Thompson: Next item on our agenda is discussion/action regarding County-A-Day activity.

Lehman: Have we set a date?

Stutsman: When Pat and I were at ISAC in November we signed the County up for County-A-Day and that date is February 27. Its just been a good day for the County. Maybe a little background. Iowa State Association of counties started this process or activity 3 years ago. What they do is they allow each county to sign up for a day to go to the legislature and lobby on various issues that are before the legislature. ISAC provides a lot of input if there are particular issues that have relevance to the Counties. They give us background information and directs us to individual members that may need our assistance or education. What we’ve done in the past is carpooled to go up there. The highlight of the day is having lunch with our legislative delegation. Its always fun to sit down with them and visit with them one on one. We open this up to anybody in the County who wants to attend. Its just not the Board of Supervisors, it’s the elected officials or department heads. Anybody who is interested and available to go. I would suggest we follow the same format. Maybe let the department heads and elected officials know when the date is and start arranging for who wants to go. If there are particular issues that they want to address. Maybe working with ISAC too to get information from them. Where me meet and things.

Lehman: It’s a good communication process. I remember a couple of years ago we went up and we got to sit on a committee that was talking about property tax limitation. Our Auditor Tom Slockett was able to give them a lot of information that they weren’t aware of, how it would affect the County at our level. I thought that benefited them more than us in that case. That was a great opportunity.

Stutsman: I think its real valuable.

Sullivan: Sally who arranges the meeting with our delegation at lunch. Is that done by ISAC or do we do that on our end?

Neuzil: I think its done by Mike Sullivan isn’t it?

Stutsman: I think so now that you mention it. Actually in the past Joe Bolkcom has helped a lot making arrangements for lunch. You might check with him to see if he’s got the time to work that out.

Thompson: Also notify the departments that they’re welcome to attend and I think work out the car pool arrangements.

Neuzil: I know Harry Graves from Conservation, he was there with us last year.

Stutsman: Kim Painter was there. Kim I’m sure will want to go. She’s very interested in that legislation concerning Secretary of State taking over the processing of…

Thompson: If department heads want to send something in writing we take letters with us. Offer them that opportunity.

Stutsman: You might check with ISAC too to make sure… They send out a note but I just want to make sure that the date is still OK.

Sullivan: Thank you.

Thompson: Next item on our agenda is Minutes received. We’ve had minutes come in from the Johnson County task force on aging for November 19, 2001 and from the Sixth Judicial District Department of Correctional Services Board of Directors for November 27, 2001. Next is reports and inquiries from the Board. Should we start with you Pat?

Harney: It was kind of a short week. Last Friday I attended the farewell party gathering and lunch at the Senior Center. That was for Mike Foster who has served for over 21 years. He’s done a very good job up there. We’re going to miss him there. I hate to see the change, but that’s the way things go sometimes. The Board actually sat in on the MH/DD Planning Council Meeting. They went over all the budgeting and the process with Mental Health. There is a lot of issues there that you heard with the budget shortcomings. Tuesday attended a Vision Iowa Grant public hearing and fact-finding inquisition at the Coralville City Hall. There was a lot of good information passed around there. You heard point from both sides, pro and con. It was really an interesting session. On the 16th, which was Wednesday, I met with Sheriff Carpenter and Major Lewis in reference to Court House Security and reviews from the jail. The prisoners and their shipping, I think this last month they were shipping approximately 20 prisoners to Linn County, which is down from what they were. I hope it stays down, but you can’t really count on there. Yesterday the 16th, we had our budget work session, which we’re going to have one again this afternoon.

Lehman: Last Friday morning I attended the Iowa City area development as the Board’s representative. We discussed the existing industry survey they’re doing. They’re bringing a lot of new industries that need to pay attention to the current industries and what their needs might be also. Also, they thanked Tim Shanahan for being a member from North Liberty. Tim will be leaving.

Stutsman: Yes, I heard that.

Lehman: It’s a shocker. He’s done a lot up there.

Stutsman: He’s going to Des Moines. What’s he going to do in Des Moines?

Lehman: I don’t remember.

Harney: He’s the administrative assistant I believe.

