Information Services Director Jean Schultz: Fiscal Year 2001 Budget

Senior Dining Director Mike Foster and Nutrition Board Member Bob Welsh: Fiscal Year 2001 Budgets

Chairperson Stutsman called the Johnson County Board of Supervisors to order in the Johnson County Administration Building at 9:36 a.m. Members present were: Charles Duffy, Jonathan Jordahl, Mike Lehman, Sally Stutsman, and Carol Thompson.

Schultz said that she was going to report the recommendation from the County Computer Committee and the Document Management Subcommittee on what their recommendation is for the budget. She said that the Recorder’s Office is currently using document management for their vital statistics, marriages, births and deaths, and that they are expanding in the next month or so to also include their real estate indexing. Schultz said that for the Fiscal Year 2001 there are 3 departments who have requested money for document management: Planning and Zoning, the Treasurer’s Office and the Auditor’s Office. Schultz explained that the Document Management Subcommittee and County Computer Committee both met to discuss the recommendation to make to the Board and are requesting $75,000 as a lump sum for all 3 projects. Schultz said that they could investigate whether combining parts of it could help them get a better price. She said that they were requesting to have the $75,000 to do at least these 3 projects rather than allocate the money individually to each department. Thompson asked if Schultz thought they could do all 3 departments for that amount of money in one year. Schultz said that Planning and Zonings wants to scan their existing files and then they will have to develop how they want to move forward. She said that the Treasurer’s Office wants to scan all the titles and registrations that they have for vehicles. The Auditor’s Office wants to do a day forward scanning of voter registration forms, and that they don’t want to scan all of their existing documents. Jordahl said that the Auditor’s Office requested equipment and part time help, but that Zoning and the Treasurer want to open up space by scanning documents. He said that Planning and Zoning Administrator Rick Dvorak said in the subcommittee meeting that they might be able to forestall the need to remodel the building by doing document management. Stutsman said that it might alleviate some of the pressures, but that she thinks there will be additional pressures for more space. Schultz said County Treasurer Tom Kriz has 2 people who do filing and retrieval of documents, and that he thinks with a new system they would only need one person to scan and index documents. She said that the day forward scanning for the Treasurer and Zoning might be combined. Jordahl said that he hopes one of the merits of having them combined is that it could be more economical. He said that it might save money to go ahead and scan all of the old voter registration cards in the Auditor’s Office. Jordahl said that the project could be seen as an extension of the work in the Recorder’s Office, and that each department would have a disk on the jukebox in Schultz’s office. He said that this would also be the first step towards the integration of the real estate records.

Stutsman asked if this money was in addition to what County Recorder Kim Painter requested. Schultz replied that it was separate. Stutsman asked what fund this money would be kept in. Schultz said that it would be put in the Technology Fund, but earmarked for document management. She said that they might have to transfer some of it for things like hiring a part-time person in the Auditor’s Office. Thompson asked if they could hire a company to come and do it on site. Schultz said that Dvorak got an estimate from a company called Owens King where they would get the documents and take them off-site for a week and then bring them back. Thompson said that Dvorak didn’t seem thrilled with the idea of his documents going someplace else. Schultz said that in the subcommittee meeting he seemed willing to do this. She said that something similar to the microfilming of documents for the Recorder that has been done on site could be done with the scanning. Thompson said that this would probably be at a higher cost. Jordahl said that having the documents off-site after they are scanned is not a big concern. Schultz said that after they are scanned they can be brought up on the computer and printed so they do not have to get the physical documents. Stutsman said that she thinks there still might be a need to keep a hard copy somewhere, but that this sounds like a much more efficient process. She said that she is always hesitant to throw things away if there might be a future need for it and this is something that the Document Management Committee needs to work out.

