Stutsman: We’ll go back to business from Cheryl Whitney. I thought I saw Cheryl come in.
Department of Human Services Area Administrator Cheryl Whitney: Yes. Sorry.
Stutsman: Well you’re 3 minutes late and that’s what happens. This is Cheryl Whitney, area administrator for the Department of Human Services contract for volunteer services between Johnson County and the United Way of Johnson County.
Whitney: What I have, and maybe you have seen in your packets, this is a contract between Johnson County and the United Way Agency. They have hired a volunteer coordinator, who is largely funded with Johnson County money. In the past, we had done an independent contract with a volunteer coordinator, and it was felt that there would be better continuity and maybe more oversight, really, by having this person be an employee of an agency such as United Way. Karen Ganiard is the person in this position. She’s housed at the United Way office. The scope of services, really, her duties are listed here. The compensation is identified on the back, or the 2nd page, which is according to the budget that we have this year. This actually will expire. Here we’re coming in February. We’ve been working on the details of this contract and with the person who does the audit at United Way. But it’s pretty straightforward, it’s the terms that we have agreed to. We would need to renegotiate and certainly, hopefully be more timely effective July 1.
Stutsman: OK. From now on we can expect to see this end of June for the beginning of the fiscal…
Whitney: It’ll be a renewal. I’ve talked with Janet Lyness about this, so I think we’re all set with this.
Stutsman: These are County dollars that are in your budget in Department 45, and then there’s also some State dollars. There used to be. I don’t know if there’s still some State dollars that go into this.
Whitney: Yes, there is. Over the years we’ve increased the State dollars, so that now it… It doesn’t reflect in here, but it is up to about $7,000.
Lehman: This is a request to match volunteer requests from Johnson County nonprofit organizations with volunteers.
Whitney: Right, yes. Karen gets many requests from a lot of students as well as members of the community. She works with all the nonprofit agencies, so she knows what their needs are and does some managing. She helps us find volunteers within our offices. Really, if there’s other Johnson County departments that have need for volunteers, they should contact Karen as well.
Lehman: OK. Good practical approach.
Whitney: Yes, there are a lot of volunteer hours.
Stutsman: We just need to put this on next Thursday for formal action for the Chairperson to sign that. Are there any…
Whitney: The one I brought today has Beverly’s signature on it, so I’ll leave that with Carol, and you actually will be able to keep a copy and a copy can come back to me and we’ll be all set with it.
Stutsman: We’ll see you in June.
Whitney: Yes, yes. We’ll get it. More timeliness.
Stutsman: Thank you, Cheryl. I have been asked for the Board to take a short break, so if that would be agreeable, why don’t we break for 5 minutes and come back at 5 of 10:00?
Recessed at 9:50 a.m.; reconvened at 10:00 a.m.
Stutsman: Back into session. Graham, I think you’re up next.
Department of Public Health Director Graham Dameron: Good morning.
Stutsman: Good morning.
Dameron: How are you?
Stutsman: Great. How are you?
Jordahl: We’re having fun. OK.
Stutsman: Business from Graham Dameron, Director of Department of Public Health regarding the Iowa Department of Natural Resources Grant Agreement with Johnson County for Fiscal Year 2001, grants for counties funding for the amount of $15,000. This is the Well Abandonment, Well Testing and Well Rehabilitation program.
Dameron: Very good.
Stutsman: With that introduction, I’ll turn it over to Graham for further clarification.
Dameron: Well, we’ve given you copies of the request for this agreement. We’ve done this for a number of years, as you know, and provided this service to the County. I can think of no reason why you shouldn’t grant this requests. It begins in July for this amount for what Sally has stated, well testing and rehabilitation of wells. Charlie, I don’t know if you have some thoughts about that or not.
Lehman: I wanted to ask, maybe…
Duffy: (Inaudible) going on for maybe 10 years or so?
Dameron: Yes.
Duffy: It’s a good program and I hope it continues.
Lehman: How many wells do you usually have to service? How much do you actually get into? Testing the water, of course, but the physical part of closing a well, recapping it.
Dameron: (Inaudible) wells is one of the provisions that we have, Mike. We provide up to $200 for plugging abandoned wells. It’s done by a certified contractor. The owner of the well makes all the arrangements, and we provide that reimbursement with some documentation from the well contractor.
Lehman: Do you usually see this a lot of times when real estate’s changing hands, they’re required to record a well. It maybe hadn’t been recorded before?
