Chairperson Stutsman called the Johnson County Board of Supervisors to order in the Johnson County Administration Building at 9:05 a.m. Members present were: Charles Duffy, Jonathan Jordahl, Mike Lehman, Sally Stutsman, and Carol Thompson.

Stutsman suggested completion of the discussion of each department’s budget. She said after they finish the discussion of the departments’ budgets the Board needs to talk about what they want to set the fund balance at and if they want to discuss cost of living increases. Deputy Administrative Assistant Deana Pillard reported they left off with the Physical Plant (17). She said the only thing that was left to discuss was the continued savings for the truck. Thompson asked if the net increase would be $4,000. Pillard said yes. The Board agreed to leave the vehicle in.

Pillard said there is one capital project item in Department 18. She listed chairs for the Board Room, a display case in the employee break room that is $990, and folding tables, which was $1,910 as the items under capital expenditures. She said the total for these is $6,900 in capital expenditures. Duffy said he would like to reserve judgement on these items until they get farther through the budget. Lehman said he would leave it in the budget for the first time through. Stutsman said the Board will put the list of capital expenditures in the budget. Deputy Auditor Dan Stolze said there is a significant decrease because last year’s large increase for health insurance is not in the budget.

Dan said there aren’t significant costs for the computer program, which is a $100,000 decrease. He said there is a refund for the prior year’s revenue. He said most everything else is inline with where it was last year. Stolze said with out the previous 3 items, the budget only increased by one percent. Pillard said additional costs for televising the Board meetings was in the budget. Stolze said they also put in $6,000 for the grant writer that has been discussed. Jordahl said he has heard some very good things about the Employee Computer Purchase Program. Stutsman said she would favor doing the Computer Purchase Program every other year. Thompson agreed, saying they could use the $33,000 in revenue from the program next year. Stolze said $41,000 in revenue would come in this year. Stutsman said the Computer Purchase Program was a lot of work for the Auditor’s office and Information Services, and they should talk to Information Services Director Jean Schultz about how often it should be done.

Jordahl asked about the reimbursement for animal control and Stolze said there is an increase of $9,755. Stutsman said by increasing the fee to the animal shelter they will have a decease in the fees to the vet. Thompson asked why drug and alcohol testing went down. Pillard reported it is being taken out of department budgets. Thompson asked about the lower personnel/Board costs and non-bargaining merit. Stolze said the first line was for insurance cost increases the prior year that won’t be brought forward in the next budget. He said the second line showed a decease because Human Resources Administrator Lora Shramek felt that $40,000 dollars is where it needed to be, so the decrease is just lowering it down to the $400,000.

Pillard said the 17,010 was budgeted for Pat White’s budget this year. Thompson said she would be in favor of putting in the 17,010 plus the amount to cover reclassifications. Stutsman said she would like to have Shramek come up and talk about that. Stolze said the merit increases were at a level suggested by Shramek, which she felt would be $40,000 on an ongoing basis. Thompson said she thinks that they have not talked about the reclassification part of it. Jordahl said this is the kind of area where if they expect there to be reclassifications in mid-year it would be legitimate to expect Shramek to have a fund for it rather than to make a budget amendment. Pillard said there isn’t a process in place for the reclassification of employees. Stutsman asked for input from Shramek on reclassifying positions. The consensus was that the funding for merit increases should stay in the budget. Duffy said he was not so sure about leaving it in the budget because there might be times where they might have to make a budget amendment. Jordahl said the Board should have budget amendments for things that they can’t foresee and they should not have budget amendments for things that they know are going to happen. He said if they know that there is a process for reclassification and one is going to happen and they have a reasonable estimate, then that figure should be in the budget. Stutsman said she is hesitant to leave money in for reclassification, which would encourage department heads to use this as an alternative for raising wages. She said she does not want to have reclassification as a normal operating procedure for every department.

Thompson asked what department funds for the Family Resource Centers for the Juvenile Justice Administration go in. Stutsman said that the resource centers going into Department of Human Services Area Administrator Cheryl Whitney’s budget. Thompson asked about the current year’s Health Insurance adjustments. Stolze said that 5% is already figured into the spreadsheet. It was clarified that funding would go through Human Services to Decategorization.

