MINUTES OF THE INFORMAL MEETING OF THE JOHNSON COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS:
DECEMBER 22, 2008
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
Discussion: Fiscal Year 2010 Departmental Budgets................................................................. 1
Elections (33)............................................................................................................. 1
Auditor/Accounting (03).............................................................................................. 3
Central Services (18).................................................................................................. 4
Institutional Accounts (41)........................................................................................... 9
Insurance (22)............................................................................................................ 9
Technology (40)........................................................................................................ 10
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.
Auditor Tom Slockett said his office understands the economic situation. One of the budgets Deputy Auditor Dana Aschenbrenner presents will have bad news about interest rates. The Board also needs to be aware of the needs. There are some proposed increases for the Board to consider. He said if there is any way the Board can accommodate those increases it would be appreciated but he will understand if that’s not possible.
Deputy Auditor Lisa Allen said overall the Fiscal Year 2010 budget will be reduced from FY09 because there was a large cost for the General Election. Stationary and forms have substantially increased because Elections will take a greater share of the Auditor’s Office cost. Postage was not under Department 33 previously but it is now. $50,000 was budgeted for FY10 which is less than FY09 again because they will not need postage for General Election Absentee Ballots. Neuzil asked if the postage increase in May has been factored in. Allen said that was not factored in but she believes the amount allocated is sufficient. Neuzil asked if City Council pays postage for their elections. Allen agreed. Neuzil said there could be three seats available so the election could be busier than normal. Allen said there will be four elections in FY10 including the School, the City, the City Primary, and the Primary. The County will be reimbursed for each election, except the Primary Election. Stutsman asked if the Board could expect to see a decrease in the other budgets where the Election postage came from. Allen said yes. Slockett said his office made the change last year. Johnson said it shows the real cost of the election.
Allen said another significant increased is staff registration for schools. The reason that has gone up is there are two elections technicians who will be trained through Elections Systems and Software (ES&S) on the machinery. This will save costs in the end because they will be able to maintain machinery. Elections Technician III Jim Erickson has to be recertified and Elections Technician III Bogdana Rus will have to be certified. As a result, all of the programming and printing is done in office rather than paying ES&S. Neuzil said there is also a decrease in personal. Allen said yes, there will not be as many part time people or Precinct Election Officials this year. Neuzil asked when the Auditors Office has satellite voting for the City or the School elections, if they are reimbursed. Allen said that is correct.
Allen said when the Board visited the Auditors Office a few months ago there was some discussion on increasing the pay for poll workers and part-time individuals working in the office. Allen said they are requesting an increase from $10 to $12 per hour. Part-timers and the precinct election officials do a huge service for the office and they should be compensated. To put this in perspective, Benton County pays the PEOs and part timers anywhere from $11.63 and $15.11 per hour. They would still pay them time and a half working over eight hours per day, so that would be $18 an hour instead of $15. This would require a budget increase of $55,964. However because three of the four elections will be reimbursed in FY2010 there will be a revenue increase of $21,510.
R. Sullivan said although the comparison to Benton County is helpful, the Board always tries to make comparisons with other metropolitan counties. He asked if she had any idea what Polk, Linn, Scott, and Blackhawk counties pay. If that information could be given to Budget Coordinator Rich Claiborne, that would be helpful. Harney said the raise is not a large number this year, but in an election year that will really increase overall. Allen agreed. However this is a good time to start, as revenues this year will increase as well. These people work very hard, and it would be a good incentive to recruit more qualified individuals as poll workers. Students may be interested if the pay was increased. Stutsman said she couldn't agree more but as the Board is trying to budget forward a couple of years she would like to know what this is would cost for the next big election. Claiborne said one thing to remember is that elections are paid out of the General Supplemental Fund, which is capless. Harney said it is still tax dollars. R. Sullivan said a 20% jump, even if it is justified, is a pretty large increase. The Board could consider adding $.50 a year in consecutive years to raise it that way. He encouraged Allen to work with Claiborne to see what that might look like. Allen said absolutely.
