MINUTES OF THE INFORMAL MEETING OF THE JOHNSON COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS:
SEPTEMBER 24, 2008
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
Key Issues Work Session........................................................................................................ 1
FEMA Updates.......................................................................................................... 1
Project Updates.......................................................................................................... 6
Federal Issues Trip and Local Federal Issues Meetings................................................. 7
Contract With the Video Center.................................................................................. 8
Board of Supervisors Office: Internal Processes, Expectations, Other Operational Issues 8
Meeting Agenda Items.............................................................................................. 12
Chairperson Sullivan called the Johnson County Board of Supervisors to order in the Johnson County Administration Building at 9:01 a.m. Members present were Pat Harney, Larry Meyers, Sally Stutsman, and Rod Sullivan; absent: Terrence Neuzil.
Stutsman asked if the elevating houses are for people who decided not to participate in the buyout. Meyers asked if the house needs to be more than 50% damaged to participate in the buyout. Planning and Zoning Administrator Rick Dvorak said yes. There is one going up now in the Izaak Walton area and one next week. Three will be replaced and a majority of people on the south side of Izaak Walton Road went for the buyout. Dvorak said Stutsman and Harney know that the land owner on the north side is interested in selling the house and some of the land to the County. However, current law prohibits subdivision of the land and in this case the land would need to be subdivided since the owner is interested in selling only some of it.
Dvorak said the intent of the law is to create building lots. East Central Iowa Council of Governments Planner Hilary Copeland has been working with the State to develop a plan which will allow the County to buy some of the lots if the Board is interested. Three people from Riverfront Estates are interested in the buyout. Two of them put their names in but have no intention of selling. This gives them a fallback position if things don't work out financially. Dvorak said two of them were uninsured. R. Sullivan said he does not understand how people could be uninsured at that location. Dvorak said that some people do not realize they can get insurance but for most people, if they have a lien, the bank requires it. R. Sullivan said someone must have paid cash for their house. Dvorak said right, the properties were smaller cabins, non-residential types.
Dvorak said all in all things have gone quite smoothly. Things seem comfortable now, and everyone is trying to rebuild and finish the recovery process. Stutsman asked how people living in floodways on Riverfront Estates can get flood insurance. Dvorak said they encourage home owners to self insure so FEMA does not have to pay. Cedar Rapids flood victims received up to $30,000 for recovery. Flood victims in Riverfront Estates received nothing from FEMA because they were self insured. He said the goal of the buyout concept is to either get people insured or out. In this case the County will try to buy the property so FEMA, the County, and the City do not have to continue to pay every time there is a flood. Every time it floods, the County spends a lot of money on hidden costs such as staffing and reimbursement. Dvorak explained that FEMA does not encourage communities to mandate people not to rebuild their homes. Stutsman asked when the Board would know the next step on the buyout. Dvorak said he guessed in four to six months. R. Sullivan said he thought Copeland said a formal application would be submitted in November, 2008.
R. Sullivan said there are people who have not taken any steps in the rebuilding process. Dvorak said there are three or four families in the Izaak Walton area whose homes were cleaned out but anticipating a buyout, these families have disinvested in the properties. Harney asked if Dvorak knew how many people have taken advantage of the trailers. Dvorak said he was never involved with trailers and does not know. Executive Assistant Mike Sullivan said he did not know how many they had because they were still having issues getting the trailers set up. R. Sullivan said they had 15 trailers set up and 11 of them were occupied. Harney asked if that was Iowa City and Coralville combined. R. Sullivan said it was just a Johnson County application and all of the trailers were at Golf View Mobile Home Court in North Liberty. Harney asked if any of the trailers were in rural areas. R. Sullivan said he knew of one.
M. Sullivan said they received the first completed project worksheet for public assistance. The worksheet addresses only the cleanup aspects that Dvorak set up and the amount the County is eligible for reimbursement is $38,514.17. He said reimbursement from the Federal government will be 90%, or $34,662.75 and the State will reimburse the County for the remaining 10%.
