position, as individuals have been able to pursue positions in other departments that are promotions and other reclass is requested because of review of position and analysis noted that the position needed to be upgraded. Mr. Soeldner asked her to confirm that the budget will be able to absorb this. Ms. Rodriguez confirmed. Ms. Wollrab asked if they had scored this position. Ms. Roddriguez indicated that they did apply the PAM scoring system to this and followed policy with this review.
Motion by Robustelli/Beard to recommend approval of a Reclassification for Records Division Personnel in Sheriff Department.
Motion Carried. Roll call vote – all present voted yes including the Chairman.
Ms. Rodriguez presented the update from the Economic Development Council on the Targeted Development Loan Program. Ms. Rodriguez went over the update from Patrick Hoban of the Economic Development Council including information on the Micro Bridge Loan and Recovery Loan Program in which the first application was funded by a private donor to help save funding from the program for future needs. She indicated that they have not had new applications but are in discussions with a business currently. She also stated that on the marketing side they are working with the Chamber and the Pantagraph to promote these loans where the are online and print and audio formats. She also went over social media. She indicated that they would work to have Mr. Hoban present next month. Ms. Metsker asked about thanking the anynomous donor. Ms. Rodriguez indicated that she would work on getting that taken care of. Mr. Robustelli asked that Mr. Hoban come with other ideas or other tools that we might have to utilize in the future to make sure businesses get assistance.
Ms. Rodriguez presented an update from the Economic Development Council on the Downstate Business Stabilization Program. She indicated that we have not had any applications for this program, but are ready should we receive one. She indicated that Mr. Hoban feels that we have not received any applications because of the other programs available.
Ms. Rodriguez presented her report on recent employment activities. Mr. Soeldner asked about the Bloomington Election Commission Director position. Ms. Rodriguez confirmed that they go into our system. Chairman Soeldner asked if there were any questions, hearing none, he thanked her.
Ms. Rodriguez provided a financial update including the general fund, revenues and expenses for the County. She indicated that as far a revenues we are down about 1% from 2019 and on expenses as compared to 2019 we are down over 1 million. She indicated that we are working with Department heads to hold off on major projects and expenses. She indicated that they are still working on budgets with the department heads.
Chairman Solender asked if under other business. Ms. Wollrab asked about no longer streaming meetings on Facebook. Ms. Rodriguez indicated that she had connected with the Illinois Association of County Administrators as well as the town and the city and they all utilize You Tube and not Facebook. She indicated that our goal is to handle the process ourselves and want to streamline it as well as take into consideration cyber security and reducing the places and spaces that we are doing that as we do it more. She indicated that we have cyber security insurance but as we increase meetings that are streamed we needed to keep that in mind.
Mr. Barnett indicated that he had asked about a non-discrimination policy with our vendors and that is still in the works and hope to have that for the Committee in September.
Chairman Soeldner presented the Finance Committee with bills for review and approval as transmitted by the County Auditor.
Motion by Metsker/Wollrab to approve the presented transfer and bills with prepaid total and fund total amount of $1,210,988.08.
Motion carried. Roll call vote – all present voted yes including the Chairman.
Chairman Soeldner asked if there was anything else, hearing nothing he adjourned the meeting at 6:18 p.m.
https://www.mcleancountyil.gov/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/7688
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