The Public Services Committee of the DeKalb County Board met on Monday, November 4, 2002, 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, Dr. Conway, Ms. Dubin, Mr. Haines and Robert Pritchard.   Mr. Brown and Mr. Metzger were absent. Others present were Ken Johnson, Margi Gilmour and Jerry Lane, DeKalb Community Mental Health Director.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES

Moved by Mr. Haines, seconded by Ms. Allen and it was carried unanimously to approved the September and October 2002 minutes.

APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

            Moved by Dr. Conway, seconded by Mr. Haines, and it was carried unanimously to accept the agenda.

PUBLIC DEFENDER’S REPORT

Mr. Ken Johnson, DeKalb County Public Defender, briefly reviewed his report for the month of October 2002.  He said that he went back and looked at last year’s numbers for the same time period.  The caseload is considerably higher than last year’s figures overall.  They are averaging about 20 more felonies per attorney opened up at the same time last year.  He said that the interesting thing is that he added a third attorney when they promoted one person last year.  If they didn’t have her aboard handling some of the caseload, they probably would be averaging between 40 and 50 felonies per attorney, per month.  Ms. Chuffo, who was promoted last year, is actually doing more of his lower class felonies, Class 3 and 4’s which are traditionally just short of Department of Correction or County Jail or Probation.  She has been doing a very good job of turning the cases around faster than when he and Ms. Bugden were doing them on their own.  This is because they were concentrating more on their serious felony cases, spending more time with their inmates with the serious offenses, interviewing witnesses, etc.  He said that it resulted in less people spending time in custody, which is very good, and moving cases through the system a lot faster.  So that seems to be working out very well.

As to the Rural County Grant as a supplement for his 2003 budget line item, he did get approval again for another expert, which would have come out of his professional line item.  He has saved between $1600.00 and $2000.00 already.  That’s just this month alone, which is for a full psychological exam that is going to be conducted.  He said that they had contacted the State Appellate Defender’s Office about the expert, renegotiate the price, and send a letter confirming what they will work for.  If they approve the request, the State Appellate Defender’s Office contacts the expert and then contract with them.  This way the money comes directly from Springfield to that individual and not coming out of his budget for a reimbursement situation. 

Mr. Johnson further explained that on his Death Penalty case there has been quite a lot of work generated.  However, there has been an addition to his trial team in the way of two attorneys.  This was the result from the funding from the State Appellate Defender’s Capital Litigation Defense Division and from the Capital Litigation Trust Fund as well.  A Mr. John Barsanti is one of the attorneys and Mr. Stephen Richards filed his appearance, as well, as second chair.  Mr. Haines asked Mr. Johnson if he requested this?  Mr. Johnson said absolutely.  You can do types of cases like this on your own, but you would be nuts to do it.  There is help out there and he did request a little more experienced attorney to come in and assist him.  Both of these attorneys are at no cost to the county. 

COURT SERVICES REPORT

Ms. Margi Gilmour, Director of Court Services, said that her numbers on the Adult Court Services Report are continuing to remain stable.  However, they did see quite a jump in cases in the last couple of weeks where they were getting up to twenty cases a week from people coming over with probation orders.  This is pretty typical with the time of year where the court is trying to get cases completed and finish the year with them being resolved.  She also said that the Community Service Program in September remains the same.  She said that we are beginning to enter the colder time of the year so this is the time of year where the hours will continue to be ordered, but the hours of completion will not be as high as in the warmer months. 

The Juvenile Report for the month of September reflects that they had 15 detention admissions.  Of those 15 admissions, one child was detained twice, and out of those 15 detentions – 8 kids were for the 1^st time, 3 for the 2nd, one each for the 3^rd, 4^th, 5^th, 6^th, 7^th and 9^th time.

The Intensive Program continues to be operational.  They have 16 kids in the program.  They had one kid transferred out of the county since last month’s report.

They have eight families in the Multi-Family Group.  They are continuing to receive surveys back, which contain very positive feedback from the parents.  The parents have said that the group has helped them to do a better job of being consistent with their kids, especially in the area of discipline. 

They had applied for a grant with DeKalb County Community Services Foundation for the Learning Mentor Program.  They received a notification today that they will be funded for $1,000.00 that they had asked for.  They are very thrilled because it will mean that they can continue to run that program at the high quality that they’ve been running it.  They have been able to recruit wonderful mentors and this will help them to provide a good training opportunity for the mentors.  It also will help the kids get some of the supplies and items that they need to be successful in their presentations.  The next group is getting ready to do their final presentation on November 16, 2002.

COMMUNITY MENTAL HEALTH DEPARTMENT’S ANNUAL REPORT

Mr. Jerry Lane, Director of the Community Mental Health Department, briefly reviewed his annual report for the committee.  Their fiscal budget is from July through June and therefore they are not the same as the County’s. In Grant Year 2001 they provided funding for 32 programs of prevention and treatment for the citizens of the County.

The Mental Health Board has been around for about 40 years now, explained Mr. Lane, per a referendum.  Originally it was designed to be set up for a mental health clinic for county.  That clinic evolved into the Ben Gordon Center.  Initially, in those days, mental health boards could run mental health service directly.  At some point there was a separation of functions.  Eventually the law changed so that mental health boards could not directly operate services with some rare exceptions. Because of this, the Ben Gordon Center split off from the Mental Health Board.  They still run more programs through the Ben Gordon Center than any other agency, however, said Mr. Lane.

The primary motivator behind development of the mental health system is the State.  Illinois is one of those states that has traditionally under funded mental health services, that’s where the big “rub” is, explained Mr. Lane.  The thing that makes the system of care in DeKalb County as good as it is, is because we have plugged ample funds into the system to make it work.  Therefore, we get a good “bang” for our dollar with what we are able to purchase in the community. 

They also fund a transportation program through Voluntary Action Center (VAC).  A few of their agencies asked them if they wouldn’t fund this program?  It is a joint effort where they have given VAC money to extend their morning and evening hours to provide services to the client of their agencies so that they can get to medical appointments, jobs, etc.

Mr. Lane continued to inform the committee that they had significant budget cuts from the State, which is a major concern.  All of the agencies have frozen or eliminated positions because of this.  They are looking at a potential $2 - $2 ½ billion gap in the State budget by the end of this fiscal year.  Most of them are bracing themselves for another round of cuts this year.  They do not have a favorable outlook for the next two years.  It is to our County’s credit that we had the foresight several decades ago to create the mental health board and give it the opportunity to keep things going along here. 

Mr. Pritchard asked Mr. Lane that he had mentioned that they had 4500 clients, he is assuming that these are people enrolled in their programs?  Yes, said Mr. Lane, if they had added in the crisis lines you could add several hundred more clients to that number.

The committee thanked Mr. Lane for his very informative report.

Before adjourning Chairman Leifheit informed the committee that the first Ad Hoc Jail Study Committee met and that it was very well attended.  About fifty people from this neighborhood came.  The committee was able to tour the jail and became enlightened by what they saw.  The next step is that the committee will hear from three consultants on December 11, 2002 that will make their presentations to the committee.  The committee will then decide which consultant we will use.  It really is just to see what the County’s options are for the jail, Chairman Leifheit continued.

ADJOURNMENT

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

Respectfully submitted,

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                                                                                    Sue Leifheit, Chairman

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Mary Supple, Secretary