Kankakee Times

Kankakee County Executive Committee met July 25.

Here is the minutes as provided by the committee:

Members Present

Mr. Wheeler, Mr. Liehr, Mr. Tripp, Mr. LaGesse, Mr. Olthoff, Mr. Hess, Mr. McConnell, Mr. Snipes, Mr.

Byrne, and Ms. Webber

Members Absent

Mr. Skutt, Mr. Sirois, Mr. Hildebrand, and Mr. Johnson

In Attendance

 Board Members

None

 Department Heads

Kevin Duval, John Bevis, Michael Roof, Mark Rogers, and Lori Gadbois

 Media

None

1. Call to Order

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

2. Public Comment

None

3. Presentations

None

4. Approval of Minutes: June 27, 2017

A motion was made by Mr. Olthoff to approve the minutes, and Mr. Hess seconded it. Motion

carried with a voice vote.

5. Legislative

Mr. Liehr stated that the biggest event in terms of legislature was the General Assembly passing the

budget, but there are a lot of small details in that, which he’s spoken with Mr. McCarty about. Mr. McCarty

is still working through what impact, if any, that will have on us. At this point, there doesn’t appear there’s a

lot, but there may be some things that we’ll have to sort through.

6. Appointments

None

7. Information Services – Kevin Duval

Mr. Duval stated that Chairman Wheeler wanted him to discuss the recording device. What happened was

that, when there was a meeting last week, we lost power only briefly, but it was two times in a row. At that

time, it stopped the ability to record. The problem would be, in this case, because it was in executive

session, we don’t have two means of doing it. It made us have to reboot the video, too. We lost that

portion of the recording of the executive session because it doesn’t record straight to the hard drive. It

saves it in memory, so if we have something that goes out at that time, we’ve lost what was there. Until we

close a session, it doesn’t write it anywhere. When the power came back on in the building, Diane was

able to start a new session, so we got all of that, but we lost approximately 80% of the meeting. He has

put a UPS unit on it so that should make it, theoretically, immune to that happening again because the

power isn’t directly going to it. It’s going to be, in effect, running off of the battery. His opinion is that it’s

time to replace this recorder. He began researching it some time ago when the new chairman came in, but

we switched our focus more on the video. Since we know that it’s older and things could come up, he’s

going back through his notes and we’re going to look at replacing it.

8. Health Department – John Bevis

Mr. Bevis had nothing to report.

9. Schools – Dr. Gregg Murphy

Dr. Murphy was not present.

10. Veterans Assistance Commission – Michael Roof

 Monthly Reports

Mr. Roof stated that they are still waiting for their bus through the CVP grant.

Mr. Roof stated that, in May, the AIOC (Administrative Office of Illinois Courts) was certifying veterans’

courts, drug courts, DUI courts, and basically any kind of problem solving court. He later found out that our

paperwork was good, our interviews were up to par, and we will be the first veterans’ treatment court in

Illinois to be certified by the Supreme Court. What that means is they’ve done their paperwork, it’s moved

on to three justices, they go through their paperwork, approve it, and then it goes to the Supreme Court for

the resolution to certify us.

11. Personnel/HR Issues

Ms. Mackin had nothing to report.

12. Administrative Issues

Mr. Wheeler announced the following to the committee:

 Resolution:

 Resolution for Removal of Steve Einfeldt as a Board Member of Economic Alliance

Mr. Liehr made a motion to approve the resolution, and Mr. Byrne seconded it.

Discussion:

Mr. Wheeler stated that this is not to be punitive to Mr. Einfeldt, but he hasn’t attended any of the board

meetings for the Economic Alliance, and they need active board members. We have one who still goes to

the meetings even though he’s not on the board.

Original motion carried with a voice vote.

 Resignation/Appointment/Reappointment:

 Resignation of David Zack from the Kankakee River Conservancy District Board

 Appointment of Jim Vickery to Economic Alliance (to fill unexpired term)

A motion was made to approve the above appointment by Mr. LaGesse, and was seconded by Mr.

Tripp. Motion carried with a voice vote.

 Reappointment of Amy J. Ciaccio Jarvis to the Kankakee River Valley Forest Preserve

District Board

A motion was made to approve the above reappointment by Mr. Snipes, and was seconded by Mr.

Liehr. Motion carried with a voice vote.

Mr. Wheeler announced the following openings to the committee:

 Openings:

 One Opening on the Kankakee County Board of Health (One Opening is for a Dentist)

 Four Openings on the Kankakee County Regional Planning Commission

 One Opening on the Kankakee River Conservancy District Board

13. Other Business

Mr. McConnell stated that he received a phone call from a constituent about the proposed increase from

Aqua, and it’s quite an increase. People are saying that Aqua wants an increase of 18.6%, which is not

acceptable. He doesn’t know what we can do as a board, but he wants to make known that there are

citizens out there that are not happy with that type of an increase.

Mr. Tripp stated that he parallels what Mr. McConnell said. He is getting the same kind of comments. One

other comment is that Aqua is a private company, but yet they can go to the people and get money for

expansion before they even do it.

Mr. Wheeler stated that they can go to the utility board and ask for the rate, and that’s what they do.

Mr. LaGesse stated that we need to keep in mind that’s only the request. They normally end up with

anywhere from six to nine percent. He believes that’s what happened last time.

Mr. Wheeler asked if the committee thinks it’s appropriate that we come out with a position. We could do

this at the full board where it’s on the agenda so there could be a discussion and we can say what we think

is good for our district.

Mr. Wheeler also stated that we have not afforded Aqua the opportunity to come and tell us why they want

the rate increase, so he could extend that invitation from the full board and Aqua can tell us what the rate

increase is for. We could then try to balance out what our constituents want, but at least give Aqua their

fair time to speak.

The committee agreed that a representative from Aqua should be invited to speak at the next County

Board meeting.

14. Information

None

15. Old Business/New Business

None

16. Adjournment

Mr. Olthoff made a motion to adjourn the meeting at 9:32 a.m., and Mr. LaGesse seconded it.

Motion carried with a voice vote.

http://www.co.kankakee.il.us/files/committees/executive_72517.pdf