MINUTES OF THE INFORMAL MEETING OF THE JOHNSON COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS:
FEBRUARY 28, 2002
TABLE OF CONTENTS
County Attorney: Disposal of Property Acquired by Tax Deed at 818 South Van Buren in Iowa City *
Minutes Received: East Central Iowa Council of Governments for January 31, 2002
Chairperson Thompson called the Johnson County Board of Supervisors to order in the Johnson County Administration Building at 9:56 a.m. Members present were: Pat Harney, Mike Lehman, Terrence Neuzil, Sally Stutsman, and Carol Thompson.
Thompson: We’re going to move to the informal meeting. This item is business from Rick Havel GIS Coordinator regarding Iowa Emergency Management Department’s 50/50 grant. This grant would assist in purchasing new global positioning system equipment.
GIS Coordinator Rick Havel: Good morning. Yes, basically what the grant would total is, we could purchase up to $10,000 worth of equipment and the State would reimburse us $5,000 of that matching funds 50/50. We haven’t decided exactly which equipment we’re going to purchase, but I anticipate purchasing 2 GPS units. The GPS units would allow us to collect site specific location information that we can push into our GIS system for various purposes. To review the purpose of this grant and why the State is doing this they are compiling a GIS system at the State level currently using information primarily from the Iowa Department of Natural Resources as far as street information, natural resource information, etc. They are going to create an internet mapping application that will be available to all County Emergency Management Coordinators. It’s going to be password protected and it’s going to be a secure site due to some of the sensitive information that’s going to be made available. The information that we will potentially collect will be used for that system. This equipment that we will be potentially purchasing will be available for use by the entire County. So anyone that needs information such as a septic tank location, a series of driveway locations, we can use this information to collect that data. That’s the primary purpose of what we are coming at. I’ve talked with Tom Hansen quite a bit about this grant. He is OK with what we’re doing and he is in support of it. Once again, in talking with the State personnel that are in charge of this grant this opportunity for matching funds is going to go away quite quickly and money that is not obtained through this type of grant is going to be pushed into another budget. So the opportunity is fleeing. I think it would be very useful equipment. We will discuss further in following meetings with the GIS Subcommittee exactly what equipment is going to be done, purchased and how the money is going to be used. What the equipment will be used for and who it will be available to.
Thompson: So this allows you to purchase equipment that’s useful for the goals of your department with the State paying 50% of it.
Havel: Yes.
Stutsman: Does the money come out of your budget or Emergency Management budget or…
Havel: According to Tom Hansen he has no money to match this fund at this time. The GIS budget does. Since the GIS is going to be a prime benefitter from this we chose to match the funds if the resolution is passed.
Stutsman: So who applies for the grant? Does the Board of Supervisors or do you apply for the grant?
Havel: I am authorized by Tom Hansen to be the authorized representative for the grant. The County has to approve the resolution to match the funds for this grant. But I will be the key contact person on the grant and like I said, in a sense it’s to help the Emergency Management have the equipment, to help build the State based GIS system that they’re putting together. But it also, it says in writing in the terms of the grant, that the equipment is available to other departments in the County and can be applied for by other departments in the County. EM doesn’t have to be the central person, but it is geared to help them collect information.
Stutsman: Who found out about this grant? Did you or did Tom?
Havel: Actually Dan Swartzendruber at the Planning and Zoning Department got contacted by someone, they had a letter that they were kind of pushing out. Actually Tom Hanson got it and he forwarded on Dan’s name and he got the formal grant application. Then they contacted me since it was GIS related. I haven’t been doing this alone. I’ve been working with Tom Hanson and the Planning and Zoning Department in kind of establishing what we were going to ask for, what we were going to go for. I’ve been the key contact with that State in terms of what is required by us long term in compliance with the grant, the rules and do’s and don’ts about it. It’s pretty flexible at this point in time. They’re still in the initial fazes of collection and creation of this Statewide GIS database, so the demands on the County for the first year are going to be minimal because they’re still trying to sort out the framework as far as uploading information into the systems from the Counties. There are quarterly reports that are due and Tom Hansen has agreed to file those as needed, which I don’t feel at this point are going to be intensive at all, they’re going to be straightforward and simple. The requirements as far as additional work are pretty minimal.
Stutsman: It’s a one-year, I mean just a blanket amount? $5,000 in additional dollars?
Havel: Right.
Harney: I guess the question is now, we don’t have any additional dollars obviously to put into any grant applications. Did you say your absorbing that out of your budget? Are you giving something else up in your budget that was planned or is this dollars that was sitting there for a similar program.
