MINUTES OF THE INFORMAL MEETING OF THE JOHNSON COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS:
FEBRUARY 3, 2006
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
FISCAL YEAR 2007 BUDGET: COUNTY ADMINISTRATION SERVICE AREA............... 1
Information Services (07)............................................................................................ 1
Technology (40)......................................................................................................... 3
FISCAL YEAR 2007 BUDGET: ELECTED COUNTY OFFICES........................................... 8
County Treasurer (14)................................................................................................ 8
County Recorder (11)................................................................................................. 9
County Attorney (02)................................................................................................ 11
County Auditor (03) and Elections (33)....................................................................... 15
Chairperson Lehman called the Johnson County Board of Supervisors to order in the Johnson County Administration Building at 9:01 a.m. Members present were: Pat Harney, Mike Lehman, Terrence Neuzil, Sally Stutsman, and Rod Sullivan.
Lehman said that since Budget Coordinator Rich Claiborne is new, the Board has been asking the department heads to highlight major changes in their budgets. Information Services Director Jean Schultz said that there has been an increase in fuel. For some of the other areas, they were able to reduce because they had not been using the budgeted amount. These areas include supplies and forms. Part of it is that the systems now have more online capability so they don’t need to print as many forms. Schultz noted that some of the training that they need is not available locally, but the training is very useful, so, they increased the area of training and schooling. They put GIS in 0107 from the beginning to be consistent.
Schultz said that former Tim Knipper had a unique skill set including the web and training. As time passed, they had fewer and fewer people ask for classes but wanted help on a specific task. Now, Operations Supervisor/Secretary II Shannon Chambers does more one-on-one training for specific things. Schultz said that other counties have a specific set of money for classes and that is how she sees the purpose of this line item. She said that they would be using a central account. R. Sullivan said that the days of them hiring an employee who hasn’t ever used a computer are gone. Schultz said in general that is true because kids going into kindergarten use computers. Schultz said that this would not cover user GIS training. Stutsman said that it seems good to have this because she would hate to have an employee not get a job just because they weren’t proficient in a particular computer program.
Schultz said that their payroll went down because they added in the GIS specialist, but when Knipper left, they did not fill that position. They basically reallocated. She said that it has been working well; she hasn’t heard any complaints so far. She explained that Chambers’ work prevents Network Administrator Bill Horning and Network Support Technician Fred Brown from having to go help people with software problems. Lehman said that it is good that Deputy Chris Edwards has been catching those. Schultz said that she was very appreciative of that because if she had forgotten something, there could have been a big problem.
Stutsman asked why there is such a reduction in computer services. Schultz said that a lot of it had to do with the fact that it was a general election requiring many voter lists to be printed. Stutsman asked if that will go up again. Schultz said that in 2008, it may or may not because a lot of people are now getting actual files and doing the printing themselves. Harney asked if the primaries would be an issue this coming year. Schultz responded that they are an issue, but people tend to want a file instead of a printout because they can then generate their own labels or personalized letters.
Lehman asked if they have been saving for a van. Schultz said that they already have $9,350 saved. Lehman asked if the target is $18,000. Schultz said yes. She said that they did get a used van last time, and it has been very good. Stutsman asked if the office equipment is just for desks. Schultz said yes. Right now, they have hodge-podge of equipment from various offices. Schultz said that County Treasurer Tom Kriz said that redesigning is one of the best things he did because it is a much more efficient use of space. Stutsman asked Administrative Secretary Casie Kadlec if she wants to weigh in on this. Kadlec said that it is much better for most people. She noted that she loves her area. Lehman said it is probably physically and mentally better. M. Sullivan added that they have more space.
Lehman asked about the maintenance line item. Schultz said that is for half a year of maintenance on the HP3000. Stutsman asked if the HP3000 will be gone. Schultz said that they have paid for it, so they may keep it in case people want access to old records. She noted that they want to be sure that the old history files are kept in a format that people can access if they need to. Stutsman asked if they will still have a maintenance agreement on it. Schultz said no because there won’t be any active systems on it. R. Sullivan asked if there is a secondary market on something like that. Schultz replied that HP is no longer making the 3000 family of computers. She said that they will try to sell it. Lehman wondered about off-site storage. Schultz said that it would actually be a server.
Schultz said that in the technology section, they have money that they have been saving for that. She said that for disaster recovery purposes, they have fiber from the Administration Building to Secondary Roads and the Courthouse. She said that if they build a new place for SEATS, they might be able to have room there that could be a server and backup of all the files. That way if there was a fire at the Administration Building, the data would be protected.
Lehman asked if their maintenance agreement with GEMS has changed. Schultz said that GEMS did get bought out by Harris Computer company. They are encouraged by the possibility of getting more funds to do things. She said that the GEMS people have told her that Harris basically targets government, and they have other complimentary software but not competing software with the GEMS product.
Stutsman said she would love to see them get their office done next year. She thought that they could come up with $24,000 to redo the office and wondered if that would work with Schultz. Schultz said that they certainly wouldn’t complain. She said that she came up with that amount by asking Kriz; she didn’t get any formal quotes. Stutsman said that she feels it makes a lot of difference with efficiency to remodel. She said that the department does a great job with their work and their budget.
