The Public Services Committee of the DeKalb County Board met on Monday, June 7, 2004, @ 6:30p.m. in the Administration Building’s Conference Room East.  Chairman Marlene Allen called the meeting to order.  Members present were Eileen Dubin, Julia Fullerton, Eric Johnson, Pat LaVigne, Sue Leifheit and Richard Osborne.  Members absent were Steve Faivre and Robert Rosemier.  Others present were Judge Klein, Margaret Whitwell, Sharon Holmes, Mary Olson, Sheriff Scott, Margi Gilmour and Ken Johnson.   

APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES 

Moved by Ms. Fullerton, seconded by Mrs. Dubin, and it was carried unanimously to approve the amended May 2004 minutes.

APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

The agenda was amended by Judge Klein to speak on the 100^th anniversary of the courthouse.  Chairman Allen placed it under item #3a.

Moved by Ms. Leifheit, seconded by Ms. Fullerton, and it was carried unanimously to approve the amended agenda. 

COURTHOUSE ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION 

Judge Klein said that he wanted to notify the committee that the county will be celebrating the 100^th anniversary of the present courthouse on September 26, 2004 from 1:00p.m. to sunset.  He said that a committee has been formed and that Ms. Maureen Josh is the Chairman.  He explained that there will be festivities and live music going on the whole time and that at the end of the event there will be a fireworks display off of the top of the courthouse roof.  Food and drinks will be sold at 1904 prices, except beer.  Judge Klein also said that each community will be included in a time capsule. They will include something in the capsule about their individual communities. 

PUBLIC DEFENDER’S REPORT 

Mr. Ken Johnson, DeKalb County Public Defender, said that the numbers have gone up slightly over the last couple of years on appointments.  He has one attorney that is on maternity leave and his investigator is taking an extended leave of absence due to a family illness for about five to six weeks. 

COURT SERVICES REPORT 

Ms. Margi Gilmour, Court Services Director, said that her Adult Court Services Report remains consistent with the previous month’s numbers. 

In her Juvenile Court Services Report the one female in Focus House has successfully completed the program in May and her case has been transferred to DuPage County because that is where her family now resides. 

It was the first day of summer camp today, said Ms. Gilmour, and 15 kids are taking part in it.  The host site this year is Sycamore Park District for 10 weeks. She also said that they have very good supervision with 6 camp counselors, interns, and one probation officer that rotate every day.   

The second juvenile swap was on May 29, 2004, and that between 18 to 24 kids showed up.  The second adult swap will occur on June 12, 2004 at Franklin Grove, which is the last project that they were working on. 

COMMUNITY SERVICES UPDATE     

Ms. Mary Olson, Community Services Director, reviewed her Outcome Report for the committee.  She said that just a few programs were going on during this quarter.  However, her office did receive more money then they thought and that next quarter they should see more activity.  In the emergency assistance line item it shows that they elected to serve 200 people, but with the budget modification they will be able to increase that number to 880 persons to be served.   

In her Client Tracking Report it shows that there is an increase in single persons compared to single parent females.  As you can see now, they are both neck and neck with clients served that qualify at the poverty level.   

Ms. Olson said that in the budget modification report it shows that her office has received $54,333.00 more, which is the same total amount that they received last year.  What they will be modifying will be the services line item so that they can catch up the case workers to their budgeted salaries; the client assistance, which is the emergency assistance line item will be increased; and the smallest amount will be going to the “other costs” line item, which will be for economic development and job training. 

Ms. Olson then reported that they also will receive federal funds from a Prevention Grant of $26,615.00, which is for the prevention of homelessness. They will receive that amount in July of this year.  This money will help with the prevention of homelessness in the county by helping people with their rent or whatever so that they can stay in their home.  This is a one-time award, per person, she said. 

Finally, Ms. Olson said that there will be included in the county board packets this month an invitation for the dedication ceremony of the Dresser Court Supportive Housing Project for disabled homeless individuals.  This will take place on Tuesday, June 22, 2004 from 3:30p.m. to 5:30p.m.

COUNTY CLERK & RECORDER’S UPDATE

Ms. Sharon Holmes, DeKalb County Clerk and Recorder, updated the committee about what has been happening in her department over the last six months.   

Ms. Holmes said that in the 1^st six months, on the green sheet attached to these minutes, it shows that her revenues are already at $820,000 and she only budgeted for $729,000 for the entire year.  She said that they have already made enough money this year to run her entire department for the entire year.  Therefore, the extra money from now on will be going into the General Fund.  However, she would like this committee to remember that in 2006, the county will have to buy some kind of additional ballot count equipment to become totally ADA accessible. The County will be reimbursed from federal monies, but the County will have to have some money up front to get that equipment.  At this point in time there is no equipment approved by the State of Illinois because they are still writing the standards that need to be met.  It will boil down to some sort of touch screen system machine for the handicapped with a paper trail.  Right now there is no machine made like that. In 2006 she will ask for some kind of money for this equipment and then the county will get that money back in a reimbursement from federal funds.  Ms. Leifheit commented that the county could just rent the equipment vs. purchasing it, correct?  Ms. Holmes said yes, that would be her opinion, but that currently the state board of elections is saying that they will pick a system and tell the counties what they will use. 