Slockett said in terms of future elections, every year has a primary election, a primary of the general, or a general election. This year doesn't include the primary election, the cost of which would be about $11,868. There is a relatively large election in every year's budget. Allen said she does not expect a large difference for general revenues. The differences will be in the three elections that will be billed out. She said they would reimburse PEO wages, satellite sites, ballot costs, and all of those things. Expected revenues are at $140,797 approximately. The hardware maintenance contract and software license agreement are costs that would go to ES&S. Total cost increases by 5% every year so it will cost $24,352 in FY10. Theses costs are decreased by not maintaining a warranty contract because the Office has trained and certified staff members. R. Sullivan asked Allen to follow up with Claiborne regarding the Boards questions. Allen said that sounds great.
Deputy Auditor Dana Aschenbrenner said the Auditor’s Office has tried to keep expenditures level in response to the Boards direction. If anything, a few expenses have been shifted from areas that do not need as much budgeted to areas where more money is needed. Overall the change in FY10 is currently zero. Some of the decreased areas are minor equipment, miscellaneous other, and some official publication expenses. The increased areas are training, such as staff meals and lodging, staff transportation, and an increase in telephone cost. Slockett said this budget is approximately 85% personal.
Aschenbrenner said revenues are generally flat without much change in expected revenues from year to year. The Auditors Office is not much of a revenue center in regards to the County's overall revenues. Slockett said the Office has been selling a lot of the new County maps. Aschenbrenner said there are a couple of decision packages attached to this budget. One request is a copier. The copier in the main office is used by many offices within the Administration Building and is close to dying. It was purchased used four or five years ago at a significant discount to what a new copier would cost. Slockett said it was purchased for $2,500. Aschenbrenner said more often service is needed to fix it. In talking to the technician that works on it, parts are becoming difficult to locate for that machine so it is nearing obsolesce. The hope is it will survive another year and a half, but the office is requesting $5,000 to be set aside in the Technology Fund for the upcoming fiscal year. Another $5,000 will be requested the following year to replace the copier. The estimated cost of a new copier is $7,000 to $10,000.
Stutsman asked what other departments use the copier. Aschenbrenner said it varies, but includes people from DHS, MH/DD and other departments in the course of business. He said it is also used for public copies if a member of the public needs copies. It gets a lot of usage. Stutsman said but its not big volumes of usage. Aschenbrenner said it varies because during the election season it can be running for hours at a time. Stutsman said the Board gets requests for a lot of copiers and everyone says other departments use them. Aschenbrenner said other departments don’t do big jobs but it is used as a convenience if they are picking up their mail. Slockett said it’s also close to the postage meter. Aschenbrenner said people from other departments are in the Auditor’s Office and if they need a copy that is the one that is used.
Aschenbrenner said the other request is for an additional Account Clerk II and the related computer cost with that. AP claims continue to rise every year; which is the nature of an expanding population base and the County business base. As the County grows so do AP claims to be processed. This is also true for Payroll, as there are more personal each year. The burden to complete these processes falls on the Auditors Office. Often the hole is filled by part-time clerks and other part-time people within the office, but economically that may not be the wisest decision. It is to the point another Account Clerk is needed, so the hole is not continually filled by part-time people and the related turnover associated with that process. Slockett said these people are paid large amounts of overtime. Aschenbrenner agreed, the office has a large amount of overtime through Payroll and some in Accounts Payable. There is definitely needs in all of those areas that can fill a clerk's time. Neuzil asked if Aschenbrenner could show a point where savings could be found with adding that position. Slockett said the cost overall is more but the part-time wage reduction would be about $10,400. The updated cost is $39,601. He said something has to be done at some point. Slockett said that Account Clerk II Carla Scherbring does a fantastic job, but works an extraordinary amount of overtime hours. This cannot continue because the County is growing and it is not reasonable to expect her to work the number of hours she does and she can't increase it much more. Neuzil clarified the real number as far as the actual cost is still around $50,000 with benefits but the savings would be over $10,000. Aschenbrenner agreed. Slockett said the real cost is $39,601. Aschenbrenner said that is netted against the decrease.
Claiborne said the Joint Emergency Communication System is not supposed to be a County function. Revenue is collected and released but the County is not supposed to be the accountant, unless they hire the Auditors Office to do so. He said if that is a driving factor the Board should be aware of it. Neuzil said there will also be a decrease in workload of a few employees from the dispatchers that will leave. He said that ought to help a little bit. Aschenbrenner said true. Aschenbrenner said he has not heard officially as to whether Joint Emergency Communication Center (JECC) will ask the Auditor’s Office to provide those services or not. Slockett said if the JECC does it themselves it will cost a lot more than the incremental cost for the County or the City of Iowa City. One of the main concerns is there is really no incentive for JECC to hold the cost down because they can bill the County and it has to be paid. Stutsman said that is exactly right.
