MINUTES OF THE INFORMAL MEETING OF THE JOHNSON COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS:
JANUARY 24, 2007
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.
Budget Coordinator Rich Claiborne indicated the topic today is the General Basic Fund. The proposed County budget is over the 3.50 levy. If the Board doesn’t make all the decisions today on all how to get back to 3.50 they can discuss this at the January 26, 2007 budget work session. Claiborne will start the State Forms next week and will be on track to set the budget public hearing.
Stutsman asked if Claiborne will have the information on how the Board’s decisions affect taxpayers. Claiborne said he will have the information within a week or two. He presented a spreadsheet as a tool showing the temporarily approved budget that the Board had decided at previous meetings, minus the revenues which are a County subsidy. There is a sizable transfer coming in from the General Supplemental Fund. $330,000 is new from MECCA, so there is about $7,900,000 coming back in from the transfer. He explained an ending balance of $1,700,000 is needed per the Auditor before taxes come in October. Based on valuations the budget requests are $17,271,405. The Board is allowed to spend $15,987,073 based on valuation. The levy is at 3.78 right now and it needs to get to 3.50; $1,284,332 needs to be cut back.
Claiborne suggested the Board consider the list provided because it would get within $40,000 of 3.50. Facilities Manager Dave Kempf’s projects total $205,000 and are something the Board can bond for. Of the $1,000,000 needed for the Health and Human Services Building, Executive Assistant Mike Sullivan has a call in to the Bonding Attorney to see if the other $800,000 can be bonded as only partial bonding has been done. By bonding, they are able to access the TIF districts through the debt service levy which spreads the burden over more taxpayers. He explained that $100,000 could be saved by removing the salary study from Department 18. Stutsman asked whether the salary review would be eliminated completely. Claiborne responded just for this year, FY 08. Claiborne said that these are just ideas and are ultimately Board decisions.
Claiborne said that $200,000 is set aside in Department 44 for trails but $500,000 is already committed in Rural Basic. Neuzil said that is not necessarily for trails, it was for road improvement projects. R. Sullivan said most of that is not going to be used for trails because trails can not be paid for from the Rural Fund. Claiborne indicated Iowa Department of Management Representative Jim Nervig said it is fully legal to save for trail projects and other projects in Rural Basic, let it grow there with interest, and then when a project comes up, shift the funds from Rural Basic to the Capital Expenditure Fund to pay the bill. R. Sullivan questioned where the County taxes for it. Claiborne said the taxes come from Rural Basic. Stutsman explained Claiborne is saying it can be spent because it can be transferred out of Rural Basic to Capital Expenditures. R. Sullivan said the transferring is not the key but where the funds are taxed from. Stutsman agreed. Claiborne said there would have to be a trail project. Stutsman questioned whether Nervig said this is the way to do it. Claiborne said trails could only be built in the County. Harney said this is taxing the Rural Fund extra to put it in Capital Expenditures. Claiborne explained the Board wanted a savings line item set up in the Rural Basic Fund and this is the outcome. R. Sullivan said he agreed that there would be some trails funding in Rural Basic. Claiborne said there could be other projects, trails or capital improvements. R. Sullivan said he thought that the Rural Basic fund could only be used for things like saving for a gravel road in the County that needs to be upgraded in the future. Neuzil said County Engineer Greg Parker will need direction about how to spend the money. He said he was hopeful some money would be set aside for potential trails projects. Neuzil said that if the Board is going to be taxing out of the Rural Fund people are going to want to see results of less dust on gravel roads.
R. Sullivan said that he thought Nervig meant that taxes out of the General Fund can be saved in the Secondary Roads Fund. Stutsman said this needs to be clarified and in writing. Claiborne said that Secondary Roads has to stand alone, similar to the MH/DD Fund and this is just saving in Rural Basic. Stutsman said R. Sullivan’s point is where the money came from to begin with and it would come from the rural taxpayers. Claiborne said the money can only be spent in the rural part of the County. Claiborne said the expenses have to be for rural roads or trails. Neuzil said that the Board was told that spending money out of the Rural Fund can not be used for separated trails. It can be used to enhance roads that would have the potential of separated trails, if the trails are within the existing right-of-way. If the Board wants a trail that is not next to a road it must be saved for and it can’t be done out of the Rural Fund, it must be done out of the General Fund. Claiborne said that is opposite of what the State told him. The Board agreed that they need clarification on this issue.
