DeKalb Times

DeKalb County Law & Justice Committee met May 18.

Here is the minutes provided by the committee:

The Law and Justice Committee of the DeKalb County Board met virtually via Zoom. Committee Chair Dianne Leifheit called the meeting to order at 6:30 p.m. Those members present via Zoom were Mr. Tracy Jones, Mr. Jim Luebke, Ms. Linda Slabon, Mr. Paul Stoddard, Mr. Jeff Whelan, and Chair Dianne Leifheit. Ms. Karen Cribben was absent at roll call. A quorum was established with six Members virtually present one absent.

Others that were present included Roy Plote, Roger Scott, Andy Sullivan, Joyce Klein, Pete Stefan, Kathy Lampkins, Derek Hiland, Dennis Miller, Greg Millburg, Tom McCulloch, Margi Gilmour, Michael Venditti, and Anna Wilhelmi.

APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

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

APPROVAL OF MINUTES

Mr. Luebke moved to approve the minutes of the April 27, 2020 Committee Meeting. Mr. Whelan 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 submitted his April 2020 standard monthly report to the Committee. Mr. McCulloch shared that their case levels are currently stagnant and they are treading water. They are taking cases in but the vast majority of things that are being charged they still haven’t seen. The Department is waiting for the courts to potentially open June 3rd.

Mr. McCulloch added that his staff is doing a great job of working under difficult circumstances. Some are working from the office, and some are working remotely. He added it will be a tough late-summer, fall period but they will make it through.

COURT SERVICES REPORT

Ms. Gilmour echoed Mr. McCulloch’s comments and expressed that the Court Services Department is treading water as well at the moment. They have not had much activity since the courts have been closed but have been quite busy getting transfer-in cases from other jurisdictions that are operating slightly differently than the 23rd Judicial Circuit. She also anticipates that flood gates opening in late-summer, early-fall. Staff is slowly coming back into the office and new Director Michael Venditti did an excellent job of authoring a “Return to Work Policy” for the Court Services Department. Judge Stuckert approved the plan as well.

Court Services intends to exclusively utilize the North Entrance of the Legislative Center for their staff and clients to enter/exit the building. All clients and staff will have their temperature checked and be required to wear a mask prior to entering. Clients will wait in the foyer until an officer in PPE can greet them and walk them through the decontamination procedure. Upon entry to the building, they will utilize the employee break area for a sanitation station to have everyone immediately wash their hands. Clients will also be restricted to Court Services’ new hallways office, in order to minimize potential contamination of other parts of the building. In the event more than one client is waiting to be seen, they will be instructed to wait in their vehicle until they are ready to be admitted. In the month of May, Mr. Venditti doesn’t not anticipate very much foot traffic as many court functions have also been temporarily suspended, however in the interest of being proactive, he wanted to be sure this procedure is implemented and will likely be in place for months to come.

Bond Calls are up and running every day, including weekends so the Pretrial Officers have operated normally (virtually).

She reported that there is currently one youth in juvenile detention. Mr. Venditti also explained that they are doing very little drug testing at the moment due to there being no recourse. They do have plans in place in how they are going to deal with drug testing once they are operating at full capacity again.

The entire group bid farewell to Ms. Margi Gilmour. This would be her last meeting prior to retiring on June 5th after 30+ years of dedication and service to DeKalb County.

EMERGENCY SERVICES & DISASTER AGENCY (ESDA) ANNUAL REPORT

DeKalb County Coroner / ESDA Coordinator Dennis Miller joined the Committee to provide is ESDA Annual Report. In 2019, the DeKalb County Emergency Operations Plan (EOP) was reviewed and updated. It was then submitted to the Illinois Emergency Management Agency for approval. The plan with its annexes defines how DeKalb County analysis, prepares for, and responds to an emergency event, whether natural or man-made. The ongoing mandates that are requested by the National Incident Management System, (NIMS) will continue to be addressed and implemented.

