TOI Board Minutes

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Minutes of Board of Directors Meeting
Township Officials of Illinois
Northfield Center - Springfield, Illinois
Friday, December 7, 2007

Call to Order

1st Vice-President Richard Ralston presided, with the absence of President Olen Kibler who was unable to attend due to snow removal operations in his Township. Welcoming all members who were present, Richard called the meeting of the TOI Board of Directors to order at 10:30 a.m. in the Topaz Room at Northfield Center, Springfield, Illinois.

Appointment of board members to Fill Vacancies

1st Vice-President Richard Ralston introduced the following board members appointed by their division: (Division Presidents by virtue of their office are automatically members of the TOI Board of Directors as outlined in Article 7, section 2, of the Township Officials of Illinois By-Laws.)

Clerks Division: Wanda Cantrell from Kankakee Township, Kankakee County was appointed to fill the unexpired term of Pat Thompson who was elected President of the Clerks Division at the Educational Conference.

Highway Commissioners Division: Alan Labaj from Momence Township, Kankakee County was appointed to fill the unexpired term of Leslie Hild who was elected President of the Highway Commissioners Division.

Assessors Division: Susan Carpentier from South Rock Island Township, Rock Island County was appointed to fill the unexpired term of Jim Young who was elected President of the Assessors Division.

Trustees Division: Robert Wisniewski from Joliet Township, Will County was appointed to fill the unexpired term of Mike Foley who was elected President of the Trustees Division.

A motion was made by Jerry Swanson and seconded by Carol Perschke to approve these appointments to the TOI Board of Directors. Without discussion and by a voice vote, the motion carried unanimously. These division appointments fill all vacancies of the board for a total of 34 members.

Moment of Silence / Pledge of Allegiance

1st Vice President Richard Ralston asked everyone present to stand and think about all those in the military as they serve our country and to continue keeping Barbara Weyrick in our thoughts with a moment of silence. He followed by leading with the Pledge of Allegiance.

ROLL CALL

Secretary Larry Mowery took the roll call with 27 members present and 7 absent as follows:

Members Present: Richard Ralston, 1st Vice President; Michael Goral, 2nd Vice President; Karen Reese, 3rd Vice President; Larry Mowery, Secretary; Wanda Cantrell, Susan Carpentier, Susan Curtiss, Charles Foley, George Grosso, Mary Hamilton, Leslie Hild, Imelda Kelch, Alan Labaj, Karen Megan, Shirley Moore, Carol Perschke, Bill Prather, Ron Reeder, Steve Schrage, R.C. Smith, Jerry Swanson, Patricia Ann Thompson, Robert Turner,Karen Twitty-Hartlieb, Grace Vetter, Robert Wisniewski, and Jim Young.

Members Absent: Olen Kibler, President; Jeff Wallace, Treasurer; Barbara Weyrick, Immediate Past President; Gene Jacoby, Ronald Johnson, Ann Dynako-Kubiczky, and Robert Miller.

Others Present: Bryan Smith, Executive Director; Jerry Crabtree, Associate Director/Educational Coordinator; Barbara Hale, Meeting Planner; Rod Beck, TOIRMA Executive Director; and Simphi Lenover, CCMSI.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES

Ronald Reeder asked to amend the minutes from August 24, 2007 to reflect showing him present at the meeting. A motion was made by Patricia Ann Thompson, seconded by Jim Young to approve the Minutes of the August 24, 2007 meeting as amended. Without any further discussion or additions and by a voice vote, the motion carried unanimously.

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR’S REPORT

Executive Director Bryan Smith greeted everyone and thanked Richard for conducting the meeting in Olen’s absence today. He asked for everyone to look at the bags handed out which contained many nice items including a DVD of the video presentation shown at the conference opening session and a DVD of the conference banquet.

Bryan said that after hearing Past President Barb Weyrick’s name called during the roll call that he wanted to comment on her medical condition. He stated that he talked to her last week and she sends her very best to everyone. Barb is at home and in good spirits as she continues to recuperate and slowly heal from the terrible accident she was in last July. She hopes to be able to attend the next scheduled meeting in April. Bryan also read a nice card from Treasurer Jeff Wallace who had shoulder surgery on his rotator cup prior to the annual conference. Jeff is also recuperating at home while attending therapy three times a week and hopes to get back to work very soon.

Bryan thanked Susie Carpentier, Conference Committee Chair and Richard Ralston the 100th Anniversary Conference Committee Chair, for their participation and efforts toward a very successful conference.  He stated that of 20 years he has worked for TOI, this was the largest and best conference he has ever attended. The banquet gala ball with every one dressed in their tuxedos was wonderful. Bryan also thanked everyone for all their support to make this event happen and passed around his copy of the TOI history book for all to sign like a year book. He also wanted to thank Bill Foster who was not in attendance today. With Bill’s permission to discuss, Bryan stated that after having a lot of pain in his lower back, Bill has been diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma cancer. His doctors first thought he had kidney cancer where they had first discovered it, but thankfully it wasn’t. He plans to start treatment and aggressively fight the cancer as hard as he can, but don’t stop calling or emailing him and keep him in your prayers as this will be a big challenge for him to overcome. Bill had his first chemo treatment on Wednesday keeping him from today’s meeting, but Bryan and Jerry plan on meeting with him next week to go over the legislative survey.

Asking everyone to look at the items in the white folder placed in your bag, Bryan discussed the summary of statistics from the 1433 townships in the 85 of 102 counties in the state that have township government showing that the majority of our organization is from a very rural membership as follows:

• 1,188 townships (82.91%) have a population less than 5,000 residents
• 684 townships (47.74%) have a population of less than 1,000 residents
• 377 townships (26.31%) have a population of less than 500 residents

Bryan announced the 2008 TOI board meeting dates, with all to be held at the Hilton Hotel downtown Springfield on April 3, August 8, and December 5, 2008. Topics Day will be on April 2, 2008 one day before the next board meeting. Included in your packet is the 2008 mileage reimbursement rate of .50 ½ as determined by the IRS, and updated financial reports.

The scholarship fund has received donations with an approximate fund balance of $27,000.00. Bryan recommends that the board today approve six $2,000.00 scholarships for 2008. With that being said, 1st Vice-President Richard Ralston entertained for a motion; a motion was made by Imelda Kelch and seconded by Shirley Moore. Without any further discussion or additions and by a voice vote, the motion carried unanimously.

Bryan stated that he has received confirmation of the partnership with the Illinois Funds program with the State Treasurer’s Office. They have annually donated $5,000.00 to be used toward educational purposes along with sponsorships and we should be receiving their donation very soon.

Bryan reported that the American Legion Building to the south of the TOI Building has been demolished, revealing a portion of our building that has not been exposed to the elements before. The lot was then purchased by the Municipal League, our neighbor to the north. Bryan and Jerry met with the Municipal League stating our concern if they built next to our building. The Municipal League said that if they build, it will not be for several years and would not cover up much of our building. The TOI Building will need some work to secure it from the elements and make it look nice, so Bryan met with an architect to explore our options. Depending on the work to be performed to the building, our cost is estimated to be from $35,000.00 to $90,000.00 to repair/replace and secure. Bryan is requesting approval from the board to proceed with participating with the City of Springfield’s TIF program to receive up to 75% funding to restore our building. The architect seems fairly sure that we will receive the funding, and that we can proceed to a February letting to have the work started by this spring. Bryan stated that he is leaning toward a less expensive project with metal panels to cover the wall over a more expensive project to replace the wall. 1st Vice-President Richard Ralston entertained for a motion to proceed with the project. A motion was made by Bill Prather and seconded by Bob Turner to allow the TOI staff the authority to proceed with securing the project. It was discussed that the City looks very favorably toward assisting with these projects to beautify the area downtown. A question was asked about having additional parking and Bryan said that none would be added to this area. Richard pointed out that if the city funds 75% of the project, then it will only cost TOI approximately $10,000.00 to complete the repairs. Without any further discussion or additions and by a voice vote, the motion carried unanimously. Bryan also pointed out that in the packets is the legislative calendar for the year and an updated calendar for TOI events; anyone wishing to add dates should contact either him or Jerry.

NATaT REPORT

Bryan reported that the NATaT conference was held September 4th through the 6th at the Capital Hilton Hotel in Washington D.C., the Illinois delegation was awarded the attendance prize this year by having the most attendees with 100 registered delegates on our 100th year. We were at the congressional breakfast on Thursday with U.S. Senator Dick Durbin in attendance and The Ferguson Group arranged to hold several workshops at the conference. Next year the conference will be moved back to the Hyatt Regency on Capitol Hill from September 29th through October 2nd, 2008. In 2009 and 2010 it will resume back to its normal time around Labor Day. With no further comments or discussion, Bryan asked everyone to send President Olen Kibler a card as he and his wife Jayne will celebrate their 33rd wedding anniversary tomorrow.

ASSOCIATE DIRECTORS REPORT

Associate Director/Educational Coordinator Jerry Crabtree greeted everyone and read a letter from President Olen Kibler explaining his thoughts toward education and board leadership participation.

Jerry pointed out two items placed in your packets to review. He discussed the 2008 Education Program as outlined in his handout describing the educational zones, registration information and the agenda for each location. The second item was a printout of his Power Point presentation reviewing the education offered at the annual conference having 44 sessions presented with 11 sessions repeated:

• Monday: Session 1- 692 attendees, Session 2 - 570 attendees, Session 3 - 387 attendees
• Tuesday: Session 1 - 22 attendees (during the awards breakfast), Session 2 - 426 attendees
• Total Attendees: 2,097

There were only 50 out of 1000 evaluations turned in from the conference and we need to focus on how to improve participation to receive more feedback in the future. Most of the comments heard during the conference were very positive. The January issue of the Perspective magazine will provide information on how to download the evaluation form and FAX it in to the office. These evaluations will help us to determine ways to predict and improve the sessions that were offered when we review them. Barb Hale is currently tabulating the information listed on the survey forms and plans to have it available by February.

TOIPAC

Jerry stated he, Bryan and Bill Foster were very pleased that as of December 2007, cookbook sales had earned approximately $8,500.00 and sold more than 800 books. He said that he was somewhat skeptical in the beginning, but the program was an overall success creating larger revenues then he expected. There are about 500 cookbooks remaining to be sold and Jerry has them available to anyone wanting to purchase more today. With the possibility of a constitutional convention next year, he emphasized that we will need to generate even more funds to meet the challenges ahead.  The 2007 Conference yielded approximately $11,000.00 for our TOIPAC Account.