Deputy Auditor Mark Kistler said there is a decision package for the Township Clerks and Trustees pay. This is submitted to bring their pay up comparable to the amount proposed for the PEOs. Currently they are paid $8.00 per hour for meetings and office time with a minimum of $10 per meeting. The requested raise is from $8 to $12 hourly and from $10 to $15 for each meeting. Neuzil asked which fund those dollars come from. Kistler said Department 18. Neuzil clarified that it is a General Fund expense. Neuzil said it seems strange that it is a General Fund expense. Kistler said the Code of Iowa states they are not allowed to spend their own funds for wages. It has to come from the County General Fund. Neuzil said it seems strange a resident from Iowa City is paying for a Township Trustee. Kistler said it would be difficult to monitor how much is paid out if the clerks and trustees were paying themselves since it is such a small government entity. Neuzil said townships are in the rural area. Aschenbrenner asked if it is required that it be paid out of General Basic or could it be shifted to Rural Basic. Neuzil said he is not suggesting this be tapped into the Rural Fund, it just seems like a rural expense. Kistler said he can look into it, as he does not know if it specifically says which fund it can come out of. Slockett said he believes it says General Basic. Stutsman asked it to be checked on.
Kistler said Township Clerks have been paid their current wages since 1999. The Board voted at that time to raise the hourly pay to $8 per hour from $5 per hour. The minimum of $10 per meeting had been previously raised. Prior to that, the hourly rate was last increased on January 1, 1989 from $3.50 to $5 and the per meeting pay from $8 to $10. Then in 1991 the extra pay for Clerks for their bookkeeping hours was raised from $3.50 to $5 to match the meeting pay. For FY08 $3,684 was paid out of Department 18 to the Township Clerks and Trustees as compensation out of a $4,000 budget. How that was paid out has been broken down on a hourly and per meeting basis resulting in $2,144 paid at the hourly rate and $1,540 paid at the per meeting rate. If the hourly rate is increased from $8 to $12 the impact on the budget would be $1,072. If the meeting minimum was raised from $10 to $15 the impact would be $770. That is a total of $1,842. The proposal is the line item be raised from $4,000 to $6,000.
Neuzil said that's not a big amount. Slockett said this is the same for elections; it makes a lot of people happy. Neuzil said the Board wants those folks to meet and currently there is a disincentive. Kistler said he found from the 1999 minutes that the reason the pay for the minimum amount per meeting was because there was discussion about paying mileage for meetings. It was decided rather than track mileage and pay that out there would be a minimum per meeting cost. Harney said he has been asked about additional compensation for maintenance of the cemeteries under the trustees. He asked where that cost comes from and how is that managed. Kistler said that comes from the township’s levy so it is up to them to levy enough to pay for the cemeteries. There is a cap limit on cemeteries that they maintain but do not own, but there is not a cap on cemeteries owned by the township. Harney asked if that was done by township or trustees as a whole. Kistler said the trustees will vote each year on what amount to levy for their cemetery maintenance. Stutsman asked if there is a record of how many cemeteries are owned by townships. Kistler said he can come up with that. Real Estate has been work with GIS on building a mapping of the cemeteries with a table of who the owners and contacts are. Slockett said cemeteries are on the current GIS and work is constantly done to improve it. The cemetery associations are taking photographs of all of the gravestones in the cemetery. The question is does the County want to map each gravestone. He asked if there is a chance vandalisms will increase so there are liability questions.
Stutsman said there is one county in Iowa that has pictures of their cemeteries on their website. Those pictures are useful for genealogists elsewhere. Kistler said there is a collection of pictures on the local geological societies website in Johnson County. The societies would like to link with GIS to make it easier for people so County staff have been discussing how to do it right if they proceed. Slockett said the other side of this is if someone does vandalize a grave there will be a photograph of it for historical purposes. Harney asked if the GIS format would cover small family. Kistler said the County has tried to inventory those they are aware of but there could be some they are not aware. Aschenbrenner said one expense in Central Services that is related to cemeteries is which is for grave marker maintenance for veterans. Someone from Veteran Services goes out every year for grave maintenance. The County receives a bill for those services. He said currently $1,100 is budgeted out of Central Services for that upkeep.
