MINUTES OF THE INFORMAL MEETING OF THE JOHNSON COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS:
JULY 8, 2008
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
Human Resources Administrator Lora Shramek: Job Postings................................................... 1
Human Resources Administrator Lora Shramek: Smoke-free Air Act........................................ 2
Board of Supervisors: Honoring County Employees for Flood Related Work............................... 4
Board of Supervisors: Honoring Citizens for Flood Related Work............................................... 6
Board of Supervisors: Emergency Closure of County Facilities.................................................. 6
Board of Supervisors: Federal Issues....................................................................................... 7
Board of Supervisors: ISAC Awards....................................................................................... 8
Reports/Updates From Department Heads............................................................................... 8
Scheduling Date and Time of Next Meeting............................................................................ 12
Chairperson Sullivan called the Johnson County Board of Supervisors to order in the Johnson County Administration Building as a Department Head Meeting at 1:30 p.m. Members present were: Rod Sullivan, Sally Stutsman, Pat Harney, Terrence Neuzil, and Larry Meyers.
Department heads present were: Ambulance Director Steve Spenler, City Assessor Dennis Baldridge, Conservation Department Director Harry Graves, County Assessor Bill Greazel, County Attorney Janet Lyness, County Engineer Greg Parker, County Sheriff Lonny Pulkrabek, Emergency Management Coordinator Dave Wilson, Facilities Manager David Kempf, Human Resources Administrator Lora Shramek, Information Services Director Jean Schultz, Medical Examiner Administrator Michael Hensch, Mental Health/Disability Services Director Kris Artley, Public Health Director Douglas Beardsley, SEATS Director Tom Brase, Social Services Director Amy Correia, and Veterans Affairs Commission Director Leo Baier. Staff present were: Board of Supervisors Executive Assistant Mike Sullivan and Auditor’s Office Account Clerk II John Deeth.
Human Resources Administrator Lora Shramek said when an employee gives notice sometimes they are only thinking about getting the job filled and filled fast, but it is important to take the time necessary to get the employee needed. Shramek said prior to posting a job description, departments need to review and update job descriptions with Human Resources, and then make sure that all essential functions are included. She said departments need to ask themselves if there are any listed tasks or responsibilities that are obsolete or no longer needed. Shramek said another question that needs to be asked is if the job is still needed or if perhaps it needs to be replaced. Another question to ask is if a department needs to grow and/or change. Shramek said changes and positions are much easier with vacancies, and if there is a significant job change it needs to be discussed and re-evaluated for appropriate classification as well as compensation. She said there is also budget consideration and there needs to be approval by the Board. Shramek said if there is coverage by a collective bargaining unit then they need to be communicated to the union and the wages need to be bargained if applicable.
Shramek said when ready to draft the job posting, the job needs to be described briefly and specified where the employment application is to be sent, communicating a deadline recruitment minimum of one week, preferably two weeks for most positions, and a month for management level positions. Shramek said the job can be listed as being open until filled for harder to fill jobs, including the most prevalent job qualifications and then reference web sites for further details. She said it is important to sell the job and the benefits.
Shramek said the County is an outstanding place to work and there is a lot to offer prospective candidates. She said when posting the job internally, it is important to review the internal job qualifications and requirements for collective bargaining units. Shramek said, for example, in the Administrative Unit, they need to check first on the transfer list. She said the job can be posted externally and it needs to be posted on the County website as well as the Iowa Workforce Development site. She said those are the minimum requirements for the Affirmative Action/Equal Employment Opportunity (AA/EEO). Shramek said the jobs should also be posted within other County buildings and take advantage of word of mouth free advertising. She said paid sites, newspapers, internet listings as needed, and list serves are all ways of getting the word out. Shramek said this also involves organizations and colleges. She added HR is available with any questions as well.
Shramek said everyone should have received an email from Executive Assistant Mike Sullivan on July 1, 2008 regarding the Smoke Free Air Act being in effect. She said he also included a Q and A from the Iowa Department of Public Health and postings to put up. Shramek said the County Policy also needs to be redone, with direction from the Board, and she asked if a specific committee needs to be set up for updating the policy or if the delegation needs to be given to her. She said there is the expectation of further administrative rule changes and clarifications. Shramek said she doesn’t know if County Attorney Janet Lyness knows if administrative rules will be forthcoming.