Havel: Since the GIS in the County’s is continuous development, there’s money that’s been carried over from the last fiscal year that was put in place for additional equipment, for additional licenses of software if needed, so there is a flexible amount. Like I said before, my goal is to potentially spend $2,500 out of County money and be matched by the $25,000. I’ve talked to several vendors as far as the type of equipment. I’ve had some, a vendor come in a couple days again and we talked about it. What products were available, what products would benefit us and so there’s still some discussion as far as which actual product we’ll be purchasing, but the goal is to have 2, at least 2. But if it comes out to one we’ll have one particular unit. But also Rick Dvorak from the Planning and Zoning Department has offered his services through the inspectors as far as collecting some of this information while they’re out doing certain duties. If they’re out and about and taking some of these points and collecting some of this information can be done quite quickly. So they can kind of kill 2 birds with one stone in that aspect. So that’s one aspect, because he’s interested in driveway locations and address, this would help collect specific driveway locations if need be. In addition to the many other types of information that can be collected.
Thompson: You can pay the County Sheriff the amount of money that’s already been set aside for equipment in your budget.
Havel: Yes.
Thompson: Thank you. Is there any further questions from the Board? Let’s recess back to the formal meeting.
Recessed at 10:04 a.m.; reconvened at 10:46 a.m.
COUNTY ENGINEER MIKE GARDNER, assistant county engineer al miller and integrated roadside vegetation manager Chris Henze: RIGHT-OF-WAY ACQUISITION FOR GRADE, DRAIN, AND PAVE PROJECT ON MEHAFFEY BRIDGE ROAD/180TH STREET (JOHNSON COUNTY PROJECT STP-S-C052(56)--5E-52); BID LETTING/NOTICE TO BIDDERS FOR SEED AND FERTILIZER TO BE PURCHASED IN 2002
Thompson: Discussion/action needed regarding right-of-way acquisitions for grade, drain and pave project on Mehaffey Bridge road and 180th Street.
Assistant County Engineer Al Miller: Good morning. These are the first 10 parcels of about 33 different parcels that we need to acquire for the Mehaffey Bridge 180th Street project. As the final paperwork comes in I’ll be bringing those into you. I’ll have some more next week as week, but they’re all for the grading and paving project up on 180th Street. We do have 2 parcels that we’re going to acquire that are associated with Solon’s project for putting turn lanes in front of the high school. Those haven’t been acquired yet, so they’ll be coming in later as well. One thing I just wanted to bring you up to date on, as these come in keep track of the numbers were talking about here. I think the total is going to be up around $200,000 or so for acquisition and fees and that kind of stuff. You know, with the budget cuts, you know with the 13% that our department’s taking in 2003, which amounts to about a million dollars to do these larger projects, we do have to have the funds to purchase the right-of-way. The only reason I bring that up is those numbers are really difficult to come up with 18 months in advance. It is a costly item.
Stutsman: Is that the amount that you had anticipated or is it coming in higher then you had thought?
Miller: It’s actually coming in a little bit below, although our whole… You know we have a right-of-way acquisition amount for all the projects that we do, but these big ones are generally 90% of that. This is a little bit lower then what we anticipated.
Stutsman: You’re still in the negotiating process with other landowners.
Miller: I believe we’ve got offers out to 30 of the 32 parcels. I think everybody’s signed except for maybe 5 or 6. We’re just waiting for the final paperwork to get processed.
Thompson: But these are already to go? These people have voluntarily agreed to these amounts.
Miller: Yes, this is just on for discussion. It will be put on formal for next. There will be another batch that will be on the informal next week as well.
Stutsman: So everybody’s in agreement with this amount? We’re ready to go with these.
Miller: Yes. Our offers are all based on appraisal work that’s been done for the properties.
Thompson: Do you think we should read them?
Miller: I don’t think you have to. That’s wait for next week. You might want to on the formal.
Miller: That’s all I’ve got.
Thompson: Next is discussion action regarding bid letting notice to bidders for seed and fertilizer to be purchased in 2002. Chris Henze and Mike Gardner.
County Engineer Mike Gardner: Good morning. I brought Chris along to answer all the technical questions. What this is, is we’re just getting ready to do the bid letting for our seed and fertilizer needs for this year. Next week we’ll be in on the formal agenda to set a bid letting date and get the Board to authorize us to publish a notice to bidders. What we’re looking at is April 2nd of 2002 this year. We’re running a little behind schedule from what we’ve done in the past couple of years, but that’s what we’re shooting at. It appears that this year’s needs are going to be down a little bit from the last couple of years. A combination of still having some seed in inventory from last year and also the budget cuts, that reduce the amount of construction that we’re doing and some of the maintenance operations are going to be cut with the ditch cleaning and so forth with our crews being put to use in other places. Chris can take it from there I guess. That’s just a little over site.
