Stutsman: Just to recap, this will be the item 4, business from the County Computer Committee regarding report, recommendation for funding for GIS for Fiscal Year 2001 and forecast for the following 4 years. Jonathan?

Jordahl: Right. Thank you Sally. Mike Lehman and I are the Board’s representatives to the County Computer Committee. We have worked not only with the Computer Committee but also with the Geographical Information Systems Subcommittee to investigate what the actual costs of getting this project going would be so that the Board can make an informed decision on whether to start down this path or not. We have a consultant working on a needs assessment that should be coming to us in report for sometime soon. But we wanted to be able to get some dollar amounts into the budget, and so we got a preliminary report from Jeff Hanson to give us some guidance on a budget amount. It states that we would need to get started by hiring the GIS coordinator at the start of a database development project. So we want to get that coordinator on the ground and allow that person to be involved with the Geographical Information Systems in it’s earliest phase, he says. Therefore the coordinator will be able to develop a thorough knowledge of all phases of the GIS development. The coordinator’s position would involve management of the database project, coordinating the application developments, or our own in house software, whether we completely develop our own or modify outside stuff, and general work with all of our staff on this, and I have a lot of staff here who have worked with the Committee to, and maybe represent their views, perspectives on this as well. The recommendation itself from the Committee, that has been passed up from both the subcommittee and the County Computer Committee as a whole is that the Board of Supervisors fund the GIS project and the position of Coordinator for a combined amount of $200,000 for Fiscal Year 01 that we’re working on the budget for now, and for a range, and what the commitment would amount to is a continuing amount of between 100,000 and $200,000 per year, depending upon our ability to pay for the next 4 years after that, to keep the project going and developing. So that’s the range of commitment. We figure the salary and benefits for the Coordinator at the neighborhood of $70,000 combined and that would then allow us to accomplish here, should the County fund the GIS recommendations, we would accomplish a well-designed and fully functional GIS database. So this would, and I’m going to have some experts here speak to exactly what that means in a moment. Set up procedures and applications in place to maintain and update the database, applications to efficiently create State mandated parcel maps and provide up to date maps to County departments and the public. We sort of tinkered with the question of putting this out over the internet, and we’re kind of thinking that rather than spending that $30,000 this year, it makes more sense to save that for the following year and concentrate on developing the database itself and getting it ready for prime time and then putting the thing out as part of next year’s budget. At this time I would like any members of the Committee to come forward and speak to the Board about this that might like. We have Bill Horning, Information Services, Jean Schultz, the Director, Rick Dvorak has been very active in this, Mark Kistler I see, Chris Kahle, others, Jerry Musser from the Assessor’s Office. My own summary of this would be that this is a way for us to take advantage of the facts, the information that we have and make it easier for us to make decisions based on those facts. To make a more efficient and thorough operation for the public. Anyone who wants to, please step forward and speak, because this is the time. I’ll do specific invitations here, there we go, Fred Brown. I forgot to mention Fred Brown. How could I miss you? You were hiding behind the camera, I think.

Chairman of the GIS Subcommittee Fred Brown: That was it. I’m so easy to miss in crowds. I’m Fred Brown. I’m the Chairman of the GIS Subcommittee. The reason I thought I should come up today for this is this whole budget request breaks down into 2 parts. As Jonathan said, the GIS Coordinator, that person would be in charge of making sure that we’re all going in the same direction. They would work with other departments. They would also be out seeking grant funding. They would set up procedures so that we could insure quality control on the work that we do, and all the other things that Jonathan went through on that list that we received from Jeff Hanson. This person is going to be a skilled professional. We’re going to expect a lot of them. They’re going to have to do anything that any other department head would do as well as going out, looking, make contacts with other people, other groups, other organizations. Work with them in order to make sure that what we produce will work with what they need. This would be cities like Iowa City, Coralville, North Liberty, the smaller communities in the County. We would be able to provide, that person would be working with them to see what we can provide them to help them do their job better. The other part is the actual work. Currently the Auditor’s Office has a number of map files. Those files are computer files which essentially consist of lines, numbers, letters and information that’s in kind of what we call a static format. It doesn’t change unless someone actually opens the file, makes changes to what’s there. The database that Jonathan has mentioned is actually the process of converting these lines into parts of a database field, which will have a shape, a size, information can be attached to it like we do with all other databases. We’ll be able to take this one database, which they call the spatial database. This database is the map portion of it, but it has a nice little piece attached to it that lets it connect to all the other information that we want to put out there. We’re going to have this so we use the permanent parcel numbering system that the County’s developed over the last 4 or 5 years, set that in place so we can use that to identify all of the other information that we currently have access to here. The public, County employees, will all be able to access this information through a computer which uses relatively inexpensive software. We have, depending on the needs of the person, we currently have software which we get for free. It will let them look at information, examine it, but they won’t be able to make changes, and they won’t be able to do things such as, say, what if. We have one or 2 copies of software that we currently have as a County which lets us ask the question what if, how can we do this, what can we do better, and play with scenarios. That’s the ArcView software. Then we have the software that creates all of these databases. That would be the ArcInfo software, which is currently being used by members of the Auditor’s Office, but it will be available to everyone in the County as soon as we’re able to get them machines that will handle the work. But all of this is something that will let us do our jobs better and faster and make it easier for the public to get information from us. It’s been stated many times in the past, a person who wants to find out every person who lives within 200 feet of them is going to spend 3, 4, 5 hours here. Using this software, the ArcInfo or ArcView software, that question could be asked and they could have a printed list and out the door in 5 minutes. Those are things that are going to help the public. Those are quick and easy things. We’ll also be able to look at things, for example the Sheriff’s Department will be able to say where do we see crimes happening and can we take and find out where we should be applying our patrols more. Those questions can be answered quickly. We’ll be able to look at things such as disease tracking through the Health Department. We’ll be able to take and look at information such as well, one of those wonderful can of worms, what happens if we want to rezone this area? Those things will all be things that we can look at and we can look at different scenarios of it that we can’t look at in the detail that we have now. So I would like to encourage the Board to seriously consider this initial 200,000 dollars to get us started with the additional money for the following years just to keep the GIS Coordinator and additional development in place. Can I answer any questions for anyone at this time?

