• Executive Session: Pre-Evaluation and Goal Setting of Planning and Zoning Administrator Rick Dvorak

• Executive Session: Evaluation and Goal Setting of Mental Health/Developmental Disabilities Director Elaine Sweet

• Human Services Area Supervisor Cheryl Whitney: Site Visit with Department of Human Services

Chairperson Thompson called the Johnson County Board of Supervisors to order in the Johnson County Administration Building at 9:08 a.m. Members present were: Pat Harney, Mike Lehman, Terrence Neuzil, and Carol Thompson; absent: Sally Stutsman.

Motion by Lehman, second by Harney, to enter into Executive Session at 9:08 a.m. for an annual evaluation of Planning and Zoning Administrator Rick Dvorak under section 21.5(1.i), Code of Iowa, "to evaluate the professional competency of an individual whose appointment, hiring, performance or discharge is being considered when necessary to prevent needless and irreparable injury to that individual’s reputation and that individual requests a closed session." Roll call: aye: Neuzil, Thompson, Lehman, Harney; absent: Stutsman.

Motion by Neuzil, second by Lehman, to leave Executive Session at 10:15 a.m. Roll call: aye: Neuzil, Thompson, Lehman, Harney; absent: Stutsman.

Recessed at 10:15 a.m.; reconvened at 10:25 a.m.

Motion by Harney, second by Lehman, to enter into Executive Session at 10:25 a.m. for an annual evaluation of Mental Health/Developmental Disabilities Director Elaine Sweet under section 21.5(1.i), Code of Iowa, "to evaluate the professional competency of an individual whose appointment, hiring, performance or discharge is being considered when necessary to prevent needless and irreparable injury to that individual’s reputation and that individual requests a closed session." Roll call: aye: Neuzil, Thompson, Lehman, Harney; absent: Stutsman.

Motion by Harney, second by Neuzil, to leave Executive Session at 11:05 a.m. Roll call: aye: Neuzil, Thompson, Lehman, Harney; absent: Stutsman.

Recessed at 11:05 a.m.; reconvened at 11:25 a.m.

Thompson said the Board wants to hear the usual progress report from the Department of Human Services. Human Services Area Supervisor Whitney said picking up where they left off last time would be helpful. Whitney said that when Department of Human Services Area Administrator Marc Baty and her met with the Board they discussed restructuring changes for DHS. She said that since then, with the 28E Agreement, things are well. She said she is continuing to supervise Community Program Aide Brenda Petz, Custodian Randy Koch, and Accountant Kathy Lynch. Whitney is housed in Johnson County but goes to Cedar Rapids or other places about 2 days per week. Whitney said they did talk about the possibility of Facilities Manager Mark Bulechek supervising Koch, but because Koch is covered under the Johnson County DHS Union Contract it would be complicated to switch that. She said at this point, if Koch were to retire or if she had a different job it would be good to think about doing that. Thompson said the reason this is a problem is because Koch has the label of Custodian and in Bulechek’s department there are also Custodians, but the pay scales are different in the 2 union contracts. She said to add Koch would create 2 categories that are the same, but with different pay.

Neuzil asked who are the 6 employees with DHS that the County pays for. Whitney said there are 3 Social Worker II’s under the DHS organization. She said they are Margo Magee-Swim, who does foster home recruitment, David Moran, who does intake, and An Fevold, who works with the childcare program and does intake. Whitney said these 3 people are included in the 28E. Thompson said that in their strategic planning they are discussing how to cut back closer to the essential purposes of county government. They have discussed these 3 positions and whether they do State work or DHS County related work that would not get done if they weren’t there. Whitney said DHS doesn’t have foster care recruitment positions anymore. She said the Johnson County employees are able to do activities related to their foster care program and because of that Johnson County has a stronger program than most counties are able to have. Thompson asked if they have more foster homes that stay in longer. Whitney said that when Magee-Swim went to full-time, she checked for changes a year later and said there was a significant increase from 66 licensed homes to about 99. Thompson asked if Magee-Swim also does advocacy work for the foster families. Whitney said she does connections with a program for older kids in foster care to enable them to be more like other peers.

