2011/2010/2009 County Board Agenda Archives

The County Board Meeting tonight was very quick and easy. It was the Final Budget Meeting that took some more time.

As far as the County Board Meeting, only item 18 and 19 came off the consent agenda for procedural reasons. All others passed without objection. Item 18 passed without any objections as well. Item 19 was pulled at the committee level and as such never made it to the full County Board.

The Final Budget Meeting followed and only three changes were discussed. The first was a correction to the House of Hope and Center for Prevention of Abuse line items. Since they are now combined as an organization, we needed to correct the funding lines to reflect the change. No Board Members disagreed with this action.

The next item was my proposal to add $2650 to the budget to fund Cable Television Broadcast of our County Board Meetings. In Tazewell County, we are one of the few major governmental organizations that do not have this form of Governmental Transparency available to our constituents. The Village of Morton, the Cities of Pekin, Washington, East Peoria and Creve Coeur, as well as many of our school boards, all have this available. The amount I recommended was reduced from my original proposal and was chosen because it was the same cost the Village of Morton pays for this service. They actually pay twice my proposal annually as they have two meetings per month and we would only have one meeting. In the end, only fellow members Hahn and Stanford joined me in voting for this higher level of Governmental Transparency.

The last item to come during the meeting was a proposal by Chairman Zimmerman and brought forward by Member Crawford to remove $10,000 from the Regional Superintendent of Schools Budget from the Clerks Pay Line. The removal was done to “send a message” to Springfield that we are not happy with the current changes that is being proposed to have the County pay for the Regional Superintendent of Schools officials. As you know I support this message, but I did not support this method of delivering that message. Removing $10,000 in Clerks pay does nothing more than send the message to our employees that we are willing to make them pay for the mistakes in Springfield. We are sending a message to Springfield on the backs of hard working, lowest level employees. This was very inappropriate method to deliver any type of message and it should have been done by the County Board passing a resolution stressing our disappointment. In the end, Members Brett Grimm, Mike Harris, Terry Hillegonds, Darrell Meisinger, Greg Sinn, Mel Stanford, Sue Sundell, Jerry Vanderheydt, Terry Von Boeckman and I voted against this proposal. Sadly it passed, but even worse it passed with so many objectors that it reduces the message being sent.

Tonight’s Tazewell County Board Meeting was one of the most important meetings I have attended in the past few years.

To start the meeting, the County Board recognized the achievements of retiring Tazewell County Coroner Dennis Conover. As I mentioned last month, Dennis has been a great Coroner for the citizens of Tazewell County and will be missed. I want to wish him and his family the happiest of retirements.

As for the Consent Agenda, items 1, 25, 26, 27, 31, 32, 33 and 34 were pulled. The rest of the items passed with no objections. Of those pulled from the Consent Agenda, items 1 and 27 were pulled only for procedural reasons and passed with no objections. Item 34 was also pulled for procedural reasons and passed with objections from County Board Members Russ Crawford, Dean Grimm and Jim Donahue.

Items 25 and 26 concerned the purchase by the county of the Pekin Times Building and the adjacent Radio Station Building in Downtown Pekin. I pulled this from the agenda because we had residents in the audience that had talked with us earlier against this issue. Rather than let these issues pass with no discussion, I wanted to give them the chance to hear us talk about why we needed more parking and what steps had been taken to get to this point.

For more than four years, the Tazewell County Property Committee, which I am proud to be a member of, has been reviewing and discussing all of the surrounding buildings to our properties in Downtown Pekin with the plans to add more parking spaces. After careful review, including researching the possibility of a parking deck which was turned down because of the maintenance cost, we decided the best opportunity sat with the Pekin Times Building. After talking it over with them, we came to a much reduced cost for the building. We have never looked at keeping this building but rather from the start discussed tearing it down for more parking space. Both of these items passed with no objections.

Items 31, 32 and 33 involved the application for a Community Development Assistance Program (CDAP) Grant to help pay for a 2.4 million dollar roadway upgrade for Wagonseller, Manito and Townline Roads as well as Shady Lane located in Cincinnati Township. The Excel Foundry located on Shady Lane indicated that if these roadways were upgraded for Commercial Truck Traffic it could aid them in double their staff. We also felt that this roadway needed to be upgraded to aid in other Commercial Traffic throughout this region of Tazewell County and would aid in the continued growth of industry. Over the past ten years, I can only recall two other examples of such an aggressive attempt to promote industrial growth by the Tazewell County Board, one of which would be the Rail Splitter Wind Farm and the other the Homeway Homes plant in Deer Creek.

Chairman David Zimmerman, David Jones, John Anderson and many others within Tazewell County and the Tri-County Regional Planning, EDC of Peoria, and many other organizations all played key roles in making this a reality and offering the county this great opportunity.

All three of these items passed with no objections.

All of the action at tonight’s Tazewell County Board Meeting took place either in Executive Session or in the Announcements at the beginning of the meeting. As far as the Executive Sessions, as you know I cannot discuss. The announcements I can and will admit that several of them took me by surprise.

The first was that Tazewell County Coroner Dennis Conover will be retiring on September 16th. Dennis has been an outstanding County Coroner and has always handled his office in a professional, upstanding, ethically sensitive manor. I have come to see him as not only a great Department Head but also a wonderful friend and colleague. I wish Dennis and his great family a wonderful retirement.

The second announcement was that the Sherriff’s Office has recently received a first place standing in a recent statewide competition of all Sheriff’s Departments concerning Roadway Safety. The third was the expected plaque presentation to County Administrator David Jones who is leaving for an outstanding opportunity as the Polk County, Iowa, Administrator.

The final announcement was the retirement of Tazewell County Democratic Chairwoman Shirley Houghton. While some may find this odd, I have always admired Shirley and the leadership and stability she has provided the Tazewell County Democratic Party. While I disagree with her political viewpoints, I have always found her to be professional and friendly. She is an outstanding citizen and her commitment to the citizens of Tazewell County is without question. I wish her and her family a long and happy retirement.

As far as the Consent Agenda, items 20, 21, 23 and 26 where pulled and all other passed. Item 20 was pulled before the meeting. Items 21 and 26 where pulled for procedural purposes and passed without question. Item 23 was pulled by Member Carroll Imig for further clarification and was passed.

Very quick and nice County Board Meeting tonight. Before going over the events of the meeting, I want to let you know that a lot of upcoming issues were being discussed by a large amount of the County Board Members, and not just the upcoming departure of the County Board Administrator. Several of the members attended a recent conference for County Board Members throughout Illinois and the information they received should produce many big changes in the months to come. While I did not attend this conference, I am very proud to see the very positive communication from those that did attend.

As far as the rest of the meeting, nothing really stood out. The only items pulled from the consent agenda were only pulled for procedural reasons, with the exception of Item 4. All items passed with full support of all members. Item 4 was pulled and the conversation that followed resulted in the item passing but an understanding that the Transportation Committee would look into the insurance coverage for organizations utilizing County Roadways for events.

Tonight’s County Board Meeting went really well. We started off the meeting recognizing the long record of service in Tazewell County Education of our Regional Superintendant of Schools Rob Houchin who is retiring at the end of this month. We also met his replacement in Gail Owen. Both of these individuals are great.

On the Consent Agenda, items 1, 2, 3, 20, 25 and 27 were pulled. All others passed.

Item 1 concerned the new Building Codes for Commercial Property and was pulled by Member Dean Grimm who had some questions he wanted clarified, along with Member Paul Hahn. The questions concerned impact, enforcement, and funding. After clarification was given, it passed with no objections. One big question that was clarified was that these new codes only affect Commercial Property; Ag Property is not involved.

Item 2 and Item 3 both concerned the County Highway Engineers pay. I supported his raise and 6 month contract as he is above and beyond one of our top employees. He is highly regarded in his field and has saved the taxpayers of Tazewell County millions while providing top level services to the taxpayers. After a few questions, both passed with no objections.

Item 20 was first discussed at a committee level and then came before the County Board for a vote. It involved the purchase of two vehicles for Court Services. We only received the information on this issue when we arrived. Upon review, it was brought to my attention that many of the County Board Members questioned the need for several of the added features to the cars, including Chrome Wheels and Remote Starters. The County Administrator stressed the need for approval, but I asked for it to be tabled until answers could be given. Sadly, the committee decided not to do this and started debating the issue. Since the Department Head was not present, the answers were not available, which is why I wanted to table the issue. After a long discussion, I was the only County Board Member to vote against this issue, even though many others had stressed their disapproval.

Items 25 and 27 were pulled for procedural reasons as they had just come from committee and passed without objections.

During the Communications Section of the agenda, Member Crawford went over the results of the 2011 Tazewell County District Three Municipality and Township Tour. I have posted his report on the website for your review under County Board Agendas. Later I took the time to thank all of the County Board Members that participated. I also thanked Member Crawford for his leadership of this year’s tour. Finally, I thanked Member Stanford for his continued support of the Tour, as he was the only District Three Member who has participated all three years. The first year I organized the Tour, Member Stanford and I participated. By year two, Members Crawford and Hahn both joined us. Now in the third year, six out of seven District Three County Board Members took the time to participate.

Member Crawford also updated us on his work to bring forward legislation that would ban live sex clubs in Tazewell County. This is a pre-emptive effort after the discovery of Club 307 in Peoria. He has put a lot of time into this work and we will soon get the opportunity to award him by passing it.

Member Neuhauser made a very strong statement against the recent State of Illinois action to stop our efforts to look at the option of privatizing the Jail Operations. His remarks were more about the loss of Local Control rather than the privatizing of the Jail.

Finally, Administrator Jones updated the County Board on the Mud to Parks Grant we have been working on.

Very quick and good meeting tonight. All items passed on the consent agenda except item 16.

I pulled item 16, which involved a $26,000 six month agreement with EJustice. EJustice is the computer system used by Tazewell County Law Enforcement, but the system has not lived up to the promises we received when we signed up with them. For the past several years, we have been talking about looking for new options and how we are going to be moving forward.

