MINUTES OF THE INFORMAL MEETING OF THE JOHNSON COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS:
MAY 21, 2008
Chairperson Sullivan called the Johnson County Board of Supervisors to order in the Johnson County Administration Building at 9:02 a.m. Members present were: Pat Harney, Larry Meyers, Terrence Neuzil, Sally Stutsman, and Rod Sullivan.
Executive Assistant Mike Sullivan asked if it is OK to call the process goal setting. He said he is asking because one of the issues is creating a Multi-Year Strategic Plan that is more comprehensive and includes goals. R. Sullivan said it is OK. Stutsman confirmed. M. Sullivan said it is a consistency issue between Strategic Planning and Key Issues meetings.
M. Sullivan said he wants to talk about the implementation phase of the goals identified through the sessions with University of Iowa Institute of Public Affairs Associate Director Jeff Schott. M. Sullivan said at the previous meeting the Board assigned two Supervisors to each goal. He said some Supervisors have more than one goal they are working on. M. Sullivan said they have some idea of the responsibilities involved. M. Sullivan said he provided some questions for the Supervisors to consider while looking through the Action Plans. He said the action plans will look similar to the Key Issues action plans. M. Sullivan said the action plans will identify the task or objective, the responsible people and any opportunities or bad outcomes.
M. Sullivan said he also wants to work on communication tools and methods. He said it is important to determine how the Supervisors will communicate to the public and to each other. He said some ideas include press releases, use of the County web page, e-mail, and print and television media. M. Sullivan said he'd like to create a speaker's bureau of key people in the process. He said that there could be an assignment schedule for people to talk to civic groups.
R. Sullivan said Assistant Planner Josh Busard is still having trouble with people not returning the commuter survey. R. Sullivan said Busard does not have any power to do anything. He said it is the Board's responsibility to follow through with department heads. R. Sullivan said Busard has done all he can do and needs the Board to prod one or two more people along. Stutsman said the Board needs to support Busard and step up to the plate. R. Sullivan agreed. M. Sullivan said Busard was asked to compile the surveys and has done it. He added that the follow through is making sure department heads are talking to their staff about completing and submitting the surveys.
M. Sullivan said the Board needs to look at available resources, including financial, administrative, and personnel. He said the only two he's aware of are the General Basic Fund and the Debt Service. M. Sullivan said he doesn't know if the Supplemental Fund would apply. Stutsman said that grants can be added to the resources list. M. Sullivan said someone from Human Resources should be involved as they go further down the road with human capital issues. M. Sullivan said County staff like Planning and Zoning Administrator Rick Dvorak, Budget Coordinator Rich Claiborne, or County Engineer Greg Parker could also be involved. He said the Board also has Johnson County Council of Governments (JCCOG) and East Central Iowa Council of Governments (ECICOG) as resources if needed.
M. Sullivan said he left the timeline open because he isn't sure what the Board wants. He said that in the Goal Setting Sessions the Board has discussed a timeline of 12 to 24 months. M. Sullivan said those are the key things the Board needs to look at in the implementation phase. Stutsman asked how people feel about adding community groups under available resources. She said she thinks sometimes there is a lot of expertise outside the County that is underutilized. M. Sullivan said that is a good idea.
M. Sullivan explained that when he says "means to citizens" he wants to know how the citizens benefit from the goal and what it means to them. M. Sullivan said that the Board is going to spend money and utilize resources and needs to make sure the taxpayers clearly understand why they are doing that. He said the Board needs to ask what challenges they are going to face and what opportunities are available. M. Sullivan said an example of a challenge is funding. He added that an example of an opportunity is meeting the need of a very overcrowded jail. He said the Board has the Criminal Justice Coordinating Committee (CJCC) and everybody else to help in the process.
M. Sullivan said the Board discussed two objectives at the previous meeting. He said that a short-term goal is hiring a Criminal Justice Coordinator. He said the long-term objective is the financing options. M. Sullivan asked if there are any other objectives the Board needs to look at. Stutsman said location is an objective. R. Sullivan said another objective is deciding whether the new building will be a justice center or a separate jail annex. Neuzil said there is a want and the ability to pay for that want. M. Sullivan said another objective is operational expenses. Stutsman said a long-term objective is selling the proposed jail to the community. Harney agreed.
R. Sullivan said a third of a percent of the residents in Johnson County actually go to jail and about one percent actually use the jail. R. Sullivan said there is a small percentage of residents that believe in social justice and are concerned with jailed people. He said that about 10% of the population believe there should be no jail whatsoever because it's wrong. R. Sullivan said that for the rest of the population the jail means just a tax bill. He said for 80% to 90% of county residents the jail doesn't matter in any way except for the fact that they pay for it. R. Sullivan said the jail is different from other things the County provides. Stutsman said there is a public safety issue. She added that some people feel offenders need to be in jail to protect the community. R. Sullivan agreed. He said there are assumptions that if the criminals aren't in jail in Johnson County they will be in jail somewhere else. M. Sullivan said that is a fair assumption. R. Sullivan repeated most people don't use the jail.
