• SEATS Director Lisa Dewey: Progress Report
• Planning And Zoning Administrator Rick Dvorak: Progress Report

Chairperson Stutsman called the Johnson County Board of Supervisors to order in the Johnson County Administration Building at 9:00 a.m. Members present were: Charles Duffy, Jonathan Jordahl, Mike Lehman, Sally Stutsman, and Carol Thompson.

SEATS Director Lisa Dewey said that they developed a mission statement this year, which is to provide independence of living through transportation for people throughout Johnson County. She said that their staff currently consists of herself, Blanca Bailey as the Confidential Secretary, Burnell Chadek as the Assistant Director, one Casual Maintenance Technician, and an unfilled Training Maintenance Coordinator position, which has been unfilled for over 4 years partially because it is a part-time position. She said they currently have 11 full time drivers, 5 part-time drivers and 16 casual drivers, one full-time driver who is also a dispatcher, and 2 full-time dispatch schedulers. Dewey said they have performed 55,529 trips in Fiscal Year 2000, but that they actually performed 43,926. She said that they have 1,072, or 1.9% missed rides to date. Dewey said that they have had 9,986 cancelled rides, which is 18%, and that they have had 450 denials, which is 0.8%, and less than one percent of rides refused. She said that a total of 21% of the trips were not performed because of missed rides, cancelled rides and denials.

Jordahl asked if refused and denied mean the same thing, and Dewey replied no. Dewey explained that refused rides are when they would have been able to do rides for people, but that these people then didn’t like the time that was available. She said that under ADA guidelines they can negotiate one hour on either side of the requested time, and if they are able to do such a trip, then it is refused. Thompson asked if it is good that there are few refused rides, and Dewey said yes. Dewey said that they have less denials than the majority on the national level, but in comparison to 1999, it is a different story. She said that 11,603 were not performed. Dewey said that they did a study on the trips that were denied, and of these trips, 99.2% of them could have been performed had the individuals who cancelled on the same day, or missed their rides, cancelled them in advance so that the other people could have scheduled rides. She said the average trip time takes 19 minutes, but that a lot of this is because of rural service, which skews their timing. Thompson asked how they measure a trip, and asked if it includes loading and unloading a passenger. Dewey replied yes. She said the average trip distance is 2.9 miles. Dewey said that revenue hours and revenue miles does not include the time to or from the barn or time taken for scheduled lunches. Jordahl asked if in the average trip times they separate out what the urban trips take. Dewey said that they are all together. Jordahl said that this may be a nice number to have if they go into contract negotiations again. Dewey said that the only way they have to do that with the current system they have is through their Tour Share, which shows the amount of time people are on board from Iowa City and Coralville. She said that she did not bring this material because she is giving an overview of the whole department and not just one section, but that if they would like the information in the next meeting she would be more than happy to bring it. Duffy said that he thinks Jordahl’s idea is a good one, and that Dewey should bring the information to the next meeting. Dewey said that they will be able to do this with the new software they are getting. Stutsman said that the only hesitation she has is that this is a performance evaluation on the Director, not on the contract.

Dewey said that the revenue hours for this year so far are 87%, and that revenue time is when they are driving. She said that 86% of the mileage they have acquired on the vehicles is revenue time. Lehman asked if they have guidelines on how much a driver should do for an individual. Dewey said that the drivers do have some ability to set guidelines, but that it is very limited because the scheduled rides are based on where the people who actually call in and schedule want to go. She said that this is the difference between fixed route and paratransit. She said that fixed route can be much more efficient in their revenue time and mileage, versus paratransit where the revenue time starts based on the first pick up. Dewey said that one of the things that they need to look at in space needs is where they locate, because they want to be central to where they are going. She said that drivers do have some performance measurements for loading and unloading which cuts down the length of time per trip. She said that they do not have guidelines at this time, but that they are looking towards developing them. She said that with the union, performance reviews are touchy.

