Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the County Board Actions topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
McLean County Board approves appointments, grants and intergovernmental agreements; one abstention recorded
Summary
At its Jan. 16, 2025 meeting the McLean County Board unanimously approved a slate of routine appropriations, intergovernmental agreements and grants; one board member abstained on a school-district agreement because of a family conflict.
The McLean County Board on Jan. 16, 2025 approved multiple routine measures including appointments, emergency appropriations, intergovernmental agreements and grant continuations during a meeting called to order at 5:30 p.m.
Board members swore in Andy Ziebarth as the District 1 appointee and approved the chair’s slate of committee and commission appointments. The board also moved a set of budget and grant actions across several committees, including emergency appropriations for information technology and health funds, an opioid-allocation agreement with a local fire protection district, intergovernmental agreements for the Route 66 Bike Trail and with the Olympia Community Unit School District 16, multiple state and federal grant agreements, and a continuation award under the Victims of Crime Act for the CASA program.
The meeting produced one recorded abstention: Member Eric Hanson said he would abstain from the intergovernmental agreement between McLean County and Olympia Community Unit School District 16 because his husband is employed by the district. Otherwise motions on the floor passed without recorded opposition.
Votes at a glance
- Appointment of Andy Ziebarth to County Board District 1 — Motion by Member Alex Duffy; second by Buck Farley; outcome: approved and Ziebarth was sworn in during the meeting. (No vote tally recorded in the minutes.)
- Approval of the chair’s appointments to standing committees, subcommittees and the McLean County Liquor Control Commission — Motion by Member Sean Fagan; second by Buck Farley; outcome: approved.
- Emergency appropriation ordinance amending the FY2025 combined annual appropriation and budget for Fund 1 (Information Technologies) — Motion by Vice Chair Jim Rogel; second by Member Sean Fagan; outcome: approved.
- Intergovernmental agreement between McLean County and Mount Hope Punksgrove Fire Protection District for allocation of funds under the Illinois opioid allocation agreement — Motion moved and seconded by members present; outcome: approved.
- Emergency appropriation ordinance amending the FY2025 combined annual appropriation and budget for Fund 0113 — Motion moved and seconded; outcome: approved.
- Health Committee emergency appropriations (three items amending the FY2024 combined annual appropriation and budget for Fund 0105 and Fund 0107) — Motion by Member Burn; second by Eric Hanson; outcome: approved.
- Grant agreement with the Illinois Emergency Management Agency (IEMA)/Illinois Office of Homeland Security — Motion moved and seconded; outcome: approved.
- Intergovernmental agreement among McLean County, Olympia Community Unit School District 16, and the McLean County Sheriff’s Office — Motion moved and seconded; Member Eric Hanson abstained because of a family employment conflict; outcome: approved.
- Subrecipient grant agreement for the Illinois Courts DOJ BJA Community Supervision Strategies Swift Certain Fair Grant Program — Motion moved and seconded; outcome: approved.
- CASA VOCA continuation grant for FY2025 (Victims of Crime Act funding) — Motion moved and seconded; outcome: approved. Member Hanson praised the program’s competitiveness and longevity.
- Intergovernmental agreement between the Village of Downs and McLean County — Motion by Member Leah Klein; second by Member Sean Fagan; outcome: approved.
- Intergovernmental agreement with the Illinois Department of Transportation for the Route 66 Bike Trail (section 24-0000-07-BT) — Motion by Member Leah Klein; second by Val Lehman; outcome: approved.
Several items were presented as bundled motions by committee chairs with no additional floor debate beyond the motions, seconds and voice votes. Where a single board member explained a reason to abstain, that reason was recorded in the meeting transcript.
Context and next steps
Most measures voted on were procedural or budgetary and were presented by committee chairs or the county administrator with accompanying reports in the unapproved minutes packet. Several of the approvals enable county staff to proceed with planned work — for example, appropriations for information technology and health-related funds and agreements to share opioid-allocation settlement funds with local responders. The board did not discuss substantial policy changes during the primary action period; staff and committee reports appear in the packet for follow-up details.