Earlier this month, the Tazewell County Sheriff’s Office made a statement in the Pekin Daily Times concerning the shortcomings of EJustice. The news report centered on the fact that the municipalities in Tazewell County have a new system that has more of what we want but cannot receive from EJustice.

With the statement from the Sheriff’s Office, and with the countless years of talking about the need to change, I found it impossible to continue to invest so much into a system that apparently did not live up to its promise. In my house, as I feel is the case in any taxpayer’s house, if a piece of equipment is not working right you do not continue to invest large amounts of money into it.

I also believe we owe it to the officers and other county employees that use this system to have the equipment they need to do their jobs.

In the end, I was the only County Board Member to vote against this investment.

During the comments section of the meeting, Member Mel Stanford updated us on a regional information conference he attended concerning High Speed Rail Service and the impact it could have on Tazewell County. Chairman David Zimmerman also updated the board on the recognition of the Justice Center as a well run facility. The Sheriff and his staff should be congratulated for receiving this recognition.

Tonight’s County Board Meeting went very well. We had the pleasure tonight to have the Morton High School Honor Civic Class joining us for our meeting. They have been studying Redistricting at the all levels, including the County level, and wanted to see what Tazewell Counties end result was. It was great to have these future leaders at our meeting.

Before the meeting, we held the third and final Public Hearing concerning the Tazewell County Redistricting Process. I consider the fact that we had three Public Hearings and had information available on the County Website an accomplishment. Along with fellow County Board Member Melvin Stanford, we pressed and pressed to get Chairman David Zimmerman to change his original plan which was to have just one Public Hearing, which took place before the maps where even available to the public. We also pushed and were successful in getting the information made available on the County Website. Both of these accomplishments where important in guaranteeing the Open and Transparent Process that was the end result. To his credit, Chairman Zimmerman should be congratulate for making the right decision in changing direction and ensuring the opportunity to have every voice heard, even if in the end few choose to take that opportunity.

First thing into the meeting, we welcomed our newest County Board Member for District One, Nancy Proehl of rural Spring Lake Township. She comes very highly recommended and I am looking forward to working with her. County Board Member Russ Crawford was the individual that asked her to apply and was instrumental in getting her approved.

On the Consent Agenda, only items 2, 22 and 25 were pulled. Item 25 was the appointment of Nancy Proehl, which I covered above and passed with no objections. Item 2 was pulled so that a representative from Tri-County Regional Planning, which was a leading organization in creating this new Comprehensive Land Use Plan, could make a very informational presentation concerning the new plan and the process that was used in making this important plan. Really not many changes from our older Comprehensive Plan, but one important addition was the inclusion of language regarding Wind Energy in Tazewell County. The new Comprehensive Land Use Plan is available on my website.

Item 22 was the approval of Chairman Zimmerman’s recommended Redistricting Map. I was the lone County Board Member to vote against this item. I stressed the issue I have with the fact that Chairman Zimmerman’s map disenfranchises the municipalities of East Peoria, Creve Coeur and Marquette Heights by dividing these communities into two different County Board Districts.

I pointed out that if you listed the top five populated areas of Tazewell County, it would be 1) Pekin, 2) Rural Tazewell County, 3) East Peoria, 4) Morton and 5) Washington. I pointed out that under the Chairman’s map, Pekin would have a district and the last two (Morton and Washington) would have a district where they are the majority, but the middle two, both of which have almost double the population of Morton and Washington, get divided into the minority.

I restated an issue from other meetings that in the State of Illinois, we would be the only County with a population higher than 60,000 to have so few districts. As a matter of fact, no County with a population over 100,000 has fewer than six districts. Our three district map puts us in a class with counties like Whiteside, Livingston, Boone, Grundy and Woodford rather than the more professional counties we normally compare to like Peoria, McLean, Champaign, Sangamon and the counties of the Chicago area. I really believe this issue has shown that while we like to talk about being a more professional county, we have a long ways to go to as an organization to actually be a professional county organization.

The last point I brought up was that we had requested a subject matter expert be made available to work with us on this process. This is something that is commonly done in the professional counties I mentioned above but was not done here in Tazewell County. Something a subject matter expert would have discussed with us is the Gerrymandering Style of “Cracking”. When a map is Gerrymandered, the style used is either “packing” or “cracking” or a combination of both. “Cracking” involves spreading out voters of a particular type among many districts in order to deny them a sufficiently large voting bloc in any particular district. The example that is commonly used is the urban concentration of Columbus, Ohio, is split into thirds, each segment then attached to—and outnumbered by—the suburbs. It would not be hard for someone to use this to explain Chairman Zimmerman’s map.

In the end, I was proud of my stance that Rural Representation needs to be considered as well as the need to unify rather than divide municipalities. While at this meeting I was the only County Board Member to vote for these priorities, (please take note that Member Melvin Stanford was not in attendance at the meeting but had stated he would have joined me in voting no) I feel the facts we brought forward, which were never successfully challenged, set the ground work for the needed changes to be made more possible in the future.

I am also happy to note that this process showed that when we asked for feedback from our constituents, more utilized my website and contacting me than any other resource. I hope this very positive response from the citizens of Tazewell County is due to my continued efforts to increase transparency in government.

Tonight’s meeting was really three separate meetings.

The first was the Public Hearing concerning the Tazewell County Redistricting Process. This event was very poorly handled by the County Leadership. As of a week ago, I know this meeting was not planned because the County Administrator told me it would take place in April. I only found out about this meeting on Friday when I just happened to find the notice on the County Website. Talking to other County Board Members, they did not get the notice until Monday. If you are calling a Public Hearing to truly hear the concerns of the citizens, you should give more notice than just a few days and it should have been advertised more thoroughly.

Furthermore, the timetable they are now pushing involves presenting the various redistricting proposals to the County Board at our next meeting in April and voting on it the same night. If the full County Board is being asked to hear ideas for redistricting and also make a decision, what time is available for in-depth consideration of the various ideas and also to ask our constituents their thoughts?

Another problem is the real purpose of the Public Hearing. A Public Hearing involving the county redistricting should be had after the County Board has a map to discuss. Tonight’s meeting did not allow for the County Board to present to the public any of the proposals being discussed. To view these proposals, you can look to my website at www.JohnCAckerman.com on the home tab.

Even though the County Board has been presented with proposals from Chairman Zimmerman and me for over a month now, my website is still the only avenue for citizens to see these options. Why they have not been made available on the County Website is unexplainable and shows the Leaderships lacking desire for public input on this very important issue.

In the end, this meeting was little more than a public farce designed to make it appear that we gave the Public the opportunity to be involved in the process. The County Leadership should be ashamed of the way they have handled this. If this truly represents Chairman Zimmerman’s idea of public input, the citizens of Tazewell County should be concerned.

The second meeting was the County Board Meeting itself. Items 1, 11, 12, 13 and 14 where pulled from the Consent Agenda. The rest passed with no objections.

Item 1 was a zoning issue in Groveland Township and had been rejected by the Zoning Board of Appeals and the Tazewell County Land Use Committee. As such, it was pulled and the full County Board voted it down as well. Items 13 and 14 where pulled for procedural reasons and passed with no objections.

Items 11 and 12 where pulled by Member Jerry Vanderheydt. He stated that he felt these positions where being re-evaluated too quickly. He made a motion to send this back to committee and was joined by Members Meisinger, Antonini, Hahn, Palmer, Stanford, Sundell and Von Boeckman. Both items passed despite there objections.

The third and final meeting was a briefing to the County Board from the Health Services Committee Chairman Terry Hillegonds concerning the status of their research into closing options of the Pekin Landfill. The briefing was good and I am confident in Member Hillegonds leadership of this committee and guidance on this issue. However, the question and answer service afterwards contained too much grandstanding and too many frivolous statements.

Tonight’s Tazewell County Board Meeting had a lot of big action and discussion items tonight. Right at the start we accepted the resignations of Tazewell County Recorder of Deeds Bob Lutz and Tazewell County Board Member Jan Donahue. Both of these individuals have a long service record for the citizens of Tazewell County and both will be missed. Then we voted in their replacements; Sue Manuel as the new Tazewell County Recorder of Deeds and Jim Donahue as Tazewell County Board Member. I look forward to working with these individuals in the future.

On the Consent Agenda, items 4, 7, 21, 24, 25 and 26 where pulled. All others passed with no objections. Item 4 was pulled by Member Paul Hahn so he could ask questions of the implications of this transfer on the budget. As it turns out, the money for this transfer was already allocated in other parts of the department’s budget. I pulled item 24 from the agenda to question some of the language contained in this report and an inquirer as to future needs addressed in the document. Items 7, 21, 25 and 26 where pulled for procedural reasons and passed without any issues.

During Communications from Elected County Officials, Board Member Russ Crawford made a great motion to recognize the achievements of the Illinois Farm Bureau. Member Terry Von Boeckman made a motion to recognize the achievements of Professional Golfer and Pekin native D.A. Points.

I took an opportunity at that time to address the irresponsible and un-substantiated allegations from County Board Member Mike Harris against me at last month’s County Board Meeting. As you will remember, Member Harris read a prepared statement in which he made allegations against me concerning a phone call he reportedly received from an unnamed employee. These allegations are: A) Intimidation of an Employee, B) Misrepresentation of the Tazewell County Board, and C) Violation of the Chain of Command. I felt I needed to address them because while in the Justice System allegations without factual substantiating evidence are dismissed as individuals are innocent until proven guilty, over the years I have come to find that in Politics this is sadly not the case.

I have posted my response to these serious un-substantiated allegations. Basically, I do not recall any event in which these claims can be true and I have never been approached by any employee or employee’s supervisor or the County Administrator with any complaint or rumor of such complaint that could substantiate Member Harris’s allegations.

It should also be noted that if any employee had felt intimidated by anyone, let alone a County Board Member, we have a process in place in which they can approach their supervisor and/or the County Administrator to report the situation. As no supervisor has come forward and the County administrator has not received any such report, I feel this evidence speaks volumes itself.

