MINUTES OF THE INFORMAL MEETING OF THE JOHNSON COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS:
JANUARY 23, 2007
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
Key Issues Work Session........................................................................................................ 1
Capital Improvement Projects...................................................................................... 1
Location for Joint Communications Center.................................................................. 11
Assigning a Policy Maker/Elected Official Designated by the Board of Supervisors to Serve on the Johnson County Pandemic Influenza Steering Committee (PISC)................................................... 13
Chairperson Harney called the Johnson County Board of Supervisors to order in the Johnson County Administration Building at 9:00 a.m. Members present were: Pat Harney, Larry Meyers, Terrence Neuzil, Sally Stutsman, and Rod Sullivan.
Stutsman asked if the Board of Supervisors was putting the Capital Improvements Project Plan together for the budget. Budget Coordinator Rich Claiborne said he needs to ask Executive Assistant Mike Sullivan. Neuzil said the intent is to make sure that Claiborne has direction on what to put in this year’s budget. Also, there have been some requests lately, from Conservation and a few others, to add to the Plan. Stutsman said she was confused about this budget and asked if trails would go in the plan. M. Sullivan said the Board asked to put this on the agenda for this week and to pare everything else back except for the two items on the agenda.
Harney asked if Facilities Director David Kempf had any changes that he wanted to make. Kempf said he doesn’t think the Board has been updated for two years. The projects on the current plan are the Health and Human Services Building, Law Enforcement/Corrections, a possible Ambulance location, Administration Building expansion with the new Health and Human Services Building, Court Services, and SEATS/Secondary Roads facility because of the possible funds that have become available.
Kempf said he knows that Ambulance Director Steve Spenler would like to get the new Fisher location added onto the list and the northwest County location was already on the plan. Spenler said he would like a little clarification on how to move forward with this and get it on the Plan. He said he had assumed that it already was on the Plan. He asked how to get it funded and move forward with it as it is one of his goals set by the Board of Supervisors for this coming year. He said there are a lot of reasons for putting a new Ambulance building up. He said he has talked with Kempf and M. Sullivan a number of times about putting this in the Capital Projects Plan and said that they were looking at expanding the building quite a bit. He said that if they were to tear down the Fisher Building and build there and then tear down the current Ambulance structure and add on 15,000 square feet onto the Fisher lot. This would allow them to expand into the future. Harney asked why they couldn’t just add onto the facility instead of tearing it down. Spenler said he is open to that. He just needs some direction.
Spenler said they talked about getting an architect to come and do a site survey, look at the existing structure and see how Ambulance wants to arrange things. Neuzil said that obviously the Capital Improvements Plan is very outdated. He said it was something former Budget Coordinator Jeff Horne had put together and the Board of Supervisors needed to get it updated. He said that they could always discuss the specifics of the Ambulance building. Neuzil explained that the Board of Supervisors is aware that it’s coming to a point where they will have to decide if the best decision is for Ambulance to stay where it is. He said that someone suggested to him that it might be good to explore the idea of having Ambulance with the Justice Center if it’s still located in the vicinity of the current location. He said if it did stay in the County Campus, then it would be nice if the building were to at least have an image similar to the Administration Building and the proposed Health and Human Services building. This would help create a campus feel. Spenler confirmed this has been part of the conversation to this point. He noted that Kempf’s recommendation was to tear the building down and then build on for efficiency’s sake.
R. Sullivan asked if this plays into the agenda item of a location for a joint Communications Center. Spenler responded that there is a committee that is still in the process of looking for the best site for that. He said that when the Board of Supervisors had talked about site locations, he had added that to the agenda and it didn’t go very far. Neuzil said that was because the Board of Supervisors didn’t want to muddy the water on the issue. He said that the Board of Supervisors wants a Joint Communications Center and they want to be able to pay for it at a certain location, but if there’s a possibility that the Joint Communications Center is located in the vicinity and has a lot of space, or some space, then there would be some options for keeping Ambulance and the Sheriff in one area. Stutsman said it might make sense to put the Communications Center with the Ambulance Building and the Fisher Building. Harney said there isn't enough space. He said the Board of Supervisors shouldn't get ahead of itself because the Communications Center is going to be a separate facility and they would need at least 25 or 30 parking spaces and room for drive-up for the warrants service. R. Sullivan asked why they will need all of that parking. Spenler responded that the employees and also the Command Center might go there. He said the current building has a lot of rail that goes around there. For security things, it’s not good to have it in that vicinity. He said there were some other issues that County Sheriff Lonny Pulkrabek could speak to about that.