Dewey said that in Fiscal Year 1999 they had 57,090 trips requested, of which 45,934 were performed. She said they had 212 missed rides, 9,726 cancelled rides and 158 denials. She said that this shows less than one percent of the denial rate, 17% of the cancelled rides, and 2.1% missed rides. Dewey said that the average trip time was 19 minutes, and the average trip distance was 2.9 miles, which is consistent. She said their revenue hours and mileage were 87 and 86%, respectively. She said that a comparison between this year and last, they have had a reduction of 1,561 requested trips. She said that this could be due to attrition of their customers, that some of the students that they transport have graduated, and that people have moved elsewhere. She said that this is unusual because most transit agencies in urban areas have an increase in their trips. Duffy asked if the mild winter may affect this. Dewey said that that this may have something to do with it, but that she does expect that this may increase with the increase in independent living. She said that they had a reduction of 0.6% trips performed, and that part of this is the cab contract they had last year and their decision not to renew because of the drug testing. She said that they had an increase of one percent for cancelled trips this year, and that part of this may be due to the fact that they have been working on a new policy, and the previous policy wasn’t clear on cancellations. She said they have also been doing more education. Dewey said that denial increased 0.7%, mainly due to the cab service. She said that they have had a reduction in missed rides of 0.2%, which is a good drop. She said this started in October, when the policy started getting public notification. Jordahl suggested that the drop in requested trips may be related to the change in policy on missed rides. Dewey said that this could be true. She said they have had a reduction of 2,703 passengers, which are both riders and personal care attendants or companions. She said that trip time and distance have stayed the same, and that revenue hours and mileage have stayed the same.

Dewey said that they have developed 2 service policies which have gone through public hearing and Paratransit Advisory Committee, and have been adopted by the Board. She said the cities have also approved them through JCCOG. She said that the 2 policies are for missed rides and rider conduct. She said that they believe the missed rides will help with the reduction of missed rides and hopefully cancellations, and that it is very educationally built. She said that the rider’s guide is currently being finalized, and that it will be distributed next month along with a letter. Dewey said that this will ensure that all of the riders will get notification of the SEATS service, how it works, phone numbers, general information and policies for services. She said she believes this will have a positive effect on the outreach that has been absent in the past. Dewey said that they implemented a customer service program and have started tracking their customer comments and compliments. She said that they have put customer comment cards on their vehicles that allow people to mail in comments to them if they are not comfortable giving them to the driver. Duffy asked if they get many of these. Dewey said that they have gotten 2 through the mail, and that most of the comments come over the phone.

Dewey said that they have started an outreach program to start educating people about ADA, SEATS, about their policies, and that they will do an extensive outreach with the implementation of the policies. She said she thinks this has been good for the agencies, and that it’s helped to educate and change some of the ways that they have done rides and contracts. Stutsman asked how they are doing the outreach, and Dewey replied that they usually set up time to go out and talk to them and their staff, or they will get calls asking for a presentation. She said that for contract they usually call and set up a time to talk. She said that the staff is doing outreach through the phone. She said that when agencies call, staff has the ability to talk to them about dispatching or scheduling. Dewey said that they also do outreach with customers through letters to inform them of challenges and resolutions. Jordahl asked if Dewey knew how much computer use there is among their clientele. Dewey said no, that they have no way to gauge this. Jordahl said that this may be a good way to communicate. Dewey said that she knows that there are a few that are using computers because they have called her about the web site. Jordahl said that one way of gauging this would be to ask information services to incorporate some kind of subscription box on their web site where users can sign up to get regular updates from the department.

Dewey said that the first of their current projects is their software system. She said that they are currently in the process of replacing their scheduling software, and that they have selected a vendor and the contracts have been approved. She said that they will be in the department next week to start the preliminary work, and that they expect it will be up and running by June. She said they will have an extensive training program for the staff, and that there is also the opportunity for staff members to have cross-training, so if they would like to work in the office on a rotational basis they had the training to do so. Stutsman asked if this is voluntary and Dewey replied that it is. Dewey said that space needs is another current project, and that they are currently working with JCCOG, ECICOG and the County to find a location. She said that their lease is up in 2001, and that they have looked at a couple of spaces. She said that a meeting is scheduled with ECICOG, JCCOG, the City Council and the Board of Supervisors to talk about what they might do for funding. She said that sometimes the federal government provides matching grant funds. She said that these have already been done for this fiscal year, but they are looking at possible 2002, 2003 funding if it is necessary. Stutsman said that this is great.

