MINUTES OF THE INFORMAL MEETING OF THE JOHNSON COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS:
DECEMBER 26, 2001
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chairperson Lehman called the Johnson County Board of Supervisors to order in the Johnson County Administration Building at 1:03 p.m. Members present were: Pat Harney, Mike Lehman, Terrence Neuzil, and Carol Thompson; absent: Sally Stutsman.
COUNTY ATTORNEY PAT WHITE: FISCAL YEAR 2003 BUDGET
County Attorney J. Patrick White presented an updated criminal caseload charting back to 1982 to the Board of Supervisors. OWI is the largest category of offense. White said the total for OWI and non-OWI is probably going to end up around 4,400 for the year. He said OWIs should fall just a little short of last year’s total. White noted 1998 as a peak year. Lehman asked if any arrest constitutes a caseload. White said the numbers represent the number of files they open and it is pretty close to the numbers of arrest. White reminded the Board that last year he asked for a 1/2 time criminal assistant that was not funded. This year he is asking for the 1/2 time criminal assistant and a full-time Legal Assistant. White recommends funding the Legal Assistant if only one position is funded. White said the FY02 budget total is $1.6 million. He is asking for minor increases in the stationery, books, photocopying, and postage line items.
White said Court Services is a separate budget to pay for things like trial exhibits, depositions, and costs for witnesses. It is still struggling due to the volume of cases and caseloads. He is suggesting this year that several of the Court Services line items be increased. Their November budget report shows Court Services at 46% of the budget and December will probably push them over 50%. They usually have to hold off on paying for depositions or ordering transcripts in May and June and then play catch up in July. The largest line item is court reporting, which means pre-trial depositions, because Iowa criminal defendants have the right to take the depositions of all the witnesses against them. He said the defense bar is pretty reasonable in the cases where they do this. White said he projects the revenues for both of these accounts to stay pretty flat. Thompson asked why he didn’t lower the revenues for Court Services since they have never reached what was budgeted. White said he is still optimistic that they are going to go up. He said the other 02 budget revenues are consistently over what is budgeted. He said he thinks he is pretty accurate in estimating operating revenues.
White said their attorneys handle between 600-800 cases during the course of a year; although the amounts might vary depending on what kinds of cases the attorneys work on. He said the attorneys have so many cases they can’t remember them without having the file in front of them. White said he thinks the Legal Assistant position could involve training to screen OWI cases and draft trial information. Harney asked what kind of effect the new court restructuring and cuts is going to have on cases. White said his worry has more to do with the Department of Corrections than the courts so far. The loss of prison beds and community-based corrections are going to impact and increase crime. White said he thinks that every time they fund a prison bed they should also fund the staffing and a program component. White said they need to look more at jail alternatives, either through DHS or programs. White said Scott County is proud of their Jail Expediting position, which is a full-time position in the County Attorneys office. The responsibility of an Expediter is to find those in jail who could come out. He thinks Johnson County is doing almost all of that without assigning someone to do it. He said he needs to continue to watch this on an ongoing basis. White said the bottom line is there isn’t enough space. He said alternatives are only going to slow the number of beds they need long-term.
Lehman asked about space in the County Attorney’s Office. White said he thinks they need to put a supplemental building to the Courthouse in the capital projects plan. His thoughts have always been of something connecting either underground or through a skywalk. They need space for more staff and judges. White said they need to get this on a timetable and start finding a way to fund it. He said he feels they are not making any headway in getting anything built; they need to start earmarking funds and get them on a timetable. He said there are more legitimate needs than there is funding. White said the jail proposal that was put in front of the voters would have added an annual cost between $3-4 million that they are not currently spending. He said since they know how painful it is going to be they ought to begin to put as much money as they possibly can into capital reserves, that would at least buy down future interest costs. He said they don’t yet understand what the impact would be of a new jail, courthouse annex or human services building.
