Kankakee Times

The Kankakee County Court Services Committee met on Tuesday, Jan. 19.

Here are the meeting minutes as provided by the Kankakee County Court Services Committee:

Court Services Committee Meeting

January 19, 2016

Page 1

Members Present

Mr. Hess, Mr. Hildebrand, Mr. Mulcahy, Mr. Payton, Mr. Vickery, and Ms. Webber

Members Absent

Ms. Evans, Mr. Skutt, and Mr. Tholen

In Attendance

 Board Members

Mr. Bossert and Mr. Byrne

 Department Heads

Jamie Boyd, Sandi Cianci, Kevin Duval, Tom Latham, and Gus Regas

Media

None

1. Call to Order

The meeting was called to order by the Committee Chairman, Mr. Mulcahy, at 7:31 a.m.

2. Public Comment

3. Approval of Minutes – December 15, 2015

The minutes were not ready for the meeting.

4. Judicial

Chief Judge Kick was not in attendance.

5. Public Defender’s Office

 Monthly Report

A motion to approve the monthly reports was made by Mr. Payton, and seconded

by Mr. Vickery. Motion carried with a voice vote.

Mr. Regas reviewed and discussed his report with the committee, including the yearend

totals. They had about 600 felonies in the past year. He reviewed his staff and the

cases that they handle. His goal is to keep each individual public defender at between

40-50 cases, as far as felonies go.

The Sheriff has a lot of great programs out there, and he wants his people to be

involved in what the Sheriff is offering people who are incarcerated.

Mr. Regas is very happy with the way the Public Defender’s office is functioning right

now. He has contacted the Cook County Public Defender’s office and will be meeting

with them within the next two or three weeks because they said that his office could

train with the Public Defenders up there. He thinks this is a very nice opportunity for

them and wants to take advantage of that, since they won’t be charging them. They are

a very experienced department up there and handle just the most serious types of

cases, so he knows there is a lot they can learn from them and wants to exploit that

opportunity in the future.

Court Services

Committee Meeting

January 19, 2016

Page 2

6. Circuit Clerk’s Office

 Monthly Report

A motion to approve the reports was made by Mr. Hess, and seconded by Mr.

Vickery. Motion carried with a voice vote.

Ms. Cianci stated that there is nothing unusual with her distribution report. The Harris &

Harris report shows that they placed over $5 million in 2015. In 2014, they recovered

$742,000, and, in 2015, they recovered $1,179,539, so she thinks they did really well.

She credits that to doing the Local Debt Recovery Program (IDROP), through the

Comptroller’s Office. This was accomplished by using only six people in her office,

including herself, to handle the process of the Debt Recovery Program that brought in

that extra $437,000. There were many glitches along the way and, for a while, the

Comptroller took them off of the program until they got it all straightened out. Mr. Boyd

and she signed a proposal from CourtView for them to fix these glitches. It will cost

around $10,000, but is a good investment compared to the half million that it will help

bring in. It will also cut significantly down on the hours that her staff has to spend on

manually inputting the information. CourtView stated they should have it ready by midFebruary,

which will still help them for this year.

Ms. Cianci stated that IDROP is also working with the municipal cases to try to be able

to collect those cases as well. How that is to be done is still being worked out because

there is an issue of who actually owns those files.

Ms. Cianci stated that she has hired two new employees, one Floater Minute Clerk, and

one Clerical Assistant.

Ms. Cianci reviewed a report from Harris & Harris with the committee that showed how

many cases were given to Harris & Harris, and what was collected over ten year

periods. Some of the cases are very old, but they are still collecting some of those.

Ms. Cianci stated that she wrote a letter to Chairman Bossert regarding their contract.

There has been a difference of opinion regarding the contract agreement, which caused

her to ask around to other Circuit Clerks that have the AFCSME union-based offices.

The Circuit Clerk from Will County said that she is given her budget, and they let her

work with it. She suggested that Ms. Cianci call the Winnebago Circuit Clerk, and the

attorney for the AOIC, so she did. The Winnebago County Circuit Clerk said that the

county board has never bene involved in his negotiations. Ms. Cianci then called Owen

Dratler, a labor attorney for the AOIC, and he said he needed a letter from the Chief

Judge to Director Tardy, and then he could talk with her. The Chief Judge sent a letter,

so now they’ve been in conversation. He did find the original charter with the Labor

Relations Board, and it stated that the Circuit Clerk was the only one involved, that the

Court Services

Committee Meeting

January 19, 2016

Page 3

County was not involved in the start-up. No one is sure how the County Board was

included or invited to participate. There is case law that states that the circuit clerk is

deemed the sole employer of the deputy clerks and, by statute, the circuit clerk is

authorized to hire deputy clerks and responsible for their acts. She sent a letter to

Chairman Bossert explaining this, thanking the County for the past participation and

support, and letting him and the Board know that she will be taking it from here. She

has Mr. Dratler overlooking the contract and advising her. She will keep everyone

informed as they go along.