The conference produced the following TOIPAC Revenue:

• Conference Packages for 2008  $ 2,220.00
• 50/50 Drawing                          $ 1,371.00
• Silent Auction                            $ 1,320.00
• Cookbooks Sold             $ 1,036.00
• Contributions                             $ 1,885.00
• Pending (Credit Cards)                $    425.00

TOIPAC Account Balance to date:        $25,207.56

Website Report

Jerry reported that we are still going through small growing pains in producing an informational resource.   The Division Websites are all up, and needing a minimum of 40 individual townships in the subscription program to be cost effective, there are currently 54 active participants. With 54 of the 56 townships renewing, we will be able to add new enhancements to the software for 2008. The traffic statistics reported were very good, with an average of 6,741 hits per day and 147 people staying to review various pages. Since January 2007, there have been more than 2.3 million hits or 7,000 hits per day with almost 50,000 active sessions reported. These numbers are impressive and show us that people are accessing our information.

Education

Jerry reported that the 1st mailing for the 2008 educational meetings will be sent out on December 14, 2007 for individuals in districts 1-3, with the others being mailed out after the first of the year.

He asked Education Committee Chair Karen Twitty-Hartlieb to come forward to assist with presenting the program. Karen greeted everyone and stated that it has been a delight working with Jerry who is very easy to work with, knowledgeable and dependable. She asked everyone to look at the letter from your packet where she announced further information on the 2008 education program. She stated that this program was developed from a response from this board that we review the education commitment and revise it to be more meaningful, and with Jerry’s help we have spent a year doing that. The program is the product of that, it is on paper and set to go even if nobody in this room does anything else, but will have a lot less meaning for the people we intend to reach. We need to be real leaders and go to the session that is in your education district. There is a list of every township and a way to reach every township official with a reminder to those who you know in your area, these are people we need to reach that don’t normally attend the other programs or seminars available. Karen said that she hopes that members of our board would attend 2 or 3 sessions, but doesn’t expect everyone to attend all 8 educational district meetings. Since the topics are somewhat different at all the meetings, you might want to attend a meeting of your interest or take your family overnight to attend a meeting in a different part of the state. She asked that all board directors should try to be motivated to help fulfill this educational goal that was requested. Karen thanked everyone and stated that with Jerry’s help we really have produced a good program. Jerry thanked Karen and reported that in your packet you have your specific district meeting information.

Jerry stated that the objective of the 2006 strategic planning session by the board was to explore educational opportunities, recommend the review of the existing program or spring workshops and propose an outcome. This plan is a result of that recommendation. With the approval of the Education Committee the plan was submitted to the full board and approved at the March 2007 meeting unanimously. The 8 districts were presented and approved at the August board meeting with all the dates and speakers locked in. The goals are to provide solid beneficial educational programs to officials with opportunities in their area of the state and limiting required travel. Jerry emphasized that we are not duplicating what the divisions provide by not having the same cookie cutter recipe all the time. Every year we need to provide some type of new program of the association’s available assistance for our members. The Education Committee is requesting for each board member to assist in a drive to increase the attendance at each of these district meetings and to consider yourself as a designated educational coordinator or a visible connection to the TOI Board of Directors. In 2007, we held 8 county association meetings including over 25 counties with an inactive or no current designated association. We will continue to contact these designated county associations in 2008 with information that can benefit their organization and update them on available programs. Jerry said that you can help by contacting townships in your area and ask them to attend one of the 2008 meetings or provide information of your district program. He continued by saying that you received in your packet a list of the townships in your area receiving an invitation to attend one of the meetings scheduled in January and February. You also have the phone numbers of the officials that submitted their authorized information with their dues and a county listing of the counties in each designated education district. Meeting information will also be included in the January issue of the Perspective magazine and on the website. Your packet includes the program agenda, registration rates and brochures for distribution to other officials. The county and district that has the overall highest registration figures will receive a recognition award for their attendance. Jerry offered his help by telling everyone to just give him a call if they need him for anything.

Jerry entertained questions: and was asked how many voluntary educational credits each meeting will provide. He and Barb Hale determined that the meetings will provide from 3 ½ to 4 educational credits.

Bob Wisniewski stated that he noticed that most of the meetings were scheduled during the week and asked about having a Saturday meeting for those who are unable to the week dates. Jerry replied that they did take this under consideration and determined from previous data that Saturdays seem to more valuable to people and they are more likely to take off a Wednesday or Thursday to attend. He also said the in the southern part of the state where the Saturday meetings were scheduled, more people are likely to attend because they can not get off work during the week.

Jerry Swanson commented that he was very impressed with this program and all the work provided by Karen, Jerry and the staff to produce this educational agenda.   Jerry replied by saying thank you!

Les Hild commented that he noticed that his township phone number was not listed. Jerry and Bryan stated that when each township fills out their dues registration they need to check the box authorizing TOI to publish their telephone number. Les wondered if he as Highway Commissioner could have his Road District number listed, and Bryan stated that he needs to request this to his Supervisor who sends in the dues form.

Conference Review

Barbara Hale reported the following conference statics:

• Full Registrations - 869 people
• One Day Registrations - 60 people for Monday only, and 15 people for Tuesday only
• Total Registrations - 930 people plus14 on site registrations for a total of 944 registrations
• 61 of the 85 township counties were represented - for a representation of 71.84%
• 36 Exhibitors - 30 were paying exhibitors bringing in a revenue of $12,675.00
• Sunday night reception at the museum - 1,000 registered (almost 200 did not attend)

397 attended the 6-8 pm timeframe and 419 attended the 8-10 pm timeframe

• 87 people attended the spouse program (almost double the normal amount)
• 390 tickets were sold for the awards breakfast (22 people who purchased tickets did not show)
• 455 of the 516 tickets sold attended the banquet (61 people who purchased tickets did not show)

Of the 50 questionnaires received back: 14% were first time conference attendees, 15% were new township officials, all 50 registered for the full conference, 84% of the people took advantage of the shuttle service, 84% attended a division meeting while 85% of those found their division meeting worthwhile, 86% attended the Sunday events, 63% attended the Monday night event and 77% of those liked the karaoke and line dancing, 50% attended the awards breakfast and 91% of those enjoyed the program, 42% stayed for the banquet with 90% of those finding the meal enjoyable and 89% found the program enjoyable while only 86% stayed for the dancing, 30% found the exhibition very effective and 70% found it effective, 73% found the overall conference very beneficial and 27% found it good, and 100% said that they would definitely encourage other township officials to attend the conference.

Barb clarified that originally it was thought that the 2 main downtown hotels would accommodate all those attending the conference as based on the past 4 years in Peoria. She stated that we did have to go out to 3 other hotels. However in the end and once people made their cancellations, we could have handled everyone at the 3 downtown hotels with almost everybody (within 40 people) at the 2 main properties of the Hilton and President Abraham Lincoln Hotels. By going out to the outlying hotels, this required us to have the shuttle service which was very costly to the association. She stated that overall it was a very successful conference with many excellent comments. The dates for next year’s conference will be November 9th through the 11th, 2008 back in Springfield.

OLD BUSINESS

None presented.

NEW BUSINESS

Richard asked everyone to look in your folders at the committee assignments. Ron Reeder commented on the committee assignments by saying that one of the original reasons to cut the size of the board was because of expense. In reviewing the committees he noticed that some of the committees had up to 12 people listed when the recommendation was to have only 5 people on each committee to reduce costs. He stated that if we are concerned about reducing the size of committees to save money for travel and other expenses, then why do we have such large committees? Bryan stated that there are less committees then last year. Bryan also stated that the by-laws say no committee shall have less than 5 members.  Richard said that he discussed this with Olen and they determined that everyone was assigned to at least 3 committees and people were placed on the committees by how they would contribute to that purpose. It was suggested that maybe people would sign up to volunteer next year at an earlier meeting before the assignments were made.

TOIRMA REPORT

Executive Director Rod Beck stated that his report would be brief and introduced Simphi Lenover the program coordinator. Rod commented on TOIRMA’s perspective of the conference, he said that he encourages the board to continue to raise the bar for next year by having as good a conference or better then the conference this year. He stated that TOIRMA currently has 1300 townships, 36 road districts and 307 MTAD’s in the program. They continue to solicit other townships and districts that meet the framework. TOIRMA also wants to commend TOI for enhancing the educational opportunities for of elected township officials across the State of Illinois. He believes that it is critical to the success of those efforts and that each member of this board promotes the education program. He believes that the leadership comes from this board and challenges everyone to step up to the plate and make this educational program that Jerry and others have worked on so diligently a success. The better educated that township officials are, the less problems and stronger voice we will have. He thanked the board for the opportunity to address the board.

DIVISION REPORTS

Supervisors:

President Jerry Swanson reported that the Supervisors Division has their 2008 GATI and zone meetings set up and those dates will be published in the Perspective Magazine. Being the 4th year of the election cycle he expects that attendance might be down and they plan to work in improving attendance. The division also will have their organizational meeting coming up in Bloomington on the 4th Friday in January.

Town Clerks:

President Patricia Ann Thompson stated that the Clerks Division amended their by-laws this year and that membership is down from this time last year. The division will have their organizational meeting on February 2, 2008 in Bloomington to determine zone meeting programs and dates.

Highway Commissioners:

President Les Hild stated that the East Central Highway Commissioners Conference will be coming up in March, the West Central Conference in June, and the summer seminar will be in August.

Assessors:

President Jim Young stated that he had a great time at the conference this year. The next Assessors meeting will be the 23rd of January in Peoria. He also had received a letter from Dean Michal thanking the division for their donation to the IPA for scholarships toward the CIAO course in filling vacancies. Karen Reese spent 7 hours sending out 682 dues notices for this year.

Trustees:

President Mike Foley reported that the Trustees Division has installed new officers and set up an organizational division meeting for January.

Tax Collectors:

President Imelda Kelch stated that she gave her division report at the closing of the conference; her division gave $100.00 to the scholarship fund with $910.18 remaining in their treasury. Both she and Karen Megan were reelected as officers during the conference.

OTHER BUSINESS

A motion was made by Mickey Goral and seconded by Carol Perschke to go in to executive session for personnel. Without any further discussion and by a voice vote, the motion carried unanimously. (Only the Board members remained in executive session)

Action Item from Executive Session Discussion

Richard instructed Les Hild to inform those who left the room for executive session that they may return for regular session.  A motion was made in regular session by Karen Twitty-Hartlieb and seconded by Mike Foley to direct President Kibler to send a letter of intent by April to extend contract to Executive Director Bryan Smith for an additional three year term with financial details to be in place by September. Without any further discussion and by a voice vote, the motion carried with all yes except for R.C. Smith who abstained from the vote.