Lyness responded she doesn’t know if that will change a lot of what they need to do. Stutsman said it seems to her that the law is pretty cut and dry with not a lot of room for discussion and flexibility. Shramek said there is no smoking on public grounds, however there is a little leeway of defining what the grounds are and her understanding is that an organization could exclude a parking lot. Lyness said if the Board decided to allow smoking in the parking lot, they could take action. Harney asked if the Board could just adopt the State clause as it currently is and make exceptions if they see one, or if the Board has to follow a policy that goes with the State. Lyness said the State Law overrides what the Board does if they want to make certain areas less restrictive, such as parking lots. She explained the Board could make it more restrictive as well.
Neuzil said those on the committee that put the newest policy together and wanted to ban it, ran into obstacles such as the Courthouse, particularly judges’ feelings on it, and the Administration Building. He said stepping out to the sidewalk at the Administration Building was actually closer to the back doorway than hiding someone by the dumpster. Neuzil explained that is why they decided on the dumpster rather than having people drive by and seeing many people smoking on the sidewalk. He said the doorway is so close to a public sidewalk that the Board decided on a compromise. Neuzil said, other than that issue, if the Board could get around saying no smoking on the grounds and asking employees not to smoke on the sidewalk next to the door, that would be something. County Sheriff Lonny Pulkrabek asked if the Board was directing Facilities Manager Dave Kempf to remove all the ashtrays from the buildings, because he pointed out that the Sheriff's Office is attached to the Jail. Pulkrabek said the Chiefs met with Lyness recently and they were talking about some issues because he anticipates some increases in littering because he doesn’t believe employees will be able to go to the sidewalks and smoke by the law. He said as he understands now from Lyness’s explanation, individuals can indeed do so. Pulkrabek said he sees littering becoming a problem, a catch twenty-two, and he would prefer workers not do so. Shramek said her understanding is ashtrays are allowed on the perimeter of the grounds.
Stutsman said Shramek had asked for direction from the Board about a committee, and that everyone is so busy that if Shramek just wants to draft something, as the issues have been hashed out with the committees. Stutsman said there will be a committee. Neuzil said unless someone objects, he thinks the Board should follow what the State law says. Harney said that is what he expects. Neuzil said it makes things a lot easier. Shramek said whether or not to include parking lots is huge. Harney said he thinks parking lots should be included, just like State law says. Social Services Coordinator Amy Correia said an issue with her building is that people can go to a grassy area, otherwise people are hidden from the public and have to go to the park sidewalk. She said everyone comes in the building and everyone drives by.
Public Health Director Douglas Beardsley said at his place of employment people are currently sitting in their vehicles smoking. Neuzil said any new buildings or grounds, including parking lots, will be smoke free. He said the start of the Health and Human Services Building, as well as other possible new buildings like a justice center makes it easier to exclude everything. Lyness said her understanding of the new law is that individuals can smoke in their car. Beardsley said smoking in your car is a good question as what it means to smoke in the car. He said he has employees smoking in their car with the door open and sitting sideways out the door. Beardsley said he wishes smoking could completely be eliminated where individuals can’t smoke in their vehicles. Stutsman said she doesn’t have a problem with the parking lots and that it will take more to police everything. She said it isn’t healthy to smoke, but it isn’t healthy to smoke in a vehicle with the windows rolled up. Stutsman asked how far people will have to go who don’t have a car and are walking a block to smoke versus the perimeters of the parking lot. Shramek said the issue Stutsman is discussing comes up frequently, as there are fifteen minutes for a break, and it might be enough time.