Integrated Roadside Vegetation Manager Chris Henze: Well that kind of summarizes it. Again we’re trying reduce the amounts overall of the seeds that we’re using. There’s been a few minor changes within the actual bid from last year. There’s been a couple species dropped out and again a couple species added. Basically the same thing. The seed bid is mostly our cover crops to give us the quick erosion and quick erosion control and then we also have a perennial mix there too. We haven’t included any prairie specifies on this bid and that again, the same as last year we’ll be getting a fairly substantial grant amount from UNI. They apply to the Federal Highway Administration on behalf of all the Counties with roadside programs to the Federal Highway Administration. We’ll be getting approximately $16,000 worth of seeds. That sure helps every year. We get, this isn’t so much related to the seeds, but we get some of our equipment through Living Roadway Trust Fund, which gets money through REAP. So we’re trying to branch out and get funds where ever we can, so we can scrape them together. The seed bid is about the same as last year, except a few species changed around and dropped out and some of the overall amounts dropped down.
Harney: The State’s got to dip into those REAP funds.
Henze: Yes I know. I was kind of worried about that. That may not work out next year.
Harney: Do you harvest some of your own seeds?
Henze: We do some by hand. As much as we can by hand. It’s pretty labor intensive. Some of the stuff that we use is real easily harvested, you know some of the grasses and a few of the forbs, but a lot of the stuff is hard to harvest by hand. Then to do, if it’s $50 a pound and it takes us 3 hours out there to harvest a pound of it, it may not be cost effective. So you harvest stuff that you can easily. Some of the rare stuff, we either won’t include in the mix or we’ll just go and harvest as much as we can. Basically anything we can by hand, we will, but we don’t have any other methods yet. So, who knows, if REAP doesn’t get hammered really hard and they can keep some money in the Living Roadway Trust Fund, maybe there’s a possibility for more seed harvest equipment in the future.
Lehman: This seed and fertilizer we purchased in 2002 may not be applied until the fall after a road project is done?
Henze: That’s possible yes.
Lehman: You may not take possession of it, but we pay for it in `02.
Gardner: We pay for it as we get it.
Lehman: Your money just carries over.
Henze: All these are just estimated quantities. I struggled with it for awhile trying to come up with exact amounts and it’s pretty tough.
Lehman: It’s hard for us to try to keep in mind that you have a split construction season and your fiscal year is overrun.
Gardner: I mean it’s a similar situation every year. The fertilizer is used basically in the fall and a lot of times after the construction season the seed is too, so it works out.
Thompson: So are we ready for this to be put on for next week?
Stutsman: Yes.
Thompson: OK. Thank you.
Gardner: Thank you.
COUNTY ATTORNEY: DISPOSAL OF PROPERTY ACQUIRED BY TAX DEED AT 818 SOUTH VAN BUREN IN IOWA CITY
Thompson: No other business from the Engineer? Next is business from the County Auditor regarding draft term sheet on notes.
Stutsman: Did we already go through that.
Thompson: I don’t know, but we better check. Could you call down and ask them if they still want that…
Stutsman: I was think that was what Tony went through.
Executive Assistant Mike Sullivan: I think we went through that.
Thompson: OK. Next is business from the County Attorney, discussion of disposal of property acquired by tax deed at 818 South Van Buren St. in Iowa City.
Assistant County Attorney Andy Chappell: I know a couple of you have been waiting to see this, so I apologize it hasn’t gotten here yet, up until now. As several of you probably know, 818 South Van Buren is a property currently owned by Johnson County. We’re been kind of forced into a tax sale certificate many years ago and eventually ended up taking a tax deed to the property. At this point it is not occupied, the former resident has relocated and to be honest is living in a situation that is much more sanitary and safe for him too, so it worked out. I’m happy we didn’t have to end up throwing him out so to speak. But now we need to determine what the Board wants to do with the property. It’s a one-story house about 800 square feet. The lot itself is about 6,600 square feet. The house is pretty dilapidated. I’ve been through it once. I went through it with Mark Bulechek who I think would also attest to it’s not in great shape. There’s at least one pretty big size whole in the roof above the kitchen area. I haven’t been in the basement. It’s pretty dirty to say the least. There’s a lot of trash and accumulated items still in the house at this point. You may, or depending on how you want to dispose of it, assuming you want to dispose of it, you’ll have to determine how you want that handled. Any property we dispose of, be it through gift or through sale… It’s a similar situation to the house that we just started getting rid of for the Conservation folks. We have to have you pass a resolution setting forth your proposal for disposing of the property. I think there we used bids, you can use an auction, what have you. Then we have a public hearing on the proposal. After the public hearing on the proposal you can actually vote saying this is the proposal we want to adopt and then we can go ahead and do it. However it is you want to dispose of the property. If you want to sell it, some obvious options are an auction for it, accept bids for the property or we could also hire a real estate agent and let somebody else take care of it. Depending on how you do it, it could require some pretty major clean-up to the interior by some of the folks. I imagine some of the facilities plant would do that. I’m certainly not volunteering to do that.
