County Recorder Kim Painter said her first budget request is to restore the cut implemented to help the County during budget restrictions. She said to her that was less than what other units suffered, but she is looking to restore about $8,600. She said those cuts were primarily made in lines such as staff development, registration, publications, and some office equipment. Lehman said he thought they had restored the 4%. Horne said they didn’t get the full 4%, but she did get an adjustment.

Painter said the more important thing she is asking for is the restoration of a second deputy position that had traditionally been a part of the office. She said in the last 4 years there been an increase in the workload, particularly in the area of real estate. Last year the increase was a full 30%, so a deputy focused on the real estate angle can’t provide oversight for the other areas of the office, primarily the vital records area, she explained. Painter provides oversight as she can, which works, but becomes problematic as vital records becomes more sensitive. Painter said they have had had a couple incidences of security issues that have come up, where the State has become concerned on a couple of occasions. She brought an article from the Des Moines Register from November about an ongoing investigation on potential marriage fraud relating to vital records. She said Johnson was one of the 4 or 5 counties that was named and they found half a dozen of these records. As issues become more sensitive, people become more concerned about these records and as birth or marriage certificates comes with certain privileges, and people become more nervous about who is trying to get those privileges. Painter said that because of this she has some increasing sense of discomfort at not having full-time deputy staff there who are able to provide that kind of direct oversight.

Painter said for a long time she has thought that a second deputy in the office will be a very positive thing to have because of the breadth of territory that the office covers. She said it’s very different to work with real estate than it is to work with and make managerial level decisions about vital records. She said they have a cross-trained office, which is a great thing, but it’s a point she wanted to raise with the Board this year to start the process of discussion. Stutsman asked why Painter needs another deputy rather than a staff person. Painter said the point is not that they can’t get the work down, but with the level of oversight and decision making that becomes necessary with some issues that are being raised. She added that these issues are also being raised by HIPAA and other kinds of legislation that are being proposed that pertain to social security number information which pops up on some of the vital records. Lehman asked if it is similar to having security clearance to deal with certain records. Painter said she needs somebody who can truly assist in the more difficult decisions and do some of the work that’s not just clerical processing. She said vital records processing and workload hasn’t increased to anywhere near the extent that the real estate has. She said that is where the big volume increase has been and that’s where the clerical staff and the technology implementation have helped the office to keep up without adding staff. She said it’s the sensitivity of the vital records area that to not have it covered becomes a concern to her as she looks at the functions of the office and sees what could happen if a situation came up without that kind of coverage. She said the situation is unique in terms of other counties throughout the State as well. Painter said there are approximately 33 counties of the 99 that have 2 or more deputies. She said that tells the Board with Johnson County being the 5th largest, that there is a stark difference between how their office is structured and how other Recorders have assigned management responsibilities. Painter said she has been reluctant to address it because she tries to contain costs as much as possible. She said it is a very important principal for her, but there have been events in the past year that have caused her to think it is time to look at it.

Harney asked if she has any part-time staff that can be eliminated if this position is added. Painter said the other end of the spectrum she is looking at is long-term because her department doesn’t have part-time staff. She said she’s gotten completely rid of the department’s need to bring in temporary help during the busy season as well. She said technology and a reallocation of some of the workforce have allowed the department to do some of the prep work that has to be done before scanning, which is in a good situation. She said that even on high volume days they still have close to 24-hour turn around time. The next big phase of implementation of technology in the Recorder’s Office takes place in the spring when they go to the web with real estate records. Painter said in the long-term she can see the possibility of being able to allow some natural attrition to occur over time and to not fill at least a position as they experience the decrease in phone calls as she understood the Assessors experienced as they’ve gone on the web. She said she might be able to see some savings, but long-term, because she didn’t know if it would be a situation where she would say somebody has to go now unless for budget reasons they reach that point. Lehman asked if by giving somebody clearance to do other work, she can’t afford to give up somebody that works the counter and processes the paperwork. Painter said it has become an issue before where deputy staff have been doing too much of the day to day work. She said they are in a position now where they were able to correct some of that and she hates to put a new person in the same position. She said there is the possibility of that happening, but they would have to wait and see how it all worked out. Painter said that what happens in the real estate market in the coming years will have an effect and everybody is expecting something to happen, but they don’t know what or what the extent will be. She said it’s very volatile right now and she doesn’t want to short any aspect of the office. Lehman said it is easier to give a position than to take one away. He said in a couple of years if the Board doesn’t fund the office, then they will force Painters hand. Painter said she knows that is a possibility. She said she looks at the age of the people in her office to see if things might come open in the next 3 to 5 years and it seems that there may be some possibilities there. She added that there’s always unexpected turnover too. She said she typically evaluates that pretty carefully and she doesn’t typically ask in a reckless way for more people to develop more territory. She said she will always be looking for ways and if it’s feasible to not have as many staff members at a certain point in time, she will be the first person to look at that and to start evaluating that type of decision.

