MINUTES OF THE INFORMAL MEETING OF THE JOHNSON COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS:
JANUARY 3, 2002
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Discussion: Disposition of Kitchen Equipment at Senior Dining Program
Discussion: Appointments of Board Members to Various Boards and Committees
Report (Lehman): Met with City of Tiffin; and Attended Chamber of Commerce Business P.M.
Chairperson Thompson called the Johnson County Board of Supervisors to order in the Johnson County Administration Building at 9:10 a.m. Members present were: Pat Harney, Mike Lehman, Terrence Neuzil, Sally Stutsman, and Carol Thompson.
Thompson: We’ll move into the informal meeting, which begins with business from the County Engineer. Discussion action regarding sanitary waste contractors and annual oil road embargoes on Johnson County Secondary Roads.
County Engineer Mike Gardner: We were in a couple of weeks ago, I guess to discuss this issue and at the time representatives from the sanitary waste haulers weren’t here, so you folks decided you’d like to reschedule it for further discussion. They are here this morning. I don’t know if you have any other questions of me?
Thompson: Maybe you could just briefly describe the embargo process as it has been working.
Gardner: OK. Every year in the spring when the frost starts to come out of the ground we have about 130 about 140 miles of oil roads in the County that we try to protect by placing an embargo on them that limits the load to 8 tons. We inspect them on a regular basis and only embargo them as they start to show some signs of stress and then we remove them as quickly as they can so that people aren’t inconvenienced by the embargo. There are some exceptions that we can make to the embargo for agricultural products that may spoil, heating fuel, those types of things. We do issue permits to those people, so they can travel on the embargoed roads. We try to keep them off as much as we can, so we try to route them over the minimum miles of oil that we have to.
Thompson: So basically we’ve had a request to expand the exceptions that we make to include waste haulers.
Gardner: Right. Last year they came in, in the middle of the embargo and requested that the Board instruct us to do that and that’s what we did. Now we’re basically revisiting the issue to see if we can get it resolved prior to the embargoes going on. That normally happens around mid to late February time frame.
Stutsman: Mike are these exceptions on ag products and heating fuel, are those delineated in the Code or has that been a Johnson County policy.
Gardner: No, that is spelled out in the Code. That those are exceptions.
Stutsman: OK. But the waste haulers are not, correct?
Gardner: Correct.
Stutsman: So it’s our discretion as to whether we want to make the exception for waste haulers or any other heavy weight.
Neuzil: At this time we don’t have any other exceptions other than what’s listed in the Code.
Gardner: That’s correct.
Neuzil: We have to watch ourselves a little bit, if we allow one group, then another groups going to come, another groups going to come and a contractors going to come. I think that’s one of our concerns.
Thompson: Every year we do get calls from movers who have people who have to be moved out by next week. Different kinds of truckers want to do this and I don’t know how you tell one from another.
Lehman: Those people have made arrangements where a shuttle truck as far as house hold moving and things like that. Builders breaking down loads into smaller units. This is just a little bit different category too. I understand what your saying if we start making one exception somebody’s going to say I’m in the same category.
Gardner: One other thing I guess I would like to point out, is that we have I believe, about 12 of these oil roads that are paid for through road maintenance agreements that are paid for by private subdivisions and those people have called and asked us specifically. They’re some of the first ones that want their road embargoed and want it left on the longest so that they incur the minimum amount of damage. The reason for that is that they’re paying for the work that we have to do on them for any damage that’s done. There was at least one of those that called specifically asking us to keep the garbage haulers off the last two years because they realized that it was an expense to them and there were alternatives to bringing the big trucks in.
Harney: If I understand correctly Mike, correct me if I’m wrong, the garbage trucks the size that they normally use exceed the weight limitation empty, near empty.
Gardner: Yes. That’s my understanding.
Harney: Of course this year is going to be a little bit worse with the frost with no snow cover to keep the frost out.
Gardner: Right.
Stutsman: One good thing, is I think it’s good that we’re talking about this early so that we can give plenty of notice to people as to our decision one way or the other. I guess I’m real hesitant to start making exceptions too. I guess I’ve always tried to be real consistent on policy because the minute we start making exceptions then it’s real hard to say no the next time around. Then, pretty soon, what’s the sense of having an embargo at all? I guess I feel that the embargoes are a protection of our investment in these County roads. Not only for the private individual that has put money into their own private subdivision roads, but for the County taxpayers as a whole. We’re not doing this to be punitive, but trying to protect what we’ve put a lot of money into. I guess too, I feel that when you were in before you gave numbers about the days that the embargo was on and although we can put an embargo on up to 90 days, we very rarely have ever gone the whole 90 days. I know the Secondary Roads has been very diligent to monitor roads and to make sure that we get the embargoes off as quickly as we can so that it doesn’t cause any more inconvenience than necessary. For those reasons I guess I’m not really interested in making exceptions for waste haulers for the embargo.
