MINUTES OF THE INFORMAL MEETING OF THE JOHNSON COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS:
SEPTEMBER 16, 2009
Chairperson Neuzil called the Johnson County Board of Supervisors to order in the Johnson County Health and Human Services Building at 9:04 a.m. Members present were: Pat Harney, Terrence Neuzil, and Rod Sullivan; absent: Larry Meyers and Sally Stutsman
Neuzil said he thinks the Board should continue to have these meetings so they stay on top of the things they need to do. Executive Assistant Andy Johnson said he thinks the mission and goals should be displayed at every meeting, although they probably won’t revisit them at every meeting. He amended the goals based on the discussion at the previous meeting. The four budget goals listed are those that were identified for this year at the previous meeting. The Board members also identified some specific actions that they would like taken.
Johnson said Budget Coordinator Rich Claiborne has sent out budget information and asked department heads how they would cut 2% from their budgets if necessary. Johnson thanked them for that question and said he is trying to figure that out himself. Neuzil said he thought it would be easy for Johnson. Johnson said it amounts to about $11,000 of the Board of Supervisors budget.
Neuzil asked whether or not Johnson is counting employees. Johnson said he was unsure whether the Board members were referring to 2% of non-personnel expenses or 2% of the whole budget. Neuzil said that is a good question, and they probably should have discussed that at their last meeting. He was assuming personnel was not going to be a part of it. Sullivan said it would be good to know if someone would cut 2% by eliminating a specific, part-time position. Neuzil said although it’s already done now, it would have been good to word the question by saying that employees could be eligible for that. He agreed with Sullivan that they would want to know that information. Neuzil said some departments may not be able to cut the money without eliminating an employee. Claiborne said unless there is no travel and no education. Neuzil agreed and said it would be ludicrous for the Supervisors not to even be able to attend the Iowa State Association of Counties (ISAC). Harney said that may be what has to go though.
Claiborne said no one has asked him whether or not the budget cut includes personnel. In the Board's budget about $800 to $900 has to be cut, and it is pretty easy to do. Neuzil said the State of Iowa has asked its departments to provide information regarding how they would make a 10% decrease in their budgets. He is assuming they are looking at operations and may have to factor in employees. That is usually the case. Johnson asked how Claiborne should respond if he is asked about whether or not to include personnel. Claiborne said to include personnel. Sullivan said he would like to know if that is what department heads would do, and there are a couple of departments that might cut part-time people if necessary. That would be a good thing for the Board members to know. Johnson said job sharing is one thing that has been discussed and maybe that would be a way to cut the money. Neuzil said the question is whether they are asking departments like theirs to cut $11,000 or $900, with the 2% decrease. Harney said the County Treasurer and the County Recorder have minimal budgets and will almost have to cut personnel because there is nothing else to cut. Neuzil said he doesn’t have a problem with saying they are going to have to cut personnel. Sullivan said he thinks it is good information for the Board to have. He thinks they should say it is 2% period, including personnel.
Harney asked why they are asking the question regarding a 2% cut. He thinks they are in good shape in terms of budget, and they are doing alright as far as employees. Sullivan said he does not think it is a bad exercise to consider the worst case scenario. He said to imagine if the stimulus money is gone next year, and the State decides they have to cut funding to local governments by 25%. It could happen. Neuzil said he thinks it is a good exercise because they do not have to fund everyone like they always have. They can go to departments and say they will not receive the amount of money they received last year because there are higher priorities. An example would be if the Board decided the Sheriff’s Office needs to have four new employees. He asked if they should cut from somewhere else to pay for those four new employees. As policy makers, he thinks they may need to change the way they’ve always done it, which was for everyone to get a 1% to 2% increase.
Neuzil said he is uncomfortable with telling a department that they need to cut $11,000. He thinks it would be a monumental task and is unrealistic. Sullivan said it won’t hurt to go through the exercise. They may see someone’s plan for a 2% budget cut and decide they should have done it a long time ago. Neuzil said he was just thinking of a department with a $2 million budget. He asked what 2% of $2 million is. Sullivan said it is $14,000. He is sure Human Resources will say they would have to eliminate their part-time positions. Claiborne said Veteran Affairs Director Leo Baier has a $90,000 budget. Neuzil said that is his point; is it realistic or not. Neuzil said Harney’s point is that they may not actually do any of these things anyway. Harney said he does not mind doing an exercise sometimes, but he doesn’t like busy work. Neuzil asked if they want department heads to go through all of this or not. He is talking about whether or not to include personnel because there is a big difference between trying to cut $900 and trying to cut $11,000. He is curious how each department head or elected official will handle it, however. One of them may say they will take out something that is mandated and leave it for the Board to deal with. Sullivan said it would be good to ask Johnson and Claiborne how long the process took and how agonizing it was because they do not want people to spend 20 hours on this exercise. Neuzil asked Johnson how long it would take him to do something like this. He supposes Johnson would look at a little bit of everything. Johnson said he has just started to look at it, but it would involve taking out almost everything and figuring out some staffing changes. He thinks it would have to affect staffing. Sullivan said a part-time secretary or something. Johnson said right or sharing himself, Claiborne, or Board of Supervisor’s Secretary Jo Hogarty with another department.