R. Sullivan asked what has been put into the budget from the departmental requests. Claiborne said that everything has been put in the budget that the Board wanted. Claiborne explained that the Board had said they didn't want to fund the Ambulance position so it is not included. One position is included in the Attorney's budget. Health has no positions. Human Resources has a position. Information Services has a technician position.
Claiborne said that the Sheriff's Department does include two patrol deputies but does not include the detective. Harney said that he thought that the Sheriff preferred to include the drug position. County Sheriff Lonny Pulkrabek said that they requested two patrol deputies and one detective. The detective was the backfill for the grant that allowed the acquiring of funding. If the grant is acquired he will work with Claiborne and amend the money for the detective back into the General Fund. Stutsman questioned why they would tax for this position. Pulkrabek explained that this year they didn't know about the funding until late June from the Byrne/JAG grant. It started out as a Southeast Iowa Meth Clandestine Lab Taskforce which was Federal funding, that funded 17 positions for two years. One of the requirements was to backfill positions when they were lost to the grant. This was a requirement or there could be no application for the grant. He said the two years expired and this fiscal year funding was able to be acquired for 75% of that person so a couple of replacement persons were not hired in order to save up for the 25%. There is 75% funding for that person and they are told every year the funding may go away. He said this is why if it is funded and the money is acquired from Byrne/JAG then the money will be amended back. He said the other two positions were for patrol. Stutsman said Claiborne indicated these detective positions could be absorbed within the current budget. Meyers asked if Pulkrabek said the patrol deputies could be covered by the increased hours in the small towns. Pulkrabek responded that the two patrol deputies with the revenue balanced with the increase in the amount of time and the hourly fee that is being charged to towns is nearly revenue neutral. Harney said either way the money has to come out of the General Fund.
R. Sullivan asked what the intention is in Capital Expenditures and Capital Projects. Claiborne said Capital Projects is the $1,000,000. R. Sullivan said that’s intended to start paying off the Health and Human Services building. Claiborne said the County can bond for $800,000 of the $1,000,000. M. Sullivan has a call into the bond attorney. In Capital Expenditures the Board can stop saving for a year for ambulances and save $180,000, not replace Sheriff’s cars for a year and save $150,000, and can decide not to save for SEATS buses and save $75,000. In trail construction there is $200,000. Claiborne said that at the last meeting the Board decided to bond for the Joint Communication Center study.
R. Sullivan asked how much more money was available for FY 08 than FY 07. Claiborne indicated there is $330,000 moving in from MECCA and valuations are up to about $800,000 or $900,000. Stutsman asked if that includes growth. Claiborne said last year was the same situation when 3.70 was requested and it required the Board to pare back. Stutsman questioned if it was 3.70 that the Board had to pare back last year. Claiborne said it was about 3.70 and they had to get it back to 3.50. M. Sullivan said the levy rate was 3.70. Claiborne said last year there was a little over a $1,000,000 to pare back. M. Sullivan said it almost identical to this year. R. Sullivan said he was hoping there would be more to work with. M. Sullivan explained the reduced rollback had impact. Claiborne said it was down about a percent. M. Sullivan said the total impact on the rollback was a reduction of 8%. The total valuation is going to change and that will have an impact.
Claiborne said in review Sheriff has two patrol deputies, the Medical Examiner made a part-time employee a full-timer, and Physical Plant upgraded a position by 2,800 hours. Claiborne said this completes the General Basic Fund. Harney said the real concern is if the County is close to the levy limit and they lose the 1,200 acres by North Liberty, they are going to lose over $100,000. Stutsman said that is in the Rural Fund. Claiborne reminded the Board that if the discussion is not finished today it can be finished on Friday. He asked if the Board wants to start with the prepared list or are there other ideas. Stutsman asked if the budget would work if everything is done on the list. Claiborne said it would put the budget within $40,000. It also depends on M. Sullivan’s phone call to the attorney.
