MINUTES OF THE INFORMAL MEETING OF THE JOHNSON COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS:
DECEMBER 17, 2008
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: Pat Harney, Larry Meyers, Terrence Neuzil, Sally Stutsman, and Rod Sullivan.
R. Sullivan said Executive Assistant Mike Sullivan is absent and that will affect what the Board is doing. He said that in light of the economic circumstances in the country Board members have had discussions about whether to redo some of the strategic planning initiatives. Neuzil said the current Strategic Plan includes five new initiatives that are priorities and would normally be funded. He said that it is going to be very difficult to fund new initiatives when the Board doesn't have the money they have had in the past. In light of that, the question remains whether they continue to look at ways to make big investments in strategic planning or put those initiatives on hold until the economy gets better. He said that the Board could instead focus on this year's budget, but also the budget for the next two years. Neuzil said it seems like this is the most realistic course at the moment but that doesn't mean they don't still try to fund trails, multi-transportation issues, and green initiatives. He said that right now, budgeting is pretty complex and will take a lot of time next year.
Harney said he hasn't had time to read the research because he did not know the strategic plan agenda included the budget issue. He agrees however, that they need to pull back on some of the strategic planning initiatives and manage the budget. Neuzil said that is why they are having this meeting. Harney added he thinks the County is better off than some people think they are, but on the other hand the reserves are too depleted. Stutsman said the Board needs to set up some priorities on how they want to continue budgeting for years. She said that they have talked about looking at mandatory versus discretionary funding. Stutsman said the question is what their philosophy will be about tax increases. She said that they can do what they did last year and shift stuff over to the General Supplemental Fund. She said they are not capped on the Rural Fund, but the bottom line is that there will be tax increases.
Stutsman said the Board needs to have some basic discussions about what their philosophies are going into future budget years. She said that they have talked about reserve funds and County Treasurer Tom Kriz's recommendation is that they start building up the reserve fund. If they start building up that fund, it is going to have an impact on the operating budget. She asked if the Board should be reviewing all the contracts they currently have, and whether they need to make adjustments in those. Stutsman explained she is just reviewing things the Finance Committee has brainstormed. She asked if they need to start looking at contingency plans regarding employees, office hours, and service delivery. She said that Johnson County prides itself on having really short turnaround in the Recorder's Office and the Auditor's Office and maybe the County cannot do that anymore, maybe the turnaround time will be a few days. Stutsman said that they have also talked about reviewing each line item in Department 18, Central Services, to decide if they should continue funding everything. Stutsman asked if they should have filter committees, like economic development or human services that weigh all the requests and make recommendations to the Board. Stutsman said the Joint Emergency Communications Center is the white elephant because that is the huge levy, and yet it seems like no one has a handle on what they are doing with it. Stutsman said those are a few ideas to consider when reviewing County finances.
Meyers agreed with Stutsman. He said that most of the five or six issues the Board was focusing on for the Strategic Plan are not a high priority now. Meyers said they have the metropolitan transit plan and green initiatives. He said green initiatives are fine if it doesn't cost money to save money. Meyers said any of these initiatives can be worked on if they are not going to require a large amount of funds. He said that the focus in the near future will be how to stay afloat financially. He noted that the increased labor costs this year alone are twice as much as any additional money coming in. He said the County is already looking at potentially several hundred thousand dollars they need to come up with somehow and they don't know how everything will shake out with property taxes. Harney said green initiative is one that flows normally and they don't have to pour a lot of extra funds into that as long as they continue the initiatives with their buildings. Harney doesn't see green initiatives as a big issue, but they need to discuss it. Meyers said they have discussed the roads part of it, and a lot of what Harney, County Engineer Greg Parker, and Meyers have talked about is stuff they have talked about in other meetings, including chip seal upgrades.