Aschenbrenner said there is an overall projected decrease in expenditures from Central Services. Human Resources Administrator Lora Shramek, wants to increase the non-bargaining merit pay in the Central Service budget by $12,500 according to her estimate. The current GASB 45 actuarial study will drop off. That will reduce expenditures by $10,000. The Staff Development Board generally has very little activity. In 2006, $4,200 was spent through that line. The Compensation Study and Analysis was only budgeted for the current year so it will drop off. That will be a $100,000 decrease. The Office is seeing less flex-spending claims, but that is offsets by corresponding flex-spending deductions. That is a zero sum. R. Sullivan said the new Flex-benefits Administrator is going to allow employees as an eligible expense, which this budget wouldn’t take into account Aschenbrenner said it probably doesn't, but flex-spending is something that the County cant lose money on. If anything employees forfeit flex-spending money they have set aside if their actual claims don’t equal the amount set aside. R. Sullivan agreed, but said the accuracy of the number might be off. Aschenbrenner said the number can be adjusted. He said in the current year $200,000 was budgeted and it's looking like it will be $60,000 less than that amount. He said he carried that over for the next year as well.
Aschenbrenner said there has been an increase in professional bonding fees. There were some small adjustments for publications and a decrease in the Miscellaneous General Services for telephone costs. Many of those costs have been shifted to the Auditor’s Office, which is why there was an increase in the actual telephone cost in 2003. Stutsman said she noticed that last time the claims were published the font was huge. She asked if the County pays for a specific size font type. Deputy Auditor Casie Kadlec said that by law claims must be published in at least six point font, but Secondary Roads had a resolution with a graph in it that could not be reduced to fit into the normal column, so the whole publication was published double column wide. She said in the future she is going to look for a way to either just publish that section wider. Slockett said they are working on that. Kadlec said minutes are published at eight point font. Slockett said the charges set out by the Iowa Newspaper Association are supposed to be neutral for the size of the font. He said charges are actually adjusted regardless of the font size.
Ashcnebrenner said overall the projected decrease is $156,000 in the Central Services Budget. The majority of that amount is due to the end of the Compensations Study and the adjustment to flex-spending. Stutsman asked if the merit pay is used up every year. Aschenbrenner said he believes it is budgeted in Department 18 but the actual expenditures flow over to the departments where the employees are paid.
Aschenbrenner said the revenue side of the franchise tax replacement has not seen any revenue for the last three years. Aschenbrenner asked Kistler if that tax disappeared. Kistler said his understanding is that it is not in place anymore. Aschenbrenner said it is still budgeted in the current year but to reflect reality he has zeroed that out, also for the upcoming fiscal year.
Aschenbrenner said the largest change is in the General Interest Revenue, which is an $870,000 decrease in interest revenue for the current year. Talking with County Treasurer Tom Kriz the interest market is not expected to make any significant moves in the near future. He said in 2007 there was $1.2 million in interest revenue, but are only expecting $400,000 for the current year and the following year. He said this is a reflection of the current economic state. Neuzil told Claiborne that is one of the items to highlight when the Board gives their budget presentation.
Neuzil left at 9:44 a.m.; Neuzil returned at 9:45 a.m.
Aschenbrenner said there was a $60,000 decrease in flex-spending deductions which is the money set aside by employees for those purposes and corresponds with the decrease in claim payments. Neuzil asked if Jail Alternatives is in the Central Services fund. Stutsman said it is out of the Sheriff’s Department. She asked if the County needs to budget for liability once the GASB 45 Actuarial Study is completed. Aschenbrenner said that is something he hopes the actuarial service provider will discuss with the Board. He said he does not think a lot of governments are setting aside hard cash for the liability currently. There are some that probably are, and there are several different ways to approach that as well. There is a way to set aside that money into a trust that cannot be touched except for those specific costs or reserve part of a fund balance. Stutsman asked if the Board has to tax in order to fund that. Aschenbrenner said ultimately yes. The major source of revenue for the Auditor’s Office is tax levees. Stutsman said it cannot just be on paper then. Aschenbrenner said the liability must be reflected so the creditor or lender can look at the financial statements. He said that is something down the road the Board should keep in mind. Stutsman asked if the Board needs to be accounted for in this budget. Slockett said that it up to the Board. Harney said it goes into affect July 1, 2009.
