• County Attorney J. Patrick White: Presentation of Gift Law
• Discussion: Update FY 2001 Budgets
• Reports and Updates from Department Heads
• Scheduling Date and Time of Next Meeting

Chairperson Stutsman called the Johnson County Board of Supervisors to order in the Johnson County Administration Building as a Department Head Meeting at 1:30 p.m. Members present were: Charles Duffy, Jonathan Jordahl, Mike Lehman, Sally Stutsman, and Carol Thompson.

Department heads present were: Ambulance Director Mike Sullivan, County Assessor Jerry Musser, County Attorney J. Patrick White, County Engineer Mike Gardner, County Recorder Kim Painter, County Treasurer Tom Kriz, Department of Human Services Area Administrator Cheryl Whitney, General Relief Director Mary Kay Hull, Human Resources Administrator Lora Shramek, Information Services Director Jean Schultz, Mental Health/Developmental Disabilities Director Elaine Sweet, Planning and Zoning Administrator Rick Dvorak, SEATS Director Lisa Dewey, and Veterans Affairs Commission Director Leo Baier.

Staff present were: Board of Supervisors Administrative Assistant Carol Peters, Board of Supervisors Deputy Administrative Assistant Deana Pillard, Deputy Auditor Chris Edwards, Disease Prevention Manager Kot Flora, Juvenile Court Administrator Brandon Beaudry, and Auditor’s Office Recording Secretary Casie Parkins.

County Attorney J. Patrick White said it is obvious to him that there is a lot of misunderstanding on the part of the public and employees on the Gift Law, and if people have questions about the Gift Law, don’t be bashful about calling. White said one misunderstanding is that people tend to talk about what they can accept. He said they don’t understand that it is the goal of the General Assembly that public officials and employees be extremely cautious and circumspect about accepting a gratuity or favor. He said even when there is a genuine personal friendship, the acceptance of personal benefits from those who could gain advantage by influencing official actions raises suspicions that tend to undermine the public trust. He said it is therefore the attempt of the General Assembly that the statute be construed to discourage all gratuities but to prohibit only those that create unacceptable conflicts of interest or appearances of inpropriety. He said the message in that is there is a threshold above which prosecution can occur but even below that threshold the statue discourages all gratuity.

White said a situation occurred within his office where a victim was pleased with the handling of a case by an Assistant County Attorney, and wanted to find a way to say thank you, so brought the attorney a box of donuts. White said this wasn’t a big deal but their policy is consumables delivered by somebody who is a client aren’t accepted. He said they do it as politely as they can, and their action in this case was to take the box to the Salvation Army the same day it was delivered. White said a bouquet of flowers was sent to an employee in the building as a thank you for work that was done. White said the employee knew immediately that she shouldn’t accept that bouquet, but by the time the flowers are delivered it’s almost too late to do anything about it other than for the employee to say, we’ll assume the flowers were given to the office. White said his wife once received a bouquet of flowers for helping someone, and as his spouse she can’t accept a gift either. White said the remedy they chose was to call the guy and explain the gift law to him, and deliver the flowers to Hospice. White said they are still prosecuting a drug representative who deals with University Hospitals who attempted to give Iowa basketball tickets to University Hospital employees.

White said one of the things that is difficult for people in business to understand is the distinction between private sector and public sector. White said there has been a recent situation in the Health Department where a Drug Representative brought to them for the holidays, a meat and cheese basket with a probable value of $40 to $75. White said he sent the drug representative a letter saying that it was potentially problematic. White said it’s not automatically a criminal prosecution because an individual employee could receive something worth less than $3. He said the dilemma with consumables is it is very hard to tell after the fact whether a particular employee has consumed $3. He said in the past he’s offered the advice of having employees keep a log of what they’ve consumed, in case somebody claims that a particular employee consumed more than $3. White said in light of the legislative discouragement of that level of gift, you just don’t let that situation happen. He said department heads should make employees aware of the problem and watch for gifts, and convince them that the policy is that they should report them to the Department Head immediately. White said the drug representative that delivered the basket to the Health Department works for a nationwide or regional company that does business in a lot of states. White said the letter that he wrote to the representative was directed to the company’s legal counsel and they called very apologetically and said they try to understand every state’s laws. White said it’s hard for a drug representative to understand what the difference is between Johnson County and a private medical firm or hospital where gifts are not only accepted but expected.

White said these situations can arise easily unless employees understand that all gifts are to be discouraged. White said employees can get grumpy about this, and these situations can often take a lot of time to resolve. White said they don’t make the laws, and can’t decide which ones to obey to and not to obey. He encouraged the department heads to err on the side of discouraging all gifts rather than letting employees get into the position of inadvertently violating the law.

Planning and Zoning Administrator Rick Dvorak asked how open houses work, where there would be food and beverages. White said they can go to an open house if it is available to members of the general public without regard to their status. White said every year he is invited to attend an open house that is paid for by the University Foundation. White said when he attends, he takes a check and estimates the value of his participation. White said they have the option not to go, or to pay their fair share. White said the person who administers the University Foundation Open House tells him that he’s the only person that insists on paying, although there are other people there who should. Dvorak asked what the basis is for this law. White said the dollar amount of the law has gone down over several years. He said in 1992 the legislature settled on $3. He said the basis for $3 in the debate was they tried to come up with something that was below the cost of a meal. White said a lot of people say it would be easier if there was no dollar limit.

