MINUTES OF THE INFORMAL MEETING OF THE JOHNSON COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS:
FEBRUARY 9, 2005
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chairperson Stutsman called the Johnson County Board of Supervisors to order in the Johnson County Administration Building at 2:30 p.m. Members present were: Pat Harney, Mike Lehman, Terrence Neuzil, Sally Stutsman, and Rod Sullivan.
FISCAL YEAR 2005 DISCUSSION OF ELECTED COUNTY OFFICES
County Auditor (Departments #03 and #33)
County Auditor Tom Slockett introduced the new Deputy Auditor Steve Miller.
Budget Coordinator Jeff Horne said that the resolution of the GIS staffing and mapping needs to be resolved. Slockett said that they will now, due to GEMS, be able to account for elections overtime out of the General Supplemental Fund which will leave more space in the General Basic Fund.
Deputy Auditor Mark Kistler presented Department 3, Decision Package 1. Kistler presented the County Attorney’s memo to the Board regarding moving GIS out of the Auditor’s Office. Kistler presented a list showing the duties of the staff of the Real Estate Department of the Auditor’s Office. He explained that Map Delineator John McKiness and Map Delineator Jose Flores work on duties that would also be the responsibility of the proposed full time position. Part-time Temporary Map Delineator Andrew Stolba does many of the same tasks as McKiness and Flores but that he is not quite up to the same level they are. There is a protocol for helping the public with GIS and Real Estate. He explained that the other part time students in Real Estate help the public first and the GIS people only help the public if there is no other real estate staff available. Kistler added that the Real Estate Part Timers Dan Schofield, Jude Cigrand, and Okendra Budhathoki, also perform GIS QA/QC as time allows, and plot maps requested from the public. Kistler said the proposal brought last year was for 50 hours of part time work with 30 of them going to GIS and 20 to be used in addition to the current 30 hours already in Real Estate.
Kistler explained that that Map Delineator Kathy Elliott does some GIS work as time permits but her main duties include managing the Invision Database. Elliott works with staff in the City and County Assessor’s Offices. Elliott now takes care of all of the corrections to the year like apportioning ag land credit and family farm. Slockett explained that the change in duties from the Assessors’ Offices to Elliott is due to the software upgrade. Kistler said that going into the software conversion his plan had been to teach McKiness those particular duties so that he and Elliott could split them along with the GIS duties. He explained that initially Elliott was the only one doing the one part of the job because she was more experienced and much more efficient at it than McKiness and he continued working on GIS. Kistler explained that Elliott does fine keeping up on her end but that McKiness needs help with the overload of work he is doing and that is what the new full time position would do. They would be performing the same types of duties that McKiness currently does and would help alleviate some of the backlog.
Kistler explained that Account Clerk II’s Keshab Pokhrel and Steve Thomsen help part time people update deeds and contracts. They help check entries as well as performing some of the entry when the workload is heavy. They are responsible for checking splits that Elliott performs in Invision. Kistler said that they are also responsible for balancing evaluation reports. The GIS software is also used to identify all of the new TIF districts filed. Each year an update of each TIF district has to be run district by district in order to redistribute the TIF based values. Kistler explained that this process is very meticulous and lengthy and skilled workers are needed to get the records right. He went on to say that there have been many problems with software conversions and that it is helpful to have the part timers working to help alleviate the back log that has resulted from these problems. Kistler said that his main duty is to oversee all of the workers and make sure that the problems get fixed in the best way possible with as much accuracy as possible.
Kistler explained that the memo from County Attorney J. Patrick White points out that a solution needs to be found that works with the Auditor’s Office and that he is not sure that has happened yet. Lehman asked how much cross training can really go on if everyone is working on their specified functions. Kistler said that there is a lot of cross-training that takes place within the Real Estate side and in GIS the people know what the others are doing but they don’t really do the work. He explained that if Thomsen and Pokhrel can’t get all of their work done he does it, not McKiness or Flores. Lehman pointed out that under this system Kistler would not have to just fill a position if someone left, but find someone with similar skills as the person who left to make a good match for the department. Kistler agreed. He explained that Thomsen is an Account Clerk II and that if there are no part time temporary people available Thomsen does the maps even though it is not really his field. Lehman said that all points to difficulty getting projects done. Kistler said that at times projects need to be done on a tight schedule, such as at tax time, and then he pulls Elliott in to help meet the deadlines.