For Planning and Zoning, Stutsman noted 4 Supervisors supported the additional position, Decision Package 2. Pillard said the request for document management is taken out. She said, in decision package one, the amount for a vehicle ($5,000) and the amount for a photocopier ($1,000) are in to be saved for future purchase. Lehman asked whether the money from the sale of the old copier would go into the department’s revenue or in to the General Fund. Pillard said the Board could decide where the money goes. Stutsman said she thinks that the money does not count as income in the Planning and Zoning fund and it will revert back to the General Fund. Stolze said even if the money goes back to the department it will count as General Basic and they would not be able to spend it. Duffy asked about the need for space for the proposed position in Planning and Zoning. Jordahl said that if document management is approved, the files taking space in the office would be scanned and removed and then create space for a new person.

Stutsman asked the Board if there was anything they need to discuss concerning Insurance Department 22. Pillard said there was a decrease in the Department 22 budget. Pillard said block grants in Department 23 would be the same as 20 and she is waiting for numbers. For Department 24, Pillard said they have also reduced their budget by $1,949.

Stutsman said they had to give Juvenile Justice what was requested, and Jordahl agreed and said if not, they have to be prepared for a budget amendment. Pillard said an additional $19,900 has been requested for Court Services and the Board agreed to fund it.

Jordahl asked how Emergency Medical Services differs from the Ambulance budget. Pillard said the Board has no control over Emergency Medical Services funds, they are for First Responders and Volunteer Firefighters. Pillard said although those funds are budgeted they are just a pass through.

Stutsman said they always have to levy the maximum to receive State funding for REAP. They clarified that this is the State funding if the Conservation Department is at the correct level.

Pillard said the costs for the presidential election has already been figured into the budget for $37,504. It was noted $500 is being saved each year in Elections (and under Auditor/Accounting) for future purchase of a copier. For the replacement of the ballot readers, the Board agreed to put in $50,000 savings for future purchase. For decision package 2 there was $9,300 advertising for voter registration, the Board approved and indicated interest in knowing more about the program after it’s completed. Duffy wanted to know how much it cost the previous year. Pillard said that this is something that the Auditor’s office has not done before. Stutsman said they had discussed Decision Package 3. Pillard said that it has not been included yet, and asked if the Board wanted it included. She said this item is for overtime for the poll workers. The Board didn’t think overtime should be paid for it since it is not on a weekly basis. They felt it is best to address the hourly rate. Duffy said he is not going to have an opinion because his wife helps with the absentee voting process.

Under Decision Package 4 for the Auditor’s Office, they discussed addressing this with the Planning and Zoning and Treasurer’s Office requests for document management. Stutsman said the Board was deferring on that issue. Pillard said the Auditor would scan documents going forward and the other departments would go back as well as forward. She said the Auditor’s office had requested the addition of an employee for scanning. She said Kriz is anticipating the scanning to be picked up by his current staff. Pillard thought that Planning and Zoning would scan their documents once a year. Jordahl said that the extra employee should not be necessary. Thompson asked if the Board does not include the extra person would the Auditor need to get a budget amendment. Stutsman said the Board has been adamant in not considering personnel requests as budget amendments. Jordahl said the whole notion that computers are going to make the job easier is violated by the idea that more help is going to be hired to do work the computer to make the job easier. Thompson said the position is a part-time temporary position for 6 months to do the data entry. She said as opposed to the other departments they were going to have an outside company do the data entry. Jordahl said that if Auditor’s office was going to do day-forward data entry, what sense does it make to have a part-time temporary person do day-forward work. The Board said they didn’t see the need for an additional position for scanning and would leave that out.

Recessed at 10:06 a.m.; reconvened at 10:16 a.m.