ADJOURNMENT

Bob Turner made a motion to adjourn, seconded by Bill Prather. Motion carried unanimously by voice vote at 12:10 pm. Richard thanked everyone for attending and announced that lunch will be served in the Crystal Room down the hall.

Respectfully submitted by,
Larry W. Mowery, Secretary

Minutes of Board of Directors Meeting
Township Officials of Illinois
Northfield Center - Springfield, Illinois
Friday, August 24, 2007

Call to Order

President Olen Kibler welcomed all members present and called the meeting of the TOI Board of Directors to order at 10:04 a.m. in the Onyx Room at Northfield Center, Springfield, Illinois.

Moment of Silence / PLEDGE of Allegiance

1st Vice President Richard Ralston asked everyone present to stand and think about all those in the military as they serve our country and especially send our thoughts out to Barb Weyrick with her recovery from the terrible accident she incurred as he led the group with a moment of silence followed by the Pledge of Allegiance.

ROLL CALL

Secretary Larry Mowery took the roll call with 22 members present and 11 absent as follows:

Members Present: Olen Kibler, President; Richard Ralston, 1st Vice President; Michael Goral, 2nd Vice President; Karen Reese, 3rd Vice President; Larry Mowery, Secretary; Susan Carpentier, Susan Curtiss, Gene Jacoby, George Grosso, Karen Twitty-Hartlieb, Leslie Hild, Joseph Jedlovec, Imelda Kelch, Ann Dynako-Kubiczky, Karen Megan, Carol Perschke, Ron Reeder, Steve Schrage, R.C. Smith, Patricia Ann Thompson, Robert Wisniewski, and Jim Young.

Members Absent: Jeff Wallace, Treasurer; Barbara Weyrick, Immediate Past President; Charles Foley, Ronald Johnson, Robert Miller, Shirley Moore, Bill Prather, Bob Rita, Jerry Swanson, Robert Turner, and Grace Vetter.

Others Present: Bryan Smith, Executive Director; Jerry Crabtree, Associate Director/Educational Coordinator; Barbara Hale, Meeting Planner; Rod Beck, TOIRMA Executive Director; and Simphi Lenover, CCMSI.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES

A motion made by Patricia Ann Thompson, seconded by Jim Young to approve the Minutes of the March 23, 2007 meeting as presented. By a voice vote, the motion carried unanimously.

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR’S REPORT

Executive Director Bryan Smith greeted everyone and announced that many directors had called to let him know that they would not be able to attend today’s meeting due to a violent wind and rain storm that occurred in Northern Illinois on August 23, 2007. He also elaborated on Immediate Past President Barb Weyrick’s medical condition stating that she is now back in Illinois at a Chicago Hospital with a long way to go toward recovery and asked for us all to keep her in our thoughts and prayers while she recovers from the terrible accident she was in early last July. Bryan announced that Imelda Kelch had brought cards with her today to be circulated around the room for everyone to sign that will be sent to Barb to help brighten her day. He also stated that a note was sent out earlier in the week with an updated address for anyone wishing to mail a card to her.

Bryan reported that it has been a very busy summer with all the information that was being sent out for the upcoming conference. Bryan asked everyone to look at the information provided in the packets, he stated that 1,282 townships have paid their TOI membership dues to date and out of the 85 counties with township government, 16 of those are 100% paid. He added that we also have had 152 associate memberships and 32 Road Districts from commission counties that have paid their dues. He asked everyone to look at their membership list and if you see someone from your county that has not yet paid their dues, please give them a call and encourage them to do so. Also included in your packets is a calendar with important dates and events scheduled for the remainder of the year and many newspaper articles that he encouraged everyone to take the time to read.

Currently the Laws and Duties Handbook is being revised and is scheduled for print and the 100th Anniversary History Book will be available for the fall conference. He reported that nothing has happened with the Local Government Consolidation Commission in which Bryan is a member of, probably due to the General Assembly being in Springfield longer than expected with other issues, he will keep the board advised if anything does transpire with this group. Bryan stated that he is quite concerned if Con-Con or Constitutional Convention comes up next year, that we might see it pass. He thinks that we might see more people pushing for a constitutional convention then we had twenty years ago. Currently there is nothing we can do as an organization, but Bryan sees this as a very serious concern because in 1970 at the constitutional convention, the existence of Township Government held on by a thread. 

At Local Officials Day during the State Fair two weeks ago, of the 3800 tickets requested by local government officials, townships had by far the greater number in attendance. Bryan announced that after the meeting today he is traveling to the DuQuoin State Fair where they are having Local Official’s Day for the first time. With 1,300 tickets requested he hopes that townships have a good showing there.

Bryan asked everyone to find in there packet, an Amicus Brief and a reply to a court case he wants every member to have a copy of. This is in reference to a law suit by Makanda Township Road District in Jackson County vs. Devils Kitchen Water District, in which the road district has requested by state statute, to have the water district pay the costs to relocate its water mains while the road district is trying to improve their roads. The road district won the case in circuit court, but the water district has appealed the case on to the appellate court in the fifth district. An adverse ruling by the courts would have a severe impact all road districts throughout the state for the expense of moving utilities on township right of way. Bryan said that this is the first time that he knows that TOI was ever requested to join in filing an Amicus Brief. The recommendations from attorneys were for TOI to be involved with the filing to help uphold the decision from the Circuit Court. An adverse decision from the courts would affect all townships throughout the state and take a major legislative effort to overturn or reverse.

In other business, Bryan sent everyone information where TOI is currently reprinting an updated copy (2007-2009) of the Directory of Township Officials for distribution at the conference. Currently there are 22 ads so far, so if anyone wishes to have an additional ad placed in the directory please send it in soon before it goes to the printers.

Bryan was sent a resolution from the Bank of Springfield to authorize electronic banking titled Commercial Internet Banking Resolution. This resolution needs to be adopted by the board of directors giving Bryan the authority to do banking transactions via the internet. A motion was made by Carol Perschke, seconded by Karen Twitty-Hartlieb. With no further discussion, the motion by voice vote carried unanimously.

As questions or comments were entertained by Bryan; Legislative Consultant Bill Foster replied with a comment that however the Amicus Brief was decided by the courts, that there will be some type of future legislation come from the decision of this case in the General Assembly.

NATaT REPORT

Bryan reported that the NATaT conference will be September 4th through the 6th at the Capital Hilton Hotel in Washington D.C. with 100 registered delegates from Illinois. It will include a congressional breakfast on Thursday, and several representatives and one senator have confirmed to meet the delegation. Bryan will report more on the conference when they return.

ASSOCIATE DIRECTORS REPORT

Associate Director/Educational Coordinator Jerry Crabtree greeted everyone and announced he has distributed a report to everyone in their packet labeled Associate Directors Report, August 24, 2007. He thanked everyone who participated in the video production taped prior to the start of the meeting, in which excerpts will be used in the opening session plus at two other locations during the conference that will have the entire 62 minutes of tape run continuously. Outlined in his report he listed website statistics with a summary of hits recorded by users from January 1st through August 15th, 2007 with over 20,000 first time users. He added that we currently have 51 townships participating in the web program that have initially produced $9,025of revenue with renewal collections of $2,750 for 2008. Having the ability to utilize the internet for receiving payments to TOI and subscribing townships, Jerry has set up a link on the webpage for E-pay services with the state treasurer’s office. This service is free to use and allows online payment for a variety of services such as requested by Long Creek Township for a means to have their customers pay water bills online.

Education

Jerry reported that in setting up the county association meetings he has contacted everyone except 3 areas in the 14 zones that include 680 townships. Of the 5114 elected officials represented, over 433 individuals have attended the scheduled zone meetings to date. The goal was to incorporate this program into the 2008 education program and schedule meetings in areas where there is an inactive county association or no established association to provide educational opportunities in their respective areas. The 2008 education program is scheduled to have a slightly different agenda providing for the opportunity of a different experience in each educational district. Listed in his handout report are some of the topics that are planned to be included. Jerry stated that Education Committee Chair Karen Twitty-Hartlieb will report on the 2008 education program.

2008 Leadership Academy

He wanted to highlight that Bryan and TOI are in the process of working out a Memorandum Of Understanding with the University of Illinois Institute for Government and Public Affairs toward the 2008 Leadership Academy. This memorandum will help finalize the partnership for the next two years and one of the items listed will be to limit the academy class size to no more than 30 people each year. Finalizing his report Jerry commented that he brought cookbooks for sale and a lot of upcoming activities are planned for TOIPAC at the conference.

OLD BUSINESS

None presented.

NEW BUSINESS

None presented.

DIVISION REPORTS

Supervisors:

Mickey Goral, for President Jerry Swanson, reported that the Supervisors Division just concluded their 4th and final zone meeting for the year with the first one at DeKalb in May, Fairview Heights in June, East Peoria in July and Champaign in August. All were successful with very positive comments. The division also concluded two GATI conferences in Rockford and Bloomington. They are ready to start their fall GATI session and are looking forward to helping at the 100th anniversary celebration during the fall conference.

Town Clerks:

President Larry Mowery stated that the membership in the Clerks Division is down by approximately 50% from this time last year and reported that all three zone meeting went very well with positive comments and an excellent program presented by Paul Craig from the Illinois Office of Public Leadership Institute of Government and Public Affairs. He thanked Jerry Crabtree for all his assistance as the Clerks celebrated their 50th year. They look forward to the November Conference and TOI’s 100 year celebration.

Assessors:

President Susan Carpentier reported that the Township Assessors Guide was received very well and will be available at the fall conference in November. She reported that there is a continuing problem in Illinois with Assessors not doing their job and vacancies in the Assessor position. The division is constantly trying to help with this problem as next year is the qualifying year for Assessors to meet their education requirements prior to an election.

Highway Commissioners:

Les Hild in the absence of President Ron Johnson reported that Ron Johnson and Bob Miller were elected to the Highway Commissioners Board of Directors, and Joe Jedlovec will be coming off the board due to term limitations. The summer seminar in Peoria was the Highway Commissioners 25th anniversary in which Les was elected President for next year.

Trustees:

President Bob Wisniewski reported that the Trustees Division had a successful summer seminar at Lisle and this year they will hold a seconded seminar on September 8th in Fairview Heights. He thanked Jerry Crabtree for all his help and securing speakers for their seminars. At the division board meeting in Bloomington they approved paying for a bottle of champagne to be placed at every table for the champagne toast during the November Conference. Everyone applauded and thanked the Trustees for their generous donation.

