Kankakee Times

Kankakee County Finance Committee met May 24.

Here is the minutes provided by the Committee:

Members Present:

Mr. Johnson, Mr. LaGesse, Mr. Washington, Mr. Vickery, Mr. Hess, Mr. Mulcahy, Mr. Skutt, Mr. Sirois, Mr. Hildebrand, Ms. Webber, Mr. Payton, and Mr. Ritter

Members Absent:

Mr. Einfeldt

In Attendance:

• Board Members

Mr. Wheeler, Mr. Liehr, Ms. Peters, and Mr. Olthoff

Department Heads:

Bruce Clark, Tom Latham, Delbert Skimerhorn, Kevin Duval, Mark Rogers, Nick Africano, Steve McCarty, Michael Roof, Jake Lee, Sandi Cianci, Erich Blair, Brian Gadbois, and Sheriff Mike Downey

• Media Present

1. Call to Order

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

2. Public Comment

None

3. Presentation

4. Approval of Minutes: April 26, 2017

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

5. County Auditor’s Office – Jake Lee

• Monthly Claims

Mr. Mulcahy made a motion to combine and approve the monthly claims, and Mr. Skutt seconded it. Motion carried with a roll call vote of 13 ayes and 0 nays. Voting aye were Mr. Johnson, Mr. LaGesse, Mr. Washington, Mr. Vickery, Mr. Hess, Mr. Mulcahy, Mr. Skutt, Mr. Sirois, Mr. Hildebrand, Ms. Webber, Mr. Payton, Mr. Ritter, and Mr. Wheeler.

Mr. Lee reviewed and discussed the monthly claims with the committee.

• Recap of FY 2017 First Quarter Financial Report

Mr. Lee discussed the highlights of the FY 2017 First Quarter Financial Report with the committee as he was not able to be present at the April meeting.

Mr. Sirois asked if Mr. Lee could go back to the federal funds that he has to pull out of, and how much that would be if he could explain that process of the federal funds that we have in the 10122 account.

Mr. Lee explained the process to the committee.

Mr. Vickery stated that he did not download the 191 pages of the report, however, he did scan some of it. As a committee member, on quarterly reports, his main interest is the trend of departments, whether they’re over or under budget. If there is some way that we can publish or put forth a report, that’s his main concern. To sort through 191 pages, he was having a hard time, so an abbreviated report of that kind would be helpful to the committee, he believes.

Mr. Lee stated that he has a very nice chart, by department, that shows the year-to-date, and also shows the percentage change in revenue or expenditures. Some offices are just expense offices. He can produce that very easily for any members of the committee who would want it.

6. Insurance/HR – Lynn Mackin

• Staffing Levels Report

Ms. Mackin reviewed and discussed the report with the committee. The current staff level is at 503, with the full time equivalent being 448.

7. Treasurer - Nick Africano

• County Treasurer’s Report – April 2017

• County Collector’s Report – April 2017

• Monthly Resolutions for June 2017

Mr. Sirois made a motion to combine and approve the reports and monthly resolutions, and Mr. Washington seconded it. Motion carried with a voice vote.

Mr. Africano reviewed and discussed the above reports and monthly resolutions with the committee.

8. Finance Department – Steve McCarty

• FY16 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report - SKDO

Mr. McCarty introduced Marcie Kolberg and Carmen Huizenga from our outside audit firm of Smith, Koelling, Dykstra & Ohm (SKDO) to go over the required communications for the fiscal year 2016 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report and audit.

Ms. Huizinga provided a copy of the report and then reviewed same with the committee. She informed the committee that this report is a draft and not the final one.

• Miscellaneous Financial Reports and Discussion

Mr. McCarty reviewed and discussed the reports with the committee.

• Cash Flow Update

Mr. McCarty stated that the amount of calls and emails from our vendors has gone up, but, as he told the committee previously, April and May are the most difficult of the cash flow months. The vendors let us know that they want to get paid, and we’re doing everything we can to keep the balance as even as possible. We will have to keep an eye on the total distribution that we don’t violate the TAW payback and make sure the Highway payback is included, as well as take care of our vendors. Unfortunately, we have not seen things from the state in the grant and aid area. July of 2016 is the last on the Probation side of it that has been received. The payment of income tax has been sporadic, so we’re about two months out, which we have been. It’s hard to identify when the next one will show up.

• FY17 Update

Mr. McCarty thanked the department heads for their cooperation during the past 5-6 weeks that we’ve been working on this. Because it takes so long, we will take another look at it heading into July in anticipation of our annual discussion with Moody’s for our bond rating and see how the trends continue. All of the departments did take a look and return their information, and we certainly ask, as things continue and new information becomes available, that they please continue to let us know.