Lehman asked if they’ve had an increased level of errors since they’re so busy. Painter said they occasionally get those phone calls and when there’s a substantial workload increase it’s harder to see errors. Lehman asked if she is running into problems where people are overworked and not producing quality work. Painter said that technology has helped them a lot in that regard. She said the kinds of errors that are easy to have occur tend to occur if there’s not a person there for people to consult with. She said that is what she is thinking about in regards to a second deputy position. Lehman asked if is a type of situation where an employee might tell someone something, but a deputy might have given them different reasoning, so people might leave with a wrong impression. Painter said that is realistic scenario. She said it will also allow more hands on work with people in the front, which is something she does when she’s out there. She said it isn’t a dire situation, but it increases as workload increases. She said that every year each department evaluates their office and compares it to other offices throughout the State. She said they look at other offices to determine how they are arranged, what they do and what are the best practices within given areas. She said that within the Recorder’s Office, there tends to always be a deputy who has long-term institutional knowledge of real estate in charge of that area and a deputy in charge of other areas, especially vital records because of the sensitivity and the number of regulations that affect them.

Painter explained that she omitted an important step for Department 11 revenues, which is to reestimate FY 03 revenues because they are already at 94% of 2003 revenues. She said she’ll need to come up with that number and she’ll work with Horne to do that. She said that her figures through the end of the November reports show that they are at 94% of revenues, which is 5 months out of 12. She said they are getting a lot of documents and work coming through. She said she will increase the estimate to $800,000 this year to make an adjustment that seems in line with what clearly the realities going to be. She said by the end of the year last year they were at $936,000. She said she hates to go that high and then see in the spring that revenues are really bad. She said she and Kriz have talked about different forces of volatility that both officials expect to happen sometime. She said things are going to quiet down and interest rates will probably move, but they don’t know when. She said that will discourage some of the refinancing, but they don’t know how much or how fast. She said there are a lot of question marks as they do it, but she definitely needs to readjust FY 03 because it’s clear to her that they’ve already earned $563,000 out of $596,000. She said it would seem to her that they will certainly hit $750,000. Thompson asked if next year’s estimate is too conservative then. Painter replied that it might be. She said she wants to see how the remaining months of this year go. She said if the market forces conspire to send things in a downward way in severe manor that it would probably take anywhere between $100 to $200,000 off the highest that they’ve made so far, which was last year at $936,000. She said she’s wavering as she tries to decide next year’s budget. She said again as this goes on, they will get a better idea of what’s normal because part of the increase in money has to do with the fact that the documents have more pages now, so even if there is a substantial down, they will still be making a lot more money. She said that’s what the bulk of the revenue comes down to aside from vital records. She said the oversight was not intentional, but she doesn’t want to be caught on the wrong side of the estimate. She said last year was totally unexpected.

