The Finance Committee of the DeKalb County Board, met on Wednesday, April 5, 2006 at 7:00p.m., in the DeKalb County Administration Building’s Conference Room East.  Chairman Jeff Whelan called the meeting to order.  Members present were Jerry Augsburger, Jeff Metzger, Sr., and Ruth Anne Tobias and Jerry Augsburger.  Dennis Sands, Sue Leifheit and Michael Haines were absent.  Others present were Ray Bockman, Gary Hanson, Ken Campbell, Joan Berkes-Hanson, Greg Millburg and Steve Kuhn.  A quorum was present.

APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES     

            Moved by Mr. Augsburger, seconded by Mr. Metzger, Sr., and it was carried unanimously to approve the minutes from March, 2006.

APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

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

PUBLIC COMMENT:  MR. JACK BENNETT

            Mr. Bennett said he is a member of the DeKalb County Farmland Foundation.  He said that the County has done a good job of trying to preserve farmland with the zoning ordinance, especially the enforcement of the 40-acre rule.

            He is requesting that the County please put in the budget, money for a cost of services study so that we can find out what is going on in DeKalb County.  Then we could educate the public about what is going on. 

A couple of items he would like to see included are:

a.)                Conservation easements cannot be forced on anyone.  It can only be done if the farmer agrees that this is a good deal to sell the conservation easement.

b.)                How much is it?  He doesn’t know, you would have to ask organizations who specialize in it, like the American Farmland Foundation office, who may be able to supply the county with information.

Chairman Whelan thanked Mr. Bennett for his input.

REPORT FROM THE JAIL POPULATION REVIEW COMMITTEE

            Mr. Ray Bockman, DeKalb County Administrator, summarized the findings and recommendations of the Jail Population Review Committee.

            Mr. Bockman said that they found that the county is at the limit of what can be done here given the current resources for the jail.  They discussed a small expansion of EHM capacity and it will be explored; however, the support of this item is not universal.  The County is exporting prisoners now, and the population is trending up.  Not only is the jail out of space, but the following departments are too: State’s Attorney’s Office, Circuit Clerk, Public Defender, Court Services and the Judiciary.  Other problems that they discussed were problems with elevator breakdowns in the courthouse and pedestrian concerns crossing Route 23. 

            Mr. Bockman continued by summarizing the three recommendations by the Jail Population Review Committee.  They are:

a.)                Consider building both jail phases now.  The Jail master plan recommended adding 70 beds to create a total of 127 beds to meet the projected bed needs to 2015 and providing a shelled out building with space for 108 additional beds (235 total) to meet our space needs through 2025.  Given the elapsed time we should look at building both phases now. This would also create at least the possibility of recovering some of our capital costs through a rental program. 

b.)                Consider a plan to resolve all criminal justice overcrowding, not just the jail.  A formal study, underway now, will help assess the mid and long-term space needs of the remainder of the criminal justice system.  At this point we know that all departments are out of space and all are predicting increases in service demands.  Additional information and recommendations should be available by June/July of this year.

c.)                The Chairman should consider forming a Referendum Advisory Committee to evaluate a Fall 2006 effort. 

He finally stated that all three recommendations should be forwarded to the full County Board by June or July of 2006 for consideration.  

Chairman Whelan said that if we build now and the cost of construction has risen to about $19 million, is that taking into consideration both of the phases?  Mr. Bockman said that the $15 million estimate was reconfiguring the existing beds, adding 70 beds for a total of 127 beds, and then adding a “shelled out building”.  There would have been another capital project later on that would actually add-on the other 108 beds.  What you would have captured in the first project is that you would have added on some of the common spaces that are fairly expensive, like, recreation areas, meetings rooms, etc. 

Chairman Whelan also asked about the problems that the courthouse is having with the elevator, does that have to put into the budget to upgrade the courthouse?  Mr. Bockman said that there are problems with the elevator breaking down, but that he doesn’t know the answer to that.  We will have to defer that question to someone who knows more about this than he does. 

Mr. Bockman brought up another idea about moving the non-criminal justice offices from this campus here in Sycamore and putting them somewhere else. This would then turn over all the buildings to the Criminal Justice System offices.  Would that make more sense?  Someone in the business of studying space allocations would be able to answer this question.

Mr. Augsburger asked if the referendum were approved this fall, how far down the road would some of this be in place?  Mr. Bockman said by 2010, he felt that people could move.

Mr. Bockman told the members that the staff will prepare more specifics and they will also have to present the Findings and Recommendations to the Law and Justice Committee next week. 

Chairman Whelan asked, if the county does consider building everything, what would we be talking about in terms of costs?  Mr. Bockman said that it could all be done at .1/2 cent, the same amount that was proposed last time, because the base has come up.

UPDATE FROM THE INFORMATION MANAGEMENT OFFICE

            Ms. Joan Berkes-Hanson, DeKalb County Information Management Director, gave an updated report about her department has been doing of the last few months.  She did handout a summary of the history of her department (attached to these minutes).  Some of her highlights are mentioned below.

            Ms. Hanson explained that in 1994 the County started a G.I.S. office and created a G.I.S. network.  In a couple of years they expanded that network to include the entire Administration Building and they had an email network.  In 1999 the County created the Information Management Office with their goal being to connect various existing networks within the network and to provide a “one” single gateway to the Internet and for email. 

In 1999 they hired their first network technician.  In the first couple of years they did expand and went from 40 users to 150 users.  They consolidated separate networks into one County network.  They slowing began adding departments from there.  They upgraded the network infrastructure and created a fiber backbone on this campus in Sycamore.  They established connectivity with the Health Facility and Highway Department.

Prior to 2003 they rolled out an enterprise-wide, online G.I.S.  This means that anyone in the world can search the County’s data at no cost.

The committee thanked Ms. Hanson for a very informative update.

            Chairman Whelan passed out some budget materials that he collected from the NACO Conference the he attended in Washington, D.C. in March.  He also informed the committee that Mr. Bockman, DeKalb County Board Administrator, has voted in as president of the National Association of County Administrators (NACA). 

ADJOURNMENT

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

                                                                        Respectively submitted by,

_____________________________

                                                                        Jeff Whelan, Chairman

_________________________

Mary C. Supple, Secretary

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