As far as the allegation of Violation of the Chain of Command, I have reviewed the County Board Rules which govern this organization and find no reference to such a system. I have found that if such a system would exist, it would be against the very nature of this organization in which all members are equals. The claim that more responsibility or command of the organization or availability of information is granted through backroom, insider oriented, politically motivated appointments to Committee Positions is completely frivolous.

We are all equals in terms of responsibility for the actions of this organization. Not all County Board Members are equal in terms of quality of representation, service to the citizens and ability to perform the duties they are elected to perform, but that is a decision for the citizens to make each time they go to the voters booth. After the election, the citizens expect us to come together to discuss the issues of the day and do what is best for Tazewell County.

Stunts like last months, which provide no benefit to the task at hand unless factual substantiating evidence is found, deter from that service to those that have entrusted us and given us this responsibility.

I did not like having to address this subject, but with the charges being made in such a public manor I felt they needed to be addressed quickly in an equally public way. I wish Member Harris would have addressed his concerns and misunderstandings with me privately before taking the action of making such serious charges publicly.

Finally, we have now officially started addressing the upcoming issue of re-districting the political County Board Districts. This issue is mandated and must be completed by May of this year. As you will recall, I stated the need for review of this issue during the 2008 elections. As I predicted then we need to make some changes because of the rapid growth in Northern Tazewell County. I am calling for major changes to guarantee more community oriented County Board Districts and also Districts that place the County Board Members closer to those that elect them.

I have attached my proposal on the website and in the archives to can read my previous comments on this topic. Chairman Zimmerman also presented two proposals that are more in line with the current standings. I am glad to see this issue being addressed as I feel it is one of the most important issues in the near future. Chairman Zimmerman needs to congratulated for requesting all voices and opinions on this topic and in making time for those voices to be heard.

Tonight's January Board Meeting went by quickly. All items on the Agenda passed on the Consent Agenda with no objections.

On a sad note, County Board Member Jan Donahue resigned from the County Board. She has had some health issues recently and this was part of her decision. Jan has been an excellent County Board Member and I will miss her representation of District 2.

At the end of the meeting, County Board Member Mike Harris made a statement concerning what he felt was concerns he had with the actions of another County Board Member. It was not till the end of his speech that he identified that other County Board Member as me. He said a county employee told him another board member had called and said several board members wanted a certain action to be undertaken. Harris kept the complainant anonymous, but said he does not want a county board member claiming to represent several board members because someone could think that meant him, and he did not authorize any other board member to do anything on his behalf.

Member Harris also said that kind of tactic to accomplish a goal bypassed the county’s organizational chain of command and also served as a form of intimidation for employees like the one in question.

Finally, Member Harris said it is all right for board members to take actions to further their political careers but “Mr. Ackerman needs to do it with respect to the board.”

I responded by pointing out that this is the first I was hearing of this complaint, that Member Harris had not talked to me me about this before that moment, and that bases on the little information he provided that I did not even know what incident he was addressing and also that I felt it was irresponsible to bring an accusation to the floor without addressing it in private first.

I asked Member Harris to clarify his concern before our next County Board Meeting. These are serious accusations, all of which are false, and I feel he needs to bring forward any facts or evidence to prove his point.

Since the meeting, I believe I have found what he was talking about and it had nothing to do with what he was insinuating. I want to give Member Harris the opportunity to make this right, so I will not address right now what is going on, but I will not allow him to make frivolous accusations of this magnitude. Look for more on this in the coming month.

County Board Chairman David Zimmerman called this Special County Board Meeting so we could vote to consolidate the offices of Recorder of Deeds and County Clerk. We had to have this meeting at this time in order to have the chance to get the issue on the next election ballet for the voters to decide. Our only action that is available on this issue is weather or not the voters should have the opportunity to vote to consolidate the offices. Only the voters can consolidate the offices.

I disagree with the way in which this has come before the County Board. We had less than a week to review the information and make a decision. During the meeting, a vast majority of the County Board stated that they did not have enough information to make a decision, yet they still voted to pass this on to the voters.

While most of this information looks good on paper, during the meeting most of the positives to consolidating the offices where found to be questionable at best. The idea that this would save money was quickly reversed so that now it looks as if we would save very little if anything through consolidation.

It was also noted that only one other County in Illinois has elected to consolidate these offices. While a majority of the Counties in Illinois have these offices consolidated, the State Constitution mandates that Counties over 60,000 people have the offices separated. Of those Counties over 60,000, we would only be the second one to have them consolidated. This group of Counties larger than 60,000 includes McLean and Peoria, both of which have the offices separated.

I believe more needs to be answered before we jump forward and consolidate the offices. With little factual information to base an opinion on, I decided against drastic action at this time. I was joined by Members Stanford, Meisinger, Vanderheydt, VonBoeckman, Sundell, Antonini and Palmer in voting against putting this issue on the upcoming election ballet. Unfortentely, the issue passed 10-8.

What worries me the most about this vote was that most of the 10 that voted to pass this issue all stated during the meeting that they did not have enough information to make an educated decision at the time they placed their votes. If what they said during the meeting is true, it is a sad statement that when faced with lacking information they would still place a vote in the positive on the issue. If you do not have enough information to make a decision, you should not be placing a vote.

This issue will be on the upcoming election and I hope the voters demand more facts before they vote. The election usually has a very low turnout, so every vote counts.

Tonight's Tazewell County Board meeting went very fast. These meetings usually are around the holidays.

After several In-Place committee meetings, Items 12, 15, 16, 19, 20 and 21 where pulled from the Consent Agenda. The rest of the Consent Agenda passed.

Items 15, 16, 19, 20 and 21 where pulled as they just came to us from the In-Place Committees. All passed with no objections.

Item 12 was the Tazewell County Vehicle Policy that I have been pushing since February. This is good policy that will start us in the right direction and I was proud to make the motion to pass and along with the rest of the Tazewell County Board vote to pass this very important and critical risk deduction policy.

As you will recall, this issue came to the forefront in February of this year when after much talk and very little progress by the board as a whole to address this matter, I introduced a feasible policy for discussion. That policy, the McLean County Vehicle Policy, seemed to be a great way to address all of the concerns that have been discussed for the past several years. The policy that passed tonight was very similar to the one I proposed back in February. Why then the delay?

The biggest reason for the delay was the one area where the policy that passed tonight differs from the policy I introduced; this Tazewell County Vehicle Policy names the elected department heads as well as the County Board members as the parties responsible for the County Property. This is different from the McLean, Peoria, and all other County Vehicle Policies that I reviewed. In these Counties, the County Board is solely the elected officials responsible for all of the County Property.

Why is this important? The County Board, not any other elected or appointed official, is the official legal voice of the citizens of the County. The County Board Members are the ones that are elected specifically to represent the citizens and are also the individuals that are answerable to the citizens.

While this is question of control has not been fully addressed in this new policy, we have a compromise that will work for now. The Policy passed by the County Board tonight will be adopted by all of the elected department heads for usage in their departments. Furthermore, the States Attorney and the County Board Administrator will be sending a request for a legal ruling on the control the County Board has to make policies that concern the elected department heads. The request will be sent to the Attorney General of the State of Illinois.

The States Attorney had questioned this understanding of the State Law concerning the authorized control the County Board does and does not have. As such, since our original policy is worded the same as the McLean County and Peoria County policies, he is questioning the legality of their policies as well and the result of this ruling from the Attorney General's Office will not only affect us here in Tazewell County, but across the State of Illinois.

In the end, my decision to continue my support of this compromise Tazewell County Vehicle Policy was based on the fact that other than this one area, the rest of the concerns and issues my original suggested policy addressed remained the same and as such this policy is better than no policy at all. While it took way too long to become reality, the citizens of Tazewell County finally have a vehicle policy that they have heard discussed and debated for the past 5+years.

I want to thank the citizens of Tazewell County that took the time to look at and research this issue and discuss it with their elected representatives. In February, the talk was that this policy would not go anywhere. It was because of your continued support and questioning of this issue that action has finally been taken.

Fellow County Board Members that played a big role in getting this policy passed where Melvin Stanford, Russ Crawford, Tim Neuhauser, Jerry Vanderheydt and Brett Grimm. Without the support of these members, this policy would not have come up for a vote tonight and would most likely have remained buried as some of the opposition had wished.

You can find the new Tazewell County Vehicle Policy, all of my previous statements concerning the Vehicle Policy and more on my website.

Really long meeting tonight. On the Consent Agenda, items 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 17, 24 and 25 where pulled. Items 15 and 16 where removed at the committee level for further review. All others passed.

Items 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 17 and 25 where pulled only for procedural reasons. They passed with no objections.

Item 24 was concerning the County Administrator's pay increase. This has been a very highly debated subject for the past few weeks. Most of the discussions on this subject took place in Executive Session, so I am limited in what I can say took place. I can say that what came out of the Executive Committee was a 5% pay increase and a total pay package, including benefits, increase of 17%. This is what we started the night talking about.

When we came out of Executive Session, the first motion was to remove the Vacation Buy-back benefit from the package. The motion was made by Member Mike Harris and seconded by me. All Members but Members Tim Neuhauser, Sue Sundell, Melvin Stanford and Terry Hillegonds voted to remove this expensive clause.

The next motion was concerned increasing his retirement fund contribution by the taxpayers to $16,000 yearly over the course of three years. The original recommendation by the committee was for this increase to take place in one year. Only Members Darrell Meinsinger, Jerry Vanderheydt, Terry VonBoeckman and Joyce Antonini joined me in voting against this increase.

In the end, the County Board voted to give the County Administrator a 5% pay increase and a 9% total package increase. Members Russ Crawford, Darrell Meinsinger, Jerry Vanderheydt, Terry VonBoeckman, Joyce Antonini, Joe Berardi and I voted against this agreement.

I felt that it was too high of an increase with the economy being the way it currently is. I was also against this high of an increase because we had negotiated with our employees that we could only afford a 2 to 3% increase and then we give the County Administrator this increase. Seems like a mixed message to our employees.

