PROCEEDINGS OF THE COUNTY BOARD

KNOX COUNTY , ILLINOIS

February 8, 2006

STATE OF ILLINOIS )

                                     )           SS

COUNTY OF KNOX )

            Proceedings of the regular meeting of the Knox County Board, held at the Knox County Courthouse, Galesburg , Illinois on Wednesday, February 8, 2006 at 6:29 p.m.

            The meeting was called to order by Chairman Janet Occhi and upon roll call the following members reported present:

                                                District 1          Caroline Porter

                                                District 2          Paul Stewart

                                                District 3          Janet Occhi

District 4          George Knapp

District 5          Gerald Link

District 1          Allen Pickrel

District 2          Greg Bacon

District 3          Paul Hevland

District 4          Wayne Saline

District 5          Ricardo Sandoval

District 1          Linda Roberts

District 2          Dana Shallenberger

District 3          Dale Parsons

District 4          Lowell Mannhardt

                                                District 5          Stephen Johnson

Also present was Scott Erickson, County Clerk .

            Chairman Occhi led the Members in the pledge to the flag. Darrell Hughes, from Bethel Baptist Church gave the invocation.

            Chairman Occhi read a proclamation in honor of Robert “Bob” Zefo, a deputy of the Knox County Police Department who recently passed away. This proclamation was presented to the family and a moment of silence followed in his memory.

            Sheriff James Thompson stated that there is an annual Deputy of the Year Award. He also read a proclamation that in recognition of Deputy Zefo’s 16 years of faithful service, hereafter this award shall be known as the Deputy Zefo Deputy of the Year Award. He then presented this proclamation to Robert Zefo’s wife.

            Chairman Occhi asked for additions to the agenda. She asked that agenda item number 7, regarding the update on litigation with the contract coverage attorneys be dropped from this agenda.

            Chairman Occhi asked for public comments. Greg Chance from the Health Department stated that he had presented a handout to the Members informing them of services offered to County residents through the Health Department.

Chairman Occhi presented for approval the following items of the consent agenda: 1) minutes of the Board Meeting and Closed Board Meeting held January 25, 2006 , 2) claims by Member for per diem and mileage for the meeting of February 8, 2006 , and 3) appointment of Mary West to the Knox County Zoning Board of Appeals. Motion was made by Member Johnson and seconded by Member Roberts to approve these items. Roll call vote is recorded as follows: Ayes—Porter, Stewart, Occhi, Knapp, Link, Pickrel, Bacon, Hevland, Saline, Sandoval, Roberts, Shallenberger, Parsons, Mannhardt, and Johnson—(15). Noes—(0). Motion carried.

            Chairman Occhi introduced discussion for appointments to the Knox County Ethics Review Committee. According to this previously passed resolution, there should have been a committee appointed. However, that had not been done. Currently she is waiting to receive a legal opinion as this resolution states that Ethics Review Committee Members may not be blood relatives to an elected official. The real question is whether that means all elected officials to include Board Members, etc. She asked that interested parties who are willing to serve on this committee either contact the County Clerk or herself. This would be for a two year term. Two members would come from the majority party and one from the minority party. At this time, that would equal two Democrats and one Republican. This committee would only meet if there is a problem.

Motion was made by Member Parsons and seconded by Member Hevland to approve the bond ordinance and sale of bonds for the Mary Davis Home not to exceed $1,050,000. Kevin McCanna from Speer Financial, Inc. passed out a handout detailing the specifics of this proposal. Two bids were received. The better bid came from Harris N.A. of Chicago with an interest rate of 4.22%. Therefore, the final amount of the certificates has been adjusted to $1,048,341.15. These bonds will begin to pay off in 2010. Roll call vote is recorded as follows: Ayes—Porter, Stewart, Occhi, Knapp, Link, Pickrel, Bacon, Hevland, Saline, Sandoval, Roberts, Shallenberger, Parsons, Mannhardt, and Johnson—(15). Noes—(0). Motion carried.

