|
DeKalb County, Illinois |
AMENDED-Minutes of the
|
The
Public Services Committee of the DeKalb County Board met on Monday, September
10, 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, Michael
Haines and Dr. Conway. Others
present Ray Bockman, Gary Hanson, Margi Gilmour, Ken Johnson, Dr. Thomas Weber,
Jerry Lane and Greg Millburg.
Moved
by Ms. Allen, seconded by Dr. Conway, and it was carried unanimously to approve
the minutes from last meeting.
Moved
by Ms. Allen, seconded by Dr. Conway, and it was carried unanimously to approve
the amended agenda.
PUBLIC
DEFENDER’S REPORT
Mr.
Kenneth Johnson, DeKalb County Public Defender, said that his felony numbers are
high again. He stated that one
murder case has been taken off of his caseload because by a private attorney.
The sentencing on the one case is done and that he still has 2 or 3 more
murder cases still open. He has one
new murder case where the defendant can’t read, so Mr. Johnson has had to read
documents to him. He is going to
have a law clerk read to him from now on because he simply does not have the
time. There’s state funding once again for the capital litigation
trust fund and the state appellate defender’s office has gone up, which is a
wonderful thing, Mr. Johnson stated. He
has been utilizing their services and originally on the last case that he
negotiated an involuntary plea on, the defendant was originally charged with
murder, he was able to use that service and probably saved the County in the
neighborhood of $20,000-$30,000 in experts and research.
Ms. Margi Gilmour, Director of the Court Services Department, briefly reviewed her Adult and Juvenile Monthly Reports. She said that the Adult Court numbers are remaining constant like in months past.
Ms. Gilmour then reviewed her Juvenile Report. There were 18 juveniles in detention for the month of July. Of the 18 juveniles, 8 were detained for the 1st time, 5 for 2nd, 3 for 4th time, 1 for 6th time and 1 for the 8th time. Ms. Gilmour said that she still projects that the County will exceed the line item for board and care for the budget. The draw down account for detention is holding its own. She further stated that they do not have one child in detention today, which is rare.
COMMUNITY MENTAL HEALTH ANNUAL REPORT AND INTRODUCTION
Mr. Jerry Lane, Director of the DeKalb County Community Mental Health Board, said that they currently fund 32 programs and 10 different organizations. In 2000, they funded treatment and prevention services were provided to more than 5,500 DeKalb County citizens. This represents more than 6% of persons residing in the County.
The board was established back in 1867 by a referendum that was passed by county citizens. It was established under HB708, which became the Community Mental Health Act of Illinois. By statute we are the mental health authority for the County. We are responsible for the planning and funding local mental health services within DeKalb County. Generally, we are among the top four funders of the particular agencies that we fund. Mental Health services in DeKalb County, for a county of our size, are very good.
The biggest concern that we have now is that the system is eroding throughout the State. According to the Surgeon General’s Report this is a national crises, but he believes more so in Illinois, principally because the State has failed to make mental health a priority. In the last decade or so, depending on which set of statistics you use, we’ve lost somewhere between 7 – 15% due to inflation that hasn’t been compensated for by Cost of Living adjustments. At the same time, state operated facilities that are only serving a small fraction of people with mental health needs in the State, have been getting rather large cost of living adjustments. In this current budget they received a 7-½% increase, well above the inflation rate, while the agencies got what amounts to ½%, which won’t be paid until the 4th quarter of the fiscal year. They had to tighten the belt, they had to cut staffing, and therefore they had to cut services. There are a lot of people out there with serious mental health needs that simply aren’t getting served. For a variety reasons, stigma, shame involved with people who have a mental illness, and ignorance in the general population in the treatment needed.
Mr. Pritchard asked if there is a current method of evaluating success? Mr. Lane said the outcome-based evaluations, local agencies, just couldn’t afford to do. HMO’s and managed care are doing this long-term research. It gets tied up in a number of things, like confidentiality, being able to track clients for let’s say five years after treatment, etc. Hopefully, we are moving in that direction because now there is economic incentive to do that and there are groups that can afford to do it.
One issue, Mr. Lane said, that he has now is aging caregivers. There are elderly parents that are taking care of the their adult disabled children. Caregivers are in their 80’s and what will happen to their children when they die? There are 3,000 people who may need a home and care in the next 5 – 10 years because their parents will die. The state is just now acknowledging this problem exists.
BUDGET APPEALS
Dr. Tom Weber, Regional Superintendent of Schools for DeKalb County, has filed an appeal on the budget recommendations for his department. He did ask for a part-time clerk typist for a little over $8000.00 and he would like the committee to read his rationale carefully. Dr. Weber said that Mr. Bockman and Mr. Hanson have disputed his request and directed him to a technology solution through IMO. He stated that he and his secretary met with Ms. Berkes-Hanson today in his office and showed her the technology problems that they have. She did come up with some very good ideas for us, but they won’t really solve the big problem. We can put these forms on the Internet, but still the people would have to fill them out, come in, then we would have to enter them into the computer. Right now scanning is not an option either. But, those ideas would cut down on counter time so those are good ideas. Since the appeal process begins with this committee, this is why I am here this evening, he said.
Another rationale that he has is that by hiring a part-time person there would not be paid health insurance or other benefits so that would help keep the costs down, Dr. Weber said. In conclusion, he hoped that the committee would study his rationale and that he would be happy to answer any questions that they may have at the next meeting.
Mr. Haines suggested that Dr. Weber may want to use the work study program at NIU that allows students to work at non-profit agencies for 20 hours a week with a split of 70% to be paid by the federal government and 30% by the County, that may be an option that you may want to look at. Dr. Weber said that he would be glad to look into that and asked him for a phone number to get in touch with NIU.
Mr. Ken Johnson, DeKalb County Public Defender, approached the committee about his appeal for a Level One Attorney, which was denied. He said that his office needs to offer adequate representation to his clients in assisting them with legal representation. It is his obligation to make sure it is not compromised. Right now he feels that it is. When you look at his felony numbers he has broken them down for over the last three years. They show that with a quarter of the year remaining, he’s already at exceeding his 1999 numbers. That is true for his traffic numbers as well and his misdemeanors are on a pace to run about 200 more than last year and 300 more than 1999. When you look at his juvenile figures right now are lower than in the past. The reason why is because probation and our new State’s Attorney are doing an outstanding job of keeping down the technical violations. He has, however, seen an increase in serious juvenile cases in this county. It used to be a 2-day court call and misdemeanors are now taking 4 to 5 days in court.
The committee discussed the correct caseload count and Mr. Johnson stated that he has to date, 75 clients, but 175 cases. This again is a much higher caseload than other attorneys have in surrounding counties. Kane County has a lot less then we do per attorney in the Public Defender’s office and State’s Attorney’s Office. He advised the committee that if they would like to get an accurate count of cases for his office to contact Maureen Josh, the DeKalb County Circuit Clerk, and she should be able to get them the number.
Before adjourning the committee agreed to schedule the next Public Services Committee Meeting for another budget appeals meeting for Tuesday, September 25, 2001 @ 6:30p.m. in Conference Room East.
Moved by Mr. Brown, seconded by Ms. Allen, and it was carried unanimously to adjourn the meeting.
Respectfully submitted,
_______________________________
___________________________
Mary Supple, Secretary
| Home | Return
to top | A-Z Index | Return
to minutes |