Thompson: I have a couple of questions. The report that I read from Farragut, it was $114,000 to do the recommended plan where they coordinated with our own staff. Does the 114,000 include the cost of our staff?

Brown: No. That has an estimate in that report of what they think our staff, I’m sorry. No, that is correct. It does include an estimate for the amount of time they think our staff would have to spend and a dollar figure that we gave them for the amount of, it would cost for our staff to do that work. That would be, Farragut would do a portion of the work, they would return it to us, we would make changes that they recommend, we would send it back to them. It would be back and forth to get everything in place.

Thompson: OK, so…

Brown: It does, in fact, include I believe 1,800 hours of work in our part, which they’ve allocated out at a price that (inaudible) worked on here…

Jordahl: 16.

Brown: $16 an hour. Which is approximately what a map delineator in the Auditor’s Office would earn.

Thompson: So, OK. The other question I had was, so that’s 114,000 plus 70,000, which leaves $16,000 of the 200,000.

Brown: Yes.

Thompson: Is that for the software?

Brown: We will need to renew our license, our maintenance agreement for that software every year, which runs approximately $4,300. We will need to get probably one more copy of the ArcInfo program so that we can make it available to more than one person at a time. That will run approximately $9,000.

Thompson: Does that include the ArcInfo for the Health Department, Roads and Planning and Zoning?

Brown: They would get ArcView for most of the work that they will do. The ArcInfo is the part that we would need here or Secondary Roads if they are going to go in and work, or Zoning departments, those people would use the ArcInfo to make the large data conversions. The Health Department and others would use the ArcView program to be able to view this information and attach other information of their own.

Thompson: So is that included in here? Or is that extra?

Jordahl: I think the software.

Brown: That would fall into the $200,000, yes, for the first year.

Horning: Well, it’s not for software for all the (inaudible).

Brown: No, it’s not. It’s not for all the departments.

Thompson: Just those 3 though were the ones that were requesting it this year?

Horning: Money is being allocated to start the system. There will be additional software costs in additional years for other departments. This cost is only to get a base, a start. To give us something to springboard from. Other department applications and other department software will have to be purchased in additional years. This is going to give us the very basic system that we need to start.

Jordahl: But, the software for other departments is a relatively small cost. I mean, ArcView is in the neighborhood of what, $1,200 or something like that.

Brown: Approximately.

Jordahl: So, compared to $200,000, you’re really talking about an insignificant amount and we’re talking about a handful of departments in the current budget request. We’re in the neighborhood of $3,500, $4,000. So, that we could either choose to fund that $4,000 within this $200,000 or into the departments as an additional $4,000, and it wouldn’t make or break the program one way or the other. As we discussed in the meeting yesterday, we could stretch out the implementation over a couple of fiscal years and if necessary, squeeze that $4,000 out of the figure here, just by extending the time frame by a month. So, it’s not an insurmountable problem one way or the other.

Stutsman: What could you do for less money if… We’re in the process of going through the budget and this is one of the big items that we’re considering.

Brown: Much of this can be done depending on your timing. We could put off starting this project until January of 2001. We wouldn’t need a full year’s worth of salary for the GIS Coordinator if we didn’t hire him at that point.

Thompson: Him or her.

Brown: Him or her. I’m sorry. You’re correct.