Stutsman said the action plans should include public safety and what it means to citizens. R. Sullivan said the Board needs to approach the issue knowing that for most people the new jail is just a bill. Meyers said to some extent the question is if citizens want to be taxed for the Conservation Bond or the new jail. He said he thinks most people would choose to pay for green spaces. Stutsman said that to some citizens a new jail equates to criminal justice. Meyers said the argument can be made questioning the cost to society for not trying to rehabilitate people.
Stutsman said a new jail objective belongs in criminal justice programming as it relates to rehabilitation. M. Sullivan asked if citizens would interpret jail programming and alternatives to mean less recidivism. Neuzil said the Board has argued that in the Johnson County Mental Health/Developmental Disabilities (MH/DD) approach. M. Sullivan said there is a state prison report that talked about the ungodly amount of people in the prison system that have dual diagnoses and mental health issues. He said the report said if those people can get connected to the community, there is a higher likelihood of reducing recidivism. Stutsman said the Drug Court is there to provide programming so that people can break the cycle while in jail.
R. Sullivan said most people don't set foot in the Courthouse in a given year. He said that for most people, building a new courthouse is just a matter of finance. Neuzil agreed. He said that there is concern about employee safety, inmate safety, and public safety in the Courthouse and Jail. On the operational side of it as well, jurors should be kept separate from other jurors. Stutsman said that maybe the County made a mistake by taking all the offices out of the Courthouse so that people no longer have to go there.
Stutsman said the Board should talk about the historical perspective of the jail. She said some people will be concerned about what will be done with the building. Neuzil said it will be a big issue if the Board chooses to abandon the Courthouse. M. Sullivan said it will be a huge issue. Harney said he doesn't think it would be an issue if the Board finds a use for the Courthouse. Neuzil said in that case the Board wouldn't be abandoning the Courthouse. Stutsman said there is no way the Courthouse will be torn down. She asked if the County can have a whole city block that sits there as a monument. Stutsman said that is pretty high-priced property right next to downtown.
Neuzil said the question is how to use the Courthouse and Jail other than putting a building in between the two. Stutsman said that may be the tipping point for a decision. R. Sullivan said the University of Iowa would pay handsomely to have the Jail. He noted that the Courthouse is a problem. Neuzil said the Jail could be used for kitchen and laundry facilities. He said it may be cheaper to do it that way than to sell the facility. Stutsman agreed. M. Sullivan said if anything else comes to mind to let him know and he can just add it in and the next time the Board meets he will do a review of today's discussion.
Neuzil asked if there has been discussion about how the CJCC Coordinator position will be funded. Stutsman said she thinks the money is coming from County Sheriff Lonny Pulkrabek's budget. Harney said he thinks a lot of dollars would come back and the Board just needs to designate it.
Neuzil said he thinks the Board needs to get an idea of what is being spent on jail transport. Claiborne said the County is spending close to $1 million for FY08. M. Sullivan said it is hard to accurately put a number on what it costs to keep an inmate in the county versus somewhere else. Neuzil said that by looking at the budget it's easy to tell people that the County is spending $1 million that's a good sell but when they find out it's going to be $1.4 million to operate the jail, it's cheaper to ship the inmates. Neuzil said that if it would cost $1.4 million to operate the jail the people would say that it's cheaper to ship the inmates. R. Sullivan said that it goes back to the fact that most people don't have a connection to the jail. Stutsman said she can guarantee that people will ask why the County wants to assume the burden when a lot of inmates can be serviced out of county for the cost of a new jail.
Claiborne said Scott County marketed their new jail by asking the average homeowner if their safety is worth $10 a year. R. Sullivan said he doesn't like that sell because it implies that County residents are not currently safe. Claiborne said the strategy worked. R. Sullivan noted that County residents are safe and will be safe. M. Sullivan said that another challenge is selling the costs to the public. Neuzil said the Board needs to figure out how to incorporate the Johnson County Bar Association in the process. Harney said that falls under objectives.
Stutsman said there are people who feel the County's Human Services policies are creating the demand for a bigger jail. R. Sullivan said people don't know who does what in government. Meyers said that there are very few Chicago people involved in the Iowa City Housing Authority program. R. Sullivan said it is Federal law. Stutsman said it's a real perception that the County wouldn't have these problems if those policies weren't in place. Neuzil said it's a question of how to bring the entire community of governments together. He explained that when one government does something it impacts every level. M. Sullivan said he will include a summary of the discussion in the Action Plans.
