Kankakee Times

Kankakee County Finance Committee met August 23.

Here is the minutes provided by the Committee:

Members Present:

Mr. LaGesse, Mr. Vickery, Mr. Washington, Mr. Hess, Mr. Sirois, Ms. Webber, and Mr. Payton

Members Absent:

Mr. Mulcahy, Mr. Skutt, Mr. Hildebrand, Mr. Einfeldt, and Mr. Ritter

In Attendance

• Board Members

Mr. Wheeler and Mr. Liehr

Department Heads

Mark Rogers, Nick Africano, Jake Lee, Sandi Cianci, Erich Blair, Tom Latham, and Bob Gessner

• Media

Present

1. Call to Order

• Roll Call

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

2. Public Comment

None

3. Presentation

None

4. Approval of Minutes: July 26, 2017

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

5. County Auditor’s Office – Jake Lee

• Monthly Claims

Mr. Hess made a motion to combine and approve the monthly claims, and Mr. Payton seconded it. Motion carried with a roll call vote of 8 ayes and 0 nays. Voting aye were Mr. LaGesse, Mr. Vickery, Mr. Washington, Mr. Hess, Mr. Sirois, Ms. Webber, Mr. Payton, and Mr. Wheeler.

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

6. Insurance/HR - Lynn Mackin

• Staffing Levels Report

Ms. Mackin reviewed and discussed the report with the committee. The current staff level is at 506.

7. Treasurer - Nick Africano

• County Treasurer’s Report – July 2017

• County Collector’s Report – July 2017

• Monthly Resolutions for September 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 stated that the auction is September 19th. Our minimum bid on a property is $600, and 99% of our properties sell for the minimum bid. That hasn’t changed since 2007. When he took over, there were 202 sales in error that were incomplete or hadn’t been dealt with, and some of those were interest bearing sales in error. Every month they sat, they cost the County more money, which took us about $65,000 past what we had in our sale in error fund. He explained to the committee how he paid the tax buyers from the collection account and what should be done to reimburse that account by the end of November.

Mr. Vickery stated that Mr. Africano mentioned that the minimum bid is $600 at the tax sale. He asked if Mr. Africano had a recommendation on raising that.

Mr. Africano stated that he doesn’t have a recommendation for a dollar amount, but he’ll have to take a look at the state law and see what it allows.

Mr. Wheeler asked how many years does the stack of sale in errors stretch back.

Mr. Africano stated that some stretch back to 2015.

Mr. Wheeler asked if they were collecting interest that whole time.

Mr. Africano stated that some were, yes.

8. Finance Department - Steve McCarty

Mr. McCarty was not present.

• Miscellaneous Financial Reports & Discussion

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

• Cash Flow Update

Mr. Wheeler stated that a lot of the disbursements have been made, and we received another one this month. Our cash position right now is ok, but we all know how that works going forward. We won’t get another one until the end of November. We’re better caught up on payables and were able to get somewhat caught up with 911. What he wants to do is be even with 911 at the end of our last disbursement because we know that, as cash gets tight, just like with all of our vendors, things get stretched out from January to June. Considering that next year we’ll get $1 million less on our tax anticipation warrants, we don’t see our payables changing much in the near future until we’re credit-worthy outside of the local community.

• Moody’s Report

Mr. Wheeler reviewed and discussed the Moody’s Report with the committee.

9. Sheriff’s Department - Sheriff Mike Downey

• Monthly Update

Sheriff Downey was not present. Chief Ken McCabe stated that we presently have 272 total out- of-County inmates; 150 of them are Marshal’s, 104 of them are ICE detainees, and 18 are from Cook County. The local count is 257 and it’s going up. We have 115 full-time correctional officers, and six of them are going to PTI in September. We received two of the new vans, which are in service and working great.

• Lease of Eleven Vehicles

Mr. Wheeler stated that he received the lease by email and sent it to the State’s Attorney’s office. He received the message back that we don’t have a resolution for this where the Finance Committee and the board ever approved it. He searched for a resolution on the website and couldn’t find it either. What was put in the committee’s packets today is a copy of the FY17 budget capital development worksheet and $35,000 was put in the budget which would roughly equal a fourth quarter lease payment. So this is being brought back to the Finance Committee since we had approved expenditures.