Lehman: That was going to be his last meeting, I couldn’t attend due to other commitments. Also one of the personnel policies, although they only have a staff of 2 up there, it’s still important to keep those current. Also one of their investment campaign, which Tom will be hired to orchestrate that, the final touches of it. The campaign has been going on to raise funds for City Area Development. Tom has been an employee of Knutson Construction, I think will be retiring. He’s going to spend some time wrapping it up. A little background on that, what ICAD has been able to bring in here in the past 6 months, $27 million in new capital investments, 343 new jobs, that’s 713,444 new work hours for the ICAD territory. At a conservative $10 per hour, that’s 7.13 made in gross wages in a slow economy. Brought in 232,000 square feet of new or renovated space manufactured, education, testing, laboratories and office. The State of Iowa has committed over a 1.5 million dollars in training funds in these recent projects that are administered by Kirkwood. Along with that they’re going to be looking forward to our budget contributions. A little background on what they’ve done for the community. Monday I met with Elaine Sweet along with Sally as we mentor her as she gives us an update on her progress of things that she deals with as far as her staff and there programs that she has to administer and keep up on. Thursday morning I met with Ambulance Labor Management, some of our topics there, were discussion of the collocation of the Ambulance and SEATS out in Coralville now. It’s nice to hear from the employees on how they view that as a workable situation out there and if they have some problems they discuss it with management to get things accomplished. Lora Shramek our Human Resource person was also there to discuss the travel reimbursement policy. We’re looking at making some changes on an interpretation on that. I believe that’s all I had to report. I did go to the Senior Center, the Senior Dining for Mike Foster’s honor. I did register as a user of the Senior Center, so I do have a number. I don’t have it committed to memory now. But last time, two times Pat and I have been up there together and we’ve signed in so we’ll be in the count if that comes about to find out who the rural and urban uses are, so I’m on record now.

Thompson: Sort of a milestone in your life isn’t it.

Lehman: I felt bad I, should have qualified earlier. I could have. That’s the thing. A lot of individuals don’t realize, you walk through the door and somebody doesn’t pull you over. Once you’ve registered, you realize you should do that. Get accountability there.

Stutsman: They didn’t ask me to register.

Lehman: You have to be 50 Sally. That 39 is just holding you back.

Thompson: Terrence you want to go next?

Neuzil: Yes, I can go next. I’m not eligible to be at the Senior Center, but I still like the Senior Center. I joined all the Supervisors for that real nice lunch we had over at the Senior Center and congratulate Mike Foster for all his years of work for our County. On Friday I also met with constituents to discuss a number of issues, including the Rapid Creek Road and growth area there, including the Road. I met with Mike Lehman and worked on that. I also had an opportunity to meet with some constituents and their concerns. One had to do with deer and the deer population in the North Corridor. Also the Muslim Youth Camp was discussed during that time as well. I attended the Social Cluster Welfare Board meeting and the newly elected Chair was Bob Welsh, the Vice-Chair elected was Jeffrey Knox. We all attended the MH/DD Planning Council meeting and continue to monitor those kinds of budget situations, particularly with that department. I met with Jeff Horne to discuss block grant funding and United Way funding. I’m on that committee this year for that. Also, the Board held budget meetings to discuss technology. Also capital expenditures, we discussed Planning and Zoning, as well as Secondary Roads. We will continue our budget discussions this afternoon. I want to remind the Board and really the Community, the whole Board, we’re going to be over at Carver Hawkeye Arena for the Iowa City Area Chamber of Commerce Business Expo. I know there is going to be a booth there that’s going to have elected officials. We will be all over there at certain times to help and person that booth. Hopefully if you have a question or concern, please come along and let us know that. Hawkeye Friday Listening Post, I will have on Friday, tomorrow at the Hungry Hobo in Coralville. That will be on January 18th at 11:30. If you want to have lunch come on over. That’s all I have. Thanks.

