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DeKalb County, Illinois |
Minutes of the
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LAW AND JUSTICE COMMITTEE MINUTESApril 20, 2009
APPROVAL OF THE MINUTESMoved by Ms. Turner, seconded by Mr. Oncken, and it was carried unanimously to approve the minutes from March 2009.
APPROVAL OF THE AGENDAChairman Allen amended the agenda by adding item #8.) June Meeting Date and she pulled item #5) Drug Court Update, too. Moved by Mr. Osborne, seconded by Mr. Oncken, and it was carried unanimously to approve the amended agenda.
JUDICIAL REPORT: Ms. Maureen Josh, DeKalb County Circuit Clerk, said that Judge Klein will not be present this evening due to illness.
Circuit Clerk UpdateMs. Maureen Josh, DeKalb County Circuit Clerk, updated the committee on her office. She informed the committee that they are involved in the Automated Public Safety. They are one of a few counties in the State that offers this automated system where the police officers can write a ticket in their car and will be able to use a printer in their cars and transfer the information to her office. They will also be able to receive information from Leads and then they will be able to print out the information. Ms. Josh said that they are using the Sycamore Police Department as the pilot agency because they have the most sophisticated information system of all of the other polices departments in our county.
Ms. Josh also said that there is a new initiative that her office will begin soon, whereby they will be using a collection agency to help collect fine monies. The State’s Attorney’s Office suggested a collection agency for this purpose. They put the request out for bid, first. They then recommended an agency called Harris and Harris, which is an Illinois company. She said that Harris and Harris come to the county at no cost. They add the fee on and continue to do the County’s compliance program, too. She feels that this is a good thing for the County.
Ms. Josh then spoke about the courthouse committee. She feels that the future will bring more room in the building. The biggest problem that her department has is storing the paper documents for her office.
The second floor project is coming along very nicely in her office. It is beautiful and is exactly what they wanted.
Mr. Oncken asked Ms. Josh as to when would the courthouse committee report back to this committee on their progress?
Ms. Josh said that she felt it would be very soon. She said they will be concluding by April 30, 2009 and then they will report back to this committee in either May or June.
State’s Attorney’s Office UpdateMr. Matekaitis, DeKalb County State’s Attorney, updated the committee on his office. He said that his attorney’s caseload is about 100 felony cases per attorney. The one volume felony attorney is carrying about 180 cases. He hopes that another judge could be assigned to DeKalb County in the future to help hear felony cases. The cases currently can take between 60 to 90 days in court for their first court date.
He then said that he is proud of the Drug Court Program in our County. He said that there is a certain percentage of our population that will use the new D.U.I. Court too. Seventy thousand dollars ($70,000) was approved by the County Board, a few years ago, for a new database. He said that IMO would be helping his office with the new database and management system.
The committee thanked Mr. Matekaitis for his years of service to the County and the community, and wished him well as a new Circuit Judge.
PUBLIC DEFENDER'S REPORT Ms. Regina Harris, DeKalb County Public Defender, gave her monthly report to the committee. She said that in March of 2008 her office had 868 opened cases. In March of 2009 the number of opened cases was 1,011. She said that all but 32 cases (the difference) are attributable to Juvenile cases. She explained that in 2008 there were huge budget cuts to DCFS. In 2009, her office has seen a more active DCFS. She also explained that there was a 41% increase in juvenile delinquency cases.
Ms. Harris also mentioned that Mr. Rob Carlson would be starting on May 4th as a new assistant public defender.
COURT SERVICES MONTHLY REPORTS Ms. Margi Gilmour, DeKalb County Court Services Director, presented her monthly Juvenile and Adult Report to the committee. She said that the adult court active caseload is remaining consistent. They now have a fifth adult court officer, which helps with the caseload numbers.
She said that the CRS ordered hours last month amounted to 8730 hours. They are seeing a large amount of hours ordered by the court. She has a new Community Services Coordinator, Peggy Carey, who comes from another DeKalb County agency. She said that her office is now fully staffed.
There were two people in residential placement. There have been 6 detained admissions with 3 being for the 1st time, 1 for the 2nd time, and 2 for the 3rd time.
The Safe house is moving forward and her office has received a lot of responses from the community, said Ms. Gilmour.
JAIL REPORT Chairman Allen said that the Jail Report shows a dip in numbers for the month of March 2009.
JUNE MEETING DATE The committee discussed moving the June meeting date to a later date.
Moved by Ms. Turner, seconded by Mr. Oncken, and it was carried unanimously to changed the date for the June 2009 committee meeting to June 29, 2009 @ 6:30p.m.
ADJOURNMENT Moved by Ms. Turner, seconded by Mr. Osborne, and it was carried unanimously to adjourn the meeting.
Respectfully submitted,
_________________________________ Marlene Allen, Chairman
MA:mcs
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