MINUTES OF THE INFORMAL MEETING OF THE JOHNSON COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS:
FEBRUARY 13, 2006
Chairperson Lehman called the Johnson County Board of Supervisors to order in the Johnson County Administration Building at 5:51 p.m. Members present were: Pat Harney, Mike Lehman, Terrence Neuzil, Sally Stutsman, and Rod Sullivan.
County Budget Coordinator Rich Claiborne presented two copies to the Board: one copy are the real budget figures as of right now, and the other with the cover letter has his recommendations. Claiborne said they are at $3,630,000 and need to be at $3,500,000, and that translates to $591,905 over budget. Stutsman asked if that includes all of the decision packages. Claiborne said no, only the ones that the Board has approved thus far. Claiborne said that the scenario that he worked up will get them to $3,290,000 with $914,000 for additional requests. Neuzil asked if that would include any new employees for the Sheriff or Human Resources. Claiborne said that additional requests would have to come from the $914,000. He said that utilizes some money that is already saved such as the $60,000 in telephone money that isn’t needed. Claiborne said that Ambulance Director Steve Spenler has $45,000 left over from the cardiac monitors because he got a better deal than he thought.
Claiborne said that the bond money would be put into the capital projects. The County would still be getting the same amount. Neuzil asked what would be bonded for. Claiborne said that he met with Springsted and Associates Representative Tony Roetlin about that. It could include courthouse repairs and land acquisition. Neuzil said that would have to be paid back in a year. Claiborne said that it could be paid back anywhere from one to twenty years. Executive Assistant Mike Sullivan said that they have the option of paying back on a number of plans. He said that according to the tax calculations on page 10, it could provide a wider tax valuation from which to draw from, which is what the Board has done in the past. Any capital project could be funded through this. Stutsman asked why the County isn’t bonding for more. M. Sullivan said that they will talk about long-term planning via debt services in future meetings. Lehman said that bonding is still a tax increase. M. Sullivan said that Claiborne is right that doing this could be just a band-aid solution. Neuzil said that is why they have always paid it back that same year. They were able to expand the tax base with TIF money and then pay it back that same year. M. Sullivan said the longer they go, there is an interest issue. M. Sullivan said that Claiborne’s recommendation to repay in 3 to 5 years is absolutely on the money in terms of benefit.
Claiborne said that the fourth bullet point is transferring 10% of the Sheriff’s patrol budget in the amount of $174,891 from the Rural Basic to the General Basic fund. M. Sullivan said that this is a long-term strategy. He said that for something that is a rural service, it should be funded by the rural fund. He said that won’t get them there in one year, but it is a start. He said that it is not popular in some segments of the public. M. Sullivan said that of the 21,000 rural people, very few are in agriculture. M. Sullivan said that this is a policy decision that the Board has to make; he and Claiborne are just trying to show all of the options. Neuzil said they might also decide not to tax as much. Stutsman said this could be a year that they just hold the line on everything. Neuzil said that either way, it affects how much they tax. Harney asked if this includes ICAD. R. Sullivan said it has it in at the current level. Claiborne said that he put in the requests from the James Gang and Bill’s Uptown Small Mall.
Stutsman said it would helpful to know what is in this recommendation and what isn’t yet included. Claiborne said he could definitely do that. Neuzil said that he wants to know why the lines that show a change have been changed. He said that there is also a question of if they want to save $600,000 for jail alternatives when they will be spending $500,000 this year. To him, this seems like a bit of a pad. Stutsman agreed and said that there might be some other things in the Sheriff’s budget that were high. R. Sullivan said that there isn’t anything set aside for trails which they talked about. He said that they will have to do that somewhere other than roads. Harney asked what the minus $741,000 in Central Services is. Claiborne said that they transferred some out of Central Services back to the Board. Harney said he didn’t think it was that much. M. Sullivan said that Department 18 includes quite a bit for voting equipment. It is going to be paid for out of the Technology Fund instead of Central Services. Neuzil suggested that they look at trends from 2004 to 2006. Harney asked if Claiborne has the figures on how much the Sheriff turned back last year. Stutsman said she thought it was something like $500,000. Lehman said that there was a budget amendment of $140,000 and he gave back about $100,000. Neuzil said that the big-ticket items are the Sheriff’s request of over $450,000 from last year and Conservation’s increase of $150,000. Those need some explanation. Claiborne said that the Conservation increase was mostly in fuel cost and improvement of the ranger houses. Neuzil said that Conservation is strange to watch because he includes everything in this budget; he doesn’t go outside. Harney said he thinks they can handle his somewhat with the increase in the Conservation levy. M. Sullivan said that wages have increased as well.
Neuzil asked what Claiborne’s vision is as to whether they might need more time than tomorrow’s meeting. M. Sullivan said that if they do need another session, he would prefer that they have it on Wednesday so that Claiborne has enough time to put everything together in the end for publication. M. Sullivan thanked Claiborne and commended him for the job that he did with the meeting with Springsted and Associates Representative Tony Roetlin.
Adjourned at 6:22 p.m.
Attest: Tom Slockett, Auditor
By Casie Kadlec, Recording Secretary