The Lake County Board's Financial and Administrative Committee on Oct. 9 approved multiple consent and regular-agenda items. Key actions included accepting a state accessibility grant for polling places, an emergency appropriation for the state's attorney's office, approval of a courthouse fire-alarm replacement job order contract, a printing and mailing contract for real-estate tax bills, updates to the county's budget development policy, and authorization to destroy certain executive-session recordings. Details and motions are listed below.

• 8.3 — Polling place accessibility grant and emergency appropriation: Committee approved a resolution accepting an Illinois State Board of Elections polling place accessibility grant and authorizing an emergency appropriation of $225,000 to make improvements to county polling places for voters with disabilities. Motion by Member Clark; second by Member Hewitt. County Clerk Clark Vega described plans to repave and add two ADA ramps into the courthouse garage and upgrade handrails and landings. The item passed unanimously.

• 8.19 — Emergency appropriation for state's attorney money-laundering fund: The committee approved a joint resolution authorizing an emergency appropriation of $24,200 from the state's attorney's money-laundering fund to pay salary and fringe costs through the remainder of FY2025 for the conviction integrity unit director. Motion by Member Clark; second by Member Hewitt. Joe Gervitter, Chief Deputy of Administrative Services at the State's Attorney's Office, said the position has historically been grant-funded and the appropriation bridges a gap until a budget modification to remain a sub-grantee on the Illinois Innocence Project grant is approved. The committee voted to approve the appropriation.

• 8.31 — Mundelein Branch courthouse fire alarm replacement: The committee approved a job order contract project exceeding $350,000 (not-to-exceed amount $350,000) for fire-alarm replacement at the Mundelein Branch courthouse. Motion by Member Hewitt; second by Member (transcript: of). Staff said the work replaces end-of-life panels and integrates with security systems; committee approved unanimously.

• 8.36 — Real-estate tax-bill printing and mailing contract: The committee approved a contract with Data Integrators (Fredericksburg, VA) for printing and mailing real-estate tax bills for the treasurer's office in an estimated annual amount of $34,270 with renewal options. Motion by Member Clark; second by Member Hewitt. The treasurer's office and purchasing recommended the lowest responsible bidder after a formal bid process; the vendor also provides electronic bill (e-bill) delivery services. The item passed unanimously.

• 8.34 — Finance policy updates (Budget Development Policy 3.5): Committee approved updates clarifying that vacant positions of 12 months or greater may be eliminated unless there is evidence of active recruitment; established minimum and maximum wage-increase parameters for nonunion employees for FY2026 (minimum 1.75%, maximum 4%, with departments awarding increases subject to departmental lump-sum limits); and increased wage tables by 1.75% for nonunion salary ranges. Motion by Vice Chair Parikh; second by Member Vlitzak. The item passed unanimously.

• 8.38 — Permanent destruction of certain executive-session recordings: The committee authorized permanent destruction of executive-session recordings for the Financial and Administrative Committee from Oct. 8, 2008 through February 2024 and for the inactive Ethics and Oversight Committee from Oct. 2, 2018 through Sept. 2022, in accordance with the Illinois Open Meetings Act and states' attorney recommendation. Motion by Member Hewitt; second by Vice Chair Parikh. The committee approved the destruction.

All above items were approved by committee votes as noted in the transcript; where a motion mover or seconder was recorded, it is listed above. Items 8.21, 8.32 and 8.33 were covered in separate committee discussion and are reported in standalone articles.