REPORT (STUTSMAN): ATTENDED MEETING WITH SECONDARY ROADS; ATTENDED MEETING WITH MENTAL HEALTH/DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES DIRECTOR ELAINE SWEET; ATTENDED EMPOWERMENT BOARD MEETING;

Stutsman: My turn? Pat and I met with members of Secondary Road as well as Dick Gibson to talk a little bit about process as far as the 5-Year Road Plan and maybe some changes and some ideas. I appreciate Dick Gibson willing to sit down with us and rely on some of his past experiences and expertise as far planning process and things. It was a real good discussion and we are going to meet again with staff not this Friday, but the next Friday to continue that discussion and bring some ideas hopefully to the Board for consideration. As Mike said we met with Elaine Sweet. A couple things that she mentioned, is that she continues to review her administrative staffing. It has been a big plus to have Debbie Guard in as the Financial Analyst. Currently Elaine does not have an administrative assistant and she probably will not fill that position in the near future anyway. She wants to kind of look and survey again what her staff is doing and see if there can be some adjustments made. She also mentioned that she’s serving on kind of an ad hoc committee with Craig Wood from Cedar Rapids, Mark Whitmeyer, Bill Dodds, and Bill Goreman to give input to Sally Peterson, Lieutenant Governor, about changes that can be made in the MH/DD process. Some ideas that might help the process, so I think that’s good that she’s serving on that committee and I think it’s good that they’re giving input to Sally Peterson. Making some improvements and some changes in that process will be helpful. I wanted to talk to the Board a little bit about Empowerment. I had a Board meeting not this last Thursday, but a week ago. I wanted to educate the Board on Empowerment and what it’s all about because there’s questions that come up form time to time that come up about Empowerment. I serve on the Empowerment Board, it’s not a County appointment. The Empowerment Board appoints it’s own members. It’s very specifically laid out in the legislation whose to serve on this Board. There are so many people from the Community, so many people representing agencies and so many people representing elected officials. I and Dave Jacoby are the 2 people that serve as elected officials. One of the things that we did at the Empowerment Board meeting is that we did approve the by-laws like every process it’s been a long time in coming, but they were approved at the last committee or the last Board meetings. We have reports at the Board meeting from the different subcommittees that are set up with the empowerment Board. One of the committees is the Health Care Work Group, they make recommendations to the Board about funding for different programs related to health care in the Community. They did receive funding from the Medicaid Administrative Claiming funds. I think 10 or 12,000 dollars came to the Empowerment Board from those claiming. It was recommended by the Health Care Work Group that part of that money be used for a safe car seats program. This would be for the North Liberty Resource Center and the Hills Resource Center. So the Board did approve $5,000 to go to those 2 centers to buy car seats. This is a real issue. A number the families that they see and serve don’t have car seats, so this will allow them to assure those families do have access to approved car seats. There also is a committee called Public Awareness and Community Education. In the past they have used some dollars to put up billboards in the Community talking about Empowerment. It was decided not to do that again, instead they’re calling it a little people’s project. I will bring one of these little peoples to a Board meeting to explain to you more about that program. But it was approved to go ahead with that project. There will be a web presence for the Empowerment Board through the Johnson County Area Network, so look for that web. That will help to explain Empowerment Programs, what Empowerment is all about. There also will be an Empowerment lobby day on January 31st. This is where all the various Empowerment programs go to the State legislature and set up displays explaining what they’re doing with Empowerment funding. There will be representatives from Johnson County that will be there. I’m not going to be able to attend, but in the past they’ve had real good representation from the people here in Johnson County. It’s real good for the legislators, because this is a fairly new legislative initiative. It’s good to educate the legislators about what’s being down with these funds on a community level. By having the displays, the people right there in the lobby of the rotunda, they’re able to ask those questions and get those questions answered. We approved an RFP for the continued care program. This is funding to be used for low-income families, so they can continue their childcare on a temporary short-term basis. This has been a real gap in the Community. For instance if an individual runs into unforeseen medical problems, has to use a lot of money to pay for medical bills and can’t pay for childcare. This program is set up to help in a short-term basis to make sure the childcare is able to stay at the childcare provider without a lot of discontinuation of what they’re used to having as far as childcare providers. It’s been a very successful program in the past. It has really filled in a gap and provided the continuity in childcare that we want to see, especially in low-income families. DHS administered this program before because of their restructuring changes. They’re no longer able to do that, so we put an RFP together so that other agencies in the Community could hopefully respond to the RFP and hopefully continue this program. We also are writing a letter so that Cheryl Whitney can continue to serve on the Empowerment Board there again because DHS restructuring, it was kind of unclear on what her role would be in the Empowerment Board. We feel that she is a valuable contributor to the Board, so a letter is being sent to Marc Baty to ask that she continue to be on that Board. So that’s it for Empowerment for this time. As you can see it’s a busy Board, it’s a very involved Board. I think they are doing a lot of good programming. I think it’s important that this Board be aware of what some of those dollars are going to. There are, we did receive a grant from the State, there are some County dollars that are going into Empowerment, but not a lot. The majority of the funds are from the State Empowerment grant. I also wanted to inform that Board, Jo Hogarty who is just so diligent about keeping up these Board’s and Commissions notice that on the Airport Zoning Commission, I was appointed for that Board until 2005. So she caught that and wanted me to tell the Board that Pat Harney, you’re not appointed to that. That I will continue on beings that I have an unexpired term on that.

