Chairperson Stutsman called the Johnson County Board of Supervisors to order in the Johnson County Administration Building at 9:17 a.m. Members present were: Charles Duffy, Jonathan Jordahl, Mike Lehman, Sally Stutsman, and Carol Thompson.

Stutsman said the ISAC Legislative Newsletter announced that the State/Local Government Price Index is at 2.68. Deputy Auditor Dan Stolze said the 2.68% was built in to the unusual needs worksheet and that’s what calculated those numbers. Stutsman asked the Board what they wanted to start with. Jordahl said he wants to establish what the perimeters are and how much money they have because he currently doesn’t have a number that he is confident in. Thompson said they need to figure out what it would cost to give everybody Decision Package One. Thompson said they should talk about personnel since those are permanent decisions. Jordahl said he doesn’t think there is any way to talk about anything without knowing what their perimeters are. Thompson suggested they should talk about the 12 requested positions that have been proposed. Stutsman said they can talk about the positions even though they don’t have the final numbers because they need to start somewhere. Stutsman said they should establish priorities and then weigh those priorities when they get the final number.

Stolze said the bottom line number is $971,000, and that is what is estimated to be the maximum amount of what the transfer can be from the General Supplemental Fund into the General Basic Fund. He said this limits what you can fund, because the transfer has limits on it because of the way the Code of Iowa reads. He said there are limits on what can be taxed in the General Supplemental Fund, and spent somewhere else, such as the General Basic Fund. Stolze said the latest spreadsheet has that transfer based on the base budgeted amounts, budgeted revenues and the budgeted transfers in and out, and has that transfer to General Basic at $2.149 million. He said realistically they are looking at the difference between that number and the $3.12 million maximum transfer that they can legally make, and that difference is $971,000. He said that gives them the upper limit of how much more they can fund out of General Basic and have it paid for out of the transfers from General Supplemental. He said that is as high as they could roughly go. Thompson asked if no ones taxes would go up except by the allowable growth amount. Stolze said that’s not the same number. Stutsman asked if this amount was in addition to the allowable growth. Stolze said yes, and that if the Board were going to keep the taxation in that fund limited strictly to the allowable growth/unusual needs, 3.66 million would be as high as they could go. Pillard said if they were going to stick underneath the tax freeze, that would mean there would be roughly $766,000 that the Board could still spend for General Fund items. Thompson asked if this was after the basic, Stolze said that would include total spending for transfers and also anything in General Supplemental.

Jordahl asked why they use the General Supplemental Fund number to do their subtraction. Pillard said the General Basic Fund is at it’s maximum levy of 3.5, so that requires a transfer from the General Supplemental Fund. She said there’s a maximum amount on the transfer that can occur from General Supplemental to General Basic. She said the maximum transfer that would be allowed, the total tax askings in the General Supplemental Fund would have to total 3.6 million. She said the difference between the 3.6 million and the 2.8 is how much more you could increase the total askings out of the General Supplemental Fund, of which most would be to transfer to General Basic. Jordahl said he thinks that it is less than that because if last years net tax askings were 3,180,000 and this year’s askings are 3,660,000 then the difference between those is the new dollars. Stolze said that is correct, but the 2.849 is what is currently being taken into account based on everything that is currently in the spreadsheet. He said right now they are not even up to last year’s figure yet based on what is in here. Stolze said the difference is just to get back to what the Board is currently taxing for in 2000. He said if they go above the difference up to the 3.6 that would be based on the allowable growth and unusual needs calculation.

Jordahl said if they had to increase the insurance pool then the General Supplemental Fund increases and that is not a hard number, they can cover some of their additional expenses under General Supplemental because some of them are significantly in the insurance pool. Stolze said that could go up as high as they would need it to go up. Stolze said Department 22 in General Supplemental does not include health insurance, but is for all other insurance the County has. He said health insurance is budgeted for each department under personnel line items, so if they were looking at the increase for health insurance costs next year, that won’t show up in General Supplemental. Jordahl asked if they would be able to tax for health insurance out of the General Supplemental Fund if it was budgeted into it’s own separate account and not into each department’s budget. Stolze said he thinks that would be possible. Duffy said he does not want to do that. Stutsman said that is a policy issue the Board can discuss at another time. Stolze said it would significantly alter the budgeting process by department, because they would be taking significant costs out of the departments budgets. Thompson asked if they were saying that Health Insurance is not an allowable expense out of the General Supplemental Fund. Stolze said it is allowable, but it’s not set up in that way, because it’s figured into the individual department’s budgets. Stolze said Department 22, the insurance fund, pays for all other insurance needs besides health insurance. Jordahl said they could take out the departmental personnel expenses out if there was something they wanted to fund. He said one way under the law to get more dollars would be to use the General Supplemental Fund to pay those personnel expense by creating a personnel department and putting it in to one place and then taxing for it out of the General Supplemental Fund.

