DeKalb Times

Dekalb County Law & Justice Committee met Jan. 27.

Here is the minutes provided by the committee:

The Law and Justice Committee of the DeKalb County Board met on Monday, January 27, 2020 in the Administration Building’s Conference Room East in Sycamore, Illinois. Committee Chair Dianne Leifheit called the meeting to order at 6:30 p.m. Those members present were Mrs. Karen Cribben, Mr. Tracy Jones, Mr. Jim Luebke, Ms. Linda Slabon, Mr. Paul Stoddard, Mr. Jeff Whelan, and Chair Dianne Leifheit. A quorum was established with all seven Members present.

Others that were present included Tom McCulloch, Margi Gilmour, and Kathy Lampkins.

APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

It was moved by Mr. Luebke, seconded by Mr. Whelan and it was carried unanimously by voice vote to approve the agenda as presented.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES

Ms. Slabon moved to approve the minutes of the November 25, 2019 Committee Meeting. Mrs. Cribben seconded the motion and it was carried unanimously.

PUBLIC COMMENTS

There were no public comments.

PUBLIC DEFENDER’S REPORT

DeKalb County Public Defender Tom McCulloch joined the Committee to place on file his Year-End December 2019 Public Defender’s Report. The report reflected that in December there were 241 cases opened and 235 cases closed. The total cases opened to date for 2019 were 3224 and 3,791 were closed.

Mr. McCulloch additionally shared that he had not yet hired a replacement for the individual who was going to fill in for Ms. Dietrich’s cases while she was away on deployment. He had a few perspective people interested but nothing yet. Mr. McCulloch shared he has reached out to experienced Attorneys in Kane, McHenry, and DuPage. He would like to hire someone with a good amount of experience and be it someone he knows or knows him.

In addition to being down an Asst. Public Defender, Mr. McCulloch explained to the Committee that the other half of his staff has either been sick/ has sick family members or were recently injured and have to take time off for physical therapy. The Office has still been moving cases but they have been filing Motions to Continue on Ms. Dietrich’s files but he is continued to provide the best possible Office and if they have to over-work for a while, they are going to do that, Mr. McCulloch announced.

On a good note, Mr. McCulloch shared that he requested that the Sheriff’s Office run a report of how many incarcerated individuals had been in the County Jail for over a year. He reported that the number at the end of 2019 was 14 and about half of those were individuals his Office represented and are still there for good reason. He added that when he ran that same report seven years ago, before Pretrial Services and the added programs they have now, that number was around 30-35 people. He thought that was remarkable in regards to results.

Lastly, he noted that looking ahead come budget time, he is going to be requesting the Board to fund one new Entry-Level Public Defender as well as one new Investigator. These new staff Members would be Mr. McCulloch’s way of taking a proactive approach to a long-range plan for sustainability in the Public Defender’s Office.

COURT SERVICES REPORT

DeKalb County Court Services Director Margi Gilmour joined the Committee to present her monthly Adult, Juvenile, and Pretrial Reports. She added that she did not have anything unusual to report from the Adult or Juvenile Reports. The numbers were manageable through the entire year with no unusual spikes.

She also shared that in 2019, there were 48 youth that were detained for a total of 622 detention days which equaled $74,640 (Budget = $120,000). In 2018, there were 50 youth that were detained for 524 days equaling $62,880. So, the number of youths detained were slightly down but the length of detention days was longer than the previous year, Ms. Gilmour shared.

In 2016, there were 117 youth admitted into detention and total service days were 1,671 for a cost of $183,810. Ms. Gilmour added that she believes that the changes that have been made in the Intensive Juvenile Probation and Early Risk Assessment Program have really helped the courts target the youth that really need to be in custody and those that don’t can turn to other community-based options.

The Pretrial Program numbers are pretty consistent with the previous year’s numbers, Ms. Gilmour noted. A Pretrial Report will be provided to the Committee in the late Spring, she reminded.

Lastly, Ms. Gilmour announced to the Committee that after 30+ years with DeKalb County she will be retiring in June. She shared that it will be bittersweet but she believes that it is time for some new to step into her role as Director of the County’s Court Services Department. Judge Stuckert will be posting the position internally within the 23rd Judicial Circuit which contains both DeKalb and Kendall Counties. She noted that she will keep the Committee updated on the progress of that Director position search.

COURTHOUSE RECONFIGURATION PROJECT INTERIM UPDATE

Ms. Sims from the County Administration Office briefly updated the Committee on the progress of the Courthouse Reconfiguration Project.

Since the November Meeting, the layout design had not changed on the Lower Level (Pretrial & Treatment Courts) or on the 1st Floor (Public Defender’s Office). It was reported that since that last meeting there have been about 15 more options explored back and forth on the 3rd Floor (State’s Attorney’s Office). The Committee reviewed the most recent 3rd Floor option which everyone now feels is a solid plan. Additionally, the Architect is about 10% done with the Design Development phase and hopes to have that phase done for Committee review at the February 24th Meeting.

Note: These minutes are not official until approved by the Law and Justice Committee at a subsequent meeting. Please refer to the meeting minutes when these minutes are approved to obtain any changes to these minutes.

The Design Development phase consists of:

• Update the floor plans with information about electrical and data requirements

• Update Code Plans

• Develop casework elevations and details

• Develop restroom details and elevations

• Develop reflected ceiling plans

• Present color palettes for review

• Begin discussions with Jim Scheffer’s about the MEP requirement

• Start the door schedule and discuss hardware needs

• Begin the specifications

Following that is Contract Documentation, Bid Docs, Construction (if the project were to continue with further Board approval).

Chair Leifheit additionally added that at the Committee’s next meeting, Sheriff Roger Scott will be present to provide a Body Cam Presentation.

ADJOURNMENT

It was moved by Mr. Stoddard, seconded by Mr. Whelan, and it was carried unanimously to adjourn the meeting at 7:10 p.m.

https://dekalbcounty.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/min20-lawjan.pdf