Harney said the idea is not to have people smoke. He said the health issues, health insurance, and health care all indicate that. Harney suggested following State Code, and if employees want to smoke in their car to let them smoke. Stutsman said with the price of cigarettes, the tax, and the latest law, those still smoking are so badly hooked there is just no other alternative. She said she agrees she wants everyone to stop smoking, but she thinks it has gone too far. Neuzil asked Shramek to come up with something and present it to the Board. He asked if a parking ramp is a building. Lyness said a parking ramp is not a building, it is a structure. Neuzil said they could still say no smoking in a parking ramp or a parking lot. He said if anyone wants to smoke in their car then no one can stop them. Meyers asked if a ramp would make any difference with people smoking in their car because it is a structure but it isn't enclosed. Lyness thought people could smoke in their car in the ramp. She said it isn't excluded even in a private parking ramp because a ramp is not a building. Lyness said if the Board thought the structure was a building they couldn't smoke in the private part of the building either, but because it is not considered an enclosed structure building it is just like a parking lot. She said it is excluded except to public vehicles.
R. Sullivan said it sounds like Shramek, with the help of Beardsley and Lyness, have something for the Board to review. Neuzil said they will have the existing policy Shramek and her colleagues will put in place, and then the Board will just amend it. R. Sullivan asked Lyness if the Board will have to rescind a prior motion. Lyness suggested amending the policy. Neuzil said they amended the policy last time. Stutsman asked if there is always a resolution. Harney thought the Board should give direction parking lots. Neuzil said to follow State law. R. Sullivan asked if the committee should come back with a recommendation. Stutsman said she would rather come back with a recommendation and asked if they wanted to take much more time on the subject. R. Sullivan said he wasn't planning on debating as of July 1, 2008. Meyers said he is okay with State law and said at least the law is consistent with everything else. R. Sullivan asked if everyone wants to make that decision currently. Neuzil said at least that is a direction to take and then vote on. Harney said the recommendation has to be approved by the Board.
R. Sullivan said a lot of employees, including those in the room, put in an incredible amount of work in the month of June as the floods approached, hit, and now have receded. He said a lot of people are still doing extra work as a result of the floods. R. Sullivan said all of the employees stepped up, and he said without question people will remark on how hard everyone worked, how everyone put aside job descriptions and did what needed to be done. He said there was a discussion about how the County could say thanks to all the individuals who assisted away from their regular jobs, doing varying things for flood relief. R. Sullivan asked what an appropriate way to thank them for their efforts would be. He said the Board was looking for feedback from everyone as well as Shramek relating to contracts and other similar things.
Shramek said individual representatives to the Supervisors could personally go and thank employees. She said it means a lot to people. R. Sullivan said that is a good suggestion. Neuzil suggested that liaisons to the department heads could go to departmental staff meetings. Shramek said what Neuzil said is one option, but that going to individuals and shaking their hand is also important. Neuzil said employee appreciation is also done every Labor Day and that would be a good time to honor flood victims. R. Sullivan said that is coming up quick. R. Sullivan asked if folks have any suggestions or ideas. He said they always come into some difficulty in government trying to find ways to reward people when they're not in a position to reward people or give bonuses, time off, etc. R. Sullivan said it doesn't mean they don't have a need to acknowledge hard work.
Stutsman thought the Board was going to send a letter to acknowledge all the work done by employees. R. Sullivan said he didn't remember discussing that but it is a good idea. Neuzil said he remembered talking about that as well but that he didn't think it got followed up. He said it would be a good thing to discuss. Neuzil asked when the next County newsletter will be coming out. Shramek responded it will be in August 2008. Neuzil said that could be a time to put thank-you notes in the article. R. Sullivan asked if they should put a thank-you as part of the article or a separate item to be done. Harney said a letter to each department head and one to the paper would be a good idea. R. Sullivan asked if they send something to every person regardless. Harney said he thinks the thank-you notes should go to all the departments because he feels there are some who wanted to but couldn’t due to health reasons. He also pointed out in a way they still did by manning the offices. Harney said there were also those individuals that flat out refused because they didn't want to, so he wasn't sure how to deal with that. R. Sullivan said that is why he is asking if the Board should send 500 letters to 500 people or if they should target individuals, and if they do, then how.
Harney said they should a letter to each department to share with their employees and have those that helped be part of the recognition. Lyness asked if there would be a way for departments to submit names of staff, and then there could be one letter written using mail merge. Beardsley mentioned that there are people without email. He said there had been a discussion in his department, and that his people made a comment that it was the right thing to do to assist with flooding relief.
