MINUTES OF THE INFORMAL MEETING OF THE JOHNSON COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS:
DECEMBER 24, 2008
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
Key Issues Work Session...................................................................................................... 1
Process for Paying Board Financial Commitments, Board of Supervisors Office, Auditor’s Office 1
County Financial Situation and Plans to Address Said Situation............................... 3
Supervisors Status: Part-Time Versus Full-Time..................................................... 10
Joint Emergency Communications Center Update.................................................. 11
Project Updates....................................................................................................... 13
Internal Processes, Expectations, and Other Operational Issues of the Board of Supervisors Office 14
Meeting Agenda I0tems.......................................................................................... 14
Chairperson Sullivan called the Johnson County Board of Supervisors to order in the Johnson County Administration Building at 9:01 a.m. Members present were: Pat Harney, Larry Meyers, Terrence Neuzil, Sally Stutsman, and Rod Sullivan.
R. Sullivan said Executive Assistant Mike Sullivan and he have discussed the difficulties they have had in getting some claims paid. They have three or four examples including the East Iowa Tourism Association and the Local Food Initiative, where it was really hard to get a claim paid. They wanted to review the process and make sure that everything is working.
M. Sullivan said the Board gets requests from agencies or from individuals that represent agencies to either contribute money towards an initiative or contribute money to match Block Grants. He said when those kinds of things that happen off budget season and discussions are held outside the scope of the existing Block Grant Budget, it is supposed to work as follows: the Board has the parties make a presentation on an informal basis, and then the Board takes action at a Formal meeting. Then, either M. Sullivan is given a directive to process a claim or not. M. Sullivan said in that process though, it is necessary to find out from Budget Coordinator Richard Claiborne if they have the money and where it will be coming from.
M. Sullivan said Claiborne does that research, the claim is either processed by him or himself, and then it is submitted to the Auditor's Office. If the vendor is new, there is now an IRS requirement for a W-9 tax form. M. Sullivan said this form verifies to the County if they have that entity's tax ID number and if back-up withholding is required by the IRS, the County has it on file. The County's external auditors look for those forms. M. Sullivan said that is what happened with the Local Food Initiative issue. Things went through the channels and then the W-9 form was rejected, sent back to the Board office, and then it was sent back to Johnson County Local Food Alliance Representative James Nisely, and then after a couple of weeks, the claim was reprocessed all over again.
M. Sullivan said he prefers to have the individual come in to an Informal meeting and then get them on a Formal meeting agenda as soon as possible. As soon as the Board takes action, M. Sullivan will give Claiborne the directive to process the claim and assign the account number. M. Sullivan said if it is a new vendor he will have a W-9 already submitted to the individual before they pay the claim. He will send it in advance and tell them this is required of new vendors. All the paperwork will then be together when he sends it to the Auditor's Office for payment.
Harney asked if there was an issue with the Auditor's Office wanting some other information in order to even pay that one claim. M. Sullivan said what vendors will sometimes do is send in a letter. The Auditor's Office needs a dated invoice with an invoice number assigned to it. When Nisely had initially done so, they didn't have an invoice and it was just assumed, and certainly it wasn't anything Nisely did wrong, it was assumed they would just pay because they approved it as a Board. M. Sullivan said they actually have to have an invoice and an original attached to the claim in order for it to be paid. R. Sullivan said there are situations where a citizen might not have an invoice. Stutsman said then that is usually handled through insurance. Harney said they don't have an invoice for a Block Grant when they provide that. He said the Auditor's Office actually wanted an invoice.
M. Sullivan said these are classified as individual vendors for tax purposes. If they have a situation where they are paying damages on a claim for someone who is injured, the County Attorney's Office would prepare a resolution for them to pay it that way. R. Sullivan said the Board may need to pay $25 to someone who may not know how to create an invoice. M. Sullivan said their fail safe plan is to have the minutes to that formal agenda record the motion, the second, and the vote. This is another reason they have their agenda language so specific with dollar amounts, because that can be a backup for them. M. Sullivan said there will be times, for example, when the State issues an award for the County to pay something. Generally they get the GAX forms after the fact and they accept them that way in the Auditor’s Office. Stutsman said it sounds like M. Sullivan has a pretty good process in place.
M. Sullivan said it is pretty rare that the Board has meetings with a new vendor that needs the W-9. In the future, when Mr. Nisely comes in for money, the account is already set up. He said it is simply a matter of processing it as a claim, and there is no need to have another W-9 form or anything else. R. Sullivan said it all makes sense and from the Board's vantage point they just want to get claims paid. M. Sullivan said it is frustrating because the ITA thing was a new account. Stutsman said she thinks it shows how important communication is between the Board's Office and the Auditor’s Office.
