MINUTES OF THE INFORMAL MEETING OF THE JOHNSON COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS:
NOVEMBER 25, 2008
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
Iowa City Area Development Group President Joe Raso: Annual Report to the Board of Supervisors
Ambulance Director Steve Spenler: Progress Report
Information Services Director Jean Schultz: Progress Report
Reports and Inquiries From Executive Assistant Mike Sullivan
Board of Supervisors: Appointment to the Johnson County Council of Governments Cool Cities Taskforce
Reports and Inquiries from the Board of Supervisors
Chairperson Sullivan called the Johnson County Board of Supervisors to order in the Johnson County Administration Building at 9:00 a.m. Members present were: Larry Meyers, Terrence Neuzil, Sally Stutsman, and Rod Sullivan; absent: Pat Harney.
Iowa City Area Development Group (ICAD) President Joe Raso thanked the Board and the citizens of Johnson County for their continued support of ICAD. This year, ICAD will celebrate its 25 year anniversary. Raso said he is here to give the Board an update on the items that are core to the work they do for their investors and clients. Raso handed out a document to Board members. Three years ago ICAD made a commitment to investors, and citizens of Johnson County and the surrounding communities, to work towards a number of benchmarks during a five-year investment campaign. ICAD wishes to create over 2,800 jobs in the Johnson County area. To date, with the numbers from the previous two years, ICAD is 36% on the way toward accomplishing that goal. Given the conditions of the national economy over the past year the above mentioned statistic is a good sign. In looking at the total new jobs, there is an indirect and induced impact of the work ICAD does as a new primary sector, jobs are created. It has a multiplier effect in the economy, based on the industry and wages. Thus far ICAD has worked on 18 projects in the past two fiscal years. ICAD is in a position to take advantage of a number of opportunities in the area, such as renewable energy. In speaking with site location consultants around the country, ICAD staff learned that 80% to 90% of activities are in renewable energy, whether wind or solar. With Acciona Energy located in the area, along with Clipper Windpower Inc. in Cedar Rapids, ICAD has spent more than 90% of their time with new companies interested in entering that market.
Raso said another area of interest and concern to ICAD are shovel-ready sites. The State does not have a program for a site to be certified as shovel-ready. This is an important piece to the site location process. Consultants and companies want to know there has been diligence on a piece of land they wish to purchase so they can move quickly to begin construction. The cost of shovel-ready certification is relatively insignificant compared to the cost of putting up speculative buildings. ICAD has taken it upon itself in this region to begin that process by working with utilities and State representatives. The hope is at the end of the next fiscal year which is June, 2009, that a statewide initiative for shovel-ready certification will be in place. He said it is important from a County perspective to look at the groups website at iowacityareadevelopment.com, because there have been significant changes to the site to better represent the all the communities and the County. There is information about the County and communities’ building sites that a company can access. The group is working closely to find ways to better link information from the County Assessor's Office and Auditor's Office.
Raso said Air Service is one of four issues they are asked about quite a bit. Companies want to know if direct flights are available and how easily executives can enter and exit the market. ICAD is working diligently with the Eastern Iowa Airport on developing plans to better improve the communication and the products and services to existing companies, which will help recruit companies into the market place. Today, the focus is still on the existing industry. ICAD spends a great deal of time visiting with 75 to 80 clients in the market. ICAD surveys and interviews current clients on an annual basis to find out how they can help them be successful. Pre-flood data was collected through one-on-one surveys with clients. Survey results indicated ICAD clients added almost 1,400 jobs in FY07. The biggest issue ICAD faces is the ability to recruit and retain the talent needed. The growth rate throughout the mid-west and the nation is becoming an issue for businesses. The biggest challenge is getting people to come to the market. Once they are here, and have had experience in this area and there is no problem getting people to relocate here. The challenge is the perception of Iowa and the Midwest, and the lack of understanding about what the community has to offer.
Raso said they have developed initiatives to better communicate with people with certain skill sets. As an example, in the last two months, ICAD communicated with 30,000 individuals who have engineering and information technology degrees who live in one of the seven states surrounding Iowa. The group has also communicated with people with those degrees in Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan. As well as marketing for positions in project management, accounting, and actuarial, because these are the positions companies want to fill and they can't find enough skilled people in the marketplace. ICAD feels a responsibility to help their clients fill the positions, and the influx of new people to the market will boost the local economy. In general, companies see this area as a place for potential growth. The biggest concern is roads and infrastructure because of the rough winter and the flooding. He said right now it is too early to tell what the full impact of the flooding and last years winter will be on the market. But by the end of the first quarter there should be a better understanding of where things are at in the local economy.