Dameron: I think we’ve made recommendations, when zoning changes had been made, to plug the wells. It’s amazing sometimes, how many wells need to be plugged on a farm. I think I remember one that had 7 wells that needed to be plugged, because they had had a century farm that just kept digging new wells. It’s a good program.
Stutsman: It really is a good program. It’s always scary for a number of reasons to think about those abandoned wells out there. People falling in, and it’s just a straight shot down to the aquifer in some of those cases, for contamination or whatever.
Lehman: Thanks.
Dameron: You’re welcome.
Duffy: What do you do with ones like a lot of these farm houses. They used to save rainwater. It would go down into a dug well.
Jordahl: A cistern.
Duffy: We’re talking a few years ago, kind of a cistern type of thing. It used to be, when the program started out, I think it was the deeper wells and the larger wells. Are we getting around to those, now?
Dameron: You know, I can’t answer that, Charlie. I think they did make some changes in regards to cisterns and whether they’re designated as wells or not. I’m not sure that they’re covered, but I can certainly get that information back to you.
Stutsman: OK, so we’ll just put this on for next Thursday, authorizing the Chairperson to sign the contract?
Dameron: Can you do it today?
Stutsman: No.
Dameron: Oh.
Stutsman: We have to put it on… We’re doing our informal right now.
Dameron: Oh, you’re doing the informal. I’m sorry. OK.
Stutsman: We have to put it on for next Thursday for formal action.
Dameron: OK. Thank you.
Stutsman: Thanks, Graham.
Stutsman: Business from Lori Schnoor, Soil and Water Conservationist for Johnson County Soil and Water Conservation District Staff Report discussion and action. Good morning, Lori.
Soil and Water Conservationist Lori Schnoor: Good morning. I just wanted to give you an update on what I’ve been doing on the Soil and Water Conservation District. Also, I have some handouts for you that you can look at, at your leisure. I’ll go ahead and give you those. First I’ll explain them. This is a little booklet that was put out by the Natural Resources Conservation, giving you an update of the achievements and the condition of Iowa’s natural resources, and Johnson County is included in here. For example, Conservation of Reserve Program. We have about 20,000 acres in this County. We just got through with the sign up last week, and there were about 85 applicants. We processed their applications and hopefully find out soon who got accepted and start helping them with their seeding plans and things like that. I have that for you. Also, all of you will be getting an invitation in the mail, a Snyder Creek Watershed Forum that is going to be held February 29. I just wanted to let you know that we are helping out on that, and hopefully all of you can be there. A couple other things that we have coming up is a Prairie preview, which is kind of an exhibition of different prairie booths at Montgomery Hall. That will be held March 7 at 7:00 p.m. Rich Patterson from the Indian Creek Nature Center will be speaking there about Prairie Under the Trees. I think it’ll be a good time. Hopefully you’ll be able to come and we’ll have a booth there and some other information, along with a lot of other organizations in Johnson County. Another thing that we’re currently working on is the Native Tree Plant and Prairie Seed Sale. I also have that included, along with my staff report of some of the things that I have been doing myself at the office.
Stutsman: Lori, what’s the deadline for the prairie plant sale? When do you have to have those orders in?
Schnoor: I believe March 1. Tree orders received by April 1, and native plant prairie orders by May 15.
Stutsman: OK.
Schnoor: Here’s what I have for each one of you.
Stutsman: While you’re passing those out, Laurie, I might explain that the Board does fund part of your position through our budget. It’s always good to have Laurie come in every year and kind of update the Board on her activities. Great to have you here.
Schnoor: If there are any questions, I’d be happy to answer them if you’d like.
Lehman: You’re monthly meeting is this evening?
Schnoor: The Soil and Water Conservation District Meeting? It was actually Tuesday night, February 15. Tonight we actually have an Earth Day planning event.
Lehman: That’s what I’m thinking. We had a conflict here with the public hearing. It sounded like lecture I saw was going to be interesting.
Schnoor: We’re trying to plan an actual Earth Day event on April 22 that will include a celebration of some of things that different organizations that belong to the Earth Day Committee are trying to plan at this time. Any organization is invited to join in and plan their own event. The District will help advertise their event and several papers and radio, What we’re trying to accomplish is a lot of different things taking place. If any organization needs volunteer assistance, we’ll try to help with that. On that Saturday, all of those organizations coming together, celebrating, and then inviting the public to celebrate and get involved in these different projects. Hopefully there’ll be some educational speakers there to give the public some education in environmental things. The meeting is tonight at 5:00 at our office. It’s 238 Stephens Drive if anyone would like to come.
