MINUTES OF THE INFORMAL MEETING OF THE JOHNSON COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS:
JULY 31, 2008
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
Social Services Coordinator Amy Correia: FEMA Temporary Housing Request......................... 1
Public Health Director Douglas Beardsley: Funding Influenza Vaccine for Johnson County Employees and Household Members from the County Health Fund............................................................................. 4
County Treasurer Tom Kriz: Request for Property Tax Suspension on Property Located at 220 Washington Street, Hills, Iowa................................................................................................................................ 6
SEATS Director Tom Brase: Amended 28E Agreement for Paratransit Service Between the City of Iowa City and Johnson County for the Period of July 1, 2008 Through June 30, 2013.................................. 7
County Engineer Greg Parker: Authorizing the Auditor’s Office to Publish a Public Notice/Hearing for a Road Vacation for the Level B Section of Roadway, Eagle Avenue NW.......................................................... 7
NRCS District Conservationist Wendell Jones: Presentation of Information on the Emergency Watershed Protection Program and to Request the Board of Supervisors Consider Acting as a Sponsor for Local Watershed Protection Projects........................................................................................................................... 8
Board of Supervisors: County Tobacco Use Policy.................................................................. 10
Board of Supervisors: Emergency Management Budgetary Appropriations............................... 11
Reports and Inquiries from the Board of Supervisors............................................................... 12
Chairperson Sullivan called the Johnson County Board of Supervisors to order in the Johnson County Administration Building at 9:12 a.m. Members present were: Pat Harney, Larry Meyers, Terrence Neuzil, Sally Stutsman, and Rod Sullivan.
Social Services Coordinator Amy Correia said she is attending the Long-Term Recovery Committee meetings that are meeting weekly at U.S. Bank. Last week the committee was talking about housing needs; the United Way Relief Fund data stated there were 79 households that were homeless. Correia said most were staying with family and friends but some were living in cars and in shelters. The committee talked about requesting Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) trailers; Emergency Management Coordinator Dave Wilson was present as well as a FEMA representative who said the process of requesting the trailers needs to start from the Chair of the Board of Supervisors or the Iowa City or Coralville mayors. Correia said she had a chance to walk through the Park View Terrace neighborhood with some of the residents and some have already moved back in because they felt like they could not rebuild or rent a place. Correia also talked with a gentleman who was living in temporary lodging because while FEMA had offered him a trailer in Cedar County that does not seem to be efficient for Johnson County residents. Correia said she initiated an email to R. Sullivan and the city managers of Coralville and Iowa City about initiating the request.
R. Sullivan said he has spoken to both the city managers of Coralville and Iowa City and both said they had one or two people that came to them requesting housing. He said they aren't huge numbers but the question is where people would go. R. Sullivan said he is not sure though the city managers were certainly not objecting to the County taking the lead on it and moving forward. He said the city managers were putting faith into the United Way numbers so they are in favor of moving forward. Correia said her understanding is, after conversing with FEMA Community Relations Representative Toby Rice, that once the request is made FEMA contacts people who are on their list of people requesting temporary housing. She said she doesn’t know if the County would have a huge role in trying to hook up people with FEMA and their trailers; that happens between FEMA and the flood-impacted households. Correia said that Planning and Zoning called all of the mobile home parks to find out if they had open pads and if so, how many. She said they have that data and that is helpful to get the ball rolling.
Neuzil said he read Correia's email and knows the conditions in which some of the people are living. He said this is Johnson County; they can't having people living in places like that. Neuzil asked what kind of assistance the County can provide those folks and if people were actually living in some of those places. Correia said yes, when she was walking through some of those places she saw peoples' houses that had the drywall out. She said the residents received the FEMA allotment for clean-up, rebuilding, or a place to rent and there were some folks who did not feel they could do both. Neuzil said he read the stories and watched on television when the FEMA trailers were coming in. He said he could see just a little bit of mold around one of the intakes. He said all the trailers left and it seems it would be a whole lot better than where some of the people are living. Correia said it's important to make sure the County has quality housing. Harney said he feels the same way and this is the first time he has seen it.