R. Sullivan said it's hard for him to understand exactly what the CJCC Coordinator will do. He said he is worried that the coordinator will be doing things that the Board could do. Harney said he thinks that is pretty much the job description. R. Sullivan said he hasn't seen the job description. Neuzil said R. Sullivan is right about the need to define the role. M. Sullivan said the Board is getting the job description and the report from Durrant Group. He said that will address some of the concerns.
Neuzil said the project is coming together but it's still missing a huge component. He said the successful model with the Joint Emergency Communications Center (JECC) worked so well because it holistically involved all the governments. Neuzil said the jail and courthouse are viewed as just the County's problem. M. Sullivan said he thinks that is how the other communities look at it. Neuzil asked how the Board could get other governments to believe it's a community problem. Stutsman said she sees the opposite, that people think it is Iowa City's problem. Neuzil said the County is the one that's paying for it. Harney said each community has a vested interest in the project.
R. Sullivan said that some people say the County is just housing a bunch of drunks. He noted that the statistics show that is not the case. Neuzil said the community says the college kids are the problem. Stutsman said she had lunch with informed members of the community who still think the college kids are the problem. Harney said it doesn't matter if it's that or something else, if people aren't directly affected, they don't pay any attention. He said he had a meeting where people didn't even know about the upcoming election and who is running in it.
Stutsman said the biggest challenge is people's perception that they do not benefit from the jail but have to pay for it. Neuzil said the initial cost of JECC was $20 million and it increased to almost $70 million. Stutsman said everybody talked about regional government and that sold JECC to the public. M. Sullivan said when CJCC was first put together the plan was to look at a jail. He added that the project evolved into an evaluation of the entire County criminal justice system. He said the JECC had the involvement of elected policymakers, the Fire and Police Chiefs, and the Ambulance. M. Sullivan said he thinks it's time to get Iowa City, Coralville, and University Heights Police, the attorneys and the judges involved in the Justice Center issue.
R. Sullivan said all the people on Attorney Jim McCarragher's group have a vested interest in the project because they go to the Courthouse every day. R. Sullivan asked if the County is building something fancy for the hotshot lawyers or for the criminals. He said there's not a great deal of sympathy for criminals or attorneys. R. Sullivan said that there is too much preaching to the choir going on. Stutsman said the Board has done that too much. She said there are always the same people at the table. R. Sullivan said the Board needs to hear alternative points of view. Neuzil said he thought the Board was going to get public input from the study.
M. Sullivan said the Board needs to educate the public. R. Sullivan noted that he hesitates to say educate because it seems condescending. He said the Board just needs to find out what the public thinks. Neuzil said public perspective could come from the Vernon Research Group. M. Sullivan said Vernon Research compiled public input in Polk County. He added that as a result of public perspective the size of the original jail was scaled back. R. Sullivan asked if Polk County ended up building a 2,000-bed jail. M. Sullivan said he thinks they built an even smaller jail. R. Sullivan asked if the jail has 1,500 beds. M. Sullivan said Polk County cut the size of the jail in half.
Harney said CJCC has gone as far as they can. He noted that CJCC has worked on the project for almost eight years. Harney said it is time to get the public and everyone else involved. He said having a coordinator would help draw everything together. M. Sullivan said that on June 4, 2008 he would present a draft of the coordinator job description to the Board and CJCC. He said County Attorney Janet Lyness, Pulkrabek, and Mid-Eastern Council on Chemical Abuse Executive Director Art Schut have read the draft and commented on it.
Stutsman said another challenge is the possibility that the jail will never pass the referendum. Harney said the Board members need to keep that in the back of their minds but at the same time think positive and try to sell the jail proposal. Neuzil said he thinks plan B is to continue shipping prisoners out of county. He said that unfortunately plan B might look more attractive. He said he thinks the Board will realize they can't build a $70 million project in the community right now. Harney said he thinks the projected numbers are higher than the actual cost. R. Sullivan said there are some other plan B's. He said Muscatine County has an annex. M. Sullivan said it's good to have an alternative in case the jail proposal doesn't pass.
R. Sullivan said another challenge would be a situation when three supervisors and the sheriff or the county attorney support but then two supervisors and the county attorney or sheriff doesn't. He said if the elected officials are split on the proposal all the public has to do is say no. M. Sullivan said a challenge he was thinking about is developing a consensus between key people and policymakers. Neuzil said he thinks the police departments are part of it too. R. Sullivan said the County Attorney and County Sheriff are very involved but he doesn't want County Treasurer Tom Kriz and County Auditor Tom Slockett publicly saying the jail is too much.