Jordahl: We could. We could hire the Coordinator and have that person on the ground to work with departments in getting things ready for the data base and have the consultant that would be assisting with the conversion work at less of a full boar rate. They would have their time free to work on other projects to some extent. We could sort of stretch out their implementation. So, it would just be a question of how long it took us to get a functional system on the ground.

Brown: Part of the work the GIS Coordinator is going to be doing will be with the spatial maps. The maps themselves. The part of what the GIS Coordinator is going to be doing will be working with Information Services and the other departments to find out what information we should make available at what point in time. To say that we want to put all the County real estate records for example, make them all available immediately may or may not be the best thing. It might overwhelm some departments in their needs once they’re able to get access to it. Whereas, the GIS Coordinator would be able to work with department heads and find out that they need only information such as addressing or they need valuation information. But, we’re going to be working with Information Services, the Assessor’s, both City and County. That person will be, the GIS Coordinator will be working with those 2 departments to get the 2 data sets that they have for property evaluation and stuff made available and find out what fields or what portions of that are needed.

Jordahl: We also… Rick mentioned the possibility of drawing upon the resources of the University too, as he has done so successfully in his office offer opportunities to people from graduate programs, in urban regional planning or geography. To help with the data conversion, give them good work experience and give us low cost labor to help with the process of doing some of this work. So, there are ways of squeezing this and getting more done or getting things done faster, and also, I want to remind you of Fred’s comment about grants. That a good coordinator for this program should be able to assist in coming up with some outside funding, which could then help to accelerate the process or make up for a lack of funding that the Board might have chosen to give.

Lehman: The results of discussion that (inaudible) share information with other communities that have some of this work in place, where we don’t have to duplicate things that have already been accomplished.

Stutsman: Is, is the Coordinator a long-term position or is this just a…

Brown: Yes. Yes.

Stutsman: OK. So, once they’re hired they’re…

Brown: They would be a long-term position, yes. That would, that person’s work would g on. Because once we have the basic mapping information in place from the $114,000 or so that Farragut would be charging us, new projects will come up, new questions will come up, new uses will come up. And it will be the responsibility of the Coordinator to work to get information available and help produce the… What am I trying to say? The programs that will let people run this, the interfaces to this. For example, with the ArcView program, one would expect, I would expect the Coordinator to be able to help the departments set up various scenarios saying, this is what you should do to look at this aspect or that aspect. Or, for example, if the Sheriff’s Department has need of something to help them track a specific type of crime, the GIS Coordinator would be able to help them put that together quickly.

Jordahl: Rick, you’ve been using this, this software, and maybe you could find a microphone here and fill in some of how this data overlays would, would work to, well, kind of what Fred’s saying, but give us some pictures.

Planning and Zoning Administrator Rick Dvorak: Well, I have 3 minutes. I know we have a public hearing, because I have to participate in that. But, first thing I’d say before I forget is that to me…

Stutsman: Rick, I was just going to… You have plenty of time. We aren’t…

Dvorak: Oh. OK.

Stutsman: The hearing is scheduled for 10, but we can start it later than 10.

Lehman: We’re comfortable.

Dvorak: To me, in reading through the history of GIS in the United States, one of the biggest problems is poor coordination. And for that reason, I’m here also to support what we’ve been talking about this morning and that I’ve been using a mini form of GIS for the last year and a half. And we use it on every application that the Board sees currently. I’ve done presentations for the Board when we’ve done our North Liberty and Coralville Fringe Area Agreements. I think they’re a great visual aid for the Board and for the public. Again, coordination is the key to a good GIS system. Without that coordination, you spend and waste time and money. I can think of a couple local communities that did it without a coordinator and it turned into a nightmare. I don’t want to name those communities, but, without the coordination I don’t think we can go forward without our, with the program like this. It’s too involved. The second thing is, is training. Coordination, or the coordinator we would hope to hire a Coordinator’s License in training staff. Training, as I found out, is very, very expensive. The University did offer some courses that were somewhat too advanced for the beginner. Right now I have a system from Pro Map. It’s a very good system they voluntarily gave some training to myself and now they don’t do that. Training right now runs between $2,000-$3,000, for depending on the amount of people that you would want to have involved in the training session. So, this person would save considerable amount of money, tax dollars, in training, in the office training and ongoing training, which to me is very, very important. So, from what you can tell, what I’m trying to say this morning is, whatever monies that you can set aside, I would hope that the Board would at least have monies aside, set aside at some point in time for the Coordinator, so that we can facilitate that need. Otherwise, I think it could be a mistake. I think we could make mistakes and that’s one thing, as I said in the beginning, we don’t want to do. It’s a very costly process. It’s a very informative process. We facilitate the needs. I have had engineering firms say they will participate and pay, help pay, for this system, surveying firms, realtors have said they would pay for access to this system. Because, currently, as you are aware, like I think Mike has seen that in our case, that people come into our office, and they can spend between 4 and 6 hours in this building a day researching a parcel of land. This can be done in a matter of minutes as, as Fred has alluded to previously. To me that’s very important and that’s one of the key issues to this. We can give you books, we can give you presentations, but the key issue is it does save time for the public and for staff. As far as what we do, we analyze, as Jonathan started talking about, we analyze a rezoning request, a platting request, soils information, flood plane information, erosion problems, anything associated with a potential development. We can try to resolve those during the hearing processes and try to make sure the developer is aware of what’s going to be expected. We have ADT information, we have all the bridge information, we have the Census information. That’s obviously 10 years out of date. But, this morning, I have been delegated by the Board to keep the Census information up to date. I’ve got another 250 maps I have now been given. I have to update all the new addresses for the last 2 years, which can be done through a (inaudible) file, which is very simple, which Arc View reads. So, this process can be done in about 1/10 the time that manually you would have to do it. So, I mean, these are a couple of brief example of what we’re doing now in this and daily for building permits by looking on the map to make sure that an individual’s not in the flood plane or in the flood way. We have some programs going on in a flood way development. This facilitates everything that we’re doing right now and it’s a very mini type of system that I got from the University, basically free, and from the DOT, and there’s resources out there.