Lehman said that he believes that he and the Board don’t fully understand all of the steps involved. He said that he thought some of the mapping is to be out-sourced to help alleviate backlog. Kistler said that they will, but that he thought that there was a misconception in some people’s minds that this has been done before. He explained that every line that has been drawn in the GIS database has been drawn by the Auditor’s Office, nothing has ever been out-sourced before. Lehman said that the proposal is to outsource. Kistler agreed saying that outsourcing would catch up on the backlog. Lehman asked if once the backlog was taken care of the office would be able to stay caught up with the additional staff person. Kistler said that they would, but that the additional staff was vital. Stutsman asked if some of the part time hours could be eliminated if the additional personnel is hired. Slockett said that once the backlog is taken care of they would be in a better position to gauge what would be needed to stay current. Kistler said that paring down the part time hours would be a definite possibility, but that he wouldn’t do it right away because there are too many unknown variables until the outsourcing is done. He also pointed out that there needs to be more QA/QC done before hours are let go.
Stutsman asked if the Incode conversion was done. Kistler said that it was done in March and that there had been a lot of problems throughout the summer. One problem was that the Treasurer had many addresses that weren’t updated and that he thought it was because the Auditor’s Office hadn’t taken care of it yet. In reality, he explained, it was because all of the work was updated by July 1, 2004 and the new software couldn’t get the new information to the old system in the Treasurer’s Office. Stutsman asked if this is an ongoing problem. Kistler said that it isn’t, but because the Treasurer has yet to transfer to the new system the same problem could crop up this summer. He added that they will be better prepared for the possible problem this summer as they went through it last year.
Neuzil asked where the current budget stands. Horne said that he put in the GIS Committee’s recommendation of the three positions and not the delineator. Neuzil asked what the duties of the three positions would be and if any of them would be similar to a full time map delineator in the Auditor’s Office. Horne said that he thinks the GIS tech positions are similar. Kistler said that two of the positions would be comparable. Stutsman said that one of the positions would actually be an assistant to GIS Coordinator Rick Havel. Neuzil said that the other two positions would be similar to the full time position, and that it would seem silly to have two positions in Havel’s office and one in the Auditor’s all doing the same thing. Horne said that Havel said that the specialist position was the most important to his office. Kistler said that any help that Havel receives would also help the Auditor’s Office because they could help trouble shoot technical and software problems. Lehman asked the position needs to be in the Auditor’s Office directly under Kistler’s supervision to help ward off problems. Kistler explained that right now when a split happens there are people coordinating in the Auditor’s Office and the Assessors’ Offices. If the new positions went to Havel’s office it would add another office to the process and would add confusion along with making collaboration more difficult. Lehman asked if it would still be a problem if one employee was assigned to the Auditor and the other to Information Services. Kistler said that it would not be as big of a problem. Slockett said that his office and IS work together very well together on all matters. Kistler pointed out that with Havel getting the staff he needs it would be good for both offices as Havel would be able to spare staff to help the Auditor’s Office if they were to hit a peak in work suddenly. Lehman said that he had forgotten about IS working for the Health Department and that they really have different duties, not conflicting, just different. Kistler said that they would be able to help out though because they have similar skills. Stutsman said that ultimately the Auditor’s Office has to do the QA/QC so any work done in IS would ultimately have to be approved by the Auditor’s Office before it could be sent out and used. Slockett said that it is a statutory requirement that his office provide the maps to the Assessor, but that doesn’t mean they can’t have assistance.
Neuzil asked Horne if the outsourcing is also budgeted for in addition to the new positions. Neuzil said that they want to hire three positions, the question is where are they going to put them and in what combination, and, if they are going to fund a contract for outsourcing. Horne said that they are funding the contract. Stutsman said that she thought the idea was that once the work was caught up it could be maintained in-house. Kistler said that he thinks that if Sidwell could apply enough personnel to the job it could be done very quickly. Neuzil said that he is just trying to figure out if they need to budget for the contract in FY06 or if it could be done by the end of the current fiscal year. Slockett said that during the meeting with Sidwell he got the impression that they were very ready to work with the system and willing to meet the needs of the County. R. Sullivan asked if the Auditor’s Office Map Delineator is the same pay grade as the proposed position in IS. Horne said that they would be pretty close, if not the same. Stutsman pointed out that with the addition of personnel they would need to add additional office equipment for a total of $49,207. Kistler pointed out that they may need to look at a small software cost as well. Slockett said that the positions would not be exactly the same because they have different titles. Horne said that he has not had a chance to compare the two job descriptions so there may be some discrepancy but that they would be of similar caliber. Lehman asked if it would be problem if the worker was up in IS and occasionally came down to help as needed. Slockett said that wouldn’t be a problem, but there would be a problem if someone was in IS doing essentially the same work as the workers in the Auditor’s Office but getting paid more. Horne said that Human Resources Administrator Lora Shramek has classified it at pay grade 11 and that the IS people feel the position would be of a higher skill level.
