DeKalb County, Illinois

Minutes of the
Executive Committee

April 12, 2011

DRAFT

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

MINUTES

April 12, 2011

The Executive Committee of the DeKalb County Board met on Tuesday, April 12, 2011 at 7:00p.m. at the Administration Building’s Conference Room East.  Chairman Larry Anderson called the meeting to order. Members present were Marlene Allen, Julia Fauci, John Gudmunson, Scott Newport, Paul Stoddard, Pat Vary, and Ruth Anne Tobias.  Mr. Andersen was absent.  Chairman Anderson invited Mr. John Hulseberg to sit in for Mr. Andersen to represent the Planning and Zoning Committee. Others present were Ray Bockman, Gary Hanson, Charles Foster, Riley Oncken, Julia Fullerton, John Acardo, Jerry Augsburger, Stephen Reid, John Emerson, Anita Turner, Sally DeFauw, Kate Schott and Bob Brown.

Moved by Ms. Stoddard, seconded by Ms. Vary, and it was carried unanimously to approve Mr. Hulseberg to sit in for Mr. Ken Andersen.

APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES

            Ms. Tobias said that on the last page of the minutes, first paragraph, second to the last sentence, it should read “were discussions on the CDBG funds.” 

Moved by Ms. Fauci, seconded by Ms. Tobias, and it was carried unanimously to approve the amended minutes from February 2011.

APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

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

APPOINTMENTS

1.)   Ad Hoc Redistricting Committee:       

Staff Members:

Mr. Ray Bockman, County Administrator

Mr. John Acardo, County Clerk

                                                                                    Both for an indefinite term.

2.)  Ad Hoc Supervisor of Assessments

      Selection Committee:                            Mr. Larry Anderson, Chairman

                                                                        Ms. Ruth Anne Tobias

                                                                        Mr. Riley Oncken

                                                                        Staff Member:

                                                                        Ray Bockman, County Administrator

                                                                               Advisory

                                                                        Gerald Wahlstrom, Chairman, Board of Review

                                                                        All for an indefinite term.

3.)  DeKalb County Board of Review:                    Mr. Gerald Wahlstrom

                                                                        Mr. Marlin Chaplin

                                                                        Both reappointments for a term of 2 years,

until April 30, 2013.

4.)  DeKalb County Farmland

      Assessment Review Committee:                      Mr. Nicholas Moore, reappointment for a

term of 3 years, until April 30, 2014.

5.)  DeKalb County Community

      Services Administrative Board:                       Mr. Eric Johnson, appointment for an

indefinite term.

                                                                        Ms. Rosario Quesada, appointment for a

term of 3 years, until 09/01/2014.

6.)  Regional Planning Commission:                      For DeKalb County:   

Mr. Kenneth Anderson, primary

                                                                        Ms. Ruth Anne Tobias, alternate

                                                                        For the Village of Kingston:

                                                                        Mr. John Fischer, primary

                                                                        For the City of Genoa:

                                                                        Mr. Rich Gentile, primary 

                                                                        Ms. Laura Curley, alternate

                                                                        For the Village of Kirkland:

                                                                        Mr. Les Bellah, primary 

                                                                        For the Village of Somonauk:

                                                                        Ms. Becky Morphey, primary

All Reappointments, for a term of 3 years, until 04/01/2014.

Appointments expiring for MAY 2011:

1.)   DeKalb County Nursing Home Foundation Board – 1 position.

Moved by Mr. Hulseberg, seconded by Ms. Tobias, and it was carried unanimously to forward these appointment recommendations 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 20, 2011. 

Moved by Ms. Vary, seconded by Ms. Tobias, and it was carried unanimously to approve the County Board Agenda.

GENERAL DISCUSSION

Mr. Newport, Chairman of the Finance Committee, said that the Finance Committee discussed the budget process and looked at preliminary figures for FY2010.  The report also showed that the expenditures were less then what was budgeted, which is good news.

            Mr. Gudmunson, Chairman of the County Highway Committee, said that they are bringing back resolution #R2011-07 because it was under protest and the committee pulled the item off of the county board agenda.  That concern has been answered and the resolution is being sent back to the full board for consideration.  Mr. Gudmunson said that the county-wide fuel bill for March and April was $50,000.00.

            Mr. Hulseberg asked if the county could lock in a price.

            Mr. Gudmunson said that it is something that we could look into.

            Chairman Anderson said that the County has tried to.

            Mr. Stoddard asked Mr. Gudmunson what was the protest on the resolution #R2011-07?

            Mr. Gudmunson said that it was protested because of labor reasons.  The State of Illinois has denied the protest and it is settled now. 

            Ms. Allen, Chairman of the Law and Justice Committee, said that her committee heard from the Mr. Dennis Miller, DeKalb County Coroner and ESDA Director.  He gave his annual report on both departments.    