It should be noted that the Executive Committee is chaired by the County Board Chairman David Zimmerman. The original package of a 17% increase came from his committee with his consent. This issue is the second time that a controversial decision came from the Executive Committee only to be turned down by the County Board as a whole.

At the end of the County Board Meeting, I read a statement concerning the unethical release of confidential meeting information. Over the past month, we have had two incidents where a single elected official associated with this County Board, but not one of the County Board Members, has taken it upon himself to release confidential, private, legally permissible Executive Session conversations from the Tazewell County Board and Pekin City Council to the local media.

I find this breach of trust unethical and revolting. It is a destructive violation of the mutual trust we all in public office should strive to attain and maintain with our constituents. What is said at in these sessions is intended to remain private and confidential until such time that the governing body decides that it is fitting and proper for an issue to be made public.

You can find my statement on this issue on my website under 'In The News' and also 'County Board Agendas'.

After the County Board Meeting, we moved on to the Final Budget Meeting. The only real issue here was a statement by me objecting again to the fact that we have no plan on how the Sheriff is going to reduce the overtime cost in the Jail to the budgeted level of $250,000. He has never been able to manage the jail at this level and has shown a trend of blowing each year's budgeted amount and spending whatever he wants.

You will remember during the Tentative Budget Meeting I asked the Sheriff to explain his plan to be able to lower the Overtime Cost in the Jail. The Sheriff answered my question by saying "We'll take care of it". This is a great quote and am glad the County Board will not have to deal with this issue this year. With his guarantee on the record, I am glad we will not be discussing giving him any additional funding for overtime and that at this time next year we can look at lowering him to the $200,000 level he told us last year could be achieved. I will be watching this and reporting the progress.

Unfortunately, this year we budgeted $295,788 for Overtime in the Jail. At this time it appears he will spend over $370,000 in Overtime. While I hope he will be able to properly manage the jail to keep it from wasting so much taxpayer dollars in 2011, this year and all his past budget overtures give me reason to little confidence in his abilities to live within our budgeted amount.

Overall, it is important to point out that Tazewell County has the fifth lowest property taxes in the State. This is a good budget that has some issues in it, as pointed out above, but overall is very good to the taxpayers of Tazewell County.

Tonight was the first of two of the most important County Board meetings of each year; one being Tentative Budget Meeting and the other being the Final Budget Meeting. I have placed the Tentative Budget on my website for your review. I had several questions concerning this years Budget I brought up tonight.

On page 33, under the Sheriff's line item, I was happy to see that the Sheriff is planning to meet the guidelines give to him by the County Board last year to reduce the Overtime cost in the Jail. Last year we reduce his Overtime to $295,788. Sadly, the Sheriff did not meet this limit this year. While the budget currently shows the 2010 Estimate at $325,000, it looks in reality to be much more than that at the end of the year.

With this past history of not being able to meet the Budget Guidelines of the County Board, I asked the Sheriff to explain his plan to be able to lower the Overtime Cost in the Jail to a level it has not been at since at least 2005. The Sheriff answered my question by saying "We'll take care of it". This is a great quote and am glad the County Board will not have to deal with this issue this year. With his guarantee on the record, I am glad we will not be discussing giving him any additional funding for overtime and that at this time next year we can look at lowering him to the $200,000 level he told us last year could be achieved. I will be watching this and reporting the progress.

Another issue that was discussed was the cost of Farm Supplies on page 55. Last year we directed the County Administrator to present a proposal for the County to get out of the Farming Business and look at a Rental Farm agreement. As you can see, this has not been done yet. I wanted to make sure that this will be review before next year.

On page 56, I pointed out that yet again we are not funding a County IT Manager. Last year we made a commitment to finally fund this important position. We have fallen very far behind other counties our size in this area and are failing to meet several state mandates concerning County Websites and the public's availability to information. As we continue to put off the funding of this position, we are falling further and further behind and the risk we take by failing to meet state guidelines increases. I find it irresponsible of us to continue to put off this issue.

I also supported the County Administrator's proposal to fund the Heart of Illinois PORT District at a level of $2,000. This is a large decrease from the $27,500 from two years ago and the $13,750 we budgeted last year. Unfortunately, the rest of the board decided to cut all funding of this important organization. I regret this action because I am convinced we will revisit this in the future.

Finally, under the County Highway Fund, the County Board decided to increase the overtime line item from $70,000 to $85,000. The reason for this increase was the fact that with such a small Transportation Staff, it was not reasonable to think that we would not surpass this number. A plan was openly discussed at several different committee meetings that when, not if, we surpassed this Overtime Level we could take the additional funding from the Contingent Expense line item. To me, it was wrong to plan to use the Contingent Expense line item to pay for a reduction on paper of the Overtime Cost. If we plan to send more, than we need to show the taxpayers what we are sending it on and be prepared to explain why.

I thank Member Russ Crawford for taking the torch and raising this issue once again. I brought up this same issue at the Transportation Committee who decided to pass the decision to the Finance Committee. I raised it at the Finance Committee and they decided to hold off. This time, I decided to let Member Crawford take the torch and this time it passed with no objections. Go figure.

Overall, it is important to point out that Tazewell County has the fifth lowest property taxes in the State. This is a good budget that has some issues in it, as pointed out above, but overall is very good to the taxpayers of Tazewell County. Member Russ Crawford should be recognized for standing up for transparency to the taxpayers with his efforts on the Highway Department line item.

Tonight's meeting was very quick. Not much discussion with everything on the agenda passing on the consent agenda.

Member Paul Hahn asked me to help me by getting the Health Department Fee increasing that passed at last months meeting revisited. If you remember, Member Greg Sinn, Member Melvin Stanford, Member Paul Hahn and I objected to raising the Fee cost for Food Inspections on all restaurants in Tazewell County.

On the motion to revisit, the vote was 10 to revisit this issue and 9 not to revisit. With that, several members expressed their views, mainly that the funding was needed and that the other options was not as feasible.

I voted not to raise the taxes at this time as I found it a bad time with the economy in the shape it is to raise taxes on small Mom and Pop Restaurants.

The motion to raise the taxes passed 16 to 3 with Members Hahn and Stanford joining me.

In the coming days, I will be posting the Tentative Budget for next year. Please take the time to review it and let me know your thoughts. All suggestions are welcomed.

Very quick and quiet meeting tonight. As far as the Consent Agenda, items 3, 8, 12, 14 and 18 where pulled. Item three was the only one with much discussion. Items 8 and 14 where pulled for questions and comments and passed with no objections. Item 18 was pulled due to its first reading and passed with no objections.

Item 3 was pulled by Member Paul Hahn who objected to the timing of this fee increase. He stated that with the condition of the local economy right now, it is not the right time to be increasing fees and taxes. On the vote, he was joined by Members Greg Sinn, Mel Stanford and me. It did pass the board despite our “no” votes.

Item 12 was also pulled by Member Paul Hahn as he said now is not the right time with the economy the way it is to raise pay to employees. On this item, he was the only Member to object.

Before the Consent Agenda, we had the honor to have 4-H member Samantha Day of Morton speak before the County Board on her Blue Ribbon winning Leadership 4-H Fair Project. I had the honor of judging the Tazewell County 4-H Fair for the second year in a row. This year, I offered the Blue Ribbon winners the opportunity to speak about 4-H before the County Board.

The Tazewell County 4-H program has grown to include over 400 youth in Tazewell County spread across 38 4-H clubs in Deer Creek, Delavan, East Peoria, Green Valley, Hopedale, Mackinaw, Manito, Minier, Morton, Pekin, Tremont and Washington. Over 250 youths presented projects at this year’s 4-H Fair. I have and will continue to support 4-H in Tazewell County as I see it as one of the best youth improvement organizations. Congratulations again to Samantha Day and the rest of the 4-H participants!

Finally, before the meeting I had a Press Conference with the local media concerning the Tazewell County Vehicle Policy. You can read what I had to say on my website and blog.

Tonight’s meeting was a complete breakdown of proper protocol at our board meeting. The first part of the meeting went well, but the ending was crazy and sad and in the end completely inappropriate. More on that in a bit.

The County Board Meeting itself went on with little fanfare. Items 1, 12, 13, 17 and 18 were pulled from the consent agenda and then the rest of the consent agenda was passed. As you know, item 17 was of most importance to me and it was pulled at the committee level and tabled until next month. The States Attorney had some last minute changes he is recommending and the committee wanted some time to review these and also Member Melvin Stanford’s recommendation. Committee Chairman Lincoln Hobson talked with me about this before the meeting and I trust him when he says he wants to take care of this the right way next month. Look forward to this next month.

Item 1 received the most attention. The ZBA passed this rezoning but then the Land Use Committee rejected it. After much discussion of the case, the County Board passed the rezoning 13 to 7. I voted against this rezoning because I feel it will harm current farming practices in the surrounding area and I feel it is spot zoning. The Tazewell County Farm Bureau’s recommendation to reject this request also carried allot of weight for me. In the end County Board Members Antonini, Crawford, Hahn, Palmer, Sinn and Sundell joined me in supporting the Farm Bureau’s view, but fell short of the needed majority.

Item 12 was pulled to amend with some minor language changes recommended by the States Attorney. It passed as amended. Item 13 and 18 were pulled as they had just come out of committees. They passed without any discussion.

The end of the meeting was the Sheriff responding to Member Jerry Vanderheydt’s questions from four months ago. I have posted the questions on my website in this section for your review. As you will recall, Member Vanderheydt tried to ask the Sheriff these questions four months ago but was told to submit them in writing and the Sheriff would respond in a timely manner. After a month went by with no response, I mentioned at the next County Board Meeting that it is wrong for elected officials to ignore the questions of County Board Members who are trying to get the facts. As I stated then “the County Board is the people’s voice in County Government and other Elected or Appointed Officials need to show respect to the voters of Tazewell County and be more transparent with the actions of their office.”