Tax Collectors:

President Imelda Kelch read her West Peoria Township June Tax Collectors report stating that it was a good tax collecting season.

COMMITTEE REPORTS

Legislative Committee Report:

Chairman Mickey Goral announced that Bob Turner was unable to attend today’s meeting because his wife Roberta had knee replacement surgery on Tuesday, she is recovering quite well and they expect to move her to the rehab center today. Mickey reported that this year’s legislature has been very interesting in this highly unusual session and introduced our own consultant Bill Foster to sort it out here today for everyone.

Bill Foster reported that in the 37 years he has covered the General Assembly this has been the strangest year he has ever observed and it is continuing to go on. He continued by stating that the Governor has vetoed many items out of the recently adopted budget and whether or not the General Assembly is coming back this fall to address those vetoed items is still unclear. There are many unfinished items such as capital projects and budget implementations which will probably bring them back in session prior to what they call the fall veto session. He continued to say that every time that they come back to town we get nervous because you never know what they will do while in Springfield, as they can consider any other issue at the same time. Regardless of all this, Bill reported that TOI did pretty well this session.

The following is an update on current legislative action and TOI sponsored initiatives:

• SB612 has passed and was signed in to law which allows townships and road districts to administer recycling programs within their respective jurisdictions.
• SB436 has passed and was signed into law which raises the bid threshold for township water districts from $2,500 to $20,000, the same limit as Townships, Road Districts, Library Districts as well as other units of local government currently have.
• HB1670 was signed into law which allows 2 people on a 5 member board to talk outside of a public meeting and discuss public business. It also requires a minimum of 3 votes to pass any legislation by a 5 member board. The old law only required 2 people to pass legislation and you could not discuss public business.

Additional Bills from the TOI’s agenda that didn’t pass:

• HB1270 sponsored by a member of our own board, Representative Bob Rita, which would have raised the maximum salaries for Cemetery Trustees, Township Building Managers and Cemetery Care Trustees. In order to get this passed, Bill suggested that we need to narrow this legislation down and then expand on it.
• SB384 which would allow Townships who operate sewer systems to cut off water service as well as sewer service to those individuals who don’t pay there sewer bills. This bill would have allowed cutoff by entering into an intergovernmental cooperation agreement with a municipality or to enter into contracts with privately owned water systems.

Other good bills introduced that didn’t pass and weren’t part of TOI’s agenda, that we supported were:

• HB187 which changes the motor fuel tax distribution formula to road districts, that those who aren’t levying the maximum tax to receive a prorate portion of that. This bill passed the House but was introduced to late for the Senate to get it out of the rules committee. Bill believes that this will pass next year.

Bills that we didn’t like and were able to have an impact from passing were:

• HB630 which was designed to prevent the State Police from using portable scales during harvest (September 15 - November 1) on local roads. We have had difficulty with this and have opposed it all the way along with county engineers and municipalities.
• HB918 would have allowed 80,000 pound trucks, for the purpose of loading or unloading, to go any distance via the direct route off any highway onto any other road for the purpose of food, fuel, repairs and rest. The current law only allows trucks to go 5 miles off any highway on to roads that are not posted, and this amendment would have opened up all our township road system to 80,000 pound trucks.
• Bill also reported that we were able to prevent the passage of a bill to make bicyclist permitted users of local roads, and a bill that would amended the Freedom of
  Information Act to redefine a public record to include the financial aspects of settlement agreements.

Bills TOI opposed and didn’t like that were passed:

• HB1499 which allows anyone to operate an ATV engaged in farming operations on any county or township road adjacent to their property.
• HB985 which provides that the workers on any maintenance repair assembly or disassembly performed on equipment on public works projects must be paid prevailing wages.

Bill mentioned, as Bryan reported on earlier, that the Illinois Constitution provides every twenty years a question is to be placed on the ballot for whether or not a (con-con) constitutional convention is needed. This will automatically be on the 2008 ballot and Bill has grave concerns now, not for an immediate threat for doing away with township government, but to consider all the strange things that have gone this summer and the response of the governor for what the general assembly has or has not done. His fear is because of those things, there will be a ground swell of support for a new constitutional convention and once they meet we will need to be on guard against them going beyond the scope of the original intent of calling for a new constitutional convention. Additionally, he reported that we are currently in the process of revising the legislative survey that goes out every year and to encourage a better response then we have had in the past. He would like to make the form a little less cumbersome and easier to use. Everyone should be getting a copy in the mail soon and it will also be published in the Perspective Magazine and placed on the website. Bill stated that he is hopeful to have a legislative committee meeting during the first part of December after the surveys are returned and to sort them out in order to be ready for the next session of the General Assembly.

Questions: Jim Young requested an explanation of HB630. Bill stated that the sponsor has tried to convince people that the State Police were using portable scales to operate like a speed trap by setting scales off somebody’s farm and waiting for them to come off the farm with a wet load of grain and fine them. This bill passed the House, but was defeated in the Senate as he explained earlier. He also stated that the sponsor of that bill is retiring and hopefully this question will not return at a later time.

Susie Carpentier asked about property tax with HB664. She wanted to know if the General Assembly just did an umbrella on everything in regards to exemptions. Bill answered that they did and he plans to do a summary of that bill in his next article of the Perspective Magazine if the Governor signs the bill.

Ann Dynako Kubiczky inquired about the prevailing wage law. She stated that for example if a township has a copy machine and you hire someone to work on it. Bill boldly stated no, it’s only on construction projects such as machinery used to repair roads with. Bryan and Bill discussed the reasons for the passage of this bill as it was pro labor with a Democratic controlled General Assembly and it is very hard to defeat organized labor in regards to issues on expanding prevailing wages. It generally means that when someone is paid prevailing wages they more than likely will be a union member which creates or expands jobs for the union. Ann followed up by asking if installing handrails would be covered by this law. Bill said yes, if you contract out, you will be paying the prevailing wage.

TOIPAC Committee Report:

Chairman Joe Jedlovec reported that the TOIPAC committee had a teleconference meeting on July 18th to discuss fund raising and expenditures planned for the annual conference in November. At that time there were 713 cookbooks sold and now as of today over 842 are sold with approximately 855 remaining. The committee has decided to produce the pictures for free at the conference this year and having two winners for the 50/50 drawing. Additionally, every board member has been given 10 tickets to sell priced at $10 each for a complete paid trip to next years conference with the value to the winner worth over $600. Joe stated that last year TOIPAC made around $11,000 and this year the funds are up a little with spending lower. Jerry reported that the TOIPAC balance as of today is $17,742.56 and have collected $8,520 so from the sale of cookbooks. Jerry said that with over 800 left to sell, he has brought two cases of cook books with him today in case anyone was interested in purchasing them. Cookbooks will also be available for purchase at the TOI booth or registration desk during the conference. Jerry explained that it is planned to have one 50/50 drawing with tickets to be sold 3 for $5 or 7 for $10 throughout the conference and packets of tickets will be sent to all board members to sell in advance of the drawing. The winner will be announced at the closing session on November 13th at 3:30 pm, this year with 50 % of the pot going back to TOIPAC there will be two winners with a second chance drawing on the remaining amount as the second winner will receive 25% of the original amount drawn. Their contact information will be on the back of the ticket so the winners need not be present to win. Jerry stated that Hampton Equipment Inc. has agreed to sponsor the picture booth event and he working out the details to provide this. He said that as you walk into the banquet, Having a Ball Productions will have a back drop where your picture will be taken while you are dressed up and the picture will be put in a cardboard frame and handed to you before you leave the event for a take home gift. Jerry and Joe asked the board if they have any other suggestion for a revenue project, to let him know and they will present it to the committee to review.

Conference Committee Report:

Chairman Susie Carpentier reported that the conference schedule has been distributed to all board members and everyone should have looked at it by now.

Some of the exciting things planned for the conference are as follows:

• The keynote speaker Mr. Patrick Lee who will portray Thomas Jefferson on township government.
• The Illinois Funds are helping sponsor tote bags again for the conference.
• The Trustees Division is supplying the champagne toast at the banquet.
• Hampton Equipment is donating the pictures at the picture booth for the banquet.
• The Illinois Assessors association is making a contribution for the center pieces on the tables at the banquet.
• There will be a master of ceremonies for the banquet and Mr. Royce Elliot, a stand up comedian will perform, with dancing after his performance. 

There are 21 exhibitors to date and 379 full registrations as of yesterday for the conference with 20 registrants taking advantage of the single day registration. Totals for the spouse program and lunch are 57, and 205 registered for the awards breakfast and gala banquet. Susie asked for sponsors to help with Monday night’s event of karaoke and line dancing. She said that this was very well received last year and we want to continue with it this year. Barbara Hale added that the help needed for the karaoke event will be for serving the refreshments and money may be offered to defer the expenses. The cost is approximately $350 for the DJ, $300 for the Line Dance Instructor and based on last year a cost of approximately $3,000 for the complimentary beer and wine. She also wanted to remind everyone that the information on how to order a tuxedo for the banquet is outlined in the Perspective Magazine at a cost of $45 per person. She encourages all the men to order one and it will be delivered to them at the hotel. An update on hotel information was compared to the sleeping rooms contracted last year at Peoria, she listed the numbers used in 2004, 05 and 06. This year we are currently at 400 room nights over last year. By mid July both the President Abraham Lincoln and Hilton Hotels were sold out for advanced registrations, she added the recently remodeled State House Inn which has approximately 100 rooms is also downtown and as of Wednesday it was also sold out, so Barb has moved out to the Crown Plaza and Holiday Inn Express for additional rooms. She stated that after October 13th, which is the deadline for cancellations, you can call the downtown hotels to see if they have any availability. Historically there is about a 10% fall off in cancellations. Finally she said that all living past presidents and other dignitaries have been invited to attend, but we probably won’t hear anything until the last minute on whether or not they will attend our celebration. Susie also wanted to thank the Supervisors Division who donated $2,000 in cash toward the events of the 100th anniversary celebration at the conference. Bryan added that we are still looking for other sponsors to help out. He said that this conference will be special and a big party. Other things are planned that you won’t find out until the conference for a big surprise. Bryan wanted to also thank TOIRMA and Rod Beck for their sponsorship and donations.

