Lehman: Our next item will be Business from Lori Schnoor, Soil and Water Conservationist for Johnson County. Johnson County helps fund some of this agency, and so Lori comes in and gives us a little report on their activities, and what you’ve accomplished. So, take it away.

Soil and Water Conservation District Conservationist Lori Schnoor: Yes. Thanks for allowing me to continually share with you what we do at the District. It’s just nice to keep that communication open, and I’d really like to thank you on behalf of the Commissioner and myself for the support. This August, I will be there for 4 years. I can’t believe time’s went by that fast, but it has. 2nd of all, there is a handout that I had given you during the break, and that’s just basically a staff report on some of the things that I have been involved with in the District, and also, not just myself, but all the other staff, we kind of work together as a team in what we do. Basically, one thing that I left out of here was my involvement with the Alliance for Conservation Education, which is a new organization that I believe was started with the County Conservation Board and some other organizations. So we’re just becoming involved in that, and I think it’s going to be a great opportunity to really promote a lot of conservation education in Johnson County and have a really good alliance with all the different organizations that are involved in that. So, that is one thing that I didn’t get on here, but if there’s any questions about anything on this sheet that I have given to you, I’m willing to answer any.

Lehman: I noticed here, your very point, develop map of Johnson County creeks using ArcView Geographic Information System software. Is that something you have at your disposal, is that something you hire out, contract out?

Schnoor: No, we’ve had that for almost 3 years at our office. So we’re trying to convert, by using the technological services available to us in making maps, giving better products to the Johnson County farmers, landowners, and so forth. So that is something that we have at our office, and the map that you will see, it should be out before fair, we’re going to give it away at the fair booth, was made in our office.

Lehman: We’re developing our Geographic Information Systems, now, and I know Rick Havel has been talking to different entities about sharing, rather than duplicating efforts and costs. So that might be something I will have him visit with you. It might be something, we may or may not use it, save us from duplicating.

Schnoor: Yes, in the past, I have actually contacted, there was a couple different people in charge of this GIS Committee in the County, and we’ve contacted them a couple of times to let them know that we’re willing to share information and help out in any way. I’ve had quite a bit of training on ArcView, and whatever I could do to help, I certainly would.

Neuzil: What kind of work are you doing… I know you’ve been showing up, or working with the Johnson County Historical Society a little bit on the County Farm. What are some things that you’re working on with them?

Schnoor: Well, basically, just interested in promoting the natural resources out there. I haven’t been involved a whole lot on that. I know Amy has, but she has, basically, created a map on where the wetlands could go if that was an option, and where some of the native grass plantings could be.

Neuzil: Glad to see that.

Schnoor: So yes, we have an interest in, just promoting the natural resources from a historical standpoint better out there.

Lehman: I notice you have your tree sale and then outlays of filter strips. Those are mostly for agricultural use, the filter strips and buffer strips?

Schnoor: Yes.

Lehman: What about the tree seedlings? Anyone from Johnson County can purchase from you.

Schnoor: Yes. That’s what’s so unique about the sale, is, a lot of the seedlings that people can purchase, through the State Nursery, they have to order a minimum of 500. We have a minimum of 5, so it lends itself to providing more of a service to the people that only want to plant 5, or 20 or 30 trees, versus 500.

Lehman: I purchased quite a few through you last year, and we had a site application, and I wondered if you may or may not have the varieties those people are interested in, but, a very inexpensive way to purchase trees. That’s something that, maybe, individuals would have a commercial site and are required to plant screens.

Thompson: I have some very nice 20-year old pin oaks at my house that came from you, a long time ago. And I had to get too many, so that some of them went to the neighbors, so now I see those trees all over the neighborhood. It’s kind of nice.

Schnoor: Yes, oak trees are great. They’re nice trees. One of the things that is going on right now is the new wetlands pilot program through the Conservation Reserve Program. Iowa is allowing 100,000 acres to be signed up, so that is something that the Farm Service Agency is taking applications for through the Conservation Reserve Program and then we’re, of course, doing the technical assistance for that. That is kind of unique, more targeted towards areas that are not on 100-year flood plains. So, if anyone has big wet spots that are hard to farm, then that is an option, that they could get some revenue on that area that they wouldn’t normally in a year that’s really wet.