Neuzil said another challenge that works well for him is what will happen when the County runs out of space in area jails. Neuzil said he thinks that as the communities are growing and running out of space finding locations for prisoners will be a challenge for the next couple years. Stutsman said that is a challenge that comes under the jail. Neuzil said it's a challenge that is already starting to hit. M. Sullivan said other counties are not obligated to house County inmates. M. Sullivan said he thinks it's a priority to fill the CJCC Coordinator position. He noted that Durrant Representative Mike Lewis needs to be present to do some more explaining.
M. Sullivan said he would take responsibility for writing the goal setting plan. He said the Board would talk about the plan and vote on it to be the Two Year Goal Setting Plan. Stutsman said she thinks it's good that M. Sullivan will write the plan. R. Sullivan said if the Board thinks something is not worded correctly they can talk about it. M. Sullivan said in the end it is the Board's document. He said that his job is just to get it prepared. He said it will be invaluable to the other elected officials to see the Board has their goals and objectives set.
Neuzil said he and Meyers are working on green initiatives. He said the National Association of Counties has put together a list on how to address green initiatives. He said that the very first thing is to create a Green Team. Neuzil read "the county board or executive may assign a staff member or a team of staff members to inventory their county's current programs and policies related to green government, develop a comprehensive green county action plan and organize county green events for employees and citizens such as bike-to-work days." He said he thinks the County is already doing a lot of that. Stutsman said she thinks that's what the objective should be. R. Sullivan said the County almost has the team started with Neuzil, Meyers, Busard, and Facilities Director Dave Kempf. He said Coralville, Iowa City, North Liberty, and the County have all signed onto this. R. Sullivan said that the Board was talking about creating a citizen advisory group.
Neuzil said Iowa City Sierra Club Chair Mike Carberry is on top of the issue. Neuzil said that according to Carberry there are two Green Teams in the county. He added that is the County perspective on what the Board needs to do and then there is the JCCOG approach. Neuzil read "incorporate triple bottom line analysis balance of economic, social, and environmental considerations; ensure that regular meetings occur among the county board members and team to help synthesize your efforts county-wide; identify relevant external stakeholders like farmers and researchers; create private/public partnerships; and promote regional collaboration." Neuzil said there is no reason to reinvent the wheel since other communities have already done this.
R. Sullivan said there is a young guy who is one of the 10 LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified engineers in the state. R. Sullivan said he works for the University of Iowa and got appointed to the North Liberty Planning and Zoning. R. Sullivan said he is willing to help and is the kind of guy the communities should all share. M. Sullivan said North Liberty City Administrator Ryan Heiar is very interested in anything regional that promotes any type of collaboration.
Harney said the Board needs to get the team in place because Busard is getting overwhelmed by the demands of the green initiatives. Harney said he is getting national- and federal-level conference calls and Busard is partaking in a lot of them even though he doesn't have the time to manage them all. Harney said if the Board is willing to go to that level they need to be committed to work on it. Neuzil said he and Meyers could get together and start designing the Green Team and some specific objectives. Stutsman said she wants to keep the focus on Cool Counties.
Meyers said he has a list of starting points for the Metro Plan. He noted that most of the ideas are under discussion with JCCOG. Stutsman said JCCOG has taken the initiative and the Board can't go in a different direction. Neuzil asked if the Board should hold off the discussion on the Metro Plan. R. Sullivan asked if the Board should write a letter to JCCOG to say that after hearing from constituents over the years, and having done Strategic Planning, the Metro Plan came out as a top issue. He said the fact of the matter is the County wants to see more cooperation than the individual owners of the systems.
Neuzil said one recurring challenge is if the Board pursues the idea of a trolley or train system, and if the Board gets funding for the project they would still need to come up with 20% of the cost of the project. He said most projects like this are estimated at $80 million. Neuzil said the challenge is how to pay for such a project. Harney said that four years ago when the Board tried to introduce the Metro Transit Authority, Iowa City and Coralville dug their heels in. He said it's a territorial issue. He said he doesn't know why the issue is so deeply ingrained other than for fear of losing federal funding. Stutsman noted that the cities swore up and down that they could not create a more efficient system than what is already in place. R. Sullivan said Coralville, North Liberty, and Iowa City have totally different philosophies, but manage to cooperate pretty well. He said it makes him mad when Ames is always rated number one. He noted that Ames is consolidated and gets more federal money.
Neuzil said when he and Harney went to Washington D.C. three or four years ago to pitch the idea of the train system, staff asked how many buses are running between Cedar Rapids and Iowa City and North Liberty and Iowa City. He said there is only one barely full bus running between North Liberty and Iowa City. Meyers said the County will not get any money for a rail system until there is a proven bus system in place. R. Sullivan said North Liberty had many obstacles, but decided to invest $100,000 for a public bus system. Harney said he heard people wonder how the County can expect to provide a train route when it's not providing a bus service between Cedar Rapids and Iowa City. R. Sullivan said JCCOG is definitely looking at creating that bus route.