Lehman: Did that meet last night? Did you have a chance to get to it.

Stutsman: Was there a meeting last night?

Harney: I think so.

Stutsman: I didn’t know that. Did you know that? Did you go?

Lehman: No, it’s the 23rd. Excuse me. The 23rd, I think I have something in my packet I’ll make sure you get it.

Stutsman: OK. Good. Thank you. That’s the end of my reports.

Thompson: Thanks Sally. I attended the ground breaking for the Iowa City Public Library on the weekend. It was very nice. Susan Craig mentioned that from the time they first began talking about this until the building is finally constructed it will be 10 years. Thinking in terms of our jail, I thought that was kind of telling. On Monday, I went to the Planning & Zoning Commission meeting. They were talking about the farmstead splits. It was really interesting to hear their discussion, because I know it will be coming up for us next month. On Monday, the Heritage task force met. There was a letter there from Liz Selk, that I have shared with the rest of the Board. Also, it was announced that some members of the Task Force are going to be meeting with Liz Selk and I think Task Force members from other parts of the district regarding some questions they have about accounting practices at Heritage. There was also a presentation from Connie Benton-Wolf about the dining program. She was very happy that day because it was their first day of operation and all the meals had gotten out on time and everything had gone pretty well. She introduced Diane Flemming and just kind of talked about how they don’t really plan to make a lot of changes in the program for the first few months that they operated. Linda Kopping and Jay Honohan also addressed the Task Force regarding the conversation that we’re having regarding the 28E agreement. I thought they made a very well balanced and professional presentation. At that committee to, there also were compliments to Mike Foster for the professional way that he handled the transition for Senior Dining. On Tuesday Fincore met again, the RFP’s are out and questions are now coming in for the preproposal conference that will be on the 25th. They were kind of hoping that one of the members of the Board could go to that in the morning, but I won’t be here. Sort of to be present. Mike Sullivan is going to manage the meeting. We’ve scheduled it from 9-3, but I think if someone could just be there to just sort of welcome people in the beginning that would be kind of nice. Maybe you could all look at your schedules.

Stutsman: I could. I guess we were supposed to meet with Lisa at 8. Was it January 25th did you say?

Thompson: Yes. This is a chance for people who are thinking about bringing proposals to come and ask questions.

Lehman: Demonstrations. I might be able to be here I think.

Thompson: This will be recorded by the Auditor’s office and then the responses to the questions will be disseminated to all the applicants, so the process is fair for everyone. I also wanted to mention to the Board, on our email we received a long document on the Courthouse Security Improvement Task Force Findings. This is a State Committee that received input from the Counties. In Johnson County it was a Committee that Bob Carpenter and our Facilities Manager, the County Clerk and Sally and I participated on. I understand the Board will be receiving a letter from Judge Remley either late tomorrow or early next week, documents they feel they need a $195,000 worth of improvements to our security system at the Courthouse. I understand that most of that would be for staff, so we’ll probably be discussing that further. Probably that Committee would have to be reestablished. I don’t think we appointed Sally and I again to it this year or if anyone else wants to work on it that would be a good thing. The only thing that I have is to mention that Monday the County offices will be closed for the Martin Luther King holiday.

Lehman: Comment on Juvenile Justice. I’m the rookie there, so I’ll let you.