Lehman asked if all of the work is now done on computers or if there is still paper work to be done. Kistler said that they still plot the information from the computers to books because the current software only allows one book and page to be shown at a time on one property. He explained that some database development would have to be done before the books are gotten rid of. Kistler added that due to the backlog database development has been a low priority but once the backlog is taken care of they can work more on that. Lehman said that it would be more convenient and efficient to have all of the Real Estate and GIS people working in close proximity to each other. Kistler said that their goal is to create some private space in the back of the office for all of the GIS people to work together, and the other people who work with the public and do the day to day data updates would stay at the front of the office. Lehman said that it would be advantageous to have Havel’s people close too. Kistler said that could be something that they look at when planning the remodeling and addition to the Administration Building. Slockett said that the Auditor’s Office provides a basic map that can be used by everyone and they can draw their own layers over it to make it work for them. Lehman said that Information Services would be taking the Auditor’s maps and applying it to another area, not checking the maps. Harney said that he doesn’t want to build a barrier between the two departments because they have to work together so much. Kistler said most of the year Havel’s employees would be working for other departments, but at some point the Auditor’s Office will need a lot of help from IS. He explained that tax time activates several surveys that may not already be in the permanent layer so they have to move them and they need to do so quickly. Lehman said that if everyone was in close proximity it would make those times of year easier. Stutsman said that since most of this is computer based employees can pull things off the network and not have to be sitting together. Lehman said that there is still a certain amount of exchange that has to take place.
Kistler introduced Department 3 Decision Package 2, remodeling. He said that he received a worker’s comp evaluation in the last year and there is a suggestion that the Auditor’s Office replace old equipment with ergonomically correct equipment. Kistler said that the office has a plan to establish better work stations. Matt Parrott and Sons from Waterloo did the drawing. Kistler explained that this plan has been in the works since 2002 and that they had gotten some estimates at that time but due to budget concerns did not submit the plan. He said that because of the ergonomic issues and the need to rearrange the office to be a better work environment it seemed realistic to go forward with the remodeling plans. Stutsman said the when County Recorder Kim Painter was going through the remodel she spent moths working on logistics. Horne said that the remodel is in the proposed budget. He said that the only request not in the proposed budget is the Map Delineator. Horne said that the remodeling it is a capital project. Stutsman said that she feels people need nice, efficient workspaces to do good work. Harney asked what the walls are going to be like on the divisions. Kistler said that the walls are going to be low. Slockett pointed out that everyone would still need to be able to see the counter. Horne said that $80,000 is budgeted in the Capital Expenditures Fund to be transferred to the General Fund and funded through the capital expenditures budget. Lehman asked if there are plans to remodel the back part of the office where the garage door is. Neuzil said that he knew there had been some concerns about the security of the ballots and he wondered if there were any plans in the remodel to address those concerns. Slockett said that he also wants to address the problem that when there are more discrete spaces it makes it harder to accommodate dozens of part-time temporary workers that may be needed during elections. He added that if they go forward with the remodel he is hoping that there is some sort of expansion to the building before the next presidential election. If not, they will have to look at the temporary help being located off site and that will add another complication to the process. Neuzil asked if that was what Slockett had in mind for the garage after building improvements are made. Slockett said yes, that his greatest fear is that one day the fire department is going to call them on the violations of the office. Stutsman said that she sees this plan as very tentative and subject to the RFP.
