MINUTES OF THE INFORMAL MEETING OF THE JOHNSON COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS:
OCTOBER 16, 2008
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
Reports and Inquiries from Executive Assistant Mike Sullivan................................................... 1
Board of Supervisors: Request for Proposals for a Criminal Justice Coordinator to Provide Services for Johnson County....................................................................................................................................... 1
Reports and Inquiries from the Board of Supervisors................................................................. 5
Chairperson Sullivan called the Johnson County Board of Supervisors to order in the Johnson County Administration Building at 9:15 a.m. Members present were: Pat Harney, Larry Meyers, Terrence Neuzil, Sally Stutsman, and Rod Sullivan.
Executive Assistant Mike Sullivan reminded the Board the Communications Committee meeting is scheduled for October 17, 2008 at 9:00 a.m. This committee includes department heads who address employee recognition and employee fundraising such as the United Way Campaign. He said tomorrow they will discuss the upcoming employee recognition which is scheduled for December 2008. On October 22, 2008, the Board is scheduled for a 9:00 a.m. Key Issues meeting. At this meeting the Board is scheduled to discuss the Johnson County Ag Association new building. M. Sullivan said the Board received information from the Ag Association and the ISU Extension. The Board is also scheduled to discuss meeting schedules with local congressional staff. A meeting with the Federal Congressional staff has already been arranged for November, 2008. M. Sullivan said they also plan to discuss naming a county representative to serve on the Eastern Iowa Tourism Association Committee. The Board is also scheduled to discuss position descriptions for the Board's Budget Coordinator and Executive Assistant. M. Sullivan said a mandatory budget meeting with all department heads is scheduled for October 23, 2008, at 1:30 p.m. in the Board Room.
R. Sullivan said discussions at the Joint meetings of the Board of Supervisor's and the Criminal Justice Coordinating Committee (CJCC) revealed a desire to get something started in order to hire a coordinator to manage the detail work involved with the CJCC. County Attorney Janet Lyness said the CJCC has been meeting quite a few years and came up with the idea to hire someone to coordinate all the administrative tasks such as scheduling joint meetings, filing reports, and answering general questions. The discussion began about hiring someone, whether it should be a County employee or someone else, it just didn't seem like there was someone to oversee the whole discussion and the effort to move the project along. Lyness said the committee discussed the possibility of the County contracting out this position. At the last CJCC meeting, committee members discussed the qualifications required of someone to do the job. The committee decided it wanted to request proposals from interested people who would submit what they would bring to the table and how much money they wanted for doing that kind of work. Then the Board would decide from there who they want to hire, and how much they want to pay. Lyness said she knows there are a few people involved with the CJCC who might be interested and she said she thinks they have different pay requirements in mind. There may be others out there as well. This is just a starting point for the Board to decide how to proceed with hiring someone.
R. Sullivan said the issue here that is different from other hiring situations is the fact that there is no salary attached to the position. This is because applicants will be asked what salary they require to get the job done. Then the Board will review the requests. Meyers asked if the applicants will be asked to submit their salary request with their proposal. Lyness said the CJCC will accept proposals which should include salary requirements. The CJCC is laying out the general guidelines, and the applicants will provide specifics. Meyers said he is a little confused because he did not see any specific reference to compensation in the draft. M. Sullivan said it will be added to the final request for proposal.
Stutsman said there is an incomplete sentence at the top of page two. M. Sullivan said he is aware of that and this is just a draft. Neuzil said he noticed a typo and so this must be a working document. Stutsman said the document should say draft on it. Neuzil agreed. He said he assumes the Board will still receive input from the CJCC and the Board when it comes to this draft. R. Sullivan said the CJCC wants to get this done. They were adamant about getting someone hired by November 5, 2008. R. Sullivan said they had hoped to have this proposal on the agenda last week but that that didn't happen. R. Sullivan said that obviously if the Board follows it's typical procedure of informal to formal, it will be pushing it to make it by November 5, 2008. Stutsman asked if they could ask for a one-week turnaround. She said there are a couple people interested who probably have their thoughts together. R. Sullivan said this is at the Board's discretion. Neuzil said it seems a bit quick to try to work with that timetable. He said they all know there are folks who have interest in this position. Harney said there are folks who have interest but he does not see it as such a pressing issue. He said he thinks they are not ready to move this quickly and if they have to they should wait another month. Stutsman disagreed.
