MINUTES OF THE INFORMAL MEETING OF THE JOHNSON COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS:
JANUARY 22, 2009
TABLE OF CONTENTS
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Reports and Inquiries from Executive Assistant Mike Sullivan
Reports and Inquiries from the Board of Supervisors
Chairperson Neuzil called the Johnson County Board of Supervisors to order in the Johnson County Administration Building at 9:28 a.m. Members present were: Pat Harney, Larry Meyers, Terrence Neuzil, Sally Stutsman, and Rod Sullivan.
GIS Specialist/Community Development Planner Hilary Copeland said the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program is not aimed at being a recovery program. She said it is a mitigation program, and the goal is to provide long-term property protection against future flood damages. The program is run through the Homeland Security and Emergency Management Department in the State of Iowa. Copeland said it is run according to Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) regulations, but is organized at the State level. She said the State will make sure everything is in order with the application before passing it along to FEMA. Copeland said properties the Board puts on the list will be converted to permanent open space and will become the responsibility of the County for maintenance. She said this is a longer process because properties must pre-qualify to be on the application.
Copeland said the East Central Iowa Council of Governments (ECICOG) has been working on a list all summer and all fall of 2008. Copeland said a meeting was held on August 11, 2009, to discuss property owners identified as potentially eligible for FEMA damage reports based on their location within the 100-year flood plain. She said at that meeting they went over all the program guidelines, such as acquisition at 110% of the assessed value of the property, damage requirements, and demolition requirements of the program, as well as what would happen after completion. She said the Board then decided to put areas with a high level of interest on the Notice of Intent submitted to Homeland Security in September 2008. Copeland said there was an informal and a formal meeting to go over that notice. She said they sent addresses to FEMA and FEMA did surveys on the properties. Subsequently, some properties were pulled out around November and December, 2008.
Copeland said some properties originally on the Notice of Intent were not eligible for acquisition because of subdivision requirements. She said after Katrina, FEMA changed requirements, and the program has become more stringent. Properties that are located on one parcel must be acquired together, and subdivision is not possible. Copeland said once they determined which properties were eligible, notices were sent to the property owners explaining the purchase price is 110% of the assessed value. At that point in time, there was an additional $10,000 available for relocation of owner-occupied structures. Copeland said there is an additional $850 for moving expenses, which have been added and property owners have been notified again. Copeland said non-owner occupied structures will also be requesting that amount for purchase. She said the original intent of this program, when it was released in July 2008, was to focus on owner-occupied structures. Given the scale of the disaster and the amount of funding that is currently available for the program, the State has widened the scope of acquisition.
Copeland said there are two methods to qualify a property for participation in this program. She said the first is that the property must be determined by contractors’ or FEMA representatives to be substantially damaged. Substantial damage is defined as damage at 50% or more of the assessed value of the dwelling structure, not including the land, and the property must have been located in the 100-year flood plain. Copeland said the alternative option is to pass FEMA’s benefit-cost analysis (BCA). She said FEMA came out with elevations in November or December of 2008 for this purpose. Essentially, that figures the benefits to be the expected for flood damages within a 100-year period. Copeland said since the two floods in the past 15 years have been 500 year floods, those damages don’t count. She said it isn’t always going to be an accurate analysis of what may happen within that 100-year time period. The costs include the purchase price of the property, fees to acquire, and demolition fees. Copeland said if benefits are divided by the costs, the ratio must be one or higher to be a cost-beneficial project. She said typically cost-beneficial projects are located very near the flood plain and are typically structures built on a slab or contain some sort of a walkout finished basement. Copeland said the properties need to have ten or 12-year flood frequency damages. There was only one property on this application that qualified as a cost-beneficial project.
