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DeKalb County, Illinois |
Minutes of the
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The Public Policy Committee of the DeKalb County
Board met on Monday, September 17, 2001 at 6:30p.m. at the Administration
Building’s Conference Room East. Chairman
Ruth Anne Tobias called the meeting to order. Members present were John Dlabal,
Edward Brown and Jeffery Metzger. James Barr, Pat LaVigne and Eileen Dubin were absent.
Moved
by Mr. Dlabal, seconded by Mr. Metzger, and it was voted unanimously to accept
the minutes from the August 20, 2001 meeting.
Moved
by Mr. Metzger, seconded by Mr. Brown, and it was voted unanimously that the
agenda be approved.
Chairman Tobias said that Lincoln Highway has been made a National
By-way. They have all this
promotional information that was sent to the county board office for us to
review. They thanked us for our
support in the past and the continued commitment for the future.
They wanted to know if there was any interest from our county to have
them come and do presentations for tourism.
The committee felt that at the present time they believed the initiative
would generate interest on its own.
Chairman Tobias then addressed the committee about other public relations
issues that we might want to look at. The
committee felt that we might want to put the Lincoln Highway Initiative on our
website as a link. Mr. Metzger
suggested that our county create a Film Council for DeKalb County. Other counties have these councils and he was wondering if we
might have interest in forming this council?
He had heard that DeKalb County is looked at a lot for filming purposes
by scouting agents. This council
could send out information on our county and towns to people that show interest.
It’s a way of “pushing” your county to let producers and people in
the film industry know that we are open to them coming here.
Chairman Tobias thanked Mr. Metzger for bringing this suggestion to the
committee’s attention and asked him to try and find information out on how to
form one of these councils.
Regarding the County Government Week, explained Chairman Tobias, Eileen
Dubin is beginning to start work on placing various items in the libraries
throughout the county regarding this week for next year’s observance.
She asked that if any of the other committee members could think of
anything or suggest anything else she would appreciate their input.
OLD BUSINESS – Legislative Agenda Discussion/Genoa
Meeting/Regional Planning Commission
Chairman Tobias started the discussion on what items the committee wanted
to include in the Legislative
Agenda Items for 2002 and what items they would cut.
Items cut at this time are #1, #10, #11, #14, #15 and #16 (see attached
sheet to these minutes). Items that
they decided to keep are: #2, #3, #8, #13.
Item #9, Chairman Tobias stated that she would contact the Circuit Clerk
about whether or not her department was honoring credit cards and get back to
the committee about her response at the October meeting.
Item #6 is at the “maybe” stage to be included and Chairman Tobias
said that she would do more research on it.
Chairman Tobias explained that
Item #12 refers to the recording of real estate documents in the county where
the property is located in addition to any national electronic database.
What this is, is a thing called “Mers” which stands for Mortgage
Electronic Register System. This is the Fannie Mae, Ginnie Mae, Freddie Mac and all the
mortgage bankers have this electronic registry system which is a national
database they are setting up. They
want that to be the source for any mortgages,
transfers, title searches, etc. Their
ultimate goal is to have that be the only place that people can go to and get
mortgage information from, she continued. Currently
all of that information is recorded in the County Recorder’s Office and there
are fees for that and access issues. Like how quickly would local government and property owners
be able to access their information and at what cost? She spoke with Ms. Sharon Holmes, the DeKalb County Clerk,
today and she said that the county board had passed a resolution in October of
1995 supporting the retention of records in the County Clerk’s Office, where
those properties are located. It is
a resolution that opposes MERS and the implementation of MERS and the threat to
free and public access to land record information, Chairman Tobias said.
In 1999 all recording fees for DeKalb County amounted to $340,000.00,
which is significant. The amount
collected for revenue stamps for 1999 was $150,000.00.
The committee decided that this item would be put on hold until more
information is gathered on it. They
were particularly interested as to why the Senate voted it down when it came
before them.
Mr. Metzger stated that on Item #7
that the constituents in the Sandwich area would be opposed to it since the town
lies in three different counties. So,
if one county is charging higher prices for gasoline, the other two counties
would lower their prices and people would go to the other two counties to
purchase their gasoline. Chairman
Tobias said that she will write up a finished legislative agenda and will write
it differently than in years past. She will include the citing of the problem
and then the solution like the other counties have done.
Chairman Tobias said that the
Genoa Meeting has been scheduled to meet at the Genoa City Council Chambers.
She has drafted an invitational letter that will go to the mayors of
Genoa, Kirkland and Kingston. She
will also be inviting the following DeKalb County personnel to attend and answer
questions from the audience: the Forest Preserve Superintendent, the Treasurer,
the Highway Engineer, the Planning & Zoning Director, Mr. Bockman, County
Administrator and Chairman Pritchard.
Chairman Tobias tabled the
Regional Planning Commission Discussion until next month’s meeting.
Moved
by Mr. Brown, seconded by Mr. Dlabal, and it was carried unanimously to adjourn
the meeting.
______________________________
Chairman Ruth Anne Tobias
______________________________
Mary C. Supple, Secretary
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