Harney said there are those that helped beyond the work place that did it on their own. R. Sullivan said they had employees that couldn't drive in from Cedar Rapids but found ways of helping out in the Cedar Rapids area, so R. Sullivan wanted to recognize those individuals as well. Shramek said some staff took personal days and sandbagged. R. Sullivan said Correia's idea was to leave it to department heads to submit lists of names. He said there were some department heads that aren't present and asked M. Sullivan if it could get out. Harney said the chances of missing someone would be so great beyond sending a letter to each department, that sending a thank you naming every person would end up missing someone and hurting feelings. Stutsman said she thought department heads have a good handle on who helped, etc. She said that if she got a letter saying "Dear Employee," it wouldn't mean anything to her, but if she got a letter saying "Dear Sally," it would help personalize it.
County Assessor Bill Greazel said in a similar situation, a lot was required from Information Services and GIS. He said they worked long hours and did a lot of things on the fly, and he wants to thank everyone that helped. Greazel said those departments went above and beyond. R. Sullivan said he had a lot of long term experience with Secondary Roads, with two 12 hour shifts. He said it was remarkable and that they could continue with all of their 27 departments. Greazel said a letter signed by the Board would be well received. Greazel said an option would be to put the thank you in their paycheck. R. Sullivan said that would be a good idea. Pulkrabek said having over 100 people working makes it difficult to identify. He explained there were people sandbagging on their own time at Mosquito Flats, that he wouldn't have even known about that had he not been down there himself. Pulkrabek said putting a thank you in their paycheck would be the best way. R. Sullivan asked M. Sullivan to write a draft to put in the next paycheck. He asked if there were any more ideas in terms of honoring employees. Shramek said when they have the recognition lunch they should include a "thank you" cake.
R. Sullivan said on a similar note, there were a lot of residents who did a lot and they have not talked a lot about honoring some of those individuals. He said obviously there are a lot of individuals who were just trying to protect their own property, but there were also those who were out there helping others. Stutsman asked how they would decide whom to give the award to. Stutsman said that they could leave someone out. Information Services Director Jean Schultz suggested there could be a poster or flyer for the residents. Neuzil suggested putting something up at the Johnson County Fair. R. Sullivan asked Schultz if someone from her department could work on something. Schultz said there could be a place where County employees of the County could sign it as well as part of a thank you. Harney said he didn't think he would use residents as the County had volunteers from everywhere. R. Sullivan said they could figure out the exact language, but the intent is to thank everyone who helped. Schultz said there could be a picture on the front page of the website, possibly hanging something permanently as a thank you to everyone in the building.
R. Sullivan said the Board had the topic of emergency closures on the agenda on July 9, 2008, and hopefully some of the other elected officials will be able to be present as well. He said he wanted to take a minute and get some feedback from department heads on the topic. R. Sullivan said for a long time the response people got was that the County doesn't close. He said that as much as the County would like to have that particular approach all the time, R. Sullivan just didn't think that would be possible. R. Sullivan said that as they start to have the discussion, they want to have it informed by the opinions of the individuals present. Medical Examiner Administrator Mike Hensch said the fact is some departments cannot close, particularly in emergencies. He thought that all the decisions need to be made in advance, with emergency plans, departmentally. Hensch said he was amazed the County didn't have a compartmental emergency plan. He said hospitals rarely close unless they are absolutely unable to keep the doors open. Hensch said the reason being hospitals are prepared for everything, from bomb threats and anthrax to fire and earthquake. He said the County doesn't have any of that. Hensch said it is not a lot of work, and the plans don't have to be perfect the first time, they just have to get them started.
Stutsman said the Administration Building doesn't even have emergency procedures for evacuating in a fire or tornado. R. Sullivan said Kempf has a written copy but no one uses it. He said the Auditor's Office uses the conference room, as does the Treasurer's Office, and that each department knows what it is going to do. Stutsman asked who makes the call about evacuation. She asked if that is in Kempf's plan. R. Sullivan said it is something that has been left undone because in the past the elected officials couldn't agree on what was to be done. He said the Sheriff’s Office will always be operating from somewhere. Stutsman said if Hensch has experience doing this he should start the process. R. Sullivan said he would like to have Kempf involved as well. He said he thinks some people have already talked about negotiating when to see things in the contract. Pulkrabek said in a state of emergency they put in the contract to have all his people on call by the Board. He said they can't wait on the Board in some situations like bomb threats, etc. R. Sullivan said there are a lot of eventualities to cover.