Stutsman: With your mop and bucket, huh?
Thompson: Does it have workable plumbing and heating?
Chappell: Yes, as far as I know, although the utilities, I think the heat has been kept up. We didn’t want the pipes to freeze or anything, but my understanding was that there was plumbing. I can’t, I didn’t test the facilities when I visited the place, but that’s my understanding of it, that the utilities are working. There aren’t any broken windows or anything, we’ve got it boarded up. You know Mike and Sherry from the facilities crew has been paying attention to the exterior of the house and have cleaned it up quite a bit given the condition it was in. There was a lot of over growth. Based on their clean-up we haven’t heard any complaints on it. We do have interest in the property from at least to the extent of wanting to know when we’re going to sell it. I believe one of the neighbors across the street or a gentleman that owns property across the street and folks that own property behind it, so there is some interest in the property. We could also get rid of the house. We could pay someone to bulldoze the house if you thought that you could get more for the lot without the house. It’s assessed right now at just over $46,000. About $19,000 for the property for the property itself, for the lot and about $26,000 for the house. Obviously not an expensive home at this point.
Thompson: How much taxes are owing on it?
Chappell: At the time we took the deed, just over $20,000 were owed and that includes all the interest and penalties.
Thompson: So if we were to sell it for the assessed value, do we get to keep the whole amount or do we have to…
Chappell: Well that’s an interesting question. Neither Pat nor I have researched that. Certainly there’s an equitable question about whether you’d want the other taxing bodies to be able to recoup what they have lost as part of that 20, but I don’t know of any legal requirement at this point. It’s certainly something that we will be looking into to determine if we sell it for anything above the, or even right at what the back taxes were, what we would do with the excess. I assume if nothing, the excess would certainly go to us. The question is whether we would have to reimburse their loss.
Stutsman: Can we dispose of it as is. Just say, this is it.
Chappell: Yes. I think that’s what Mark Bulechek would recommend. Also Tom Kriz and I have been involved in some of these and have some other ones we’re hoping to get moving on. His recommendation would also be that we bid it. Just accept bid for it.
Thompson: As is.
Chappell: Mark Bulechek would recommend that we take bids too. There is a question as to whether you want to take one or 2 bids. Mark was recommending taking 2 bids actually, ask for 2 bids. It makes it a little more complicated, but one bid for as is and one bid for the land with the house removed. Which to remove the house would require, we have at least one estimate of at least $5,000, putting County money into it to then remove it. My personal opinion is, we would reserve the right to not accept any bids, so if the bids turn out to low, we can bid it again under a different procedure. So it may be easier to just pick one route and go or again if you wanted to auction it.
Lehman: You’re saying if we didn’t get a bid at all for the house, but we got a bid for the lot, then we would be responsible to move the house and incur that expense.
Chappell: You could do that.
Lehman: I mean, that’s something that you might get yourself into. It might be cleaner just to package deal.
Chappell: Right. Just accept bids for the real property as is.
Stutsman: So next week we would just have on the resolution… Do we need to decide today how we’re going to dispose of it?
Chappell: What I would like is a consensus from the Board as to how you would want to dispose of it and then I could come back to you next with a proposal written up based on your wishes, how you want to do it and then we could vote on a resolution then and schedule a public hearing. Is that consistent with how you’ve done it.
Assistant County Attorney Janet Lyness: Well what you do is you kind of come up with a plan and set a public hearing on that.
Harney: I guess one of the other issues that could come up along side it if there’s other taxing entities that’s going to take some of the dollars from that is if it’s going to be worthwhile for that. Maybe that’s a property that Homes for Humanity whatever, might want to take over, level the home and put a new home on for someone.
Chappell: Well, we certainly could do that. We certainly could make an arrangement with Habitat or something like that if you’re willing to donate it. The County can certainly donate and give the property to someone. We’d still have to go through the same process.
Harney: I know they’re always looking for lots and that’s the way they do a lot of their projects.