Dewey said that she has requested assistance from JCCOG to help with some transit planning strategies this year. She said that in this they are looking at routing, services for the rural area, and different types of service within the urban areas. Duffy said that he has a problem with JCCOG being involved with this because it is a City organization, instead of ECICOG. Dewey said that ECICOG was requested, but they passed it on to JCCOG. She said that ECICOG is involved in their survey to the rural areas. Jordahl said that Duffy raises a good point, and asked where the line between JCCOG and ECICOG exists. Dewey said that they are also developing policies and procedures of things that they currently do, but that they are also trying to develop a formal training program which they hope to complete by next year. Thompson asked if this will be like that plan they had talked about once where during downtime, like lunch, they would have a route to grocery stores. Dewey said that they would be feeder routes and community service routes. She said that feeder routes would be urban, and that community service routes would be mostly urban, but that they are not ready to do routing with the rural area and they need to do some analysis first. She said that ECICOG has been requested to assist with the development and analysis of a survey to the rural areas.

Dewey said that customer service is one of their biggest future goals, and that they are looking at their phone service and how they can make it more efficient and user friendly. She said they are making a few modifications at this time. She said that they currently have 3 lines, and that one of the lines is going to become a cancellation, information line, and that the other 2 will be for reservations. She said that they have 2 people who answer the reservation lines, so there should be a reduction in hold time for people. She said that they have also looked at phone equipment that they might need in the future to enhance this area. Dewey said they are doing extensive outreach with the rider’s guide, and that this will continue to enhance the outreach with the communities. She said that the rural has the least amount of outreach and they want to enhance that by doing the surveys and analysis. She said that they want to increase communication throughout with rural, the agencies and the cities. Dewey said that with this, they believe they will be able to reduce some of their cancellations and missed rides.

Jordahl asked what the proportion of the cancellations is in the rural areas versus the urban area. Dewey said that she would have to do it by percentage because the number of rides that they do in the rural area is much smaller than what they do in the urban area, and that the times are limited. She said that the majority of the rural riders tend to be more disabled than those in the urban. Jordahl said that if there is a 19 minute trip time, and the person is a no show, there is a lot of wasted time. Dewey said that with their current service this is a waste of time regardless, and that this is why they are trying to encourage people to cancel a couple of days in advance. She said that they would like to maximize current service, and she has a meeting with the Transit Operators group with the cities to talk about being able to do same day service. She said that currently, under the ADA plan they are next day service only. She said they are able to do emergency same day service, but that a high number of people do not use this. She said they want to look at ways to utilize the service when they have same day cancellations, and possibly allow people to schedule rides on the same day based on the availability of service left over. She said that this is much more cost effective. She said that in respect to rural service, ECICOG did a survey 5 years ago that showed people in rural areas did not have much interest in receiving service. Dewey said that one of the things they want to do with their goals is reduce their hold times on the phones to 2 minutes or less, reduce their missed rides by 10% of the current level, and reduce cancellations by 10% or more of the current level. Dewey said that she thinks the missed rides policy development will help with this. Duffy asked when riders were supposed to have their new passes. Dewey said that the City does certification on a monthly basis, but SEATS does not.

Thompson asked Dewey what she sees as trends that will effect the department. Dewey replied that it is hard to tell because of the reduction on the rides. Thompson asked if they get a lot of requests from places that have their own buses, like Oaknoll and Walden, and Dewey replied yes. Dewey said that she is looking at how much service they are doing for these types of organizations because the County pays for both of them. Stutsman asked for clarification, and Dewey said that one of the organizations she is speaking of is Pathways. Stutsman said that they fund Pathways with a block grant. Thompson said that at the United Way meeting they said that they were going to use their funding for transportation. Dewey said that she is going to look at which organizations receive funding from the County for transportation, and then determine how much service SEATS is still doing for them. Stutsman said that her understanding was that the funding for Pathways was for people who were Medicaid eligible, but that lag time from the time they applied to the time that they get certified, they would need to compensate for. Jordahl asked if this kind of service is analogous to the subscription service that they do.

