Stutsman: OK. That's everything that I think we had.

Lehman: OK. Thank you. We have minutes received, from the Sixth Judicial District Department of Corrections Services Board of the Directors for February 16, 2001. We also received, and they are circulating, the Johnson County Nutrition Board Minutes for February 19, 2001. We're down to Reports and Inquiries. Would anyone like to go first?

Thompson: Space Needs Committee met last Friday and we updated everybody on the projects. We've had a lot of space projects in the last year. Juvenile Court has moved. The Building Inspectors space got finished and they moved in. SEATS moved. The Health Department is in the space that the ICARE building and they are in the process of finishing up the repairs to their building. Repairs to the DHS building are still in progress. The Courthouse bathroom project is going on right now and in the spring of this year we have plans for the Admin Building, the roof on the Jail and there is still a plan for this year to finish out that storage building. Those are budgeted for this year. Of course, next year they're doing projects at the Courthouse and Jail. We discussed the matter of the Melrose Avenue property that we had discussed in our strategic planning and agreed that we would ask Jeff Davidson to come to our next meeting. He apparently has some ability to help with this kind of a project. So, the Committee will meet with him and ask him what he would be able to do. Basically get a description of how he would proceed. Then, we'll write that up and bring it back to the Board for discussion and approval.

Stutsman: The Melrose property…

Thompson: The County Home part of it and the Historical Society's request. They are going on with a plan or proposal, I guess it's too sophisticated to call it a proposal or a plan yet. But, with some suggestions about what they would like to see out there. I think that by working with Jeff Davidson we'd get a more overall community approach to looking at that property than just individuals who want to be considered for getting part of it. I think Sally is right. We can't just be giving one acre to everybody that wants it. So, that would be a way to get our strategic plan started, as far as the Melrose Avenue property goes. We also discussed the property on Mall Drive. As the Board has changed, apparently there are different ideas about a County campus and how that should proceed. We're asking to put that on the agenda, to actually have a discussion in an Informal meeting probably, and make a decision about which way to go with Mall Drive. Cheryl Whitney still makes an eloquent plea to have the Human Services Office at the Mall Drive site for reasons of co-location with other agencies they work with. There are also strong feelings that having a more aggressive plan to get land in this neighborhood and locate all of the County buildings here would be the way to go. So, we need to get that on the agenda for the whole Board.

Stutsman: Getting back to Melrose, I wonder if that shouldn't be on the agenda for the whole Board as a work session, too, as far as what direction to go with that. I thought it was going to be a Board decision. I didn't know that was referred to the Space Needs Committee.

Thompson: I think Pat White asked Jeff Davidson to think about this. Then it made sense to me that we need something to talk about. Do we want him to do this or that and before we talk with him. It seems like we can't really predict what he is willing to do. That is why it seemed like a good idea for a few of us to talk with him and see what he has in mind. Like is it focus groups or a large community committee or this or that and have a proposal for the Board when we talk about it, so we have something to work with.

Lehman: We're going to put that on next week?

Stutsman: Yes. I think that should be a Board decision.

Neuzil: In 2 weeks.

Lehman: Put that on for discussion in Informal next week to see what we want to go with, to give us some direction.

Stutsman: I think it's good to get that going, but I never envisioned that the Space Needs Committee would take care of that. I thought the Board would do that.

Lehman: Let's put that on this Informal next week for some discussion to get some direction where we want to go. OK.

Thompson: It wouldn't be next week because we're not meeting. It'd have to be after that.

Lehman: Right, in 2 weeks.

Thompson: The Finance Work Group met this week. We debriefed the budget a little bit and talked about our strategic planning goals and the timing of our budget amendment. We want to minimize the number of budget amendments in a year. We want to have them come at the most strategic time. So, that will probably be an ongoing discussion.

Stutsman: Are we going to have a work session about debriefing the budget?

Thompson: It's on for the next Department Head Meeting.

Stutsman: OK.

Peters: Which is Tuesday. That's also the meeting where you are going to have training.

Thompson: So, it's been discussed at Finance Work Group, goes to department heads, get together all the suggestions and then I think we could have a work group in the summer some time.