Stutsman said she heard they have been working overtime. Schultz said that they have. For GIS, to get the parcels up to date, they thought about contracting out, but the samples that they received were not very good. They decided to do the job in house. So, the GIS staff have been working five ten hour days. Also, the Auditor’s Office has started to have some of their people working some overtime. Out of the money that they would have paid the consultants, they pay the overtime. She said that GIS Coordinator Rick Havel feels fairly confident that by the end of March, the maps should be at an acceptable level. Also, now that Map Delineator Adam Gebhart is full time with GIS Technician John McKiness in the Auditor’s Office, that is going to make even more of a difference. With the overtime, some of the quality control that John McKiness has been doing can be done by the part-time staff. This way he can be free to do things like drawing the lines and such. She said they are hoping that this arrangement will only last through March. After that, the Auditor’s Office should be able to maintain those on a day to day basis. They can have GIS Specialist Jay Geisen and GIS Technician Jim Harken working on getting the files that are needed for the Sheriff’s Office and the mapping part of their dispatch.
Harney said that he is still not clear about the $50,000 and the $30,000 on GEMS and the code. He wondered if that was just ongoing cost. Schultz said that it is ongoing cost. Lehman asked if that will be reduced as things are in place. Schultz said no because this is the yearly maintenance fee. Lehman asked if they knew that going in. Schultz said yes. She said that they used to pay another company for the financials and the code used to be inhouse. Lehman asked if they are using the retainer service that much. Schultz said yes for the code, and with GEMS, they are often getting new features and updates. One of things that they are going to be setting up in the next several months is employee self service for employees to be able to see their prior check stubs and reprint them. They could also access their W2 forms. Lehman said that the Board is trusting Schultz to decide whether they are getting their money’s worth.
Schultz said there a lot of different parts to the technology budgeting including central technology, document management, GIS, and the individual departments’ technology requests. Neuzil asked for an update on the Sheriff’s and Auditor’s requests as far as their technology. Schultz said that the Sheriff’s system is now live on most of CAD. The mapping part needs to be updated once the parcel lines get updated. The actual CAD part is up. There are still some quirks to work out. CAD changed much of the program to meet the needs of the Sheriff’s Office. Stutsman asked if they are budgeting anything for this coming fiscal year. Schultz said that there has been some set aside for maintenance. Also, she said that the jail will also be this fiscal year. She said that in technology, if something didn’t get done, the money will carry over. She said they would have to come back to the Board with a budget amendment to spend it. Neuzil said that what is showing up is in 2006 and 2007. Neuzil said that the Auditor’s election equipment also shows up on both years. Schultz said that the $504,000 for 2007 shouldn’t be there. Harney wondered if the work had been done or if it is a carryover. Schultz suspected that it was because nothing was put in the change column, so it was left the same.
Stutsman said that the information they need is what the bottom line is for budgeting for next year for computer technology. Neuzil said that they just need Claiborne to show the Board what they are actually going to be requesting in new funding. Schultz said that there are actually four documents. The central technology is part of it. Then, they have what each individual department has requested and then the GIS and document management parts that go into technology. Schultz said that she can work with Claiborne to get a total and come back if necessary. She said that she doesn’t know anything about the elections equipment. Schultz mentioned that she and Claiborne were talking about the fact that Elections comes out of the General Supplemental Fund.
Schultz said that she and County Auditor Tom Slockett were talking about the new I-voter system that is an internet based statewide voter registration software system. They agreed that for protection, it would be good to have to accesses to the internet from two different vendors. Now, they only have one; they go through Giant. She said that Slockett mentioned that they could put the second internet access under the General Supplemental Fund since it would be specifically for elections. However, she said that Claiborne noted that Elections does submit technology requests and those have been going into technology, and not the General Supplemental Fund. Stutsman said that their policy has been to taking out as many costs as possible through Supplemental. She said that is what former Budget Coordinator Jeff Horne and the Board had agreed.
Regarding central technology, the main difference is storage area network (SAN), said Schultz. She explained that now they have several servers and each server has disk space. When the disk space fills up, they have to sometimes reallocate and move systems. They have to do a lot more management of space and moving software. Storage area network allows all the storage to be in one place. They can add another drive as they run out of space. She said it is much more reliable and easier to manage. She said that is the direction the industry is going. Once they have a SAN, the server replacement amount will go down in the future.
Schultz said the other main change is the mobile wireless project. She noted that this is a future project that they are starting to save for. She said that the Sheriff’s Office, SEATS, building inspectors, and Ambulance could use wireless access throughout the County. She said that Horning has met with the City of Iowa City, Coralville, the University, and the Iowa Department of Transportation. She noted that the Department of Transportation is going to be putting some traffic cameras along Interstate 80 between Highway 1 and Highway 380. They will also go down Highway 218. This will help the County pay for some of the cost of putting fiber between the Courthouse and the Sheriff’s Office. They are going to be giving the County pairs on the fiber they are putting in which will allow the Sheriff’s Office to monitor the cameras. They will have overhead signs dealing with traffic that the Sheriff’s Office could change. She said that Coralville, the Iowa City School District, and the University are going to be running fiber up to Forever Green Road. They are offering to give the County part of that. Schultz said that the funds are not for anything specific in 2007 but to save up for this future project. Lehman asked if the signs are message boards. Schultz said that they are. It will be like the one toward Cedar Rapids on Highway 380. She said that they are cautious with the networks. So, the vendors have to let them know if they are going to login to work on somebody’s software. She thought this is why they don’t have too much problem with viruses.
Schultz said that Microsoft Office is a continual thing. Instead of having a maintenance agreement, they repurchase the software every five years. This actually saves them $40,000 over five years. Usually, the new versions don’t have that many features that people are going to use. She said that the continued savings for HIPPA security is that they have been saving the really high powered server to put out at Secondary Roads. Stutsman asked what Secondary Roads has. Schultz said that they have fiber connections. She said that it isn’t because Secondary Roads needs themselves; it is because of the location. Schultz clarified that the backup server should always be a little ways away.