Lehman: Your budget is funded by the rural levy, which everyone outside the municipalities are charged. I guess it kind of gets back to what, talking about the cost of County business to supply services, it’s not a rural county anymore. Those subdivisions you were talking about they’re probably all, your not going to find too many ag residents out there. Those people on farms either collect their own trash and take it to the land fill or they’re able to burn things and take it to the landfill as residue is accumulated. I think the point is here are we going to impound or do a cost of doing those roads for an optional service out there. These people that want that, I think some of the waste haulers had mentioned that they’d have to charge those people more, because if they have to get a smaller truck to do a shuttle type service, I guess it’s more of an impact fee then those people that want that service, they should be expected to pay for that service.
Thompson: Further discussion from the Board.
Neuzil: I’d like to hear from…
Thompson: Yes. We don’t usually have public comment until the end of our meetings, but we did put this on again for informal, so that people would have a chance to come in and talk. If you want to come and identify yourself for the Auditor. Come up to the front and use the microphone, so the camera can pick up your voice.
Hawkeye Waste Representative Kevin Onnen: My name is Kevin Onnen. I represent Hawkeye Waste.
Waste Management Representative Dennis Hagen: My name is Dennis Hagen. I represent Waste Management.
M and M Sanitation Representative Nicholas Yutzy: My name is Nicolas Yutzy and I represent N and N Sanitation.
Onnen: I do have a question. In these housing developments that are out in the rural areas, do the Board of Supervisors allow this to happen? Does the contractor have to come to you when he’s establishing a housing development and say to you that this is what we’re going to do. We’re going to build this out here and get permission from you to develop this land. Is that how the process works.
Stutsman: Right.
Onnen: In that process then as we run into last year with the embargoed roads then, we’re not developing the problem, we’re servicing something here that the community needs. The County Health Department also requires us to pick up this trash. So, I guess the point I’m trying to make is we didn’t create the problem. We’re just trying to perform under the rules and guidelines under the County. Then we’re put in a position with the embargoed roads that we can’t pick up the trash. It’s not as easy as some of you have indicated where we buy extra equipment and pass on those costs to those people on the embargoed roads. It takes a lot of time to get that equipment and it’s very, very expensive.
Hagen: I agree with Kevin wholeheartedly. You try to run your business and be as cost effective as possible and in today’s economy that’s getting the largest vehicle that you can legally put on the majority of the streets, haul as much as you can. We don’t intentionally take full trucks out on these roads. We take empty trucks out on them so that they are not as heavy as they can be until we get on the more primary roads, or the first roads, the paved roads and this type of things for all the other apparent reasons. You get out in the snowstorm or one thing or another like that or into the soft spot, the more likely you are to get stuck the more weight that you have on, so you don’t want to cause any problems. As Kevin’s already said buying a pickup track packer or something like that to use for 30, 60, 90 days once a year is totally out of the question. If you are forced to do that then I guess the consequence to the customer would be that I’m sorry we can’t service you from February through May or bring it to my office, but you’ll still have to pay this amount. I don’t know how you’d convey that to the residents in the County. If I lived on one of these roads, which I do live just off of one, which is in the City limits. I don’t understand how the City trucks can run down Sycamore south of Lakeside to get the rest of the City out in there without running on this County road that has an embargo sign, if we can’t.
Lehman: The city has a maintenance agreement, where the City is responsible for the repair, upkeep of Sycamore.
Hagen: The embargoes put from where it goes from 4 lane down to 2 lane and I wasn’t aware that they had an agreement with the…
Thompson: What did you do last year?
Hagen: Last year was the first year that I think any of us was ever stopped and given a ticket… We honestly, well I wasn’t aware of it until last year, didn’t know that it pertained to the waste trucks. I guess I thought that we were exempt that same anybody else was because we had to provide the service. I mean, you talk about grain spoilage and trash is already spoiled when people throw it out and it gets nothing but worse. I can’t imagine it setting out there for 90 days myself, until we can get back to the location.
Harney: I have seen some smaller trucks driven, but I’m not sure which firms they were. Do you not have smaller trucks, or some of the business have smaller vehicles.
Hagen: My company does not in this area, no.
