MINUTES OF THE INFORMAL MEETING OF THE JOHNSON COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS:
MARCH 15, 2007
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
County Treasurer Tom Kriz: Update on Collection of Old Real Estate and Mobile Home Taxes.. 1
Yoderville Biodiesel Cooperative President Steve Fugate: Update on the Future of Biodiesel in Johnson County and The Coop’s Work.................................................................................................................... 3
Executive Assistant Mike Sullivan: Reports and Inquiries........................................................... 5
Discussion: Recommendation of a Firm to Conduct the Justice Center Site Suitability and Comparison Study 5
County Engineer Greg Parker: Trails Advisory Committee........................................................ 6
Reports and Inquiries from the Board of Supervisors................................................................. 6
Chairperson Harney called the Johnson County Board of Supervisors to order in the Johnson County Administration Building at 9:17 a.m. Members present were: Pat Harney, Larry Meyers, Terrence Neuzil, Sally Stutsman, and Rod Sullivan.
County Treasurer Tom Kriz said that three years ago they started a campaign to try to clean up old taxes all the way back to the 1950s. They have had nice success with that, though they have had to take a couple of properties and resell them in the Iowa City area. Phase three of this involves filing suit on people to pay taxes. They are down to the people who have refused to respond. This is new for the County because they haven’t ever sued people, but that is the point where they are at now with some of these properties. For the seven or eight properties that he showed the Board, there is $450,000 in back taxes. He is working with Assistant County Attorney Andy Chappell and Scott Finlayson to file their first suit.
Neuzil asked if they have been sure to notify the people who owe money. Kriz said that for the past three and a half years, they continue to get delinquent notices and then statements of new taxes that are continuing to accrue each year. So, they are very aware of the situation. A few have said that they will wait until the County does something about it. Harney asked if the figures include interest. Kriz said yes. Neuzil said the money might not be owed directly to the County. Kriz said that the money would be owed collectively. For Jolly Roger Camp Ground, 60% or so is for tax and 40% for interest. Johnson County gets very little of that tax portion because the school district and the cities get a portion. The interest goes to Johnson County though.
R. Sullivan asked about the property changing hands and if debt changes over as well. Kriz said they are looking into that now. R. Sullivan said that some property owners could have been paying taxes since that property was purchased. Kriz said it depends on what arrangements were made when they sold the property. The new owners have been made aware that they have this liability, but have chosen not to pay. R. Sullivan said that there could be a dispute between the original seller and the current owner. Kriz agreed. He said that many times these were verbal or general agreements between the people trading the properties. Neuzil said it is only fair that these people would pay just as everyone else does. He asked what the next step is. Kriz said they will continue to work with the Attorney’s Office and the Assessor’s Office. Most are buildings on leased land.
Neuzil asked if this is an extensive list because he would hate for some people to be singled out. Kriz said that the cases before them are the most viable ones. He will be back later with a list of all of the cases once they get more data. Meyers asked if any of these ever show up on the tax sale in June. Kriz said a building on leased land cannot be sold at tax sale according the Iowa Code because what is being taxed is the actual building, not the land that goes with it. Tax sales are very advantageous things for investors, so that is why each year at the June tax sale, all the real property is sold. In some cases, these are cabins on the river. Some are on government land. Stutsman said the Board has always been supportive of being aggressive on this. It takes a lot of work to pursue these, but the taxpayers have said that they want the County to go after these. Kriz agreed that it is a fairness issue. He said they have tried everything possible to make everything amendable and fair up to this point.
Chappell said they are down to phase three, which are the hard cases. He imagined that Kriz would return to the Board with a long list of taxes that will be very difficult to collect because the taxes may only be a handful of dollars, but the interest makes the sum look greater. He said that Kriz has always focused his energy on the cases that he thinks they can get the most for and with the most efficiency. Kriz noted that under prior law, they couldn’t take partial tax payments, and that has made cases complicated. Sometimes people wanted to start paying. There was no mechanism to allow for partial payment or for paying the current taxes without paying off all of the previous ones. They can, however, do so now.
Meyers asked how this factors in the budget process as far as revenues. Kriz said none of this would figure in because the taxes will mostly go to the schools or cities. If anything, it is costing the County to collect the taxes. Chappell said that the money the Treasurer has brought in over the past three years in taxes has been relatively low. Since the job is so time consuming, County Attorney Janet Lyness decided that the new civil attorney should dedicate a good portion of his time to this project at the outset. Kriz said the project will become more time consuming as the cases become harder.