A key budget question, White said, is collective bargaining. Fiscal Year 03 is going to have either 5 or 6 collective budgeting agreements in need of being negotiated. Admin. is going to be at the end of a 2-year contract, Ambulance at the end of a 3-year, SEATS at the end of a 3-year, Secondary Roads at the end of a 2-year, and DHS at the end of a 3-year. The cost of contracting out one or more or all is potentially significant. White said if they are going to hire any of those contracts out they need to identify the funds for it in this budget process, or the Attorney’s Office needs to know as soon as possible. White said the Attorney’s Office had been the County personnel function until Human Resources Director Lora Shramek was hired, and consequently the way that personnel is handled has changed significantly. He said the Attorney’s Office is capable of doing the collective bargaining. He said it is accurate to say he is pro-employee. White said he tells the Board in budget issues or collective bargaining that the most important dollar spent is that of paying employees. White said he is currently troubled by the inequity in sick pay at the time of retirement or termination. He said it needs to be explained why there are differences, if any, between departments, in order to justify the difference. White also mentioned that he doesn’t think it is fair, nor is there any logic to, giving collective bargaining and non-collective bargaining different longevity pay. He said he hopes the Board of Supervisors would rectify those sorts of inequities as soon as they can and no later than this budget cycle.
White said he is at the point where he recommends to the Board of Supervisors that, as a matter of County policy, say they are willing to condemn property in order to implement a County Space Needs plan. He said there isn’t any progress with the Administration Campus in that they are beggars. He said nobody has any clout going to neighboring property owners to say that the County has designated an Admin. Campus, they need this property now and are willing to negotiate fair-market value and are prepared to condemn. White said they’ve always done this road projects but never done it for anything else. Thompson said most of the Board is willing to consider condemnation. White said the way to start would be to authorize negotiations and then go into executive session with an appraisal of a property that fits the County’s needs.
Courthouse Centenary Fund (61)
White said all that needs to be done with the Courthouse Centenary Fund is continue it. He said he doesn’t anticipate any activity in the next Fiscal Year. The Committee is going to meet and discuss ways, consistent with the building’s historical nature, to use the funds that are leftover, which is about $5,000. He said they are going to spend about $700-1,000 to finish putting the flag on. He said there has been talk about creating this as a permanent fund with the opportunity for people to contribute to it via fundraising.
Prosecutor Forfeiture Proceeds (69)
White said money is hardly ever spend out of Prosecutor Forfeiture Funds because there is hardly any in there. He said they have been budgeting it at $1,200 a year and money comes into that fund from forfeitures. He said if someone is found with drug money that gets forfeited, their office gets 5% of those funds, which then have to spent for law enforcement purposes. He said the last example is they used it to print the Domestic Violence Notification brochures that had ran out. Harney said he is surprised there is not more in there. Thompson asked if it is on target for this year. White said there isn’t really a target. He said it is unpredictable, but they have left the expenditure item and $1,200 and have never gone over it. He said most of the large forfeiture cases end up being held federally.
White said Courthouse security is an issue. White said the Johnson County Courthouse is one of the largest courthouses that doesn’t have on-site security. He said there are security cameras that are helpful but not significant. He said it is time to have a uniformed deputy in there full-time. Thompson said they are waiting for the report to come back from the statewide study on that. Harney asked what White envisions the deputies doing. White said just their presence is the most effective. He said physical presence deters behavior and crime goes down in areas where an officer is visible. White said they need someone to provide presence and coordinate things such as security, fire alarms and panic alarms, etc. This person could also handle someone who became angry and out-of-hand in one of the courtrooms, a situation that recently occurred. Lehman said Linn County is considering 6 security officers at the Federal Courthouse. White said lots of courthouses are moving to controlled access to the building, but this is nearly impossible in the Johnson County Courthouse, because the only handicapped-accessible entrance is the back entrance. Thus, he said, they can’t shut the back entrance down, and it probably doesn’t make sense to shut the front entrance down. A new facility, White said, could be designed with security concerns in mind.
