Chairperson Lehman called the Johnson County Board of Supervisors to order in the Johnson County Administration Building at 1:35 p.m. Members present were: Pat Harney, Mike Lehman, Terrence Neuzil, and Sally Stutsman; absent Carol Thompson.

Lehman said that he knew that in the past they had done their charts in PowerPoint, and wondered if the Board wanted to do that again. He said that he had attended the Iowa City budget hearing and reported that they had spent 6-7 minutes giving a verbal presentation and then had opened up their public hearing. Lehman said he wanted to do something that gained the confidence of the taxpayers and showed that the Board knew what had gotten done with the budget.

Johnson County Auditor Tom Slockett said that he could give a historical presentation, as he had done in the past. Slockett reviewed the PowerPoint presentation that had been given in the past, prepared in combination by the Auditor’s Office and the Board of Supervisors. Slockett explained that the Auditor’s Office had been responsible for giving the historical background of the budget, while the Board had prepared some of the presentation explaining its priorities and current budget discussions. Slockett said that this was the Board’s budget, not the Auditor’s Office’s, and the Auditor’s Office would do as they were asked by the Board.

Lehman wondered if members of the Board should rotate, each explaining the budgets of some of the departments. Stutsman said that she wanted to have a product that the average taxpayer, that doesn’t follow County Government in-depth, can understand. Stutsman said that she wanted to keep it simple, direct, and on an elementary level. She acknowledged that it was a complex budget. Lehman said that the presentation should include information as to why taxes had gone up, giving health insurance as an example. Slockett added that another factor was how many additional people had been hired by the County, and said that was included in the presentation. Slockett agreed with Stutsman that the budget was very complex, and noted that there are a lot of simple questions that can be asked about the large budget, as well as a lot of simple things that can become complicated.

Lehman said that he wanted to get Budget Coordinator Jeff Horne involved as well, with the goal of giving the best, most informed budget presentation possible. Slockett said the Auditor’s Office had not prepared a budget presentation for this year. He said that they had prepared a detailed budget summary that his office would make available, but that it was not traditionally presented at the budget hearing. Stutsman said that Slockett’s summary was great, for people that were interested in all the details of the budget.

Lehman and Stutsman asked Horne for his input regarding the budget presentation. Horne said that he thought taxes were always on people’s minds, of course, and new expenditures and justifications for those. He said that the biggest question to be answered is why taxes are being increased. Lehman asked Horne how they should structure the budget presentation. Horne replied that the document from the Auditor’s Office was very good, and suggested using this as well as adding narrative, an executive summary, from the Board of Supervisors, signed by the Chair, and perhaps some narratives from some of the departments themselves.

Stutsman wondered if they needed to do an overview or executive summary about the fund balances, that the money in these balances were allocated for specific, designated funds. She said that people were confused about these balances, and were going to be asking questions about them. Horne noted that the County was not excessive with its fund balances, and Slockett confirmed this, saying that Johnson County was known statewide for its very small fund balances. Horne said that the fund balances were about 11% right now. Stutsman said that the Board needs to explain these balances up front. Slockett added that it was important that the Board and the Auditor’s Office understand which numbers and fund balances at which the public was looking, so they could accurately explain them. Horne said that it was important to mention cash flow; the County had to maintain a reserve so as not to be caught short of money.

Lehman said that in the past the Chair of the Board of Supervisors had done the budget presentation, but he was interested in making it more of a collaborative effort. Neuzil suggested that each Board member read a different summary. Lehman said he wanted the public to understand that each Board member understands the budget overall. Harney suggested that Slockett or Horne give the opening basic budget summary, and then each Board member could do a brief presentation on particular or specific areas. Neuzil suggested that Lehman could begin with a general summation or executive summary, Board members could each highlight 2-3 items from the budget, and then the Auditor’s Office could give a scenario involving the impacts on a hypothetical Iowa City resident and a township resident. Stutsman said that this was a good idea, and asked if they could try to nail down some of the areas they want to cover. She suggested personnel/health care, capital projects, and fund balances. Neuzil suggested that each Board member could take one of these large areas. Neuzil showed that on page 13 of the Auditor’s Office’s documents, there was a breakdown of the budget into 5 issues, which matched the number of Supervisors, so each Supervisor could give an overview or executive summary of that area.

The Board further discussed the presentation and decided that they would begin with an executive summary from Lehman, then have Horne talk about revenues, followed by an explanation of the expenditure side with each Board member taking a section of the budget. Slockett would then give an explanation of how the budget impacts the various types of taxpayers of Johnson County. Finally, there would be a time for the public to ask questions. Stutsman asked where they could talk about fund balances, and Neuzil suggested that Lehman include this in his executive summary. Slockett said that the general fund balance is 10%, which is way less than most.

Stutsman and Lehman agreed that a shorter presentation, hitting the highlights, was a good idea, and then the Board could open up the session to questions from the public. Stutsman said that she believed that the budget was intimidating to the average taxpayer and said they didn’t come to public hearings because they didn’t want to show their ignorance. She said that she wanted the budget hearing to be very user-friendly, so that any taxpayer off the street can get a basic overview, get their questions answered, and if they want more detail the information is available to them.

