Kankakee Times

Kankakee County - Criminal Justice Committee met June 13.

Here is the minutes provided by the Committee:

Members Present:

Mr. Washington, Mr. LaGesse, Mr. Stauffenberg, Mr. Vickery, Mr. Snipes, Mr. Sirois, Ms. Evans, Mr. Payton, Ms. Dunbar, and Mr. Fairfield

Members Absent:

Mr. Tholen, Mr. McConnell, Mr. Skutt, Mr. Einfeldt, and Ms. Parker

In Attendance:

•Board Members

Mr. Wheeler and Mr. Liehr

• Department Heads

Jim Rowe, Anita Speckman, Wes Andrews, Sandi Cianci, Tom Latham, Bob Gessner, Kevin Duval

Media:

Present

1.Call to Order

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

2.Public Comment

None

3.Approval of Minutes: April 11, 2018

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

4.Judicial - Chief Judge Michael Kramer

Chief Judge Kramer was not present.

5. Circuit Clerk’s Office - Sandi Cianci

• Monthly Reports

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

Ms. Cianci reviewed and discussed the report with the committee.

• Computerization Update

• Office Update

Ms. Cianci stated that they are working with CourtView on the integration of the e-filing. She also stated that, as a result of the expungement seminar that was held earlier this year, there were about 2,000 cases to come into her office. There is only one person who handles expungements and that is about one quarter of her job. They’ve had to work some Saturdays recently to try to catch up on the e-filings and expungements, but they’re getting there.

• FY17 Audit

Mr. Wheeler stated that he asked that this item be included in the packet. It is the annual audit of the Circuit Clerk’s financial statements.

Ms. Cianci stated that the outside auditor does a full audit of the transactions. When the previous county auditor was in office, it was decided that it was too complicated to come over to do the auditing with the new CourtView system. They have not had anyone coming in from outside to double check monthly bank records.

Mr. Wheeler stated that this has been an ongoing issue. He asked about the 2016 agreement with the auditor.

Ms. Cianci stated that the current auditor was elected in 2016, and came over in 2017 to oversee the outside auditor and to double check the bank records a couple of times.

Mr. Wheeler stated that on page 26 of the report from the outside audit, the official finding states that the county auditor reviewed several bank reconciliations in 2017 and was supposed to continue to review the bank reconciliations on a regular and timely basis going forward. That process did not occur for all of 2017 and the Circuit Clerk did not make alternative plans. He asked Ms. Cianci if there were any times where she tried to reach back out to try to start the process back up again with the auditor’s office.

Ms. Cianci stated that no, and she does not really recall. She was just banking on it happening and then the outside auditor came and it was realized that it hadn’t been done.

Ms. Wheeler asked Ms. Cianci to describe the system that was put in place going forward.

Ms. Cianci stated that they will provide a monthly bank reconciliation report that the bookkeeper will provide to her and she will send off to the auditor.

Mr. Wheeler asked if they were going to come over and go through the statements.

Ms. Cianci said no, not at this time. They can see if there is a different way of getting this done. She believes that they need to look over reconciliation papers also.

Mr. Wheeler asked Ms. Speckman if it is proper to audit without seeing statements.

Ms. Speckman stated that in her experience when auditing takes place you are not just looking at a report, you are tying outside data to records within the organization. They need to tie outside bank statements to records within the Circuit Clerk’s office.

Mr. Rowe asked Mr. Wheeler if the auditor did reconciliation for any other departments in the county.

Mr. Wheeler stated that he was asked to do it for treasurer and refused to do it last year.

Mr. Rowe stated that it is not ok to have an auditor reconcile accounts and then audit his own reconciliation. If the auditor were to reconcile, he would not be able to go through later and conduct an audit of those accounts. When he looks at the statutory duties of the auditor, he doesn’t see where there is a duty for him to do reconciliations for outside departments. He thinks that the auditor should be allowed to explain the situation. He asked Ms. Cianci if there was there was any money missing.

Ms. Cianci stated that there was not.

Mr. Wheeler stated that it is an issue because Ms. Cianci cannot apply for grants.

Mr. Dunbar stated that the condition states that there is a lack of segregation of duties in the bookkeeping function. She asked Ms. Cianci how many people are working in her office.

Ms. Cianci stated that there are 34 including her.

Ms. Dunbar asked if there was any way to segregate bookkeeping duties among the 34 people.

