A delay last year in finishing the external audit for McLean County government put grants at risk and further heightened periodic and recurring tensions between the county administration, other elected office holders and McLean County Auditor Michelle Anderson.
There were complaints Anderson was not responsive and that her office had unreasonable delays in acting on routine matters.
McLean County Board Chair Elizabeth Johnston said in a WGLT interview she thinks this year will go much better.
“We had a kind of a kickoff meeting with the auditor [and] the treasurer, Clifton Larson Allen [CLA, the county’s external auditing firm], in preparing for this year's audit. There was an agreed upon timeline. We're very pleased to see that these kinds of milestones are being set in place,” said Johnston.
Johnston said the implementation of a system called Enterprise Resource Planning will automate some things that caused delays last year, though improved dialogue will be key.
“One of the things that we did highlight was the breakdown last year in communication between the auditor's office and our external vendors. We're making an effort to keep that conversation going, keep that communication live so that we don't have any hiccups this year,” said Johnston.
Information systems
The county is hiring a records management coordinator and has just finished implementation of a piece of the Record Management System [RMS] software. Johnston said the coordinator is important in efforts to navigate a “massive amount of information” and make the system as efficient as possible.
She said the ability for various agencies to access a common source of information is important for law enforcement.
“If we've got somebody doing things in Normal but they're out in LeRoy, or they're up in Chenoa, we want all of our law enforcement officers to understand what this person's history is and make sure that we have the appropriate kind of response to them if there's a mental health issue or if there is a significant criminal background,” said Johnston.
The record management system has been, at times, a matter of some contention with law enforcement and other stakeholders in the community since it went live over the summer. The police departments in Bloomington and Normal signed contracts with a records system called Axon to replace their aging systems.
Johnston said police agencies are not as vocal about those issues now.
“It doesn't mean that all the issues have been resolved, but I will say that we are actively working on them. We are aware that there are some shortcomings in the system. We are aware that the city and the town have chosen Axon to be migrating towards,” she said.
The current county system is from a vendor called Caliber, adding the county has met with Axon. She said there is value in maintaining an integrated system, which is easier to do on a common platform, even though Axon promises it can interface with Caliber or other systems.
“I would love to see us get back to having one system, because that will be the smoothest way to transfer information,” said Johnston.
The county has a no-penalty opt-out clause in its contract with Caliber with a deadline at the end of the year. Johnston said the county has not yet made a final decision whether to go with Axon and use the current, newly implemented, system as an interim step.
“Usually, it's a good 18-month process. I would hope that we would get started on that sooner rather than later,” said Johnston.
Shared sales tax fund audit
The county board has approved a Memorandum of Understanding on the scope of the audit over the dispute involving shared sales tax money for the Mental Health and Public Safety Fund. The Town of Normal and City of Bloomington have said the county breached the intergovernmental agreement on the use of the money.
The language in the memorandum is broad and does not address specific issues the town and city wanted the audit to resolve. Johnston said to have the audit deal with all of those would have cost up to $200,000, not the $50,000 price approved by the county, city and town.
At the heart of the dispute is a surplus of cash held by the county over the first half of the 20-year agreement. The county said much of the surplus is earmarked for planned expenses, including the new records system.
“We're going to try to get them as close as we can to Clifton Larson Allen vendor information so that they can follow the money. Contractual obligations was a big piece,” said Johnston. “Then we can really determine what is the surplus. And I think that was the bigger point.”
Johnston said some of the remaining issues not covered by the audit will have to be decided by the governmental bodies as political entities.
“Those are questions we have to answer for ourselves, and that we have to answer on behalf of the public. Is this money going to the places that we had originally designed it,” she said.
For instance, the city and town have maintained shared sales tax money should not pay for implementation of a record management system for the jail and the court system. The county maintains the original goal was to create an integrated system, and so shared sales tax money is an appropriate funding source.
“This would be like inmate records. This would be court records, things that have made it very easy as our law enforcement boots-on-the-ground are doing investigations. They can easily pull up what is in holding from people that when they were brought in to be booked. They can easily see what's part of the records in the court system. As far as like evidence, they can see very quickly, if a court date changes, it is right there in their system,” said Johnston.
Johnston said talks on some issues can continue before the audit is finished.
County nursing home
The federal government recently boosted the rating of the McLean County Nursing Home to four stars, on a five-star scale. The rating has gone up and down over a period of decades — from as low as two stars and as high as five. Johnston said she’s pleased with the latest uptick.
“It was very valuable, and it does reflect the work that's being done at the county nursing home. When you look at the nursing homes in McLean County, that does put us on par with Westminster Village [Martin Health Center] in the quality of care,” said Johnston.
The county home also is moving ahead with a phased improvement project in the facility and various systems.
“Since I've been on the county board, we've had four or five different administrators over there. The longest tenure is our current one, Tim Wiley. He has been a massive asset in stabilizing the workforce, improving quality measures, improving care for the residents,” said Johnston.
County legislative asks
The Illinois General Assembly is going back in session on Tuesday. The county recently hired a new lobbying firm to help pass favorable legislation.
One goal is to address policy on housing convicted individuals bound for state prisons at the jail until the Department of Corrections is ready to take them and has beds for them. That can be a lengthy financial obligation for the county. That has been on the county list for a couple of years. Johnston said the county wants either quicker transportation into state facilities or some sort of reimbursement for the added cost to the county.
“Representative [Dennis] Tipsword[Republican] had a bill that he was working on last year. Representative [Sharon] Chung [Democrat] did not know about it and agreed to sign on as a co-sponsor. Just very valuable conversations like that,” said Johnston.
She said the most recent success for the county deals with property tax relief for seniors who have limited income. Over the last 10 years, if a senior’s household income was under $65,000, they could apply for a property tax freeze. An increase finally came through, Johnston said.
“It goes into effect this year. For a household income under $75,000 this year, we'll see a freeze on next year's [2027] property taxes. Then it goes up for the next two years and will be capped at a household income of $79,000 for the freeze,” said Johnston.
She said the county did support a measure to peg that income limit to an annual inflation index. Another bill had a single increase in the limit. She said the legislature split the difference with the three-year adjustment.
Johnston said the county also would like the legislature to do more on affordable housing and affordable childcare.
