Stutsman: All right. Let’s move back to business the Board of Supervisors and Item B, discussion regarding Thursday’s meetings, East Central Iowa Council of Governments and JTPA appointees. I put this on for discussion. I am the Board’s representative to East Central Council of Governments and to Job Training Program. Those meetings meet once a month on Thursdays, and usually they start at 11:30 and go right into 1:00. As Chair, I do not feel comfortable leaving these meetings to go to that meeting up in Cedar Rapids. I think we need to have new appointments to those meetings.

Jordahl: We do have a Thursday evening meeting. Either we move our Thursday evening or they move their Thursday morning. Or we consider moving our Thursday morning to Tuesday morning, which is something Andy had suggested, might be a good idea.

Thompson: Or we could move our night meeting to the week that you have the JTPA.

Stutsman: OK. That’s another possibility. There are all kinds of possibilities. It’s just what we want to do. Or, the easiest one is just to have another Board member leave the meetings early on Thursday.

Jordahl: Even then, that Board member would miss part of the one meeting a week where we actually take action on things.

Stutsman: I don’t think it’s realistic to ask East Central Council of Government, or JTPA, to change their meeting.

Thompson: There are a lot of them. Which week of the month is it?

Stutsman: It was last week, is when it was.

Thompson: It’s the 4th?

Stutsman: Yes, I think it is the 4th Thursday of the month.

Jordahl: Another possibility would be to put all of our meetings in the evening.

Thompson: We could just change our Zoning meeting the 4th instead of the 2nd. Would that make any sense to anyone? Probably no one cares.

Peters: Before you do that, I’d suggest you visit with Rick Dvorak because of the timing between this…

Thompson: Then he’d have to change his meeting.

Peters: Zoning (inaudible).

Stutsman: The only problem I had with that is how long we’ve done the evening meetings. People are pretty well set now with the 2nd Thursday of the month as far as planning their schedules. That would be my last choice of changes to make. I’d hate to do that. I’m big on consistency.

Jordahl: The best option that has been presented that would address this is Andy’s, of putting our meetings, excepting the Zoning meeting, on Tuesday so he’ll have better production time to get them on TV in good shape for Thursday evening broadcast.

Stutsman: Do we want to do that?

Videocenter Operator Andy Small: It’s up to you. That would make it a little bit easier for me. The meeting wouldn’t quite be as timely. That’s another consideration. I’ve been, sort of… I’ve sucked it up and pulled this together every Thursday since you changed it.

Stutsman: We appreciate your efforts. We really do appreciate what you do.

Small: If the meeting goes until 2:00, then the meeting is only 3 and a half hours old by the time the people see it, whereas it would be 2 days later.

Jordahl: Last Tuesday’s meeting, yes.

Small: Right, which is something to consider.

Stutsman: Is there any problems with Tuesdays? Carol, can you think of anything moving the… When would we have to have items for the agenda? Would it be Friday at noon? Yes. That would almost shorten that time frame. Am I thinking right? No, not really.

Jordahl: Well, the currentness, I think Andy raises another good point on this. If you weigh having the meeting broadcast on the same day that it took place against one member of the Board missing out on part of the informal discussion in order to be up at Cedar Rapids for ECICOG. I guess maybe currentness is more important than one Board member not being here for informal discussion. It’s kind of a close call, actually.

Stutsman: I know in the past ECICOG meetings have always been on the Thursday, and the Board meetings, this is not a new phenomenon, our meetings running late and a Board member having to leave early to go. From that point of view…

Jordahl: That perspective it’s not new.

Stutsman: It’s not new.

Jordahl: It’s just that the Chair shouldn’t be the one leaving.

Stutsman: Yes. I don’t feel comfortable.

Thompson: Is it usually the Chair that is the appointee?

Stutsman: It’s just that I said I would do it because I’ve done it before and I had done it for one year and I think 2 years is a good…

Jordahl: I think there was a problem that I couldn’t drive, too. I’m getting my license back, though, in about a week.

Stutsman: OK, Jonathan. Well, do you volunteer to be the appointee?

Jordahl: I don’t know, I like talking so much.

Stutsman: Well, I think the least, quite frankly, to me, the least disruption is just having another Board member take over the appointment to ECICOG and JTPA.

Jordahl: I’ve done those committees, though, in terms of sharing the wealth, educating people around about what we all do. That would be preferable for someone who had not served on that would…

Lehman: I was thinking I was an alternate, possibly. I went one time. I guess I’d be willing to…

Stutsman: Great, Mike. That is true. You are the alternate. Why didn’t I think to have you go to those meetings?