Stutsman said she agrees with Harney that in 2009 they may be okay. However, it is the outlying years she is concerned about. She thinks if the Board gets their act together in reviewing the contracts and says they aren't going to fund some contracts next year, that gives the other entity a year or so to plan. Stutsman said she believes they are all points of discussion, and the sooner they have these discussions the better because the idea is that they are planning for the years to come. Harney pointed out that there isn't any one area in the budget but a little bit of everywhere they need to review. He said they expanded a lot of areas, including Social Services. He said Social Services Coordinator Amy Correia received a lot of grants but if those grants go away he doesn't think they can afford to continue funding some of those services. Harney said he was very upset yesterday when Kriz told him that they transferred money from the tax levy into Emergency Management's budget because that is not their money. He said that money should be set aside in a budget for the Joint Emergency Communications Center Policy Board and for the Joint Emergency Communications Center. He said that they will find out more today about what is going on there. He said that this is an issue with management and oversight. He said he wonders how the checkbooks will be reconciled. He doesn't think anything was done wrong, but the process is not set up properly.
R. Sullivan said the Board could issue a press release, or at the very least, a letter to all department heads and elected officials and the content should advise individuals that a lot has changed since they last updated the Strategic Plan a year ago. R. Sullivan said the Board should convey that they still think the issues are important but the Board's priority now is long term financial stability. R. Sullivan said if the Board can make any progress on initiatives without costing the County money, they will try to do so.
Harney said the County has always bonded for what it could in several areas that fit the criteria for the budget. He believes the Board needs to continue to do so. Harney said he knows R. Sullivan said they need to reach a certain number of years. He said that wasn't the case the first couple of years and he doesn't think that is necessarily the case now. Harney emphasized he doesn't want to keep building debt for a long term under bonding but would encourage bonding as long as they can pay it back in a short period of time. He said that bonding is the only way that the County can tax the TIF areas through the Debt Services Levy.
R. Sullivan said before they get into specifics, it makes sense to tell people if they are shifting directions. Stutsman said she thinks so too and asked if they want to involve the other elected officials and department heads in this process. Stutsman said the Board's responsibility is the budget and they need to say what they are going to do. R. Sullivan said they are going to need to have those discussions themselves and so wondered how others feel about setting out a suggestion box. He said that there may be employees who are very aware of ways the County can save money but would like to keep their name private. He said there may be someone working their day to day job who knows where the County can save money but does not want to share it publicly. R. Sullivan said that if the Board is going to send a letter or email to all department heads, he would like to see a suggestion box be part of it.
Stutsman said the Finance Committee thought it will be worthwhile to develop a financial advisory committee with people from the outside. She said she thinks they get such tunnel vision with the way they do things at the County, that sometimes it is helpful to have someone from the outside offer suggestions. Stutsman reported that Former Institute of Public Affairs Director Clayton Ringenberger told Stutsman that he would be willing to serve on such a committee. She said that it would have to be made very clear, as with all advisory committees, that they are strictly advisory. She said there is incredible talent in the community and people who are willing to give their time. Stutsman said several years ago the County Computer Committee was very successful. People with different background experiences came together, worked their hearts out, and brought some very good recommendations to the County. R. Sullivan said he thinks that is an interesting idea, as long as they all understand they will get a little bit of a learning curve with new people.
Neuzil said they have come to the conclusion that the justice center, green initiatives, metro transportation plan, and rural economic development are the four major things that came out of their strategic planning and those will still move on. He said they have just appointed Mark Nolte as the Johnson County Council of Governments Green Team County Representative. A metro transportation plan is also being developed by JCCOG. Neuzil said rural economic development is something the Economic Development Committee ought to focus on with opportunities of working with the tourism folks. He said they also have county initiatives. He said that the Planning and Zoning Department is talking about ways to encourage more wineries and more ag related businesses out in the community, and ease up on some restrictions. Neuzil said all those things are still happening and people are not losing sight of that.
Neuzil listed a number initiatives from prioritizing the issue of tax increases, the reserve fund philosophies, the issue of mandated versus non-mandated, contracts that are contingency plans, employee hours, level of service, and Central Services. Neuzil said a lot of these things are policy that the Board is going to have to review. He said they can imagine Amtrak as a possibility and the Board knows the very first thing they will want is a study. Neuzil said Amtrak is going to want every community to participate in the study, and the study is going to be expensive and this is where it gets difficult for the Board. Neuzil said that these are the things they have to keep in mind. Neuzil said it is the same with the justice center. The Board has talked about the justice center in the past month, not only with hiring a new person, but now they are talking about a survey that is another $20,000. He said they still have those initiatives, and he thinks there are going to be exceptions when they have four strategic planning items, that if there are exceptions then something else needs to be cut. He said that they have been floating around the idea of an internal computer survey with the website. Neuzil said Linn County is also going through this whole process.