R. Sullivan suggested giving this list to the media because the people not paying their taxes should be ashamed, and maybe some public pressure will help. He said he doesn’t have a lot of sympathy for the most egregious offenders. Harney said in some cases these involve extenuating circumstances. The current owner might not be the one who did not pay the taxes. Meyers thought that would come up at the bank. Kriz said generally it would, but a building on leased land is case where it is tough to pick up on abstracts. He said they let the new owner know, and they could go back to their legal counsel and ask what to do and what happened. Harney said that it is not necessarily the current owner who has been irresponsible. He asked who will pay for the attorney’s fees. Chappell said it is part of litigation cost, which would be born by the County. They would use the office’s court services budget if they didn’t have the line item for this. This is why they have set aside some of the money from penalty and interest that they have previously collected.
Stutsman said the County is sending a message that they expect people to pay their taxes. Kriz said that Planning and Zoning Administrator Rick Dvorak has been really helpful as have the Assessor’s and Recorder’s Offices. Chappell mentioned that the City of Iowa City has also been helpful, especially regarding the property on Melrose Avenue.
Yoderville Biodiesel Cooperative President Steve Fugate said that he has become increasingly concerned about the cost of transportation fuels. As manager of the Hamburg Inn, they were paying about $50 a month to have their waste fryer oil taken away from the restaurant. As far as personal expenditures, moving from a vehicle getting 8 miles to the gallon to a vehicle getting 42 miles to the gallon, paid for the cost of that car. There are significant opportunities in the community to collect available waste resources and turn them into transportation fuels. Johnson County positions itself as a technology corridor that thinks many, many years ahead. Looking toward efficiency and savings is a very wise choice right now. He said that living in the country, he is paying about 3 times as much for LP gas as he was a few years ago. If transportation fuels tripled in price, it would be a serious economic impact for the County and the state. Iowa imports about 98% of their energy, which means that billions of dollars immediately leave the state. Every gallon of waste oil that they can pick up and turn into fuel is a dollar that stays in the local community. Every dollar that he saves making his own fuel is a dollar that he spends at the hardware store or a restaurant.
Fugate said that regarding emissions, an idling school bus puts out as much pollution as 144 cars. When they think of a line of buses downtown idling, that is a large amount of small particulate matter that causes all sort of problems. Last week, they had a smog alert. Due to atmospheric conditions, the air was so bad that they were concerned. That is a big concern. Biodiesel presents an interesting opportunity because it can be locally grown, and with all the students in town, there is a huge amount of fryer oil. He would encourage the County and other local entities to look towards methods that could be employed to collect these waste resources and turn them into transportation fuels. They would not have to be imported, and this would contribute to significant cost savings. There are several communities that have initiated projects from building codes to fuels. A project in Texas is incredibly interesting because they are talking methane gas off the local landfill and using it to power boilers that power a biodiesel plant.
Neuzil asked if there is a conference coming up. Fugate said that it is National Biodiesel Day on Sunday. They have a manufacturing facility in Tiffin, Iowa right across from the BP gas station. They will be giving people free samples of fuel if they have a diesel car. Hundreds of people have sought them out to learn more about how to begin using biodiesel. Meyers asked if they sell fuel. Fugate said that they do not sell fuel because of the regulatory burden in terms of testing and joining the National Biodiesel Board and registering with the EPA. All of these are expensive endeavors. They do this voluntarily and without profit. Harney suggested they contact the Chamber Agricultural Committee. Fugate said he is speaking at an upcoming event there.
Fugate noted that Iowa really is a leader in renewable energy. They have a great opportunity to pool these resources and the money that has been set aside by the government for such projects. Stutsman asked how the County can help. Fugate said that Johnson County probably purchases tens of thousands of gallons of diesel fuel. Vehicles like plows and so on should be running on at least 20% biodiesel. Stutsman asked if they would have to process it through this machine. Fugate said no, it can be purchased commercially. The City busses are running a 2% biodiesel blend. The Cambus system runs on 3% biodiesel. R. Sullivan said that whole City of Cedar Rapids runs on biodiesel. Yellowstone has been on B100 biodiesel gas for seven years now. The US military also uses biodiesel. He advocated that all diesel County vehicles be run on at least B20 fuel. There is the possibility of making their own fuel as well.
Meyers asked the County Engineer if he had any comments or questions. County Engineer Greg Parker said that they use low sulfur fuel, but biodiesel is an up and coming technology. Biodiesel grows like a fungus that needs to be treated to make sure the filter doesn’t clog, but there are many positives to using biodiesel, Parker said. Meyers asked if they have to treat the gas itself. Parker said yes. Meyers asked if they have to make any mechanical modifications to the vehicles. Parker said that if the buildup gets to be too much, then they do. There are some additional mechanical activities they would have to do for biodiesel. They are looking into it, but they aren’t there yet. Fugate agreed that quality biodiesel is important and many samples are out of specification. The alga that Parker mentioned is a byproduct of water in the fuel. If there is no water, the growth is radically less likely to occur. Transitioning to low sulfur diesel, they are spending a great deal of money replacing filters and such. Biodiesel is not immune to any of the problems that diesel might have. At the same time, it is not a silver bullet.