               Motion was made by Member Parsons and seconded by Member Bacon to approve opening selected portions of Closed Session Board minutes dating from January, 2004 through December 2005 which includes the following portions:

January 21, 2004                       Personnel (Item 1)

January 28, 2004                       Litigation (Item 1 & Item 2)

February 25, 2004                    Litigation (Item 1 & Item 2)

March 17, 2004                        Personnel (Item 1 & Item 3)

March 24, 2004                        Personnel (Item 1 & Item 2)

April 21, 2004                           Personnel (Item 1)

June 16, 2004                           Personnel (Item 1)

June 23, 2004                           Personnel (Item 1)

July 28, 2004                            Personnel (Item 1, Item 2, & Item 3)

August 25, 2004                        Litigation (Item 1)

                                                Personnel (Item 2)

September 8, 2004                    Personnel (Item 1 & Item 2)

September 15, 2004                  Personnel (Item 1)

November 17, 2004                  Personnel (Item 1 & Item 2)

November 23, 2004                  Personnel (Item 1)

December 15, 2004                  Personnel (Item 1 & Item 2)

January 26, 2005                       Personnel (Item 2 & Item 3)

February 9, 2005                      Personnel (Item 1 & Item 2)

April 13, 2005                           Litigation (Item 1)

June 8, 2005                            Personnel (Item 1)

July 13, 2005                            Personnel (Item 2)

August 24, 2005                        Personnel (Item 1)

September 14, 2005                  Personnel (Item 1, Item 5 & Item 6)

September 28, 2005                  Personnel (Item 5)

October 12, 2005                     Personnel (Item 1)

October 26, 2005                     Personnel (Item 3)

November 9, 2005                    Personnel (Item 4)

December 14, 2005                  Personnel (Item 8 & Item 9)

Roll call vote is recorded as follows: Ayes—Porter, Stewart, Occhi, Knapp, Link, Pickrel, Bacon, Hevland, Saline, Sandoval, Roberts, Shallenberger, Parsons, Mannhardt, and Johnson—(15). Noes—(0). Motion carried.

Since John Kennedy could not attend this meeting, he prepared a written animal control business report which was distributed to Board Members.

            Rod Cleair presented the Mary Davis Home business report. Bids for the fuel pump were advertised January 23^rd and 24^th. The bids are due March 2, and bids will be opened that date. So far he has received one bid and another person came in to get a copy of the specifications. In the Member packets he had included a copy of their “Choices” program. Installation of the new security system is expected to begin around the middle of March or first part of April.

            Joyce Skinner presented the assessor/zoning business report. She reported the receipt of $2072 from Carl Sandburg College to help defray the costs associated with the appraisals. The Board of Review closed on January 27. She expressed the need for legal advice at some Board of Review Hearings, as especially the commercial entities bring their attorneys with them. Presently the assessor’s office has no legal counsel available to assist in these hearings. Chairman Occhi stated that she would speak to State’s Attorney, Paul Mangieri about this. Mrs. Skinner stated that another disadvantage was that some of the appraisals were prepared by a master appraiser who is now deceased. When Mrs. Skinner phoned authorities in Springfield , she was told that an appraiser could not be hired to defend these appraisals. In the future one possible solution to this problem might be to hire an appraisal firm. Butler Manufacturing has dropped their protest of their evaluation. It will not go down from the $200,000 amount.

            Larry Larson presented the landfill business report. The clutch did go out on one of the tractor trailers. It is being repaired and should be ready to go on Friday. Soon he is expecting to receive the authorization to begin using the new cell. They will begin using this new cell as soon as possible. In about nine or ten years, the landfill will need to begin constructing cells in a new area. In approximately four or five years, we will need to begin planning for that. Costs would be around $800,000-$1,000,000 to proceed with that phase.

