MINUTES OF THE INFORMAL MEETING OF THE JOHNSON COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS:
OCTOBER 29, 2009
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
Social Services Coordinator Amy Correia: Entering Into a Contract With the State Department of Human Services in the Amount of $28,359 for the Period November 23, 2009 to September 30, 2010 to Create a Wraparound Fund to Support Youth in Foster Care and to Support Reunification of Youth from Foster Care 1
Social Services Coordinator Amy Correia: Entering Into a Fiscal Agent Agreement With the Empowerment Board to Implement Federal Stimulus Funding for Childcare........................................................ 2
Social Services Coordinator Amy Correia: Information About the Transitioning Youth Initiative and Support from the Iowa Department of Human Services....................................................................... 3
Social Services Coordinator Amy Correia: Iowa Medication Voucher Program.................... 3
County Engineer Greg Parker: Bids Received for Highway 965/120th Street NW PCC Paving Grade/Replace, Known as Project #ESFM-CO52(90)—5S-52................................................................. 3
County Engineer Greg Parker: Bids Received for Oak Crest Hill Road (SCL of the City of Hills to the County line) PCC Overlay – Unbonded, Known as Project #ESFM-CO52(93)—5S-52...................... 4
County Engineer Greg Parker: Other..................................................................................... 4
Reports and Inquiries from County Attorney Janet Lyness................................................... 4
Reports and Inquiries from Executive Assistant Andy Johnson............................................ 4
Reports and Inquiries from the Board of Supervisors........................................................... 5
Chairperson Neuzil called the Johnson County Board of Supervisors to order in the Johnson County Health and Human Services Building at 9:23 a.m. Members present were: Pat Harney, Terrence Neuzil, Sally Stutsman, and Rod Sullivan.
Social Services Coordinator Amy Correia said these are Federal funds that run through the State and then become available to the local Decat Board. The Decat Board voted to accept the funds. The funds have certain parameters on who can be served with the funds. Correia said the Federal requirements are that services and activities are provided to a child who is removed from a child's home and placed in a foster family home or a child care institution. Services and activities may also be provided to the parents or primary caregiver of the child in order to facilitate unification of the child back to the home. Correia said with the approval of the Board of Supervisors, the Decat Board voted to enter into a contract to create a wrap around fund that would provide flexible funding for children and families to meet needs, help to facilitate that return, and services while in care. Those are for services that are not currently funded through existing Department of Human Services Contracts.
Correia said there is a similar fund that operates in the Washington County Decat area. A County employee under the 28E Agreement will work to identify appropriate children and families for the fund and work with DHS social workers to facilitate those vendor payments. Harney asked if this contract is renewable. Correia said yes and the current practice for the Decat Board is to create contracts with a one year renewable option. That is dependant on the performance of the contract and the availability of funds. Stutsman said that sometimes the only thing standing in the way of a child being returned to their home from foster care is that there is no refrigerator in the home so these funds allow the social worker to buy a refrigerator. Sullivan said beds are a huge deal also. He said there are teenage boys who sleep on couches and DHS says that's not acceptable, so beds need to be purchased. Correia said they will be keeping track of the number of children and families served so she will be able to report back to the Board.
Correia said there are Federal stimulus dollars for childcare and supportive quality daycare. The Johnson County Empowerment Board agreed to accept these funds. They will be used for the Infant and Toddler Quality Childcare Program. She said it would be for infants through two years old of parents that are working but make over the current State childcare assistance level. It could also be available for families or parents looking for work. Correia said the Empowerment Board proposes to create a fund similar in operation to how the Continued Care and School Ready Scholarship program works. She said the quality piece of this would be that the funding could only be used to support children in daycare homes or centers that have a specific quality rating. She said this contract is to request that the County acts as a fiscal agent as they are for other Empowerment funds. Correia said the Empowerment staff will be doing all of the outreach and reporting to the State and Empowerment Board. Sullivan asked if any of these funds are going to be cut.
Correia said these are Federal stimulus funds so they aren’t part of that State cut. The Empowerment Board is working on how they will locally implement the cuts they have to make. Sullivan asked if this is a local decision. Correia said yes, within specific parameters. She said they have a year and a half to spend the funds. Neuzil said they can't put a lot of money into the administration aspect compared to putting it directly into the service. With the cuts there is an impact on the ability to pay the Empowerment staff and it trickles down. Harney asked if the toddler and infant clause came with the grant. Correia said yes, that is the requirement of the Federal funding.
Correia said the Transitioning Youth Initiative is a special program in the Department of Human Services at the State. It is part of the Community Partnership to Protect Children program. She said it provides support to youth, ages 17 to 20, as they are aging out of foster care to help them transition into successful adulthood. The idea is for it to be youth focused and youth led. There were originally three pilot sites in Iowa that got money to support these teams and they made additional funding available to community partnership sites this fall. Correia said Johnson County applied but they didn’t receive the $10,000 in funding. She said the State did agree to help provide support to the local community in terms of training and other resources. The idea is to bring together youth in foster care, foster parents, and community members who want to support youth. Correia said they wanted to inform the Board about this if they wanted to be involved in any way.
