The Executive Committee of the DeKalb County Board met on Tuesday, August 10, 2004 @ 7:00 p.m. at the Legislative Center’s Freedom Room. Chairman Dennis Sands called the meeting to order.  Members present were Marlene Allen, Sue Leifheit, Jeff Metzger, Mr. Wilson and Roger Steimel.  Ms. Tobias was absent. Others present were Ray Bockman, Gary Hanson, Vince Faivre, Julia Fauci, Eileen Dubin and Greg Millburg.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES

          Moved by Ms. Leifheit, seconded by Mr. Wilson, and it was carried to accept the minutes of the July, 2004 meeting.   

APPROVAL OF AGENDA

            Chairman Sands said that there was an item to be added to the agenda reflecting the Declaration of Vacancy on the County Board because of Cliff Simonson’s death.  He placed it as item #4a on the agenda.

          Moved by Mr. Wilson, seconded by Ms. Allen, and it was carried unanimously to approve the amended agenda.

APPOINTMENTS

          Chairman Sands recommended the following appointments:

Clinton-Shabbona Drainage

District #1:                                       Mr. Leonard G. Anderson, reappointment for a term of 3 years, until 09/01/2006. 

Union Drainage District #1:              Mr. William (Bill) Smith, reappointment for a term of 3 years, until 09/01/2006. 

Coon Creek Drainage District:          Mr. Frank Engel, reappointment for a term of 3 years, until 09/01/2006. 

Squaw Grove Drainage District #1: Mr. Allen Bark, reappointment for a term of 3 years, until 09/01/2006. 

Normal Drainage District:               Mr. Stephen Storey, reappointment for a term of 3 years, until 09/01/2006.

Moved by Mr. Steimel, seconded by Ms. Leifheit, and it was carried unanimously to approve the appointments as presented by Chairman Sands, and to forward them to the full board for approval.

DECLARATION OF A VACANCY ON THE COUNTY BOARD

Chairman Sands briefly reviewed the resolution that was being presented to the committee that evening regarding the vacancy on the county board due to Cliff Simonson’s death.  He explained that the State’s Attorney, Ron Matekaitis, drafted the resolution for the committee to review this evening. He said that there has been some difference of opinion as far as whether his death is beyond the 28 months or whether an election needs to be held for that seat in November.  He said that in the fifth paragraph it states that the county board is declaring a vacancy on August 18, 2004, which is different than when the actual vacancy occurred on August 1, 2004.  He said that he met with many individuals regarding this matter including the State Board of Election, Mr. Bockman, Mr. Matekaitis and Ms. Holmes, DeKalb County Clerk.  He said that the question is, “when did the vacancy occur?” 

Chairman Sands then passed out copies of the statute and highlighted the two sections that he is referring to.  One is when the office becomes vacant and the other one involves when a vacancy occurs and what the county board needs to do (see attached statute to these minutes).  Chairman Sands continued by stating that the controversy occurs because if the vacancy is declared on August 1, 2004, then the vacancy is longer than 28 months.  If the vacancy is declared at the board meeting on August 18, 2004, then the time is less than 28 months.  Therefore, if it is declared August 1, 2004 there has to be an election in November 2004.  If it is declared August 18^th there doesn’t need to be an election, the person just fills out the term. 

Ms. Leifheit said that after reading the statute she feels that it doesn’t say when the vacancy happened, it’s when the vacancy occurs.  The vacancy happens clearly at the death of the incumbent.  The vacancy occurred, then the county board declares it.  She sees the vacancy occurring at the death of Cliff Simonson, not the 18^th of August.  Mr. Sands said that it was his and the State Board of Elections initial reaction too.  More people got involved and more discussion happened.  The reason that they moved it to August 18^th was the argument of, “what if a person was dead for a week or two weeks before they were found?”  When do you declare the vacancy exists, when they died or when they were found? 

Ms. Leifheit said that it states when the vacancy occurred and the definition is quite clear about that.  Mr. Bockman said that the State’s Attorney is the person that guides the county board to interpret the law. 

Ms. Leifheit said that she was appointed for the vacated seat of Joyce Nelson in August of 1989 and she had to run for election that following November.  Ms. Nelson moved out of state.  Mr. Bockman said that you were appointed to fill her term, then clearly her term had less than 28 months remaining at that time.  In the past all that we have ever looked at was at the time the vacancy occurred, how much time remained, said Mr. Bockman.  The only reason that I called the State Board of Elections this time is because by his calculation, it looked like Mr. Simonson died the day after the 28-month rule.  But in consulting originally with the State Board Of Elections, they said no, you have to go to the day the term ended.  All of the terms run to the first Monday in December, which in 2006 is on the 4^th of December.  So they originally told me that the cut-off date would be August 4^th in this case.  This would mean that if the vacancy occurred before August the 4^th there would be more than 28 months remaining, which meant whoever got appointed would need to be on the ballot for the November election.  Giving the other party the right to caucus a candidate in, as well.  Ms. Leifheit said that this is exactly what happened in her case, right?  Mr. Bockman said that he doesn’t know for sure but that we can research it to be sure. 