Lehman: I know my brother and I are participating in the buffer strips, along some drainage ditches, and stuff. It’ll help clean up the water, is the bottom line of the thing, but it does compensate you, somewhat, for taking that land out of production. Very good program, and I think in the past, I know they’ve looked at just individual farms. Now, they’re trying to bring in whole drainage areas. Rather than just piecemeal stuff, they’re trying to get everyone to buy into this program, so you’re getting everybody rather than somebody’s run-off dropping on someone else that’s trying to participate. You’re trying to encourage everyone to be involved.

Schnoor: Yes. The Commissioner’s goal is to work more on a watershed basis, and the 4 main watersheds in Johnson County is the Clear Creek, Lake McBride, Dirty Face Creek, and Snyder Creek, which is where you’re at.

Lehman: Yes. I’m on Snyder.

Schnoor: So, yes, it’s just a more efficient way of accomplishing a goal instead of something here, here, here, here. We can do a focussed effort by working in watersheds.

Lehman: I see you’ll have your booth at the fair, where you’ll be covering a lot of these things.

Schnoor: Yes, we’re going to focus on watershed, and have some things for kids to locate their place on a map and figure out where they are in a watershed. So, I think it’ll be a great education tool for them, and also for their parents. We’re going to give out fact sheets on all the different watersheds, and the creek maps, and we’ll have our pond, again, which is really nice for us working at the booth.

Lehman: OK. Looks like you’ve got a lot of activity there. All positive-type things you’re working on. Great.

Schnoor: And we’ll just make sure that we keep you informed of any field days or events that we have, and you’re more than welcome to attend, or come in any time and ask questions and so forth.

Lehman: Your Board meets the same day as our MH/DD Planning Council, so it’s… We’d love to attend it; we see the minutes, but we always have a conflict with that meeting time.

Schnoor: Yes.

Lehman: Any other questions or comments?

Harney: They provide a very good service down there. They serve a lot of people in the County, and we appreciate your efforts. A good report. Thank you.

Schnoor: Thank you. All right. Well, thanks a lot.

Lehman: OK. Thank you, and we’ll look forward to hearing from you again and seeing you down at the fair.

Schnoor: OK. Thank you.

Lehman: Next item is from Carol Peters, Administrative Assistant. We won’t call you "lame duck" yet. She has a resolution amending a contract with Hazardous Mitigation, with East Central Council of Governments.

Administrative Assistant Carol Peters: This has to do with the agreement that the Board signed back on the 15th of June of 2000, in which you entered into an agreement with ECICOG to develop a Hazard Mitigation Plan, and they were going to help with that. What has happened is, number one, it’s taken a little bit longer than what was anticipated. And then, in visiting with the State Department of Emergency Management, our resolution did not reflect exactly what was transpiring. The original resolution stated that Johnson County would pay 25% of this fees for ECICOG, when in actuality, what’s happening is, of that 25%, 12.5% of that is in-kind; it’s not hard dollars. So, the State wanted a new resolution reflecting that. So, due to the fact that we had to have a new resolution reflecting that, now we need to have a new contract reflecting that this project would not be completed, and they just came up with the date of December. Actually, it’s almost completed. There was a question of how the funds would flow, and we have that resolved. Tom Hansen has accepted the pleasure of paying out the funds out of his budget. So, now the State department will send the monies directly to Tom Hanson, Emergency Management, and then from there, he will reimburse ECICOG for their portion of drawing up this plan.

Lehman: This will take care of such things as buyouts we did down around Izaak Walton, those type of programs, and we’re able to use our staff’s time as a matching.

Peters: Basically what this plan is going to do, is, you have another situation like that, you’re going to be ready to go right away. They did not have a plan in place for the last go-around. So this will give you a head start.

Lehman: Johnson County is a member of the East Central Iowa Council of Governments. They do charge for their services, being a member. And this is a way for them to receive payment for their time and staff involvement.

Peters: So with your permission I’ll have the new contract on the agenda for next year, or week, as well as the resolution.

Lehman: It will be next year, as far as fiscal, so you’re right.

Peters: Next fiscal year.

Lehman: OK. Thank you, Carol.

Peters: Oh, and one other thing. Johnson County has already paid the hard dollars for their 12.5%, so that will not be an additional amount that we need next year.

Lehman: OK. So it’s already out of the coffers, so to speak.

Peters: Yes.

Lehman: OK.

Peters: Thank you very much.