7. Probation Department

 Monthly Report

Mr. Hildebrand made a motion to approve the monthly reports, and Mr. Byrne

seconded it. Motion carried with a voice vote.

Mr. Latham reviewed and discussed his report, including 2015 totals, with the

committee.

Mr. Latham stated that they bid over 679 investigations, and supervised 2,256

individuals. They had just under 28,000 successful contacts, which, if he was able to fill

those two positions he always talks about, would be about another 5,000 contacts each.

He’s still happy with the almost 28,000 contacts. They did just under 2,000 urine tests.

They detained 140 juveniles for a total of 3,554 detention days. The juvenile numbers

have gone down, and that’s pretty much state-wide, but the adult numbers are going up.

Mr. Latham had a meeting last week in Wheaton with numerous directors from around

the collar-county area, around Cook. There is a lot of concern with re-deploy. With

adult re-deploy, his office is lucky that they never got off the ground and never hired

anyone. They received a letter a few weeks ago that, depending on whenever the

budget is settled – they couldn’t guarantee that they could go back to July 1 retro. For

them, that’s not a problem as they haven’t spent anything, but for other counties, they

have people in place and paying salaries. There was discussion by several counties

there that they would possibly get out of re-deploy. He is still holding on as it brings

almost $600,000 in grant funds to them, between juvenile and adult. He doesn’t know if

they will ever have a budget for 12 months, and he can get someone hired – he just

doesn’t see that falling in place.

Mr. Latham had previously talked about changing their hours in the Probation

Department, and they have done that. They are open during the lunch hour, which

gives them five hours more a week to see clients and to be there if the Court calls and

needs something. In February, they will start being open one evening a month until

6:30 p.m., so that individuals who work or are out of town can report. They are doing

everything they can to allow people to report, and, if need be, it may go to two nights a

month.

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Committee Meeting

January 19, 2016

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Mr. Latham stated that they did get their September reimbursement; however, half of

the counties at the meeting in Wheaton had not received it yet.

8. State’s Attorney’s Office

 Grand Jury Report

Mr. Hess made a motion to approve the report, and Mr. Vickery seconded it.

Motion carried with a voice vote.

 Computerization Update

Mr. Boyd stated that, at the end of his report, he will be requesting an executive session

to discuss pending litigation.

Mr. Boyd does not have a year-end report for the committee, but he could get them one.

The grand jury has been very busy over the last 12 months. They’ve had some

significant issues with regard to traffic court as a result of the cuts to their budget.

Mr. Boyd stated that, for the third time in the past 12 months, he is losing a significant

employee, one of his best clerks, because they cannot pay enough money and cannot

provide appropriate benefits for employees. He is still making a determination on

whether this person will be replaced. That leaves him with six clerks for his criminal

division. He has two paralegals in the civil division. He has an office manager and a

paralegal that also assist with both the criminal and civil divisions. He also has a

receptionist. When he took office, he had more clerks than he currently has employees.

His felony staff consists of his first assistant, two felony chiefs, and two attorneys. His

traffic team consists of two attorneys, and then he has his attorneys in civil. They have

significantly reduced the crime that they prosecute in his office as a result of the cuts to

the budget. It goes unnoticed by the public because of the manner in which they are

able to handle the things that they have prioritized as most important. They are

currently working on three major cases that the public is unaware of, and which have

taken significant time away from his duties outside the criminal division and the duties of

his felony chiefs and first assistant. He will not be here come November, and he is

afraid that there will be no employees left in his office by that time. He understands that

cuts need to be made, cuts have been made, and he lives with those cuts.

