Council to vote on $2.4M transfer

Move to insurance fund would bolster reserves

The Lake County Council will vote Tuesday on a $2.4 million transfer from the Lake County Election and Voter Registration Board and the Highway Department toward insurance.

Lake County officials are working toward bolstering the county’s reserves in the health insurance fund and liability fund by $5 million which “will get us back to pre-COVID levels,”

said Scott Schmal, the Lake County Council’s finance director.

As the 2021 year ends, the county will start moving access money into health insurance and liability funds, Schmal said.

“We just take items of surplus and move it into insurance (and liability),” Schmal said. “By us doing that, it lowers the burden on future years.”

On Tuesday, the council will vote to reduce the election and registration board’s budget by

$2 million: $900,000 from the Election Day workers line item; $175,000 from the seasonal employees line item, $100,000 from the printing line item; $25,000 from the property rental line item and $800,000 from the other equipment line item.

Michelle Fajman, the director of the Election and Voter Registration Board, said the department offered to give the $2 million back to the county.

The department requested, and received, the $2 million in its 2021 budget in the event of any special elections, Fajman said. But, because there were no special elections, Fajman said the department decided to return the money to the county.

“It’s money we weren’t using,” Fajman said. Returning the $2 million won’t impact the 2022 elections, because those elections will be covered in the 2022 budget, Fajman said.

The council will also vote on reducing the highway department group insurance funds by $405,980 to transfer to the county’s health insurance reserves.