Jordahl: That free thing; emphasize that Rick. Because we’ve talked here about how expensive it can be to make mistakes and the Board’s in the middle of the budget process. And I think one of the thing’s that’s really glorious about what you’ve been doing is that you’ve been able to get information from Jim (inaudible) over at the University to, that brings in all of this kind of map information overlays that we haven’t had to pay to get.

Dvorak: Right. I, I, to go on with that, I have gotten all the flood payments back from FEMA. These, these government agencies are basically begging for you to take their information now and their giving it to you for either nothing or for just the cost of a disk. The stuff that the geography department has given me, you’ve seen applications of it. It can basically tell you everything you need to know about a piece of land. It’s mini in that it can give us what they have given us. What we’re talking about today is attaching all of the County information to what already has been given to us by FEMA, DOT, University and so on. There’s no coordination between those 2. And I think that’s the key issue is we have to make sure that we coordinate what the County has in place and what has been given to us. What is on the shared drive, which you can view today, if you have a version of ArcView or browser version from Asbury.

Jordahl: That’s the idea of functionality. We, in the, in the needs assessment, one of the things we did not pay for that we, in the way we cut costs was the what can we get, what’s the bang for the buck in this system. Right now, we’re not accessing the information that we already have that Rick has made available. What this will do is not only make information that is useful available, but, it’ll begin to bring this into use. They will… The Coordinator will serve a function of training, education and coordination as well, so that we will have… For example, in the zoning process, we’ll be able to request that an engineer supply to the Planning and Zoning Office, digital information so that these plats that we’re now unfolding, maps during the meetings and kind of passing around, all that can come in digital form to Rick’s office. And we’re not going to be sitting there with a huge copier making these maps. You can have it up on your screen here. Up on the wall broadcast or, what’s the word, displayed from the computer projector and or on a laptop or monitors or whatever, without anybody having to go through all of this hassle with paper. It could just be instantaneous transmission. So, there’s a lot of information that is going to come in through into the system without cost, that is going to make things easier for us and for the people providing the information.

Dvorak: And it’s cost saving for the developers, because we, as you know, may tweak an application 5 to 10 times to make sure that document you receive is exactly what it has to be. If we do it on computer, they don’t have to continually reproduce, reproduce, reproduce. They can do it. We make the changes, they’ll make the corrections and it’s done, and then they’ll give you a hard copy.

Stutsman: Jonathan and I went to an Iowa State Association of Counties meeting on Wednesday, and it’s a good opportunity to talk to other supervisors and what they’re doing with different projects and things. And I did talk to a supervisor from Story County, and she mentioned that they are having GIS. The real estate records are all on access through the Internet now and people just love it. They can, from their office or their home, call up any parcel in Story County and get all the information on it.

Dvorak: I think that’s one of the first things we proposed, too. Not to put on the Internet right away, but to attach that information to the polygons or the to base maps that we have currently in place. That would be the first thing to do.

Jordahl: Although, if the Board were excited to make that Internet access a part of the development in the first year, the recommendations that we have from Farragut does break out the cost for GIS Internet applications and that’s only about an additional $35,000, on top of the $200, to make this. Now, I don’t know how soon what would be available on the Internet and that’s why the committee was thinking that we could probably cut that by that $35,000 and wait until we kind of had our feet on the ground before we put it out for the public.