Under Central Technology, the Board noted document management and GIS aren’t in this budget yet. Stutsman said approving the technology expenditures makes the statement that the Board is committed to technology and moving forward. Thompson said there is a well thought out plan to be executed and it will grow. Duffy asked if Johnson County can afford all of these new technology expenditures. Stutsman said that Johnson County is a fast growing county and it is the Board’s responsibility to keep up with the change in times. Duffy said GIS should be farmed out. Jordahl said he spoke to ECICOG about whether they would support Johnson County in GIS, and the staff at ECICOG said they are not interested in supporting Johnson County and other large counties, only the smaller counties. Thompson said she agrees that they do GIS with someone else, however it is going be a costly project no matter how they do it. She said closing the polygons is going to a part of the expense and nobody else will do that for them and that was estimated at about $124,000. There was discussion of what the costs for conversion would be. Deputy Auditor Mark Kistler said the cost of the shared effort would be $111,000. He said that was for the Auditor’s office working with the consultant. Duffy said he would like to have a special meeting with the Auditors. Pillard said there is report on the agenda for Thursday. The Board decided to leave this on the table.

The Board discussed the requests for document management. Jordahl said Departments 33 and 19 didn’t budget a sufficient amount, however it does not matter because they are going to do document imaging centrally. The Board discussed putting $75,000 in the budget for document management. The Board also discussed lumping the requests for GIS software together for consideration. Jordahl said new hardware for a department that is not a replacement is done through the department’s request and replacement of existing hardware is done through central technology and software is through the department. Thompson said as far as Secondary Roads, Health and Planning and Zoning those would be the next ones that she would pick. She said there should be a plan on how they add departments. The Board said they would wait to make any decisions until they receive the GIS report on Thursday.

It was noted that there would be a decrease in Institutional Accounts. Thompson asked where they pay for Mental Health Commitment people, and Pillard replied that it was out of Institutional Accounts. Stolze said most of the cost of Institutional Accounts is associated with the costs of placement of children at Toledo.

The Board discussed the $32,000 increase in Decisions Package 1 for Human Services. Pillard said that was an increase in their operating expenses, and 20,000 combined with the remanding 12,000 was for future relocation.

The Board discussed community resource centers. Stutsman said these contracts should be under Decat for accountability, and the Board may need to make a policy statement that they are encouraging development of community centers in the outlying communities. Thompson added that there should be a match by the city or school district in these locations. Duffy was opposed to spending County money within the cities. Jordahl interjected that the Board receives most of their funding from the cities. Duffy said that that 37% of the rural property taxes goes to the Board, yet they are only 17% of the population.

Stutsman said she would like to have a discussion about the money that is being put into the Senior Centers. She said that maybe some of that money could be spread around and better spent somewhere else. Jordahl said they need to make a policy statement about this issue in general. Thompson said that for $30,000 dollars they could contribute to centers in most of the small towns. Stutsman said maybe they should make a policy statement that they are encouraging developing neighborhood centers in the small towns. Jordahl said they could set a limit on how much the Board can match. Stutsman said they need to set some guidelines for this issue. Duffy said they should meet with the small cities and the school districts before committing to anything. The Board allocated $25,000 for this purpose. There was general approval for the increases in the Department 45 budget for child-care.

Pillard said the Sheriff is asking for an additional $6,000 for Court Services and the Board approved the request.

