Lehman said they were pretty comfortable with the $100,000 from jail alternatives, and they have been discussing where to get another $100,000 and also the taxation. Thompson asked if anyone was for decreasing the Sheriff from $50,000 to $25,000. Harney said they could lower ICAD by $5,000 also. Neuzil said they would knock that to $15,000. He said Iowa City was starting to come up with their own economic development plan similar to what Johnson County will be doing. Harney said that is still a lot of money. The Board agreed on $15,000 to ICAD. Stutsman suggested they go to $25,000 to the Sheriff, and $100,000 from Central Services. The Board agreed. Stutsman said that $130,000 could be fine if they don’t want to go to $200,000, or they could take the $70,000 out of land acquisition. Thompson said they could take the $50,000 out they would be saving the same amount this year as last year. Lehman said that would be a $180,000 reduction in taxation. Elder said they found a couple of mistakes this morning in payroll numbers. He said on the good side they had $40,000 over-budgeted for the attorney, but they were $90,000 under-budgeted for Ambulance. He said the Director forgot to include overtime in his budget and they are putting the numbers together right now. Stutsman expressed her surprise that he forgot to do that because that’s a big number. Thompson was surprised that wasn’t in his budget. She saw overtime premium pay of $82,000 in the budget request. Elder said they had it downstairs as being zero, so it’s not in the worksheet right now. Horne said it probably wasn’t in the payroll worksheet. Lehman said they were back to a $130,000 reduction in taxation if they put the other $50,000 towards the payroll. Stutsman asked if they wanted to come up with another $70,000 or just leave it at that. Harney said he didn’t want to drop the land acquisition right now because properties were coming up for sale close by. Neuzil said they could bond it. Harney said he would hate to do that. Horne said they could bond for $800,000 per year without a referendum. Harney said they were paying interest then. Thompson asked if they wanted to put the space needs to $950,000 from the million. Lehman said that was in the discussion of the $130,000. He said he was in favor of cutting land acquisition by $50,000. Thompson said they had the $65,000 they were able to reallocate. Stutsman wondered if they should cut back wages to 3.75 and 4.0. Horne stated that from the County-wide evaluation, the Capital Street storage building will probably have some funds left over that aren’t showing there. He said the interest was a low number so that would be back in the Capital Projects fund. Stutsman said she wouldn’t have a problem of cutting out another $50,000 from the land acquisition for a total of $100,000. Thompson didn’t want to do that because it’s less than last year. Harney said he didn’t want to cut out more. Horne said some of the things are going to have leftover balances. Thompson said they may need more for the Admin Building. Stutsman said they could take out the carpeting for the Courthouse at $35,000. Horne said there was also $16,000 for the Health Department parking lot. Stutsman said they could just leave it at $150,000 and could always lower it after the public hearing. Thompson asked the Board if they agreed with taking out $50,000 for the space. Four Board members agreed on that. Neuzil said they were still at last year’s plus an additional $65,000 carryover from this year and maybe more. Stutsman said they should lower it by $100,000 with the anticipation that there might be additional carryover like there was this year. Thompson didn’t think there were three votes for that. Neuzil and Lehman said they were at $50,000. Thompson said there was a net cut of $130,000 then.

Neuzil and Thompson summarized that they had $950,000 in Capital Projects instead of one million, $5,000 less in ICAD (funding at $15,000), $100,000 out of Central Services, and $25,000 from the Sheriff (funding at $25,000), and add $50,000 for payroll. Thompson asked about taking the staff person in Human Resources. Harney wondered if they needed the $100,000 for the voting machines. Stutsman said she was looking at the Courthouse carpeting and it was a lot of money to put for carpeting. Thompson discussed how badly it needs replacing. Thompson was all right with the $130,000 reduction. Stutsman thought they could cut more out of Capital Projects land acquisition because reallocating some of the dollars wasn’t the best idea. Thompson said there was $174,900 for land acquisition in FY2001. Neuzil said when they did the budget last year what was for land acquisition. Lehman said it was less than $100,000 because the ending balance was $110,000. Horne said if you take the $50,000 out, it would be $472,695 in land acquisition. Thompson said the total was $174,000 at the end of this year, and next year they are projecting to add $297,000. Stutsman reminded the Board they have an aggressive set of projects to work on also and maybe they can’t do it all, redoing buildings and also saving for land acquisition. Harney said they are pouring money into rental properties such Human Services and if they don’t set aside money they won’t get anything done. Neuzil asked if anybody had looked at the parking lot at Public Health to see if it could last another year. He wondered if they could spread it out over 2 years, because that could be another $8,000 dollars. He said that was another program that eventually will have a new location like DHS; and the same thing with the Jail. Thompson said she’d take out the whole thing or put it all in because $16,000 isn’t something they need to save up for. Harney wondered what the $130,000 does to the level. Stutsman said they have to estimate between the $100,000 and $200,000 deductions. Neuzil said they should keep on whittling it down.