Meyers asked if there was anything else that companies and potential employees are looking for when deciding to locate here, besides the shovel-ready sites and air service. Raso responded that there are four main issues, the two above-mentioned as well as workforce which is proving to the company the availability, affordability, and capability of a workforce. Fortunately this is one of the few markets in the country right now that can do that. The fourth and most troubling issue is the perception of Iowa, and a lack of understanding of all that Iowa City has to offer. This is an issue that requires more attention than what ICAD can afford. There are markets around the country that are spending seven figures annually to attract people. Raso said his fear is that other communities around the country with more resources are investing in public relations and workforce marketing. There are only three factors that determine whether there is enough workforce in this country; birth rates, which are declining, the percentage of women in the workforce, which has essentially plateaued, and immigration. Consultants are telling certain markets around the country that they will survive if they can steal workers. Over time, a markets economy will not survive if it can't recruit. This is something ICAD has been doing for ten years, attracting people into the marketplace to meet the demands of employers. Raso said he can not emphasize enough how important this is to the market.
Stutsman said she went online and watched a recruiting video, and felt people ages 35 to 40 will not apply because it was focused on a younger audience. She asked if this video sends the right message if they are really trying to recruit any age worker. Raso said that the video was not targeting an older generation, it was created with recent college graduates in mind. He said ICAD surveyed recent college graduates and asked what about a market would attract them. Those who cited quality of life described bigger markets such as Chicago and New York. ICAD cannot attract people based on the quality of life in Iowa City. Raso said first and foremost graduates are interested in gaining experiences such as traveling the country and world doing new and interesting things in their jobs. Graduates want to work for companies with “cool” work environments and flexible time and the ability to partner on projects. One thing the video showed was the neat work environments available in Iowa City. Graduates also need to live in a market where there is money to pay rent and basic bills with enough left over to have a social life. ICAD also distributes a recruitment package called Pick Your Pace, for companies to give to perspective clients. Many of the perspective clients are older and worry about things that most families are worried about. This market is a great place for families, the State in general is viewed as a great place to raise families because of education, health care, and reasonable housing. The message is different to each demographic, and that is the reason this video was placed on YouTube.
Neuzil said the investment the County makes in the Iowa City Area Development Group is an investment in economic development. He asked what Johnson County can do to help the recruitment process. Raso answered the continued investment the County makes grouping ICAD. Those dollars are General Fund dollars used to support the five main areas of focus. The fifth area not mentioned earlier is entrepreneurial development. In terms of the marketing side, there are not going to be shovel-ready sites in unincorporated Johnson County because of the definition of what is required with the shovel-ready site. Some of the communities, like Iowa City, are looking to expand the industrial park because there is rail, and the ability to put the infrastructure that is needed. The efforts that the County is making with the City and developers to allow for that to happen is extremely important. Having a strong relationship with the County is extremely important. The efforts the County made with Syngenta, there are businesses and opportunities to help a company that feels they need to be part of an unincorporated part of the County. Those are things the Board wishes to continue. R. Sullivan said one thing they are trying to do more of is be data driven, making decisions based on good information. Raso said the group should not be looked upon as a human service agency, but looked upon as a direct return on investment. If not the group has not performed and the Board should act accordingly.
Recessed to formal meeting at 9:26 a.m.; reconvened at 9:43 a.m.