M. Sullivan said the Auditor’s Office has steps in their office they have to follow in accounting practices, and the Board has steps they need to follow in submitting claims. He has already had meetings with Claiborne and Board Secretary II Jo Hogarty so that this won't happen again. M. Sullivan said he can call Account Clerk II Mydge Krob and in two seconds he will know if it is a new vendor or not. If it's a new vendor, they'll send the W-9 form and when they request an invoice all the paperwork will be completed. R. Sullivan said it is helpful for him to understand that process. Stutsman asked if M. Sullivan was including this in the manual. M. Sullivan said yes. He added that when the Auditor's Office conducts unannounced cash counts, the departments should have a balance sheet that reflects the amount of cash in the box or the zipper bag. M. Sullivan said the credit cards receipts are included also.
R. Sullivan said he would like to have very specific discussions with Human Resources Administrator Lora Shramek about plans to address personnel issues. He said that Slockett says that personnel is 85% of the Auditor's budget, and R. Sullivan thinks there are a lot of other budgets that are similar. He would like the Board to meet with Shramek to get information about processes and planning.
Neuzil said they need to refine the list of things they need to go after in their Strategic Planning for budgets. In the Finance Committee they came up with a running list, and then started sharing that with the Board. Now Neuzil thinks the Board needs to divide up the work in groups of two with a department head. The groups should discuss a contingency plan for employees if the Board is in a situation that requires across the board cuts, they can then go through the whole list of what is mandated and what is not. Neuzil said they can still probably ask department heads over the next six months what happens if they need to cut 10% of their budget and how that will happen for FY11. He said they will have to look at some of the contracts they have with libraries for example, and with a number of others, to determine if they need to address the long-term commitments. Neuzil said he doesn’t think at the current time they are in a position to cut back the library services because the Board made a deal with them. Stutsman said they should review the clause about terminating contracts because they usually state how much notice is required. M. Sullivan suggested he and Claiborne review the library contracts.
Neuzil said they need to start refining the list, and then they can start checking off who is responsible for what and then get into some subcommittee work. M. Sullivan asked if that answers R. Sullivan's concern. He said most of their department budgets are going to be in the upper 70s, and some even as high as upper 90% operating expenses based on personnel alone. M. Sullivan said the Ambulance Department is usually in the high 80th to 90th percentile. R. Sullivan said if there are openings in departments due to retirements, he would prefer to consider reorganization and possibly not filling that position immediately. This may allow departments to stave off a situation of future lay-offs. Neuzil said they can create a policy that for any position that is open the department must get approval by the Board before they fill it. R. Sullivan said that is the kind of advice he would like from Shramek.
Stutsman asked about hiring somebody to conduct a personnel analysis. She questioned if they are using people to the maximum, and if are there departments where people have downtime. If they have downtime, Stutsman asked if the Board should be looking at how they can be used somewhere else and are there other situations where they have contracts and maybe they should be looking at the contracts, saying it would be better if they don’t provide for those people for the contracts. Stutsman asked how necessary it is to reduce the County's payroll and personnel. Harney said it should be an ongoing process no matter what, not just in this situation. He said through attrition a lot can be done and the Board needs to take a second look at reorganization and changes that might make County operations more efficient.
Harney said the problem is that elected officials that are not willing to share staff or cross train employees. Harney said that the Board can encourage elected officials to do this, but they can’t force it. He said it will be a crucial time, but he doesn’t see it as something where the whole County government is going to collapse. They need to have plans in place if the situation arises, but it isn’t a crisis.
M. Sullivan said there are ten departments with appointed heads and they absolutely have to follow directives. Stutsman said County Engineer Greg Parker has a tech position open, and asked if Parker should be hiring for that position. She said those are the kinds of things they seriously need to take a look at. If they are going to have less money for projects, perhaps they don’t need another tech position. Stutsman said maybe if Parker has an engineer that is leaving, they hire out per project. She said perhaps that is a more effective way of doing things. Whether they like to admit it or not, the County taxpayer takes on a lot of liability with each employee that is hired. Stutsman said between wages, benefits, and computers, there is a lot that goes into each hire. Harney asked which position is open. Stutsman said when she went to the open house Parker was showing an office that didn’t have anyone in there, and she thinks it was for a tech position. At one time Parker said he wasn’t going to hire another engineer, but now they have hired another engineer and they aren’t doing any more projects. Stutsman asked if that was a good move. Harney said they need to be prepared on that.