Thompson said the sheet she’s been using has the $82,000 for the Ambulance payroll on it, and it is the same amount as Elder’s sheet. Lehman said his is showing an $83,000 increase from last year’s budget. Thompson said the personnel increase is $59,994. Stutsman said another thought is to give the Jail three deputies instead of four with the idea of doing four next year. Lehman said he’d rather take it out of land or something else. Neuzil said he was happy with four. Harney asked how important the control center person was. Stutsman thought they really wanted that person. Thompson said she was happy with the $130,000. Horne said what the Ambulance requests and what their budget is isn’t always the same because they don’t factor in the employees. Stutsman said they could leave it at $130,000 and then be happy if the Ambulance was already included. Lehman said the percentage of County-wide tax for a 100,000 change. Thompson said it was about .7 percent each time you go down $200,000. Stutsman said it was 4.9% for ag rural. They thought it would be about 4.5% for the $130,000. Thompson said rural residential was one of the higher ones.

Stutsman thought they should go through the executive summary. She thought it wasn’t out of line to save money for the parking lot either, citing the example of saving for copiers. Thompson said she’d be happy taking out the whole thing. Neuzil said he didn’t think it was a high priority for them. Thompson said they usually have to ask twice before they get something and she’d like to get half the useful life out of it before they sell the building. Lehman said they could have Secondary Roads come in and do the patchwork. Stutsman said they couldn’t do that because there would be a cost associated with that. Neuzil suggested taking it out of this year’s budget. Thompson said that $16,000 would be out of Capital Improvements. Stutsman said the rest could be taken out of Technology. Neuzil wondered where the GIS Coordinator was at, if it was still at $200,000 and they should take that down. Thompson said they’ve already spent quite a bit of the $200,000 because they’ve put all the things that could be covered by it into it. Stutsman said the person has been hired. Horne said the salary was transferred. Stutsman said the Health Department has two vehicles for $16,000. Thompson said that was in their replacement plan. Stutsman mentioned the Auditors Office Map Delineator at $4,000 to increase from 16 to 20 hours. She thought they could keep that at 16 hours. She said they could keep the Planning and Zoning Secretary I position at part-time for another year. Lehman said they need that clerical help with the building permits. Stutsman said these were very tough decisions and had seen on the news where the City of Cedar Rapids cut out 29 positions. Neuzil asked if in the General Basic block grants it was common to see the $51,000 in new expenditures. Lehman said Iowa City held theirs the same. Harney asked if they took the tape machine out of the Sheriff’s budget, and wondered if there were E911 funds available for that. Horne said it should be out of the Capital Expenditures. Stutsman asked him to double check.

Harney left at 11:48 a.m.

Horne said he took it out, but he’d double check with Elder. Stutsman said they could hire a part-time County Engineer instead of a full-time. Thompson said they could take out a quarter and say they could hire the assistant engineer in October. Stutsman said sometimes they get too bogged down in details and they work too hard to manage the departments. Thompson said to do that after the fact wouldn’t be good. She said they should tell them ahead of time that they were getting less than last year. Stutsman said they don’t spend enough time at the forefront of the budget process talking about where they want to go with the budget.

Harney returned at 11:53 a.m.

Thompson said they already took out the employee computer purchase. Reverend Bob Welsh said it looked like the Board was keeping the taxes low and the money they were talking about now wouldn’t make a lot of different on the taxes the people will be paying. Stutsman said until they come up with the final totals they don’t know what impact it will have on the taxpayers. She said when they get the numbers in and turn to page 11, they can see the impact on the County taxpayer. Thompson said when the put in the $16,000 for the parking lot, they are at $196,000 which is very close to the $200,000. She thought they should leave it at that. Stutsman said they do this every year. Neuzil said the tax was 3.8 last year for residential Iowa City. Stutsman said that is almost a 1% increase. Thompson said part of that has to do with the fact they changed the transfer to Secondary Roads. Neuzil said that as far as residential from last year to this year, it was 3.8 last year to 3.9 this year. He said residential Iowa City is almost equal as far as percentage increase. Neuzil commented that things look better on a non-equalization year.