White said he wanted to discuss the Compensation Board’s recommendation. He said he is fairly concerned about how the Board of Supervisors is going to implement this without wiping out the County Attorney’s pay increase. White said that if the current Board of Supervisors is inclined to the normal Board reaction, to cut the Compensation Board recommendations, they don’t have a lot of options. White said the requirement is that the Board reduces the recommended increase by the same percentage, and gave an example of cutting all the recommendations by 25%: the Board would cut their increase from 10% to 7.5%, and the County Attorney’s increase would move from 5% to 3.75%. He said commonly the Board has reduced the recommendations by 1%-2%, but said he thought the statute also allows them to use a percentage of the recommendation. White said he is supportive of the Board getting a bigger increase than he and other elected officials; the Johnson County Supervisors are underpaid compared to other County Supervisors around the State. White said it is clear that the Compensation Board believes the Supervisors deserve a bigger increase than other elected officials. White said if the Board makes a reduction, the reduction has to be done uniformly.
Lehman asked about the new phone system. Budget Coordinator Jeff Horne said the Board approved this previously. White said this was in the budget, assuming he could deliver a proposal that comes within budget. White said he would soon start to meet with Sharon phone company. At the point at which they are ready to purchase and install, White said he would bring the Board a report. He said that his office has been very pleased with the service and equipment provided by the Sharon phone company, the provider of the current system they’ve used since 1988. White noted the new system will include voicemail, though some people are not so keen on the idea.
Neuzil thought the County Attorney’s budget looked pretty reasonable, with a 4.5% increase. He qualified that the Board is in the listening stage right now. White thought a historical analysis would show that his budget requests are pretty modest; he doesn’t ask for it unless he’s convinced that he really needs it, especially as an elected official. Harney said he would like to talk about the County Campus concept at some point. White agreed, and said he would be happy to discuss the idea of moving out to Melrose, though he is steadfastly opposed to doing it.
Recessed at 2:04 p.m.; reconvened at 2:13 p.m.
FACILITIES MANAGER MARK BULECHEK: FISCAL YEAR 2003 BUDGET
Facilities Manager Mark Bulechek said the actual spending for the FY 01 budget in his department was $609,000, almost 30% over budget. He said some of this overage was due to unforeseen obstacles and expenses. Bulechek said his FY 03 budget request is $584,000, a 12% increase over the previous year’s budget, and acknowledged this is a rather healthy increase. Bulechek reminded the Board that the budget for Physical Plant hasn’t been increased for about 4 years, so this averages to only 3% per year. Bulechek said he is currently 4% over budget for FY 02; the mild November and December, contributing to lower gas bills, helped keep the overage down. Bulechek showed that because the County buildings are getting older, some of the costs in the Building Repair budget are 160% of what was budgeted the year before. Due to the aging lawn mower equipment, the Lawn Care budget is also higher, 165% of a $2,000 budget. Bulechek said the largest cause for the 4% overage, though, is utilities; utilities are at 52% of the budgeted amount, and it should be 42%. In dollars, Bulechek stated, this is approximately $20,000 over budget. A large chunk is the electricity for the Physical Plant and the Administration Building, partially due to extended hours. Bulechek said the unusually warm summer also contributed.
Bulechek said he has asked for the largest increases in 2 of his budget’s line items: Building Repair and Maintenance, and Hardware and Supplies. Bulechek again said this is due to the aging County buildings, including the Jail, and said he wanted to start repairing things that break, rather than patching them, because this is more cost-effective in the long run. Bulechek said the jail locks are becoming too old to maintain, necessitating replacement and contributing to the increase in Building Repair and Maintenance. The air-conditioning project at the Jail will reduce repair costs on that system, but Bulechek said the plumbing at the Jail is still bad. Bulechek reminded the Board that the Jail was originally designed for 42 people. With twice the number of people, everything gets used twice as much.
Bulechek said waste removal went up $23 a month per container. He also said that a general rule of thumb is 5% of a building’s valuation is necessary to maintain it; with that formula, the Physical Plant budget would be $649,000, more than the budget he’s requested. His $584,000 budget request is 4.46% of the County’s buildings’ valuation, which is a fairly lean budget.