Schultz said that there were fewer requests from individual departments this year. She explained that the Treasurer’s Office is still at their usual $18,000. They have been able to cut a position. Conservation has some new applications. Stutsman asked what the numbers along the right are. Schultz said that those are the ranked priorities of the Document Management Committee. Stutsman said that Conservation is the third priority. Schultz said that this will be the first time that Secondary Roads will have some scanning done, and they prioritized their projects. Lehman said that they have a lot of old records that take up space and that they rarely access but that they still need. Schultz said the scanning is also for Disaster Management because if there were a disaster, all of the documents would be lost unless they were electronically saved. R. Sullivan said that the crowding in the Administration Building is an issue and said that Planning and Zoning has been able to get rid of boxes and boxes of papers. Stutsman said that some of the paper is getting so brittle and fragile that they did need to be scanned. Schultz said that in the current fiscal year, the amount for document management was $60,450, and for next, it is $68,810. Lehman asked if that includes anything for Conservation. She said that is with the $2,265 Conservation. R. Sullivan said that their sheet gives at total of $64,000 with no conservation.
Harney asked if the employee pc purchase revolving funds have been rolled back into that. Schultz said that they had initially spent around $80,000. She said that so far this year, $16,000 has come back. The total balance as far as employee PC purchase is $32,522. Lehman asked if Schultz is budgeting for half way through next year. Stutsman said that the employee computer purchase fund should be replenishing itself, so there shouldn’t be any new money going into it. Schultz said they aren’t adding any new claims because all of those have been paid. In January, the department collected $2,382 and the same amount in December, said Schultz. Lehman said that if they are at $32,000 now and are getting another $2,000, then they would be at $40,000 in five months. At that point, the County could offer the program again, explained Lehman. M. Sullivan said that in ten pay periods, they would be at $50,000. Lehman said that the more times they offer it, the fewer people will need the program because they will be caught up. He said the first tidal wave took place five or six years ago, and many did not update or did not need to, but new employees will be interested. In any case, Lehman said, he thinks the County is catching up on the updates. Schultz said that is hard to say. The letter that the department initially sent out could have been more descriptive of the program, stated Schultz. She explained that she heard from some people who are new that they did not quite understand the program until someone else in the department got a PC.
Regarding GIS, Schultz said that they did have some carryover in technology. She said that the $50,000 was for parcel updating. That is where the money will be coming from for the overtime. Right now, the overtime for her staff has been coming from the 0107 fund because Knipper is not there and the positions were not filled right on July 1, 2005. The Auditor’s overtime will need a budget amendment transfer, said Schultz. She said that she has already talked to M. Sullivan about that. Lehman said that the County Assessor does some budget for GIS. He wondered is she realizes that the Assessor is going to contribute a project or two. She said yes. Schultz said that they have sent out a proposal to fly the County for orthophotography. Those photos are very important to many different departments, so the plan is to fly at least part of the County every two years especially because there is so much development. The next time they fly it, they may not fly some of the south part of the County if there isn’t a lot of development, said Schultz. She noted that the City of Iowa City and Coralville are going in on a flight. They have some additional needs and those entities will pay the cost of those additional needs. However, all the areas will be flown at the same time, Schultz said. Lehman asked if this information is only for internal use. Schultz said the information is on the web. He said that an engineering company could use it but turn around and charge the customer. Schultz said that the customer could look up information on the web as well. Lehman said that he is talking about a development site that a company needs elevations for. He added that when GIS first started, the County had talked about charging for it, though that did not go through. Schultz said that on the web, people cannot download the actual aerial photos themselves. She added that Havel is working on an update for the GIS pricing right now. People can purchase the actual computer files said Schultz. Lehman asked if there is a large revenue for that because it is not showing on the budget sheet. Schultz responded that it is not a large amount. It goes in the 0107 revenue, she said.
Lehman said that the County has put a lot of money into GIS and wonders if it possible to get any of it back. Schultz said that the County has collected $233.50 for the current fiscal year. Neuzil said that it is a dilemma that government often has. They are using taxpayers dollars to provide a service, but, at the same time, it would nice to get some fees back, said Neuzil. Neuzil asked if the Assessor is putting in any investment on these projects. Schultz said that she doesn’t think that the Assessor’s Office is putting anything in for the aerial photo project. She noted that County Assessor Bill Greazel is considering doing another project involving three dimensional elevation maps. Neuzil asked if those maps would be done at the same time as the other aerial ones. Schultz thought that the County would do the maps every other year, aerial photos one year and the 3-D maps the next. Lehman said that Secondary Roads would also be looking for elevation information. Neuzil said he is sure they will be using that service as well. Schultz said that the Iowa DNR is going to the legislature to get money for their LIDAR project, which will also do elevation models. If the DNR can get money from the legislature, then the project won’t cost the County anything. IF the DNR cannot get the money, then they will going to individual counties asking them to contribute to the project. It will still be at a much lower rate than if Johnson County were to do the project on their own. Harney said that the Assessor needs a certain quality of photo, and GIS wanted something different. He does not know how these departments are working out the payment for these differences. Schultz said that they are doing a consistent scale on the photos, and she hasn’t heard that the Assessor needed something different. She added that the County did do a 100 scale in the cities and a 400 scale in the rural areas. Schultz asked Harney if Greazel had expressed a need for a different scale. Harney said he thought at one point it was an issue. Schultz mentioned that Greazel was at one point involved in the planning and defining of the scale. Harney said that rather than doing double, they should decide on one. Schultz said that they are not repeating the same project. In order to further prevent repetition, the Cities of Iowa City and Coralville are involved, said Schultz. M. Sullivan said that once they take the pictures, they can produce the scale at 100 point or wherever they want. Harney said he thinks it depends on the kind of film. Neuzil said that flight height affects the results as well. Schultz confirmed that Greazel was very much involved when they did the last plan and this one.
