MINUTES OF THE INFORMAL MEETING OF THE JOHNSON COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS:
FEBRUARY 26, 2009
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
Planning and Zoning Intern Taylor Newton: Progress Report
SEATS Director Tom Brase: Progress Report
SEATS Director Tom Brase: Increasing SEATS Paratransit Rural Fares to $2.00
Board of Supervisors: Appointment to the Iowa City Assessor Revaluation Committee
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 10:05 a.m. Members present were: Pat Harney, Larry Meyers, Terrence Neuzil, Sally Stutsman, and Rod Sullivan.
Farmers National Company Farm Management and Sale Representative John Yeomans said 2008 was tough for agriculture. He said crops didn’t mature very well due to the cool wet weather. The County Farm predominant soil type is Givin and about half of the farm is non-high erodible or flat. The farm lacks artificial drainage, so the farm does not do well during wet years such as in 2008. County Farm operator Clint Rarick's corn crop failed and he replanted soy beans. He said the County started building the Communication Building and some of his crops were destroyed by construction. Yeomans said he is negotiating with Rarick and looking at another potential operator who would add more value to the crops planted. He said Rarick has not firmed that up yet, because of the soil types on the farm. Today Yeomans is asking the Board if he can lease the farm for the 2009 crop year for a rent more than $27,000.
R. Sullivan asked if that was the minimum. Yeomans said yes. He said he is above that, but he doesn’t want to release information that could damage relationships with people he is currently talking to. Meyers asked what was received last year for rent. Yeomans said it was about $30,000, but acres were lost due to the new Communication Building. Sullivan said there is land where hay has been baled in the past. Yeomans said yes, there are waterways and trails where Rarick does bale hay. R. Sullivan asked if he had any success last year. Yeomans said he believed Rarick did once. Many of the water ways are not tiled out making it impossible to enter when it is wet.. Last year was probably not a good income year for the operator.
Neuzil said once rent has been negotiated Yeomans would come back and the Board would then authorize it. Neuzil said he believes Yeomans would work with the County Attorney for contracting. Yeomans said he works with the County Attorney and the County Auditor signs off on the lease. Sullivan said the Board hires Yeomans to negotiate for the farm. Yeomans said if there are any discussions on renting the farm they are directed to him and not to the Board or County personnel.
Neuzil said people interested in looking at the annual report for the Planning and Zoning Department can go to johnon-county.com. Planning and Zoning Department Intern Taylor Newton said they will be covering building permits and housing starts, zonings and rezonings, variance, conditional use and miscellaneous permits. He will review accomplished 2008 planning projects accomplished and projects for 2009. The Planning and Zoning Department was involved in recovery efforts for the flood of 2008. Planning and Zoning Administrator Rick Dvorak was responsible in creating a response plan to the flood of 2008.
Newton said the department answered citizens concerns on flood recovery, and assessed damage of the flood by building inspections staff. The staff assessed all structures in the area that were affected by the flood. In total there were 110 structures affected by floodwaters, 44% of those structures were substantially damages. There were 284 building permits issued by the Planning and Zoning Department in 2008. This figure is an 18% increase on permits from 2007. The total value for permits was $35 million, which is a 20% decrease in the unadjusted value. Of the permits, 60 were for flood-related issues and six of the flood-related permits were for new construction.
Sullivan asked Senior Building Inspector Ruben Arsate if there were more permits but less value because in 2007 they had Syngenta and Iowa Mennonite School. Arsate said that coupled with the fact that all flood-related permits were not charged a fee. Meyers said their value doesn’t enter into the total. Newton broke down the types of permits. The largest category was residential alterations, followed by single family homes-detached. There were 52 electrical permits issued. He said they couldn’t estimate a value for electrical, plumbing, and mechanical. Arsate said it could not be estimated because of the work done free of charge.
Newton said Planning Zoning had 53 new single family home permits issued last year, totaling $3.4 million. He said the adjusted 2008 total value, when adjusted for inflation, is lower. He said the adjusted value for 2008 average value is the lowest since 1999. R. Sullivan asked why. Newton said he didn’t know if it is an issue of building smaller homes. Sullivan said it is a big change. Arsate said they had fewer higher end homes. Sullivan said if a couple of million dollar homes are taken out of the mix, the average goes down. Newton said yes.
Newton said ten applications were submitted for rezoning. Of the ten applications, seven were approved leading to approximately 60 acres being rezoned. He said the rezoning amount was a slight decrease from the previous year. Each year the loss of agricultural land through rezoning is measured. He said 2009 was the first year in the previous ten there was a net increase in agricultural land. In 2008 there was a 6.57% net increase in acreage of agricultural land.