Education Committee Report:

Chairman Karen Twitty-Hartlieb asked everyone to refer to the information received today in you packets from the education committee. She stated that the yellow colored sheet gives you the schedule of events for the 24 sessions on Monday and Tuesday at the conference. And moderators are still needed to help with the sessions listed on the blue sheet. Barbara Hale distributed a sign up sheet for volunteers to help moderate the sessions that are listed with out moderators. This provides an opportunity to help at a session that you probably want to attend anyway. These are simple tasks to help get everyone seated in the room, introduce the speaker, pass out materials and take a head count of attendees of that event. The computer classes will be advertised in the September issue of the Perspective Magazine for registration and will be held off site two miles away. The cost is $75 for one session paid in advance by October 31st and transportation will be included in the fee that you pay for the class. With no questions, Karen asked everyone to go to the next page for the 2008 education schedule. She discussed that with all the conversations she has had with Bryan and Jerry they always emphasize reaching out. Listed are the 8 educational districts and dates introduced by Jerry earlier this year. Karen said that reaching out will be the responsibility of this board in making sure that people will come and attend these educational seminars to partner for the future of township government. The location, contact information, and map are shown on hand outs presented to everyone to reach out to their townships and over 11,000 people in township government. A question was raised about with all the additional education meetings will it hurt the divisions with their programs being scheduled. Karen suggested that this is a different opportunity then division meetings and maybe people will attend both or this might be something different to spark them to attend. The goal is to provide continuing education as these are intended to replace the spring workshops with only an hour drive or less to each of the planned locations. Karen asked everyone to look at the map showing the location of each member in relationship to their educational district. She said that Jerry has been very active in attending the county association meetings by getting them organized or reactivated in areas that either do not have an association or where they simply don’t participate. To sum up her report, she reemphasized that part of our goal is to reach out to all the areas of the state and provide them the opportunity to participate with our educational programs.

100th Anniversary Committee Report:

Chairman Richard Ralston discussed that the hard bound book Bryan has worked very hard on producing has went to the printers this week. The book will be approximately 192 pages with 50 pages of advertising in it which indicates that it has paid for itself with a little bit of profit to be put toward some of the other things planned. He said that you have all heard about most everything except the surprises Bryan discussed earlier. You have seen the lapel pins and pens to be provided and everyone will receive a souvenir glass from the champagne toast when you leave the banquet. Richard said early on that he would speak about the 100th anniversary celebration at every meeting held throughout the state this year. Jerry provided a power point presentation that he, Jerry or Bryan has shown at every meeting that has about wore him out. He hopes that everybody who attends the conference is as enthusiastic about our 100th anniversary celebration as he and everyone in this room is today.

By-Laws Committee Report:

Chairman R.C. Smith thanked all the members of the committee and TOI staff who have worked hard on this endeavor of updating the By-laws. Those members are, Ann Kubiczky, Imelda Kelch, George Grosso, Bill Prather, Ron Reeder and Steve Schrage. The By-laws committee met in Springfield on June 5th and the draft with all changes were mailed out to all the board members on June 8th to review. The proposed changes are:

• Article 3, changes in the category of staff members will be deleted as no payment is available. The category of sustaining members will be deleted and moved to the category under associate members.
• Article 5, #1 the president, deleted the national center of small communities because this organization no longer exists and we only use NATaT. In the 3rd sentence under appointments adding “or staff member of the association” because this will allow the president to designate another board member or staff member to attend in his or her absence. Also deleted was the language for the appointment to the TOIRMA Board since that is outdated and was change over 10 years ago. Under #2, the vice-president. The word board was deleted and the word president was added as to who may assign the duties of the vice-president.
• Article 6, has the same identical changes as referred to in Article 5.
• Article 7, this is the article discussed in reference to the possible reduction of the size of the Board of Directors. Although the committee agreed that this eventually might be necessary in the future it has referred this proposed change to the long range planning committee to review. No changes at this time. Additionally in this article, language was added that states no board member may miss more than 2 board meetings including committee meetings in a calendar year without being excused or they will be removed from the board.
• Article 8, changes in the language as to the election of the board at the annual conference which allows for a voice vote or a paper ballot vote if requested. This clarifies the current practice being used.
• Article 9, changes that committee meetings may be conducted by teleconference and that a committee meeting may be called with 5 days notice instead of 10 days.
• Article 10, changes that the suggested committee size may not be less than 5 members instead of 7 members. It will also allow the president to establish sub-committees or special committees as he or she deems necessary, plus allowing the
  president to appoint non-board members to committees. Defines the officers comprised on the executive committee. Deletes the resolutions committee, when the need arises, the president may establish it at anytime.
• Article 13, changes that notices may be sent by U.S mail, email or by Fax.
• Article 15, changes the title of the article from Miscellaneous to Association Financial Matters.

R.C. stated that the committee voted unanimously to present these change to the board today for passage and forwarding it on to the membership for adoption at the annual conference in November. President Kibler asked if the members had any questions before moving forward with a vote. Carol Perschke asked for a clarification of the proposals to Article 7 on members missing meetings. R.C. explained to her that it includes board meetings and committee meetings as well. The motion to adopt these changes was made by R.C. Smith and seconded by Mickey Goral. With no further discussion, the motion carried by a voice vote unanimously. President Kibler thanked the committee for all their hard work in accomplishing this difficult task.

Finance Committee Report:

Vice-Chairman Richard Ralston reported in Jeff Wallace’s absence that finances were doing very well. He asked everyone to refer to the budget information handed out and notice that this year we are well ahead of previous years with extra revenue probably due to the extra efforts in raising funds for the 100th Anniversary celebration.   The tentative budgets for 2007-2008 for TOI and the magazine had been previously mailed to the Board and Richard highlighted a few items.  Richard Ralston made a motion to adopt the 2007-2008 budgets for TOI and the magazine as presented, seconded by Pat Thompson. With no questions or further discussion, the motion carried by a voice vote unanimously.

Nominating Committee Report:

Chairman Larry Mowery reported that the Nominating Committee met by a teleconference call on August 14th to review the names submitted by the Divisions for their nominees to the Board of Directors for 2007-2009 for a two year term. These nominees are:

From the Supervisors Division:

Steve Schrage - Quincy Township, Adams County

Robert Turner - Belvidere Township, Boone County

            From the Clerks Division:

                        George Grosso - Limestone Township, Kankakee County

                        Shirley Moore - Summit Township, Effingham County

            From the Assessors Division:

                        Grace Vetter - Princeton Township, Bureau County

                        Ron Reeder - Murphysboro Township, Jackson County

            From the Highway Commissioners Division:

                        Robert Miller - Algonquin Township, McHenry County

                        Ron Johnson - St. Charles Township, Kane County
            From the Trustees Division:

                        Mary Hamilton - Aetna Township, Logan County

                        Ann Dynako Kubiczky - Riverside Township, Cook County

            From the Tax Collectors Division:

                        Karen Megan -             Millbrook Township, Peoria County

Larry stated that the committee voted unanimously to recommend approval of these nominees to the board and to forward their approval to the membership to be passed in November at the conference.  President Kibler called for a vote of the board to forward the nominees to the election in November. A motion was made by Karen Reese and seconded by Gene Jacoby. With no discussion the motion carried by a voice vote unanimously.

TOIRMA REPORT

Executive Director Rod Beck had no report.

OTHER BUSINESS

Ann Dynako Kubiczky spoke about the article that will be in the Perspective magazine from the Township Officials of Cook County on collecting donations toward the recovery of Barb Weyrick. She discussed the extra expenses that Barb will have over the period of time before she is back on her feet again. It could be up to a year before she is able to resume her day to day schedule. Anyone can donate to this fund by a personal check under $12,000 made out to Barb Weyrick. She encouraged everyone to please read the article
and donate what ever they can to help Barb. The check should only have Barb’s name on it and it is not tax deductible.

Bryan also mentioned that since we last met, Robin Ledman had to leave the staff because of many health issues. A new staff member was hired to replace her position, he asked Mary Lou Frank to stand up as he introduced her as the new receptionist at the TOI office. Bryan also introduced Office Manager Pam Butler and Bookkeeper Jo Ann Cooper. Bryan also mentioned Erin Valentine the Associate Editor of the Perspective Magazine who was on vacation. He thanked them for the tremendous job they do at TOI and announced that they will join us for lunch today. President Olen Kibler added that he wanted to thank everyone for letting him be your president of TOI this year. He said that this has been the most exciting time he has had in his life working for our 100th anniversary celebration. He thanked all the board member for their efforts and hard work this year.

ADJOURNMENT

Joe Jedlovec made a motion to adjourn, seconded by Jim Young. Motion carried unanimously by voice vote at 11:52 am. Olen thanked everyone for attending and announced that lunch will be served in the Ruby Room.

Respectfully submitted by,

Larry W. Mowery, Secretary

Minutes of Board of Directors Meeting
Township Officials of Illinois
Northfield Center - Springfield, Illinois
Friday, March 23, 2007

Call to Order

President Olen Kibler welcomed all members present and called the scheduled meeting of the TOI Board of Directors to order at 10 a.m. in the Onyx Room at Northfield Center, Springfield, Illinois.

Pledge of Allegiance / Moment of Silence

1st Vice President Richard Ralston led the group with the Pledge of Allegiance followed by a moment of silence.

ROLL CALL

Secretary Larry Mowery took the roll call with 30 members present and 3 absent as follows:

Members Present: Olen Kibler, President; Richard Ralston, 1st Vice President; Michael Goral, 2nd Vice President; Karen Reese, 3rd Vice President; Larry Mowery, Secretary; Jeff Wallace, Treasurer; Barbara Weyrick, Immediate Past President; Susan Carpentier, Susan Curtiss, Ann Dynako Kubiczky, Charles Foley, George Grosso, Karen Twitty-Hartlieb, Leslie Hild, Joseph Jedlovec, Ronald Johnson, Imelda Kelch, Karen Megan, Robert Miller, Shirley Moore, Carol Perschke, Robert Rita, Steve Schrage, R.C. Smith, Jerry Swanson, Patricia Ann Thompson, Robert Turner, Robert Wisniewski, Jim Young.

Members Absent: Gene Jacoby, Bill Prather, and Grace Vetter.

Others Present: Bryan Smith, Executive Director; Jerry Crabtree, Associate Director; Educational Coordinator; Rod Beck, TOIRMA Executive Director; and Simphi Lenover, CCMSI.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES

Motion was made by Joseph Jedlovec to approve the Minutes of the December 8, 2006 meeting as presented. Carol Perschke seconded the motion. Motion carried unanimously.

ANNOUNCEMENT FOR TOIPAC DRAWING

President Olen Kibler recognized Treasurer Jeff Wallace who announced that he will be selling tickets for a TOIPAC 50/50 raffle during the meeting, the winner will be drawn after the meeting is concluded.

