MINUTES OF THE INFORMAL MEETING OF THE JOHNSON COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS:
FEBRUARY 16, 2006
Chairperson Lehman called the Johnson County Board of Supervisors to order in the Johnson County Administration Building at 10:11 a.m. Members present were: Pat Harney, Mike Lehman, Terrence Neuzil, and Rod Sullivan; absent: Sally Stutsman.
Executive Assistant M. Sullivan said that Budget Coordinator Rich Claiborne brought in some additional ideas for the Board’s consideration at the meeting two days ago. M. Sullivan indicated that they worked through these ideas during the work session. He and Claiborne went back and changed the numbers which were presented to them during that work session, and the budget is now at the 3.50 levy limit. He explained that he and Claiborne have incorporated everything into the budget that the Board asked, including the salary increases for the elected officials which were recommended by the Compensation Board.
Neuzil asked why the Treasurer’s budget is still showing a pretty big decrease from last year. M. Sullivan said that there has been a decrease in the Treasurer’s request for expenditures over the years. Neuzil figured with the two deputies plus the Treasurer’s salary, there would only be a 3.5% increase. M. Sullivan said that this was correct, and that there was already 3.5% in those lines for the deputies and for the elected officials. For the deputies, the new figure reflects 0.5% increase for them and a 1.5% increase for the Board. He said they had a 3.5% increase across the board for everyone.
M. Sullivan said that the additional $285,847 was to be placed in the capital projects fund, which is what they did. Neuzil asked for the balance in capital projects. M. Sullivan replied that for FY 07 for Capital Projects, the County will have a balance of $1,785,847. Lehman asked if this is the projection. M. Sullivan said yes. M. Sullivan said that the debt service levy has been added in the amount of $848,000 for the bonding. The $48,000 figure is the estimated interest over two years. Harney asked if the $48,000 is all interest and no fees. M. Sullivan said that the figure is only for interest. Any fees should be similar to fees from when the Board has bonded in the past with a small inflationary adjustment and those fees will be taken from central services.
Neuzil said that the County technically won’t lose any of that money for interest or fees because they will be able to draw out of TIF districts. Lehman asked if they could bond for the $800,000 plus the interest. M. Sullivan said that the cost is just the interest. The interest has to be calculated into the debt service levy. Neuzil said he is surprised that number was allowed to go over $800,000. R. Sullivan said that the figure for interest could be different depending on if they pay in two and a half or two years. M. Sullivan agreed, but said that the Board doesn’t have to decide the time frame soon because they can issue the debt at any time during FY 07 and resolve the debt anytime after that. He said that whatever the County would save in interest is a savings to the taxpayers. M. Sullivan said there may be another small hike in the interest rate, so once the rate gets to 5% or 6%, the County is going to want to pay off the debt. Harney said he doesn’t want to take the debt out very long. M. Sullivan said he is thinking no longer than two years. Harney said that even that seems long to him. Harney wondered what they would do if they wanted to do this again next year. Neuzil said that they could. M. Sullivan said that the levy itself is about 17 cents to pay in one year. Neuzil said he would like to see the payment chart to figure out if the Board might want to pay off the debt in one year. Harney said he didn’t mind doing it again, but wanted to avoid building debt year after year.
Lehman asked if there is a list that specifies what they are bonding for. M. Sullivan said yes. He said they are still computing it. He explained that the bonding money is being separated out by projects. There are jail projects, courthouse repairs, and such that need to be done regardless of what happens with the proposed Health and Human Services building. The total is $212,000 just in the capital projects from the Physical Plant. M. Sullivan said that anything the County has acquired over the last 60 days is reimbursable, so the County will be reimbursed for the Car Quest acquisition. M. Sullivan said that he will prepare a list of projects and costs for Springstead and Associates Representative Tony Roetlin, so they can have that resolution ready for the Board before they have to certify the County budget. M. Sullivan noted again that this does not have to be done before the Board certifies the budget. Neuzil said he is glad that the extra money is going to capital improvements like SEATS.
