McLean County Board chair Elizabeth Johnston says she’s encouraged to hear the City of Bloomington reaffirm its commitment to mental health, but the county is resisting efforts by the city and Town of Normal to suspend sharing tax revenue for the mental health and public safety fund.
The Bloomington City Council voted 8-0 on Monday to revise its intergovernmental agreement with the town and county to pause the tax-sharing agreement for at least one year. The Normal Town Council approved the pause last week.
“The commitment is very reassuring to me,” Johnston said of the city’s publicly stated desires to continue funding mental health services.
Bloomington wants to use the approximately $3.5 million it collects each year for the ¼ of 1% sales tax to develop its own initiatives to address mental health in the community.
Johnston does not object.
“I think there is enough need in the community,” said Johnston, adding she and the city were in agreement that the county has been too slow to get the money to support mental health services.
Johnston said the county’s mental health funding reorganization it adopted last year and the recent hiring of a grants manger should expedite the process, adding she doesn't expect the tax-sharing suspension to come before the county board at its monthly meeting in August.
Johnston said she wants to first see what a fund audit that all three parties have agreed to reveals.
“My intention is that if the financial review demonstrates what our commitments are, what the funds are and what is available, if it falls within it where a pause does not harm the balance and the availability to follow through on those commitments, then I would definitely bring that back,” Johnston said.
The scope of the audit still must be determined, she said, but she wants Bloomington and Normal to help craft the request for proposals so there’s agreement on what data will help formulate a common strategy. She added the scope of the financial review will determine how long it will take to complete.
Johnston said the county also wants to wait on a potential pause until it has a better handle on how much it will cost to replace the county's records management system [RMS] used by law enforcement. She said that will likely involve meeting with police agencies across the county to gather input on what’s needed.
Bloomington and Normal have both contended the mental health and public safety fund’s $20 million balance is too high. About $4 million does not yet have a dedicated purpose.
“I think that is probably the biggest point of contention is that we are looking at expenditures and counting on bills coming due that maybe they are not,” Johnston said.
Bloomington City Manager Jeff Jurgens said he hopes the county board will consider the tax-sharing suspension, now that both municipalities have weighed in, but Johnston said she wants to see city, town and county staff resume negotiations.
“We want to achieve the same ends which is a better and safer community,” Johnston said.
Records system overhaul
During the county's Criminal Justice Coordinating Council’s quarterly meeting last week, Information Technology director Craig Nelson said the RMS went live on July 22.
Nelson said there were a few “curveballs and bumps in the road.” For example, the new system requires multi-factor authentication that sends a security code to users’ cell phones, but the McLean County jail does not have a reliable cell signal. Nelson said most issues were resolved quickly and the rollout has been smooth overall.
The new RMS is the first part of a multi-phase overhaul of the county’s records systems, aimed at better coordinating record keeping among law enforcement, the jail and the courts.
This week, Nelson’s department goes live on a new 911 system coordinating police, fire and EMS calls for the Town of Normal and McLean County. Bloomington operates its own dispatch center.
Nelson anticipates launching a new jail management system [JMS] on Oct. 18. That system will include the county’s juvenile detention center that currently does not have an electronic records system. The court’s new records system will go live in 2026.
Courts administrator Will Scanlon said the launch of their new case management system [CMS] will be easier once the RMS and JMS are “live and relatively problem free.” The CMS is being tested by the court, circuit clerk’s office, state’s attorney’s office and court services, which handles probation, before going live.