The Local Emergency Planning Committee (L.E.P.C.) continues to meet quarterly. The purpose of the committee is to register and record all the facilities within the County that manufacture, use and/or store hazardous materials. The committee has also sponsored training exercises for local police and fire departments within the County.

As in previous years, much of the severe storm spotting responsibility was aided by a dedicated group of volunteers (Sheriff’s Auxiliary, and the Amateur Radio Operators) in the DeKalb County area. In all severe weather watches, the communication assets of the ham radio operators enable the ESDA Coordinator and the central warning point dispatchers to keep current of the weather conditions in the area. This capability was demonstrated this year in many of the 50 severe weather watches and warnings, which affected DeKalb County.

With the aid of support staff, the ESDA Office was able to arrange and conduct a weather spotter training program in the County. Over 85 people were training in storm spotting. In the event of severe weather, these trained weather spotters are able to report to the Communications Division of the Sheriff’s Office of the approaching weather. With the information that is received from the spotters, that information can then be disseminated to the affected areas of the County.

Mr. Miller also shared that the office planed and participated in several other exercises that took place throughout the County in 2019. Those consisted of table top exercises, functional exercises, a full scale exercise, and pipeline safety training programs. DeKalb County was also the hot for five (5) IEMA training courses that were held during the past year.

ESDA was notified and responded to 13 separate incidents this past year. Most were fuel leaks, which the other involved trains verse car mishaps, power outages, high winds, winter storms, and two (2) separate apartment complexes that were burnt which required sheltering of the occupants.

Mr. Miller attended and participated in several misalliance meetings throughout the area that are mandated for accreditation. He also assisted several Long-Term Health Care Families with the development of their Emergency Operations Plans. The Federal mandates that are required by the National Incident Management System (NIMS) will continue to be addressed and implemented.

Ms. Karen Cribben arrived. All seven Members were present.

SHERIFF’S ANNUAL REPORT – Link to Full Report

DeKalb County Sheriff Roger Scott, joined by Chief Deputy Andy Sullivan and Chief of Corrections Joyce Klein, all joined the Committee to provide highlights from their 2019 Annual Report. Sheriff Scott reviewed many of the past year’s highlights and statistics. The Sheriff’s and Deputy’s mandates were reviewed, the revenue/reimbursements earned by the Sheriff’s Office, and Civil Processing numbers in 2019.

The Sheriff reviewed the average response time throughout the different parts of the County as well as reviewed the traffic crash summary. Over the years, Plank Road has been a traffic concern for the County and area residents. The concerns have focused on traffic volume, high speed, unsafe passing, in conjunction with the increasing residential nature of the area. During the latter part of 2019, citizens of the area brought their concerns and recommendations to the County Highway Department, Sheriff’s Office and County Highway Committee. Through the exchange of information with residents, the County Highway Department has developed a series of safety improvements both short term and long term for the area. Throughout the years the Sheriff's Office has had significant interest in Plank Road because of the high traffic activity. The office has supplied data to those who have requested, and Sheriff Deputies have been aggressive with traffic enforcement. In 2019, Plank Road received increased attention through routine enforcement, extra patrol as staffing allows, and the use of funds from the Illinois Department of Transportation that has allowed additional traffic enforcement periods along the area of Plank Road. The Sheriff's Patrol Division is responsible for the patrol of approximately 1100 miles of township, County and state roads in DeKalb County including Plank Road. Plank Road will continue to be a significant area of focus through effective enforcement as we support the efforts to improve traffic safety along the Plank Road corridor.