M. Sullivan said that is why a policy is needed. The non-elected department heads are going to need to follow the same policy about not hiring without Board approval. Harney said he would ask Parker to not fill that position until such time as needed. However, on the same hand, with Secondary Roads he certainly wants to be prepared if the government gives funding to do more projects they are able to cover those projects.
Stutsman said she wants to emphasize that they scrutinize every department. She pointed out they need to look at everyone. R. Sullivan said they can’t anticipate who might have a retirement or someone move out of town. Neuzil said he still thinks they need to generate a list of things to get nailed down and then they can check off which ones they need to attack. He said they gave a pass to departments and elected officials when it came to personnel. Neuzil said they told them operating personnel is separate. He said next year the Board will have to add personnel into the mix so it's included in the bottom line of the budget. Again, the Board will have to decide if they should look at cuts before they start looking at discretionary dollars.
M. Sullivan said they started that in contract negotiations right now. They have been told the next couple of years are anticipated to be tough. He said personnel increases could be hard to come by or limited. Harney said he doesn’t know what they mean by operating personnel, but to him he can’t sit here and hire new employees when they need to maintain a steady budget. Neuzil said they told department heads to freeze their operating expenses. Stutsman said she thought that when the Board said to maintain a status quo budget that meant personnel too, but she knew it did not mean postage and fuel or some other unknowns. M. Sullivan said the COLA and merit raises that already in there were not isolated or targeted. New personnel is definitely part of that hold. R. Sullivan said he is talking about existing people in places. Neuzil said if employee and operating expenses are to be included, then a lot more will need to be cut. Neuzil said they didn’t do that this year.
Stutsman said she thought that when they asked department heads to bring in status quo budgets, that meant status quo as far as hiring new personnel. M. Sullivan said new personnel was his interpretation of their directive to them, but what they planned for 2009 cost of living adjustments for the merit step is not part of it. He said they just figured that was a given.
R. Sullivan said he is intrigued by one in particular where SEATS Director Tom Brase has laid out new numbers and can show that hiring a new person can save as much as $25,000. R. Sullivan said they need to ask if they can take on the liability of a new person, even though it can save tax dollars. Stutsman said that is something that will be valuable to have Shramek’s input on. Harney said he thinks there are unknowns they need to know about in that position. He said he agrees with what everyone has said, but looking at the whole picture, do they expect a certain amount of equipment and certain amount of tools to be purchased by the County. Harney said there may be a lot of add-ons that may affect that.
Meyers said the County Attorney's Office has a similar type thing coming up with the expediter that is a little harder to pin down as to what the savings are. Meyers said on the surface it makes sense if they move the whole system more efficiently, it may not show up in the County Attorney’s budget but it may show up in the Sheriff’s budget. Neuzil said they were seeing the same thing in talking with Medical Examiner Administrator Mike Hensch. The Medical Examiner's Office is basically paying for an employee at the University that they are going to lose. R. Sullivan said that is what he is trying to understand. He said it doesn’t seem quite as simple as just the dollars and cents, that it seems almost personal. Neuzil said it seems to come down to if the Board wants to increase services and make services go faster. Stutsman said they might just have to acknowledge that there is not going to be a one day turn around in the Recorder’s Office or Medical Examiner's Office. Stutsman said that Hensch has said he has to come in on weekends to finish paperwork and she doesn’t know if that is work that can be put off until the next work day or not.
Meyers said that when he and Neuzil met with Hensch, one of Hensch's initiatives was this person in his office who technically doesn't work for the County, but rather for the University of Iowa. Meyers explained that when Hensch needs something done, he can ask this employee to do it, but she doesn’t answer to him, she answers to the University. Meyers said when Hensch needs a death certificate for example, it gets done when her boss says she can do so. Neuzil said those are unique circumstances. Harney asked if they are pulling that person. Stutsman said they want to redirect that person. Neuzil said that the whole system is under review. Stutsman said this is basically a cost shift where the University is saying the County should pick up this expense and the University isn't going to do it anymore. Neuzil said he thinks there are unique circumstances but it does come down to whenever new employees are added it is another percentage or two out of that department.
