MINUTES OF THE INFORMAL MEETING OF THE JOHNSON COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS:
JULY 3, 2008
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
Social Services Coordinator Amy Correia: Livable Community for Successful Aging Initiative Charitable Account 1
Social Services Coordinator Amy Correia: Interim Assistance Reimbursement Agreement with the Iowa State Department of Human Services for the Purpose of Administering an Interim Assistance Program Through General Assistance as Indicated in Resolution 05-03-07-02................................................................................... 3
Mental Health/Disability Services Director Kris Artley: ARC of Southeast Iowa Provider Agency Rate for FY09 5
Mental Health/Disability Services Director Kris Artley: Revised Targeted Case Management Policies and Procedure Manual............................................................................................................................ 5
Reports and Inquiries from Executive Assistant Mike Sullivan................................................... 6
Planning and Zoning Administrator Rick Dvorak and Chief Building Inspector Ruben Arsate: Flood Recovery Updates....................................................................................................................................... 6
Board of Supervisors: Smoking Ban on County Property........................................................... 9
Chairperson Sullivan called the Johnson County Board of Supervisors to order in the Johnson County Administration Building at 10:25 a.m. Members present were: Pat Harney, Larry Meyers, Terrence Neuzil, Sally Stutsman, and Rod Sullivan.
Social Services Coordinator Amy Correia said Community Foundation of Johnson County Representative Mike Stoffregen is present to answer questions the Board may have. She said the Livable Community for Successful Aging Initiative Policy Board provides recommendations for the Board on how to help create and sustain a livable community for successful aging. Correia said they have been talking about how to financially sustain the project over time, and the Executive Committee and the Board talked about the possibility of opening up a charitable giving account and an endowment account with the Community Foundation of Johnson County. Correia said they did vote to recommend to the Board to do so as one way of bringing in private donations to help support the initiative over time. Correia said she would like to bring the recommendation to the Board of Supervisors and see what questions they have for Stoffregen.
Harney asked if Correia was asking for contributions from the County. Correia said she wasn’t asking for any contributions, that as a body those creating a fund would be in charge of filling out the enrollment paperwork. Harney asked if it would all be through donations. Correia said it is all through the initiative of the County and the Policy Board. Harney said it sounds like the normal procedure they go through. Stutsman said it sounds like a great idea. R. Sullivan said in the past the County has had some funds that were set aside in the County budget, and that the Auditor’s Office doesn’t care for those funds because they are small amounts they have to set aside and they are difficult to monitor, and the employees have to roll them over. Correia said, in terms of people making a contribution to a 501.C3 that is well respected and established in the community, they felt this was the best way to do that. Additionally, with endowment funds, there is the additional tax credit that people can get that would be an incentive to give to the initiative that would be a good way to help sustain efforts.
R. Sullivan said the audience may be well aware of what Stoffregen does and what great work they do, but that it might be a good opportunity to have him talk a little about the foundation. Stoffregen said the Community Foundation of Johnson County was established in 2000. The mission statement is to help build endowments for the future of the county. Stoffregen said they do represent all of the county, and five of the eleven cities in the county have existing community funds with them, and their emphasis is that they are trying to get all of the cities. The Community Foundation has a matching fund program to get that to happen. Stoffregen said North Liberty and Tiffin are currently in the governance stage, which is establishing that to get it going. He said the interesting thing Correia mentioned is, looking down the road, the State has established the “Endow Iowa” law, which allows a 20% state tax credit for those giving to endowment programs, which has been phenomenal for success of the organizations. Stoffregen said he appreciates all the Supervisors have done for them.
Stutsman said another advantage is that the foundation handles the entire administrative end, charging a small fee to do so, but then at least all the foundations don’t have to their own audits, file their own tax papers, and it is all done under the name of the Community Foundation. She said the foundation invests the funds, and she knows they have a very astute and professional track record on returns for investments. Stutsman said groups trying to invest money are professionals. R. Sullivan said local people as well.