Whitney said they also have a dedicated intake unit that is structured more than other counties of the same size; it enhances the quality of intake that they are able to provide to the community. She said there are also 2 DHS workers who are in the rotation for intake. Neuzil asked Whitney to explain intake. Whitney said intake is for someone calling with questions, wanting to report child abuse or where to go for parenting classes. Neuzil said Magee-Swim, Moran and Fevold are currently supported by Johnson County dollars, and Koch, Petz, and Lynch are also paid by the County. Thompson said Koch is the Custodian, Petz answers the phone and Lynch is an accountant and their 3 salaries are covered by local administrative reimbursement. Whitney said they are also reimbursed on the administrative cost related to the social workers.

Whitney said there are DHS staff providing certain functions for Johnson County. She said there is a DHS Secretary that does all of the supply ordering and infrastructure things, which is a good service for MH/DD even though it doesn’t come out of their budget. Whitney said DHS also provides the computer network system to all of the Johnson County employees. She said there has been a balance through the years of DHS’ contribution and Johnson County’s contribution. Thompson asked if supplies are paid for from Department 45. Whitney said yes. Thompson asked if they could still do this without the 28E or would they have to pay rent and things. Whitney said they would have to figure it out. She said that could be a County decision. She said that DHS is probably not going to say they have the staff to order supplies for everybody. Thompson said this is an advantage for the County because they pay all of the expenses for MH/DD Department out of Department 45, which helps their capped budget.

Neuzil asked about the agreement with the building, which is also part of the 28E Agreement. Thompson said that all of the rent comes out of that. Neuzil asked if DHS or the County pays for that. Thompson said the County. Whitney said that they then put it on their local administrative expense and get reimbursed. Whitney said that for MH/DD, Lynch does a cost allocation and they get a percentage back from the feds. She said it is also figured in their case management rate so that they get money back. Neuzil asked if the County is reimbursed for the entire building or 45% of the building. Whitney said it is more complicated than that. She said that with the building, Lynch does a cost allocation of the space and who fills it based upon whether they are DHS employees or not. She said they also get some back for the 28E people and also through the case management rate. Thompson said a major part of Lynch’s job is preparing that administrative reimbursement report so the County gets back the most dollars. Neuzil asked if the supplies are paid in part by the County. Whitney said the same principles for the building apply for the supplies. Thompson asked if any of this would change if they didn’t have the 28E and if they would still receive local administrative reimbursement on the non-case management workers at MH/DD. Whitney said no and that they did calculate it at about $17,000. She said the revenue they get back that is related to MH/DD is about $17,000. Thompson said that if they didn’t have the MH/DD people in the 28E, then they would lose the $17,000, have to provide the network and have to arrange another way to order supplies. Whitney said that if they don’t have the 28E, the DHS secretary isn’t going to be processing bills and stuff. Neuzil asked Thompson what the 3 things are that stand out that she mentioned. Thompson said $17,000 is local administrative reimbursement for administrative overhead for the non-case management staff and MH/DD. Thompson said the County has a network and the Information Services staff to support it. She said she doesn’t know if they could just add this on to their current work or not. Neuzil said they use the DHS network and the DHS/IS staff. Lehman said they also provide the service of troubleshooting and setup. Whitney said they would have staff cost plus a fair amount of fixed costs for the lines. Neuzil asked what the 3rd thing was that Thompson mentioned. Thompson said it’s the person who works for DHS ordering supplies.