Neuzil said that maybe the Board of Supervisors should put Ambulance with the Communication Center at a different location if it works out with the timing of Ambulance. Spenler said that the current area is a good area because they have good access to all quadrants of the County. He said that at some point, when Coralville decides to move north, it would be advantageous for Ambulance to go move with them when that becomes a reality. At that point, their northern station could cover the entire north area of Johnson County. Ambulance would still have Iowa City and the rest of the County and the current location is a great location for those. Stutsman asked if in his previous conversations with Coralville, they had talked about the County helping to pay for that facility. Spenler responded that they never have but that he has mentioned that they had some money in the capital account for the northwest Ambulance location. He said that never really went anywhere and that right now Ambulance pays Coralville a monthly maintenance fee. Stutsman said she didn’t know if Coralville had planned to build the facility, but then ask the County to build its own part of it. Spenler said he had many conversations with Coralville and that had never been the understanding. Neuzil said Coralville really wants the County Ambulance services there. R. Sullivan agreed. He said they could bid it out to North Liberty and see where they can be for free if Coralville wanted to insist on the County paying for that facility. Spenler said that that had not been a part of the discussions with Coralville. Neuzil said Coralville really wants to get that facility built.
Spenler said that Ambulance didn’t have a critical need but that they certainly have space needs. He said there are a lot of things that make the space they are in ok, but there are a lot of things that point to the need for something new and more spacious. Stutsman said that Spenler has just said the important word, and that is, his space needs are not critical right now. She said she doesn't have a problem putting this on the plan but she wants to be upfront because there are many other issues that need to be addressed first. Spenler said he understood that, but he just wanted to know what the process is so that Ambulance can start moving that forward. Kempf said he told Spenler that the first thing they needed to do was get this added to the Capital Improvements Plan. Harney suggested the Board of Supervisors let Kempf and Spenler work together on a future plan and at least let an architect come up with some type of proposal or design that would fit there and see if that’s something that would feasibly work. Kempf said he isn't sure if it would be cheaper to remodel the current building or to take the Fisher building down and build a new structure that integrates the other one.
Neuzil said that as the Board of Supervisors talks of a Criminal Justice Center that he didn’t know if it was feasible to ask that company to also factor in whether an Ambulance site could be located within that structure or near that structure. Harney said it wouldn't be a good place for Ambulance to be. He said the Board of Supervisors is going to far when it keeps adding and adding things to the Center and the taxpayers probably won't go for it. Neuzil said that that might be true, but he thinks that the option needs to be out there, particularly because they are interrelated as far as emergency response. Harney said that the operation was very different and that he didn’t see the merging of those two things as a feasible or practical idea.
Stutsman asked why they had $300,000 in the plan for the northwest County Ambulance location. M. Sullivan said it has been in the plan for years. Spenler said that came about when M. Sullivan was the director and that at that point in time, Ambulance had identified a need to have an Ambulance in the northern part of Johnson County. At that time, Ambulance started putting money aside for a structure out there and then they developed a relationship with the Coralville Fire Department. Stutsman asked if they can remove the $300,000 from the budget. Harney said they will eventually need the money. Neuzil said they need to retitle it. R. Sullivan said he doesn’t want to commit this money given the Board of Supervisors’ relationship and the fact that it hasn’t really cost them anything other than a little maintenance. Spenler said that at this point in time, there is a need for Ambulance to move a little further north and that Coralville had not made a commitment to building that structure. He assumes they will build it, but he said the Board of Supervisors needs to keep its options open. Harney said that no matter what the Board of Supervisors does, there is going to be an expense. He said there would be communications costs and other things to tie into that facility just like at the Coralville Fire Station. Spenler said that Coralville might build a structure and want the County to furnish it and do the finishing work on it.