Lehman: Thank you, Carol.

Lehman: Next item would be business from the Board of Supervisors. We need Discussion/Action Needed on the Board of Supervisors Summer Meeting Schedule. With the fair, we usually do not meet that week. Are there other dates or times we need to…

Thompson: The State Fair.

Lehman: The State Fair. OK.

Thompson: So that would be July 26th for the County Fair and August 16th for the State Fair. It’s the 2nd Thursday of the fair, and it usually, I think is designated as County Day.

Neuzil: What date is that?

Thompson: That’s Thursday, August 16th.

Neuzil: So, the 16th.

Thompson: Neither of those are 2nd…

Lehman: You mean the 2nd Thursday, for when we meet…

Thompson: Are our night meetings, so we’re safe there.

Lehman: OK. So we’ll be able to get our zoning done. We’ll need to take formal action on that to reschedule our meetings. We can do that next week. Check your calendars in the meantime, so if there’s anything that…

Neuzil: So we would just not have meetings on August 16th and July 26th.

Lehman: Right.

Thompson: Yes.

Lehman: Kind of a heads-up to ourselves and the public, if there’s action that needs to be taken, it either needs to be moved up, or afterwards, to meet some deadlines.

Neuzil: But we’re going to keep working. We’re going to be over at the fairs.

Lehman: Yes. We’ll still be available, around. It’s just that we won’t have a formal or informal meeting, that week. OK. We’ll put that on for action and further discussion, if needed, next week.

Lehman: Minutes received from Johnson County Nutrition Board for June 18th, 2001. Those were circulated amongst the Board members. And now, we go to Reports and Inquiries. Anyone like to volunteer to start?

Neuzil: Yes, I can start out. It’s been a very busy number of days, as far as hours and as far as meetings, in regards to Decategorization. It’s not really a whole fun process here, when we have state money dwindling up here, of how to deal with that. But at least we have some reserve to be able to allow some of the community organizations to hold on a little while, yet. I attended the Johnson County Historic Society Board meeting, discussed the county farm, and to kind of just give them an update of the meeting we had with Jeff Davidson. Then, over the weekend, went to an open house for the Johnson County Historical Society’s old school building over in Coralville. That was a real nice event over the weekend. Also over the weekend, attended the Devonian Gorge Dedication and ceremony, and had a chance to tour the new area out in Coralville Lake. It really is something to see; it’s accessible, and I really encourage all of Johnson County to go see a real treasure from the devastating flood of ’93. I attended the Elected Officials meeting. The elected officials elected Tom Kriz as the new chair; our Johnson County Treasurer is the new chair of that committee, which meets every other month. I went to a reception for Bob Jackson. Is that right, Bob Jackson? He’s with the mental health center, and he’s going to moving on and working at the University of Iowa, and had a nice reception yesterday. Last night, attended a forum that featured Iowa Secretary of State Chet Culver, along with our Johnson County Auditor, Tom Slockett, in regards to voting and such. I thought it was real well-done, over at the Iowa City Public Library. We discussed quite a bit in regards to reform, and things of that nature, at the state as well as national level. This morning, I attended the Chamber of Commerce board meeting. We had a presentation by Joe Wolf; he’s with the Iowa Department of Elder Affairs, to discuss not only some tax reform, but also a look at how we can encourage more citizens, particularly those between the ages of 50 and 64, to stay in the State of Iowa, and hopefully come to our area in Johnson County, and to the corridor. The Jaycees; I wanted to remind the folks in the Iowa City area, and those who do attend the Iowa City Jaycees fireworks show, that the fireworks show is on July 7th. So, if you plan on making your visits around 4th of July, I hope you take a look on the 4th, maybe going up to Hills or Oxford, or out in Coralville. There are a number of other areas in nearby communities. But on July 7th; it’s a Saturday, that’s when Iowa City is going to have their fireworks show, with the Jaycees. And then the Hawkeye Friday Listening Post will be tomorrow, Friday, for the 29th of June. I’ll be at the Iowa City/Johnson County Senior Center, and would like to have lunch with you. Thanks.

Lehman: Thank you, Terrence.

Lehman: Carol?

