DeKalb County, Illinois

Minutes of the
Executive Committee

February 7, 2012

DRAFT

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
MINUTES

February 7, 2012

The Executive Committee of the DeKalb County Board met on Tuesday, February 7, 2012 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, Ken Andersen, Julia Fauci, John Gudmunson, Scott Newport, Ruth Anne Tobias and Ms. Vary. Mr. Paul Stoddard was absent. Others present were Ray Bockman, John Hulseberg, Sally DeFauw, Bob Brown, Derek Tyson, Jeff Whelan, Greg Millburg, Riley Oncken, John Acardo and Stephen Reid.

Chairman Anderson invited Mr. Emerson to sit in for Mr. Paul Stoddard to represent the Health and Human Services Committee.

Moved by Ms. Allen, seconded by Mr. Andersen, and it was carried unanimously to accept Mr. Emerson to represent the Health and Human Services Committee.

APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES

Moved by Ms. Vary, seconded by Mr. Gudmunson and it was carried unanimously to approve the minutes from January 2012.

APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

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

Mr. Newport asked if the agenda could be amended to include item #3a. for energy aggregation. Mr. Andersen seconded the motion. The amended agenda was carried unanimously by a voice vote.

ENERGY AGGREGATION – MR. RAY BOCKMAN, COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR

Mr. Bockman presented a draft resolution to the committee this evening regarding the creation of an energy aggregation committee. This came about after a meeting with Mr. Childress of Progressive Energy and Paul Miller. Progressive is preparing the preliminary work for the County in anticipation of the March 20, 2012 referendum in the unincorporated areas of DeKalb County. They will start a campaign a couple of weeks before this election. Their thinking is that if you start too early the energy and information is pretty much wasted. You want to put the information before the voters in a fairly short proximity before the election. They also have said that this issue is usually very popular and that a high percentage of these referenda have passed. It appears that most of the incorporated places in DeKalb County have also placed this on the ballot or will be placing it on the ballot. The suggestion that the resolution makes is for the county board to consider now appointing an Ad Hoc Energy Aggregation Committee. The reason for the suggestion is that presuming the proposition passes, there will be a relatively short period of time during which Progressive would like to adopt a Plan of Governance and that is what you need to adopt prior to going out to bid. And also, once those bids come in the vendors will not hold the pricing for very long at all. So you need to have somebody in place to approve the bids as they go out, get the information from the bidders back in, and approve and sign off on whatever they feel is the best bid. This is all going to happen in a fairly short period of time. So the suggestion here is that the county board appoints the committee now and empowers them to carry out their duties.

Chairman Anderson asked Mr. Bockman if we need to pass the resolution first then?

Mr. Bockman said that the Executive Committee is recommending this resolution to the board and then you are going to recommend the members to sit on the committee to the board. The recommendation needs to happen tonight.

Ms. Vary said as far as the committee is concerned?

Mr. Bockman said, yes recommending the members tonight.

Mr. Andersen asked if a regular standing committee could work on this issue?

Mr. Bockman said possibly, but you won’t have a committee made up people who are entirely from rural areas.

Mr. Andersen said that he understood that, but those of us who have districts that cover both unincorporated areas and incorporated areas could. It seems to me that those people could also represent the voters who live in unincorporated areas.

Ms. Fauci said that if you sent it to one of our standing committees the timing might not be fast enough.

Chairman Anderson asked Mr. Bockman how many meetings would this committee have to have?

Mr. Bockman said that there needs to be 2 meetings in the first 10 days and then 2 more in the weeks after that - one to authorize the bids and one to approve the winning bid.

Chairman Anderson said so this sounds like a very short-lived committee.

Mr. Oncken said that our rules allow for the Chairman of the Board to appoint committees at his or her discretion, so if you see the need for a committee, then you have the authority to appoint a committee as you see fit.

Mr. Bockman said that the purpose of the resolution is as much or more to empower this committee than it is to create it. The committee will carry out duties that the County Board would otherwise do.

After a brief discussion it was moved by Mr. Newport, seconded by Ms. Fauci, and it was carried unanimously to forward this resolution to the full board for approval.

APPOINTMENTS

1.) DeKalb County Rehab and

Nursing Center Operating Board: Lynn Shepard

Veronica Casella

Kenneth Andersen

Russell Deverell

Ronald Klein

Rita Nielsen

Brenda Bannon

All to be reappointed for a term of 1 year,

until January 1, 2013.

2.) Supportive Living Facility Board: Lynn Shepard

Veronica Casella

Kenneth Andersen

Russell Deverell

Ronald Klein

Rita Nielsen

Brenda Bannon

All to be reappointed for a term of 1 year,

until January 1, 2013.

3.) Ad Hoc Electrical

Aggregation Committee: Bob Brown

John Gudmunson

Dan Cribben

Ruth Anne Tobias

John Emerson

All indefinite terms.

4.) Board of Health: Christine Jones, RN, MS

To fill the unexpired term of E. Sue

Thompson until December 31, 2013.

Appointments expiring for March 2012:

1.) Workforce Investment Act Board – 1 position

2.) All Fire Protection Districts – multiple positions

3.) DeKalb Sanitary District – 1 position

Moved by Ms. Vary, seconded by Ms. Tobias, and it was carried unanimously to forward these appointment recommendations to the full board for approval.