Harney asked if Coralville and Iowa City were on board with the request, and if FEMA has the request how do they know how many Iowa City and Coralville are going to want or need. Harney also asked what happens to the trailers and who is responsible once people move back into their homes. Correia said she thinks FEMA is responsible. R. Sullivan said part of the problem is that Coralville and Iowa City may not be able to take care of their own because of the availability of pads. R. Sullivan said a mobile home park in North Liberty has a lot of open pads. He said it may be that a good percentage of these would go to North Liberty if the Board went through with the request. R. Sullivan said that is the benefit of looking at it countywide; Coralville won't have to try to find open pads within the city limits. Harney asked if they know if the City of North Liberty will take the trailers. Correia said the decision is up to the private mobile home park and not the City. She said FEMA will work with the private park once an elected official has made the request. Correia said then FEMA works with the trailer park owners to get the trailers there and works with the households to get them in. R. Sullivan said the advantage to doing it as a County is the Board could potentially use any of the County parks that have openings. He said North Liberty, which did not have a lot of flood damage, could be home to a lot of the trailers.
Meyers asked if the Board would be making the application for everyone in the County and not just rural residents. R. Sullivan said yes. Correia asked if it's a formal application. R. Sullivan said it's a letter of intent. R. Sullivan said he hoped Wilson could attend today's meeting but Emergency Management had an event going on in Coralville. He said Wilson will help the Board write the appropriate letter as he knows how to do it. Harney asked if there are parks who will take the trailers. Planning and Zoning Administrator Rick Dvorak said FEMA just requested that they get the list from the County and the cities. He said they didn't make any contacts with the mobile home parks; FEMA is going to do that. R. Sullivan said FEMA has started making some contact and the Board kind put the breaks on it so they could talk about it first. He said they were doing it as a matter of business because they wanted to see if there were any available pads out there and the Board asked FEMA to let them do something locally first. R. Sullivan said in that short time FEMA found 37 open pads in North Liberty.
Meyers asked if FEMA pays the lot rent. R. Sullivan said yes. Meyers said then there won't be a situation where people will be trying pay rent and mortgage on their homes. Correia said no, FEMA will be paying for the rent and temporary housing. R. Sullivan said he doesn't know whose responsibility the trailers are once people move back into their homes. Correia said she can find out. Harney asked what the procedure is when people move out of the trailers. He said there are transportation issues for people who don't have transportation; there are no buses servicing North Liberty. Correia said she thinks there are some open pads at Forest View and Modern Manor that are right on the bus lines. R. Sullivan said they had that conversation with FEMA. He said FEMA was open to doing that and interested in the process.
Meyers asked Correia if she has had discussions with any of the 79 households. Correia said she hasn't. Meyers said the Board doesn't know how many households would take advantage of the opportunity. Correia agreed. R. Sullivan said another issue is the number of people who managed to find a sublease that runs until around August 1, 2008. He said those people will now need to find additional housing so there could be a bit of a crunch that comes in the next few days. Harney asked if the County hasn't talked to any of the households, how will they know how many trailers to request from FEMA. Correia said she thinks FEMA takes care of that; this is a bureaucratic process where the County makes the request and FEMA then makes contact. She said FEMA can't give the County the contact information because it's all protected information. R. Sullivan said FEMA makes contact with people on their list, asks if they want the housing, and if the household wants it then they are put in one of the trailers. Correia agreed and explained that FEMA identifies how many trailers the County might be able to use and then works to get them here. She said the County has done some legwork regarding possible locales for the trailers that are accessible to services.
R. Sullivan said he assumes the cities and the County would need to do a little bit of advertising or outreach to let people know the opportunity is there. Meyers asked if the Board knows how accurate the 79 household number from United Way is. Correia said the data is from two weeks ago but since then the number has been reduced to about 35 homeless households. Correia said she thinks there are additional homeowners who have moved back in and folks who are subletting that the County doesn't know about. R. Sullivan said they would want to make sure FEMA has some sort of follow-up conversation with the Board so they do know how many trailers they are bringing in. Correia said that is something that can be part of the Long-Term Recovery Committee discussions. She said FEMA, the University of Iowa, United Way, religious communities, counties, and the cities all have representatives at those meetings.