For Secondary Roads, the Board recapped that they eliminated the proposed engineer position and approved the maintenance worker. Thompson said that Decision Package 1 was approved. Lehman said the Sand Road project brought up that the Farm to Market funds are becoming limited. He said that he asked County Engineer Mike Gardner if they were better off to put the Farm to Market program on hold and work on the roads that they have to pay for. He said Gardner said the side roads would be in good shape but they may need to wait on some of the main roads without some local funding. Stutsman reminded the Board that Gardner had said that his estimates were conservative. Jordahl said that not all of the roads are going to be paid for with Farm to Market funds. He said they are going to use local tax dollars to build roads. He said if they are not going to raise taxes because of the farm economy then how much money do they actually have and are they going to engineer with nothing to do, or will they need an engineer to catch up on the back log. Thompson said Decision Package 3 was just what was not spent this year and needs to be reallocated for the next year. She said that Decision Package 3 was actually $23,000 less than last year. Stutsman asked if the Board approved the $187,000 in Decision Package 3. Thompson asked if the increase of $200,000 for the Road Use taxes was figured as revenues in the Secondary Roads budget. Stolze said it is the spreadsheet. Thompson said there was also a transfer of $150,000 from fund 48 road escrow. Stolze said it is figured as a transfer and not as revenue. Lehman said last year they budgeted $25,000 for outside engineering and asked if that is in again. Pillard said it is not in again because it was presented as a one-time need. Jordahl said the engineer personnel request states that this person would be involved in completing the design and other duties that are necessary for completing the construction projects on the 5-year program on schedule. Stutsman said the request was sparked by the Board’s desire to speed up the projects. She said that she thinks that things have leveled out and the extra engineer is not needed. Lehman said that last year the Board gave Secondary Roads 20,000 to 30,000 for outside engineering, which is not in the current budget proposal. Jordahl said they should still consider this engineer position if it is necessary to keep on schedule with the 5 Year Plan.

Concerning Veterans Affairs Stutsman said there is an increase in Decision Package 1 of 1,900. There was a discrepancy on what the increase was. Jordahl and Thompson quoted 3,055 as the increase. It was stated that the difference is because of $1,200 worth of fruit baskets. Stutsman said that she has a problem with the fruit baskets. She said she didn’t think that County dollars were meant to be used for that out of that fund, and said she would like to reduce the increase to 1,500 or 1,400 and exclude the fruit baskets. Jordahl said the assistance for housing is undercutting the support for food. He said there should be a set amount that is equally available whether it is used for food or rent. Jordahl said he agrees with Stutsman that this budget should be cut. Pillard clarified that Veterans Affairs wants to increase their budget by 3,055. She said they are decreasing some line items, but the majority of increases are in the form of rental assistance, which is a $5,000 increase. Thompson made the point that last April, Veterans Affairs Director Leo Baier, told the Board if they raise his department’s guidelines that he would not need any extra money in this year’s or next year’s budget, and now he is asking for an increase.

Stutsman said that she noticed that the staff meals and lodgings are up $800, and asked if that is included in the increase. Pillard said that is decreasing, the transportation is going down $200, meals and lodging is going down $800, and registration fees are going down $150. She said the total decrease of line items is $1,150. Pillard said there still is a $5,000 increase for rental assistance. Jordahl said part of the meals and lodgings expenses was due to a national conference in Des Moines. The Board agreed on a $1,500 increase for the Veteran Affairs Budget. Pillard asked if the Board is in favor of Veterans Affairs increasing their rent line item. Thompson suggested cutting their travels and combine that amount and add 1,500 and then put all of that into rent. Stutsman said she does not want to cut services, however she is skeptical of the things that money is being used for such a fruit baskets. Jordahl said so they are not talking about a $1,500 increase but $3,500 increase. Pillard asked is the Board in favor of Veteran Affairs increasing their rent line item. She said the Board could just approve the same amount that they have and then they could use the money that they have taken out of travel. Thompson said she would agree with that. Stutsman said that she still has some questions with this budget and what they are spending money for. Stutsman asked Pillard if she could clarify this budget proposal because it is confusing on what they actually want and how much it is going to cost. Thompson said if they add up the cost of the staff as a percentage of the total budget they are spending a large amount of money to administer a few dollars to veterans. Stutsman said she would like to send a letter to Baier stating what tax dollars are to be used for. Jordahl said isn’t that a Veterans Affairs Commission decision. Stutsman said she feels that tax dollars are to be used as a last resort to provide services to veterans in need. She said the fruit baskets are wonderful, however it is not an appropriate use of tax dollars.

Pillard reported there are no increases for Nutrition. She said there are 2 decision packages under Nutrition Trust for a steamer and a deli bar. Lehman said he is using the interest in the trust fund. Duffy said he couldn’t approve the expenditure for the salad bar that costs $5,000. There was discussion that there might be health requirements for properly handling the food that might be met by the salad bar. The Board approved these expenditures.