Thompson: The $30,000 was extra from, in addition to the $114,000, so we can’t cut it because it’s not included in the $200,000 yet.

Jordahl: We cut it from the $230,000. It was $230,000 down to $200,000.

Lehman: In the future we would need that, but we needed to get the idea of getting information up and running. Don’t want to piggy back on what Sally had said, which she had learned at the state level (inaudible). I had gone to Ames to see a demonstration and some presentations and I know we have some economic development things coming up. They had given an example where Story County had used that. It sold the business that wanted to come in. They were competing with another County. It had paper folder stuff. They were able to put some down a room, project stuff on a screen. I mean, it sold them right as soon as they saw the stuff. I guess I don’t profess to know all of the details on how this thing all comes together, but I think in a nutshell, I think my definition of GIS is a way to store and present information of visible form.

Dvorak: I think to support what we’re saying, I think if the public’s interested in it and actually viewing what we’re saying, because it’s hard to grasp what we’re talking about if you’re not familiar with that. A company that I work with frequently is Pro Map out of Ames, Iowa, and they currently have been doing Shelby County.

Stutsman: I was going to say. We talk about these big counties, but Shelby County is, because we, that’s what we saw, Mike and I saw up there that day, too, is what Shelby County is doing. Going…

Dvorak: Yes. They actually have an Internet site and they have certain townships and areas. It’s not completed. But, townships and areas in Shelby County that are up to speed in everything we have talked about this morning. The public can click on to whatever the web site is, and I don’t remember, which we can give to the Board and give to the public if they’d like to view what an actual GIS system can do, because they’re doing what we’re saying we’d like to do. And in all the counties, excuse me, not all the counties, but a majority of the counties around this area are doing this now. Washington County is involved in it. I mean, I can give you a list or we can give you a list of communities that are actively involved in it. The City of Coralville has been actively involved in it and what we’re looking at is, is trying to work with the cities, and they’re one that’s very active, using our base maps. So, we know it’s functional. And then the same company we’re using is doing the work for the City of Coralville right now. So, we’re working with communities constantly to make sure we’re not going to be inconsistent or incompatible with what they’re doing and our software is going to be the same as their software and so on and so forth.

Jordahl: And our consultant is the same as their consultant at this point, too.

Dvorak: Yes.

Stutsman: Carol, you had a couple of more questions and then…

Thompson: At the end of this project, after we spend the $114,000, the polygons will be closed, right?

Brown: What you will have is, at the time that we sent the maps, started on it, the polygons up till that time will be closed. Johnson County puts in, grows by several thousand parcels a year through subdivision and such. Those will have an ongoing maintenance that has to be done on those.

Thompson: But we’ll be up to date?

Brown: As of the time we started sending those in.

Thompson: OK. And you talked before about the Coordinator as a department head.

Brown: As someone who would be functioning, I guess, near that level, yes.

Thompson: Is it your intention, then, that the people who do this work now in Planning and Zoning and the Health Department will be pulled together and supervised by that person in a separate department?

Brown: I don’t think that would necessarily be the case because each of the departments will have their own projects that they’ll want to do that go off in a different direction. For example, with the original mapping project, the Auditor’s Office did the maps. The recipient’s of a large portion of that were the City and County Assessor. The Zoning Office has a staff person there who does mapping, who does map work also, using the AutoCAD software to make zoning areas and add those onto the existing base maps that the Auditor has provided.

Jordahl: I would draw an analogy to the Human Resources that we’ve, that there are personnel in all departments, and yet Lora does not supervise them. She however, works with the department heads to coordinate things related to the function of the personnel. And the Board did receive a recommendation. I believe we, we passed a motion or resolution of some sort, indicating that, that if and when we did fund GIS, we would do it with the Central Coordinator independent from other departments under the Board of Supervisors. It was not determined at that time that we would make that person a department head, but rather, that that person would be under the Board of Supervisors. So, you could say that Deana Pillard is under the Board of Supervisors, but she’s not a department head. So, there’s a… The important thing is the person would not be beholden to any one department, but would oversee the, the development of this system, which in its essence, links departments together.

Stutsman: OK. Carol, any other questions?

Thompson: No. Thank you.

Stutsman: Any other comments from Board Members? Charlie, you’re quiet this morning.

Duffy: Yes. First of all, I’ll thank the Committee for this project. But, I was going to ask Sally and Jonathan, Story County have to build a new jail?

Stutsman: Yes. As a matter of fact, they’re building a justice center. I’ll tell you about that at another time.

Duffy: They are a very rich county. What was the other county?

Lehman: Shelby.

Duffy: They’re going to build a new jail, too?

Stutsman: I’d have to look.