Copeland said in order to determine the most expedient way to acquire the properties Homeland Security recommends submitting three separate applications. She said first is the application for properties that qualify through the BCA. Copeland said one change since the last presentation of this material is that 1317 White Oak Avenue is no longer on that application. She said the only properties on that application will be 4402, 4404, and 4406 Driftwood Lane. Copeland said that is the carrier property for the acquisition. The cost-benefit ratio was essentially $455,000 of extra benefit to acquiring that property, which allows for some additional properties to be acquired. Copeland said the additional proposed property is 4437 Driftwood Lane, which has the same owner as the properties on the application. Copeland said the other proposed property is a cabin at 4441 Driftwood Lane Southeast, owned by William Berger. The difficulty in acquiring that property with a waiver situation is that it has no assessed value. She said it is difficult to determine whether it was substantially damaged, because there is no dwelling and no FEMA assessment for that property.
Copeland said the next waiver application includes property on Riverfront Estates, and 1317 White Oak Avenue. The list of properties for Riverfront Estates includes 3002 3010, 3020, 3022, 3024, and 3074 Riverfront Estates. She said that 3074 Riverfront Estates was a new addition to this, so they may need to do a different demolition funding source, but that is not a concern. Copeland noted that 3082 Riverfront Estates and 3084 Riverfront Estates are not in a grouping, they are scattered throughout the area. She said that will be a concern for the Board in determining the maintenance schedule or what will happen to the properties that fall in between those scattered addresses. Copeland said, some owners did not wish to be purchased and some owners did not qualify for the program at this time. She said that if the road was taken out, and all owners in this area were interested in being acquired by the County, the County could acquire the property. She said even things which would not qualify on their own at this time could qualify if the road were to come out and the entire area be vacated in the future. This would be a long-term approach to mitigation in this area. Generally removing structures from the floodway can reduce damages both upstream and downstream by allowing the flood to spread out over a greater area.
Copeland said the final area of application is another waiver application. She said it is 4418 and 4428, and 4440 Driftwood Lane Southeast. She said those are not contiguous properties; however, they are in an area of which will probably need some cleanup action. Copeland said this will be one way to remedy some of the potential public safety hazards that may occur in that area, if cleanup efforts are not pursued.
Copeland said one of the reasons the last two waiver applications were separated was because of concerns in the Driftwood area about the location of properties within lot lines. She said FEMA and Homeland Security representatives said this is not a problem, unless someone wants it to be a problem. There are some structures that appear to be situated on a lot line or slightly over the neighbor's lot line. Copeland said, if they are just situated near a lot line, they could be damaging someone's property when the demolition occurs, or there might be issues regarding ownership.
R. Sullivan asked if the total will be around $1.8 million. Copeland said that is right. She said, when they first started looking at the funding source in August 2008, they weren't aware of this, but the Iowa Department of Economic Development (IDED) has made available some of the supplemental Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds for this. She said, although there isn't funding available for maintenance, there will be no cost to the County for acquisition. Stutsman asked if that was the match the County has to come up with. Copeland said yes, IDED will automatically take all the applications Homeland Security receives and do an application for the CDBG funding. R. Sullivan said they can do $1.8 million without the typical match, and it will still be $1.8 million, but none of it will come from the County. Copeland said that is correct. She said the Board will have to commit a local match on the resolutions; however, that funding will actually just be CDBG funding.
Harney said he is concerned with the two areas of leased property. He said if he understands correctly, the County can't buy out any of those homes, unless the entire parcel goes as a buyout. Copeland said yes. She said FEMA surveyors were sent out on the Southwick property. She said they did not call in advance and were declined. Copeland said there was no way to determine whether most of those properties were eligible. She said Iowa City had an interesting purchase agreement with the Showers addition, which essentially means the County is not allowed to do anything. Once there is an alternative agreement, this program does not apply. Harney said his other concern is people in the program vacate and leave, and then there are vacant properties with old houses, which becomes an issue with property owners.
Copeland said Public Assistance (PA) could still be pursued by the County for some of those houses deemed to be substantially damaged. She said the County's FEMA PA contact should be consulted about doing that, but there is just a 10% match for any action taken regarding properties in some of those areas. She said she is not sure that everything in those areas was determined to be substantially damaged, so a full area remedied may not be available.