            Mr. Stoddard, Member of the Health and Human Services Committee, said that they have held the Senior Services Tax Levy Hearings on both April 4, 2011 and April 11, 2011.  The committee decided to leave the “rainy day” funds alone and keep the allocations to the funds available.  The final total of allocations equals about $488,000. 

            Ms. Fauci, Chairman of the Forest Preserve Committee, said that the Forest Preserve Committee will be meeting at the Somonauk Library next week since Mr. Hannan is negotiating with the Mayor of Somonauk for a bike path there. There have been some animal issues at some of the forest preserves so Terry has contacted the Animal Control Division at the Health Department to help him with the issues.  Mr. Hannan has also entered into an Intergovernmental Agreement with the Sheriff’s Department for designated patrol in the forest preserves.

            Ms. Vary, Chairman of the Economic Development Committee, said that her committee will be meeting tomorrow evening and that there will be a presentation on the Fiber Optics Project along with discussion on an Amendment to the Fiber Optic Indefeasible Right to Use Agreement with DeKalb Fiber Optic.  She encouraged the county board members to attend.  

Ms. Tobias, Vice-Chairman of the County Board, said that the Groundbreaking ceremony went very well on April 4, 2011.  The Ad Hoc County Engineer Selection Committee will be forwarding the name of Nathan Schwartz of Rochelle, Illinois, as the recommendation for the County Engineer position.  The Ad Hoc Jail Planning Consultant is still gathering data from the Sheriff’s Department and other judicial offices.  The committee has learned that we have 20 prisoners from Cook County and that the inmates are staying in the jail for longer periods of time. And the Ad Hoc Courthouse Oversight Committee is sending one resolution to the full board for approval this month regarding the amendment to the bond proceeds.

Mr. Hulseberg, Vice-Chairman of the Planning and Zoning Committee, said that his committee will be sending an item to the full board for approval this month regarding the License Renewal for the Landfill Operation.  The committee also discussed that they may look into raising that fee from $50.00.  They also heard from Ms. Springmire from the Health Department’s Environmental Division who gave a report to the committee. She said that they are looking in the southern area of the county for a new recycling center down there.

Mr. Gudmunson said to talk to Victor Township, they may be interested in it.

Mr. Bockman, DeKalb County Administrator, said that first he wanted to apologize to the Finance Committee, those present at the meeting and Mr. Foster for some of the comments he made at their meeting the other evening.  He would like to be more receptive to new ideas. 

Mr. Bockman then explained to the committee his memo that will be going out to the entire board tomorrow regarding the Courthouse Expansion Project/Resolution R2011-25.  He explained that the bond proceeds were initially divided by allocating $14.5 million to the courthouse project and $400,000 to the jail planning effort.  The remaining $798,831 was not allocated to either project at that time. As design work on the project continued and costs were continually refined several items such as the finishing of the public defender’s space and additional courts that were part of the original concept were removed to remain within the planning budget.  These items were designated alternates to be completed only if funds were available.  Similarly some items such as a larger emergency generator were identified that would improve the project and were also placed on the list of alternates to be done if funding was available.

Bid solicitations asked the bidders bid on the base project and also bid on each of the listed alternates. The determination of “low bidder” was based on a combination of base bids plus all approved alternates.  The resolution going before the board is to allocate the remaining bond proceeds with $500,000 going to the courthouse project and remaining $298,831 to the jail planning effort.  Unspent courthouse funds will go to the jail project following completion of the Courthouse Expansion. 

Ms. Fullerton then spoke about her item coming before the full board regarding the amendment to the DeKalb County Code from the Ad Hoc Rules Committee.  They are recommending changes to the DeKalb County Code amending sections 2-26; 2-17 and 2-32 and addition section 2-31 (15).  They essentially deal with members able to override cancelling meetings, citizens able to record our meetings and reducing county board districts and members to 18-single member districts.

Ms. Turner said that regarding the change in county board membership the majority of people present at the meeting that evening stated that they were for keeping it the same.

Mr. John Acardo, DeKalb County Clerk, approached the committee this evening regarding new precinct boundaries. He stated that the public and county board members can find the maps and materials on his website.  He explained which precincts have seen the most growth and needed to be split.

The committee had a brief discussion on this issue.

Chairman Anderson asked to have a motion to send this item forward to the full board.

It was moved by Mr. Newport, seconded by Mr. Stoddard, and it was carried unanimously to amend the County Board Agenda to include consideration the proposed new precinct boundaries.

ADJOURNMENT

It was moved by Ms. Fauci, seconded by Mr. Newport, and it was carried unanimously to adjourn the meeting.

Respectfully submitted,

______________________________

Chairman Larry A. Anderson

  | Home | Return to top | A-Z Index | Return to minutes |