Sangamon Sun

Sangamon County Board met December 12.

Here is the minutes provided by the Board:

The Sangamon County Board met in Reconvened Adjourned September Session on December 12, 2017 in the County Board Chambers. Chairman Van Meter called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. Mrs. Scaife gave the Invocation and Mr. Krell led the County Board in the Pledge of Allegiance.

Roll Call:

Chairman Van Meter asked County Clerk Gray to call the roll. There were 25 Present – 4 Absent. Mrs. Douglas Williams, Mrs. Annette Fulgenzi, Ms. Sheehan, and Mr. Preckwinkle were excused.

Mr. Bunch and Mrs. Hills presented County Administrator Brian McFadden and Mary Carter with Christmas gifts from the County Board.

Proclamations

Mr. Ratts presented a Proclamation in honor of Illinois Bicentennial which honors the many ways Illinois has influenced American history, achievement, culture, innovation and more. The Proclamation encourages the community to participate in the yearlong celebration.

Sheriff Wes Barr presented a Proclamation to Robert Weichert for his accomplishments with the Sheriff’s Deputy Merit Commission over the past 29 years. Mr. Weichert accepted the Proclamation and thanked the County Board for the honor. He expressed his appreciation to past and present County Board members, County Board Chairmen, and the current and past Sheriffs. Sheriff Barr recognized other members of the Deputy Merit Commission that are present including: Chairman Tim Timoney, Dave McDonough, and Carole Grigiski.

Mr. Stumpf presented a Proclamation to Norm Sims, upon his retirement, recognizing his many years of service and his contributions as Executive Director of the Springfield-Sangamon County Regional Planning Commission. Mr. Sims accepted the Proclamation. He thanked his wife and family. When you are in public work you give up a lot of things. You miss recitals and games, and our families give up a lot, if not more, than they do. His family has stayed with him throughout all of this. There is no way he can make it up to them. He promises to start doing that on the 30th of December. He also recognized his staff of 12 from the Planning Commission. It has been his privilege, during his career, to work with staffs of 1 to 540 or so. There is no more committed, hard-working, honest and capable staff than the one you have working down the hall. Anything they have accomplished during the time he has been here has not been because of him. It’s been because of those people. Because of them, there hasn’t been a day since he’s been here that he wasn’t proud to say he was their director. They are a gift to this county and he really does thank them, and you should too. Finally, he wants to thank the County Board and County Administrator Brian McFadden. When he came here everybody asked him the same question of “What is it like to work with the Sangamon County Board?” He said this board, when they call upon us, say “We like to hear the comments of the professional staff.” He doesn’t think there is any more of an honorable and noble career that someone in this country can do than go about the people’s business. He thinks all of them try to do that every day. He thanked everyone for the opportunity he has been given and for the opportunity his staff has been given.

Historic Preservation Commission Presentation:

Norm Sims addressed the County Board regarding the Historic Preservation Commission. Just last year the Illinois Association of Historic Preservation Commissions honored your Historic Preservation Commission with its annual Commission of Excellence Award. Winning that award just doesn’t happen. It happened because of the Chairman of that Commission, Chuck Pell, and the leadership he has provided. He has chaired that commission for 13 years. That is about 160 meetings. During that time he has only missed 6 meetings. Because of his leadership, your commission undertook the first comprehensive survey of historic rural sites in Sangamon County. He went out and identified the sites and submitted documentation for all of that. He worked with property owners and the County Board to identify properties and landmark those properties. He thinks he visited every one of them to make sure they were eligible. He took terrific photographs of all of them for the record, and prepared all of the written recommendations for your consideration. Staff did not do that. Last year, under Chuck’s leadership, that commission did the well-publicized search for the oldest pre-civil war farmhouses in the County. As part of that, he directed the media campaign, took photographs of every farmhouse nominated, and assembled them in a montage that became basically the symbol of that whole search. He also helped organize the awards ceremony at the Sangamon County Fair. Some of you were even at that ceremony. Now he is helping your commission create an EBook of historic farms in Sangamon County. In fact, he thinks Chuck has done all of the design work, and his guess is he will end up being editor and publisher. It seemed altogether appropriate, and shouldn’t be a surprise, that this year the Illinois Association of Historic Preservation Commissions again honored the commission by naming Chuck to its 2017 Commission of Excellence Award for Leadership. That not only says a lot about Chuck Pell, but a lot about your wisdom of selecting him to continue as chairman of that body.

Chuck Pell, Chairman of the Historic Preservation Commission, addressed the County Board. Mr. Pell stated it certainly was an honor to be selected by his peers for recognition, but indeed an equal honor to be selected and recognized by this body that created their commission. It is work he is enjoying and he has really appreciated this opportunity, and he thanks them very much.

