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Logan County Board
July 30, 2025 Special Finance Meeting
[August 01, 2025]
On Wednesday, July 30th, the
Finance Committee of the larger Logan County Board met in the Blue
Room of the Logan County Safety Complex for a special meeting. This
meeting was being held to talk to several department heads about
their budgets, and any expected changes they were needing to make
going into next year. The County Board is going to start putting
together a budget for the next fiscal year soon.
Four of the five members of the committee were present. This
included Chairman Kathy Schmidt, Vice Chairman Joseph Kuhlman, Dale
Nelson, and Lance Conahan. The only member absent was Keenan Leesman.
Schmidt kicked off the meeting by addressing Bradley Hauge from the
State’s Attorney’s Office. Nelson told Hauge and everyone present
that the Board’s goal this year is to keep budget increases to a
minimum, unless absolutely necessary. Hauge shared that he is only
really looking to change his own salary. He clarified that this is
not a choice he is making, rather one that is set by state statute.
Hauge shared that the state increased State’s Attorney’s salaries,
so he must change his budget to reflect that. He also shared that
roughly 85 percent of his salary is funded by the state.
Hauge did have some questions, however, with the first being about
the Courthouse restoration. He wanted to know if he was going to
need to pay for anything out of his own budget if the restoration
project modified something with his office. Nelson stated that he
believes anything that has to do with the courthouse restoration
should be coming out of that budget, not the State’s Attorney’s
budget.
Hauge also shared that any computers running on Windows 10 will be
becoming obsolete soon. He wanted to know if the county had any
plans to replace computers, or if this is something that the
departments are going to have to foot the bill for. Nelson stated
that the County Board is going to work with Hart IT to see about
replacing county computers.
The next department to be addressed
was Logan County Animal Control. Jane Whiteman and Ashley Allen were
present to discuss issues they have been having and changes that
they would like made to their budget. Whiteman invited Logan County
Treasurer Penny Thomas to speak first on an issue they have had with
this year’s budget. Thomas stated that, in Animal Control’s budget,
they were budgeted for an increase in the cost of each call they had
to respond to. This increase was from $250 per call to $500 per
call. When Thomas looked at the money they had, however, it was not
there. Animal Control has only been collecting $250 per call.
Whiteman shared that she was not made aware of the increase, and
this has put her under budget from what the budget states her
department should have. Thomas stated that Animal Control is now
about $106,000 “in the red,” which is up from $80,000 last year.
Whiteman continued, stating that some municipalities in the county
do not work with her office. She did not name any of them. She said
that many of these municipalities go about solving their animal
problems themselves, but that some of them will come and drop
animals off at Animal Control. Due to state mandates, Whiteman is
not allowed to charge them in these cases.
Whiteman continued, stating that Allen’s salary in the budget is
below what she is supposed to be getting paid. She also shared that
her own budget is over, so it has been evening out. She also shared
that they have a twenty year old system that they use, and it can
only be used on an old Windows computer. If the board were to
replace their computer, Whiteman said, they would have to look into
getting a new system, and that could cost upwards of $10,000 or
more. Conahan told Whiteman to get them an amount for a new system
and they will look into getting it.
Nelson then had a question about overtime, asking Whiteman if they
are still responding to a lot of night-time calls. Whiteman informed
him that dispatch has been doing a good job of screening calls, and
have only been sending through emergencies.
Whiteman then shared that she will be over her budget this year with
the salaries for her part-time employees. She shared that she has
three additional employees. She pays them $22 per hour upon a
recommendation from a previous board when she was under-staffed. She
stated that they will be about $10,000 over.
Nelson then asked if Animal Control is going to be over budget on
their vet care expenses this year. Whiteman said that they would be
over budget in this area as well. She stated the reason for this is
due to a law change. Previously, animals were able to be euthanized
if there was not enough space to house them. With the law change,
they cannot euthanize unless a vet signs off on a medical reason the
euthanization is necessary. Timbercrest has been helping them with
their need for a vet. This however, has left Timbercrest without a
vet at times and, even though they are giving Animal Control a
discount, it is not free.