Lehman: I wasn’t sure I wanted to bring it up, but I guess I’d consider that rather than disrupt everything else. Try that.

Stutsman: All right. Why don’t we just do that? You would take over JTPA too, which meets for only an hour before the ECICOG meeting. They have both of those meetings at the same time just for the convenience of the people. So many elected officials that go up there and serve on both committees.

Lehman: I’d be willing to try that. Less disruptive and loose ends.

Stutsman: Very good. I feel real good. Thank you for volunteering to do that, Mike. I appreciate that.

Lehman: I think it was sounding like I was going to get volunteered. No, sorry.

Stutsman: We wouldn’t do that. Draft you? Never. Any other comments about Thursday’s meetings? Are there any other issues that we needed to tie up regarding that?

Jordahl: Well, lest there be misunderstanding about my getting my license back, I want to make sure to stress that this is because of a brain seizure and not because of any misbehavior on my part.

Stutsman: I’m glad you clarified that.

Jordahl: OK. Let’s make sure that’s clear.

Small: It’s still really nice to have a printout of upcoming events with dates and times and phone numbers I could just mount right there. When the whole meeting’s over, just pan down, shoot it while I break down, fade out on that.

Lehman: I thought maybe there was something you could also, during recess, maybe scan. It might save some announcement times for us.

Stutsman: That is a good idea.

Small: It may be more expensive for you guys.

Stutsman: Yes, that’s what I’m thinking. Who’s going to do it? Carol mentioned the Communications Committee. Deana’s leaving and she was the one that kind of took care of a lot of those things. I agree, that’s…

Small: Well just, in the future. It would be a good use of time.

Stutsman: OK. Item C, minutes received, Johnson County Empowerment Board for April 6, 2000. Johnson County Task Force on Aging for April 17, 2000, and the Johnson County Iowa City Fringe Area Committee for April 21, 2000. Do we have any reports and inquiries from the Board of Supervisors? Carol, why don’t we start with you.

Thompson: This week was the meetings for the MH/DD committees, and I’m on the Continuous Quality Improvement. We considered the service matrix and proposed adjustments that would make sure that all the services that we usually provide are covered in our service matrix and would have to be used if we ran short of funding and had to establish a waiting list. We made some dramatic revisions in it, which will, I assume, worm their way through the policy council to the Board, eventually. We took a 4 page form and made it into a half a page policy, which I think will be much easier for people to understand and for the department to administer. You’ll probably talk about our 28E work session. The Juvenile Crime Work Group met this week, and for the first time, we included the Juvenile Court Office, and we were going to invite Lutheran Social Services, which now means that we’ve expanded our continuum to include the sanctions for children who actually commit juvenile crimes to the prevention efforts. This is one of the things that we’re allowed to do now because the funding has been merged for both kinds of programs. We think it’s going to give us a better coordination for the programs in our County. Jonathan, are you going to talk about the Mike Foster meeting?

Jordahl: You go ahead, Carol, if you’d like.

Thompson: We met with Mike Foster yesterday, and we began drafting a plan for possible cuts that we could make in the Senior Dining Program that wouldn’t include closing any centers or cutting off anybody’s dinner. We started by looking at things that we could just do as far as tightening the budget and then we talked about the Autumn Park change to boxed meals, which was one that had been discussed when he was hear at the Board that we thought most of us agreed would be a good change to make. We’re going to continue meeting with him and working on this so that we should, by the beginning of the budget year, have a plan that will show some lessening of the $40,000 that was expected from Johnson County. I think we’ll still have to put in some, but it will be less than $40,000. Is that a good summary, Jonathan?

Jordahl: Just the box thing. We talked about trays with the notion of, at Autumn Park, the continuation of hot meals. The tray service is slightly more…

Thompson: Yes, they would already served up when they arrived at Autumn Park rather than being served after they get there. That would be the only difference.

Jordahl: Right. We’re not talking about cardboard boxes here.

Thompson: It would be the same meal that everybody else has.

Jordahl: We’re talking about a permanent fiberglass or plastic tray or something like that.

Stutsman: Anything else, Carol?

Thompson: No, that’s all.

Stutsman: Jonathan, do you have anything this morning?