Pulkrabek asked Spenler if they would take over the Swisher Ambulance service if Ambulance was to get the northwest station instead of having Linn County come down. Spenler said that that was one of his desires and that right now, in conversations with the mayor of Swisher and City Council of Shueyville, response times are what that hinges on. Swisher and Shueyville would love to have Johnson County Ambulance provide services, but response times are the key factor. He said he thinks that getting further north would meet their needs. Pulkrabek said he thought it would make sense because Linn County is responding from St. Luke’s Hospital in Cedar Rapids. Harney said that a lot of the people in Swisher and Shueyville would probably still go up to Cedar Rapids for services. Spenler said it would commit them to transferring more patients up to Cedar Rapids but Ambulance is doing that more now from North Liberty as it is. Stutsman agreed with Neuzil about rewording the northwest County Ambulance item in the plan and putting the County Ambulance location; this leaves it open whether it’s in the Campus or someplace else.
Neuzil said that when the Board of Supervisors receives the price of the new facility, he still thinks that if it can be combined with the Justice Center. He said that it would be advantageous to area residents to know that the Ambulance Service could potentially be improved within that whole system. He said that it would be a selling point, not a deterrent. Harney disagreed. Stutsman said that people would see a new building for Ambulance and ask why it was needed. Pulkrabek said Ambulance is important but that the space that the Board of Supervisors is looking at, the GSA parking lot, might not be large enough to meet the needs. Neuzil said that they don’t know that though. The point is that as they are putting some folks together that could look at this in their study, they should look into that. He said when reviewing this whole package, it should be discussed before looking at a $5,000,000 project. Pulkrabek agreed. R. Sullivan said that it would become a different ballgame if the facility study group comes back and says that they need to put whatever the Board of Supervisors is going to do out on Highway 218. He said that would be talking about a whole different lay of the land than downtown. Neuzil said that the Board of Supervisors has time, and that they would know something within six to eight months. Stutsman said that when the taxpayers see this mega building, they will wonder if the County really needed the whole block for government services.
Neuzil said that the Board of Supervisors also had to think about how it is going to come up with another $3,000,000 to $5,000,000 for this project. Spenler said he thought they would need only $1,000,000 to $1,500,000. M. Sullivan said that they were only talking about a 15,000 square foot building. Stutsman said that they didn’t have heat in that building, so it wasn’t necessary to worry about it. Harney said that the Board of Supervisors needs to consider the building’s accessibility.
Spenler asked Kempf what Ambulance currently has and said that the current location is a good location. Kempf said they have about 5,000 square feet. Neuzil said he was thinking about a small office and a garage. Spenler said that 15,000 square feet would triple what Ambulance has now and would cover most of the area. He said he is thinking of a garage bay being two deep and three across and crew quarters separated from office space and a classroom and a work area for people to do their paperwork and studies and things of that nature. He said the classroom would be used for education.
Stutsman said she would like to have a workout area that would be accessible to all County employees. Board members agreed with Stutsman. Neuzil said they were talking about $1,500,000, which is a whole different ballgame. R. Sullivan said that they would build two stories just to have it. Neuzil said the Board of Supervisors needs to add an update of what the costs are going to be and that they would find out that some of these things were off. He said he is glad to know that they were talking about a cheaper building for Ambulance.
Stutsman confirmed that the Board of Supervisors is giving Spenler and Kempf direction to put it on the Capital Projects list and ask them to start exploring. M. Sullivan said he would add it right now. He said he would work with Kempf and Budget Coordinator Rich Claiborne on costs as far as what they can anticipate for real estimates on some of the other projects. Spenler said that the first step would be to get an architect to look at it and put a schematic together so that they would have something to start thinking about. Stutsman asked Harney if there are Federal funds for this type of project. Harney said that sometimes there are. M. Sullivan said that it used to be that the Homeland Security money went to communications issues and other things. Spenler said there was Homeland Security money for interoperability. Stutsman said that for Avian flu, they would have to pick the people up in an ambulance.