Thompson: Well if we were going to put out bids, we’d certainly let them know. I think that’s what Harry did. He notified those agencies as part of his letting the bid process. Then they’d have the chance to make a proposal.
Chappell: If you found out based on the proposals that the money that you’re going to be getting at that point wasn’t enough to what your interest and you wanted to then look at other options being gifting it, you could certainly do that.
Stutsman: I’ve not seen the property or gone by there, but I’m assuming this is where there’s a lot of University multiplex housing? Is that correct?
Chappell: The property is zoned RS 8.
Thompson: It’s south of the railroad tracks.
Stutsman: It’s south. OK. I was thinking it was north.
Chappell: The property is zoned RS 8. The zoning allows for a duplex. There are a few duplexes on that block. My belief though is that the lot is actually too small for a duplex based on today’s standards. I think we’d need a couple thousand extra square feet. You could put a single family residence on it. It’s not a bad size, its not huge by any stretch, but its not a bad size city lot. I think my rough estimate was you could easily put a 2,600 square foot house on there.
Stutsman: I was thinking if it was right there with all of that student housing, I can’t imagine that habitat for humanity would be real anxious to put a single family house there.
Harney: Small residential. They could come in, if we’re not going to get a lot of dollars out of it, a contractor would just level it and probably as part of the project put a new home up.
Lyness: They could buy the Kent Park house.
Harney: There you go.
Stutsman: I’m interested in keeping it simple and keeping it moving along and just bid it for as is with the right that we have to reject the bids.
Chappell: Selling the property.
Thompson: How about the rest of us?
Lehman: I can agree with that.
Thompson: I do too.
Chappell: With wanting to reserve the right to rejecting the bids.
Thompson: You’ll have something ready for next week?
Chappell: I’ll have something ready for next week. We’ll have a resolution for you and we’ll also set a time and date for the public hearing on the proposed plans.
Thompson: Thanks Andy. Any reports and inquiries from the County Attorney?
Lyness: No thanks.
Thompson: Other.
Lyness: No.
MINUTES RECEIVED: EAST CENTRAL IOWA COUNCIL OF GOVERNMENTS FOR JANUARY 31, 2002
Thompson: Next is business from the Board of Supervisors. We have minutes received from East Central Iowa Council of Governments for January 31, 2002. That brings us to reports and inquiries from the Board. Sally do you want to start?
Stutsman: Let me look at my notes here. Last Saturday I attended the legislative breakfast both put on by the Chamber and put on by the League of Women Voters. It was just a continuation of discussion about what they are going to do with the shortfalls in the budget and what kinds of impacts those would have on the local level. I had a Communications Committee meeting last Friday morning. We continued our discussion on a reception for the volunteers who serve on boards and commissions. We have been working on a menu for that. Terrence is in charge of that.
Neuzil: I’m in charge of the menus.
Stutsman: Yes, yes.
Neuzil: I’m going to be pricing that out.
Stutsman: So, we’ll continue to work on that. We’re going to have it in conjunction with County Government week and it will just be the Boards way and the rest of department heads and elected officials to say thank you for all of the volunteers that serve on boards and commissions in the County.
Neuzil: I think Harney and Lehman would be pretty good at grilling, don’t you?
Stutsman: Didn’t we put them on that committee?
Neuzil: I think they’re grilling.
Stutsman: Yes.
Lehman: We’re on.
Harney: We could do that.
Stutsman: So, we’ll give you more information as we go along. I attended a session with the MH/MR/DD Department to talk about what are some ways that we can do some cost cutting, in fact, in lieu of the current budget situation. Good attendance at that meeting, nobody had any… It’s just difficult to make those decisions about where to cut these programs. So, a couple of more meetings have been set up. So, that discussion is ongoing. I attended the Beef Banquet Monday night. It’s always good to attend the program and meet with fellow cattle people and to visit with them. Pat and I met with Mike Sullivan at our regular mentoring meeting. I can’t think of anything that came up that I would need to pass on to the Board. Mike and I met with Elaine Sweet. Carol and I met with Lora. Yesterday, I went with other County elected officials to County-A-Day in Des Moines. Visited with our legislative delegation, had lunch with them and met with the State Policy Board group in the afternoon to talk about what they do. It was real informative to hear how they assist communities in developing public policy. So, I thought they had a good presentation. We all learned some things and came away with some ideas about how they might assist us as a County and working through our issues concerning the jail. That was it. Oh, I always forget something. One last thing. Some of you know that I am member of Kiwanis group and part of what we’re asked to do is have speakers come and talk to the group. This morning it was my turn to have a speaker, so I had Veda Higgins, who is a mental health advocate, come and speak to the group. She did, as usual, just an outstanding job. I think it’s always good to inform people about what are some of the programs that go on in the community and things that maybe people may not have a lot knowledge on. She did a nice job and I think there was a lot of interest. What was really reaffirming was that there was an individual, who is a member of the Kiwanis group and he has had a lot of experience dealing with health services in different states. He said what we are doing here in Johnson County is just a model as far as the Court Referee System, the Mental Health Advocate, and not only doing things well for the client but also in producing cost saving measures for the County. So, it was unsolicited. But it was certainly well-received to hear that feedback from somebody who is just a member of the community and has had personal experience saying that it’s good and that it’s good what the Board did in coming forward and putting some additional monies in the Court Referee System. I’m done.