Stutsman said they need to start putting out the word that the County isn't going to be able to do everything anymore. She said the public has always had money, and people have been willing to pay taxes for different services. R. Sullivan said he is willing to draft a letter from the Board to department heads, elected officials, and possibly everyone in the County. He said he will do this in the next day or so, then pass it to Board members for comments. He said that it could be sent out as early as December 19, 2008. R. Sullivan asked the Board if it sounds reasonable to them. Meyers said besides letting the public know that the Board isn't tone deaf, he recommends letting the public know they are paying attention to what is going on. R. Sullivan said he will write it as a press release and request all five Board members signatures to show they are unified.
R. Sullivan asked if the Board wants to set up a suggestion box. Neuzil said if it is specifically for financial suggestions, he thinks it is a neat idea. R. Sullivan asked who would take charge of it. Neuzil said the box should be placed in the employee break room. Harney said there are other buildings that need it, such as Secondary Roads and Health and Human Services. Stutsman said email is one option. R. Sullivan said email won't work if people want to respond anonymously. R. Sullivan said they can ask Information Services Director Jean Schultz to set up a program for anonymous replies. Stutsman said the Courthouse, Health and Human Services, the Administration Building, Secondary Roads, Conservation, and Ambulance Service should all be included. R. Sullivan said he will ask Board Secretary II Jo Hogarty to make boxes and get them out as soon as possible. Stutsman asked where the community will put their suggestions. Neuzil said an online survey could request input from the community. Stutsman said an online survey will be successful. Neuzil said an online survey will allow community members to tell the Board what their priorities are. R. Sullivan asked Stutsman and Neuzil, as Schultz's liaisons, if they would take responsibility. Neuzil said yes. Stutsman asked what they need to do with the online survey. R. Sullivan said he knows Schultz can do the survey. Neuzil said perhaps the Finance Committee can help with that.
R. Sullivan said Stutsman mentioned starting a financial advisory group, and asked the Board if they want to ask the public in general to help, or should the Board appoint a seven member committee. Stutsman said they should first start thinking about who would be good to include in the advisory group. R. Sullivan said they need to have a good mix of people like any committee would have. He said the main question is if the Board wants to do this, and if they do, would the advisory group meet with the Board. Harney asked how the group would be managed. Neuzil said he'd like to think about what their charge will be. R. Sullivan said they need to continue thinking about it.
Neuzil said another thing Stutsman mentioned is a potential human service committee, which he thinks is necessary. He said they have certain block grant line items that do not fall under Correia's management. Some examples are the Senior Center and Johnson County Fairgrounds, which have no oversight. R. Sullivan said he thought they put the Senior Center under Correia. Neuzil said they put the Senior Center Livable Housing Community Advocate under Correia. Stutsman said maybe the Board should start thinking about what kinds of subcommittees to establish to begin reviewing, such as a human services subcommittee and economic development subcommittee. Neuzil said they have an Economic Development Committee but they haven't met because there hasn't been a charge to meet. He said that ever since they developed the mapping of the economic development zones, there wasn’t really anything else to do. He said that there has to be a charge to the committee to have oversight for line items. Harney said they never put anything in the budget to help manage a process like that. Neuzil said the Economic Development Committee should have oversight over the Board's expenses of ICAD and ICARE. He added he doesn't think anyone has oversight on the Historical Society.
Stutsman said it all comes back to what the Board's priorities are. She said if they start talking about cutting, the room will be full with advocates. She said the Board needs to be very clear about what their policies and philosophies are before they announce cuts they plan to make. R. Sullivan said he worries about too many committees, because when a committee is created and people serve on it, they expect to have an impact on decision making. He said unless the Board is willing to give that up, there will be problems. Meyers said he is not sure of the benefit of a bunch of subcommittees at this time. He said a much more simple approach is to recognize that everyone watches the news every night, everyone reads the newspapers, and everyone knows that everyone has less money than in 2007, and 2009 will be worse. Meyers said there are going to be inevitable budget cuts somewhere.