Newton said 35 subdivisions were approved for platting in 2009. He said 20 of the subdivisions were approved for farmstead splits. Of the non-farmstead split subdivisions there were a total of 67 buildable lots and 13 outlots that covered 309.37 acres. Farmstead splits covered 113.1 acres with an average acreage of 5.65 acres. This is a decrease from 2007, mostly because the maximum acreage for farmstead splits now is five acres. There has been a decrease in vacancy rate and it the lowest it has been in ten years. Vacancy rate is measured by dividing the total buildable lots in the County by vacant buildable lots. The vacancy rate is about 25%. There were 44.57 acres annexed from the county. There is a potential 179 acre annexation that needs approval of the State. There were nine variance applications submitted and four were approved.
Newton said there were 14 conditional use applications and all were approved. There were 16 applications for boundary line adjustments and all were approved. He said three site plan review applications were viewed, two of which were approved and one was withdrawn. In 2008, the Land Use Plan was updated and adopted by the Board of Supervisors. A Frytown Village Plan was created by University of Iowa students and was approved by the Board of Supervisors. The Building Inspection Division received FEMA flood assessment software during and after the flood. Commercial Building Inspection Certification was completed by Arsate and Building Inspector Neil Bombei. He said a many people from Planning and Zoning attended a variety of conferences and performed professional activities. Newton said Assistant Planner Josh Busard is currently working on a Sustainability Plan, which aims to accomplish a 10% reduction in green house gasses by 2010 and an 80% reduction by 2050. Newton looked at the public hunting areas in the county because of the change of statue. He also defined and mapped those regions. For 2009, they are working on a Sutliff Village Plan. He said they are looking at new ordinances, including a downcast lighting ordinance and possible buffering around public hunting grounds. He said Arsate is going to become further certified as a Certified Aging in Place Specialist. Arsate said he took the courses already and is now waiting for the application for the certification.
Newton said Planning and Zoning is going to continue to work toward a metro fringe area agreement with the municipalities within Johnson County. The phasing and structure of the North Corridor will continue to be discussed. They will continue to work on the Green House Gas Reduction Plan. Newton said Busard is also serving on a JCCOG committee concerning green house gas reduction. He said Busard is working on getting two conservation projects LEED certified. This should lead to a savings of $40,000 in architecture fees with Busard working on the project.
Neuzil asked if there was anything out of ordinary of interest to the Board. Newton said, as Sullivan noted, the decrease in single family home value and total value of homes. He said there has been a slowdown as far as building in general. Neuzil said it is interesting to look at the statistics. The one he found of interest was buildable lots going from 29% to 25%. At some point the Board will want to know from Planning and Zoning what a realistic number is for buildable lots before more are added.
SEATS Director Tome Brase said Johnson County SEATS Paratransit Service continues to fill and meet the growing needs of the community. Johnson County SEATS works to provide services throughout all of Johnson County by providing the general population and rural areas rides and by providing 88 paratransit services in cities wherever fixed routes are provided. SEATS's mission statement is "to provide independent living by providing transportation service for people throughout Johnson County, which promotes and enhances the quality of life for people in Johnson County." The department is 12, SEATS Paratransit. The organizational chart has stayed consistent.
Brase said there is one new person, Supervisor Nick Weime who oversees dispatching, reports, and invoicing. He said the department still has Confidential Secretary Angie Conard and Operations Supervisor Kathy Davis who oversee drivers, maintenance, and daily operations. SEATS continues to monitor measurable goals monthly, such as trips per hour, costs per hour, costs per mile, cost per trip, fuel cost, maintenance cost per vehicle miles, revenue miles, deadhead miles, denials, no shows, cancels, and others, all to meet the regulated requirements. The new SEATS facility is completed and is saving taxpayers $90,000 a year in rent. The building has a geothermal heating system, which will save money on utilities. He said the building is very efficient and green. Stutsman asked if the $90,000 in rent included utilities. Brase said it did include utilities. He said in 2008 they paid $92,000.
Brase said they got their first water bill and it was $15 for SEATS share. SEATS provided 99,605 trips in FY08 and 103,411 trips, if meal delivery in Solon and Lone Tree were included. The breakdown of the fiscal year trips provided is: Coralville had 10,800, Iowa City had 73,500, and Pathways is growing and had 12,355. The rural trips are shrinking; in FY07 the number of trips was 4,111, FY06 it was 6,000 plus and in FY08 it was 2,800. Meyers asked Brase if he had any theories on why there is such a decrease. Brase said he thinks it is the timing and the accessibility. He said SEATS has worked on educating the different areas on the services available. Lone Tree’s use has increased slightly, but Solon has dropped off a lot. Quite a few trips were associated with the meal sites, which also is a factor. He said SEATS provides trips three days a week in different areas in the rural area and there are time conflicts. Harney asked if the trips are based on point of origin. Brase said not all of them. He said University Heights, Rural and Pathways is from or to that point to count as a trip. He said Iowa City and Coralville are point of origin trips.