Johnson said they will just see if questions come up. Neuzil said the question is probably being seen as 2% overall. Sullivan said they know there are not many things other than staffing for the Board of Supervisors and Human Resources to spend money on. However, it would be interesting to see if County Engineer Greg Parker, for example, thinks Secondary Roads needs equipment worse than people. Harney said maybe they should look at each total budget rather than asking them to plan a flat 2% cut. They could say a department should make a plan for cutting 1%, 2%, or 3%. 1% of the Board of Supervisors budget is pretty large compared to 2% or 3% of the Auditor’s Office budget, for example. Sullivan said he thinks this exercise will give them some of that information. Neuzil said the idea is to not do an across the board cut. The idea is to find areas that can potentially be cut first. He wishes they had identified all of the areas that are non-mandated because he thinks those should be cut first. Sullivan said that is still on the list. Johnson said he is getting to that.
Johnson said the Board members had wanted a list of funded but unfilled positions, and Claiborne put one together. Johnson clarified that the list is current and not for the last fiscal year. Sullivan asked why some of the positions listed have an annual salary listed and some of them do not. Claiborne said it is because some of them are paid hourly. Neuzil asked if they are all funded. Claiborne said yes. Neuzil asked if departments keep these positions to make sure they do not run out of money. He does not blame some people for doing so. County Treasurer Tom Kriz, for example, would technically lose a deputy if he did not do so. Claiborne said Kriz would then have to do a decision package and go through the whole process of trying to get a new employee when he needs it. Harney said he thinks County Recorder Kim Painter has also kept an open position. Neuzil restated that he does not blame them for doing so, but it is taxing for something that is not being used. Sullivan said both of those offices have returned fairly substantial amounts of money at the end of the year. It would be a concern if they were balancing exactly even despite including the positions.
Neuzil asked if Kriz and Painter could take money out of that personnel line item at the end of the year and use it for operations. Claiborne said they could, but they haven’t. They return it to reserves. Neuzil clarified that even though the positions are funded, they are returning the money each year rather than spending it. Sullivan said they are returning more than that amount of money. He is saying there would be an issue if they are returning less than that. Neuzil asked if there is anyone who is funding a position and then spending those dollars. Sullivan said Mental Health/Disability Services used to do so. Claiborne said everyone had at least a month, or 8%, left over at the wrap up of the budget. Neuzil asked if Claiborne understands what he is asking. Claiborne said yes. Neuzil asked about the Conservation Department. Claiborne said he thinks the Conservation Department came within $10 of spending their entire budget. Neuzil said right, but they do not have a lot of money out of there. Harney said they transfer a lot to their trust fund. It’s not really fair to other departments when they do that, but it’s legal. Neuzil asked if they are the only department that does it.
Sullivan said the list indicates the situation is better than he thought, and he thinks it is better than it was four or five years ago. Neuzil agreed. He asked if Medical Examiner Administrator Mike Hensch funds a social worker position but hasn’t hired anyone for it. Claiborne said yes, and he thinks Hensch is looking at contracting for that service, but he hasn’t heard anything back. Neuzil said he will talk to Hensch about it. Harney said Hensch just hired someone and thought that person was going to do part of the work for this other position. Neuzil said Hensch wanted someone to help with the human service side of things. Claiborne said Hensch previously mentioned wanting a graduate student or a doctor to work part-time with grieving families.
Harney said another potential impact on the budget is the handling of the employee study of job descriptions and pay. He thinks there could be some substantial decreases for some of those. Neuzil said that may come up later as one of the unknowns that should be considered for the upcoming budget. Johnson said he thinks those are the factors under the build up reserves item. Sullivan said it should probably be added there. Johnson said okay.
Johnson said he is looking for more direction on the mandated versus non-mandated issue. He said Claiborne gave him a report that was done in 2002, which lists each department, where their revenue comes from, what their budget was, how much revenue they had, what was mandated, and possible options. He thinks this is something they can do, and he suggests gathering the information as they meet with each department during the budget process. He thinks it makes sense to list mandated offices, non-mandated internal services, external County services, and non-mandated block grants. He thinks they could fairly easily list the budget, revenue generated, and amount of subsidy from the County. Claiborne already has that information in a spreadsheet, although it is not broken out by mandated and non-mandated. Johnson can do that, however. Johnson said he started it but decided he wants more direction from the Board.
Sullivan said he thinks it is good to have the information, and it has basically been done. He asked Johnson to look through it and make sure there is nothing that has changed dramatically. It seems to give them the information they are looking for. Neuzil said they didn’t get all of the departments to complete the task. They were trying to get each department to create its own strategic plan, to identify areas of mandated versus non-mandated, to identify specific measurable goals, and to weigh those goals. However, not everyone gave their full effort.