Mr. McCarty reviewed and discussed the FY 17 expense and revenue worksheets with the committee.

9. Sheriff’s Department - Sheriff Mike Downey

• Monthly Update

Sheriff Downey stated that he just wanted to touch on a couple of things that had been mentioned today. One of them is regarding the federal funds and the seizures. He specifically brought one of the County Board Members, Jim Byrne, to a training that was put on by Washington, D.C. about how that money can be spent, what we can and can’t use it for, whether the County can borrow it, and, obviously, they can’t. Mr. Byrne is well aware of that, so we just want to make sure that we’re not hoarding that money for ourselves on purpose, but it is there and we have used some of it for some things that the County didn’t have to pay for.

Sheriff Downey stated that we had a high this week of 162 ICE detainees, and we’ve also experienced an increase in our U. S. Marshal inmates. Last summer, we were around 75-80. For the past two months, we’ve been around 135, and that number seems to keep going up, which is a big help. One day last week, we had 355 out of county inmates/detainees in our custody. Those are getting back to that 400 number that we had years back, so those are all positive things that we’re looking forward to. We are beginning now to house those that are classified as medium, medium high, and high. What that means is there are more of those charged with criminal offenses. We still do have some border violators, but who we house is up to ICE, not us. We are still staging in Kankakee for the detainees that are being deported, and that happens every week.

• Vehicle Request

Sheriff Downey stated that we have purchased two new vans which we are close to getting on the road. When they change van styles, obviously the fabrication of the inside of those vans change, so that takes a little bit longer to get done. However, all of our six existing vans have between 108,000 and 140,000 miles on them. The two new ones will obviously take out our two high mileage vans, however, in the interest of the safety of the officers, putting them on the road with both inmates and detainees, he thinks it’s imperative that we keep our fleet as updated as we possibly can. He is asking for two new vans. It’s not something that will happen in the next month, but we can at least get the process started now so that we can get two more high mileage vans off the road. The cost of the vans, which is the state bid price, is $25,800, and obviously that doesn’t include the fabrication and cameras. The fabrication is around $10,000 per van, but he doesn’t have the cost of the cameras. This would be for both our officers’ protection and the inmates and detainees’ protection.

Mr. Sirois asked if they can use forfeiture funds for the purchase of the vans.

Sheriff Downey stated that he didn’t know, but anything they use forfeiture money for, they email Washington, D.C. He will bring this matter back once he knows for sure what the exact cost will be, and maybe look at some future date that they can be ordered so that it fits in with the cash flow issues. He will also check on the seizure fund.

• Process Serving to Police Agencies

Sheriff Downey stated that in most criminal cases, for any police agency in the County, the State’s Attorney has issued a Notice to Witness for the police officers, and that’s basically just a paper that says that this particular case and case number is going to trial on such and such a date, and the officer is to be in court on that date. Those were either faxed or emailed directly to the police department. For some unknown reason, subpoenas are now being issued, which means the Sheriff’s Department has to serve the subpoenas to other police agencies, and we are not paid for it. His office is working with Jim Rowe and the judges to ask that subpoenas stop being issued because they are problematic for his office to get served, and they are utilizing our resources that we already don’t have to make sure police officers show up in court.

10. Other Business

• Projects for Consideration – Brian Gadbois

Mr. Gadbois provided the committee with a list of projects for consideration that need to be dealt with as soon as possible, and reviewed and discussed each item with the committee.

Mr. Wheeler stated that he had mentioned before about the revolving loan fund being basically defunct now since the state no longer sends us any money for economic development. He called in one of the loans and we received a wire transfer for around $75,000 from one of the individuals in that fund, so he recommends that we use some of that to cover some of these immediate needs.

Mr. Vickery made a motion to approve the following items on Mr. Gadbois’ list of projects for consideration:

1. Battery Replacement (3) Systems at Jerome Combs Detention Center

2. Johnson Control Heating & Cooling Upgrades at Jerome Combs Detention Center

3. Inmate Kitchen Tile Grout at Jerome Combs Detention Center

4. Kone Elevator (Inmate Transport) at Kankakee County Detention Center

Mr. Washington seconded it. Motion carried with a roll call vote of 11 ayes and 0 nays. Voting aye were Mr. Johnson, Mr. LaGesse, Mr. Washington, Mr. Vickery, Mr. Mulcahy, Mr. Sirois, Mr. Hildebrand, Ms. Webber, Mr. Payton, Mr. Ritter, and Mr. Wheeler.

