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DeKalb County, Illinois |
Minutes of the
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DRAFT LAW AND JUSTICE COMMITTEE April 16, 2012
The Law and Justice Committee of the DeKalb County Board met on Monday, April 16, 2012 at 6:30p.m. in the DeKalb County Administration Building’s Conference Room East. Chairman Marlene Allen called the meeting to order. Members present were Ken Andersen, Riley Oncken, Anita Turner and Stephen Reid. Mr. Tyson was absent. Others present were Margi Gilmour, Dennis Miller and John Farrell.
Mr. Tyson arrived at 6:33p.m.
APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES
Moved by Mr. Oncken, seconded by Ms. Turner, and it was carried unanimously to approve the minutes from March 19, 2012.
APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA Mr. Reid asked to add an item for Accountability Act. Chairman Allen said that she would place that on the agenda as item #7b.
Moved by Mr. Oncken, seconded by Mr. Andersen, and it was carried unanimously to approve the amended agenda.
EMERGENCY SERVICES AND DISASTER AGENCY ANNUAL 2011 REPORT Mr. Dennis Miller, DeKalb County Emergency Services & Disaster Agency Director (ESDA) presented his 2011 Annual Report (included in the May 2012 County Board Packet). He said that the County started off with a Severe Winter Storm and Snowstorm that occurred on February 1, 2011. As a result, President Obama declared 60 Illinois Counties as federal disaster areas because of the blizzard that dropped more than 21 inches on snow in some spots in Northern Illinois.
Mr. Miller said that he just signed off for a $24,000 L.E.P.C. grant. LEPC stands for Local Emergency Planning Committee. The purpose of the committee is to register and record all the facilities within the county that manufacture, use and or stores hazardous materials. The committee has also sponsored training exercises for local police and fire departments within the county. This committee continues to meet quarterly.
Due to restrictions in Federal funding, the L.E.P.C. has been forced to make drastic changes in their ability to maintain operational costs associated with doing L.E.P.C. business. Those costs include contractual support for things like maintaining records, taking notes at meetings, the filing of Tier II reports from chemical facilities.
With the federal declaration, local units of government could be reimbursed for up to 75% of their eligible storm-related expenses. The funds for the storm-related expenses covered the costs incurred between January 31st through February 3, 2011. Through the efforts of the ESDA staff, DeKalb County received over $17,000.00 for expenses during that time period.
CORONER’S ANNUAL 2011 REPORT Mr. Dennis Miller, DeKalb County Coroner, gave his 2011 Annual Report to the committee. He said that there has been an increase in total deaths in the County. He stated that 2011 was the highest year ever in deaths. There were a total of 566. He said that accidental deaths were up, suicides were up, and homicides were up. He said that there was one court ordered death certificate and one pending case. He said that cremations have gone up this year. For the first quarter in 2012 they have 181 deaths reported already and 115 cremations so far. He also mentioned that they have a new pathologist who currently works in Cook County. She will begin working for his office on June 1, 2012.
COURT SERVICES REPORT Ms. Gilmour, Court Services Director, said that the Adult Report shows that there were 32 new active adult cases added. The CRS hours ordered for March 2012 totaled 13,789 hours, with 6,431 CRS hours being completed.
With regard to the Juvenile Report, there were 3 detainees, with 3 kids for the 1st time.
Ms. Gilmour brought in a copy of the new Multi-Systemic Therapy contract with her to share with the committee because of the circuit split. She said that this may need a resolution but that she is awaiting word on that She said that we still have time to wait until the resolution comes forward. There will be only a little bit of language changed in the contract. There will be no cost increase.
Ms. Gilmour also presented the new Juvenile Justice Center Contract. There will be a flat fee increase for everyone to pay, including Kane, Kendall and DeKalb Counties, equal to $100 a day, but that the 6 beds assigned for our County’s use remains the same.
STATE’S ATTORNEY’S UPDATE – MR. JOHN FARRELL, ASA Mr. John Farrell, DeKalb County Assistant State’s Attorney, said that he will be attending the Law and Justice Committee meetings instead of State’s Attorney Clay Campbell, because of the large caseload in the office. He said that as of March 31, 2013, his office has filed 235 felony cases, 459 misdemeanor cases and 164 DUI’s, which is slightly higher than last year. He said that his office has settled the jail suicide case, which was in our favor. The Wind Farm case is over now, too. Mr. Farrell said that the case was decided in our favor and was dismissed. All county board members were dismissed from the case. also. As far as the landfill case goes, they hope to have a resolution to this issue by the end of the year.
ACCOUNTABILITY ACT- MR. STEVE REID Last month Mr. Reid brought up an advisory referendum from an article that he read about in the NACo County news regarding jails. The committee members asked Mr. Reid to bring a resolution back to the committee regarding this issue.
This evening Mr. Reid said that he did not have a resolution. He mentioned that after he researched the Kentucky law he realized it did not require board action to lobby our legislators for this common sense solution. State Representative Bob Pritchard is sympathetic to the idea and realizes the problems that we face with over 200 new criminal statutes per year. Hopefully, some other legislators will propose this idea in Springfield. With over 4,000 bills annually considered, it is a challenge to start any legislation and to see it adopted. Mr. Reid continued by saying that he is not going to pursue the idea of a board referendum to use to lobby this issue as it is not necessary.
PUBLIC DEFENDER’S REPORT The Public Defender was not present so Chairman Allen encouraged the committee to call Ms. Harris if they had any questions regarding her monthly report.
JAIL REPORT Chairman Allen said that the Jail Report reflects that the average daily population for the county jail went down slightly to 134 inmates for the month of March 2012. If the committee has any questions regarding the Sheriff’s report, she said that they should call Sheriff Scott.
ADJOURNMENT Moved by Mr. Andersen, seconded by Mr. Oncken, and it was carried unanimously to adjourn the meeting.
Respectively submitted,
_______________________________________ Marlene Allen, Chairman
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