Stutsman: Yes, a work session.

Thompson: We also talked about the new HR software and the timing of the 4th quarter appropriation. That's where I got the idea that it maybe should have been a week or so earlier. Then, also the Jail Stats Committee met this week. Are you going to talk about that?

Harney: Go ahead.

Thompson: We have some statistics now that we can be proud of. We're using a database that the jail uses in its operations, so it wasn't designed for the kind of data gathering that we're doing. Each set of statistics that we come up with has to be accompanied by a list of what was included and what wasn't, since it wasn't designed for our purposes. I think we have accurate data that we can now go to other governments with. So, we'll have another meeting with the police chiefs present where we share the data with them. Then, Pat White will schedule a discussion of that data at his next Chiefs meeting, which is on April 30th. Then, after that we'll be ready to come to the Elected Officials Meeting with it. We also identified some areas that the County has more control over that might affect the Jail population. As time goes on and we get the statistics for that, we'll probably be coming to the Board with requests for funding various things or approving proposals. That's all I have.

Lehman: Thank you. Pat?

Harney: As Carol had mentioned, the Space Needs Committee, she's gone over most of that. One of the things that we did there also is we're brought up to date. There is some painting in the upper level of the jail that is being done. They have had a couple of inmates that have volunteered to do the painting to keep themselves busy, which is good. They're doing very good work. The County is furnishing the paint and they are making some progress there. The new roof construction, that's scheduled to start in April and they plan on having a completion on that I think by June 30th, if I remember correctly. So, that's moving right along getting the old stuff torn off and the new stuff put on. The solar (inaudible), that's what I'm trying to say. They're going to remove those and try to have it all done. As you have mentioned, the Admin Building construction down there they are planning on having that completed by August. So, that will be moving right along as well. March 13th, on Tuesday, Sally and I met with the SEATS Director, Lisa Dewey. She went over some of the problems she is having down there. She is running over budget somewhat. She feels she is going to be able to bring that back within reasonable means close to her budget. She is having some overruns with, naturally the fuel and the (inaudible) repairs. Most of her vehicles are older. They are 9 or 10 years and the expectancy of a SEATS vehicle is about 7 years. So, they are working on that trying to keep them operating. As Carol said the jail meeting, the only thing I would say there to add on to that is the numbers are real hard to follow on what they are actually for because there are so many people in and out. The same people coming in and out several times and it still counts as persons in jail, but at the same time it kind of skews the actual numbers of people that are in jail because they have to be counted as one. They had a computer glitch, which didn't get all of the information to us, which they'll provide at the next meeting, that printed out Coralville and some of the others in Johnson County, but didn't print out any of Iowa City's stats. So, we'll be getting all of that at the next meeting. Wednesday, yesterday, we went to the state ISAC meeting and visited the State Capital and visited with our legislators and had a lot of good information passed on to us from there. There is some real insight as to what is going on, what the legislators are doing. I actually sat in on one of the debates, the Conservation Debate, on the container bill, which is really getting changed around. I'm not sure what the outcome of that is going to be. Other than that, that is last week.

Lehman: OK, thank you. Terrance?

Neuzil: Quick report. Again, as Sally had said, we attended the Communications Committee and had some real good discussion there. We went through some of that just a little bit ago. Also, had an opportunity to work with County Recorder Kim Painter as we were designing this media guide and kind of coming up with ideas. We will have a rough draft for the Communications Committee coming up here in its next meeting. Also, attended the trip to Des Moines yesterday with the Iowa Association of Counties. Had a real nice opportunity to meet with our local legislators and discuss some of the bills that will affect our local area, including the tax limitation bill and the alternative ISAC bill in regards to limitation for County government and its spending. Then, just wanted to remind everyone that on March 23rd, I will be having another Hawkeye Friday Listening Post. This is an opportunity to have lunch with me and for me listen a little bit about what is going on with you and any ideas or concerns you may have. That will take place at Café Iguanas in downtown Hills, at about 11:30 on Friday, March 23rd. Thank you.

Lehman: Sally?

