MINUTES OF THE INFORMAL MEETING OF THE JOHNSON COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS:
DECEMBER 15, 2008
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
Information Services Director Jean Schultz: FY10 Budget......................................................... 1
Information Services (07)............................................................................................ 1
Technology (40)......................................................................................................... 2
Human Resources Administrator Lora Shramek: FY10 Budget.................................................. 2
Human Resources (06)............................................................................................... 2
Board of Supervisors: FY10 Budget......................................................................................... 3
Board of Supervisors (06)........................................................................................... 3
Discussion: Fiscal Year 2010 Budget....................................................................................... 4
Chairperson Sullivan called the Johnson County Board of Supervisors to order in the Johnson County Administration Building at 9:03 a.m. Members present were: Pat Harney, Larry Meyers, Terrence Neuzil, Sally Stutsman, and Rod Sullivan.
Information Services Director Jean Schultz said there are no major changes for line items. She said she decreased the non-personnel line item because the current year was $38,490 and went down to $38,440. They made the switch from the HP 3000 to an interface with less printing with more online resources. There is not much in the line item that is not personnel related, most pertains to training. R. Sullivan said it looks like there are few changes. Neuzil said it looks exactly like what they want people to be doing. Schultz said they were able to stop tab forum and decrease it by $400 likewise with printer ribbons. Neuzil said most of the line item goes to employees.
R. Sullivan asked why they expect lower revenues in computer services. Schultz said they do not get near the requests for information. They have more available online. Neuzil said he was looking at a map which was easier to use on Google Maps than the County website to see a particular piece of property. Schultz said they can use a lot of the online stuff. R. Sullivan said they do not need to buy it from the County. Schultz said the fact that people are able to do it themselves frees up time for staff making it a cost savings.
Schultz said they have a van that was purchased in 2003. The department has put aside $3,000 a year for its replacement. This year will likely be the last year they save for its replacement because they will probably buy a used van when the current one needs to be replaced. The van is used several times every day but the mileage is relatively low. The new Health and Human Services Building will cut down on travel. R. Sullivan said a lot of the equipment would not fit into a personal vehicle. Schultz said in their van they have both of the backseats taken out so they can fit a lot of things in the van. Harney asked if it is for a replacement or a new one. Schultz said they are saving for a replacement. She said it has been a good van. They had to replace the fuel pump but it was the first major expense associated with the van since its purchase. Neuzil said it is nice to save $3,000 a year rather than having to budget a large amount one year. Schultz said likewise the money is there and if the van dies they don't have to say it was not in the budget and there isn't money to replace it.
Schultz said that next year they will have an increase because maintenance costs go up. They budgeted a little more than they needed last year and it looks like next year they will be able to further GEMS and Invision Real Estate software. They have no control over maintenance rates. The top item is a software purchase for programming packages. None of those amounts have changed. Harney said the GEMS software is ongoing at $55,000 a year and what do they get out of this amount. Schultz said it is the Accounts Payable, General Ledger, and Payroll software basically comprising the whole financial software.
Budget Coordinator Rich Claiborne said they have decision packages. He and Schultz talked about Technology that is not ready yet because he is waiting for some departments to get their budget in. Neuzil said he thought everyone had to have their budgets prepared. Claiborne said they are waiting on the Auditor’s Office who usually has a lot of technology requests. Claiborne said if it takes them too long to get their budget together the Board can direct them to repeat last year's figures. Stutsman said this is what she would suggest. They can wait as long as is feasible but then they need to move ahead. R. Sullivan said this is frustrating because of all items on the agenda this one requires the most discussion. Schultz said she can discuss the Central Technology and GIS or discuss it all at once. Stutsman said she is ready to approve today the budget as it was last year. Neuzil said if they do not hear by the end of the week they will keep the budget the same. Claiborne asked if he should tell the Auditors Office to have a budget ready by December 19, 2008 or they will keep it the same as last year. Schultz said there is not a major election this year so some things in the Auditors budget might change. Neuzil said he would suggest giving them a week and whenever the next budget meeting to put technology back on. R. Sullivan said it would need to be to Claiborne by December 19, 2008. Neuzil said they are supposed to talk about it December 22, 2008 because Claiborne needs some time to review the budget. Stutsman asked how long Claiborne would need to review the Auditor budget. Claiborne said they have quite a few departments and if he could get it Friday morning he could visit with First Deputy Auditor Chris Edwards and Deputy Auditor Dana Aschenbrenner and report to the Board. Neuzil said they will put Technology back on December 22, 2008.