Yutzy: Our smallest one is way over the 8 ton limit and it’s even a small one. By the time we put any kind of weight we’d be way over the 8 ton limit. I want to address just something, Carol asked a question there. We’ve been in business here in this community since 1970 and before my accident I used to drive truck all the time. I’ve past DOT. I’ve past County Sheriffs. I’ve past police officers on embargoed roads and I’ve never been picked up before. We were the first company last year to be picked up for like a $400 fine. That’s what brought this whole thing to a head here I guess. Ms. Stutsman made the comment that she want to protect the investment of the roads. I understand that, however the roads are not going to get damaged any more this year than they were last year or the previous 30 years, because every one of us has always been on those roads over the last 30 years. So, your road budgets not going to go up because we’re going to do the same thing that we have been doing. So to protect your investment, it’s already protected. You’re not going to see a change in that. So that’s what, to answer your question kind of Carol, that’s what we’ve been doing over, we’ve been doing over the last 30 years. I have met with the Health Department again this morning that they don’t want to see garbage sitting out there for 2 weeks let alone possibly up to three months. They didn’t want to come to the meeting today because they weren’t asked by you to be here. They said if you want to hear from them, then you need to contact them. They will be glad to talk to you about it, but they’re not in the position where they want to see garbage piling up also along these roads. One of the comments last year was made that everybody takes the garbage to one big pile and we take our trucks just to those piles and pick it up. But that’s going to be a total nightmare because your going to have everybody dumping on it and your not going to have it in bags, it’s going to be loose. It’s going to be like miniature landfills all over the County. I don’t think that’s what you want to see. That’s why were here today. We’re here not to increase your road budgets because we’re not going to do that. We’ve been on your roads for the last 30 years and we all agree that we’re not taking our commercial construction type trucks on. Terrance made the comment on that if we open up for the garbage companies, we’re opening up for everybody else. Well, there are lines you can draw there because we’re a health concern also. A moving company isn’t a health concern. A contractor isn’t a health concern. So, I’m not sure what other entities out there that can actually come in and say well the garbage companies are doing it, why can’t we do it. You got to look at any other health concern that might come into effect out there. That’s what I think.
Harney: Here’s what creates the problem, is we had requests last year when we allowed you folks to go on the embargoed roads to pick up garbage. We had truckers saying we need to go in a quarter of mile or an eighth of a mile to deliver a load rock for a building, that they’re building a home and we need to somewhere draw that line. We need to be fair to everyone as a whole.
Yutzy: I agree but that’s the same thing with us our big contractors, we all take out the big roll of containers for them, and we all refuse to do that, we say no we won’t do that until after the embargoes off. That’s no different then a load of rock or a load of building material whatever it may be. We know that that’s that line that we can’t cross.
Onnen: We’ve been very fortunate in that we’ve gotten cooperation on it. It’s not like we’re on these roads 8 hours a day, driving up and down them every single day. I don’t know what these gentleman’s schedules are, but I would imagine that you’d find three days. Three separate days during the weeks that we might be on those roads. Then again it might be one day a week, where we’re all out there the same day when we’re all out there the same day picking up various additions. It’s not something that we do 6 days a week, 8 hours a day up and down the roads.
Lehman: For efficiency your not picking up a house and then coming back the next day and picking up the guys neighbor. You’re out there doing routes.
Onnen: Correct.
Harney: So everyone on that route is picked up by the same service not half by one service person and another half by another person.
Onnen: Well you might have one development picked up by us, another one picked up by Denny and another one picked up by Nick.
Stutsman: On the same road though, separate development. I guess, what I’m trying to understand, you don’t have the County divided up in zones like the City does, so there is a possibility that 3 trucks could be going out the same day to the same road the same day.
Onnen: There is a possibility that three neighbors have each of our service; yes.
Lehman: There point is that if all 3 go out one day of that week they’re not out there the other 4 or 5 days.
Onnen: Correct.
Lehman: To that same area, but you may be using that road to get to another area or something like that. I know you take the shortest routes.
Yutzy: Like we do, we knock off the County into different sections and we do this section one day and then this section, then this section.
Stutsman: Each individual company does that, you’re not coordinating with the other companies.
Onnen: No.
Yutzy: You have to do that to keep it efficient. You wouldn’t want to go up here and pick up something and then the next day here are the same roads and do it again.
Stutsman: Do you represent…
Onnen: We’re never in the same area two days in a row.
Stutsman: OK. Do you represent all the waste haulers in Johnson County? Are there other companies besides the 3?
Yutzy: We’re the 3 major companies. There’s also Johnson County Refuse and Reasonable Rates.
Onnen: Reasonable Rate and there’s also one I heard yesterday, S&S Carting up around Coralville Lake.