Thompson said that the reason this comes up is that in order to participate in the 28E, MH/DD agrees that they are going to use the DHS hiring process so they are equal to the State staff. Neuzil said MH/DD has to comply with DHS hiring procedures. Whitney said that is a federal requirement because they get federal dollars back. She said there are various options, one being to not have the 28E with MH/DD, which would take Mental Health/Developmental Disabilities Director Elaine Sweet out of the hiring process. She said that Johnson County also needs to think about keeping the 28E to cover the positions for Magee-Swim, Moran, and Fevold. Thompson suggested having something prepared about the 3 social worker positions. She said that what the Board needs to look at is, are they meeting agreed upon goals and is the County getting the return on the money that they have in order to justify keeping something non-mandated in the budget. Whitney said the agreement states that its purpose is to enhance human services within Johnson County. She said it doesn’t state that it is to fulfill mandated requirements. Harney asked why Sweet is having a hard time getting any information back from the State to do the hiring. Lehman said that often there is a lot of lag time and by the time the job is offered the person has already taken a job elsewhere. Whitney said she knows there is a posting for an MH/DD worker currently. Baty said it would be helpful for Sweet to give them a list of what her struggles are. Neuzil asked if the $17,000 reimbursement goes in the General Fund. Whitney said that goes into Department 45. Whitney told Harney that whenever Sweet expresses difficulties on hiring, she always follows up on it because she knows who to contact to get things resolved. Whitney said she is not aware of a current problem. Thompson said she thinks there has been a problem every time. Thompson asked Whitney if she is fully staffed now. Whitney said they have a vacancy because a person left at the end of December and they haven’t been able to fill it. Thompson asked if she anticipates that lasting until the end of the year.

Baty reported that since they visited with the Board on December 20th, they were able to have everyone where they needed to be by January 11th for the reorganization. He said it wasn’t a perfect fit and some were less than happy. On the 31st they closed down the regional and sub-regional offices. On March 1st, they delivered their plans for 3 less than full-time offices. He said that when they met before there were 4 and they do plan to continue with Jones County full-time for Fiscal Year 03, conditional upon the workload, which justifies 6 professional staff. Baty explained that there aren’t any changes in the budgetary situation. They are continuing less than full-time in Iowa, Van Buren and Davis counties. He said they are going to domicile some of the Iowa County people with the staff total out of the Benton County office. Harney asked if all of the clients from Iowa County go to Benton now. Baty said no. He said that in the proposals that they submitted on 3/1, they averaged the number of new applications and reviews from their income maintenance workload. He said they applied the numbers and determined that in Iowa County they are going to have the income maintenance workers in Marengo 3 days a week for scheduled face to face appointments or reviews. He said there isn’t going to be clerical. He said everything would eventually be in the Benton office, so they are going to have to become better organized. He said they are starting dialogues with consumers about where they want to access their DHS services within a service area. He said the intent is to continue to be able to access services in the County where you live and DHS needs to reorganize how they are going to be available to meet these needs.

Thompson asked if staff is all in their final positions. Baty said he doesn’t think there is ever going to be a final position. He said they did their first RIF at the beginning of the fiscal year. He said in October they announced the reorganization, the 4.3% across the board and the 2nd RIF. He said that last Friday, Governor Vilsack signed the 1% targeted across the board cut plus furloughs. There is probably going to be another RIF in 2002. He said that right now they are waiting to hear what the Governor said the budget is going to be for DHS. He said they believe the bill is working its way through legislature on childcare and childcare registration. Baty said there were substantial Statewide child welfare deficits, before the 1% cut. He said in 2003 there is going to be a restructuring of Medicaid, identifying and limiting optional services and programs. Thompson said there are certain basic services that have to be offered to be a Medicaid participant. Baty said there are about 7 services. Thompson said there is a list that could be offered, also. Baty said the discussion about restructuring Medicaid is fascinating because it is probably going to be reflected in the Governors proposal for DHS tomorrow. Whitney said she anticipates another layoff with line staff between now and June 30th. She said they all will be told what their furlough plan would be, which will begin around April 1st and continue through 03. Thompson asked if they would close the office for half a day or if people would choose a half a day off. Whitney said it would be tough to have the office closed.