Stutsman asked what they can do with document management for less money in case they cannot give them the entire $75,000. Schultz said that they could do something, but that she didn’t know if they could do every department’s request or if they would have to scale back each request. Jordahl said that the Board will be interested in the result of the next step in the process, which is to approach the vendor about the idea of a bulk purchase at a lower price. Schultz said that Painter has a letter to the Owens King, who did the proposal for Planning and Zoning, to see if they would review procedures in all 3 offices and give a quote. Jordahl said that there are questions about interdepartmental consistency and the accessibility of records as they look forward to linking things to the permanent parcel number. He said the Board should know that the questions have been addressed by the subcommittee, and that they have one provider who has the software that allows this to be done. He said the system will work for all 3 departments. Jordahl said that the permanent parcel numbering system does exist and that all the parcels are numbered, but that they are not connected to the map yet. He said that this is part of the GIS program. Jordahl said the identifier that links this does exist and there is talk about whether the identifier should be attached as all of these pieces of data are identifiable by their association with the parcel at this time or later. He said it can be done now or later but might be easier to do it later when the documents can be paged through on the computer instead of going through the pile of paper. He said they would need to reserve a field in the database to link things with that parcel number. Schultz said the permanent parcel number is part of the mapping project and has been done for a few years. She said the polygon has to be closed in order to actually link it to the map as far as GIS goes.

Stutsman said if the Board approves this money then the Document Management Committee will work out the details about how it will be handled. Schultz said a report can be given to the Board before any money is spent. Thompson asked if Schultz is asking for the money all at once because she thinks there is an advantage to be had by putting it all together. Schultz said the money is being requested for Fiscal Year 2001 and there are other projects that are going to be coming up and this is starting with the voter registration part, doing the backlogs for zoning and vehicle motor registration and titles. She said the Treasurer’s Office has a revolving file and because it is so old no maintenance agreements can be gotten for it and so if it should quit working Kriz is not sure what he will do, so that is why he wants it for this year. Thompson said Zoning and Treasurer both asked for $30,000 and the Auditor’s Office wants $6,975 for the equipment and $4,758 for the staff person, for a total of $71,733. Schultz said they are hoping that by combining them it will come out to less and then the decision can be made to either spend less or include more things. Stutsman said that once they get a procedure in place then they can expand it to every department.

Deputy Administrative Assistant Deana Pillard asked if would make sense to do the Treasurer and Planning and Zoning first and then wait to do the Auditor’s Office until they see how the others work out. Jordahl said they don’t know until they speak with the vendor about discounts for doing it all at once. Schultz said the departments are all completely different in the functions they want to perform. Pillard said the Auditor’s Office is different than the other 2 offices so for the first time out it might be easier to just do the other 2 and then see about doing other departments later. Thompson asked if Schultz’ department had time to do 3 in one year. Schultz said the setting up of the indexes would probably be worked out with a company called Image Tech, who set up a lot of the indexes in the Recorder’s Office. Jordahl suggested approaching the vendor and making a contract deal with them to do document imaging with them for all of the County’s departments. He said they could tell the vendor they will do 2 this year and 2 next year and so forth, then asking for a total price.

Stutsman said that this is a real policy decision for the Board because they are committing themselves to starting to scan records and move them off site and starting on this path is committing to a big project. Schultz said the Board did start this already by doing this with the Recorder’s Office. Stutsman said the Recorder’s Office is not asking for tax dollars to support that though. Thompson asked if some pieces of the equipment can be shared. Schultz said the actual storage for the data can be shared and this is already purchased. She said the Recorder’s Office has 10 of the more powerful level licenses and there are 3 levels of licenses to have for this offer. She said one allows people to only look at the images, the 2nd one lets you look at the images and make annotations on them and the 3rd level allows you to view it, put the annotations on and scan it. She said not all of the users in the Recorder’s Office need these licenses and they are willing to swap to save money. Jordahl said that County Auditor Tom Slockett’s image of this for the future, in terms of who can do the scanning, is there being a scanner on every desk rather than one person doing the scanning. He said each person could do it as they create a record. Stutsman said it is a big change to move from hard copies to the computer. Schultz said that as the Recorder’s Office starts to scan the land documents, the plan is that each assessor and the Auditor would have at least a view license. She said that when documents come in now, the Recorder’s Office makes copies and sends them to the appropriate assessor and auditor. She said that with the new plan, though, they would not be doing that anymore because with the system it would know what sort of transfer is taking place and automatically send an image of it to the inbox for the person. Jordahl said there is an advantage for the assignment of the parcel numbers because once the image is in the system on the computer, then tracking of the documents automatically flips between departments.