Then last month, after still no response to the questions, I was going to answer the questions with some of the facts I had found. Chairman Zimmerman refused to have them heard by the County Board.

Now finally the Sheriff said he was going to answer the questions, but shortly after he began it became apparent that he was not going to do so. Instead, he engaged in political grandstanding, with talk about his higher education, and criticization of County Board Members questions and at some points focusing on their spelling ability, as if that had some importance on the subject at hand. He talked about the fact that he wanted to come forward earlier, but also attacked many of the questions rather than answer them. He talked on and on about how the department participates in funerals and mutual aid request, but mentioned nothing about the participation of the County Motorcycles in the Peoria TT Parade, the Race for the Cure Parade and other questionable public appearances. I am told that participation in these events are for Motorcycle Safety Education and are covered by Federal Grant Funds, but I find it hard to explain how participating in a parade is safety education and also why multiple officers being paid overtime is justified no matter how it is paid for. It is good Tazewell County is not paying for this. But Tazewell County Taxpayers are still paying for this waste. He did mention that the grant is covering only one motorcycle, which I find interesting because the answer I got was that all three of the motorcycles cost is covered by the grant money.

He did talk about the St. Jude Motorcycle trip from last year, but attempted to mockingly say that it was already public knowledge. The insult here was to the other County Board Members, since none of them knew anything about this until I brought it to their attention last year. I think he was attempting to insult me, but in the process he actually insulted all of the County Board Members. You can read more about this on the website under the link for the Tazewell County Vehicle Policy.

At one point Member Mel Stanford objected to the Sheriff’s statement since it was obviously political in nature. Chairmen Zimmerman agreed, but indicated that I had been calling for this for months and he had not wanted to have this happen. What I wanted was the questions to be answered, not political grandstanding. He did request that the Sheriff proceed but remove any other political remarks.

The Sheriff did answer the question concerning the outside firm being hired to write a new policy manual. He stated that his staff did not have the time and as such he used an outside firm. I found this answer understandable and appreciated the answer. He also answered the questions about two separate sets of books on overtime by stating that no such practice takes place in his office. He also discussed the question concerning the Behm Case officers being returned to work. As we all know he did answer this question before and as such, had no need to do so again.

In the end, I wish he would have focused more on the facts and less on attacking County Board Members. He repeatedly questioned the integrity and also his reasoning for asking the questions in the first place. Other than Member Vanderheydt, he did mention this column and I had one of the spelling mistakes he pointed out. Instead of targeting the spelling, I wish he would have invested that time in answering more of the questions. It was nice to know he reads this column, or at least was given it by individuals that do, since he had a copy of the site in his hand and read from it, but it should not have been a subject in this discussion. He also mentioned the momentum that was building that forced him to answer the questions. I am happy to hear about this, as the media had not yet covered this subject and as such, this column was the only source of this momentum. That was the reasoning for this column, as I have stated that too much happens to be covered completely by the media and yet needs to be brought to the attention of the voting public. The Sheriff’s recognition of this is proof that the need for this column does exist.

Tonight’s County Board Meeting was straight forward. Items 1, 9, 10 and 18 were pulled from the consent agenda, but all passed with no objections and very little conversation. Item 1 was pulled to correct it by adding an amendment for clarification. Items 9 and 10 were pulled for public attention of the actions the County Board is taking to work on next year’s budget. Item 18 was pulled as since it was newly out of committee.

The real action took place before the meeting. I stated to Chairmen Zimmerman that I wanted to make a statement concerning the up-coming Vehicle Policy discussion and also concerning some of the questions that Member Vanderheydt asked the Sheriff three months ago. The Sheriff has yet to answer the questions, one of which involved the usage of the County Motorcycles.

Member Jerry Vanderheydt had asked these questions, which I have posted on my website, and I then asked the Sheriff to answer the questions in a timely manner three months ago. He stated he would look them over and get back to the board. Last month he decided not to answer the questions, so I again made a statement that I would like those questions answered. This month, on Monday, I placed a call to the Sheriff asking him once again to come before the board and answer the questions concerning the use of the Motorcycles in Peoria. The Sheriff was not in the office and I left the message on his answering machine and requested a return call to discuss. I never got a return call and again he choose not to respond to the County Board and thus the public in general.

I had already decided that if the Sheriff was not going to answer the question, then I was. I have been looking into this issue since the question was asked and what I have found is disturbing. Both of the Tazewell County Motorcycles participated in the Ride for the Cure, the motorcycle portion of the Race for the Cure. Both officers where paid to attend and also collected overtime for this event. Two Tazewell County Motorcycles, two officers being paid overtime attending an event that does not even take place in Tazewell County. A call to the Peoria County Sheriff’s office found that they had no vehicles at this event that takes place inside their county.

Add to this the fact that it was just last year I investigated and found that the motorcycles had participated in the St. Jude Motorcycle Ride to Memphis. In this case it was one officer taking the county vehicle to Memphis and while this time he was not paid, the County did pay for the maintenance and for the risk involved with this trip. After this incident, the County Board discussed the facts and while not taking official action, many members stated that this was not the right use of County Vehicles.

The Sheriff was in attendance at tonight’s meeting, along with the officer that was involved in this event, and yet he choose not to discuss with the Board his reasoning.

Right before the meeting started, Chairman Zimmerman called me forward and told me that he had changed his mind and did not want to have this discuss this month. He expressed that he wanted it to go to the HR Committee this coming month. When I questioned him about refusing County Board Members the right to discuss county business at the County Board Meeting, he stated that he was not changing his mind. I expressed that this was a violation of the County Board Rules and also the Open Meeting Act. It is sad that this has to go this far, but I will be placing a call to the State Attorney General’s Office to get a formal ruling. I am confident that it will rule that this was illegal. A main issue I have with this is that Chairman Zimmerman campaigned for more public openness and yet for three months he has assisted the Sheriff in his attempt to bury this information from the public.

As far as where is this going, the Vehicle Policy is coming forward this month at the HR Committee and the Chairman of that Committee, Member Linc Hobson, has already told me that he will let me address the committee on this subject. He also indicated that he will allow the Sheriff to speak on this subject as well, which is what I had been requesting for the past three months.

Tonight’s Tazewell County Board Meeting was mainly straight forward with a little item of interest at the end. As far as the agenda, after three In-Place Committee meetings the Consent was approved minus items 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15. Of these, items 10, 11, 12 and 15 passed with full approval.

Item 13 was discussed at this month’s Tazewell County Property Committee Meeting. Member’s Brett Grimm, Joe Berardi, Jerry Vanderheydt and I objected to the winning bidder because of the large differences in bids and lack of information concerning the bids. Before the meeting, Member Grimm let me know that he had investigated the bids and after getting the additional information he requested he would be supporting the bid. With this information, I was comfortable voting in favor of this. Member Vanderheydt also mentioned that he appreciated the additional information, but that he still did not support it. When it came up for a vote, all members voted in support except Board Members Jerry Vanderheydt and Joe Berardi.

Item 14 was pulled by me. In the previous few months, several questions had come forward concerning the status of the selling of the Mackinaw Property that Tazewell County owns. I wanted to make sure that everyone had an opportunity to see what the process was and what was going on as we move forward. Member Russ Crawford took the opportunity to make the statement that he was concerned with the County not being able to get the most out of this property because of the current state of the economy. While I understand his thoughts, and agree with his goal to get the most we can for the taxpayers of Tazewell County, the process calls for a required minimum bid of $300,000. With this, we are guaranteed to be able to get a good value for the property. In the end, all Board Members except Member Crawford voted in support.

The Board heard a presentation from Vickie Clark of the Economic Development Council (EDC) for Central Illinois concerning the final draft of the Economic Overview/Business Outreach Services Report that the EDC has made for Tazewell County.

We also heard from Dawn Cook, the Director of the Tazewell County Emergency Management Agency, concerning the great work that has been and will continue to do for the Citizens of Tazewell County.

Finally, Board Chairmen David Zimmerman explained a new understanding of the Board Rules concerning Section H of the County Board Agenda. Section H is for Communications from Elected and Appointed County Officials. Chairmen Zimmerman wanted to change the rules so that County Board Members that wish to ask other County Elected or Appointed Officials questions must submit them to the individual 10 days in advance of the County Board Meeting and then the Official being ask the question will decide weather of not they wish to attend and answer the questions.

I made a statement that I supported changing the rules, but that I wanted to make sure that other Elected or Appointed Officials realize that when a County Board Member ask them a question, he or she is not simply a Board Member asking a question; he or she is the Elected Representative of the Citizens of Tazewell County asking them. As such, if they choose not to answer the question, they are basically disrespecting the Citizens of Tazewell County.

With that, I made the statement that I felt it was important that Member Jerry Vanderheydt’s questions from the last Board Meeting be answered soon. I have listed the questions concerning the activities of the Sheriff’s Office below. Any County Board Member that request information from an elected County or Appointed County Office holder should have those questions answered, regardless of position, political party, ect. Too many County Board Members have asked questions that have not been answered lately. While I am not one of them waited to have my questions answered, someday I may have questions in need of attention. The County Board is the people’s voice in County Government and other Elected or Appointed Officials need to show respect to the voters of Tazewell County and be more transparent with the actions of their office.

Member Russ Crawford also pointed out to Chairmen Zimmerman that in order to change the rules of the County Board, it must go forward for a vote of the full County Board, not just one committee, and must receive the support of 2/3’s of the Board Members. I support this change as I feel it puts the pressure on the elected or appointed officials to answer the questions of County Board Members. With this we will have a formal process and those that choose not to participate in this process would do so against not just the one County Board Member, but against the County Board as a whole. This process should also remove all reasons for not answering questions, as the Official being questioned will have plenty of time to come up with the answers. Also, while this new rule would affect question from Board Member’s, if their questions are not answered the County Board Member can bring these questions before the Board as a statement rather than a question, thus letting all of us know who and what is not being answered and allowing us to ask why.