Yutzy: Yes, he’s more out of the Cedar Rapids area, but he does come into Johnson County a little bit. I say we have about 1,300 residential accounts. To have 1,300 people all of a sudden not be able to have service. To try to do that with pickups, my guys would be working 12, 13 hours a day and then we’d fall under DOT problems because they’re only allowed to drive for 15 hours a week. You can’t, it just doesn’t work. You can’t satisfy the DOT and the County and everybody by trying to with smaller trucks.
Lehman: I think you bring up an interesting angle. These companies just didn’t start last year. Maybe your traveling more as more houses are out there and stuff, but you’ve been out there for quite a few number of years. The next point is that you’ve had an impact on the roads, your not going to make…
Yutzy: A new impact.
Lehman: Something we haven’t seen. Depending on the weather and the year, we may see that even with a farmer trying to haul grain a certain year when he might not have had that impact the year before with the timing of the weather and the frost coming out of the ground.
Thompson: I think over the years you’ve gotten bigger trucks too though. I live in one of those subdivisions and 20 years ago your trucks looked smaller to me than they do now.
Yutzy: The 25 yarder is the biggest that you can buy to run in Iowa. A lot of States have 30, 31, 35 yarders, but in Iowa you can’t do it with the weight limits. We’ve been running 25 yarders since 1980, early 80’s.
Onnen: 1975 for us.
Yutzy: We still talking it has been years with that size.
Lehman: I don’t profess to know your business, but I would think that if I could take a ton truck, but I don’t have a compactor on it. Your going to have to make more trips, it’s going to be more expensive, your going to have to have more man power, maybe a couple more of those trucks to make those relay hauls. What your saying is that your taking as small of a truck as you can with a compactor so that you can make the one trip. I know Mike Gardner had mentioned that he had a term for the equivalent of axle… What had more impact one heavy load versus several small ones? I think he was saying that one heavy load had more of an impact than several small. But you’re looking at your efficiency and how many more times are you going to be out there. It’s an economic impact to you.
Harney: I know also it’s really a hard decision to make. The County has changed so much, it’s become pretty much urbanized in many ways and at the same time agriculture has grown and they’ve been a written exemption since the beginning, I guess, of the laws. They’re equipment has grown to the size where they probably outweigh the garbage trucks.
Onnen: Yes, they do.
Harney: I really don’t know what the right answer would be. Particularly when they haul some of the liquid fertilizer, manure, things like that.
Yutzy: If you go back to the 70’s when we were getting in business, if we had a 100 in the whole county, I would be surprised if we had a 100 residents in the whole County. Like I said now we’re over 1,300.
Hagen: I mean, if you take over the same number of years you look at the number of school buses and the size of those school buses and the weight just because by getting larger school buses you got more children, you got more weight on them and they’re out there on a daily basis. I guess that question that I would ask is that if you had the School Board setting here and said OK you’ve got to run 7 passenger vans out there and look at the economic impact. That’s what we’re face with is the same thing.
Harney: We also have to look after the Roads Department because we’re spending a lot of money out there and whether the chip sealed road is a good investment or not. We’ve had discussions with them about that and that’s where we have the tendency to break down. I don’t know where we go with that.
Lehman: That’s a tough call. You’ve got 1,300 accounts. I imagine that the other are about that…
Onnen: 927.
Lehman: Maybe we are talking about the majority of the rural residents out there that are paying taxes for those roads are getting this service.
Onnen: Our biggest concern is that this isn’t going to go away. The growth is going to continue.
Lehman: Your number of accounts aren’t going to go down.
Onnen: The number of accounts aren’t going to go down. We’re going to be sitting here every year having the same discussion. It’s not something really that we can control, if your going to allow the development into the rural areas.
Stutsman: Well, I guess I want to hear from Secondary Roads. What are you seeing as far as the impact of these trucks? Any dollar amounts or… To help us try to weigh what’s the best way to go on this.
Gardner: I can tell you what we spent on these oil roads each year for the last however many years, but what was the impact created by the garbage haulers? No. I can’t pull that out of there.
Stutsman: Well, to me, you know this is an impact of additional development in the County and I can certainly understand your arguments both from a health point of view and from an economic points of view both for your companies and the people you serve. But then I think are we prepared to keep putting in additional dollars, because this in my opinion is not going to get smaller. We’re just going to continue to have more residents that want garbage picked up. One of the things about moving out into the country. You want City services when you move out and this is one of the things that people want.
Lehman: That’s the question that I’m looking at, if we start putting numbers together, how many residents actually out there, maybe it’s 70% of them. Is it 70% of them are getting this service, plus they’re paying taxes? Should we encourage the other 30% to get their money’s worth and ask for waste haulers to service them too? Where do we draw the line? If it’s 45% of the people are using the service out there in the unincorporated areas, is that a negative? Are we getting up to around 70%, we’re saying well that one of the services that we should help provide. They’re taxes are paying for the roads. That’s a tough call.