Neuzil said as a policy maker, it is difficult to give away $1.5 million after asking departments to make cuts to save money. It is hard for him to justify telling a department head that a desired level of service cannot be provided for a mandated service when they have just given away $1.5 million. Claiborne mentioned the libraries, although they are funded from Rural Basic. Neuzil said the libraries are a part of the $1.5 million. Claiborne said there are roads that could be repaired. Neuzil said they cut every bit of money out of the Level B Road money to cut taxes, yet they made sure they spent eight times the mandated amount on rural libraries. Now there is going to be a discussion about a Level B road on September 17, 2009. He said their priority is obviously libraries over Level B roads.
Sullivan said he wasn’t around when this issue was last discussed, but he has the impression that the Board was responding to what they perceived as public sentiment at that time. Neuzil said no one wanted to change anything when they renegotiated the library contracts. Harney said he thinks times have changed. Sullivan said he would want to find out what the public thinks before he would make a big change. Neuzil said they would have to do it in phases. He is just saying that the County is basically in a contract that says the libraries are reimbursed for whatever amount of service they provide to rural residents. Harney said he is not saying they should not fund the libraries, but the cut to Secondary Roads is an issue for them. Neuzil said they weighed that versus tax decreases, and they cut the rural tax. He asked if they took a half million dollars out of that. Sullivan and Claiborne agreed.
Sullivan addressed the issue of mandated versus non-mandated services and said they have to have a Conservation Department, but that does not mean they have to fund a certain level of conservation. There is huge flexibility within that mandate, and they could easily say they have to cut back. He said the Auditor’s Office, for example, is mandated to hold elections, but they spend a lot more money on an election than a lot of other counties do. The Board could easily say the Auditor’s Office will have only a specific amount of money to do an election. Sullivan thinks the Board has to be careful with mandates because there may be room to save within those mandated areas.
Neuzil said it is hard for him to make significant cuts unless there is a significant goal they are trying to reach. Otherwise, they will just do what they always do, which is to keep the departments at 0% of their non-personnel expenses or bump it up 1% to 2%. That is pretty much what the Board has done over the last 15 years. Sullivan said they have goals, and maybe that’s fine as long as they are meeting them.
Claiborne said he could provide the Board with the subsidies and levy amounts for each department on the second list handed out. They are all from the General Basic Fund. For Ambulance, they are taxing $1,345,283; that is $.26 of the $3.50. Sullivan asked if that is the overall or just the subsidy. Claiborne said this is the predicted budget and what was taxed for, although a lot more money is always returned. For the Board of Supervisors, the cost they are taxing for is $648,417, which is roughly $.125. For the Conservation Department, it is $1,329,913, which is just short of $.26. For Public Health, it is $1,515,803, which is $.29. Johnson said they could easily go through and do that for every department.
Neuzil said the other thing that was very helpful in their early strategic planning process was conducting an online survey to identify priorities from the community’s perspective. It was calculated and broken down into levels such as public safety, environment, etc. It was kind of interesting to see the results. Public safety blew everything else out of the water. He has that information if anyone would like to see it. Claiborne said it would be interesting to add the justice center to see what the community thinks of it. Neuzil said they have not said, up to this point, that they are funding the justice center out of the General Fund. That is different from the Board of Supervisors of 1998, who started saving for and applied a particular amount of money along with the bond. That was the money used to start to pay for the ground for the Health and Human Services (HHS) Building.
Sullivan said they had their first meeting of the Criminal Justice Coordinating Committee (CJCC) Funding/Grants Subcommittee yesterday, and one of the things discussed was taking all of the options out of the picture. Whether they are talking about the Press Citizen, houses, University land, or even studies; there is money the Board would possibly need to expend with fairly short notice, and they don’t have it right now. Right now they have two things available: $1 million they hoped to put toward the HHS Building and the $1.2 million they get without bonding. Claiborne said there is a $3 million Capital Projects Fund, but the Board would have to decide if they are going to put off the Ambulance building for the Justice Center. Sullivan said that is their operating reserve too. The subcommittee was unanimous that the best way to do anything there was to try to budget between $2 million and $3 million to sit in Capital Projects. The County would be able to put money down on something for the Justice Center, but it can be used to build up reserves if it is not needed. Then, they would not run into the issue of not having the ability to buy something that they need. That is the recommendation from that subcommittee. Sullivan said Kriz said that flexibility is what is needed, and the only way to get ultimate flexibility is to budget it and put it in there.
Neuzil said he will have to give it more thought, but it does at least keep with the goal of building a reserve. However, their first goal is to pay off the HHS building debt. He asked Johnson if that is on the agenda for September 17, 2009 or if it is on the agenda for next week’s meeting. Johnson said it will be on next week’s agenda. Neuzil said it would be to take the million dollars sitting out there and apply it to the HHS building debt. Claiborne said that would leave $1 million on a bank note to be paid off in FY10. The only thing left would be the bond that was used to pay for the skywalk and the parking ramp. Sullivan said Claiborne, Kriz, and County Auditor Tom Slockett all want to pay the debt. Neuzil said yes, they are losing interest right now. Building up reserves and keeping tax increases is kind of a tough call unless they’re back to the question of whether or not they want to cut back to reach that goal. Sullivan said one possible advantage is that the Assessors are talking about a better outlook than there was six months ago. If that’s the case, the County may be able to build up a little reserve without an increase.