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR’S REPORT

Executive Director Bryan Smith greeted everyone with a spring welcome since snow was present at all the recent spring workshops. He personally thanked Jerry, Olen and Richard for their assistance as he was unable to attend the first workshop in Rockford due to becoming ill with pneumonia. Bryan thanked those from around the state who sent in the recent newspaper articles placed in your packets. He also wished to publicly thank Susan Carpentier and Ronald Reeder for their help during the southern conference held at Rend Lake. By requests from a local township official, Bryan set up a meeting with these leaders in the Assessors Division and the Pike County Supervisor of Assessments to try and resolve several issues being reported in the newspapers.  

As reported last year, the Local Government Consolidation Commission had 3 meetings with out a quorum of members present. The commission expired on December 31, 2006 and an extension has been introduced by State Senator Pamela Althoff, SB255 has passed the Senate and was sent to the House for approval to extend the commission until December 31, 2007. Bryan will keep the board posted upon approval of this bill.

TOI will be revising the Laws and Duties Handbook for this summer and working to complete the history book for the 100th anniversary. Bryan thanked everyone who has been soliciting ads for the 100th anniversary book and mentioned that we still have until May 1st to receive new ads.

Bryan announced that everyone has a copy of the news release on local government week in your packet. On Topics Day, TOI President Olen Kibler, along with the President of the Illinois Association of County Board Members and Commissioners, and the President of the Illinois Municipal League were present with State Representative Mike Tryon and State Senator Pamela Althoff, sponsors of a resolution calling for a local government week to begin in 2008. This is a result of a partnership for local government education to be used in the high school curriculum that TOI has been involved with for several years. These local government partners have all agreed to have one week a year designated as local government week. This is a good opportunity for townships to get the word out on what township government is doing in this state.

ASSOCIATE DIRECTORS REPORT

Jerry commented on the bad weather as he traveled to the spring workshops along with having 208 people register and pay for the Southern Spring Conference at Rend Lake. He considers this a good turn out for the southern part of the state. The number of people at the Rockford location was a little higher with about 200 in attendance, even with the bad weather and blowing snow. Last year the workshops had a total attendance of around 400 people and this year surpassed with a total of 560. This year an incentive of a free briefcase and prizes were given out for those in attendance who turned in their survey, 63% of the surveys were turned back in with 217 positive comments. Jerry commented that he was impressed with the amount of surveys completed this year as opposed to only 30% to 50% previously returned. He has summaries of the statistics available for anyone who wishes to view them. The workshops resulted in a 52% to 58% approval rating overall, the speakers this year were very well received and the comments were good.

Jerry explained that a double sided sheet was placed in the meeting packets containing website statistics counted since January. A total of 14,000 sessions were recorded that tracks the number of people who clicks on average page views with 627,000 total hits in three months. Jerry also has the ability to track and record statistics for the townships who have subscribed with TOI in having their own websites and is willing to provide this information upon request to each subscribing member. There are 43 townships participating to date in the program as his original goal was to have 40 subscriptions by June in order for the program to pay for its self. Last week, Bryan , Jerry and Olen met with the division presidents to discuss upcoming education and TOI’s division web program. component The websites for each division allow them to have the ability to create their own environment specific to their needs. All divisions have a calendar of events, an information center to post specific items pertaining to their division, and message board to post online questions and answers for viewers to read and respond to. Some other advantages are the ability for downloading registration forms for zone meetings or educational seminars.

Education

Approximately five months ago Jerry began working on the 2008 educational program with ways to cultivate attention, the educational environment, on how we get out the message and officials educated by bringing education to them. He stated that he doesn’t want to re-invent this message on education, but to re-cultivate that experience, and through the county association that was his first level of contact. Of the 85 counties that have adopted the township form of government, approximately 50% of these counties have an active township association. As stated at the December meeting, a zone system is being utilized with 14 zones to be targeted for counties that do not have an active county association. There have been 6 meetings to date which encompass 250 townships with over 1800 township officials invited to participate. Each meeting has averaged between 40 and 60 people attending, and the largest turnout so far had 85 townships represented. Jerry has researched other states programs, and last year when we were educating fewer than 400 out of 11,000 potential people, other states of comparable size educated from 4,000 to 6,000 people per year. Jerry has analyzed this data, the costs, and believes that we can design areas of the state for travel to be beneficial for TOI to deliver this program. Through the assistance of TOIRMA, Jerry secured funding to initiate a redesign of the education program provided by TOI.  The funding assistance will provide the ability to take the program to other areas of the state.  In order to make our programs more effective and “creating the wow factor”, we need to update computer equipment instead of working on a shoe string budget to produce our program. Jerry highlighted that the Education committee is sponsoring a motion today to approve this new zone system to replace the current spring workshops making each area more accessible to more officials which should increase the total number of people attending the educational seminars. The 2008 education plan increases the number of seminars from 3 to 8 locations throughout the state. Jerry and Barb Hale are looking for locations that will not charge for their use instead of using hotels to help cut the costs in providing these one day educational seminars. Expectations should increase attendance as proposed in Jerry’s suggested 10% of officials plan. This increase reflects expectations to educate 1085 officials in 2008 or an increase of 688 over the current amount of officials educated in 2006. The approval of educational credits has been approved by the Department of Revenue for assessors who are enrolled in the Leadership Program and we have requested approval from state agencies for CPA’s and Township Attorneys for credits toward their educational efforts.

Jerry reported that on Topics Day there were approximately 150 attendees, close to the same as last year. There were 40 legislators that attended the reception, all with positive comments. Jerry and Bill Foster will be meeting with the TOIPAC committee to discuss the comments submitted and they agreed that with over 11,000 township officials in the state, we need to find ways to increase the attendance on Topics Day.

PRESIDENTS REPORT and NATaT REPORT

President Kibler reported that on February 27 and 28, 2007 he attended a NATaT Board Meeting in Washington D.C. and that Bryan was unable to attend due to illness. The NATaT Board determined that the 2007 Annual Conference ise held two blocks north of the White House at the Capital Hilton Hotel on September 5th and 6th, 2007. Some of the breakout sessions on the agenda will include Homeland Security, the farm bill, federal funding and infrastructure financing, public service volunteerism, the upcoming census, and immigration. He reported that it was discussed at the meeting that problems with the counting of illegal immigrants as part of the population for the census will affect representation in the legislature as well as many other issues. Olen stated that since the association has been restructured with the hiring of The Ferguson Group to administer NATaT, the State of Texas and several additional States have shown interest in joining the organization. The board plans to amend the by-laws to allow former members to rejoin the association. The State of Texas has requested to rejoin without having representation on the Board of Directors and just be a non-voting member of the organization.

Olen stated that he was able to meet with the staff of Senator Obama.

In other business, President Kibler presented the idea of reducing the size of the TOI Board of Directors. He asked the board to consider suggesting the By-Laws Committee look at downsizing the present size of the TOI Board. He recommended allowing the By-Laws Committee the ability to research and present recommendations to the board and vote on it at the August 2007 meeting. Olen discussed this plan with all the division presidents at a meeting on March 13, 2007. They unanimously agreed to proceed on presenting it to the board today.  Additionally, Olen discussed it with all the members of the Executive Board on March 21, 2007. He stated that if downsizing the board is approved in August, it would not go into effect until 2008 after a by-laws amendment is voted on and approved by the board and then the membership. Jerry Swanson was recognized with a question asking if it would be in order to make a motion on this in new business or to make the motion now. Olen stated that it would be allowed at this time. Jerry Swanson made a motion to have the By-Laws committee review and take up the issue of downsizing the TOI Board of Directors. The motion was seconded by Karen Reece. President Kibler asked if there was any discussion on the motion. Discussion proceeded as follows:

• Carol Perschke: Although it sounds very logical, are we going to get a cost benefit analysis in August instead of just someone saying so, remember when for those of us who have been around for awhile the board was cut by a third, are we going to save all that money? Are you sure that by cutting it that you don’t incur extra costs by more mileage, more meetings, more overnighters, and stuff like that. If that is the case then do you have a true cost savings? Olen: We could come up with a full cost savings analysis, but I don’t see why you would change your meetings. You would still have four meetings a year. Carol: I would assume that more people will have more responsibility. Olen: We do most of our committee meetings by conference calls anymore. Right now, if you would cut the board by 10 people, which is 2 people from each division, the savings for the current four board meetings a year is over $5,000 annually. This is not counting any additional meetings we have, including the conference. Although the savings is a benefit, it would just make it a more manageable size of board. If you look at other organizations that are larger then TOI, their boards are half the size of ours. There are boards that represent 3 or 4 more times the people then we do with only 14 board members.
• Barb Weyrick: How can you send this on to the By-Laws Committee when you are not giving them guidelines? You have right now 13 committees, 2 of them which will be dropped probably, and then you will have 11 committees. You are saying that 24 people are going to serve on 11 committees? You need to give direction to the by-laws committee from this board on what should be happening. I am not in favor of it, so not all of us on the executive committee are in favor of it. I want the board to know that I am completely against this for many reasons!  If you are just sitting as a board member, you probably didn’t get notice of this subject matter until today. I am not in favor of sending it to the by-laws committee right now, in August we can talk, we can have guidelines. Then, if you want to send it to the by-laws committee, that’s fine! There needs to be more discussion, then just reducing it to 24 people. I don’t believe that this is an unmanageable size board when we represent over 11,000 people across the state.
• Jerry Swanson: I am sure if it goes to the by-laws committee, there are a number of things as Barb makes a good point, what are we going to do with committee structure and so on? All those things might be coming out of a board reduction, but we need to address the size of the board before we consider these other things. We can’t consider these other things until we determine the size of the board and I think that it would be appropriate to make the referral to the by-laws committee. Have them look at and maybe they will say no, we don’t recommend it, but at least this will open it up for discussion.
• Karen Reese: Is this not only an effort to save money, but to get the board more active and involved?      Olen: Yes!
• Barb Weyrick: How are you going to get more involved if we don’t give more guidelines to the board president, such as what guidelines we need? We need people in leadership. I think that this is just going to fast without the whole board having any information and without giving any direction to your by-laws committee. I don’t believe that today you should be sending it to them!
• Karen Twitty-Hartlieb: Today is the first time that I have heard about this and off the top of my head and 20 minutes of talking about it, I’m not interested! I see this as a movement that brings a smaller instead of larger and involving greater numbers of people throughout the state. The more people who we involve actively, the better our education. People, just person to person works! If people don’t want to be active on the board, then they should say I’m getting off this board and let someone who wants to be active. There are plenty of people in our organizations who would like to be on this board to take leadership roles. Let’s find them and give everybody a chance to say, this wasn’t so great, I’m moving on. But I’m just not interested in the idea and I think that I would like a little more time to talk about it before we talk about sending it to the by-laws committee.
• Leslie Hild: I was actually on the by-laws committee a few years back when we reduced the size of the board at that time. I’m opposed to reducing the size of the board specifically for the reasons that have been spoken. You need to get people involved, and the only way to get people involved is to have spaces for them. I’m constantly being approached by commissioners throughout the state on how do I get on the state board? Well, there has to be an opening. Partly, people get on the board and want to stay on the board, obviously if TOI has a limit on how long you can be on the board before you go off, I just feel like this is detrimental. I understand from your viewpoint it would be easier to work with a smaller group and there might be some cost savings, but I think as big as TOI is and how many townships are involved, this size board works and it has for a long time. I want to say that I’m actually opposed even going to the by-laws committee at this time. If you want to study it some more and look at it in August, OK, but I’m opposed to it at this time!
• Carol Perschke: I would like to keep an open mind until we have more information about it. Does parliamentary … by putting it to the by-laws committee, will they also look at future committee structure and responsibilities and come back. I guess I’m all still for give us the whole picture before we would be asked to vote on it. Olen: That’s what I’m asking for you to do, send it to the by-laws committee and let them come back to us with a recommendation on it. Carol: What would be the role of the by-laws committee in that effort? Olen: On how to restructure it! Carol: How to totally restructure the board, and responsibilities? Olen: It would be to clean up any other, and at the same time while working on the by-laws, clean up any old language we need, and do it all at the same time. Carol: As a complete package and I would request as a director that this information be presented to us before a meeting so that we have an opportunity to digest it. And then we can come back and make an evaluation on the information presented. Is that a fair request?   Olen: Yes!
• Karen Reese: I have a question! I know that the board was much larger then it is now, what protocols were taken at that time and how did you go about reducing it to the current size? I don’t know what size? I just know that it was larger. How large was the board at that time? Bryan: 45 members. Karen: What took place at that time? Bryan: We went through the exact same process as the by-laws committee came forward. What has to happen is that this board receives a recommendation from the by-laws committee and the board can vote it up or down. If approved, it then goes to the membership in November at the annual conference and they can vote it up or down. If it passes, then it changes!
• Barb Weyrick: To answer Karen’s question! I was on the board then, there are a number of us that were on the board. It didn’t go as smoothly as you might think, it probably took a number of years, and I don’t know the number of years it took. But, the bottom line is and I repeat this, it should be this board that gives guidelines to the committee. The by-laws committee should not just be on it’s own, and getting direction from just one or two people, we owe them the common courtesy of expecting something. One of the things that we have always said is no surprises at this board meeting and this is a surprise to some of the people here today and I’m against it!
• Robert Turner: A question for Jerry. When you divided the state were you aware of the reduction of the board?   Jerry: No, I’ve been working on this for 6 or 7 months.  Robert: Do you see a board reduction coming in conflict with your 8 educational zones throughout the state?  Jerry: No, I do know when I did designed the districts, I was looking at how many board members were in each district, in case we wanted to go toward having that board member possibly be like the chair of that educational district. Robert: Did you find it to be pretty even?   Jerry: Northern has more, obviously!
• Susan Curtis:  I guess that I am going to stick my neck out as one of the new people on this board, and like Barb and Karen and others have said, this is the first time that I have heard this. And I back what everyone has said about reducing the size of the board. On one hand you are trying to educate and get more township
  officials involved throughout the state by having your educational program to draw more people. Then on the other hand you want to reduce the size of your board, which is reducing the number of people out there promoting these programs. So I think that it is kind of a conflict there as far as what I see. And coming from a small township, this has been an education for me being on this board. I am more able and capable of taking back to my local county board more information then has ever been brought back before.
• Richard Ralston: Number one, there are only 3 standing committees… 4 standing committees that by the by-laws you need to have, the rest of them serve at the choice and desire of the president. If this group thinks that the by-laws committee is not adequately informed or can not be adequately informed for what is needed, perhaps the president needs to put together a special committee to review all the ins and outs and put it together to make a recommendation to us to make to the by-laws committee. Unfortunately, time is of the essence simply because we are already … if we do it today, we are still 2 years away from getting it done. If we put it to a committee to review or if we review it as a whole, wait till August to bring it up, it will be 3 years before we can get it accomplished. And it is something that needs to be taken care of! I would just as soon see a board of 12 members that are hard working people that know what they are doing then to have 50 that just come to meetings. I’m not saying anything against anybody here, because I think everyone we have on board is active and doing their thing. It’s just difficult to work and communicate with this many people unless you have constant committee meetings that are costly to have. When you have a meeting that’s a teleconference it costs money, end of conversation. Thank you!
• Jeff Wallace: One thing that Richard said, maybe if you appoint a special committee. Most of our committees have 7 members with a chairman, and you have heard people talk for this and against it. Olen, if you appoint a committee of 6 plus yourself having 3 people who have talked for this and 3 people who have opposed it and yourself sit down and work something out and bring it back to the by-laws or something like that. That way you will more or less to be equal if you want to go that route.
• Ronald Reeder: Mr. President this is the first time that I have heard about it, and I am neutral on it at this point. The only thing that I am concerned about, if you cut the board in two, 24 members, which I understand is what you are wanting to do. You need to come up with some kind of zones and have equal representation from north to south and not have 20 people from the north, 2 people from central and 2 people from the south or nobody from the south. And I think that it has been important to us in the south that we are finally on the board and we’re taking some representation back to the southern part of the state. But I think if you are going to do that, that you look at making equal representation throughout the state and not having it all in one location, or one county or one township.  That’s just my recommendation. Olen: That a very good point!

President Kibler stated that we have a motion on the floor. Jerry Swanson called the question to vote on the motion as presented. President Kibler requested a role call vote on the motion at hand; “to have the By-Laws committee review the issue of downsizing the TOI Board of Directors and report back to the Board at the August board meeting”.  Olen explained that this motion directs the by-laws committee to review the size of the current board of directors and come to the August meeting and present their recommendations to the board. Barb Weyrick was recognized with a question, she stated that further on in the agenda you will be looking at a recommendation of a 2% increase in the dues and she believes that a reduction of the board will not constitute cost savings when we will be bringing in more money.

With no additional questions asked, a role call vote was taken as follows:

Those voting yes: Olen Kibler, Richard Ralston, Michael Goral, Karen Reese, Larry Mowery, Jeff Wallace, Susan Carpentier, Charles Foley, Joseph Jedlovec, Ronald Johnson, Imelda Kelch, Karen Megan, Robert Miller, Carol Perschke, Bob Rita, Steve Schrage, R.C. Smith, Jerry Swanson, Robert Turner, Robert Wisniewski, Jim Young.

Those voting no: Barbara Weyrick, Susan Curtis, George Grosso, Leslie Hild, Ann Dynako Kubiczky, Shirley Moore, Patricia Ann Thompson, Karen Twitty-Hartlieb.    

Voting Present: Ronald Reeder.      
Absent: Gene Jacoby, Bill Prather, Grace Vetter.

Motion carries with 21 yes, 8 no, 1 present, and 3 absent.

COMMITTEE REPORTS

Legislative Committee Report:

Chairman Mickey Goral stated that 150 people attended Topics Day as reported earlier by Jerry Crabtree, and emphasized that this is far short of what we need to have an impact in Springfield. He thanked those here who attended and said that we need to triple our efforts in the future so that we can become a larger force there. Mickey then introduced Legislative Consultant Bill Foster and asked him to come forward to give us an update on legislation and inform the board of what’s going on in Springfield.

Bill Foster reported that 5,928 bills have been introduced to the General Assembly since January. The deadline for Senate bills was last week and the deadline for House bills having to be out of committee was yesterday. By the end of next week all Senate bills have to be out of the Senate and the deadline for the House, which has more bills introduced, is not until the end of April. The following is an update on current legislation and TOI sponsored initiatives:

• HB961 and SB612 which were companion bills would allow townships and road districts to administer recycling programs. SB612 has passed the Senate and has been sent to the House to go through the process there, and HB961 is out of committee and sitting on the 3rd reading and is expected to pass soon.
• HB1270 sponsored by a member of our own board, Representative Bob Rita, which proposes raising the maximum salaries for Cemetery Trustees, Township Building Managers and Cemetery Care Trustees who actually work in cemeteries, has passed out of the House Local Government Committee and is on the 2nd reading in the House of Representatives.
• SB384, which allows Townships who operate sewer systems to cut off water service as well as sewer service to those individuals who don’t pay there sewer bills. This bill will allow cutoff by entering into intergovernmental cooperation agreements with municipalities or to enter into contracts with privately owned water systems. This bill is on its 3rd reading in the Senate after coming out of committee.
  SB436 that raises the bid threshold for township water districts to $20,000, the same limit that Townships, Road Districts, Library Districts as well as other local government was raised to. This bill has passed the Senate and has been sent to the House.
• HB1269 also sponsored by Representative Rita, which addresses the way local government and how townships can levy a tax to pay for expenses associated with required audits. The legislative committee wanted to file this bill with the understanding that if there was a break in all the tax funding issues this session to revitalize it, and it is being held up currently until that determination is made.

Other good bills introduced that weren’t part of TOI’s agenda, that we liked and supported were:

• HB187 which changes the motor fuel tax distribution formula to road districts, that those who aren’t levying the maximum tax to receive a prorate portion of that. This bill is out of committee and is sitting on second reading in the House.
• HB1963 which raises the annual required appropriation from 15 million to 30 million for the Bridge Fund that is administered by the Illinois Department of Transportation.
• HB3573 that requires municipalities when conducting an annexation to notify the Township Board of Trustees. This bill will additionally allow notifying both the Supervisor and Town Clerk.
• SB1291 which was somewhat of a collaborative effort by all local governments that expend MFT dollars, by raising the MFT tax by 6 cents with all the increase to be apportioned to counties, townships and municipalities. This bill was offered in exchange for allowing passage of the truck weight limit bill that increases weight limits on local roads from 73,280 pounds to 80,000 pounds. It is out of committee, but in order to get the bill out, the sponsors had to shelf it or turn it into a vehicle bill. A meeting was scheduled on the bills disposition yesterday, but representatives from the Farm Bureau cancelled the meeting due to the fact the Senate ran longer that expected. The meeting has been rescheduled for next week.