Slockett said the problem is this is a huge liability and that is one of the reasons there are not a lot of municipalities, except some larger cities, doing it. The incentive to deal with it, increases with the amount of borrowing done because it is not really known at what point this is going to start affecting bond ratings. Once liability is realized, because it is so expensive to fund this liability, the County will need to see how the bond rating firms deal with the information. The State of Iowa is not reserving any funds and they have an enormous liability. He said as far as he knows no county is reserving funds at this point in time, but it is something to keep an eye on particularly with the increase in borrowing.
Neuzil said they have talked a lot about expenses but not revenues. He said $870,000 just on interest is gigantic. Slockett said that number is only for one year, so it is actually double that at $1.7 million. Stutsman said in past years the County counted on the revenue for this budget. Aschenbrenner said absolutely. Neuzil asked if there are other items like that the Board needs to be aware of other than just this line item. He said he is thinking about Secondary Roads. Aschenbrenner said there are significant monies set aside in the Secondary Roads’ Escrow that used to be the Reservoir Roads Fund. He said the fund balance of that has been placed in a certificate of deposit for a number of years. Stutsman said that is for the Mehaffey Bridge. Aschenbrenner agreed the money was set aside with the Board’s intention to eventually pay either totally or partially for the replacement of Mehaffey Bridge.
R. Sullivan said there was concern when the money was set aside that it was going into a general gravel budget and literally spread to every corner of the County, but really it was specific funding for the flooded area. He said the Board thought it made more sense to target it to that project. Stutsman said that fund was a liability for the County because of the perception of available funds. She said in the past Secondary Roads used the interest for the gravel and kept the principle in the account. Slockett said the history is when the Coralville Reservoir was built it increased the amount of traffic and cost for Secondary Roads to maintain the roads. Former County Engineer Bud Gode worked to obtain funding from the Federal Government, who made clear it was a one time payment for this change. The idea was to put it in a trust fund and spend the interest so the ongoing costs would be supplemented in the future. Harney said the settlement says was for present and future damages caused by the reservoir and that was a one time settlement. Neuzil said interest rates stink right now. He said he thinks it would be important for the Auditor’s Office to help the Board get a picture of the decrease of revenues from every department. Slockett said the other significant decrease is the Recorder’s Office fees. Harney said that is an unknown, because with lending rated being down, there may be a huge influx of refinancing too.
Aschenbrenner said it is hard to predict some of the revenue streams, but there are some trends. Indirect administrative costs are tailing off a little bit every year, the Federal payment received for Reservoir land has also been tailing off. Stutsman asked if that is that payment in lieu of taxes. Aschenbrenner agreed. He said he would expect some decreases in Federal reimbursement rates and some decreases in grant amounts. He said facing the current economic conditions there will not be a lot of increases on those revenue sources. R. Sullivan said there is also the irony that when Federal programs look at the relative wealth of States; Iowa is going to fair better than average. Right now Iowa tends to be equal to Florida but because of what is happening in the mortgage market Iowa will be considered better off than Florida and therefore get less Federal money. Aschenbrenner asked what the State is going to do for credits. Neuzil said every time the State of Iowa makes cuts, it gets passed down to the County. R. Sullivan said wasn't that figure about $300,000 in tax credits. Aschenbrenner said there are several credits. The homestead and disabled credits have stayed fairly consistent, but he does not know how they are going to calculate the amount given. He said he imagines the legislature sets the amount. Stutsman said it is the Boards decision, if the Board cannot afford to fund that tax credit then it can’t be done. Kistler said what happens is it gets passed onto the property tax payer because whatever the State doesn't cover then the tax payer has to pay. R. Sullivan said what the County has done previously is to pay the Elderly, Disabled and Veterans Credits and leaving the Homestead Credit. Stutsman said whatever the State gives the County is it. Neuzil said that this year is predicted to be the good year, with future years getting even worse.
Aschenbrenner said the only unsettled item is proceeds for General Obligation, which is the amount expected to bring in for bonding for FY10. He increased the current year by $16 million based on Kriz's estimate for JECC but a projection for next year is not completed. He said that is something that needs to be addressed as well on the revenue side. Slockett clarified Aschenbrenner carried over the amount from FY09. Aschenbrenner agreed saying it is currently at $5.5 million. Neuzil said the latest projection from Conservation for FY09 was $999,995. He asked when the last date to know this summer is as far as the JECC Bond. Aschenbrenner said he doesn't have any specifics. Harney said they plan to leave it the same as it is right now. Neuzil asked if they are stuck at $16 million even with that $1 million they just got. Slockett said Kriz is dropping that amount off for the bond portion. He said the County has to have a 20% match, so $1 million can be removed minus the 20% match. He said it will drop probably about by $700,000. Neuzil said those numbers need to be figured out before the Board certifies the budget.