Schultz said that there is another sheet that combines the individual department requests. She figured that that was included in the individual department sessions. Neuzil said it would be nice to have that breakdown. Stutsman said that this information was not included in the individual department meetings. Neuzil explained that individual departments sometimes put that in their technology section. Stutsman said that is right. Schultz said those numbers get pulled out and put into the technology budget. Neuzil said it would be nice to have a summary. Stutsman agreed. M. Sullivan said they can put a summary sheet in technology’s folder. Schultz said that Health got budgeted at $3,000, and after talking with Public Health Director Ralph Wilmoth, she determined that with current prices, those numbers can be to $1,700 each. This, she said, might not show up on the document that the Board has because she just gave this information to Claiborne recently. M. Sullivan said that he will make a couple of adjustments and get the sheets to the Board.
Recessed at 10:00 a.m.; reconvened at 10:07 a.m.
County Treasurer Tom Kriz said that postage has gone up, so their department needed more in the budget for that. He noted that as the county grows, they send out more and more renewals. Neuzil asked if there is any future regarding the State coming into the new century having more people get email notices. He said that all of his bills are now done over email. Kriz said that they are looking into that. He said that the Department of Transportation does not know how much the change to electronic mailing can save them. Stutsman said that many people are not ready for that. Neuzil said he doesn’t mean that postal mail should be eliminated, but electronic billing should be made available to anyone who wants it. Neuzil said that he thinks people should be able to go the computer, click a button, and be done. Kriz said it will happen in the future. Neuzil asked if the Treasurer’s Association is pushing that at all. Kriz replied yes. Stutsman said that the western part of the state might not be as amenable to the idea of electronic payment.
Lehman noted the increase in registration. Kriz said most of that is because registration fees cost a little more for the various things his department attends. Kriz said that the bottom line is that the Treasurer’s Department slightly increased their budget this year. He said that his budget is now about 93% salary and benefits. Stutsman said that is really lean. Lehman noted that there is a $20,000 increase in revenues and wondered if that is due to the increase in vehicles alone. Kriz said it is due to the increase in the number of vehicles and the licensing fee for SUV’s. He added that the State just started charging $10 to put a lean on a title when the cost used to be $5. This has increased the County’s revenue a bit.
Lehman said that there is a drop from the 2005 to 2006 of almost $60,000, but it looks like they are coming back up. Kriz said the drop was due to a misclassification of Road Use Taxes, but the sum total should be the same. Lehman asked if there is a category for property tax reclaiming. Kriz said it is hard to budget because that number is hard to predict. Moreover, that money comes out of the General Fund, noted Kriz. Neuzil asked what account that would be in. Kriz said there is a special account for foreclosure and repossession through his department and the County Attorney’s Office. Harney asked if that has settled out yet. Kriz said the house on College Street will not settle until February. Lehman said that they must get a lot of small ones that aren’t heard about. Kriz said he has collected all the small ones and will be coming to the Board in February about collection. This is money that gets apportioned to all of the school districts and all of the taxing districts and then the interest goes to the County, said Kriz. Lehman asked if the other entities get a portion of the interest. Kriz said that with special assessments, the other entities get all of the interest, but with property taxes, the County gets the interest.
Lehman said that there is $18,000 budgeted for document management. Kriz explained that that is an ongoing thing from when he eliminated a Clerk I position. He said that he had talked to the Board about eliminating a filing position to have the documents imaged. R. Sullivan asked if the office automatically spends $18,000. Kriz said it usually just about gets the documenting done, but sometimes it is supplemented by his own budget if the department has an abnormal month. He noted that the cost has always run between $16,700 and $20,000. So, $18,000 should cover the cost within five or six hundred dollars a year. Lehman asked why Kriz didn’t ask for anything in technology. Kriz said that the office has been redone out of the Treasurer’s budget over several years. He added that they are in the very last stages of that change. Kriz said he thinks the office runs very efficiently. He added that if the Board requests another decrease in departmental budgets, he does not think he can manage that because the Treasurer’s Office runs as efficiently as it can. He said he has cut back every year for seven years. He said that he will probably spend about 99% of the budget this year.
County Recorder Kim Painter said there is one change in her budget she would like to discuss with the Board. She said that her original intent was to come with a status quo budget because the Recorder’s Office is in a pretty good position now. There is one issue in her office that she has considered addressing a couple of times. She noted that she still has two 37 1/2 hour employees. In her early years with Johnson County, this had been explained as something that had to be done by making an offer to the employees. The employees could accept the change or stay at the 37.5. Painter revisited the issue with Human Resource Administrator Lora Shramek this year, and Shramek expressed a different feeling. Shramek’s thought was that Painter could make that change and inform people of that change. Painter explained that it would be a good time to tell people during the change in budget cycle because they would have a month or so to make any arrangements needed in order to work an extra 30 minutes a day. Painter said that the salary differential is about $2,000 a year. Painter explained that she originally made the offer to the staff not long after she came to the County but two people did not take her up on the offer. She said that she put the money in the budget not knowing what the Board’s perspective would be on it. She added that she is not so severely committed to the idea that she wants to push it and have the Board make a decision that they would have problems with later. She said that she raises this as a point of conversation.
