The Public Services Committee of the DeKalb County Board met on Monday, December 1, 2003, @ 6:30p.m. in the Administration Building’s Conference Room East.  Chairman Marlene Allen called the meeting to order.  Members present were Steve Faivre, Pat LaVigne, Eric Johnson, Julia Fullerton, Sue Leifheit, Eileen Dubin, Robert Rosemier and Richard Osborne.  Jeff Metzger was absent.   Others present were Ray Bockman, Joy Gulotta, Kenneth Johnson, Margi Gilmour and Greg Millburg.   

APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES

Moved by Mr. Faivre, seconded by Ms. Fullerton, and it was carried unanimously to approve the November 2003 minutes. 

APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

Moved by Ms. Leifheit, seconded by Ms. LaVigne, and it was carried unanimously to approve the agenda. 

PUBLIC DEFENDER’S REPORT

Mr. Ken Johnson, DeKalb County Public Defender, briefly reviewed his monthly report.  He said that his numbers remain consistent.  However, that over the years the files regarding the juvenile cases have stayed open a lot longer than in the past years because of multiple violations.  His revenues that were collected for the past year far exceeded what they anticipated.  They averaged about $4,000.00 a month in collections. 

Mr. Johnson then informed the committee that the grant monies from the State Appellate Public Defender’s office might not be available for his office at this point.  He said that he hopes that some of that money will be made available to him though.  The requests being made for this money is tenfold because everyone now has found out about the grant.

He said that the legislation for the Public Defender and State’s Attorney’s Office for the financial aide for students to get reimbursed for student loans did not pass yet.  He feels that when the economy turns around again that he can see it passing, hopefully, in the next two years.    

COURT SERVICES MONTHLY AND ANNUAL REPORTS

Ms. Margi Gilmour, Director of the DeKalb County Court Services Department, reviewed her Adult and Juvenile Monthly Reports.  She said that in her adult report it shows that the numbers are slowly increasing.  The active cases, as well as, the administrative cases are reflected in the 672 cases in the report.  She said that 450 of those cases are active.  She said that in the Community Restitution Report they continue to see a good number of hours ordered yet and a good number that have been completed.

Out of the 20 detentions that she had for the month of October, 5 were for the 1^st time, 5 for the 2^nd time, 3 for the 3^rd time, 2 for the 4^th time, 1 each for the 5^th and 6^th time and 1 each for the 10^th time and the 16^th time. 

She said that they still have a little over $250,000.00 available in the Kane County Detention Agreement.  They have no kids in placement and it was the 1^st month that they went over the 7-bed limit, which cost the county $750.00. 

She then passed out a written summary of the Intensive Probation Report that Judge Klein presented orally to this committee a couple of months ago.  They are beginning their second year and will be better able to compare numbers to this first year.  Mr. Rosemeir asked how many people actually completed the hours?  Very many do complete the hours, said Ms. Gilmour.  She continued by stating that what you are actually seeing are cases where the judge orders the hours to be done in 2, 3 or more years. 

They held the DNA draws on juveniles and adults recently.  They have scheduled 26 people for the month of December and about 50 adults and 30 juveniles for January.  They also have to do the DNA draws for non-reporting cases too now.  These are people convicted of drug offenses and 1^st offenders.  They will have to do random drops too.   

Moved by Ms. Leifheit, seconded by Ms. LaVigne, and it was carried unanimously to place the Public Defender’s Reports and Court Services Reports on file and made a part of these minutes. 

COOPERATIVE EXTENSION UPDATE

Ms. Joy Gulotta, Executive Director of the DeKalb County Cooperative Extension Unit, briefly gave an update of her department to the committee.    She passed out the Fall Edition of the “Extension Connections” a newsletter that is mailed out to various members throughout the county.  She wanted the committee members to see some of the programs that the Extension Office offers to the public and children of DeKalb County.  Included in the newsletter was a green sheet that showed all the programs that they run out of their office (see sheet attached). 

She said that the 4-H youth program continues to grow, not rapidly, but there are lots of things for the kids to do.  She said that Camp Russell had 109 children attend it this past summer and that it is run by two of their people.  The Cloverbud program is run for 5 – 7 year olds.  It is not a regular club, the goal is to get them interested and hopefully they will then enter into the 4-H program into high school. 

She said that the recycling program is run by their office for the Health  Department.  The Health Department fund them for a certain amount of money for the program and then they receive matching dollars for it too. 

Ms. Gulotta then reviewed her budget page for the committee (see attached).  Ms. Gulotta said that they received matching dollars for their programs and that they hope to receive a 95% match this fiscal year.  She said that there is a line item called carry-over and she said that they use this every year.  Their expenses are growing faster than the money coming in.  If it continues to grow faster than the carry-over amount that they budgeted for, the carry-over line item amount will not last very long this fiscal year.  This is where her biggest concern is.

They are continually looking to increase their income.  They are looking at agri-businesses to help out and they are looking at other grants and donations.  Mr. Steve Faivre asked about the referendum and when was the last time it was brought up?  Ms. Gulotta thought around 1993 or 1994 was the last referendum issue. 

Another program that they offer is the Master Gardner Program that is growing by leaps and bounds.  Each person that takes this class pays for their training of $150.00 and their manual, which is $100.00.  Her office doesn’t make much money from this program.  They are looking at sponsorships from Lowe’s, Seed Companies, etc., where they can have Master Gardeners come to their establishments and stores and serve as consultants.  Mr. Rosemier said that in Kane County they do this and they get donations from the various establishments and retailers that help them out.  Mr. Gulotta said that they are investigating that service here and hope to introduce it and get sponsors to make donations to this program here in DeKalb County.

The committee thanked Ms. Gulotta for her very informative report.

RESOLUTION: ANNUAL MS150 BIKE TOUR

Ms. Supple, DeKalb County Board Coordinator, said that this resolution would be an annual request made by the MS150 Bike Tour Organization.  They made the same request in February of 2003.  This request is to ask the Sheriff of DeKalb to help direct the traffic flow during this Bike Tour in June of 2004.  She said that the Sheriff wanted the committee know that he does support the resolution again.  Ms. Supple said that the County would need to adopt this resolution before it is sent to IDOT, who also needs to approve the resolution next month.  This resolution would be utilized just in case they need the Sheriff’s Department, which would be a stand-by agreement.

Moved by Ms. LaVigne, seconded by Mr. Johnson, and it was carried unanimously to forward this resolution to the full board for approval.

ADJOURNMENT

Moved by Ms. Leifheit, seconded by Ms. Fullerton, and it was carried unanimously to adjourn the meeting.

                                                          Respectfully submitted,

                                                          __________________________________
                                                          Marlene Allen, Chairman

_____________________________
Mary C. Supple, Secretary