Greazel said one thing they have every year is a blizzard and it is a trial to get to work. Greazel said he agrees that they need to figure out what the essential services are. He said there are things in his office that if he closes down is not the same as with the Sheriff. Greazel said if it is dangerous he doesn't want people to come into work. R. Sullivan suggested that Greazel, M. Sullivan, Hensch, Schultz, and Kempf work on a policy.
R. Sullivan said the Board is trying to get some meetings set up with representatives from Senator Harkin’s, Senator Grassley’s, and Congressman Loebsack's offices. He said the Board had asked department heads to bring up issues the Board can address during these meetings. R. Sullivan said he thinks there are more issues out there than they have heard. He encouraged everyone to think in their course of business over a year, what are things they run up against that are a federal law, a federal rule, or federal funding, and that they wish was different. R. Sullivan said the Board doesn't even want to necessarily understand what they tell the Board, but to just let the Board know what the issues are so they can flesh it out later with a one page paper. He said they haven't scheduled anything yet largely because of the flooding, but also because they haven't gotten enough feedback and have only heard from two to three departments. R. Sullivan said they will have to talk about scheduling based on whether they get feedback or not.
R. Sullivan said he wanted to remind everyone that that the 2008 Excellence in Action award nominations are being accepted. He said they talked about the fact that it is difficult to acknowledge good work of County employees in very many ways. R. Sullivan said ISAC awards are a good way to do so. He said if there is someone that has come up with a good idea or has gone above and beyond, the awards are one way to do so. R. Sullivan said MH/DD is one, as is Conservation. Neuzil said last year they had started the process of having a list of six or seven different things for awards. R. Sullivan said if there are any questions, there is a number for the ISAC awards that can be used.
R. Sullivan left at 2:12 p.m.
Lyness said the Cedar Rapids Gazette published an article on the new Johnson County drug court which started in February, and one intern from Linn County had transferred to Johnson County because of the flood. She said they are up to nine people who have people convicted of felonies while on probation having leave of the court. Lyness said there is also a team of licensed attorneys, a treatment person, some jail alternatives, a probation officer, and also meeting with a judge. She said review is a way to get people to change their lifestyle. Lyness said if no one has seen the article she recommends people see it and try to reward people for doing well, and quick punishment if they aren't following the program. She said it is a program that could be up to two years, as a way to have people avoid going to prison. Lyness said she also has a new temporary employee because he is her flood refugee that Linn County had hired for the summer. She said because of the flooding the Linn County Courthouse closed, and the interns don't have anywhere to go. Lyness said the intern contacted her and asked her to take him as an intern, so he started the last week of June 30, 2008.
Shramek said she was contacted by a FEMA community relations individual who wanted to know how many County employees were directly affected by the flood and lost their residence. She said Human Resources is aware of two individuals, one in the Administration Building and one in SEATS. Shramek said HR is also busy with the 5098 health care plans coverage and they have the flexible spending Request for Proposal (RFP). She said they have not received any non-bargaining compensation responses, but the deadline is July 21, 2008. Shramek said effective July 1, 2008, dependents are now covered until the age of 25 or until they are done with school. She said that is something passed by the legislature and is effective July 1, 2008.
Veteran's Affair's Director Leo Baier said that on May 26, 2008 he and his wife attended Memorial Day services in St. Paul, Minnesota. Baier mentioned FEMA 26 updates, with $1,187.50 as allocation. He said that anything over $5 they would have to return so he spent it right to the dollar. Baier said the last they will be receiving is during the month of August. He said that on June 24, 2008 there was a Veteran's Focus Group. Baier said it was held at the Iowa City Library Room B, one of six around the State. He said the intent was how they could improve services for Veterans within the State. Baier said the meeting was very positive. He said the State Veteran's Cemetery dedication was held on July 3, 2008 as planned. Baier said that Iowa was one of ten states that did not have an in-state Veteran Cemetery. Baier said that on the flood and transitional housing discussion, there was a call in from someone wanting flood assistance.
