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The DeKalb County Economic Development Committee met on Wednesday, February 13, 2013 @ 5:30p.m., in the Legislative Center’s Freedom Room. Vice-Chairman Bob Brown called the meeting to order. Members present were Jeffery Metzger, Mark Pietrowski, Stephen Reid and Jeff Whelan. Chairman Ken Andersen and Russell Deverell were absent. Others present were John Acardo, Sara Lief, Deb Armstrong, Donna Brown and Anthony Cvek.

APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES
Moved by Mr. Metzger, seconded by Mr. Whelan, and it was carried unanimously to approve the minutes from January 9, 2012.

APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA
Moved by Mr. Whelan, seconded by Mr. Reid, and it was carried unanimously to approve the agenda.

CHAIR’S COMMENTS
Vice-Chairman Bob Brown thanked everyone for all of their thoughts, prayers and cards that they sent him over the last several months.

COUNTY CLERK & RECORDER’S INTRODUCTION AND UPDATE – MR. JOHN ACARDO
Mr. Acardo, DeKalb County Clerk and Recorder, gave his presentation on his office functions and projects. (Please see his attached report to these minutes.)

He did introduce two fees structure changes last year and they have been doing very well. The first one happened at the beginning of the year where he equalized their vital records fee to align it with the Health Department. Since doing so his office has seen a revenue increase of 18%.

They concluded last year with a surplus of $25,000 in the Clerk and Recorder line, which he is happy to report. His office did that through planned staff retirement through attrition, efficiencies that he has introduced in the office.

Mr. Metzger asked Mr. Acardo how many staff members are in his department.

Mr. Acardo said that he has twelve staff members. They have had several planned retirements last year and a death in their office.

They did a restructuring of the staff at that time to adapt to the many changes that were going on in his office. With that in mind, they hired two new part-time staff members and now the overhead has been significantly reduced because now they do not have to pay for benefits. They were able to strategically adapt to the changes that are occurring this year, like their new land records system.

Additionally, with extra revenue coming into the County last year, the County Board did approve Resident increase on property recordings. That is anticipated to bring in $104,000 next year. If we follow keep track of the recording process this year it will actually be significantly more, about $40,000 more, which is great for the County.

In the Election Department he was able to reduce his budget an almost $90,000 reduction from four years ago to $400,600.00.

This past year, the County was able to receive an $112,000 grant which allowed us to procure capital and make the Election process more efficient, saving in the long run.

While their costs remained low, there was a need to increase funding to staffing of employees and election judges in advance of the November 2012 Elections. With one staff member requesting leave for an extended period, contractual obligations necessitated the increase in pay for the remaining staff.

Due to the circumstances outlined above, the Election line did run over. This overage was able to be covered with the savings realized from the Clerk and Recorder line along with an unexpected check from the State for our Election Judges so as to not affect the general fund balance.

Mr. Acardo also mentioned that the “walk list” under elections is online and was paid for by the Federal Grant monies that they received.

The committee thanked Mr. Acardo for his very informative report.

DEKALB COUNTY CONVENTION AND VISITOR’S BUREAU REQUEST FOR ANNUAL RESOLUTION
Ms. Deb Armstrong, Director from the DeKalb County Convention and Visitor’s Bureau presented her annual resolution for selecting her agency as DeKalb County’s Agency of Record for Tourism Promotions for the Illinois Office of Tourism FY14 Fiscal Year. She informed the committee that this is an annual request that she brings forth to get re-certified with the State of Illinois. There is also a letter of support that the Chairman of the Board needs to sign. She said that they have brought in $7 million last year into the County and that they have brought in the IHSA Football event to our County for every other year with a projected number of visitors of at least 32,000.

It was moved by Mr. Metzger, seconded by Mr. Whelan, and it was carried unanimously to forward this resolution to the full board for approval.

DISCUSSION ON THE COMMITTEE’S ROLE AND FUNCTION TO THE COUNTY
Vice-Chairman Bob Brown suggested that we table this item since it is the Chairman’s item that Mr. Andersen was going to discuss. The committee agreed.

ADJOURNMENT
Moved by Mr. Metzger, seconded by Mr. Whelan, and it was carried unanimously to adjourn the meeting.

Respectfully submitted,

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Kenneth Andersen, Chairman

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Mary C. Supple, Secretary

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