MEMO TO THE ILLINOIS LOCAL

GOVERNMENT AND CONSOLIDATION

AND UNFUNDED MANDATE TASK
FORCE
TO:

Governor Bruce Rauner

Lt. Gov. Evelyn Sanguinetti

FROM:

Lake County Board Chairman

Aaron Lawlor

DATE:

March 5, 2015

I applaud your efforts to take the actions necessary to bring Illinois back to financial solvency.
Lake County has a proud tradition of fiscal responsibility, balanced budgeting and maintaining a
AAA bond rating. Getting there has required us to make tough choices over the past number
of years.
I realize that the States fiscal problems have been years in the making and were caused by
both political parties. As you have stated, digging ourselves out is going to take everyone at
the table and requires shared sacrifice. It also will require a thorough vetting of how
government does business, what we can do to be more efficient and how we can identify and
discard the hundreds of unnecessary mandates that cost taxpayers millions of dollars every
year. To assist in these efforts, I am enclosing a memo on unfunded mandates and other
efficiency opportunities that should be considered by your newly formed local government
task force. The immediate cost savings identified in the report add up to $2.1 million and
millions more in ongoing savings related to restructuring compensation packages and workers
compensation reform.
There is no doubt that this will be a difficult conversation. Each item has a constituency and
many have entrenched special interest groups behind them. However, if we are not able to
carefully weigh costs and benefits of each mandate, we will not provide any relief to local
governments and taxpayers.
Please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions regarding the memo. Again, thank
you for your leadership to bring the State of Illinois back to fiscal solvency.

MEMO TO THE ILLINOIS LOCAL GOVERNMENT AND CONSOLIDATION AND UNFUNDED

MANDATE TASK FORCE

Publications, Records Retention, Microfiche

New technologies and advanced methods of communication exist that would result in more
convenient transparency for taxpayers, yet the State mandates publication of certain notices, as well as
other measures, that are antiquated, inefficient, and costly. Specific examples include:

The County spends $8,000 a year to

publish bids and RFPs in newspapers,
despite the fact that any vendor can
Changing Publication &
register on the Countys website and
Mailing Mandates Could Save
receive more detailed information
Lake County: $238,000 (Every
electronically.
Lake County spends $100,000 annually
General Assessment Year)
publishing assessment notices in the
newspaper, and spends $230,000 in the
General Assessment years. The State
should consider changing this publication mandate if the County is communicating with
property owners through other communication methods, either direct mail or electronic.
The County is required to retain various paper records, which have to be stored and managed
(at a cost). For example, Accounts Payable paid invoices are scanned into our financial system
prior to payment, but also are required to be kept in the paper form for seven years.
The County is required to place certain records on microfilm or microfiche. There are much
more efficient technologies available today which are just as effective at indexing and
organizing in a more economical fashion. Changing this mandate could save the County
approximately $185,000 annually.

Regional 911 Dispatch Consolidation

Lake County, in partnership with our Emergency Telephone Safety Board, is taking a leadership
role in exploring a consolidated 911 system in Lake County to improve quality of emergency
dispatch and response services, and provide significant cost savings.
The State could assist local governments in Illinois by creating an incentive - using existing
funding streams - that would encourage local governments to consolidate.
In Lake County, a high-level study to assess the opportunities for 911 dispatch consolidation
showed that our 17 ETSBs and 24 PSAPs spend approximately $33 million a year on
operations. The projected overall operational savings range from $2.3 Million to $10.4 Million
depending on the level of consolidation of PSAP centers.
A core working group held meetings around the county with municipal leaders, fire chiefs and
police chiefs to discuss their priorities and how we can advance this initiative together.

MEMO TO THE ILLINOIS LOCAL GOVERNMENT AND CONSOLIDATION AND UNFUNDED

MANDATE TASK FORCE

In collaboration with municipalities, police and fire departments we developed and issued an
RFP for a phase two study to do the technical analysis that will allow us jointly move forward on
this critical initiative
Many local governments and states have already implemented a more consolidated model for
call taking and have been successful.

Elections

Over the past eight years, a significant number of mandates have been imposed specifically
geared to expanding options to register and vote including: provisional, early, and grace period
voting; voting by mail; and bilingual ballots and election materials. These mandates have come
at a significant cost to Lake County, and have not resulted in increased voter turnout as it aimed
to do.
For the 2016 election cycle, new mandates include voter registration in every polling place on
Election Day, grace period registration, and voting in every early voting location for any voter in
the county.
These most recent mandates are expected
to cost Lake County in excess of a $1 million.
Most Recent Election Mandate
In addition, there are inefficiencies within
these mandates. For example, the County is
Cost to Lake County: $1 Million
required to print 110% of ballots for every
precinct, when we know voter turnout will
be only 70%. This is inefficient spending.
Also, the State mandates a certain number of staff at polling places with multiple precincts,
when the County could identify more efficient staffing measures and save money.
Despite these mandates and cost increases, voter registration and turnout have remained
constant in the low 70% range for presidential elections, and the low 50% range for
gubernatorial elections.
Presidential Elections

Gubernatorial Elections

Voter Turnout
1992
1996
2000
2004
2008
2012

Voter Turnout
1994
1998
2002
2006
2010
2014

84.56
70.13
70.35
72.2
74.14
71.18

51.04
51.23
52.53
51.57
51.28
50.13

MEMO TO THE ILLINOIS LOCAL GOVERNMENT AND CONSOLIDATION AND UNFUNDED

MANDATE TASK FORCE

Juror Pay

Recent legislation mandates additional daily fees to be paid to jurors.

