Peoria, Woodford and Tazewell counties will consider giving the Tri-County Regional Planning Commission $250,000. Peoria Public Radio’s Alex Rusciano reports:
Officials say the financial help would give the commission a three month cushion of working cash for daily operations. They say the commission saw a 250,000 decline in capital since summer of 2012, mainly because of a lack of financial transparency. The Commission is now asking $100,000 each from Peoria and Tazewell Counties and $50,000 from Woodford. Tazewell County administrator Mike Frielinger says he will recommend his board approve the financial help if the commission works to address operational concerns:
“The commission needs to come up with a business plan to show how they're going to meet their finances in the future so we don't have a concern about this being a recurring problem. The second issue that I see is I think that there needs to be an evaluation of their billable hours and their indirect or administrative costs,” Freilinger says.
Freilinger says he also wants to see updated travel expense policies and for staff to quantify how many resources they have to address current projects effectively. In other business, the Commission Executive Board voted to formally approve two staff members as interim co-executive directors until a permanent replacement is found later this year.