R. Sullivan said the reason the Board is discussing this issue on the formal and informal agenda today is because, with the number of leases ending on August 1, 2008 the Board wanted to move as quickly as possible because they don't know how long it will take FEMA to get the trailers. Meyers asked if Wilson files the letter of intent. R. Sullivan said the letter of intent can come from the mayors of Coralville and Iowa City or the Chair of the Board of Supervisor. He said they were going to do a single one from the Chair of the Board of Supervisors with Wilson's help.
Recessed at 9:26 a.m.; reconvened at 9:30 a.m.
Public Health Director Douglas Beardsley said the Board of Supervisors has supported flu vaccines for County employees and in the past two years has included family members and retirees. He said Johnson County Public Health feels it is a good policy and would like to continue it. He spoke with Johnson County Human Resources Administrator Lora Shramek about how it would come out of the County's Fund 13. Beardsley said last year the County paid for 286 flu vaccines; there were more vaccines administered but some were paid for by the State of Iowa. Beardsley proposed the authorization of up to 300 doses and noted the Visiting Nurse Association (VNA) assisted in administrating the shots in their clinics in the past. Beardsley said there is some support from the Public Health Department nurses but they really aren't budgeted for that. He said the VNA has informed their department that the VNA budget won't allow for the administration this year; they really need some reimbursement at a cost of $35 per hour per nurse. Beardsley said his department estimates up to 17 hours of scheduled clinic time and repeated his proposal was for 300 doses for a total cost of $4,495. He said if they find after a few clinics they have reached the 300 limit he can come back and say they need more. Beardsley said the 17 hours should hold steady but they will just have to see on participation.
Neuzil said the program is wonderful and is a great benefit for the County employees. He said the Board needs to continue to budget for it and he thinks they know what happens when these kinds of shots aren't administered. Neuzil said if they take away four or five key employees of County government because they are sick because they didn't get the shot, they can see what happens. He asked if a study was done on who did and who didn't get the flu. Public Health Promotion Coordinator Katie Miller said her department tried to do a survey of County employees and how many sick days they had and what their symptoms were. She said it's hard because the department can't actually ask the insurance company or County employees if they were diagnosed with the flu. She said a lot of people who consider themselves to have the flu are really sick with a stomach virus rather than respiratory influenza. Miller said they did do a study two years ago asking County employees if they became ill and if so how many sick days were used. Neuzil said he thinks it's a healthy thing to do so the Board can continue to justify the program to County taxpayers.
Beardsley said he gave a presentation this morning, but the difficulty in public health is that prevention is hard to quantify. Beardsley said he appreciates the Board supporting vaccinating the family members of County employees, because if a family member is sick employees take family sick days and then productivity is affected. Shramek said she is very supportive and thinks it is a good cost-benefit for the County. R. Sullivan said they should be able to get aggregate without getting into individual people (e.g. did they get the flu shot, did they have fewer sick days, etc.). Miller asked if he meant comparing the amount of flu shots given to the amount of sick days used by County employees. R. Sullivan said yes. He said it would give them some big aggregate data, which isn't perfect but might help. Neuzil said these are the kinds of things where numbers will help them build on the program even more. He said hopefully they can share the program with more County employees; he knows the County has many more than 300 employees. Neuzil said he knows some of those employees go through their own physician but it would be nice to continue to build on the program.
Beardsley said his department will formalize the follow-up and coordinate it with Human Resources. Beardsley said it will be an aggregate and not specific. R. Sullivan asked Miller if shots had also been administered at the Johnson County Administration Building and the Secondary Roads building. Miller said yes, there were five clinics at the Sheriff's Office, Human Services building, Department of Public Health building, SEATS and Secondary Road building, and the County Administration building. R. Sullivan said it is great that it is really spread out. Harney asked how many nurses are at each location. Miller said there is one nurse at each location, plus two nursing students who volunteer. R. Sullivan asked if County employees are able to use sick leave to get the shot. Miller said they could use their break because it takes less than ten minutes to get the shot. Harney said the County contributes a lot to the VNA but he guesses it's all right to pay extra. Neuzil suggested the County incorporate the flu vaccinations into their contribution and work with Correia on that. He said the County has done similar things like that with its contribution to the Johnson County Fair. Neuzil said the nurses will still get paid but it's a question of whether the money will come out of the Block Grant 20 or Health Fund 13. R. Sullivan asked if the Board needs to do something formally and Beardsley said he isn't sure; this is mostly an authorization to spend money from Health Fund 13. He said he just felt the Public Health Department should come and make a presentation and get the Board's authorization. Executive Assistant Mike Sullivan said he thinks in the past the Board voted on it. The Board agreed to put the item on a future formal agenda for approval.
