The Public Services Committee of the DeKalb County Board met on Monday, February 3, 2003, @ 6:30p.m. in the Administration Building’s Conference Room East.  Chairman Marlene Allen called the meeting to order.  Members present were Pat LaVigne, Sue Leifheit, Eileen Dubin, Eric Johnson and Robert Rosemier.  Members absent were Steve Faivre, Julia Fullerton and Richard Osborne. 

APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES

Moved by Mr. Rosemier, seconded by Mr. Johnson, and it was carried unanimously to approve the February 2003 minutes.

Mr. Osborne arrived @ 7:35p.m.

APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

Chairman Allen said that they needed to add an item - #6A - to the agenda regarding Ms. Olson’s Community Block Grant.

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

Ms. Fullerton arrived @ 7:40p.m.

COURT SERVICES REPORT

Ms. Margi Gilmour, Court Services Director, briefly reviewed her monthly Adult and CRS Reports.  She said that there are no major changes for either one.  The CRS Report is pretty much the same, Ms. Gilmour continued.  This is the time of year when her department sees the number of hours completed diminish a little bit due to the weather.  Her department will see the number of hours ordered exceed the number of hours completed when the warmer weather returns.

The Juvenile Report continues to reflect one juvenile in residential placement.  There is still discussion regarding the possibility of having the juvenile step-down from residential placement to a more independent living arrangement.  That still needs to be finalized.  

There were 12 juveniles detained for the month of January 2003 with 1 for the 3^rd time.  Of those 12 juveniles detained, 5 were for the 1^st time, 1 for the 2^nd time, 2 for the 3^rd time, 3 for the 4^th time and 1 for the 5^th time.

The Intergovernmental Agreement Annual Report reflects the draw down account to pay for the Kane County Juvenile Detention Center.  They began FY2003 with a balance of #334,360.00 remaining.  If they stay consistent with how they use the money in FY 2002, then she feels the money will last until mid to late 2005. 

Mr. Rosemier asked what happens when we use this money all up?  Do we renegotiate another contract for $1,000,000.00?    Ms. Gilmour said that she felt that it would come back to this committee and figure out a “Plan B.”  Or, she continued, her department would have to remove “detention” out of the board and care line item of the Court Services Budget, Ms. Gilmour explained. She also said that it would have to be negotiated with Kane County again.

PUBLIC DEFENDER’S REPORT

Mr. Kenneth Johnson, Public Defender for DeKalb County, reviewed his report for the committee.  He stated that the felony and misdemeanor caseload has gone down over the past month. 

Mr. Johnson informed the committee that the Circuit Clerk’s Office called him today and told him that more money has been generated from the attorney reimbursement program then what had been agreed on.  They were only supposed to collect $15,000.00 for the entire year and his office has been able to collect that entire amount by the end of February 2003.  He believes that the money goes into the general fund.  The budgeted salary that was approved for his department for this year will receive the $15,000.00 allotted for it.  The rest of the money collected through this program, for the rest of this year, is not “tagged” for his office.  He explained that a lot of the money collected is coming from misdemeanor cases.

COMMUNITY SERVICES UPDATE ON SENIOR SERVICES TAX LEVY

Ms. Olson said that her office administers the money collected for the Senior Services Tax Levy.  This levy was created to provide services to seniors to help prevent premature institutionalization, which in turn, saves the county money and the taxpayers money.  The decision to limit the use of the senior tax levy to services that prevent premature institutionalization was a county board decision.  The state law that allowed the county to levy this tax did not have it in it, the county board put that restriction on it.  They wanted to help save the taxpayers money in the long run.  By keeping the seniors out of nursing homes and hospitals, etc., is certainly a savings to the taxpayers, Ms. Olson said. 