Painter said Department 87’s revenues comes from a $1 fee that Recorder’s keep and spend on technology in their office. She said she made a significant increase in expenditures in the Fiscal Year 2004 budget to reflect expenses that will be incurred as they put the real estate documents on the web and have the software expenses for that. She added that some of the expense will be this year and some next year. Neuzil asked if her Department can generate revenue off the web information. Painter said the trend is to not charge people to look at their documents from home. Neuzil asked if that will save staff time. Painter replied that it will because when the Assessor’s Office went online phone calls basically stopped. She said they will see a huge decrease in phone traffic and some decrease in people traffic. She anticipates over the next 2 to 3 years, watching that carefully and rotating older PCs out of the public search area and not replacing them because people will have so much better access from home. She said they currently have 5 PCs that the public uses, 3 for real estate and 2 for vital records. She said they will always have to have computers for vital records because that’s the only access people have to those records.

Stutsman asked how the decision to stop providing hunting licenses has worked out. Painter said it has been good. She added that she hasn’t had anyone call about it. She said she had one or 2 people come in to visit to say they were going to miss getting their hunting licenses there. She said they can now serve people that are coming with real estate or other documents much faster because they don’t have that split in the staff time and attention. She said the change will be much more pronounced at certain times of the year as well depending on the different seasons. She said she tries to take opportunities to either add new services or gracefully get rid of services that they don’t really have to perform anymore. She said this one seems to have worked well.

Lehman asked her to recap the number of employees she has now. Painter replied that she has one deputy and 7 full-time clerical staff. Lehman asked her if they all work a 5-day week. Painter said they are on a 5-day a week schedule and she has some at 7.5 and some at 8 hours per day. Harney asked if real estate has slowed. Painter replied that it’s still very strong. She said that in mid-December they had a document day of 359 documents, which is unheard of. She added that 359 is a figure they would normally see at the end of June, which is the busiest time of the year. She said the government hasn’t let go of the interest rate crutch for the economy and they’re not worried about the people on the other end who are suffering, so people are still refinancing and refinancing. Lehman asked if any of the documents come from the Auditor or the Assessor. Painter replied that documents usually come directly to her office first through the mail or in person and then they share the documents with the other departments who need them. She said they will see big changes in how the work flows through the office when they get the new system because it’s not just going to put documents on the web, it’s going to change how they process documents at the front counter. She said the documents will be bar-coded as they are scanned and people will be able to get a receipt with the time, and the book and page automatically assigned, which is the information that currently they manually stamp each document and fill in the book and page. She said it’s going to be a nice change. Lehman commented that when they need to retrieve information they’ll be able to find it much faster. Painter replied that it will allow people to see entries before they are fully processed because once the documents come in they will do a short index before it is fully processed. She said that way abstractors or interested people will be able to see that someone has a document in the Recorder’s Office. She said the system will also print reports better because it will print on regular paper instead of the green-bar paper. She said the Department will be able to make a lot of different adjustments because the system will be PC oriented. Painter said they are required by Code to keep their fee books for legal and historical purposes, but as she said they may not have to keep them physically if they can archive them electronically. She added that electronically archiving them will be a big improvement for storage and retrieval reasons. She said she will check with the County Attorney to make sure it will be allowable to store them electronically. Neuzil suggested keeping them in a different location. Painter replied that they farm them out once they get old enough.

Painter said she should re-estimate Department 87’s 2003 revenues as well. She said that in FY 01 they weren’t this busy all the time, because they only have 25,515 documents and then in 2002 it just skyrocketed. Horne added that Department 87 is it’s own fund. Stutsman asked if Painter had plans to spend the money in that fund. Painter said that most of the money is going to go for the software upgrade. She said it is a big cost, but it will be worth the money. She said they will see substantial savings in staff time required for certain tasks. She said she gets asked about it all the time because Linn and Polk Counties have already purchased the upgrade so they are on the web and everybody wants Johnson County’s records to be there too. Painter said she’d be happy to visit anytime about any feelings the Board has about the projected increases in revenues. She said it is difficult to predict because she doesn’t want to go to high. She said she thinks it will get better every year because at some point it will become stable. Neuzil asked Horne to check the re-estimated numbers because it will make a difference. Painter thanked the Board.

