Chairperson Lehman called the Johnson County Board of Supervisors to order in the Johnson County Administration Building at 9:04 a.m. Members present were: Pat Harney, Mike Lehman, Terrence Neuzil, Sally Stutsman, and Carol Thompson.

Lehman called the meeting to order. Horne presented the Board with updated sheets of the Medical Examiner and Block Grants budget. Lehman said they’re going with no vehicles for the Medical Examiner Field Inspectors. Horne said that there are 2 vehicles budgeted for lease, one for Dr. White and the examiner on-call, then a pickup truck for the field investigators. He said they are going to purchase the bed liner at a cost of about $10,000. Horne said it is through capital expenditures and not all in this budget. He said the cars under lease are $4,500 each annually and it includes maintenance.

Neuzil asked about changes for ICAD. Stutsman said it should be left at 20,000 this year since lowering it wasn’t discussed previously. She suggested sending them a letter letting them know that the Board discussed this and will be watching their relationship with ICAD in hopes of improved input from ICAD. The Board agreed on keeping it at $20,000.

Thompson asked if the change in Public Health is to add the $2,000 for the smoking cessation. Horne said it is. Horne mentioned that Dameron is under the impression that approximately $3,400 should be transferred from this to his budget because of something done with VNA. Horne said that is why the VNA numbers are off. Horne said a one-time transfer should take care of this.

The Board talked about a grant for E-911. Harney said he thought it was for a booster for the radio systems out in the County. Stutsman said they don’t do anything with E-911 funds.

Thompson said she shows $25,000 more in the Sheriff’s budget than Horne shows. Horne said he used the figures on the personnel sheet from the Auditor’s Office instead of the ones the Sheriff has. Thompson said Horne’s is lower. Lehman said she might have added technology into something else. Stutsman said she is alarmed at the personnel figure they put together for the Sheriff’s Department and is looking for where to do readjustments. She asked if they could go with 3 deputies instead of 4. Thompson said they technically need 4.18 staff members to cover vacations, holidays and days off. Neuzil said his reasoning for supporting 4 is it sends a message to the State that the County is striving to make the facility safer in dealing with the overcrowding. Horne said they added civilian transport drivers last year. The majority of the Board was comfortable with leaving the additional staff for the Sheriff’s Department.

Horne said the Planning and Zoning increase is the amount of difference between the part-time and the full-time position with salary and benefits. Lehman said it’s a $13,341 increase.

Thompson said Nutrition is a budget where there are several variables. She said they wouldn’t know how much they are going to get from Heritage until February 22nd. Stutsman asked if it’s safe to assume they will give the County what they did last year. Thompson said they are giving a 2-3% salary raise and the exact amount is unknown. Thompson said the Board has talked about the Nutrition Committee being able to spend the extra interest from their account. She said it is conceivable that between this and the extra donation they would collect enough to actually spend the amount of money that they proposed in their budget, even if they don’t get it all from Heritage. She said the Board also wanted their own contribution of $30,000 to be static. She said they need to adjust the revenues in order to get to that and then leave the expenditures at the amount requested. Lehman said their budget this current year is $403,280. Thompson said $369,000 is from Heritage, some from Waiver dollars and they will probably take in some money from their donation. Lehman said the Nutrition Program need to know that their limitations next year will be $30,000 over Heritage and Waiver dollars. Thompson said they should spend it last so it can be controlled by the allocation made in the 4th quarter. The Board discussed the Senior Dining and Congregate Meals aspect of Nutrition. The Board discussed staying at $30,000. The Board discussed the re-certified numbers. Thompson said if they put $453,574 into their budget, $30,000 in revenues and tell Nutrition that they are restricted to spending only the revenues that they get, then it would compensate for Heritage. She said if Heritage gives them less the Board could adjust their allocation in the last quarter to accommodate that.

Harney spoke about Conservation. He said that if they collect the insurance money for the damage to the trees that the money should go back to Conservation for the replacement of those trees. Lehman said he thought they were getting some of it. Horne said they did ask for the trees in their budget. He said the amount they asked for is over the required levy amount to re-tree. He said they are asking for $804,000 and the required levy is $787,000. Stutsman said regardless of insurance, the issue is does the Board want to give them tree money. Horne said if the $25,000 they requested is left out, that brings the numbers down to $780,000, it would still leave them about $8,000 for trees. Neuzil said the levy could at least be matched at $8,000 and have a commitment over the next few years to do their tree replacement.