Harney suggested starting at the top of the list to see what changes can be made. Stutsman said it’s a no-brainer to move anything they can to the debt service levy. The Board agreed. Harney inquired whether the other $100,000 that is being considered for levying or bonding depends on the attorney phone call. Claiborne reiterated that they can bond for the Physical Plant projects. Harney said $200,000 for the Health and Human Services Building is what can’t be bonded for if the $800,000 is allowed. Claiborne said the Health and Human Services building was bonded for last year. Harney said bonding is allowed only once per year. Claiborne said up to $800,000. Harney said but only one project per year. Claiborne said last year that project was only partially bonded. M. Sullivan has a call in regarding $450,000 on the building and $350,000 on the land, and if it can be switched around to finish out $450,000 on the land and $350,000 on the building to finish out the $800,000 per project. Stutsman suggested this be taken off the list and be added back in if workable.
R. Sullivan inquired if any income was figured from the sale of Public Health. Claiborne said no. R. Sullivan asked if anything is being figured for not paying rent at Eastdale. Claiborne said that will be FY 09. Claiborne said on the revenue side departments could be asked, such as Sheriff and Ambulance, to look at their revenues because they usually come in over projected revenues and reductions would reduce the County subsidy. He asked Pulkrabek if there could be more revenues coming in that could be claimed. Pulkrabek said the revenue estimate given will still be low but where it would land is hard to say. He said Shueyville will have a slight increase. Neuzil said there could be an adjustment for Shueyville. Claiborne said Pulkrabek and Sheriff's Major Steve Dolezal could give new revenue projections and the Board could talk about it on Friday. Stutsman said the Board could determine what is going to be given to the departments and they will need to work within it. She said that the Board could make assumptions about additional revenue based on past information of what has been given back to the County. She said that the concern with this is departments will start spending money so they do not come in over projected revenue at the year end. Claiborne said in revenues the Sheriff came in $178,533 over what they projected and Ambulance was over by $283,159. These two departments are the highest revenue producing departments. The Board could ask these departments to come back with different numbers. Stutsman said that the County is taxing for a lot of dollars that they might not need to if departments would budget their revenues accurately.
Stutsman said there is not a lot of flexibility in the County budget since the maximum has been exceeded. The only other option is to cut budgets or decision packages because even with bonding the budget will be short. R. Sullivan said there is nothing more eligible for bonding. Harney said if 3.50 is reached that is the end point. Stutsman suggested the only other choice is to start moving more into the Rural Fund. Claiborne replied there is $112,000 in the Sheriff’s budget that could be moved over to Rural Basic. Stutsman asked if that was for the two patrol deputies. Claiborne replied yes. Stutsman suggested moving one patrol deputy into the Rural Fund. Neuzil said he is not interested in moving Sheriff's budget items to the Rural Fund. R. Sullivan said he is in favor of moving one patrol deputy. Meyers asked what the effects would be on the average person if it is moved into the Rural Fund. Claiborne said the answer will be available at the January 26, 2007 budget work session. Harney said that one patrol deputy wouldn't amount to much per taxpayer. Harney said there was an email from the Farm Bureau who was upset about chip seal being put down because of road embargoes. They would prefer to live with the dust on their equipment. Neuzil suggested before that is considered the Board should strategically lay it out and justify what they put in the Rural Fund. R. Sullivan asked if the proposal of 10% last year from Pulkrabek and Dolezal with the budget strictly as it applied to Rural was over $112,000. Pulkrabek said it was well over $112,000 and even with that the rural levy was decreased. The proposal showed the actual time for unincorporated areas. Pulkrabek said that if the Board wants to revisit it on Friday the numbers can be provided. R. Sullivan said he would like to see the numbers because it is more fact based. Meyers said it is a formula.
Harney said $800,000 for the SEATS facility is not included in the budget. He said that will probably come from Coralville, if Iowa City agrees, so they won't need to levy for it. Claiborne stated it is not part of today's problem. If the Board does the SEATS project they've already decided to bond and it's not part of the 3.50 levy. Harney said it would be a problem if it is levied for as additional tax.