Neuzil asked Horne if he will soon have solid budget numbers, to which Horne replied that he will. Horne said he now has the payroll numbers from the Auditor’s Office and he is making it a priority to get the worksheet done for the Board. He said that now that he has the step raises he can assume a COLA in the worksheet. Neuzil asked him to provide different options. Horne said today is the first time that he knew that general interest is going to drop. He said there’s still a few things that he needs to fill in.

Horne said he finally got the library request from Iowa City. He asked the Board if they wished him to contact the libraries to ask them to give the County a request for funding. Stutsman asked why they haven’t responded. Horne said he had a meeting with the libraries not too long ago and he is surprised that Solon for one, hasn’t sent in a request. Thompson said since they don’t have contracts, they may not be aware that there’s a set deadline. Horne said they might have sent a note to them in the past, but they had a meeting with them not long ago where they told them about it in the meeting. Lehman suggested sending them a reminder note, but reminding them that there’s no guarantees of funding. Thompson said if they’re expecting to get money, they need to let the Board know. Horne commented that he got a request from the Tiffin Library, which is new this year.

Thompson asked if the State has said for sure if the Board has to figure in the homestead exemptions this year. Neuzil said that the first bill submitted to the legislature was to restore the credits. Thompson asked if the State had ever fully funded the credits. Neuzil said he didn’t know if the bill is to fully fund the credits or just to restore it to the previous level. Neuzil said that is a good sign.

Harney asked what the cost in offset revenues will be to fund Painter’s additional staff person. Lehman said she’s going to redo the revenues, but it still won’t compensate for her expenses. Harney said it will cost the Board about $20,000. Horne said the staff person will come out of Department 11. Neuzil said that the history of putting extra deputies in an office is normally if the Department is able to show attrition or a way to combine positions. Neuzil said that is how it is justifiable to him. Harney asked if Painter reduced part-time staff last year. Horne replied that former Deputy Recorder Deb Conger reduced a second deputy. He said that once the Board funds it, the deputy is a permanent position. Lehman said that last year the Board increased a half-time position to a full-time position. Neuzil said that normally if an elected official told the Board that they had a position and a half and wanted to make a deputy out of it, he could understand that. Neuzil said he has a hard time adding a whole new management person. Stutsman added without upgrading a current position to a deputy position. Horne said that the Board can do that. Thompson said the Board can just say no. Stutsman said she didn’t think that the argument was been made to have another staff person. Lehman said he is hoping that she will save by eliminating, but she won’t know that until after the fact. Thompson said that Painter has 7 staff that need supervision and in a business, one supervisor can supervise 9 to 12 other people in fairly complex work. Thompson said she asked Painter about that and Painter replied that the real estate deputy does a certain amount of the work and then they supervise the real estate staff, which is half a supervisory position and half a senior management position. She said the same will be true for the other position. Stutsman asked what the staff to deputy ratio is in the other elected officials’ departments. Horne said that he isn’t counting the Sheriff’s, but it will be higher than the other offices. Lehman asked what the ratio is for the Treasurer who has 4 deputies or the Auditor. Horne said he isn’t sure, but Painter’s is 1 to 7, which would mean that Kriz would have to have 28 to match that. Horne said he doesn’t think that Kriz has 28 non-deputy employees, but he has eliminated 4 positions. Stutsman said that the Recorder’s Office will have 3 administrative staff to 7 non-administrative. Horne said in the Auditor’s Office there is a deputy for Minutes, Real Estate, Elections, Budget, and a General Deputy. Neuzil asked if they are short one deputy now. Horne said there are 2 positions. Neuzil said there’s 2 including Elections.