Stutsman suggested the Board go through the requests to see what has priority. She said a top priority is the attorney for the County Attorney’s Office who would help Planning and Zoning, Secondary Roads, Health, and other offices with enforcement issues. Duffy said he would say no to this position. Stutsman, Thompson, Lehman, and Jordahl said they were supportive of this position. Thompson asked if this person’s first duty could be the backlog of tax cases in the Treasurer’s Office. Stutsman said hopefully they can suggest that to County Attorney Pat White.

Stutsman said that next they should talk about the requested positions in the Auditors Office. Pillard said one is a reclassification of a current employee that they want to move up to a Clerk III. She said there are 2 requested Account Clerk II positions because of an increasing workload. Thompson said she would be in favor of the reclassification and one or the other of the 2 account clerks, but not both. Stutsman agreed. Stutsman asked how the Board members felt about the map delineator. Lehman asked if the map delineator was connected with GIS. Jordahl said he thought it probably has something to do with closing the polygons. Thompson said the Auditor’s Office, during their budget presentation said they needed $75,000 which was included in that. Pillard said it was her understanding that the closing of the polygons is included in the GIS proposal that will be coming before the Board. Stutsman asked if Duffy had any thought on the positions in the Auditor’s Office. Duffy said a Map Delineator might save the County money if they are going to do GIS. Stutsman asked if all of the Board members were OK with the job reclassification. All of the Board members said they were OK with the job reclassification. Stutsman asked how the Board members felt about the Account Clerk II. Jordahl and Lehman said they would just go for the reclassification.

Stutsman said there is one requested job reclassification in Public Health. Jordahl said they were told by Information Services Director Jean Schultz that that reclassification was bogus and there should not be a 50% computer operator in Health. Stutsman said it is only $716. Jordahl said it’s a question of what is a legitimate classification within the County’s scheme of classifications. Thompson, Stutsman and Duffy said they don’t have a problem with the job reclassification for Health. Jordahl said it treads on their job classification scheme because that person is only a 20% computer operator. Thompson said that if Graham thinks that that person spends 50% of their time being a computer operator, they should not second-guess him. She asked what the requested Clerk II for the Health Department will do. Pillard said the Clerk II would relieve Becky of some of her duties and allow her to do the DHS notes. Stutsman said she thinks they should fund that. Duffy said he would not support that. Thompson said she thinks they should fund it, and it will be an income generating position so if they start it in July they should have revenue to pay for it by the end of the fiscal year. Thompson said she would like to see the revenue match the line item for the salary. Stutsman asked the Board how they felt about supporting that. Lehman said they could give the Health Department the position but change their budget so that they have to pay for it. Lehman said he would be in favor of the position if the Board has the control. Jordahl said they could give them the position but not give them money to pay for it. Stutsman asked how the Board felt about the requested Health Promotion Program Assistant. Stutsman, Thompson and Duffy said they wouldn’t be supportive of this position.

Stutsman, Duffy, and Thompson said they don’t have a problem with the requested Recorder’s Office job reclassification.

Stutsman asked the Board members how they feel about the reorganization of the SEATS program. Jordahl said he thinks it is a good thing. Stutsman said they have new positions but they are taking the place of other positions. Lehman said it is only going to cost about $10,000 in the long run. Thompson said currently the Director is doing 2 or 2 and a half jobs herself, which is why the Director needs 2 administrative positions. Thompson said once the first person is hired and able to do his/her job, then the Director might not need both positions. Jordahl said the Director is already phasing in employees. Stutsman said this addresses the issue of reorganization. She said the way the SEATS Director is planning to reorganize, she needs 2 positions. Stutsman said either they fund them and approve the reorganization or they don’t. Jordahl thinks they should support this. Thompson and Stutsman agreed.

Stutsman asked if the Board wanted to fund the Assistant Planner for Planning and Zoning. Duffy said no. Lehman, Stutsman, Thompson and Jordahl said they are in favor of funding that position.

Stutsman asked if the Board wanted to fund the Auditor/Elections Part Time Clerk. Stutsman said she would like to hold off until they find out more from the Document Management Committee. Thompson agreed.