The 2019 Annual Report highlighted two significant programs under the New Horizon section. The first of which was the City of Sandwich joining the Communications Center. The Sandwich Police Department transitioned to the DeKalb County Sheriffs Communication Center in 2019, becoming the twenty-second (22) Public Safety Agency to become part of the Communication Center. This transition began in July of 2019 as a result of a state mandate that reduced the number of 911 dispatch centers in each Emergency Telephone System Board (E.T.S.B.) district by half. In DeKalb County it was determined that Sandwich 911 Dispatch would go with the County, and NIU 911 dispatch would go with the City of DeKalb. The City of Sandwich and DeKalb County agreed in October of 2019, that the entire police dispatch service, (not just 911) for Sandwich would move to the County, this was successfully accomplished in November of 2019. This latest transition fulfilled a vision that was formed with the relocation of the old Sheriffs radio room, in 1999-2000 from a small area on the jail floor of the Public Safety Building, too the remodeled and repurposed training room on the first floor of the Public Safety building. The new modern dispatch center was designed with the vision to accommodate future communication consolidation if that were ever to be needed. Time has shown that vision was on target, and was an important investment for the citizens and public safety of DeKalb County. Since the dispatch center was created in 2000, Sycamore Police and Fire, Genoa Police and Genoa Kingston Fire and Rescue, and now Sandwich Police have joined the Sheriff’s Office and seven other police agencies, along with fire dispatch for 12 fire districts which includes Leland in LaSalle County and Lee in Lee County.

The second New Horizon was Tele Psychiatry in the Jail. Chief Klein explained that at a DeKalb County Mental Health Board Agency Directors meeting our Jail came in contact with representatives from Associates for Individual Development (AID) which is based in Aurora. AID has been serving the Fox Valley Area since 1961 for many types of mental health services. Through discussions and meetings in 2019 a partnership was developed with AID for the provision of tele psychiatry to jail inmates. To enable this to partnership to occur many requirements needed to be met my both parties. A few of those requirements for the Jail were: a dedicated room with a computer, connection to their secured website for sessions, coordination of our medical staff with AID staff and a system of referrals and pre-visit interviews with AID staff. A room was able to be dedicated for this program because of the jail expansion. IMO assisted with setting up the computer connectivity to the website and our medical provider has set-up a method of communication with AID staff. Jail staff in collaboration with our counselors has developed a system of referrals, pre-session interviews by AID staff and follow up care. Trial connectivity took place in advance of the first session. Our first tele psychiatry session took place in December. It was a seamless process and positioned the Jail for necessary services in 2020.

Sheriff Scott was asked about the current COVID-19 pandemic situation. He shared that the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office will respond to calls when they come in and then handle those calls by talking with people. They have had great success throughout the County with the issues whether it’s too many people gatherings together or other similar situations. They are working together on a cooperative effort with all the citizens and they’ve been great, so he doesn’t anticipate any further more complicated issues than that. He also added that he is not taking a stance on the Governor’s authority or not because what COVID-19 is, is a public health issue. The Sheriff’s Office work through the DeKalb County Public Health Department and they will assist then as all law enforcement is required to do with any health decisions that are made or any others that are issued by the County’s Health Department.

Ms. Slabon thanked the Sheriff and Deputies for the Sheriff’s Citizens Police Academy. She was part of the 2019 class of 29 individuals that graduated March 21, 2019.

Chief Deputy Sullivan shared that as for the Digital Radio System, the Fire Department System has been currently working well with the VHF on the new tower system for about a month. Fire chose not to migrate to the new digital system. They are working through a few minor issues regarding pagers, but those are being addressed as they come up, sometimes the problem is on their end. For the Law Enforcement side, the system is working well County-wide with new digital system. There are problems in City of Genoa itself so they are still on the old system. These same issues are in the North East corner of the County for Sheriff’s cars but those issues are being solved with already purchased in-car mobile radios. The real fix will be to install a transmitter on the Genoa Water Tower. This would have been done except E. F Johnson has ceased travel for its engineers and technical people because of COVID-19 restrictions.

Mr. Jones shared that he read the Sheriff’s Annual Report very thoroughly and added that the numbers within the report are very staggering. He wanted to congratulate and thank the Sheriff’s Office for the number of complaints that they respond to with the amount of staff they have.

ADJOURNMENT

It was moved by Mr. Luebke, seconded by Mr. Whelan, and it was carried unanimously to adjourn the meeting at 7:25 p.m.

https://dekalbcounty.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/min20-lawmay.pdf