Deputy Auditor Julie Gilmere presented Department 3 Decision Package 3, the addition of a part-time temporary minute taker. Lehman asked what this position would help accomplish. Gilmere said that it would help alleviate backlog as currently it is only Administrative Secretary Casie Kadlec doing the minutes tasks and she is having to put in a lot of overtime hours. Gilmere said that Kadlec does a great job but that she needs help as there is some backlog in certain areas such as filing and preparing summary meanings. Gilmere pointed out that there was help that was cut a few years ago during budget problems. Stutsman said that she remembered there being many minute takers in the past rotating the duties. Lehman said that there has recently been someone sitting in for Kadlec. Gilmere said that there were a few extra dollars in the Department 03 budget that are being used to have a student, Recording Secretary Sarah Rutledge, assist Kadlec that had assisted the office during the election. Slockett explained that it is a $10 an hour part-time temporary position. Gilmere said that Rutledge has been a great help. Stutsman asked if the cost of Kadlec’s overtime would cover the cost of the additional part-time position. Gilmere said that it will not cover the entire $10,000 but there has been backlog that has built up so they hope to save around $2,000 and catch up the backlog and allow days for Kadlec to be sick and have time off. Slockett explained that Kadlec is the only person that covers the meetings on a regular basis and she does it very well but she deserves a break too. Horne said that the part-time temporary Recording Secretary is in the proposed budget.
Deputy Auditor Steve Miller said that they had originally requested Department 33 Decision Packages 1 and 2 for a total of $116,000 but after further review they are requesting only one permanent employee to be added. Miller pointed out that the last time a full-time employee was added to the Elections Department was 1981. Neuzil asked if this was in the budget. Horne said that this is in the Supplemental Fund. Miller said that the request is $64,263.21 less than what was originally projected.
Deputy Auditor Chris Edwards said that with the new payroll system it will be possible to code portions of people’s salaries as elections so it will be easier to see how much election work really goes on and what it takes from other departments. R. Sullivan asked if there is any possible way to keep track of the time. Slockett said that through the use of time sheets they can get an accurate look at the allocation of time. Stutsman asked if that is what will be possible now with GEMS. Neuzil said that for an example it would be easier to clarify Account Clerk II John Deeth’s use of time and it can be categorized as using part of the day for updating elections and part of the day for other duties. Stutsman asked if there is going to be a significant switch from items coming out of the General Fund that can be justified in the Supplemental. Neuzil asked if any of it can be estimated now so that decisions can be made easier. Slockett said that they can do it, but that it would be less accurate to look back than track the future. Neuzil asked if this was something that could be accomplished soon. Slockett said that last year will not be the same as the coming year, but to keep in mind that every fiscal year has either a primary for a general election or a general election. Neuzil asked if they could find employees that spend part of their time doing election work and are right now getting paid out of the General Fund. Neuzil said that if they could estimate these costs there could be $10,000 to $15,000 found that could be used on other projects.
Stutsman said that they are not going to be able to fund everything so she wants to know the top priorities are. She said that she would like to get rid of the part-time GIS hours. Slockett said that the Board has to make the decisions but to pay to get caught up but not fund the hours to stay caught up doesn’t make sense. He added keeping them on until Sidwell is done and the QA/QC can be accomplished is a good idea. Slockett said that Flores has been a County employee for a very long time and that he is part-time permanent and to lose him would be a great loss to the County. Neuzil said that there may be room for compromise to make sure that the work can get done and done affordably. R. Sullivan suggested that the part-time temporary people might be the best candidates for the full-time jobs.
Lehman asked which of the proposed items are already in the budget. Horne said that everything but the delineator is already built in. Lehman asked if the remodeling could be done over a two-year period. He said that they could schedule a bid so that the project is done in late June and then the other half is billed after July first. Slockett said they could do it by square footage so they could allocate part of the cost to Elections.
Stutsman said that her goal with the map delineator is that the work will get caught up and stay caught up. Slockett said that he is trying to have Sidwell do as much as possible so that when they are done with their contract the office can move seamlessly into daily operations and not have to finish work on the backlog. Horne said that they could provide some progress reports for the Board so they would know if things were getting accomplished. Slockett suggested that Sidwill give a presentation to the Board so that everyone knows exactly what is going on. Kistler said that he had been concerned that having an outsider do the work could cause more problems than it is worth, but that Sidwell is very concerned with getting everything done correctly. Stutsman said that Sidwell has worked with many Counties.
Neuzil questioned how new voting equipment will be funded. Horne said that there is some money set aside and there has been talk about bonding for it. Neuzil said that they will have to take care of it at some point.
Kistler said that he wanted to point out that the County had won an award for their mapping project that was done on time and under budget because the office was provided with the resources they needed.