Stoffregen said they had referenced Chatham Oaks as the first the County had moved and had been extremely happy with the return. He said what they have been able to do is have their money go back to them. Harney asked how Stoffregen perceived the funds eventually being used. He asked if it was just for activities, or if it would include overall betterment for the community. Correia said the potential for support could be pretty wide. She said the potential to support the ongoing infrastructure and operations, having the Aging Specialist who is out in the community identifying ways of entry points, of making sure there is a livable community for successful aging, as well as supporting any individual project specific. Correia gave the examples of the ability to support efforts of creating a voluntary certification program for supporting universal design, or helping to seed volunteer transportation efforts for rural transportation for seniors. She said there was an effort involving SEATS to apply for a grant for $50,000 from the Federal government that they didn’t receive, as it was very competitive, so they were able to do some things that they can’t receive outside grants funds from. Correia said their local taxing dollars don’t allow for that. R. Sullivan said the ultimate decision in terms of any expenditures would still remain with the Board, looking to the Policy Board for recommendations. He said they weren’t giving up any authority in terms of spending. The Board agreed to put the item on a future formal agenda for approval.
Correia said the agreement is a standard contract that any County relief office, like General Assistance, needs to, as required by the Social Security Administration, be entered into with the Iowa Department of Human Services to offer an interim assistance program. Correia explained that an interim assistance program allows General Assistance (GA) to be able to provide ongoing monthly assistance to individuals applying for social security and disability services. Correia said what happens when they sign the agreements with individuals for disability is the date of their application for social security/disability would be July 1 2008. She said when the applicants become eligible by social security that they are eligible to receive disability payments, then the individuals receive a lump sum of what they would have been receiving from the date of their application. Correia said the interim assistance program allows for support during the period of time, which can be pretty lengthy, that they don’t have any other means of financial support because they are waiting for their determination. She said the County then agrees to say they will be reimbursed from their lump sum payment from social security for what they paid during the time when the case was being determined. Correia said the agreement the relief office signed between them and the State sets the infrastructure in place that says the County will be reimbursed and there will be forms that they will have to file along the way between the client and the State so they will know they are eligible to receive the payment back for support they paid out. She said to General Assistance, those payments they make to people is not to the client, it is for rent, utilities, and prescriptions up to the monthly amount they would get reimbursed for, so they don’t go over what they would be reimbursed for. Correia said they would fund the maximum that they currently allow for ongoing General Assistance cases up to the amount they would be reimbursed for essentially.
R. Sullivan asked if they had done that for the past year. Correia said they set the resolution in place but staged the beginning of it to the fiscal year. R. Sullivan said they discussed it a year ago, but it is actually going into effect at the current time. Correia said she had Assistant County Attorney Andy Chappell look at the agreement, which is contract language between the Iowa Department of Services and the Board. She said it sets out the requirements for the general relief forms, which Social Services is very familiar with. Correia said they have the desk guide from the department on the process. She said Social Services also met with the Linn County General Assistance program, because they have been doing interim assistance for quite a while, to learn the processes they use to keep track of where their clients are in the process. Correia said they have all of Linn County’s materials and they are very helpful.
Mental Health/Disability Services Director Kris Artley said MH/DS is also interested in utilizing the interim assistance reimbursement agreement because they do some maintenance for some of their clientele as well. She said historically the General Assistance programs are the ones that initiate the project. Artley said, thinking through everything, she wanted to know if because the Federal I.D. has to be the County’s, and there was only one of those, she was wondering if they could make it a broader application. She said since they were going to be a Health and Human Services entity once they have the new building, she thought maybe it could be called that instead since they have to have authorized signatures. Artley said they could have one or two for MH/DS and then Correia could have what she needs for her department, and could then be all encompassing for the County rather than just General Assistance. Artley said that in the agreement form, there is a place to put more than one department within the County. She said they could have it applicable to MH/DS, General Assistance, and the certificate of authority could have more than one signature. County Attorney Janet Lyness said that each application that goes in requires an authorized signature and not just anyone can sign them.
