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Executive Committee Minutes
May 7, 2013
7 p.m.

PRINTABLE DOCUMENT (.pdf)

 

DRAFT

 

The Executive Committee of the DeKalb County Board met on Wednesday, May 7, 2013 at 7:00p.m. at the Administration Building's Conference Room East. Chairman Jeffery Metzger called the meeting to order. Members present were Sally DeFauw, Julia Fauci, Julia Fullerton, John Gudmunson, Stephen Reid, Paul Stoddard and Anita Turner.

 

Others present were Gary Hanson, John Acardo, Mark Pietrowski, Sally DeFauw, Ruth Anne Tobias, Greg Millburg, John Frieders, Riley Oncken, Derek Tyson, Anthony Cvek, Bob Brown and Jeff Whelan.

 

It was moved by Ms. Fauci, seconded by Ms. Turner, and it was carried unanimously to invite Mr. Bob Brown to sit at the table to represent the Economic Development Committee since there is no chairman from that committee present.

 

APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES
It was moved by Ms. Fauci, seconded by Mr. Stoddard, and it was carried unanimously to approve the minutes from the April 2013 meeting.

 

APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA
Chairman Metzger said that we would need to take item #4 off of the agenda.

 

It was moved by Ms. Turner, seconded by Ms. Fullerton, and it was carried unanimously to approve the amended agenda.

 

APPLICATION FOR A RAFFLE PERMIT
Mr. John Acardo, DeKalb County Clerk, approached the committee about a raffle permit request made by Kishwaukee Valley Art League. They successfully submitted their application and he is bringing it forward tonight for the committee's consideration. This will then go to the full board for approval, he said.

 

It was moved by Ms. Fullerton, seconded by Ms. DeFauw, and it was carried unanimously to forward the resolution to the full board for approval.

 

CANCELLATION OF THE JULY COUNTY BOARD MEETING
Chairman Metzger approached the committee about cancelling the July 2013 County Board Meeting. He said that the office has called the Highway Department, the Planning and Zoning Department and other committees to see if they had anything that they needed to forward to the County Board in July. It does mean that if something urgent comes up that we can't have a meeting, but right now he wanted to know if anyone had an objection to cancelling the July meeting.

 

It was moved by Mr. Stoddard, seconded by Ms. Turner, and it was carried unanimously to cancel the July 2013 County Board Meeting.

 

APPROVAL OF THE COUNTY BOARD AGENDA

Appointments:

1.) Economic Development Committee Chairman: Mr. Jeff Whelan, appointment until 11/30/2014.

 

Moved by Ms. Turner, seconded by Ms. Fauci, and it was carried unanimously to forward this appointment recommendation to the full board for approval.


Appointments expiring for June 2013:
Building Board of Appeals -- 2 positions
Fairdale Light District -- 2 positions


Chairman Metzger informed the committee that he received some good news from Ms. Joan Hanson, DeKalb County Information Management Office Director, about video streaming. He was told that they can now stream live, there is a better image and quality. This means that our county board meeting can be streamed live next week, if we want to do that. With there being no objections, the Chairman said that he would ask IMO to begin this next week.

 

He also mentioned that the sound system in the Gathertorium needs to be replaced, and to think about what type of microphones we would want.

 

Mr. Stoddard, Vice-Chairman of the County Board, said that the Communications Group that met this evening @ 6:00p.m. They did say that they did want to write a column in the newspaper. They would also like a Facebook presence that would just be an information site and not a public forum. They thought that the Webmaster could post it. Mr. Stoddard said that he felt that they could write a column for next month.

 

Mr. Gudmunson, Chairman of the Highway Committee, said that his committee was sending 3 items to the full board this month.

 

Ms. DeFauw, Chairman of the Health & Human Services Committee, said that they finished up with the Senior Services Tax Levy Hearings last month and that they will bring their resolution to the full board in for approval this month. She also mentioned that that past Monday meeting they heard from Ms. Jane Lux on her Annual Report.