            Duane Ratermann presented the highway business report. On February 15 they will be opening bids for rock for the upcoming maintenance season for the County and the Townships. At the same time, bids will also be opened for the new dump truck. They purchased a waste oil burner for the shop. During the average year they accumulate 700-800 gallons of waste motor oil. He expects this oil burner to save $1500-2000 per year in propane costs. In about three years, the waste oil burner will have paid for itself.

Motion was made by Member Mannhardt and seconded by Member Johnson to approve the preliminary engineering service agreement with Shive-Hattery, Inc. for the design of a concrete box culvert for Rio Township , Section 05-16125-00-BR. Roll call vote is recorded as follows: Ayes—Porter, Stewart, Occhi, Knapp, Link, Pickrel, Bacon, Hevland, Sandoval, Roberts, Shallenberger, Parsons, Mannhardt, and Johnson—(14). Noes—(0). Pass—Saline—(1). Motion carried.

Duane Ratermann presented for first reading the 2006 Motor Fuel Tax Maintenance Resolution. County Highway 10 is not part of this maintenance program. He presented a handout about pavement preservation to the Members, saying that he had recently attended a seminar in Chicago about this subject. The pavement preservation concept is to after four or five years perform preventative maintenance to bring it up to an acceptable level of service. This gets away from the former mindset of waiting until the road was completely deteriorated before addressing repairs. It is more cost efficient to do service every five or six years. There is a micro-surfacing project included in this project on County Highway 34, by Rio . Repairs to County Highway 9 are not included in this project but will be included under a special maintenance project this summer.

Although Marianne Wiesen could not attend this meeting, she did include her report in the Member packets. She did send a photo of the new chairs that were recently purchased for the Nursing Home.

Chris Wood presented the GIS business report. The land use layer is now complete and he has turned it over to Sidwell. He is estimating that he will get that report back during the first part of March. He has been working on the road layer to get it to match up with the air photos. Some of the new office furniture has arrived. The GIS Fees Ad Hoc Committee was scheduled to meet February 13, at 4:15 p.m. at the Annex. He had received the Road Center Line Agreement from IDOT and that will be included in the next packet and on that agenda for first reading.

Motion was made by Member Parsons and seconded by Member Roberts to approve claims against Knox County , Illinois , for the period of January 26, 2006-February 8, 2006 (ordering that invoices be accepted and approved and that the County Clerk and County Treasurer be authorized and directed to issue County Warrants in payment of the bills.) Chairman Occhi reported that the bills from the Sheriff’s Office were not presented in time to be included in this packet. They will be included in the next packet. Roll call vote is recorded as follows: Ayes—Porter, Stewart, Occhi, Knapp, Link, Hevland, Saline, Roberts, Shallenberger, Parsons, Mannhardt, and Johnson—(12). Noes—(0). Pass—Pickrel, Bacon, and Sandoval—(3). Motion carried.

STATEMENTS OF GENERAL CONCERN

            Member Porter had no comments at this time.

            Member Stewart asked whether the Chairman of the Administrator Ad Hoc Committee had been contacted about any additions.

            Chairman Occhi announced that they had scheduled an Ad Hoc Building Committee Meeting, February 9 at 5:30 p.m. at the annex.

            Member Knapp, Member Link, Member Pickrel, Member Bacon, Member Hevland, Member Saline, Member Sandoval, Member Roberts, and Member Shallenberger had no comments at this time.

            Member Parsons commented that he as Chairman of the Administrator Ad Hoc Committee had received no calls. The committee has prepared a clear and concise job description.

            Member Mannhardt and Member Johnson had no comments at this time.

            Chairman Occhi announced that the next regular meeting will be held Wednesday, February 22, 2006 , 6:00 p.m. , at the Knox County Courthouse, Galesburg , Illinois .

            Motion was made by Member Sandoval and seconded by Member Johnson to adjourn. Voice vote is recorded as follows: Ayes—(15). Noes—(0). Motion carried. Meeting was adjourned at 7:20 p.m.