DeKalb Times

DeKalb County Law & Justice Committee met Jan. 10.

Here are the minutes provided by the committee:

The Law and Justice Committee of the DeKalb County Board met in the Legislative Center’s Gathertorium in Sycamore, Illinois. Madam Chair Dianne Leifheit called the meeting to order at 6:30 p.m. Those members present were Ms. Mary Cozad, Mrs. Kathy Lampkins, Mr. Ellingsworth Webb, and Chair Dianne Leifheit. Mrs. Karen Cribben and Mr. Larry West were absent. A quorum was established with four Members present, two absent and one vacancy.

Others that were present included Brian Gregory, Sheriff Andy Sullivan, Chief Deputy Jim Burgh, Sgt. Jeremy Grubbs, Sgt. Ben Hiatt, and Tom McCulloch.

APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

It was moved by Mrs. Lampkins, seconded by Ms. Cozad and it was carried unanimously by voice vote to approve the agenda as presented.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES

Ms. Cozad moved to approve the minutes of the November 22, 2021 Committee Meeting. Mrs. Lampkins seconded the motion and it was carried unanimously.

PUBLIC COMMENTS

There were no Public Comments.

PUBLIC DEFENDER’S REPORT

Mr. McCulloch reported that he had an Assistant Public Defender recently resign at the beginning of December and another will be resigning shortly. The office has been covering the cases as best as they can. Mr. McCulloch has put out a job notice but has unfortunately received no responses yet.

He also reported that about 97% of the conflict counsel cases have been assigned to the Public Defender’s Office. They have been filing motions in about 125 cases to sometimes get out of the cases and other times working out plea agreements, Mr. McCulloch noted.

The December 2021, Public Defender’s Report was placed on file with the Committee. The report illustrated that there were 3,252 cases opened and 3,219 cases closed.

COURT SERVICES REPORT

The Committee briefly reviewed the monthly Adult, Juvenile, and Pretrial Reports that were provided by Mr. Venditti in the Court Services Department.

APPROVING THE PURCHASE OF REPLACEMENT TASERS FOR THE COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE

With the passage of SAFE-T Act (criminal justice reform), many new standards are required of law enforcement officers. In the SAFE-T Act, there are added restrictions and standards related to the deployment of tasers. Modern tasers have been equipped with advancements to make the taser more accurate and include a “warning arc” that studies show reduce the need for deployment by over 70%. The tasers the Sheriff’s Department utilizes in many cases are older technology and are in need of replacement.

Earlier in the month, the County received a quote from Axon, the company that makes tasers in the United States, to replace all of the County’s tasers with new tasers with the improvements. The quote that was received was just over $190,000, however was only good until the end of 2021 at which time it would increase to about $210,000. Through some negotiation the County was able to get Axon to hold their pricing through January 22nd. In order to meet the deadline, Administration asked the Law & Justice Committee to meet earlier in the month. Before the Committee was a draft Resolution recommending the purchase of fifty-one (51) replacement tasers for the Sheriff’s Office to be used in patrol and corrections. The plan is to fund the replacement tasers from the Special Projects Fund, which received revenue from ARPA. This investment helps reduce liability and protects our officers and the people they interact with.

Sheriff Andy Sullivan, Chief Deputy Jim Burgh, Sgt. Jeremy Grubbs, Sgt. Ben Hiatt provided the Committee with a demonstration of how much more accurate and reliable the new tasers would be as opposed to the current ones that they have had for around 11 years.

It was moved by Mrs. Lampkins, seconded by Mr. Webb and approved unanimously to forward the Purchase Resolution to the full County Board recommending its approval.

Sheriff Sullivan briefly reviewed his Overtime Report with the Committee and gave a brief update on the status of his hiring situations.

The Digital Radio System is working County-wide with some occasional glitches. The company is being very responsive and they have not received final pay-out until the program is working as they promised. E.F. Johnson is installing another tower location at the City of DeKalb’s Police Department to help with coverage in the North Annie Glidden Corridor.

AN ORDINANCE ESTABLISHING CIVIL FEES & CRIMINAL AND TRAFFIC ASSESSMENTS TO BE CHARGED BY THE CLERK OF THE CIRCUIT COURT Mr. Gregory

Public Act 100-0987, passed by the General Assembly on June 29, 2018, became effective July 1, 2019, completely overhauled the criminal, traffic and civil fee structures in the circuit courts throughout the State of Illinois. The purpose of the legislation was to consolidate fees into unified schedules for all counties, to realign fees to be constitutional, and to provide for fee waivers for low-income individuals. Effective July 1, 2019, Section 27.1b of the Clerks of Courts Act, 705 ILCS 105/27.1b, sets out the fees to be charged in all counties in the State of Illinois by the Clerks of the Circuit Court for the filing of pleadings and for other services provided by the Clerks in civil cases. Section 27.1b of the Clerks of Courts Act creates four schedules for civil filing fees, three schedules for civil appearance fees, and establishes various other fees that Clerks of the Circuit Court are authorized to assess in civil cases, all of which are generally classified as “not to exceed” amounts.

Section 27.1b provides that, unless otherwise specified, the amount of the fees shall be determined by ordinance or resolution of the county board and remitted to the county treasurer to be used for purposes related to the operation of the court system in the county. Sections 15-5 through 15-65 break down how the assessment amounts are to be distributed to various county funds, if those funds are in existence; otherwise, the amounts designated for funds that are not in existence are to be placed in the County’s general fund for purposes related to operation of the court system in the County.

The only changes that this Ordinance is establishing is that, pursuant to 55 ILCS 5/5-39001, the fee for maintaining a law library is to be reduced from $21.00 to $20.00 at this time. Also, the COVID-19 health pandemic necessitated the closure of the Court’s Children’s Waiting Room, and has revealed changing circumstances and needs of the general public, which the Circuit Court and County Board have determined to require the establishment and funding of a Self Represented Litigant (SRL) Self Help Room for the onsite filing and viewing of the DeKalb County Circuit Court Clerk's electronic files.

The proposed Ordinance would update those two fee changes that need to be enacted pursuant to the requirements of 705 ILCS 105/27.1b of the Clerks of the Court Act and the Criminal and Traffic Assessment Act (705 ILCS 135/1-1, et seq.).

It was moved by Mrs. Lampkins, seconded by Ms. Cozad and approved unanimously to forward the Ordinance to the full County Board recommending its approval.

ADJOURNMENT

It was moved by Mrs. Lampkins, seconded by Mr. Webb, and it was carried unanimously to adjourn the meeting at 7:28 p.m.

https://dekalbcounty.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/minutes-law-01102022.pdf