Stutsman said that she is assuming that these are long-term employees. Painter said yes and clarified that if there is not support or money for the change, she does not want to press it. Lehman asked what the workload is dictating. Painter said with 30 minutes a day, there would not necessarily be much more productivity. The issue is more a matter of coverage throughout the day. Painter said that there are smaller issues like different payroll calculations. Harney asked if the change would cause any problems with overtime. Painter responded that her department does not do nearly the amount of overtime that they did years ago. The new system that was instituted in 2003 has put the office in a position that they will likely never be behind no matter what happens to the real estate market. She added that during a boat renewal year, those might pile up and require weekends. Someone who is at 37.5 would not start getting overtime until s/he reaches the 40-hour mark. She noted it would be nice not to have to break the group up into two groups. Stutsman said that she has no problem allocating the extra $4,400 to bring everyone up to 40 hours. She thought that was Painter’s decision as a manager. Lehman said it doesn’t seem that the department needs more working hours to get their projects done except sometimes with boat registration. Basically, they will be getting five more work hours per week, he said. Stutsman said it is much easier to manage an office without have two people who are working 37.5 and the rest at 40. Lehman wondered if the County should give the employees the option. Painter said that she hasn’t talked about this issue with her employees for several years now. She thought that there might be a chance that the money will look better. She said that she doesn’t think it makes sense any longer to have this kind of division in the staff. Harney asked if this will change the benefit package. Painter said no, they are all considered full time employees.
Stutsman asked if any other department has employees at 37.5. Kadlec noted that Elections Clerk Harry Rueber is at 37.5. Kriz said that he changed his office completely because they were all at 37.5. He explained that all but one person wanted to move to 40, and he made the decision that everyone would do it. He said that it is the best move he ever made. He noted that now, even the employee who did not want to convert is glad of the change. Lehman asked what the Board thinks. They agreed that it is Painter’s call. They decided that Claiborne should figure the money into the budget. Painter said that even if there isn’t an immediate need for more hours, there is a need for coverage and service at the front counter, and the extra hours could help.
Painter said that other than the change in employee hours her budget is pretty much status quo. She noted that she did estimate the income in document management to be lower because the number of documents is down a little bit with the housing market. Individual home sales and purchases are somewhat down. She said the Recorder’s Office makes up in overall revenues for that because of the amount of growth in the County. Lehman asked why the first 600 books or so are not available on line. Painter said that they made the choice to go back to 1983 because that is when the electronic index started. If they were to go back further, they would have to create the index, she said. Painter added that the company has come to them in the last three months to say that they have some new options. They can create some ability to go back into those records that have never been electronic before and allow for a reasonable form of search. There would be a little more scrolling, but the County is looking into that. Painter said that the cost would be less because the company would not have take each record apart and reindex every bit of it. Lehman said that he sees a lot of personnel from the abstract companies, and he thinks that they should have access to other things on line. Painter said that they want to look at older plats, and the department is in the process of scanning more plats. She said the plats are on the electronic index as far back as they go into the 1800s. She said that some of the older plats that are hanging in the cabinet would be nice to have in electronic form for physical longevity. Lehman said the appraisal people want to check back with those documents. Painter agreed. She said that some people are really happy that the Recorder’s Office is scanning the older documents. Painter said that there is less traffic due to the amount of information online. This helped free her staff to focus on the documents at hand and to be able to help the people at the counter. She said the department still makes money from photocopying fees. This figure is anywhere from $600 to $1,000 a month, she said.
Lehman asked County Attorney J. Patrick White to go over any important changes in the budget. Lehman said that it looks like postage has increased as it has for the other departments. White said that the budget is nearly the same. The one change is the proposal to take a Secretary II from half time to three quarters time, he explained. He said that the one area in the staffing where the department is visibly struggling is in the secretarial support staff. Stutsman said that doesn’t show up in the budget. M. Sullivan said it isn’t in the worksheet, but it is in the decision package. White said that the estimated cost of that is $9,600 including benefits. Lehman asked if they have space. White said that it would be an existing employee. He said that he will have to consult the union to make sure he is following the contract. White indicated that the Secretary II used to be full-time. The employee went from full to half time when her children reached two or three, and now that they are in high school and beyond, the employee is interested in working more. He said that that works out great for the office. He said that they lost an employee at the end of last year who had been with them for over twenty years, and the transition has been tough. In any case, in terms of space, there should not be an issue, White thought. Claiborne said this will be on the sheet he will be giving the Board next week. Lehman asked the Board what they thought. They agreed the change to full time is a good idea. Lehman said that they will go ahead and put that in the budget as a given.
R. Sullivan said that he heard recently from people who have to wait at private firms when they don’t have to at the County. White said that the biggest complaint that he hears from other lawyers or from citizens is that the phone line is always busy. Part of that is an intentional management decision to limit the number of incoming lines in order to limit the number of staff who have to answer the calls. He said he has opted for a busy signal rather than have five staff members answering calls at once. He noted that they just this year went to four in-coming lines. White said the number of complaints about the busy signal has reduced. He said that caller ID has been a problem in that out going calls get returned to the number on the office phone and not via the phone number provided in the message by the County Attorney’s staff.