Stutsman: Yes, well then I can say that I live out in the county and I don’t have somebody picking up my garbage. Why should I have to pay for the road being damaged by somebody else’s service?
Lehman: We have the same thing. I don’t need an ambulance. I don’t need a Sheriff. Those are services that tax payers pay for, but we can’t put it on a cafeteria style where we can’t go pick you up because Sheriff can’t call you because you chose not to tax for that service. We’re kind of getting into that too. It’s roads, it’s for transportation. How do you draw the line here?
Harney: The other question you have is the subdivisions, as Mike has said that they not go on there because they’re paying for the maintenance of that road. Do you turn your back on that as well?
Onnen: You’ll find that the first people to complain when their trash isn’t picked up are the people that don’t want us on those roads. They won’t wait a week or two. They’ll be on the phone that afternoon wanting to know why their trash wasn’t picked up. As it piles up, we’ve all had this experience, with the snow last year, that we don’t have this year. The County Health Department when they find a lot of trash sitting on the road or sitting in these housing developments that we couldn’t get to because of the snow blockage, then we’re the ones getting the call to pick up the trash or else. I’ve never figured what the or else meant, but we’ve been asked to please make an effort to get out and pick up the trash. We get it both directions. We can’t go on these roads because it’s embargoed, then we’re looking at the Health Department. We’re looking at the citizens of Johnson County who have paid for that service.
Thompson: Thanks, all 3 of you for coming in, your information really helps us in making a decision next week. This will be on our agenda next week for a vote.
Neuzil: We want to hear from you. I see kind of 3 things right now; either yes, we make an exemption for waste haulers along with heating oil, ag products and buses. We can say no, we’re just going to stick with what the Code of Iowa says or obviously another option is to charge a certain permit fee that would then be put towards our roads budget. I think that’s kind of the option and obviously that would be passed on to the customer. I mean, that’s certainly some thing to think about.
Stutsman: Do we charge permit fees for ag products?
Neuzil: No, because they’re protected by the Code.
Stutsman: Pat, can we charge them a permit fee to run?
County Attorney J. Patrick White: I think you could.
Thompson: Are there any others here who want to speak about his issue? Bob?
Reverend Bob Welsh: I appreciate the fact that you are discussing this. My recollection is last year when you granted the exemption, you made it very clear I thought that you did not plan to make the exemption this coming year and that they should make arrangements in between. I guess I’m a great believer in private enterprise and it seems to me that if present 3 companies can not provide the service with the embargoed roads, some enterprising person in this County will come up with a plan to service those people. At least if I think somebody would fill that need at that point and provide that service. I realize that means these gentlemen could lose customers in the process, but if they couldn’t serve me for 3 months of the year, I’d probably go with a person who could service me year round. My guess is that you would find some persons who would fill the void at that point. I guess I’m a great believer that where there’s a need there’s going to be an enterprising person or persons who will fill that need.
Onnen: May I make a comment? We’ve had these occasions arise and all 3 of us here have lost customers to enterprising entrepreneurs. The problem with the enterprising entrepreneurs is they don’t have the capital to do this on a year round basis. What happens is, the customers and these enterprising people, the customers stop their service with them because they don’t get picked up on a regular basis and they end up right back with us. It’s a problem. We’re here to work it out. It’s not going to go away. I guess that’s the point. We didn’t create the problem out in the rural areas, we’re just trying to service it from a health standpoint and from the citizenry who want their trash picked up.
Harney: I certainly understand that and I for one on the Board, I know a couple of the other members have been considering the possibility of encouraging Secondary Roads to put down chip seal on more roads because we get so many gravel complaints on some of the heavier traveled roads. But this would make me rethink it because the gravel roads we don’t have to embargo, but these chips sealed, they do become soft and we do have to do that, so perhaps we do have to think about what we’re going to do and what way we’re going to go with upgrading any roads.
Waste Management Representative Joe Steve: You bring up a good point. The big picture is…
Thompson: Can you identify yourself for the Auditor please?
Steve: I’m sorry. I’m Joe Steve, with Waste Management. The big picture is the roads are just going to get busier in the future. There’s going to be more traffic, more heavy trucks. When you plan, I’m sure you plan 20y years in the future for your zoning and everything else. Well, rather then put down more chip roads. Maybe think about the problem that traffic’s going to cause in the future. Either have gravel, which is your going to have (inaudible) or you can pour a good road that’s going to last you longer that can keep up with the traffic also. It’s just one of those things that you going buy a cheap pair of tennis shoes, it’s not going to last you as long as a good pair of tennis shoes.