M. Sullivan said most of the funding is federal. He noted that the federal government will give money for roads but not for transit systems. Neuzil said the objective is to work with JCCOG. R. Sullivan asked if the Board wants to write a letter. Stutsman said that can be an action step under the objectives. Neuzil asked if the Board should start setting dollars aside for rural transit in next year's budget.
Neuzil said he heard people suggesting adding a lane on Dubuque Street to be used solely for mass transit. Stutsman said all these things will come up in the JCCOG study. Meyers asked how to get people to walk from their subdivision to a bus stop. Meyers said it will be hard to get people to change their habits. He noted that the County can't build parking lots everywhere so people can drive to bus stops. Neuzil said it's a generational thing and that will change in the next 25 years. Meyers said years ago, when he lived in the city, he didn't have to walk two blocks in any direction to catch a bus. He said that a long term solution may be running the bus down the end of Stuart Road and then back up to Dubuque Street.
Neuzil said one of the biggest hurdles for people taking the bus is that it takes longer than driving or riding a bike. Neuzil said if there is a special lane for mass transit the bus rides will be much faster. He said the County will have to find a way to help fund the Metro Transit Plan. Harney said it would be an asset to have a rail system from Iowa City to Cedar Rapids. Stutsman said the County should not be the only one paying if it is a community wide system. Neuzil agreed.
Meyers said that Stutsman has repeatedly brought up the idea of satellite parking with a shuttle system. He said the Board should probably look at the idea. Meyers said the University of Iowa provides transportation to UI employees with vans for people who live in Solon or as far away as Washington. He said the County should look at providing something similar for its employees. Stutsman said the County should do an evaluation to see if there is a need for vans or a shuttle system.
R. Sullivan said Kriz created a list of how many employees live in each zip code. R. Sullivan said there are around 40 County employees from Oxford. He said that the County Poor Farm makes sense as a place to shuttle from. Neuzil said there will not be a parking problem. Stutsman said there might be if people don't want to pay $25 a month. Neuzil said that with a shuttle system the people would drive all the way to the Poor Farm and shuttle for two more miles. M. Sullivan said the idea should be evaluated.
In terms of Rural Economic Development, R. Sullivan said one specific thing to discuss is wind turbines and wind farms. He said the Land Use Plan is totally silent on that. R. Sullivan said the Plan doesn't say anything except that if the turbines are proposed within two miles of a city, the city can deny it. R. Sullivan said someone on IWV Road wanted to put up a wind farm and the Board doesn't address that at all. He asked if it is considered agricultural or industrial use. R. Sullivan said there are two types of requests, residential and industrial. He said neither one is addressed in the Land Use Plan. R. Sullivan said the County should examine best practices from other places. Neuzil said that is an interesting approach to economic development that he has not thought about.
Neuzil said that it would be helpful to look at a list of incentives to add to the action plans. Stutsman said that the Board needs to review what is already in place. Neuzil said it might be helpful to ask the Iowa State Association of Counties (ISAC) to consider holding a seminar on rural economic development incentives. He said the Board should consider putting dollars away for economic development and incentives for Community Action Tourism (CAT) grants. Neuzil said the County could use a CAT grant to enhance the County Poor Farm and to create something around the Cheese Factory in Kalona and the Farmers' Market in Frytown. M. Sullivan said the availability and qualification for grant money depends on the project the Board is working on. Stutsman said there is plenty of economic development occurring in the County. She asked if it is fair to compete with Osage County for a grant.
R. Sullivan said that different city councils say the County doesn't do anything for economic development. He said that assumption ignores the fact that there is $100 million worth of agriculture going on in Johnson County. R. Sullivan said that is big business and some councilors act like it doesn't exist. He said one of the things the Board needs to do is emphasize the County's agriculture. Stutsman said County Extension Education Director Gene Mohling does a terrific presentation for the Community Leadership Program Ag Day. She said he talks mainly about the County's agriculture. R. Sullivan said he gets mad when people say the County doesn't do anything just because it hasn't given away a bunch of tax dollars.
Harney said the County has tried to designate areas around small communities for commercial properties but has never fully addressed the issue. Stutsman said Planning and Zoning has identified areas and key intersections. Neuzil said there are disincentives for people to put together neat projects simply because they can't afford the infrastructure or the policies. He said a gentleman with a neat concept for a wine distillery was not able to build because of the policies. Neuzil said another example is a gentleman who wants to expand his business into a grocery store. Neuzil noted he doesn't disagree with the policy but it's something that ought to be looked at. Stutsman said that falls under reviewing what is already in place for policy, procedure and tools.
Stutsman said she'd like to have an analysis component done to determine if it is worthy for the County to put money into upgrades. Neuzil said the City put a giant cement factory down by the Isaac Walton League Park on a gravel road and in a floodplain. M. Sullivan said every year the cities become more and more landlocked.