The Board then discussed which Supervisors would take which of the 5 areas in Slockett’s packet. They decided on the following: Carol Thompson got Capital Projects, Stutsman took Human Services, Lehman took State and Local Government, Harney took Public Safety, and Neuzil took Secondary Roads and County Environment. There was more discussion about whether or not to use PowerPoint. The Board told Slockett that Horne could do most of the PowerPoint presentation with the help of the budget document Slockett brought to the meeting. Stutsman asked how long the Board’s section of the presentation would be. There was discussion, and the Board decided that Lehman’s opening executive session would be 5-7 minutes, 3 minutes from each Board member detailing their area, and then Slockett would take about 5 minutes explaining the impact on taxpayers.

Harney said that the Farm Bureau was concerned about the increase of one million dollars in the budget. Horne said that he had explained to Farm Bureau Member Myron Smalley that the biggest increase was in health insurance. Stutsman thought that Smalley was quoting from an old set of numbers, and Horne said that Smalley now had the most current budget numbers. Stutsman said that it was good for the Board to anticipate some of these questions, such as fund balances. Stutsman said that she thought the Farm Bureau was getting information from the State of Iowa saying that they should ask their counties about this, and so that’s what they were doing. Slockett repeated that the large fund balances are standard throughout the state, but that Johnson County does not have this problem. He said that Johnson County works very hard with the revenue-expense adjustment to keep the fund balances low.

The Board decided to try to have their parts of the presentation done by the end of February, and then have a dress rehearsal before the budget presentation. They decided to meet at 3:00 on March first.

Slockett outlined the budget information he had brought to the Board meeting, explaining that page 4 showed the revenues, page 5 contained description, page 6 showed the change in revenues. The packet also explained the increase in property tax increases. Slockett pointed out that the MH/DD budget is down because the funding was frozen by the State. Stutsman asked about the rural services figure, and asked Slockett to explain why this figure has increased so much. She said the Farm Bureau would ask if they were paying for the Sheriff’s Department out of that increase. Slockett said no, they were not doing this, and explained that the Board had given the farmers a break because of the reassessment, and cut the amount of Secondary Roads taxation from the rural areas. Slockett said that slowly they were adding this back in, after the sizeable break the farmers got last year. Slockett said that this amount was almost all for roads, which is the answer they could give to any questions regarding this area. Stutsman noted that some counties have shifted between the Sheriff’s fund and the rural fund, and Slockett agreed, saying it was possible to do that, but Johnson County had not done that.

Slockett continued with more explanation of the property tax increases and a breakdown of the funds from other governments is from the state, local, and federal sources, and the change over the years. He showed the figures of revenues and expenses compared with other local governments: the City of Iowa City, Iowa City Schools, Johnson County, and the City of Coralville. He pointed out how steady the Johnson County figures were, and said that they were very careful and do not make good changes. Slockett explained the various expenditures to the Board, and how it has changed over 3 years. Next, he showed an explanation of expenditures for each area, and a 3-year comparison for those expenditures.

Neuzil asked Slockett why the revenues were $43,000,000, while expenditures were $44,000,000. Slockett replied that they were lowering balances. Slockett continued with his explanation of expenditures for each area, such as public safety and capital projects. He also showed how the beginning and ending balances have been affected, noting that the ending balance for this year is lower than that of last year. Slockett gave another example of how low the fund balances are in Johnson County, and said that they were very good about taxing only what is needed. Slockett showed that Iowa City property pays 48% of taxes for Johnson County, and said that the valuations of the cities are about 75% of the valuation of Johnson County.

Slockett continued with an explanation of the rural property valuation, and said that rural, non-ag, residential is now over half of the rural valuation. He said this is how much development is occurring in Johnson County. Stutsman asked if this was the first year that this has gone over half, and Slockett said he believed that this figure had gone over half last year. Slockett showed the Board information from his budget handout about ag land, changes in rural ag valuations, the breakdown of where an Iowa City citizen’s tax dollar goes, the breakdown of where a Solon citizen’s tax dollar goes, the percent tax increase by class of land, an explanation of the general fund tax increases, the rural fund increases due to Secondary Roads, the changes in ag land and Iowa City residential tax rates, the percentage change in rural residential rates, and the change in property taxes for citizens of Iowa City, Coralville, and Johnson County. He went on to show more information about the percentage of departmental budget increases due to payroll, a summary of Johnson County employees and new positions created in Johnson County since the last tax levy, a service area summary, copies of the revenue and expenditure pages from the budget spreadsheet, and email and telephone numbers of each department head.

Lehman suggested that they add a table of contents and asked that they have 15 copies of this available the night of the presentation. Horne asked Lehman if he would like to put his executive summary with this document, and the Board said that this would be a good idea. Stutsman suggested that they put the office hours down of the different departments.

Adjourned at 2:50 p.m.

Attest: Tom Slockett, Auditor

By Casie Parkins, Recording Secretary