Johnson asked what the Board would like to see as far as the mandated versus non-mandated services. Neuzil said they need to determine what their obligations are within the non-mandated areas. In other words, there are certain contracts, such as with the libraries, Iowa City Area Development Group (ICAD), and historical societies. He thinks it would be helpful to identify what obligations they have. Harney said he thinks he knows they approved funding for the Coralville Center for the Performing Arts and have a three or five year obligation on that. Sullivan said they agreed to fund the Sand Lake Project, but they’re not moving forward on it. Claiborne said they removed that from the budget. Harney said they still agreed to do it, but they just moved it back. Claiborne said right, they are not taxing for it. Harney said they just don’t want to forget that it may come up again.
Sullivan said one issue discussed in the past has been their tendency to lose track of Community Attraction and Tourism (CAT) grants over time. It would be nice to get a good handle on those. Neuzil said that is number three. Johnson said it will be on the Key Issues agenda. Neuzil said to assign it to the Economic Development/Quality of Life Committee, and let them be the filter for those. Sullivan said okay and asked if the Committee would need to be reconstituted. Neuzil said there are people on the Committee. They would just have to get the group together. Johnson said his chart indicates that Stutsman and Harney are on the Committee, but he does not know that there are other assigned members. Johnson asked if they want to focus on economic development and social services block grants. Sullivan said Social Services Coordinator Amy Correia provides a recommendation and tracking for the social services block grants. It’s the others they forget about. Neuzil said there are obligations within the social services block grants, and he wants to know what is mandated within them. Johnson said okay. Sullivan said some of the Free Medical Clinic services are actually a mandate. Neuzil said it would be nice to know which things are mandated and which things are not. Johnson said okay. Harney said the Public Health Department has a pretty large budget, and there are a lot of non-mandated services there too. Neuzil agreed. Sullivan said it is very valuable information to have, although it hopefully won’t matter if they can meet their goals without cutting into those services.
Neuzil asked if the Board wants to add deputies and another ambulance response team. He asked if those things should be added to the budget goals and when it would take place. Sullivan said they may need to look at three different things rather than just budget goals. There may be an overall budget goal, spending priorities, and savings priorities. Sullivan gave a hypothetical example of his family having an overall budget goal of saving $5,000 over the next year with another goal of spending $2,000 of that money on a new patio. Neuzil said he sees what Sullivan is saying. Harney said he thinks a lot of it involves sitting down with department heads and elected officials and asking them if they really need the extra team or if it would just be nice to have. Sullivan said he thinks there would have to be an agreement with the Sheriff to ensure the funding is used to serve the purpose intended by the Board. Harney asked if some of the internal functions really need to be done by deputies or if they could be completed by civilians. Neuzil said they should also consider whether every sergeant needs to be replaced with another sergeant. Harney said he doesn’t know if more people are going to be needed in the reception area or if the booking people are going to be able to handle everything on the off hours.
Neuzil said what they are talking about is whether or not they should have a subset of potential, additional priorities in addition to their budget goals. In particular, they are talking about a potential increase in deputies and an increase in Ambulance employees. Sullivan said one of the concerns about adding any positions is that they would probably become indefinite so they would want to be pretty sure of their decision. It is worth noting that the County will probably end up having 25,000 more people in 2010 than they had in 2000. Neuzil added that the issues also seem to be more complex than they have ever been in this community, although he is not sure if that is true or not. If he looked at his budget goals as one policy maker, there are a few things that he would like to see the Board increase and make them a priority. That is two of them, and they are probably the only two he is thinking about right now. Sullivan agreed.
Harney said he would like to have a structural assignment sheet from each department before making the decision regarding extra positions. He wants to know where the Sheriff has his people assigned, and who are sworn deputies and who are not sworn deputies. Harney said he would want the same thing from any of the departments and to ask if there can be some adjustments in addition to adding one or two employees. Sullivan said he does not think that is a bad thing to ask for, although he knows the Sheriff disagrees with Harney about it. Sullivan said he doesn’t know enough details about it, but it would be nice to know what the cost difference is so they could weigh whether or not the cost is worth it.
Neuzil asked if the Board wants to have a subset of goals. They can’t add personnel to the Ambulance and to the Sheriff’s Department and increase roads if their second most important goal is to keep taxes at a minimum or to build up reserves. He said the real question is if they should cut somewhere else to pay for those. Sullivan said a lot of it depends on what happens with assessed values. Neuzil said he is asking if, for example, they would cut block grants by 5% to help pay for additional employees for Ambulance. Another example would be a goal of cutting back on rural library services by 10% over the next 3 years and adding the money into roads. He thinks those are the tougher decisions to make as policy makers. Harney said there is a larger picture and the whole picture has to be considered when employees are added. He mentioned the additional costs of benefits, equipment, and vehicles. It is not just the basic wage. Neuzil asked if they would have that information in the decision packets.
