The Public Policy Committee of the DeKalb County Board met on Thursday, May 1, 2003 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 Pat LaVigne, Richard Osborne, Patricia Vary, Robert Pritchard and Joseph Wiegand.

APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES

Moved by Mr. Wiegand, seconded by Ms. Vary, and it was carried unanimously to approve the minutes from April 2003.

APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

Moved by Mr. Wiegand, seconded by Ms. Vary, and it was carried unanimously that the agenda be approved.

PUBLIC COMMENT

No one was present for public comment.

NEW BUSINESS:

Process for Developing the Legislative Agenda and Letter of Request to departments for legislative agenda issues.  Ms. Supple, County Board Coordinator, said that in the summer (around July) she drafts a memo to all of the department heads requesting any legislative issues that they would like to have the committee discuss and research for the legislative agenda.  I collect the information from the various department heads and then I coordinate the issues with this committee at the August Public Policy Committee Meeting, said Ms. Supple. 

Chairman Tobias asked the committee if they would like to continue with that timeframe and have a Legislative Breakfast each year?  She said that the committee could work on it through the fall.  There is not really much that the legislators can do through the veto session in the fall though.  Mr. Pritchard said that he doesn’t feel that we need to be concerned about the timing of the legislative breakfast.  He feels that when we develop an agenda that we like that we should be lobbying our legislators all the time.  You’ll never know when they have an opportunity, whether it’s at committee or developing legislation to do something, said Mr. Pritchard. 

Mr. Wiegand said that this last legislative cycle happened in a very short time frame from the legislative breakfast to the deadline date to introduce legislation.  Because of this we had talked about meeting with them in the fall so that they could prepare legislation and introduce it in January or February.  He could see meeting with them in the fall and have follow-ups, status reports, etc.  This would make the document process more fluid, said Mr. Wiegand. 

The committee discussed the federal issues that need to be brought to the attention of those legislators.  Mr. Pritchard suggested contacting their offices and say, “pick a date two weeks after the session is over.”  That way it is in the back of their minds and the committee should get a date to meet with them faster.  He would like to have them meet with the committee twice a year.  One time could be the legislators talking about how the session went, what’s new for counties, etc.  The other time the committee could talk to them and say, these are our issues, these are our legislative agenda items, here’s what we want you to do for us.    He would like to encourage regular contact with these offices.

Mr. Wiegand asked if the memos that are written in the summer with the department heads ask for federal issues too?  Ms. Supple said no.  The committee agreed that this was an important item to include in the memos. 

It was agreed that Mr. Wiegand will contact Mr. Fitzgerald’s office, Ms. Vary will contact Mr. Durbin’s office.    Ms. Vary suggested that, “when we call the legislators’ office we should try to see if they can meet with us at one of our regular committee meetings, that is, one of their staff meet with us.”   It was also agreed that Ms. LaVigne will contact the local representatives.  All three committee members will try to get the legislators to attend one of the committee’s summer meetings, that is, June, July or August. 

Mr. Pritchard also suggested that we try to get in contact with other counties and see what their legislative agenda items are for this year.  This way we will know what they are doing. Metro Counties, also, could lobby our issues for us (DeKalb County is a member of Metro), he further stated.

Connecting with the Regional Planning Commission.  Chairman Tobias said that she would like to encourage all committee members to take one meeting a month and attend the Regional Plan Commission Meeting.  One committee person will attend the meeting on a rotation basis.  That person from this committee could comeback the next month then and let Public Policy know what is going with the Commission so that we are better informed.   Ms. LaVigne volunteered to be the first one to attend the May meeting. 

OLD BUSINESS:
Ways to Reach out to Local Governments:  Chairman Tobias said that we have been talking about sending one or two people from the committee to visit a community in their area.  We had said that after the April elections we would start to consider where we would like to visit first.  Mr. Pritchard suggested that the committee should say, what are the messages that we want to communicate to those towns? We should have 4 or 5 Power Point slides on a piece of paper that we could handout.  One of those comments could be “What’s the County?” said Mr. Pritchard.  Another message is that we are accessible and share the website with them.  Give them a page that shows what the “buttons” say on our website. A couple of other items that could be talked about are the Regional Planning Commission; how they are trying to steer growth to villages so that it gives them more responsibilities, as well as, more opportunities; and share items about our board.  When we go to visit them we should ask to be placed on their agendas and take about 5 minutes for a presentation.  Mr. Wiegand said that he would like to get going on this.  He said that in his area there are concerns about Route 72 and the Rockford area.

It was agreed that the committee would draw up a list of the communities and what their meeting times and dates are.  They will discuss this at the June meeting.  The committee then will start working on the handout.  

Before adjourning, Chairman Tobias said that she would like the committee members to think of ways of promoting the Arts in DeKalb County, which is always good for economic development in a community.

ADJOURNMENT

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

Respectively submitted,

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                                                                             Chairman Ruth Anne Tobias

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Mary C. Supple, Secretary