R. Sullivan said this discussion is in response to a strong sense from the CJCC that they want to get someone hired quicker rather than wait. He said he doesn't disagree with Harney, but that he is responding to the demands of the CJCC. Neuzil said it is easy for a committee to demand things. The Board has already identified the hiring of a coordinator as a priority in its' strategic plan. He said once they receive the Durrant report, they will have a better picture of where they want to go from here. Neuzil said there is a need for outside assistance to facilitate this process. Whether it's November 5, 2008 when the Board gets the report, or the first Wednesday in December 2008, he doesn't think it makes much difference as long as the CJCC knows the Board is moving forward and wants a coordinator in place by the end of the year. R. Sullivan said this is a Board decision and it is up to the five of them. Stutsman said she agrees with R. Sullivan and heard the CJCC say they can't do much more until a coordinator is hired. This has been the sentiment for a couple months now. She said she is willing to look at it again, but is real interested in moving forward with this now. Harney said they may not all be talking about the same things here. He said he thinks they don't really need to have someone in place within a month because they still need time to receive and review applications and process paperwork. As far as a completed job description is concerned, if a draft is ready, he said he wouldn't mind looking at it in a week or so. Harney said he doesn't think the Board can get someone in place in that short period of time. R. Sullivan said the Board needs to decide what it wants to do and by when.
Neuzil said realistically, if the Board decides and votes by November 5, 2008, on a process and timeline, then it can then present the intent of the Board to the CJCC and let the committee know the Board expects to have the hiring done before the December meeting. Meyers agreed. He said this is just a draft and it needs some editing. Meyers asked if an end date should be added to the description saying that as it currently reads it isn't clear if this is a ten month or ten year position. Stutsman recommended adding a sentence which says the position will be evaluated after a specific period of time. R. Sullivan said he thinks the applicants are supposed to outline that in their proposal. Neuzil said the Board needs to name a selection committee and all this is going to take more time than a week or two. Stutsman said her comments are reflective of the frustration she is feeling with the pace of this process over the last several months. She said they are moving at a snails pace and is concerned that the CJCC really thinks the coordinator will be hired by the next time they meet. She said that frankly these are volunteers who have faithfully, faithfully attended these meetings and come every month and have done what they've been asked and she am concerned they are just going to throw up their hands and say they're done. Stutsman said maybe this is just a small thing to wait another month, but that is what the Board keeps doing, waiting another month. She said that years later they are still without a coordinator. Harney said it hasn't been that long because they have been waiting on the Durrant report. There wasn't much that could be done without the report and now it's back and he agrees that someone is needed to coordinate the committee meetings and put things forward. Stutsman asked if the Board should target January 5, 2009 to have this done. R. Sullivan said he'd really like this on the formal agenda on October 23, 2008 and push forward with it. He said that if there are three people who want to do it, they should move forward, but if there are not three people, the Board can't.
Neuzil said he is perfectly fine getting this on the Board's agenda, moving it forward, and starting the process of naming the selection committee. R. Sullivan said the Board is the selection committee. Neuzil said this is a unique situation. Stutsman said she is not interested in spending a lot of time or money in advertising for this position. A couple of people have express interest and she is very comfortable with moving ahead with those who are interested. Neuzil said maybe this will get done sooner rather than later, but realistically it's going to take a few weeks and November 5, 2008 will be here in no time. Stutsman added that then they will have to wait another whole month before the Board can do anything else. Meyers said the Board wouldn't necessarily have to wait a month, but he thinks to have this done and in place by November 5, 2008 is a fast time track. He said if it doesn't get done until a few weeks after November 5, 2008, it's not the end of the world.
Neuzil said the most important thing now is that the Board agrees that this is an important position and it will not be easy to keep everyone on track without a coordinator. Harney clarified this is not a full-time position, it is a part-time position where the individual will coordinate the planning and administrative efforts of the committee to move forward with the Justice Center. He said Stutsman's comments about not doing much advertising for this position are justified because this has been going on for a couple years with many studies and conversations. There are individuals in this group who would be willing to take on this task and if the Board hired someone from outside this group, it will take them forever to catch up because he has a stack of materials a foot-and-a-half high from all the meetings. Harney said he thinks it is in everyone's advantage to find someone familiar with the process and the history.
