Lehman: OK. Next item on the agenda, back to it here. No we’re not at the last page. Discussion/Action needed Procedures Manual for the Board of Supervisors office.

Peters: I just need direction here. One of the things that you folks have requested a while back was a Procedures Manual for our office, in case all 3 of us would perhaps not show up for a day of work. And all you’d have to do is refer to the manual and you would know exactly how to prepare the agenda and get the agenda forwarded out to the news media, etc. That’s just one small example. I do wish to make you aware that this is a living document. It changes from, maybe not day-to-day, but from week-to-week, anytime there’s a change in policy or a procedure changes, maybe. So I just wanted to bring that forth and let you know that it’s been ready now for about a year. I’m just a little slow getting around to getting it on the agenda.

Lehman: OK. Thank you for that update.

Thompson: So Carol, with 3 year’s experience now, my experience with procedures manuals is that they’re like a pet, they require a lot of upkeep. Is this going to be manageable for us to keep it up-to-date?

Peters: I think so. The thing that you have to be aware of with any procedures manual is how detailed do you want it? Basically, what this manual consists of right now are the most important items that happen during a day or a week. If somebody comes in for a fireworks permit, it tells you the procedure for that. What happens if an annexation comes in? We’ve just kind of been through one of the those, so we’re pretty good at that, and that hasn’t changed too much. But no, it is something, as long as we don’t get down to where do you keep the pencils, we’ll be just fine.

Thompson: So what will we do, put this on and adopt it?

Peters: I would encourage you not to adopt it, simply because it is a living document, and it does get changed. So if you adopt it in one form, then it will be back on the agenda adopting it in another form.

Lehman: It’s just a heads-up of where we’re at on it.

Peters: Yes. And it is back in my office.

Lehman: I encourage you, if you have the time, that maybe Carol might want to go through it, cite a few examples for you.

Peters: We have like, open meetings law in there, and everything we have in the document is not necessarily a policy that we have drawn up, but I have also taken the liberty of putting portions of the code in there, so that you know, like, can this be an executive session. What’s allowable under executive session? Is this going to be a formal meeting? An informal meeting? Where to find the minutes on the computer, which drive the minutes are in? Is it in a shared drive? If so, under what category? Just kind of to help you get to where you want to go in a hurry. A road map.

Lehman: Thank you.

Stutsman: And it’s in your office, there? OK.

Lehman: Next note, the minutes that we have received have been circulated around. East Central Iowa Council of Governments for November 30, 2000; Johnson County Empowerment Area Board for January 4, 2001; and also the minutes for the Johnson County Board of Social Welfare Cluster Board for January 8, 2001.

Lehman: OK, we’re on to Reports and Inquiries from the Board of Supervisors. Any volunteers to start? It’s been 2 weeks since we had some.

Stutsman: Yes, it has been awhile.

Thompson: I’m ready, I’ve got pictures. The Housing Task Force met a week ago Thursday, and we are still encouraging people to apply. We have open slots, and one of them is for a person at what they call the 80% line, which is considerably above the poverty income, so a person of higher income than others might be able to apply for that slot. We have a person who gave us permission to use the before and after pictures, so what I’m passing around first is the before, and the second is the after. This project came out really nicely. The house looks very nice now that it’s been finished. So, I thought we’d pass around these pictures so the Board could see them. And today, at Senior Dining, if we get there pretty fast, there’s a celebration of Mike Foster’s 20 years of service to Johnson County. I’ll stop now, so we can get over there.