Sangamon Ceo Foundation Presentation:

Regional Superintendent of Schools Jeff Vose addressed the County Board. Five years ago Jay Cook from Marine Bank came to him about the Sangamon CEO Program. It’s where juniors and seniors can come and participate in zero hour before school even starts and get six hours of credit from Lincoln Land. When Jay came to him five years ago he had real concerns about this. Jay said the students can learn how to create a business plan and can interact with business owners. Mr. Vose stated he never heard of this, in his 20 years in education, where business and education have come together. He gave them five minutes to present the idea. Everyone was interested in this presentation. Five years ago they had 18 kids. They wanted one or two kids from each school district. Now, five years later, they have over 50 kids in the program. His job was trying to get the teachers certified to teach the class. It’s always a struggle and a challenge. Rich Johnson, who is the Assistant Dean of Honors for the College of Business at the University of Illinois, is here. There are over 50 kids that meet for this and they all show up on time. This is a program that the City of Springfield has supported, so they are here tonight to see if the County can entertain supporting the program. The Superintendents are saying they are always hearing from their parent groups that the kids are being told to get out of this state, go get your education somewhere else and don’t come back. Even their teachers are telling them that. This program retains these kids and keeps them here for possible employment here, and that is what this is all about.

Rich Johnson addressed the County Board. He quoted Mark Twain, which is something very important that they drive home to their students. “There are two most important days in a person’s life. Day one is the day you’re born and the second is the day you find out why.” The Sangamon CEO program is about creating entrepreneurial opportunity for young people. The young people are starving for that why. Why was I created? Why was I born? Why was I placed here? But more importantly, why should I stay in Sangamon County? Why should I stay in Springfield? This program is for high school seniors. This year they had almost 90 applicants. They had 13 different high schools represented. Their goal is to develop, empower, and retain their talent. They don’t want them leaving here. They want them to stay here and grow. So, how do they do that? The class is one-year long. It starts at 0730 hours, and he makes it very clear to the students that at 0720 they are late, and they know it and show up. These are kids that are driven and committed. It’s a classroom that is a real life lab. They take them to over 50 different businesses here in Sangamon County. They bring in over 100 different leaders from the community, education, and from businesses. They expose them to the different businesses. One of the greatest things he hears from the students when they walk out the door is “they didn’t realize there was that much going on in Sangamon County.” They didn’t realize there were that many opportunities for them. They have mentors from the community working with the kids on their businesses. This is a doers program. The students create their own class business, they ran a 5K, they set a target and had vision, strategy and execution.

Each student will create their own business, so they will have 40 to 50 new business ideas and concepts that will come out of this program. At the end they do a Shark Tank, similar to what you see on television. They will present to about 350 community members. They also have venture capitalists who come in and listen to them. They’ve had businesses come out of this. More and more students are asking to come in and become part of this program. They know it is a huge recruitment tool when they go to different colleges and universities. They may not create their own business, but what they are creating is a great workforce. They have access and opportunity to other businesses inside of Sangamon County. They are now working with students who are at risk. They did a program with Boys and Girls Clubs working with 12 to 16 year old students. They took them around to different businesses and did ideation and creativity exercises to unleash the untapped potential that is sitting there. The answer to Springfield and Sangamon County is not on the outside, it is right here. Unleash the talent they have and invest in their people today for their future. One young person who is 16 years old raised his hand after doing ideation exercises and said “You people are dream makers.” “You make people’s dreams come true.”

They are now also working with Washington Middle School sixth, seventh and eighth graders through the Ambassador’s Program. They are also working with Compass for Kids for fourth and fifth graders. It’s exposing them to different opportunities, so the program is not just for high school kids. They are working across the globe to provide opportunities for their students. They are a privately funded organization committed to their community and to this County. The City of Springfield has agreed to give them $5,500 over two years, so they are asking for something similar from Sangamon County if that is possible. At the end of the day, they will continue doing the work they are doing, but they want to make sure to get more and more students involved. They are also looking at fellowship programs to bring their Alumni back. They want them to go away and go to school, but want to have that link to bring them back. If they have a viable business idea, they want to invest with them over the summer to see if they can grow that business, or bring them back and have them work as interns with local businesses to help them grow within. Mr. Johnson thanked the County Board for their time.

Chairman Van Meter stated the Finance Committee will be taking up this request at their next committee meeting.

Minutes:

A motion was made by Mr. Smith, seconded by Mr. Bunch, for approval of the Minutes of November 14, 2017. A voice vote was unanimous.

Motion Carried

Minutes Adopted

Correspondence:

A motion was made by Mr. Bunch, seconded by Mr. Fraase, to place the Correspondence on file with the County Clerk. A voice vote was unanimous.