Whitney said her biggest worry for the County is the Medicaid. Thompson asked about childcare, she noticed that there is not a waiting list. Whitney said there has not been a waiting list since last July and they are able to take applications for childcare assistance and process them. Thompson asked if DHS funds overflow from the State program in the County funded childcare. Whitney said they fund 14 parents through United Action for Youth (UAY) for some situations that aren’t eligible for State childcare assistance. Thompson said that UAY has a program for parenting teens. She said that if they don’t qualify for other daycare then they use the County daycare. Whitney said there is also money for Home Ties to continue in the childcare budget to continue for next year. She said there are some things in the childcare budget that they took out for the 4% cut.

Baty said some additional trends they might be tracking are the State cases. He said there was a proposal for State cases to come to the County. Thompson said that if there wasn’t a 28E, then there wouldn’t be facts and they would have to figure out how to enter the data. Lehman asked if this has brought in discussion from other counties because of the State budget changes. Baty said there are a lot of smaller counties with a 28E Agreement that revolves around the co-location of the General Assistance person who splits the time doing this and clerical work. Lehman said Johnson County’s 28E is written for its situation. Thompson said it has been changed several times. Whitney said they did a big update when the CPC structure came into play. She said the purpose of the agreement is to make them work towards intergovernmental cooperation.

Neuzil asked what the future of Decat is. Baty said that Decat would continue with child welfare because it is statutory. He said DHS is one member to it. He said that what would probably change is their ability to be at the table at every meeting. They aren’t expecting any carryover this year. He said the demand for child welfare is going up and the appropriations aren’t. Baty said he thinks the future challenge for Decat is to develop additional strategies to leverage other funding sources. He said that probably anybody with a reserve fund encumbered is being looked at. Thompson asked if Johnson County has money in Decat. Neuzil said he thinks they used it up. Whitney said the surplus DHS carried over they used for child welfare services. She said their Decat expenditure this year is $18,000 and at least half of that is County money for Home Ties and resource centers. Thompson said that next year the budget would just be the County money. Whitney said they need to think about whether they want to send that into the State or contract directly. Thompson said she thinks they want to contract directly.

Neuzil said there are residents in the community that are concerned about who is managing Department 45. Whitney said the County isn’t paying her but she is still managing it. She wondered what the concern is. She is still managing the building and all of the things associated with Department 45. Whitney said in the past the County paid her $5,000 to do this, but with the restructuring she told the County she wouldn’t be paid for this any longer. Whitney said if the Board could find someone else to do that it would certainly ease her workload. Baty said that he can’t imagine a better money manager than Whitney and he looks at her as a pillar of competence and expertise. Neuzil said he thinks the public’s concern is with a State employee managing a County function.

Thompson asked if the assistant is going to be helping prepare the budget. She said there are supposed to be 2 people that were hired. Baty said there is the Personal Business Manager, Dan Chia. Thompson asked if he is going to prepare the budget for Department 45 for their office. Baty said it is on his work list to figure out how to do all of this. He said that most of the 14 counties that they have to do the budget for are cut and dry. He said that he did have to cut some budgets and most of them are about $20,000 total. Thompson asked if Chia is the person they would call if they have trouble getting MH/DD staff hired or do they need to call the Iowa Department of Personnel (IDOP). Whitney said she believes that Pam Folsom is the person to contact. Whitney said the problems they had with hiring in the regional office are now in the central office. Whitney said that Chia and her are able to help if needed. Baty said he thinks the day they were scheduled to do the interview for the Community Liaison position is the day the hiring freeze happened. Thompson said it’s not necessarily out of the picture then, just frozen.

Baty said that they would be getting a letter from him shortly about the Service Advisory Board. Thompson asked if that is the Cluster Board. Baty said it is the sequel to it. Whitney said she thinks that the Cluster Board law has changed. Neuzil said that’s a good point to wonder what the future of that board should be. He said he got the feeling it isn’t going to be a board much longer. Baty said he thinks there needs to be some serious consideration given to it. Baty discussed with the Board of Supervisors the appointing of people to the Cluster Board and what people to appoint.

Neuzil left at 12:30 p.m.