Duffy: This other one on March 7, isn’t that our budget hearing? That’s a real conflict.
Jordahl: It depends on how late the budget hearing goes. We have that at 5:30 and Prairie Previews at 7:00, right, so it just depends on…
Duffy: I can expect a crowd.
Jordahl: I wonder why. We have a really good budget.
Stutsman: This Prairie Preview draws lots of people. It’s just a huge event and it’s just always a… I always look forward to it. It’s a good event and usually there’s an excellent speaker on any variety of topics through the years.
Schnoor: A lot of organizations are involved in planning that too, not just us, but we do help out quite a bit on those.
Duffy: This has been going on, I was going to say 10 years, but probably longer than that. Maybe 15.
Schnoor: Yes, 10…17 years? Something like that.
Stutsman: It’s been that many years?
Schnoor: No, 7. 7 years.
Stutsman: Oh, OK. Time flies.
Schnoor: I’m not used to reading Roman numerals.
Duffy: When I said 10, I just (inaudible) off a number in my head because (inaudible).
Stutsman: Are there any other questions for Laurie?
Jordahl: Is Earth Day always on the same day?
Schnoor: Is it always April 22?
Jordahl: That’s what I’m asking? Is it always the 22nd or it is always on Saturday, that’s what I’m looking for here.
Schnoor: I’m not sure.
Jordahl: I don’t know either, because I’m trying to think back to the first one in 1970. I ran across the arm band that I got in high school that day when they were passing them out.
Schnoor: I think it’s always April 22, because this year is the 30 year celebration of Earth Day. It has to be April 22 every year, I think.
Jordahl: Grind it into my brains so I remember. April 22. Thank you.
Stutsman: Well, thank you Lori for updating us. Some good information. That’s a wonderful booklet. Appreciate all your work.
?: If there’s any other questions about my staff report, feel free to give me a call. I’ll certainly answer them. OK? Thank you.
Stutsman: Thanks again.
Stutsman: Item 7. Business from Mary Somerville, Commissioner, regarding Creek Signage Project proposal.
Commissioner Mary Somerville: Good morning.
Stutsman: Good morning, Mary. Glad to have you here this morning.
Somerville: Thank you, I’m glad to be here.
Stutsman: You’ve got some visual aides, I see.
Somerville: Yes, I dropped them off earlier in the week. I hope you had a chance to get a close look at those. Sometimes a picture’s worth a thousand words, so I’ll try to keep my comments short. Just as a preamble to this proposal, the Johnson County Soil and Water Conservation District is about midway through a 5 Year Strategic Plan that we developed in 1998. This project that I’m bringing forward to you today really falls under our very top strategic issue, and that is how do we improve water quality by reducing soil erosion to tolerable levels on crop land, non ag-land, and urban developing land. Under that strategic issue, one of the outcomes that we’ve been working on and will continue over the remaining of this 5 Year Plan is to obtain citizen support for cooperative conservation efforts on land within the watersheds in our County. As we think about how to accomplish that outcome, we rely an awful lot on increasing citizen awareness, and do a lot of educational activities. We have come up with the theory that our citizens in Johnson County will care more about our water quality, especially as it’s represented in our elaborate creek and stream and rivers system if we called attention to the names of these creeks. Our little motto is that we tend to care more about things that have names. Based on that theory, what we would like to propose is that we begin a pilot project, and on a limited basis, we would identify certain roadways within the County and affix to some existing posts, to keep this economical, small signs that would label that creek. We, as a district, are willing to cover the cost of the signs themselves. We’ve have gotten information from prison industries that kind of gives us the scope of what that cost would be. We see it as being affordable within the moneys that we raise through some of our fundraising projects, like the one Laurie mentioned, with our tree and native plant sales. We would expect to be working under the supervision of the Roads Department because we understand we’re not only talking about safety issues but maintenance of signs and also being sure that they’re the right distance up above for road clearing in the winter, those kinds of things. We certainly would want to work in partnership with them. I did provide this visual representation of the project. I hope you were able to notice in some of the photographs of the Knapp and Hoosier Creek, which I believe are all along F12, that goes across the northern tier of our townships, that will most creeks we do have those signs. There’s probably some actual technical name for them. I call them those oblong signs that have those black and gold slash-marks on them. Those are always there to mark abutments. In most cases, we feel that a sign of the suitable size could be placed actually right below that as a way of labeling it. But we feel this would need to be done first on kind of a limited basis and see how that goes and what kind of public reaction we have. We’ve run this idea passed lots of people, actually did during your break, and every time, people say gee, that sounds like a good idea. That’s what I’m bringing forward to you today. I would be welcoming any of your questions or concerns about this project.