Neuzil: You’re done. All right. Had a busy week as a Member of the Johnson County Board of Supervisors. I was asked to join the Chamber Delegation to work on federal issues in Washington, D.C. We left on Sunday afternoon and got back late Tuesday night. Some of the issues that we worked on included transportation issues, brown fields, we also discussed homeland security, community issues and then a number of corridor area issues as well between Johnson County and Linn County. The Board of Supervisors did send me. The City of Iowa City had both Ernie Lehman, who is the Mayor, and also Ron Logsden, who is with their transportation department. The City of Coralville had their City Administrator, Kelly Hayworth. They also had Mayor Jim Fausett. They had Councilors, Henry Herwig and also Dr. John Weihe. So, it was a good contingency of Johnson County and Iowa City and Coralville. But also Linn County sent one of their supervisors, Lumir Dostal was there, along with a number of city administrators from Cedar Rapids including Mayor Paul Pate amongst them. So, it was a group of, not only elected officials, but also University of Iowa officials, business officials as well. There were about 35-40 members that attended. There was about 33 with us and then a few others joined as well. Some of the issues, just kind of quickly to run over… When it came to the transportation issue, I was in charge of giving a presentation in regards to the Iowa Highway 965 Bridge and the potential expansion of 965 that would go from Coralville, where it is at the Coral Ridge Mall and would connect eventually to Iowa Highway 1. This is a project that Johnson County Council of Governments had put a study together a few years back and had designated as kind of a priority B, where priority A was the first north south arterial for Mormon Trek Boulevard and then this project would be next. It does require a bridge that would go over 281 or 27 it’s now called. This is a project that would be pretty expensive, $5 million. We would need assistance from the federal government for this. This was what we call plant a seed for the Senate and also Congressman Leach’s office, to let them be aware that we are of interest to this. This would obviously help the City of Coralville and the City of Iowa City in regards to economic development, but also a number of other things. Particularly for Johnson County, it would assist us in hopefully getting cars off of that gravel portion of Deer Creek that is kind of becoming a secret pass way, if you will, amongst Coralville and Iowa City residents, and of course for West High students. We’ve seen some pretty severe accidents happening because you mix a gravel road, which has 1,500-2,000 cars on it each day, along with high school students and a quarry in between. So, we did plant the seed there. Also, discussed the City of Iowa City brought up an issue that I know does concern Johnson County that has to do with homeland security. It’s an issue that is a joint project that would include Iowa City and Coralville, also Johnson County and the University of Iowa, amongst the entities. Working on a communications system that would assist in the radio systems in an upgrade that would include… Iowa City would be included with Johnson County. This is kind of in the preliminary stages, but right now in Congress, there is a large amount of money. In fact, a 110% increase in the budget for homeland security. So, there is a lot of money right now and the opportunity for assistance happens right now. It doesn’t happen a year from now or 2 or 3 or 4. The money is there now. Particularly Senator Grassley’s office had a lot of interest in this piece of legislation that we are working on. So, it was a very informative project. One of the other things, just real quickly that was brought up, which I thought was interesting, which I hadn’t planned on really learning much about, and that is, as we look at some of the cleanup efforts with the EPA, one of the issues was brown fields. But, one of the things that they assist in funding and studying as well, and that is for meth labs. We are starting to see a lot of those come up, not only in Johnson County, but all around eastern Iowa. The federal government is looking into cleaning up those as well. So, there is going to be that potential of opportunity to help Johnson County assist in meth lab cleanup. So, that was good as well. Again, I’ll be sending around this information to the other Board Members and you can kind of read about some of the issues that we discussed. Also, this can be made available, obviously, to anyone who is interested in that in the community. Then, yesterday I attended the ISAC, Iowa Association of Counties legislative day, along with the other Supervisors. One of the issues I was kind of concerned with and it’s going to be of interest, particularly as we watch Statewide. As I snuck away for a little bit I did have a chance to go and talk with some people in regards to what is happening in Polk County and the potential of joining the City of Des Moines and Polk County. There is going to be a really important meeting to discuss that. That will happen tonight in the City of Des Moines. So, it will be kind of interesting to watch and see how that progresses. But, the idea of combining both city and county government, that discussion will really hit to the heart tonight. So, it will be interesting to read the paper and watch the news to see how that is progressing, because that is obviously an issue that is starting to pop up in our Iowa legislature as we look at providing more efficiencies and seeing these 2 entities kind of conglomerate together. So, it will be interesting to watch that. But, it was a good week. Thank you.