Johnson said a stated goal that may be implied and assumed could be to ensure a proper level of service with these priorities listed under that. Sullivan said that is a good point. He said they don’t often discuss acceptable wait times, whether it involves waiting in a line or waiting for a piece of paperwork to be returned. Neuzil said it brings up the point of whether they should talk about level of service rather than mandated versus non-mandated services. Claiborne said that could be #2. He mentioned response time for Ambulance and Sheriff. Harney said it could involve reprioritizing where they are putting money. Neuzil said that is the whole idea and asked if they are ready to stop doing what they have always done. That has been to give everyone a 0%, 1%, or 2% increase for their non-personnel items and a 2% to 3.5% increase for their personnel. That is what the Board has been doing forever, and he thinks there is an expectation that they need to start thinking about doing things differently.
Sullivan said they have to try to measure things that are very difficult to measure in some cases. He asked if a clerk in the Recorder’s Office is more or less important than a Patrol Deputy or money that goes to Shelter House. To some extent, the Board is asked to balance all of those things against each other. Neuzil agreed and said a Recorder is going to fight for their positions. Sullivan agreed and said each one has a constituency. Harney said that again brings up the argument that the population is increasing and there is a greater demand for services. Sullivan agreed. Neuzil said he thinks not adding any more employees is a lofty goal when there is growth of approximately 5.5%. Claiborne said it is roughly 5%. Neuzil said it comes down to about 1% or 2% when the TIF and rollback are factored in. Harney said he was surprised to learn that rural Johnson County is the second largest in terms of population. Neuzil said he wonders if the proper level of service needs to somehow be calculated in the equation.
Johnson asked if he should add it as a goal. Neuzil said it is a tough, measurable goal. Johnson agreed, but said he thinks they are getting at it with priorities including deputies, Ambulance, and roads. Those are essential County services. Neuzil said he is trying to determine whether or not it should be added to the budget goals. He thinks public safety, public response, and roads are an expectation. Sullivan said he thinks it should be listed as a goal for #3, or it should be #2 and the current #2 should become #3. Neuzil asked if they would have cut the roads budget out of all of the level B funding if they had that as a goal last year. Harney said he doesn’t remember doing that. Neuzil said they did that to cut taxes. Harney said he thought it was the extra money they had put in, and it wasn’t necessarily cutting everything out. Neuzil said they basically gave all the money they had to Parker to replace everything Secondary Roads lost, and then they didn’t fund the extra $200,000. Sullivan said they had put $200,000 in the two previous years with the idea that the most necessary level B roads were going to be upgraded to gravel, and the most heavily traveled gravel roads would also be upgraded. Harney said that was that $300,000. Sullivan agreed that it was that money and said he thinks it was $200,000 per year for 2 years. The Board told Parker to use it to replace the money Secondary Roads lost. Harney said the Board also took away the interest from the Mehaffey Bridge Road Fund from the Reservoir Funds that Parker used to use to buy gravel. He didn’t have that last year. Neuzil said they gave him $400,000 extra though. Sullivan said they put that money toward the replacement of the Mehaffey Bridge though. Harney said it caused a decrease in the amount of money Parker had to purchase gravel.
Neuzil asked if the previously mentioned three items are priorities in terms of budget goals. He said he thinks they are for at least three Supervisors. Harney said they are his priorities. Sullivan agreed and said the items come from two different budgets. He said his number one rural priority may be giving Parker a little more money to build up some reserve. Neuzil said it seems like every time they try to do that, the Rural Fund shows a huge increase, and that is a problem. Sullivan said he thinks they will have to have Claiborne figure out the numbers. He remembers they previously arrived at the amount of $200,000 after Claiborne advised them regarding the numbers. Neuzil said he thinks there will be a tax increase if there is an expectation that funding for roads will be increased. Claiborne said rather than presenting information regarding the minimum transfer from Rural Basic to Secondary Roads as he has done in the past, he plans to present the maximum this year and allow the Board to decide whether or not they want to pare it back. The past practice has always been to introduce the minimum transfer, but the reserves have been significantly reduced by the flood so he is going to take the opposite approach.
Neuzil said it is frustrating because rural residents had the opportunity to vote for a tax decrease and have the roads upgraded, and they said no thank you. Harney said he doesn’t think the voters understood it. Neuzil said he thinks uninformed voters should get informed. This is one of the smartest counties in the United States. He said voters probably saw a tax increase and didn’t realize it was for the roads and that it also involved a tax decrease. He said it is stupidity, unless they just wanted their taxes to go up and their roads not to be fixed. Claiborne said he thinks the billboards influenced people, and it would have passed if people had understood what was happening. Neuzil restated that it is frustrating to be discussing the issue again. He has to wonder if rural residents want road upgrades and tax decreases because they overwhelmingly said no. The rural side was the biggest vote of all. Harney said it was never put to them that way. Neuzil said he said it ten different times, and it was in numerous newspaper articles. Sullivan said the Farm Bureau recognized and advocated it. Harney said it is a question of how to get the message out. Neuzil said he thinks it needs to be part of the equation in considering whether or not to put emphasis on emergency response times for the Sheriff and Ambulance while ensuring they are able to fund the projects laid out for next year in the Five Year Road Plan.