County Treasurer Tom Kriz said Bill Royston came in to see him about the property located at 220 Washington Street in Hills, Iowa. He said Royston has his paperwork from the Department of Human Services (DHS) and qualifies for both the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and tax suspension. Kriz said the taxes on the house currently are just over $2,000; tax suspension is not an abatement of taxes but just suspends them so that when the property is sold or changes hands the taxes are paid in full but with no interest accruing. He said it also stops him from having to sell a property's taxes at tax sale on the third Sunday each June because of the suspension. Kriz said in most cases the taxes stay suspended until a house changes hand. In this case Royston wants to continue to try to pay as much of the taxes as he can but keep it from going to tax sale if he doesn't have it done by the end of June. He said it's a little different; with the suspension Royston would be able to pay the taxes over the course of this year in smaller increments but without having any finance charges or interest added. Kriz said if there was any balance it would not go to tax sale next June. He said this is a particular case where Royston intends to still try to pay the taxes but may need some help in the timing of it, and that's where the suspension would kick in.
Harney asked if the Board did this location last year. Kriz said no, this is a brand new request. R. Sullivan said the standards under which the Board does this are pretty rigid and asked Kriz to explain them. Kriz said it's pretty defined. To be eligible for tax suspension, the property owner has to be receiving SSI from the government, has to have disability papers in place, and has to apply for benefits through DHS. He said DHS then contacts the person and tells them that they would also would qualify for tax suspension if they so choose. Kriz said many people may qualify for tax suspension but choose not to or they have a mortgage on a property and the lender won’t allow taxes to accrue so they can't use the option. He said in a case where the person may have the house paid for or privately borrowed then it becomes an option. Kriz said the County has approximately 10 properties out of 60,000 on tax suspension. He said it is an aid and the property owner has to qualify for it through disability and through SSI.
Meyers asked if this opens up the possibility tax suspension for a lot of other people. Kriz said no. He said it would if they all qualified through the means they have to go through with the government and DHS. Assistant County Attorney Andy Chappell said they are talking about a specific type of tax suspension; there is a suspension by right and a suspension by petition. He said there is an Iowa Administrative Code section that allows people to petition for tax suspension but no one has really attempted it yet. Chappell said ultimately once people are informed about how the suspension is not an abatement, and how the taxes will still have to paid if the property is sold or inherited, they decide it's better to go ahead and pay the taxes as they go along. He said the suspension by right is really kind of a last resort for folks because they realize it's ultimately not in the best interests of the property; the taxes have to be paid eventually. The Board agreed to put the tax suspension on a future formal agenda.
SEATS Director Tom Brase said on April 24, 2008 the Board approved the 28E Agreement with the Iowa City that went from July 1, 2008 to June 30, 2013. He said since that time it has been determined that two reporting requirement provisions, numbers four and five under 'Extent of Agreement,' do not apply to this type of 28E Agreement and therefore should be deleted from the agreement. Brase said the City of Iowa City has already gone through and approved deleting the two lines about electronic formatting, reporting to the Secretary of State, and a biannual report to the Secretary of State. He repeated he would like to delete those two lines from the 28E Agreement but would need a resolution approving the amendment and authorization from the Chair of the Board to execute the amendment.
R. Sullivan asked Chappell if the County Attorney's Office has gone through this. Chappell said yes and explained that it's just barely above the level of a scrivener’s error. Chappell said the State changed the requirements of 28E Agreements a couple of years ago so everyone is sort of working through the details and deciding when to require certain reporting requirements. He said they probably erred on the side of caution and at some point probably took another look at it and decided they don't need to follow the reporting requirements because they're not setting up a separate 28E entity. The Board agreed to put the amended agreement on a future formal agenda for approval.