Stutsman asked how many other properties are on Riverfront Estates. Copeland said 27 total properties. R. Sullivan asked how many of those are discussed in this application process. Stutsman said eight. Stutsman asked Planning and Zoning Administrator Rick Dvorak how the County will maintain those properties. Planning and Zoning Administrator Rick Dvorak said he is not concerned about the Driftwood area because he thinks they will end up with about four houses there. He said the maintenance of that will be fairly easy, if they choose to maintain it. Dvorak said the landowners in the area haven't gotten into negotiation. He said he is also working with the County Attorney's Office, because there is a lot of property in the Driftwood area that people never pay taxes on. He said they are trying to afford to pick up those properties too, so the County may end up with four residences instead of 20. Dvorak said it will be easier to maintain if the Board chooses to do that.
R. Sullivan said, as a result of the 1993 flooding, the County already has land in the Driftwood area and it requires very minimal maintenance. Dvorak said they tore down the houses, removed the structures, and that area became a natural area. He explained they can't do anything with it themselves; it stays natural. Dvorak said the Driftwood area is a little more residential than Riverfront Estates. The Driftwood area may need to be maintained. Dvorak said the County can take care of Driftwood Estates. However, they may need to negotiate for the Riverfront Estates area. He said the eight owners are moving forward with the intent to possibly have the property available for purchase, although they may not sell.
Neuzil said the Board wants Johnson County to help as many people as possible who were affected by the flood. He said he has felt disconnected from the process for the past couple of months. Neuzil asked how the public feels about the County's response to this. He asked if people are happy with the County's response to the damage. Copeland said there has been some confusion. She said there was a long wait in determining what would happen with FEMA guidelines. Copeland said they finally started receiving information on how this program was going to work, how to complete the application from the State in January 2009. She said there were a couple months of waiting to see what would happen with these properties. Neuzil said that is the last time the Board had heard anything. He said there is a learning curve and it is frustrating for the Board to have to wait for the Federal and State Government to make decisions. He said hopefully more residents will let the Board know what they are feeling.
Stutsman said she was here in 1993 when they did the mitigation. She said she couldn't believe how complicated the program was and evidently still is. Copeland said she apologizes for the gaps in communication. She said they have had to wait for people at other agencies to find out what is going on, too. In their defense, Homeland Security was not around in 1993; that agency was created after 9/11. Copeland said many of the assistants have not administered this program before.. The program changed substantially and became much more complicated after Katrina. She said any disaster of that magnitude will have a few people who try to take advantage of these types of programs. Those few people make this a much more stringent process.
R. Sullivan asked what happens after the Chair signs the three applications and sends them forward to be approved. Copeland said legally FEMA has one year to respond. She said she has no indication that they will take that long to respond. The County legally has three years to complete actions related to this project. The Board will have 90 days after closing to remove structures from the properties. Copeland said most of these properties will be acquired and demolished through Public Assistance, because they were substantially damaged and everything but one property is in the floodway. She said that is where most of the assistance funds will come from, and all of the demolition will be in accordance with State PA standards.
Copeland said, after receiving offers and evaluating grant amounts from FEMA, they will meet with the property owners to review any insurance claims or funding received from FEMA or another source Copeland said, if funding for structural repairs was received but not used by a owner, who then chooses to be part of the buyout, that money may be classified as a duplication of benefits, and could be deducted from the 110% plus $10,000 plus $850 the owner would be eligible for with this project. However, if the owner did spend that money, which it seems most people have, there is no duplication of benefits or deduction. She said those people will be verified by a third party and County Attorney’s Office will help place deed restrictions on the properties.
County Soil and Water Conservationist Kate Giannini said she has been in training the past few months as the trainee, as well as the trainer. Giannini said she left her district position in September 2008, and recently hired two new employees in December 2008. She said those employees have undergone training with Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and were trained on all the software and equipment. She said she has been working on the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) re-enrollment. Giannini said 93 acres were re-enrolled between October and December 2008. She said this year in total, 250 acres were re-enrolled. She said about 323 acres were new CRP enrollment, with a majority of those as wetland in the Snyder Creek bottoms. Giannini has surveyed and designed a pond structure that is going to be in the Lake Macbride watershed. She surveyed and flagged two wetlands. She said one of the wetlands is west of Hills and is with the County Heritage Trust Foundation. She surveyed and flagged two basins, worked on a few waterway projects, and designed and flagged contour buffer strips. Giannini said, at the end of November 2008, she seeded 11 acres of filter strips and two acres of native grass wild buffer on Sand Road.