Thompson: Thanks, Terrence.
Thompson: Mike.
Lehman: I met with Lisa Dewey earlier in the week, and Pat, and we discussed some of the Lone Tree numbers as far as the SEATS operation down there, trying to come up with some type of resolution to keep that service down there without impacting our budget. Later in the week, Carol and I met with Lisa and reviewed some of the information on possible revisions in the Iowa City contract with SEATS. Tuesday morning, as Pat and I took the early morning tour of the Courthouse at 7:00 with Mark Bulechek and Sherry Butler and kind of reviewed some of their maintenance problems they are having up there and stuff and hope to resolve some of those. I think Mark has brought some people and done some diagnosis and stuff like that. I think he’ll email some of the… Had a chance to read what he has found up there and hopefully try to take care of some of those problems. The County-A-Day I thought was interesting. Yesterday I got to meet with John Easter, who is ISAC, the Iowa Association of Counties, representative lobbyist for us. He gave us a real good recap of the pros and cons of some legislation that is going on. Then, after meeting with our area legislators, realize that they don’t take it lightly what they are doing up there. Some of the problems aren’t necessarily along party lines. They are more of the consistency where rural counties do not have the same problems that we do here and the budget impacts cuts and such are affecting different counties because of their population demands and services considerable different. Trying to get a majority vote that is fair to everybody. It’s very difficult. I really congratulate our area reps trying to do it and voice an opinion that represents what we need here. I believe everything else is pretty well what we attended together in budget sessions and stuff like that so I’ll conclude with that.
Thompson: Pat.
Harney: Friday I attended the Chamber Ag Meeting at Montgomery Hall, as Sally noted the fairgrounds. The speaker was Jerry Bolton, Dean of Agriculture from Kirkwood. He gave a real good coverage of what Kirkwood offers to the area as far as agriculture plus other training experiences for the youth and it’s a real good program. He also made, what I thought, a couple of side notes that I thought was interesting. He said the average farm in Iowa is like 385 acres, yet most farmers are farming 2,000 to 3,000 acres of farm ground. The smaller farms are all becoming specialty farms where they do small things like organic farming, fruits, vegetables and things like that. At the same time, he said places over in Indiana, it’s not uncommon now for farm settings to be set up where they are actually farming 25-30,000 acres rather than… That’s the reduction of the farmers in the Country are really about 2% in providing all of the food for the Country. It’s amazing how that has progressed. Friday, I had an E911 Board Meeting at the Sheriffs Office. Approved the budget for publication and for the March 13th public hearing. Accepted applications for the 911 funds, which they put out every year. It comes from the costs of the E911 services. Friday and Monday we had Board Meetings on the budget. As Sally said, or Mike and I met with Lisa Dewey, SEATS Director, and reviewed some of the policies and procedures of some of the budget issues they have out there. Of course, Sally mentioned the MH/DD budget hearing we went to there and how they are trying to cut to make up for their shortfall. It’s a real task for them. They keep changing as the year goes. It’s closing in on the end of the budget line. So, she is not sure where she is at. It is going to take a lot of work to keep in front of that. As Mike said, we talked with Mike Bulechek and went over issues at the Courthouse. I went Tuesday to the Medical Examiner’s meeting with all Emergency Services, State Patrol, and local law enforcement and the Ambulance Service. They covered the new medical examiner procedures and went over and it’s all set in place now. The 5 investigators are in place, they’ve been trained and it’s all going in place. They are going to make the rounds and meet all of the departments so they will be in place and ready to go. Hopefully those investigators will help cut down the time that the medical examiner himself has to put on particular crime scenes. Hopefully that is going to work out. They also noted that it is a real problem with mental health issues where they are trying to get people committed. The University Hospitals is basically full and they bring people on emergency committals and they have real problems finding a place to take them. They’ll get a court order to take them to Mt. Pleasant and places like that and they are full. So, they are running around trying to find places to take these committals. So, it is a real problem in the area. Tuesday, Carol and I met with Iowa City, City Manager and North Liberty Council Representatives and Sheriff Carpenter and Lewis and we discussed jail issues upcoming and how we may address some of those. I don’t think we really came to a consensus but at least some good ideas are floating out there. As Sally said, we met with Mike Sullivan, Executive Assistant, to go over procedures. He is doing a very good