The Finance Committee of the DeKalb County Board, met on Wednesday, June 7, 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., Sue Leifheit and Ruth Anne Tobias.  Mr. Dennis Sands and Mr. Michael Haines were absent.  Others present were Gary Hanson, Ken Campbell, Mary Simons, and Greg Millburg.  A quorum was present.

APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES     

            Moved by Mr. Augsburger, seconded by Ms. Tobias, and it was carried unanimously to approve the minutes from May 2006.

APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

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

RECORDER’S OFFICE – BENEFICIAL INTEREST FEE

            Mr. Gary Hanson, DeKalb County Deputy Administrator, said that the resolution on the table tonight is for a beneficial interest fee.  He continued by stating that in 2004 the State of Illinois approved a Uniform Real Estate Transfer Tax, which would impose a tax on the privilege of transferring a controlling interest in a real estate entity owning property located in the State of Illinois, but they forgot to include the counties.  A year ago they added the counties to it and now we can add this fee.  It is not a fee that we can collect, Mr. Hanson said. 

            Ms. Leifheit explained that an example might be that Company “X” owns the land for the shopping center and Company “X” sells it to Smith and Company, that is, just the interest in the business leases perhaps, but doesn’t sell the land, nothing gets recorded.   A document would get signed and now they have controlling interests in those businesses.  They get the profits, however, Company “X” still hangs on to the land.  This will cause the same kind of transfer tax as if they had sold the land. 

            Mr. Hanson said that Cook County, Kane County, DuPage County and Winnebago County all collect the fee, however, McHenry County does not collect the transfer tax.  

            Moved by Mr. Augsburger, seconded by Ms. Leifheit, and it was carried unanimously to forward the resolution to the full board for approval. 

NEW BUILDING UPDATE – HEALTH FACILITY CAMPUS

            Mr. Hanson said that in the budget last year the board approved going ahead for the design of the new building for the home health program.  We put in the budget last year for a 21,000 square foot building that would cost around $5.1 million dollars to build.  This building would house the Home Health Care Department, Regional Superintendent of Schools, the Mental Health Board, Veteran’s Commission and some storage.

But there may come a time in any building that you may choose to add or not add things to it.  Mr. Hanson wanted to give the committee this information now before budget time because the issue will likely come to this committee during budget process this year.    He wanted to make sure that the committee had some background information prior to the budget talks.

            Another couple of issues, said Mr. Hanson, that the committee will hear about soon will be a suggestion of a garage added to the new building, which was raised by the Facilities Manager, Ken Campbell.  The other issue is whether or not we should put a geo-thermal heating and cooling system in the new building.  It will have some initial upfront costs, but it could save us some money over time. 

            He wanted to have Ms. Mary Simons, Public Building Commission’s Secretary, to inform the committee about the various storage buildings and records that the County houses.  Ms. Simons presented photos to the committee of these buildings and the storage capabilities that these buildings have.  They have several on-site and off-site storage areas and facilities in the county.  She tries to establish within the building one, two, and three-year record storage for each department in the building, for on-site record storage.  She also maintains the off-site storage, as well for older records.

            Ms. Simons also explained that a few departments do still microfilm their records. Circuit Clerk Maureen Josh has one full-time person who does just that each day. She is having her summer personnel help with the microfilming too.  This is a long-term project, said Ms. Simons.

            Ms. Simons said that the County Clerk also microfilms in her department.  The County Clerk is running out of space in her off-site storage site located on the Health Facility Campus.  The State’s Attorney’s Office is running out of space in their on-site storage in the Legislative Center, too. The facility where they destroy records is stacked very high with boxes waiting to be destroyed. They hold them for 60 days after they are brought down for destruction in a holding area and then after 60 days they shred them.  They even had to place newer boxes ready to be destroyed in the entrance area because of lack of space in the holding area. 

            Ms. Simons continued by stating that the evidence area for the sheriff’s detectives are housed in the public safety building.  The officers have certain lockers that no one can get into until the evidence technician opens it for them.  This was a big project and it is so organized now with the technician’s help, said Ms. Simons.

            Chairman Whelan asked Ms. Simons if the Circuit Clerk or County Clerk’s records could be computerized and placed on a disk to store properly? Ms. Simons said that the State won’t approve it for the retention of the records, but we could go ahead and scan it and keep it on disk for easy retrieval, but the State just won’t approve it as of yet for archival purposes.

The committee asked Ms. Simons if she has looked at other storage systems where you could double your storage space?  Ms. Simons said that they have purchased some of them and they are looking at some for the Circuit Clerk’s office where they, too, could double their storage space. 

            The committee thanked Ms. Simons for her very informative report.

FY2007 BUDGET CALENDAR

            Mr. Hanson, Deputy County Administrator, said that he and Mr. Bockman are suggesting a couple of changes to the committee this year regarding the FY2007 Budget Calendar.  He said that in the past the budget books would be distributed to county board members in September and then launch into discussions at the standing committee levels pretty much the next evening.  This year they are looking at delaying it by two weeks. Mr. Bockman and Mr. Hanson will hold a question and answer period on the budget prior to the County Board Meeting in September beginning at 6:00p.m.  From that point then the standing committees will meet and begin discussions on the budget, he further explained.

            Ms. Leifheit said that she feels it is a real good idea to delay the standing committee meetings for two weeks.

            Moved by Ms. Leifheit, seconded by Mr. Augsburger, and it was carried unanimously to accept the FY2007 Budget Calendar.

ADJOURNMENT

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

                                                                        Respectively submitted by,

            _____________________________

                                                                        Jeff Whelan, Chairman

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