Thompson: Thank you. So this will be on next week on the formal agenda. I think we’re going to move along now.
Board: Thanks.
Thompson: We had an agenda item for the SEATS Riders Guide, but that’s been referred back to the committee to resolve their minutes before they put it on our agenda, so that will be on a future agenda.
Thompson: Next is business from Lora Shramek, Human Resources Administrator. The first is an updated travel reimbursement policy.
Human Resources Administrator Lora Shramek: Good morning.
Stutsman: Do we all have copies? Yes, Jo made copies and gave them this morning.
Shramek: In the packet that Mike sent up I also included a copy of a current travel reimbursement policy. You can look at those for comparison purposes. Today I’d like to introduce an updated travel reimbursement policy. The current travel reimbursement policy is on page 16 of the Johnson County Employee Handbook. It was written in 1991. You can see it covers meals, lodging and mileage. It really doesn’t go into a lot of detail; it’s fairly vague. We were having some inconsistencies come up throughout our departments. So there was a need for a more formalized policy that went into more detail and covered a lot of the questions that we were receiving in Human Resources as well as in the Auditors office. I have a draft travel reimbursement policy for your consideration for the employee handbook. It breaks out County vehicles, as well as parking, miscellaneous travel expenses, airfare, car rental as well as a section on planning a head and benefits derived from travel. I’ll just go ahead a highlight some of the additions and changes. We’re going to have a travel reimbursement request form, so that all employees are filling out the same form rather than just creating their own form and not submitting all the required information.
Stutsman: Is that attached Lora?
Shramek: No, it is not. Under the meals we’re imposing that we adopt the State of Iowa Department of Revenue and Finance schedule, that is updated on an annual basis. That is enclosed in the packet. This is the schedule that was effective January 1, 2000. I have a request in for the updated one, but just to give an idea, the State of Iowa Department of Revenue and Finance conducts extensive research to find out what the standard government rates are and what reasonable rates are for reimbursement for maximums as far as breakfast, lunch and dinner are concerned. So people aren’t going out having steak and lobster, not that any of our employees are, but just for example purposes. Then this is coded by both in State and out of State. In out of State there are different levels of Cities. This information was actually shared with me by Ralph Wilmoth, who is the Public Health Director. That way if we would go ahead and adopt a schedule like this, we wouldn’t have to ever determine what is reasonable. We already have a standard that’s adopted by the State.
Stutsman: What’s good about this is that it recognizes that some cities are a lot more expensive to go out and have dinner at then other cities. It acknowledges that and reimburses employees accordingly.
Shramek: Exactly.
Stutsman: It’s a lot more expensive to eat probably in Phoenix than it is in Des Moines.
Shramek: Yes. The reimbursement schedule also includes taxes and tips. Snacks is another item that came up for questions. Are snacks reimbursed? In the policy that we have snacks and items purchased in between meals periods are not eligible for reimbursement. Those would be at the employee’s expense. We also put in the policy recommendations for timing. Breakfast on day of departure may be claimed only if departing before 7 a.m. the day of the meeting. Dinner on the day of return may be claimed only if returned after 6 p.m. on the day of the meeting. Obviously if the registration price includes meals, meals would not be reimbursed. Under lodging, we ask the employee to request government rates. Those are significantly lower than established rates in conference seminar agendas. We also have the recommendation to adopt the State of Iowa Department of Revenue and Finance schedule for lodging. You can see that is on the same schedule as the meal reimbursement. Mileage reimbursement section is the same. County vehicles, encouraging employees to car pool whenever possible, preference for the County vehicles for those individuals going the farthest distance. Under parking and miscellaneous travel expenses we cover metered parking, tolls, baggage handling if necessary. Business related phone calls are allowable. Expense incurred for personal phone calls are not allowable for reimbursement. Under the airfare section we have that the employee would be reimbursed for actual cost of airfare when it’s more cost effective to fly rather than drive. A lot of times there are discounts on airfare if you have a Saturday night stay and we have a cost comparison sheet in your packet where the employee could compare the additional cost of lodging with the savings of the airfare and compare plan 1 versus plan 2 and realize the savings. So, the department head will easily be able to tell, which route to approve. Then we have the section on planning ahead, just encouraging employees whenever possible to plan ahead so that expenses can be paid through the Auditor’s Office in advance and so that we can take advantage of discounts especially with airfare. The policy ends up with a section on benefits derived from travel, reminding employees that any benefits derived from travel paid by the County belong to the County tax payers and may not be utilized for personal use by the employee. This would include any free tickets or any other accumulation from lodging, perhaps an additional nights stay. I worked with Becky Mills from the Public Health Department as well as Ralph Wilmoth, who is the Director of the Public Health Department in updating this policy. There currently, both this policy and the new credit card policy are at the County Attorney’s office for review. After that I’d also like to present them at the Department Head meeting on Tuesday, January 8th and receive input from department heads before I would come back and ask we put it on the formal agenda for adoption and effective date.