Stutsman suggested they set up a formal committee to see if this is something the County wants to do. Fugate said they screened a documentary at the library last night that talks about the City of Los Vegas and other municipalities that have begun using biodiesel and have had glowing reviews. The fuel is available locally through a number of stations. He would recommend B20 for the County to ensure total ease of function. Many people use B100, which is radically lowering the tail pipe emissions. It is a clean fuel that is carbon neutral. The coop sequestered 40 tons of CO2 just because a group of a few people didn’t put emissions in the atmosphere. The fuel they produce costs under one dollar a gallon. He encouraged the County to use local virgin oil instead of importing. Meyers said that they are approaching a time when they have used half of all the oil that there is or will be. Then, it becomes a diminishing resource. Fugate said the reality is that it is going to be a cold, hard, ugly world if they don’t do something.
Fugate said that methane released from the landfill produces 25 times as much CO2 as emissions from vehicles. Meyers asked if Iowa City does anything. Fugate said they collect it and burn it off. In Denton, they collect it and use it fire a boiler. There is a group in Cedar Rapids that has some plasma technology for incinerating gas, which turns the gases into methanol, which they use to produce biodiesel. This is another chance to use what can’t be recycled into a catalyst for creating more fuel. Harney thanked Fugate for the presentation.
R. Sullivan said he was intrigued by the idea of creating their own biodiesel. He asked if any of the cities are making their own. Fugate said not many because usually it isn’t done on a small scale. He said they are increasing biodiesel production by 100% each year. Now, those plants are not operating at optimal capacity. R. Sullivan said they would be looking more at purchasing the fuel instead of making it. Fugate said that is a good place to start. Executive Assistant Mike Sullivan said they could put this issue on the agenda for a Department Head Meeting, and the ones who are affected by this could discuss the issue among themselves to see if it is viable. Stutsman said that she thinks the direction needs to come from the Board. Fugate agreed to come to the Department Head meeting. He said that his coop ran over 100,000 on homemade fuel last year. They really want to spread that information.
M. Sullivan reminded the Board that the RFP submittal deadline for the Health and Human Services Building is March 21, 2006 at 4:30 p.m. They will not be accepting any later proposals. Tentative interviews have been set up on April 16, 2007 from 8:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
M. Sullivan noted that Moody's will be coming to the Board for the County's bond rating on April 12, 2007 at 8:30 a.m. He will need a Supervisor to participate in a presentation on this. Once Moody's comes in for the interview they will be able to give an idea for a bond rating that day.
M. Sullivan said that they had three firms respond to the proposal to hire a firm to conduct the justice center site suitability and comparison study out of 12 or so that were contacted. On February 2, 2007, a committee interviewed them. M. Sullivan was instructed to contact references, and met again with the committee on March 5, 2007. They recommended DURRANT to the Board. The Board will need to take formal action to choose a firm and then enter contract negotiations.
Stutsman said that the Trails Advisory Committee is going to have their first meeting on March 21, 2007, and she wanted to make sure the Board was clear on the charge they want to give the committee. There is a directive in the trails plan, but wanted to be sure everyone is on the same track. She talked to Parker and Roadside Vegetation Manager Chris Henze. They said the first meeting will be an organizational meeting. Parker said the first meeting would set the ground rules and establish a chair, vice-chair, and secretary. There have been funds set aside for trail activities and the committee would like some direction from the Board on a vision. Harney said page 9 of the Shared-Use Trails Plan covers all of the issues. Stutsman said that grant writing could be another aspect. Parker said the expertise on this committee will be used to help them apply for available money for the trails, like new trail heads and so on. Meyers agreed that grant writing and research is part of what the committee should do. R. Sullivan said that he would like the committee to lay out some kind of time frame for when different applications are due and so on. Neuzil said that they will have to dissect the trail into manageable segments. Stutsman said she would like to sit in on that meeting. Parker said he will be sure to notify the Board of the time. R. Sullivan asked that the minutes get to the Board and to the website. Parker said they are looking forward to working with this committee.
Stutsman attended the Key Issues work session.
R. Sullivan wished everybody a happy St. Patrick's Day.
Neuzil attended a liaison meeting with Parker, a meeting with Facilities Director David Kempf, and a “We the People” high school constitution competition.
Meyers attended a Communications Committee meeting, a liaison meeting with Facilities Director David Kempf, a meeting with County residents regarding a zoning issue, and a Sierra Club meeting.
Harney attended a liaison meeting with Medical Examiner Administrator Mike Hensch, the Ag Biosciences Committee meeting, a liaison meeting with Parker, and a Key Issues work session.
Adjourned at 10:35 a.m.
Attest: Tom Slockett, Auditor
By Casie Kadlec, Recording Secretary