County Engineer Greg Parker said Linn County Engineer Steve Gannon brought this to his attention. The County has a 28E maintenance agreement which brought this bridge to his attention. This bridge is on the County line road in the northwest part of the County. After bridge inspections were completed, repair and maintenance activities that needed to be done on this bridge have been moved up. The recommendation is to get this bridge in the 2009 program; otherwise the bridge will be closed until it is in the program to be repaired. Secondary Roads recommendation is to get this on the agenda for the December 4, 2008 formal meeting to be approved and included as part of the 2009 5 Year Road Construction Program. Stutsman asked what the traffic count for that road is. Parker said he did not have the figures with him but the reason this is a higher priority now is because it is located directly west of the entrance to the Four County Quarry. If closed, it would increase the mileage and drive time for those heavily loaded vehicles coming out of the quarry. R. Sullivan said recently a couple of roads in the area were redone specifically so they could handle that truck traffic. It won't do any good if they can't get there because the bridge is out. Meyers said the roads they redid were east of the entrance and this bridge is west of the entrance. Parker said as part of the 28E, Linn County rebuilt and regarded the Linn-Johnson Road from Derby to Caulkins so the bridge would be between the Quarry entrance and Caulkins or St. Patrick’s Road which has been rebuilt. The bridge is being monitored and given annual inspections, and the hope was to hold off the repair, but it needs to be fixed now. As part of the 28E maintenance agreement Johnson County picks up half of the construction costs for County line projects.
This is similar to the same project in Cedar County which will be completed this spring. Stutsman asked if Johnson County’s share is $38,000. Parker said yes and that the County would pay 50% of the construction cost, so the Engineer's estimate is $76,000. Stutsman asked which projects the County is going to have to defer in order to move this bridge on the schedule. She said it sounds like the County would be doing this for the Quarry business. Stutsman wanted to know if the Quarry has been asked to help fund this. Parker said the Quarry has not been contacted and this structure would be treated like every other project. There are two options, either close the structure or repair it. The super structure would be torn off and replaced because it is crumbling right now. These are unfortunate things and that is why structures are inspected annually or biannually. Meyers asked if putting a weight restriction on the bridge is an option. Parker said according to Gannon that is not an option. It either needs to be repaired or closed.
Stutsman asked how this affects the budget. Parker said if the Board would like to add this as a resolution for the 2009 5 Year Road Construction Program. The impact will need to be evaluated at that time. Parker said this is a project they can fit into the program. R. Sullivan asked if the bidding of the project will be handled by Linn County. Parker said Linn County will do the design, letting, and construction management, then send Johnson County an invoice once the structure is completed. Parker said Johnson County has oversight during the project. Stutsman asked for direction on what to tell the public about why the Cosgrove Bridge will not be completed. She asked if she should say that Linn County says the bridge up there needs to be fixed so that's what the County is going to do. Parker said his staff will be diligently looking at the 5 Year Road Plan; the flood has slowed down construction activities and right now the focus is on playing catch-up.
R. Sullivan asked if the Board is interested in moving this item to the December 4, 2008 formal meeting agenda. Stutsman said no but what are the choices. Meyers said that is a pretty good answer. Neuzil said he is looking forward to having a discussion about the whole 5 Year Road Plan. R. Sullivan said they need to have a work session meeting with Parker's staff and the Board to discuss how to reallocate in order to complete some of the projects. R. Sullivan said the next item of business is discussion and action needed regarding a 28E project agreement between Johnson County and Linn County for cost sharing for bridge number 1705. Parker said it is the 28E agreement needed for construction and cost sharing for said activities. R. Sullivan said this will be moved forward to the December 4, 2008 formal meeting agenda.
Parker said an agreement was signed with Marty Jiras two years ago for road kill pickup along County roads. As part of that agreement Secondary Roads wrote in the contract that they could extend the existing activities if Jiras was doing a good job. There is a renegotiation process and Jiras' request for an increase to the existing contract was $900 a year over a two year period, which is $1,800. That amounts to about $75 a month. Parker said increases are never good things, and this is what has been happening over the past several years but the cost is reasonable. He recommended the Board put this on the December 4, 2008 formal meeting agenda. Stutsman said Jiras provides a wonderful service for the County, and she has no objection to the increase. R. Sullivan said the complaints about road kill have significantly decreased since Jiras started working for the County. Parker said Jiras is a very diligent worker. The Board agreed to put the item on a future formal agenda for approval.
Recessed at 9:53 a.m.; reconvened at 10:01 a.m.