Therefore, the committee’s job is to make decisions on how that money is going to be used.  The requests this year total $404,208.00 and we have only received $340,000.00 from the levy, Ms. Olson continued.  As you can see the requests are a lot more than the taxed amount that we have.  Chairman Allen asked about why there is a difference in monies collected for the levy this year vs. the last few years?  Ms. Olson said that the Assessed Valuation determines what this levy is supposed to generate.  Mr. Rosemier asked Ms. Olson if Fox Valley Older Adults have started to turn in their billings yet?  Ms. Olson said that yes, as of our last committee meeting, Fox Valley is all caught up currently with their billings.

It was agreed that Ms. Olson would email the guidelines to all committee members this week. 

She said that her department is funded about 90% from the Community Services Block Grant.  Ms. Olson said because of this she is proposing a resolution for the reauthorization of her Community Block Grant required by the Federal Government.  She said that the county board did this before about three years ago. She said that this grant is unique because it is one of the few block grants to flow through the state, the state is mandated to give 90% of the funds to the local agency that administers the grant. The local agency, being the county board, decides what the grant should look like.  

She has an advisory board that is made up of 1/3 elected officials, 1/3 public persons and 1/3 representatives of their clients.  There are five people from each of these categories that sit on her advisory board.  They make the decision on how that money gets spent.  Then it is brought to the county board for final approval.  So, we have local control over that money.  There is some talk in Washington, D.C., that this year when they reauthorize the grant they may give the money, like they do for other block grants, directly to the Governor’s Office.  Then the Governor gets to decide, on a state-wide basis, how the money is used.   Ms. Olson said that she would like to see the local agency still have control over how the money is used.  She continued by saying that what we do with our money here is very different then what Kankakee does with the money.  It’s the same “pot” of federal money but we can do something different with it then what Kankakee or Chicago does with it.  That is because our needs are different here then they are in other places.  What she is asking is to recommend the resolution for reauthorizing the monies (90%) to be guaranteed and that the federal government continue to allow local control of the Block Grant.

Moved by Ms. Leifheit, seconded by Ms. Fullerton, and it was carried unanimously to recommend the Reathorization Resolution to the full board for approval.

Ms. Olson then said that she would not need this resolution to go to the full board for approval until April 2003 and the committee agreed to that. 

ESDA’S ANNUAL REPORT

Mr. Dennis Miller, Director of the ESDA Department, briefly reviewed the ESDA Annual Report for the committee.  He said that he serves as both director of the ESDA and Coroner’s departments.  More and more attention is needed now because of the terrorism threat that the country has experienced recently.  He is working closely with other agencies in the county regarding this issue.  Karen Grush, DeKalb County Public Health Director, has done a wonderful job with the plans for the distribution of smallpox drugs.  They have coordinated a site as the distribution point for the County – if the need arises for mass inoculation of the smallpox drug.  He said that the Disaster Plan is up for revision this year and will be done by September of this year.  They just had a severe weather meeting a week ago and held another one for the public last week, too.  The public who attend this meeting usually become weather spotters. 

CORONER’S ANNUAL REPORT

Mr. Miller then reviewed the Coroner’s Annual Report.  He said that there were 419 total deaths investigated.  This is the highest number ever since he has worked here.  There were 390 natural deaths, 9 motor vehicle deaths, etc.  Pending cases means that if someone dies in December of 2002, and the file is not closed until June of 2003, that is what is considered a pending file. 

He informed the committee that he had to use the Indigent Burial Policy last week because an infant died last week and the parents needed help with the burial.  The burial was at no charge to the family.  His office is called upon and will see more of these cases in the future.

SHERIFF’S ANNUAL REPORT AND RESOLUTIONS

Proposed Agreements:  Sheriff Scott approached the committee regarding a Resolution with the City of Genoa Police Department and the County of DeKalb for 911 dispatching capabilities.  He said that there is another contract that he will be bringing to the committee later on from the Genoa-Kingston Fire District for the same thing.  He said that this agreement doesn’t start until July 1, 2003, so there is some time yet. 

