The ordinance committee reviewed multiple chapters of the county code and approved technical and substantive edits, including: changing references to the county nursing home in Chapter 35, adding reporting/contact language to the anti-harassment policy in Chapter 39, incorporating the responsible-bidder language into the purchasing code (Chapter 41) for executive-committee consideration, advancing the county lobbyist registration chapter (Chapter 42), and reviewing Chapter 43 on code enforcement.
On Chapter 35, staff proposed replacing references to the facility name Sunny Hill with the generic term "county nursing home" to avoid the need to amend the ordinance if the facility name changes; the committee approved the changes as amended and forwarded them for further processing. Committee discussion clarified that the medical director language was changed to allow the position to serve "on a full-time or part-time basis," and the word "employees" was struck from a paragraph relating to the medical director's duties because employee medical matters are handled by HR and county insurance.
On Chapter 39, the committee added a paragraph to the newly drafted anti-harassment policy to replicate the complaint-filing contact information in the existing sexual-harassment policy so that remedies and filing paths (including cross-filing with Illinois agencies) are clear. The committee approved copying the contact/filing paragraph and removing a narrowly worded reference so the provision applies to harassment generally.
Chapter 41 (purchasing) drew the most extended discussion. Staff and an attorney for the county executive described changes to definitions and bid procedures and confirmed a previously approved "responsible bidder" ordinance (adopted by the full board in May) needs to be inserted into this chapter. Committee members debated a local-preference proposal: staff and the state's attorney's office advised the committee that, because the county is not a home-rule county, a local-preference procurement preference is legally problematic and may not survive legal review; the committee agreed to add the responsible-bidder language to the chapter and forward it to the executive committee, and asked the state's attorney for a written opinion about the legal viability of any local-preference language before the next executive meeting. A roll-call vote (Logan yes; Butler no; Freeman yes; Newquist yes; Trenier yes) approved adding the responsible-bidder chapter and sending it forward.
The committee moved Chapter 42 (county lobbyist registration), which implements state-required registration procedures; the chapter passed committee review and will move to the executive committee. The committee also reviewed Chapter 43 (code enforcement), corrected several typos and discussed the adjudication process; members asked land use staff about enforcement discretion and the limits of administrative adjudication versus court processes.
Actions taken at this meeting included committee approval of Chapter 35 as amended, approval of the anti-harassment paragraph for Chapter 39, approval to incorporate the responsible-bidder purchasing language into Chapter 41 and forward it to the executive committee, and advancement of Chapters 42 and 43 to the next steps. Committee members asked the state's attorney to provide a written opinion on the legal viability of a local-preference procurement provision before the executive-committee meeting.