Conahan asked if Animal Control has a contract with Timbercrest, and
Whiteman stated they do not. She shared that they are no longer a
privately owned vet clinic, and that makes getting a contract much
more difficult.
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Whiteman also
mentioned that Animal Control does not have an administrator,
something they are supposed to have by law. Their previous
administrator retired over a decade ago, and no one has filled
the position. This, Whiteman shared, is an issue that other
counties are having. It was asked if Logan County could seek
assistance from the administrator from Menard County. Allen
shared that she has a friend who works there and that they would
not be able to.
The subject then turned to the cities
that Animal Control has contracts with. Whitehead informed the
committee that the list includes only Lincoln and Mt. Pulaski. She
said that she has not been working with certain villages and
municipalities, as when she reaches out, she gets “nasty emails”
from their lawyers. Nelson then asked if there were some villages in
the county with outstanding fees due to Animal Control, to which
Whiteman said there were. Nelson stated that he would talk to her
about this issue later in private.
Conahan brought up the idea of having Animal Control apply for
grants. Whiteman stated that she assumes there are grants, but she
has no idea how to find them or how to apply.
Whiteman next asked about an insurance line item in the budget. She
stated that, in years past, there was an amount of $12,000 per
person for insurance. She stated that the line item is now empty and
does not know why. Thomas stated that the line item was “zeroed out”
last year, and Nelson stated he did not remember that. No one seemed
sure as to why the line item was blank, but it was stated that it
would be addressed at a later meeting.
Whiteman also mentioned that the Animal Control building has a
broken water line. This line apparently broke due to freezing over
the winter. She stated that they were going to wait until next year
to address it, as they do not have a line item in the budget to have
it fixed. Nelson encouraged her to get a quote and send it to the
Finance committee.
Kuhlman then asked if they could start putting together a monthly
report on things like how many animals they euthanize, calls they
respond to, shots they administer, etc. Whiteman stated that they
used to do this and could start doing it again.
This concluded Animal Control’s time, and next was the Health
Department. Katherine Yaple and Fay Allison were present to
represent the Health Department. They brought up that they have been
having a lot of issues getting Hart to come and work on their IT
issues. They called Hart coming to the Health Department an “extreme
rarity.” Also, according to the pair, Hart told them that if they
spent time at the Health Department, it would take away from the
time they can spend at the Courthouse. They said that they do pay
their Hart bill, but have a hard time doing so because of their
experience.
The committee was not happy to hear this, and Conahan stated that he
would reach out to his contact at Hart on the Health Department’s
behalf. Yaple and Allison shared that they had been reaching out to
that same contact for a quote on new computers for two months and
have not heard back.
After the Health Department’s time, next came the Public Defender,
Kirk Schoenbein. Schoenbein stated that, beside his salary, there
was nothing in his budget that needed to be changed. He stated that,
due to state law, he gets a salary increase along with the State’s
Attorney. Conahan stated that they did not have a copy of his budget
and that they would need that soon. Schoenbein stated that they he
was on vacation last week and was not able to get the budget to them
before he left, but would very soon.
The last department head was not yet
present. Schmidt had told them to come in around 7:15 p.m. as she
was expecting the other department conversations to take longer than
they did. A ten minute recess was taken while they waited.
Once Jennifer Bryant of the Assessor’s Office made it, they ended
the recess and continued the meeting. Bryant stated that she did not
need a lot of changes to her budget. She asked if she could get an
increase in her “dues, subscriptions, and education” budget. The
current amount is $4,000 and she wanted it to go to $5,000. Bryant
stated that the cost of continuing education courses for her
employees keeps rising, and that they need more money to cover that
cost.
Bryant also stated that she was wanting her department’s GIS fund to
increase from $25,000 to $35,000. She stated that the cost for
online mapping and other online programs keeps going up, and that
they will need more to cover this increased cost as well.
After this, the committee voted to go into executive session to
discuss personnel matters with Bryant.
[Matt Boutcher] |