Stutsman asked if the money from the State is guaranteed and not dependent on how much money is left over. M. Sullivan said the reimbursement is guaranteed. He said the facilities expenses that he submitted to FEMA for facilities plant wages were $2,576.18 for one department. The equipment rental for sandbag set-up and removal was a little over $30,000. M. Sullivan stated that when the worksheet is done, FEMA will sign off on it, send it to the State of Iowa where Homeland Security and Emergency Management (IHSEM) staff will review it and then send the worksheet back to the County for confirmation. M. Sullivan said he will review it one more time before signing off so payments take place. The expenses SEATS incurred were for busses for moving people to Red Cross shelters. The County used the SEATS busses to transport people to doctor appointments and to pharmacies. He said the project worksheet he submitted for this is just a little over $25,000 and SEATS will get a 90% reimbursement from the Federal Government and the other 10% from the State.
M. Sullivan said Ambulance Director Steve Spenler has already used the IHSEM worksheets and his expenses were for hours and staffing an extra ambulance deployed on the west side of the river. He said those expense of a little over $7,000 have been submitted for reimbursement. These worksheets prepared with FEMA just deal with the preparation prior to the flooding, the recovery phase, and operations during the flood phase. Information Services (IS) worksheets were submitted yesterday and M. Sullivan does not have a total dollar amount because a lot of equipment had to be moved. He said Facilities Manager David Kempf gave him most of the information and M. Sullivan submitted that under Kempf's project worksheet because Kempf coordinated those activities for the County.
R. Sullivan asked if the Facilities Management numbers M. Sullivan provided include IS. M. Sullivan said that some of the numbers provided include IS but not all of them. Kempf said the worksheet includes expenses to relocate the servers such as electricians, temporary air conditioning, rental time on the equipment, and then equipment that was purchased. This does not include any IS equipment. Stutsman asked if the total was $25,000. Kempf said that was just for labor and the total was around $30,000. He said the rental equipment and the materials they had to get were separate. M. Sullivan said that about $3,000 to $4,000 of the $30,000 for equipment was used to get things prepared for Information Services. He said $205 was for advanced electric server prep, $2,600 was for portable air conditioning units, and $931 was for diesel fuel for a generator at the Jail. Since the County does not budget money for these kinds of disasters, they moved around some of the line item expenditures from Kempf's budget and will have a corresponding revenue line as well. This creates a red flag to show money was coming out because there was not a designated department to handle this matter. The Facilities Management budget will show a lot of money out of the budget that would normally not come out.
Harney asked if Ambulance Services was reimbursed through Linn County for the services provided to move patients out of Mercy Hospital. M. Sullivan said Ambulance Services was reimbursed by third party insurance carriers. They were reimbursed for mileage, staff time, and depreciation of equipment.
M. Sullivan said he worked with FEMA on a pilot project that addresses municipalities that have building damage outside of FEMA, or, if the County has to put in employee hours for flood recovery during regular working hours. Initially FEMA looked at this as time spent outside of regular hours, or overtime. He said the County employees are eligible for regular hour pay during the daytime. The Federal Government did this because of the flood and this would not have been applicable had the pilot project not been incorporated.
M. Sullivan said they are still submitting information as it comes in. He reminded the Board that the Secondary Roads Department submitted a separate public assistance application and then M. Sullivan submitted one on behalf of the Board which includes all other County departments. M. Sullivan said he submitted expenses from Conservation but they are not for preparation or recovery expenses. They are for Category C through G items. Conservation will be reimbursed 90% from the Federal Government. R. Sullivan said he thinks every employee in Conservation was working on this and wondered how they would be reimbursed. R. Sullivan said they had to rewire a lot of camp sites. M. Sullivan said there were three separate accesses: Hills Access, River Junction, and a third. He stated the Hills Access had the most damage. R. Sullivan asked if Conservation employee hours would be submitted too. M. Sullivan said those hours were submitted. R. Sullivan said Emergency Management ran out of money and the Board made an emergency allocation. M. Sullivan said this money will be reimbursed.
