Committee debates ‘redline’ method for updating Will County federal legislative agenda

Committee members meeting Sept. 11 debated how to incorporate department updates into Will County's federal legislative agenda and whether changes should be shown as redlines to the base document prepared by Smith Garson, the county's lobbyist.

The disagreement matters because several departments, including land use and public health, submitted updated additions after Smith Garson's June draft, and members said they wanted clarity on what is new versus what previously appeared in the agenda.

Chair Ortiz and several committee members said they expected redlined edits to show additions or deletions from last year's agenda. "For most of what I looked through, I saw what I needed to see and there weren't any changes on some of the items that I was ... opposed to," Member Butler said, adding that redlines make it easier to spot new material. Member Berkowitz pushed back, saying Smith Garson had months to collect department input and committee members who did not raise objections earlier shared responsibility for the content.

Staff and committee members also described a separate set of proposed additions labelled with a later date from land use and the health department. A staff member offered to prepare redlined versions of those department submissions "by the next time we sit down to consider those," if that was the chair's direction.

No formal ordinance or vote was taken to mandate a particular redlining format at this meeting. The committee continued to consider department submissions and agreed informally to follow up at the next meeting with clarified documents.

Ending: The committee scheduled another meeting cycle to continue working through the federal agenda; staff said they would provide clearer versions of the land use and health department proposals before the next session so members can compare new language with the Smith Garson draft.