Lehman said on the positive side Painter hasn’t had much change in personnel, but that works against her request because those people are pretty experienced. Stutsman said agrees with Neuzil, where if Painter were trying to upgrade a position to a deputy, then she would be more inclined to agree rather then creating another position. Thompson asked if Painter has someone like that. Neuzil said that based on ages in Painter’s department there will be some change in less then 5 years. Stutsman said she didn’t know in the budget where the Board can justify more staff. Neuzil asked the Board to think about the things Painter said including the efficiencies in the real estate, which means less counter work, eliminating fishing licenses, which also eliminates counter work. He also asked if the trend in increased work can keep up. Horne said they will see more and more web services over time. Stutsman said she thought like Kriz said, how many times can someone refinance their house. Horne compared it to auto sales that they had discussed earlier where once the balloon of increased sales has moved through, future sales will be down. Thompson said that Painter doesn’t have good numbers on how much is extra pages and how much is extra financing. Horne said the pages have an impact, but the interest rates do too.

Neuzil said that Kriz’s budget came in under. Stutsman added that he increased hours as well, and he didn’t come in under budget by decreasing hours. She said to increase services because of efficiencies is what’s incredible. Neuzil said the cross-training has really made a difference in the office. Harney added that Kriz has also computerized his information. Horne said that cross-training is a concern for the Auditor because in his office, when there are elections the other departments get put into the background. Stutsman said that in the Auditor’s case it might be management, because she can see where in some areas cross-training is possible, but in other areas it isn’t. She said she could see why it works well in the Treasurer’s Office. Neuzil commented on the picture of Deputy Auditor Joe Elder in the paper, where a deputy filing is probably what happens during elections because everyone has to get involved. Lehman said he asked about the opposite, about elections being cross-trained to help with real estate, but he doesn’t really know about the flow of work. Horne said there are structural issues in some of the offices. Stutsman said it was difficult for Kriz to incorporate change in his office, but he stuck with it and the taxpayers are benefiting from it. She added that it was not pretty during the process. Stutsman said for Kriz to go into that type of environment and make change work, he deserves all the credit in the world. Horne said people have been pleased with some of the changes like the option of a 4-day week. Neuzil asked when the Board of Supervisors’s budget is scheduled for. Horne replied that it falls under inter-program services.

Thompson asked if departments that show less expense will be amended. Horne replied that the Board can. Thompson said it seems like it will offset some of the other amendments. Horne said as long as he can project an ending balance it should be OK. Thompson asked what departments aren’t in the budget yet. She said that the Ambulance, Health and Sheriff Departments got their amendments. She asked about Juvenile Justice. Horne said that Chief Juvenile Court Administrator Brandon Beaudry hasn’t made a request yet. Thompson asked about Emergency Management who had asked for $14,704. Horne replied that they received an offsetting grant for a reward that was higher. He said they probably will have to do that one. Thompson asked about an election’s amendment. Horne said an amendment is possible, but they still have time to see. He said it’s hard to tell because they had the general election in the fall.

Slockett commented that he hoped there isn’t sticker shock from the million dollar price of replacing voting equipment, because it is something they’ve been planning for a long time, although the price has gone up. New legislation passed at the Federal level requiring handicapped accessibility for the blind in each precinct by 2006, Slockett explained. This will require a touch screen type device where a person puts on ear phones, the screen goes blank for privacy and then there is a device that reads the ballot to them to allow them to vote, he said. Neuzil asked how many precincts there are in the country. Slockett said it will be a huge cost. He said even in places that have scanned systems like Johnson County, there will have to be at least one touch screen in each precinct, which costs to program those devices as well as produce ballots and program ballot readers. Thompson asked if the County can just do Braille ballots and count them by hand. Slockett said that he’s never seen a Braille ballot. Lehman asked if they would know ahead of time. Slockett said to put the figures in perspective, they also asked for an estimate of a touch screen system with no scanned ballots, which will cost considerably more at $1.7 million. He said the advantage of that is that the costs of ballots are reduced because there aren’t as many required, but voting by mail the County will still have to have the paper ballots to mail out so it doesn’t eliminate the cost of having scanable ballots. He said the other thing to keep in mind is there is more of a trend towards having elections by mail, in which case Elections needs the equipment to count large numbers of mailed ballots. He said early voting is also increasing, which is mailed out ballots. He said recounts are also happening more often after what happened in Florida. He said recounting ballots is expensive as they found out with the Senate race.