Stutsman said the salary survey needs to be done for the employees. Harney agreed. Neuzil said it was assumed $100,000 would come out of FY 07 and $100,000 would come out of FY 08. Claiborne agreed. Stutsman said it would come out of reserves. Claiborne indicated it would need to be a spring amendment for FY 07 because it was not budgeted. Neuzil stated this project is going to take a hefty amount of time and one possibility would be to remove it from the FY 08 budget and commit FY 07 to $100,000 with final payment to be made in FY 09. Stutsman questioned whether that could be done. Neuzil asked why they couldn't. Stutsman asked how long payment can be delayed if the project gets done in the middle of the year. Neuzil said the project will take a lot of time and an end time of July 1, 2008 is realistic. Human Resources Administrator Lora Shramek said it might be possible because $100,000 might cover the salary survey and they could wait until FY 09 for implementation. Neuzil said another option is amending the FY 08 budget and finishing it then. Stutsman said there may be reserves at the end of FY 08. Neuzil said the $200,000 is just an estimate. Shramek agreed and explained that was just based on one consultant. Harney said he has concerns of it not getting done. Stutsman believes it needs to be done. Claiborne said Shramek said amending in FY 08 could be done.
R. Sullivan said that he has a problem talking about spending the money in FY 07. He said that when they did the FY 07 budget, the money wasn't there. R. Sullivan said there is too much coming back into the budget and there is a need for more accurate projections. Two years of figures show the revenues were higher than budgeted and the expenses were lower than budgeted. He said this has to be tightened up otherwise the money comes back in afterwards and the priorities are not met up front. Stutsman said taxing is occurring for dollars that are not being used and it is not good. She reiterated that the salary survey needs to be done. She said that she hopes they have enough reserves next year to accomplish it. R. Sullivan agreed to remove it from the budget. Neuzil agreed. Harney preferred to leave it in. R. Sullivan said he wants discuss departments that have come in under budget and try to squeeze $50,000 from them. Harney said the Car Quest Building rent is $2,200 and taxes are $9,000 that the County will have to pay. If Car Quest leaves that will be a hefty amount of income to lose. Claiborne asked if the salary study should be taken out of the budget. Harney said there are three Board members who would like to take it out. Stutsman said next year payment will need to be figured out. Harney asked if $100,000 or $200,000 is being removed. M. Sullivan replied $100,000.
Claiborne asked if the Sheriff’s patrols should be moved out of General Basic to Rural. Stutsman said they should leave them in the General Fund. R. Sullivan said he would like to move part of the patrol to the Rural Fund but there probably are not three Supervisors who do. Meyers asked how much it would affect the taxpayers in the rural area. Stutsman said the taxing will not impact it that much but it is the philosophy or psychology of moving patrol to the Rural Fund. It is a major policy change and there may be some political heat. Stutsman said that it can be done but they have to justify why it is being done.
Pulkrabek asked if the Board wants the information about moving patrol to the Rural Fund and whether to give it to Claiborne. He indicated he doesn’t want to do the work if the Board doesn't want to see it. R. Sullivan said he would like it. Pulkrabek said he will email it to Claiborne. Neuzil said he’s not interested. Stutsman said she’s not interested, but it will help if the decision is to do it. Harney said he thinks the Board is a year off and if they are considering doing it the Farm Bureau should know about it. Neuzil said it needs to be part of Strategic Planning. M. Sullivan replied to Pulkrabek to just send it to Claiborne and he can send it to the Board members. Stutsman said she and Harney went to the Farm Bureau and told them in a budget discussion that this would not be done this year so there should be pretty good reasons why it is being done. The reason given to the Farm Bureau was that three Supervisors did not want to do it and it was not in the plan this year. Pulkrabek said that the Board shouldn't do it if they've already told the Farm Bureau that they wouldn't. Meyers said at least it plants a seed in the back of their head. R. Sullivan said Board has to remember that the local Farm Bureau has a couple hundred members and there are 22,000 rural residents. He said that there is not a lot of fat in this budget and it is appropriate for the people who use this service to pay a bigger percentage of it. Stutsman said the next year needs to be spent talking to people about that. Harney said that is what tax reform would help, but it doesn’t look like that is going to happen this year.
