Committee forwards revised Chapter 31 to full county board after technical edits and numbering fixes

The Will County Rules and Ordinances Committee voted to forward revised language for Chapter 31 of the county code to the full county board after a review focused on scrivener errors, numbering, and cross-references.

Committee members spent the meeting confirming how to treat typographical issues — capitalization, numbering, and parenthetical statutory citations — and agreed that substantive language changes that go beyond scrivener corrections will be returned to the committee for further review. The committee chair said staff would run a programmatic search for every instance of the word "board" and replace it with "County Board" where appropriate so style is consistent across the chapter. The committee also asked staff to reconcile member redlines before resubmitting a single clean draft.

The committee discussed coordination with the state's attorney's office so that any item sent to the county board that would also change an ordinance would include the ordinance text in the packet. Phil (ordinance counter/staff) explained that going forward the state's attorney's office will attach the ordinance text to resolutions where applicable so the packet will show both the resolution and the corresponding code change. Members also discussed the current vendor arrangement for publishing the online code (American Publishing) and whether the county clerk's office should publish directly.

Board members raised questions about which edits are purely scrivener (e.g., parentheses around statutory citations, capitalization and numbering formats) and which are substantive changes (for example, modifications to voting or decorum language). Members repeatedly emphasized that anything that materially changes policy must return to committee and to the full board. The committee agreed staff should correct purely stylistic items and return any non-scrivener edits for additional committee review.

A motion to send Chapter 31 "as amended" to the county board passed on a roll call vote. The roll call in the meeting transcript recorded at least six recorded responses: Logan — yes; Butler — no; Freeman — yes; Newquist — yes; Trainier — yes; Bullock — yes. Committee members also clarified that the item will appear in the next packet and that members should compare the minutes and updated ordinance text to ensure the two match.

The committee scheduled further review of remaining chapters and asked members to contact staff (Phil) in advance with substantive questions to speed future meetings.