The Public Policy Committee of the DeKalb County Board met on Thursday, June 5, 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, and Joseph Wiegand.   Robert Pritchard arrived at 7:00p.m.

APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES

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

APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

Mr. Wiegand asked to amend the agenda to reflect a resolution regarding a quarry in Ogle County.  Moved by Mr. Wiegand, seconded by Ms. LaVigne, and it was carried unanimously that the agenda be approved.

PUBLIC COMMENT

No one was present for public comment.

NEW BUSINESS:

Participating in Smoke-Free County Challenge.  Chairman Tobias said that NACO has a Great American Smoke-out going on.  They want counties to try and collect 3,000 signatures throughout the months of May, June and July.  It ends on July 31, 2003.  It’s to try to encourage county employees, county board members and participants to collaborate with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in a Smoke-Free Home Pledge Initiative.  The initiative focuses on children and second hand smoke. The initiative asks county officials collect the most signed smoke-free pledge cards.  The cards ask the signer not to smoke or allow others to smoke around children.  The county receiving the most pledges will receive a recognition plaque and all counties participating will receive national recognition.  The committee agreed that they would like to try to meet the challenge and would find out if the Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, churches, various organizations may be able to help with this initiative.  Chairman Tobias will develop a press release for the county to distribute to various radio stations and newspapers. 

July Meeting Date.  It was agreed that the July meeting would be canceled.

July Letter to Department Heads:  Traditionally letters go out every year to department heads to ask for their input on issues that they would like to see included in the legislative agenda.  This year the committee will ask for federal and state issues.  The committee will also try to give the department heads any feedback that they could regarding the issues from last year’s legislative agenda.  The committee also discussed making a legislative calendar just like the budget calendar.  They discussed having the department head letters be returned to the committee in August.  The committee discussed having two legislative breakfasts a year with the federal legislators breakfast meeting in February/March each year and the state legislators breakfast meeting in October of each year.  That way the legislative agenda could go to the full county board for approval in November of each year.

Mr. Wiegand passed around a resolution regarding the Monroe Center Quarry in Ogle County.  A Mr. McKnight filed a petition for a special permit for a 160-acre quarry just a ½ mile east of Monroe Center on Route 72.  A very similar petition for a quarry of the same size in the same location, but with less detail about how to handle ground water, was rejected by an unanimous vote by the Ogle County Board in 2000.  This particular petition has the formal opposition of the Monroe Township Board of Trustees.  The Monroe Township is contiguous to Franklin Township.  Monroe Township is unincorporated and realizes that their continued lack of incorporation is something that they need to address. They have hired an attorney and are in the process of seeking a referendum for incorporation. There’s an organization in Monroe Center called the Friends of Monroe Township. This is a grass-roots organization and have stated their opposition too.

Mr. Wiegand also said that the Village of Kirkland also adopted a resolution this past Monday that is the same as the proposed resolution that he is presenting to the committee tonight, except it doesn’t include the municipalities of Genoa, Kingston and Fairdale.  It is only talking about Kirkland and Monroe Center. 

Mr. Wiegand further staed that he bring this item forward because he feels that it is germane to part of this committee’s mission when we speak about regional cooperation and regional planning.  This committee is a way that we can communicate and bridge with local governments in our region.  The towns that lie along Rt. 72, the factor that has been the greatest change in their quality of life has been the tremendous amount of truck traffic that they are experiencing from the location of a garbage dump in Davis Junction off of Highway 251. In speaking with local government officials in those communities affected by this, the trucks are the major source of complaints for traffic related issues.  They could see anywhere from 500 to 1,000 trucks a day on Route 72 if this quarry goes through.  You might see as many as 60 additional trains a day on the railroad. 

On the map that Mr. Wiegand passed around this evening shows that the unincorporated community of Monroe Center literally fits 1½ times in the proposed quarry.   The petitioner said that he wants the quarry south of the railroad tracks in the northeast quadrant and that he wouldn’t quarry in the northwest quadrant because it’s below too much surface soil.  He has also stated on the record at the last Zoning Board of Appeals hearing in Ogle County in 2000, that he intended to hold it for perhaps two or three years before selling it.   Mr. Wiegand further explained that the petitioner has sold previously to local individuals with roots in the community and who grew-up in Monroe Center.  He has a history, by what Mr. Wiegand believes, is speculation, whereby he purchases property, gets the local zoning as a local person, and sells the property.  One of those he has sold to in the past is Rockford Blacktop. 

Mr. Wiegand feels that this plan has a detrimental impact on the quality of life out there.  He would appreciate the committee reviewing the Testimony and make any addition or deletion to the statement.  This issue will be going to hearing beginning June 9^th in Ogle County and would like to have this statement done by then so that he could read it at the hearing.  He feels that this is good public policy to say that DeKalb County has an interest representing quality of life concerns of our constituents. 

