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DeKalb County, Illinois |
Minutes of the
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The
Executive Committee of the DeKalb County Board met on Tuesday, May 8, 2001 @
7:00 p.m. at the Administration Building=s
Conference Room East. Vice-Chairman
Robert Hutcheson called the meeting to order.
Members present were Sue Leifheit, John Dlabal for the Forest Preserve
Committee, Roger Steimel, Ruth Anne Tobias and John Wilson. John Morreale was
absent. Chairman Robert Pritchard arrived at 7:10p.m. Others present were Ray Bockman, Gary Hanson, Dr. Conway,
Dennis Sands, Veronica Casella, Eileen Dubin, Patricia LaVigne, Sharon Holmes,
Debbie King and Diane Strand.
Moved
by Mr. Dlabal, seconded by Mr. Wilson, and it was carried unanimously to accept
the minutes of the last meeting.
Mr.
Bockman asked to add an Executive Session to discuss Land Acquisition and Sale
of Real Estate. Moved by Mr.
Steimel, seconded by Ms. Tobias, and it was carried unanimously to approve the
amended agenda.
Vice-Chairman
Hutcheson recommended the following appointments:
| Community Services Advisory Board: | Mayor Greg Sparrow |
| Mayor John Swedberg | |
| For an indefinite term |
Moved
by Mr. Dlabal, seconded by Ms. Leifheit, and it was carried unanimously to
approve the appointments as presented by Vice-Chairman Hutcheson, and to forward
them onto the full board for approval.
Mr. Ray Bockman,
County Administrator, reviewed the Reapportionment Resolution and outlined it
for the committee. There are a
variety of things that we have to do every ten years in addition to redrawing
the district boundaries. What this
resolution does is to go through the things that we need to do that, he
believes, the county board has consensus on so far.
For example, we want to continue having 12 districts, 24-member board,
two members from each district, having the board elect the Chairman rather than
the electorate, we want to continue with the same methods of compensation that
we currently use, etc. These items
that are in the statute, are incorporated into the resolution.
What is not in here are the new proposed district boundaries.
The purpose of this is if for any reason you don’t reach an agreement
on boundaries, the board would revert to its largest legal size, which is 29
members and you would all run at-large. I
hope that we would all agree that that’s not what we are hoping for, he said.
By acting on the things that we have agreement on this moment, we can
preclude that from happening regardless of whether the boundaries are readily
agreed to or not.
The committee then
reviewed the maps. What they
include now are the precinct line changes that have not technically been agreed
to yet. The staff went through the
following process; they took the Block census data and put it into precincts.
They then went through with the County Clerk, Sharon Holmes, and modified
those precinct boundaries that she wanted to modify.
They then, based on those changes, redrew the current districts along
those precinct boundaries (pages 4,5,6 are the current districts and 7,8, 9 are
the staff recommendations for the new districts).
What was done to
arrive at these new districts is spelled out in pages 1,2,3, Mr. Bockman said.
He first covered page 2, which shows the 12 county board districts. The
first four columns show the population numbers.
The first column is the census counts for the districts, unchanged from
last time. The second are the
precincts that adjusted to the new precinct boundaries and what those district
boundaries would be. The third column shows adjusted based on Model 1; this is
the staff recommendation and is what the last set of maps contains.
The next column states Ideal based on 2000 census, that is the total
county population divided by 12 districts.
The next set of columns are numerical variances for those adjustments.
The final three columns are simply the percentages that the three columns
that precede it vary from the population, Mr. Bockman stated.
Mr. Bockman further
stated that on page 3 are all the precinct populations. There are three obvious errors that were made by the census
bureau that include DK02 – shows 6 people, DK09 –shows 10 people and DK12
– shows 11 people, we don’t think these are good counts, he said.
These are groups housing units, and we have Center for Governmental
Studies, City of DeKalb and the County all working on this problem and we
won’t know for a while what adjustments will be made.
There may be an undercount as much as 3000 people.
The good news is that the Census Bureau is going to entertain challenges
to the count. What we are working
towards is a joint letter with evidence to prove up our case that there are some
eroneous counts here. The bad news
is that change is not going to come out in time to help with our task and it
appears from the literature that it’s not ever going to be presented to us in
a fashion that will help with redistricting. An inquiry has been made by the
State’s Attorney’s Office to the Attorney General about whether or not there
will be an opportunity, if data are modified later, to redistrict if there is an
official reissuance of census data? Someone
in that office has told him that there is a similar problem in Jackson County.
Ms. Tobias, who works at the Center for Governmental Studies, said that
there are problems all over the country.