DISCUSSION: FISCAL YEAR 2006 COUNTY BUDGET
Horne said County Sheriff Lonny Pulkrabek will be presenting the Sheriff’s budget on February 11, 2005 and will be making many large requests that are not in the budget. Neuzil asked that Horne could prepare a summary sheet of the requests for the meeting.
Neuzil pointed out that there is some wiggle room with the numbers in the Auditor’s Office. R. Sullivan said that there are other places where a few thousand dollars can be found and that it could add up.
The Board agreed not to fund the health insurance of the contract employee at the Soil and Water Conservation Service until a formal request is made.
Horne met with Shramek about changing the mileage reimbursement rate and they agreed that it will not cause any changes in the budget as the amount is small. The Board discussed the increases in mileage reimbursement and decided to keep the new rate at $0.32 because there are still decisions to be made about a car fleet and other factors.
Lehman said that Painter’s Clerk is going to be in the budget so they need to find $3,200 for the upgrade.
Neuzil asked if the block grants are in the budget. Horne said that he added $10,000 to the block grants.
Stutsman said that there is no point to budget for the Social Services reorganization until they find out about the change in DHS.
Horne reminded the Board that they are putting $844,000 into the Capital Improvements Plan.
Stutsman asked if all of Mental Health/Developmental Disabilities Director Elaine Sweet’s requests for her department will be met. Neuzil said that they should ask about the Jail Diversion Program because there seems to be some confusion as to where funds are coming from to fund certain positions. Horne said that the position Pulkrabek is requesting they do not have in the budget is the Night Dispatch Supervisor, and that this position would be a General Fund position. Neuzil asked that Horne communicate with Sweet to update her as to what is in and what is out of the budget.
Stutsman asked if there needs to be any discussion about GIS. R. Sullivan said that White made it clear as to what the Auditor’s Office is required to do by law. Stutsman said that she thought White was unclear in his explanations, and that the way she reads the law it says that the Auditor shall do these tasks, but there it nothing saying it cannot be delegated. She pointed out that Slockett said that he has the ultimate responsibility for how it gets done. Neuzil said that White was just trying to make sure that there were not two sets of books. Lehman said that Slockett will be satisfied with one person. R. Sullivan said that as far as the Assessor goes if they guarantee that it will be up to date then they will get what they need. Stutsman said that Horne had a good suggestion of having regular reports and monitoring of the new arrangements. Neuzil pointed out that they will also be able to eliminate part time positions once things are caught up. Stutsman said that they said that it was either part time workers or a full time position. Neuzil said that there would be some room to say that they are going to fund it to 3/4 of the request so that after the third quarter of the fiscal year the part time hours would no longer be funded. Stutsman asked why they are funding part time hours at all. Neuzil said that Kistler said that they need some time to transition, which could mean time to hire or other things. Neuzil also added that there is flexibility with the remodel of the Auditor’s Office and that it could be done over two years to spread out the costs.
Stutsman said that salaries are going to be a big issue. Lehman asked where they are right now with the wages. Horne said that right now they are at 4.5% for the Board and 3% for the elected officials. R. Sullivan said that this gets back to the block grant for the Fair Board because they said that they haven’t been asking all along for little bits of money here and there and that they really need it now. He added that he would like to reward departments who work hard to stay within their budgets with granting their requests when they really need it.
Neuzil said that a lot of things that they have been talking about may change dramatically depending on what they decide to give to the Sheriff. Horne said that he had advised Pulkrabek to keep the changes to a minimum this year but that Pulkrabek said that he feels very strongly about the changes. R. Sullivan said that in the future it might be nice to deal with block grants last so the mandated and larger things can be dealt with first. Stutsman said that she doesn’t want to minimize the block grants because some of them actually help save the County money. Neuzil said at least out of fairness they could switch the order so the same departments don’t always get to go first or have to go last. He added that there needs to be a good connection between the strategic plan and the budgeting. Horne suggested that they set up measures to see if the departments are measuring up to the expectations of the Board. Neuzil said that he envisions Horne’s job eventually revolving around the strategic plan for six months out of the year.
The Board scheduled a formal executive session on February 10, 2005 at 4:30 p.m. The Board agreed to change the February 11, 2005 budget meeting to begin immediately following the Elected Officials meeting.
Adjourned at 4:10 p.m.
Attest: Tom Slockett, Auditor
By Casie Kadlec, Recording Secretary
Sent to the Board of Supervisors on DATE, 2005 at TIME.