Neuzil said the proposed human services committee would have a number of line items with no oversight. If that committee knew the number of dollars spent on things that don't fall under Block Grants, then they will know a bottom line and would be able to look at the Senior Center, the Fairgrounds, the Historical Society, and everything else that is left. He said that if there is, for example $300,000, that subcommittee can make a recommendation on how to allocate that money for next year. R. Sullivan said he would prefer to do that as a Board. Harney agreed. Neuzil said then politics gets involved. Meyers said they will basically have to tell each committee this much less next year because they will not get involved in every line item. Neuzil said without any oversight from anyone else, why do they have any of those other things, and why don't they do every line item. R. Sullivan said he doesn't think ICAD and the Fairgrounds are different from Human Services. He said that the Board hired Correia in large part to make those recommendations, and she does. Neuzil said if the Board has Correia in charge of that, then that is fine with him, but the Board has to give her direction. R. Sullivan said he isn't suggesting it is a good fit for Correia's job to take on ICAD. He said that ultimately, the Board will have to decide whether to have a committee for those seven to eight topics. Neuzil said without that buffer it would be a lot easier for the Board to make decisions if committees can make recommendations and show how they arrived at their decisions.
R. Sullivan said if the Board is willing to say they will adopt what the committee recommends, they can give the committee that power, but he doesn't know if that's what he wants. Neuzil said without the buffer, there will be a crowd and reporters and the Board. Stutsman said she almost wants blood signatures from Board members that once they go down this path they will stay united because divided, the Board doesn't get anywhere.
Harney said they have to have a certain amount of trust in department heads with what they are recommending and the Board has to control what that extra spending is going to be. He said that the Board needs to take a stand on that. Harney said he does not mind having some input from outside, but at the same time this is the Board's responsibility and it needs to tighten the belt and do it. R. Sullivan said it is very important that everyone understands that the Board isn't necessarily going to do what the advisory committees suggest. He said they want to respect the advisory committees' opinions but worries about delegating the Board's authority.
Stutsman asked if they should first approach getting a better handle on the discretionary funding versus mandatory funding. She said they have talked for years about having a review of the things the Board funds that they don't need to, and the things the Board is required to fund. She said they then get into the philosophy on discretionary funding. Neuzil said he gets hung up on telling a department that is meeting mandated services that they need to cut 5% or 10%, and then they have discretionary dollars. He asked if it is equal even if they cut the 5% or 10%. Neuzil said he doesn't think so and departments need to meet their requirements and then discretionary dollars get cut first.
Neuzil said Correia can be told they will be cutting discretionary funding by 25% starting in 2009, and she will know how to sort all that out. His point is that they have a number of line items, 10 or 15, that have no person to do that. They can do that as a Board or they can have someone else help them do that along the way. Neuzil said if they want a committee to at least say the bottom line is it is all discretionary, the Board can choose the percentage cut. He said at least with that, there is a process. Harney said it is up to the Board to set their priorities and where they want to continue. He said that the question is if they want to hold them at a certain level or make cuts at certain areas.
R. Sullivan said he doesn't know the actual percentage but that he knows that better than 75% of every dollar out of the General Fund is spent on personnel. The personnel budget is a huge part of overall expenses. R. Sullivan said he would like to rely on Human Resources Administrator Lora Shramek. Stutsman said she is sure Rockwell Collins looks at their bottom line to determine what is or isn't going to produce money. They probably say they don't need a wellness person. R. Sullivan said when he looks at the budget and a department head says he can hire a person for $50,000 to save the County $25,000, they automatically think, to save money, no new people. However, what if hiring someone saves them money now but becomes a liability down the road. It makes sense to R. Sullivan on paper when the department head shows it to him, but there is a piece of him that says he doesn't want to bring anyone new into the fold. R. Sullivan said he wants to ask experts for feedback. Stutsman said that perhaps the Board should be pursuing a contract with Pyramid Motors for example, to fix some of their costs. She said they are looking at the 2009 budget, but they are also looking at future budget years.