The County’s current system isn’t designed to count large numbers of ballots, Slockett said. He said they are designed as precinct counters, so to modify that to count large numbers of ballots requires large numbers of people with quite a bit of expense. He said if the County is going to spend $1 million or more then the they out to cover all the bases so they won’t have to go back to the voters again to ask for another system. Slockett said the system that is included in the $1 million estimate is sufficient ballot readers for each precinct for the scanned paper ballots. He said these devices will have error correction on them so it will spit out the ballot if it finds an error and the voter can either make a correction or say they want it to count as is. Slockett said there will also be touch screens for satellite voting and one for each precinct for the blind. He added that there will also be a central count capacity for the early voting for future all U.S. mail elections. Slockett explained that there is legislation pending to allow mail elections for small cities with the idea that if there is a real small city, the cost of having people at the polls all day long is too expensive so those could be done by mail. If this legislation passes, Slockett said, it will only be a short matter of time before the population threshold is taken off and school districts and cities will be able to use all mail elections as well. This means the County will need something that can scan ballots in an efficient way. He said this estimate includes 2 high-speed central counters, a counter for each precinct, a touch screen for each precinct and an additional machine to have on reserve in case repairs need to be made on election day.

Neuzil asked if the request for $1.043 million factored in the $200,000 the County has already saved. Slockett replied that it did not, the request would be an increase of $843,000. Thompson asked about the life span of these machines. Slockett said it depends on what the government does in terms of changing the voting requirements, but they have had their current voting machines since 1984, which is nearly 20 years. Thompson asked if the Board borrowed for these machines, if they could reduce the debt over a 15 year period. Slockett said that the Board can borrow up to $800,000 for essential County purposes, but the same type of borrowing can be done for elections equipment without a limit to the maximum amount. He said there are also Federal funds being made available that are focusing on paper ballot counties and counties with the lever systems. Lehman said that in a demonstration people in different precincts could vote at the same location if a certain card is inserted. He asked if with this new system the Auditor’s Office can print their own ballots for mailings. He asked how his office handles only needing 20 ballots for a certain precinct otherwise. Slockett said that is another capability of these machines and is called ballot on demand. He said that is a system where they can punch up the precinct or it can bring it automatically if it is associated with the voter file and then print a ballot. Slockett said the cost of printing laser printed ballots is a little more expensive than having a printer do it. Lehman asked if the feature is in the option presented. Slockett replied that it’s not. He admitted that this number is just for the budget because they haven’t really developed any kind of specs or RFP at this point. Slockett said they wanted to get a number for the Board that seems realistic for the budget. He said that feature is something they should try to get because in an election for filling a legislative seat at the State level, the Governor calls those with a very short time before election and with this feature the office could immediately print them out and beginning mailing them for absentee requests. He said it probably wouldn’t eliminate the need to have ballots printed. Lehman said he is considering that no one in one precinct would ask for a ballot, but the office would have to print them anyway, which can account for cost savings. Slockett said that is true. Thompson asked if the Auditor’s Office can realistically accommodate both new voting equipment and new financial software in one year. Slockett said he thinks so because the elections staff won’t be involved with the installation of the financial software and the accounting staff won’t be involved in a major way in the elections software. He said there’s always hope that both systems will be easier to use once they are in place.