Claiborne said Human Resources Administrator Lora Shramek has very few to no changes. Shramek said they were told to toe the line which is what accounts for no changes. The total budget outside of personnel is $21,950. The fax machine will need replacement but she did not need the amount of money in office equipment line item so she took $500 out of there. She also took $475 out of telephone line item because the long distance is not as much as anticipated with the additional phone line. She increased staff mileage reimbursements but the mileage rate could come back down depending on what rates do. There was an increase in staff meals and lodging and director meals and lodging line item. She also took money out of the employee newsletter because they publish it internally with the new copy machine. R. Sullivan asked about the highlighted green portion pertaining to part time benefits. Shramek said the part time wages have been messed up for years. She has tried to get them straightened out in the Auditor’s Office unsuccessfully.
Claiborne said there is a small increase in the Board of Supervisors budget. Neuzil said it is because of the photocopier. Claiborne said keeping it flat is a priority. They spent money in the previous year for the photocopier and it was not budgeted so now they have an established line item. Stutsman asked if they are taking money out of the other department and putting it in here. Claiborne said Executive Assistant Mike Sullivan is just adding a line item because even under the maintenance contract not all things were covered. Neuzil said nothing was funded in 2008. Stutsman said she thought it was a transfer from one department to another. Neuzil said the information is in the decision package. He said it was normally something out of Central Services. It was one thing the Finance Committee discussed is trying to get certain items in Central Services budget back to budgets where they are used. R. Sullivan said the other two things decreased were things M. Sullivan felt they could because they do not expend it all. Neuzil said the items are supplies and dues. He said he hates how the personnel training area is broken up because they all know the total and to stay within the total. When he sees transportation and mileage in different line items he does not understand why it isn't one line. Stutsman said it would be easier to have a staff development line item for each Supervisor.
Stutsman asked if they have to go through three cycles before a line item disappears. Claiborne said he thought they never wanted to remove accounts due to auditing. Stutsman said she sees nothing wrong with each Supervisor having a staff development line and out of this comes registration, transportation, and mileage. R. Sullivan said there are things in the budget that have not been around since 1999. Neuzil said there are some things that need to be cleaned up like Meyers needs a line item. He said they all get the $1,800 plus $1,000 plus $500. Stutsman said it should be in the three year cycle so it should be zeroed out for the last year. R. Sullivan said he gets confused on how much he has to spend and on what. Claiborne said on previous budgets the Auditors Office’s likes to have separate accounts in case the public comes in to determine how much a person spends on airfare, etc. It is the Board's budget so they can have it set up however they like.
Stutsman said she is curious about what other counties like Linn and Story do for their budget line item breakdowns. R. Sullivan said he has had a couple of years in a row where one budget item is over but he has stayed under the total. It makes it look like he cannot budget because two areas have even though the sum total is under. Claiborne said there is room for error when the vouchers are filled out. He said he likes the one line item. Neuzil said he wants one line item called staff development. Harney asked if they are proposing to have all Supervisors under one line item. R. Sullivan said one line item per person. Stutsman said the other departments all have it broke out like this. Harney said he thought it was broken down separate for the trip with the Chamber of Commerce to Washington D.C. and National Association of Counties (NACo) under another area. R. Sullivan said the Chamber is separate. Neuzil said he and R. Sullivan will spend $3,500 to $3,600 on the Washington D.C. trip. Claiborne said he can get those things cleaned up.
Claiborne said he made a tally sheet of every meeting and a spreadsheet distributed to the Board about evaluations. Neuzil said the only thing he wants to add to the last part is to make it into one line item per Board member. Harney said if the costs for the Chamber trip have gone up then they should make adjustments for future years. Neuzil said they might want to look at putting a few hundred more dollars aside. Stutsman said they told other departments to maintain what they had so she thinks the Board should do the same and if it goes up then they should get it out of their own staff development dollars. Neuzil said they saved about $500 by booking their own flights but still the trip is costly. R. Sullivan said in 2010 if they don't start using Johnson County opinions and feedback than one person would be plenty.