Bills that we didn’t like and were able to have an impact on were:

• HB266 that would have changed the date that township assessor are sworn in to office, from January as it currently is back to the same as other township officials. We convinced the sponsor that it was not a good idea and she decided not to call it.
• HB909 and SB1253 which pertain to community mental health boards would have massive language changes with their sponsoring governments. We have met with the sponsors and have had some changes made along with drafting some language for the sponsors looking at legislative intent to clarify the relationship with the township board and the community health board.
• HB1607 which was a major change in the way that townships conduct their annual meetings, it would have changed the quorum requirements and removed powers from the electors at the town meeting and transferred those powers to the township board. This came out DuPage County with several meeting issues there. We were able to meet with the sponsor and informed him that this was to dramatic a change for TOI to support and he agreed not to call the bill and hold it in exchange for Bryan to appoint a taskforce that included some of the people that had initiated it. We will be looking at their suggestions over the next several months.
• SB210 would have adversely impacted local government insurance pools such as TOIRMA, after several meetings with the sponsor he changed that bill to shell bill and agreed not to move it until there is an amendment that everyone could agree to. This bill is probably dead.
  SB539 would have allowed public water districts on to local governmental right-of ways without the proper permits needed for them to run their water lines. We were able to convince the sponsor that this bill needs to be amended so that the permitting process from road districts needs to stay in place.

Bills that we don’t like and have had trouble with:

• HB630 which came out of agriculture committee and flew out of the House is designed to prevent the State Police from using portable scales during harvest (September 15 - November 1). The sponsor sold this not as an anti-township road district bill but as an anti-state police bill. He has tried to convinced people that the State Police were using portable scales to operate like a speed trap by setting these scales off somebody’s farm and waiting for them to come off the farm with a wet load of grain and fine them. We have had difficulty with this and have opposed it all the way along with county engineers and municipalities.
• HB918 which has been pro farm bureau and against us also came out of the agriculture committee. This bill would allow 80,000 pound trucks, for the purpose of loading or unloading, to go any distance via the direct route off any highway onto any other road for the purpose of food, fuel, repairs and rest. The current law only allows trucks to go 5 miles off any highway on to roads that are not posted, and this amendment would open up all our township road system to 80,000 pounds and to go anywhere in reality. The bill has not yet been called on in the House floor. We
  have major issues with it and are working very hard along with a coalition of local governments to try and defeat it.
• Bill reported that there is no actual bike bill proposed this year. He said there are some proposals that pertain to bicyclist, but no actual bill that states that bicyclist are intended and permitted users of all roads.

Bill asked everyone to look at information placed in your packet on HB1718. This bill is proposed language for an amendment to the open meetings act that may solve the issue that we have all had to deal with for a long time in regarding 2 township board members talking to each other outside a meeting, thus comprising a violation to the open meetings act. The Illinois Press Association has allegedly agreed not to oppose this legislation that allows 2 board members to talk without violating the open meetings act. What the proposed bill does say is that in order for the township board to enact anything, whether there are 3, 4, or 5 people at the meeting, you will have to have a minimum of 3 votes to pass anything. Currently, if only 3 people show up at a meeting, which constitutes a majority of a quorum of the 5 members on the board, you need at least 2 votes to pass anything. So if this new amendment goes into effect, and you only have 3 members show up, you will need all 3 affirmative votes in order to pass legislation. Bill asked this board for a consensus on how to proceed with the proposed amendment which would allow 2 township board members the ability to talk. He would like to know how this group wants to proceed and stated that the Illinois Municipal League supports it, but they are already required by state law to have 3 votes in order to pass legislation for their 5 member boards. Park boards, Airport Authorities, Sanitary Districts, Forrest Preserve Districts or any other local governmental entities that might have 5 member boards are able just like townships to enact something with just 2 votes when only 3 people are in attendance at the meeting. And all these entities have said that they would rather like to have the ability to talk then worry about the very few occasions when there are only 3 members attending a meeting. Bill said that he could not make a decision without our input on the amendment. Jerry Swanson suggested we take a quick poll to see how everyone feels about this issue. In a raise of hands everyone present was in favor of having the ability to talk to another member and supports this amendment to the open meetings act. Bill concluded with the comment that he will meet with the municipal league letting them know that TOI will also support the amendment.

Susan Carpentier asked if there was legislation as proposed by the Chief County Assessment Officers (CCAO) on removing the tier structure for the senior citizen freeze. Bill said there are several proposed bills, a couple which require only a one-time filing for senior citizen assessment freeze, also a bill that has some portability to the assessment freeze when a senior moves to new location. He stated that House Speaker Madigan has taken the approach all these potential changes with relation to exemptions on property taxes are going to take time as they look them all over and try to come out with one bill that incorporates all the suggested changes, or they may not do anything at all. Bill said that there is a substantial hurdle to get over in the Senate when it comes to the elimination of the tiers with Senator Don Harmon, who is the chairman of the Senate revenue committee and that’s where the bill will have to go. Senator Harmon is the person who created the tier system in the first place, and he has a concern with the senior citizen whose income is gradually going up but not jumping in huge amounts and after getting the freeze for years, all of a sudden they have an increase in income by $500 and that puts them over the threshold. Bob Wisniewski thanked Bill for all the legislative update reports sent out from TOI, and commented that he liked the information on them that gives our position and the status of the bill. Bob asked how we determine TOI’s position as stated on the reports and Bill said that he discusses it with Bryan Smith and some of it is easy to determine on how it impacts township powers or taxation. Items that take away from township government we generally oppose. A lot of the issues amend sections of the law that if the bill is amended later on it might impact townships, so we watch those bills and stay neutral. Bryan commented that as issues come about, he will contact some of the members and divisions for their input on the issue.

Education Committee Report:

Chairman Karen Twitty-Hartlieb stated that a lot of the information received today in you packets comes from Jerry Crabtree and the education committee. There were two committee meetings this year, one by teleconference and one in Springfield at the TOI office. The education committee recommends the proposed 2008 education plan as presented by Jerry Crabtree earlier and seeks the approval of the board today. The plan encompasses 8 educational districts across the state and will replace the 3 spring workshops. The approval of the plan would provide staff the opportunity to proceed with scheduling the events. Karen stated that we are pleased to have TOIRMA on board with us, and their funding makes the start of this program possible. She thanked Jerry with all his efforts to make this program self funding as he explained earlier today. Jerry said that after the end of 2008 we will look at the educational districts and make any adjustments we find needed. Jerry Swanson made a motion to approve the 2008 education program as presented. The motion was seconded by Patricia Ann Thompson. With no additional discussion, the motion carried unanimously.

Karen reported that the committee reviewed the 2007 qualified scholarship candidates and selected the 7 winners and directed everyone to review the list of candidates and winners placed in your packet. She announced that the deadline for education topics at the fall conference is July 15. Bryan asked Karen to discuss the process used in determining scholarship winners this year. Karen stated that it was done a little differently this year. The staff reviewed the applications for errors and required information, any application that had a procedural problem was removed and eliminated from being reviewed by the committee. At Karen’s request, the staff tried to black out names and other information that revealed where the applicants came from to help eliminate any temptation that persuades a decision. There were 21 finalists reviewed and judged by the members of the committee, the applications were ranked from 1 to 5 each and the total score tabulated. The winner of the $4,000 scholarship received an overwhelming high score as compared to the other 6 winners. Imelda Kelch asked for those who did not win, were they informed of what was wrong with their applications. Karen stated no, they were not informed as it was not our responsibility, only to judge them.

Conference Committee Report:

Chairman Susie Carpentier reported that the conference committee is trying to meet at least once a month until November. She said that it is like planning a birthday party and gave the planned itinerary. The conference starts on Sunday night at the Abraham Lincoln Memorial Museum with a wine and cheese reception and the theaters will be open for viewing. On Monday night there will be a DJ with karaoke and line dancing. Planned for Tuesday night is the Banquet Dinner with a real nice celebration and dancing. This year the conference will conclude on Tuesday so everyone will be able to sleep in on Wednesday morning before going home. She reminded everyone that all sponsored education sessions need to be turned into TOI by July 15th and if any of the divisions want to help with the costs for other schedule events to contact her or Jerry Crabtree.

Barb Weyrick had a question regarding the conference committee minutes of February 15, 2007. She stated that in the roll call taken for the meeting, it didn’t mention any indication of the four members that were not present and suggested they need to be listed to conform to be like the other committees minutes. Susie said that she would check in to that. Susie followed by saying that she made the decision to make the banquet dinner dance black tie optional, the committee plans to work with a vendor in the Springfield area that is willing to advertise in the magazine and give us a rate on tuxedos. Jeff Wallace inquired about the business meeting that is generally held on Wednesday morning. Susie stated that is being planned for Tuesday afternoon after the division meetings from about 3:30 pm to 4:30 pm tentatively. She went on to announce that we have invited dignitaries for the opening session and she and Jerry are planning on going to the speaker’s showcase next week to try and find a good motivational speaker to kick things off at the opening session. Jerry Crabtree wanted to describe some of the major changes or differences planned. He said that on Wednesday’s events were moved back to Tuesday, this year we will have a single day registration rate for those who only plan to attend for one day. The single day rates will be $100 to attend on Monday and $75 to attend on Tuesday. He said that it was priced to make it less attractive just do a one day event, but make available a one day trip. Jerry said that he and Susie would like to open up each day with a planned speaker to get people aware of the current events going on. In April all board members will receive a form to secure your hotel room and in June there will be open registration to all the townships that will be attending the conference. Jerry stated that there will be transportation available and highlighted on the information reported earlier by Susie, he said that the next thing you will be receiving in the mail will be a roll out plan of all the changes being worked on. Ronald Reeder asked if there will be a limited number at the Lincoln Museum and Jerry replied that they can only accommodate 500 at one time. He said that when you arrive and register that you will get to pick one of the 2 time slots available to attend the event.  Carol Perschke suggested having 50/50 raffles and Jerry said that we will have them throughout the whole event and of course the proceeds from both will go to help TOIPAC.

TOIPAC Committee Report:

Chairman Joe Jedlovec reported the TOIPAC currently has a balance of $12,901.86 and the big item this year is selling the 100th anniversary cookbooks. A cookbook meeting was held on January 10th and there were around 250 recipes at that time and now there are more then the 500 needed. In order to pay for the costs of producing the cookbooks of approximately $2,000, Joe called Ron Johnson to discuss having the Highway Commissioners Division help fund the project. At the Highway Commissioners meeting o