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DeKalb County, Illinois |
Minutes of the
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The Executive Committee of the DeKalb
County Board met on Tuesday, September 10, 2002 @ 7:00 p.m. at the Legislative
Center’s Freedom Conference Room. Vice-Chairman
Robert Hutcheson called the meeting to order.
Members present were Sue Leifheit, Roger Steimel, John Wilson, Ruth Anne
Tobias and John Morreale. Chairman Pritchard arrived late.
Others present were Ray Bockman, Gary Hanson, Diane Strand, Tige Hoffman,
Veronica Casella, Brian Adams, Dr. Conway, Eileen Dubin, Mr. Rosemeier, John
Dlabal, Dennis Sands, Debbie King and Pankaj Mahajan.
Moved by Ms. Leifheit, seconded by Ms. Tobias, and it was carried
unanimously to accept the minutes of the August 2002 meeting.
Vice-Chairman Hutcheson recommended the following appointments:
Somonauk
Cemetery Association:
Mr. Roy Wahlgren, to fill the unexpired term
of Mr. David Stahl, until 7/01/2003.
Ad Hoc Jail
Study Committee:
Sue Leifheit, County Board Member
Bob Hutcheson, PBC Chairman
Michael Haines, County Board Member
Marlene Allen, County Board Member
Ruth
Anne Tobias, County Board Member
Jeffery Metzger, County Board Member
Sheriff Roger Scott
Lt. Joyce Klein
Ronald Matekaitis
Kenneth Johnson
Kenneth Campbell
Donald Thomas
William Feithen
Ray Bockman
Gary Hanson
Linda Swenson, citizen from Waterman
Jerry Thompson, citizen from Malta
All for a term of 1 year, until 09/01/2003.
Community
Services Advisory Board:
Roger Beck
Margaret Phillips,
Both appointed for a term of 3 years, until
09/01/2005.
Public
Building Commission:
Cliff Seldal, reappointment, for a term of
5 years, until 09/01/2007.
Cooperative
Extension Board:
John Dlabal, reappointment for a term of
4 years, until 09/01/2006
Robert
Hutcheson, reappointment for a term of 4 years, until 09/01/2006.
Roger Steimel, appointment for a term of
4 years, until 09/01/2006.
Moved
by Ms. Tobias, seconded by Ms. Leifheit, and it was carried unanimously to
approve the appointments as presented by Vice -Chairman Hutcheson, and to
forward them onto the full board for approval.
ACQUISITION
OF REAL ESTATE – 210/212 N. LOCUST STREET
Mr.
Bockman explained to the committee that the property of 210/212 N. Locust Street
is located near the Sycamore Campus. The
price of the acquisition ($99,711.00) is the assessed value of the property.
To buy it at the price included in the resolution, he is recommending
that the owner retain possession for 24 months after the closing.
Moved
by Ms. Leifheit, seconded by Ms. Tobias, and it was carried unanimously.
LOT
12 – RETAIL DEVELOPMENT – KOHL’S PROPOSAL
Mr. Bockman did a historical review for the committee of Lot 12 in DeKalb
Market Square. He said that the lot is 21.6 acres and is valued at $2.4
million. In January of 1994 it was
optioned to Orix Wilkinson of Chicago, Illinois at a figure of $108,900.00 an
acre, plus interest. Because Orix
didn’t buy the entire parcel at the time they took it “down” in phases.
At each phase Orix had to pay a daily interest rate on top of the basic
purchase price, he continued. This
option agreement lasted several years and resulted in two large tract commercial
sales.
In
November of 1994 Lowe’s bought 25.44 acres at a purchase price of $2.7
million. About fourteen months
later in January 1996 Wal-Mart purchased 23.3 acres at $2.6 million.
Both of these sales contained $1 million in incentive agreements as well.
In both cases the City of DeKalb and the County of DeKalb each put
$500,000.00 into these deals. In
both of these transactions the County did realize the full purchase price of the
property at the time of closing.