Stutsman: Just a couple of things. To add on to what Pat was saying in our meeting with Lisa. Part of the problem she is having with maintenance on these vehicles is the fact that they are just getting so old. That's a problem when you put that many miles and such heavy driving on these vehicles. Most of them just do town driving and it really takes a toll. There is a replacement schedule, but as you said, for one vehicle it can take up to a year to replace them. So, it really creates some problems. One of the things that she is going to put in place is an incentive program for drivers that she has a different set of categories for people to earn points on. The incentive is that they can have their choice of routes and vehicles to drive. So, I think that will be a real good program to put in place over there. Also attended County-A-Day. That was open for all County officials in Johnson County to go up and visit the Capital. It's something that we participate in on a yearly basis through the Iowa State Association of Counties. It's really a good experience. I think, oh, is this worth the time to go, but feedback from our local legislators that we visited, they really like to have us come up to hear what our points are on issues that are being debated. So, I think it is definitely worth their time. Besides, Terrance, Pat and I, Kim Painter from the County Recorder, Tom Slockett County Auditor, and Harry Graves, Director of the Conservation Department attended and all had good input about issues that were coming up. I just can't say enough about our legislative delegation. They're on top of the issues. They listen to what we have to say and I think they do an excellent job for residents of the County. Also, had a meeting with the work group that is working on recruitment for a Public Health Director for replacement of Graham Dameron. We received 24 applicants. We have a schedule in place. The applicant deadline is May 1st. We'll begin interviewing the candidates on May 15th. The first interview will be done by telephone. The 2nd interviews and possibly 3rd interviews will be done in person, with the idea that by August 1st we will have a new Director in place. I have a brochure of the position that was put together. If anybody knows of anybody you think might be interested in applying for that position, you can take one of those and certainly pass it on. It doesn't have to be anybody local. This is a nationwide search for a replacement for -Graham as Director of the Health Department. That's everything I had.

Lehman: Thank you.

Lehman: I went to Des Moines on Monday. But, it was to watch the Regina boys' basketball team. They weren't quite as fortunate as City High, but I'd like to congratulate them on their accomplishment of being one of the 8 teams in their class getting there. I wish City High boys luck. They are in the semi-finals now and congratulations to their girls that made it to the State tournament last week. I know quite a few of the parents of the players and I think a lot of the Board Members do. I wish them all luck and the community supports them. Tuesday morning I went to the Ag Chamber Committee meeting. Some of the items that they discussed there at the 4H Grounds, the Fair Board is bricking a new building. I think they're paying through some of their reserve funds and also some funds that they will receive from storage for rentals during the summer and stuff and winter months. They also talked about the world-plowing contest and said it is going to be a difficult task to undertake to put that on. The Amana Society has had discussion there. They had a lot bigger sponsors and as you all know, agriculture has changed quite a bit over the years. Plowing is almost a dirty word, no till, conservation and things. It would be an opportunity to bring world competitors together. But, it's financial dollars. They're trying to get sponsors to bring it to rally, so it's still up in the air. Also, along with that, the Yield Contest has been sponsored by the Ag Chamber Committee. For many it's very difficult to (inaudible) time and effort to get volunteers to even go do measurements and stuff. So, this may be the last year that they're possible doing that. Kind of a nice thing for farmers to do, it's a competitive type thing. But, it's really tough to manage anymore. You don't get as many entries. There are less farmers out there all the time and they concentrate their efforts on other things. Also, heard a presentation from Margaret Wieting, the Member of the Johnson County Historical Society. She gives some insight and some things that we had heard and some more things that she reported on the County farm and some things that they would like to accomplish. She'll have a very interesting discussion when they come back. They are still working on their proposal for what they would like to see on behalf of their Society out there. They are very aware of other demands out there, too, but they would like to put their request into the mix, too. They'll be bringing that back to us sometime. That will be something we'll be considering along with the Space Needs or whoever is going to be working on that whole project. We may decide not to do anything out there. I want to caution the public on that. But, we have groups out there that have an interest and they will be bringing proposals to us to consider. There was a lot of sentiment that this is our heritage, whether it be the World-Plowing contest, Yield Contest or the County Farm. It's a connection that's a thinner connection all of the time as we become more of an urban type County. I know everyone's got relatives somewhere along the line, grandparents, great-grandparents, with the farming community and stuff, but this would be one way to keep that connection alive. A lot of counties do not have County Farms anymore, operating or even an existing entity. I believe that's all I have. Anything else anybody forgot and would like to add?