Stutsman asked what kind of things they are doing with their staff for either staff development or training. Dewey said that currently they are working on the formal training program. She said that they have training programs staff can go to on a volunteer basis. She said that this hasn’t been popular, but that she is encouraging staff to attend. Dewey said that she is also working the University of Iowa on team building. She said that they are working with Rosenthal, and that one of the things he has requested is that they wait until after the budget. Thompson asked if they do performance evaluations for their staff and if they are up to date. Dewey said no, that they haven’t had performance evaluations since 1995. She said that Graham had submitted something to the union and they said no to evaluations. She said she is trying to figure out if they have to go through the union to do all this. Thompson asked about the non-union staff, and Dewey said evaluations with them are done and are up to date. Thompson said that if they can’t do individual evaluations with the union staff, they can do group evaluations or activities. Dewey said that she has had staff help set goals for the department, and that they understand the performance they have to give to be able to meet those goals.

Lehman asked if they have to advertise for recruitment, and Dewey said they have to advertise and have spent quite a bit of money doing so. She said that they have had large turnover of drivers this year. She said that these positions tend to be filled quickly. Lehman asked what type of quality they are getting, and if everybody that applies is usually hired. Dewey said that 40% of applicants wouldn’t even qualify for the jobs, and of the 60% that do, they have recruited about 20%. She said that some have backed out in the middle of training, and that she implemented something new in recruitment. She said that they do 2 of what they call ride arounds, for 2 to 3 hours, and if they are still interested after that they will be scheduled for an interview. Lehman asked how many hours of training they consider adequate before a person can go out on their own. Dewey said that they have 3 to 4 weeks of training, 5 days a week, but that it is fairly informal. Jordahl asked if they are engaging in loading and unloading passengers at the same time they are learning. Dewey said no, and said that they do drive for a week and do everything while someone is there to observe.

Jordahl asked who does the training if they do not have a Training Maintenance Coordinator. Dewey said that the drivers, herself and Burnell do the training. Dewey said that she usually does the orientation for the department, Burnell does parts of the dispatching, trip sheets, driver information, and that the drivers do the mapping, loading, unloading and sympathy training. Lehman asked if the new system will help the drivers know where they need to go, or if it will just show the dispatcher where the drivers are. Dewey said that it shows both. Lehman said that this could possibly cut down on some training. Jordahl asked when the system will arrive in their office. Dewey said that it will take about 6 to 8 weeks for the system to arrive. She said that they will start doing their switchover in May. Thompson and Stutsman said that Dewey is doing a nice job. Jordahl asked if they had their training procedure documented. Dewey said that they have been documenting it little by little, but that she has been working hard to find the opportunity to get it formalized. Thompson said that Dewey did a nice job in her presentation to Heritage.

Recessed at 10:55 a.m.; reconvened at 11:05 a.m.

Planning and Zoning Administrator Rick Dvorak said on their implementation schedule of the Land Use Plan, there are some things that the Health Department and Conservation Board are supposed to work on. Stutsman said that those 2 departments have different Boards so she isn’t sure how to proceed. Thompson said she wanted to know the status. Stutsman said they weren’t working on it at all. Thompson said that it is important to make it seem like a partnership rather than giving them orders. Dvorak said that they’ve found in the past that they don’t really tell the Health Department what to do. Thompson said it would work well if they could establish a partnership. Dvorak said they will talk to them and encourage them to participate. Thompson they should let the Board know the outcome. Thompson asked how are they going to keep track of groundwater levels. Dvorak said that he thinks they should report back to the Board. Stutsman said those departments need to be told what’s in the land use plan and then ask if they were interested or willing to work with this. Dvorak said that they can’t tell them to do this. Stutsman said they need to revise the plan if those departments don’t want to work on it. Dvorak said there may be things that they can’t get done this year and they may have to amend the plan anyway. He said that they could do the same thing. Stutsman said that this was something that they just didn’t think through. She said that they approved these strategies in the interest of getting the Plan adopted. Dvorak aid they will be glad to work with them in a cooperative approach. Jordahl said these things weren’t developed in a vacuum, and that they came from the Health Department to some extent. Thompson said she agreed with that concerning the Health Department, but wasn’t sure about Conservation. She said that, with the Health Department, these are things they already do and all they’re asking them is to keep track of it. She said that with Conservation it would be a task they would have to do in addition to their organization’s goals.