Harney asked if the contract needs to be rewritten so the content of the contract addresses all of that. Artley said it is a standard contract with the State, and they can’t change anything in the contract. She said they either agree to meet the specifications or they don’t do it. Artley said there is a way to add another department to address that. She said what it will do is allow additional income back to MH/DS from the folks they are paying out on over time that they haven’t been reimbursing. Correia said the forms are fill in the blank. R. Sullivan said for years there have been debates over whether or not folks who get MH/DS services should go through General Assistance first or second, and how the two relate. He said that debate has been going on for as long as he can remember. Artley said they have found that some people know to go through GA first and then go to them. R. Sullivan said it is most important that there is communication between GA and MH/DS so that people get helped, but they don’t get helped twice. Artley said that would help alleviate that because they would then get reimbursed. She said whatever money either have invested in the individual are subject for reimbursement if they qualify for SSI at a later date.
Correia said on July 17, 2008, she would like the social work student that has been doing her practicum this summer with Social Services to provide the Board with a presentation during the informal meeting of what she has been doing with the Iowa City Community School District in North Liberty and the North Liberty Youth and Employment project, created in 2008. She said there may be an article in the Press-Citizen about the project.
Recessed at 10:40 a.m.; reconvened at 10:48 a.m.
Artley said there was formal action taken at the last Planning Council meeting to change their department title from MH/DD to MH/DS. Artley said they are currently here to focus on Arc. Approximately 80% of Arc’s services are for children and then the remaining 20% is for adults. The majority of their services also go through the waiver programs. Artley said what the County pays for is negligible. She said if it’s for adults, they pay the non-Federal share or for the very, very few, they may be County funded. Artley said there is Supported Community Living (SCL) and there is supported employment services, and those are two they have talked about with other providers that are seriously being impacted by the gasoline rates because those are services out in the community. She said what they did was take a look at how that rate compared with the current rate offered. Artley said in conjunction with that, they indicated they had gone from contracting services for contracted employees to hiring people instead. She said that drove the budget up substantially that year. Artley said MH/DS had a 6.46% increase in the budget. She said they took that into consideration along with the increase in gasoline, and they stayed within the 6.4% range as far as a request for the two services for FY09. Artley said if they look with comparison to the CRIS Report rate for 2007, that would be in the 18-19.5% increase, which is still less than some of the other providers they have had to deal with because of transportation issues.
Artley said respite service is currently at $16.25 per individual. She said the maximum allowed under Chapter 79 is $17.83 per hour, which equates over the CRIS Report rate at a 6.95% increase. She said she is suggesting that they go ahead and access the maximum rate. Artley said they would paying the non-Federal share for the very few adults that would be receiving the service. They also have respite service for groups. Artley said, historically, because most of the services are for children, they found they need to be a little more efficient in the category simply because when they were charging the group rate they would have 1:1 staff ratio because kids needed to do different things. She said they would try to create more efficiency within the service agencies, and at least at minimum have a 1:2 ratio with the children. Artley said they are very comfortable with leaving the rate established at $10.05. She said she has had two outstanding providers who have had challenges getting rates established, and that they were also in dialogue with St. Luke’s because they want to have individual contracts with individual counties. Stutsman said hospitals usually don’t participate.
Artley said they are providing a draft copy of a revised version of the County’s Targeted Case Management (TCM) Policies and Procedures Manual. Artley said they have some task forces assigned through the TCM Advisory Board, and after they did their preliminary work it was brought internally and the case management supervisors worked with the MH/DS staff over a period of time. She guesstimated that over six months time has been invested in the project. Artley said they had to bring it up to State standards because there were some new rules that applied. She said if there are any historical questions, to direct them to Shaw.
R. Sullivan asked if the project was something that needed to be adopted by the Board. Mental Health/Disability Services Assistant Director Jan Shaw said the project was something they need for their TCM accreditation July 14-17, 2008. She said they had presented it to the TCM Advisory Board on June 23, 2008, and they would make a recommendation to the Board that it be adopted. R. Sullivan asked if adopted meant it already had the comment, etc. He asked if the Board would have to take formal action the next week so they can get it in place for the accreditation survey. Shaw said the accreditation would look at the previous version, because all the rules were not in place then. She said the accreditation is almost four years back because they are very late in processing. R. Sullivan asked if there were further issues. Artley said the document is not user friendly for a case manager coming in, and what they need is how to get from Point A walking in the door and into the system. Artley said that to some extent, the report is fairly generic.