Claiborne said the tally sheet is updated for today. These are questions they had in previous weeks. They are waiting for officials decisions of $3,000. He is sure they want to create a different fund for the Conservation Bond making it easier to track. The Board has talked about line items for trails. Another issue is a savings schedule for the vehicle. The personnel budget requires some last minute decisions about a new mechanic and changing the rural rates in SEATS. Stutsman asked if this was the amount the SEATS mechanic came too. Claiborne said yes with salary and benefits. Neuzil said under personnel there is more than that because they still need to add ambulance.
Neuzil said they have to get a grip on the jail alternatives and he is unsure of where that falls under. They are talking about the Bob Elliott hire and where the money comes from. Also they are considering using Vernon Research Group. Stutsman said they will have to pay Elliott from this years budget and have they decided where the contract will come from this years budget. Neuzil said it is $100 a week but it still has to come from somewhere. If they hire Vernon Research Group costing $20,000 that has to come from somewhere. They need to establish a jail alternative line item. R. Sullivan said there is a line item but it just the MECCA program. The Sheriff wanted to separate them because in the past jail alternatives pertains to the cost of moving them. Stutsman said as they discussed shifting items from Central Services to more accurately represent their budget she wonders if they should take items out of the Sheriffs Department and put it into a separate department like Central Services for things like this. It does not show a true reflection of what it costs to run the Sheriffs Department.
Stutsman said another thing that came up in the Finance Committee meeting is the need to have money in reserves. If they are going to be disciplined about having a certain amount in reserves then they will have to be careful about taking money out of reserves for off budget items. Meyers said the reserves are money that sits there to improve their credit. R. Sullivan said they are telling County Treasurer Tom Kriz that there should be more money in reserves. Stutsman said it all enters into the final budget decisions. R. Sullivan said they need to have a certain amount but there is a little more that needs to be paid. One issue he has is with personnel and dividing it up into expense and revenue because even though Ambulance Director Steve Spenler has a new cost of $128,000 there is some revenue that comes in. He would like to see the budgets all seen the same way. He said Spenler was supposed to give them what he thought the income of the new position is. Stutsman asked what the income would be. R. Sullivan said billing out Medicaid and Blue Cross. Stutsman asked if is really going to make a difference or just reduce response time. Harney said revenues are down because Medicaid has lowered the amount they can charge. R. Sullivan said the total is currently zero which will change. County Attorney Janet Lyness thought there would be revenues from the Black Hawk County item. Stutsman said they need to find out. She said she wants a running total of the decision packages because it helps with the big picture.
Claiborne said of the valuations 206 of the 302 are wrapped up in TIFs which means their General Basic valuation only went up $96 million producing $338,000 extra dollars than they had for FY09. They are used to having $1 million or more year to year to spend. Stutsman asked if the valuations went up because of additional land put into TIF. Neuzil said basically all the growth happening in the County is in TIF districts. Claiborne said 67% of the growth is tied up in TIF districts. Stutsman asked if they had access to that valuation how much money would the County have to use. Claiborne said if they could tax on a whole valuation it would be over $1 million in extra General Basic money. The utilities are only using FY09 but he doubts that will help them much.
Stutsman said they have not talked about what the increases will be for salary or health benefits. Claiborne said health insurance is General Supplemental. Neuzil said when they are used to $1 million, $338,000 is a big cut. He said this is the last year of the good numbers. Claiborne said it is very preliminary and he hopes it changes. Meyers asked if the salary increase and cost of living come out of the $338,000 and do they have any idea of the number. Claiborne said he does not know what the dollar amount is for a 3.5% increase. Stutsman said a 3.5% increase has to be well over $300,000. R. Sullivan said Shramek or Kriz probably has a good guess of what the number is. Claiborne said he could get the figure for them.
Recessed at 9:45 a.m.; reconvened at 9:55 a.m.