Stutsman said she heard that the State is not giving cost of living increases and wants to know how they get by with that. R. Sullivan said it is probably for people who don't have contracts. R. Sullivan said that traditionally the County gives whatever the administration unit gets to the non-bargaining people. Stutsman said that is not fair. R. Sullivan said they don't have to give exactly the same. Harney said when a department requests a new person it says it will cost $40,000 to $50,000, but that salary estimate doesn't include benefits. In some cases, the benefits package costs more than the wages. R. Sullivan said they always have to have benefits in there, obviously, but that assuming that it is the same, or less, he still has trouble figuring it out. Stutsman said she thinks it is a good idea to get some ideas from Shramek. There may be things the Board hasn't thought about. R. Sullivan asked if the Board wants to direct Shramek to do that. Neuzil asked how they are going to break some of the stuff up. Stutsman said that before the Board gets too far with assignments, she always likes to have things structured and processed. The Board always seems to do so much better when they have written goals. R. Sullivan said what he is looking for from Shramek is suggestions. Neuzil gave examples: continue to meet the needs of County employees and agreements made in collective bargaining; implement a freeze on hiring new employees unless the position is cost neutral; review procedures for potential employee sharing, early retirement, layoffs, or furloughs. Neuzil said those are just employee-related.
R. Sullivan said the examples Neuzil gave all sound good to him, but he knows just enough to be dangerous. Neuzil said one possibility is closing County government offices on Friday afternoons from noon to four just so they can catch up on work. Stutsman said they can move to four ten hour work days. R. Sullivan said he still wants feedback from Shramek before they start those discussions. Stutsman said she would like to nail down the Board's goal of establishing, for example, a reserve fund of two million dollars in the next three years, and then they can work on the steps to achieve that.
Neuzil said Kriz has basically told the Finance Committee that paying off their bonds isn't necessarily the best idea right now simply because the rates are so good. They need to consider a rainy day fund or a reserve fund for emergency expenses and, as Harney pointed out, preparing for the next big bond issue which is the Justice Center. Harney said Kriz does recommend paying off this one. Neuzil said they obviously agree that it is going to be a strategic priority for a while now. He thinks the Board needs to generate a list of ten different things to focus on, and then they can start figuring out how to divide that up. R. Sullivan said he has a list of people responsible for doing stuff, and he is going to pass it out to everyone. He said Stutsman and himself have been trying to get M. Sullivan to pass around the list so everyone knows what they've been asked to do at any given meeting. Neuzil said they need to focus on the initiatives so they can take it to the next step of who is going to be responsible.
R. Sullivan said the next time they talk about it, since it seems to him it is similar to the Jail issues, they need to start talking with the Finance Committee. He said if they are going to do it at Key Issues Work Session, they can say it is a joint meeting of the Board and the Finance Committee. R. Sullivan said they don't have to do that, they can just invite the numbers so all five Board members can be there. Neuzil said the Finance Committee has been meeting the second Tuesday of every month at 2:30 p.m. Meyers said maybe it can be a joint meeting. R. Sullivan said if they are going to put the issue on the front burner, it doesn't make sense for three Supervisors to always be playing catch-up and they may need to bring everyone to the meeting.
Neuzil said the Finance Committee may not be the avenue, quite frankly. He said the Finance Committee has been trying to bridge the gap between the Auditor's Office and the Budget Coordinator. Neuzil said that was the first initial process, and this has little to do with the first objective. He said he thinks they need to develop a real priority list for the Board. Neuzil explained that is what Strategic Planning is. This is their role as policy makers to him, this is more important to him than Chamber of Commerce business. It is frustrating to him that he spends more time out there than doing the Board's policy work.
R. Sullivan said some of the issues they can do right away, while other things will be longer term. Neuzil said another thing that has been brought up is the contracts that are in. He said they need to get a grip on what are their required commitments of discretionary dollars. Stutsman said they need to get a handle on what is discretionary and what is mandatory. Neuzil said the Historical Society is a discretionary expense, but they have a commitment of $20,000 a year over five years. With ICAD, they give them $44,000 total. Neuzil said getting a grip of the Coralville Community Arts Center, though a small expense of $4,000, is still a five year commitment. He said they need to figure out the whole contract issue with the library system. After 2008 things will have to be different. Stutsman said another thing they have been looking at is the animal shelter.
Adjourned at 9:50 a.m.
By Jessica Hulen, Recording Secretary