The Executive Committee of the DeKalb County Board met on Wednesday, February 14, 2007 at 6:00p.m. at the Administration Building’s Conference Room East.  Chairman Ruth Anne Tobias called the meeting to order. Members present were Pat Vary, Eileen Dubin, Julia Fauci, Pat LaVigne, Bob Rosemier, Sally DeFauw and Roger Steimel.  Michael Haines and Richard Osborne were absent.   Others present were Ray Bockman, Anita Turner, Greg Millburg, Jeff Whelan, Gary Hanson, Jeff Metzger, Jerry Augsburger, Steve Walt, John Hulseberg and Mike Stuckert.

APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES

          Moved by Ms. Vary, seconded by Mr. Rosemier, and it was carried unanimously to approve the minutes from January 2007.

APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA     

          Chairman Tobias said that she needed to add an item to the agenda, which is item #6a.) Community Outreach Building Discussion.

          Moved by Mr. Steimel, seconded by Mr. Rosemier, and it was carried unanimously to approve the amended agenda.

APPOINTMENTS:

Regional Planning Commission:          Mr. Paul Rasmussen, reappointment for the City of DeKalb’s primary representative, for a term of 3 years, until January 1, 2010.

DeKalb County Nursing

Home Foundation:          Ms. Pat Barger, reappointment for a term of 3 years, until December 2010.

Cooperative Extension Board:                     1.) Mr. Roger Steimel

                                                                   2.) Mr. Jeff Metzger, Sr.

                                                                   3.) Ms. Pat LaVigne

                                                                   4.) Mr. Jerry Augsburger

                                                                   All appointments for a term of 4 years, until 2/01/2011.

Metropolitan Planning Organization:          Ms. Pat LaVigne, appointment for a term of 1 year, until 2/01/2008.

DeKalb County Supportive Living

Facility, Non For Profit:                              Ms. Veronica Casella                 

Mr. George Daugherty         

Ms. Eileen Dubin                   

Mr. Nathan Kloster

                                                          Ms. Ruth Anne Tobias

                                                          Mr. Richard Ubl

                                                          All appointments for a term of 1 year, until February 1, 2008.

Mr. Bockman explained that the Supportive Living Facility appointments relate

The corporation that the County has created to do the Supportive Living deal.

We can’t do it directly because we can’t partner with a private firm as a body.

We can do it through a nominee, which is this non-for-profit organization.  The

directors are the same directors that sit on the Operating Board.                                       

Moved by Ms. Fauci, seconded by Ms. Vary, and it was carried unanimously to approve the appointments as presented and to forward them to the full board for approval.

Appointments expiring for March 2007 are:

Workforce Investment Act Board – 2 positions

          Waterman Fire Protection District – 1 position

          Malta Community Fire Protection District – 1 position

          DeKalb Fire Protection District – 1 position

          Cortland Fire Protection District – 1 position

          Sycamore  Community Fire Protection District – 1 position

          Kirkland Community Fire District – 1 position

          Shabbona Community Fire Protection District – 1 position

          Genoa-Kingston Fire Protection District – 1 position

          Hinckley Community Fire Protection District – 1 position

          Somonauk Community Fire Protection District – 1 position

Squaw Grove Drainage District No. 1 – 1 position

DeKalb Sanitary District – 1 position

AMENDMENT TO THE INDEMNIFICATION POLICY

          The committee reviewed a resolution that amends the County’s Indemnification Policy by adding the County Home Manager and the DeKalb County Supportive Living Facility-Non for Profit- Directors to the list.  Mr. Bockman said that the State’s Attorney represents these individuals if something should happen in their official duties.

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

RESOLUTION TO VACATE THE OFFICE

          Chairman Tobias needs to declare a vacancy for Jeff Whelan’s seat from District #9.  The vacancy will be declared on February 21, 2007.

          The committee asked Chairman Tobias who Mr. Whelan’s replacement will be?  She said that the replacement is a Mr. Paul Stoddard who is a professor at NIU in Geology.  They will hold off from appointing him until March 2007.  The vacancy will be announced at the February 21, 2007 County Board Meeting.

          Moved by Ms. LaVigne, seconded by Ms. Fauci, and it was carried unanimously to forward the resolution to the full board for approval.

COMMUNITY OUTREACH BUILDING

Mr. Hanson said that with the planning phase of the new community outreach building coming to an end this Friday, he wanted to inform the committee that since there is a need for space in the Legislative Center and Courthouse for the State’s Attorney’s office and the Judicial offices, that there is a possibility that we could add a second floor to the plan if the committee so wishes.  He also said that we are not voting on it now.

          He said that the building is 99% designed and the final change date is Friday.  After that the plan is to finalize the bid documents in March, open bids in April and hope to start the construction in May or early June of this year.  However, there is a chance to pause if you would like to add a second floor to the building.  If you pause and think about it, it will delay everything that we do, so we don’t want to wait too long. Looks like there is a possibility to add 8,000 square feet and the cost would equal to $2 million. 

          Since the jail referendum did not pass, if you remember, late 2005 as part of the 2006 budget, we authorized a study for what space is needed for the Judiciary, that is, Court Services, State’s Attorney’s office and Judiciary.  That study tried to look out to 2035 and that called for 25,000 square feet in that time frame.  If we could build it by 2010 that it would cost us $13 million. 

          We are trying to look at what we can do temporarily, said Mr. Hanson, in a ten to fifteen year span.  We would move someone off of this campus and move over to the outreach building.  This would hopefully last until we have a solution for this campus. 