Pillard said Juvenile Crime Prevention is requesting an additional $50,000. She said that on the revenue side they are requesting 200,000, which is in the spreadsheet, the $50,000 is on the expenditure side for a total increase of 250,000. Thompson said that she is pretty sure that there is going to be some money for the state for this year. She said that if their state grant last year was 200,000 and the Board gives this department 200,000 and they get 100,000 from the state, then the next year they are going to come back and ask for 200,000 that they got the previous year and replace the $100,000 that they received from the state. Thompson suggested reducing the amount by what they felt could be acquired in State funding. The Board decided to put $100,00 into the revenue but not the $50,000 for added expenditures. Jordahl said that the Board suggested putting money into prevention. Thompson said if the put more money in then the Board is enabling Iowa City and Coralville to not pay for prevention. Jordahl suggested writing a letter to the cities asking them to help out more with the costs of Juvenile Crime Prevention. The Board agreed to that suggestion. In discussing asking the cities for more support, Thompson said the total commitment by Coralville for human services is $30,000. Thompson said the Board provides the basic needs but prevention is something that the County and the cities share. The Board agreed to discuss this budget further at another time.

Thompson asked where they were on the budget and Pillard said they would need to make some cuts.

Pillard said the Recorder was requesting the ability to spend an additional $370, which are her funds that she receives.

The Courthouse Centenary Fund was established for any donations for the Centenary Committee. Thompson said the restoration of the Courthouse would be a good first project for the proposed grant writer. Thompson said they should see if they could receive some kind of Historical Preservation Grant for the courthouse. Stutsman said that maybe they could suggest that to the Centenary Committee.

Thompson asked if there was money for space needs in the spreadsheet. Pillard said the only amount in for capital expenditures is the amount in the current budget. She said that for capital projects there is $900,000. The Board decided to add $600,000 to the $900,000, because the consensus was this would be the minimal amount to meet needs. Duffy disagreed and characterized it as stockpiling money. He asked what this money was for and the rest of the Board said it was for all space need expenditures including the jail. Duffy said the jail should be a bond issue so that the public can vote on it. Thompson asked if there was trust money available for the Senior Center skywalk. The Board said that Senior Dining Trust money could not be used for that purpose.

The Board discussed the fund balance. Stolze said it was originally recommended to make the fund balance 2.2 at the end of Fiscal Year 2001. Stolze said they talked in the past about whether or not the Board wanted to try and reach the fund balance at the start of the year instead of doing it next year. Thompson asked if the Board had enough money. Stolze said they would transfer some of the excess funds from the General Supplemental Fund into the General Basic Fund. He said they are not anywhere close to hitting that maximum amount in the current fiscal year. Stutsman said she was not ready to make a decision today. Stolze said if a decision is made then the ending fiscal year 2000 balance will be at 1.9 million, which is what was budgeted for anyway. Stolze said increasing the fund balance would reduce the amount of the transfer needed to meet expenses. He said taxes would be the same, but there would be greater flexibility. The Board agreed to a beginning balance for FY 2001 of 2.2 million using a transfer in the current year.

Stutsman asked if they wanted to leave the cost of living increase at 2%. Thompson said that every percent was an increase of 110,000. Duffy said that they are not going to get by with the 2%. Jordahl suggested going up to 3%. They discussed how increasing it would undermine collective bargaining.

The Board discussed the Rural Basic levy, which Stolze explained the detail going into the summary for the levy. He said most of it funds the transfer into Secondary Roads. He said they figured the minimum transfer and the maximum transfer by fund into Secondary Roads. Stolze said that the transfer could come from both funds or just one fund. He said however there is a maximum amount that can be transferred from General and Rural Basic into Secondary roads. The Board discussed the impact of the rural levy on farmers and rural homeowners and how adjustments to levies affect them the same.

Adjourned at 11:47 a.m.

Attest: Tom Slockett, Auditor

By Mark Kistler, Recording Secretary