Ambulance Director Steve Spenler said the Ambulance Department is the primary 911 ambulance provider for Johnson County and a portion of Cedar County. Approximately 90% of the departments business is providing emergency ambulance service. In conjunction with that the department does its own billing and follows their own claims with insurance, spending quite a bit of time and effort in collection of revenues. Recently the department re-bid the Mobile Critical Care Unit contract with the University of Iowa for two ground ambulances. This agreement with the University has been in effect since 1998, and was renewed effective November 1, 2008 for a one-year contract with four one-year renewable terms. The contract will be re-bid during that period. The department continues to provide EMS coverage to the University of Iowa Athletic Department and continues to provide staff at all of the big sporting events. Stutsman asked if there are revenues from the University to help cover the cost of those services. Spenler said yes, both Mobile Care and the athletic standbys are paid events and the University is charged a fee. The department does a number of community event standbys which they do not charge for. Coverage is provided for local high school football games as long as crews are available.
Spenler said the department also provides quite a bit of public education, which is something the staff is excited about being more involved in. This year a public relations committee was created to standardize the programs the department presents and get more involved in the activities of the Ambulance Department. One example is the department helped redesign the ambulance exhibit at the Children’s Museum in the Coral Ridge Mall. He said they also provide support for the Johnson County EMS Association which involves all EMS providers in the County many of whom are volunteers. They assign a liaison to each department, provide support for medical direction and also for renewal of their certification and protocols. Ambulance always provides internships for EMS students from local area departments, which also provides the County with a good pool of perspective employees.
Spenler said call volume was up 9% from Fiscal Year 2007. It has increased about 24.4% from Fiscal Year 2005. Already Fiscal Year 2009 through the end of October are up about 7.2% overall but transports were up about 10%. Spenler said he projects that by the end of 2008 call volume will be up about 31% from Fiscal Year 2005. The bulk of the increase in business is in transports. Of the total volume increases for 2007, 86% was in-patient transports.
Spenler said the bulk of Ambulance work is in emergency service: transports and no transports, cancellations, and agency assists. The bulk of services are provided to Iowa City, Coralville, and North Liberty. Those three locals account for over 80% of the call volume. Iowa City is 55%, up about 4% from 2007, Coralville is 21%, up 3.5% from 2007, and North Liberty is up maybe a percent. Spenler said that in 2007 North Liberty was up about 16 to 17% from 2006 but they have somewhat stabilized.
Stutsman left at 10:06 a.m. and returned at 10:08 a.m.
Spenler said the busiest days are still Friday and Saturday, but compared to 2007, all of the other days seem to be catching up. It is not an equal distribution in call volume, the bulk of the increase occurs during the day Monday through Thursday and during the evening on Friday and Saturday. The busiest hour is early Saturday morning between 1:00 a.m. and 3:00 a.m. Spenler said that quite regularly he reviews emergency response times to determine if staff needs to be added or if ambulances need to be relocated. The Ambulance Department has set a goal to try to maintain the 90th percentile in less than 15 minutes. He said that is where the department remains for FY08. Emergency call volume has increased significantly, but they still arrive on the scene in less than 15 minutes 90.3% of the time. Stutsman asked if that was throughout Johnson County. Spenler said yes, but it is a little skewed because a large percent of the calls comes from Iowa City. Iowa City is more concentrated and the response time is less than eight minutes 90% of the time. The response time for Coralville emergency calls is less than 11 minutes 92.9% of the time, and for North Liberty, it is less than 16 minutes 90% of the time. Once the Coralville Fire Department is relocated north of I-80, those response times will be much better for both Coralville and North Liberty. Johnson County staffs an ambulance 24/7 at the Coralville Fire Station.
Stutsman asked if first responders arrive before the Ambulance Department to locations where it takes the Ambulance Department 15 to 20 minutes to arrive. Spenler said that is that advantage to having a tiered response system in Johnson County. He said there is a first response agency in each one of the incorporated communities in Johnson County. They are almost always on scene well before an ambulance gets there. They can arrive and start to give general basic level care until an ambulance arrives on the scene to provide advanced care if necessary.
Spenler said for collections in Fiscal Year 2008 the department was at 61.3% in what was received versus what was billed out. He said this issue was talked about before fees were increased and general knowledge was that the percentage for collections would decrease. Because write-offs continue to increase, cost has to increase and there is nothing anyone can do about that. To complicate that a little bit more, Wellmark went to a fee schedule. It won't be as easy to raise fees to create more revenue. The department is now fairly equal with other ambulance services and will probably adjust fees based on Wellmarks adjustments. He said he assumes that other ambulance services will do this as well. Stutsman asked if the department submits the uncollected bills to a collection agency. Spenler said uncollected bills are turned over to collections after three billing cycles. The department is trying to improve revenue collection operations by getting bills out within three days and by getting cooperation from Mercy Hospital and University Hospitals and Clinics to send patient addresses and insurance information immediately after service. This allows Spenler's staff to follow up on patient transports more efficiently.
