|
DeKalb County, Illinois |
Minutes of the
|
The
Public Policy Committee of the DeKalb County Board met on Monday, February 26,
2001 at 6:30p.m. in the Administration Building’s Conference Room East.
Chairman Ruth Anne Tobias called the meeting to order.
Members present were James Barr, John Dlabal, Eileen Dubin, Patricia
LaVigne and Jeffrey Metzger. Edward
Brown was absent. Ms. Debbie King
was also present.
Chairman
Tobias recognized Ms. Debbie King under the public comment section of the
agenda. Ms. King said that she was
there that evening regarding the upcoming land acquisition that the county wants
to buy. Ms. King said that at our
county board workshop in February that Mr. Bockman presented a new map showing
the county acquiring homes in the next 50 to 100 years and that it is going
towards Walnut Street. At the
Executive Committee meeting held last week, she continued, there was another
outsider present whose mother-in-law lives next door to the two houses being
discussed off of Sycamore and Locust. Now
her mother-in-law is frantic and what should she do is the question that this
woman asked Ms. King after the meeting. Are
the people on Walnut going to know when their houses may be tagged to be
purchased? Chairman Tobias said
that no one’s home is tagged as far as she knows.
The county’s policy is to wait until people come to them and offer
their homes to the county for purchase at fair market value.
We have no immediate plans to purchase property, she continued.
The committee advised Ms. King to have this woman or herself call Mr.
Bockman at the County Board Office to get her questions answered.
Moved
by Ms. LaVigne, seconded by Ms. Dubin, and it was voted unanimously to accept
the minutes from the February 26, 2001 meeting.
Ms. LaVigne asked if she
could share some information with the committee that she received during the
Legislative Day in Springfield. Chairman
Tobias placed her request under Government Week Update.
Moved by Ms. Dubin, seconded by Mr. Barr, and it was voted unanimously
that the amended agenda be approved.
Chairman
Tobias briefly updated the committee about Government Week in April.
She said that she has drafted a proclamation to be read at our April
County Board Meeting and passed it out to the committee for their approval and
suggestions. She then informed them
that she has approached six to seven libraries about placing displays in their
facilities during Government Week. These displays will explain and highlight various county
departments and their duties. Mr.
Metzger said that he would check with the Sandwich Library to ask if we can have
a display there. Ms. Tobias also
told the committee that Ms. Lisa Sanderson, who works part-time for the IMO
Department, has created a coloring book for children explaining county history
for the website for that week.
Ms.
Dubin suggested that next year we could do a Power Point presentation, along
with IMO’s help, throughout the various towns and cities in the County and
explain county government. She
would like to approach each department and see what they would like to do on the
presentation.
Mr.
Metzger explained that he has approached the Sheriff about bringing the canine
unit down to the Sandwich and Somonauk grade schools for that week.
And, he has also approached Ms. Sharon Holmes, County Clerk and Recorder
to come down to the high schools in Sandwich and Somonauk to explain voter
registration.
Finally,
Chairman Tobias told the committee that the Farm Bureau’s Students in
Government Day was a huge success. She
said that they had about six or eight high schools represented.
They first went to the Farm Bureau for a presentation and then they
visited various county departments to see what they do.
Ms.
LaVigne then showed the committee her folder and materials that she received
during the Legislative Day in Springfield.
She showed them pins, a Topic page that is a list of issues that they
felt were important to their specific group, a Highway Map, List of State
Representatives, Senators and their secretaries and where they are located at in
Springfield.
Chairman
Tobias shared a letter that the County has received from the County Board
Chairman of Winnebago County. Ms.
Cohn, Winnebago County Board Chairman, said that their group went down to meet
with the legislators regarding the request for increased Medicaid Reimbursements
for county-owned nursing homes. She
felt that it was a successful meeting and encouraged each of the counties to
continue to contact their legislators in promoting the issue.
Mr.
Metzger stated that he had received three complaints from constituents in his
area that stated that they were not getting our entire web page.
Did we know if there was a problem on it?
Mr. Barr asked if there were any plans to put forms on the web page from
the various departments? Chairman
Tobias said that she knew that there were some forms on the web but not a lot. Ms. Supple said that she knew that there was a form on the
web page from the Assessor’s Office and that there might be more under the
individual department’s heading. Chairman
Tobias said that she and Ms. Supple would look into those questions and get back
to them on it.
Ms. Dubin said that she has
made Chairman Pritchard and Mr. Bockman aware of the fact that libraries and
schools have been connected by the Illinois Century Network (ICN), which is a
statewide network. She said that
you can get on it as a county government and she would get the name of who we
need to call if we are interested. She
would eventually like to see a community-based network be formed if possible,
linking all DeKalb communities and not-for-profit organizations.
Chairman
Tobias stated that she had tried to find out more information on the Cable TV
and putting our meetings on it. The
City Manager said that there was no way that he could get us on the cable
station from the courthouse. Ms.
Supple said that a couple of years ago we were sending them copies of our
agendas and they were broadcasting them then for us.
Ms. Tobias asked Ms. Supple to call the City Manager’s office and ask
if they could place our committee meetings on there again and get back to her on
their reply. Ms. Dubin suggested us
getting in touch with WLBK and seeing about some of our people getting on there
and being interviewed. Chairman
Tobias said that she would check into that.
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 |