MINUTES
Moraine Township Board of Trustees
Thursday, July 27, 2006 7:30 PM
Highwood City Hall, Council Chambers

MINUTES OF REGULAR MEETING
July 27, 2006

The meeting was called to order at 7:33 PM, and upon roll call the following members were present: Supervisor Mari Barnes, Trustees Bryna Gamson, Margoth Moreno and Jeff Zaluda. Also Present: Assessor Peter Koukos; Clerk Ellen Gussin; Director General Assistance Tracy Coleman; Janet Freed, and two additional community members. Trustee Cynthia Plouché was absent.

Approval of Minutes
The Regular Meeting Minutes of July 13, 2006, stand as written.

Approval of Bills
The Board considered for approval the entire month's bills, because the General Assistance bills were not ready for approval at the last meeting. Trustee Gamson moved, seconded by Trustee Moreno, approval of the bills. Upon roll call, motion carried.

Public Comment
Bill Griffin, residing at 180 Winthrop Lane in Lake Forest, introduced himself to the Board and everyone present. He is the Republican Candidate for the State of Illinois Representative from the Moraine Township district.

Assessor's Report
Assessor Koukos reported that over 600 building permits dating from 2002-5 as well as 3200 changes to resolve effective-age-of-property issues will be completed by August 11 and the books will be closed by September 15. He gave honorable mention to Patty Powers for processing all the permits. He also stated that he has submitted a Letter to the Editor to the Pioneer Press, which he wants to share with the township Board as well.

Supervisor's Report
The Township was well represented in the Highland Park Fourth of July parade by Trustees Gamson, Moreno and Plouché, as well as Assessor Koukos who was the Grand Marshall. The new van transportation program and the Township logo were introduced at the parade.

The audit has been completed, Supervisor Barnes is in the process of reviewing it, and she will soon be sharing it with the trustees.

The Township Budget contains allocations for potential Taxi Program expenditures in the Taxi Program account as well as Printing and Publishing. The Board agreed that the expenditures should be identifiable by category (i.e., type of expenditure for "Taxi") and advised Supervisor Barnes to use her discretion.

Editing of Township Mission Statement
Trustee Gamson suggested a slight revision to the Moraine Township mission statement. She suggests using just the first sentence as the mission statement and then having the second paragraph give additional information about the township but not be a part of the mission.

Mission Statement: Moraine Township government administers public funds to provide responsive, efficient and compassionate services and support for residents in need.
Second Paragraph: Our boundaries include all of Highwood, most of Highland Park, and small portions of Deerfield and Lake Forest. The Township officially provides general assistance to individuals; property assessment services in the Assessor's office; election and record-keeping functions in the Clerk's office; and operates two cemeteries, Mooney and Daggitt, in Highland Park.

Motion to adopt this change in the Township Mission was made by Trustee Gamson and seconded by Trustee Zaluda. Motion carried.

Committee Reports
Food Pantry -- Trustee Moreno has been at the Pantry several times this week to organize the pantry. Supervisor Barnes stated that we currently have good stock of foods and clothing, as well as growing plants from our Pantry Plants Garden project. This has been an active summer for distributing food to those in need.

Clothing Closet -- Supervisor Barnes would like donors to hold off on donations of clothing until the end of the summer, as we are very over-stocked in this area.

Transportation -- Trustee Gamson attended the County-wide meeting last week, and the committee is making progress; there will be another meeting on August 16 to establish a budget, as the committee prepares for a research grant proposal. Supervisor Barnes repeated the information about Moraine Township's Van Transportation program and invited people to call 432-3000 for rides. Township has met with the Taxi Companies and has encouraged them to operate on a more competitive basis so that the residents can be better served. Packets of information about the Township's programs are going to the churches and synagogues as well as medical providers and doctorís offices to give greater publicity to the Van program.

Old Business
Trustee Moreno requested the Township issue business cards to the trustees, as she has had occasion at meetings to use them. Board agreed that this would be in order for those trustees who feel the need.

Trustee Zaluda announced that the Community Family Center has given up their quest to build space in the Green Bay School due to the cost barrier. They may be looking for space at the Red Oak School, but transportation for the students back and forth from central Highland Park would present a problem. Trustee Zaluda asked if Pace might be able to offer a possible solution, and Supervisor Barnes responded that it could be worthwhile to further explore this as an option.

New Business
Trustee Gamson suggested the Board consider inviting the Executive Directors from the organizations that we have funded during the Grant process to attend one of our end-of-the-month meetings throughout the year, in the hopes of creating greater understanding of each other's needs and limitations. She would like to see a portion of our agenda devoted to their speaking and sharing specific issues. Trustees Moreno and Zaluda as well as Supervisor Barnes supported the idea. Trustee Zaluda further suggested using such collaboration as a way to identify areas of overlap as well as additional collaborative opportunities.

Community Member Janet Freed announced that the Highland Park-Highwood Chapter of the United Way will be conducting a community-wide needs assessment and suggested that the Township board should take note of the results.

Adjournment
With no further business to conduct, Supervisor Barnes moved, seconded by Trustee Zaluda, the meeting be adjourned at 8:09PM. Motion carried.

Respectfully submitted,

_______________________
Ellen S. Gussin, Moraine Township Clerk

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