Mr. Hess made a motion to approve the lease of eleven vehicles for the Sheriff’s Department, and Mr. Washington seconded it.

Discussion:

Mr. Sirois asked Chief McCabe how many vehicles they were going to get rid of once they get the eleven.

Chief McCabe stated that normally the process would be that we would liquidate eleven, but depending on the number of people we have, we may have to adjust that. Depending on the staff level, we would pick the highest mileage cars and swap them out.

Original motion carried with a roll call vote of 8 ayes and 0 nays. Voting aye were Mr. LaGesse, Mr. Vickery, Mr. Washington, Mr. Hess, Mr. Sirois, Ms. Webber, Mr. Payton, and Mr. Wheeler.

• Copy Machines

Chief McCabe stated that the copy machines are going through the lease of the County. They have a copy machine at the old jail and at the new jail, and they are the oldest in the County. They don’t scan, email, or network. So the new leased copy machines will go to the old jail, and in the new jail, it will go to the Medical Department where they make a tremendous amount of copies.

Mr. Wheeler wanted to make a point of clarification. The motion on the lease of the eleven vehicles would also include authorization for him to sign the lease agreement.

Mr. Payton made a motion to approve the lease of the copy machines to be allocated to Central Services, and Mr. Vickery seconded it. Motion carried with a roll call vote of 8 ayes and 0 nays. Voting aye were Mr. LaGesse, Mr. Vickery, Mr. Washington, Mr. Hess, Mr. Sirois, Ms. Webber, Mr. Payton, and Mr. Wheeler.

Mr. Wheeler asked Chief McCabe if they are limited to leasing vehicles for only the Sheriff’s Department, or could they lease a vehicle to include in the lease spoken of earlier for another department in the County. He stated that, in Old/New Business, we’re going to be talking about a Planning vehicle that is falling apart, and currently they don’t have any four-wheel vehicles, so we’re thinking of potentially doing that. They have to go into rural areas where they sometimes have to call a snowplow to get to places, and also go out into the fields.

Chief McCabe stated that he would probably refer that to Mr. Rowe; however, if they are available for state bid -- if they are legally authorized to do that, which he assumes they are -- then he would think it could be included in that package.

Mr. Lagesse stated that he thinks at one time, through the Sheriff, the Coroner ended up with cars, so this should be the same thing.

10. Other Business

• Sale in Error Discussion

This item was discussed during the Treasurer’s portion of the meeting.

11. Old/New Business

• PZA Committee – New Vehicle for Planning

Mr. Wheeler further discussed the Planning Department’s need for a new vehicle.

Gary Phillips stated that, back in 2004, the Sheriff donated four Chevy Impalas to Planning. They were new cars, so they’re now 13 years old. Last year, the maintenance costs skyrocketed for those cars. We don’t need four new cars since the ones we have are safe and dependable, but we didn’t want to wait and do nothing since they’re all rusting out, and will continue to rust. We wanted the committee to be aware of that fact so we just didn’t walk in here a few years from now and say that we need four brand new cars. We go to a lot of places that are off-road. Clearance is a problem for Impalas since they’re low to the ground. If possible, we would want vehicles with clearance for some of the inspections we have to do.

Mr. Wheeler stated that there used to be a larger staff in Planning, so you had people doing similar activities in the County at the same time. In his discussion with Mr. Skimerhorn, it was discussed that, if they had one vehicle that had the clearance and the four-wheel capability, they could all have access to that vehicle. Maybe there is a surplus vehicle at the Sheriff’s Department that is 3-4 years old, but has a little higher mileage, but it won’t be driven all over the county all of the time.

Mr. Vickery stated that it seems we have two options: One would be to check with the Sheriff and see if we can add one to the fleet that is ordered and look at that cost, and the second would be to turn over to Planning one of the lowest mileage vehicles that they’re going to take out of service.