Jordahl said they have the trails map but still have policy development to do in that area, particularly with signage. Stutsman said that she didn’t think this was even the responsibility of Conservation. Jordahl said it is the responsibility of Conservation when you get into the separate trails question and the maintenance of trails. Thompson said it would be worth talking to them. Duffy asked what they meant by the development of an agriculture transportation plan. Stutsman suggested that they just go through the report and then return to specific things.

Dvorak said they are currently working on the Sensitive Areas Ordinance, Cluster Subdivision Ordinance, Road Management Study, Transportation Plan, Agricultural Residential Districts, and Fringe Area Agreements. He said that the Solon Fringe Area Agreement will be coming before the Board on the 9th. He said that they are also working on an Economic Development Plan, 2000 Census and Building Codes. Dvorak said they will be talking about the Building Code on April 5. Assistant Planning and Zoning Administrator R.J. Moore said they have a draft of the Sensitive Areas Ordinance, which has been passed onto the County Attorney. He said the Conservation Subdivision Design Ordinance draft will be done by June or July and ready for the County Attorney’s review. Duffy said that he wanted to see a copy of this before it goes to the County Attorney because it is public information. Stutsman said as a whole the Board thought they could go through the process and review it when it’s done. Thompson said that she is concerned that they do the whole second step and they don’t approve the first one, the department will be angry with them. Jordahl said there is a certain amount of danger in having a committee work for a few years without seeing their work. There was a long discussion about the committee process.

Dvorak said the Road Management Study is on an upcoming meeting agenda, and that he thinks this will include what Duffy was asking about. Dvorak said he met with the Mayor of Hills and the Mayor was interested in doing something with a fringe area agreement. He said that the Mayor said they do not have a Land Use Plan for the city, and they will possibly create one. Dvorak said that they are members of ECICOG, and the Mayor mentioned that she will bring it back to her council to see if they are willing to work with ECICOG on creating a Plan. He said they will be on hold with them until that point. Dvorak said Moore and Carruthers will be working on a Fringe Area Agreement with Oxford. Dvorak said they have a lot of towns to work with, and they will be able to work with other towns while they’re on hold with Hills. Jordahl mentioned that Shueyville will be ready soon, and that they may be a higher priority than Oxford. Moore said they can work on the Oxford plan fairly quickly. Moore said he and Carruthers will have a template plan in place with Oxford before they even meet with them. Moore said he has talked to Don Saxton, who is comfortable with the County and their relationship. Moore said he would be working with Shueyville next. Dvorak said Shueyville still has to have a Land Use Plan and a Zoning Ordinance. Jordahl asked if Hills will have a problem because of their proximity to Iowa City, and if they will need to have an annexation agreement between the 2 cities. Moore said they’ve had a 28E Agreement in place for years. Dvorak said this is why it’s important to get their Land Use Plan in place. Duffy asked if Hills and Oxford understand the controversy that happened with Tiffin and Swisher, and that it’s not only a Fringe Area Agreement, but if there is an annexation people have to have the blessing of the County. Duffy said they should tell people when something is in violation of the Land Use Plan. Moore said that because the Fringe Area Agreements are justified by both of their existing planning documents, this is already taken into consideration.

Thompson asked if the census was going to take much more of their time. Dvorak said he hoped to be finished with it in the next 2 weeks. He said that he is in the final process, where he has to locate all new construction to ensure that they know to notify the people. He said that the Bureau missed about one third of them. Stutsman asked if they could go through the Implementation Schedule, and expressed that part of what she would like to accomplish is to give staff a clear picture of what the Board wants them to work on next. Dvorak said that he thinks they are moving along on the schedule. He said that they are doing tract diversion of land now, and that the development of an Agriculture Transportation Plan is part of what they will be discussing on the 29th. Stutsman asked what exactly this is. Dvorak said that they have included this in their Rural Transportation Plan. Moore said that an Agricultural Transportation Plan falls under the Road Standards Criteria Plan and the 5 Year Construction Plan. Stutsman said she thinks it is misnamed. Jordahl said that it could be misunderstood as referring to the agricultural area. Thompson said that it should say Rural Transportation Plan. Stutsman asked that they rename this.