The timeline is that
you have until July 1, 2001, to agree upon boundaries, so you need not do
anything tonight, said Mr. Bockman. He
also stated that on page 3 of the handout the highlighted precincts that have
incumbent board members in them.
Moved by Mr. Dlabal,
seconded by Mr. Wilson, and it was carried unanimously to recommend the
Reapportionment Resolution and to forward it onto the full board for approval.
Mr. Bockman, said
that the resolution on the Industrial Bond Issuance is really a house cleaning
resolution to follow up to the Inducement Resolution that we adopted in December
2000. This facilitates a statewide
project by Urban Ventures that will acquire and rehabilitate a number of Senior
Housing Units around the state. The
one in our community, he said, is Colonial Apartments in DeKalb.
This matter has been reviewed by the State’s Attorney’s office and
our bond counsel. It is also being
supported by the City of DeKalb. This
step really is the preparation for the closing and we are now becoming a party
to an Intergovernmental Agreement with those other public bodies who have
projects in their jurisdictions. The
plan is that the issuers will be the County of Lake and the City of Danville.
Moved by Ms.
Leifheit, seconded by Ms. Tobias, and it was carried unanimously to recommend
the Industrial Bond Issue Resolution and to forward it onto the full board for
approval.
Mr.
Ray Bockman, County Administrator, reviewed the Board Agenda for the May 16,
2001 meeting. Moved by Mr. Dlabal,
seconded by Mr. Wilson, and it was carried unanimously to accept the county
board agenda as presented by Mr. Bockman. Ms.
Tobias asked if a Memorial Day Proclamation should be read this month at the
county board meeting? Chairman
Pritchard and the committee agreed to have one read for Veteran’s Day like we
did last year.
Mr.
Hutcheson, Chairman of the Planning & Regulations Committee, highlighted
item “c.” for the board members that support the City of Springfield appeal
case. He said that there was a bill
some years ago that we thought that if you go ahead and preannex by an
Annexation Agreement and then city zoning took precedent.
That then was changed and now there is a court suit over the whole thing.
He wanted them to read that so that you would be up to date on it.
Mr. Bockman said it’s a horrible law that’s up on appeal and we feel
it may be upheld.
Ms.
Leifheit, Chairman of the Public Services Committee, stated that her committee
spoke discussed the precinct line changes presented by Ms. Holmes and that most
of them were housekeeping matters. She
said that we reviewed Ms. Whitwell’s Annual Report which was, once again, very
good. They also reviewed the
Sheriff’s jail study. Her
committee finally discussed the juvenile justice council creation She explained
that we really haven’t had any structured committee to help with prevention or
a group decision making on what will happen to a juvenile who has gotten into
trouble. This is what this group will do. She
also said that one of the main points was that once this council is formed they
can apply for grant monies. Where
now there is no avenue to receive those grant monies. Before they would have to come to somebody for funding. This
way they can apply for a federal or state grant themselves.
If they don’t get the grant they won’t provide that service.
Mr.
Wilson, Chairman of the Public Infrastructure and Development Committee,
highlighted the three items on the agenda that relate to his committee.
He said that the eminent domain resolution deals with a small piece of
land along Glidden Road where Bethany Road will connect.
Ms.
Tobias, Chairman of the Public Policy Committee, said that we will send a letter
of congratulations to all newly elected mayors, city clerks and township
supervisors. She said that they
would begin the process of gathering the legislative agenda items.
Chairman Pritchard asked Ms. Tobias if she would be inviting Dave Wirsing
and Brad Burzynski to a county board meeting to speak before us?
She said that no she hasn’t and that she would contact them.
Mr.
Steimel reminded everyone about the budget training classes being offered next
week with that Mr. Hanson will be teaching, again. It will begin at 6:30p.m.on the evening of the county board
meeting and will be held in the county courthouse.
Chairman
Pritchard informed the committee about the landscaping plan for the county
courthouse this year that includes the addition of a replacement tree.
He would like to designate that tree in honor of Judge John
Countryman’s retirement and service to the county and its citizens.
Moved
by Mr. Dlabal, seconded by Ms. Tobias, and it was carried unanimously to move
into closed session to discuss land acquisition and sale of real estate.
Moved
by Mr. Wilson, seconded by Mr. Steimel, and it was carried unanimously to return
to open session. No action
was taken.
Moved
by Mr. Hutcheson, seconded by Ms. Leifheit, and it was voted unanimously to
adjourn the meeting.
Respectfully
submitted,
_________________________________
Robert
W. Pritchard, Chairman
_______________________________
Mary C. Supple, Secretary
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