Thompson said the only position in this part of the budget besides the Sheriff’s is in HR. Horne asked about the Secondary Road positions. Stutsman said she would like to eliminate the road maintenance position since they received one last year. The Board discussed if hiring an engineer would reduce the cost of hiring a consultant for research. Stutsman said the Board needs to phone Gardner and ask if hiring an assistant engineer would still mean hiring a consultant. Lehman asked Gardner, via the phone, about this. Gardner said it is a possibility. He said the concern lies in the credibility with the public. He said they can do the work, but selling the idea that it is unbiased might be hard. Stutsman asked if he would have money in the budget to do a feasibility study without the Board putting in the $50,000. Gardner said if they have an extra engineer on staff they could probably do it for under that amount, but it is tough to say. He said they could do some of the preliminary things and then ask someone from the outside to take it from there. Gardner said he really doesn’t know the definite cost of this. Stutsman said the Board is considering funding the assistant engineer and still asking to have the feasibility study done. She said they would like Roads to bring a proposal to the Board on how this can be done with cost in-house and hiring a consultant, then look at as a budget amendment instead of putting in the $50,000. Gardner said they could look at doing this. The Board decided to go ahead with funding the Assistant County Engineer position.

Horne said the CNA, Community News Advertiser, will charge an extra $200 per quarter to put it on the web. Stutsman said the Communications Committee hasn’t had the opportunity to discuss this and usually they make a recommendation to the Board. Horne said color is another option at $100 more. Neuzil said he’s not sure if the $800 a year is worth it when the County could put much of the information on their website. Stutsman said they are really talking about a total of $1,500 more than currently. The Board agreed to add $1,200 for this in Central Services.

Recessed at 10:30 a.m. Reconvened at 10:43 a.m.

The Board discussed the salary increases. Shramek said the City of Iowa City is at 3.25 and AFSCME is also at 3.25. Lehman said the County is currently at 5.35% for elected officials and 4% for management. The Board discussed with Human Resources Administrator Lora Shramek step increases, longevity and cost of living. Neuzil said he is concerned that deputies are capped at 80% of what an elected official makes. He said he wants to make sure that deputies are paid at least what non-bargaining is paid. He said that this means if non-bargaining is at 4, then elected officials are at 5. Shramek said some deputies are able to be paid up to 85%. Stutsman asked Shramek her opinion of what the salary increases should be. Shramek said she feels 4% for management and 4.25% on the elected official side. The Board agreed on 4.0% for non-bargaining and 4.5% for elected officials. Neuzil said the impact of 4.5% for elected officials is $55,354.

Stutsman asked Shramek if the new position in Human Resources could do formatting to put the CNA on the web. Shramek said it wasn’t in the job description but HR is heavily involved with the Communications Committee therefore it might be possible and it’s only 4 times a year. Thompson said it is probably about 10 hours of time. The Board discussed the cost differences of doing it in-house or not.

Lehman told the Board that Horne does a lot of work at home and it would be good for him to be able to take a laptop home. Shramek said that Information Services has a couple of computers that can be checked out. Horne said he has a laptop of his own at home and wouldn’t mind using his own laptop. Shramek said the County has an Employee Computer Purchase Program that they have offered in the past and might offer again.

Thompson asked if the figure in Central Services is $794,863. Horne said he needs to go fix that number again. He said that on the discretionary side there is $1,000 for jail alternatives, $6,000 for mileage and $1,500 for the Board phone system. Horne said the Board needs a new fax machine which would be $1,000. The Board agreed they could purchase this in their budget.

Harney said he feels that Secondary Roads really needs the road maintenance person because it would reduce overtime. Stutsman said the overall budget is adding a lot of new people already. She said they did get a maintenance person last year. She said Gardner definitely wants the engineer but he wasn’t real definite about the maintenance person. Thompson said to wait another year. The Board agreed on this.

The Board discussed when to review the final budget. Thompson spoke about the transfer from General Basic and Rural Basic to Roads. She said the Secondary Roads budget was decreased by about $87,000. She said it seems that if they increase the rural levy transfer by $100,000 and decrease the General Basic by $12,852, which is the difference, they still would come out even and money would be saved in General Basic. Neuzil asked how the percentage of change would be changed. Deputy Auditor Joe Elder said Thompson’s logic is correct. He said they have to be careful not to fall below the minimum when they add up the transfer from General Basic and Rural Basic to Secondary Roads. Stutsman asked him to put the scenario together for review tomorrow.

Stutsman left at 11:40 a.m.

Neuzil said the impact on taxpayers should go down, too, considering the changes made. Elder said it would go down slightly. Neuzil said the impact on ag land and buildings would be about 4.3%. He said it could be about 4.1% with the change decreases. Elder and Lehman talked about the different percentage changes this could result in.

Horne said Slockett wants to pay for some of the Courthouse funds from Central Services then reimburse Central Services later. Horne said he isn’t sure what Slockett is talking about and why they want to take it from Central Services. Thompson said because it is a one-time expense. Horne said the fund is already set up and they just need to create the line item.

Adjourned at 11:53 a.m.

Attest: Tom Slockett, Auditor

By Nancy Phillips, Recording Secretary