Mr. Washington made a motion to approve leasing a new vehicle for Planning through the Sheriff’s Department, or should the Sheriff have a vehicle available that is sufficient for Planning’s needs, to transfer that asset, and Mr. Vickery seconded it. Motion carried with a roll call vote of 8 ayes and 0 nays. Voting aye were Mr. LaGesse, Mr. Vickery, Mr. Washington, Mr. Hess, Mr. Sirois, Ms. Webber, Mr. Payton, and Mr. Wheeler.

• River Valley Juvenile Detention Center Renegotiation (Chairman Wheeler)

Mr. Wheeler reviewed and discussed the County’s agreement with the Juvenile Detention Center in Will County, and the financial side of it which expired on December 1, 2016.

• Bidding & Letting:

✓ 17-00000-00-PK (Parking Lot Overlay)

Mr. Wheeler stated that part of the ADA concerns at the Courthouse was not enough accessible parking. You have to have a certain amount of ADA spots. The ADA parking spots are in the circle drive on the south side of the Courthouse. We still have a major problem for the north side of the old jail where there is basically no parking lot any more, and it’s just gravel and dirt. Our re-entry program is located in there now, so that parking lot is full. We have a serious safety issue, plus the ADA ramp is crumbling. Part of the Attorney General’s response was that they need all ADA parking up to code, date certain, by the end of May next year. We’re starting to get into seasonality issues because when we let these bids, what if we have a long winter? Right now, we’re up against it, so if we want it done this year, it has to be done now. With notification issues, it has to be published in the newspaper for two weeks on a bid letting. We would have to approve this today, it will go in the newspaper, and then we’ll have a Finance Committee meeting to open the bids, and he requests that everyone attend so that we have a quorum. It will be held at 8:45 a.m., right before the 9:00 a.m. full board meeting, on September 12th.

Mr. Hess made a motion to go out to bid on the parking lot overlay, and Mr. Washington seconded it. Motion carried with a roll call vote of 8 ayes and 0 nays. Voting aye were Mr. LaGesse, Mr. Vickery, Mr. Washington, Mr. Hess, Mr. Sirois, Ms. Webber, Mr. Payton, and Mr. Wheeler.

• ADA Coordinator/Administration Services Coordinator

Mr. Wheeler stated that one of the other date certain items that the Attorney General’s office sent is that any municipal unit of government over 50 employees has to have an ADA Coordinator, and he has until the end of this month to fill that position. He looked through what the qualifications would be for a full-time ADA Coordinator, and those full-time positions are quite expensive and very specific on the training they have. It became a question of whether it’s a full- time position that we could afford just for that, and the answer was no. The next question would be who he would be able to get with that skill set who would be willing to work part-time. It became obvious that we were going to have to train someone in that job. It also occurred to him that, since the employee left in Finance who handled all of the Workforce Board, the work had to be divided up between more people and will take more time. He approached the Workforce Board, and we’re going to up our allocation from the Workforce Board to cover expenses, so that would be another job that this position would do is to process all of the claims for the Workforce Board. He’s able to cover off a large part of this position, based upon the time they spend obviously, because they will be doing a lot for the Workforce Board. They’ll be assisting with HR, Payroll, County Board, and anything else that we do on the Administration side. Since this has to be done by the end of the month, he posted it so he could get applications in, pending approval from this committee to proceed with hiring. We’re looking at the training to come from potentially ICMRT, IPRF, and our worker’s compensation carrier.

Mr. Payton made a motion to approve the hiring of an ADA Coordinator/Administration Services Coordinator, and Mr. Washington seconded it. Motion carried with a roll call vote of 7 ayes and 0 nays. Voting aye were Mr. Vickery, Mr. Washington, Mr. Hess, Mr. Sirois, Ms. Webber, Mr. Payton, and Mr. Wheeler.

12. Adjournment

Mr. Hess made a motion to adjourn the meeting at 10:39 a.m., and Mr. Sirois seconded it. Motion carried with a voice vote.

Mike LaGesse, Committee Chairman

Diane Owens, Executive Coordinator

http://www.co.kankakee.il.us/files/committees/finance_82317.pdf