Spenler presented operation statistics to show how the department has increased its business. 90.2% of the Ambulance Department budget is in personnel cost. Cost per unit hour is going to increase year to year as wages go up. One unit is comprised of one ambulance and two staff members. In 2008, each unit responded to a call every 3.8 hours. In 2007, each unit responded to an emergency call every 4.29 hours, and in Fiscal Year 2005 it was every 5.1 hours. The majority of the time is spent on transports, with a good bit of time on refusals. Time on task throughout Fiscal Year 2008 significantly increased by 22% since Fiscal Year 2005. The time on task statistic does not include the unit's charting time which requires a significant amount of time. Each unit was busy on a call for 12 minutes an hour, and if it was equally distributed each unit would be on a call 36 minutes out of every hour.
Spenler said in FY08 an additional ambulance was added to the fleet bringing the total fleet count to six. The flood was a challenge to all departments and Spenler is proud of how his staff responded with flexibility and willingness to help out wherever necessary. Staff is very excited about the newly created public relations committee and is looking forward to working with the community to educate the public on safety and EMS. A scheduling committee was also formed and they are working at meeting the challenge of increased demand on call volume. Important to paramedics is the work schedule, and Spenler said he will work with his staff to bring a needed change in this area. The strategic planning process was begun and is almost complete. Spenler said he will ask the staff for comments and feedback before formally presenting it in January. A two-year collective bargaining agreement was reached last year and as mentioned before the Mobile Care contract was renewed.
Spenler said the biggest challenge is going to be an increase in demand for services. This affects a lot of different areas: staffing, scheduling, increased operations cost, administrative time, billing office demands and eventually increased response times. The Department also has space needs. The current building at 808 South Dubuque Street has many inadequacies. It does not have the capacity to meet future demand and growth. Recently the Ambulance Department talked about moving ambulances to satellite stations, possibly the west side Iowa City station or SEATS. Ambulances would be placed at these locations during peak demand times and the Coralville ambulance will be moved to their new station north of I-80. Spenler said staffing is always a challenge but the rehiring process was revamped last year, which created a pool of very qualified employees. The Mobile Care operation provides a place for paramedics to be retained until paramedic positions are available. The scope of practice is constantly evolving. A new treatment method for critical trauma and cardiac patients is cooling therapy. An icy I.V. solution has been developed that helps cool down internal organs.
Spenler said he is motivated by the level of sophistication and scope of practice in Emergency Medical Service. It is developing rapidly and it is a challenge to keep up with the advancements. It is very important for the staff to keep up with industry advancements in reimbursements to be sure the department is doing the right thing as far as being accountable for the revenue it brings in. R. Sullivan said he appreciates Spenler's knowledge of the industry and best practices. He wants the community to know that Spenler does a really good job of keeping the County up to date with ambulance and emergency medical service.
Information Services Director Jean Schultz said last spring they set up wireless Internet at the Campground at Conservation. In response to the flood servers were moved out of this building to another location. They worked with a vendor to move the Internet access point. PCs were set up for staff in charge of administrative duties such as payroll. The Sheriff's Department MDTs pilot project was completed and now the goal is to get additional equipment installed and everything set up. The yearly replacement of PCs increased this year. The number is close to 80 PCs this year, 25 printers, and five scanners. The whole network layout has been redesigned, and many of the switches were replaced. New servers have been installed. For the financial system, Windows 2008 server was installed as well as new technology for development and testing. Facilities Manager David Kempf along with architects and vendors have worked on the wiring specs; the installation of wiring the outlets, the types of wiring, the fiber connections, the phone moves, phone installations, lines, and those types of things.