M. Sullivan said he meets with FEMA representatives about once or twice a week. R. Sullivan asked if M. Sullivan has a total for flood expenses. M. Sullivan said no, he has the estimates he submitted and it is hard to say what the total is because of the intangibles. FEMA makes the final determination on what qualifies. There is one more week to submit Public Assistance applications before the deadline. Stutsman asked if the number of applications have been tapering off. M. Sullivan answered yes but said it might be different for the cities because of the amount of property loss. M. Sullivan said he submitted the Sheriff's Department worksheet yesterday which included about $15,000 in wages. R. Sullivan said he thought that number would be higher. M. Sullivan said the $15,000 is an incomplete figure that does not include preparation or recovery hours. The County will still be able to submit recovery hours through the new pilot program.
Dvorak added he continues to submit worksheets for building inspector hours. While the County does not charge fees, they are hoping to be reimbursed for employees' hourly rate and mileage. M. Sullivan said they have six months to get everything wrapped up. He added the State of Iowa can extend that another year if needed. The rebuilding and repairs of accesses, from their perspective will take a minimum of 18 months.
Stutsman asked if any events related to the harsh winter would be eligible for FEMA assistance. M. Sullivan said County Engineer Greg Parker has a separate public assistance program because his department receives State and Federal funds. Secondary Roads is required to have a separate assistance program. Stutsman asked how M. Sullivan knew how to do the FEMA work. M. Sullivan said he was self-taught. Dvorak said they were fortunate because they had two weeks before the event to do some planning. He said they were meeting with FEMA, Iowa Homeland Security and Emergency Management, and the EPA two weeks before the event occurred so Johnson County was able to plan. Cedar Rapids had only 30 minutes notice. M. Sullivan said the County was ready for this event. Even before the Emergency Operations Center went to 24 hour status, he had been contacted the night before to come in for the Public Information Officer meeting. Dvorak said they were more fortunate than many municipalities and cities. He said they had very little training, and FEMA was very impressed with how well Johnson County inspectors did with disaster management. R. Sullivan said the federal people who were in the Emergency Operations Center were amazed by the maps that GIS Coordinator Rick Havel was able to produce. Dvorak said they sent all those maps to FEMA and that is one thing FEMA was very impressed with. Stutsman asked if the County was planning any changes to the flood plain maps. Dvorak said the maps were updated in 2002. R. Sullivan stated they do not control when the maps are updated.
Dvorak said they can request an update however, in looking at the maps, they found that everyone who was flooded should have been flooded based on their location in the flood plain. R. Sullivan said there were some places like Cottage Reserve where no houses suffered any damage but they could not get to the homes except by boat. Stutsman said people in the unincorporated areas seemed to be informed. Dvorak said during the event, he designated one person per area to keep residents informed. R. Sullivan said it worked well in Sutliff. Dvorak said one gentleman did come in concerned about not getting the help he needed so Dvorak made him in charge of cleanup for the southern portion of town and that worked out quite well. M. Sullivan said everything they can do has been done in the unincorporated parts of the County. Dvorak said he will be getting back to the Board when they are closer into the buyout process.
R. Sullivan said East Central Iowa Council of Governments Executive Director Doug Elliot is coming on September 25, 2008. He thinks that some of the State money running through the COG's that is available to small cities and counties might be able to be appropriated as a County match for buyouts. Stutsman said the guidelines for what could be considered for a match seemed pretty broad. Dvorak said Copeland was looking into helping the County figure out its portion. Harney said he did not think that was for buyouts but he was going to look at the memo again. Meyers asked if the residents give up anything that is considered part of the County's portion. Dvorak said if residents pay for demolishing they can use that as a match. Meyers said if the buyouts occur and the County then has to demolish everything, he wanted to know if demolition costs are included in the buyout price. Dvorak said no. He said if they had self insurance he can get them up to $30,000, part of which could go towards demolition. He stated if an insured house is certified as substantially damaged, they can get $30,000 over and above for demolition and elevation.