Stutsman asked what the Board thought of the requested Roads Maintenance Person I position in Secondary Roads. Lehman said with the amount of annexations they have, there are less roads all of time. He said he would like to hold off and Stutsman agreed. Stutsman said she would also like to hold off on the requested assistant county engineer position. Jordahl agreed. Stutsman said what are they going to do about the maintenance person. Stutsman said with the longevity of the Secondary Roads department, this position might be helpful because they would have a person to fill in when others are sick or on vacation. She said it might be a situation where they spend money to save money. Thompson said they got one new Road Maintenance Person this year. Stutsman and Duffy agreed to the maintenance person.

Thompson left at 9:58 a.m.

Lehman said with they positions they have tentatively approved so far, the total comes to $244,063. Stutsman asked what the other big decisions are they need to make, and if they need to make a decision on the Health fund. Pillard said it would help Deputy Auditor Chris Edwards out if they are going to go with Lora Shramek’s recommendation of 5%. Stutsman said she is comfortable with 5%. Jordahl asked what the dollar amount is on the Health Insurance. Pillard said 5% is already figured in, so there is no change unless the Board would wish to increase it above 5%.

Lehman asked if they need to go back and cross check all of their tentatively approved positions with equipment needs. Stutsman suggested that Pillard get a total number together of the package of personnel costs.

Duffy said the County needs a grant writer. Stutsman said they wouldn’t hire an employee, they would contract with someone to write grants for the County. Jordahl said he would agree with hiring a grant writer as a Johnson County employee. Stutsman said her issue with hiring a grant writer is they haven’t done the research to merit it yet, and Lehman agreed. Stutsman said she would be supportive of starting out with $6,000 to contract with a grant writer and see how that works before making it into a new position. Stolze said that figure is already in the spreadsheet.

Pillard said she would go over what has already been included in the budget to make sure the Board is OK with it. Pillard explained the $24,123 has been included for the Health Department because it is the minimum increase they need to run their contracts and grants. Pillard said merit is included in the budget, as well as cost of living at 2%. Stutsman said they are going to leave that in at 2% because they don’t know what the labor negotiations are going to do. Pillard said there was $6,000 for a grant writer. Pillard said the Block Grants area could potentially go up because she hasn’t received a lot of information yet. Pillard said the cost of the Presidential Election has been added in for Department 33, Auditor/Elections. Pillard said they haven’t gone over technology capital expenditures or capital projects yet, so the amounts included in the spreadsheet are Fiscal Year 2000. Pillard said it is anticipated that the State funding for the Juvenile Crime Prevention Grant will go away. She asked if the Board is OK with funding what will be lost from the grant. Stutsman said they should talk about this when Thompson is present. Pillard said they can discuss capital projects when they get everything else settled.

Pillard asked if the match for the skywalk for Senior Dining is an item the Board wants to discuss. Jordahl said there is no way the City should be spending $350,000 dollars for it. The Board decided to, at the moment, leave this request out.

Stutsman asked if they were going to increase the Health and Dental Insurance Fund. Pillard said the Board decided to go with an increase of 5% which only covers Health, and that they decided not to increase the Dental benefits.

Stolze explained that the recommended ending balance for the General Basic Fund for Fiscal Year 2000 was 1.9 million to be able to cover expenditures in July and August. He said they were recommending an ending balance in the General Basic fund of 2.2 million at the end of Fiscal Year 2001. Stolze told the Board that last week they re-estimated their tax revenues, and receipts went up a little bit. He said they didn’t adjust to get the Fiscal Year 2001 beginning balance back to 1.9 million, which was what was established as a budget figure. Stolze said it was suggested by Deputy Auditor Chris Edwards that one thing the Board could do for next year is increase the transfer from General Supplemental to General Basic this year, above what is currently in the spreadsheet. He said this would shift some of the excess balance out of General Supplemental into General Basic. Stolze said this would then allow the Board to fund more things in the General Basic fund because they’d have more dollars to play with to get back up to the maximum transfer limit. Stolze said as an example, the number they talked about earlier was $971,000, the extra dollars they could fund in General Basic that were transferred from General Supplemental. He said if they increased the transfer in the current budget year over what was estimated, whatever the transfer amount would be, would allow the Board to do that much more next year because it would put them at a lower level in terms of the original starting point on the transfer. He said the maximum wouldn’t change but it would allow the Board to fund more things next year. He said they are just making the beginning General Basic Balance larger therefore the tax askings there can go down, and it allows the Board to start with a lower figure next year to transfer from General Supplemental. He said since the General Supplemental amount is capped by the Code of Iowa, then it allows the Board of Supervisors to do more next year. Stolze said this would only be a one time thing. Stolze said if they transferred an extra $200,000 this current budget year, they would have that much more money next budget year to use. Stolze said they would be making the 2001 beginning balance 2.2 million, instead of waiting to do it at the end of the budget year.