Neuzil said the Secondary Roads budget may be better structured by asking Parker how much money he needs for next year. Neuzil said they don’t want to pad his budget, if he’s not going to fix roads that the Board members put down. Claiborne said taking a portion of the Sheriff’s budget out of the Rural Fund is a possibility. Story County does it, and the Johnson County Board of Supervisors talked about doing it many years ago. It is very political and touchy, but it is something that could be discussed if they are interested. Neuzil said that would take money out of the Rural Fund, which is for roads. It should almost be the other way around; can they take anything out of the General Fund and put it in the Rural Fund.
Claiborne said from years past, he remembers County Sheriff Lonny Pulkrabek being concerned about having only two deputies on duty for the entire County. If there is a domestic call and both deputies have to be at that location, there may be a half hour wait before they can make it to a car accident at the other side of the County. Sullivan said it is interesting because they have only heard from rural people who do not want it because it will raise their taxes. However, he knows there is at least a small, growing group in Solon that is saying they pay twice for deputies. If they live in the City of Solon, they are paying for a contract with Johnson County and paying out of the General Basic Fund. Sullivan said he can see their argument. However, he does not see the Board doing much about it until that group becomes louder than the group saying no. Neuzil said they obviously must be doing a pretty good job. Harney said if a community like that wants two deputies, the Board could say the community must pay the two deputies, and then they wouldn’t have to be taxed for them. Sullivan said yes, if they just paid for them. However, he thinks the problem the Sheriff has with that is that he wants to be able to pull the deputies out of that town if something happens. Harney said exactly. The troopers assign a trooper to a small community.
Sullivan said he thinks Neuzil has an important point that the County hasn’t heard the amount of complaining that the cities and school district have heard. They must be doing some things right. Neuzil said there have only been two times he has seen an upheaval of people regarding budgeting. One time involved a cut to the Senior Center and the other involved a cut to Pathways. In both instances, they made drastic cuts without a phase.
Neuzil said it would be nice to decide if they are really going to start to take a look at libraries. He thinks they should consider freezing social services block grants for a number of years and continue letting Correia identify what their strengths are, what they should prioritize as policy makers, and how the money should be divided up. He thinks they should do the same thing with economic development and adding an element of rural economic development to the mix. He asked if they should start putting more of the economic development/quality of life money into more rural initiatives rather than using it to fund an Iowa City project. Those are the things that they can do in the off season. It’s unfortunate it’s not done now, but they can think about doing it for FY12. Those are some of the goals he hopes the Board is able to accomplish down the road. However, there are certainly obligations the Board has that they obviously can’t get out of right now.
Neuzil said the people from the libraries previously told them over and over again that the Board is getting a deal. He said that was the attitude and to keep it in mind. Sullivan said there are a lot of places across the country where libraries are actually County services because the tax is then put on everyone. Neuzil said there is usually an assigned library that provides minimal services, and the library charges people for a library card if they want to use the library. That is how it is done. Sullivan said there is usually some kind of fee. Neuzil said right, and that is not the case in this community. Harney said they used to have the card, but it was thrown out when there was a large demand for rural use. Claiborne mentioned that parking and admission to the Johnson County Fair is free. He said Scott County charges $10-12 plus parking. Neuzil said that is a decision of the Fair Board.
Neuzil said in his view, a goal for the Board at this point would be to hold the line on all of the non-mandated block grants. The Board did that last year. Claiborne said that is what they told everyone this year. Neuzil said some departments still have that extra employee as they start getting into budgets, and he does not want to do that with non-mandated services. He is not just picking on social services; he is talking about economic development/quality of life. As one person, he would like to hold that line for a while. Sullivan said he would like to hold that line for at least this year because it will be important to see what happens with the State when there is no stimulus money.
Harney said that brings up Secondary Roads, and Parker having to spend extra money this year to use the stimulus money on those projects and move some other projects back. In another year, it’s going to be a different story. Neuzil said he wants to know from Parker whether or not he is anticipating doing a particular road project that the Board has identified as a goal. He thinks back to the three years when they basically did no road projects, and Secondary Roads was still out of money. However, the Board funded it. Harney said that was because of the tornado and the floods. Neuzil said he is referring to Newport Road. Harney said that money went back. Sullivan said a lot of that money would have come from the State. Neuzil asked where the money to match those funds went. Sullivan said it is gone. Harney said yes, they were out the money for the design and some other things. Neuzil said he is talking about money to match funds the State has given for a project. He asked where 20% of $2 million went. Harney said he thinks it was used for other projects. Neuzil asked what other projects it was used for. Harney replied Derby and some of those projects. Neuzil said Derby has been on the list for three years and is just finally getting done. He asked what happened for the other years. He just wants to know from Parker whether or not the list given out for the Five Year Road Plan is realistic for next year. If it is not, he should tell the Board. Neuzil said he hates putting that list out in the community and telling people they are going to get their road fixed when it may not happen for a period of time. He said that two years ago for Highway 965. Sullivan said Highway 965 is almost done now, but it is a full year later than it was supposed to be done. Neuzil said two years. Harney said they did some road and bridge projects with that money. Neuzil said right.