Jordahl: What color would they be?
Somerville: Well, we would have choices. The examples I brought today were just basically the green color. I think when you travel the major highways, and with the DOT approved signs, when they label a river, like the Iowa River, they use that sign. I think we would stay compatible with that, would be our recommendation.
Stutsman: Mike Gardner, County Engineer is here, I guess I have questions for Mike about this proposal and any feedback that you might have, either pro or con for the project.
County Engineer Mike Gardner: I visited with our sign person yesterday about it. We would want to make sure that it did meet the requirements of the manual, and it sounds like green and white would be the appropriate colors. We wouldn’t be expected to maintain these. I guess his concern was once they’re put out, they’re kind of like our street signs. Sometimes they disappear. We wouldn’t want to have that as an ongoing expense for our department. If signs we’re going to be furnished, I think we could work it into our schedule to actually install them. I think, like you say, on the object markers near the bridges on an existing post, we could probably get that to work.
Stutsman: I just think it’s a great project. I’m just so enthused, and I’m glad, Mike, that you’re supportive of it, too. Looking at what you brought in, just, oh yeah, I’ve heard of Picayune and Dirty Face and Old Man’s Creek and things, and it’s wonderful to be able to put a name with a creek as you’re going over the bridge, and understand, you know, oh yes, that’s this one. You’ve got some interesting historical tidbits too on some of these creeks. Did a lot of working in putting all that together.
Somerville: Well, what I did on my summer vacation. I did run copies, and I’ll just pass these over to Carolyn. It’s kind of from this spreadsheet that does have the information around the historical interest. This is a work in progress. I came up here on Tuesday and found out that I hadn’t dealt with Miller Creek or Nicholson Creek. I hadn’t come across that.
Stutsman: You have probably opened yourself up to a lot of additional historical tidbits.
Somerville: I found that there was a Little Creek right here in town, and I hadn’t heard of that. I think everyone tends to kind of name… There are probably people that just name it themselves, and I know there’s a few out there that I could probably name, also, that seem nameless. But I think it terms of the response to your question, we would really expect that we would continue to support this as far as both sign maintenance and replacement. Our hope is that as this takes hold, we would also be able to identify additional resources, whether it’s through sponsorships… This is a Heritage, there is a Heritage flavor to this, so I think that could open up some possibilities to finding other sources for ongoing keeping these attractive, up to date. I can see they that they might adorn some dorm room walls or whatever, but we’re prepared to deal with that issue.
Stutsman: That is, unfortunately, the down side.
Somerville: It is, but that’s human nature.
Lehman: Working with Mike, he may be able to come up something help. Double knot, whatever. A little bit more a detriment. If they really want them bad enough, they’re going to have to work for it.
Gardner: Yes, Gary is trying to devise some…
Stutsman: It’s too bad we can’t activate some kind of skunk spray if they’re touched or whatever.
Jordahl: Say now, there you go. As regards to the safety factor, I think this would enhance the marking of the bridge rather than detract from it. Those hash-mark signs, you’re kind of like, well, it’s just another thing on the side of the road, but if you read this, it gives you a sense that, oh, I better not go off the road here because I might fall in the creek. In addition to the historical flavor of it, it’s not going to detract from safety. Quite the contrary. It’ll probably enhance people’s experiences.
Somerville: Right. They would be the aluminum engineer grade sheeting, the standard sign material. I don’t know if we have an option about reflective or not. I can’t remember from our original quote if that was included.
Stutsman: Getting back to details on this project, Mike, do you think it’s necessary that we have some kind of written agreement so that it’s pretty clear what the Soil and Water Conservation District’s responsibilities are and what the County…
Gardner: It might not be a bad idea.
Stutsman: Not anything really formal or anything, but just say, you know, we understand that you will take care of maintenance and replacement of the signs. We will take care of putting the signs up as long as it works with our schedule and things.