Motion Carried

Correspondence Filed

Resolution 1

1. Resolution approving the purchase of two tandem snow plows from the State of Illinois Joint Purchasing contract.

A motion was made by Mr. Fraase, seconded by Mr. Ratts, to place Resolution 1 on the floor. Chairman Van Meter asked County Clerk Gray to call the roll. Upon the roll call vote, there were 24 Yeas – 0 Nays.

Motion Carried

Resolution Adopted

Resolutions 2 – 4

2. Resolution appropriating motor fuel tax funds for IMRF expenses.

A motion was made by Mr. Thomas, seconded by Mr. Snell, to place Resolution 2 on the floor. A motion was made by Mr. Bunch, seconded by Mr. O’Neill, to consolidate Resolutions 2 – 4. Chairman Van Meter asked County Clerk Gray to read Resolutions 3 and 4.

3. Resolution appropriating motor fuel tax funds for the County Engineer’s salary and expenses.

4. Resolution approving an agreement between Sangamon County and the Illinois Department of Transportation to transfer surface transportation program funds for state funds.

A voice vote was unanimous on the consolidation. A motion was made by Mr. Smith, seconded by Mrs. Williams, that the roll call vote for Resolution 1 stands as the roll call vote for Resolutions 2 – 4, as consolidated. A vote was unanimous.

Motions Carried

Resolutions Adopted

Resolution 5

5. 2017-052 – Mary K. Ramsey, 3200 Block of Young Road, Mechanicsburg – Granting a Rezoning. County Board Member – David Mendenhall, District #3.

A motion was made by Mr. Mendenhall, seconded by Mrs. Ruzic, to place Resolution 5 on the floor. A motion was made by Mr. Stumpf to waive the reading of the professional staff’s report. There were no objections. A voice vote was unanimous for the adoption of Resolution 5.

Motions Carried

Resolution Adopted

Resolution 6

6. 2017-053 – David Downing, 1500 Bolivia Road, Mechanicsburg – Granting a Variance. County Board Member – David Mendenhall, District #3.

A motion was made by Mr. Mendenhall, seconded by Mr. Madonia, to place Resolution 6 on the floor. A motion was made by Mr. Stumpf to waive the reading of the professional staff’s report. There were no objections. A voice vote was unanimous for the adoption of Resolution 6.

Motions Carried

Resolution Adopted

Resolution 7

7. 2017-054 – Ronald & Catherine McAtee, 2801 S. College Street, Springfield – Granting Variances. County Board Member – Clyde Bunch, District #21.

A motion was made by Mr. Bunch, seconded by Mr. Miller, to place Resolution 7 on the floor. A motion was made by Mr. Stumpf to waive the reading of the professional staff’s report. There were no objections. A voice vote was unanimous for the adoption of Resolution 7.

Motions Carried

Resolution Adopted

Resolution 8

8. 2017-055 – Mike Hoyle, 12750 Edgewater Way, New Berlin – Denying a Variance. County Board Member – Craig Hall, District #7.

A motion was made by Mr. Hall, seconded by Mr. Thomas, to place Resolution 8 on the floor. A motion was made by Mr. Hall, seconded by Mr. Bunch, to table Resolution 8 for the purpose of trying to come up with an agreement between the owners and adjacent acreage owners. A voice vote was unanimous.

Motion Carried

Resolution Tabled

Resolution 9

9. 2017-055 – Mike Hoyle, 12750 Edgewater Way, New Berlin – Denying a Variance. County Board Member – Craig Hall, District #7.

A motion was made by Mrs. Scaife, seconded by Mrs. Hills, to place Resolution 9 on the floor. A motion was made by Mr. Stumpf to waive the reading of the professional staff’s report. There were no objections. A voice vote was unanimous for the adoption of Resolution 9.

Motions Carried

Resolution Adopted

Resolution 10

10. Resolution allowing the Sangamon County Board of Review to be held in session until the

2017 complaints and subsequent administrative duties are completed.

A motion was made by Mrs. Small, seconded by Mr. DelGiorno, to place Resolution 10 on the floor. A motion was made by Mr. Smith that the roll call vote for Resolution 1 stands as the roll call vote for Resolution 10. A voice vote was unanimous.

Motions Carried

Resolution Adopted

Resolution 11

11. Resolution approving the Tax Levies for Fiscal Year from December 1, 2017 through November 30, 2018.

A motion was made by Mr. O’Neill, seconded by Mr. Bunch, to place Resolution 11 on the floor. A motion was made by Mr. Smith that the roll call vote for Resolution 1 stands as the roll call vote for Resolution 11. A voice vote was unanimous.

Motions Carried

Resolution Adopted

Waiver Of Ten-Day Filing Period:

A motion was made by Mr. Bunch, seconded by Mr. O’Neill, to waive the ten-day filing period. A voice vote was unanimous.

Motion Carried

Ten-Day Filing Period Waived

Resolutions 12 – 15

12. Resolution authorizing the Sangamon County Election Office to contract three election judges per precinct for General Primary Elections.

