Kankakee Times

Members of the Kankakee County Court Services Committee met Tuesday, Feb. 16.

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

Court Services

Committee Meeting

February 16, 2016

Members Present

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

Members Absent

Mr. Vickery, Mr. Hess, Mr. Olthoff, 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, Mike Downey, and Gus Regas Media

None

1. CalltoOrder

The meeting was called to order by the Committee Chairman, Mr. Mulcahy, at 7:30 a.m.

2. PublicComment

3. ApprovalofMinutes–January19,2016

Mr. Payton made a motion to approve the minutes, and Mr. Byrne seconded it. Motion carried with a voice vote.

4. Judicial

5. PublicDefender’sOffice

- Monthly Report

A motion to approve the monthly reports was made by Mr. Hildebrand, and seconded by Mr. Byrne. Motion carried with a voice vote.

Mr. Regas reviewed and discussed his report with the committee. He is gradually working on distributing the case load so that each of his assistants has between 40-50 felony cases.

Mr. Regas stated that he has ten assistants, and he encourages them to go out to the jail and see their clients every month. Each of the ten assistants has between 10 and 20 people in custody. This means about 100-200 visits to the jail, and any time you move inmates, you have to be careful. He would like to work something out with the Sheriff’s Department where they can reserve some times to go out there when the Sheriff’s Department is not so busy in order to reduce the risk to any security personnel and correctional officers.

Mr. Bossert asked about the 2,200 open traffic cases at the end of the month and if whether, historically, that is a significant number.

Mr. Regas stated he had never paid much attention to the pending cases. He always pays attention to the year-to-date, and how many felonies his assistants are closing every month. He will take a look at that though because he doesn’t want the number of pending cases to get out of hand.

Chief Downey thanked Mr. Regas for what he has done. One of the things they heard at the jail in the past is that the inmates complain they never see their lawyers. His office tries to make sure that the wait isn’t excessive when lawyers come to see their clients, and they will try to do everything they can to continue that.

6. Circuit Clerk’s Office ? Monthly Report

A motion to approve the reports was made by Mr. Hildebrand, and seconded by Mr. Payton. Motion carried with a voice vote.

Ms. Cianci stated that there is nothing unusual with her distribution report. They disbursed $391,598. She apologized for the Harris & Harris report. She was just now comparing the numbers, and on the placement chart, the numbers are not the same as they are on the recoveries chart. She will go back and see what’s happening with the Excel spreadsheet. In the open inventory, they have been sending backlog, so in the felony section, they turned over $1 million to Harris & Harris during the past month. In the recovery side, they recovered $48,079 in January. The people who have been receiving their Federal tax refunds have been coming in and paying off a lot of tickets.

Ms. Cianci stated that the issue with the integration with Courtview to Harris & Harris, and then to the comptroller, should have been resolved this past Friday. Courtview wrote a program so that they could send a file to Harris, who could then send it to the comptroller, and it would have all of the tokens pulled for the information the comptroller needs. They will not be sending cases older than seven years to collect. She was told the State taxes were not going to be distributed until after March 1.

Mr. Bossert asked about the error in the Harris & Harris report, if that’s the placements she’s looking at in January.

Ms. Cianci said it’s all of the placements. If you look on the report at the end of the year for all of the placements, those numbers do not match the placements/recovery on the other chart.

Mr. Regas asked, on the collection cases with Harris & Harris, if there is any reason why they won’t negotiate the total amount of the fine. On a regular basis every month, someone will come to him and ask if the fine can be reduced.

Ms. Cianci stated that when the judges did the collections through court, they had that ability, but once they went with Harris & Harris, the prosecutor’s decision was to go with the collection agency. Once it goes to the collection agency, there is no negotiation.

Mr. Bossert stated that Ms. Cianci had sent over a notice about mandatory e-filing coming. This has been discussed a few times during the last several months, and now a Supreme Court order has been issued that this must happen.