Executive Assistant Mike Sullivan said that on July 8, 2008 the Board is having a Strategic Planning work session, and they will continue with the process they left off last month. M. Sullivan said Wednesday, July 9, 2008 at 8:30 a.m. is the Key Issues meeting. Thursday, July 10, 2008 is the Board meeting. The Department Head Meeting will be July 8, 2008 at 1:30 p.m. instead of July 8, 2008.
R. Sullivan said they left off last time giving Planning and Zoning Administrator Rick Dvorak latitude on flood cleanup. Dvorak said he could not believe the difficulty he had finding porta-potties companies. He said he found a company, was given quotes and rates, and ended up with Hawkeye, a local contractor, with two backups. Dvorak said they have two other companies that would help if needed. He said Hawkeye hired three new people and bought a bunch of dumpsters. Hawkeye would devote one person to two critical areas. He said there are nine going into Riverfront Estates, one for every three homes, and eight going to the Izaak Walton area. Dvorak said he talked to Lauren Southwick and said that last time they put porta potties up by the road, people got upset. He said they are trying to make it easier for people to use. Dvorak said they may not need eight, but they have eight locked in, 17 total. He said he has one at Sutliff and one at Steeples. Dvorak said he thought Steeples had dumped twice already. He said that part of the plan is working well. He said for the toilets they have a contract out of Kalona. Dvorak said that part has been taken care of and he is comfortable with the two companies they have hired.
Dvorak said he met with the billing manager and they have set up a monitoring system. Dvorak said that at each site there is a designated person to be the onsite manager to let them know if there is hazardous material. Dvorak met with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) twice. Dvorak said they have a new contact person who will come curbside to the spots, and he has to send her an email July 3, 2008 about the location. He said one of their critical areas is not so critical, and Building Inspector Rueben Arsate has done inspections on all the areas off Winter Eagle Trail and the Showers area. Dvorak said Arsate did minor inspections on Eli Myers farm, and met with him that morning. He said there were farmers in the northwest corner near the Swan Lake area that did not get flooded but their basements had been getting water in and Dvorak offered his teams to come in and help. Dvorak said overall things are moving as planned.
Dvorak said he also got a call from FEMA about inspectors in Cedar Rapids and going through training that weekend. Dvorak said he would need two inspectors to accompany his inspectors and was told they could satisfy that. He said his teams would be split up in two. Dvorak said they also have a gentleman from MidAmerican Energy that would be accompanying them as well. R. Sullivan said one thing that seems to be a big issue is FEMA and what the local ordinance says about it. He asked if Dvorak saw any need to make changes. R. Sullivan asked if they should ban residents from moving into the flooded areas if flooding occurs every 15 years. Dvorak said they were fairly lucky in that the flooding was similar in both floods. He said those people are insured. Dvorak said a lot of the cabins did not have full-time residents. He said he is comfortable with the way the ordinance is, because he has had five calls from residents in the Izaak Walton area to do buy outs, and he had one call from Southwick who is wanting to sell some of his property because he has property under 99 year leases, and he wants to talk to the residents about doing buyouts. R. Sullivan asked if they still want to pursue it. Dvorak said it can take upwards of two years, so it won’t be a lot. He said some elderly want out as well. Dvorak said they will have a meeting July 7, 2008.