Harney: On the 19th, I attended the Chamber Ag breakfast at Montgomery Hall. The speaker there was Lucy Norton with the State of Iowa, with the Iowa Corn Promotion Board. Her basic presentation was on ethanol and its use and so forth. One of the big issues is battling the MTVE, which has been a pollutant banned in California, and there is some movement to remove that, and allow them to use that again in California, and they are resisting that. Naturally, Iowa, being a corn state, they’re pressing to use more corn, more ethanol production in Iowa and the surrounding states, which is happening. Chicago has proven that ethanol has been effective. They are currently using, or requiring it, almost 10% in all their fuel use in the Chicago area, to attempt to lower the pollutants. Brazil is currently buying ethanol at a 20% blend, rather than a 10% blend, which is increasing the sales of corn, which should help the farmers out. I attended the Legislative Forum on the 18th at the Public Library, which was put on by Senator Bolkcom, Representatives Mascher, Lensing, and (inaudible) from Washington County. And that, naturally, was the issues on the fuel, the natural gas cost increase. John Iman with the facilities at the University of Iowa, their fuel generally runs about $14.2 million, and they’re going to be increasing about $1,000,000 on the natural gas cost to them this year. I think you probably heard Gerald Palmer give a presentation recently, and he did that night as well, and theirs has gone up about $1,000,000, the cost of the fuel for them, which is almost 6.5% increase, are what the costs are there. And they’ve done a lot of things to try to lower the cost in saving energy, but it’s still affecting everyone; it’s just kind of an idea of how it’s affecting people. Proctor and Gamble, they use most of their fuels for steam; they use a lot of fuel oil and things like that, and their has gone up also about $1,000,000 or so. Of course, Mary Mascher had talked about the bill to eliminate tax on the natural gas and so forth, and they were doing that, and I think there’s a recent issue that came before the… I think there was a meeting they talked about last Saturday I was at the Council Chambers, where they are, in fact, taking the tax off of the fuel. The problem is, it’s really affecting the poor as well. Right now, to me, the cost of fuel has gone up, it’s kind of distributed evenly through the public, but they’re raiding the funds that’s set aside to insulate the homes for the poor, and help replace doors, things like that. So they’re taking that money as well as the money set aside to protect the waters for the landfill, so this really doesn’t make a lot of sense, taking that off. Sure, I’d like to see them take the tax off, but it’s really going to affect the counties and the public probably more by removing that, and taking it from these other, robbing from these other locations, which are really health and safety issues as well. Also, the 23rd through the 25th I attended the ISAC training classes for newly-elected officials in Des Moines. That was very informative, legislative process, I attended that, budgeting 1 and budgeting 2, sources of the law, there’s a lot of good information there dealing with different issues in the courthouse and administrative buildings and things like that, issues of elected officials, how they cooperate and work together. So it was really a busy and beneficial last couple of weeks.

Lehman: Great. Sounds like you’re learning a lot and absorbing a lot. We expect a lot from you.

Neuzil: That could leave me, also. Of course, I joined Pat over at the ISAC meetings and the school of instruction. It was, again, very informative, learning the basics, if you will, as far as our responsibilities as Supervisors, so it was a very good experience and I’m glad that we had that opportunity as new members of the Supervisors. I’m also serving on a committee with HACAP, and that’s been a whole new experience for me, is learning that process. I found myself right away involved in this fairly heavily, and that’s because I am going to be serving on the committee for residential environment division and also the family assistance network. And this committee has a lot to do with what’s called LIHEAP. And LIHEAP is Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, which has a lot to do with what the Iowa Legislature is looking at, in regards to assisting individuals at 150% poverty, in regards to dealing with their energy bills. I’ve been in very close contact with a number of members of HACAP immediately, as I’m joining a team that’s going to be approaching the Iowa legislature, and particularly Governor Vilsack, in regards to lobbying in the direction of what HACAP is trying to promote, and making sure that money, particularly with weatherization, isn’t taken out of it. So that’s one of the things I’m working on. I’m also going to be taking a very active role with HACAP, particularly at the national level, as well, and I’m already in pretty good contact with a few of the members as well in that regards, as taking to even at the national level. Which, the reason I wasn’t around, I was in Washington D.C., had a wonderful time as a chaperone, taking Iowa City West High students to see the inauguration process. And it was a very neat experience to see them experience that. Fortunately, I had a chance to see that 4 years ago as well, and so it was very interesting to see the process between the Democratic administration and now a Republican administration. Good experience for that, and also continuing to build ties at the national level, as some of the things that we’ll see on our plate even locally we can address at that national level and should help me in that meetings that I’ll be having with the Chamber of Commerces with Iowa City and Cedar Rapids as we send the delegation to Washington, D.C. at the end of this month. Thank you.

Lehman: Thank you. Sally?

Neuzil: …sent to Washington D.C. at the end of this month.

Lehman: Thank you.

Lehman: Sally?