WATERSENSE PARTNERSHIP – VICE CHAIRMAN RUTH ANNE TOBIAS

Vice-Chairman Ruth Anne Tobias passed out some information regarding a 2- step program sponsored by the US EPA that promotes water conservation and efficiency. It is similar to the Energy Star Program and that there are two main branches of the WaterSense Program. The first part deals with dishwashers, toilets and showerheads that all have the WaterSense label on them. If compliant, the fixture is then labeled as a WaterSense product. This typically means that the product uses approximately 20% less water than the conventional product.

The second part of the program offers a variety of volunteer partnerships with the county and cities with the EPA in the WaterSense program and then the County and cities would need to pass a resolution stating that we are doing this partnership. She is not asking for this resolution tonight, as she will be bringing this issue before the Regional Plan Commission at their next meeting. Tonight she is just bringing this issue forward as informational. There is no cost to sign up and we will just need to prepare a one-page report once a year. This is just volunteer, not mandatory. She will bring this issue back to this committee when she presents the resolution.

COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR’S POSITION SEARCH

Chairman Anderson explained to the committee that Mr. Bockman, County Administrator, Mr. Hanson, Deputy County Administrator and Mary Supple, County Coordinator are recommending various professional organizations to place the County Administrator’s job opening ad in and what the ad should state. Ms. Supple then passed out the summary to the committee to discuss the recommendations.

They agreed to place the ad in professional publications with NACo, ILCMA and ICMA. The ad and the search should be for the most qualified, best fit for the position, said Mr. Bockman. He advises the committee that when searching for the replacement for the county administrator’s position, he said, you want to draw the largest amount of applicants that you can, take a look at them, and when you find the person that you think is perfect for the job, settle on a compensation package. The county board determines what that package will be.

Chairman Anderson said that the Executive Committee would advise staff to place the job ad, collect the resumes and narrow the resumes down to 4 or 5 people and send those resumes on to the Ad Hoc County Administrator Search Committee members who then will hold the interviews.

There was a discussion by the committee about the county board rules and that the rules state that the executive committee is designated as the selection committee.

Mr. Bockman said that you want to have the widest, broadest support as possible when selecting this person. You want the most open, transparent, participatory process as possible so that when the new person starts they know that there was widespread support for his/her hiring. If you don’t do that you will not have broad board support and it will make attracting and retaining the most qualified applicants difficult. He distributed printed materials to those present on the ICMA Code of Ethics for professional managers, the County Code, Local Government Recognition by ICMA and the ICMA voluntary credentialing program.

Chairman Anderson stated that he did discuss this with the State’s Attorney’s Office and they said it was fine to appoint this ad hoc committee. He will check with them again on this issue.

The committee agreed with the timeline for the search for the replacement of the county administrator’s position and the recommended professional publications to place the job ad in.

It was moved by Ms. Fauci, seconded by Ms. Tobias, and it was carried unanimously, to approve the recommendations for publication for the job ad and the timeline.

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 15, 2012.

Moved by Ms. Fauci, seconded by Ms. Vary, and it was carried unanimously to approve the county board agenda and to forward it to the full county board for approval.

GENERAL DISCUSSION

Mr. Andersen, Chairman of the Planning and Zoning Committee, said that his committee is sending two items forward this month to the full board for approval.

Mr. Gudmunson, Chairman of the Highway Committee, said that his committee would be sending two items to the board this month. He explained that one item is for the 2012 General County Letting and the second item is for the Award for the 2012 Road District MFT Aggregate projects.

Mr. Newport, Chairman of the Finance Committee, said that the Finance Committee met briefly the night of the county board meeting in January to discuss forwarding one delinquent property tax deed. They also talked about discussing the budget process again this year.

Mr. Emerson, Member of the Health and Human Services Committee, said his committee discussed a one-time only request for Senior Services Tax Levy funds for the Family Service Agency, which was denied. They also heard from Ms. Moulton about what her department has been doing and her assistant.

Ms. Allen, Chairman of the Law and Justice Committee, said that they heard that community restitution hours ordered last year totaled 123,000 hours. They also heard that there is a possibility of getting another kid to go into the safe house for a total of 2 kids. There are two more kids on that list who may be placed there soon, too.

Ms. Fauci, Chairman of the Forest Preserve District Committee, said that she will be including her Chairman’s report in the county board packet this month and encouraged everyone to read it. Her committee is also taking up the discussion on the Dog Ordinance again.

Ms. Vary, Chairman of the Economic Development Committee, said that her committee was working on getting the Arts and Entertainment Group back together to discuss the formation of an organized arts council. She has scheduled a meeting for next week Thursday, February 16, 2012 @ 7:00p.m. to gather this group together to try and pin them down on this issue.

Ms. Tobias, Chairman of the Ad Hoc Courthouse Committee, said that there was a nice article recently in the Daily Chronicle with regards to the addition to the Courthouse. The project is still under budget and should be finished by the end of June. As far as the Ad Hoc Jail Committee, there has been no movement on that issue as of yet.

ADJOURNMENT

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

Respectfully submitted,

______________________________

Chairman Larry A. Anderson