County Engineer Greg Parker said the Board requested that he list the public notice as an informal discussion item to proceed for putting a public hearing notice for a road vacation out for Eagle Avenue. He said there has been a lot of discussion over the roadway over the past year so it is open for discussion or questions. R. Sullivan said what the Board is talking about is making a decision on a public hearing, where they would discuss the pros and cons of the road vacation. Parker confirmed and said that the Iowa Administrative Code states that the public notice shall be posted not less than four days but not greater than 20 days prior to the hearing, and based on the public hearing coming to the formal meeting the information would be put on a public notice meeting for August 28, 2008. He asked Deputy Auditor Casie Kadlec if that is correct and Kadlec said yes, the Auditor's Office would like to have August 28, 2008 instead of the original August 21, 2008 because some of the people in their office working on this will be gone. She said in general the office likes to have three weeks from the time the Board sets a public hearing to when they hold the public meeting. R. Sullivan said what is requested is August 21, 2008 and asked Kadlec if she preferred August 28, 2008 and Kadlec said yes.
Parker said one of the requirements of the Code is that all property owners that abut the specific roadway be notified as well as any other parties with interest along the roadway. He said his department has gathered all those addresses and given them to the Auditor's Office. Kadlec said they haven't received them as of yesterday. Kadlec said with more time the Auditor's Office will be able to send out the letters the following week. Parker repeated all the addresses will be given to the Auditor's Office as according to the Code language and requirement.
Harney asked how many people have requested that Eagle Avenue be vacated. Parker said there was a letter that was given to his department last week. He said he thinks there were five signatures on it; it did not have signatures of all the property owners that abut the roadway but the individual submitting the letter stated that the other individuals were not available for signature. Parker he doesn't know if that meant they didn't want to sign the letter or they just weren't available to sign the letter. R. Sullivan said he thinks everyone knows there isn't 100% agreement on this case. Neuzil said at least three Board members decided to move forward with the road vacation. He said at the public hearing the Board will debate the pros and cons of closing a public road. Harney asked if letters will be sent to all the property owners along the roadway. Parker said absolutely, that is required by the Code. He said all the names and addresses of those property owners that abut the roadway will receive a letter informing them of a public notice/hearing and the date it will take place. Parker said the letter will also be sent to any other interested parties such as utility companies. The Board agreed to put the item on a future formal agenda for approval.
Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) District Conservationist Wendell Jones said he wanted to give the Board more information on the Emergency Watershed Protection Program (EWP) and how it can benefit the County. NRCS Area Engineer Doug Morningstar said every so often NRCS gets special funding but it looks like they are getting a lot of money this year with the flood. He said the program is to generally protect infrastructure like roads and bridges, though it can be used for a lot of other things. Morningstar said the County used EWP in 1993 to put rock riprap around several bridges and box culverts. He said the money is 75% Federal and 25% nonfederal local match. Morningstar said generally NRCS pays 100% of the construction cost and the public sponsor (i.e. the County) would provide design, inspection, plans, and contract administration as part, if not all, of the 25% match. He said NRCS is available to do some basic technical assistance; they cannot replace roads if they wash out because that is FEMA's job. Morningstar said their program is mainly to protect infrastructure, not replace it.
Neuzil asked Morningstar if there are certain areas of major concern in the County that the program is going to help. Morningstar said mostly the flash flooding was north and west. Jones said NRCS has done some looking but hasn't quite evaluated all the areas yet that they want to take a look at. Neuzil said it would helpful to communicate with the Board if they do reports or go on tours. Jones said they would be glad to have the Board come along when looking at sites.
R. Sullivan asked what the process is, if there is a set amount of money that Johnson County is eligible for, and if the Board has to get into prioritizing public versus private situations. Morningstar said EWP needs a public sponsor (i.e. the County) and public benefits (e.g. two landowners, a County bridge, a County road, etc.). He said the Board would have to decide if they want to be the sponsor for a private landowner's problem; the benefits need to outweigh the costs. R. Sullivan asked if the Board is not obligated to provide assistance unless they see a public benefit. Morningstar said the Board and NRCS would both need to see a public benefit. Morningstar said they would both have to agree on the pursuit of projects. He said after looking at the site and coming up with a cost estimate, the Board and NRCS would enter into an agreement.