Dvorak said the conflict he is running into is that the law says that if 51% of the structure is damaged, it has to be removed. He said if there is a two year window and not the possibility of buy out, he doesn’t know what the people would do. Dvorak said they couldn’t bulldoze as they don’t have the money for it. Meyers said they are in limbo, putting money into a building that may get torn down. R. Sullivan said he, Arsate, and Assistant Planning and Zoning Administrator R.J. Moore attended a meeting with a FEMA representative. Arsate explained that if they invest money to make it habitable, if FEMA buys them out they would still get the full share back, because money would go into the structure. If homeowners take the money but it doesn’t go into the house, FEMA would then subtract from the total, like getting $20,000, getting $40,000 for the structure if you sell the house and put it into the structure. Arsate said the $20,000 would be subtracted if you didn’t use it for the house. Stutsman asked if the buy outs were limited to $28,000. Arsate said no, it was market value. Dvorak said the $28,000 was for repairs. He said the problem was the money often isn’t enough. Stutsman said she was confused about the amount. Dvorak said it was his understanding with rental they didn’t get anything. He said renters get assistance. Dvorak said, for example, the Ozark resident would get nothing towards the cabins.
R. Sullivan said that was another interesting thing in how they want to view things. He said that is why the cabins on the rivers are confusing. R. Sullivan said there were those residents that chose to live there year round. He said he understands why people would buy fishing cabins, but when the residents start to invest in it as a year round home it becomes an issue. Dvorak said that with the building division they didn’t have in 1993, it would have to be elevated before putting anything more into it. He said the window of two years is confusing to him as to how to protect those people. Dvorak said he doesn’t know how to answer the two years. He said fixing it up according to law is elevating. Dvorak said if the home is elevated, then they don’t have to buy to sell it out. He said in theory it shouldn’t be as impacted as if it were at ground level. Dvorak said the question was brought up the other evening and he didn’t think FEMA responded directly. He addressed the question of if he thought the ordinance was adequate, he thought it certainly was serving its purpose, because if they blanket and rebuild in a flood hazard area, there are Riverfront Estates, there are some very valuable homes. Dvorak said he saw the assessments, and some of the homes had very high values, whereas the cabins and older homes had a very low value. He said he would hate to say yes to tearing everything down.
Dvorak said there were two individuals at Riverfront Estates that wanted building permits for the following week of July 6, 2008, to elevate the structures, one off the foundation. He said he thinks elevating is working, and that people that don’t have the money to rebuild probably or don’t have the money to elevate are looking at buy outs. Dvorak said the goal is to just buy them out. Harney said if they do the buy outs then the land should be used for park space. Dvorak said he doesn’t think his department can convert the land to another shelter for the County. Dvorak said these were in the flood way of the river, that he isn’t talking about flood plane as those rules are pretty safe. He said, from their estimate, they didn’t have a 500 year event, even though he knew a lot of people wouldn’t believe that. Dvorak said, in the rural area there was no or little damage in the 500 year flood. He said they were fortunate in that it was his understanding that what hit them was two feet less than what they thought would hit them. R. Sullivan said they have statistics on the structures that were in the flood way. Dvorak said they had approximately 37 Izaak Walton residents, and 28 on Riverfront Estates. He said, other than that, there were some spotty cabins, and there were a couple they elevated near Tri County Bridge that had been elevated after the flood of 1993. Dvorak said there were around a total of 60-65. R. Sullivan said that didn’t include cabins that were semi-permanent. Dvorak said they were pretty much permanent residents.
Dvorak said the other areas that they thought there might be damage were actually pretty good. Dvorak said the Fountains might be bad and it wasn’t bad at all. Stutsman asked if the residents he just talked about were in the floodway. She asked if the person whose foundation was knocked off would be able to rebuild. Dvorak said only if they elevate it and meet FEMA standards. Stutsman asked even if they were in the floodplain. Dvorak said Izaak Walton and Riverfront Estates is all floodway. R. Sullivan said they could, as a Board, change and prohibit that. Dvorak said that is correct. Stutsman asked if they would get tax dollars to rebuild in the floodway. Dvorak said they couldn’t since they all have flood insurance. He said that as long as they have flood insurance FEMA gives them nothing, so they pay their own way. He said those cabins without insurance get assistance, up to $28,800 of tax money. Dvorak said FEMA doesn’t give money to the insured.
Harney said they pay nothing, but at the same time they are furnishing dumpsters, furnishing tip fees, landfill costs, and he asked at what point should the Board should say they can’t supply those materials once again. Stutsman said they are bringing up an interesting point in that people from Riverview don’t ask for abatements, but to ask for abatements when they expect tax dollars, she doesn’t know about.