Duffy: We’re talking about the taxpayers dollars and first comes first. And what we’ve been talking about folks, and if you’re watching this telecast, this thing is really going off the wall because we’re not doing very good on the budgets and you’re going to see one of the biggest tax increases you’ve ever seen if it keeps up. I would rather see this postponed for a year to see how we come out.

Jordahl: Charlie, I don’t want you to scare people with this tax increase thing. What are you talking about? Are you talking about the Jail?

Duffy: That’d be part of it. What I’m saying now, with the help we have for Mental Health, millions of dollars, we’re not doing very good.

Jordahl: That’s a capped budget. We can’t put more money in there.

Duffy: I’m saying like Rick…

Stutsman: Let’s keep our comments to the GIS proposal Charlie.

Duffy: Yes. OK. The Rick… You said this is terribly expensive and it is and I happen to know about it because I made reports on it through the Department of Economic Development, the board I’m on, 3 or 4 years ago. And I don’t think I jump in too fast here. I think it should be postponed for at least a year because we don’t know what we’re going to do with the Jail. Then, I’ve been reading in the paper where Space Needs something like might spend $350,000. No, $3,500,000 for the Mall in east Iowa City. And you just can’t do everything. We’re putting all of our eggs in one basket and we can’t do all of this. We just can’t.

Stutsman: Well, and that’s what the budget process is all about and this report is information for us, for the Board, to have so that we can continue deliberation of the budget process. What do we want to do as relation to taxes to projects that the County needs to be involved in or should be involved in. So, it’s been helpful to have this discussion, for me anyway, when I continue work on the budget.

Jordahl: We could put this $200,000 for GIS into the budget and have no tax increase. We have that flexibility within the budget. It’s just a question of what our priorities are.

Duffy: In other words, we’re not going to have… I’m going to put that down. We’re not going to have a tax increase in the end in the tax askings.

Stutsman: Well, we’re still deliberating on the budget, so that’s…

Duffy: OK.

Jordahl: As you well know there…

Duffy: Then when we get back on the budgets I’m going to remember that.

Stutsman: All right.

Jordahl: I said we could.

Duffy: I would be for that, but I just doubt it.

Stutsman: Any other comments about GIS? Anybody else from the Committee that would like to…

Jordahl: We got a lot of people here who have expertise in something perhaps to say. I know Chris Kahle sit there in the back row, the Auditor’s Office. We got Jerry Musser, at least was here. Is Jerry still around?

Lehman: Yes.

Jordahl: Certainly like to invite you to say something if you have burning things. Bill Horning, these people are taking time off from work to be here. Are you satisfied with what you’ve heard?

Deputy Auditor Chris Kahle: I just wanted to point out the 1,800 hours that Farragut Technologies has set aside for work to be done in the County for this project that’s not really specific as to where that 1,800 hours comes from.

Stutsman: Chris you’ve been requested to come up to the microphone so people can hear. This is Chris Kahle from the Auditor’s Office.

Kahle: I just wanted to point that the 1,800 hours that Farragut Technologies is talking about coming from the County’s efforts for this project, it’s not really detailed where that 1,800 hours is going to come from. I know you’ve seen reports from myself saying the Auditor’s Office has quite a bit or work they are doing already and they’re… We’re having a hard time keeping up with everything that is going on with the level of development in the County. And I just want you to be aware that the 1,800 hours is going to have come out of somewhere. So, when you’re setting up your budgets for personnel and whatnot for the GIS, if it gets to that level, just be aware of that. That is really the only thing that I am concerned about is, where’s the manpower going to come for this project. Where’s the manpower going to come from?

Jordahl: You’re not pointing to necessarily an additional cost of the $200,000, but rather a question of where. Which personnel are going to do that and if they’re going to do that what are they going to not do.

Kahle: Exactly. Exactly. I just wanted to throw that out for everybody to consider.

Lehman: Does that follow the pattern we talked about Interns, maybe temporary part-time people. Once this thing gets loaded there’ll be an up, continuous update. But the major portion of the work will be getting things loaded in this system and after that it could actually cut time of the County employees to bring material to a counter or display it for the public, so…

Kahle: Right. In the long run, yes, you can see that it will be a time saver.

Lehman: We have an up front demand.

Kahle: But the up front time is going to be there. Yes.

Jordahl: I think you make a good point Mike, about this is just exactly the kind of thing that we might be able to use some part-time student help for.

Lehman: But, it’s just, what I think he’s saying is, it’s hard to put a dollar figure on the convenience of this, to ourselves or to the public. But, Chris is warning us that there will be some up front. It took them a year, year and a half, or whatever it might take to get things accomplished.

Kahle: Yes.

Jordahl: But, that’s what we’re budgeting. I mean, that’s…

Lehman: Right. Right.

Jordahl: That’s the, the, the… I don’t want anyone to get the impression that the $200,000 figure is somehow disguising other costs. It anticipates that there will, that, that these labor costs, that 1,800 hours is in that $200,000.