Harney asked if White thought his office could handle some of the staffing for the Human Rights Ordinance rather than paying the City thousands of dollars. White said it depends what kind of staffing the Board is asking for. He said that he could probably find two to four hours a month of attorney hours and two to four hours a month of paralegal time. He suggested drafting an ordinance that refers subject areas that are covered by State statute to the State Civil Rights Commission. Then, they can handle locally only protected categories that would not be covered by the State statute. He said that his own personal estimate is that there would not be very many cases. White said that Assistant County Attorney Janet Lyness would not need additional training. Support staff would have to have training to do the investigation, he said. White concluded that if the Board says that this is a priority, his office will find a way to do it. Harney said it is probably something that they will have to do the way things are going. Stutsman said that she doesn’t know if she wants to say have to do it; she wants to say she wants to do it. White said if the Board thinks they can allow the extra 1/4 time secretary, the Attorney’s Office probably won’t lose any ground. Harney said that in lieu of paying $40,000 to the City in comparison to what they pay an attorney, he thinks it would be much cheaper to handle the ordinance through the County Attorney’s office. Lehman said they might be able to find someone to handle the ordinance on a case by case basis. R. Sullivan said that the ordinance is a law enforcement issue, so to have anyone other than the County Attorney do it seems dicey. He said that if White felt the need to farm out something, he would rather see him farm out something different. Stutsman said she thinks the Board needs to determine what they want from this. Do they just want investigation, she wondered. She said that the City does a lot of advocacy and education and that is why their budget is $150,000 a year. She said that the City has three attorneys who handle human rights violation cases. She said that she thinks the Board needs to be clear how far they are going to take this. Harney said that when someone files with the City, the City files with the State as well because of the appeal process. R. Sullivan commented that the City also takes cases based on ethnicity even though the State does handle such cases. White said they can find a way to do it. Harney said that they need more discussion on that. He was just wondering if they were going go need more money.
Stutsman asked White about the increased revenues in child support recovery. She said that she keeps hearing that Federal funds are going to be cut in that area and wondered if that would affect the County. White said that he does not think so. He explained that the County is now 100% funded by the State DHS, which gets the money from Federal appropriation. It is a 100% reimbursed contract, so once a month, the County tallies up everything they have spent and sends the claim to DHS, who sends the County a check. The increased revenue is intended to reflect the increased budget cost due to cost of living increases and salary increases. He said that the non-personnel elements of the contract are going to remain the same. The department hasn’t raised those for several years. This is a budget that is probably 70% personnel. As far as he knows, the child support recovery program will continue to be 100% funded. If the government reduces the funding, the County does have the option to quit, even though that would be hard to do. He said that statistically, it is one of the best child support producing units in Iowa.
Lehman asked if a high profile case would increase financial needs. White said that just before he came to this meeting, he signed a claim for Dr. Nashelsky for his four hours of driving down to Davenport, testifying, and driving back at $350 an hour. He added that the doctor was wonderful to work with and did not charge White for the time he spent with him the Friday before trial. He said that in reality, he does not think that the Bentley trial was a whole lot more expensive than one here aside from the fact that everyone had to drive to Davenport. A couple of people had to stay overnight, he added. White said that a couple of years ago, they ran out of money in the court services fund in April or May, so he had to tell his people that they could not do any more depositions until the year was over. Or, if they had to do a deposition, they were going to have to tell the court reporter that she would have to wait until July to get paid. He said that since then, they usually have money left over in the court services fund. He said that luckily the services fund rolls back if they do not use it. Lehman said that Planning and Zoning mentioned that they did some maps for the Attorney’s office. White said yes, maps and charts and so on. He said the work they did was wonderful; the work they did would have cost at least two or three thousand dollars on the commercial market. White said that some of the results were the direct result of the GIS mapping system.
R. Sullivan asked if White anticipates anything changing this legislative session that would have an impact on the budget. White responded that he isn’t sure what it will be, but he imagines the legislature will do something regarding sex offenders. He said that a bill was introduces last week that discussed a class B1 felony to add to the usual A, B, C, and D. White said that one of his goals is to get more efficient. He noted that he has an attorney who, in 2005, handled 1,000 indictable cases. White said that was a goal that he started discussing about five years ago when the Board started talking about the legal assistant position that the Board approved two years ago. He said the assistant does a remarkable job. White said that in the totality, the total caseloads have not gone up for two years. He said that he and his assistant started reading about a reduction in crime rates nationwide. At the time, White said it was not happening here because the rates were going up. Now, he said they are starting to level off. White said that the probability is that their caseloads will go up as the County grows. White stated that sooner or later, the office is going to need more space. He said that when they moved into the first-floor office in 1988, the discussion was that that space should work for twenty or twenty five years. Now, they have added what used to be the juvenile probation space. He said that they don’t have much more space where they can tuck anyone else in. He explained that the attorneys’ offices were built small so they could fit more people. That worked, but there will be a need for additional space within the next five to ten years. Harney said that he knows the judges want more space as well. White said that to the credit of the head judge in Des Moines, he finally said the state ought to share the cost of that. Harney said that he talked to Joe Bolkcom about it, and it looks like he might try to do so something.
Lehman mentioned that the Board of Supervisors would like to have White continue on some of their taskforces and such because they value his opinion. White said he is willing to discuss that, but he wants to be sure to allow the new person full authority. He noted that he has a list of things he wants to do like the NACo card and some things on the MH/DD audit. Harney indicated that White has not had a lot of expenses for going out of state and such as he did in the past. White said that he tries to send one attorney to a non-Iowa CLE. A number of years ago, the National District Attorney's Association established a training college in Columbia, South Carolina on the campus of South Carolina University. This is partly funded by congress. So, when White sends someone to that conference, all he has to do is get the person there and back because there is no charge for tuition or for hotel. He said it is a wonderful training resource for prosecutors around the country.