R. Sullivan said he would still like to go ahead and have the Board ask Shramek to start doing some prep work for this. Stutsman said she is okay with that, but wondered what they are going to ask Shramek to do. Neuzil said there is a list. R. Sullivan said the Board has a list but his guess is, because it is her area of expertise, that she has a bigger list. He said the Board could tell her the things they have brought up, and ask if she can come up with anything more. Neuzil added they can come up with review procedures for potential employee sharing, early retirement, layoffs, and furloughs. R. Sullivan said that if they give Shramek a list like that and say those are the things the Board has been thinking about, then they can ask her to prepare some kind of executive summary for their January 21, 2009 meeting. R. Sullivan said that doesn’t mean they would have to do what's in the summary, but at least they will have that feedback.
Stutsman asked about contract employees verses hired staff. R. Sullivan asked if anyone was writing down a list. Neuzil said he has a list he drew up in October 2008. He explained he had written implement a freeze on hiring new employees unless the position is cost neutral, and review procedures for potential employee sharing, early retirement, layoffs and furloughs. Stutsman said she would also like Shramek's assessment of contract hiring versus hiring another employee. She is interested in what liability the County assumes every time a new employee is added. R. Sullivan said he would like to talk about a review process for any employee who leaves County employment to determine if the existing departmental staffing can absorb the workload. Stutsman said maybe the County will have to put merit increases on hold for a couple of years. She said she would like feedback on this along with what some of the related morale issues might be. Stutsman said she would like Shramek’s recommendations on the best way to proceed if the financial situation gets really bad.
R. Sullivan said ideally they would say what the least painful things they can do are, and go from there. Neuzil said it would be nice to have a procedure in place. Stutsman said Shramek is a key administrator in this discussion. She said personnel is the biggest cost and if there are any savings to be made, it would be there. R. Sullivan said they network, and she is part of the Sherm Group, so she has talked to people who have done big layoffs and she can probably get some good ideas.
Stutsman asked M. Sullivan if he will start looking into those contracts. M. Sullivan said he will take care of all the library contracts. Neuzil said the Board can go through the Block Grants with ICAD and all those they have, including the Historical Society. M. Sullivan said they will be talking about Block Grants pretty soon. He said with the library contracts, he will work with Claiborne, review all the agreements and look at the Code. He said it is going to be a vast difference and will shock the Board. M. Sullivan said he will bring back an executive summary. Stutsman said she guesses they talk from time to time about the Animal Control contract. She said what the County is doing right now is better than what was proposed. M. Sullivan said if they propose anything different than what they have right now, his recommendation is to have a contingency developed for that as well. He said they are going to have to do something different, because under the previous proposal that the Board didn’t adopt, it would be too cost prohibitive for them. Harney said he agreed, but on the other hand what are they going to do. He said they can’t set up a facility unless they contract with a veterinarian. M. Sullivan said they aren’t having much luck with the veterinarians and they don’t want to have anything to do with it. Neuzil said, unfortunately, what most Counties are doing is that they have a much shorter stay. Stutsman said Animal Control won’t hear of it, and that is the problem. M. Sullivan said the local vets don’t want to participate in it because the community itself prefers to have no euthanizations in the shelter unless it's necessary. R. Sullivan said they may get to the point where it is cheaper to go to Cedar Rapids. Harney said he doesn’t think that will be any better. Stutsman said M. Sullivan says it’s the community, and she agrees, but she thinks a vocal minority are dictating policy.
R. Sullivan asked if the Board is in agreement with asking Shramek to get something to the Board a few days prior to January 21, 2009, so they can look at it. M. Sullivan asked if they want to do that through Shramek’s liaisons. Harney said he isn’t sure they want to have Shramek do so. He understands she can look at length of time people have been on, and if there is going to be attrition, people leaving and what effect it will have on the department. Harney said Shramek could also determine how much a department would save by not replacing employees. He said each one needs to be weighed on its own merit, and that is a decision the Board will need to make. Stutsman said maybe simply need to ask Shramek for ideas about looking at the personnel budget. R. Sullivan said Stutsman is right, that Neuzil already has a list of six or eight things the Board has discussed, and they want Shramek to give the Board feedback. Harney said if Shramek is going to do that, he would like to have her include each employee that has been requested in the budgets to see what impact it will have and what the actual costs are. R. Sullivan said he doesn’t have a problem with that and thinks most of them have a pretty good idea anyhow, but he doesn’t mind her reviewing that. Neuzil said it is an eye opener when County Treasurer Tom Kriz said he has been saving the County three million dollars over the last eight years. Stutsman said it is interesting when Information Services Director Jean Schultz comes in and talks about all the computers the County has and yet personnel needs continue to go up. Neuzil said he and Harney will at least start generating that conversation with Shramek so they can have some conversation on January 21, 2009 for the Strategic Planning meeting.
