County Approves COL Increase For Public Defender
The Madison County Board held a relatively calm board meeting on August 19. A number of resolutions were passed, including two regarding cost of living raises. A cost of living increase was approved for the Madison County Public Defender, but not for non-bargaining unit employees.
The increase for the public defender was required for the board to pass (and did unanimously), according to Mike Parkinson (D-Granite City), because the state pays two-thirds of the public defender’s salary and the county pays the remaining one-third. The public defender’s new salary is $161,064.16, up from $156,370.29.
The county’s 362 non-bargaining unit employees (including the 29 members of the County Board, 10 non-union grant funded employees, and 9 elected officials among others) were not as lucky with the pay increase approved on November 20, 2019 being rescinded for next year, due to an anticipated shortfall shortfall in the 2021 budget due to COVID-19. Parkinson asked Chairman Kurt Prenzler if he planned on cutting the pay for his position proposed by Bob Daiber, Democrat running for Madison County Board Chairman in the November election. Prenzler refused to comment.
After much discussion, the vote passed mostly along party lines.
At the beginning of the meeting, a proclamation was issued marking August 22 as Bob Teichgraber Day, in recognition of Collinsville resident Teichgraber, a WWII POW, celebrating his 100th birthday.
The County Board approved an emergency appropriations of $12,610 to account for a grant that was received to create a Self-Represented Litigant Coordinator Program to oversee a domestic violence services and outreach program, a grant for $6,489 for the Child Advocacy Center, a $1,000 grant towards technology costs due to COVID-19 at the Child Advocacy Center, and a $4,905,792 grant to the County Health Department for contact tracing. The grant allows Southern Illinois University School of Medicine to continue community testing for the duration of the pandemic.
Authorization was granted to Chairman Prenzler to sign a service agreement and pay $42,000 to Securus Technologies/Satellite Tracking of People LLC to provide “24/7 electronic monitoring via GPS of pretrial individuals without court dispositions to reduce the number of individuals in the county jail during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Mill Creek Bridge on Troy-O’Fallon Rd 2.1 miles south of Troy in Jarvis Township was approved for replacement of the three span ppc deck beam bridge with a new single span steel beam bridge costing approximately $600,000 from the Jarvis Township Motor Fuel Tax. The contract for preliminary engineering services was awarded to Kaskaskia Engineering Group, LLC for $120,000.