Schultz said last spring they completed set up of a shared Mobile Law Enforcement connection for the Coralville Sheriff's Office. Coralville and their cars now use the smart software like the Johnson County Deputies. Technology is always changing in the programming area. They conducted quite a bit of training on the .Net technology. Information Services developed a new system for the Auditor's Office to track absentee ballots. People can now look online to see if their request for an absentee ballot was received, mailed and/or processed. Likewise they expanded the Treasurer's Office Online tax lookup. They developed a system for Emergency Management to track disabled persons. This system is for use in an emergency if they have to be evacuated. This program is nearly completed and Schultz is waiting for Emergency Management's review and approval. A report was published for the building permit system, where the public can enter different parameters and it will actually run the report for the parameters they enter.
Schultz reported that Information Services continues to be a key player for the counties using the Prolaw system. Prolaw is the system the County Attorney's Office and several other Counties use. This is now called the Iowa Justice Integration Project, which is doing data exchanges between various systems for law enforcement personnel, County attorneys, Department of Public Safety, Department of Transportation, and the Clerk of Courts offices. Information Services wrote some of this software and was a test site for this program. A process was created to integrate the Sheriff's smart system with the County Attorney's system so jail staff can better identify when inmates are scheduled to go to court. Several other smaller projects have been completed for the County Attorney.
Schultz said the department worked on a routine to process election night returns during the General Election. They converted some of the department's reports to Crystal Reports Reporting Services. Reporting service is now provided free with the database software, and it has a lot more capabilities. A view was set up into the financial system. This enables departments to write their own reports if they choose to do so.
Schultz said in the GIS area, early in the year the census address list was updated. All of the new Johnson County roads and addresses were added. This list will be used for the 2010 census. They wrote a mapping application for Ambulance tablet PCs where an address can be entered and it will map the location. The 2008 Orthophotography project contract and work was completed. This was flown at the end of April and they received the first delivery of photos about two weeks ago. A quality control process has just begun and by contract everything has to be received by the end of December, 2008.
Schultz said Ag Land assessments were revalued with help from County Assessor personnel using GIS and soil type software. A new Johnson County map was produced and is now at the printer almost ready for distribution. The last map was done in 2003. Stutsman asked if the maps will be sold at the Auditor's Office. Schultz said yes, and the atlas may also be available at Conservation. They give each department one map. A lot of additional information has been added to the GIS Online Map Service: lot dimensions, cell towers, cemeteries, warning signal towers, bike trails, contours and some of the older orthophotography that was available. Stutsman asked if all of the cemeteries in the County are on GIS Online. Schultz said it was her understanding that they are. They also set up a link to the Recorder's system so when people look up a parcel in the GIS Online Map Service, they can link to the Recorder's system to view documents associated with that parcel. Information Services also assisted the County Assessor in implementing pictometry and oblique photos software.
R. Sullivan said that during the flood GIS Coordinator Rick Havel was at the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) every day and a call would come in every day about the flows and Havel would create a new map daily which showed the best estimate of where the water would go. That data was incredibly important in terms of the Sheriff's Department and Ambulance, and people knowing when to close roads. People were evacuated based on the maps Havel created and he was a vital cog during that time. GIS probably paid for itself during that disaster.
Schultz said a lot of work was done in response to the flood. As mentioned earlier servers were removed. Also Network Administrator Bill Horning, Support Specialist Fred Brown, and PC Desktop Support Technician Clint Melick were at the EOC supporting their computer connections. Even after the flood, Information Services produced a lot of maps for various agencies to help them evaluate their response and planning for next time. Webmaster Gary Yoder continually updated information on the web. Yoder often dialed in during non-working hours when the EOC would have information to update on the web. Yoder worked at all hours of the day or night to keep the information up to date.
Schultz reported that Information Services installed the web camera so people can see the progress on the new Health and Human Services Building on South Dubuque Street, SEATS, and Secondary Roads. Access was added to the Iowa DOT cameras on I-80, I-380 and Highway 218. Considerable time was spent learning and setting up a new content management system. In December, 2008, they will implement new calendar features, the new email subscription, and the new expanded search features. Currently the County has an overall calendar, but after this is added people will be able to see specific events such as Conservation or Board of Health events. Likewise on the new search features, the public will be able to search for specific things in the Auditor's minutes. Each year departments give Information Services a lot of information and they also receive new postings every day. A benefit of the new content management system is that it will cut down on maintenance. For example expiration dates can be assigned to job advertisements and the ad page will expire on its' own. Also, individuals from other departments will be able to post agendas themselves.