Jordahl: I just want to point forward to a couple things if people are interested. Space Needs Committee meeting tomorrow morning at 10:00 at the County Attorney’s office. Iowa City Fringe Area discussion’s coming up 10:30 Friday the 12th. Crisis Center fundraiser breakfast coming up on Sunday at St. Wenceslaus. Janet Lyness was telling me about the RVAP is having a fundraiser coming up at 7:00 on the 10th of May, and she’s got tickets available for that here called (Inaudible). I think I’ll…the Ambulance thing on the 14th, but that’s far enough out. I’ll pass.

Stutsman: OK. Mike, do you have anything this morning.

Lehman: In light of the time, I don’t think if anything needs to be mentioned.

Stutsman: I just had a couple things. I attended the Legislative forum on Saturday morning and asked the question about where we were as far as the property tax freeze. The general opinion was that is was an election year issue and probably will not be brought up again in the next legislative session. I think the general consensus was it doesn’t work and doesn’t certainly accomplish what it’s intended to do. Hopefully we won’t have to deal with that next year. The thought that that might be implemented again. Had Communication Committee yesterday. We just reviewed the articles that are going into the Advertiser external newsletter. Those will be forwarded on to the external newsletter. We’ve kind of got out of sync with that publication, so we’re getting back on track with that. The next time the Communication Committee meets, we will be talking about our plans for the County Fair and the County’s presence there. Had Executive Committee with the MH/MR/DD Planning Council. Our role or charge has been diminished somewhat, so basically we just talked about what’s going to be on the agenda for the Planning Council, and had a little discussion on whether there really is a need for an Executive Committee. I guess the general consensus from the group was for the Executive Committee to continue to meet and drop the agenda for the Planning Council. Jonathan and I met with Lisa yesterday. Lisa Dewey from SEATS. She has completed her investigation concerning the incidents with the client being left on the SEATS van. There are some other things that need to be put into place before that entire investigation is complete, so she will be bringing a report to the Board once that’s all done. Computer training and installation will start next week, so that will be taking up time at the SEATS office. Lisa is planning to go to a conference in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, concerning assessments and grant writing. I think that’ll be very beneficial for her to attend that meeting. I think that’s everything that we covered in that meeting. We are, Monday, having a joint Small Cities in Johnson County meeting, and that’s Monday, May 8, at the fairgrounds at 6:00. We have these meetings once or twice a year. It’s an opportunity for the Board to meet with the smaller cities in the County and to discuss issues of mutual concern and just kind of update on what’s going on with the smaller towns. That will be happening on Monday. That’s everything I had. All right. Anything else?

Thompson: We have one more agenda item, the work session on the back.

Stutsman: Oh, yes. But I don’t know if we’re going to get to that today. I would like to postpone that until next time. Are there any inquiries or reports from the public? If not then, we are adjourned. Oh, you know what, I want to add that Deana Pillard is leaving the County. She has accepted a new position in Cedar Rapids. We hate to see her go, but tomorrow will be her last day. She’s worked for the County for 2 years and served as office Administrative Assistant in working primarily with the Board with the budget. I think we have certainly benefited from Deana’s work and I think we’re much better positioned with our budget and have made some really good strides. I want to thank Deana publicly and tell her that we certainly hate to see her go, certainly wish her well and she will do well in her next job. Thank you for all your work that you’ve done with the Board.

Pillard: Thank you.

Lehman: Do you have a farewell address or anything you’d like to…

Stutsman: This is your chance, Deana.

Jordahl: Snowballs, spitballs.

Stutsman: Thank you, again, Deana. I don’t know if any other Board members have comments or anything you’d like to add.

Jordahl: Well, we’ve been trying to change the budget process in Johnson County a lot. Deana has walked into the position of trying to mediate between what we’ve been trying to change and what the departments have had to deal with changing. Nobody likes change that well, so Deana has been a marvelously flexible person to step out into the range of responses that we’ve had and to try and make this whole thing work for us. It’s been a real tough position for her and she had performed admirably in it. Thanks, Deana.

Stutsman: Deana’s been a pleasure to work with, too. I remember during the interview process, we asked what will you know about me 3 weeks from today that you don’t know today, and she said her sense of humor, and boy, I thought of that.

Jordahl: Yes that was an understatement.

Stutsman: It’s been fun. She’s kept on our toes. All right. Well, thank you everyone, and we are adjourned.

Adjourned at 12:23 p.m.

Attest: Tom Slockett, Auditor

By Casie Parkins, Recording Secretary