Horne explained that transportation would encompass more than one line item because there is transportation and meals and lodging, and conference registrations. Stutsman said the County has generally not focused on out-of-state travel. Lehman said if they leave it at $146,000 and Elder reports the Ambulance Department is OK, they could put the $50,000 back into the land acquisition, and they have still made a $146,000 cut. Neuzil said the alternative is they have a $196,000 cut. Stutsman wondered if they were done and leave it at that. Thompson and Lehman said they were happy with the $146,000. Lehman said they have really worked it down. The consensus was if there is an additional $50,000, it should go into tax savings. Neuzil said the public hearing will allow people to help them whittle it down even more, or they may see a need somewhere else. Stutsman said they can’t increase it, just lower it. Thompson said it’s a lot of work for the Auditors Office. Neuzil wondered what they would do on Thursday if they ended it now. Stutsman said she didn’t have Thursday on the calendar. Horne said that was an optional meeting. Horne said there was time set aside on the 13th to review the final budget sheet, and that would incorporate all the numbers they talked about today. He said they will have a definite hard number then. Thompson asked directing the Auditor to publish in a Board meeting and Stutsman said it just had to be in a formal meeting where they could vote. The Board reviewed the upcoming schedule of meetings. Elder came back in and reported that five changes were made to the budget. He said the Central Services decreased by $100,000 for jail alternatives, the Sheriff was down $25,000 for jail alternatives, a decrease of $5,000 in block grants for ICAD, and Capital Projects decreased from one million to $950,000 with the change in land acquisition. Neuzil said they deleted $15,957 in Capital Expenditures for the parking lot at Health Department. Elder said those reductions were made, with $92,988 added to Ambulance, and a reduction was made to the Attorney of $54,031. Neuzil said the difference was $157,043. Elder said the percentage change is 4.7% from 5.2%.

Elder summarized that Ag Land Rural was 4.7%, Iowa City ag land was 4.4%, Ag land in other cities was 4.2%; Ag building rural was 4.7%, Iowa City 4.4%, and other cities 4.2%; Ag dwelling rural was 4.6%, Iowa City was 3.2% and other cities were 1.0%; residential rural was 5.1%, Iowa City was 3.7%, other cities was 5.9%. He said commercial rural was 7.1%, Iowa City was 7.4%, other cities was 3.4%. Thompson thought the commercial would take a big hit next year. She said she felt comfortable with this. Neuzil said that at the public hearing people could still whittle it down. Stutsman said they really need to work on the presentation, and Horne has put together a good executive summary. She said what they do in the budget is a policy statement from the Board of Supervisors and they need to do a better job communicating that. Welsh said they might want to make the executive summary available prior to the public hearing. Lehman said people usually notice just the increase amount, so they need a chance to explain it to the public. Horne said he wanted to solicit ideas from the Board for that summary. Stutsman said they should have a work session to develop the budget presentation. She said this is a good opportunity to decide what they want to communicate and how they want to do that. Lehman said last year he and Thompson worked with the Deana Pillard and the Auditor’s Office. Stutsman said this is their most important job and they need to present the budget. The Auditor has interesting information that can be part of the presentation, but the Board should present the budget. Stutsman said they need to explain the money put in for the Jail in the Sheriff’s Department. Lehman said they are just trying to catch up. Harney said they haven’t really done much to address the problem there now other than staffing and upkeep of the building. Stutsman said all the Board members should present the budget. Lehman said they could all present it and pick out an item they are ready to explain. Stutsman said they need to communicate better with department heads and elected officials about budgets and capital improvements. Lehman wondered if they should have Horne send a memo to the department heads about the tentative budget decisions.

Horne said he’d like to set some time to talk about the process. Stutsman thought they should come back on the 8th in case something comes up. Lehman said they could circulate what they had last year. Neuzil said they should put the process of the presentation on for the 13th. Thompson said they need to get Slockett in on it too. Stutsman said they need to direct the Auditors Office time and how time they use. The Board discussed scheduling a meeting. Lehman said they should circulate the handouts from last year. Neuzil said it is a good presentation through the Auditors Web site. Thompson said Slockett’s presentation is good because it tells where the tax comes from. Stutsman said she didn’t think that should be the whole focus of the presentation.

Neuzil summarized that they had a meeting set for February 13, where they would direct the Auditor to publish the budget and set public hearing date and time. He said they would meet again on February 22 at 1:30 to have a work session with the Auditor and discuss the budget presentation. He said there would be a public hearing on March 6th at 5:30 p.m. Stutsman asked if they were in agreement that should be a televised meeting. The Board thought it should. Neuzil said they would then have a meeting March 8th to certify the budget.

Adjourned at 12:30 p.m.

Attest: Tom Slockett, Auditor

By Casie Parkins, Recording Secretary

Sent to the Board of Supervisors on February 14, 2001 at 4:30 p.m.