Harney said that the County has the Health and Human Services building on the plan at a cost of $6,000,000. He asked if that was something the Board of Supervisors wanted. He said he thought that was out of line. Kempf said that they have $6 million for the Health and Human Services Building and $2.6 million for the Administration Building expansion. They should be able to eliminate the need for Administration expansion if they do the Health and Human Services Building, and that would get them close to the $9 million they have been talking about. Harney said they need some money to remodel in the current Administration Building. M. Sullivan said that it wouldn’t be $2 million. Kempf said he thought the Board of Supervisors could capture the money using the $800,000 bonding authority for the Administration Building, and he didn’t think it would be anywhere near that. He said that most of the major walls and structures would not need to be relocated. It would consist of reconfiguring offices within existing spaces, which is labor but is not a lot of bricks and mortar remodeling. Harney asked if the estimated cost includes the walkway or if that would be an added cost. Kempf responded that it depends on who is asked. He said that a few people he talked to said that the Board of Supervisors should be able to get the walkway included and that he was optimistic about that.
Stutsman reconfirmed that the County Ambulance needed to be changed and also mentioned that the SEAT/Secondary Roads item wasn’t on the plan. Neuzil verified that the Law Enforcement Corrections Center would be kept where it was. He verified that they were going to change it to read Ambulance location and that the Board of Supervisors was looking at putting $1.5 million toward that. He said that the Administration Building item was being taken out. He said it was essentially taking the $2.6 million planned for expansion and rolling into the Health and Human Services Building.
Neuzil asked about Court Services. Kempf said that is part of the Justice Center concept if they were to go with that. Neuzil asked if they are talking about a $30 million project. Kempf said it very well could be. Neuzil asked if the Board wanted to put that into Law Enforcement/Correction Center Court Services Building. R. Sullivan thought so. Stutsman agreed. Neuzil thought that, collectively, people aren’t going to want to vote for a jail but they would vote for infrastructure for emergency response and that’s why he thought it would be good to have Ambulance there. Harney said he thought it would be good to change its classification to Justice Center. Neuzil said that made sense. R. Sullivan said that the Board of Supervisors understood that could mean a whole new building or it could mean improvements to existing buildings and some kind of connection or any different combination of things.
R. Sullivan asked what kind of number they were talking about for SEATS. Kempf said that they were talking about $1.2 million for the SEATS/Secondary Roads office facility. He said he didn’t have a good estimate for the garage facility but they were thinking about $500,000 to $600,000. The Board of Supervisors is looking at less than $2 million for the two things combined. Neuzil confirmed that this would be around $1.8 million. Kempf agreed.
Stutsman suggested putting trails into the Capital Improvements Plan. She said the agenda stated that this would be under possible County Structures and cost estimates. She said that the Board of Supervisors doesn’t have a good place for trails and that they had talked about that for Capital Improvements and Secondary Roads. Kempf said that before talking about trails, he wants to add Conservation's building in while the Board was still talking about buildings. Neuzil said Conservation Director Harry Graves is talking about a structure similar to the SEATS/Secondary Roads Building. He said he doesn’t think he will need a garage facility that large, but he thought he was talking around $1.2 to $1.4 million. Stutsman said she didn’t think it was that much. Kempf said he has not talked with him and has no idea what he is looking for. Stutsman said it would be more than his budget. Neuzil asked if Kempf could email Graves and ask if he could provide a number for what he was looking. Kempf said he thought the Board of Supervisors needed to get him on the list. Neuzil said there has been discussion about Graves wanting the Board of Supervisors to go with $800,000 again and that his budget would take the rest. Neuzil said the Board needs to find out if it would count against the levy if they give him that authority. He expressed doubt as to whether he would be able to accept that beyond his levy. Stutsman said that would be something that the Board has to decide. M. Sullivan said that anything they levy in the debt service levy will impact the General Basic Fund, but in Graves’s case, it is different because his funds don’t come out of there. Stutsman felt the levy is the minimum, and they could put in whatever else they want. M. Sullivan said that any of these projects should be debt service if possible. He said that all of the things discussed would fit under that designation. Neuzil said that the Board could estimate somewhere between $1 million and $1.4 million. Claiborne clarified that they were talking about doing an $800,000 levy and then a partial $800,000 if Graves needed it. He said that Graves didn’t think it was going to be that expensive. Kempf thought they could only do $800,000 one time per project. Kempf said it was going to be a split. Harney said he would be surprised if it was even $1.3 million.
Stutsman asked about the debt services levy and how far they can go before they have to go to referendum. M. Sullivan said that anything over $800,000 per project. Claiborne said that they might want to look at extending two or three years. He explained that three years is about the break-even point when it’s going to start costing more than the interest earned, so the Board would be talking about debt service. He said that as far as the debt levy, rather than being around 14 or 15 cents per thousand, it would be less than that if the Board extends it out over a longer period. He said he would have figures the following day.
