The Finance Committee and the Law & Justice Committee met jointly on Monday, July 10, 2006, @ 6:30p.m., in the DeKalb County Administration Building’s Conference Room East.  Chairmen Sue Leifheit of the Law & Justice Committee called the meeting to order.  Members present were Richard Osborne, Pat Vary, Anita Turner, Pat LaVigne, Roger Steimel, Jeff Metzger, Sr., Jerry Augsburger, Dennis Sands, Michael Haines, Paulette Tolene and Jeff Whelan.  Ms. Tobias was absent.  Others present were Ray Bockman, Gary Hanson, Ron Matekaitis, Ken Johnson, Steve Kuhn, Sheriff Roger Scott, Chief Deputy Kevin Hickey, and Steve Slack.

APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES

                Moved by Ms. LaVigne, seconded by Mr. Steimel, and it was carried unanimously to approve the Law & Justice Committee Minutes from June 2006.

                Moved by Mr. Sands, seconded by Mr. Augsburger, and it was carried unanimously to approve the Finance Committee minutes from June 2006.

APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

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

JAIL REFENDUM DISCUSSION

                Mr. Bockman and Mr. Hanson said that they met with United Airlines and American Airlines recently regarding their long-term agreements with the City of Sycamore.  The airlines said that if this referendum were to pass it would essentially triple their tax rate and they would need to leave.  Mr. Bockman had a series of meetings with both of the airlines and they have reached an agreement in principle that if the referendum passes, the County would enter into a three-way agreement (the County, City of Sycamore and both of the airlines) to limit the airlines sales tax liability to the current rate of ¼ of 1%.  In the resolution there is a paragraph that empowers the County to finalize an agreement with the airlines and the chairman to sign it.

                Mr. Haines asked, then the $8 million dollars a year that you anticipated in sales tax revenue with the  ½ cent increase still valid given this arrangement?  Mr. Hanson said that it reduces the $8 million to 4 million dollars. 

                Mr. Steimel asked if this is where we were last year?  Mr. Hanson said yes, just under $4 million.

                Ms. LaVigne, said that if we couldn’t get it passed last time for ½ cent what about at 1/4-cent sales tax?  Is that too little?  Mr. Bockman said that the ¼ cent is not enough money.

                Mr. Haines asked what is the annual amount that we would spend per year and for how long, that is, the $25 million that we will probably have to finance?  Mr. Hanson said that the bond payment would be

$1.6 million for 20 years.  He continued explaining his handout with the first column, which explains the 2004 Plan, the year that we went to referendum.  In the 2008 figure of Phase I, he took the $16 million dollars and inflated it by 5% per year to arrive at the $20 million figure.  They would like to do both phases, but Phase II would cost another $20 million or a total of $40 million for both phases.  The county would not have enough room to sell that much bond, he further stated.  Maybe we could get some money in the early years to build the shell and that’s where the $5 million figure comes from - for a total of $25million.

Finance Committee Minutes

July 10, 2006

Page 2 of 3 pages

                Now the Annual Costs show the cost to operate Phase I equaling $4.5 million, that is, staffed for Phase I.  We need line 8 - $2,138,000.00 every year to run the jail, he continued.  With regard to alternatives to help keep people out of jail, we would inflate the figure of $625,000 to $760,000.  So if you take lines, 8,9 and 10 - they add up to $4.5 million, and our total expenses equal $4,410,000, we are showing a shortfall of $88,000. That’s why we need the ½ cent.

                Mr. Bockman said that another figure that is not included in this report is a statement of possible earnings from rental space.  One of the creative ideas of the past was to get out of the jail business and transport everyone to other jails.  The transportation costs would have to be reasonable and you would  have to operate with the assumption that somewhere there’s a fair disparity between our costs to house the prisoners and someone else’s.  Another problem is when you get into this type of business, you would hope that you get the same space at “X” County for the next several years, too, and that the contract would not penalize us for not using beds.  It will take three to four years to stop being an exporter and get back into the jail business. That’s the problem that Mr. Bockman sees.

                Mr. Haines asked if there is any option where we can negotiate a wonderful agreement like we have with Kane County and their Juvenile Detention Center.  Where we transport juveniles and they are housed in Kane County’s Juvenile Detention Center.  Mr. Bockman said that we never had any more than seven juveniles to transport in a month.  This is a different situation then what we have with the adults.

                Mr. Whelan said that with growth comes crime.  Some of the cities are hitting developers with impact fees for schools and that, could the County look at impact fees?  Mr. Bockman said that what we need is to get the law changed.  Kendall, Grundy, and Boone Counties will be holding a joint meeting with us on August 24, 2006, to discuss a legislative coalition.  We will be suggesting to you at that time a proposal to back legislation that would create a facility impact fee for counties.  Counties were never given the same tools as schools, park districts and cities were given to deal with this type of rapid growth.

                Ms. Vary said that we need to clarify the facts for the voters as we visit and speak before them on this referendum.  She said that there was a group of people from Sycamore that were against the growth of the jail in the downtown area.  We need to let them know all about the alternatives that we have looked at and what we have tried.  We need to handout flyers that are clear, short and sweet with small graphs that show 1995 to the present regarding the population in the jail, the cost of transportation and future projections.

                Mr. Haines asked Mr. Hanson with the average daily population figure, our reports show that the County spent $114,000 in 2005 to house inmates outside the county and projected out for 2006 he feels it will equal $209,000 and probably $300,000 in 2007, and so on.  At what point do we have to get to $4.5 million?  Mr. Hanson said that you need to remember that every year that you wait, with inflation, the building costs will increase $1million.  What you want to do is build the building now and open it later. 

                Mr. Hanson said that life of the jail should be 25 years.  He also said that we will be using the current jail in the future with a $1million renovation project too.

                Mr. Bockman said that 16 years ago the National Institute of Corrections recommended to the County to consider starting the process of planning a new jail.  In 1996 they encouraged us to begin planning for additional beds.  We still have an 89-bed facility. 

Finance Committee Minutes

July 10, 2006

Page 3 of 3 pages

                Ms. Vary said that she feels that we need to be the “devil’s advocate in this room” in order to think of every question that comes up regarding our data.  We need to look really good regarding our data, when we go out there and talk to the voters.

                Mr. Sands said that he could not support the ½ cent referendum.

                After further discussion, it was moved by Mr. Osborne, seconded by Ms. Vary and it was carried to forward the resolution on the Public Safety Sales Tax to the full board for approval. 

Moved by Mr. Sands to amend the resolution to state ¼ cent instead of ½ cent.  The motion failed due to the lack of a second.

Original motion carried with Mr. Sands, Ms. LaVigne and Ms. Tolene voting no.

ADJOURNMENT

                Moved by Mr. Augsburger, seconded by Mr. Whelan, and it was carried unanimously to adjourn the meeting at 7:30p.m.

                                                                                                                Respectfully submitted by,

                                                                                                                ___________________________________                                                                                                                         Sue Leifheit, Chairman of the Law and

Justice Committee

                                                                                                                ___________________________________

                                                                                                                Jeff Whelan, Chairman of the Finance

Committee

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