Harney said if they do not raze it, they are not eligible. Dvorak said then it is demolished. Meyers asked how it is handled if a particular house is bought out for its value, and on top of that is the cost of demolition. Dvorak said they can have the residents do the demolition and pay for it. Then it counts against the 15% match. Meyers said otherwise the County pays for it, and Dvorak said yes. Stutsman said in thinking about ECICOG, every time the Board talks with federal representatives they should talk about getting money for some of these bridges. For example the Highway 965 bridge and the Hills bridge because they had tremendous impact during the flood. Dvorak said the Hills bridge was damaged. Stutsman said the same thing happened in 1993 so obviously something is wrong. That bridge cannot handle that amount of water going through. Dvorak said there will be flooding again. Harney said the concern with the Hills bridge is that not enough water can get under the bridge and if it turns into a funnel it will back up into other areas.
Kempf said Board members should feel free to go through the Health and Human Services Building and he encourages people to visit every couple of weeks because things change rapidly. He said bricking on the northeast corner is done and they are currently working on the center section on the north side. That section should be completed by next week if the weather cooperates. He said they had only one piece of pre cast left to set on the ramp and then all the pre casts would be set. All American Concrete is contracted to do the paving on the ramp.
Stutsman asked if the ramp will be ready to go when the building is ready. Kempf said the ramp will probably be ready before the building opens. Meyers asked if there was some kind of system lined up for access to the ramp. Kempf said there will be gates and a key card access. Stutsman said the gates will not be operational when the building opens. Kempf said that in the Parking Committee meeting they are discussing the transition period when the gates will be open and people will not be charged for parking right away. Stutsman wanted to remind people that just because they start out not charging does not mean that is the way it is going to stay. R. Sullivan said there is a subcommittee that is working out the details with how people will be charged.
Kempf said there will be maintenance involved with the parking ramp structure just like any building. He said Parker will assist with this maintenance. Harney said he thinks the city puts a new concrete seal on every three years. Kempf said these are all things that need to be done in the building. He said sheetrock is 97% complete on the first floor and 1/3 complete on the second floor. Workers are taping and mudding now in preparation for the first coat of paint. The electrical components are in and have passed inspection by the City. Kempf said plumbing is complete and he said they will start the rooftop units the first week in October, 2008. He stated at the same time they are doing the start up they will do the commissioning of the equipment. Kempf said the furniture is out to bid and they should receive the bids back by October 7, 2008. He added they have planned the bids so they do not have to choose one vendor for everything; they can pick and choose. This ensures that the County gets the best price on everything and also gives local vendors a chance to participate at whatever level they can.
Kempf said the sky walk is now being painted. He stated the construction company is trying to get an agreement with the City which will allow them to close the road for two half days to spray. He is fearful that cars passing by may get paint on them. He said he thinks the initiative will pass sometime soon. Harney said if it is a windy day when they paint the sky walk the construction company has to take precautions to protect the cars in the parking lots. Kempf said that they do not paint on windy days and also, there is a quick-dry additive in the paint which causes it to dry before it ever hits something. R. Sullivan asked if they close the road for two half days will it be completely closed or will one lane be left open. Kempf said they will have to close the whole thing but he encouraged the company to close it around mid-day and not during peak traffic time. Meyers said trying to coordinate closing the road and windy conditions is difficult. Kempf said they’ll need to have some flexibility on all sides.
Kempf said SEATS and Secondary Roads are coming along quite well. He said inside they have 75% of the sheetrock finished, a majority of plumbing and electrical is all roughed in, but the heat pump units are not currently in place. He is concerned with this but he is confident the pumps will be installed on time. Harney asked if completion is on target. Kempf said completion is on target and is planning to move SEATS Director Tom Brase by the middle of October, 2008. They are finishing the insulating on the inside and framing up offices and restrooms in the bus barn. Kempf said that if anyone would like to have a tour he is happy to show them around.
Kempf said originally, the building was supposed to have polished concrete floors but there were issues with that when they laid the concrete. Now, the entryway is going to be tiled and an industrial two layer epoxy floor system will be installed in hallways and large meeting rooms.