Greazel said his department was asked to keep track of their flood costs. He said they had some aerial photos taken of the Iowa City flood area by Oblique Photography. Greazel said his office has two big issues with the flood, one is the people who want their property looked at. He explained at the current time it won't affect their valuation for next year. Greazel said the other issue is with people wanting to raise the valuation. He said unfortunately they cross each other coming back and forth. He said the way the flood is affecting his department is people calling to see if the flood will cause any valuation changes. Greazel said the same people that thought the valuation was too high last January are now asking why they are so low. He said they have to explain it is for a year ago. Greazel said a lot of people were grateful to go online and access the data, even though some people still have difficulties with the Internet. Meyers said they had the same discussion with the County Treasurer about abatements and taxes being paid in September 2008 being put on values last year. Greazel said the tough part about that situation is that they want to give those asking a good answer, when the law is the law, and they just don't have the authority to do anything about it.
City Assessor Dennis Baldridge said his department has been getting the same requests Greazel has. He says his department has also been getting various requests on some various governmental agencies wanting total assessed value of property affected by the flood. Baldridge said they have also gone through the deadlines for homestead and military exceptions, so that keeps them busy for the fiscal year.
Conservation Director Harry Graves said Kent Park has had the dubious distinction of being one of the few camp grounds still open as a result of the disaster in the County. He said Hills Access and River Junction Access are both closed, but as the water recedes they are going to make those repairs.
Schultz said they did a lot of mapping for FEMA, and a lot of the aerial photos are on the GIS website. She said they have a committee that is working on phone systems for the new Joint Emergency Communications Center.
SEATS Director Tom Brase said he's been busy with surveys and collecting for SEATS collections. He said June 27, 2008, he was at the Iowa Public Transit Conference. Brase said he is working on an equipment grant for the facility.
Emergency Management Coordinator Dave Wilson said everything went well during the flood. He wanted to thank County Engineer Greg Parker's Secondary Roads team for their assistance, SEATS, M. Sullivan, and Pulkrabek and the Sheriff's Office. He said there is a second coordinator starting July 21, 2008, named P.J. Dvorak. Neuzil asked when the flooding started. Wilson responded it was the Wednesday June, 4, 2008. He said it was the same day as the small plane crash. Neuzil said the reason he wanted to know is because there would be a meeting at NACo and they would want to know more. Wilson said it officially ended when the NOA and the Weather Service say the river has receded below flood stage, which was July 7, 2008. Neuzil said it was over a month. He said he knew those going to NACo would be asked questions like that.
Harney asked if Wilson knows when Dubuque Street will be open. Wilson said it was his understanding that by the end of the week they hope to have a lane open in each direction. He said at the meeting on July 7, 2008, they were leaning on it pretty heavily. Wilson said it wouldn’t be open to all four lanes by Friday but they plan on having the Park Avenue Bridge inspected.
Ambulance Director Steve Spenler said they ended the fiscal year with 100% increase in volume from previous years. He said on July 9, 2008, he would be going to Des Moines to participate in a quality assurance standards and protocol training subcommittee. Spenler said it wasn’t going to be a big deal for the County but controversial for the State. He said they started out the year with a bang, getting over 176 calls last week.
Hensch said they have been busy because they moved. Hensch thanked County Treasurer Tom Kriz for giving them the location to move all their supplies to. Hensch said he was impressed by Kempf’s crew. He said they were very efficient with the labor work. Hensch said their call volume is like Spenler’s in that it is way up.
County Engineer Greg Parker said he would have to ditto Hensch’s comments, as the staff has done a fantastic job of dealing with things in the past six months. He said they are dealing with FEMA staff, getting a rough estimate of one million in repair work. Parker said when they were hauling sand it was costing about $50,000 a day. He said they had about five days of sand, so they spent about $250,000 on sand. Parker said that was just from his department and didn’t include Iowa City, Coralville, or anywhere else. He said the 90% Federal share was part of it. Parker said they did get all the dust control down except for two locations. Parker explained they are now pushing 90 days behind scheduled activities. They do have staff out mowing edges of the road, and are trying to get back into some kind of normalcy. He said seal coating activities won’t take place until the end of July or the first part of August. Parker said there is a lot of debris on Amana Road. He said the amount of material is unbelievable.