R. Sullivan said the cities don't appreciate that the County doesn't compete against them. He said there is an idea that the County doesn't do anything even though it considerably helps the cities. Stutsman said the Board should plan an industrial park to get everybody's attention. R. Sullivan said he feels they should discuss that just to get the attention. Meyers said people say that County doesn't do anything for economic development because they want more money from the County. M. Sullivan said the focus of economic development is the commitment to the County's agricultural community that generates millions of dollars every year.
R. Sullivan said the County needs to educate people. Stutsman said it would be a perfect lead-in to have Mohling speak about agriculture and economic development at the next Joint Cities meeting. R. Sullivan said Mohling should also talk about the things the County doesn't do in order to help the cities. Stutsman said someone from Syngenta Seeds and Stutsman's Inc. could be invited to present all the jobs they created. R. Sullivan said some of this falls under public relations.
Stutsman said if the Board identifies what they want to happen they will have to make some revisions to the Secondary Roads Policies to ease the achievement of goals. R. Sullivan said the County has to revise the policies and at the same time protect farmers from encroachment. He noted that the County has a committee that hasn't met since Assistant Planner Dan Swartzendruber left. M. Sullivan said Swartzendruber was the one who crafted the first Economic Development insert included in the Land Use Plan. Stutsman said people rail against zoning but zoning is a protection.
R. Sullivan said the Board working with Linn County on the Public Leadership Group is a good cooperative effort that should be mentioned at the Joint Cities meeting. M. Sullivan said it is a good means to the citizens. Harney said the Board should also mention the Technology Corridor Business Alliance as a community leader.
Neuzil said the County needs to put dollars away for groups promoting local foods. R. Sullivan said it would be nice to have money set aside to do things without the hassle. Neuzil said the Board should put the Economic Development Committee together. Neuzil said when someone approaches the County for dollars they should go to the Economic Development Committee first. R. Sullivan said the Board should get the Committee together to discuss some things before the applications are submitted. Neuzil said there is no money in it right now so starting with next year's budget the Board should say here is $10,000 that this committee will have. R. Sullivan said the Committee is a good place to review the policies that are already in place. Neuzil said the County is going to have $8,000 in requests from Coralville and Iowa City for two CAT grants.
In terms of Secondary Roads, Meyers said a lot of the things are already under discussion with the 5 Year Road Plan, Road Performance Standards, and Chip Seal Committee. Neuzil said the Board needs to push the enforcement of the implementation schedule. He noted the Chip Seal Policy was supposed to be done but the completion date was pushed to 2009. Harney said Assistant County Attorney Andy Chappell told him he never received a timeline for the project. Neuzil said a goal should be to have a plan in place by spring 2009.
Harney said the Board needs to sit down with Secondary Roads staff and review their policies. Neuzil said Secondary Roads staff is pretty stubborn. Harney asked who sets the policies, Secondary Roads or the Board or if it is a combination. Meyers said chip seal is a good example because the Board just went through the road embargo issue. Meyers said Taft Avenue is a County road but the City does the chip seal maintenance on it. Neuzil said the City didn't expand Taft Avenue but just put oil on the road. Harney said he thinks the City is planning to do something similar to what was done on Lower West Branch Road.
Stutsman said there is a lower speed limit if the road is within the City limits. Meyers said an issue to be looked at is whether the Board should be encouraging a speed of 55 miles per hour in some places. Harney said Newport Road and Sugar Bottom Road have enough growth and there should be a lower speed limit. Meyers agreed. Harney said Pulkrabek would argue that the speed limit couldn't be enforced. Neuzil said there is a difference between designing a 35 miles per hour road and having people drive at 35 miles per hour. He said the speed limit on Prairie du Chien Road is 35 miles per hour and drivers have been clocked at 90 miles per hour. M. Sullivan said people drive at the speed they are comfortable driving at regardless of the road surface. Meyers said that the engineers say that the average person will not see a difference between a 35 and 55 mile per hour design; the difference is in the engineering. Meyers added that individuals driving down the road do not see anything different than a highway.
Meyers said some of this goes back to some of Secondary Roads policy being stubborn. Meyers said the Scenic Roads Plan is in the Land Use Plan. Neuzil said the Board should discuss Scenic Roads Plan. Meyers asked how a scenic road can be built or even upgraded if Secondary Roads remains stubborn and doesn't adopt different standards. R. Sullivan said they may be talking about whether the Board has a shared vision and he thinks the Board does. Harney said in defense of Secondary Roads, they have standards they need to follow because they are using state and federal dollars. Meyers said that if the County contributes 100% of the money, the County Engineer should give the Board what it wants. Stutsman said another issue is that the County's insurance carrier has to sign off on this stuff too.