Great Board Meeting, but then again I am in such a great mood with the birth of my son that it would be hard to bring me down from this high! As far as the Consent Agenda, items 1, 4, 6, 7, 8, 14, 15 & 16 where pulled. Items 6, 7 & 15 where pulled because they where new additions to the agenda and it is procedure to do so. They all passed with no objections. Item 4 was pulled from the agenda.

Item 1 was pulled by Member Sinn who had some concerns with the additional traffic on Springfield Blacktop. I agree with him that the message needed to be made that we wanted limited access only to Springfield Blacktop, but I feel that message was sent without a no vote. After a first vote against the rezoning and then some more clarification of the issues, Member Hillegonds made a motion to re-consider the vote which was seconded by Member Sundell. On the vote to reconsider, all voted yes. I suggested this use of Parliamentary Procedure. Back to the original rezoning vote, this time all voted yes with the exception of Members Sinn, Donahue, Harris and Carius.

I pulled item 8, which was the Collective Bargaining Agreement with the Correction Officers from last month. Before it went up for a vote again, Chairmen Zimmerman once again asked that all members vote for this agreement. I stated that I would not be voting in support of the agreement because I felt that while the County Administration did make a mistake in not presenting the County Board with all of the options in a more timely manner and thus not the officers fault that we did not act, I would not have voted for this agreement at any time. I still think the pay agreements are way too high (9%+ when you add in the automatic step increase) and also other minor issues like the fact that officers can now live outside the county limits. Again, County Administration, headed by Chairmen Zimmerman, was at fault here I would have voted against and did vote against this agreement no matter when it was brought forward. All other Board Member voted in favor of this agreement with mine being the only no vote.

I also pulled item 14, which was the Information Technology Policy. I stated that while I supported the creation of this policy and think it is long overdue, I disagreed with the part of the policy that allowed for Personal Use of the County Equipment. I feel that there is never an allowed use of County Property at the cost of the taxpayers. I also stated that the other many County Board Policies I had seen in surrounding counties and also the policies I had seen in many of the local private businesses did not allow for any Personal Use of Business Equipment. While others stated that they agreed, they all though a policy was better than no policy. When it came time for the vote, I was once again the only no vote.

Item 16 was pulled by Member Sundell so she could abstain from the vote. Passed with all other Members voting to support.

In other business, Member Vanderheydt asked the Sheriff to come forward and answer some questions. The only question he was able to ask before being cut off by Chairmen Zimmerman concerned use of County Vehicle outside the County in the past few months. The Sheriff said he did not know the answer to the question at that time. Chairmen Zimmerman asked that Member Vanderheydt present his questions to the Sheriff in writing and that the Sheriff respond to them. Member Stanford asked that the Sheriff answer these questions in a timely manner. I do not know what the other questions where, but I will keep you up to date.

I do know of one resent time that the Sheriff authorized the Tazewell County Motorcycles to recently participate in the Race For A Cure Parade. I asked the Sheriff to report back to us on this but I have already been gathering information which includes the fact that the individuals who participated where on County Time. The taxpayers of Tazewell County paid for two individuals to participate in a parade that never entered Tazewell County. I am still looking to confirm, but I have heard that not only did they get paid, they got paid overtime. This is a serious misuse of County Vehicles and is exactly why I am pushing for a County Policy on this subject.

Very good and very important County Board Meeting tonight. On the Consent Agenda, Items 8, 9, 18, 19 and 20 where pulled. I pulled 8 and 9 to bring more public attention to the status of the Copper Road Project. This is a Tazewell County/Deer Creek Township Road Upgrade project that is being paid for with a $300,000 grant from Senator Dan Rutherford’s Office. The Tazewell County Transportation Committee, which I am a member of, worked with Deer Creek Township to get this funding and tonight’s action was to approve the bids to get work started.

Items 18, 19 and 20 where pulled for procedural purposes and 18 and 20 passed with no objections. Item 19 was a very important accomplishment for Tim Neuhauser and the rest of the Finance Committee. They looked into what would be the savings if the County pursued re-financing the remaining balance left on the payments of the Justice Center, with the thought that since the marked has changed they may be able to get a lower interest rate. The results they found were a savings of over $100,000 in interest charges. The County Board voted to approve this action with on Present vote by member Carroll Imig. Anytime a committee finds a way to save the County Taxpayers over $100,000 is very good news and should go a long way towards showing the County Boards efforts.

In other action, Member Mike Harris updated the Board on a tour given to staff members of the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency and the United States Environmental Protection Agency of the Pekin Landfill. This is continuing work towards capping that abandoned landfill and ridding the County of a serious Health Hazard.

I went next and took the time to recognize the efforts of some fellow County Board Members towards resolving the Tremont Facility Storm Shelter Issue I raised last year. Here is what I said: "Mr. Chairman, I want to take this moment to point out the outstanding performance by some of my fellow board members.

Last year I brought up the lack of Storm Shelters at our Tremont Facility and the need for us to provide our employees with safe working conditions by installing proper storm shelters. My hope was we would start looking into the issue and develop a plan and maybe within five years start installing the shelters that are needed.

Shortly after bring this issue up, Property Chairmen Carroll Imig and Board Members Tim Neuhauser, Jerry Vanderheydt and Dean Grimm formed a sub-committee to look into the issue and I am happy to see that less than a year later they have already increased our shelters capacity to now cover over 65-75% of our employees, depending on the time of day and they are actively working on plans for the placement of the remaining shelters needed.

This is exceptionally outstanding work in such a short amount of time and I want to thank and congratulate these County Board Members and the Department Heads and staff members working with them for this work to improve our facilities for our employees. This is simply service far beyond the normal expectations."

Member Paul Hahn raised the issue of the waste of all of the paper packets that are currently being sent and given to County Board Members and asked that staff look into ways to cut the amount as to save not only material cost but also staff time. Member Mel Stanford went last and asked that the County Sheriff attend the next County Board Meeting and gives the full County Board the update he gave the Human Resources Committee concerning the status of current litigation.

Tonight’s Tazewell County Board Meeting was very long but very, very important. Two big items took up the majority of the time. During the Public Discussion portion of the Board Meeting, Rev. Mark DuBois of the Judah International Ministries in Mackinaw made a presentation to the full County Board concerning the church purchasing the 50 acres the county currently owns in Mackinaw and is in the process of selling. This issue was discussed at a recent Tazewell County Property Committee meeting, which I am a member of. While I cannot discuss the conversation at that meeting, as it was in Executive Session, I can tell you my views of this issue which I have expressed to Rev. DuBois.

While the church is interested in purchasing the property and I would like to see them purchase it, I am against the County Board negotiating directly with them on this purchase because it would be outside our past practice of selling county property. Currently, we auction county property off to the highest bidder, so that everyone who is interested in said property can have a chance to purchase it. If we make an exception this time and sell it to a private individual, in this case the church, we are excluding all others that may be interested and have just as much right as the church to purchase it. It is not right to favor one individual over others when dealing with the people’s property, no matter how good the cause or individual is. The church does have the right and ability to bid for this property just like everyone else does.

The second issue came during the In-Place Human Resources Committee meeting, a committee which I am not a member of. The committee was to review and recommend action on the recently arbitrated ruling on the three-year Collective Bargaining Agreement with the Correction Officer’s Union. The agreement called for a massive hike in pay, more carry-over on Compensatory Time, changes made to allow for housing outside of the county, and any more costly increases for the Correction Officers at a time when no other County Employee is receiving these increases. The pay increase was the most discussed. I voiced my view that I would be voting against this agreement if it made it out of committee and came before the full County Board.

I also stated that it was within the power of the County Board to decide whether or not to outsource or privatize the staffing of the Tazewell County Jail. When answering a question from Member Mike Harris about this possibility of privatizing the Jail Staff, County Administrator David Jones said that the decision would have to have to Sheriff’s support. He was incorrect. Financial decisions are the responsibility of the County Board, not any other elected official. The Sheriff makes the decision of who he hires and what he pays individuals, but the County Board has the ability to remove the cost of the staffing of the Tazewell County Jail and making a new line item in the Sheriff’s Budget for Contractual Services. If this action takes place, the Sheriff would only be able to use these funds for Contractual Employees.

Another conversation point was the fact that the Arbitrator's decision was final since the 20 day period for appealing this decision had passed. The full Tazewell County Board was never made aware of this time table and many County Board Members made statements that a Special County Board Meeting should have been called. Regardless, the commit was also made that a vote against this agreement would be pointless at this time. I objected to this and stated that my voting power was given to me by the citizens of Tazewell County and no-one but they could control that vote. No outside Arbitrator’s decision controlled my vote.

In the end, the Tazewell County Human Resources Committee voted 8-3 against this agreement. Committee Members James Carius, Russ Crawford, Jan Donahue, Dean Grimm, Michael Harris, Carroll Imig, Tim Newhauser and Committee Chairmen Lincoln Hobson voted against this agreement, which I would have also voted against had this agreement made it to the full County Board. Since it failed to make it out of the committee meeting, the issue was removed from the County Board Agenda. As a point of reference, County Board Chairman David Zimmerman made several comments before and after the vote in support of the committee passing this agreement, which the committee did not do in the end.

On the Consent Agenda, items 19, 22 & 23 where pulled with all others passing without dissension. Item 23 was pulled, as you read above, because it did not make it out of committee. Item 19 was pulled by Member Mike Harris who had questions concerning the cost to the county, which is that this has no cost implication to the county. Item 22 was pulled by Member Mel Stanford so he can review some other changes that need to be made.

Very quick meeting tonight. After a presentation from Ann Fox and a Board Member of the local American Red Cross, the County Board passed a Proclamation recognizing their efforts. As far as the Consent Agenda, items 1, 2, 8, 13 and 20 where pulled.

All but item 1 passed with no issues and with full board support. Item 1 also passed with full board support, but has some continuing action and more decisions that need to be made. The item involved the County Property, 50 acres, in Mackinaw. Late last year the Property Committee and County Board took the steps to sell this property. In the coarse of this process, the land needed to be rezoned Residential, which is what we voted to do tonight.