Lehman asked about the State car. Whitney said that because her mileage is so little, she doesn’t use the State car very often because someone else can usually put more miles on it than her. Lehman said he had heard that the County car was being used by State employees. Whitney said the County and State employees have used each other’s cars now and then. Whitney said they do have another State car now so there shouldn’t be issues. Thompson said the 28E Agreement states that State workers have first priority for the State car. Whitney said the person driving the most miles uses the car.

Sweet entered the meeting to discuss hiring issues. Thompson told Sweet that they want her to talk about trends for the progress report and discuss her hiring difficulties. Baty told Sweet that it is his understanding that she is having some concerns using the IDOP process and he wondered if those are new concerns that she hasn’t shared with Whitney. Sweet said the IDOP process has not been accommodating to their needs. She said that with the last round that started on January 22nd, she notified Flossie via email that there is a full-time Social Worker II position open and gave her the position number and all of the requirements. Sweet said that on that same day Whitney copied an email to Sweet, that she had sent to Chia, stating that Sweet wanted to discuss the hiring process with Chia and had been working with Flossie. Sweet said that on that same day, Chia copied an email to her that he had sent to Folsom informing her that currently their P.A. assists Johnson County with the process due to the 28E Agreement. Sweet said Chia asked Folsom if that is something she would become involved in when she is gone. Sweet said she again received a copy of an email from Chia to Folsom, asking her if she wants to give Sweet a call. Sweet said she received a call from Folsom on the 24th telling her she would be working with her on hiring and hasn’t been trained yet on the position. Sweet said she didn’t hear anything more until on February 15th when she received an email from Folsom saying that the first problem in her new position was a posting cancelled by IDOP due to missing information, including the criteria unique to the position, which were in her original email on January 22nd. Sweet said she sent a copy of that original email on February 15th, saying her staffing is at a critical level and needs to proceed with the hiring as soon as possible. She said she asked if she is able to have an approximate date to expect the register. Sweet said that on the same day she received an email from Folsom asking when the notice of separation was given on the original termination, when the position became vacant and when it was decided to fill. Sweet said she responded on February 18th and has heard nothing since then.

Baty said that Sweet probably shouldn’t be working with Flossie, even though Flossie probably wanted to help. He said Sweet is probably not aware that in the reorganization they laid off all of the personnel technicians from the 5 regional offices. Baty said he would be careful about making any assumptions on how well State government is working. Whitney said the Johnson County Case Management position is listed in IDOP. She said the process now is that it is posted until the end date and then it is posted on the web site. She said that the people qualified are listed on the register. Lehman asked who her contact person should be if she needs help. Whitney said she is always willing to try to help solve problems. She said Folsom is supposed to be the person. Baty said his preference is for Sweet to continue to work with Whitney because she is able to cut through all of this and it is the most effective way. He said the response time is quicker with Whitney than with Folsom or Chia. He said that if she starts with Whitney or himself then they will deliver on the rest. Sweet asked Whitney how many days she is here. Whitney said she has a direct line to her email and is in Iowa City almost every day. Baty said that one of the difficulties with the cut backs is that the central office took a hit, also. He said that one of the first things to go is the responsiveness. Sweet said she has a couple of positions to fill and one is critical. Thompson said Sweet could fill both of her positions off of the one register.

Whitney informed Sweet that there are 2 State cars now and people can sign up for that. She said they are encouraging people to be sure to sign up for the cars when they have long trips. She said she knows the State employees have used the County car occasionally. Sweet said that over the last month it has been quite a bit of the time. Sweet said she told Connie that the State workers do take priority for the State cars. Whitney said she had told people that the priority is to those traveling the most miles. Sweet asked if her understanding is correct that when State employees use the County car the County pays for all of the car expenses from Department 45. Whitney said it is. Sweet said that when her staff uses their own personal vehicles and they are reimbursed mileage it is paid from Department 46. She said this means there is cost shifting.

Adjourned at 1:05 p.m.

________________________________________________________________________

Attest: Tom Slockett, Auditor

By:

On the _______ day of _____________________, 2002

By Casie Parkins, Recording Secretary

Sent to the Board of Supervisors on March 20, 2002 at 10:00 a.m.