Claiborne said the Board still needs to cut $305,000. Claiborne asked if the Board want to remove trails from Department 44, Capital Expenditures, which would reduce the budget by $200,000. Neuzil suggested reducing it by $100,000. Stutsman and Harney agreed. Stutsman explained the Board promised that trails would be funded. Harney asked if that is taking $400,000 out. Stutsman said it is just removing $100,000 from the General Fund because they are ok in the Rural Fund and don’t have to cut the $500,000 that they have budgeted for trails in there.
R. Sullivan said that the Board needs to look at the departments that have been the most over on their budgets in the last two years to look for some of this money. Claiborne asked if R. Sullivan meant increasing revenues. Stutsman said increasing revenues means asking for less tax dollars. She said that the message the Board needs to send is it is not punishment; however, a more accurate forecast in projecting revenues and expenses is needed. Neuzil said it’s hard to project 18 months ahead but the Board should make penalties for lack of care. He said that Claiborne should work with department heads to identify trends. R. Sullivan said some departments are very accurate but there are five departments that stick out. Claiborne said Ambulance is significantly high, Sheriff is pretty high, and between the two there is $450,000 over revenue projections. R. Sullivan said if Ambulance keeps up their current level of under budgeting revenues and over budgeting expenses there’s $500,000 every year that could be added to the General Fund.
Stutsman said when she first came on the Board, County Auditor Tom Slockett had a revenue expense adjustment. It tracked departments over two or three years and if a department came in way over on revenues and way under on expenses it automatically adjusted that department for the following year. Stutsman suggested talking to Slockett or Deputy Auditor Chris Edwards about the revenue expense adjustment. Claiborne said it was an average over four years. Stutsman said what bothers her about the numbers is the taxing for all these dollars that are not used. This is not a good way to do budgeting. Spending by departments at the end of the fiscal year to get the budget under projections should not happen. She said that department heads that come in right at budget don’t get rewarded. R. Sullivan said out of 26 departments there are only a couple egregious ones. Harney said it’s not a big issue, though the departments should be better balanced. He said it is still coming in as revenue. Stutsman said but the County is still taxing for those dollars. R. Sullivan said that there could be $500,000 that Ambulance is not going to use right now, and $100,000 was just taken out of the salary survey and $100,000 out of trails. R. Sullivan said that they could spend it rather than having it sit. Harney said it can’t be predicted how many people will be sick. R. Sullivan said the three year trend is a lot of money.
Neuzil said Claiborne needs to analyze the revenues that are projected for FY 08 and if there are negative trends he needs to communicate it to department heads. Claiborne said if certain revenues were increased the County subsidy would go down. Cutting expenses increases revenue. Harney suggested they look over the last two years and adjust the revenue up to what it should be. Stutsman said they could look at the budgets of the departments that are consistently over and increase those departments by 3.25% only. R. Sullivan said the Board could conservatively get $500,000 by asking a few departments to redo their projections. Neuzil said Claiborne can go through the list and if there is a department over the last three years that has been low, he can work with that department. R. Sullivan said they could probably find $1,500,000, so they should at least find $500,000. Stutsman asked how much the budget is over and how much they need to cut. Neuzil said a lot depends on that $800,000. Claiborne said in Ambulance if the revenue is increased by $100,000 that brings the levy down two points. R. Sullivan said they not only need to look at under-budgeted revenues but over-budgeted expenses because it’s the combination over an ongoing period that really does make a difference. Claiborne agreed. Harney said in the Sheriff's budget, the extra money was put in by the Board for transport and prisoner issues. Transport and housing didn't take that last year and it can’t be known whether it will take that much this year. R. Sullivan said over a two year period the Treasurer’s Office had over $700,000 in extra revenues.
Stutsman asked Claiborne if there is time to put this all together by January 26, 2007. Claiborne said he can look it over. Claiborne said the Treasurer’s subsidy is only $309,000 for their budget. Harney said that a lot of this comes from their investments. R. Sullivan said the Treasurer's Office came in $100,000 in revenue under and the expenses were $281,000 less than projected. Stutsman asked if the Board is interested in having Edwards from the Auditor’s Office come up and talk about the revenue expense adjustment and how that works. Claiborne said that can be done. Harney said he needs to come to the Board at some point. M. Sullivan said it would have to be Friday, because he probably wouldn't be ready to come now. Neuzil said he wouldn’t mind either way. Neuzil said that it would be good to get more hands on with the budget. Harney suggested having a work session. Stutsman said it would be good to do it after the budget. Neuzil said they should talk to the Budget Coordinator about things that can be improved and what the Board would like to learn.