Stutsman said she wants to convey to department heads that the Board does not have any intentions of redoing the third floor in the next year or two. That is a long term solution to the need for additional space. Meyers agreed. Kempf said he thinks when department heads see just how much space they are getting, they will see there is a huge difference. Not only is there more space, but the space they are getting is so much more efficient than what they have now. Meyers said there is also built in expansion space in each department on the first and second floors. R. Sullivan said department heads need to understand there is about ten times more conference space than is currently available. Kempf said all the meeting room space is based off of the 10 x 12 foot plan for offices. This was to allow for flexibility in the building when additional space is needed.
R. Sullivan asked if a grand opening is planned for SEATS. Kempf said Brase is working on this and it might be the first part of December, 2008.
R. Sullivan said in talking with department heads, they haven't received much feedback. The two issues important over the last two years are rail transit and trails. The other issue is bridges, in particular the 965 bridge and the Hills bridge. He said there might be some federal money for this. Meyers asked if he was referring to the Highway 965 roadway. R. Sullivan said the bridge will have to be replaced sometime. Harney said there is nothing in the near future for bridge replacement. R. Sullivan said it is something to discuss because some would say it is not worth replacing because 965 is right over there. The bridge could be raised up 20 feet so it would never be affected by flood waters.
M. Sullivan said it is better to concentrate on just a few issues. He also said that the legislators are ready to meet whenever a date works out. He suggested they schedule a meeting in November or December, 2008. R. Sullivan said he is not sure how much effort to put into this. He is under the impression that the entire meeting will be on flood recovery. Harney said it is still important to make contacts with the offices.
R. Sullivan said the Board just received a proposal from Video Center Operator Andy Small. Stutsman asked about the video equipment in the new building and wondered if the Board will have it's own equipment. Meyers asked if the Board was even going to have any equipment in that conference room since they decided to keep the Boardroom in the Administration Building. Harney said he thought they may have a dual system. Stutsman said she was hoping they could get by without Small having to haul all his equipment into each meeting room. Harney said that Coralville has a separate room for all the equipment. Stutsman asked if the Board should be thinking about Information Services recording the Board meetings. She said she does not have any problem with Small, but asked what the Board would do if Small didn't want to renew his contract.
M. Sullivan said there is no one else in town to do this. People who do it privately don't have the necessary equipment to air the meetings on television. Stutsman said they should think in terms of preparing for a time when Small may not be available. This contract lays out a $20 increase per meeting over last year. The DVD transfer and burn price is the same. R. Sullivan said it is a good idea to ask Information Services Director Jean Schultz about video taping options. He asked if when they reconfigure the room they can plan for a space where Small can put his cords so they are not dangling all over the place. M. Sullivan said he will want to hear from Small exactly where he will want the camera set up.
Stutsman said she would like M. Sullivan to inquire if it's a possibility for Information Services to provide videography for the Board meetings, and if it is even appropriate for IS to do this. She will also discuss this with Schultz at the liaison meeting. Harney said this would be similar to the City of Iowa City and Coralville, they have their own audio visual staff. Stutsman said she thinks Small has always treated the County fairly. M. Sullivan agreed. He added that the City could not guarantee staff to tape the meetings and also no guarantee when they would air the meetings. Harney said Small has been flexible when the Board has changed meeting times. Stutsman said he provides great service but the Board should have a back up. R. Sullivan said Small's contract renewal will be on the Informal meeting agenda of October 1, 2009 and on the October 9, 2008 Formal Meeting agenda.
R. Sullivan said regarding the September 25, 2008 Board meeting, Parker is the host for the Iowa Chapter of the American Public Works Association. As hosts, R. Sullivan is supposed to attend the conference to give welcome remarks. That is at 8:45 a.m. and it is possible he will not be back until 9:05 a.m. Rather than post another agenda for tomorrow's meeting, if it's okay with everyone he'd like to just hold the meeting and announce that it will start a few minutes late.
