The Finance Committee of the DeKalb County Board, met on Wednesday, January 7, 2009 @ 7:00p.m. in the Administration Building’s Conference Room East.  Chairman Michael Haines called the meeting to order.  Members present were Ken Andersen, John Hulseberg, Scott Newport, Paul Stoddard, Michael Stuckert, Ruth Anne Tobias and Mark Todd. Others present were Ray Bockman, Gary Hanson, Jim Scheffers, Aaron Ruder and Elena Grimm.

APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES

          Moved by Ms. Tobias, seconded by Mr. Stuckert, and it was carried unanimously to approve the minutes from November 2008.

APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

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

TAX DEED CONVEYANCE

          Chairman Haines said that the Treasurer’s Department has approached the committee regarding a tax deed conveyance resolution.  He explained that it involves a piece of “orphaned” property in Squaw Grove Township (Parcel #15-14-185-014) that has been sold and the property will be put back on the tax rolls.  He said that they usually have one of these resolutions each year, in fact, they had three of them in 2008. 

          Moved by Mr. Andersen, seconded by Mr. Stuckert, and it was carried unanimously to forward this resolution to the full board for approved.

PROPERTY TAX ABATEMENT

          Mr. Gary Hanson, DeKalb County Deputy County Administrator, explained to the committee that this is done annually to abate the tax on bonds for the nursing home.  He explained that a portion of the $973,000 property tax levy for the 2008 Tax Year, which was levied for the lease agreement for the retirement of the debt on the 2005 Health Facility Re-Financing Bond Issue, is abated in the amount of $498,060.

          Moved by Mr. Stoddard, seconded by Mr. Todd, and it was carried unanimously to forward this resolution to the full board for approval.

INFORMATION MANAGEMENT OFFICE OVERVIEW

          Mr. Joan Berkes-Hanson, Director of the DeKalb County Information Management Office, reviewed for the committee what her department’s duties are.

          She said that she has worked for the county for 22 years.  She said that the Information Management Office was created in 1999 prior to Y2K.  She has two employees that work in G.I.S. and six employees that work on the Technology side.

          Her department supports 450 networked computer users that are county employees.  She has a great staff and is very appreciative of them.  They also have 50 staff members that have access to the County’s network from their homes.  The Sheriff’s mobile command can access the network remotely, the task force can too, along with non-county users, like local police departments and township supervisors, and people from all over the world that are G.I.S. web users.

          The Sycamore Campus has a fiber backbone.  Her department has created one email and Internet exit point.  They have 20 small databases created by her department, too.  They also support larger, vendor-specific systems (MDI, OSSI, Pentamation, etc.). 

          The major project that they are working on now is the IPT Phone Project.  It has been divided into three phases.  The first phase is involving the Rehab and Nursing Center Facility, the second phase is the Community Outreach Building and the third phase of the project involves the Sycamore Campus.

          With regard to the county-networked departments, they receive 60,000 emails a week, and our employees send out 14,000 emails a week, Ms. Hanson explained.  She said that their servers clean and send out 30% of those emails to the networked users and 70% of the emails are spam.

          The challenges that her department faces for networked services is:

-                      They are on a 24/7 demand with a 7:30a.m. to 5:30p.m. work schedule because of county staff hours, Monday through Friday.

-                      Continually higher expectations by their users

-                      Increased reliance on Internet

-                      Decentralized organizational structure

-                      Security/Anti-Virus/Spam 

Their upcoming Projects are:

-                      Virtualization

-                      Exchange Server Upgrade

-                      G.I.S.- Built ongoing maintenance

Ms. Hanson also mentioned that an upcoming project for G.I.S. would be a census project.

The committee thanked Ms. Hanson for a very informative report.

COMMITTEE CALENDAR & ISSUES FOR 2009

          Mr. Gary Hanson presented a calendar for 2009 for the committee to review and add agenda items that they would like to discuss over the next year.  The committee discussed when to hold the Budget 101 Training Session taught by Mr. Hanson that is held annually.  The committee agreed to hold the Budget 101 Training Session in April 2009 before the County Board Meeting. The consensus of the committee is to leave the Finance Committee Meetings on the same day and time, that is, on the first Wednesday of each month @ 7:00p.m.

SPECIAL FEBRUARY MEETING FOR YEAR-END TRANSFERS

          Mr. Hanson then approached the committee about holding a special meeting for the annual year-end budget transfers.  He is suggesting that the committee hold a half-hour meeting before the February County Board meeting for this issue.  It could substitute for the regular February Finance Committee meeting if there is no other business than this for the month.  Mr. Hanson will let the county board members know whether the special meeting will be at 6:30p.m. or 6:45p.m. in the near future.

EXECUTIVE SESSION:  PERSONNEL – FACILITY MANAGEMENT DIRECTOR VACANCY

          It was moved by Mr. Hulseberg, seconded by Ms. Tobias, and it was carried unanimously by roll call vote to move into executive session to discuss personnel – Facility Management Director vacancy.

          Moved by Mr. Hulseberg, seconded by Mr. Stoddard, and it was carried unanimously to return to open session.

          Moved by Mr. Hulseberg, seconded by Mr. Stuckert, and it was carried unanimously to submit the name of Mr. James Scheffers to fill the vacancy for the Facility Manager’s position to the full board for approval.

          Moved by Mr. Andersen, seconded by Ms. Tobias, and it was carried unanimously to adjourn the meeting.         

                                                          Respectfully submitted,

                                                          ____________________________________         

                                                Chairman Michael Haines