Lake County Gazette

Ogle County Executive Committee met Dec. 10

1. Call Meeting to Order: Chairman Larson called the meeting to order at 5:00 P.M.

Present: Billeter, Fritz, Griffin, Janes, Kenney, Nordman, Reising, and Larson Absent: None Others

Present: Asp, Daws, Heuer, A. Mudge, Simms, Youman, County Engineer Jeremy Ciesiel, HR Director Amanda Jacinto, John Finfrock, Michael Bowmen and June Jacobs

2. Approval of Minutes – November 12, 2024: Motion by Kenney to approve the minutes 2nd by Reising.

Motion carried.

3. Public Comment: Michael Bowmen from Forreston shared his concern in the solar farm in Haldane.

Bowmen expressed concern about the placement of the solar farm on prime fam land, highlighting the loss of valuable resources that could otherwise support local farming. He mentioned that he would have no objection to the solar farm if the land were of poor soil quality. Bowmen urged the County Board members to please protect our County and not allow this solar farm to eliminate good farming ground.

4. Reports of Committees

- Road and Bridge: 2 Item

- Personnel & Salary: None

- Supervisor of Assessment, Planning & Zoning: 3 Items

Youman provided handouts and background on the three items being brought to the County Board.

- S/Atty-Court Services-FOCUS House-Judiciary & Circuit Clerk-Public Defender: None

- County Facilities - County Security - IT: None

- H.E.W. Solids Waste & Veterans: Update: 2 Appointments

- Long Range Planning: None

- Finance & Insurance: ARPA, Bond Abatement, 2 Budget documents

- Executive: None

- Agriculture: None.

- Workplace Safety: None.

- Board Presentations: Regan Regional Transit and Rochelle Mayor John Barrows

- Other: None

5. Old Business - Discussion and Action

a. Bead Grants update: None.

b. Dan Janes update on Planning, ZBA, & New Plans – Janes shared there will be no ZBA meeting this month and the SharePoint application is complete and in the last stages of going live. Janes also shared there are some changes coming in January 2025 for residential construction standards.

c. Landfill Update – Billeter stated the lawsuit has been filed and we are waiting for next steps.

d. Econ Development – Larson stated there was a meeting yesterday to discuss the direction for the future.

e. GREDCO Report {Kenney} – Kenney shared there were 6 possible projects but one has walked away at this time. He shared one projects has done a site visit on four different occasions so they are hopeful.

f. IACBM Report – Reising explained there was no IACBM meeting but he did participate in the ISACO meeting where a lot of topics were discussed. Reising expressed his feelings in being a part of this organization due to the topics usually revolving around Chicagoland problems and concerns. He stated he didn’t feel it was worth the membership because the information is hardly ever pertaining to our area. After further discussion Reising made a motion to not renew the membership to ISACO and Nordman seconds. Motion carried.

g. HR Update – Jacinto shared we are about to start Open Enrollment and are working out the final details of that process.

h. Highway Dept. Negotiations – Larson explained the first meeting occurred and things went really well.

i. Mediation Update – Larson stated the meeting will be tomorrow and he will bring an update back.

j. Pay Transparency Act – Larson asked the committee their opinions on if when we list salaries of employees the minimum threshold of $75,000 with pay and benefits or list all employees. After discussions it was decided to move ahead with the $75,000 threshold for now but the possibility of all could be something in the future

k. Remote meetings Update – Larson asked Finfrock if there was more that needed to be discussed regarding this topic. Finfrock shared he didn’t think so it seemed to be working the way they had laid things out previously and no suggestions were made in last meeting to adjust it. Griffin shared that he thought he had seen somewhere that the State was allowing remote meeting attendance. Larson asked Griffin to look into that and let him know.

6. New Business – Discussion and Action

a. Illinois Ethics Law (2003) – Larson commented this is a topic that he feels is important to look at especially since there has been a lot of trouble with surrounding counties. Larson stated he would like to see what we can do with ethics law to reduce the risk on the County. Larson also shared that there should be an ethics officer and an ethics committee made up of three members that are not related, closer than first cousins to any of our employees.

b. Committees & Assignments – Larson thanked all those individuals that reached out to him and expressed their interests in committees and shared he will have this done soon. He shared that he has tried to make the best accommodations as he could.

c. Enterprise Zone Update – Larson shared he met with them last week. Andy Shaw will be presenting to the County Board in January with updates to the Enterprise Zone for additional property for the Nuclear Plant.

d. Other actions from Committees – None

7. Closed Session: None.

8. Going Back into Open Session – None.

9. Comments or Suggestions from Committee Members or Department Heads – Larson shared how appreciative he was to John Finfrock for helping him through the transition and stated that he hopes as things unfold he will continue to be a resource for him to reach out to.

10. Adjournment: With no further business, Chairman Finfrock adjourned the meeting until January 14, 2024.

Time: 6:08 P.M.

https://www.oglecountyil.gov/document_center/County%20Board/Committees/Executive/2024/Executive%20Committee%20Minutes%20December.pdf