Gardner: I guess that would be the point that I’d like to make. What we would propose is that they work it in with their normal routine workout in that area, so that they could just do that as they were out doing something else and not have to make a special trip.
Somerville: That’d be great. Of course, our staff is out in the County all the time. That’s kind of our specialty. We would always have an eagle eye out for some of that on an ongoing basis. Plus I really should mention that we have a very active volunteer network through our Earth Team. The thing that really motivates volunteers is to have a real concrete, tangible project to work on. I don’t think we’d have too much trouble getting volunteers to drive around and kind of check on things, or go out and do some of that maintenance, just getting the weeds and vines and that kind of thing off them.
Jordahl: This could link to the Roadside Vegetation Management adopt-a-roadway thing somewhere too.
Somerville: I might just mention. When I was doing some of the photography and some of the work for this, I was really impressed with the work that the County has been doing as far as the stabilization of banks around the places where the ditches empty into these areas. You can see in the Plum Creek picture, the riff raff that’s there, but that was really very encouraging for me to see the good kind of maintenance that’s going on in those areas.
Stutsman: Great, that’s good to hear. I’m sure Mike is glad to hear that, and we’ll certainly pass it along to Kevin and his individuals that help with that.
Somerville: Anything else?
Duffy: Yes, could I ask a question?
Somerville: Sure.
Duffy: I kind of want to experiment with, at home, our creeks, jump across them, but I was trying to find some cattails and other grasses that grow in a wet area. It’s almost impossible to find them unless I swipe some from the County along the County road, which I don’t like to do, because we do have places on… But where do you get cattails? I’ve asked that question before and nobody seemed to have any answer.
Somerville: Well, actually, I would have some. I could certainly loan you some cattail heads if you want to start them from seed. I guess I would encourage you. We do have a listing of some of those really wet loving plants. There may be some of those that would be easier to establish and do a better job for you, so I think, certainly. Lori’s still here? We could send some information to you about some options that you might have in that. That’d be great.
Duffy: I’d appreciate it.
Stutsman: Carol, do we need to take any formal action on this?
Peters: Not until the agreement comes.
Stutsman: OK. All right. Then we’ll just wait for Mary. We’re going to ask you to draft some kind of minimal agreement, then we’ll take formal action on that.
Somerville: Would it be wise for us to just kind of make that as an addendum to our existing memo of understanding? I believe we have one. I thought we had a memo of understanding with Secondary Roads or with you. We can just do a separate piece.
Stutsman: OK. I don’t have any problem with that addendum if the original agreement exists. I’ll let you do the work on that.
Somerville: Would you like me to leave these for longer, or are you ready to part with these?
Jordahl: I haven’t had a chance to look thoroughly through it.
Somerville: Why don’t I just leave them for a couple days.
Stutsman: That would be terrific.
Somerville: If you’d like to put them in the lounge area or whatever, as long as I know where they are, I’ll come back (inaudible).
Jordahl: For the entryway?
Thompson: Children.
Somerville: That was my ideal, too, but I learned that we don’t want those falling over on kids’ heads.
Thompson: There would be that tendency to want to move things around.
Jordahl: Well then, we should make some display cases down there so stuff like this can get up there. This looks like it would be really great to have in the entry.
Somerville: You’re welcome to them at any time. We use these with a lot of our watershed activities. We have some active watershed groups in operation and also forming. There’s a Clear Creek Watershed Group, Snyder Creek, Ralston Creek, we’re forming one in Dirty Face Creek. It’s bringing together the citizen residents of that watershed to really do an inventory, look at what they have, and to begin to really identify some of the troublesome areas and start to come up with solutions. The watershed approach, I think, is just something that’s really going to build up the kind of cooperation that we need to meet our strategic plan goal.
Stutsman: Well, good. Thanks for all your work on this.
Somerville: I appreciate you’re time.
Stutsman: All right. Thanks, too, Mike, for your support.
Stutsman: Jean Schultz. Oh, Jean is here, I’m sorry. Business from Jean Schultz, Director of Information Services regarding report on the Employee PC Purchase Program, that’s Personal Computer Purchase Program. We asked Jean if she would come in and report to the Board about the Computer Purchase Program that the Board initiated last year. To refresh memories, we agreed that we would provide the funding so people could purchase computers. It was a loan program. Employees then paid back the County for, for those computers and the idea that we had as one of our strategic goals, ways to enhance the computer capabilities of employees in the County, and this seemed to fit in well with that. Gave employees the opportunity to buy computers for their home and then basically it came out as those computers were bought interest free. They paid back the loan, but we did assume interest on that. Jean is here to report on the results of that program.