White added that the County is scheduled to close purchase of the CarQuest building a week from today and that leaves only the YaYa's site. He stated that he and M. Sullivan will show up on the Board's agenda in the next two to three weeks to discuss these acquisitions. White also mentioned that he thinks it is important the Board try to stretch as far as they can to allocate capital monies even in larger amounts. He said they know they are going to have the cost for the Health and Human Service Building. He said that he had a telephone inquiry from a realtor who has what could be a potential jail site. The site meets all the criteria that the County has. But, if that sale were to come to fruition, the County does not have any money to buy it. The County would be totally reliant upon a bond issue. Lehman asked if they can use options so that they could still buy a property without having to expend the money until a certain time. White said that is exactly what he would propose if the seller were to come back to him with a serious discussion. White said that another possibility is a delayed possession. This is like what they did with the lumberyard. They closed the lumberyard, paid the owners, and let them keep the land and stay in business until June. That saved them some money, said White.
White said that his department ended the last year with an unspent balance of a couple of percent of the budget. One of the things that happened last year is that he lost a twelve-year attorney who was making close to $70,000, and that attorney has been replaced by an entry-level attorney. So, at the moment, there is a gap between the total budget and what they are actually spending, but White urged the Board not to close that or spend the money because the staff will eventually build seniority and take that money up again. One of the things that has become clear in the last five years, said White, is that his pool of candidates has shrunk. He explained that he used to get forty to fifty candidates for every vacancy, and he is now down to thirty or thirty five. This is not to say that he has any reservations about the people he has hired. White concluded that salary does make a difference. He said that people are coming out of law school with fifty to one hundred thousand dollars in student loans. And, many entry level jobs are offering $100,000. He said that all of his turnover in the last ten years has been people who have been with the County for four to six years. These employees reach a point that they simply have to leave to try to make money for loans or to support their families, he said. He mentioned that he has talked to Shramek about doing a salary survey. He thought the solution is simple; they could bump their five classifications up one notch or maybe two. He said he hasn't made a budget proposal because it would need to be preceded by a salary study and some data. He thought it unlikely that they could get that done during this budget cycle, but he thinks it is pretty important to get it done so that the County Attorney could propose a change. White said that usually, employees in his office start in the category of Assistant County Attorney I for one year, and then move to Assistant County II for one or two years, and then to Assistant County Attorney III. The employee would be considered for Assistant County Attorney IV at four to eight years. From eight to twelve, they get considered for Assistant County Attorney V. White said that this system works quite well, but they have lost competitiveness near the bottom of this chart based on what other employers are able to pay.
White said that he is now facing this attorney who handled 1,000 cases in 2005 who is going to deliver a baby in the next week and a half. She will be off for twelve weeks. The rest of the attorneys in the office are overwhelmed with the idea of taking on the other attorney's cases. White said it makes sense for the County to have a line item in its General Services budget for temporary employees so that if somebody gets a serious illness or has to be out on maternity leave, there is a source of funding separate from the annual operational budget. None of the departmental budgets are large enough to be so flexible, but the County could handle that collectively. Stutsman wondered how much would be needed. White said something like forty or fifty thousand dollars. Harney said the first thing that comes to mind is the training side that would go with something like that. R. Sullivan wondered if they could get some kind of insurance policy that would cover things like unexpected illness. Neuzil mentioned that they have discussed the possibility of a floating clerical person.
Lehman asked the representatives to lead the Board through their respective budgets. Deputy Auditor Dana Aschenbrenner said he can discuss some of the key changes. He dropped minor equipment because it seemed to be over-budgeted based on historical trends. He said that there are a set of three accounts that he increased. He explained that County Auditor Tom Slockett has requested additional money to attend NACo. There is $180 for increase in transportation, $350 for meals and lodging, and $220 for registration fee, said Aschenbrenner. He said that these numbers are about half of what he anticipates the actual cost to be. He said that the department has a few decision packages on that. He wondered if the Board got the latest one. M. Sullivan said yes. Aschenbrenner said that $2,750 should be the total increase on that decision packet. R. Sullivan said that it is good that the departments are taking advantage of NACo. Aschenbrenner said that Claiborne was kind enough to let him add the NACo funds at a late date in the process. Slockett said that this is just a rough estimate. Aschenbrenner reiterated that the costs indicated here are only half of the overall costs of NACo. He said that Elections would pick up the rest of the cost. Neuzil said that a lot of the costs are being paid now out of this year's budget. He said that if they register early, the cost is cheaper.
Aschenbrenner noted that there has been a $600 increase under staff transportation for schools and a related increase for mileage reimbursements. He said this is to allow for continuing education for staff and deputies. He said it doesn't always get used, but having the opportunity is important. The last item of increase is a $1,300 increase to the service contract line. This line has been under-budgeted in the past. In fact, this year, there is nothing in the budget for that particular line item. This service contract line covers copy machine overages. He said his department runs a vast amount of copies and sometimes other departments use the copier. He used the figures of the usage year to date at the time that he prepared the budget. Stutsman asked who else uses the copiers. Aschenbrenner said that people hop in to use it now and then. Stutsman said she thought all the departments had their own. M. Sullivan said that he uses the copies in Elections if he goes down to get a document there. Instead of running back up to his office to copy the document, he will just copy it in the Auditor's Office. Aschenbrenner said it isn't a big issue.
Deputy Auditor Mark Kistler said the department has a request for $800. He explained that the Board should be getting similar requests from other departments because they talked about this in the Invision users group. The departments are at the point where they have to pay for all of the support that they get, and one day of support on location by Encode is about $700. Kistler said that the requested $800 is for this support and for an annual property tax training that they do that costs $100. Lehman asked the Board how they feel about this request. Stutsman said she thought they can come up with that. Lehman said they would make that a given then.