job. We cleared up some issues that he may have had but I think he is really picking up real well. The County-A-Day, as they mentioned, the representatives going to Des Moines. We met with the legislators, went to the rotunda, and discussed bills. As Mike said, ISAC representatives provided us some good insight into the bills that’s in front of the legislature and some pros and cons. We did have lunch with Dick Myers, Vicki Lensing, Mary Mascher and Bob Dvorsky. We got some good insight from them as to what they are doing and what they have of interest going on as well. Wednesday we attended the City Assessor Conference Board meeting, the public hearing and Assessors budget, approved their budget. The same thing with Emergency Management meeting last night, their '03 budget, we approved that. The Iowa City Chamber Board Meeting I attended this morning at Kirkwood. They had many reports on the Washington D.C. trip, such as Terrence did. They elaborated on that. It was a very good program. Kirkwood also went over what they have to offer for the community and the number of people that are going in for (inaudible). It is really interesting, their climbing enrollment there in the State. Another thing we did this week is the Board of Supervisors sent a letter to the surrounding entities requesting that they consider the possible developing a metropolitan transportation system, which would include our SEATS transportation, all of the bus services in the community. We are waiting to see what their responses are back from that. So, that would combine all of those services. Then, as Mike mentioned, too, one of the deals they were talking about, the combining of City and County governments. Terrence, I guess, was talking about that. I think there are only 4 of those situations in the United States that is in place right now and one of those is the Louisville Kentucky area. So, it is real interesting how that is going to come out. They do have their problems. Another issue, like Mike mentioned, in the State, where they have problems with the different rural counties having different attitudes about the way things should be. Here is one of the deals that came up with the snowmobile ordinances or laws, where there is a bill out now to take the flags off of snowmobiles, because the surrounding states don’t have that flag on their snowmobiles yet. In a particular area like this, when someone pops out of the ditch, it’s very nice to be able to see those. But, they had an incident up in northern Iowa where law enforcement up there ticketed every snowmobile that was in from out of State because they weren’t required. It can really become an issue. So, they were really pushing to have that flag be eliminated. So, that’s the type of differences we have. That was my week.
Thompson: Thanks Pat.
Thompson: Just to add one thing about the jail forum group. We did not come up with a plan to have any kind of community forum regarding the jail and we are not scheduling another meeting for that committee. The County Safety Committee met yesterday and I missed the meeting because I was sick. But, Sally had requested that the minutes be posted, so you will all be getting minutes on your email. This proves to be a very interesting committee. I am sure the minutes will be worth reading. The only other thing I wanted to mention is that Lisa Dewey’s going away event is tomorrow here in the Boardroom from 2-4 p.m. Everyone is invited. The next item on our agenda is… Well, is there anything else from the Board of Supervisors? Then we move on to a work session regarding the use of debt financing.
WORK SESSION: USE OF DEBT FINANCING
Budget Coordinator Jeff Horne said he has the Board’s assignments for the budget public hearing. He said there are 5 different service areas for the assignments. He said Neuzil has Human Services, Stutsman has Capital Project, Thompson has Intergovernmental Services, Harney has Roads and Environment, and Lehman has Public Safety and the Courts. Horne said he is going to be talking about the revenues. Thompson asked if their presentation should be about 5 minutes or less. Horne said about 2-3 minutes, very short. He said they each have about 2-3 slides on the Power Point presentation in the areas. Thompson asked who is making the slides. Horne said he is making the slides. He said the presentation would be done by next Thursday and they would go over it in the practice session. Thompson asked if there is a hint so that they prepare their presentations accordingly. Horne said it is similar to last year’s, but the numbers would be different.
Harney complimented Horne and the staff for working hard over the weekend to get the budget into place. Horne said he wants to especially thank Deputy Auditor Joe Elder and Deputy Auditor Chris Edwards for helping him this year in transitioning the budget over from the Auditors Office to the Board of Supervisors function.
Thompson said Human Resources Administrator Lora Shramek said the applications for SEATS Director are ready and the deadline is tomorrow. The Board can now start reviewing those applications. The Board decided to conduct the interviews on March 11, 2002.
Adjourned at 11:30 a.m.
Attest: Tom Slockett, Auditor
By Casie Parkins, Recording Secretary