For example, Neuzil said, instead of a 100-foot right-of-way there could be an 80-foot right-of-way with a guardrail like is done in every other community in the United States. R. Sullivan said the whole area between Des Moines and Ames is a mix of chip sealed with curves and there's some paved roads. He said it is everything that the Board was told they can't to do. Stutsman said the Board should look at best practices then. She said that Secondary Roads should meet with the Board at least twice a year to review polices and procedures. She said Secondary Roads could come in during the first Key Issues meetings for spring and fall. She said that Secondary Roads need to make their case and the Board needs to present its case.
Meyers said another issue coming up is dust control. He asked if the County has only one alternative to dust control, that's either rebuilding the road into a chip seal road or spraying something that lasts a few weeks. Neuzil said the Board has been told the option is rebuilding the road into a hard-surface road but continuing to use it as a chip seal surface. Neuzil said the Chip Seal Policy is off the table. Harney said Chappell didn't know the Board wanted the policy done before the application. R. Sullivan said that he is interested in telling people that the Board feels their pain enough to offer options. He added that the Board can allow other dust alleviation options, but the people will have to pay for those themselves. He noted that people want to pay for dust control or chip seal but the County won't let them. Neuzil said the County continues to put money into a Capital Improvements Plan (CIP) program that has zero results. He said the County should have close to $800,000 in that fund. M. Sullivan said he thought the Board intended that fund to be used on gravel roads initially.
Neuzil said the Board needs to talk about expanding the CIP program. He said maybe in the 5 Year Road Plan, one of every five years the Board needs to hold off on upgrading existing hard surface roads and work on a chip seal road. Stutsman said that is something the Board can do. She said she does not see what is wrong with the road between Frytown and the County line. Neuzil said he is not sure why the road is so important other than adding width for buggies. Meyers said he thinks it's because the pavement is not perfect. Neuzil said they are talking about Herbert Hoover Highway, which has a brand new surface.
Stutsman said Lone Tree has received a lot of attention. Neuzil said there are issues the Board needs to look at, particularly with regard to prioritizing the roads. He said Herbert Hoover Highway has a brand new surface. Neuzil said that the State should have made the Highway wider. Meyers said the 5 Year Road Plan includes five years of projects. He added that he wonders if Secondary Roads is just trying to fill in the spaces.
R. Sullivan said the Board needs to articulate what it wants. To Secondary Roads' credit, Stutsman said they are trying to give attention to the whole County. Stutsman said it would be very easy to give attention just to the roads outside Iowa City. She said County residents keep track of where the roads are maintained. M. Sullivan said sooner than later one of the big challenges will be the federal funds to be used for improving the bridges.
R. Sullivan said it feels like the Board needs six or seven goals that need to be accomplished. Stutsman said it is a good objective to have Secondary Roads reflect the Board's policies and priorities. R. Sullivan said he thinks everyone is frustrated with the CIP and that needs to be a goal. M. Sullivan said that achieving the goals comes down to staff resources. M. Sullivan said once the Board establishes its policies it is the department heads' responsibility and his as well to assure that the policies are followed through. Neuzil said he was just giving an example of a situation when the Board knew it wanted a certain road in the 5 Year Road Plan, but when the plan was presented, it was not included until the Board told staff to add it. He said that is an example of how the Board needs to get the engineers to buy into a policy that the majority of the Board wants to pursue. M. Sullivan said a lot of that is communication. He said he is a big believer in consensus when it comes to big plans.
Meyers expressed his concern in regard to the Farmstead Split Ordinance. Neuzil said Stutsman was the only one on the Board when the policy was created. He explained that the policy was created as a compromise to allow farmers to do one split for the life of the land. Stutsman said they were trying to prevent farmers from giving a piece of property to their relatives. Stutsman said that unfortunately that cannot be controlled. Meyers said that in the time he has been on the Board he has only seen one of those instances. R. Sullivan said there have been a few more instances. Neuzil said the question is how that relates to the amount of vehicles the County allows out there. Meyers said the housing generates more traffic. R. Sullivan said a lot of family farmers say they need a place for their kids to live on or they will not join the family business. He noted the issue goes back to rural economic development. Meyers said he isn't convinced that is happening these days. R. Sullivan asked what should be done differently. Stutsman said there will have to be a discussion on how to define someone who is coming home to farm.
R. Sullivan said he doesn't know what the Board can do differently. Stutsman agreed. R. Sullivan said if there is a solution he would love to hear it. Neuzil said the Board has started the process of limiting the size of farmstead splits. R. Sullivan said nine months ago there was an estate sale and the Board received several calls from concerned neighbors. He added that shows people understand the rules.