R. Sullivan said he passed out numbers months ago. Stutsman said that the Board didn't know where they were with the budget. R. Sullivan said that these numbers should be easily in the back of Board members heads. Stutsman said the Board needs to take into consideration the trend; there’s no growth. She said that if the Coralville or North Liberty annexations go through, the Board needs to figure out the loss in taxes. Meyers asked how much would be lost with one of the annexations. Harney and Stutsman said $100,000 would be lost from the Rural Fund. She said it won’t make much difference in the General Fund. M. Sullivan said it would not show up for at least another two years minimum on taxes.
Claiborne said the revenue expense adjustment is actually in the budget. He explained that it is a four year average. Neuzil said talking to Auditors around the State that is the one number they have a hard time understanding, trying to create that formula. M. Sullivan said it’s an estimate at best.
Harney asked if there’s a need to look at the staff added in each department. M. Sullivan said the Board needs to look at everything. Stutsman said all that’s being looked at is balancing the budget with two departments increasing their revenues and the $100,000 that has been cut from the salary survey. Claiborne said the big thing is M. Sullivan’s phone call to the bonding attorney; $350,000 might be able to be removed from the budget. M. Sullivan said that there might be things that can be removed from the technology budget also. He said that debt can be levied for any GIS expenses. Expenditures for GIS can be moved out and the hope is that technology can be levied totally. He said that he hopes the Board can levy for all technology. He said Bob Josten will need to answer this question. Between this and the $800,000 it would take care of the problem with the General Fund. M. Sullivan was hoping for a response yesterday but Josten has been too busy to call him back.
Claiborne said if technology can be bonded for that will help because $447,000 could be moved out of the General Fund. If the Board is able to bond for the full $800,000 it needs to be done because this is really a barebones cut back. Information Services Director Jean Schultz really looked at cutting back technology. The items she cut back are just a postponement and are essential items that the County can’t do without, such as replacing computers on rotation. He said if it the technology budget is bare-bones this year and it is postponed to FY 09 it will be a double whammy. M. Sullivan read the code and it sounds like it technology can be bonded for and it should be done. If they do this, $447,803 can be taken out of the General Fund.
Neuzil said some big ticket items were created, one was the salary survey and the other was the Incode Real Estate Software. He asked if that can be part of the bonding capacity and is that still in this budget. R. Sullivan said that’s what bonding for technology would do. Stutsman asked if Incode is in the budget. Neuzil said in partial payment. Claiborne said the barebones technology has cut most of that out. Schultz said that at Claiborne's request she created two different proposals. One is absolute barebones and the other is middle of the road. For example, they would only upgrade half of the computers next year. Schultz said that they should bond for whatever they can because they will be back on the normal schedule next year. Claiborne added that it won’t harm them to much if it’s in FY 09. If what has been talked about so far can be done the levy is down to 3.51. He said there may not be absolute answers to this until Friday.
R. Sullivan asked how much more is needed in dollar amount. Neuzil said $200,000. Harney asked if it could be worked out with the adjustments in revenues. Claiborne said he thought that wasn’t going to happen because it’s already built into the Revenue Expense Adjustment. Neuzil said if revenues are projected to be higher there would be more money. If certain departments are low then they need looked at again. Claiborne said he would be comfortable with tacking $500,000 in Ambulance revenue since they consistently come in over. Harney suggested working with Spenler and Pulkrabek. He said some hard decisions need to be made. He said answers and more information should be here from the bonding company by Friday. R. Sullivan said County Treasurer Tom Kriz should be talked to about revenues and expenses.