Aschenbrenner said there is no projected increase in expenditures. He said he received notice there will be some significant expenses for the remainder of this year, and will probably carry into the FY10 budget. He said he is not projecting the County will reach the budget for the current year so he reduced the overall amount by $32,000. He said he tends not reduce the budget in this department because the Auditor’s Office is required, regardless of what expenditure level, to pay it. Slockett said it can be very volatile. Aschenbrenner agreed, some of the bigger years have dropped off the time frame for actual numbers, but it was over $100,000 four or five years ago. Harney said statistics are when the economy is down the crime rate increases. Aschenbrenner said hopefully the County can live with what is budgeted for FY09 carrying into FY10. He said revenues are non-existent in this department.
Aschenbrenner said for FY09 it looks like Insurance will be $18,000 over budget. He said insured loss is down a bit, which is the loss the County bears when property is wrecked. He said the Workman's Compensation premium went up $35,000 over what was expected for the current year. The Real Property increase is a reflection of the projects going on as there are a lot more assets to insure. He said the County Insurance Agent of Record Bob Saunders is projecting an additional $57,200 for the upcoming FY10 budget. Most of that increase is in Real Property and Workman's Compensation. The difficulty with workman's compensation is the County is in a large pool of governments in the Iowa Municipal Workman's Compensation Association. Depending on the claim levels the amount that is paid out of that pool fund determines how much the County pays as a premium from year to year. He said Saunders has a factor which is calculated by the actuaries that will either increase or decrease the premium correspondingly. Stutsman said she thought that amount was supposed to decrease as the County has good ratings. Aschenbrenner said part of the misfortune of the pool participants is shared at times. He said he doesn't know where the County's workman's claims are but if the other counties are seeing big increases, Johnson County shares part of that. Stutsman asked what account health insurance is under. Aschenbrenner said it is in Fund 13, which is its own fund. Stutsman said it is its own fund because the County is self insured.
Recessed at 10:10 a.m.; Reconvened at 10:18 a.m.
Information Services Director Jean Schultz said she broke down the decision packages from the different departments for designated technology monies First is the Ambulance Department with carryover items including InfoTronics for their time clock system, their billing system, and field data. Ambulance has requested adding another ambulance vehicle so the cost for the field data, license, and support for the additional ambulance, laptop and software is included. R. Sullivan said as Schultz has budgeted for the technology for each department’s decision packages, if the Board decides against a package Claiborne has to be aware that the technology budget is also going to be changed. Schultz said she tried to be consistent and label the decision package items in her summary. She said there was another decision package for LifeNet that downloads information from the cardiac monitors. That will be a separate decision to adding the ambulance. The cost for LifeNet is $5,288.
Schultz said the County Attorney costs are mostly fixed. The ProLaw is the joint county project, with several more counties joined this year so the Attorney received some money back from their project management fee. The management fee and maintenance are fixed costs. The Attorney’s Office is requesting an additional position. The software for the PC includes office software, Netmotion software that allows the attorneys to move around within the Courthouse, and also a license for the ProLaw software. The Attorney’s Office wants to add five more licensees for Desktop PaperClip software. They are requesting to scan some of their older documents to free up storage space for this and next fiscal year. They will need additional licenses to be able to give more people access to view those documents.
Schultz said the Auditor’s Office requested a desktop for a new position. The SonicClear minutes software is something that was budgeted for in the current fiscal year and this will be the maintenance for FY10.
Schultz said there are no requests for Public Health.
Schultz said there were three request for Information Services (IS) that were in the FY09 budget. Software purchase upgrades are for software specifically for the IS in the programming or web development. GIS maintenance and the Envision Real Estate Software are left the same as the current fiscal year. She said they will not use as much this year so do not require an increase.
Schultz said the Sheriff’s Office requests include funds for a Smart Automatic Vehicle Locator (AVL) maintenance contract, a computer hardware upgrade, Mobile Dispatch software in their patrol cars, and a Mobile Data Terminal (MDT) data connection, connects their MDT units in their patrol cars with the central site. The Sheriff’s Office purchased the car video system this year and maintenance is budgeted for that system in the next fiscal year. FRED is the forensic system to capture data off hard drives and is upgraded in this budget.