Neuzil agreed that the Board needs to find a place for trails, but he didn’t know if it was in the Capital Improvements Plan. He said he looked at this and thought it referred only to structures. M. Sullivan thought the Board was going to put Trails in the Rural Fund. Stutsman said that they went to the Farm Bureau last night and they were not crazy about trails at all and one of their concerns is why they should pay for trails when the farm community doesn’t use them. R. Sullivan said he thought that the only time the money could come out of the Rural Fund was if it was associated with a road project and otherwise it was General Fund money. Neuzil agreed. R. Sullivan said they could save it in Secondary Roads as long as they got it. Harney said there are grants out there from the State that are just for trails and there’s a part that can be used for the roads portion. Neuzil said he thought that some of the money for Trails would be coming from the Rural Fund and some of it would be coming from the General Fund. Other members agreed. Harney said the question is where to put that. He said it needs to go to Secondary Roads or at least to a trails category as far as the General Fund and even the Rural Fund part. But he said it has to be separated because the Rural Fund cannot be used for a separated trail. M. Sullivan said when they put things into the Capital Projects list the projects are bondable. He said that trails would not qualify for bonding. Harney thought it needed to come out of Secondary Roads and be designated. M. Sullivan said trails would be a better fit somewhere outside of Capital Projects. Claiborne said that Secondary Roads can only do a paved shoulder trail. R. Sullivan said that Secondary Roads can do separated if it’s within their right-of-way, but the Board is going to have to take each of these case by case to see whether it is General Fund or Rural Fund. M. Sullivan said that for the sake of discussion today that the Board should keep trails out of Capital Projects.
Neuzil said he assumes that the Board can take off the acquisition costs for the surrounding campus. Neuzil said the Board had been designating $1 million a year for Capital Improvements and he asked whether they should continue to do that or if they would have to go beyond that with the new building. He didn’t want the County to get into the situation where for the next 15 years it would have to pay off the Health and Human Services Building and not do anything else. He asked what the Board’s options were. Harney thought the plan was to put the money that they would be setting aside coupled with the dollars that they have been paying in rent to make the payments on the HHS Building for a maximum of 10 years. He said that if there was room in the budget to set more money aside that was fine, but he didn’t think there would be much money to set aside anyway. Neuzil said that the Board needs to get a picture of 2009 as to how much would go to the new building and how much would be left for them to save for the next project. Stutsman said the Board needs projections about what it is going to mean to do all these things; how much money they are going to have to put aside, what they will have to bond for or take out of debt services. Claiborne said that all of this will be discussed at a future meeting. He said he does not want to sidetrack but he does have figures for it.
Neuzil added that they need to update the chart that takes funding from General Fund transfer to include the next five years. He said it was something they could assess the following day. R. Sullivan said he came up with $43.5 million on that list. He asked if that was what the rest of the Board members had. The Board said yes. Neuzil said that the $13.5 is more of what the Board has as far as projects. He said that it sounds like with the Health and Services Building, the SEATS project, the Ambulance and Conservation, those are all things he thinks they should have a goal for in the next five or six years. R. Sullivan said they have a plan for the $9 million but they need to figure out how to save $5 million. Neuzil said they need that projection from Claiborne.
Harney asked if Secondary Roads is going to be absorbed in the budget. R. Sullivan said he thinks that is already in the budget. Neuzil noted that some of the $1.8 million for the SEATS/Secondary Roads Building is going to come partially from the Secondary Roads fund. He said it would not all come out of the Board’s Capital General Fund budget. M. Sullivan said that things could change pretty quickly because it’s going to be pretty fluid. He said that Iowa City still has not made a decision about the $900,000 that Coralville has offered the County. He said he keeps in touch with Coralville City Attorney Kevin Olson on a regular basis and there is still a good possibility that that money will come through for the SEATS building. He said that Coralville has gone ahead and prepared the TIF amendment rather than have Iowa City do it. In that amendment, they have answered the questions Iowa City had when the Board first met with them a month a half ago and Olson said that would be over to the City this week. He said that SEATS Director Tom Brase is also working on lobbying for money at the federal level. Stutsman agreed that Brase has worked really hard and said that was the message she wanted to send to the other departments such as Ambulance and the Justice Center. She said those departments should not think that the Board is going to give them all the money and they should see what monies are available. Harney said his concern was that the money received from Federal grants are restricted to certain equipment. He asked if it is still the plan to make the transportation facility a maintenance facility for the region. Brase said if they just get the $100,000, they shouldn't have a facility owned by East Central Iowa Council of Governments (ECICOG). He said they could get things inside the facility like equipment, maintenance equipment for repairs, copiers, and a phone system with that money. He said it could even be used for a vehicle if needed instead of having it owned by ECICOG. If they receive $250,000 toward the vehicle storage area, then they could lease to ECICOG or have them own the building and the County would own the property underneath it.