Welsh: Just a couple of things. Bob Welsh. When are you going to take the step of involving the community in dialogue in relation to the jail? I know the committee is at work but I know there is also the… I think it was the end of December the Board realized it was changing. It passed a resolution saying that they would hope that the new Board soon, and that whole list of groups to be involved in discussion.

Lehman: I don't know if a date has been set, but I know that this evening at the Library at 7:00, Pat White and Kip Kotsky, the Director of Corrections of the State of Iowa will be having an informational type session. I think Pat will probably bring out some of the information that Pat Harney, Carol Thompson and he have seen. I don't know how in depth they will get on any of the proposals or anything but I think it is going to be somewhat of an informational type presentation. It will be videotaped and presented at later dates, too.

Harney: One of the things you need to remember right now is, right now we are gathering data and there is really nothing to present to the public for their input. Once this data is gathered, once we've had the meeting with law enforcement and what their input is and how they reflect on the numbers they have, they'll take those back to their departments and go over those and review those. Then, we'll have another meeting as to what they feel these numbers mean. After that, we're going to have an open session with the public.

Welsh: (Inaudible) for getting people to sit down at the table, like the City Manager, the President of the University or somebody from the University. You have a very active citizen's group.

Lehman: I think what Bob is asking is, do you have even a target of a month or a time when this thing might progress, where you have a target date?

Thompson: We were thinking more along the lines of, as we take the stat to various governments to ask for help, those will be public meetings and there will be a chance to the public to comment at those times.

Welsh: All I'm encouraging you to do, (inaudible). I think there is a lot of interest. You have a lot of individuals that have a lot of ideas. Having a medium where they can put those ideas out and express them, I think is important for community relations.

Stutsman: I wonder if we need to just put on the agenda a discussion about the strategy for the jail.

Thompson: Not a bad idea.

Lehman: Some type of update of what we've got. Maybe, like Bob is saying, some target dates of where we might have enough information to pull together to make it worthwhile for everyone to hear what is there. I don't know whether we'll have enough to give it direction or not.

Neuzil: And some structure for the process.

Stutsman: Yes, because I don't think since we've had new Board Members we're really had that discussion about where we want to go. I know we are collecting data, but what is the next step.

Lehman: OK. If you could (inaudible) together in a couple of weeks. I know what you're saying is that you don't really feel that you have anything significant now to really put forward. But, like Bob said, the public is really interested in where are we. Maybe we're not as far along as they think we are. Maybe they need to be told that, too, if that is the case. So, if we can get that on in a couple of weeks.

Welsh: Two other quick things. In relation to the Communications Committee about inviting department heads in, let me suggest that you might consider doing that at the beginning of the meeting.

Stutsman: Definitely, Bob, yes.

Welsh: It (inaudible) with being respectful of their time, rather than at the end of the meeting. The other thing is, on that easement thing that you discussed earlier, I sure would caution you against permanent easement. Even if it was $20,000, I'm not sure that it's worth tying up that. I realize Terrance wasn't stating a position, he just asked a question about what would be the other alternatives. I do think that they have other alternatives and I think it's better for them to go through the private sector rather than the public sector on something like that because you all have to represent all of the people in this community. They're not nasty looking things, but I wouldn't want it in my backyard and if you're going to sell that piece of property sometime, which my guess is it will not always be Secondary Roads. So, (inaudible) just for one person, I think that's almost a no-brainer. Kind of (inaudible) you mentioned about City High. I was thinking that if Charlie were here, Charlie would want to congratulate City High and he'd remember to congratulate the women's basketball team and the men's basketball team. I've got on my Hawkeye (inaudible) even watching it on television I think it makes a difference.

Stutsman: Can we take a short break? Oh, I'm sorry if there is anybody else.

Lehman: Any other questions from the public, inquiries? We'll take a short recess here, about 7 or 8 minutes and back to our strategic planning discussion. OK.