Claiborne said the total General Basic personnel is $23,856,387. If they go with a 3.25% increase it would total $24,631,637 an increase of $775,250. R. Sullivan said at 3.5% it would be $835,000. Claiborne said there are elected officials that are not counted. Stutsman said it affects the bottom line tax increase. Claiborne said General Supplemental is $693,193, MH/DS is $2,810,664, and Secondary Roads is $3,636,264 for FY09. The other numbers he gave are before the increase. Meyers said personnel is going to go up twice as much as revenue. Stutsman said when they keep adding people which are fixed costs that unless they layoff or do attrition will be an issue. She suggested they discuss a hiring freeze. Meyers said if salary increases are $775,000 and revenues are only $338,000 then they need to look at cutting something. Neuzil said there are more things to factor in like the rollback situations and agricultural property value increasing 4%. Stutsman said she looks at the impact on the taxpayer and farmland will go up but so will the tax bill. In hard economic times is this really what they want to do to get additional revenues. She feels some responsibility to keep things status quo.
Claiborne said this is just the departments they have talked about so far with personnel in there and the General Supplemental transfer. So far they are okay for the bottom line. They saw quite a few big departments coming out of General Basic which drives down the bottom line. Stutsman said part of the conversation is what their policies are as they go through the budget. She said in years past they have been creative about what they can put into General Supplemental and not look at the bottom line or keep taxes as status quo or reduce them. R. Sullivan said they are good discussions to have. Harney said they have a policy at Joint Communications and they want a $3 million dollar payment and there is no reason this should happen. Claiborne said one elected official is not okay with that. Neuzil said they have five initiatives in the strategic plan and should they put these items on hold and focus on strategic planning and budgeting. R. Sullivan said it would be good to get three to five people on one page for where they want to go. Stutsman said if they wait it might be too late. Claiborne said the General Supplemental is already elevated because of Joint Communications. The 7% health insurance comes out of General Supplemental. He said in other years there was a 1%, and 2% increase in health and now the increase is 7%.
Neuzil said information about fixed expenses is important. The same thing goes for line items, particularly discretionary line items, because it would be nice to know what costs are fixed and what are not. An example is the contract with ICAD that says they get $25,000 a year and give $45,000 to a fund. The question remains about what is fixed and what is not. He wonders if the $200,000 grant they have for Juvenile Crime Prevention is committed already or if they can cut it by 10%. It would be good to know fixed and required expenses in discretionary line items. When they get money from MECCA the question is how much fixed goes to MECCA and how much goes to discretionary. Stutsman said the MECCA one needs clarification of the contract contents. She thinks they are required by Code to provide certain services and if MECCA does not provide the services the County ends up paying a lot more. Neuzil said they need to know their fixed commitment obligation. If they have committed $4,000 to the Coralville Fine Arts Project the amount cannot be reduced. If they commit $40,000 to ICAD for infrastructure it would be nice to know that so if the time comes for cuts the discussion comes to whether they cut across the board or just discretionary.
Claiborne said according to code Johnson County pays the library a lot more than what is required. R. Sullivan said it is part of the rural tax. Stutsman said they should just have a contract with one library and everyone in the unincorporated area should use one library. Neuzil said the scary part is phasing it out. R. Sullivan said they need to think in terms of a couple of years. If they don't take on anything new then they can get through this year but for next year the valuations are the same but they have another $500,000 and where would the money come from. Neuzil said this is where budgeting and strategic planning come together. Stutsman said by looking two years out they can give the heads up to Solon. R. Sullivan said they can involve department heads and ask them where they can squeeze it down. He said Planning and Zoning Administrator Rick Dvorak has said they are fairly generous with training which is a way to cut down on budget items. Stutsman said maybe they just won't be able to provide the level of service they have in the past. These are tough decisions that need to be made and if these decisions are made they need to have strong political will. An example is when they tried to cut the Senior Center by $25,000. Neuzil said it is easier to phase down when they give people notice. They likely will have to tell departments they will get 5% less than they have this year. R. Sullivan said they need to spend a lot of time talking about the next budget.