Giannini said the urban projects she is working on include Westcott Heights off Prairie du Chien Road. She said prairie plants were added in 2008, and there was concern about weeds, but Giannini said wild grass takes a few years to establish. She said she walked through it and found native grasses shorter than the tall weeds. She said she put a plan together to do mowing and burning, if the Association allowed for it. Giannini said she also worked with Briar Ridge on erosion control issues. She and Urban Conservationist Amy Bouska visited a family in Iowa City who wanted to install a rain garden site to solve water issues in the back of their home. Giannini added, she also worked with a family on erosion concerns with a new road adjacent to their property. She is working very closely with Dvorak and Assistant Planning and Zoning Administrator R.J. Moore with the Johnson County Sensitive Area Ordinance. She said Bouska has also been helping her transition into her new position.
Giannini said, after the floods, the USDA received money through the Emergency Watershed Protection Program. She said before leaving his position Adam Galluzzo was working on the County Bridge Assessment. She said they assessed 75 bridges in the county. She said the bridges were marked by GPS and assessments were sent to Engineer Nick Schafer at the Williamsburg office. She said she and Schafer went on-site and looked at about 15 bridges. Giannini said Johnson County and Secondary Roads sponsored 12 multiple debris projects. She said two projects in Coralville will be funded. Giannini asked the Board to refer to the pictures she gave them showing bank erosion along a Coralville trail, as well as other damage.
Stutsman asked if Giannini will work with Secondary Roads to develop a plan to stabilize erosion. Giannini said yes. She said Schafer developed an engineering plan and the Secondary Roads Department has their plans. She said the Conservation Department and Secondary Roads funded about 12 of those projects. Giannini is also working on the Rapid Creek Watershed. They received a development grant in June, 2008, and hired Watershed Consultant Dave Rattliffe. She said they are conducting weekly water monitoring and bi-weekly bacteria testing at nine sites in the Rapid Creek Watershed area. Giannini said they have collected 47 weeks worth of data on water monitoring and about 23 weeks of data on the bacteria testing. She said the financial assistance through the development grant has allowed for many new projects. She said streamside assessment was completed by walking 32 miles of the creek in June 2008. She said they also completed a land use assessment. She said the Rapid Creek Watershed drains into the Iowa River, and the Iowa River is on the impaired water list. Soil and Water Conservation is studying the watersheds that flow into the Iowa River to get a better idea of why the Iowa River is on the impaired water list. Giannini said in December 2008, they took students from the Environmental Science class at Kirkwood on the Rapid Creek Watershed to see how testing is done.
R. Sullivan asked if Rapid Creek fails the test the same way the Iowa River does. Giannini said there are some areas that have high levels of nitrates. She said the development grant has allowed them to identify problem sites. She said she plans on writing a grant in February 2009 to address these problem sites.
Giannini has been attending trainings and meetings and she recently went to the all-area NRCS staff meeting at Lake Darling. She attended the monthly Soil Commissioners meeting and the Managing Storm Water Quality meeting in November 2008. She attended a Planning and Zoning meeting about Hunter's Creek and a meeting concerning the Iowa Valley Regional Food Initiative in Amana.
Giannini said she is organizing a quarterly staff meeting and they performed a staff wetland determination and plant ID. She said in December 2008 Soil and Water Conservation went through a national Equipment Audit and currently the department is going through a CSP audit. She said in December of 2008 she reviewed the natural resource inventory, a national assessment of private land use and conservation practices in each county in the nation.