Thompson: Yes. The Juvenile Justice Youth Development policy Board met this week. We had nice presentation from Jim Swaim about the ways that local agencies use their Americorps bond here. I learned a lot about Americorps that I didn’t know. He also mentioned the strengthening families grant that they have through MECCA, which serves 5 families at a time in different areas of the County. They go through different schools, Elementary, Junior High and High Schools in different parts of the County. So this extends into the rural areas, which is one of the goals the County has been interested in. They also announced that Stepping Up Project at the University has given the Policy Board $2,000 to use on programs for helping High School students with problems drinking and promoting other alternatives besides drinking. Then Carla Miller, who has been a member of the Board and an Agency Director who has changed jobs recently, announced that she is going to stay on the Board and do some small fund raising for the Board so that we can replace some of the State funds that we’ve lost. I thought that’s a good chance and we all appreciate Carla’s volunteering for that. So that’s my report. Anything, any other business from the Board? Now we’re down to inquiries from the public. I’m sorry that you had to wait so long.

Reihman: I’m Margaret Reihman and I’m a Johnson County resident. I don’t relish being here, but the reason I’m here is because I want to talk about something that will effect our County and our schools to millions of dollars. Not just millions of dollars, but millions of dollars for years into the future, at least 10 years. I maybe made a mistake, I bought into the idea that we had a government where everybody couldn’t be in the business of governing, so you elected people to do that job for you. They tax you and they’re the people you talk to about that tax. I asked Attorney White what I should do in regards to the Coralville actions that will impact our County and our schools. He said to me, go and ask the City of Coralville and go ask you’re questions of them. So I did do that. I went to the public hearing in regard to the TIF issues that’s going to effect all of us for at least an additional decade. When I got to the City of Coralville, they said I could not ask questions, so I’m back here. I’ve asked the Attorney questions and I’ve asked the County Auditor questions, I’ve asked the County Treasurer, I’ve asked the County Board questions and I’m not getting any responses. One of my questions is, does the action of October 16th in Coralville proceedings effect my school district and my County? I haven’t been able to get an answer, I can wait for the answer, but I’d like one. The second question I had was if the actions of Coralville amend their TIF, then wouldn’t the same language say that that tax base is amended, because it’s an amended TIF? I think that’s an important question for our County Auditor to answer, because that does effect their bond issuance. They will be issuing bonds next Tuesday. Finally I want to know what you as a County are going to do to protect me. I don’t have any representative. I’ve alerted the City of Coralville that I did not have an elected official in the room. One of the public at the meeting, innuendoed that I could leave and didn’t belong there. That is exactly what this government is set up to stop. I should have had an elected representative there and I want to know what you people will do to protect my rights.

Stutsman: We can’t respond today Margaret. I guess I would suggest putting this on the agenda for next week too. So that we can have a discussion and respond to it. This is reports and according to the agenda and the open meetings law, we can just hear reports and not respond.

Reihman: OK. One thing I think you do need to know is, I understand this is a State law, it’s not a County law. I understand that. But I’m coming to you for help, because the law as it is written now, makes the City of Coralville a privileged class. In other words, what I’m trying to say is they are going to levy a tax on themselves, on the County and on the schools, but only the people of Coralville have the right to input, so that makes Coralville a privileged class and I would ask for your help. Maybe you didn’t get to see the letters that I’ve sent to the County officials, so I have a copy for you. Thank you.

John Neff: I have a very brief comment about a processing fee.

Thompson: Will you say your name for the County Auditor please.

Neff: I’m John Neff. I’m from Iowa City. The most critical overcrowding is in the pre-trial part of the jail, in particular in the maximum security section. The people there are charged with serious crimes, so it won’t make a bit of difference whether there is a booking fee or not, they are going to go into that part of the jail. So there will be no benefits to the area where there is the worst crowding from a booking fee. The judge decides who goes into the sentence part of the jail. It’s not going to make a bit of difference to the judge if there is a booking fee or not. So the only benefits are to people held over night. I think that they will be small and temporary. I think they will get used to the fact that there is a fee and the booking rates will go back to here they were before the fee. So it boils down to basically a fund raising question. You can decide that. I really do not understand why you would want to change the way that you fund the jail. That’s all I have to say.

Thompson: Thank you. Any further comment from the public? Hearing none, we’ll adjourn.

Adjourned at 10:52 a.m.

Attest: Tom Slockett, Auditor

By Casie Parkins, Recording Secretary