R. Sullivan said the October 2, 2008 Board Meeting has been rescheduled to October 1, 2008. The Board has a joint meeting with the Conservation Board on October 15, 2008 and it will be at the Administration Building in the Lower Level Conference Room. M. Sullivan said Conservation Director Harry Graves agreed to incorporate the site visit with the joint meeting.
R. Sullivan said October 1, 2008 is the Joint meeting of the CJCC and the Board. Harney said that is not a joint meeting. M. Sullivan said he recalls they wanted to have just the CJCC at the October 1, 2008 meeting so they can get the coordinator position rolling. R. Sullivan said that is not what he understood from CJCC Member Dorothy Whiston. Harney said he thinks CJCC Member John Stratton requested this meeting for CJCC members. R. Sullivan said he thinks the Vernon Research Group (VRG) wants to present at this meeting. Stutsman said she thinks having the VRG at this meeting is premature. M. Sullivan said he thinks things have changed since they last discussed the meeting schedule. R. Sullivan said he wonders how much the CJCC can do anymore without the Board. R. Sullivan said his understanding is Whiston expected the Board to be there because she has something to present. Also the VRG Business Development Manager Susan Pfeiler-Todd wanted to present as well. Harney said that is a total change from what was discussed at the last meeting. Harney said if people are expecting to speak then he doesn't have a problem with it but he does not understand how it all came about. The Board was confused about who was writing the job description for the coordinator position.
Stutsman said she is reluctant to have the VRG at this meeting and wondered if they requested to come to sell the Board a contract. R. Sullivan said he thinks that is exactly why they want to come. Stutsman said she is not ready to sign a contract with VRG. R. Sullivan said now that the Durrant Report is completed VRG can explain how they can get started. M. Sullivan said when VRG representatives were here a few months ago, they did talk about this being a point in time to revisit the Board. At some point during these last three months, Todd has been talking with Durrant Group Representative Mike Lewis about what role they will have after the Durrant report is done. Harney said that is premature and the committee needs to discuss it first. M. Sullivan agreed. R. Sullivan said the committee needs to have something from VRG to know what to talk about. Harney said he thinks that everyone should have a pretty good idea of what they want to provide from the VRG's past three presentations. R. Sullivan said Todd will present specific details about the survey.
M. Sullivan said this meeting could be just a CJCC meeting treated like a CJCC work session with dialogue between Whiston and Todd. R. Sullivan said he is ready to move forward with a joint meeting. There was continued confusion about who was doing what and who should be at the October 1, 2008 meeting. Stutsman said this confusion reveals that they need a coordinator, and that is her priority. She does not want to hear from the Vernon Research Group or anyone else until a coordinator is in place. Harney said maybe they ought to dissolve the committee and turn things over to the Board. M. Sullivan said that once a coordinator is hired, the use of the committee will diminish but until then, the committee should remain.
R. Sullivan said he thinks they have reached a point where the Board has to take ownership. For example, if a meeting is held with just Neuzil and Harney, no action can take place without Board approval and he said that seems like it is not the best use of everyone's time, plus it will take much longer to get things done. He said his strong preference is for all future meetings to be Board meetings. Harney said he understands that but continues to wonder why the Board set up the committee if the Board has the final decision. R. Sullivan said he thinks time will be better spent having joint meetings. Stutsman asked if the purpose of the meeting Harney set up was to review the job description. Harney said yes. Stutsman said she does not want to see it until it is ready. M. Sullivan said he thought it was supposed to be a work session with the CJCC.
Stutsman said the Board can always call a special session when they are ready. R. Sullivan said it may not be easy to schedule Todd at short notice. Stutsman said she is not interested in hearing from Todd until the Board has decided what they need. Meyers said at some point, this has to get before the public to know what they are going to accept. The public has not shown up at the Durrant Group meetings to hear the proposals. If the public is totally against a criminal justice center the Board is wasting a lot of time trying to work out the details. Harney said he doesn't think they can move too far forward until they know whether the County will be able to acquire the GSA lot. The only way to sell this is to present to the established community groups such as the Optimists.