White said he had an employee ask if they could give a fellow employee a baby gift. White said the answer was no, unless there was an ongoing bona fide social relationship with them and the action would be reciprocated under similar circumstances. White said if he and Human Resources Administrator Lora Shramek were friends he could invite her to his house for dinner as long as the friendship was ongoing, bona fide, and reciprocal in some form. White said they could always go to a potluck where they were contributing their fair share. White said to illustrate how strict the Gift Law is, you can’t give a public official an anniversary gift unless it’s their wedding, 25th anniversary or 50th anniversary. All other anniversaries are prohibited.

Ambulance Director Mike Sullivan said that sometimes they get free things in supply orders, such as calendars, and he usually tosses them. White said they usually throw them out or ask around whether the office can use them. He said he treats those as gifts to the County for official use if there is one. Jordahl said the idea of buying influence with these gifts seems to be a reasonable justification for the existence of the Gift Law. Jordahl asked about campaign contributions. White said the legislature made an exception that contributions to a candidate or a candidate’s committee are exempt. He said in the legislature’s defense, campaign contributions are public records.

Chief Juvenile Court Officer Brandon Beaudry asked about gifts from agencies where clients have made the product, such as a plate of banana bread to the Juvenile Court Office from the kids they work with. White said they should try to get an estimate of the cost of the consumables and make sure nobody consumes more than a $3 share.

Disease Prevention Manager Kot Flora said when they had their Gift Law situation at the Health Department in December the thing that struck her more than anything else was that it took a tremendous amount of time to document the situation and inform people about it. She said the other thing was that there was so much negative energy generated among employees that it made it not worth it. She said it would be nice if people just didn’t accept anything. She said it was a waste of everybody’s time. White said what he tries to do when he gets questions from vendors who want to say thank you, is he tells them to find a way to thank the County rather than individual employees, such as a plant, a phone call, or a card.

Stutsman said the Board has been involved with the budget process for a month and a half. She said they finished up all of the updates from department heads and tomorrow they will soon start the task of trying to prioritize and decide what they will be funding this year. Deputy Administrative Assistant Deana Pillard said the Board will be meeting to determine what they want to put into the budget. She said tentatively they will have their budget completed by February 2, 2000 which will give the Auditor’s Office time to publish it. She said the Public Hearing is currently set to be February 29th at 5:30 p.m. and the Board will be certifying the budget March 2, 2000.

Pillard said as it stands currently the minimum that will be needed to continue on for Fiscal Year 2001 is approximately 1.26 million. Pillard said they are going to try to do a better job this year of letting departments know what has been put in the budget through e-mail. She said all of that information will be subject to change. Stutsman said the Board really has it work cut out this year. She said there were profound needs in all departments, but the Board is facing limitations. Deputy Auditor Chris Edwards said that allowable growth plus unusual needs was approximately 1 million.

Stutsman reminded the department heads of the upcoming Employee Recognition reception. Stutsman said the Board has recently hired a new Physical Plant Manager, Mike Scheer, who will be starting February 1, 2000. Stutsman explained that the Board has decided to combine their informal and formal meetings to have one meeting a week on Thursdays.

Sullivan said that the 30th anniversary of the Ambulance Department is coming up. He said because of budget constraints they will combine their celebration into their EMS Awareness Fair and EMS Awareness Week.

Human Resources Administrator Lora Shramek said they are behind schedule in adopting the Respectful Work Environment Policies, but they should go into effect March 1, 2000. Shramek said she would like Human Resources to attend departmental staff meetings to provide training on-site.

County Treasurer Tom Kriz said they are now accepting credit cards and it has been well received. He said that it will hopefully cut down on bad checks, of which they receive 250-300 every year. Kriz said they have fielded a number of complaints that the County does a terrible job of letting the public know when they are and are not going to be open. He said he doesn't have a solution to the problem but perhaps it should be looked at. Stutsman suggested that this be referred to the Communications Committee.

Dewey said the Board has passed the SEATS Missed Rides and Rider Conduct policies, and they are now at JCCOG for approval by the cities.

Veterans Affairs Director Leo Baier said they are in the process of securing a new Veterans Affairs Commissioner to replace one who has left the area.

Beaudry said they have had their contract with the Linn County Juvenile Detention Center for 3 months now. He said in the first month they only had a 59% occupancy rate, in the second month they had a 80% occupancy rate, and in December they had a 120% occupancy rate. He said total they are at 90% occupancy and are utilizing the number of beds that they’ve paid for.

Jordahl said they have an upcoming joint meeting with Iowa City, Coralville, North Liberty and the Iowa City Community School District. He also mentioned that there are Space Needs Committee and GIS Committee Meetings coming up.

The next Department Head Meeting was scheduled for March 21, 2000.

Adjourned at 2:33 p.m.

Attest: Tom Slockett, Auditor

By Casie Parkins, Recording Secretary