Brase said SEATS expenses were $1.7 million in FY08. Revenue hours were 35,000 and revenue miles was 414,500. The cost per revenue hour was $48.69, which is down from FY05, which was $55.00. Cost per revenue mile was $4.10, which is down from $4.72. He said, compared to performance ten years ago, per year 37,000 more trips are provided. The missed rides have doubled and they are working on that issue. A factor of the missed rides issue is the absence of the billing supervisor, who ran missed ride reports and worked with the sub-committee on missed rides. Cancelled trips are pretty close for ten years on the number of different trips. Brase said the last five years has been zero for denied trips within the ADA services. He said 74% of the trips provided are paratransit trips for Iowa City. Rural has dropped to 3% and part of that might be because of the Pathways increase. He said they are now paying for the trip through Pathways and the number of those trips has increased. Coralville has stayed steady at about 10% to 11% of the trips provided.
Brase said the new garage facility has the wash bay up and going. SEATS has received two vehicles in the week beginning on February 15, 2009, for ECICOG. He said ECICOG is replacing the minivan. He said the new SEATS vehicles will have wheelchair accessibility, which is a big plus. He said the vehicles are not as big as the usual vehicles and will be more fuel efficient. They will be more dependable and will help on the maintenance cost because of the better suspension system. Brase said the vehicles will have a nice image, will be safer, the wheelchair securing units will be easier and quicker, and the air conditioning will be more efficient.
Brase said quarterly Labor Management Committee meetings are going very smoothly. Customer service and other quarterly training session with the staff are going well. There is a training session Thursday, February 26, 2009, from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. covering blood-born pathogens, and changes with the new facility. Brase said SEATS will promote and encourage intergovernmental collaboration and cooperation. Currently SEATS is in the first year of a five year contract with Coralville and a first year of a five year contract with Iowa City. Brase said North Liberty is included in the contract with Coralville. He said they are in the process of renegotiating with University Heights, which is done annually. Solon, Lone Tree, ECICOG, and Pathways are also renegotiated annually. Brase said for FY09 the subsidies went above the normal amount and he is working on bring it back down. Neuzil asked if the increase was because of the rent paid that got bumped up towards the end. Brase said yes, and because of fuel and maintenance increases.
Brase said he set up a grocery run at Capitol House for riders who aren't eligible with the City ride on Saturday. He said the turnout was close to 20 people. He said presentations are given each year in Solon and Lone Tree. Rider surveys were completed and posted on the website. The responses from the surveys were very favorable and there were good comments, some issues were brought up that are now being addressed. He said SEATS got an earmarked grant for $123,000 worth of maintenance equipment. The revenues from the past ten years have exceeded expenditures. In the last ten years expenditures have grown by 4.56% and revenue has increased by 6.11%. He said, according to the breakdown of the budget from the past five fiscal years, 80% of the budget is used for labor and benefits. He said that figure is starting to change. Fuel has gone from 4.7% of expenditures to almost 9%. Maintenance in 2008 jumped $20 from $55 per labor hour to $75 per labor hour. Meyers said that should improve in the next year. Brase said yes, and he will track that with the mechanic.
Brase said a software system upgrade has been promised to be done by May. Service Support Specialist Fred Brown is working with Network Administrator Bill Horning at IT and to give SEATS a Route maps upgrade from 3.1 to 4.1. He said the upgrade will help with scheduling and efficiency. The cost savings with the mechanic position will be monitored closely and results will be reported to the Board. Brase said he is also working on transit planning strategies with JCCOG and ECICOG. He said the SEATS training programs will continue to be worked on and upgraded. Service efficiencies and contract negotiations will be monitored and worked on. A current project is rural ridership and fares, which includes an increase in the ridership and possibly the fare. Future goals are to find grants to utilize, keep expenditures below revenue increases, and to plan and develop ways to meet rising growth demands. Management has changed at Iowa City Transit and there has been an increase in eligible riders in Iowa City. Other goals include customer service and staff development. Neuzil said it would be helpful for the Board to see how rent savings are going to be utilized.
Brase said Johnson County Paratransit Advisory Committee provides a forum in which the consumers and elected representatives can voice their concerns, ideas, and propose solutions for improving the Johnson County SEATS Paratransit service. Terms are two years in length. Consumer committee members will serve no more than two, but elected officials will serve at the discretion of each representative body. He believes that Neuzil received an email from Coralville about the change. R. Sullivan said this was initiated by the City of Coralville. Brase said yes. Neuzil said they would put this on the formal agenda for a vote the week of March 1, 2009.
