|
DeKalb County, Illinois |
Minutes of the
|
The
Public Policy Committee of the DeKalb County Board met on Monday, May 21, 2001
at 6:30p.m. in the Administration Building’s Conference Room East.
Vice-Chairman Patricia LaVigne called the meeting to order.
Members present were James Barr, Edward Brown, John Dlabal, Eileen Dubin
and Jeffery Metzger. Ruth
Anne Tobias was absent.
Moved
by Mr. Dlabal, seconded by Mr. Metzger, and it was voted unanimously to accept
the minutes from the last meeting.
Moved by Mr. Metzger,
seconded by Ms. Dubin, and it was voted unanimously that the agenda be approved.
Process
for Developing the Legislative Agenda:
Vice-Chairman LaVigne mentioned to the committee that Chairman Tobias had
listed several items regarding the process to develop the legislative agenda for
this year. She said that we need to
collect information on what issues are important, via Mr. Bockman, DeKalb County
Administrator, Department Heads, County Board Members, other local county
officials, other legislators, etc. Then
we would need to create a new list of possibilities and compare the list to last
year’s legislative agenda. We
would then need to prioritize what issues are important.
Finally, we will need to submit the list to the full board for approval. Mr. Metzger asked if this is for State of Illinois
legislation only? Vice-Chairman
LaVigne stated that yes it mainly is state legislation but if there is a federal
issue then we could take a look at it. The
committee agreed for Ms. Supple, DeKalb County Board Coordinator, to draft a
memo to go out to all the department heads and county board members, and have it
approved by Chairman Tobias prior to it being mailed out.
Possibility
of Marketing “Gary Hanson’s Financial Colloquiums:
Vice-Chairman LaVigne said that Chairman Tobias was thinking of the
sessions that the Administrative Services Committee provides to newly elected
officials and do we think that this type of session is worth looking at?
Ms. Dubin suggested that maybe we could put a handbook together as an
educational tool for the public. Mr.
Metzger said that maybe we could put it on our website and then also make a
handbook to distribute. Vice-Chairman
LaVigne stated that she thought that it would not have to be a project that had
to be done right now, she felt that it would be an ongoing one.
Mr. Brown asked if the sessions were being video taped?
Ms. Supple said that she didn’t know and that she would ask Mr. Hanson
about it.
The
committee felt that putting it on the website and possibly making a handbook was
a good idea and that the more information that we “get out there” for the
public was a good thing. We will
mention this to Mr. Hanson and Chairman Tobias and find out what her next step
will be.
Mr.
Metzger asked a question about our website and if we could post a message board
for county board members and department heads to answer questions back and forth
that wouldn’t violate the open meetings act? These would be more policy and procedural questions, not
agenda issues, he stated. Ms.
Supple asked Mr. Metzger if he wanted an answer to this by next month’s
meeting and he said yes, if possible.
External
Sources for County Level Legislative Issues: Ms. Dubin said that she
researched the State of Indiana and didn’t find anything relevant to
legislative agenda issues. Mr.
Metzger stated that one of the counties that he researched was Miami-Dade County
and their website. He said that the
size of the county, of course, was not comparable to ours, but that they had a
great website. They had several
governmental links and more agencies mentioned on their website. They did have their legislative agenda published on the
website. Mr. Barr said that
his research took him to four counties in Texas and that the one county that was
comparable was Denton County, Texas. He
said that their website was similar to ours but that they had more forms that
you could download and that there was no legislative agenda mentioned.
He also said that one of the counties he looked at had a website for the
Sheriff’s Department. After further discussion it was agreed to ask Ms. Berkes if
we could send a memo out to all departments and ask them to review their web
page to see if they needed to update it. The committee also agreed to invite Ms.
Berkes to our meeting and discuss it further with her as to whether or not we
could do a Sheriff’s Department website.
The committee also agreed to get various examples from other counties to
share with Ms. Berkes so that she knows what they are looking for.
June
Meeting in Sandwich:
Mr. Metzger said that he has approached the mayors of the cities of
Somonauk and Sandwich to our next meeting in June.
The City of Sandwich said that they would be happy to host our meeting in
June at the Sandwich Chambers, which is where they hold the City Council
meetings, he said. However, the
meeting would have to be on a Wednesday or Thursday evening since the City
Council meetings are held on Monday evenings.
Mr. Metzger said that he would like to invite the mayors from both of the
cities to participate, the township officials from both cities, the public and
the local press. The City of
Sandwich suggested that we hold our meeting at 7:30p.m. instead of 6:30p.m.
because of the people down south who will be coming from work.
They also requested that Mr. Bockman, Mr. Lorence and possibly the
Treasurer attend the meeting. Mr.
Metzger will also do a press release for the papers down there.
The committee agreed that we would need to do a brief introduction of
what our committee’s purpose is and then open it up for questions and answers
to the audience. They also
mentioned that they would like to keep the meeting at 1 ½ hour time limit so
the Chairman will have to make sure that the discussion is kept on track.
Vice-Chairman LaVigne stated that she believes that we need to do a list
of our accomplishments in that area that Chairman Tobias needs to read to the
audience at the introduction part of the meeting.
The committee also agreed to have the meeting night scheduled for
Thursday, June 14, 2001 @ 7:30p.m. and they directed Ms. Supple to update the
monthly calendar for proper notice to the press.
Invite
Legislators to Speak before the County Board: The committee agreed to
invite Representative Dave Wirsing to one county board meeting and Senator
Bradley Burzynski to another one. Mr.
Metzger also said that he might be able to get one of the Congressman
Hastert’s people to come and speak before the Board, too.
Contact
for a Meeting in Genoa – for a Fall Meeting: The committee discussed
whom they should approach about holding a meeting in Genoa for the Fall.
Michael Haines was suggested along with the Genoa-Kingston School Board
people. The committee also
discussed if they should possibly meet in Hinckley another month and move their
way up north. They would discuss
this further with Chairman Tobias.
July
Meeting: The committee discussed whether or not to cancel the July
meeting because of people taking vacations.
They decided to go ahead and still schedule a meeting for the month of
July and if there are not enough members to have a quorum present then Chairman
Tobias could cancel the meeting.
Before
adjourning, Mr. Metzger approached the committee about having all the elected
officials attend a meeting about working with the media as an informative
session. He said that we could
discuss how to effectively work with the media to provide good government.
He asked how we could do this? The
committee directed Ms. Supple to let Chairman Tobias know about this inquiry.
Moved by Mr. Dlabal, seconded by Mr. Brown, 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 |