Harney asked if there is a certain amount of dollars available to Johnson County or if it is broken down by district. Morningstar said it is for the whole state; they get a pot of money nationally every year but they have special appropriations. He said this year the funds are in the tens of millions of dollars. Morningstar said there is a limit but there is a lot of money. R. Sullivan said then there is a chance to do some pretty significant work here. Morningstar said yes, it could be. Neuzil said especially any opportunity to advance the County's work on cleaning watersheds and having additional funding to protect some areas sure seems worthwhile.
R. Sullivan asked for Parker’s opinion. Parker said absolutely it is a great program; last week his department met with Jones. He said right now his department's priority has been Federal highways, then FEMA, and then he will be giving Jones a call and proceeding with the potential availability of assistance on those issues. Parker said his department appreciates the program and will take advantage of it. Harney asked if the design is the 25% and Morningstar yes or other in-kind matches. Parker said if it's a $100,000 project and the County has to match 25% of it, and it still has to take some money out of its own budget to cover the difference after providing a design, inspection, and cost, it is still a good move for the County. Neuzil said he is sure they can find some undermined areas on some of the bridges and Parker said correct, they already have some. He said these are more mitigative activities to minimize the damage in the future, and it's a welcoming proposition.
R. Sullivan said the program sounds wonderful and asked Jones what the Board has to do next. Morningstar said the Board doesn't have to do anything but they can make a formal request to the State Conservationist to help out. He said he has a draft. R. Sullivan asked if that is where the Board signs up as a sponsor. Morningstar said the Board could send a letter to Jones stating they are interested in the program. He said sometimes they skip that step and go right to the commitment state. Neuzil said maybe Jones can communicate with M. Sullivan and Budget Coordinator Rich Claiborne and have the letter sent out. R. Sullivan said they want to do this as soon as next week because the County wants to get going on this. Harney asked if this is available just to counties or the public as well. Jones said Iowa City would be eligible. Morningstar said any public sponsor like a city or a town (i.e. someplace or someone with taxing authority) is eligible.
R. Sullivan introduced Human Resources Coordinator Dana Winkowitsch and Public Health Director Doug Beardsley. Winkowitsch said Beardsley, County Attorney Janet Lyness, Human Resources Administrator Lora Shramek, and herself met to revise the tobacco use policy and incorporate the smoke free air act into the policy. She said the Board should have received the revised policy via email and, once approved, she would like the policy to be added to the employee handbook with a retroactive effective date of July 1, 2008 to be in line with the smoke free air act. R. Sullivan said that in terms of the biggest change for the Board, because they already have smoking policies in place, is that they have a couple designated smoking areas that will now have to go away. Winkowitsch said this was correct, and per the smoke free air act, smoking would be prohibited on any grounds of public buildings. She said what they did in the policy was state that tobacco use would be prohibited on County grounds that would include, but not be limited to, County buildings, County vehicles, parking lots, and sidewalks leading into building entrances.
Neuzil said it pretty much addresses all the concerns he had forwarded to everyone. He said one issue that still lingers deals with County parks and what jurisdiction someone has. Neuzil said there was also the issue of if someone smokes in Kent Park, as those are technically County grounds. He said they will continue to get those kinds of questions and they had addressed that last time they wrote the smoking policy. Neuzil said that the previous policy had stated that people could smoke outdoors, not within an enclosed area, without any problems. Winkowitsch said she believes that conservation park areas can be excluded. Neuzil said that is how he read the policy as well, that the Board would have the jurisdiction. He said, as far as the policy goes, he is not inferring that it keeps everything as an open forum. Harney said he thought Conservation Director Harry Graves had the rules posted at the entrance to Kent Park. Neuzil said he wanted to make sure the policy didn't have something Graves didn't want. Beardsley said, to be honest, their policy is going to be part of the employee handbook. He said his understanding is that Conservation isn't using the employee handbook. Beardsley said if they are, they certainly have the authority not to use that portion. Winkowitsch said the Conservation Board has not adopted the employee handbook that was effective November 1, 2007.
