A last-minute contract request presented at the County Board meeting Tuesday sent some commissioners to the limits of what they said they were willing to tolerate in the way of advance notice.
The item, a contract for aerial photography needed for a tax assessment map, eventually received the board’s approval, but a movement is afoot to stop allowing last-minute introduction of agenda items.
Commissioners warned that they are getting tired of being asked to vote on items without notice, although they said they weren’t being critical of Sallie Huber, the supervisor of assessments.
Commissioner Gerald Jones said that the practice doesn’t give board members time for review.
“That’s why I brought it up,” Jones said after the meeting. “To put people on notice.”
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The $100,000 contract, which was not put out for a competitive bid, awarded Sidwell Co. of West Chicago the job of taking aerial photographs of land for tax assessment purposes, Huber said.
The survey must be done in spring, after the snow melts but before leaves appear on trees, so timing is critical, she said.
The county hasn’t done an aerial assessment map since 1985, she said, and with the ongoing growth surge, a new map is considered a must.
Sidwell owns the markers that are used for mapping and the firm will only have to replace those that have been removed because of construction.
If a different company were given the work, it would have to buy the rights to use the markers or put down their own, Donna Mayberry, chief deputy supervisor of assessments, told commissioners. In talking with various companies that do aerial surveys, Mayberry said “$700,000 was a figure I heard several times.”