Dvorak said he has a question concerning building permit fees from Arsate. He asked if they should not require a payment of fees from the County. Stutsman said she thought they already waived that. Dvorak said he thought the County has wanted them to do a little more checking into some other communities that are charging fees for permits. R. Sullivan said he thought they were going to do what Coralville and Iowa City is doing. Dvorak said he found out FEMA doesn’t reimburse fees. Stutsman thought they should put it on a separate agenda item, and give them numbers about what other groups are doing. R. Sullivan said it will be on the agenda the week of July 7, 2008. Harney asked if they are getting requests for permits currently. Dvorak said they are making the residents pay them now until the Board makes a decision. R. Sullivan said they can put that on the formal the week of July 7, 2008 and make a decision based on the decision they make between the current meeting and then.
Lyness said as of yesterday, the state wide smoking ban went into effect, and it affects all public property, including buildings and grounds. She said all County buildings are smoke free, as well as County vehicles. Lyness said the only thing inconsistent, is if they want to make parking lots smoke free. She said they will be non-smoking unless they decide they want them to be smoking. Lyness said smoking is allowed in private vehicles, so that is already carved out as an exception. She said people aren’t allowed to smoke on sidewalks coming up to a building, but are allowed to smoke on the sidewalks around the building legally. Stutsman thought it was the other way around. R. Sullivan said the City sidewalks can be smoked on. Lyness said it won’t affect the Board’s decision, but the pedestrian mall downtown in Iowa City is considered a right-of-way. She said they had originally had the provision that they could smoke so many feet away from a building, but it probably isn’t applicable anymore depending on what the building is like. Lyness said the designation had originally been 50 feet from a door, and now with it still on the grounds, they can’t smoke there. She said the Sheriff was concerned about his employees smoking out the back door because they would now have to go out to the public sidewalk outside the Jail or the Sheriff’s Office to be able to smoke legally.
Lyness said Human Resources Administrator Lora Shramek, M. Sullivan, and Public Health Director Douglas Beardsley, who were on the handbook committee, will get together and redraft the tobacco policy for the Board to review. She said the flood put them a little behind and they didn’t get it done before July 1, 2008. Lyness said at the current point, the only smoking allowed around the public buildings will be on the public sidewalks or in private vehicles.
Harney asked if they have to resend the present ordinance. Lyness responded they can modify it or be somewhat more restrictive. She said she thought it will be good to keep the ordinance and clarify if the Administrative Building will allow smoking in the parking lot. Harney said the smoking ordinance is already covered by the State. He asked why the County would need a separate one. R. Sullivan said he remembered there was a question about Conservation areas, and that he knew they had talked about not wanting to have smoking by playgrounds and pavilions, but wanted to know about camp sites. Lyness said there can be smoking by camp sites, but that she thought what would happen is the Conservation Board is going to want to look at it and designate where at the different parks there can be smoking. She said if the individuals are in their camp site then they may be able to smoke, but the Conservation Board may change that ordinance or limit it to certain campsites.
R. Sullivan said that it looks like there may be some latitude for local governments. He stated there will not be any action until the Board gets some more direction from the Employee Handbook committee. Lyness said her committee would like some guidance from the Board concerning parking lots. She said if the Board wants to exempt the parking lot from the smoking ban, then the Employee Handbook committee would like to hear that. Lyness said that other than that, her committee would be fairly consistent with the State law. She said if the Board wants exceptions carved out then the Board should let the committee know, otherwise she suspected they will be fairly consistent with the State law. Harney said he wants to be consistent, as the University already has a ban in place and he would just as soon follow the University. Stutsman said she wants to go with the State as well. R. Sullivan said he feels the same way and the only issue he had heard that he is sympathetic with is the campsite issue and he said it sounds like there is already sympathy with the campsite issue. Harney commented they are already burning things at the campsites anyway. Lyness said the ordinance will only apply to smoking tobacco and not burning wood, so there can be a campfire.
Adjourned at 11:19 a.m.
Attest: Tom Slockett, Auditor
By John Deeth, Recording Secretary