The Executive Committee of the DeKalb County Board met on Tuesday, April 8, 2008 at 7:00p.m. at the Administration Building’s Conference Room East.  Chairman Ruth Anne Tobias called the meeting to order. Members present were Eileen Dubin, Julia Fauci, Michael Haines, Richard Osborne, Robert Rosemier and Roger Steimel.  Members absent were Pat LaVigne and Pat Vary.  The committee invited Mr. Augsburger to discuss items from the County Highway Committee.  Others present were Marlene Allen, John Hulseberg, Jeffrey Metzger, Sr., Steve Walt, Ray Bockman, Gary Hanson, Greg Millburg, Diane Strand and Anita Turner.

APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES

                Moved by Mr. Steimel, seconded by Mr. Haines, and it was carried unanimously to approve the minutes from March 2008.

APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA     

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

APPOINTMENTS

Farmland Assessment

Review Committee:                                    Mr. Nicholas Moore, reappointment for a

term of 3 years, until 04/30/2011.

Regional Planning Commission:           Mr. Mike Becker, primary representative

Mr. Leslie Bellah, alternate representative

Both for the Village of Kirkland

Mr. Russell Farnum, primary representative

For the City of DeKalb County

Mr. Richard Gentile, primary representative

Ms. Laurie B. Curley, alternate representative

For the City of Genoa

Ms. Becky Morphey, primary representative

For the Village of Somonauk

Mr. Roger Steimel, primary representative

Ms. Ruth Anne Tobias, alternate

Representative

Both for the County of DeKalb

All reappointments for a term of 3 years, until 04/30/2011.                                                                                   

Appointments expiring for May 2008:

Workforce Investment Act Board – 2 positions

1.)     Workforce Investment Act Board – 2 positions

2.)     Building Board of Appeals – 2 positions

Expiring in June 2008:

1.)        Community Services Administrative Board – 4 positions

Moved by Mr. Rosemier, seconded by Mr. Haines, and it was carried unanimously to forward the appointments to the full board for approval.

APPROVAL OF THE COUNTY BOARD AGENDA

Mr. Ray Bockman, County Administrator, reviewed the County Board Agenda for the Board Meeting to be held on April 16, 2008. 

Mr. Haines said that in the last couple of days he has received some phone calls from Democrats about the Ad Hoc Rules Committee ordinance, as well as, a phone call that he made to State’s Attorney Ron Matekaitis about the same.

Mr. Haines explained that one of the concerns about this ordinance, which we talked about being the right thing to do and a long time coming, was that there is no binding effect on future boards and that it could be overturned by a simple majority at any future time. Because of that he has second thoughts about this ordinance.  Right now we are talking about passing this ordinance to change the rules, which would reduce the power of whatever the majority party is on the County Board. If we do pass that, it would be in effect for however long the majority of the County Board cared to have it in effect.  Any time that they would want to change it they could.  When he looked for any way that the County Board could bind future boards by requiring a super majority like a 2/3rds or ¾ vote to change this - he was told that it is not legal under the law by State’s Attorney Matekaitis.

Mr. Haines would like to have the Democrats review this ordinance and discuss it further and caucus them. He would like to hold back on this ordinance in light of this new information.

Mr. Haines said that Mr. Matekaitis further stated that there is no statute for a simple majority rule, this is a County Board rule and it can be changed at any time.

Mr. Rosemier said that the intent of this ordinance, he believes, is to show good faith, which is what I think we are interested in doing.

Mr. Bockman asked Mr. Haines if Mr. Stoddard, as Chairman of the Ad Hoc Rules Committee, who originally sent this item to the Executive Committee to add to the county board agenda, had weighed-in on this matter?

Mr. Haines said no.

Mr. Bockman said that he doesn’t know the legality of it, but it is irregular for someone on this committee to pull someone else’s committee business off of the county board agenda.

Mr. Steimel said that he was disappointed to hear all of this on this ordinance, because it is one of the goals that he had because he has seen the pendulum swing both ways. Frankly, Republicans have been having a hard time finding good candidates to serve because they don’t want to put up with what the board has gone through the last couple of years.  I was hoping that we would be above all of this. 

Ms. Dubin said that she was concerned about all of these other years you didn’t care about how the other party felt on how they were being treated and how you could get good candidates – this cuts across both ways. 