Schultz said the Recorder’s Office has a maintenance agreement for their COTT software.
Schultz said the SEATS’ technology budget includes AVL hardware in their various buses, the digital cell phone service, scheduling software, radio maintenance in the vehicles, and voice radio tower. These items are already in use, but SEATS is updating the costs where necessary. Stutsman asked where SEATS rents the radio tower. She asked if it could be put at Secondary Roads. Schultz said Secondary Roads does have a tower but she referred the Board to SEATS Director Tom Brase. She said if she remembers correctly from the invoices it is Business Communications. Neuzil asked if it was Business Radio. Schultz said the name sounds right.
Schultz said Planning and Zoning requested money for a laptop and projector in the current fiscal year. By mistake that amount was left in this budget. Their technology increase is zero. The Elections’ budget requested an upgrade in their Firmware maintenance for their elections software.
Schultz said the Department of Human Services (DHS) has requested a couple of PCs. R. Sullivan asked if they were needed because DHS is answering their phones now. Schultz said their current PCs can be used for the phone system. R. Sullivan said he thought DHS was requesting two so one could run the phones at all times. Schultz said that requires two monitors, but uses the same PC. She said Social Services Coordinator Amy Correia talked about using two loaner PCs for youth support, which these would replace.
Schultz said the total not including the decision packages is $296,786. If the decision packages are added the total is $300,489. Neuzil asked if there was something requested for the Medical Examiner. Schultz said there was something in the current fiscal year. Neuzil asked her to talk to the Medical Examiner’s Office.
Stutsman asked if there wouldn’t be technology costs for the Sheriff hiring new deputies. Neuzil clarified, if the Sheriff was to receive two additional patrol deputies would they need additional technology expenses. Schultz said if it is the same number of cars, technology should not increase. Neuzil said the Sheriff’s Department is requesting two additional cars. Schultz said then there will be an increase. Neuzil said the Board will need to be double check. R. Sullivan said Public Health had requested a clerk. Schultz said many Public Health requests do not come out of Technology because they get grants. Stutsman said this is an Account Clerk so she did not think it would be grant supported. R. Sullivan said he had it down with some revenue but not enough to cover the position. Schultz said the source of this budget is the individual departments, but she worked with departments to get estimates. R. Sullivan said whether the Board approves the position, they need to look at the associated costs. M. Sullivan said the Medical Examiners is not asking for any additional technology with that position. R. Sullivan asked what the Medical Examiner is doing for licenses for software. Schultz said IS budgets that out of central technology. When new PCs are purchased the initial software licenses are also purchased. Microsoft Word, Office and Excel do not have a maintenance agreement because IS has been saving in Central Technology to replace it. Planning to repurchase saved about $40,000 to $50,000 every five years rather than to have a yearly maintenance agreement. She said the County Assessor and Mental Health/Disability Services (MH/DS) get their own, but the other department’s licenses come out of Central Technology.
Schultz said Document Management, Central Technology and Global Information Services (GIS) are all pretty much the same as the current year. The FY09 and FY10 Central Technology budget is $315,272, which is $2,000 less than FY07. Basically it has been about the same for the last four years. She said IS supports more PCs, but the cost of PCs has decreased which enabled IS to absorb the cost of supporting more PCs. She said now IS replaces PCs every five years, but are not automatically replacing monitors as they used to. She said more and more departments are getting copier/printer/scanners. Once in place, IS can evaluate if they actually need a new printer. She said there are 337 PCs supported. There are other PCs, such as the ones used for elections that are also supported, but IS does not automatically replace them. Those are called loners because they have already been used for five years. She said IS supports 74 printers. Costs for switches and hubs are the same as FY09. She said IS has been saving $20,000 a year toward the replacement of the Microsoft Software. She said the replacement will cost about $110,000. She said after FY10, IS will have enough money saved. She said an upgrade was planned once enough money was saved, however, there is not enough benefit in the current version on offer so they will probably wait until a new version is worth the expenditure.