Correia said she is still gathering information to determine if they want to participate in the Iowa Medication Voucher Program. She said her initial thought was if the County participated, they wouldn’t be the site for people to come to. They would work with other community based organizations. Correia said someone from the Iowa Prescription Drug Corporation asked her if the County wanted to participate in the program. It is either boards of health or county relief offices that are the agencies that enter into the agreement with that state organization. She said Johnson County would identify where in the local County people would go to benefit from that program. Sullivan asked if she has spoken to Public Health Director Douglas Beardsley. Correia said the Health Department was first approached and they referred them to her. She said she is in the beginning stages of exploring this possibility and wanted to make sure the Board was in agreement with her continuing to do so. The Board agreed.
County Engineer Greg Parker said these projects are through the American Recovery Reinvestment Act, also termed stimulus fund dollars. They have worked hard to get both projects into an October bid letting. For this project they received three bids that were unbelievably favorable. The low bidder was Concrete Foundations, Inc. out of New Hampton, Iowa. The low bid was $1,826,568.75. The high bid was $1,979,437.80. Parker said there was a $100,000 difference on an almost $2 million job. The Engineer's estimate was $2,561,200.00. The difference between the Engineer's estimate and the low responsible bidder was a savings of almost $735,000.000. Parker said this was due to the timing of letting and the flexibility to work during the winter. The recommendation from the Secondary Roads Department is to put this on the formal agenda for the Board's consideration to approve and award the contract to Concrete Foundations, Inc. for $1,826,568.75. Stutsman asked when they will start construction. Parker said this project is in conjunction with the City of Cedar Rapids so they allowed winter work this winter but not next winter. Once they have signed contracts he can discuss the contractor's plans. Sullivan asked what contributed to the incredible bid. Parker said he thinks the timing of the bids, allowing winter work, and that costs are favorable now because contractors are more eager to get work lined up.
Parker said they received five bids for this project. The low responsible bidder is Metro Pavers, Inc., out of Iowa City with a bid of $1,845,120.47. The high bid was from Cedar Valley Corporation out of Cedar Falls and was $2,465,753.14. Parker said the lowest three bids were pretty close. The Engineer's estimate was $2,041,100.00. There was an almost 10% saving of $196,000. He said with the combination of these projects, they are going to save about $1 million. Parker said the Secondary Roads Department recommends that the Board consider approving Metro Pavers, Inc., for a contract amount of $1,845,120.47.
Stutsman asked if Highway 965 is open. Parker said yes. Stutsman asked about the status of Oak Crest Hill Road. Parker said they had a contractors meeting on October 28, 2009. With all the rain in October they are waiting for the contractor to do some shoulder work. Parker said they also have a Disadvantaged Business Enterprise contractor for the Oak Crest Hill Road project who has not been performing to the satisfaction level of the prime contractor. For each Federal contract they are required to have a specific percentage of DBE's on the contract. Parker said this contractor is going to install a cable stay rail. The pavement is done and the approaches are completed.
County Attorney Janet Lyness said she has recalculated the vacation pay out and found they had not calculated it correctly. With the correction, the pay out is only approximately $19,000. She said she will still encourage the employee to take vacations.
Executive Assistant Andy Johnson said on November 11-13, 2009 the Iowa City Planning Department is going to be holding a series of public meetings and focus groups about the vision of the future for what they are calling the River Crossing Neighborhood. The boundaries of that are Burlington Street, Gilbert Street, Highway 6, and the Iowa River. He said the Iowa City Planning Department requested having a focus group with interested individuals from the County on November 12, 2009 at 8:30 a.m. Johnson asked the Board if they wanted to discuss this prior to the focus group meeting and so he will be inviting the Boards input at a future meeting. The Johnson County Linn County Public Leadership Group is meeting October 29, 2009 in North Liberty at 4:30 p.m. Johnson said he will be attending the JCCOG Affordable Housing Committee at 4:00 p.m. on October 29, 2009. The Board has a Budget Work Session on November 2, 2009 at 9:00 a.m., a Department Head Meeting November 3, 2009 at 2:00 p.m., a meeting for department head evaluations on November 4, 2009 at 9:00 a.m., and the Criminal Justice Coordinating Committee meets November 4, 2009 at 4:30 p.m. There is a Board meeting on November 5, 2009 at 9:00 a.m.
Stutsman had a liaison meeting with Correia, a Co-Occuring Services meeting, and a meeting with a local foods group. Stutsman announced that Bob and JoAnn Crider are retiring from delivering meals after 28 years of service.
Harney attended the Iowa City Area Chamber Business PM meeting, the Elected Officials Meeting, and a Community Foundation Subcommittee meeting. Harney attended Planning and Zoning site visits, the ICAD annul meeting, and visited the Joint Emergency Communications building. Harney congratulated Former Finance Director Jeff Horne who was recently appointed to City Manager in Clinton, Iowa.
Sullivan said he serves on a Detention Usage Committee and will be meeting with Linn County Supervisors and Juvenile Court this afternoon, October 29, 2009. Sullivan said the County's budget planning process is underway and he invited the public to attend the budget meetings. The meetings schedule is posted on the County's website.
Neuzil attended the Pubic Information Officer Training for Emergency Response at the Joint Emergency Communications Center and the ground breaking ceremony for the new Iowa City Fire Station #4 on the north side of Iowa City. He talked with some people about Junior Achievement. He will have a Listening Post on October 30, 2009 at the Iowa City Johnson County Senior Center at 12:00 p.m.
Adjourned at 10:09 a.m.
By Nancy Tomkovicz, Recording Secretary