Mr. Steimel questioned why the State’s Attorney’s advice went against the statute? 

Mr. Wilson said that in past employment that he had, he had to handle several deaths.  He can remember one case where a person who died was not found until the next day.  The death certificate is signed by a medical examiner and it is considered the date of the death.  If you carry it a little bit further, and you have a person die with life insurance and if you go to that company two or three weeks after the death, the one thing that you have to produce is the death certificate that indicates the date of the death, not the date that you’re contacting the insurance company. 

Ms. Fauci asked how did the resolution get written up? She also asked if the email that Ms. Supple sent to all county board members about Mr. Simonson’s death would be considered a notice of vacancy?  The committee didn’t know since the State’s Attorney was not present at the meeting to answer that question. 

Ms. Leifheit said that she would like an explanation from the State’s Attorney on how he can overlook the wording in the statute? 

Chairman Sands said that he would feel better if the resolution stated August 1^st instead of August 18^th.

After further discussion the committee agreed to forward the resolution to the full board without a recommendation and asked that the State’s Attorney communicate with the board about how he came up with this decision.  They also would like to have him present at the county board meeting to answer the board member’s question.   The committee directed Ms. Supple to include the statute and resolution in the packet for all the board members to review.

COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR’S MONTHLY REPORT

Mr. Bockman, DeKalb County Administrator, said that he had been approached by Chairman Sands to give a brief report to the county board members each month at their monthly meetings.  Chairman Sands said that it was his intent to have Mr. Bockman brief the county board in a report format with no questions asked.  The committee agreed to put this item on the county board agenda after Communications and Referrals and thought that it was a great idea.

APPROVAL OF THE COUNTY BOARD AGENDA

Mr. Bockman, DeKalbCounty Administrator, reviewed the county board agenda for the board meeting to be held on August 18, 2004.

Moved by Ms. Leifheit, seconded by Mr. Steimel, and it was carried to forward the county board agenda to the full board for approval.

GENERAL DISCUSSION 

Ms. Allen, Chairman of the Public Services Committee, said her department listened to Ms. Jill Olson, Executive Director of CASA in DeKalb County.  Ms. Olson stated that the monies from the county helped pay for a conference room to rent for her department where now her advocates can meet with the children in private.  Ms. Allen also stated that Ms. Whitwell, DeKalb County Assessor, came before them with a resolution requesting the extension of the filing deadline for the Senior Freeze to be December 31, 2004.

Mr. Wilson, Chairman of the Public Infrastructure & Development Committee, said that they visited the Railport in Rochelle before their meeting.  He said that they are operating at less than 10% of their anticipated projection.  They also took the budget home to study and review before their next meeting in September. 

Ms. Leifheit, Chairman of the Administrative Services Committee, said that her committee meeting was cancelled because there was only one item to discuss which dealt with the GIS fee.  She decided that this is a budget item and would be discussed at that time.

          Mr. Steimel, representing the Planning and Regulation Committee, said that his committee discussed the Ebel Ordinance, which is an extension.  The Cassamatis item involves a home that burned down and the architect and contractor hired, took a very long time and took over 180-days to begin work on rebuilding the new home.  The 84 Lumber item involves the company wanting to build a lumberyard east of Route 30, ½ mile east of the city limits of Hinckley.  The County says that we want these developments adjacent to the city limits.  At the last minute, property adjacent to Hinckley became available; negotiations started that afternoon.  The price is an issue, but they were hoping to work something out.  The attorney asked to have the item tabled but that they could still get it on the county board agenda for August in case he couldn’t work something out through the negotiations.  He spoke with Mr. Miller, DeKalb County Planning and Zoning Director about it and decided that they would hold a special meeting the night of the county board meeting because this is important to the city of Hinckley. This new adjacent property is in the industrial park east of town.

          Mr. Metzger, Chairman of the  Forest Preserve Committee, said that their meeting is next week and that the Citizens for an open space referendum will visit them.  They will be planting a tree for Cliff Simonson and will be electing a new vice-chairman for the committee.

          Chairman Sands said that at the Public Policy Committee, they discussed legislative agenda issues.  Industrial Hemp and the gasoline tax, and ways for the Sheriff to recover costs associated with impounding vehicles from drunk drivers, were some of the issues.

ADJOURNMENT

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

                                                          Respectfully submitted,

                                                          _________________________________

                                                          Dennis R. Sands, Chairman

_______________________________
Mary C. Supple, Secretary