McLean County Executive Committee approvals: appointments, procurements, ordinances and intergovernmental agreements

The McLean County Executive Committee on Feb. 10 approved a series of routine and substantive items across administrative, technology, finance, justice, property and land-use areas.

Key approvals included a consent agenda, multiple appointments and reappointments to local boards, procurement awards for information-technology services and software, an ordinance amendment to the county code on animals, several intergovernmental agreements and grant and appropriation ordinances. Most motions passed unanimously.

At the start of the meeting, the committee approved the consent agenda by motion (Member Byrne moved; Member Klein seconded). The committee then approved appointments and reappointments for two drainage-district seats, the merit commission, the regional airport and another drainage district (motion by Member Bridal; second by Member Berne). Committee members discussed one reappointment concern involving a nominee, Mr. Crumble, who does not live in the county but owns property in the drainage district; the committee noted difficulty finding willing candidates in that district and confirmed Mr. Crumble agreed to serve. The appointments motion passed unanimously.

Technology and procurement actions approved by the committee included:

- Approval to purchase a security information and event management (SIEM) service through NASPO (motion by Member Friedrich; second by Member Klein). Committee discussion described the tool as a correlate-over-time security tool that sits above existing systems to identify suspicious patterns such as repeated login attempts and to take protective actions.

- Award of an RFP for an antivirus product to GovConnection (motion by Member O'Galle; second by Member Burn). Committee members noted the award covered a one-year licensing term, which was chosen to preserve future flexibility as the threat landscape and vendor offerings change.

- Award of an RFP for file migration services to Crayon Software Experts to move user files from on-premises servers to Office 365, improving access, searchability and backup capability (motion by Member Byrne; second by Vice Chair Rogel).

- Approval of a change request to a contract with Mission Critical Partners for additional technical assistance to build integration between criminal justice systems (motion by Vice Chair Gil; second by Member Cline).

Funding and ordinance items passed in committee included an emergency appropriation ordinance to amend the McLean County fiscal year 2025 combined annual appropriation and budget for the Parks and Recreation Department (motion by Member Lehman; second by Member Friedrich) and an ordinance amending chapter 165 (Animals) of the McLean County Code (motion by Member Layman; second by Member Friedrich).

The Justice Committee items the Executive Committee forwarded for action were approved, including an intergovernmental agreement with the City of Bloomington for county use of the Bloomington Police shooting range (motion by Vice Chair Rogel; second by Member Friedrich), an emergency appropriation ordinance for the sheriff's office, an intergovernmental agreement for law-enforcement services, a contract between the DeWitt County Community Mental Health Board and the Children's Advocacy Center, a grant agreement with the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority, and an agreement with the National Center for State Courts. Those motions were moved and seconded as recorded in committee and passed unanimously.

The Property Committee reported approval of an Illinois Prairie Community Foundation grant and an emergency appropriation ordinance amending the county—s fiscal 2025 budget for parks (motion by Member Layman; second by Vice Chair Rogel for the grant; second by Member Friedrich for the parks appropriation). The Land Use and Transportation Committee approved renewal of the household hazardous waste program agreement renewing a multi-jurisdictional partnership between McLean County, the City of Bloomington, the Town of Normal, the Bloomington-Normal Water Reclamation District and the Ecology Action Center (motion by Member Klein; second by Member Layman).

County administration recommended the board find that a need for confidentiality exists for a list of designated minutes and to open those minutes to designated members (motion by Member Layman; second by Member Byrne). The committee approved the recommendation unanimously.

Votes at a glance (committee-level outcomes):

- Consent agenda (includes bills and transfers): Motion by Member Byrne; second Member Klein — approved unanimously (yes: 6). - Appointments and reappointments (drainage districts, merit commission, regional airport): Motion by Member Bridal; second Member Berne — approved unanimously (yes: 6). Note: one member raised that Mr. Crumble does not live in the county but owns property in the drainage district and agreed to serve. - Contract with Heartland Community College to revise mental-health action plan (4A1C1): Motion by Member Bregel; second Member Layman — approved unanimously (yes: 6). [Also covered in the Behavioral Health article] - Clinical education agreement with University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (4A1C2): Motion by Member Beirne; second Member Layman — approved unanimously (yes: 6). [Also covered in the Behavioral Health article] - SIEM purchase via NASPO (4A1D1): Motion by Member Friedrich; second Member Klein — approved unanimously (yes: 6). - Antivirus RFP award to GovConnection (4A1D2): Motion by Member O'Galle; second Member Burn — approved (yes: 6). - File migration RFP award to Crayon Software Experts (4A1D3): Motion by Member Byrne; second Vice Chair Rogel — approved (yes: 6). - Change request to Mission Critical Partners contract (4A1D4): Motion by Vice Chair Gil; second Member Cline — approved unanimously (yes: 6). - Ordinance amending chapter 165 (Animals) (4B1A): Motion by Member Layman; second Member Friedrich — approved (yes: 6). - Intergovernmental agreement with City of Bloomington for police range use (4D1A): Motion by Vice Chair Rogel; second Member Friedrich — approved (yes: 6). - Emergency appropriation ordinance for the Sheriff—s Office (4D1B): Motion moved; second Member Cline — approved (yes: 6). - Intergovernmental agreement for law enforcement services (4D1C): Motion moved; second Member Byrne — approved (yes: 6). - Contract between DeWitt County Community Mental Health Board and Children—s Advocacy Center (4D1D): Motion moved; second Member Byrne — approved (yes: 6). - Grant agreement with Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority (4D1E): Motion moved; second Member Klein — approved (yes: 6). - Agreement with National Center for State Courts (4D1F): Motion moved; second Member Beirne — approved (yes: 6). - Illinois Prairie Community Foundation grant (4E1A): Motion by Member Layman; second Vice Chair Rogel — approved (yes: 6). - Emergency appropriation ordinance for Parks & Recreation (4E1B): Motion by Member Lehman; second Member Friedrich — approved (yes: 6). - Household hazardous waste program renewal with Ecology Action Center and partners (4F1A): Motion by Member Klein; second Member Layman — approved (yes: 6). - Recommendation to open designated minutes and find a need for confidentiality (4GS1A): Motion by Member Layman; second Member Byrne — approved (yes: 6).

Most items were presented with minimal debate in committee and were approved by voice vote or recorded as unanimous. Where members asked procedural or clarifying questions (for example, on one reappointment's residency and on the antivirus one-year term), staff provided clarifications and members proceeded to a vote.

The committee adjourned at 4:22 p.m. and will meet next March 10, 2025, at 4 p.m.