Thompson: Sure. The Housing Task Force met last week, and we have good news. We have filled all the slots in our first year grant. There were 10 slots, and those have all been taken, now. And there’s 4 slots remaining in the current grant. One is at the 60% income level and 3 are at the 50% income level. And also, the income levels have been raised for the year that begins July 1st, so if people feel like they were on the edge of the income level and still want to apply, they should contact Tracy Mulcahey at ECICOG. We also will be applying for a revitalization grant for a paint-a-thon, they call it, probably in Lone Tree. This would be, you get money to buy paint and materials to paint houses. The fire department will be the sponsors and they’ll be the volunteers, and they’ll start with their own building. So, it’ll help the City of Lone Tree as well as some of their citizens. We also noted that quite a few of the people who inquired about the grants that we’ve had so far, which were for owner-occupied housing, have said they were renters, and therefore weren’t eligible. So, we’re going to be talking at our next meeting about looking into maybe getting a rental rehab grant. On Monday, I attended the Youth Development Policy Council meeting with the Decat staff, and we talked about the funding cuts there, and I think came to an amicable conclusion. On Tuesday, I met with Mark Bulechek, and we’re going to be meeting again on the 10th; I think that’s what you told me.

Lehman: Yes.

Thompson: And then, Tuesday afternoon the software group met. We now have a schedule that we’ve mapped out that indicates that, to get all the tasks done at the pace that we usually go, it’ll take about a year for us to actually get a contract into place for new financial software. So, we’d be talking about implementing the program about a year from now. That calendar is still in the draft stage but, when it’s finished, we’ll bring a copy to the Board. On Tuesday next week, at 1:30 at the County Attorney’s office, the Jail Stats Committee is having its meeting. Is that correct, Pat?

White: I don’t remember. I’ve got so many.

Thompson: I wrote down so many dates, I now have several listed in my book, but I think that’s the one. Tuesday the 3rd, 1:30 at your office?

White: That sounds right, but I’m sorry I’m not sure.

Thompson: And we’re going to be talking about some statistical reports prepare by John Neff, who’s a citizen who’s interested in this subject.

Lehman: Carol, did you have anything else?

Thompson: No, that’s all.

Lehman: All right. Thank you. Pat?

Harney: Well, I was out of town since Friday, so I missed most all these events over the weekend. In the real time that mattered, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, I attended a training session in Des Moines. The session was on jails as part of county government, and as you all know, it kind of fit the situation we’ve had last week, where they had to transport 10 prisoners up to Cedar Rapids at about $60 a day. By the time you figure transportation costs, it’s about $70 a day. That cost might rise, depending on how the Linn County jail goes. The session was at the Iowa Law Enforcement Academy at Camp Dodge. It was kind of unique; it was offered by the U.S. Department of Justice and the National Institute of Corrections, the Jails Division out of Longmont, Colorado. It was teams of 3; it was offered to all county governments in the State of Iowa. It had to be the Sheriff, a Supervisor, and a jail administrator from each county. There was 33 of us, there was 11 counties represented. It happened to end up being on the same week that the Sheriff’s convention was in Kansas City, I believe it was Kansas City. So, they didn’t have a large number, but it was a good number that they like to work with. They usually like to have less than that, but they had a very good turnout. The training session was… The topics were, what is the jail, which went through the sequences of how the jail is used, what it’s used for and why, the jail and the political process, legal issues and civil liabilities for those who fund and operate the jail. Which was very interesting is what the liability is for the county, for the Supervisors, and for the jail administrators. Constitutional issues pertaining to jail staff, inmates, and Supervisors, again, what their liability is and what their part is in jail operations. Inmate supervision, jail staffing, building effective management and relations around jail issues, planning process and action process surrounding the use of the jail, and planning of what you should do for the future. Training needs and resources, teaming, planning, and working as a team for Supervisors and jail staff in the county, and cost effectiveness. This was put on, one of the presenters was David Pashal, these are all very well-qualified individuals. He’s a correctional specialist with the National Institute of Corrections in the Jail Division. Mark Martin, he’s a private consultant on jail operations management and management, from the Jail Standards Division of the Nebraska Commission on the Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice. So, he’s well-qualified, as well. Richard Hodson, he’s an attorney, his sessions were on jail liability, litigation, personnel, and employment law, and he’s from Minnesota. He’s a consultant for the National Institute of Corrections. Paul Kentsipis, he’s a professor at the Metropolitan State College in Denver, and his specialty is corrections, criminal justice on jail staffing, operation, overcrowding, population, and forecast for the future. And also Brad Leech, who is at the National Institute of Corrections out of Colorado. His session was on balanced law enforcement and new generation jails. Very informative, as to what to look for in the future. Much information was presented. Many ideas emerged, and much of this will be useful in addressing the jail issues that we have, and throughout the state. We were able to find that, we’re not that much different than many other areas in the state, and there’s a lot of problems out there concerning jails, and there’s a lot of issues that are going to have to be addressed in the near future. We have plans to work closely with the National Institute of Corrections and the Department of Justice. Many of these restrictions that’s placed on a jail comes from guidelines as a result of decisions made by state and federal courts and throughout the court systems. This was a very progressive training session in alternative-oriented. It’s not just pointed to the jails; it’s what alternatives may be out there, and they came up with a lot of ideas that they can utilize, but it still doesn’t relieve the initial arrestees that you do have to take into a jail. I’d highly recommend this for any Supervisors and staff, any of the jail people throughout the state. It was a very good class, and it’s just too bad all the Supervisors couldn’t have attended that, because it was real informative for us that really have not been involved in the jail system and problems that goes with it.