Neuzil asked about space limitations. Slockett said one of the machines they looked at is similar to a suitcase and might actually take less space. Slockett said the poll workers would bring it in, which would save a lot of time and effort in transportation. He said they definitely need more space in their office, without question. He said there is a room right off their office, which leads to the maintenance facility, that would be really helpful if there was a way for the maintenance facility to put part of their units in another space. He added that he didn’t know if that is possible. Thompson asked if they would use the space for staff or for storage. Slockett replied that they could use it as both or either. He said he thought they would use it for staff because they are currently compacted. Neuzil asked when Space Needs gets together. Thompson said Space Needs doesn’t address space that’s already taken by someone. She said poaching each other’s space is very touchy. Neuzil said if it’s the Facilities Department who has a couple of different locations within the building, it could be something to think about. Horne commented that the Board could give them space in the Fisher building. Thompson said that part of the reason the space is used like it is, is because the room is noisy because it’s right next to that equipment room, so it might not be the best environment for workers. She added that they could store stuff.

Slockett said his office really has to address the secure space for ballots. He said they now have essentially a plywood area, with a door and lock built into the shelves in the garage area. He said it’s embarrassing when the press wants to look at something. He said they try to use one of the conference rooms in those situations, but it’s too small for the amount of ballots kept and doesn’t inspire confidence for a member of the public. Neuzil asked what Slockett’s suggestion is. Slockett replied that they should build a safe area onto the side of the building. Harney asked what size they need. Interim Elections Deputy John Deeth said they haven’t measured yet, but they can use double the space they have now. Harney asked if they could use the space where Human Resources used to be located. Slockett said that room would have sufficient space. Harney said the items currently being stored in there could be moved to the Fisher Building. Slockett said it is an excellent idea. Stutsman asked if the room would be in use all of the time or just during election. Slockett said that election time would be the only time it will be required. Lehman asked if they were required the keep the ballots a certain amount of time. Kistler replied that it’s almost 2 years for a General Election. Slockett said the ballots wouldn’t have to be kept that secured. He said they can take them out to Secondary Roads, although it wouldn’t be the safest place in the world. He said it would probably be better to keep them in a secure area for the whole time. Lehman commented that they could make a deal with the Armory. Slockett said they currently do take them out to Secondary Roads.

Slockett said the second elections request is for a part-time temporary wage increase, and copier and fax replacement. He said these are essentially the same they’ve requested for the Auditor’s Office. He said they are suggesting increasing the part-time temporary wage $.50 an hour to $9.50 per hour. He said the copier and fax machine replacement are identical to what was discussed in the Auditor’s budget.

Slockett said decision package number 3 is totally up to the Board. He said in the past Elections hasn’t budgeted for the Iowa City primary because it’s technically optional and they would amend the budget later to put it in. He said for the last 5 City elections there has been a City Primary. He said they are virtually certain that there will be one this time, so they decided to include it so the costs are more realistic. He said Elections doesn’t have any choice if a primary is called, but budget wise they could include it with an amendment. Harney clarified that it is for the primary and not special election. Slockett explained that in an Iowa City primary if less than double the candidates who are required to be elected file paper, there is no primary and instead it goes straight to the General election. He said if there is only one position open and only 2 people filed, there would be no primary. He added if 3 people filed for an open position, then there would be a primary first to select the 2 people who would run in the General. Lehman said if the cost of the primary is more than what’s included, he would have to do a budget amendment anyway, but up front the costs are closer with it included. Slockett added that this doesn’t result in any more taxes because it’s offset in revenues. He said it is just more accurate for the Elections Department’s revenues and expenditures. Neuzil asked if they currently had the revenues built into the budget. Slockett said they put the revenues in when it is amended or if the Board puts it into the budget up front, they will also add to the revenue side. Harney asked if this is only a one-time expenditure. Kistler replied that the cycle is every other year. Stutsman said it will be standard operating procedure just to budget for it. She said it really isn’t a decision package then. She said she didn’t see any problems with putting it in then because it’s Slockett’s call as an elected official. Harney asked what will happen if there’s a year there is no primary. Lehman replied that this is no revenue, so it still cancels each other out. Slockett said the revenues tend to go down because some years the department bills for their elections and other years they don’t bill unless there’s a special election, so the amount of revenues they collect varies dramatically from year to year. Lehman asked if this will create a problem with filing the budget with the State, even though $18,000 in the whole scheme isn’t a lot. He asked if they didn’t need a special election and the Board would show $18,000 higher in revenue, can it cause problems in State funding. He said that’s why they need to be as accurate as possible. Slockett said there hasn’t been anything like that in the past, but there also hasn’t been any Federal funds available. He said he wouldn’t want to predict with any degree of certainty what the legislature might do in the future. He said it doesn’t really matter except for saving the necessity of an amendment. Lehman said more likely than not there will be a primary election. Slockett said that this is just a more accurate reflection of what it will cost to operate the Elections office. He added that there’s nothing wrong with doing it the other way either.