M. Sullivan said he will have the contract stuff ready by the January 21, 2009 meeting. Neuzil said it will be pretty extensive as there are a lot out there, and he suggested they work with Social Services Coordinator Amy Correia. M. Sullivan said Neuzil is talking about all contracts, while he was talking about library contracts. Stutsman said the library is one place to start, but that they should be looking at all those contracts.
Harney said he would propose that M. Sullivan look at the commitments the Board has given each community in particular, the amount of grant matching money. He said to find out how many of those are expiring, if they will be saving any money, and what is still owed. M. Sullivan said he can get that done too. Stutsman said she bets they will be surprised at how few contracts they actually have. M. Sullivan said they really cut back on the number of contracts. He said he applauds Correia for that one. Harney said computer system maintenance is the biggest one. M. Sullivan said that is given. Harney said it might be advantageous to rebid the computer system maintenance contract.
Stutsman said with the Health and Human Services Building coming in next door to the Administration Building, this is an excellent opportunity to address the issue of duplication of equipment. She said she knows copy machines are really necessary everywhere, but maybe a few offices can share the expensive machines or computers. M. Sullivan said that is how things are set up in the new building. He said they won’t put copiers and printers in every office unless technology has that part on the replacement schedule. Other than that, they will have one or two machines for an entire division and that will save a lot of money. Neuzil said that falls under intergovernmental cooperation. He said, in other words, where can they find efficiencies, and that can be two members of the Board working with Facilities Manager David Kempf. Stutsman said they can include fleet management in that. She said they have talked about that for years, and she is almost to the point where people do that professionally. She said she thinks they really need to look at cost savings with the Health and Human Services Building. Stutsman said there needs to be more savings than just rent.
Harney said another thing they need to look where the cut backs in Human Services will be and what that impact will be. Neuzil said State and Federal mandates, unfunded mandates, and pass throughs are going to start hitting them. M. Sullivan said it always happens to cities typically after budgets are certified, which cripples them. Neuzil said it is the tax credits that they have to be really careful of. He said that is what happened to them in 2003. M. Sullivan said that was after the budget was certified, so they couldn't do anything about it. R. Sullivan said they saw the number is just under $300,000, and then hopefully at the end of 2009 they will have $300,000 extra they are looking to pay off. He said he is thinking they need that much extra budgeted so if the State pulls the rug on them, it won't hurt too much.
Stutsman asked if it is for the tax credit. She said the Board is not required to fund tax credits, and that is something the State has decided to do. One year they decided not to fund the homestead, and they did what the State said. Stutsman said it is not the Board’s decision. R. Sullivan asked if they did it last year. Stutsman said they have done so for the elderly, the disabled, and veterans. She said she thinks that would be the least thing they would put money into. M. Sullivan said they should be getting some new valuation numbers in very quickly from Deputy Auditor Mark Kistler. Neuzil said he will work with M. Sullivan about generating the list for the Strategic Planning meeting on January 21, 2009. Stutsman asked Neuzil if he added equipment and fleet management to the list. Neuzil indicated he had.
R. Sullivan said they need to discuss the TIF thing more. He said all they need to do is look at the numbers, and currently if there were none in 2008, it would be $2.9 million more they would have in their General Fund. Stutsman said General Growth reduced their assessment by around $9 million. R. Sullivan said with $3 million more the County would pay stuff off and cut taxes. Stutsman said it is absolutely outrageous that she is expected to pay for that yet she doesn’t have a say in whether she agrees. Neuzil said it is not going to go anywhere with Senator Robert Dvorsky. Harney said they hit a brick wall with legislators because they don’t want to touch it. Stutsman said maybe in this economic time, they can. Neuzil said they could at least go after housing and time limits. Stutsman said she is not saying to throw it out, just to tighten it up.
R. Sullivan said it is understood that these are their constituents, and if they end up having to cut some kind of human services or something because communities can’t stop but give away stuff to malls. He said these guys have created this and should they send them to the State. Harney said the sad thing is that on top of the TIFs, the malls and everything are appealing their valuations and they are winning. Stutsman said before the appeals came through the numbers weren’t there. Stutsman said that the tax base is not increasing, even with all the TIFs. She said it is not just with the malls, but with all of them. Neuzil said another part is that the City of Cedar Rapids is really assessing where their revenues are coming in. He said they are looking now at their portfolio and asking how they can diversify that, and that is a justification for the sales tax they are talking about right now. Neuzil said the County needs their financial manager to look at their portfolio to see where they are generating their dollars from.