Bulechek said that the use of cellular phones improves the efficiency of his staff, but is a little more costly. Part of the communications budget, Bulechek said, is that he pays for some of the pay phones. If the pay phones are used significantly, there is not cost, but because of society’s heavy reliance on cell phones, the pay phones no longer pay for themselves. Bulechek said he pays between $0 and $75 a month for the pay phones; usually, the bills run around $50-$60 a month. Bulechek said that Basic Utility Services vary from year to year, and he is requesting modest cost increases, except for the Administration Building. Auto Repair and Machinery Repair are also higher, because of aging vehicles and equipment. Bulechek said his trucks have 100,000, 80,000, and 30,000 miles on them. Bulechek said the new annual beds at the Courthouse, planted by Project Green, will cost an additional amount to maintain, perhaps $750-$1,000. Bulechek said a number of smaller costs have increased 4%-5% this year, contributing to the increased costs in his overall budget.
Lehman asked about the Inspection line item. Bulechek said this line item pays for required elevator and fire alarm inspections, and the generator at the Jail. Lehman wondered about possibly soliciting bids for some of these items in an attempt to save money. Bulechek said he could do that. Harney asked if Bulechek has taken annual bids on services in general, and cited the rising costs of garbage collection at the Jail and Courthouse as an example. Bulechek said they are yearly contracts, month-to-month. He said he’s made a couple of phone calls, but other competitors are in the same price range, so he hasn’t made a change. Harney suggested that it might be smart to take bids rather than negotiating over the phone; bids might spur competitiveness. Bulechek said he can do that. Lehman agreed, and said that Bulechek would then have something in writing to justify his decision. Bulechek said he is coming into the slow time of his year, so now would be a good time to bid the small service items. Bulechek said he would do an RFP and send it to the 5 or 6 waste contractors in Johnson County.
Neuzil asked where in the budget they are planning for a new heating system in the Administration Building. Bulechek replied that appears in the Space Needs budget, because it would be a Capital Project. Bulechek estimated the cost at over $200,000. Neuzil asked what the HVAC Emergency Repair budget, and Bulechek said he would like to have a stockpile of money in case there was a necessary, very expensive repair, such as the large condenser at the Administration Building or the Courthouse. Neuzil asked how they would handle this currently; wouldn’t it come out of Space Needs anyway? Horne said yes, it would come out of Capital Expenditures. Neuzil said he wondered about the necessity of starting a brand new savings account.
Neuzil asked about the Stone Repair line item. Bulechek said the stone at the Courthouse has been damaged by water, pieces of sandstone have chipped off and are laying around at the base of building, all the mortar joints between the blocks are starting to deteriorate, and the windowsills are starting to crack. Bulechek said maintenance like this would be done every 10-20 years, to repair the stone, mortar joints, and restore the stone to a good condition, thus extending the life of the building. He compared the work to painting a wooden house.
Neuzil asked about the County Farm, and if Bulechek is in charge of some of the repair of the old buildings? Bulechek said it is his understanding that the Historical Society pays for the work, and he finds someone to do the work for him. Bulechek said he’s trying to get someone who specializes in repairing farm buildings to come and look at them and give an estimate on repairs. Bulechek said he works for reasonable fees. Harney and Neuzil said they didn’t think the Historical Society pays for anything; Harney said the County is in charge of the facilities. Bulechek said he had misunderstood this relationship. Neuzil and Harney said Bulechek should put some money in his budget for upkeep of the buildings, before they fell down. Neuzil said they lost one of the outbuildings 6 years ago. Thompson said the building looks like a historical treasure to the Historical Society; Bulechek answered that to him it looks like a firetrap. Horne thought that County Farm Manager Bruce Ahrens has done some work with these buildings in the past, because he knew there were line items from the Physical Plant budget from before. Horne said that Ahrens has $800 set aside for Building, Fence Repair, and Maintenance. The group agreed that $800 wouldn’t go very far. Neuzil said when they had the discussion about the County Farm, they were going to have to start setting some money aside, or at least figure out who’s budgeting for what. Bulechek said he currently doesn’t have anything budgeted for repairs out there. Thompson asked if there are repairs that should be done so the buildings don’t further deteriorate? Bulechek thought periodic painting and weeding around the buildings would help; Harney added the Asylum needs a new roof, and some of the siding needs to be repaired.