Stutsman said all the personnel information is in now. Harney said there are a couple of employee openings not filled. R. Sullivan said he wants the personnel information to be correct. R. Sullivan said Ambulance’s average is half of what is in the budget. Claiborne said it is half of what he consistently does. Neuzil asked if Spenler brings in $2,000,000 a year in revenues and collections because that sounds too high. M. Sullivan said it has to be just over $1,000,000 a year. He said Spenler has to be close to 50% subsidy. He said he will bring in close to half of what he spends. Neuzil said Spenler was a lot closer this year. Claiborne agreed.
Harney said some of the block grants should be looked at again, such as Shelter House. Iowa City only gives the Shelter $37,000 and the County gives them $45,000 to $47,000. R. Sullivan said he would rather see money taken out of the Senior Center. Neuzil said items were tacked on by Social Services Coordinator Amy Correia at the end of the discussion with her. He said another concern is funding the Family Resource Centers for $68,000 which is eligible for the sales tax if it passes.
Stutsman asked how much more needs cut. Claiborne said around $100,000. Claiborne said Kempf’s projects will be bonded 100%, the salary survey cut, reduce trails, bond the remainder for the HHS Building, technology qualifies for bonding, so they are within $100,000. R. Sullivan said the departments that are consistently over are a primary concern of his because that extra $600,000 to $700,000 could be budgeted. Harney said the departments can be looked at again on Friday. Stutsman asked if step increases and other personnel items are there. Shramek said there’s only one bargaining unit not included. Harney said the elected officials are not in there. Stutsman said the 6% increase is not reflected. Harney said that is what was recommended. Claiborne said all personnel is done.
Stutsman asked what happens if the City and the County are both cutting funds to the Shelter House. Neuzil said he would like to see the updated block grants list. Harney said Correia suggested rural senior services be funded first when looking at the Senior Center. The Board agreed that this was a good idea. Claiborne said these suggestions are reflected in the budget. Neuzil said the $68,000 that goes to Family Resource Centers could be covered by the sales tax. R. Sullivan said it can be taxed for starting July 1, 2008. Neuzil said it can be taken out now and if the sales tax doesn’t pass it can be put back in the budget.
Stutsman asked how much was put in the budget for Regency in the Rural Basic Fund. Claiborne said $12,500 was budgeted for Regency out of Rural. Neuzil stated part of the problem is that they can't tax out of the Rural Fund for Coralville and North Liberty residents. Neuzil asked if the Family Resource Centers stays in the budget. Harney said he does not want to cut it. Stutsman said that they have promised they would fund this. Neuzil said if it is removed it can be put back in with a budget amendment. The SILO tax people made it clear they would include this expenditure in the tax proceeds. If the County continues to fund it there’s no incentive for the SILO group to make it a top priority. Stutsman asked if the County has clarified that they intend the schools to replace the County funding with SILO revenues. She said that they might be planning on providing more Family Resource Centers. R. Sullivan said it makes sense to take it out because the SILO group is looking at $115,000,000. Harney said if they get it. R. Sullivan said that he thinks the SILO tax will pass, but even if it doesn't the Schools have more room in their budget than the County does. Neuzil said the funding can be added back in the budget. Stutsman commented if it’s taken out it will put the budget under the 3.50. Administrative Secretary Casie Kadlec said it will be known by the morning of February 14, 2007 whether the SILO measure passes.
Claiborne said the budget has to be ready for publication by February 8, 2007 to have the hearing one week before the budget is adopted on March 15, 2007. Neuzil said when the budget is published it can’t be changed. Neuzil said once the budget is published the budget can’t be raised but it can be lowered. Stutsman said leaving the block grant in would allow the Board to take it out after publication. Harney said that would make more sense. R. Sullivan asked if for budget balancing purposes it helps get the levy below 3.50. Claiborne said they are very close to where they need to be. Neuzil suggested taking it out and if the tax fails it can be added back in and something else will need to be cut instead. He said once the budget is published anything can be changed as long as the bottom line does not increase. Stutsman said it’s difficult to figure out what to decrease.
