|
DeKalb County, Illinois |
Minutes of the
|
The
Public Policy Committee of the DeKalb County Board met on Monday, December 17,
2001 at 6:30p.m. at the DeKalb County Administration Building’s Conference
Room East. Chairman Ruth Anne
Tobias called the meeting to order. Members present were James Barr, John
Dlabal, Eileen Dubin, Jeff Metzger and Pat LaVigne.
Mr. Brown was absent. Ms.
Strand was also present.
Moved
by Mr. Dlabal, seconded by Ms. LaVigne, and it was voted unanimously to accept
the minutes from the November 2001 meeting.
Moved
by Mr. Barr, seconded by Mr. Dlabal, and it was voted unanimously that the
agenda be approved.
No one was present for public comment.
Chairman Tobias said that the credit card legislation was the one that
she was thinking of to follow-up on. She
said that we would seek to change the language from the “county shall
collect” to “the county may collect.”
She spoke with Representative Wirsing briefly to see if he would be able
to help us and give us some ideas about what we should do next.
She needs to make an appointment with him and he said that he would make
some calls to find out what we need to do.
Chairman Tobias then said that a letter would be going out to all the
county board members that represent that particular area and mayors regarding
our area meetings schedule. Ms.
Dubin said that she would like to go to other towns than where we have been,
like Cortland. Chairman Tobias said
that she would like to wait until after January 1, 2002 to send out the letters
and the committee agreed.
Planning for the County Government Week in April 2002, Chairman Tobias,
said that she would like the committee to think about what they would like to
see done. Ms. Dubin said that she
had spoken to Ms. Berkes-Hanson who said that she would be happy to speak to the
committee to put together a presentation that illustrates what the county board
has done to make life easier for our citizens.
Maybe we could hold a public meeting either in the Sycamore Library or
the 3rd floor courtroom to try and demonstrate some of the things
that the county has done electronically, she continued.
Mr. Metzger said that last year he
invited Sheriff Scott and County Clerk Sharon Holmes to come down to Sandwich to
visit with the seniors at the high school and talked to them about county
government. Maybe other schools
would like them to visit their schools also.
Mr. Dlabal said that maybe we should send some sort of invitation out to
the students from Kishwaukee College and NIU to come to the public meeting, too.
Chairman Tobias asked Mr. Metzger to contact the various schools in the
county about coming out to visit them and what subjects they might want to
discuss.
Chairman Tobias and Ms. Dubin will
speak with Ms. Berkes-Hanson to discuss what we might want to present.
Ms. Dubin said that she spoke with Mr. Bockman, DeKalb County
Administrator, to discuss whether or not we should keep the public
transportation legislation item on the agenda.
Mr. Bockman suggested that we keep it on the legislative agenda. He said that even though we may become an MPO that it will be
a slow process. It may take at
least one year to figure out how they are going to organize DeKalb County.
Mr.
Metzger presented a proposal to form a film commission for DeKalb County. The
Director of the State of Illinois Film Commission stated that the main problem
that they have had coming out to DeKalb County is the fact that we are about 15
miles further then what they would like. They
would like us to have a volunteer group of people that would meet with all the
communities in the county and see if they want to participate. These volunteers would talk to various people in the
communities and get their pamphlets together, get somebody to donate minimal
funds and mail out a list to various production companies.
If a production company so chooses to come out and look at DeKalb County
then someone from that film commission would go with the film company and scout
out the county for their film. They
said that we would be better able to market DeKalb County then they would
because they need to do the whole State. We
could generate a lot of revenue for the various county communities via
restaurants, clothing stores, catering sources, etc.
After
further discussion the committee agreed that it is not a bad thing for the
county businesses and tourist industry for our county.
They suggested that Mr. Metzger continue to try to follow through with
this proposal. They also suggested that he work with DeKalb County Economic
Development Corporation to develop a list of interest and people in the county
that they would need to contact for the production companies.
Ms. LaVigne said that she would be willing to work with Mr. Metzger on
this project.
Ms. LaVigne
said that before the committee adjourns she would like to share with the
committee the fact that DeKalb County’s proposal for the formation of a
Regional Plan Commission was highlighted in the Chicago Tribune and that
it was a very good article. She
encouraged those present to support the County’s proposal.
Moved
by Mr. Dlabal, seconded by Mr. Metzger, and it was carried unanimously to
adjourn the meeting.
Respectively
submitted,
______________________________
Chairman
Ruth Anne Tobias
__________________________
Mary C. Supple, Secretary
| Home | Return
to top | A-Z Index | Return
to minutes |