Pillard said it is her understanding that the additional funds that Senior Dining Director Mike Foster is requesting are not for non-personnel line items. She said he is going to have those remain the same for the Fiscal Year 2000 and due to the parking ramp being built he doesn’t anticipate needing any additional funds to cover those costs due to the number of meals they’ll be serving going down. She said where his budget will increase is a result from the revenues from Heritage being the same as they are right now, not increasing, but the cost of the staffing going up, which would include the cost of living adjustment, the merit and the staff raises. She said the additional $26,000 he is requesting is in relation to the ongoing staff costs if the staff is kept at the current number that it is. Thompson asked how Foster is going to get the equipment he needs for the soup and salad bar. Pillard said it comes out of the Nutrition Trust Fund because he doesn’t think Heritage will cover those costs. Lehman said Foster is cutting his advertising and bus transportation by $2,000 each. Stutsman said she still has some confusion about where the Waiver dollars come in to play. Thompson said she thinks he is thinking he will serve less Waiver meals so he is reducing them for this year.

Foster said he hopes the memo clears up some confusion between him and the Board. He said there isn’t an appropriate disparity between what he anticipates to garner from Heritage as opposed to what he expects to spend. Duffy asked if the Greeter/Site Manager position is filled because Heritage said it is an unnecessary position. Foster said there is someone in it and it is a 6 hour position, of which 4 minimally are computer operations. Foster said the term Greeter is misleading because the job entails more than that and the greeting aspect is a minor content of the job responsibilities. He said finding able-bodied, competent volunteers to do the tasks of transporting meals for non-ambulatory people are hard to find.

Foster said he anticipates paying for the deli bar and steamer out of the Nutrition Trust and that it is a matter of getting together with Tom Kriz and opening up some hi-fi accounts and seeing where some of those CDs come through. He said that there has to be some construction done, which entails working with the Senior Center, prior to having any of this done. He said their goal and plan is to offset the ramp construction cutting into their business. He said that by diversifying the service he hopes to attract some younger seniors. Foster said the equipment purchases entail higher cost in terms of usage and monitoring the operations. Stutsman asked if there is money in the Nutrition Trust to cover the $15,000. Foster said it is all in the general fund in excess of $80,000. Welsh said they have not used all of the interest each year for that. He said they did recommend to the Board of Supervisors that the money not be used for basic operational expenses and that they did want the principal. He said they came to the Board about 2 years ago and discussed the funds and the types of expenditures that can be used. He said this is an attempt to minimize County tax dollars and to also be respectful of Heritage’s situation. He said the funds could be spent and they could still reserve the interest from the trust. Foster said the computers, microwave, transportation bags for their mobile meal program, the annual volunteer dinner and more have been done with the use of the trust fund in the past. Foster said they have not come close to spending the interest.

Jordahl said the memo reveals that the meal count will be down due to construction and yet the raw food costs will increase. He asked how they attribute the decrease downtown to construction since it appears the percentage of decrease is the same at all of the meal sites. Foster said they have lost a lot of people in this program and they are having difficulty replacing them with younger seniors. He said their effort with a food court operation will enhance their abilities to convert some of the younger seniors into potentially coming to the Senior Center rather than going to a competitive restaurant elsewhere. Jordahl said the construction downtown doesn’t have anything to do with the lower meal counts in other areas. Nutrition Board Member Bob Welsh said that they have not been attracting the younger elderly. He said that many of the participants have either passed away or moved into nursing homes. Welsh said they did want Autumn Park to close because the cost of a site manager there is not cost effective for the number that go there. He said the Board of Supervisors said no to closing it. Welsh said that many of the small areas are not cost effective. He said there is an increase in food costs that also attribute to this. Foster said they need to up the ante with the food because you cannot continue to be competitive this way. He said by providing meal options they get more than comfort food and it is kind of a luxury. He said more people means more revenue. He said that if they up the ante on food they will attract more people.

Thompson asked about the demographics of the meals. She asked if people need to be in the habit of partaking of these meals when they are younger seniors as opposed to waiting until they are older seniors and more frail who are not established in this habit. Foster said that attracting even persons his age to go with their parents will make his age group then aware of what these programs are all about when they reach 60. He said people carry the baggage that they are not old people and don’t want to participate in the label of a free lunch, handout or welfare stereotype that these free meals might carry. Thompson said some people may have money to go somewhere. She said that when this began the people did not have money and this was their only meal of the day. Foster said there is also an element of pride that they can do things for themselves. Thompson said there has been a decrease in poverty among seniors in Johnson County. She said there are a lot of seniors who could partake of these meals. She said that at the United Way hearings there was mention of 387 Christmas care packages taken to lower income seniors. Welsh said it would be good if they could work with visiting nurses because if that many were in need at that time, then he guesses they do now, too. Thompson said the United Way now delivers Frozen Elderly Waiver meals and so now there is competition.