Neuzil asked Brase what is the current rate. Brase said the current rate is $1.50. Most county operations charge more for county, like LIFTS. According to the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) the County can only charge according to twice the fare and that is recommended. He said Iowa City and Coralville it will stay at $1.50. Rural routes have a wide variance between different counties and places. NTS will charge $5 a trip. Great River Bend charges $6.50, unless it is within their county, which is $3. Jones County charges $3 in county. Washington County minibus has a breakdown depending on how many miles, but the minimum in town is $2.50. Iowa County charges per mile. Benton County charges $8-$10. Everyone has increased a little bit, including the volunteer program in Solon. Stutsman said this is a bargain is at $2.
R. Sullivan said a $5 jump would be a huge blow to people and he thinks this an incremental step. He said they can monitor how the cost increase affects ridership. Brase said Solon and Lone Tree subsidize their trips. With the drop in the number of Solon trips, they shouldn’t have a change in the dollar amount. Lone Tree might have a slight increase. Neuzil said they can put this on the agenda for formal approval and asked if Brase wanted the Paratranist Advisory Committee review it first. Brase said the Paratranist Advisory Committee is set up for the Iowa City area, not the rural part of the county. Sullivan asked when this increase would go into effect. Brase said he has negotiations with the contracts, so it wouldn’t be until July 1, 2009, if it is approved by the Board. Claiborne said this increase was part of the SEATS budget discussion. The Board said to base the SEATS budget on the $2. He said the SEATS budget currently reflects a $2 charge.
Neuzil said he and Harney attended the Conference Board meeting and were told the Iowa City Assessor is going to put a together a subcommittee to look into the revaluation process for the City of Iowa City residential properties. This is a project that would likely be over $1 million if a subcontractor was hired or if done in-house. He said the subcommittee would be established to evaluate the two options. Iowa City Assessor Denny Baldridge asked the County, the City, and the School District to have a representative to sit on that subcommittee. Neuzil volunteered at the meeting to sit on the subcommittee. The Board agreed it was fine. Neuzil said he would put it on for an official vote.
Meyers said he and Stutsman had a liaison meeting with Social Services Coordinator Amy Correia. He and R. Sullivan worked on the SEATS evaluation. He also attended a forum that was put on by the League of Women Voters where jail issues were discussed. Meyers said he had a liaison meeting with Medical Examiner Administrator Mike Hensch. He and Stutsman attended a JCCOG meeting that included a discussion on dividing the Federal stimulus money. He expressed his frustration with the large match being required for the County.
Sullivan said he had a joint meeting with the Board of Health that included discussion of air quality issues in Johnson County. He said he was appointed as JCCOG representative to a group to discuss local affordable housing and he attended a meeting. Sullivan said He and Stutsman would attend a Parking Committee meeting today, February 26, 2009. He attended a meeting about the Sutliff Village Plan. He participated in the Bowl for Kids Sake event.
Stutsman said Meyers went over their Decat meeting. Stutsman said she and Harney went to the Farm Bureau meeting. She attended an meeting regarding the evaluation form used for department heads. She also wanted to express the tremendous frustration on the part of the County at the JCCOG meeting. In the JCCOG area $3.6 million of stimulus money was available, of which Iowa City got $2.4 million for projects. She said the Iowa City Council stopped all compromise to make adjustments to the allocation of these dollars. She said Coralville and North Liberty also received full funding, but their projects were much smaller. The County only received 1/4 of the funding for projects. The University got half of what they asked for. Stutsman said another source of frustration was that Johnson County was the only one that had a local match for these funds.
Harney said he attended the 6th Judicial Department of Corrections Board of Directors meeting in Cedar Rapids. He and Neuzil attended the E911 Board of Directors meeting. Neuzil is now the Johnson County representative and was elected as chair. There is a public hearing on March 12, 2009. Harney said he also attended the Health Department meeting. He attended the Farm Bureau meeting. He said Tuesday February 16, 2009, he spent the day at Tate School presenting to the government classes. He attended the League of Women Voters forum.
Neuzil said he will be having a listening post March 2, 2009, at 7:30 a.m. at the Riverside Bruegger's. He said the budget public hearing will be held on March 2, 2009, at 5:30 p.m. He said there will be a special Board Meeting on March 3, 2009 at 9 a.m.
Adjourned at 10:58 a.m.
______________________________________________________________________
Attest: Tom Slockett, Auditor
By:
On the _______ day of _____________________, 2009
By Nancy Tomkovicz, Recording Secretary
Sent to the Board of Supervisors on August 31, 2009.