Schultz said Information Services worked with Executive Assistant Mike Sullivan and Auditor's Office personnel on the 2008 employee PC purchase program. Every year people that have applied for this program have been included. It has worked out perfect every year and people have really appreciated that. A lot of time was spent working with Kempf, architects, and engineers on the plans and installations for the various buildings. Information Services chaired the phone committee in selecting the new phone system for the Health and Human Services Building. Several meetings have taken place with the vendors and individual departments on how to actually program the system. All but one of the servers for the new phone system was installed on November 24, 2008. Preliminary test training will be conducted on December 5, 2008. User training will be conducted December 12 and 15, 2008. SEATS and Secondary Roads asked to have their phones lines and servers moved, and IS assisted them in getting communication set up between their system and the units in the individual bands.
Schultz said people from the Information Services Department serve on various committees. Yoder is on the Communications Committee, GIS Technician James Harken is on the Wellness Committee, and GIS Specialist Jay Geisen is on the Parking Committee. Havel, Geisen, and Harken are all involved with the Eastern Iowa GIS Users Group. Programmer Analyst II Shirley Barker is very involved with the State Prolaw committee. Information Services has internal GIS Network Document Management Committees. Geisen was also on the committee to select the company to do the upcoming salary survey. Schultz said she is on the Iowa County Information Technology Board, and continues to represent Iowa County IT managers in a national Multi State Information Sharing and Analysis Center. IS started a new online work order system in 2003 and in 2008, processed 5,000 work orders. This means IS processes 1,000 work orders a year.
Schultz said Information Services purchased a new unit for Conservation and trained their personnel on its use. IS continues to increase ways that citizens can conduct County business online. A lot of flood related information was added for Emergency Management, Public Health, the Sheriff's Office, the Board of Supervisors, and Secondary Roads: maps of open, closed, and embargoed roads; safety and cleanup guidelines; recovery information; building inspection flood guidelines; and alerts on flood scams and price gouging. Information was added and updated for most County departments. Some examples include Auditor voter absentee ballot inquiry system; Emergency Management information, commission agendas and minutes, and links to the Code Red telephone notification system. In Social Services, forms in Spanish were added, as well as information on the Decategorization Committee. Pictometry for the Assessor's Office was added. All of the updated Secondary Roads Construction plans, maps, and newsletters have been added to the web. Paratransit applications and guidelines have been added. The staff also finished conversion of the County website's new design. There are two departments that have not been converted yet. IS has not accomplished more than preliminary study options for making video or voice activation of Board meetings available on the County webpage. Phones and computers were set up for the new Health and Human Services, SEATS and Secondary Roads buildings. The SEATS phone system was moved on November 24, 2008, and they are now on the system with Secondary Roads. IS Secretary II/Operations Supervisor Shannon Carter is currently conducting employee training on the phone system.
Stutsman asked if SEATS and Secondary Roads were operating with the new phone systems. Schultz said they are on the Secondary Roads system, and instead of purchasing new phones since their old ones will work, the thought is to place them on the new voice over IP system.
Schultz said in December 2008, they plan to go live with the new County calendar, email subscription and expanded search feature. She said the new disaster recovery room is not yet completed. In 2008, they purchased storage area network drives (SAN) and are backing up data locally plus to a remote SAN, plus on tape. Information Services would like to add back up servers at the disaster recovery site so that the servers are updating each other. That way if the servers go down in the Administration Building, the County would be better prepared for disaster. Wireless Internet access was added to Conservation campground and the Mobile Law Enforcement connection was set up. IS implemented ad hoc reporting for user departments. Again a view was set up to allow users to create reports from GEMS payroll/HR data and they are waiting for feedback from users. Report conversions for Reporting Services are completed with the exception of some in GEMS financial system. Three DotNet applications have been developed and implemented: the voter absentee ballot processing system; the disabled person registry; and the new Treasurer tax lookup. 2008 Quality Assurance Quality Control orthophotography has just begun because the first delivery was received two weeks ago. This will carry over into 2009. The E911 roadmap poster is printed, it needs to be folded and those will then be made available. Some features that were added to the GIS Online were lot dimensions, the oblique photography, linkage to Recorder images from parcel information, and the various layers added for cemeteries, cell towers, warning sirens, and bike paths. The last goal was to meet regularly with Board liaisons Meyers and Stutsman. There have been meetings every other month and the sixth meeting is scheduled for December 2008.