Information Services Director Jean Schultz: OK. Thank you. As Sally said, the Board recognized that the computer knowledge is very important for County employees and it’s going to be even more important. So, last spring you did allocate $100,000 for the program. Again, to assist employees in purchasing the PC’s for use at home. Then, they would have up to 3 years to pay back the money to the County through payroll authorizations. We did require that the PC’s have the software on it that we use in the County. Again, as a requirement again, with the idea of improving their skills on the job, as well as enjoyment in their skills at home. On May 19th, last year, we did send a letter to all permanent non-probationary employees working 20 hours a week or more and the following week we held a couple different informational meetings to explain the program to employees. I think you have a written report in your packet. 79 County employees applied by the Jun 18th deadline for the program. The request of the money that they were requesting came to $136,178. This was greater than the $100,000 that was allocated for the program. So, then on June 24th we held a lottery and priority was given 1st to full-time computer users, people who either currently use computers, or are scheduled to use computers in the next 6 months. Next priority was given to 2 part-time computer users, and then the lowest priority was given to a full-time person who was not currently using computers. With the $100,000 we were initially able to include 58 people and purchase orders for those people were issued then July 6th. Throughout the program, what we did is we monitored the program. Some people declined to participate. Other people didn’t actually use the full amount that they had applied for. So, as we saw that within the $100,000 we could add more people to the program we did, following the priority of the lottery. In total, we had 16 people who were off of the 79. We had 16 people who were offered inclusion in the program, who chose not to participate and the reasons were, there were a couple of couples where both people were employees, County employees, and so then they obviously both didn’t need to be in the program. There were a few people who just flat out changed their mind, even though they could purchase a computer, they decided to wait for various reasons. There were a couple of people who had purchased computers themselves between the time that they applied for the program and when they came up on the list of rankings to be included in the program. And then there were a couple of people who just left County employment. In the end though, all the people who applied for the program, who wanted to be in the program were included. It turns out that with the 16 people who declined, and with people using less money than they initially requested, the total amount then that, we included everyone, and the total amount financed came to $99,694, or within $306 of the $100,000 you guys allocated. So, that worked out very well. So, as you mentioned, employees have been paying back the money through payroll deductions. They have up to 3 years to pay back the amount. As of the end of January, we have received back from employees $21,733. So, again, as of the end of January, there is still an outstanding amount of $77,000. I guess I’ve heard very positive enthusiastic comments about the program. Even though some people have had their PC’s for 6 months, I would say every month I hear at least 3 or 4 employees come up to me and say, oh guess what I just learned last night or guess what I just did, or I didn’t know I could use this and I could use this for this particular thing in my job. So, I think it’s continuing to pay benefits, not only to the employees, but also to the County. Again, people being able to do their job better and quicker. There were a couple people who did express some concern about the County using their money for this. But, the overwhelming majority of comments I’ve heard have been positive, both from employees and from non-employees also, all thinking it’s a good benefit. Other local governments have offered this program. Our program was different in the way we structured it in that employees could purchase from any vendor they chose, as long as the employee and the vendor followed the guidelines in the program. There were few minor problems, but we were able to work out all of those problems with vendors. The net result was employees purchased from 17 different vendors, and again, it was the vendors of their choice. In the report I’ve listed a few suggestions if we offer the program again. Some would be stagger the issuance of purchase orders so they all didn’t come back to be processed at the same time. Just kind of make it clear to vendors the detail that we need on the invoices that we get back, getting names of sales reps ahead of time the employees should go through. A few minor suggestions like that. In summary, I feel like it was a very positive program. It’s increased employee moral. It has increased employee skills; just been very positive and as far as I’m concerned I would recommend that you do the program again, perhaps after some more of the money has been paid back through the payroll deduction, because then you wouldn’t have to be allocating new funds for it and the next time perhaps you could give priority to people who didn’t apply for it this time. I don’t know if you want more detail or more information.
Stutsman: Terrific report Jean.
Thompson: Yes, it’s very thorough.