Kahle: Carol had asked the question before about staffing and I just wanted to clarify that. When the 1,800 hours was talked about I just wanted to make sure that you were aware what that is going to impact. What impacts that’s going to have on offices that are doing work right now in the County.

Thompson: So, you’re saying it has to be an extra person. But, it’s covered in the $114,000.

Jordahl: Right. The cost is there. It’s just a question of, of, I think, part of what Chris is saying is really is sort of a detailed question if, does the GIS Coordinator hire part-time staff during the first year to do that 1,800 hours worth of work, or does the Auditor’s Office hire that person. That’s something we’ll have to work out.

Thompson: The way I read it, Farragut was going to hire them and that’s what didn’t, I didn’t understand that. So, they want us to hire them and they’ve included the cost in their proposal.

Jordahl: The proposal has a column. County hours, County hourly rate and so forth. That is anticipated that those hours, that 1,800 would be in the County hours column.

Duffy: There’s one thing about the public. This is going to cost a lot more than $200,000. This is just kind of a start up thing.

Jordahl: I indicated, when I made my introduction to this, that it was $100,000 to $200,000 per year on an ongoing basis for the next 4 years at least to get software developed and link data from other existing databases.

Duffy: Yes, well, you’d better do some more research and just what it is going to, going to cost.

Jordahl: We have hired, we have hired a consulting firm to do that Charlie.

Duffy: Oh, really. How much was that?

Jordahl: That’s what we’re talking about.

Duffy: Yes, but how much was the consultant charged?

Jordahl: We hired, as you will recall, a consultant for $25,000 to do this.

Duffy: 25, just to look into the thing?

Jordahl: To do a needs assessment.

Lehman: I don’t know if we’ve discussed some of the paybacks here. I know at Shelby County, they had, they even showed us they had cemeteries.

Stutsman: Right. Right.

Lehman: They didn’t give any dollar figures, but people were paying for that service to access this type of thing. So, that’s the something we’d discussed, too, in the committees is, it’s going to be worth some dollars to the public for their convenience. There may be some type of fees associated with this for the public to use this.

Kahle: Right. I was going to make that point. The public is going to realize a benefit. But, within the County, we’re really going to realize the benefit. Fred had talked about a person coming in and wanting to know who lives within a mile of their, of their parcel, or if a road is being vacated. Who is all located within a mile of that road? That could be done in 5 minutes, whereas right now it takes, Secondary Roads puts in I don’t know how much time to put together these lists and then they come to us and we double check those lists. And I know, with the recent 200th Street road vacation, that was probably, off and on, it was a matter of 3 days time for the Auditor’s Office to compile those names. Double check those against those names against what Secondary Roads had submitted and then put out the listing in the letters for that. Whereas, with the software, it might not be 5 minutes, but it would be a half hour to get that list together and have it print out for you and have the envelopes ready. Everything is done. It’s considerable cost savings where you can be focusing on other projects other than putting together a list of names.

Stutsman: We have a public hearing scheduled for 10:00, so I think we’re going to have make this…

Duffy: Yes. I would say one thing in the rural area. It’s platted. All they need to do is look in the plat book if they want to know who owns the property next to them. And they can do that just like, like that.

Kahle: Right. The rural areas of Johnson County, that is the case. But, with, with the urban areas, there is such immense growth going on.

Stutsman: And changes.

Kahle: To keep track of that. Yes. To keep track of who owns what. Those plat books, when you get into the rural areas, or the urban areas, are not out of date, but not really in date. We still have people coming in and calling and asking who actually owns this land now, so, I don’t want to take anymore time.

Stutsman: Thank you very much Chris, and thank you for the Committee for your report. I think we’re going to take a short break. A 5 minute break and then we’ll recess the informal and go back into the formal meeting when we come back. 5 minute. 25 after give or take.

Recessed at 10:22 a.m.; reconvened at 10:51 a.m.

Stutsman: Moving on to Item 2. Wait. No, I think we want to move on to Item 8. Business from the County Engineer. That’s Discussion Action Needed Regarding Bid Letting Notice to Bidders for Seed and Fertilizer to Be Purchased in Fiscal Year 2000. We have with us Mike Gardner, County Engineer, and Chris Henze, who is our Roadside Vegetation Manager.

County Engineer Mike Gardner: Morning. I was in a couple of weeks ago and discussed with you our need to get busy getting that seed fertilizer bid process under way and got some direction as to how you wanted to do that at that time. Now we’re back in. Chris has come up with the quantities he’s going to need this coming year in order to seed the disturbed areas for our construction projects maintenance activities out in the roadsides. And we’ve come up with a bid letting date of February 29th. What I’ve passed out is just the instructions to bidders that will be provided to all of the people requesting bidding documents and it has on there the quantities that we’re going to be getting and their instructions. I guess Chris is here if you have any questions of him and I’m here as well.

