Kankakee Times

Members of the Kankakee County Public Safety Committee met Thursday, Feb. 18.

Here are the meeting minutes as provided by the Kankakee County Public Safety Committee:

Public Safety Committee Meeting

Feb. 18, 2016

Members Present

Mr. McConnell, Mr. Hess, Mr. Byrne, Mr. Stauffenberg, Mr. Enz, Mr. Reid, Ms. Polk, Mr. Snipes, Ms. Peters, and Mr. Sirois

Members Absent

Mr. LaGesse and Mr. Tholen

In Attendance

- Board Members

Mr. Bossert

- Department Heads

Sheriff Bukowski and Bob Gessner

Media

Present

1. Call to Order

The meeting was called to order by the Committee Chairman, Mr. Hess, at 9:00 a.m.

2. Public Comment

3. Approval of Minutes – December 17, 2015

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

4. Coroner’s Office

- Monthly Reports

- Monthly Receipts of Money

Mr. Enz made a motion to combine and approve the monthly reports, and Ms. Peters seconded it. Motion carried with a voice vote.

Mr. Gessner reviewed the reports with the committee. The total number of autopsies for the month is two, which was excellent, and that is about a $6,000 to $8,000 savings. The total number of calls was 124.

Mr. Hess stated that there was one typo in the report. The credit card cremation permit should have been 53 instead of 50 in one column.

Mr. Gessner stated that the State of Illinois paid their bill on the autopsies, which was a total of $3,735 that went into the General Fund.

Mr. Enz stated that last year Mr. Gessner made some speeches at schools on his own time. With the end of the school year approaching, there is always a problem with kids drinking and driving around prom time. He asked if Mr. Gessner planned on doing anything like that this year.

Mr. Gessner stated that he does not plan to stop doing that. They have roughly 8-9 programs coming up, so it will be a very busy month for them. They will be at Bradley High School, St. Anne High School, and will try to get into Bishop McNamara. He has also been at several clubs already talking about heroin, and will continue to do that.

Mr. Enz wanted to personally thank Mr. Gessner for doing that on his own and, if they can save just one child’s life, it’s worth it.

5. Sheriff/EMA Department

- Monthly Report

Sheriff Bukowski reviewed the monthly report with the committee. He stated that the census, compared to last year, continues to go down. This is the slowest time of the year, and it should go up.

Sheriff Bukowski stated that they closed out last fiscal year and did well. Right now, they’re doing fine, but they do have some concerns. In Corrections, the staffing level was cut. They had 125 employees, and now they’re in the lower 90’s. They have 11 officers who are going to go on leave due to various reasons. The impact will be on overtime. What they intend to do is hire possibly six part-timers, and those part-timers will hopefully help them avoid the overtime they had in the past which was overwhelming. They also have one individual, Mark Schwark, who is retiring, and has 35 years of service to the County.

Mr. Reid made a motion to put the report on file, and Ms. Peters seconded it. Motion carried with a voice vote.

- Approval to Dispose of Surplus Equipment

Sheriff Bukowski stated that, when they opened the building in 2006, they purchased equipment for the exercise room. They now need to get rid of some of it as they are going to buy some new equipment with the money they had in the seizure, which has been approved by the Federal Government. There is a list of seven items that they need to declare surplus so that they can try and sell them.

Mr. Enz made a motion to approve the disposal of surplus exercise equipment, and Ms. Polk seconded it. Motion carried with a voice vote.

Sheriff Bukowski stated that they have vehicles that were seized and can now be disposed of as well. There are six vehicles: A 2002 Chevy Cavalier, a 2000 Volvo V70XC, a 1998 Honda Civic EX, a 1996 Ford Econoline, and a 2005 Hummer H2. What is done with these, after they declare them surplus, is they have a contract with a company that takes them and auctions them off. Then the Sheriff’s Department gets the proceeds back.

Ms. Polk made a motion to approve declaring the vehicles surplus and Mr. Stauffenberg seconded it. Motion carried with a voice vote.