The new law increases payments to jurors to $25 for the first day, and $50 for each additional
day. Previously, the law mandated $5 for the first three days, $7.50 for the next two days, and
$10 for each additional day.
This mandate has an estimated annual
impact of $400,000 of additional cost to
the County.
Juror Pay Mandate
While this law was intended to lessen
Cost to Lake County: $400,000
the burden of jury service, many
Annually
employers provide normal pay to those
called to jury duty. Data shows that over
80% of jurors do not lose pay as a result
of service and the County payments are in fact turned over to employers.
Therefore, this mandate increases cost without helping the majority of the jurors that it is
intended to help.

Workers Compensation

Lake County is concerned about the cost of workers compensation.

After reviewing Lake Countys specific history, the County believes the following specific
changes could be beneficial:
o Clarify the scope of covered conditions and define what is an injury that occurs due to
the workers employment (causation). This includes restoring the original intent of the
law that the system covers only work-related exposures and conditions. For example,
Lake County has experienced losses in excess of $500,000 related to claims made in
parking lots prior to/post work that are considered workers comp (as the County directs
where employees should park).
o The establishment of a primary causation standard. For example, a worker could injure
himself outside of work and then aggravate the injury on the job, and the employer
would be responsible for a workers compensation claim.
Reduce or stop doctor shopping and strengthen the American Medical Association standards
that are used to determine the level of impairment an injury causes.
Consider adopting some of the settlement limitations imposed by other states.
Reform at the IWCC, including time requirements regarding the resolution of controverted
claims.

MEMO TO THE ILLINOIS LOCAL GOVERNMENT AND CONSOLIDATION AND UNFUNDED

MANDATE TASK FORCE

Use of Special Revenue Funds Inmate Welfare Fund

Revenues generated at the jail commissary are deposited into the Inmate Welfare Fund. This
fund has a large, and growing, fund balance, but the State mandates that these funds can only
be used for the benefit and welfare of inmates, and not on the basic costs of incarceration.
Currently, the County spends in excess of $2 million annually on the medical care of inmates
and is unable to access inmate welfare funds to offset these costs.
Allowing the use of inmate welfare funds for the cost of basic medical care would help defray
the cost of inmate care and reduce the use of tax dollars.

Prevailing Wage

Current laws require the payment of prevailing wage for all public projects involving laborers,
workers or mechanics, whether construction, maintenance or repairs.
The ability to use non-prevailing wage labor for repairs and maintenance under a certain
threshold will reduce costs for routine, non-life safety work. As an example of costs, the
prevailing wage for painters is $34 an hour for even small jobs like painting an office.
Allowing non-prevailing wage labor on routine maintenance below a certain threshold would
have a significant positive financial impact on local governments.
Many small businesses are not equipped to comply with prevailing wage administrative
requirements so an additional benefit to changes in prevailing wage requirements would be an
increased ability to use small local and emerging firms.

Labor Relations
The County believes certain items related to labor relations should be reviewed, including:
Limit mandatory subjects of bargaining to wages and benefit time to allow the County to
exercise efficiencies, such as changes of work hours to meet work demands. For example, the
ability to schedule weekend shifts for 24/7 operations.
When unresolved contracts go to interest arbitration, (for the purposes of determining raises),
more consideration should be given to other wage increases for Lake Countys union and nonunion employees. In addition, cutting funding for other vital services should not be viewed as a
way to satisfy the ability to pay question.
Currently, an election is not required for a group of employees to organize. At least 50% plus 1
of the group who seeks representation should vote to approve such action. Current law only
requires a signing of cards by 50% plus 1.

MEMO TO THE ILLINOIS LOCAL GOVERNMENT AND CONSOLIDATION AND UNFUNDED

MANDATE TASK FORCE

Probation for Non-Violent Offenders/Sentencing Reform

Certain mandated probation sentences for juveniles may be longer than necessary, such as
mandatory 5-year probation sentence for forcible felony conviction, which includes non-violent
offenses like breaking into a car.
In some cases, these non-violent offenses
could otherwise be a 6 to 12 month
Sentencing Reform Could
supervision case, depending on the
Save Lake County: $150,000
offender risk profile if not for this law.
It is estimated that these types of changes
Annually
could save Lake County $150,000 a year.

Probation Services Funding

In accordance with the Probation and Probation Officers Act, probation services
are mandated by the State of Illinois as part of the Court Services program.
Historically, there is a significant, multi-million dollar funding gap between cost
for probation and state reimbursement.
Although an increase in salary reimbursement funding has been realized for the
current fiscal year, adequate funding for Probation and Detention services
throughout the State of Illinois remains a critical issue.
The continuation of Probation and Detention funding is essential in order to
maintain safe communities by insuring offender accountability. A reduction in
funding will only serve to diminish the capability of court services to accomplish
the mission of creating safer communities and insuring offender accountability.

Marine Patrol

Due to inadequate IDNR resources to patrol State waterways, the County patrols the Chain of
Lakes and Fox River.
The Fox River Chain OLakes is the busiest inland recreational waterway per acre in the United
States.
Nine interconnecting lakes provide over 6,000 acres of boating waterways
The County budgets $350,000 on the Marine Patrol Unit yet only receives $40,000 in revenue
from the issuance of citations.

BID/RFP Limits

Purchasing limits mandated by the State have been in place for years and do not represent the
same dollar value as when they were established.

MEMO TO THE ILLINOIS LOCAL GOVERNMENT AND CONSOLIDATION AND UNFUNDED

MANDATE TASK FORCE

Each RFP/bid requires extensive time on the part of both the County and the local vendor, and
can add months to a purchasing process. The bid/RFP requirements can also present challenges
for local emerging business.
Increasing these limits would allow for more efficient purchasing. Suggested increases are:
o Commodities Raise to $50,000 (currently $30,000)
o Professional Services - Raise to $100,000 (currently $50,000)
o IT Services Raise to $100,000 (currently $35,000)