R. Sullivan commended M. Sullivan and Claiborne for their work on the budget. He said that a couple of folks in Des Moines were talking to him about the General Supplemental fund. They were insisting that other things could be thrown in that fund. R. Sullivan said that Claiborne looked this up in the Code of Iowa and concluded that there are maybe a couple of things that could be paid for out of General Supplemental that are being paid for out of the General Basic. M. Sullivan said that would be good to know. R. Sullivan said this could probably be done anytime this week. M. Sullivan said that is right; it would just require an amendment. Neuzil said that anything they can do to look at the General Supplemental fund, which isn’t capped, should be done. He also thought that the rural agricultural issue needed to be looked at again. M. Sullivan said if there is anything else the Board can transfer to the Supplemental Fund, then it would be less likely that the County would go over the General Basic Fund.
R. Sullivan said that one obvious change might be mental health commitments, which the County is currently paying for out of MH/DD funds. R. Sullivan said that some people in Des Moines are telling him that this ought to be from General Supplemental, and it is in the Code as a possibility. Neuzil said that looking up these kinds of things would be a good project for Claiborne to do after the budget is over. Harney wondered if the County would lose federal money if they move some of MH/DD’s expenditures to the General Supplemental fund. R. Sullivan said that if MH/DD is going to tax for the money and then not spend it through that department, then they might lose federal money. These are not decisions that they need to make for this year though, said R. Sullivan.
Neuzil said the Board still needs to figure out if they want to video tape the budget public hearing as they have in the past. M. Sullivan said the meeting will be over spring break, and the Video Center is closed during that time. Neuzil asked if the County has being looking into getting anyone else to tape the meeting or not. M. Sullivan said that he talked with Iowa City, but the cost would be too much. Neuzil said the Board doesn’t necessarily have to meet at the Administration Building; they could meet at the Senior Center or in North Liberty if that were necessary to have the meeting taped. M. Sullivan said he will investigate additional options. Lehman said that the reason they want to tape the meeting is to show the public that the Board has gone through and assessed every line item. Also, a public showing will let department heads know which departments got what and why.
Harney said that putting some money in Central Services for Planning and Zoning’s copy machine ink cartridges and such would be a good idea instead of having to track each use of the copier. Neuzil said that other departments often make copies at the Auditor’s Office, and that office doesn’t charge them per sheet or anything. R. Sullivan said he thinks that they need to have department heads keep them up to date if something is becoming a burden. Lehman asked if there was enough room in Central Services to absorb that. M. Sullivan said he was not sure. M. Sullivan said he would ask Planning and Zoning Administrator Rick Dvorak what he was anticipating for costs. He said that it wouldn’t change anything in the spreadsheet. Harney said that Information Services Director Jean Schultz agreed about using Central Services. R. Sullivan said that if Planning and Zoning is seeing a department using the copier really heavily, then those two departments can think about what to do. R. Sullivan said that he agrees with Harney that tracking is unnecessary in the case of the Planning and Zoning copier, yet the County might want to track time concerning the mappers in Information Services. If those employees are spending too much of their time helping out other departments, they might have to rearrange, said R. Sullivan. M. Sullivan said that he will talk to Dvorak. M. Sullivan said they could put a line item in Central Services. He suggested a separate line item for Planning and Zoning instead of using a more general category. That way, the Board could easily find out how much is being spent in Planning and Zoning.
Neuzil said he thinks there was general consensus to move the Family Resource Centers out of Department 45 and put them in Block Grants 20. M. Sullivan said that they are two different things. Neuzil said he thinks the change would show the public that the Board didn’t cut everywhere. He wondered if M. Sullivan took out $25,000 out of that line. M. Sullivan said yes, he made all of the adjustments that he, Claiborne, and the Board discussed on March 14, 2006.
R. Sullivan said that former Budget Coordinator Jeff Horne used to do three pie graphs where he would pick several townships and explain where the tax dollars are going. Neuzil said that he thinks things went really smoothly given the transition between Budget Coordinators. M. Sullivan said that the County budget is different than other types of budgets. Lehman said he wasn’t part of the interviews for Budget Coordinator and wondered what Claiborne’s background is. M. Sullivan said that Claiborne has a municipal background. Claiborne has a Master’s degree and is an accountant. M. Sullivan said that learning the nuances of the County budget is difficult and that Claiborne is a great hire and a great Budget Coordinator.