Giannini said she is currently working on the Community Leadership Program and organizing the Agriculture Session for April 10, 2009. She said she was appointed to the County Integrated Roadside Vegetation Management Committee. Stutsman asked if Giannini would be interested in being on the Iowa Valley Resources Committee.
County Treasurer Tom Kriz said they are in the process of obtaining the bond rating needed to be able to go regional with their funding requests. He said the initial funding request was made to local entities in the community, and for the first time ever no bids were submitted on this project. He said the lack of bidding led to the need of a regional and national request for funding. Kriz said they are in the process of becoming bond rated. He said the County's financial advisor, Springstead Associates, is accumulating data from the Treasurer's and Auditor's Office. He asked for information from the Joint Communications Center regarding the urgency for funds. There is approximately $2 million dollars due on a down payment on equipment to be delivered in the summer of 2009. Kriz said the Auditor's Office confirmed there are just enough funds to cover the down payment. He said there is some urgency to move ahead.
Kriz said approximately 45 days before actual funding on April 1, 2009, the County may need to look at temporary funding alternatives to be paid back once the money comes in. Kriz said he is working with Budget Coordinator Rich Claiborne and Deputy Auditor Dana Aschenbrenner to come up with a recommendation on that funding need. Bonding Attorney Bob Josten and Springstead Associates are looking into legal options to bridge funds temporarily. He said once they have that figured out they will ask the Board for formal approval.
R. Sullivan asked if it is the County's responsibility to supply that extra funding or could one, or all, of the cities step up and bridge that gap. Kriz said it's possible, and there has been discussion about whether the City of Iowa City or the City of Coralville would. He said this is a short-term funding bridge needed to keep expenses flowing until April 1, 2009 when funding is anticipated. Kriz said it was a bit of a setback to have no local bids, but it spoke very strongly to the timing of trying to borrow money in today's economy and the need to go regional on some larger projects.
R. Sullivan said there is just enough money for the down payment, but asked if there will there be a need for more money if someone is hired. Kriz said they anticipate needing $4 million up to April 1, 2009. He said it now appears there is between $2.2 million and $2.5 million from taxation, which will be enough to cover the 45 day need. Kriz said anything that will come up quickly would have to be accounted for. He said that is why they are looking at possibly $1.2 million to $1.8 million.
Stutsman asked if it is true that the Board needs to consider the other entities in the County when trying to obtain a bond rating. Kriz said for bond rating they will look at the City of Iowa City, the City of Coralville, Lone Tree, Solon, and any other cities around the County. He said they take into account other factors such as the strength of the surrounding cities. Stutsman said everyone wants an AAA bond rating. Kriz said yes, everyone wants an AAA rating, but with the current economy, it is very unlikely that will happen. Kriz said the County doesn't have much experience in borrowing a lot of money in the past. This could be a disadvantage, because the County doesn't have a track record. He said he will return to the Board when he has complete data.
Executive Assistant Mike Sullivan said the ISAC Supervisor School is scheduled for January 23, 2009, in Des Moines. The Five Year Road Construction work session is scheduled for January 27, 2009, at 9:00 a.m. The next Key Issues meeting is scheduled for January 28, 2009, at 9:00 and a Budget work session at 1:00 p.m. M. Sullivan said they should be able to wrap up the MH/DS issues. He said the Iowa City Conference Board meeting is scheduled for January 28, 2009 at 6:00 p.m.
Board members discussed scheduling needs for upcoming meetings.
Harney said he attended the MH/DS planning session and he went to the Coralville Fire Station for a National Institute Management System Compliance Training. Harney attended the Iowa City Area Development Group Board of Directors meeting and the Sixth Judicial Department of Corrections Board of Directors meeting. Harney said Linn County and Johnson County now share the same judge for the Drug Court Services. He said the Assistant Director of the Department of Corrections in the southern half of Iowa recently died from an accidental carbon monoxide overdose.
Neuzil said he will have a Listening Post at the Senior Center on January 27, 2009 at 11:30 a.m.
Adjourned at 10:20 a.m.
Attest: Tom Slockett, Auditor
By Nancy Tomkovicz, Recording Secretary