There was a three year “pause”, said Mr. Bockman, following this
because Orix Wilkinson was unable to complete their transaction to find a tenant
for Lot 12. Starting in June of 1999 we periodically offered lot 12 through
public offerings. In June of 1999 we received 3 offers for the lot.
We received an offer from 1st Rockford for $3.15 million; from
Orix for $1.76 million; and from Crown for $1.4 million.
We actually optioned the property to Orix at that time based on our
calculations, not only of the offered sales price, but of the eventual sales tax
revenue from the project that they proposed.
That was unsuccessful.
In April of 2002, Mr. Bockman said, the county again held a public
offering. First Rockford was
interested and made an offer of sorts, but we agreed mutually that the market
was fairly weak at the time and we decided not to move forward.
Again in January 2002 we offered the property publicly.
This time the transaction that is before the committee tonight, said Mr.
Bockman, resulted from this January offering.
In 1st Rockford’s offering they valued the site (Lot 12) at
$2.4 million, but divided it into two (2) separate pieces.
The $1.5 million value is for the piece that is close to Wal-Mart.
The value of the second piece at $.9 million is because of the fact that
it is farther back on the lot and is slightly shielded by the Lowe’s property.
They offered $900,000.00 for the entire parcel and then subtracted
$250,000.00 in what they offered us for existing offsite obligations.
There are certain obligations that are already on this lot.
In January of this year we accepted the $650,000.00 offer with three
conditions. Those are:
1.
First Rockford find and produce an
acceptable anchor tenant to both the City and the County of DeKalb.
2.
That the City would agree to an
Extension of the current Sales Tax Agreement for a period of an additional
10-years.
3.
No further participation would be
sought or given by the County.
The
current proposal from Kohl’s would include the building of an 88,000 sq. ft.
facility with 20,000 sq. ft. of expansion space on Lot 12 (see Site Drawing
attached to these minutes). Kohl’s
has agreed to move the store over enough to include another tenant, said Mr.
Bockman. This opens the possibility
of another tenant being attracted to this site.
At 21 acres this site will carry up to 180,000 sq. ft. of
commercial/retail space. The
initial revenue from this site is about $20 million and should grow up to
$30-$35 million. This figure is
fairly conservative said Mr. Bockman.
Mr. Bockman then recommended the following to the committee members:
1.
That the County Board reaffirm the
offer of amending the City/County agreement to extend the 10-year sales tax
agreement.
2.
Extend the initial Option Period for 46
days, until November 15, 2002.
3.
Reverse our original position on
participation by agreeing to participate equally with the City of DeKalb up to
$775,000 each or a total of $1.55 million to facilitate on site, infrastructure
improvement.
Mr.
Wilson asked is the extension of the 10-year sales tax agreement for
Lot 12 only? Mr. Bockman said yes.
Mr.
Steimel asked if the 88,000 sq.ft. store is comparable to what local store here
in DeKalb? Mr. Pankaj Mahajan, of
First Rockford, said that the Target store is around 89,000 sq. ft.
Mr. Steimel asked if there would be room for expansion then?
Mr. Mahajan said yes, that is what Kohl’s wants to do.
After further discussion, it was moved by Ms. Leifheit, seconded by Mr.
Steimel and it was carried unanimously.
2003
BUDGET REVIEW
Mr. Bockman highlighted one item in the County Board budget that
requested $1,700.00 for a replacement account for a vehicle.
It is a new proposal, which the County would forward $1700.00 a year into
a replacement account in the special projects fund.
The idea being that when the current car that Mr. Bockman is driving,
fails, the County would replace it and continue putting $1700.00 into that
account. The proposal is the
10-year replacement schedule, which at an average mileage of 10,000 miles a year
should be able to get 10 years for the vehicle.
Vice –Chairman Hutcheson asked the committee if they had any questions
that they had relative to the county board budget?