M. Sullivan said that the department heads should anticipate some inflationary increases in the budget every year and that will keep the County at $350,000 or above. Neuzil said that they have cut capital projects too. R. Sullivan said that the proposal that ISAC and the League of Cities have out is that they would pick a base year, and set the rollback at 50%. Then, one would be able to capture all the new building but could not capture increased valuations. Instead, they would get 3.75% or whatever the cost living is and tack it on the assessment value. R. Sullivan said that Linn and Johnson could go up 3.75% every year or the $350,000. M. Sullivan asked if the County could have both. R. Sullivan said he asked if they are not doing both. He said basically if they de-couple agriculture and residential, property values will go down. M. Sullivan reported that Johnson County’s housing growth is going down. Neuzil said there is a trend in Johnson County of less growth. So, when Cities take the County’s land, then they go from 37% tax asking to 17%. Then, when they have 17%, they go to TIF and then to zero. Lehman said it would be 17% of a much higher value though. Harney said there is still growth, just not at the previous rate. Lehman gave the example of Coral Ridge Mall and said that if it wasn’t in a TIF, the County’s 17% portion would be great. Neuzil said the problem is that areas like Solon and Tiffin are taking Johnson County’s land and TIFing it. M. Sullivan said that if Johnson County was a developer in the County, it could TIF as well, but they are not in the business in developing like that. R. Sullivan said he saw a proposal the other day to have the whole City of Mt. Vernon become a TIF district. He noted that it isn’t as bad as it sounds because they have seven spots where the City wants to do stuff, but the areas are not next to each other. He said that Mt. Vernon is working with Linn County to make sure that they have a short time. M. Sullivan said these areas have sunsets on their TIFs, so they only last for so long.
R. Sullivan said they need to think hard about the rollback proposal. Neuzil said that one thing that needs to happen is really separating a rural residential house from a rural house. Neuzil said that City Assessor Bill Greazel has been working on getting more people to realize that a farm house is a very specific designation. R. Sullivan noted that Greazel is one of only four or five assessors in the State who breaks things out the way he does. Most assessor’s go by zoning and that is it. They don’t look at use, said R. Sullivan. He said that all of the other Counties are jealous of Johnson County because it is more accurate.
Lehman asked if they need to let departments know what they got. M. Sullivan said that Claiborne is telling any departments who are calling, but Claiborne and M. Sullivan will put together the final document. Neuzil said that as far as assignments, he doesn’t mind being assigned at random. Lehman said that if the Supervisors have a preference, they should talk to Claiborne. Neuzil said they need a little warning to review. Harney said he would do Newport Road. M. Sullivan asked if they want Claiborne to assign the service areas.
M. Sullivan said that overall Countywide, the levy went up a little bit, but that is including debt service. Without the debt service, the levy would have gone down a little. He said that this was part of the growth they had been talking about. Neuzil said that overall, the number that needs to come out is that countywide, the levy went up 6.1% and for the rural areas, it went up 5.6%. M. Sullivan said that is for total rural, and this is actually down from last year. He said that the levy rate was 9.03% and it went down to 8.99%, which is part of the effect of the rollback. Neuzil thought that those should be the figures that they use when talking with the media. M. Sullivan said that it is important that people understand that this levy rates changes based on what the County is taxing, but some of the tax-askings in other years have been better because the County has had better revenues. Neuzil said that this is probably the number that the press will pick up on, that total Countywide there is a 6.1% increase. Harney wondered what rural included. M. Sullivan said that Countywide numbers include General Basic, General Supplemental, MH/DD, and Debt Service. Then, there is the Rural Basic Fund. M. Sullivan said that in a lot of these cases the levy rate have gone down, but the tax asking numbers are related to the revenues minus expenditures. Last year, the County had more revenues. That is why they may see an increase in tax askings in General Supplemental, he said. That is, expenditures went up, and they didn’t have enough revenue to compensate. M. Sullivan said it is important the public understand that increase in taxes is not directly or wholly related to County business but to assessments.
The Board agreed to come up with projects for Claiborne at a future strategic planning meeting. R. Sullivan said that Public Health Director Ralph Wilmoth and Human Resources Administrator Lora Shramek are probably the two department heads who need to know the results of the budget meeting as soon as possible.
Adjourned at 10:56 a.m.
Attest: Tom Slockett, Auditor
By Casie Kadlec, Recording Secretary