Peoria Standard

Woodford County Offices Committee met June 9.

Here is the minutes provided by the committee:

1, Call to Order

The meeting was called to order at 4:30 PM. 

2. Roll Call – Russ Cotton, Chuck Nagel, Jason Spence, Emily Barker, Dan Steffen were all present. 

3. Approval of Minutes

a. Approval of May 12, 2020 regular meeting minutes.

Motion to approve May 12, 2020 minutes made by Steffen, seconded by Nagel.

Motion passed. 

4. Public Input

Jodi Goff stated that the taxes have been rolled out, and the correction of errors can be entered. There were a few tax bills that had to be corrected and that has been done. Because of the quadrennial year, they were behind, but are now on track. Theyare tracking their phone calls. 

5. Appointments

a. Appointment of Farrell Lord to the Farm Assessment Review Committee to replace Jeri Sue Johnson with no expiration date.

Motion to approve the appointment of Farrell Lord to the Farm Assessment Review Committee to replace Jeri Sue Johnson with no expiration date made by Spence, seconded by Barker. Motion passed. 

6. Approval of Claims

a. Approval of June claims

Motion to approve the June claims made by Nagel, seconded by Steffen. Motion passed.

Ms. Breyman asked for two bills to be paid in vacation - the Morton Community Bank credit card statement was received after the cutoff date and would be past due if we waited till next month to pay. We never received a monthly statement from Microsoft for Office 365 last month, and it is now past due, Motion to pay the Visa and Microsoft invoices in vacation made by Spence, seconded by Steffen. Motion passed.

b. County Board Per Diem - Roll Call Vote

There were no per diem's received this month.

7. Department Updates

a. County Clerk - election issues -Discussion on State bill 1863 – Emergency Rule Making 2020 General Election

House Bill 1863 has passed and is waiting signature from the Governor. This bill is adding requirements that the County Clerk must do for the upcoming election due to Covid-19. It will also make November 31, Election Day, a state holiday. Due to the additional demands, the County Clerk will be incurring additional costs that she has not budgeted for. Her staff will have to be here for additional time at a rate of time and a half totaling $1,507.45. Initially it was thought that 15 days prior to the election the Courthouse would have to be open till 8PM at night and on weekends for the public to vote, which would require additional staffing at a cost of $4,795.74. It was determined that since we have a population under 100,000 in the county we do not have to abide by those hours. However, we will offer voting on two Saturdays till noon and three evening till 7PM. This will only be a few hours for extra personnel and election judges at a cost of $1,345.08. The Clerk has to mail an application to vote by mail to every person who voted in any election within the past two years. Her office created the notice in house in order to save costs. It is estimated that approximately 17,000 people voted in the past two years. Postage for mailing these applications notices would be $9,775.00. The postage cost is just for sending the notices, and does not include the cost for postage of those voters who respond that they want an application sent to them. Additional costs for extra paper, seals, address labels, and copying would be at a cost of $1,719.36. She is estimating that about one third of the people will request an application to vote by mail. The application kit includes a ballot, instructions on where to put ballot and an envelope to mail the ballot back. While she has some of those kits, she will need to order more at a cost of $7,150.00. Postage for mailing those kits would be $4,140.00. She will go over budget because this bill is forcing her to do these things. The total cost is roughly $25,636.89. This figures is in addition to the normal expenses incurred for the election. Normally there are 5 election judges at each precinct, however that has been lowered to three judges, so there will be a savings there.

There is a possibility of receiving reimbursement money from the state. She has been told that she could receive $15,000 which would help offset some of the additional cost. However, she is not guaranteed that money and will not know if she is receiving it, and the amount she would be receiving until July.

It was stated that the Sheriff will also be going over budget due to Covid-19 and the rioting as extra patrol has been put in place for safety.

The Clerk was given the okay in the 2019/20 budget to upgrade and order voting equipment at a cost of $385,000.00. She is holding off on ordering the new equipment to see where this all goes. She doesn't want to order equipment and then have everything change. It was asked if she needed help during the election. All the help she can get would be greatly appreciated.

8. Unfinished Business 9. New Business

a. Credit card to be paid in vacation

The county Visa card, issued by Morton Community Bank, statement is received after the cut-off date. Because of this the statement has to wait a whole month to be paid and is then past due. Ms. Breyman is requesting the Morton Community Bank Visa card to always be paid in vacation. Motion to make a resolution to pay the Morton Cominunity Bank Visa card in vacation made by Nagel, seconded by Spence. Motion passed.

10. Budget 

11. Other 

12. Executive Session

a. 5 ILCS 120/2(c) Performance and Compensation of employees

Motion to go into executive session under 5 ILCS 120/2(c) for performance and compensation of employee made by Nagel, seconded by Spence. Roll call vote – Cotton-yes; Steffen-yes; Spence-yes; Nagel-yes; Barker-yes, Motion passed. It was requested that State's Attorney Minger and County Clerk Kupfer remain in the executive session,

13. Any action coming out of Executive Session

a. 5 ILCS 120/2(c) Performance and Compensation of employees

Motion to come back into regular session made by Barker, seconded by Nagel. Roll call vote – Steffen-yes; Cotton-yes; Nagel-yes; Spence-yes; Barker-yes. Motion passed.

There was no action taken coming out of executive session.

14. Adjournment

Motion to adjourn made by Spence, seconded by Barker. 

Motion passed.

Meeting adjourned at 5:28 PM.

https://www.woodford-county.org/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Minutes/_06092020-1068