The Law and Justice Committee of the DeKalb County Board met on Monday, March 14, 2005 @ 6:30p.m. in the DeKalb County Public Safety Building, Coroner’s Conference Room.  Chairman Sue Leifheit called the meeting to order.  Members present were Pat Vary, Anita Turner, and Pat LaVigne.  Those absent were Eric Johnson, Richard Osborne and Roger Steimel.  Others present were Steve Slack, Margi Gilmour and Dennis Miller. 

APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES

            Moved by Ms. Turner, seconded by Ms. Vary, and it was carried unanimously to approve the minutes from the February 2005 meeting. 

APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

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

DRUG COURT UPDATE FROM STEVE SLACK

            Mr. Steve Slack, DeKalb County Board Member, updated the newer committee members about the progress that the drug court issue has gone through since 2003.  He explained that in March of 2004 Judge Klein took over the task force and assigned Judge Robin Stuckert to convene a group of people to study it.  They met four times throughout the year.  Mr. Todd Shroeder approached the group and discussed the Winnebago model.  Judge Stuckert and Maureen Josh, DeKalb County Circuit Clerk, visited the court personally and reported back in favor of it. 

            The judicial time was the biggest hurdle for the task force to study because they would need to figure out how much judicial time to devote to a drug court.  With the county board’s decision to eliminate the Friday’s court call, Judge Klein, Judge Stuckert and the 16^th Judicial Circuit Chief Judge Donald Hudson decided that DeKalb County would have an afternoon devoted to drug court.

            With the elimination of this court call, it frees up a public defender and assistant state’s attorney, however, there would be additional personnel needed to include one more probation officer and a drug court administrator.  Other costs would include office space, payment to treatment service providers and payment for drug testing and evaluations. 

            In July 2004, the task force voted unanimously to prepare a budget and apply for a federal grant, called the Drug Court Discretionary Grant to start a drug court in DeKalb County.  In February 2005, the Bureau of Justice released the call for grants for FY2005 and Mr. Slack has contracted with a local grant writer to help produce a grant before the deadline, which is the end of March.

            Mr. Slack said to keep in mind that if the money runs out for the drug court and that there is no public safety tax approved by the taxpayers by that time, then the County would have to fund the ongoing court out of general revenues.  He also said that the Bureau of Justice Grant is a 75/25 match and that Maureen Josh has been looking into the possibility of using court fees to make the match.

            Mr. Slack also said that many of the crimes committed in DeKalb County are drug related.  The cost of court and incarcerating a residential burglar who has a drug habit is estimated at $23,000 for each offense.  The cost of treating that individual and stopping his criminal activity is around $13,000. 

            Mr. Slack continued by stating that Kane County now has not only a drug court, but also a mental health court and juvenile drug court.  They have 700 people who appear for drug court weekly.   DeKalb County currently has between 25 – 30 defendants.

COURT SERVICES MONTHLY REPORT AND ANNUAL INTERGOVERNMENTAL AGREEMENT UPDATE

            Ms. Margi Gilmour, Director of the DeKalb County Court Services Department,  said that her adult court services report shows that the numbers are slowly creeping up but that her department does have them under control.  There are between 120 – 135 active cases for each officer now.  The Community Restitution numbers are very consistent.  She also said that they currently have a full staff.

            With regards to the juvenile report, there were 12 people detained in the month, of which 1 was for 4 times, 3 for the 1^st time, 2 for the 2^nd time, 2 for the 3^rd time, 1 each for the 6^th and 7^th time.  She also notified the committee tonight that there would be 2 juveniles in residential placement in next month’s report. 

            The Intergovernmental Agreement with Kane County update shows that there have been discussions going on with our County and Kane County for a while now and that hopefully there will be a tentative agreement within 30 to 60 days.  The February draw down was low that month and that Kane County is still only charging us $80 a day.  She feels that if we continue at this rate that we should be out of money by early 2006. 

JAIL REPORT

            Chairman Leifheit stated that the Sheriff could not be with us tonight and that the jail report is very thorough and shows very clearly the impact that the numbers are having on the budget.  We have budgeted for $25,400.00 for rental costs of inmates and we have already spent $22,000 and the budget just began in December 2004. 

ESDA ANNUAL REPORT

            Mr. Dennis Miller, Director of the ESDA Department, stated that last October the county board adopted the N.I.M.S. Ordinance that stated that every county, city, town in the U.S. had to pass this ordinance or lose their federal funding for their emergency plans.   He said that the disaster plan is up for revisions this year and he is currently working on that (please see his report attached to these minutes). 

            Mr. Miller also said that in 2004 DeKalb County was awarded a grant through Homeland Security in the amount of $200,000, which was used to purchase equipment for all the local fire departments.  He said that he was able to order 100 radios that will be shared with the fire departments and the Sheriff’s Department.  A portion of the grant monies was also used to purchase much needed communications equipment for the Sheriff’s Office.  All the equipment that was purchased has inter-operational capabilities within Homeland Security Region #2, which consists of Winnebago, Boone, Ogle, Lee and DeKalb counties. 

PUBLIC DEFENDER’S REPORT

            Mr. Kenneth Johnson, DeKalb County Public Defender, could not make the meeting tonight due to a jury trial, said Chairman Leifheit.  She briefly reviewed his monthly report for the committee. She said that 910 cases were opened and his department closed 754 cases last month.  If the committee has any questions regarding his report she directed them to call Mr. Johnson at his office or wait until next month’s meeting. 

ADJOURNMENT

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

                                                                        Respectfully submitted,

__________________________________                                                                                                       Chairman Sue Leifheit

__________________________________

Mary C. Supple, Secretary

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