Stutsman asked if Foster is going to recognize the $12,000 income for Waiver meals. Foster said he anticipates garnering much more than $12,000. Welsh said that presently, the Elderly Waiver Dollars go to pay for the raw food costs directly first, apart from this budget, and it is what is leftover after the raw food cost for the Waiver meals. Stutsman said that they need to constantly reevaluate this program and constantly bring in alternatives. She said the Board changes and education causes people to change their minds on things. Thompson said she agrees that they should continue providing meals to the frail elderly as long as they can but is unsure that the meals need to go to the dining room.

Thompson said the increase to the County this year is about $7,500. Welsh said that all they are saying is that the uniqueness of this budget is that this is the only one that is funded predominantly by a negotiated contract after the fact. He said they think there can be some savings from raw food costs to help make up for that. He said their intent is to request more than the $382,138 from Heritage. Welsh said that where the program will suffer on personnel is if the County decides to grant a 5% increase and Heritage says 3%, the staff will get a 3% funding through this program. He said if the reverse were true, the staff in this area always gets the lower no matter what. Thompson asked what the savings would be if the plan is done at Autumn Park. Foster said the Site Manager is only there about 1 1/2 hours so the savings are minimal there. Jordahl said that they need to propose what changes might be necessary to accomplish the goals of the program. He said they are open to suggestions but thinks that rather than ask for more money a way should be found to save money. Welsh said his feelings, based on prior negotiations, is to put together a budget that puts all of the County expenses that have not been seen in their budget there. He said they would ask Heritage to fund all of the personnel items, raw food costs and all of the basic costs. Foster said their contract for raw food costs is $1.27, but presently they are at $1.31.

Lehman said they budgeted $0 for raw food to Elderly Waiver and $678 have now been spent. Foster said that is a compilation of there is nothing in that line item because ultimately that comes out of the revenue dollars created by Elderly Waiver. He said it is a general fund issue and the money is in the general fund and it is not part of their budget as far as Heritage is concerned. He said those are County dollars, Elderly Waiver that are being absorbed there. He said there is probably an excess of $4,000-5,000 already this year available for that purpose. Lehman said there is a projection of being up for raw foods. Jordahl asked how they spend money on raw food without budgeting money for it. Foster said it is an expenditure and shows on their sheets from the Auditor’s Office as such but is not reported to Heritage. Foster said this is where the difficulty is in trying to mesh the 2.

Jordahl asked if the Elderly Waiver dollars were revenue into the program and Foster said yes. Foster said that they were not going to see a direct link between expenditures for Elderly Waiver and revenue because they are 2 separate programs apart from the department’s budget. He said that they show in the County line items but not in the Heritage line items. Welsh said that the Elderly Waiver meals are not a part of budget 53 at the present time. Thompson asked why and Welsh replied that it is because they are a separate program. Thompson said that they should be a part of 53 and that the revenues should show up on the revenue side. She said that they had to be in there somewhere. Welsh said that the historical rationale for doing it this way is based on when the County said that there were no more tax dollars available for the program and Heritage said they were not going to give any more money. He said that they devised the plan, after the model of Family Service Agency, of saying that they would have 2 programs, one of which is the Elderly Waiver Program. Welsh said that it shows up on the budget sheet as a separate program and Jordahl and Thompson asked where. Thompson asked if the amount listed for raw food included the food they use for Elderly Waiver. Welsh and Foster said no, that the amount for food for Elderly Waiver is $678.46 on the third line down. Thompson said that this is not actually in the budget, but in the actual. Foster said that these numbers are not reported to Heritage and are absorbed through the General Fund and using the money that they get from the State. Thompson said that if they are paying for the program it has to be in the budget.