Stutsman: Why is it there, and maybe I’m not reading this right, prairie grass on here or prairie seed?

Roadside Vegetation Manager Chris Henze: We’ve, well, we’ve had a large order this last fall, that we’ve still got some of that left over and also we’re getting a grant. Well, not, we’re not getting a grant. The state DOT, the state IRVM Office up in UNI has applied for a grant of, it was almost $400,000. And they divide that up amongst the counties who apply for it and we’re going to be getting about, oh, almost $8,000 worth of free prairie seed and wildflowers.

Stutsman: Terrific.

Henze: So, I’m hoping to use that, rather than, and hold off on, if we have to get some more in the fall then we will. But, we’re getting a large amount of seed for free.

Stutsman: Can’t complain about that.

Henze: No. No. And then, then.

Stutsman: Because that is real expensive seed, too, isn’t it?

Henze: Yes, it is. And, and in the pasture seed here in the middle column, I, in some areas where we don’t typically put in tall grass prairie, it’s just not the right spot for it, we’ve got switch grass and side oats grass, which are prairie species. At least we have something in there. Not every location is going to be suitable for prairie. At least we’ll have something there.

Duffy: Well, it looks to me like the pasture seed mixture, like say the greater road some place, kind of a steeper slope that, that would hold the soil for me real easy. It’s pretty good. Yes, that’s a good mixture.

Lehman: Are you able to plant this yourselves?

Henze: Yes. Yes. We plant everything ourselves.

Lehman: You don’t have to hire?

Henze: Nope. We do all of, all of our own seeding.

Lehman: Do you have to do some of the final grading yourselves?

Henze: Final grading?

Lehman: Yes. Yes. I know that for construction projects they do so much and I don’t know how… They get down to a proper seed bed. Do you have some time and expense to go into…

Henze: Well, I think it depends on the project. If it’s a large project, typically the contractor will take it down to a final grade. If it’s a small project, where it… A ditch clean out or small regrade project we do ourselves, we may have to do some more dirt work there. But, typically, it’s nothing. We don’t jump into anything major as far as the soil preparation.

Gardner: In our contract work, that is part of the contract, the seedbed preparation, they’re required to do that prior to us coming in on a project such as Prairie Du Chien or something that we do that’s contract work. When we’re putting in some of our precast culverts with our own crews, of course we’re doing all the work in that case, and so we would be doing the seedbed preparation as well.

Lehman: I know some of the soil disturbing stuff, do you some fertilizer applications?

Henze: Yes.

Lehman: OK.

Jordahl: The Roadside Vegetation Management, or Integrated Roadside Vegetation Management Committee has resuscitated, or at least spoken of resuscitating the idea of, of adopt a roadside for like garbage collection stuff. And I’m wondering if you see utilizing, or if you’re interested in the possibility of utilizing volunteers to do some planting. I think people would be, they’d like to feel like they’re part of making the prairie come alive.

Stutsman: The item for discussion is concerning the, bid letting for the bidders for seed. I think that item is probably under…

Jordahl: It seems to be kind of apropos of the surface preparation question.

Stutsman: I think it’s stretching it Jonathan.

Jordahl: All right.

Thompson: So, this will be on our agenda for next week.

Stutsman: Yes.

Jordahl: Yes. I’m lucky guy.

Duffy: Now, the cedar, it isn’t that old. I remember when that was purchased. $16,000. And it was a ramp of some kind.

Henze: Yes. We’ve got a no tail drill that was used, that was purchased with a living roadway trust fund grant. I forget how many years ago.

Gardner: That was 1990 or 91.

Henze: Yes. And it still works fine. Eventually it’s going to have to be replaced, you know just eventually everything wears out. We got another living roadway trust fund grant this year for a brand new hydro seeder. So, we’ll be using that a lot to plant prairie. And we can do, use our typical broadcasting equipment to plant prairies. You don’t necessarily have to do it with a no tail drill. We use whatever tools we have.

Stutsman: Jonathan, I’m the Chair right now and I’ve made a judgment.

Jordahl: Yes you have.

Stutsman: On your discussion idea.

Jordahl: Indeed.

Stutsman: And so you’ll just have to respect that.

Jordahl: I do.

Stutsman: And we’ll move on. Anything; other questions related to the bid letting notice to, for the feed and fertilizer, or just the fertilizer? OK. So, we will put this on for next Thursday for formal action and then proceed with the process from there. OK.

Gardner: Thank you.

Stutsman: Thank you. Anything else, Mike?

Gardner: No. I don’t think so.

Stutsman: Or Chris? All right.

(Continued in Part 3)