Beardsley said Winkowitsch was right in that there are some provisions in the smoke free air act that would allow portions of Kent Park to be made smoking eligible, with certain areas smoke free like areas immediately adjacent to buildings, etc. He said he doesn't doubt that Conservation has already dealt with that. Neuzil asked if the County Attorney's Office was alright with that.
Harney said the only other point of conversation that stands out in his mind is his understanding that individuals can't have ash trays for anyone that drives in the parking lot and has to go into the boundary that goes into the parking lot. Beardsley said the legislation isn't that artfully drafted and constructed, but there is some clarification in the administrative rules. He said the legislation talks about removing all the ashtrays, which seemed to him something odd to do. Beardsley said the administrative rules then clarify, in an interesting way, that with ashtrays they should be placed to the entrance to the grounds, where signs should be anyway. He said if there were ashtrays on the desk, they would have to be gone, as would ashtrays in the building. Beardsley said an ashtray at the beginning of the sidewalk leading up to the building would be allowed as well. Beardsley said, not to second guess the writers of the law, but the intent was if smoking is banned in indoor areas, then that is why they took the ashtrays out on tables. He said if buildings want to have some provision of an ashtray or receptacle for burning tobacco at the entrances to the public sidewalks. Neuzil pointed out people would still smoke in their car and on a public sidewalk, and it is also unlawful to litter.
Claiborne explained, due to the flood, the Emergency Management department, which is not part of the County budget, has a block grant to help fund them. He said that Emergency Management has a negative situation due to the flood and did not have adequate reserves built up. Claiborne said Emergency Management has requested the County forward them $200,000 to get them through and keep the department going. He said that in the future when the FEMA reimbursement comes, the Board could decide if they should let Emergency Management build up the reserve of the fund or if the Board would want to put the money back in the General Basic fund.
Claiborne said he prepared a claim for $200,000 out of the General Basic Fund to keep Emergency Management going. R. Sullivan said that, in terms of process and how the Board votes on things, it would be handled through the claims. He said that if someone didn't want to do that they would vote not to approve the claims that week. Harney asked if they didn't have to act formally on the transfer of funds, stating he thought they did. R. Sullivan said, as Claiborne had said, one formal action will be if they approve the claims, then they would be approving the transfer. He said, however, when they do the budget amendment, that will be another step. Claiborne said it is actually like a bill in which they would write a check to Emergency Management, and it would be handled as a claim, not a transfer. He said they don't have a fund to transfer to because they are not part of their formal budget. R. Sullivan said that at the beginning of the fiscal year, they write Emergency Management a check for how much they have budgeted, or they choose to write another check.
Claiborne said that, like he said before, once Emergency Management receives the reimbursement from FEMA, and he said he would come to the Board if they wanted to retain that and build up a reserve for future disasters or if they want them back in the General Basic fund. R. Sullivan said he assumed they could do a combination of the two as well. Claiborne said whatever they want.
Neuzil reminded the Board about next week's Criminal Justice Coordinating Committee meeting at 4:00 p.m. on August 6, 2008. Neuzil will be having a listening post on July 31, 2008 at the Senior Center. He will also be attending the Rebuild Iowa meeting at Kirkwood Community College.
Meyers attended the Iowa Valley Resource Conservation and Development meeting and a SEATS Labor Management Committee meeting. Meyers said a couple of weeks ago Planning and Zoning contacted him about Tiffin's Fringe Area Agreement with the County. He said Planning and Zoning Administrator Rick Dvorak, Assistant Planning and Zoning Administrator R.J. Moore, and himself worked with the Tiffin Mayor one day.
Harney attended liaison meetings with M. Sullivan, Shramek, and Dvorak. Harney attended the Hills City Council meeting. He said that construction will be starting on Oakcrest Hill Road SE.
R. Sullivan said there have been a lot of small town celebrations. R. Sullivan attended Planning and Zoning site visits.
Adjourned at 11:50 a.m.
Attest: Tom Slockett, Auditor
By Casie Kadlec, Recording Secretary