 

Ms. Fullerton, Chairman of the Law and Justice Committee, said that her committee heard from Ms. Mary Hess who presented the Illinois Youth Survey to the committee. Some of the concerns that the committee had was about the marijuana usage increase and bullying issues at the schools. She also mentioned that they will probably be canceling the May meeting.

 

Ms. Fauci, Chairman of the Forest Preserve Committee, said that they did not have a meeting last month. She did say that her committee will be meeting the night of the County Board Meeting to approve the resolution for the new Authorized Agent for IMRF.

 

Mr. Reid, Chairman of the Finance Committee, said that his committee will be sending a resolution forward on the County's new Authorized Agent for IMRF to the full board for approval -- just like the one coming from the Forest Preserve District. He also said that they discussed the Evergreen Village issue at their last meeting. The committee then discussed and approved giving a $2500 bonus to six employees in the Finance Office for their work over the 4 ½ months without a Finance Director. A total of $56,000 was saved in salary and benefits during the period without a Finance Director.

 

There was a brief discussion on the bonuses that was handled by the Finance Committee. There was a suggestion to initiate a policy about this issue for the future, but no other action was taken at this time.

 

Ms. Turner, Chairman of the Planning & Zoning Committee, said that her committee discussed the landfill, agribusiness and the Evergreen Village status.

 

Mr. Bob Brown, Vice-Chairman of the Economic Development Committee, said that the movie "At Any Price" that was filmed in our County will be shown in May 10th at the GKC Theaters. He also mentioned that his committee heard from Ms. Jennifer Johnson of the newly formed Arts Council and Mr. Paul Borek with the DeKalb County Economic Development Corporation who gave his quarterly report. Lastly the committee heard from Mr. Dan Kenney regarding the Community Gardens, which now has 38 locations already.

 

Mr. Cvek asked if he could write a proclamation recognizing the Red Cross and other county departments that helped with the Evergreen Village Evacuation to be read at the County Board Meeting next week.

 

Chairman Metzger said that was good and that Mr. Cvek should send that proclamation to Gary to review.

 

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

 

COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR REPORT

Mr. Gary Hanson, County Administrator, then gave his report to the committee. Some of the items that he reported on are mentioned below.

Mr. Hanson mentioned that Enbridge is moving along slowly. He said that he, Mary Supple and Mr. Metzger attended the State of the Counties Event through Metro West. He said that Chairman Metzger represented DeKalb County very well. He said that the County met with the City of Sycamore in late April regarding Peace Road. Mr. Nathan Schwartz, County Engineer, explained a plan to everyone to have an internal study on the accident and everyone agreed to it. He mentioned that Labor negotiations are continuing that we will discuss later on this evening. He also has the nursing home and health departments labor negotiations that are very close to being finished as well. He said that he will be starting the highway department negotiations later this week.

 

Mr. Mark Pietrowski had suggested that if the State does nothing with the conceal carry issue by the June 9th deadline, we should look at it locally to see if we can do anything. This will be going to the Law & Justice Committee to review.

 

Mr. Hanson mentioned that this coming Memorial Day the restoration of the County Cemetery should be finished by then.

He then mentioned that NIU will be hosting the IHSA Football championships this Fall. There is a real opportunity here with economic development and there is a group that has been formed that is coordinating fundraising efforts. They need to raise $225,000 to put this on. He said that the Economic Development Committee may want to take a look at this event as a marketing opportunity for the County.

 

EXECUTIVE SESSION: LABOR NEGOTIATIONS
It was moved by Ms. Turner, seconded by Mr. Reid, and it was carried unanimously to move into closed session to discuss Labor Negotiations, by a roll call vote.

 

It was moved by Ms. Turner, seconded by Mr. Reid, and it was carried unanimously to move out of closed session by a roll call vote.

 

It was moved by Ms. Turner, seconded by Ms. Fauci, and it was carried unanimously to forward the resolution adopting the AFSCME labor contract to the full board for approval.

 

ADJOURNMENT

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

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

 

______________________________
Chairman Jeffery L. Metzger

 

 

_______________________________
Mary C. Supple, Secretary

 

JLM: mcs