McLean County Board Chair Elizabeth Johnston won't speculate on whether the Trump administration's rejection of federal storm relief stemming from mid-August storms was political.
“What I would say, though, is that I believe that the damage was significant enough that it warrants the federal support. That is part of, you know, who we are as a nation is that we lend a hand to our neighbors who are in need, and that is very much who we are at this point,” Johnston said on WGLT's Sound Ideas.
No matter what the motivation, with damage totals for the county hitting $42.5 million, or roughly half the damage in the state, it’s the county’s job to keep pushing.
“I would say that our job as elected officials is to advocate for our community no matter what, and that my job I see very firmly as advocating for our community. And if that's the case, if as long as there is a stone to be unturned, I will turn it over and look for assistance for our residents,” Johnston said, adding the county still expects to be eligible to receive low-interest loans for residents and businesses through the U.S. Small Business Administration.
Collaboration and transparency
Speaking to WGLT about the upcoming retirement of Sheriff Matt Lane and continuing difficulties around budgets and tax bills with the county clerk’s office, Johnston painted a vision of how county government should work.
She said an interaction around a burst pipe in the Law and Justice Center during the polar vortex in January 2019 was, however unpleasant, an example of how county government at its best.
Johnston was on the county board's property committee at the time.
“I think they called me — it was almost 10 p.m. — to let us know we have an emergency. And it was a holiday. We have an emergency. We're going to be bringing somebody in. 'Are you OK with this?' And of course we said yes, and then we worked out the details later.”
She said that simple headsup makes a lot of difference.
“Historically, that has been the process for most of our departments. They give us a headsup.”
She said outgoing Sheriff Lane operated in that fashion as well.
”He has been a pleasure to work with over the last four years, both as vice chair and as chair. I have been impressed with his leadership and his guidance of his team, his responsiveness. The thoroughness that he brings to leadership was amazing,“
And she expects the same sort of relationship with presumptive incoming sheriff Jon Albee, a lieutenant running unopposed in November.
“We have also worked well together, and I look forward to the continued leadership. He is very much in that vein,” she said.
County clerk staffing
Despite the Property Committee's recent postponement of a vote on the county clerk's budget, Johnston said they've found a solution that should enable the clerk’s budget to be passed next month.
“The pause was really about reverting or compensating in the budget for that additional position, rather than cutting a staff member,” she said.
Still, the lack of communication that complicates unexpected expenditures underlying issue persists.
“I would say that what we've seen is a pattern, and my concerns also are about the fact that she did not give any indication about how she changed her budgeting process,” Johnston added, referring to Republican County Clerk Kathy Michael.
Michael has defended her process, saying often expenditures are mandates from other governmental entities, especially around elections. And during a WGLT candidate forum last week, Michael downplayed the idea she should have to seek approval for those mandates.
“If we're mandated to buy it in November, and we have to get it, and we have to get it quickly, am I gonna … call up the county board and say, ‘Can I please — do you give me permission?’” she said.
But Johnston said those timely conversations are important so the board isn’t pressed to approve expenditures it hasn't seen and can make adjustments.
“Some of the frustration I know that we as a board have felt is that we approve bills that have been approved by the auditor. And so the assumption is that they were within budget, or if there was an issue that it was brought to our attention, which has not been happening,” Johnston said.
She said the county’s new Enterprise Resource System [ERP] will flag future overruns across the county as they show up in the system.
“It will force any department that is trying to push past their line item amount to come to the county board and to get approval through the proper channels,” she said.
Michael has said she supports the system. “And this system does is gives everybody an advance notice ... for this thing that we hadn't expected in our budget, and I think it's going to work great,” she said.
Sales tax dispute
Johnston had no comment on the current dispute between the county and Bloomington and Normal around shared sales tax money dedicated to behavioral health programs, jail expansion bond debt and public safety information systems.
The city and town had issued a deadline of mid-October for the county to move toward what they would consider compliance with the intergovernmental agreement.