Stutsman said she was trying to relate this to taxes. Pillard said if taxes are going to go up one way or another, they could stave off the tax increase for 2001 if they chose to increase the minimum up to 2.2 million, they wouldn’t have to tax for that dollar amount if they didn’t want to. Pillard said they would have to tax for it in 2002. Pillard said since this would be a one time thing, the extra money should go towards items that are a one time deal. Pillard said they would suggest that the money goes into capital projects or somewhere similar with the understanding, that when the 2002 budget is being prepared, the transfer would go down. Stolze said if the Board transfers more this year, with everything that is in the spreadsheet for 2001 requests, if that was all that was going to be funded, the transfer in 2001 from General Supplemental to General Basic would go down. Stolze said because General Basic has more money in it, they could fund more things next year in General Basic before they have to start transferring money in from General Supplemental because it’s got a higher beginning balance to start with. He said this won’t change the tax askings or the levy. Jordahl asked why it does a good thing for 2001 if it does a bad thing for 2002. Stolze explained that it doesn’t do anything to 2002, it just a one time thing. Stutsman said it just means there isn’t that flexibility in 2002.

Stutsman said she was worrying they might be encumbering a future Board with a decision they make. Pillard said this decision wouldn’t affect another Board because it’s a one time deal. Stutsman said it’s nice to know that this is available, but she’s not sure the Board wants to go that route. Jordahl said he could argue for this for capital projects, and Stutsman agreed. Pillard reminded the Board that even if they don’t do this this year and raise taxes, the 2002 budget will have to be raised by that amount in order to maintain the minimum balance.

Duffy asked how this would affect the Rural Basic Fund. Stolze said the Rural Basic Fund is for rural and has it’s own levy cap of $3.95. Stutsman said they can’t transfer money into Rural Basic like they can General Basic so it won’t affect it. Stolze said if the Board decides to do this and make an extra transfer this year, they will wait until the very end of the Fiscal Year, until all budget amendments have been determined and approved. He said then they could just simply transfer whatever amount would be necessary to keep the balances at whatever the Board wants them to be. Jordahl said in his opinion they should take everything out of the General Basic Fund that could be in the General Supplemental Fund and tax for it there. He said it would be simpler for future Boards of Supervisors.

Stutsman said this is good information as they go through the budget process. Stolze said he is just giving out options and not making a recommendation one way or another. Stutsman said this is good information for the Board to have to make policy decision on. Lehman said Stolze can’t really come back with any numbers until the Board says to give us this option. Stolze said once that is done they can just plug numbers in and show how a levy would change.

Jordahl asked if they took all of the insurance out of the General Basic Fund, and put it into the General Supplemental Fund, could the Board in the future, freely transfer money back into the General Basic Fund to raise the need for the levy there. Stolze said no because they would basically be taking everything out that would be allowable to be taxed in the General Supplemental Fund, and there really wouldn’t be anything left in the General Basic Fund that could be paid out of the General Supplemental Fund. Jordahl asked why it is possible now. Stolze said because of specifics that the Code says you can pay for out of General Supplemental like health insurance, FICA and IPERS that are budgeted in each department. He said General Basic has about 20 departments, and you could theoretically take all the dollars that are allowed to be paid for by taxes raised in Supplemental and pay for them from General Basic. He said this wouldn’t change total taxes because all you’d be doing is shifting the taxes, but the total combined levy between the 2 funds wouldn’t change.

Stutsman said that even though this allows more flexibility it is still going to raise taxes and the Board needs to decide if they want to take advantage of that if it is going to mean raising taxes. Pillard said that either way the Board is going to have to raise the taxes in order to cover the new minimum balance of 2.2 up from the 1.9. Pillard said the question is are they going to do it this year, or wait and do it to have it cover the increase in the minimum balance. Stolze said that as you start adding and comparing to other things the impact can be seen. He said once the numbers start to get plugged in, you can see how the Supplemental levy, which is at .86266 currently, would change when certain things are added into it.

Adjourned at 11:05 a.m.

Attest: Tom Slockett, Auditor

By Amie Kelley, Recording Secretary