The Public Services Committee of the DeKalb County Board met on Monday, March 5, 2001, at 6:30 p.m. at the Administration Building's Conference Room East. Chairman Sue Leifheit called the meeting to order. Members present were Marlene Allen, Edward Brown, Eileen Dubin and Michael Haines. Dr. Conway and Robert Pritchard were absent. Others present were Margi Gilmour, Kenneth Johnson, Jack Slingerland, Thomas Weber, John Wilson, Sharon Holmes, Mary Olson, Sheriff Roger Scott and Chief Deputy Kevin Hickey.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES

Moved by Ms. Dubin, seconded by Ms. Allen, and it was carried unanimously to approve the minutes from last meeting.

APPROVAL OF AGENDA

Moved by Ms. Allen, seconded by Ms. Dubin, and it was carried unanimously to approve the agenda.

COMMUNITY SERVICES UPDATE

Ms. Mary Olson, Director of the DeKalb County Community Services Department, stated that there were seven applicants for the Senior Services Tax Levy. There is one new applicant and that is Opportunity House. She said that some of their disabled adults are senior citizens and that is why they applied for the tax levy funds. Chairman Leifheit said that when the tax levy hearings are held next month that the presentations and question period for each applicant will be 15 minutes long. Each agency will have 5 to 10 minutes for their presentation and then there will another 5 – 10 minutes for questions. She further stated that after the committee has heard all the agencies presentations then they will hopefully dispense the funds that evening. Chairman Leifheit reminded the committee that the meeting in April will begin at 6:00p.m. Ms. Olson said that she will send out the agendas for the meeting before the April meeting date.

Ms. Olson then briefly reviewed her final Quarterly Report. She said that the emergency assistance line item did not reach the goal that they set for it. That’s because they served fewer people than the year before. She also said that the donated furniture line is lower because they only gave items out to two families. They now have more furniture donated, so they are able to give to more families.

Ms. Olson then reviewed her final fiscal report for her grant. She said that she did not spend $31,114.39 and that it will be carried over for her to use for emergency services which she feels they will need for higher gas bills.

PUBLIC DEFENDER’S MONTHLY REPORT

Mr. Ken Johnson, DeKalb County’s Public Defender, briefly reviewed his monthly report for the committee. He stated that he checked the numbers of cases in the circuit clerk’s office assigned to his office. They are higher than what he shows because some of his people owe fees and the clerk’s office counts them in their caseload numbers for the public defender’s office. So, technically, he closes the case because his work is done. The clerk does it after the fees are paid.

Mr. Johnson then informed the committee that the State has filed a sexually dangerous case to his caseload and that the committee could see the numbers rising under his expert/professional fees line item. He also stated that under HB549 he is asking for our support because it would pay approximately 66% of his salary that could be reimbursed by the state treasury. That could amount to $30,000 - $40,000 in savings for the county. It has made it through the House and that it is up for the 2^nd and 3^rd reading. It still has to go before the Senate for passage.

COURT SERVICES INTRODUCTION AND MONTHLY REPORT

Ms. Margi Gilmour, Director of Court Services Department, said that there are no changes in her adult report. She informed the committee that she might be losing an adult officer soon so she will have to advertise for another position in her office. In her juvenile report there was 5 kids in placement. She is hoping that one of the kids will be out of placement by the end of school. She said that out of the 14 kids that were detained, 7 were for the 1^st time, 2 was for the 2^nd time, 1 was for the fourth time and 2 for the 5^th and 7^th time.

In a brief update on the Multi-Family Group she stated that it was in it’s third week and going well. She also updated the committee on the Multi-Family Group and said that there were 6 families now in the group and that they were also doing well.

RAFFLE ORDINANCE UPDATE

Chairman Leifheit introduced Mr. Jack Slingerland of the State’s Attorney’s Office. Mr. Slingerland explained to the committee that the county’s raffle ordinance was passed last year to get something on the books for the Sandwich Fair. There were suggestions made last year that if a clean up was needed then the committee would consider it.

One issue involves multi-jurisdictional licenses, said Mr. Slingerland. The way things are set up now if a club wants to sell raffle tickets in and around Sycamore and DeKalb they would need licenses from the county and both cities. When the County passed the ordinance last summer they had the foresight to include in that ordinance language that would authorize a license to be issued so that an organization would only need to get 1 license issued and then they could sell raffle tickets in any city or town in the county. However, Mr. Slingerland continued, the ordinances from the cities are older and do not allow for multi-jurisdictional licenses. The situation we have now is if the county is going to proceed to a licensing authority concept, whereby someone from the county and then someone from the city were to oversee the operations of raffles in the county, the cities would need to amend their ordinances to comply with the county. If there is going to be a multi-jurisdictional license for raffle tickets within the county the main work would need to be done by the cities to match what the county has now. Mr. Slingerland said that the cities and towns have to not only agree with the county’s ordinance but t hey must also pass and sign an Intergovernmental Agreement.

Ms. Holmes, the DeKalb County Clerk and Recorder suggested that there be a brief summary on what the licensee needs to do (in bullet points) attached to the top of the application. The committee agreed that Mr. Bockman, DeKalb County Administrator, should pursue the Intergovernmental Agreement with the various cities and towns as long as it doesn’t become a "mountain of work." They also directed him to send a copy of our ordinance with the Intergovernmental Agreement for them to review.

REGIONAL SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS ANNUAL REPORT

Dr. Thomas Weber, Regional Superintendent of Schools, presented his annual report for the year 2000. He thanked the county and the committee for providing him the staff, housing and financial support that he needs for his office. He stated that he is the liaison between the state board of education and the local offices. He said that $4 million was distributed during this fiscal year and that districts were encouraged to use direct wiring of their funds from the state comptroller. Dr. Weber also highlighted the fact that the county enrollments grew by 353 students for the ‘99-’00 school year and that a lot of that growth took place in Genoa.

SHERIFF’S ANNUAL REPORT

Sheriff Roger Scott introduced Chief Deputy Kevin Hickey to the committee and began his presentation of his annual report. He stated that on page ten it shows that the average population was 77 inmates a day. This number is spiking a lot more now than in years past. He also stated that the paying inmates were phased out in FY2000 in order to house our own inmates. Some of the pages that he highlighted for the committee were page 21 – the courthouse security, page 26 – S.W.A.P., page 31, the patrol division, page 32 the five year comparison, page 35 which shows that the D.U.I. numbers have dropped slightly in the year 2000 and page 40 which is the DARE program.

The committee thanked everyone for their reports. Moved by Ms. Dubin, seconded by Mr. Haines and placed them all on file.

ADJOURNMENT

Moved by Ms. Allen, seconded by Ms. Dubin, and it was carried unanimously to adjourn the meeting.

Respectfully submitted,

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Sue Leifheit, Chairman

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Mary C. Supple, Secretary