Mr. Steimel said that he would like us to move ahead and try to pass this ordinance for this time.

Ms. Dubin said that she would like to see it tabled for now and come back after there has been more discussion on it.

Mr. Augsburger asked that prior to the last couple of elections, what kind of balance has there been in the committee chairmanships?

Mr. Rosemier said six years ago we got one committee chairmanship.

Mr. Bockman said that before that the minority party was given maybe two committee chairmanships.

Ms. Fauci said six years ago we were almost an even split on the board. 

After all that we have been through, let’s try it, is all that I ask, said Mr. Steimel.

Mr. Osborne said that he agreed with Mr. Steimel.  By Mr. Haines logic, we don’t’ really need to pay attention to our rules because we can change them at any time by a majority vote, he stated.

Mr. Haines said that it is exactly what he is concerned about that the majority vote can take whichever of those rules are most important and change it to favor the majority at any given time.  And what we are doing is that we are entering into this on good faith and we are willing to give up our power voluntarily, which has never been done before by the majority party.  I would be willing to voluntarily give up majority power in the favor of fairness if we had some guarantee that it would last.  Let’s say that in two years or whatever, if there was a change in the majority of the County Board – this could be overturned and it would be business as usual.  There are no guarantees.

Ms. Fauci said that she can remember in that first election that we only got one chairmanship and hardly any vice-chairs, the press didn’t even cover it.

Mr. Haines said that in the last 48 hours he has received many phone calls on this and he would like to hold this ordinance until there is further discussion on this.

Mr. Metzger, Sr., said that he would be very disappointed if this ordinance is not put in place being from the other party.  If this is not in place and the pendulum would swing to the other side, you wouldn’t have a guarantee anyway.  If this were in place, at least this would be an option on the table and it wouldn’t be………

Mr. Haines said it only takes thirteen votes.

Mr. Metzger, Sr., asked what if you don’t have it in place? 

Mr. Haines said then we would be back to what we always had.

Mr. Steimel said again that the climate on the County Board has improved and he would like to try

this.

Mr. Haines said that it shouldn’t hurt anything if we postpone it, he feels.

Mr. Bockman said that he felt uncomfortable to pull a committee’s business off of the agenda.  He feels that you should ask the Chairman of the committee if he concurs in his business being removed from the County Board Agenda?

It was moved by Mr. Haines, seconded by Ms. Dubin, to table this ordinance from the County Board Agenda until the next meeting.

Mr. Steimel agreed with Mr. Bockman because the Chairman should have some input here.

Ms. Allen said that she sat on the committee and that there were four Democrats and four Republicans. 

Mr. Steimel said that Mr. Stoddard did meet with Mr. Matekaitis and he got the same advice from Mr. Matekaitis, that you cannot bind future binds.

Chairman Tobias returned to the original motion of tabling this ordinance until the next meeting.  There were five yes votes, two no votes and one abstained vote.  Mr. Osborne and Mr. Steimel voted no.  Chairman Tobias abstained.  The motion carried.

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

GENERAL DISCUSSION

Mr. Haines, Chairman of the Finance Committee, said that they are sending two resolutions to the full board for approval this month.  Both of the resolutions have to do with the elected officials salary.  One resolution involves the County Board members and the other resolution involves the salaries for the Circuit Clerk and Coroner. 

Ms. Dubin said that she thought that with the way things are economically today she felt that the recommendations were very generous for people you already have pretty decent salaries.  She would like to see the salaries increase for the people who are making $7.50 or $8.00 an hour.

Mr. Metzger, Sr., asked if we had looked at any salary studies with other counties to see if we are competitive?  In some cases he felt we were a little low in the salaries.

Mr. Bockman said, yes we looked at other salary studies.

Ms. Turner said that the Circuit Clerk has quite a few employees that are part-time with no benefits, so she is saving the county money by hiring these types of employees.  She feels that with the Circuit Clerk performing those two positions also, she is saving the county tons of money.  Ms. Turner feels that the Circuit Clerk office and the Courthouse are being run very well.

Chairman Tobias said that the counties east and north of us are making more money and the counties south and west of here usually make less.

Ms. Dubin asked it a separate resolution could be written on the Circuit Clerk and Coroner’s salaries?

Chairman Tobias said that this committee could not do this.