Stutsman asked if there had ever been a time when the system was down. Schultz said there have been glitches every once in a while but nothing extreme. R. Sullivan said even with the flood, the County system was down only nine hours. Schultz said part of the reason the County's system was down was because the building they were moving into had not received the air conditioning unit yet. The servers generate a lot of heat, and in order to operate, they needed to wait for the new air conditioners to arrive. Schultz said Kempf and his staff were very good at coordinating the additional air conditioning units and getting the additional wiring done. R. Sullivan said it was remarkable, given all that had happened, service was restored in less than a day. Schultz said at this point the target date to move the servers from that location to the new Health and Human Services building is December 6, 2008.
Neuzil asked if Information Services was working with the Joint Emergency Communications Center. Schultz said they have worked some with the JECC. She said it is not really clear yet what Information Services responsibility to the JECC will be. Neuzil said it is not clear if that is going to be the County’s or the City's IS responsibility, and that needs to be figured out. He asked about the MH/DS project the State is putting in place. The CPCs are getting together and trying to come up with one system for the State. Schultz said they are watching that. Neuzil asked if with budgeting constraints, IS has considered hanging on to their old computers rather than replacing them now. Schultz said they could keep them longer if they need to. She said once staff has converted to the flat screen monitors, they are not automatically replacing monitors. There are some spares set aside. They have been budgeting bi-annually for Orthophotography and that could be done every three years if there is not big growth. Input would be needed from the Assessor's Office and Planning and Zoning. She said maintenance agreements can not be changed but there is some room to extend the PC replacement cycle. Normally the old computers are sold in the fall, but instead, this year they made those computers available to the elections staff for the General Election. There will be a bigger sale in the spring. The County has over 400 computers, more then they used to have. They have not increased their budget request for central technology.
Neuzil said he wondered if Schultz has considered looking for better pricing for cell phones. Schultz said there was discussion about this, but IS has never been asked to be in charge of that. Neuzil said maybe a committee could be formed to re-evaluate this. Schultz said with the new phone system in the Health and Human Services Building, they went with a system connected to the network with the goal of it eventually becoming a County wide system. Carter will be the primary support and Melick will be the primary back up. Phone reconfiguration will be handled in house.
Assistant County Attorney Andy Chappell said they are constantly trying to update the Courthouse and make it Internet ready. The Iowa Bar Association approached the County Attorney's Office about the possibility of installing wireless Internet in the Courthouse. Chappell said he thought Schultz came up with a way to piggyback on a project IS has been planning to enable the County Attorney's Office to have wireless access. Schultz said this is almost completed. Chappell said the local lawyers really appreciated that effort on behalf of the County. He said Schultz was able to configure it in a way to keep the systems separate so there is no threat of anyone getting on the County system. Through the ingenuity of Information Services, this modernizes the use of the Courthouse. Schultz said the number one priority was to make sure the system was secure, that others could not hack into the system and that they couldn’t use a lot of the County's bandwidth. The Board thanked Schultz for her report.
Executive Assistant Mike Sullivan said there is a Key Issues Meeting November 26, 2008 at 9:00 a.m. On December 1, 2008 there is a Budget Work Session at 9:00 a.m. On December 2, 2008 at 6:00 p.m. there is an area Legislators meeting in the Administration Building. On December 3, 2008 there is an Evaluation Work Session starting at 9:00 a.m., a Budget Work Session at 1:00 p.m., and a joint CJCC meeting at 4:00 p.m. On December 4, 2008, the regular Board Meeting is scheduled.
R. Sullivan said JCCOG has agreed to do a joint Cool County Cool Cities Taskforce. The Board would appoint a staff person and a member of the public to that Taskforce. The Board received an application from Mark Nolte of rural Iowa City. Neuzil said Nolte is a good choice for that position.
Meyers said the Rural Advisory Committee said they will direct two $10,000 grants toward helping older persons upgrade to their homes.
Adjourned at 11:02 a.m.
______________________________________________________________________
Attest: Tom Slockett, Auditor
By:
On the _______ day of _____________________, 2009
By Nancy Tomkovicz, Recording Secretary
Sent to the Board of Supervisors on February 2, 2009 at 1:15.