Moved by Mr. Rosemier, seconded by Ms. Dubin, and it was carried unanimously to recommend the City of Genoa Police Department Resolution on to the full board for approval.

MS Bike Tour Resolution:   Sheriff Scott then informed the committee about another resolution that is coming from the National MS Society who is sponsoring a Bike Tour through our county. This resolution basically states that the county will provide some sort of traffic control for them over a two-day program.  This traffic control will be needed on June 21, 2003 and June 22, 2003 at the intersection of Route 23 and Elva Roads.  It releases us from a lot of responsibility and liability and makes sure they have an insurance policy that covers all county employees and agents, as well as, township road commissioners, he further stated. 

Moved by Mr. Rosemier, seconded by Mr. Johnson, and it was carried unanimously to recommend the MS Bike Tour and to forward it on to the full board for approval.

Sheriff Scott then reviewed his annual report for the committee.  Some of the pages that he highlighted were as follows:  Page 4 deals with the revenues for his department; Page 5 covers the Merit Commission that began in 1972; Page 11 deals with phone calls received for 911.  They received over 150,000 calls last year.  Page 14 explains the patrol division.  Sheriff Scott said that they have two patrol officers assigned to the Electronic Home Monitoring program. 

Page 15 shows that traffic arrest increase by 71% in the year 2002.  Page 19 shows that there were 251 DUI arrest in 2002; Page 24 covers the Canine Unit.  A.J. is being replaced by a new dog named Jax because A.J. retired a couple of days ago, said Sheriff Scott.  Page 25 covers Civil Process that is a revenue source for the Sheriff’s Department.  Page 28 explains the Vehicle Deployment Program; Page 32 covers the Traffic Crash Report; Page 38 covers the Intersection Traffic Crashes, which shows that Peace Road and Route 64 as the worst intersection.  Page 41 covers the fatal accidents due to alcohol and drug influence.  There were 27% of alcohol related fatalies in the county for 2002.  It is a reduction from 40% in 2001. 

Page 43 talks about the Criminal Investigations Division.  It states that 2001 saw a 24% rise in investigative cases opened, and FY2002 it returned to a normal case level with a 32% drop in cases opened (from 213 vs. 315).  They saw residential burglaries rise and commercial burglaries fell from 24 in 2001 to 7 in 2002.  The significant drop in commercial burlaries from the previous year can be attributed to a burglary team from Rockford who were responsible for dozens of burglaries in Winnebago, Boone and DeKalb Counties.  They were arrested in 2001 after an intensive investigation. 

Page 48 is a chart that highlights the Investigations 2002 Statistics and how they were broken down.  Under the Miscellaneous section it shows 17%.  The committee asked Sheriff Scott what falls under Miscellaneous?  He said that that could be scams, runaway kids, some senior fraud, etc. 

Sheriff Scott explained the Jail Operations – Corrections Division to the committee.  He said that last year the jail population reached a new high, an average of 79 inmates per day.  This number is the highest annual average population for the Jail.  Technical jail capacity is 89.  For 2000 and 2001 the jail population averaged 77 inmates per day.  In fact, the last five years were the highest average daily populations in the Jail history.  Because of this problem a new committee was formed called the Ad Hoc Jail Study Committee in 2002 to review the ongoing rise in population figures at the Jail.  They were given one year to accomplish the goals and determine the best option to deal with the Jail space issues now and in the future.  The committee met in December 2002 and selected the consultants (Durrant/Goldman and Associates) to develop a comprehensive study to determine whether or not additional space is needed at the jail, and to recommend to the Ad Hoc Committee a variety of options to deal with the space needs.

Moved by Mr. Johnson, seconded by Ms. LaVigne, and it was carried unanimously to accept all the annuals reports and to place them on file. 

ADJOURNMENT

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

                                                          Respectfully submitted,

                                                           __________________________________
                                                          Marlene Allen, Chairman

_____________________________
Mary C. Supple, Secretary