Mr. Haines said that his committee did also hear from Ken Campbell, Facilities Management Director, regarding his annual report of projects that have been performed in his department.

Mr. Steimel, Chairman of the Planning and Zoning Committee, said that his committee is sending one item to the county board next week on the Landfill License Renewal.  Waste Management had reported to the committee that their volume numbers have increased a little more than the year before.  Nine percent of the refuge is coming from outside of our county, too. Waste Management also reported that we only have 7.4 years left at the landfill.

They also heard from the Public Health Department regarding their Recycling Report.  He asked that it be included in the county board packet for all county board members to review.

Mr. Steimel then informed the committee about the Stormwater Management Committee who held their third meeting.  Their number one item that they felt they had to do is create a new surface water map that would identify all of the creeks and streams, flood plains, limits of watersheds, to name a few.  Some of the work can be performed by county staff and some of the work will have to be done by an outside source.  He said that this would be a long-term process.

          Mr. Bockman said that he hopes that this Board will invite these consultants that have been working on this to a spring or early summer County Board meeting and hear what they have done so far.

Mr. Augsburger, Vice-Chairman of the Health and Human Services Committee, said that they have a few items coming before the County Board this month.  One of the items is an item on overweight vehicles and establishing a fee for this.

          Ms. Fauci, Chairman of the Forest Preserve Committee, said that her committee heard from Mr. McMahon from the Sunrise Rotary who will be holding another 8K Run on May 18^7h.  The Rotary Club will be giving some of the money that they will make from the 8K run back to the Forest Preserve District too, like $15,000.  The committee suggested that the money could be used at Afton Forest Preserve.  Her committee is still discussing the tax abatement policy.

          Ms. Fauci also mentioned that she received late today an email from Mr. John Horn of the Extension Office explaining that there will be a shortfall in their state funding of $200,000.  They are asking for everyone to contact their legislators on behalf of the Extension’s funding by noon on April 9^th.

          Mr. Rosemier, Chairman of the Health and Human Services Committee, said that they held their annual Senior Services Tax Levy Hearings last night.  He said that his committee received 12 proposals from 9 agencies.  The requests totaled $511,000 and the County only has $501,000 to allocate.  He also said that they received 3 applications for one-time only funding, too. 

Mr. Osborne, Chairman of the Law and Justice Committee, said that his committee heard from Sheriff Scott regarding his 2007 Annual Report and Ms. Gilmour’s 2007 Annual Report from the Court Services Department. 

          Ms. Dubin, Chairman of the Economic Development Committee, said that her committee applied for a Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity Grant proposal for an analysis on high-wage job growth in DeKalb County.  The amount of the grant is for $24,000.  They heard from Ms. Fauci and Ms. Vary about the Go Green conference and about the future Energy Workshop.  Mr. Paul Borek, the new Economic Development Corporation Director, will be appearing on the Economic Development Committee’s agenda each month too.  Last month Mr. Borek spoke about social networking.

          Chairman Tobias said that she needs to find 2 County Board members to fill vacancy seats on the Operating Board.  If anyone is interested they are to contact Chairman Tobias.  She said that the board usually meats every other month at 7:00a.m. at the Rehab and Nursing Center.

          She then informed the committee that the Regional Planning Commission discussed the ground water study item.  Most of the communities that are on the Regional Planning  Commission voted to move forward on this issue and approach their communities about the funding needed for this study.

          She said that she would look into inviting the consultants from the Stormwater Management Committee to speak at the County Board Meeting in May 2008. 

          She will also have Alice Elliott make a presentation at the April County Board meeting regarding the Juvenile Justice Counsel and protecting our children.

          She stated that she would be bringing a proclamation forward in May regarding Motorcycle Safety Month.

          Chairman Tobias asked the committee if they would like to hear from the National Pork Board that would like to address the county board and make a presentation in the very near future?  The committee agreed that they would like to hear from them.  Chairman Tobias will notify them what month they will be making their presentation before the full board.

          She also reminded the committee that May is Wetlands Month.

ADJOURNMENT

It was moved by Mr. Rosemier, and seconded by Ms. Fauci, to adjourn the meeting.  The motion was approved unanimously.

Respectfully submitted,

______________________________

Chairman Ruth Anne Tobias

__________________________

Mary C. Supple, Secretary

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