Before too long, Lake County might add a new voice to the ranks of legislators representing parts of the county and working to exert their influence on Congress in Washington D.C.

Members of the Lake County Board’s Legislative Committee discussed whether bringing on a federal lobbyist in D.C. this year would be worth the investment, deciding Tuesday to have staff gather information about potential options and then present the committee with options it can forward for a full board vote.

District 6 member and committee Chair John Wasik, D-Grayslake, thinks Lake County could do more to ensure it gets its fair shake on “billions of dollars on the table” in federal infrastructure money, and other funds doled out from the federal government to state and local governments and other organizations.

“We’re trying to get our share of it, and make sure it makes its way from Washington to here, into our long list of projects,” Wasik said.

The idea was met with a general sense of approval, accompanied with questions about whether the county had room in its current budget, and whether the county is content with what funds federal lawmakers help bring home.

Lake County Administrator Gary Gibson said the county used to maintain a lobbying partner in Washington before ending that relationship around 2009, before Congress fully did away with earmarks in 2011. Lake County currently has a pair of lobbyists focused on the Illinois General Assembly in Springfield.

Gibson said their old firm helped former U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk, still in the U.S. House at the time, land a few million dollars in federal funds to help construct the Lake County Department of Transportation’s transportation management center in the mid-2000s.

Now that earmarks are back in vogue, with Lake County seeing some dividends in the 2023 Omnibus Funding Bill, the game has seemingly changed.

District 4 member Gina Roberts, D-Beach Park, asked how much it might cost the county, and District 16 member Esiah Campos, D-Round Lake Beach, wondered about the recruitment process and how to gauge a lobbyist’s effectiveness.

Gibson said the county used to spend about $100,000 per year on its old firm, though with inflation it is expected the same services would now cost more. He said if the County Board approved the idea, Lake County would issue a request for proposals, then bring those proposals to the committee and board for consideration.

“ (The former federal lobbyists) were responsible for bringing any potential legislation that was moving forward that could be of concern to us, as well as looking at potential funding opportunities, be it through grants, be it through the earmark process,” he said.

As for judging the effectiveness, Gibson said that might be one of those “nebulous types of things,” adding that staff would be open to considering performance indicators from committee members.

District 19 member Marah Altenberg, D-Long Grove suggested asking other Chicago-area counties about splitting the cost of a new contractor if it made fitting a lobbyist into the budget easier.

Ingleside Republican Kevin Hunter, who represents District 5, suggested waiting until next year to have a firm or multiple firms, “come and give us a presentation, and tell us why we need them.”

“They can answer a lot of the questions,” Hunter said. “And they can say, ‘I’ve got somebody that’s done a ton of projects in Iowa.’ That’s great, but how do you know what I need here in Illinois?’ But why don’t we give them the opportunity to sell us in the Legislative Committee for next year, instead of trying to drag through and try to find 100,000 (dollars) now?”

Sara Knizhnik, a Vernon Hills Democrat who represents District 18, said she was supportive of Hunter’s and Altenberg’s ideas, but noted the County Board has “very strong Congress people with good relationships in Washington.”

District 2 member Adam Schlick, R-Wauconda, said he knows “lobbyist can sound like a dirty word to some folks,” but the profession wouldn’t still be viable if it hadn’t proven to be effective.

“People can get angry about how the process works, or you can figure out how to live with it and get to it,” he said. “I think having somebody speaking for us federally is a good idea.”