Stutsman: Has this been distributed to department heads so that they have time to review it before the department head meeting.
Shramek: I’m distributing it via email.
Stutsman: OK.
Thompson: Are you going to describe the credit card policy or…
Shramek: Yes. The credit card policy is the last item in the packet. This is a brand new policy. It’s not currently in the employee handbook. The County Treasurer has coordinated the issuance of departmental credit cards for some of our departments. As you know in this day and age there are time where you really need a credit card for certain purchases. This is a policy that puts some parameters and makes everything uniform throughout the County and for all departments. I’ll just highlight the departmental credit card policy. It’s only allowed for County business expenses. Allowable expenses include County approved registration fees for conferences and seminars, gasoline, meals, lodging, airfare and car rental. It also would cover any pre-authorized expenditures for equipment. A lot of times for example, Information Services need to purchase computer via a credit card and supplies that the department head has approved, that are approved in the budget as well by the Board of Supervisors. Monthly credit card bills must be paid in full or the departmental credit card would be revoked. The County would obviously not pay interest charges. Cash advances and purchases of alcoholic beverages on the departmental credit card is never allowed under any circumstance. Also the charging of personal items or items that are specifically not covered by the policy is grounds for disciplinary action. Up to and including termination of employment. Then it just goes into the fact that we need original receipts and the submission to the Auditor’s office.
Stutsman: Lora, it’s spelled out here that the procedure for applying for a credit card is to go through the Treasurer first of all and then the Board of Supervisors for department heads. Is that for elected officials too?
Shramek: That I don’t know the answer to.
Stutsman: Probably not.
Shramek: Do you know the answer to that Pat?
White: No, because there would be no…
Shramek: OK.
Stutsman: I just want to make sure that we have a clear procedure in place so that there’s not a bunch of credit cards floating out there that we didn’t know were authorized. But I’m very comfortable with the process with department heads because we have supervision over department heads and other elected officials. That’s their purview how they handle that.
Lehman: All those claims would still come through our process here for review and we’d see receipts if we had a question on them.
Shramek: Right, that whole process would continue. I just like, instead of getting an invoice we’d have the credit card bill as… The County Treasurer, Tom Kriz coordinates the credit card with the bank and has all the approval process.
Thompson: Any further questions or comments from the Board. Thanks Lora.
Harney: I read through that. I looked pretty thorough.
Stutsman: It just clears up a lot of questions that have come up from time to time. Carol and I worked with Lora some too, as mentors, she had us review it. We’re not putting this out because there’s any problems or whatever, there’s just been a lot of questions and we know that there lacked a black and white in writing policy and I think that this will serve everybody well, just to know what’s expected and what the limits are.
Shramek: As far as the travel reimbursement a lot of what’s in the updated policy was already correct practice, but it just wasn’t in writing. It’s going to make it easier for both new employees and new supervisors and department heads.
Thompson: Thank you. Do you have anything else this morning.
Shramek: No I don’t.
Stutsman: I was just going to ask Pat, have you had a chance to look it over. I just wondered if there were any things that stood out that we might have to reconsider.
Thompson: Do we want to take a short break.
Stutsman: Yes, I would like to take a short break.
Thompson: We’ll recess for 10 minutes.
Recessed at 9:50 a.m.; reconvened at 10:00 a.m.
Thompson: The next item on the agenda is discussion action needed regarding a letter of agreement with the City of North Liberty to combine two rural townships precincts with their respective contiguous North Liberty precincts. We have Julie Bartholomew back from the Auditor’s office.
Deputy Auditor Julie Bartholomew: Right, this is just a letter saying that the City agrees and the County agrees to have both the city and rural people voting at the same location, but they will be voting separate ballots. This is something that we’ve already done with the City of Iowa City and West Branch for two precincts in Iowa City and the little portion of West Branch that’s in Scott Township. This is a portion of basically 2 islands that were created. We presented this at the hearing that we had, public hearing that we had regarding the precincts. There’s a little portion of Clear Creek townships that’s cut off. Surrounded by the City of North Liberty and one portion of Penn that is an island inside the City limits and so we need to have a signed agreement for these. The City I believe has already signed it, they should be sending me their paperwork down for you to sign next week.
