The Administrative Services Committee of the DeKalb County Board met Wednesday, June 5, 2002 at 7:00 p.m. at the DeKalb County Government Administrative Building’s Conference Room East. Chairman Steimel called the meeting to order. Present were Ms. Conway, Mr. Hoffman, Mr. Hutcheson, Ms. Leifheit, Mr. Morreale, Mr. Pritchard, and Mr. Wilson. Ms. Tobias was absent. Also present were Ms. Pat Anderson, Ms. Joan Berkes-Hanson, Mr. Ray Bockman, Mr. Ken Campbell, Ms. Eileen Dubin, Mr. Gary Hanson, Ms. Karen Grush, Ms. Christine Johnson, Ms. Karen Kahl, Lt. Joyce Klein, Mr. Brian LeFevre, Mr. Greg Millburg, and Sheriff Roger Scott.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES

Mr. Hutcheson moved, seconded by Mr. Wilson to accept the minutes of April 3, 2002 (There was not a meeting in May, 2002). Motion carried unanimously by a voice vote.

 

Mr. Hoffman moved, seconded by Ms. Conway to approve the agenda. Motion carried unanimously by a voice vote.

 

 

          Chairman Steimel introduced Brian LeFevre from Sikich Gardner & Co., LLP Certified Public Accountants, whose firm prepared the County’s audit. Mr. LeFevre thanked the chairman and members of the committee for inviting him to the meeting. He presented the information resulting from the audit of the County as of fiscal year ending November 30, 2001. He presented two documents for the committee’s review which are the primary documents entitled The Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (The Audit) and the Recommendations for Improvement. The members were requested to bring their copy of the documents with them to the meeting. In addition, there were seven reports that were issued as a result of the audit. Also separate reports for the Forest Preserve District and Letter of Recommendations on the Forest Preserve District, the Public Building Commission and Letter of Recommendations on the Public Building Commission, a separate Letter of Compliance Audit for the Circuit Clerk of the Court, and a single Audit of Federal Expenditures of the County and the Report required to be filed with the State Comptroller’s Office for both the County and the Forest Preserve District.

          Mr. LeFevre reported that the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report is a very detailed report of the financial condition of the county in easy to understand language. He commended DeKalb County as one of only eleven Counties in the state that prepares a "Comprehensive Annual Financial Report." He also, commended the county for being only one of 450 counties in the entire country that prepares the report and receives the Certificate of Achievement for Excellence In Financial Reporting from the Government Finance Officer’s Association. He reported that the Independent Auditor’s Report was given a clean opinion on the financial statement of the county and have been prepared in accordance with general accepted accounting principles.

          He highlighted topics in the document such as Deposits and Investments which continue to grow at a good rate, Retirement Plans which also continue to grow at a good rate, and the Nursing Home. He reported that funds coming in on the Medical Insurance was $2.3 million but the operations of the fund were 2.6 million. It included paid claims and claims incurred yet not paid thus, the County had a liability lag of $403,966. In the current year the Insurance Fund had a net loss of $323,000. The Insurance Fund was already working from a deficit position at the beginning of the year of a little over $251,000 to bring the County down to a deficit position of $573,000. Chairmen Steimel noted to the committee that it was recommended the County increase charges to the other departments to cover prior year losses and the higher annual cost.

          Mr. Morreale asked about Retiring Bonds. Mr. Hanson said that if the County paid the cash up front now, the principle wouldn’t be available for opportunities that come up and would also loose interest ( approximately 2½%) that would be earned on the money. The County might save $25,000.00 Another thing that could be done, is to refinance the bonds again for two years and the savings would be about $12,000. Mr. Bockman restated the safe thing to do is refinance to allow for opportunities that come along and save money.

UPDATE OF HEALTH INSURANCE

          Mr. Bockman presented the status of the County’s Health Insurance. The facts and figures were taken from the annual report by the 3^rd-party administrator. He compared the years 2000 and 2001.

          Mr. Bockman reported the prescription drug costs went up 30% but the good news was that dental claims, the total number of claims, and the average cost per employee were slightly down. He reported that 85% of the costs come from claims paid for medical, prescription drugs, dental and vision. Medical being the biggest. Reinsurance is 10% and has gone up dramatically. The last 5% is spread across a variety of expenses, the largest of which is the third-party administrator. Actions taken to reduce costs include:

Negotiated discounts

Formed and participate in a Purchasing Group

Agreement with the local hospital and in Rockford

Agreement with the local clinics and various health facilities

Increased the premium (both employee and employer)

 

          He stated that the good news is that the medical claims show a slight decrease this past year but the total costs were still up. Options are limited but he is looking into other ways to help reduce the costs. He proposed looking into models where money is put into an account for medical needs and have participants pay a portion of the cost of the treatment as well. He expressed the need to have decent pay and decent health insurance to keep valued employees. Questions had come from the status which were discussed. He told the committee he is trying to do the best to balance the interests and bring the committee some type of a solution.

          Sheriff Roger Scott thanked the committee and stated that he was there on behalf of the Jail Population Review Committee as well as himself to present some findings to the Committee on jail expansion. He stated that he had first gone to the Public Services Committee who directed him to Administrative Services. The Sheriff introduced Lt. Klein, Jail Commander, who accompanied him and distributed a booklet entitled "The State of the Jail" dated June 5^th 2002 (It will be placed on file along with these minutes in the Finance Office.) It contained a description of the Public Safety Building, Jail Capacity Report, Population Report, Electronic Home Monitoring Report, Recommendations, History of Studies/Recommendations and the UCR/Jail Population.

          The building was built in 1980 and designed to hold 61 inmates and currently houses an average of 77 since 2001. Technical capacity is 89, but the functional capacity is about 80. The jail has tried to alleviate the problem by adding bunks (1990) and double bunks wherever they legally could add them. When they expanded bed capacity they didn’t do anything to deal with the rise in population. As a result, the 4 holding cells are used for disciplinary purposes and isolation are now used as beds. Sheriff Scott compared 1980 Jail Capacity number to the current capacity as detailed:

          He said they shouldn’t use the medical isolation, nor use the work release area to mix regular prisoners and work-release prisoners, but they do. He stated that 41% of the prisoners are felons. The majority of inmates are misdemeanors but their time in jail is very short. The felons stay because they are awaiting trial. He stated that when you have this kind of population and the heavy influx of felons, it creates tremendous problems for the officers, the inmates and eventually, the rest of the county. He went over his recommendations to house inmates in another facility and money to be used to cover overtime for transport of the inmates between the facilities. He brought the recommendations to the committee so the County would be prepared when the crisis is at hand. This would be included in the Sheriff’s budget after this time if the Sheriff thinks it might happen again.

          Mr. Morreale thought the monies should, and the committee discussed, if the money needed could come from the Sheriff’s budget.

          Mr. Hanson reported that they were waiting to hear what the Governor was going to do. The information has been hard to get and still too early to know anything. Mental Health will hit the community providers but not near as much as he first thought. Mr. Bockman said that Nursing Home would get hit between 4.5 and 5.9%. Karen Grush reported that cuts in public aid were at 13% or $100,000. Chairman Steimel asked Mr. Hanson to give the committee an update next month after the numbers were in.

Respectfully submitted,

_____________________
Roger Steimel, Chairma

_____________________
Lisa K. Sanderson
Secretary