The committee agreed about the effect that this will have on DeKalb County and the affect it will have on the quality of life.  Mr. Pritchard said that we need to know what their plans are, that is, the quarry.  He said before the county can just come out and say that the plan has zero benefits, we need to know how they are going to move the quarry items, what’s the economic consequences of economic activity that might be generated by this.  He said that we need to be careful about what we are saying, like, we don’t want anything in our backyard.  If it is a legitimate economic activity then how do you preserve the quality of life issues?  Mr. Pritchard said that he is 100% with the committee on that, but how do you protect those and still allow economic activity? 

Mr. Weigand said that we do have a local quarry in Fairdale that we do embrace.  It’s literally 1 ½ mile south in unincorporated Fairdale.  Charles Lee and Sons is about 4 miles up on Irene Road and a quarry on Limestone Road just west of Monroe Center.  There are existing, working quarries, so in a sense of looking at the economic issues,  the quarries provide local jobs.  There is a new state park going in the Kirkland area, Monroe Center is bringing in a new hotel and convenience center on I-39 and he feels that we are now looking at tourism.  He knows that the volume of truck traffic that would occur with this proposal would be at odds in achieving those economic goals (for tourism). 

After further discussion the committee agreed to have Mr. Wiegand present a Testimony of Concern Statement to the hearing in Ogle County next week on behalf of the DeKalb County Public Policy Committee.  In this Testimony it should state that the committee is against the deteoriation of the quality of life and the impact of traffic and tourism that our county is trying to attract.  The committee agreed that they were comfortable with Mr. Wiegand representing their concerns..  They asked Mr. Wiegand to draft a new Testimony and not resolution by the end of this week and to email it to all committee members before he presents it to the Ogle County hearing next week.

Moved by Mr. Pritchard, seconded by Ms. LaVigne, and it was carried unanimously to approve Mr. Wiegand to voice our concerns on the quarry proposal in Monroe Center that the committee spoke about this evening and to present these concerns in a written Testimony at the Ogle County zoning board of appeals hearing next week.

OLD BUSINESS:

Follow-up on Legislative Agenda Activities and Legislator Contacts:

Mr. Wiegand said that he spoke with one of Senator Fitzgerald’s people and that person cannot meet with us right now.  He will check his calendar about a later date this summer to meet with us.  Ms. Vary spoke with Senator Durbin’s Springfield office and has not heard anything back from them yet.  She was told that if they did come up that it could not be Thursday evenings because the legislators will still be in session during that time of the week.  Mr. Wiegand asked if the issues from this past year’s legislative agenda regarding federal issues could be discussed with the federal legislator’s offices?  Were there any others that the committee would like him and Ms. Vary to ask?  Mr. Pritchard said that he could see health care as an issue especially for the Health Department because of the federal grants that they receive.  He also could see issues involving FEMA and Transportation - Mass Transit. 

Mr. Pritchard also mentioned an invitation from the Illinois Manufacturing Association and Mr. Manzullo to attend a meeting in Elgin.  He said that he recently received a newsletter from them mentioning about ten to fifteen bills and their economic impact upon manufacturers.  It is interesting to hear the manufacturing companies side of economic impact in which they are saying we need to do something to sensitize people, especially in schools, that there are careers and opportunities in manufacturing that need to be an important part of our community.  The DeKalb Summit underscored the fact that we need manufacturing and industry more than residential.  Yet, if we look at the bills that were passed, according to the Illinois Manufacturing Association, it’s just a huge effort that is discriminating against a sector of our economy and encouraging them to leave the state.  If this is going to be a regional effort to try to revitalize all of manufacturing, somehow we need to get the word to Springfield that we need to look favorably at manufacturing.

The committee also discussed the feedback that will be needed from the legislators next year.  They need to be thinking about what types of questions that they would like to ask the legislators this time around. What affects counties in general is what Mr. Pritchard would like to see them discuss too.  The committee would also like to know what the feedback is from the people they spoke to about our issues with.

Chairman Tobias also mentioned that there was a handout from Mr. Bockman, DeKalb County Administrator, showing the various bills that could be signed in Springfield that could make a difference in our county if they are signed in their current form (on file in the county board office).

Comments/follow-up on county board workshop issues:

Mr. Weigand asked, where do we see these issues being assigned to?  What committees?  Mr. Pritchard said that they would come up through the appropriate committee.  If it’s Home Rule, he felt that it would come up through the Executive Committee.  He further stated that he saw nothing wrong with this committee discussing issues from the workshop if it so chooses to investigate some of these issues.  We could look at referendum issues like citizen vs. tax-generated referendums. 

Community contact schedules and reports – county issues to present:

Chairman Tobias said that a few years ago Ms. Supple, DeKalb County Board Coordinator, developed a community contact schedule for the meetings times and dates for the various municipalities in the county.  Ms. Tobias would like to have it updated and she and Ms. Supple will work on this project.

Follow-up on regional planning commission meeting: 

Mr. Pritchard said that the two-year funding cycle is about to end and the commission is currently discussing whether or not they want to continue and if so, how much money do they need to continue the commission. 

Before adjourning Chairman Tobias mentioned the NACO Annual Conference to the committee and encouraged them to attend if they could.

ADJOURNMENT

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

                                                                                          ______________________________
                                                                                                      Chairman Ruth Anne Tobias

______________________________
Mary C. Supple, Secretary