Neuzil asked about repairing sidewalks, and said he noticed some of the County sidewalks are marked for repair. Bulechek said the City gets a contract every year, so they will do the work and bill the County. Neuzil asked if this is budgeted, and Bulechek said it would be under Repair and Maintenance, and would not be a large amount of money. Bulechek noted that he has asked for a $4,500 increase in Building Maintenance and Repair, over the previous year’s budget.
Lehman said the Johnson County Historical Society procures grants for some things, and wondered if they could be involved in the Courthouse, for some type of restoration? Thompson said the building is on the historic register, and sometimes there are federal funds available. Usually, she said, the federal funds pays for the extra costs of the project to do it to historical standards, not for the entire cost of the project. Thompson said the work on the stone might not qualify. Bulechek said there are 2 lintels that are in very bad shape, that might qualify, but they would be a small portion of the overall cost.
Horne asked Bulechek, if the DHS custodian should fall under the Physical Plant budget, would he be able to cover that? Thompson thought they would transfer the monies from the DHS budget to the Physical Plant. Bulechek said it depended how much overseeing he is going to require. If it is a once a week stop, for a half-hour, to see how he’s doing, it shouldn’t be a problem.
Neuzil asked about the FY 02 re-estimated total, and asked Bulechek if he has come up with any solution as to how to deal with the extra expenses? Is a project going to be delayed, or what is the plan? Bulechek said the only plan he has is to delay one of the 2 Courthouse projects, and do them next year because there are no funds to do them. Neuzil said that delaying a project seemed reasonable to him. Thompson clarified that it’s not delaying the project, but taking it out altogether, because if the money is spent, it’s gone. Neuzil asked if the projects taken out have then been added to the coming year’s budget? Bulechek answered no; he said because nothing has been taken out yet, he didn’t add anything to next year’s Capital Projects. Neuzil asked if this item would be added to FY 03’s Capital Projects? Thompson thought no. Bulechek said it has not been added at this point. Thompson said if they keep taking money that they set aside for Capital Projects and using it for operating expenses, as they did for the Jail, and are proposing for this, this defeats the purpose of setting it aside for Capital Projects. Neuzil agreed, but said that the Jail money was $1 million that had been set aside for a Jail; that case was different. The group had some discussion about studying and possibly changing the configuration of a narrow road behind the Courthouse. Neuzil thought this made the wall the sensible project to eliminate. Bulechek said he would submit this idea to Space Needs, and possibly add the wall project to their list. Bulechek said he would do a FY 02 budget amendment.
BUDGET COORDINATOR JEFF HORNE: FISCAL YEAR 2003 BUDGET
Horne said he increased the transportation, meals, lodging, and staff registration fees. He left the NACo budget as is, because they never use all of it. Neuzil said he thought the Supervisors short-change themselves in their abilities to reach out to more of these types of activities. Neuzil noted that the 2003 NACo is in Milwaukee, which could enable more Supervisors to attend, but he thought they would spend that money in next year’s budget. Neuzil thought $3,000 should be enough to go to Milwaukee, especially if they drove. Neuzil said he thought all the Supervisors should at least have the option to go, even if some choose not to attend. Horne said the cost would vary from year to year, depending on the location; Neuzil agreed. Neuzil said that NACo has 2 big events, ISAC has 3, the Chamber of Commerce has a legislative trip, and there’s also the ISAC day at the Capitol, and he thought the Board should fund these trips. Neuzil said another possible trip was for the Supervisors to attend a Community Leadership training through the Chamber of Commerce. Thompson thought this was going into Fund 18 so someone from another department could also go, perhaps Shramek. Horne thought it should come from Fund 18, making the funding more centralized. Neuzil noted that this training needed to be applied for; not everyone who applied to go was accepted. Thompson said the Board could choose someone to sponsor, and agree to cover their tuition; other people could pay their own way if they really wanted to attend. Thompson said they currently budget $1,025 per Supervisor for schools, ISAC, and other trips like that. Neuzil didn’t think that was enough; he said an upcoming Chamber event he wanted to attend was $1,200. Thompson said it was more than that. Horne said it would be easier to budget if they knew who was going to attend which events; Lehman asked Horne to draw up an itinerary of the events so they could get an idea.