Mental Health/Disability Services Director Kris Artley said officially, as of July 1, 2008, MH/DD is now called Mental Health/Disability Services (MH/DS). She said the only flood they are encountering is the flood of paperwork as they try to get ready for case management accreditation. Artley said Correia and herself were both present at a meeting last week in Cedar Rapids to get FEMA representation in town for the non-profits, or essentially/non-essential non-profits. She said the room was full of governmental officials and the stress level they are dealing with is very high. Artley said what that is essentially causing them to do is break rules in order to supply their services. Artley said the main message was to write a request for an exception policy for the State and she appreciated the State was willing to work with those individuals.
Kempf said they are moving forward. He said he would like to thank his staff, as they stepped up and did everything he asked of them. Kempf said they went above and beyond what he expected of them. He said that if the Board saw any of them to thank them. Kempf said for building updates, he is riding the workers about getting back on schedule. He said both projects are starting to complain about how bad the winter and spring have been, but that to date the department hasn’t changed and they haven’t altered the completion dates on any of the projects. Kempf said that for both of them he felt fairly certain that they are getting to a point where they will be able to start gaining time back. He said he is guardedly optimistic that they are relatively on track with two out of the three building projects. Kempf said he asked Secondary Roads to focus on the office portion more than the garage portion. He said that is the way it needs to happen. Kempf said on the Health and Human Services Building they have about two-thirds of the second floor rough framed in, as well as electrical and plumbing. He said they started today on some of the framing on the east end of first floor. He said on Monday they put the storm sewer in. Kempf said on Friday they took the storm sewer out. He said they put it back in today. Kempf said it didn’t cost his crews any money but that it would cost someone a lot of money. Neuzil said he saw big pieces of cement and was wondering what it was. Kempf said the cement was from putting in the storm sewer at the wrong elevation. He said he was feeling good about how projects are going. Meyers asked if the target date was still on track, and Kempf said it was at the end of October, first of November. Kempf said he hadn’t given them any reasons to think they would be altered by that. He said that he has encouraged them to look at ways to start gaining time back. Kempf said as they get the building closed in, they actually will be able to get people on site and they also have it laid out so instead of waiting until all of the steel is done, there will be subs working on the floor at a time. He said they will start seeing more and more people working on site. Kempf said if there are workers parking over in CarQuest, he needs to know, as they shouldn’t be parking there.
Johnson County Sheriff Lonny Pulkrabek said there have been some enforcement opportunities that may have been heard about, where deputies have sited a bicyclist who tore down a barricade. He said there will be Beef Days and the Johnson County Fair, along with RAGBRAI on the last day of the fair. Pulkrabek said Tiffin has decided it will have a first annual town celebration as well right after the fair. Stutsman asked Pulkrabek if he was aware of Camp Euphoria. Pulkrabek said last year it expanded and that they sent plain clothes police down, with no problems whatsoever. Harney said Pulkrabek signed off on it.
Meyers said he just wanted to thank everyone for their efforts in the last month.
Stutsman said she, R. Sullivan, and Neuzil are going to NACo. She said if there is anything anyone wants to know more about let them know. She said she would also like to thank everyone for helping the County. Stutsman said the County was very well represented.
Harney said that everyone did a good job and things went really well. Wilson said if they wanted to see how bad it could have been in Iowa City all people have to do is drive thirty minutes north.
Neuzil said he would be gone for NACo since he is on one of the subcommittees that meets Friday morning. He said he would be in a Strategic Planning meeting as he serves on the State's Technology Iowa Access Advisory Board. Neuzil said he would be gone and would not be back until Wednesday, July 16, 2008. He said if there were any issues to let him know.
Neuzil said the date and time of the next Department Heads meeting will be on Tuesday, September 16, 2008 at 1:30 p.m.
Adjourned at 3:00 p.m.
Attest: Tom Slockett, Auditor
By John Deeth, Recording Secretary