Regarding the personnel decision package, Kistler said that when Jim Harken moved upstairs, they discusses reclassifying two map delineator positions. The department had one that was open, so they reclassified that one as a GIS technician. John McKiness applied to transfer to that position. The department has since filled the other position of map delineator. Kistler explained that Adam Gebhart, who holds that position, is doing the same work as McKiness and Harken. Thus, it is important to follow through with this request to reclassify Gebhart's position from Map Delineator to GIS Technician. The cost is $2,406. Stutsman asked if this is a union position. Kistler said yes, and they would be going from a grade 11 to grade 12. He said that Shramek would have to do the study that she does when a job is reclassified. Lehman said the job could be reclassified but not reoffered, so the individual in that position might not have to worry about being outbid. M. Sullivan said the employee would have to go through that process. Kistler said that he is not at all concerned about the security of this individual but that it is a possibility that someone else could apply. Lehman asked if the Board is comfortable making a decision. Harney asked if this is a cost that would get absorbed into the budget now. Slockett said that the personnel budget does not have flexibility unless there is turnover. Harney said he thinks the Board approved a position last year that was not filled. Slockett said that that was in Elections, which has a separate budget. The Board of Supervisors agreed to the reclassification.
Elections Deputy Chris Edwards said that Elections is on a four-year cycle, so there is fluctuation from year to year. He said that last year was the presidential general election, and this year there is a primary, and next year there is another general election. So, there is an increase next year in comparison to this year, but the proposed budget is very similar to the Elections budget for last year. Edwards said that last year, the department had a lot going on and had to have a budget amendment. So, this year, there are some adjustments to try to get the budget to where it should be, he said.
Edwards noted that one increase is in publication, which is increasing $2,000. He said that last year, they spent almost $7,600. He said they won't be taking the budget up to that amount; they are requesting $3,500 for official publication and newspapers. Edwards said that postage is increasing by $2,500. This is primarily for the returned voter cards. The County has an account with the post office that needs to be replenished. Edwards said that the three line increases that were made in the Auditor's budget for NACo are also being made by Elections in the same amount. He noted that the department wants to allocate $4,800 for internet connection. He explained that the new elections software is administered by the State. It is called I-Voters and is entirely internet based. He said that Schultz recommended that the County get a second T1 line to have a back up line and to increase the bandwidth to compensate for that additional use. So, the $4,800 would be the annual fee for that. Lehman asked if that was under technology. Edwards said that he discussed that with Schultz and decided to include it in the Elections budget. He said that another increase of $10,194 is for staff registration fees to have two of their employees certified on the new voting equipment by ES&S under the counties certified technician program. Slockett said that would replace the maintenance by ES&S. Edwards said that all of the accounts for the primary election are zeroed out, while the accounts for general elections are increasing. Printing is a big expense. It costs $30,000 to print the ballots. Lehman said that it hits them every other year. Harney asked if that works with the new equipment. Edwards said yes. Lehman asked if in a general election, there is a reimbursement. Slockett said that the State and County do not reimburse for election expenses. R. Sullivan asked if they have any money coming in. Edwards said yes. Stutsman said that she is going to have leave in a moment and wanted to ask what the overhead projector and screen are for. Edwards said that they requesting that for their office to use for presentations and training. He noted the Information Services has one, but it is heavily used. Neuzil asked if they use it in this meeting room. Edwards said yes and in other places as M. Sullivan said that they are going to install a projector next week.
Neuzil said that the budget is showing that they are spending two million dollars for elections equipment even though that is not the case. He asked what the total for FY 2006 in that particular area. Edwards said they are spending eight hundred thirty five and being reimbursed six hundred thirty five. Neuzil said that what they have in capital improvements is one million or so for equipment. Lehman suggested that they meet with Claiborne to figure that out. R. Sullivan asked with the addition of the projector down here plus the one in the Board room, do they still need one in the Auditor's Office. Slockett said that they would use the projector for instructing the general public on how to use the new equipment. Lehman asked where they do the training. Edwards said they do pollworker training in Montgomery Hall because the rooms in the Administration Building are too small.
Stutsman left at 11:35 a.m.
Edwards went on to say that there are no other big ticket items. The revenues have gone down because there is no City election to get reimbursed for. He said that the department is also requesting funds for internet access and a laptop computer. He said they use laptops to do satellite voting and for general office use. He explained that the laptops that they have right now are pretty old and are not fast enough to give presentations and run voter software. He noted that they have also asked for several inexpensive software programs including Adobe Acrobat, which would enable them to create PDF files to distribute to newspapers and the public. Also, Microsoft Charting software is used for just that. R. Sullivan asked if they don't already have Adobe Acrobat. Edwards said they have one copy, but it can't be networked. Neuzil said that all of these would under the technology fund and that he appreciates Edwards looking under the supplemental budget for that. Edwards said that they are also asking for two additional copies of MSFrontpage to maintain the website. Neuzil said he is fine with all of that and added that if other elected offices needed to use it, it would be nice to let them. Edwards said of course they would.
The Board agreed that all of these requests would be under strong consideration. Slockett asked if the Board wants Aschenbrenner to come back and go over other areas. Aschenbrenner said that he has central services, insurance, and institutional accounts. M. Sullivan said that those are not on today's agenda, but can be on a later agenda. Neuzil suggested Friday's meeting. Administrative Secretary Casie Kadlec said that they need to put those areas on the agenda. R. Sullivan said it would be helpful if Claiborne could show increases in departmental budget with percentage increases, it would allow the Board to see patterns over time. M. Sullivan said that the expenditure worksheets include percentages. R. Sullivan it would help to know if one department is increasing by 10% and others by only 2%. He said if they were ever to have to make a cut, they could look at those numbers.
Adjourned at 11:45 a.m.
Attest: Tom Slockett, Auditor
By Casie Kadlec, Recording Secretary