Lehman said they wanted to be responsible and not pad the budget too much, but also said they didn’t want to do a budget amendment for the Supervisors. Thompson summarized that she thought Neuzil was asking for more specifics, where dollar amounts would be assigned to each event. Neuzil agreed, in addition to a certain amount that all Supervisors could access. Harney said he didn’t want to speak for Stutsman, but thought she also wanted to raise the amounts available for events such as these. Neuzil pointed out that Executive Assistant Mike Sullivan also might want to attend some of the events. Neuzil thought they should add a line item that would allow one or 2 of the Supervisors to attend the now-annual Chamber Washington, D.C. event, with Iowa City, Coralville, Linn County, and Cedar Rapids. Sullivan asked about where to add the line item; Thompson didn’t think they needed to add a line item, because there’s plenty of money. Neuzil said he was envisioning having enough money budgeted so that 2 Supervisors could attend the large trips. Thompson, Horne, and Sullivan thought they already had this. Thompson said they have $8,000 budgeted for development, and said they didn’t spend anywhere near that last year. Thompson said they are only spending about 80% of their budget. Neuzil said this seems reasonable, and wondered about the specifics of NACo and create a "Staff Development for the Board" line item. Horne and Sullivan agreed; Horne said it would make sense to separate the Board’s development from staff’s development. Sullivan agreed. Lehman said they would need to have a future discussion on this issue, and the Chamber’s $40 dinners. Neuzil said he wanted to feel comfortable going to some of these events; he said other counties with smaller populations than Johnson County send all of their Supervisors. Harney and Neuzil pointed out that Linn County sends their entire Board to all events. Horne pointed out that there are only 3 Board members in Linn County. Neuzil asked Sullivan if there was enough money for him to attend what was important to him, and he said yes. Sullivan said that during his first year, he would benefit most from some conferences occurring in Des Moines, such as ISAC. Thompson thought this was a matter of readjusting the Supervisors’ culture to turn in their incurred expenses.
Horne said the budget for the County Farm is for fence, weed eradication, and paying Ahrens a management fee.
Neuzil wondered if they should consider investing in a projector for the Board room? Horne said they were going to discuss this in the Technology budget discussion next month. Thompson pointed out that the new conference room downstairs is wired for a projector. Sullivan and Horne said the problem in the upstairs Boardroom is where to put the screen, and how to get the projector aligned. Neuzil thought the new presentations, especially those from Planning and Zoning, that utilize GIS, would require a projector. Horne said that Linn County uses 36-inch television monitors mounted in the ceiling. Horne and Sullivan pointed out that these are cheaper than projectors. Lehman asked Horne to check into that before they got to the Technology budget discussion. Neuzil also asked that they include a discussion about microphones during the Technology budget discussion; one hasn’t been working. Thompson thought they have money to fix the microphones.
Horne said they have reduced the budget of Historical Preservation to $500. Harney asked what this money has been used for, and Horne answered that it was a block grant used for a study.
Lehman said that they will soon have a prediction for revenue in the Reservoir Roads fund. Thompson said it will be less than last year.
Horne reported that Chatham Oaks didn’t make any changes in the Leinfelder Trust budget. Horne said they mostly just spend the interest but they also budget to make purchases.
Adult Day Program Facilities Trust (86)
Horne said under Adult Daycare, they are still collecting a little bit of revenue, and no expenditures. Thompson wondered if they should just collapse that account, and Horne agreed. Thompson said it was somebody’s will, so they would have to follow the directions as stipulated in the will.
Recessed at 3:03 p.m.; reconvened at 3:09 p.m.