As this rezoning proceeded, it came to several Board Members attention, including mine, that the Church adjacent to this property is interested in purchasing some or all of the 50 acres. Tonight's action had nothing to do with who would buy the property, but was a step at being in a position to sell the property.

After several exploratory questions from Member Harris, I made mention that I had talked before the meeting with Property Chairman Carroll Imig and that this issue will come before the Property Committee next month, which is the proper committee to review these options. At this committee level, we will be able to take a closer look at what would be the best options for the county and what we may be able to do to assist the Church. Look for more information concerning this in the coming months.

The only other action was a formal request by Member Mel Stanford that the Sheriff attend the next County Board meeting and discuss with the board questions that have arisen concerning the County Jail. Member Stanford and I made a similar request last month.

Meeting was very short and to the point tonight. The meeting started with an update from Christal Dagit from the Tazewell County Historic Places Society. She discussed the great work they have done and the fantastic future possibilities. A few months ago I wrote about the tour my wife Maria and I received of their facilities and my strong support of the organization. I encouraged her to come to the Finance Committee and make a request for financial support.

As far as the Consent Agenda, only items 4, 5, 13 and 14 where pulled. Item 4 was also pulled because of not enough information available. Item 4 concerned the request by the Village of Morton for the Tazewell County Board to endorse their PPUATS funding request involving the upgrades to the intersections of Detroit and US 150 and Detroit and Muller Road / Jefferson. Over the past decade, the County has done this with the City of Washington and City of East Peoria on the Summit Road Extension and Centennial Road Upgrades and with the City of Pekin on the Broadway Upgrades. This is a great way for the County Board to assist the municipalities.

Item 5 was an Traffic Sign Upgrade Program involving the townships and municipalities. The County Board will be receiving financing from the state to upgrade all of the traffic signs in the county with more reflective material that will make them easier to see at night. The townships and the municipalities will upgrade the signs they have and turn the bills into the county, who will be the "bank" for the state grant money.

Items 13 and 14 where pulled for procedural purposes. All items passed with no objectors.

Before the meeting started, we had the honor to meet with Representative Mike Smith and Keith Sommer and Senator David Koehler as part of the new Legislative Priority Session. The meeting went real well, although I question the reasoning of presenting a listing of priorities to the legislators before the County Board votes on it. While I had some questions on the listing, which I will discuss below, during the session with the legislators I did not bring them up. I did point out to the legislators that the Funding for the Pekin Landfill Closer is the counties top priority. While the IEPA has done a great job of telling us what needs to be done to properly close this landfill and resolve this problem, they have been unable to come up with the funding to support us in doing this project. My message to the legislators was while the talk and direction is great, the funding is what we really need.

As far as the agenda, items 1, 13, 14, 15, 16 & 20 where pulled from the Consent Agenda. Items 1 & 16 where pulled because of procedural reasons since they where late additions to the agenda. They passed with no objections. Items 13, 14 & 15 where pulled so they could have some minor changes made. They passed as well with no objections after the changes where made.

I pulled item 20 by me. It was the Legislative Agenda and I pulled it so two items could be discussed by the group as a whole. First I wanted to see the addition of a Statement that Tazewell County supports the Reform of the Redistricting Process. This is going to be one of the most important conversations going into this coming year and I feel strongly that Politicians should not be the individuals that decide the individuals that vote for them. I was disappointed by the lack of support this gathered from the board as a whole. County Board Member Paul Hahn was the only member to support the addition of this important message. It is my hope that their unwillingness to make a statement on this important issue is because we may have to make the same changes ourselves.

The second issue I raised was inclusion of the Statement on Enterprise Zoning Clarification. This statement has to do with the Wind Farm in Southern Tazewell County being included in the Enterprise Zone. I felt the County Board made their feelings clear last year when the rightly went against the advice of the State Attorney and voted to place the Wind Farm in the Enterprise Zone. After some conversation, the County Board decided keep the statement on the agenda. The Statement passed in it original form.

For a meeting that had been advertised and billed as the meeting in which one of the most discussed and politicalized decision in the past several years before the Tazewell County Board would be decided, the actually meeting tonight did not disappoint. With the Chairman of the Board on the radio in the morning selling his point of view and the lawyer for the businesses on the radio in the afternoon explaining his side, add to the mix lots and lots of phone calls in the past week to and from Board Members, the meeting looked as if it would disappoint with a room full of people and no opportunity for them to express their feelings on this issue.

The Chairman of the Board, Dave Zimmerman, decided last week that he would not allow any public input at tonight's meeting. I called him and requested that he reconsider, but the answer was no. My problem with this ruling is the fact that we should never tell the public that we do not care what they have to say, and with his ruling that is the message we were sending. A public meeting should always include an opportunity for the public to have a chance to express their concerns and feelings. With this disappointment in mind, I took the rare step to challenge his ruling by using Robert's Rule of Order to make a motion to Suspended the Standing Rules of the Tazewell County Board to allow for public input on this controversial issue. County Board Member Jan Donahue seconded my motion to allow those in attendance to have the opportunity to speak and the motion to overturn the Chairman's ruling passed with all members voting yes except one. I think this was a very important message sent by the overwhelming majority of the County Board that public input is indeed welcomed at the County Board Meetings. I am proud to have taken this unusual action and promise that in the future I will always support the public having the opportunity to have it's voice heard.

As to the items on the agenda, items number 3, 4, 5, 16, 17 and 20 were pulled from the consent agenda. All but 17 and 20 were pulled for procedural reasons and passed without any member objections. 17 was removed from the agenda after the HR Committee voted in favor of 16 over 17, as these were both two different insurance options.

The big agenda item was number 20, as mentioned above. Over the past week, County Board Members Russ Crawford, Mel Stanford, and Jerry Vanderheydt had done allot of work and research to educate many other members of why this needed to be tabled. In the end, it was decided to send it back to the Executive Committee for further consideration. This action was taken after it became obvious that the motion to pass a ban was not going to have enough support.

The only other item on the agenda was the 2010 Final Budget, which passed with only a few minor changes. I will be posting the 2010 Budget on the website in the coming days.

A very busy and important meeting tonight, but I feel that too many people will be discussing the short term issue (Item 16) rather than the long term solution (Item 13) that was also created last night. First on the Consent Agenda, items 3, 12, 13, 16, 18 and 19 were pulled. Before discussing these pulled items, we had two presentations by outside agencies. The first was the Economic Development Council for Central Illinois who delivered the Tazewell County Activity Update. The other was the TransPort Authority that gave a brief discussion of their progress.

To the items pulled from the Consent Agenda, number 3 was pulled simply as a mater of procedure. It passed with no discussion. Numbers 18 and 19 were pulled and minor changes were made through amendments. Member Dean Grimm also wanted to abstain from voting on these two. Other than member Dean Grimm, all others voted in support.

Number 12 was also pulled as a mater of procedure. I will be attaching the presentation presented by Member Harris and the Health Services Committee concerning the Pekin Landfill Closure Proposal here by the end of day tomorrow.

Number 13 was pulled by me. This one concerns the creation of a Human Resources Position. This is a position I supported creating in the last campaign and earlier this year when the Human Resources Committee voted to table the action. I have said all along that this is the answer to the plague of lawsuits we have seen over the past several years. The creation of this position tonight is maybe one of the most monumental actions taken by the County Board in the past several years and is a clear action in the right direction as far as ending these wasteful lawsuits. I spoke before the vote to clarify the direction the county wanted this position to take: "All of our leadership throughout the organization needs to utilize this individual in all staffing decisions and actions. Adding this position will do nothing to solve the potential risk to the county if all of the leadership does not utilize it during every staffing decision or action. All leadership members of the county need to work with us on this important accomplishment." All Board Members voted in support of creating this position.

Number 16 was the Behm Settlement, which I opposed because of the Confidentiality Clause that stops us from discussing the details of this case. I feel it is wrong for us as elected officials to give up our obligation to explain why we voted the way we did and the facts we used to make our decisions. It is our responsibility as elected officials not to just go to the meeting and place a vote, but to go back to those that elected us and explain why we voted the way we did and the facts we used to make those decisions. It should not be a decision for us to make to give away this responsibility we have been entrusted with by the individuals that elected us. I was the only Board Member to vote negative on this issue.

While I have a feeling that the Behm Settlement will be discussed in the short term, it is my hope that the creation of the Human Resources Position is seen by the general public as the Tazewell County Board taking the necessary long term steps to final end this plague of embarrassing and wasteful lawsuits."

Simplistic meeting tonight. On the consent agenda, only items 6, 15, and 25 were pulled. Of these, only 25 had any conversation. Member Dean Grimm pulled this in order for Health Department Director Amy Tippey to update the board as to the Disaster Plans for H1N1 her and staff have prepared. All items on the consent agenda passed without opposition.

Keith Worner of the University of Illinois Extension gave the County Board an update on the organization. He reported that last year they prepared 58 news releases and newspaper columns, distributed 82,678 newsletters, educated 21,867 adults and 16,272 youth through face-to-face teaching, educated 1,555 community members through non-face-to-face contact and had over 46,800 hits on their Tazewell County Extension website.

David Jones and Sub-Committee Chairmen Carol Imig gave the County Board an update concerning the progress made on the Storm Shelters at the Tremont Facility. As you will remember, earlier this year I sent out a newsletter concerning the need for serious upgrades to the Tremont Facility to provide our employees and visitors to our offices at Tremont with Storm Shelter protection. Member Carol Imig, the Chairmen of the Property Committee of which I am a member, created a sub-committee to look into solutions to this major county issue. They found a short-term fix which was to work with the original supplier of the current defective shelters to fix them immediately. This work has begun as two of the five defective shelters were fix earlier this month and actually enlarged. As far as a long-term solution for the entire facility, this will be the focus of his sub-committee over the next few months. I want to congratulate Member Imig, Member Dean Grimm, Member Jerry Vanderheydt and Member Tim Neuhauser who are serving on this sub-committee along with representative of the County Offices at Tremont.