Harney said that who has control over the facility could get confusing. Brase said other counties could pull their vehicle into the facility and use the lift. They would be charged for this, but they could use it. M. Sullivan added that they would need to come up with a lengthy agreement to that effect. Brase said that every time he talks to ECICOG, they say they would love for Johnson County to take over Washington and Iowa County. R. Sullivan asked how the system works currently if a lift gets broken in Washington County. Brase said Washington County has their own repair person. He said the one vehicle they got from Washington County was not repaired very well. He said they spent about $5,000 repairing that vehicle to get it up to standard. R. Sullivan said that some of the counties in the COG find a private provider to do repairs and they pay them. Brase said that Washington County is the only non-profit agency that is not run by the County in the six-region area. Stutsman said that the Board finds private providers to repair the County’s vehicles as well. Brase said that was true but that it is costly. He said the County pays at least $55 an hour out of house, where they could save a third of that by doing it in-house.
Kempf said that part of the plan of expanding SEATS at Secondary Roads is having Secondary Roads’ mechanics assume the responsibility. Harney verified that Brase was saying that part of the grant money he had talked about in an email that morning would go for the facility or toward the equipment. Brase said they can determine how the money is spent. He said that, for example, if the County wanted to buy a car wash or maintenance stuff and they have $350,000, then that would be owned by ECICOG and would be put in the Johnson County facility. If they wanted to build the shell itself, that would be owned by ECICOG because the County is not a transit agency. The County contracts with ECICOG, Iowa City, and Coralville. Stutsman said that the County does that already with buses. Brase agreed. Harney said if the County was going to try to ask for the money on the federal level, they need to get together with M. Sullivan and the legislative group going to Washington D.C. Brase said that his understanding is that they already had something for that but the Board could take individual things when they talk to individual members of Congress. He said that Congressman Loebsack already knows that something is coming.
Harney asked if they have to do any maintenance or roofs on the County Farm. Kempf said it is just normal maintenance. He said they are going to start painting some of the buildings out there. The plan is to paint the big barn starting this spring. He said there is money in the budget to do that. Stutsman said that that wouldn’t be included in Capital Projects. Kempf said that there is still the ongoing issue of capital maintenance needs at Chatham Oaks. He said the Board never really settled the lease arrangement. He said the Director of Chatham Oaks spoke with him several times to see where the Board was at on that. Chatham Oaks is operating on early 1950s boilers and there is some potential for some large ticket items, but the Board has never established who has the responsibility to purchase these items. He said that he currently isn't budgeting any money for repairs out there. Stutsman asked M. Sullivan to put this on the agenda so they don’t forget. Kempf said there was a case just a month and a half ago where Chatham Oaks had a sewer line collapse. At that time, Chatham Oaks asked Kempf if the County had money in the budget for that. He said that they did not. Kempf mentioned that Chatham Oaks is only paying a dollar a year in rent.
Pulkrabek said that this may be a good time for them to get together with the County Attorney to discuss inmate labor as an alternative program at Chatham Oaks. Kempf said that the inmates have done some painting at the jail. Stutsman said that Graves has worked with inmates and has had great experiences. Harney worried about injury on the job. Neuzil asked if they have workers’ comp. Pulkrabek said that Tama County has a system that involves signing waivers. The said they have to sign a waiver and the work has to be voluntary. Stutsman said that they do have insurance.