Claiborne asked if the Board had considered putting a halt on the salary survey. Meyers said they are contracted to do the survey. Stutsman said the issue is once it is done they have to implement. If people's salaries increase they want it today. Claiborne said there will be a lot of morale issues. R. Sullivan said the worst issue is when office support staff is laid off. Neuzil said it comes to priorities. They need to determine if public response and safety weigh heavier than another department. Stutsman said the Conservation Bond issue is on the horizon. It will have a huge impact on the rural side of the budget. Neuzil said it is bad on residential already because they have maxed out the General Fund and the Rural has not been included. Stutsman said there are fewer rural residents to pay the Rural side of the budget. A tax increase is shouldered by fewer people. Neuzil said a tax increase for roads and libraries. Stutsman said at $.21 per acre of land with farmers owning more than 500 acres so that is an extra $100 increase.
Claiborne said it is complicated because 67% of growth is tied in TIFs. Stutsman said she is frustrated that the legislature has not seen what they have created. The intention was good but it has not produced or accomplished what it was intended to do. There are statistics and facts to show it isn't working yet they do nothing about it. She wonders what they get out of Coralville for that tax. Harney said they do need to bond where they can. Claiborne said they are being forced to bond. R. Sullivan said if they need to do it if it is cost effective to do it. Claiborne said they are driven by the terms of bonds. R. Sullivan said 3.5% to 5% is where the payoff is largest. Stutsman said interest rates are never going to be as good as they are now. Harney said it will be higher. R. Sullivan said one thing he would like to do more of when they present to the public is to focus more on bonding and the impact of TIFs. He would rather present the big financial issues when they keep department budgets the same and show legislators the same presentation. Claiborne said they can come up with a nice presentation in January or February. Neuzil said the TIFs on housing really is frustrating to him. Stutsman said when they go back the original intent was redevelopment of brown fields and blighted areas. Neuzil said it was advantageous because they could take a blighted area where they weren't generating any taxes and put some money in it to make value better. It is something communities have really taken advantage of. Stutsman said it is hoarding tax dollars for their communities. R. Sullivan said he is thankful they have not had to deal with the sales tax TIF. Neuzil said looking at Shueyville they can see the community put the money into a community center and not a new road. Stutsman said people from Shueyville ask what they get from their tax dollars and she does not know how to answer the question.
Harney asked Claiborne if he built in any of the money that will come in from not supporting the Communications Center through the Sheriffs Office. Claiborne said the meeting with the Sheriff is on Wednesday. Neuzil said for the Sheriff’s department they have some money coming back but it is growth and the two years after they need to worry about. Harney said once they get through this year they should be in better shape. The economy might be a different story but they might rebound fine here. R. Sullivan said with the Armory there is a question he has for Facilities Director David Kempf about mold. It might make the building worthless but he wonders if there is some use for the building. Harney said once they put things in the building they will have a hard time getting it out because the floors are warped, etc. Neuzil said when they start talking $200,000 to $300,000 they have to save half one year and the other half the next year. R. Sullivan said if it has to sit there if there is any possible use for generating revenue. Stutsman asked if it fell through to have FEMA pay to tear it down. Harney said the plan fell through because there was not enough damage. Stutsman said maybe the National Guard will tear it down.
R. Sullivan said he also has Fisher on there and he wonders if the tiny amount of revenue is even worth it. He would like to see some cost benefit analysis from those things. Harney said another place they need to look is selling the old Health Building. R. Sullivan said they had an appraisal. Claiborne said they could get $300,000 but that might be high. R. Sullivan said he thought it was lower. If they are committed to selling it the appraised value might not matter when they can just put it on the market.
R. Sullivan said they will give the deadline to the Auditor's Office and put technology on the budget meeting for Wednesday. Harney asked if there was a reason the Auditor's Office is so late. Claiborne said they are always very late. Stutsman asked if everyone else had their budgets submitted. Claiborne said everyone but MH/DS because they have an agreement where their budget comes after Christmas because of deadlines they have with the State. R. Sullivan said to a large part it doesn't matter because they already have an idea of their numbers. Harney said they always have trouble getting numbers from the Auditor for whatever reason. R. Sullivan said it was for making the numbers match.
Adjourned at 10:23 a.m.
By Nancy Tomkovicz, Recording Secretary