Johnson said he will add ensuring appropriate level of essential services to the list. Sullivan said he likes Claiborne’s idea of fitting it in under #2 because he thinks they consider those together. Johnson said those items include deputies, Ambulance, roads, and measurables in regards to those services, including the Five Year Road Plan and response times. It also includes looking at the block grants and what is mandated either by law or by contract. It involves going forward and holding the line on those. Harney said that includes General Assistance and a lot of those programs. Johnson agreed and said the Public Health Department was also mentioned. Johnson said it will be his first time through the budget process, but he thinks the list can be expanded and changed as they meet with department heads. It will take a while, but they can update it.
Sullivan said another thing to ask department heads is whether or not they thought the 2% cut question was a good exercise or if they thought it took too much of their time. He would like a little feedback on it, although he still feels it is going to be valuable information. Claiborne said the only comment he received was from Veteran Affairs Director Leo Baier. He said it would be impossible to do a 2% cut, and he is going to give the Board an increase. Neuzil said not necessarily and asked what level of service Baier is providing. The Board can go through that budget too. Sullivan said he doesn’t necessarily disagree with Baier, but he does not like that attitude. He just wants him to do what they asked him to do. Claiborne said he will bounce it back to Baier when he receives it and tell him he has to do what the Board has asked of him. Neuzil said it probably means that Baier cannot meet a certain mandated requirement. Claiborne agreed. Sullivan said he would have to take a pay cut.
Johnson said they just have to clarify that the Board is not planning to make a 2% cut when there are questions. Neuzil said there is now direction that the question involves 2% overall, including personnel, in case someone asks. Johnson said the Board of Supervisors is also going to answer the same 2% cut question. Neuzil said yes. Claiborne said they have about $900 to cut. Johnson said no, they have $11,000 to cut. Neuzil asked what 2% of $500,000 is. Sullivan said it is $10,000. Claiborne said okay. Neuzil said to look at their personal training. They get about $3,600 for their personal training, and that is probably where he can plan to cut. Neuzil said Johnson could take it down to $800 per person.
Johnson said another identified strategy is making sure people are held accountable for using funds for what they were requested. Sullivan asked if Johnson is referring to the County’s own departments. Johnson replied yes. Sullivan said in terms of block grants, he thinks it will help to have the Economic Development Committee go over them. Neuzil said there are not many left, and he, Johnson, and Claiborne will get together before next week and go through that list to identify those that don’t have oversight. He will make sure Johnson and Claiborne know they are responsible for line items that do not have a committee providing oversight.
Neuzil asked if the Board wants to add the three subsets into the budget goals. He asked if they were emergency response and roads. Sullivan said the three Board members present had the three same priorities. Johnson said he was imagining putting the three priorities within #2 under keeping taxes minimal while ensuring the desired level of essential services. He asked if they want them as separate goals. Sullivan said he thinks they need to pull out the need for more deputies from #3 and make it #4, which are areas they see a need for increased spending. Neuzil agreed. Sullivan said it is not building up reserves. They are talking about three areas where they’ve seen a potential need to increase spending. Claiborne asked if Sullivan wants to work in his idea of spending and savings under budget goals. Sullivan said they would have it all in there, and his home budget example is just how he was visualizing it.
Recessed at 10:19 a.m.; reconvened at 10:20 a.m.
Neuzil said he just wanted to know how they want to add the three priorities into the list. He said they can figure that out, but he would like to see some thought about measures. He said the goal of building up reserves is really broad. He asked if the specific goal is to get at least $500,000 more in that reserve than they had in there this year. It would be nice to know what the goal is. Harney mentioned the savings in the long run if they can get a decent bond rating. Neuzil said a number of years ago they said they were going to put away $1 million for capital projects. Although they tinkered around a couple of hundred thousand here and there in 2002 and 2003, they said that was their goal and that has been their goal. He said the phase in makes things easier. The same thing applies here. Neuzil asked what the ultimate goal of the reserve is and if they should try to start with a goal in mind of $500,000. Sullivan said he can answer that. He thinks Kriz said the minimum amount the bond rating agencies would like to see them have is $6 million. Neuzil asked if they are currently at $2.5 million or $3 million. Claiborne said about that. Sullivan said the Finance Committee was talking about trying to add $2 million or $3 million this year. Neuzil said if that is the case, his guess is that there will be cuts. Sullivan said it depends on the valuations. Harney said they still need to have money there for the justice center issue.