Schultz said IS has been saving for the offsite disaster recovery center and maintenance. She said once IS is moved into the Health and Human Services Building they will spend some of their savings. She said IS now has remote storage for data but will also want remote servers so if there was a disaster there would be servers to automatically take over. She said IS had been saving $50,000 a year towards a mobile wireless. She said in order to stay within their budgeted amount she decreased the savings for that. She said this is an area that could be put off for saving for a year if needed. Stutsman clarified that it could be reduced by $50,000. Schultz said it could be reduced by $34,398. She said the point to point connections line item dropped off because SEATS and MH/DS no longer connect via a fiber optic connection. She said if IS has to, they do not have to automatically replace PCs every five years. R. Sullivan said there would be a supposed offset because if the County uses items longer, there will probably be less income from their annual sale. Schultz said that is true. She said they hadn’t had a sale this year because Elections uses so many loaner PCs and laptops. IS is planning on a large sale this spring and returning to bi-annual sales next year.
Neuzil said deferred maintenance seems to be the fix during lean times. He said it does catch up after a few years. He suggested cutting back the requested funding, extending the savings plan, rather than not saving for items entirely. Claiborne asked about the three laptops he, Harney, and Stutsman are using. Schultz said the laptops are probably loners. Claiborne asked if he could keep them for budget meetings. Schultz said he probably could or there will be others available after next year’s replacements. R. Sullivan said as they are loaners if something came up, another department and could use them to fill a need. Stutsman asked how much IS usually generates from the sales. Schultz said it depends on how many laptops there are as they get a higher price.
Schultz said the total amount in Document Management will be the same as FY09. She said the Treasurer has $18,000 as standard, Planning and Zoning has requested $1,000 and Ambulance is requesting $10,000. That should do a lot of Ambulance’s back records so they should not need nearly as much next year. The County Attorney is trying to scan a lot of the Counties old records to free up storage space. They are doing a couple of years worth of scanning this year and want to do a couple of years worth next year. The Sheriffs Office would like to scan some of their documents to help with space, as well as to make the documents more accessible. The Sheriffs Office has scanners already, but is requesting money for software licenses to be able to scan and access the images.
Schultz said the request for Central Technology has been reduced to keep within the budget. She said there were unexpected expenses, but IS hadn’t used all of the allocated funding so it was reduced for the next fiscal year. She said the grand total is the same as FY09. Once departments are moved to the Health and Human Services Building, IS wants to investigate whether scanning in-house would be cost effective through IS or within individual departments. Stutsman asked what the total cost of scanning is. Schultz said the total budget is $93,500. Stutsman clarified the amount is for the whole County. Neuzil asked what the amount was for the previous year. Schultz said FY08 was $78,000 and FY07 was $64,000. Stutsman asked if the scanning would be done by a Clerk I. Schultz said she doesn’t know. R. Sullivan said it might be something where if there is an area in IS for scanning, and current clerks with a free half hour could scan. Schultz said that is one possibility, but there are several options IS would like to investigate.
Schultz said the GIS budget allocation for FY09 was $45,600. That amount is lower than any other time before or since because they were spending down a carryover. She said the true fiscal year expense is about $45,600. That amount was increased by $21,000 to start saving for future orthophotography. The cost of the orthophotos has decreased significantly each time they are completed. Stutsman asked if the orthophotography is done in alternating years. Schultz agreed. Stutsman asked if this could be stretched out to every three years because there is not as much building going on. Schultz agreed, as long as it meets the Assessors’ and Planning and Zoning’s needs. She said another possibly would be to photograph areas where there is growth. She said that will not be seamless getting the information to match but it is a possibility. R. Sullivan asked if more counties combine in this process to decreasing the cost of flights. Schultz said there were some savings this year as Johnson, Linn, and Washington Counties joined together.
Schultz said the total requests for the three areas and designated departments for FY07 was $816,000, FY08 was $676,000, FY09 was $1,094,000 because of elections, and FY10, including the decision packages, is $775,000. Basically FY10 request is $200,000 less than FY09, a little more than FY08 but it is also less than FY07.
Neuzil said the next meeting is January 5, 2009 at 9:00 a.m. Claiborne said Kistler said he has newer numbers for evaluation. R. Sullivan asked what was scheduled for the January 5, 2009 meeting. Claiborne said block grants and MH/DS is scheduled. Neuzil said the Board needs follow up on some of their questions from this meeting. R. Sullivan said there may be extra time that morning that could be used to address those issues.
Adjourned at 10:53 a.m.
By Nancy Tomkovicz, Recording Secretary