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DeKalb County, Illinois |
Minutes of the
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DEKALB COUNTY ETSB
Minutes of the Board Meeting of June 1, 2005
CALL TO ORDER Chairman Olson called the meeting to order at 7:34 AM
ROLL CALL Board members present: Chairman Olson, Bowman, Feithen, Hanson, Leoni, Riddle, Russell, Rosemier, and Suppeland.
Board members absent: Pettit,
Guests Present: Lt. Al Newby, DeKalb County Sheriff's Police; Brent Tillman, DeKalb Police Department; Glenna Johnson, Geo-Comm.
Also Present: Christine Johnson, DeKalb County Treasurer; Charles Kross, Coordinator
AGENDA The Chairman asked for any amendments to the agenda. Kross asked for an addition to new business for a discussion of DSL. A motion to approve the agenda as amended was made by Rosemier and seconded by Riddle. There was no discussion. The motion passed.
MINUTES A motion to approve the minutes of the May 2004 meeting was made by Suppeland and seconded by Riddle. The motion passed.
OLD BUSINESS:
A motion to approve the Treasurer’s Report was made by Russell, and seconded by Suppeland. There was no discussion. The motion passed unanimously.
The Chair presented a bill to Sandwich Police Department from Dixon Ottawa of $320 for the installation of a laptop. Russell moved to approve the bill. Riddle seconded the motion. There was no further discussion. A roll call vote was taken. Bowman Y Feithen Y Hanson Y Leoni Y Riddle Y Rosemier Y Russell Y Suppeland Y Olson Y . The motion passed unanimously.
Bills: Language Line
50.00 Verizon 117.50 Verizon 225.13 Verizon 227.75 Verizon 227.75 Verizon ` 16,358.83 Starved
Rock Communications
1,300.00 ATT
28.08 SpectraSite
Communications
3,413.58 Nicomm,
LLC
270.00 Total $26,553.56
Jim Feyerherm of Starved Rock Communications reported to Kross that the antenna has not yet been installed, but expects it to be by the next Board meeting.
Feyerherm told Kross that there had been minor maintenance but no major problems. Bowman told the Board that he had discussed eliminating the Fire Department printers. He said that Hinckley, Waterman, Malta, Shabbona, and Lee are all willing to have there printers removed.
The discussion of funding for the Fire Dispatch continued from last meeting. Russell pointed out that the ETSB did not have the authority to determine if local Fire Protection District’s should pay or not pay. That is up to the Sheriff and the County. The Board only subsidizes the agencies. Feithen said that the funding of the dispatch services came up during the budgeting process, when he expressed concern that the rural Fire Protection Districts were being subsidized by the ETSB, while DeKalb, Sandwich, Sycamore, and Genoa have to budget within their communities, for their dispatch services. During the budgeting process it was recommended that this issue be brought up with the full Board, and some long range planning be discussed. The Sheriff was in attendance at the meeting. Years ago, the Sheriff agreed to supply the service with financial assistance from the County Board and the ETSB. Because he is currently providing the service, to ask for compensation now would put him in a bad light with those constituents. Feithen said that he believed that the Sheriff would appreciate the ETSB’s support on the issue. Hanson said that DeKalb County government is not promoting any changes. They view the issue as a partnership with the ETSB to provide the services.
Riddle said that long-term funding by the ETSB may be limited, due to wireless and VoIP. There will only be so much money. Rosemier suggested that the ETSB develop a philosophy statement that costs should be distributed equally. All should share in the expenses. The Board should be setting policy rather than setting costs. OLSON said that he thought the door was open for the Board to support the Sheriff in billing for dispatch services. He added that the Board only pays X dollars every year, and the Sheriff decides how to use it.
Russell said that it might be time to consider an increase in the surcharge. Kross said that residents currently pay $.84 per month per telephone line. An increase of $.16, raiding the surcharge to $1.00 per month, would increase income by about $77,000 per year. Rosemier said that it might be easier for citizens to pay when it is on the telephone bill, versus when it is on their property tax bill. He then said that he personally gets irritated every month when he pays the phone bill and looks at all the various taxes and charges added on to the bill. Citizens might feel that they could at least control taxation to some degree, by not voting for a referendum. Feithen said that the Board is currently paying about $150,000 per year for dispatch services. If this issue is not addressed soon, the Board could get into financial problems. He added that the Board has no control over the wireless surcharge, so an increase in the surcharge would not be fair to those who use wire lines instead of wireless.
Suppeland said that when the ETSB was formed, the revenues could not be used for dispatchers. The surcharge amount was developed without thought of the Board paying for these services. He said that with the expected county growth, the funding might not become a problem.
NEW BUSINESS
Kross reported that while setting up the MSAG Mail account with Verizon, he was unable to because of a computer port closed by Comcast, his broadband provider. He has a private not a business account. He was denied access because of that. He requested that the Board approve a DSL broadband account for the Board’s official business. Kross said that the email address would be passed to his successor. It could be published as the official ETSB address. It would be a business account. Russell made a motion to approve the purchase of a ETSB broadband account. Hanson seconded the motion. Discussion: Bowman said he had a Verizon broadband account and was very pleased with it. The motion was called and the motion passed unanimously.
ADJOURNMENT
Rosemier moved to adjourn the meeting, and was seconded by Russell. The motion passed unanimously. The meeting adjourned at 8:25 A.M.
Respectfully submitted,
- - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - Charles Kross, Coordinator |
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