Neuzil said he isn’t sure that some of the restructuring of the Administration Building should be included as part of the $9,000,000 or not. Kempf said that they will look into that when they work on the Health and Human Services Building. Neuzil said they could have that discussion with Claiborne tomorrow as well. Stutsman asked if they have included anything in the budget about clearing the National Armory. Kempf said he didn’t think so. Harney said that is 18 months out. Neuzil said that he thinks they should add something for paving the parking lot. Harney said they are doing that under the bonding. Neuzil said it still needs to be added to the list. Stutsman agreed. The Board confirmed that the clearing of the Armory and the parking lot needs to be on the list of projects for the next five years. R. Sullivan said that he thinks there are two separate things. There is the clearing and then the paving. He said they could leave the area gravel if they needed to. Neuzil said he thought paving is necessary.
Harney said it has been suggested that the Joint Communications Center go where the Armory currently is. The Center will need at least 20 to 30 parking spaces and an area for drive up to get warrants. He said he isn’t crazy about that idea. He thought the Board might be interested in putting the Center where the Napa building is. Stutsman wondered if that would be big enough. She thought that this area was in the flood plain, so nothing could go there. R. Sullivan said that he is worried about six people working there and having 30 parking spots. Pulkrabek said that they need parking spots for 10 to 12 daily because they are talking about dispatchers, emergency management, and supervisory staff. He said the Sheriff’s Office doesn’t need the parking space or the actual space for the Emergency Operation Center, and that is why there are two, which is ineffective. Harney said that the people waiting need to have somewhere to park. R. Sullivan said that he still didn’t think they needed that many spots. Pulkrabek said they need to have a secure building, especially since this going to be the one communication center, which would be a logical target in the unlikely case of an attack. R. Sullivan said that he wants it to be safe, but they have a limited number of space. He thought that people could just pull up and park. He said that the City can put hoods on meters for events like the tornado that happen once every five years. Neuzil said that the lot was supposed to be their parking overflow. He also thought they can’t put anything near a train track. Pulkrabek said that five spots have been identified by the committee. These were narrowed from a list of 10 or 11. R. Sullivan said that the one by Car Quest is fine because that lot is needed for all the employees and public in that building. Kempf said the Armory will have a 200-space lot. When they determined this, they weren’t sure about the Car Quest lot yet, so this could change.
Stutsman asked what they need to know from the Board today. Harney said the committee wants to know whether the Board is interested in putting the lot at the Armory or at Car Quest. If not, then they have to go back to the drawing board. Pulkrabek said that the block for the justice center over by GSA could have a lot at the northwest corner. The lot could be centrally located among those building. The City, who owns the houses around there, plans on making that area into a parking lot. Pulkrabek said they could consider partnering with Iowa City to build a ramp west of the Courthouse. They could have parking that would meet the needs of the Courthouse, the justice center, and perhaps GSA. Stutsman said that she likes that option better. She said that she thinks they are too up in the air about how much space they need in this area for government needs. Harney said he thought they could get the University to commit to some support. Kempf said the University’s long term plan is to build a ramp north of the jail and west of the Courthouse. Neuzil said some of the designs he has seen show the ramp without the jail. Pulkrabek said that this might provide them with the option of not having to build the parking area off the Courthouse. R. Sullivan said that the University definitely understands that the County is interested in working with them. Neuzil said that he is under the impression that the University is primarily interested in long term parking for students. R. Sullivan said that is what the surface lot is now. Neuzil said their schematic includes the jail area in the parking lot. Pulkrabek said that what they need is some guidance as far as what sites are in or out for the Board.
Neuzil said they can’t have an official vote, but it seems to make sense that the Communication Center would be located clearly near an emergency response center. That seems more practical at this point rather than trying to put another building on this County campus. Harney agreed, but he said that they haven’t had the study done yet and doesn’t know what the results of that study will recommend. He said they probably will. Pulkrabek said that when the government goes to the people to ask for more money for something like this, the government needs to show that they are not just trying to meet the needs of the jail but of the whole County. The public may be more likely to support a multi-need effort. Stutsman agreed. She said that when they start tacking on Ambulance Departments and SEATS, that is when they start going over the edge. R. Sullivan said that he doesn’t have problems with the Armory lot, but he doesn’t want to talk about the other lot because they are going to need the space for the adjacent building.