Mr. Boyd stated that the Governor’s Commission on reducing the level of defendants in

the penitentiary is due to be released soon. The State’s Attorneys Association has

representatives on that commission, and they have been given peeks on a regular basis

as to what is going to be on that report, along with the recommendations. They have a

pretty good idea of what is going to be implemented and what is going to be tossed

aside. There will be a reclassification of drug cases and theft cases in the State of

Illinois, reducing the opportunity and the appropriateness of sending those individuals to

prison. There is likely to be an increase in the threshold for which a theft crime

becomes a felony. Most prosecutors and defense attorneys have requested this for the

past 15 years. The difference between a felony and a misdemeanor in the State of

Illinois has not been adjusted since 1963.

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Committee Meeting

January 19, 2016

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Mr. Boyd stated that it has been recognized by the Governor’s Commission, and others,

that re-deploy is going to have to change. If you’re going to reduce the number of

people that we send to prison, then you must, in some fashion, presume that those who

are sent to prison need whatever reform or punishment prison provides. They have

asked for, but not yet received, acceptance of the idea that, if we’re going to keep

people out of prison, then we need to have front line money put toward education and

toward addiction issues.

Mr. Boyd stated that the Tri-County Task Force is dead. He was notified officially by

people in Springfield that the funding has stopped, and, while money has been set

aside, the odds of that money being forwarded to the participants of the last three task

forces in the entire state are pretty much nil. His office, along with two police

departments, stuck it out in hopes that, if they had a place for the money to go, at least

they would get back what they were spending over the course of the last six to eight

months, but that won’t happen now. A new formula will be reached, and they have

been assured by the insurance industry that they will come up with a new way to do

this, but until they do, there is no money, and Springfield will probably find a way to

redistribute what had been money for auto theft task forces.

Mr. Bossert stated that Mr. Boyd might want to mention the sexual assault grant.

Mr. Boyd stated that they were successful in getting the sexual assault grant to maintain

employment of some very good staff in his office. In the past, the sexual assault grant

had run a July-June calendar, but will now run a January-December calendar, which will

make it much easier for his office and the County Board to budget for the

appropriateness of it. They will know by budget time in October-November every year

whether it will be re-upped. He finds it to be an irreplaceable grant.

Mr. Boyd stated that Kankakee County is one of the rare areas throughout the state,

where every department involved in the criminal justice system is lauded whenever they

go meet with their counterparts for the level of cooperation that they have amongst their

department heads.

Mr. Vickery asked about computerization.

Mr. Boyd stated that Ms. Cianci reported on where they are for the most part. The

system is not yet antiquated because it continues to get updated. He has some

concerns with regard to the hardware that is being used and its’ ability to take the

speeds and meet the needs of what the future will be in the next 24 months. While Mr.

Duval and his staff continue to update when appropriate, investments are going to have

to be made. Additionally, the need to be able to go full scale e-filing is being hampered

because we won’t keep up. Once we are able to go full scale e-filing, that will be the

priority when it comes to computerization. You must be able to maintain that system,

and it’s not going to be cheap.

Court Services

Committee Meeting

January 19, 2016

Page 6

Mr. Bossert asked if, by e-filing, he means court documents.

Mr. Boyd said yes. Under the Federal system, you’re not allowed to file hard copy

documents with the court. If a prisoner files a hard copy with the court, that document is

scanned, put into the system electronically, and stored somewhere, but not filed. There

are counties that are moving toward full e-filing in all divisions and departments.

Mr. Bossert stated that e-filing is the ultimate goal that we’ve all strived for since we got

into the automation business because that will eliminate the double work that’s going on

now.

Mr. Vickery asked if it was a storage issue.

Mr. Boyd stated that’s a big part of it, but Ms. Cianci has off-site storage and many

things have been reduced to microfilm or some other electronic measure.

Mr. Vickery stated that his question was really about the things that are scanned. He

has had some conversations with different people in the business, and there is going to

be a tremendous amount of medical records, criminal records, etc., that will all need

storage in the future.

Mr. Boyd stated that, if went to strictly electronic filing, within 18 months, we would not

need the 1,000 square feet that his office has just for file storage.

Mr. Boyd asked to go into executive session at this time.

Mr. Hess made a motion to enter executive session, and Mr. Vickery seconded it.

Motion carried with a voice vote.

The committee went into executive session at 8:24 a.m., and came out at 8:53 a.m.

9. Old/New Business

10. Adjournment

A motion to adjourn the meeting at 8:54 a.m. was made by Mr. Payton, and

seconded by Mr. Vickery. Motion carried.

Mike Mulcahy, Committee Chairman

Diane Owens, Executive Coordinator