Thompson: So you’d have it on our formal agenda for next week.
Bartholomew: Correct. Any discussion from the Board.
Lehman: Those precincts are just adjacent to their properties.
Bartholomew: Right. They’re surrounded by the City. They can not vote with, for example Penn Township, they’re not contiguous, so we have to have an agreement.
Thompson: Thanks. The next item is discussion action regarding authorizing the chairperson to sign the precinct population certification based upon voting precinct ordinance.
Bartholomew: Right. Since with the addition of the Penn Township agreements and the Clear Creek agreement we had to redo our certification to the State. This was signed earlier by Mike, but we now need to include the agreement portions in with the 2 precincts of North Liberty. So it’s just a do over.
Thompson: So that too will be on for next.
Bartholomew: That’s correct.
Thompson: OK. Anything else Julie?
Bartholomew: That’s it for me. Thank you.
Thompson: Business from the County Attorney?
White: No business today.
DISCUSSION: DISPOSITION OF KITCHEN EQUIPMENT AT SENIOR DINING PROGRAM
Thompson: Then we move on to business from the Board of Supervisors. Discussion action needed regarding disposition of kitchen equipment at the Senior Dining program. Mike, you did an inventory of equipment over at the Senior Dining program. Do you want to fill us in?
Executive Assistant Mike Sullivan: As you said I did an inventory with Linda Kopping from the Senior Center and representatives from Heritage Agency on Aging. Once I completed that I did another spread sheet, inventory spread sheet, with the actual cost of everything. It’s difficult to determine exactly what was tagged by who at the time. I’m looking through everything. What it is, I’ve presented the spread sheet to you folks and suggestion to make a determination now at this point to put this item on the agenda for your discussion and decision for action needed about how you want to handle the disposition of that kitchen equipment at the Senior Center.
Thompson: Do you have a list for us?
Sullivan: I don’t have a list at the meeting. The inventory sheet itself at the meeting. No. I gave copies to everybody, I can get you a copy though.
Lehman: I got a list here. There are several large dollar items when they were purchased, around $9,000 when they were purchased, but they were purchased in 1981, so depreciation wise and stuff like that they are still useful items. I think one of the larger ones, $8,500 was a steamer bought in ’97. That’s something we discuss that could be possibly used somewhere else in the County, but…
Thompson: Some of the equipment was purchased with money from those trust funds though and they would have to be restricted to use for Senior Dining wouldn’t they?
White: Yes. If it came from one of the trust they would.
Lehman: Some of our options would be to donate them to the City or to Elderly Services that is going to take over the Senior Dining. That would some of the most natural…
Stutsman: I wonder, some of those things are in the building, anchored to the floor, I guess is what I’m trying to say.
Sullivan: The way the agreement reads right now the permanent fixtures would stay. Those would be, in my understanding would be the things that would be anchored to the floor, the counters, the sinks, the refrigerators, those kinds of things.
Stutsman: I guess my feeling, just to make this simple. These things were purchased for Senior Dining either through taxpayer dollars or through the Sterba Fund, which was donations to the Senior Dining program. I guess, I just would say, because they have not been carefully tagged so you know I think it would just be a waste of a lot of time and energy to try to determine who owns what and then what would we do with the boiler. The Sheriff’s Department may need it, they may not need it. I guess I just think let’s have a resolution giving everything to the Senior Center and to Elderly Services.
Neuzil: Do they want the stuff.
Stutsman: Well, that’s secondary.
Harney: I think I would concur as well. It was intended for that purpose and I would like to see it stay with the Senior Dining program as well. Whether it the City or whoever is running the program at the facility.
Lehman: I think it would be a good faith gesture, continue what they purpose was. Whether we give it to the City or Elderly Services.
Stutsman: The City would probably just turn around and give it to Elderly Services or some kind a lease agreement.
Lehman: Pat has an recommendations on legally…
White: You could do it to either one and all you need is a resolution that donates it to which ever agency you choose.
Thompson: It seems like if we choose the City and then Heritage gets different provider then they would still use the City’s kitchen, so that’s probably the logical one.
Stutsman: Put a resolution on there for next week, donating the equipment for the Senior Dining to the City for their use.
Sullivan: OK. I’ll draft that and get a copy to you.
Lehman: Just to follow up we did have a little bit later printing, $78,000 in equipment at new costs, when purchased originally, but like you say some of this is 20 years old.
Thompson: Most of it’s fully depreciated, I think.
Lehman: I’m just saying there’s been a lot of money put into equipment over time. I would think that somebody would appreciate the use of it if there is some usefulness left.