Lake County creates reserve fund to deal with fluid federal funding environment

Lake County has established a $2 million reserve to deal with potential federal funding interruptions.

Coordination between county departments that receive and rely on federal funding has been ongoing. But action by the county board Tuesday formalizes preparations in case of a sudden reduction, loss or pause in federal funding.

The emergency appropriation establishes a federal funding contingency reserve from general funds.

“There's a lot of disruption in federal funding that could be coming down the pike and especially we are concerned about our health and human services, health department, housing and other types of funding that helps human beings,” said board member Marah Altenberg of Buffalo Grove.

According to the resolution, the county administrator’s office has been working with departments to assess potential risks, evaluate possible impacts and discuss options.

The $2 million will provide a 60-day cushion to ensure continuity of operations in affected departments while alternative solutions and long-term options are evaluated, according to the approved measure.

Decisions about how funds are used will be made by the county administrator with regular reports to the county board’s financial and administrative committee.

Reports will include expenditures from the reserve and recommendations for long-term solutions to address program or operation impacts from sudden or anticipated federal funding changes.

The county has developed criteria and requirements for accessing the reserve and demonstrated need. Any unused funds can be returned to the general fund with county board approval.

Issues arose a year ago when Lake County lost more than $3 million in federally earmarked community project funding for sewer and water system improvements and the creation of an affordable housing hub.

The termination of services to support mental health care, substance and abuse treatment and infectious disease control, partially delivered through grants to the Lake County Health Department also were threatened.

“This is an extremely fluid and constantly changing environment,” County Administrator Patrice Sutton reported to the financial and administrative committee last month.

The reserve fund “allows us to weather this up and down storm regardless of what the federal government is handing down on the topic of human services,” board member Carissa Casbon of Gurnee said Tuesday.