Ms. Cianci stated that she spoke with Judge Albrecht about that the other day since she is on the policy committee. She said that the Supreme Court drew the line in the sand, but they don’t have any of the standards created yet, so January 1, 2018, is probably not going to happen. The $5 fee will have to be added on top of every civil filing, every traffic ticket, and anything else. It’s trying to get through legislation right now, so once that hits, they will have to start adding the $5 fee. It’s said that it will create, on past numbers, approximately $7.5 million that should be able to pay for the civil e-filing.

Mr. Bossert asked that once it’s collected, who will hold it. Will it stay local or go into a state fund?

Ms. Cianci stated that she believes it will go into a state fund.

7. Probation Department ? Monthly Report

Mr. Payton made a motion to approve the monthly reports, and Mr. Byrne seconded it. Motion carried with a voice vote.

Mr. Latham reviewed and discussed the January 2016 report with the committee. They had just a little over 2,200 successful contacts.

Mr. Latham stated they were able to get a grant and got a forensic extraction device. Basically, you are able to search phones for things that were deleted. It’s about an $18,000 device, plus another $2,000 to train a person, and they got that through the grant. He believes that will be a very nice tool to have, especially in certain cases.

Mr. Latham stated that the Sheriff’s Department had a Fire Arms Training Simulator (FATS) in which his officers participated. The Iroquois armed officers also came up for it, and from what he heard, the officers all enjoyed it. They will participate whenever the Sheriff’s Department has it, which is twice a year.

Chief Downey stated it is basically a “shoot or don’t shoot” scenario, using a weapon, but not their own. It’s hooked up by laser, so that when you shoot or don’t shoot, it will tell you. It’s good training and it’s reactionary in different scenarios. His corrections people and patrolmen go through it, and it doesn’t cost anything.

Mr. Bossert stated that he recently visited the River Valley Detention Center. There was a meeting of the Public Building Commission there, and they invited him to attend, after which he received a tour of the building. He wanted to compliment the group there as it’s a very well run, maintained building and program.

8. State’s Attorney’s Office ? Grand Jury Report

Mr. Byrne made a motion to approve the report, and Mr. Hildebrand seconded it. Motion carried with a voice vote.

? Computerization Update

Mr. Boyd stated that he would encourage the committee to authorize Ms. Cianci to begin negotiations with Courtview for the cost of implementing e-filing, even though we don’t have all of the standards set forth by the Supreme Court.

Mr. Boyd stated that Brian Gadbois was in touch with him recently to talk about the potential for doing some modifications in the Courthouse, particularly in the Circuit Clerk’s office. He told Mr. Gadbois that the last word from the Attorney General’s office was to not touch anything without their permission.

Mr. Boyd stated that on the note of litigation in relation to the Shell oil spill at the west part of the County, there is a settlement agreement between the parties that required certain things from Shell over the course of the past 14 months. The Attorney General’s office and Mr. Boyd’s office have been negotiating with the attorneys for Shell to have them be in compliance with the settlement agreement. At the end of December, they issued a demand upon Shell, and Shell has decided not to cooperate. On February 23, 2016, they will be appearing in court to probably set a hearing schedule, and perhaps a briefing schedule. This is not the lawsuit that involved local attorneys getting money for the residents. This is a lawsuit between the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Kankakee County, and the State of Illinois, against Shell, for failure to comply with the law at the time of the spill, and now with the regulations with regard to clean-up.

Mr. Boyd stated that the Illinois Supreme Court has issued a mandate for certification of all specialty courts, including our Domestic Violence Court, Drug Court, and Veterans Court. Since he is more personally involved with Veterans Court, it is their intention, sooner rather than later, to submit a certification application and see where it goes. Veterans Court gives a list of crimes that are, by statute, ineligible for participation in Veterans Court. The new certification process actually wants them to not have a court unless they include many of those crimes.

Mr. Bossert made a motion to enter into negotiations with Courtview for the e- filing costs, and Mr. Hildebrand seconded it. Motion carried with a voice vote.

9. Old/NewBusiness

10. Adjournment

A motion to adjourn the meeting at 8:25 a.m. was made by Mr. Hildebrand, and seconded by Mr. Payton. Motion carried.

Mike Mulcahy, Committee Chairman

Diane Owens, Executive Coordinator