Jordahl: I’d like to emphasize that when you talk about the expense and setting aside money and so forth, that the only real expense to the County is the forgone interest on the money that we would have otherwise had invested in various ways and earning money for the County. We do have a carry over balance and this could be construed as part of that. So, it’s just the interest rate where we would have earned something in the neighborhood of 4 or 5% perhaps, on the $100,000, and that is being repaid as we go, so that that amount of interest is reducing as the loan is paid back. And also, that this is an employee benefit, we have a variety of employee benefits including insurance, health insurance as a primary one. But, it’s also, I think, important to talk about this as training. We make an investment in training in a variety of departments and the fact that the employees do this at home on their own time is just kind of a really nice thing that they can play with this and yet at the same time training is being accomplished. I think it’s an extremely legitimate way of using County dollars to leverage the fact that we’ve got the money available, to provide this access for people, at the same time accomplish a training goal. This is a legitimate way to spend money.
Stutsman: I would like to publicly commend Jean for her outstanding leadership in this project. We had Board’s approval for and thought it was a good idea and thought it was going to be a simple project and it quickly became a very, very involved project, because we decided to go with local vendors in the 17 vendors. Other governmental entities in the County have done this, but they went with just one vendor, and that was the only choice for the employee to do.
Jordahl: It was an out-of-state vendor at that, wasn’t it?
Stutsman: Right. It was. I think in, in both instances I’m thinking in all 3 instances that I’m thinking of it was an out-of-state vendor. So, it was good for local vendors. We kept the tax dollars in Johnson County, I think, for the most part. There might have been a couple that decided to go with a vendor out of state. But, because of that, because of the change, it required a lot more work in putting this program together. I just can’t say enough of Jean. And we had an issue or a problem and she just dealt with it and she fixed it and got it to work. It was a lot of work, but I think the end product is just excellent and I think we can be very proud of what we put together.
Schultz: I think so, too. Personnel and the Auditor’s Office also did a lot of work in the processing of and paying the invoices and things, too. They deserve some credit, too, I guess is what I’m trying to say.
Stutsman: OK. And I think our office, too, Board of Supervisors, I think Deana and Carol had some input. It was a community project. But, I think it illustrates departments working very, very well together.
Jordahl: And no one who wanted to buy a computer was turned down? Is that true or was it?
Schultz: No one who applied for the program was turned down. Because through the combination of the 16 people withdrawing, when they were offered a purchase order for various reasons and then between that, and the fact that people didn’t spend near the amount that they initially, well, not near, some of them did. Several spent less money than they initially requested.
Jordahl: That’s great.
Schultz: Yes. And actually, the end of September, it looked like we might not be able to include the final 2 and you, as a Board said well, we’ll go ahead and include them. But then it turned out that they still were able to be included within the $100,000.
Stutsman: Well, I don’t know if this, this is a program that we want to offer every year. But, I would like to see it offered maybe every other year or every 3 years, to give an opportunity for new employees or employees that are ready to purchase a computer that weren’t included before to give them an opportunity to do that. The work’s all been done basically, getting it up and going and so I think it would still require work to put it in place, but at least it wouldn’t be as much as that initial investment.
Schultz: And I’ve had a number of people the last few months also saying, are you going to be offering the program again, when, how do I apply again, and I basically said it’s kind of up to the Board. But, I encourage people to pass on their comments to you as a Board. They were very positive.
Jordahl: I would support doing it as often as it makes sense to do it. If that’s annually, I would listen to that as a reasonable request, but it may be that that’s more work for the people involved in doing the paperwork on this thing than, than, than makes sense.
Stutsman: Are there any other questions, comments? Well, thank you again Jean for all your work.
Schultz: Thank you.
Welsh: Could you not use the interest that’s been repaid as a continuing fund? I sort of gathered from your (inaudible) that the $100,000, it would be available maybe on a recycled basis as people repaid their amount, then that amount would become available for the program next year or in 2 years.
Jordahl: That wasn’t the way I understood it.
Stutsman: Yes. I think we recycled to maybe include those people that weren’t included in that original lottery, saying as people started paying back the loan, or their payment, then that would free up some additional moneys. But I don’t think we ever thought of it as a continually revolving loan fund. We just thought we’d approach it as a separate project. It turns out the amount financed; we didn’t use any of the money that was being paid back. It still was all able to come out of the initial $100,000.
Stutsman: Right. Right.
Schultz: But, yes, that had been discussed but no decision was made about it being an ongoing thing for sure.
Stutsman: OK.
Jordahl: Successful program.
Stutsman: Thank you Jean. Do we want to continue on? Nobody wants to take a break? OK.