          Mr. Rosemier said if he did the computation correctly the square footage costs would equal around $250 per square foot.  Residential is running around $150 a square foot and the $250 per square foot does not sound outrageous to him. 

          Mr. Hanson said that construction costs actually are less than that because he tries to include all costs in the figures including furniture.  I probably would suggest that if there is interest we could build a shell and worry about who should go there some time later.

          Mr. Hanson said that this would be paid for with cash through the sales tax that goes into the opportunity fund, that is and the general fund, fund balance. He feels that they could finance it over a couple of years.

          Ms. Vary asked that with priorities, is this more important at this point then trying to actually use some of that cash for the jail?  We don’t have enough cash to even touch the jail, he said. 

Mr. Hanson said that this is only an Interim solution for the next 10 years.  We look at what the county could do so that we don’t waste that money.  One thought that he had is that we build another 8,000 square feet for ten years by the time we need to move those people out again, social service agencies will need more space as we continue to grow.  So it seems like we would not waste the space, in fact, in the long run we might save money by building it today as opposed to the future.  He said that the first floor of the building, which is 23,000 square feet, would cost $5.5 million.  In comparison, Mr. Hanson said, the Legislative Center, which opened in 2002 maybe, cost $3.1 million for about 17,000 square feet. 

Ms. Dubin said that she remembers that when the building opened up we were already filled up.

Mr. Hanson said that we knew that going in, but that is all the cash that we had at the time. 

Mr. Rosemier said that he thought makes good sense to add the second floor. 

          After further discussion the committee directed Mr. Hanson positively to bring the 8,000 square foot addition to the attention of the architect.

APPROVAL OF THE COUNTY BOARD AGENDA

          Mr. Ray Bockman, County Administrator, reviewed the county board agenda for the board meeting to be held on February 21, 2007.

          Moved by Mr. Steimel, seconded by Ms. LaVigne, and it was carried unanimously to forward the county board agenda to the full county board for approval.    

GENERAL DISCUSSION

          Ms. LaVigne, Chairman of the County Highway Committee, said that they have an item asking for the reappointment of Bill Lorence as the County Engineer.  She said that Mr. Lorence has been doing a great job and that he is up for an award from the State.

Mr. Steimel, Chairman of the Planning and Zoning Committee, said that they have 5 ordinances coming to the board for approval this month.  The first item is routine, the second one is about homecare, which is not permitted use in the agricultural district.  It is a two part approval process. The third item is the Baumgartner item, which is a controversial item.  The fourth item is routine and the fifth item is about signage. 

Ms. Sally DeFauw,  Vice-Chairman of the Law and Justice Committee, said that they heard from Ms. Marilyn Stromborg, of the Drug Court.  She gave a very good report on what the drug court has done to date.

Ms. Fauci, Chairman of the Forest Preserve Committee, said that she was including some materials on a legislative alert.  The Department of Agriculture would like to start taxing forest preserve properties on private land. This will be included in the packet for the board to read.  She and Mr. Hannan designed a brochure that they have sent out to the public and they are starting to get some response on it.  She also said that there will be an executive session at their next meeting and she encourages all county board members to attend.

Mr. Rosemier, Chairman of the Health and Human Services Committee, said that his committee heard from Mr. Herb Holderman, of the Veteran’s Commission.  It was a very informative report.

Ms. Dubin, Chairman of the Economic Development Committee, said that her committee is continuing to discuss the standards for tax abatements.  They heard from the Mayor of Sycamore who gave them the ideas of what the City of Sycamore does with tax abatements.  There are three major areas that the committee will be discussing now and in the future.  They will be discussing the tax abatement issue, look at various types of industry, and how the County can help small businesses to grow and to attract small businesses to come to the County.

Ms. Vary said that she and Chairman Tobias attended the DuKane Valley Breakfast.  The officials that report to the organization are trying to find the best time to give their legislative agendas to their legislators.  It looks like the Fall would be the best time.

Chairman Tobias informed the committee that she met with the Indian Tribe last Friday and they are asking to meet with this committee at our March meeting to discuss our request of them that they write to the Department of the Interior for clarification of their status for gaming on their property.  Tentatively we said yes, that they can come to our meeting in March.  She has a reading file for the committee members to review prior to that meeting.  We will have legal counsel present that evening.  We will hold the meeting in the Gathertorium at 6:00p.m. on  March 13, 2007.

Chairman Tobias said that she attended the first Regional Water Supply Planning Group meeting in Chicago last month.  They will be meeting every month consisting of thirty-five representatives from elected officials and counties and cities and seven user groups.  We are trying to come up with the supply and demand of water resources in the 11 county area.  They will come to DeKalb in July and she would like to take them to the wetland bank.

Mr. Steimel said that with regards to the Water Authority issue, Judge Klein came down with a ruling today.  He is setting up boundaries.  He excluded Maple Park and Sandwich because they are bordering over into other counties.  He excluded Sandwich and Somonuak townships because of an expert witness who said at the trial that they are drawing their water from another aquifer.  He includes the cities of DeKalb and Sycamore and he took Genoa out of it.  The Planning and  Zoning Committee will be discussing this issue at their February 28^th meeting and he is inviting all county board members to attend this meeting. 

ADJOURNMENT

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

Respectfully submitted,

______________________________

Chairman Ruth Anne Tobias

_____________________________

Mary C. Supple, Secretary

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