Harney said Jail facility is written down, but he thinks the goal should be listed as justice center, although the jail facility is a big part of it. Neuzil said yes, it should say justice center. Johnson said okay. Neuzil said it would be nice to know what is measureable regarding the reserves for the next meeting. He asked if the Board is interested in the Ambulance Building at all, and he said it is money that would be a bond issue. It would be Debt Service; but it would have an impact on #2. That is an unknown, meaning direction is needed from the Board if they are interested in that as a possibility for next year’s budget. Claiborne said the Ambulance Building is actually part of the FY10 budget. It is part of the $3 million he talks about. However, if they find property for the justice center, it is the Board’s decision whether or not they want to continue with the Ambulance Building in the FY10 budget or pare back and buy the property for the justice center.
Neuzil said he is figuring that any additional infrastructure would come out of Debt Service at this point. He said Ambulance Director Steve Spenler is essentially thinking about two separate projects. It would involve an office facility, an ambulance bay, and potentially storage. That is similar to how the Conservation Department was restructured. Neuzil said that is around $2.4 million. He said it is an unknown they need to be asked pretty soon. Sullivan said regarding revenue from property sales, they know they have the old Health building sitting out there. He has talked to a couple of realtors who think the County may potentially be sitting on gold mines with the Ambulance Building and the Fisher Building. The realtors think the properties are potentially worth a lot of money, especially if the train comes by here. Neuzil said rightfully so, as opposed to an open lot where they could build above flood grade. The Ambulance study needs to be done pretty soon, but it comes back to an unknown that needs to be asked.
Neuzil said it looks like the Board has at least an early picture of tax revenues, although the TIFs are still an unknown. He asked what some other unknowns are. Sullivan mentioned the salary survey, although he said there were more places where they were over than they were under. Neuzil said when the last survey was done in 1997 or 1998, the identified all of the red and green. They looked at the green and basically gave all of those employees raises. They didn’t do anything with the other because it was the easiest decision they could make. Claiborne asked if they are going to get a report on the salary survey. Sullivan said Human Resources Administrator Lora Shramek has talked to each Board member individually about how they would like to proceed, and she is going to see if there is a consensus. If there is not, they will have to have a meeting. Neuzil said that is another thing that will need to be resolved. He is trying to come up with some unknowns before the next meeting. Sullivan said he thinks Shramek thought they could move forward if there were four Board members who felt roughly the same way. If there were only three who felt the same way, there would need to be some discussion. Neuzil said he is guessing they will need to put the issue on a future Informal Meeting agenda or Key Issues agenda. He said to ask Shramek if she wants it on there.
Neuzil said the dispatch budget is listed. Two other unknowns are what the Joint Emergency Communication Center (JECC) is bringing and what the Conservation Bond people are bringing. It would be nice to know pretty soon because it will be hard to build up reserves if one of those changes dramatically from this past year. Harney asked what Neuzil means by the dispatch budget and if he is referring to the overflow. Neuzil said yes. He is referring to whether or not they may have to fund one quarter or one half of the year and how much money it will involve. They need to have those numbers figured out. The Board needs to decide what category unused dispatch dollars will go into. Neuzil asked if they can justify using those public response dollars to add two or four deputies plus part of an Ambulance team. Maybe they wouldn’t start planning for those until that funding is done in the first quarter of next year. Neuzil said they have previously added certain employees without funding them for the full year.
Neuzil said the other unknown is whether or not they should start doing all of their social services and economic development contracts for funding on a half-year basis. In other words, do they fund them for half a year and then determine whether or not to renegotiate them if the State of Iowa drops something on the County. It would be a precautionary measure due to what happened in 2004 when the State of Iowa made everyone cut. The County had to cut everything out of their mandated services and nothing out of their non-mandated services. Neuzil said he thinks it is another thing to be discussed during the next Strategic Planning Meeting.
Harney said another area he would like to know more about is what actual costs will be for maintenance on the parking ramp and for the Health and Human Services Building. More duties have been given to Facilities Director David Kempf regarding cleaning and maintenance. Sullivan said the cost of maintenance for the ramp is supposed to be covered by what people will be paying for parking. However, they are not yet being charged for parking. Harney said it takes some time to reseal the floors, and it will have to be closed for a while.
Neuzil said another unknown that was brought up by the Finance Committee is cost savings from rent. They should start to see some significant savings from departments that do not need to pay rent anymore, such as SEATS. The potential for selling or negotiating something for the old Health Building is another unknown. They need to have a plan in place for that. Neuzil thinks the Space Needs Committee is going to have to meet more often in the near future to resolve some of these things, or the Board is going to have to have to deal with them. Johnson said a lot of those things are waiting on the Ambulance study. Neuzil said they will continue to have these Strategic Planning Meetings long-term.
Adjourned at 10:31 a.m.
By Erin Heninger, Recording Secretary