Recessed at 11:15 a.m.; reconvened at 11:20 a.m.

Lehman said the Board worked on the Strategic Planning in February with Institute of Public Affairs Strategic Planning Facilitator Tim Shields. He said Supervisors are assigned to certain strategic planning areas and they then give periodic reports of where they are at on those areas. Peters said they need to have a final strategic planning document to give to County Recorder Kim Painter to be distributed to elected officials.

Lehman suggested taking turns reading through the document to give the public an idea of what the document entails. He said the first page is the vision of what they hope to accomplish in 7 to 8 years. He said they want to resolve jail issues, have adequate, well-planned facilities for all County operations to include use of current facilities, a trail system and utilize the County Farm effectively. He said the list continues with stable, effective staffing, which is to include adequate service provisions, planning for needs, competitive compensation benefits. Lehman said the next main heading lists effective fiscal management, including establishing the budget process and multi-year planning. He said they also want to have a meaningful review of County organizations and relationships to local government, effective land use, planning and decision making and Fringe Area Agreements. He said the next one is effective Human Service system and delivery, including roles, funding, policies, level of service and needs assessment. Lehman continued the Board wants to have a Countywide regional transportation plan, including design standards. He said they also are aiming for well-designed economic policies and effective interactions with other key players. He said the next one is innovative communications with citizens, for example, Internet meetings. Lehman said these are goals that they want to accomplish in 7-8 years. He said they have not yet answered how they are going to accomplish these. Thompson said these are not in any order of priority either, but rather just a list to work off of.

Stutsman listed the accomplishments of the Board. She said the list includes technology improvements, document management, making progress on GIS coordination, an open and thoughtful roads planning process. She continued with implementing the Building Code, Planning and Zoning and Secondary Roads cooperation, the Farmstead Zoning split, moving on the Land Use Plan and making adjustments and the budget process coordination role.

Neuzil said that under the Johnson County Strategic Planning there are emerging issues. He said there are 4, including health care costs, labor negotiations, library funding and energy costs. He said that under the key strategic goals the Board discussed the goal to develop an ongoing technology enhancement plan that provides for an effective communication infrastructure and appropriate equipment. He said their actions will be to continue GIS development, continue the document management program, continue Human Resource payroll and financial management improvements, explore improved voting machines and methods with the Auditor, explore citizen service processes and study ways to improve presentations at meetings. He said this includes the MH/DD software.

Neuzil said that as far as action steps, they want to implement an overall process to involve elected official and department head communication, study ways to improve Board meetings and presentations, utilize a new conference room and review the technology committee progress. He said under financial management and planning, the 2 Supervisors in charge are Thompson and Lehman and the goal is to develop an effective management system based on a team approach. He said the action for this is to continue to work with the Finance Work Group and improve communication flow, improve overall budget process, have meaningful guidelines, revise the calendar, enhance fiscal accountability and year round communication. He continued the action steps list with revising the budget goals concept, implement a training program, develop methods to utilize budget projections, initiate the implementation of GASB 34 and develop a multi-year trends analysis process to include tax based projections.

Harney said Facilities Planning involves Thompson and himself. He said the goal is to adopt a long-range facilities plan to include short-term solutions, long-range options and capital reserves. He said action steps are to hold a work session, update the space needs assessment, revisit the campus concept, conduct a building maintenance needs assessment, study future uses of the Courthouse at the present location, develop capital funding strategy and study County Farm options. Thompson said the Space Needs Committee talked about whether the Committee should take leadership on these or not. She said there were some that they didn't think the Committee should do. She wondered if Harney and herself should still be working on these then or if the Board wants a separate pair assigned to these tasks. Stutsman said this is something that there is a great deal of interest in and it needs to be done in the public Boardroom. She said that she doesn't mean for Thompson and Harney to study the County Farm options. Thompson said reorganization needs to be done so it delineates what the Space Needs Committee should and shouldn't do. Lehman suggested looking at the rest of the document in a couple of weeks since there are items that need to be taken out and the Board needs to discuss these further.

Adjourned at 11:50 a.m.

Attest: Tom Slockett, Auditor

By Casie Parkins, Recording Secretary