M. Sullivan asked what the Board wants to do. Stutsman said she wants to review a finished job description. Harney said if the job description is finished, they should go ahead and have a joint meeting. He is however, very concerned about another Vernon Research Group presentation on how many phone calls will be made and to who. The Board already has that information and it is not ready for more at this point. R. Sullivan asked what is needed to be ready to hear from the VRG again. Harney said they need a location and to know what will be included in it. R. Sullivan said he thought that was the purpose of the survey. Meyers said if the public is not going to tolerate the cost level of the current proposals, they will need to know before spending too much time on any one issue if it turns out the public is not going to buy into it. Stutsman said her dilemma is whether to scale the justice center to what the community wants or to have the Board, as elected officials, decided what the community needs. Stutsman asked whose responsibility it is to sell this to the public.
Stutsman said she is concerned that another joint meeting will lead to non action, like the last few joint meetings. Stutsman asked what Todd would present. Harney said he recommends putting Todd on the November, 2008 Informal meeting agenda. The most important thing now is to get a coordinator hired. R. Sullivan said he sees no point in not having the Board at all future meetings and he wants to be in on all decision making. He does not get the sense that there are three Board members who want that. Harney said he thinks they all want to be involved. Stutsman agreed but said she doesn’t think now is the time because there is some preliminary work that needs completion first. M. Sullivan said at some point this coordinator position will have to be approved by the Board. R. Sullivan said the coordinator will have to answer to the Board. M. Sullivan said if this is an agreement between the County and an individual, they will have to answer to the Board.
Stutsman said she thinks R. Sullivan is saying it is time to disband the committee and have the Board take over. R. Sullivan said he thinks the committee's input is valuable and he respects the individuals, but that the decisions have to be made by the Board. He said that emails must go out to all CJCC members and everyone else involved announce if the meeting is joint or not. Harney said that if County Attorney Janet Lyness has something ready to present to the Board, then to go ahead and schedule a joint meeting. M. Sullivan said the Board is still a ways away from deciding if they want to use the Vernon Research Group. R. Sullivan said if the Board wants to make decisions then they can call a meeting on Friday and make every decision right now. Harney said they should just go ahead and have the joint meeting and at that time have a discussion about how the Board intends to proceed.
M. Sullivan said there were a few scheduling difficulties while he was in the hospital. That was primarily due to having too many different people involved in transmitting emails about agenda items. Stutsman said they have asked in the past that when a contract is on the agenda, to include who the contract is with and the amount. M. Sullivan said there is a legal requirement to include the meeting time on public hearing notices. R. Sullivan asked if the notice did include a time. M. Sullivan said yes. The time was not included on the Board's agenda, but that is simply a formality not a requirement. M. Sullivan said that he has since told Board Secretary Jo Hogarty that whatever language comes from the County Attorney's Office for agenda items must be included verbatim on the Board's agendas.
R. Sullivan said Deputy Auditor Casie Kadlec and Assistant County Attorney Andy Chappell had expressed thanks for being able to review the agendas with enough time to make necessary changes. M. Sullivan said the deadline to submit agenda items for Thursday Formal and Informal meetings is Tuesdays at noon. If an item is submitted after this deadline the Board Chairperson must decide if it will be added or if it must wait until the following week. M. Sullivan said the responsibility of the Auditor’s Office is to publish these things and they know they have to be accurate. He said the County Attorney’s Office entails a legal responsibility as well so the sooner they see the material, the quicker they can respond to it. Stutsman said Kadlec has many years of experience and she is a good resource. She asked if M. Sullivan has prepared the draft of the letter thanking the Safety Committee members. M. Sullivan said he will do that and circulate it to Board members for comment. Stutsman said it is good for the Board to acknowledge when people in the line of duty do a good job because they saved the County a lot of money this year.
R. Sullivan said the Elected Officials Meeting is scheduled for October 15, 2008 at 1:30 p.m. Stutsman said the next Department Head Meeting is November 18, 2008 at 1:30p.m.
Adjourned at 10:51 a.m.
Attest: Tom Slockett, Auditor
By Nancy Tomkovicz, Recording Secretary