Jordahl said that County Engineer Mike Gardner has to report an entirely different budget to the DOT than he does to the Board, and that the fact that the budget for Heritage is different should have no effect on the budget submitted to the Board of Supervisors. He said that it sounds to him as though they are budgeting the program out of the ending balance, and Thompson said that they are budgeting it out of the $131,209. Welsh said that they are not budgeting it out of that amount, and that the Supervisors need to look at the big budget sheet to see where it is budgeted from. Stutsman said that they are asking that all of these figures be included in the budget from now on. Foster said that some of the complexity comes from trying to comply with requests from the Auditor’s Office. Lehman asked what bus transportation for the Nutritional Trust is. Foster replied that this was a program that they had in the past that only happened once and that they were no longer receiving the revenues from it. Lehman said that word of mouth may be the most effective way to increase the number of participants in the meal program, and Foster agreed. Welsh said that he though one of the big problems was the staffing pattern.

Jordahl asked if the total amount expended for raw food, including all programs, is reflected in the total expenditure for raw food for the year, or if the Elderly Waiver dollars would be spent on top of that. Welsh said that in past County budgets the raw food costs for Senior Dining and home delivered meals were included, but that raw food costs for Elderly Waiver were not included. Thompson said that they were in big trouble because they were paying money that they haven’t authorized. Welsh said that one of the real problems and needs for the program in personnel. He said that they are hiring people that they wouldn’t have even looked at years ago, and Stutsman said that they have heard that with all agencies and programs. Welsh said that the problem this causes is that, in this particular program, unreliable employees means that they cannot meet necessary deadlines. Duffy asked what the total cost to produce a meal in Linn County is. Welsh said that he did not know, but that Johnson County is right in the middle cost-wise. Jordahl said that they serve many more meals in Johnson County than they do in Linn County. Duffy said that they used to serve many more meals in the County, but that parking is a big problem. Welsh said that the new parking ramp might help, but that when they built the Chauncey Swan ramp they assured them that there would be adequate parking and it has proved false. Lehman pointed out that when they cook for an expected number of people and those people do not show up, then the food is wasted. Foster said that the number of wasted meals is miniscule.

Welsh said that they were the first sight in the area, and maybe in the State, to go to a non-reservation system. He said that people questioned it, but that over a period of time they learned how to do it. He said that now other sights are doing it and finding it very successful. Welsh said that Duffy was right, that they were on a rise but then hit a peak where parking became a problem and attendance went down. He said that the concern is whether when the ramp is completed will people start coming back. Lehman said his concern with uneaten food is that they are still paying for a raw product, and when that goes to waste they have to raise the cost of the meals they actually serve.

Welsh said that the Nutrition Committee will be meeting on the budget soon, and asked if the Board wanted them to eliminate Autumn Park or keep it in. Duffy said that he would hate to see that. Welsh said that his feeling was to leave it all in and request the maximum from Heritage, then if, in negotiations, the County does not wish to put dollars in, the Board will have to make a decision as to what they should do. Duffy said that there will be home delivered meals, but that he doesn’t know if this will stop. Jordahl said that this is a slap in the face to them. Duffy said that they paid their dues, and that when they were younger and in good shape they paid taxes. Thompson asked if he was willing to put an extra $7,000 of County money into the program in order to continue it. Duffy said that they need to look at the budget as a whole, and that they shouldn’t be looking toward Autumn Park to save money. Stutsman said that it still comes down to the $7,000. Jordahl said that it is the same amount of dollars, regardless. Thompson said that it was about $4,000 for the site manager at Autumn Park. Welsh said the person who fills the position does 3 things and one of them is psychological management. Foster said that many of the other centers are facing the same problem. He said that this position is a multi-faceted position. Duffy said that they should not refuse these people help because they are unable to pay for it. Jordahl said it is this type of situation where a community center could gain economy with out taking money away from a program because they are already paying to be there. He said if they put money into having a centralized building that included Senior dining and Juvenile Crime Prevention they would be able to have fewer staff over all and still have integrated functions served. Foster said the bottom line is that if the Board and Heritage pull the plug it is the seniors and the Board’s staff that will ultimately suffer. Stutsman said just like with everything there are limitations. She also said that the numbers of seniors attending are down. Welsh said that they can not justify a site from an economic standpoint, because they are severing a need. Jordahl said there are also other needs to meet and they might be able to save money by combining. Foster said the VA also has a proposal and they will submit that proposal to the Board for providing food preparation for their site.

Adjourned at 11:38 a.m.

Attest: Tom Slockett, Auditor

By Casie Parkins, Recording Secretary