R. Sullivan said Iowa City Press-Citizen Reporter Brian Morelli asked that the other day. He said Claiborne said that the County budget they knew was $75 million. R. Sullivan said that Morelli followed up with the question asking how much of that was taxes. R. Sullivan said that he and Claiborne didn’t know the answer off the top of their heads. Neuzil said they need to get a grip of that and they should all have that information. Neuzil asked M. Sullivan to make sure Claiborne forwards this information to Board members. He also said they have a game plan started, and will get a jump start on the employee situation, some of the contracts, and then they will go through finalizing the list and dividing up their duties. Neuzil said that seems to be a huge part of 2009's work.
R. Sullivan said he knew Harney wanted to get this on, just to talk if nothing else before the Compensation Board meets. Harney said it seems they go through this every year, and get into it right about Compensation Board meeting time, and timing wasn’t very good with the publicity of Linn County. Stutsman asked if they went back to full-time. Meyers said they did, that they voted on it. Harney said one of the new people, according to the paper, is going to maintain it. M. Sullivan said to go to the Gazette online to see the community reaction. Harney said he put this item on the agenda because he thought they had to have the discussion. He said he doesn’t want to change to full-time and he treats it as a full-time job now. The timing is bad but it is a decision the Board has to make. Neuzil said he thinks Harney is right, that the timing couldn’t be any worse for the Board to say they are working full-time hours and want to be paid full-time. He said that is out the window and they need to forget it.
Neuzil said where they left off last time with the Compensation Board, his understanding is that they will do it differently in 2009 in that they will request to the Compensation Board. He said in July, 2008, they discussed requesting 3.5% or what they got last year, and if other elected officials wanted to ask, let them ask. Neuzil said, in other words, the five Board members will ask for 3.5%, and that is what they will present to the Compensation Board. He said if County Sheriff Lonny Pulkrabek wants to ask for a 6% raise, let him ask for 6%, and if the Compensation Board gives him 6% and the rest 3.5%, then that is what they should accept. Harney said that is the way it should be, because he thinks the Board takes a raise equivalent to other employees. Harney said on the other hand there are the elected officials who if they feel they want more, they are entitled to ask for it but the decision rests with the Compensation Board.
R. Sullivan said that 3.5% is the authority they originally discussed with Collective Bargaining Representative Judy Perkins He said if they settle at 3% he thinks they should to stick with it. Neuzil said given the economic time, do they just request 3% right now. Harney said they probably aren’t into that. R. Sullivan said she will know by the time that group meets. Stutsman said she already told Compensation Board Member Hyman Joseph they said 3.5% so needs to talk to him again. Harney said they can say that at the meeting. R. Sullivan agreed. Neuzil said the real question is if they go to 3.5%, and the Compensation Board decides the Recorder should get 4%, then is the Board going to be committed to doing what the Compensation Board says.
Stutsman said they are getting into a discussion about the Compensation Board, and she thinks the issue they should be discussing is part-time versus full-time hours. She said she thinks they need to put that on about strategy for the Compensation Board if that is what they are going to talk about. Stutsman said she is okay staying part time. Meyers said he is too. R. Sullivan said it is more of a discussion that the Compensation Board will have, and he said the Board wanted to have their discussion prior to that. Stutsman said they need to put this discussion item on the next Key Issues Meeting agenda. Neuzil said they pretty much have, and doesn’t know if they need to put it on again or keep it where it's at with part-time and 3.5%. R. Sullivan said they keep saying 3.5% but he wants to be careful if they settle at 3%, which they might, then he doesn’t want to go to 3.5%. Neuzil said they won’t know before the meeting. Harney said he is willing to stick with whatever the employees get. R. Sullivan said they are almost done negotiating. Meyers said they are negotiating right now. Neuzil said they should put that on the agenda for January 14, 2009.
R. Sullivan said in terms of status, the Board has all acknowledged that they work full-time hours but they are comfortable with the part-time status. M. Sullivan said one of their contracts is going to arbitration and he thinks it is the Administration Unit. Neuzil said they can talk about that later. Stutsman said she wishes there would be a section on the agenda for other topics to be discussed so the Board could get an update on it. M. Sullivan said they can talk individually about it.