Lehman: OK. Thank you, Pat. Appreciate your willingness and availability to go to that. Like you say, it’s too bad the rest of us couldn’t hear it more firsthand. With your background in law enforcement, you probably understood a lot of it. Some of the rest of us need to be brought up to date on what our options.

Harney: It was helpful, but they presented that in a way that most anyone could understand. They were very thorough. They were very qualified personnel.

Lehman: Thank you.

Lehman: Friday, Sally and I attended the computer training session with Tim Knipper of Information Services. It proved very useful for myself. It was about folders, and also email. I go against the theory that you can’t teach old dogs new tricks. It was very useful for me, but it’s one of those things where you need to keep using it. Tuesday, late afternoon, met with the Mental Health Developmental Review Board. That’s a team of professionals that Elaine has put together, and there was an orientation session, kind of brought them up to speed of where we came from, where we’re at, and the need for them to address the waiting list for MH/DD will be resolved here July 1, with the new fiscal year, but all indications are that we will have to re-institute here, as the year goes on. I guess that’s all I have to report. We also have other, just to segue, Pat Harney had been… We did receive a letter from the State Jail Inspector that I think everyone is aware of, basically giving us, due to our conditions here and overpopulation, requiring us to reduce our jail population. Sheriff Carpenter and his staff had already taken steps to do that. They already are housing 10 inmates in Linn County; they’ve made those arrangements, those individuals have been transported. I talked to Major Lewis a little bit the other day about it. They tried to pick individuals that they hopefully would not have to bring back, a basis where it was going to incur more cost. He said they weren’t able to move 10 people that they knew would never have to come back during the course of their sentence. He said they were going to track the next couple months to see what their costs were going to be, to give them an idea of what we’re going to look at for a full year. They’re only projections, because we have no idea what the demands are, jail space will be now, whether that could rise, or lower, and possibly bring these people back. But the gist of this letter was, we need to reduce our population so that we have room to accommodate an influx of people on weekends or for special type events that may cause effect. It also asks the staff there to classify and house people where there aren’t these assaults on inmates and on the staff. I compliment our Sheriff’s Department for having the foresight to go ahead and take these actions before this letter came, but we knew this letter was in the works. It was only a matter of time, but after our site visit up there, we visited with Sheriff’s Carpenter’s staff, and things were just beyond control then, and they went ahead and took that. This is under Other, if anyone else, we don’t have any formal action, but would like to make some comments to this letter, where we’re at, where we’re going to have to be, here. Open that up if anyone would like to make some comments on that.

Harney: Just a side note on what I had talked about the National Institute of Corrections. I did find out, that I’ll be visiting with you about. They do have a lot of free services available to counties to assist in the problems, and researching, so that is available out there, from them and from the US Department of Justice.

Lehman: OK. Like you had stated, we’re not the only ones with this problem, and there’s other people out there that are finding solutions to their problems. Hopefully we don’t have to reinvent the wheel, but we’ll be able to use some of their solutions. OK. Just wanted to bring that up for…and this is something we’ll probably be putting on the agenda here, definitely going to be budget implications here, as we get into this next fiscal year. We appropriated $25,000 for transport housing, and that’s going to get used up very quickly.

(Continued in Part 3)