Lyness said as a member of the CJCC, she thinks that November 5, 2008 might be too soon to have someone on board, but she would be a satisfied committee member to know the Board has made a decision on it, and the Board is moving quickly to get someone in place. She added that it may be a little unfair to those who want to apply, that if they have to turn in a proposal within a week, there may be other things going on with them and she would like to give them just a little more time. If the Board wants to approve the request for proposal and prepare a timeline next week, as a member of the CJCC, she would be happy with that. R. Sullivan said it is a shame they missed a whole week last week, and he'd like to move forward as fast as they can. Harney said he thinks that once the request for proposal is completed, things will happen. Neuzil said the only difference is that the Board needs a couple more weeks to put this out to the committee and November 5, 2008 is not compatible with the Board's timeline. He doesn't think they are all that far off on any of this, and recommends continuing to move forward. He said if this is formalized on October 23, 2008, advertising could begin soon after, and then there are a few weeks in there where it could get done by November 5, 2008. Lyness said if it gets approved next week, applicants should be given until October 30, 2008 to get their applications in so that at the CJCC meeting, the Board could say that formally on October 23, 2008, the Board is going to offer the coordinator position to someone.
Neuzil asked if the names of applicants will confidential. Lyness said the County is not hiring a new employee but contracting with someone to provide services. Neuzil asked if applicant names are public and Lyness said yes and that their proposal will be public also. Stutsman said if the Board has identified a couple of people, they could send them the draft so they can be thinking about what they want to put together. She added that there is always criticism from the public about government taking too long to get things done and she thought this would have been an opportunity to show the public that the government can move quickly on things. She said that if a majority is not interested in moving along as quickly as possible, she hopes this will be in place by the middle of November, 2008. Lyness said the request for proposals could be put on the formal agenda for October 23, 2008, and then go ahead and try to get submissions within a week.
Harney attended the Johnson County Community Foundation Board of Directors meeting, the Sixth Judicial District Department of Corrections Board of Directors meeting, a liaison meeting with Ambulance Director Steve Spenler, a joint meeting with FEMA and Planning and Zoning, the East Central Iowa Council of Governments meeting, a liaison meeting with Human Resources Director Lora Shramek, a tour of the Syngenta plant in Lone Tree, a Chamber Ag and Biosciences meeting, and a Department of Transportation meeting.
Stutsman attended a liaison meeting with Shramek, a construction meeting for the Health and Human Services Building, a meeting where city leaders from Iowa City, Coralville, and North Liberty gave updates, and a Community Foundation Flood Grant meeting. Stutsman said she received an email from a group in Wisconsin that is offering to do work on jail efficiencies and she told the Board she has already made a copy and will pass it around.
Neuzil attended the Chamber Ag and Biosciences meeting and a meeting with Steve Lensink of the Office of the Iowa Archeological Society. He said the Joint Emergency Communication Center has scheduled it's groundbreaking ceremony for October 22, 2008 at 1:00 p.m. Neuzil said his next Listening Post is at Get Wired Coffee at the Fountain of Flowers in Lone Tree on October 17, 2008 at 7:30 a.m.
Meyers attended a liaison meeting with Spenler, a number of site visits with Social Services Coordinator Amy Correia, an AARP and a Task Force on Aging meeting, a liaison meeting with Medical Examiner Mike Hensch, and a liaison meeting with SEATS Director Tom Brase.
R. Sullivan attended the Livable Community for Successful Aging Group meeting, a Conservation Board meeting, and a Board meeting regarding growth areas in Johnson County. R. Sullivan said that on October 20, 2008 there is a review session for folks who were involved in the flood response at the Coralville Fire Department and the City of Iowa City Human Rights Commission Awards Ceremony is on October 23, 2008 at Hotel Vetro.
Adjourned at 10:07 a.m.
______________________________________________________________________
Attest: Tom Slockett, Auditor
By:
On the _______ day of _____________________, 2008
By Nancy Tomkovicz, Recording Secretary
Sent to the Board of Supervisors on October 29, 2008 at 11:55 a.m.