The Finance Committee of the DeKalb County Board, met on Wednesday, March 2, 2005, @ 7:00p.m. in the DeKalb County Administration Building’s Conference Room East.  Chairman Frank Van Buer called the meeting to order.  Members present were Sue Leifheit, Dennis Sands, Ruth Ann Tobias and Jeff Whelan. Members absent were Mr. Metzger and Mr. Faivre.  Others present were Mrs. Joan Berkes-Hanson, Greg Millburg, Gary Hanson, John Dykes, James Scheffers, Mr. Ken Campbell and  Mrs. Laura Campbell.   

APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES

          Moved by Mr. Whelan, seconded by Ms. Tobias, and it was carried unanimously to approve the minutes from February 2005. 

APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

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

BOND ISSUE TAX LEVY ABATEMENT      

          Mr. Gary Hanson, DeKalb County Deputy County Administrator, explained to the committee that when the County sold bonds for the health facility and the County set the highway facility loan, we had to set up a multi-year lease agreement.  The County Clerk has to levy that money every year to protect the bondholders, he explained.  So each year when we don’t use the money then we abate the tax.  When the county board passed the budget in November, we had anticipated that you would abate this, so the levy that we anticipated having will not have a reduction.  Mr. Hanson continued explaining that this is a formality to have the county clerk reduce the levy. The first one is the health facility, which abates $640,000.  The highway facility loan, remember we paid that off right at the end of the fiscal year,  abates not only the levy for this year of $208,000, but all the rest of the years through tax year 2009. 

          Moved by Ms. Leifheit, seconded by Mr. Whelan, and it was carried unanimously to recommend these two resolutions to the full board for approval. 

UPDATE ON FACILITIES MANAGEMENT OFFICE BY KEN CAMPBELL

          Mr. Ken Campbell, DeKalb County Facilities Manager, presented his update to the committee.  Over the last year they have changed their name to Facilities Management Office, which helps people understand more clearly where they work and what they do.

They perform repairs and maintenance on county buildings in the Sycamore Campus, the Health Facility and Home Health.  They have completed 2,548 work orders in 2004 or 11 work orders a day.  They help get projects finished for various departments.  One project that they helped with last year was at the courthouse where they needed a place for people to stop grabbing items off of the table before they went through the metal detector.  He recommended a mobile partition wall for them.  James Scheffers and John Dykes from the Facilities Management Office built this for the courthouse and made it look like a piece of furniture, which is saving the character of the courthouse.  It is not attached to the floor in any way so if they ever need to move it his office can move it and it will not hurt the marble floor.

          Another project that they performed was to create evidence cages in the garage for the Sheriff’s Department.  And another project was to create a courthouse lockdown button for the Sheriff’s Department at the courthouse.  It helps to prevent a defendant from running out of the courthouse before the security guards can stop them.  This project took 6 months to complete, but it was fun to do.

          They also help with projects for the Public Building Commission.  These are usually capital improvement projects or larger projects.  One of them was the refinishing of the Stained Glass Windows in the courthouse.  This project came out beautiful and the windows should last us another 100 years, said Mr. Campbell.  This project came in under budget.  They budgeted for $35,000 and the project cost $28,000.

          They also replaced the courthouse doors for the Public Building Commission too. They did all the running of the cabling for the data, telephone and security in the situation room.

          Upcoming Projects for 2005 will be: the roof replacement at the public safety building beginning around April 2005; the air supply unit on the Administration Building will be replaced; there will be carpet replaced in the courthouse; and there will be windows replaced by a general contractor in the spring at the health department. 

          His office also has a print shop.  They print about 130,000 sheets a month, for many departments including the nursing home department.  That number also includes the county board packet printing. They can print duplicate and triplicate forms that the circuit clerk needs.  The perform mail services for the Sycamore Campus Departments, too. They handle about 12,000 pieces of mail a month for these departments. 

          They refurbish telephones for the Sycamore Campus.  They maintain and install our own security system; he cross-trains his staff; they installed proximity detectors in the circuit clerk’s office; they maintain the grounds at the Sycamore Campus; and they perform snow removal for the Sycamore Campus.

          They committee thanked Mr. Campbell for a very good report.

COMMITTEE CALENDAR  - ITEMS FOR FUTURE DISCUSSION

          Mr. Hanson handed out a 2-year calendar to look at future agenda items.  The goal was to avoid issues from last year where members didn’t think that they had enough lead time for discussion.

          The committee discussed whether or not to include the combined jail facility with the City of DeKalb.  Mr. Sands said that he has spoken with Mr. Bill Feithen at the City of DeKalb and he said that he would be willing to discuss the proposal.  The committee discussed how the project would be funded.  Mr. Sands said that with the new boom in sales tax and new construction money coming in, he thought that the county should set some money aside from these funds for the project.  The committee discussed whether they would look at this proposal in the near future.  Mr. Sands said that he felt now was the time to do something with this new money coming in and he felt the combined jail proposal is a good project to start with.  He further stated that he felt that this committee should set priority and give direction to Mr. Bockman and Mr. Hanson. 

          Ms. Leifheit said that she would like someone to explain to the board members again what the different funds – fund.  Mr. Hanson said that he is redoing the finance colloquium this year and it will start in March and end in April or May 2005. 

          Mr. Whelan said that he would like to discuss the big increase in the insurance costs, too.    

          Ms. Leifheit asked if there were any other items that we know will come forward?

Mr. Hanson reminded the committee that they could look at which month they would like to have the elected officials salary resolution be adopted in because we have to do it before May of 2006. Do you want to do it in December before they file their papers, or in May, that is an issue that you have to answer, said Mr. Hanson. 

          The committee decided to have fund balances discussed in May of 2005, possibly begin discussion on the elected officials salary in August of 2005 and maybe have the Facilities Management Office and IMO give their Update in August too. 

ADJOURNMENT

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

                                                          Respectfully submitted,

                                                          ___________________________

                                                          Chairman Frank Van Buer

____________________________

Mary C. Supple, Secretary

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