Meeting Events

Meeting: tf4hakvtmuq.stephenson_county_il_court_services_committee_meeting_3-11-26

Meeting date: 2026-03-11

Meeting type: court_services_committee

This is a deterministic derived artifact, not official meeting minutes. Related records may be grouped for review while complete machine provenance remains in the JSON artifact.

Decisions and Votes

• Approval of the agenda — Passed

  • Summary: Motion to approve the agenda was made by Busker and seconded by Hadley.
  • Evidence: “Motion by Busker, second by Hadley.”
  • Evidence: “Seeing none, all those in favor say aye. Aye.”
  • Source timestamp: 00:53

• Review and approval of meeting minutes from February 11th, 2026 — Passed

  • Summary: Motion by Mr. Williams to approve the meeting minutes from February 11th, 2026 was seconded by Mr. Busker.
  • Evidence: “Motion by Mr. Williams. Second. Second by Mr. Busker.”
  • Evidence: “Seeing none, all those in favor say aye. Aye.”
  • Source timestamp: 01:21

• Approval of claims — Passed

  • Summary: Motion by Mr. DeMeester to approve claims was seconded by Mr. Hadley.
  • Evidence: “Motion by Mr. DeMeester. Second. Second by Mr. Hadley.”
  • Evidence: “Seeing none, all those in favor, say aye. Aye.”
  • Source timestamp: 01:47

• Approval of Minutes for Hadley

  • Summary: Vote on the motion to approve minutes for Hadley.
  • Evidence: “I would entertain a motion to pass this motion to approve both of my minutes for Hadley seconded by Mr. Meester”
  • Evidence: “All those in favor say aye. Aye.”
  • Source timestamp: 13:30

• Approval of Minutes for Hadley

  • Summary: Motion to approve both sets of minutes (implied continuation).
  • Evidence: “let’s move by Mr. Busker, second.”
  • Evidence: “Well, I would entertain a motion to pass this motion to approve both of my minutes for Hadley seconded by Mr. Meester”
  • Evidence: “All those in favor say aye. Aye.”
  • Source timestamp: 14:08

• Seconding a motion by Busker

  • Summary: Motion proposed by Mr. Busker, seconded by Ms. Diddens.
  • Evidence: “And Jeremy. So let’s move by Mr. Busker, second. I’ll do a second. Okay, second by Ms. Diddens.”
  • Evidence: “All those in favor say aye. Aye.”
  • Source timestamp: 14:08

Procedural Actions

• Call to order of the meeting
  • Summary: The meeting of the court services committee was called to order for Wednesday, March 11th, 2026.
  • Evidence: “Call this meeting to order the meeting of the court services committee, Wednesday, March 11th, 2026.”
  • Source timestamp: 00:12

Financial and Contract Events

• Electronic probation check-in system cost

  • Summary: The initial cost for the system was reported as being a couple thousand dollars, with the first year membership free and subsequent years estimated around $400.
  • Evidence: “It’s like a couple thousand for that. And then we’ll pay the first year membership is free. And then after that, it’ll be maybe around $400.”
  • Source timestamp: 03:27

• Socrata Dashboard Contract with Gooden and Associates

  • Summary: A contract is required to establish a dashboard that will collect more data than currently reported quarterly, allowing the state to get reports at any time. The annual fee for this contract is $2,004.
  • Evidence: “This is a dashboard that they are requiring. It’ll take all the data and more data than I’m reporting now and they can and get a report at any time… That’s if that is, I’ll look at it, thought it looked okay. And this is the budget expense? Yeah, I have money and visas and stuff. How much is it going to cost you? $2,004. That’s probably annually?”

• Budget expense inquiry

  • Summary: Inquiry regarding the cost of a service, with a stated figure of $2,004 potentially being an annual fee.
  • Evidence: “How much is it going to cost you? $2,004. That’s probably annually? Yeah.”
  • Source timestamp: 13:23

Presentations and Reports

• Electronic probation check-in system implementation

  • Summary: A report was given detailing the successful acquisition and implementation of two standing kiosks for an electronic probation check-in system.
  • Evidence: “So I just wanted to report that, thanks to Chanel’s, the Tech Red, we were able to get two standing kiosks in the office. So we now have an electronic probation check-in system.”
  • Source timestamp: 02:42