He approached the committee about whether or not they had any comments
regarding the board stipends that they may want expressed.
Mr. Morreale said that he felt that if you were in the private sector
that the stipend that is paid to our board members would be offensive. He continued by saying that the members are really getting
paid for reimbursement of expenses only. He
would recommend that each member would be paid a salary, that is, if you want
good people then you should pay them.
After further discussion the committee concurred with the administrative
recommendation for the county board budget.
APPROVAL
OF THE COUNTY BOARD AGENDA
Mr.
Bockman reviewed the county board agenda for the board meeting to be held on
September 18, 2002. He mentioned to
the committee that the resolution coming from the Forest Preserve Committee will
be on the desks the night of the board meeting.
He has asked the Forest Preserve Committee to bring it up at their next
meeting the night before the board meeting.
It is a housekeeping item, that is, it is a vacation of an easement,
which is necessary for us to complete the platting of Greenwood Acres Drive,
Mr. Bockman explained.
Mr. Morreale asked Mr. Bockman about details regarding the compensation
for the director of the regional planning commission and where is the money
coming from? Mr. Bockman said that it is $300.00 a month for
additional work performed for the commission, which is over and above the duties
that Mr. Miller performs as planning and zoning director. The money is to be
paid out of the appropriation for the regional planning commission.
Vice-Chairman Hutcheson pointed out that when you are talking about
additional duties, he didn’t know that Mr. Miller will have to meet with some
of the smaller towns on Saturdays and some evening meetings because that is the
only time that these towns will be available.
Moved by Ms. Tobias, seconded by Mr. Wilson, and it was carried
unanimously to accept the county board agenda as presented by Mr. Bockman.
GENERAL
DISCUSSION
Mr. Morreale, Chairman of the Forest
Preserve Committee, said that
Kirkland
Forest Preserve Acquisition is over. We
now have a new forest preserve. He
thanked everyone involved, especially the State’s Attorney’s Office, Mr.
Hannan, Mr. Bockman, and all staff involved.
In about two years we will have about 1000 acres that we will be able to
visit. The next step is that we
will have to negotiate with the State on how much are they going to rent our
barns for, how much are they going to pay our employees, disposing of garbage,
etc. The City of Kirkland has been
very interested and that he has gotten about a dozen phone calls from interested
parties about equestrian behaviors, campgrounds, renting of canoes, etc.
This is going to be a great thing for everyone in the County, said Mr.
Morreale.
Mr. Wilson, Chairman of the Public Infrastructure & Development
Committee said that he had asked the staff at the highway department to develop
a sign report for their committee to review.
They did prepare a quarterly sign report and found that on January 10,
2002, 13 stop signs were either stolen or removed.
He said that he felt that it needs to be publicized because it is
important for safety reasons.
Mr. Morreale said that he had one other item that he felt was interesting for the committee to know about. There is a program of the State of Illinois that we can apply for an additional grant. When the State of Illinois buys land within your county they acknowledge that part of the land is going to go off of the tax rolls and that there is some detriment to the community. They have a grant for 7% of the purchase price, whereby they will write 7% back to the County. Mr. Bockman said that it is around $187,000.00 coming back to the County and that the last time we heard from them it sounds like they are going to be cutting us a check and sending it to us. Mr. Morreale wanted to thank the State’s Attorney’s Office for finding this grant in their research.
EXECUTIVE
SESSION:
Moved by Mr. Wilson, seconded by Ms. Tobias, and it was carried
unanimously by a voice vote to move into executive session to discuss exempt
employee evaluations.
Moved by Ms. Leifheit, seconded by Mr. Steimel, and it was carried
unanimously by a voice vote to return to open session.
Moved by Ms. Leifheit, seconded by Mr. Wilson, and it was voted
unanimously to adjourn the meeting.
Respectfully submitted,
_________________________________
Robert W. Pritchard, Chairman
_______________________________
Mary C. Supple, Secretary
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