Harney said it is public knowledge that the Joint Emergency Communications Center Committee did not hire a director and has chosen to advertise again. Neuzil asked what the timeline is. Harney said they want to get someone in place by the end of February, 2009 or the first of March, 2009. Neuzil said he thinks this item is going to stay on the Key Issues agenda so they can get that kind of information. Harney said the facility is well underway and they are moving right along. He said that the committee that had worked on the equipment had agreed to a $3 million down payment and that became an issue with them, but that has been part of the bonding process, and that is where they are at for the equipment. Stutsman asked if they had to pay $3 million. Harney said they will have to as part of the bonding process for that. Stutsman asked if they will have to go out right now for bonds. Harney said yes, towards the end of January 2009. He said it is unclear if they will be able to hold off until February, 2009 to get that money for the down payment to get the stuff in and on time. Harney said it is part of the downturn in the economy now and companies don’t want to do a big investment if they think things are going to fall through.
Harney said they had bought an insurance policy from a firm that was $60,000 a year and that is a lot of money. Harney said the firm guarantees the completion of the Communication Center. If the person building the communications equipment and getting it in and installed for some reason goes bankrupt and can’t meet the deadlines, the insurance company steps in, completes it on time, and covers the cost. Harney said they have decided to go along with that. Neuzil said that is because they have a timeline. M. Sullivan said they used to do that with surety bonds but that is a little risky now, and he can understand why they wouldn't want to do it that way. Harney said they aren’t asking for more money to do this, that it is built in with the money they have, but still it is an expenditure. Neuzil asked if the upcoming bonding will be a part of their budget for this year. M. Sullivan asked if he meant for FY2010. Neuzil said yes. M. Sullivan said yes and they have that information already.
Neuzil said his point is if they don’t get it done by the end of January, 2009 or early February 2009, they start getting into crunch time then. M. Sullivan said they will, but the way the schedule is set up the bonding part will be done in January, 2009. Neuzil asked if Kriz is a part of that discussion. Harney said Kriz is doing it. M. Sullivan said it is going to be part of the FY10 budget and beyond, and Claiborne already has that calculated in the debt service schedule. Harney said Kriz didn’t want to do it now, and rightfully so, because of the investment companies and everyone gone over Christmas and New Year’s break. He said he didn’t want to bond for it until mid-January 2009 or at least send it out for application then, because they get a much better rate if they wait. Harney said hopefully by then they can get a better feel for what the economy is doing. He is hoping to get the best rate he can. M. Sullivan said rates will be a lot better if they wait and look at the investment part of it, it will be better what they can get today or next week or the week after that.
Harney said Kriz said he does have at least two or three companies that are seriously interested in looking at the bonds. Neuzil asked where they are with the dispatch employees, and who will run the legal things, the HR, and the payroll. Harney said those things still need to be worked out. He said he's had conversations with M. Sullivan, Claiborne, the Auditor’s Office, and some of the staff with the Communications Policy Board. Harney said at least the financial side, with the money being levied here, is advantageous to the Board and in their best interest to keep it here to pay the bills and run it through the Auditor’s Office. The County gets the interest off it, rather than trying to transfer it to some other area.
M. Sullivan said they do the same thing for the Board of Health and the Conservation Board. He said stuff still comes through here, but if they are levying the tax, they should earn the interest on the bonds they are selling. Harney said some of the personnel issues are still uncertain. He said that is something the Board is going to sit down and have a good discussion about. Harney said as far as health insurance, it is much cheaper if they are in a group like with the County or the City. He said they will probably have to have their own negotiating labor group unless they want to join in with the County or the City. Harney said it is just better to him if they just stay with the County. Harney said he knows Shramek said she wants another person, but he is not sure it is necessary. He said once they are in place, he doesn’t see it as a huge task.
R. Sullivan said he thinks it will matter which contract an employee chooses, if they decide to go with an existing contract with the County, then he thinks it makes sense that the County will do the personnel. He said if they choose one that is Iowa City then it seems like it should be the City. Harney said what they have always said is that they are trying to level it out so whoever has the best pay right now they can match that so no one takes a big decrease in pay. Harney said that is what the director was supposed to work on when he or she gets here, and that fell through.
Neuzil said he still has a hard time thinking that they can’t find some efficiencies by combining the dispatch center into one. Neuzil said he is talking about simple employees, and that it is hard to believe that they can’t find some ways to reduce the number of employees when they combine both dispatch centers. Harney said that is going to be up to the director to decide based on how many people are needed per shift and for backup. He said he thinks they should be able to reduce the number employees. Stutsman said there is no incentive to do any of that, because they have the levy ability and there is no one overseeing the budget, and they will take the path of least resistance. Neuzil said the Policy Board has said they are committed to staying within what they had last year, and that hopefully those elected officials and those they have on their team will hold up to their word. Stutsman said it was her understanding that it was a one year blip and that it was going to go down after that. She said that is what concerns her, is that it is never going to go down.