Stutsman: Just a couple of things that might be of interest to the Board. I attended the one-day ISAC Meeting, which was for old Supervisors, as well as new Supervisors. One thing that is coming up is the redistricting. I gave some information to Carol Peters that was passed out at that meeting about our role as County Supervisors when it comes to the reprecincting in the County. We don’t have as much responsibilities because we do not elect Supervisors at large. If we did it at large, it’s just a whole different ball game and a much more involved process. So, we’re fortunate that we are all elected at large and not by district. The March meeting for ISAC, they will go over some additional information about that. About what our role is and it might be definitely worth at least Supervisors and maybe Carol Peters’ time to go into that so we understand what our total role is in that. They also talked some about the property tax freeze. That’s on the plate again this year for the legislature. The Farm Bureau has drafted that has been circulating at the State level. ISAC has also put together a proposal. It wasn’t in bill form as of last week, but they reviewed basically what the parts of that were and I think it’s real workable for counties. It talks about having a fiscal plan in place, which I think was real positive, especially in lieu of the fact that Johnson County already is basically doing that. I don’t think I’ve passed that around to Supervisors, but maybe I should pass around that basic frame work so that Supervisors can look at that and contact legislators about that. Keep your eyes out on what direction that is going at the State level. We finished our interviews with the GIS Coordinators. We are checking references on one individual. So, I think we are optimistic that we might have somebody in place in the very near future. We had a MECCA Board Meeting last night. Went over again their plans for their new office space, which will be located right next to their current facility out on Southgate. Had a number of issues with Zoning at the City level and they pretty well got those worked out. Hopefully, with financing in place and things, that they can break ground sometime this spring. It’s going to be quite a facility, with office space and then 2 floors for apartments for their people to live in. So, that will be great for them. They also passed around the audit. I’m going to pass that around for the Board. What’s really great is that MECCA is in the black. That’s always a good sign. There is always touch and go with these agencies with Federal and State and local funding up in the air. So, that’s good. I also had an update on MECCA. They did receive a contract to provide substance abuse services in Des Moines and talked about where they are at there. I will be involved as a representative from the Board of Supervisors in the search for a new Health Director. I just wanted to tell the Board that I’ll be working on that. That’s it.

Lehman: OK. Thank you. I’d like to remind the Board and members of the public of events coming up. This Friday, the 2nd, Rod Dunlap, who is retiring after 31 years as head of the Conservation Department, will be honored at the Oxford Legion from 5-7 on Friday. Also, then, on Saturday, at 11:00 at the armory, they will have a get to know welcome for their new commander Steve Winnicky, who is returning here after he was signed here and gone to Ft. Dodge, who is back. He is kind of a local boy from Springdale, West Liberty area. Just a heads up on that, we’ve been invited to attend that. But, that’s all I have. Anything else from the Board, if not open up to the public inquiries and reports? Kim, did you have an addition?

Painter: There is an e-commerce. E-commerce is one of the hotter topics in State government right now. There was a bill last year that was passed into law by the legislature pertaining to e-commerce in the State of Iowa and governmental institutions and how we process all of our paper and documents and (inaudible). In addition, last year, at the federal level, a bill that’s sort of abbreviated as E-sign was passed. Some legislation will probably be coming up again, or additions to what was passed last year. I know there is a committee of people from several industries, banking and real estate, certainly recorders are a part of that talk about e-commerce. I hope to be a pilot county for an e-commerce project that will be coming up. It’s very uncharted waters. There is a lot of questions about signature technology and how you protect your signatures on things like these mortgages. But, that’s the whole idea that people will actually someday be able to complete a mortgage, perhaps on site, with a laptop computer and send us all of that documentation and we’ll take it in and that will become the official record. So, taking on just one more (inaudible) technology thing.

Lehman: Thank you. Did you have one more announcement Sally?

Stutsman: No.

Lehman: OK.

Stutsman: Oh, did you want me to announce? Dan Holderness will be coming to the Board on February 22nd to give an overview and an update on Coralville projects. I had mentioned earlier that he had spoke to our Kiwanis group and it was really informative and really interesting. So, I think it would be worth the Board’s time to hear what they are up to and what’s going on.

Lehman: OK. If no more inquiries or reports we’ll adjourn. Thank you.

Adjourned at 12:16 p.m.

Attest: Tom Slockett, Auditor

By Casie Parkins, Recording Secretary