• State’s Attorney Report - Staffing and Operations

  • Summary: The State’s Attorney reported that the office is down one attorney due to Caden Goodman obtaining a 711 license, allowing her to practice law under supervision while finishing law school. She is currently taking on juvenile abuse, neglect, delinquency, and some PTRs.
  • Evidence: “I’m happy to report that we are down just one attorney. We’ve got our previous victim and witness coordinator, Caden Goodman has gotten her temporary license. That’s called a 711 license. It now allows her to practice law under supervision of an attorney while she finishes law school.”
  • Source timestamp: 06:02

• State’s Attorney Report - Office Status

  • Summary: The State’s Attorney noted that the office has not been fully staffed in probably more than a year, and mentioned recent absences including Sheva Lynn in Reels being out and the new victim and witness coordinator being out for a couple of days.
  • Evidence: “We haven’t been this fully staffed in probably more than a year. So it’s a relief she’s currently taking on juvenile abuse, neglect, delinquency and some PTRs… We had Sheva Lynn in Reels is at the office when I left and she was she was in their coffin. Our new victim and witness coordinator has been out for a couple of days and I think our office manager was under the weather for a while also, but we are persisting.”
  • Source timestamp: 06:26

• State’s Attorney Report - Trial Season Outlook

  • Summary: The State’s Attorney reported that the post-New Year trial season is cooling off, with fewer expected trials moving forward.
  • Evidence: “The post-New Year trial season is starting to cool off. We had three Pretty big trials in February and then into the beginning of March, which is, it’s a lot of work for everybody, but we’ve gotten through them and moving forward, we’re expecting that the trials will be spread out a little bit more, which makes them much more manageable.”
  • Source timestamp: 06:45

• Legal Aid Online Program Implementation

  • Summary: The State’s Attorney presented information on Illinois Legal Aid Online, a website providing legal question information and forms, which was first used on March 5th.
  • Evidence: “I also attached our Aleo flyer, it’s something new that we’re starting which is Illinois Legal Aid Online, it’s a website that has a lot of information for legal questions and forms that they can fill out and also forms that it’s kind of like an interview, they to go through and ask a question and depending on how you answer it, then it takes you to the next session. So we’re going to work with them. We had our first day at March 5th.”
  • Source timestamp: 08:28

• Diversion Fees Status

  • Summary: The report on diversion fees showed $565.44 added, bringing the total to $10,506.74.
  • Evidence: “I’ll move on to use diversion fees this month or last month we have $565.44 added giving us a total of $10,506.74.”
  • Source timestamp: 10:48

Metrics

• Electronic probation check-in system efficiency
  • Summary: The new system allows staff to see who is actually in the office when a client checks in.
  • Evidence: “And it also helps us because now all the staff can see who’s actually in the office, because sometimes you don’t know.”
  • Source timestamp: 03:09

Discussion

• Bilingual staff utilization for probation services

  • Summary: The bilingual officer is utilized most when new clients are processed after sentencing to probation.
  • Evidence: “So I would say mostly when we get new clients down after they’re sentenced to probation, that’s where she’s utilized the most.”
  • Source timestamp: 05:14

• Budgetary concerns regarding interpretation services

  • Summary: A concern was raised about spending on interpretation or temporary expenses within the budget.
  • Evidence: “I noticed in the budget, looking at the budget, and we spend a lot of money on, and the court services obviously fall in all that in interpretation or in the temporary expenses.”
  • Source timestamp: 05:35

• Illinois Legal Aid Online Access

  • Summary: Discussion confirmed that Illinois Legal Aid Online is a website accessible via a link on the county’s site or directly, and it functions as a navigator to guide users rather than providing legal advice.
  • Evidence: “It’s a website that you have access to the counties. It is a link on ours, or you can just go to their website… I’m not an attorney, so we’re not given legal advice, but it’s a navigator to walk them through or show them maybe where they can find answers to their questions.”
  • Source timestamp: 09:35

• Diversion Fee Applications Deadline

  • Summary: The deadline for applications related to the discussed item was stated as April 1st.
  • Evidence: “They’re due by April 1st? Yes, first, yep.”
  • Source timestamp: 11:18

• Next budget policy item

  • Summary: Discussion regarding when the next budget policy item will be addressed.
  • Evidence: “Why don’t you start the budget policy. Well, then I’ll probably first assume that will be in April. And Do you want me to do a next one, Bill?”
  • Source timestamp: 14:25