Neuzil said it isn’t going to go down simply because it is going to be $2 million, remember that they have $3.4 million, $2 million will pay off the bonds, and they will have $1.4 million left to operate. Harney said they are estimating the ongoing cost to be close to $2 million. He said now there isn’t a huge cost savings because that is basically what they are costing the County now combining the Sheriff’s cost and the City’s cost. Harney said he thinks once they get the equipment and everything in place then costs should be reduced. R. Sullivan said whenever they have a big change, there is probably going to be a couple people who don’t want to deal with the change, and they may decide to retire, take a different job, or look for a transfer. He said there is a chance some employees will leave. R. Sullivan said the message can be real strong to the policy board that when that happens the County is not hiring new employees. Neuzil said if they are told they have $1.4 million to operate, and that is what the policy board is committed to, hopefully that is their incentive. He said hopefully the policy board sticks with what they have said. Stutsman said a lot will depend on the director too.
Stutsman asked what the moving schedule is for the Health and Human Services Building. M. Sullivan said some departments will be moving in on January 6, 2009. Harney said that Information Services Network Administrator Bill Horning said they would start transferring some of their equipment December 22 through December 26, 2008. R. Sullivan said he knew Public Health is waiting because they own their own building, and so they are going to wait and go last. M. Sullivan said their leases are fine, but all departments with leases at the end of the year are ready to move in. Neuzil asked if they got all the things done for occupancy. M. Sullivan said they still have occupancy permits to get. Neuzil said they have a few more things to do yet with the fire department. R. Sullivan said the fire department had to pay a few more things, which he did last week.
Harney said there were some issues with payments for the Communications Center concerning where that money was at and where it is going. They were doing a transfer of funds and at the last Policy Board meeting Harney spoke with Aschenbrenner who was concerned about tracking the funds if it gets transferred from the County over to Emergency Management Coordinator David Kempf's office and so forth. Harney said he asked Aschenbrenner to hold the check, which he did and then he cancelled the check. Harney said that is why some of these bills came in last minute on the claim forms. Harney said the way it is going to work now is that there is a line item in the Auditor’s Office and Wilson is going to have a line item that it will be transferred to in his office. It will be separate, but will be paid by Wilson's office. The bills will be approved by the Policy Board, Wilson will generate a requisition form, and then the bills will get paid. Wilson wants to have this out of Emergency Management's budget by July 1, 2009.
R. Sullivan clarified that Wilson will fill out a form and write a specific account number to indicated to Aschenbrenner how to track the money. Harney said they will probably have to do the same with the bonding money because it will be coming in before July 1, 2009. Stutsman said a citizen asked her why the Joint Emergency Communications Center was not put over with SEATS. Harney said because space was not available at that time. Neuzil asked if there is a picture of SEATS and Secondary Roads Department which they can put up on a web page. M. Sullivan said yes.
Neuzil asked if the Board would like to change the schedule of some of the upcoming meetings. The Board discussed their schedules and decided to schedule February 10, 2009 for the Evaluation Meetings. Neuzil said the Chamber Legislative Day in Des Moines is scheduled for February 19, 2009 which is during a regularly scheduled Board meeting. The Board decided to hold their meeting as scheduled. Neuzil said that March 4, 2009 is the ISAC Spring School so the Board must reschedule their pre-evaluation meeting to February 26, 2009 immediately after the regularly scheduled Board meeting. The March 5, 2009 Board meeting will be held on March 3, 2009. The Board discussed a number of dates for the Public Hearing on the Proposed Budget. They will set a date at a future time. R. Sullivan asked all Board members to take a good hard look at M. Sullivan's draft of the Operational Manual and give feedback.
Neuzil asked if a judge is scheduled to swear in the newly elected officials. M. Sullivan said a judge does not have to conduct the swearing in and that the County Attorney can do it. He added that he prefers to do this before January 1, 2009. M. Sullivan proposed doing it at the Board meeting on December 30, 2008. Stutsman said she prefers not to do it during the Board meeting but rather before. M. Sullivan said he will schedule it for 8:00 a.m. on December 30, 2008.
Adjourned at 10:27 a.m.
By Nancy Tomkovicz, Recording Secretary