A motion was made by Mr. Snell, seconded by Mrs. Deppe, to place Resolution 12 on the floor. A motion was made by Mr. Bunch, seconded by Mr. Krell, to consolidate Resolutions 12 – 15. Chairman Van Meter asked County Clerk Gray to read Resolutions 13 – 15.

13. Resolution regarding the adoption and implementation of an identity protection policy for Sangamon County.

14. Resolution approving an Intergovernmental Agreement between Sangamon County, the Circuit Clerk, and the Village of Southern View for electronic citation services.

15. Resolution approving an agreement between Menard County Board of Health, Menard County, Sangamon County Board of Health, and Sangamon County for the provision of public health services in Menard County.

A voice vote was unanimous on the consolidation. A motion was made by Mr. Smith that the roll call vote for Resolution 1 stands as the roll call vote for Resolutions 12 – 15, as consolidated. A voice vote was unanimous.

Motions Carried

Resolutions Adopted

Old Business:

There was no old business.

New Business:

A. Resolutions

There were no new resolutions.

B. Public Speaker

Reverend Silas Johnson, pastor of Calvary Baptist Church, addressed the County Board. Reverend Johnson spoke regarding Sangamon County’s EDC Plan that was in the paper in October of this year. He is also President of the Faith Coalition and of the Nehemiah Expansion. Nehemiah Expansion oversees about 95 houses for low and moderate income families. He has been in Springfield for about 44 years. He came here in 1973. He’s seen the changes that have taken place over those 44 years.

Every politician, whether it’s state, local or city says they are going to help do something for the east side of Springfield if you vote for them. He’s been there now for 33 years, and he is still waiting to see an extra-large development of some type to come to the east side of town. The area where he pastors is right in the heart of Springfield. It is right off of 55 and down South Grand Avenue. He read the EDC Plan. In the plan they talk about all the development they want to bring to Springfield, how they want individuals to come to Springfield, and how they want them to invest in Springfield. The purpose of the EDC Commission is to sell Springfield to other parts of the country so they can have jobs and economic development. What surprised him so much about the plan is they had about two pages of benefits, but had about six pages of what is wrong about Springfield. That makes him think whether they are really trying to sell Springfield. South Grand is a great entry off 55 into Springfield, and so is Clear Lake. Faith Coalition’s intent is to let you know they are very interested in the economic development of Springfield. In reading the document it stated there was racism in Springfield. It also said there were about 27 business men in the City and County and only one minority was mentioned in there, which was the Black Chamber of Commerce. He would also like to see, when this comes to fruition, that there is more than one minority business that sits on that commission. He is just as concerned about the development of his community as you are about your community. He’s concerned about young men and women walking the street in his community. He would like to see them get up in the morning, put their clothes on and go to work. He’s noticed the young men are standing out on the street corner. He would like to see that come to a cease. He would like to see them starting their cars and going to their places of employment so that crime rates can drop. Faith Coalition wants to be a part of this development and to work with the County Board. He encouraged them to call on them any time they need some help, and they will get to work to do anything they can to see there is fair representation on this EDC Board. He thanked them for their time.

Chairman Van Meter stated for those who don’t know him, Reverend Johnson is someone who gets stuff done, and he is really a community treasure.

C. Appointments

Appointment of George Preckwinkle to the Sangamon County Board of Health for a term expiring December, 2018.

Appointment of Todd Ballenger as the Sangamon County Hearing Clerk for a term expiring December, 2019.

Appointment of Norm Sims to the Mid-Illinois Medical District Commission for a term expiring April, 2021.

A motion was made by Mr. O’Neill, seconded by Mr. Bunch, for approval of the appointments. A voice vote was unanimous. The nominations for appointment in January were also submitted.

Motion Carried

Appointments Adopted

D. Ratification of Court Services Contract

Mr. Smith stated they are bringing to them tonight an agreement with the Court Services division and the contract that was negotiated. Their bargaining unit has ratified this contract. A motion was made by Mr. Smith, seconded by Mr. DelGiorno, to ratify the Court Services Contract. A voice vote was unanimous.

Motion Carried

Contract Ratified

Reports Of County Officials, Reports Of Special Committees, Reports Of Standing Committees, Committee Report On Claims:

A motion was made by Mr. Stumpf, seconded by Mr. O’Neill, to place the reports on file with the County Clerk. A voice vote was unanimous.

Chairman Van Meter voiced the unanimous feeling of the entire County Board and welcomed back Mr. O’Neill.

Recess:

Chairman Van Meter recessed the meeting until January 9, 2018 at 7:00 p.m.

Motion Carried

Meeting Recessed

https://www.sangamoncountyclerk.com/County-Board/documents/December122017_001.pdf