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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, June 17, 2002
at 6:30p.m. at the DeKalb County Legislative Center’s Freedom Conference Room.
Chairman Ruth Anne Tobias called the meeting to order. Members present
were John Dlabal and Eileen Dubin. Mr.
Barr, Mr. Brown, Ms. LaVigne and Mr. Metzger were absent. Mr. Bob Rosemeier was
also present. No Quorum present.
APPROVAL
OF THE MINUTES
The
minutes from the May 20, 2002 meeting could not be approved for lack of a
quorum.
APPROVAL
OF THE AGENDA
The
agenda could not be approved for lack of a quorum.
PUBLIC COMMENT
No
one was present for public comment.
NEW BUSINESS:
E-Gov Website Review:
Chairman Tobias talked to the members about the county’s website. She asked the committee to think about a couple of issues.
Is it appropriate for this committee to make suggestions about the
website? Could we suggest that we
be able to submit forms on line? There are forms online but we cannot submit them.
She would like them to think about E-Government and try to become more
proactive. An example would be the
application form that can be downloaded online but cannot be submitted back
online. Chairman Tobias said that
she feels the public should be able to do that.
She continued by stating that we need to look at whether or not the
County can commit resources for this because it takes time and money.
Chairman Tobias said that there is an incredible amount of information on
our website already and its really good. Ms.
Dubin said that she feels that this is very important. We need to think about what questions do we need to ask,
Chairman Tobias said. She
asked the members to go on the website and review it to see what they think. If
any of the committee members can suggest another link that the County needs to
incorporate on the website they should let Chairman Tobias know.
Chairman Tobias said that a good section that she likes is the section
that tells you how to volunteer. There were some very good volunteer sites, like the Juvenile
Mentor site and the County Clerk for election judges. The Joiner History Room had a report from 1999 and she was
wondering if it is only updated so often or does it need to be updated.
That’s another issue, how often is the website updated?
Another issue is that there is a link for the Sheriff’s Radio Watch,
but when you go to that page there is nothing there, said Chairman Tobias.
The Forest Preserve page is very nice for volunteer days and the
Adopt-A-Highway volunteer section is pretty current.
Chairman Tobias said that she feels that we need to start with the
Director of the Information Management Office and the Webmaster.
They would know technically what is doable and they would know what the
departments have asked for. They
would be able to tell us yes or no on what could be done.
That would be our next step - to invite them to one of our committee
meetings, she said.
Community
Trees Program Application: Chairman
Tobias spoke about another issue that Chairman Pritchard had given to her
regarding a letter received from the National Tree Trust where they have the
community tree-planting program. He
thought that it would be really good for us since he believes that we would
receive free trees from them, she said. But
when Chairman Tobias went through their website she learned that there is a lot
of money involved, coordination and time. She
said that we would really have to look at it
because the trees have to be on public land; they have to use volunteers;
we ’d have to report annually; and we’d have to get at least 300 trees.
The County would also have
to have money because we’d have to identify costs for containers, tree
protectors and mulch, tools, etc.
Then the question is, who is going to take care of the trees and manage
the process? She felt that the
Forest Preserve District would be a better committee and department to look at
this program. Therefore, Chairman
Tobias will pass along this information to Mr. Terry Hannan, DeKalb County
Superintendent of Forest Preserves, about the program.
OLD
BUSINESS:
Other
Meetings: Chairman Tobias said that
she recently spoke with Mr. Nicklas, City of Sycamore Manager, about meeting
with the City Council in the near future. Mr. Nicklas told her that they meet on
the first Monday of the month, which is their workshop, and is the best time to
meet with them. He said that July
is already taken and that August would be a possibility.
Chairman Tobias said that our committee would hold the regular meeting
with the City Council and invite a few county department heads to come and
speak. Chairman Tobias said
that she would speak with Ms. Leifheit, Chairman of the Public Services
Committee, about the first Monday of the month meeting time and date since the
Public Services Committee meets on the first Monday of every month.
County
Volunteer Initiatives Reports: Chairman
Tobias said that Jeff Metzger was supposed to talk to the Coroner about
volunteers. He was going to see if there is anything that the community
could get involved in with regards to emergency preparedness.
However, Mr. Metzger is not here this evening to give us his update, she
said. Ms. Dubin was supposed to
talk to the Health Department, Chairman Tobias continued.
Ms. Dubin said that when she spoke to Ms. Grush, the DeKalb County Public
Health Director, she told Ms. Dubin that they are working on bio-terrorism and
homeland security issues currently. They
are not ready yet for volunteers for that, she said.
Deputy
Registrar Training/Pollworkers Report: Chairman
Tobias asked Ms. Dubin if the training for deputy registrar is available?
Ms. Dubin said that there is a real significant need for retraining, as
well as, training for the election judges. Some of them have been on so long
that they haven’t necessarily kept up with all the rules and regulations.
She feels that there should be significant training.
She knows that the County Clerk does do some training.
Chairman
Tobias said that before adjourning she wanted to pass out an article to everyone
from Crain’s Chicago Business regarding the hog farm issue in DeKalb County (a
copy attached to these minutes).
ADJOURNMENT
The
members could not move to adjourn because of no quorum present.
Chairman
Tobias declared the meeting over.
Respectively
submitted,
______________________________
Chairman Ruth Anne Tobias
______________________________
Mary C. Supple, Secretary
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