11. Old/New Business

• NIMEC Update

Mr. Wheeler stated that NIMEC handles our electric aggregation. The bid will go out on the 19th or 20th. He did get some rates and it looks like it will be advantageous for the small towns in the area to partner with us to get a lower rate than ComEd is going to be offering.

• Public Defender – Holiday/Weekend Court

Mr. Wheeler stated that Chief Judge Kramer alerted him about this matter. Those committee members also on the Criminal Justice Committee may recognize that we may have the need to be holding court out at the jail on holidays and weekends, based on some of the new mandates that are coming down from Springfield. They don’t want to be holding people for minor offenses in jail because they can’t make bail, so the Illinois legislature is looking at making it so you have to release them, whether it’s with ankle bracelets or whatever – that’s to be determined – but you can’t hold them because they can’t make bail. It will force an increase on expense to the Probation staff, but it will also force an increase on expense to the Public Defender.

• Mail/Folder/Inserter Machine – Erich Blair

Mr. Wheeler stated that Mr. Blair had performed a cost analysis based on what the folder/inserter was actually costing us, and Mr. Gadbois also had some information on that. The best bid that we have would be a total cost of $13,706 for the 28,000 volume. The cost of just the folder/inserter portion, as we still need the mailer, is just under $8,000. We also calculated what the labor was to run that machine, and it’s around $7,000. He recommends that we, as a committee, authorize to get out of that agreement at the quickest possible time and outsource these because we just don’t have the labor to do this.

Mr. Gadbois stated that he spoke with the representative for our area from Neopost about this, and they would like to set up a meeting to come here and negotiate a new contract. He would certainly like to have Mr. Lee involved in this since they do take care of the money being put onto the mail machine. What we need to do is get current on our present contract and behind on. Neopost would like to have the next quarter paid in full in order to re-write a contract for the County. That is what they have requested, but, again, he would like to call and set up a meeting date with the representative and also get a list from Chairman Wheeler on who he would like to help negotiate on this.

Mr. Washington made a motion to begin negotiations with Neopost on a new contract, and was seconded by Mr. Payton. Motion carried with a roll call vote of 11 ayes and 0 nays. Voting aye were Mr. Johnson, Mr. LaGesse, Mr. Washington, Mr. Vickery, Mr. Mulcahy, Mr. Sirois, Mr. Hildebrand, Ms. Webber, Mr. Payton, Mr. Ritter, and Mr. Wheeler.

Mr. Gadbois also stated that last month we went out to bid on the vending contract for the County, and the reason we did that was Board Machine was bought out by Alternative Vending Concepts. He received two bids which were opened at the Highways & Buildings meeting. One was from CL Vending, and the other was from Alternative Vending. The only thing that separated the two was the payback to the County. CL Vending said they would give back 10% of their profits, and Alternative Vending Concepts said they would give back 20%, so Alternative Vending Concepts is the acceptable bid. Once he gets it approved, he can move forward with getting the paperwork taken care of through Civil.

Mr. LaGesse made a motion to accept Alternative Vending Concepts’ bid, and Mr. Mulcahy seconded it. Motion carried with a voice vote.

• Ice Miller Engagement Letter

Mr. Wheeler stated that Ice Miller is our bond counsel, and we are engaging them because the bond is now paid off with the Will County Detention Center, and we’re left with another ten years on a lease agreement that really has no financials tied to it. We’re in negotiations with Will County on what we’re going to do up there going forward. It’s a facility that will be needed going forward, but the financial arrangements aren’t there. We still have roughly $500,000 left in a maintenance fund up there. For the last bond payment, they did take out our portion of that bond payment, so we will be bringing back an ordinance next month for the committee to authorize that payment. He wanted the committee to know that will be coming, and that’s why we need to engage Ice Miller. He is looking for approval to go ahead and engage our bond counsel to work through that, and also to negotiate with us the Public Building Commission, which may or may not be part of the next arrangement in Will County, and Will County.

Mr. Vickery made a motion to proceed and engage Ice Miller, and Mr. LaGesse seconded it. Motion carried with a roll call vote of 11 ayes and 0 nays. Voting aye were Mr. Johnson, Mr. LaGesse, Mr. Washington, Mr. Vickery, Mr. Mulcahy, Mr. Sirois, Mr. Hildebrand, Ms. Webber, Mr. Payton, Mr. Ritter, and Mr. Wheeler.

Mr. Wheeler also informed the committee that Nicole McCarty will soon be leaving the County’s employ, and we all want to wish her well in her new job. Accordingly, there will be a job posting going up soon.

12. Adjournment

Mr. LaGesse made a motion to adjourn the meeting at 11:19 a.m., and Mr. Mulcahy seconded it. Motion carried.

http://www.co.kankakee.il.us/files/committees/finance_524171.pdf