Stutsman asked if any Board members would consider one patrol for the Sheriff and not two. Stutsman said that the Board has been very generous with this department every year giving the Sheriff everything he’s wanted for personnel and that has not been done for any other department in this County. Harney said he would prefer to give the Sheriff the position for the grant person and not the other two and look at them next year. Meyers said that’s $85,000 compared to $112,000. Claiborne said that would be moving out $112,000 and putting $85,000 back in. R. Sullivan said he still would like to look at the Rural Fund on this issue as it’s the fairest way to do it. Neuzil said if some of the bonding issues that are waiting answers from attorneys are not allowed, then personnel will have to be reevaluated. Stutsman said the Sheriff has always been given the employees he has requested the first year.
Meyers said to get down to the 3.50 there’s only about $18,000 to cut. Neuzil said that can come from readjusting revenues. Stutsman asked why they would get that out of only one department when they haven't asked anything of other departments. Neuzil said they aren’t being asked to adjust expenditures, only revenues. Stutsman said Spenler has been in transition and revenues were hard to predict they might now be accurate. Neuzil said he thinks going through all the departments will lead to finding $18,000 in revenues. R. Sullivan said starting in October for next year he would like a commitment that the Board will make departments be more true to their revenues and expenditures. Stutsman said what it actually costs to run a department. R. Sullivan said because of the conservative projections of the departments the Board does not get to make the proper money decisions. Stutsman said it’s not fair to the departments that come in right on the money. R. Sullivan said it’s based on three year trends because it is unpredictable because budgets can’t be judged on one year.
Neuzil asked if Claiborne has enough direction now. Claiborne said he could look at revenues and needs the attorney phone calls. Harney said he is still concerned about how much is in the Rural Levy since a lot of items have been moved over to it. Neuzil said it includes items such as commitments to gravel roads and Regency. Stutsman asked how much libraries went up this year. R. Sullivan said cost is based on usage; Solon went up quite a bit. Stutsman said it may be time to look at the libraries. M. Sullivan said when the County issued the library agreements there wasn’t a 3.50 levy cap issue. He said it will be an issue every year now. Stutsman said in the beginning the only library the County was paying for was Iowa City. M. Sullivan said it has morphed to supporting several, although the Code of Iowa is different.
R. Sullivan said in Linn County all but 5% of Planning and Zoning is in the Rural Fund. M. Sullivan said Linn and other urban counties follow the layout of budget finance in the Code of Iowa as their standard practice. Stutsman said they don’t take the Sheriff’s patrol out of the Rural Fund. Neuzil said when the Board looks at Strategic Planning and the Rural Fund it would make more sense to have Planning and Zoning in the Rural Fund rather than Patrol which is interactive. Harney said the Sheriff works back and forth with the cities. M. Sullivan said it could easily be split up between funds because the Sheriff has agreements and tracks the time for rural and cities. Stutsman said it would be interesting to see in Linn County how many large businesses are in unincorporated areas. M. Sullivan said it’s a completely different tax base there than Johnson County. R. Sullivan said it’s not that their businesses are unincorporated it’s that their biggest businesses pay property taxes and they don’t have the TIF issues that Johnson County has. Neuzil said it is the same with Human Services; Linn County has a Community Fund and they have a few large benefactors. Stutsman said they pay for a lot of Human Services right out of the County budget and provide a lot of direct services.
Neuzil said in Strategic Planning it would be good to bring in other Counties’ Budget Coordinators and see how they plan. Stutsman said R. Sullivan is right that the County takes a large hit because of the University property and the Coralville Reservoir. Harney said that the University puts a lot of money back into the community. R. Sullivan said Story County’s Rural Fund is close to the maximum. Neuzil said due to the incorporating of land this is probably the last year to generate tax revenue due to the slowing of growth. Harney said that the growth has been important over the last few years and now the growth has stopped and annexations have taken a lot of property. R. Sullivan said the State needs to stop the rollback. Harney asked Claiborne if there has been enough direction to prepare for Friday. Claiborne said the General Basic Fund issue will be continued on Friday. There is $18,029 left to cut. There will be an answer from the bonding attorney and he will have a similar spreadsheet for Rural Basic and the rest of the Funds. Harney said he would like to go through each department and see where there are increases and if adjustments are needed. Neuzil said that may need to be done.
Adjourned at 10:30 a.m.
Attest: Tom Slockett, Auditor
By Casie Kadlec, Recording Secretary