Ms. Cianci stated that they all have different duties, and the bookkeeper is the only one that does that job. Everyone else is either a minute clerk or part of the clerical staff. The bookkeeper is at a high level so the duty would go to either herself or her chief deputy who has a lot going on. Those are the only two others who could be doing that.

Mr. Wheeler stated that he wanted to establish that this audit finding occurred and the reasons why it occurred.

6. State’s Attorney’s Office - Jim Rowe

• Grand Jury Report

Ms. Evans made a motion to approve the report and Mr. LaGesse seconded it. Motion carried with a voice vote.

Mr. Rowe reviewed and discussed the report with the committee.

Mr. Wheeler asked Mr. Rowe if he is statutorily required to provide dogs to other departments or to have events for expungement or other office events.

Mr. Rowe stated that the statute restricts their ability to use the federal forfeiture funds to those things.

Mr. Wheeler asked if Mr. Rowe goes over and above his required statutes to do things for people in the county and people in county government.

Mr. Rowe said that the money is restricted to use for certain things.

Mr. Rowe also wanted to recognize two attorneys in his office, Brenda Claudio and Erika Hamer. They had a major sex case recently and they did a fantastic job prosecuting a difficult case.

7. Public Defender’s Office - Gus Regas

• Monthly Report

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

Mr. Regas was not present.

8. Sheriff/EMA Department – Sheriff Mike Downey

• Monthly Report

Sheriff Downey was not present.

Mr. LaGesse made a motion to approve the monthly report, and Mr. Snipes seconded it. Motion carried with a voice vote.

Chief Deputy Ken McCabe reviewed and discussed the report with the committee.

• Opening of Bids for New Patrol Vehicle Lease/Purchase Chief Deputy McCabe stated that they had the bids for the police cars on the agenda, but they have not gotten an answer if the local dealers can even get the police package cars they need.

Chief Deputy McCabe stated that the x-ray machine at the Courthouse is not in good shape, and it would cost about $7,000-$8,000 for repair. The backup machine is also broken, and a new machine is about $25,000.

Mr. Vickery asked if the x-ray machine issue should be moved to Finance.

Mr. Wheeler stated that yes, it should be moved to Finance, along with Probation’s need for an x-ray machine at the Annex Building.

9. Probation - Tom Latham

• Monthly Report

Mr. Sirois made a motion to approve the monthly report, and Mr. Stauffenberg seconded it. Motion carried with a voice vote. Mr. Latham reviewed and discussed the report with the committee.

Mr. Latham stated that for state Fiscal Year 18 grant and aid is paid through January.

Mr. Latham wanted to discuss fee collection. Because of the Bail Reform Act that went into effect January 1st, they are starting to see that decline. The first six months of this year, they’re bringing in an average of $8,700 in fees. It was $10,000 last year and a little higher before that. He thinks it’s going to take a while before they see where their fees might fall to, maybe up to a year. He’s concerned about the fee collection, so it might be a discussion to have when they go forward with other budgets that a little money is put in there for operations in the General Fund budget.

Mr. Latham stated that drug court graduation is on Friday, June 15th, at 9:30 a.m., in Courtroom 300.

10. Coroner’s Office-Bob Gessner

• Monthly Reports

• Monthly Receipts of Money

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

• New Office Hours

Mr. Gessner stated that in March of 2014, they went from 8:30 to 2:30 instead of going to 4:30. He couldn’t lose any employees because he didn’t have any to lose, so they cut their office hours. As of now, with the transfer of his Administrative Assistant to her new position, and a new person being in there, he has moved the office hours back because they’ve been getting some calls between 2:30 and 3:30. The hours will now be 8:30 to 3:30, at no cost to the budget.

• 2018 Drug Overdoses

Mr. Gessner stated that there are 12 overdoses so far this year, so it’s come down considerably. Last year at this time they were at 25.

• Grant Income

Mr. Gessner stated that he and Mr. Cavender have been all over the county teaching, at no cost to the county, and at the end of May they’ve brought in over $12,246 that goes back into the General Fund.

11. Old Business/New Business

None

12. New Business

None

13. Adjournment

Mr. LaGesse made a motion to adjourn the meeting at 8:29 a.m., and Ms. Dunbar seconded it. Motion carried with a voice vote.

http://www.co.kankakee.il.us/files/committees/criminal_justice_61318.pdf