- Vehicle Fleet (Both Corrections & Patrol)

Sheriff Bukowski stated that they deferred purchasing vehicles, and now have three or four vehicles that have over 100,000 miles on them. By the time they get through this year, they will probably have seven or eight that will be over that. They are going to have to start thinking about replacing them. He has spoken with Chairman Bossert, so he is aware of it. The last time they bought vehicles was in 2011, so they have vehicles from 2009 to 2011.

Mr. Bossert stated that this year, they are still paying off the last batch of squad cars. They were set up on a three year lease purchase. They did budget in their capital development area in the general fund to anticipate starting in on some replacements. There isn’t much, maybe about $30,000. Since they’re set up on quarterly payments, it would be one quarter for the year, so $120,000 is about all they budgeted for the year. Mr. Sirois asked if, when they replace these vehicles, do they use the old radios, light bars, and other equipment in the new vehicles, or is that all upgraded. Sheriff Bukowski stated that, when possible, they transfer them over. The mobile radios are out of date, so they need to replace those. They replaced all of their portables and used the asset forfeiture money to do that.

Mr. Sirois asked if they will stay with the same kind of vehicle if their equipment can’t be transferred to that particular manufacturer. Sheriff Bukowski stated it’s expensive to get those changes made because they’re customized, so they would like to stay with the same vehicles. It all depends on the State bid, but they’ve had such great luck with those vehicles that he would not recommend getting something else.

Mr. Hess asked if the new light bars would be LED that take a lot less amperage. Sheriff Bukowski stated yes, that’s what they sell now.

- Replacement Light Bars

Sheriff Bukowski stated that their light bars are so old now that they can’t get any parts. They need to replace six right now that are out of service, and they’re $1,200 each.

- Food Service Bids

Sheriff Bukowski stated that most of the committee is aware that they have used a company out of Herscher for a number of years, The Country Table. They have a contract with The Country Table, and there is a component of that contract that allows them to extend the contract, if the Board wants to do that. The contract they have expires at the end of March 2016. There is an option to extend it an additional five years, and he would recommend that they do that because it is only $3.15 per day for the inmates. Mr. Sirois asked if they could extend that to the maximum of five years.

The consensus of the committee was to extend the contract to the maximum of five years. Mr. Bossert made a motion to extend The Country Table’s contract an additional five years, and Mr. McConnell seconded it. Motion carried with a voice vote.

6. Other Business

- 2015 Traffic Crash Report – Geoff Olson

Mr. Olson stated that, at the Planning Department, they get Federal funding for the Metropolitan Planning Organization. The other side of that is they have requirements they have to fulfill, and one of those is with traffic safety. They monitor fatalities and serious injuries in the County, so he wanted to share with the committee those types of crashes in 2015. They had 116 crashes that had serious injury or fatality. Out of those 116 crashes, there were 9 fatalities and 157 serious injuries. This is preliminary data, so it may differ from what the State or Federal deems as being official. To compare it to 2014, there were 128 crashes, with 14 fatalities and 158 serious injuries, so there has been a decrease in fatalities. The serious injuries remain the same, which is fairly uncommon. They have data going back to 2007, and usually the serious injuries are high one year and fairly low the next year. They do have a Traffic Safety Committee and a Crash Analysis Subcommittee that he presents data to on an alternating monthly basis. Ms. Peters made a motion to put the report on file, and Mr. Sirois seconded it. Motion carried with a voice vote.

7. Old/New Business

Mr. Gessner stated that, in light of what Sheriff Bukowski spoke about, the Coroner’s office has two vehicles, one 2002, and one 2006, that have over 100,000 miles each, so those will be coming up for discussion soon as well.

8. Adjournment

A motion to adjourn the meeting at 9:42 a.m. was made by Ms. Peters, and seconded by Ms. Polk. Motion carried.

Roger Hess, Chairman

Diane Owens, Executive Coordinator