          Ms. Holmes then reviewed her document conversion status report for the committee.  She said that she covered the last ten years, which states that in 1994 her office took in 16,657 documents, and last year they took in 36,538 document. So far this year they have taken in almost 11,000 documents and it’s only the beginning of June.  She said that the aperture cards scanned have covered the last 15 years, which amounted to 101,127 documents.  The older red books that have hand written notes have been scanned from 9/16/1962 through 12/31/1964. They are scanning them to look like white background and black print because it takes up less room to store on the optical disk, which helps her to store more information on them. She then sends the red books off-site to the nursing home for storage. 

          Ms. Holmes finally stated that all of the equipment that she has purchased for her department, that is, computers, software, hardware, scanners, maintenance, all were paid for by her micrographic fund.   (This figure is included in her 6-month report, or the green sheet, in the middle of the page.)

SUPERVISOR OF ASSESSMENTS STAFFING CHANGE

Ms. Margaret Whitwell, DeKalb County Supervisor of Assessments, presented a resolution to the committee regarding a staffing change in her department.  Ms. Leifheit said that even though this change is a mid-year request, it was recommended by the administration and with that in mind, she would move to accept the resolution and forward it to the full county board for approval.  It was seconded by Ms. Fullerton and carried unanimously.

SHERIFF’S ANNUAL REPORT

Sheriff Roger Scott briefly reviewed his 2003 Annual Report for the committee.  He highlighted the following pages for the committee to review: Page 3, which states that most of his department’s duties are mandated.  Page 5 covers the Merit Commission and that Ms. Lou Hill will be retiring after 23 years of service to the county.  On page 10 the report discusses the telecommunications division, which was consolidated in March of 2003 with the City of Sycamore and City of Genoa.  He mentioned that there are 440 active felony warrants and 2,743 active misdemeanor warrants currently.  Page 14 covers his Corrections Division and on page 19 it shows that bookings have risen by 3½ % over the previous year.  Page 23 talks about the transports that have taken place and that the regular transport takes an average of 3.2 hours where the juvenile transport numbers equal 2.3 hours.  Sheriff Scott Scott said that the juvenile number is lower in hours because of the agreement that our county has with Kane County and their housing of our juveniles in their detention center. Because of this agreement the detention center is much closer to DeKalb County and therefore requires less transport time.   

On page 24 it discusses the Jail programs and activities.  He said that there is a lot of spiritual support and mental health support with regards to the programs at the jail.  They will be receiving bids for medical and psychological services in the upcoming year.  Pages 26 and 27 focus on the courthouse security and their duties. Every year about 130,000 people have entered the courthouse through the security system in place.  Page 28 covers electronic home monitoring.  The Sheriff said that there are 24 people on it as of today. The equipment cost is $28,165.00 and the court ordered fees are equal to approximately $38,000.00.  A large number of juveniles are on electronic home monitoring.  The successful completion rate is 70% for juveniles and 80% for adults.  Page 34 highlights the detective division of which there are 5 of them. The Major Case Squad works on specific major crimes within the county.  This squad is comprised of 27 investigators, which are activated to work major cases such as homicides and kidnappings.  This squad was formed in 1998 through the cooperation of the Sheriff’s Office, DeKalb Police Department, Sycamore Police Department and the NIU Police Department. 

The Sheriff continued by stating that the vast majority (87%) of the investigative cases opened in FY2003 were crimes against property, such as burglaries, thefts, deceptive practices, frauds, etc.  His office has continued their ongoing aggressive approach to burglary investigation and prevention.  They know from experience that the majority of their burglary cases are drug money related. Therefore, if they are successful in solving burglaries they feel they will reduce the probability of further “copy-cat” burglaries. 

Page 46 talks about the patrol area and the Sheriff said that there are no state police patrols in DeKalb County, the Sheriff does most of the patrolling throughout the county.   

Page 49 shows that there were 329 DUI arrests in 2003, which was an increase over last year’s figure of 251 arrests.  Traffic crashes on page 60 showed an increase in personal injury crashes by 4.  The significant number of crashes occurred on county and township roads.  The most serious intersections are I-88 and Peace Road that had 11 accidents; Route 23 and Derby Line Road, which had 7 accidents and Route 64 and Peace Road, which also had 7 accidents.  On page 67 the chart shows the number of fatalities due to traffic accidents from 1995 – 2003 showed in increase over the year before by 3 more.  There were 11 fatalities in 2002 and 14 in 2003.   

The Sheriff then spoke about New Horizons, page 78, which lists all the previous new horizon projects that were started, completed and are still being performed today.  There were two that happened last year, the first one was the Public Safety Sales Tax that was sent by the county board in October 2004 and then in March of 2004 it failed by 700 votes.  The second item was the Combined Communications Center, which came online March 31 through April 1, 2003, with help from Sycamore and Genoa and many other communities.  The center is a major responsibility with 25 fully trained telecommunicators staffing it. 

After further discussion the committee thanked Sheriff Scott for a very informative report.  

ADJOURNMENT 

Moved by Ms. Fullerton, seconded by Ms. Dubin, and it was carried unanimously to adjourn the meeting.

                                                          Respectfully submitted,

                                                          __________________________________

                                                          Marlene Allen, Chairman

_________________________________

Mary C. Supple, Secretary