Neuzil said it would be helpful to define what the Multi-Year Strategic Plan is. He said that is a catchall for topics like whether the Board of Supervisors should be part-time or full-time. R. Sullivan said the Board has done some triage policy for Mental Health/Developmental Disabilities (MH/DD). He said that a similar policy might be good County-wide. Neuzil said the Board did not have a budget cut since 2002. He added that it is good to have a discussion while times are OK about what the Board would do if times get bad. Stutsman said she would like to see more discussion about where the Board is headed. Stutsman asked what impact all the annexations will have on the tax base. M. Sullivan said the Multi-Year Strategic Plan allows the Board to do some forecasting. Neuzil said technology is a big part of that.
M. Sullivan said he would be happy to start working on the Multi-Year Strategic Plan. Stutsman said maybe all elected officials should work on it. M. Sullivan said that everybody including department heads should be involved in reviewing the plan. R. Sullivan said it would be good to have the draft ready for the next Elected Officials Meeting. R. Sullivan said the plan draft should be the first item on the agenda. Stutsman said maybe it should be the only item on the agenda.
Neuzil said he wants more discussion about how to combine certain services. He said the Board talked about sharing employees, consolidating departments, creating a finance department, and a mapping division. Stutsman asked what the County mapping departments are. Neuzil said the Auditor's Office, Information Services, and Planning and Zoning are three departments that do mapping. He said the Board could also include the Assessor's Office. Stutsman said the Board needs to reevaluate the collaboration to see if there is a better way to do it. R. Sullivan said Polk County's Assessor claims that the City of Des Moines saved $250,000 by going to a full county assessor. Stutsman said the Board should see if there are opportunities to share services with other local governments.
R. Sullivan said the Board members feel they aren't doing a good enough job with public relations and information. R. Sullivan said that overall the Board knows it doesn't do a good enough job of getting the word out. Meyers said when he talks to people he realizes how uninformed or misinformed they are. He said the Board should do an occasional Saturday morning public meeting at the library, like the legislators do. He said for about two hours the citizens could come in and ask questions on particular subjects. Stutsman said that might be a good idea. She said the Board could hold its own forum and maybe people will pick up on it and come prepared with questions. R. Sullivan said over a four-year cycle they could have meetings in all the cities within Johnson County’s borders. He noted that recently Linn County had a joint meeting with Mount Vernon City Council. He said Linn County has good luck in terms of people getting involved. Stutsman said the Board did not have any luck when going out to the community.
Harney said he thinks the Board could do a lot more. He said that one thing that has never materialized but is always talked about is having regular press releases. He said the press releases could talk about things like roads coming on and off the embargoes. Stutsman asked why the press didn't cover Johnson County Social Services Coordinator Amy Correia getting an award from the Internal Revenue Service. Neuzil asked if the Board sent a press release on that. Stutsman said someone called the press. She said the Board could take advantage of the photo thing the Iowa City Press Citizen does.
M. Sullivan said the City of Iowa City and the City of Coralville have subscriber software. M. Sullivan said that the County has an automated subscription for agenda and minutes. Meyers said Secondary Roads has something similar. R. Sullivan said Linn County has an employee who is a half-time public information officer and a half-time grant writer. Stutsman said maybe a University of Iowa journalism student might want to get involved. R. Sullivan said maybe the student can intern under M. Sullivan. Stutsman said the student could write at home and wouldn't need an office. Neuzil asked if they could put Secretary II Jo Hogarty or Secretary II Shannon Carter at an information desk in the Administration Building. Stutsman said all the Board members have been on the KCJJ AM radio station. She said that maybe the Board should do a call-in every Friday morning. She said maybe the Board members could take turns doing it on the first Friday of every month. R. Sullivan said it might be interesting to give that a try to reach different people. Stutsman asked if the public meetings at the library could be televised. R. Sullivan said they could probably have the meetings televised.
R. Sullivan said it feels like the Board is constantly in battle with the two newspapers. Stutsman said the Board needs to sit down regularly with their editorial boards. R. Sullivan said maybe the Board needs to call the editorial boards for a meeting and be ready to answer questions. M. Sullivan said before every meeting he gets a call from The Press Citizen, The Gazette, and sometimes The Daily Iowan asking what on the agenda is important enough for them to come to the meeting. He said he tells them everything on the agenda is important and is public information. Stutsman said she thinks it would be good if even just quarterly Board members take turns going to different editorial boards where they can clear up misunderstandings and answer questions. Harney said it is a good idea and he doesn't mind doing it. Stutsman said the public does not know what the Board does because the papers don't cover anything unless it's controversial.
M. Sullivan said the Criminal Justice Coordinating Committee meeting is on June 4, 2008. He said that the draft job description for the coordinator position will be presented at the June 4, 2008 meeting. Stutsman said the next Strategic Planning meeting is on June 18, 2008. Harney said he will not be present.
Adjourned at 11:03 a.m.
Attest: Tom Slockett, Auditor
By John Deeth, Recording Secretary