Public Health Director Ralph Wilmoth said that any time they have the potential for chemical spills or any type of hazardous materials, which travel by rail, they need to avoid. The Supervisors agreed that the northwest corner would be their first choice. Pulkrabek said they need them to consider the lot that Iowa City is discussing at the old bus depot. He said he doesn’t like it because of the traffic and the location. Stutsman said it is too close to downtown. R. Sullivan said that it is important to have the people who work there be protected by uniformed officers. He thought there was some reason the lot was going to be close to the Iowa City Police or to the Sheriff’s Office for security. Stutsman said that if security is an issue, they wouldn’t want to put the communication center, a main target, in a central, populated location. Meyers said they are going to be vulnerable almost anywhere because eventually there is going to be a high population out by the Courthouse as well. Pulkrabek asked if it is safe to say that the Board’s first preference is the northwest corner and the second preference is the Iowa City site.
Harney said that he suggested last time the parking facility across from the mailboxes on the corner of Clinton Street. Pulkrabek said that they need to know that the committee is zeroing in and moving forward. Neuzil said he his assuming that all of this is contingent on a legislative change. Stutsman said she thought the schools were not interested in moving. Harney said they are open but not in a hurry. Neuzil said they wanted to be compensated as well. Harney said he isn’t even sure they would get the GSA. Stutsman said that with the lot next door, it is going to be used up pretty quickly as they start building. She thinks they need to know where they are at with this building before they start promising parts of it to other entities. She said they have worked so long on getting the Health and Human Services building in place and does not want to compromise it. She wanted to take care of the County’s needs for today and the future and doesn’t want to be limited. Kempf said if he had to pick a location that the County owns, he would recommend the Armory location. They could get the 30 parking spaces for emergencies that could also be used by other employees at normal times. The Board agreed that the northwest corner is their first choice and the Armory site is their second choice, but wants to emphasize that they really, really prefer the northwest corner. Pulkrabek said that he has no problem reporting to the Committee that the Board would like the lot in the northwest corner and that they don’t care for the downtown location or the other locations. He said he is only one person on that Committee, so the rest of the Committee might say that they don’t like the northwest corner. He wondered what to do in that case. Neuzil said that he would come back to the Board of Supervisors to vote, so they can officially vote no.
Stutsman said that she doesn’t think the area will necessarily be available within the year. Harney thought they need to look at who owns the two houses over there. Stutsman said that is something the University can do. Stutsman said that she is not for condemnation, but that is an option in the case of it being best for the common good. Stutsman said that there is not support on the City Council about the location. Harney said the issue the City has with that corner is that they have to put that money back into parking. Stutsman said that there are three people who are willing to consider helping. Harney thought they need to be careful because their energy source in that garage needs to be rebuilt. This is another expense. Pulkrabek asked if they would have to vacate Harrison Street at an exact date, or can they continue as is until they are ready. Neuzil said that if they stand on one corner of Court Street and look down to where the jail is, there is a lot of space. R. Sullivan said that if they do something with the Joint Communication Center there, they should be careful to make it something that could be integrated in the future to something bigger. Yet, they can’t say they are doing that because people might object on the basis that that hasn’t been voted on yet.
M. Sullivan said that the Public Health Department needs a Supervisor to serve on their Pandemic Influenza Steering Committee. Neuzil said that it makes sense that the person that would be part of emergency response would be Harney. R. Sullivan said that when they had the tornado, the rules were such that they had to have the Chair sign things. Even though Harney was present, former Supervisor Mike Lehman had to come in to sign documents. R. Sullivan said that it makes sense to assign the Chair to that position since he would have to be there anyway. Stutsman said that this is just a special short-term committee though. M. Sullivan said that he really doesn’t know that. Harney said he thinks it is mostly committee work and then the Chair would sign. Neuzil said that if the Board wants him on the committee, he can do it. He said he doesn’t care. Stutsman said it looks interesting. Neuzil said that he is sure the committee is going to need a lot to get going. Harney said he could try it for a while. The Board agreed to have Harney sit on the committee. The Board agreed that they need to do a better job of communicating with each other about what goes on at committee meetings.
Adjourned at 10:40 a.m.
______________________________________________________________________
Attest: Tom Slockett, Auditor
By:
On the _______ day of _____________________, 2007
By Casie Kadlec, Recording Secretary
Sent to the Board of Supervisors on March 1, 2007 at 5:10 p.m.