Finally, documentation was distributed to the County Board Members concerning a review of the Overtime Practices and Usage in the Corrections Division of the Tazewell County Sheriff's Office. I will be reviewing this information over the next few months as I imagine the rest of the Board Members will as we proceed with the budget for next year. I will post this report for you to review also in the next few day under the "In The News" tab.

Very interesting meeting tonight. A quick meeting, but a few really close votes. As far as the In Place Committee Meetings, the Human Resources Committee tabled the discussion of forming a new custodial staff. This was an item coming from the Property Committee, of which I am a member. I voted for it at committee and still support it do to the fact that it has little impact to the budget (would actually save the county money, but very little as we ran a cost comparison with other companies quoted prices) and would give us more flexibility with our abilities to maintain our facilities. We need this flexibility as we have recently taken ownership of the Arcade Building in Pekin and as such will soon have tenants that have needs that may require custodial service beyond what we currently have available. With more needs and actually a slight savings on the financial end, I do not see a negative here. I really hope this makes it out of committee next month and comes forward for a vote.

On the consent agenda, items 5, 6 and 7 where pulled. Member Neuhauser pulled 5 and I pulled 6 and 7, although they are all very similar. They all involve the custodial contracts for our other buildings that are being consider for the above mentioned new custodial staff. Item 5 involved the McKenzie Building. I voted on committee for this at Property and it came forward with the lowest bidder. The three bids where A) Professional Cleaning Service at $18,083.52, B) Clemmers at $18,000.00 and C) Tazewell County Resources Center (TCRC) at $20,601.12.

Item 6 involved the Veteran's Affairs Commission/ESDA Building and the bids where A) Professional at $9,902.88, B) Clemmers at $4,200.00 and C) TCRC at $4,320.00. This one came out of committee with the recommendation that the bid go to TCRC.

Item 7 involved the Justice Center and the bids where A) Professional at $48,653.28 and B) Clemmers at $49,200.00. The recommendation was to go with the current provider rather than the lower bidder.

My issue with all three of these was that we need to almost always take the lowest bidder. By doing this, it takes all of the "grey" area out of the decision. It is simply black and white; who is the lowest qualified bidder. With that then, no individual can question why an individual received a bid. One look at the manipulation and illegalities that have taken place in this state over the past few years tells you why we need this clarity. In this case, unfortunately TCRC is a non-profit with close ties to the County, which makes them different than the other bidders. While I support TCRC, I still thought it was important to have the moral clarity; lowest bidder is lowest bidder.

However, this was not the way the votes went. All three items went to someone other than the lowest. For items 5 and 6, Members Hillegonds, Hahn, Vanderheydt, Palmer, Von Boeckman, Sundell and Meisinger joined me in voting for the lowest bidder. For item 7, Member Stanford joined me and the others listed above in voting for the lowest bidder. As mentioned before, all of this effort failed as the majority voted to give the bids to other individuals rather than the lowest bidder.

Long meeting, but most of the meeting was covered in Executive Session. On the Consent Agenda, items 1,10, 18, 19, 20, 23, 24 and 25 were pulled. 10, 23, 24, and 25 all passed with no objections. Item 18 did not advance out of committee, as they tabled this one year extension for further discussion when more information concerning the budget becomes available.

Item 1 was pulled for several questions and further clarification. An amendment was proposed to change the setback limits from the 1/2 mile that came out of the Zoning Board of Appeals to the 1/8th mile suggested by the County Land Use Committee, which is also in line with the EPA setback requirements. After much discussion, the amendment passed with Members Carol Imig, Terry Von Boeckman, Dean Grimm, Mike Harris, and Russ Crawford voting against. I felt the federal setback limits that already are in place are enough and could not see any reason to increase them. With the change of setback now set at 1/8th mile, the amendment passed with Member Harris voting against.

Items 19 and 20 required further discussion in executive session, following which the majority decided that they needed to have further discussions before moving forward. A motion to send this back to committee was made and passed. I voted against the tabling of both of these items because I felt that after three months of discussion, we had enough information to move forward.

Finally, under K: Communications from Elected and Appointed County Officials I had a statement I read concerning statements by the Sheriff concerning the Merit Commission conflict from the week earlier. Here is that statement:

"I am very disheartened by the improper release of material covered in Executive Sessions of the County Board. Members of that session trusted one another that what was said would be kept in that meeting and only released when all had decided that it was an appropriate time with very limited exceptions. To be given information and then to have individuals discussing it with the media less than 24 hours later is an inappropriate use of Executive Session and a breach of trust."

Very basic, straight-up meeting with some interesting and important items approved. Of the Consent Agenda, items 1, 16, 17, 20, 21 and 22 got pulled do to late additions to the agenda. Of these, all passed and the only one that had an opposition was 21. Members Crawford, Imig, Dean Grimm and Meisinger voted against. To me this was just a simple procedural motion to bring the precincts in the county into state guidelines. There was a presentation by the Township Supervisor of Cincinnati Township concerning the consolidation of South Pekin into one precinct, but the County Clerk said that would not be possible do to state guidelines.

Some interesting and important items that passed with no objection where 1, 3 and 15. Item 1 concerned the use of Stimulus Funds for the repair of Dee-Mack Road. Unfortunately only the portion of Dee-Mack road between Business 24 and Bypass 24 can be repaired with Stimulus Funds. Previously, we had voted to have the all of Dee-Mack from Business 24 to the County line repaired. With this change, we are going to take the money we could not spend on the northern part of Dee-Mack Road and repair Allentown Road.

Item 3 was the County transferring Broadway Road from the city limits to Veterans Drive over to the City of Pekin. This had been discussed as the road expansion work for this section had been planned.

Item 15 involved the County using it's budgeted Economic Development Funding to help pay for Retail Development Study's in the communities of Washington, Morton and Pekin. In Washington, this involved the study of Sunnyland Plaza, an area that is close to my heart since it is practically in my backyard. I am hopeful that this new study of these aging Strip Malls will help point to positive ways to revitalize these Retail Developments.

Lots of changes to the agenda and several very big actions taken at this meeting. As far as the agenda, Mr. Worner was not able to in attendance and had to be removed from the agenda. Also, the Transportation Committee Meeting did not take place because the item material was not ready in time. Item 3 on the Consent Agenda was pulled by the filer PDC so it can be reviewed more at the committee level. Personally, I have known and other board members should have known for the past several months that this was coming forward to us. With that knowledge, I find it hard to understand why some members felt they did not have enough time to be prepared on this item.

Further Action on the Consent Agenda included the pulling of items 1, 2, 9, 16, 17, 18, and 23. Items 1 and 2 where pulled simple because they were late additions to the agenda and passed. Item 9 was pulled for the same reason, but I fell this is an issue that we need to watch very closely. Property Chairmen Imig and County Administrator Jones brought this to the Property Committee that I am on this past month and discussed the severe erosion that has occurred at the Tremont Facility. Because of the location of this erosion, we need to act quickly to stop the continued damage of the site. Administrator Jones found us this grant opportunity to assist the county with this issue and I congratulate him for his quick research and action to hopefully save the county money.

Items 16 and 17 have been at the Property Committee for the past several months now. This is huge addition to the county and a very significant and kind donation to the county from the Monge Family. While I have major concerns that we are adding another building and still are not working with a Space Needs Study in place, which could advise and guide the county as far as the best use of the facilities we have, the location and the fact that this facility was being donated made this opportunity to good to pass up. The building itself was the donation, with the parking lots adjacent to the building being the only payment they requested. I, along with the rest of the county board, took the time to tour the building and I saw first hand the excellent condition the building is in. Repairs will be need soon to upgrade several items like a railing on the stairway that need to be increased in height for safety concerns and some minor repairs to the slope of the roof, but again the price and location of this facility made this too good to pass up. With that said, I will be stepping up my request that the Property Committee get serious about looking at the renewal of the current Space Needs Study that has been forgotten and also building a long term vision of what we want to do with all of our facilities.

Item 18 was pulled and discussed at length. In the end, Members Dean Grimm, Brent Grimm, and Linc Hobson voted against this bid that did pass. They had questions concerning did the lowest bidder actually meet the bid requirements. What helped make up my mind was statements from County Administrator Jones and the States Attorney's Office that the bidder did meet the requirements.

Finally item 23 was pulled from the agenda so that Members Dean Grimm, Brent Grimm and Linc Hobson could abstain from voting on this Enterprise Zone Request from the village of Morton. Member Harris had several basic questions concerning Enterprise Zoning in general. As far as my opinion, I have repeatedly said that while philosophically I would like to see an end to Enterprising Zoning, in reality the way the laws of the State of Illinois are written an municipality that does not offer Enterprise Zoning is at a serious disadvantage as far as business growth. This is an example of the difference in Philosophy and Reality in local politics.

A very long meeting, but most of it was in executive session. Items 3,4 and 17 were pulled from the consent agenda. Items 3 and 4, which covered Tazewell County's usage of the Federal Stimulus funding for Transportation upgrades, I have already discussed in News Update on the "In The News" tab. You can also find more information concerning this topic on the "County Board Agenda" tab under "addition #1 and #2".

Many items where pulled from the consent agenda, but most where for procedural reasons (last minuet additions to the agenda). I-15 was an exception. Member Grimm pulled this because of the close vote (five votes in support, three votes against) on Property Committee. At that meeting I voted against approval of this architectural design of three fourths of the first floor of the Tazewell Building do to the fact that we have no current proposal or consolidated plan for the rest of the building. At the County Board Meeting I stated that I was now going to vote in support of this because of information I received after the committee meeting concerning the reasoning the other members had for supporting this design. While it is true that we do not have an overall plan for the rest of the Tazewell Building, and they also are concerned with this lack of information, it is important that we also get the Regional Superintendent of Schools offices consolidated and keep the ball moving that direction. I will continue on the Property Committee to push for an updated Space Needs Study that will help identify what the rest of the Tazewell Building will be used for in the near future. Member Grimm was the only member to vote against this item.