Moore said that when they meet on the 29th they are going to address this, and the creation and adoption of the Transportation Management Plan. Duffy asked if this was going to impact roads. Moore said that they were also working on developing evaluation criteria for development on County roads, and that they all fit under the umbrella of what they’re doing. Jordahl asked about the development of criteria to support farming, and asked if they could clarify it. Moore said that what they’ve tried to figure out is the overall land use of agricultural land, and said that the support for farming is something they want to discuss under the AR residential and figure out how to meet these things for the Board. Duffy said that they could get into a lot of trouble if they tried to define what a farmer is. Jordahl said that he thought it would spare them a lot of trouble because it will make it clearer to determine what exactly defines farming. Dvorak said that they would like to get a committee. Thompson asked if they need to get a new definition or a different definition. She asked if they currently have a definition.

Moore said that they currently have a good definition of farming, and that it’s their A1 District. He said there has been some discussion and debate on defining what a farm is now. Duffy suggested that they should ask County Attorney Pat White. Moore said that this would not be at the top of their list right now because they have a good definition, but that they want to see the new census data to determine if they need a new definition. Stutsman said that they continually try to tweak the ordinance to make it work for every single applicant that comes in, and that they need to just say no and stop making exceptions. Jordahl said that they have to make the case to everyone who comes in, and if they had a good definition in place it would be easier to show people why they can’t build a house on farmland. Stutsman said that they have this now. Thompson said that what Jordahl is saying is that people circumvent this by getting the 40 acres. She said that as long as people are following the rules she isn’t bothered by it. Stutsman said that she thinks if the Board could be confident in their definition of a farm, they wouldn’t be running into problems. She said that they have set a terrible precedence by making exceptions. Duffy said that they are leaving out the most important thing from the Land Use Plan, which is that their primary concern is to preserve the prime farmland. Thompson said that she thinks Planning and Zoning should move this issue out further in the plan. Dvorak said that that’s what he thinks they will do. Jordahl said that they need to make amendments to the plan in a formal meeting.

Moore said they have been working on the creation and adoption of an economic development plan for the County. He said that their staff has been fleshing out a draft and because the Board has been in the midst of budgets, they have laid off of it. Dvorak said that they want to pursue review and revision of conditional use permits, and would like to get it as a work session. He said that they have some ideas they would like share with the Board. Dvorak said that they would like to develop and adopt a Conservation Subdivision Design Ordinance, develop and adopt County Building Codes, which they expect will come to the table April 5 as a work session. He said that they would like to investigate developing impact fees. Moore said that the second year graduate students have a fall projects class, and that they have 3 students that are putting together some ideas of development impact fees for the Department. He said that they would like the students to make recommendations, which Dvorak would then accept or modify. Dvorak said that this is a complex process, and if the students weren’t doing it they would probably have to hire someone to assist them. He said that it may not come to the Board this year.

Dvorak said that they want to create and adopt a Transportation Management Plan, which is on the agenda for the 29th, and develop ordinances requiring right-of-way dedication, which is very complex. He said he would like to either push this back or push it off the table altogether, but wasn’t sure that pushing it off was legal. Jordahl said that he thinks it is very important to have this on the table because he thinks they need to have a systematic way of doing it. Dvorak said that he would like to put the last 2 items on the work session. Stutsman asked if they want to set up a time to schedule the work session, and they scheduled a meeting for April. Thompson asked if they do performance evaluations in their office and if they are up to date. Dvorak said that it was his understanding that if they hadn’t been doing evaluations they couldn’t start doing evaluations. Thompson said that they would have to get the union’s permission. Dvorak said that he would have to work with Lora Shramek on this because they haven’t done them in the past.

Adjourned at 12:30 p.m.

Attest: Tom Slockett, Auditor

By Casie Parkins, Recording Secretary