Thompson said the re-estimated budget shows $16,503. She asked if Elections is going to be asking for a budget amendment for that amount this year. She said it only shows $5,458 in reimbursement. Horne said they don’t match and asked if the North Liberty pool election is from this fiscal year. Deeth replied that it is because it was held July 9th. Thompson asked what the expense line is that shows $16,000. She asked if that is the special school election as well as the Coralville election. Deeth said he thought it is wages from the primary that got paid after the Fiscal Year’s end. Neuzil said it added $13,900 from the personnel. Deeth said that $13,900 of the amount is from the primary, which was June of the preceding fiscal year. Horne said that the actual wages were paid in this fiscal year, but refers back to last year. Deeth said that’s what he thinks it is. He added that the rest of it is from the Coralville election. Slockett asked about the school election. Deeth said it isn’t in the budget because they haven’t got an estimate on that yet. Neuzil asked if the County is reimbursed completely for special elections including satellite voting and asked what costs they are responsible for in a General Election. Slockett replied that the County has to pay for General Elections because the Federal government and the State doesn’t reimburse them like the cities and schools do. He added that the School Board is very supportive of satellite voting and they get a lot of feedback from the voters. Neuzil said especially when they are at a City West basketball game. Slockett said Elections had done a satellite in ’94 for the Solon Regina basketball game. He said that people really liked the convenience of that and it only takes a relatively short period of time. He said it’s a good outreach to the community to show that the County is making voting accessible. Deeth added that it also sends the message that it’s time to vote even if people don’t vote there. Slockett asked Neuzil if he didn’t like the idea. Neuzil questioned the clientele, but said that he did because it’s open for everybody. Slockett said that people are required by law to send their kids to school and it should be a pretty wide range of people. Slockett said one of the coaches they dealt with at the high school was not in favor of the bond issue, so he didn’t think they can predict which way the clientele will vote. Slockett said that is a concern though that they’re helping people who will vote in a particular way. He said that one reason the school board is in favor of satellite voting is because they have combined school precincts so that it is not real convenient for some people to vote at the polls on Election Day. He said particularly with the upcoming election, there is a potential at City High for example, for up to 2,000 people to vote in a single precinct. He said it will be very busy so they are probably going to have 2 voting machines at those precincts. He said theoretically there is a very large population that can vote and in a bond issue election they can vote heavily. He said they can’t predict that because it partly depends on whether there’s an organized opposition, which will increase turnouts on both sides. He said that because of possible lines and farther travel time to precincts, they seem to be supportive of having satellites in various areas. He said they need to figure out exactly where some of these numbers came from and then get back to the Board.

Lehman asked if there is any advantage for the Auditor’s Office to reduce their office hours, but keep the personnel and having what’s called quiet hours. He said the local USDA has hours where the people are still there, but the window is closed. He asked if Slockett’s employees could get more work done then. Lehman said it could be a chance for them to be more productive. Slockett said it is an idea. He said the perspective that drives their thinking in the Auditor’s Office is the voter. He said it seems like such a shame to have people sitting behind closed doors and a voter who is on the way out of town at the door. Lehman said he was thinking more for the accounting division. Slockett commented that traffic slows down quite a bit after 4:00 so there is more time. He said he likes the idea of serving customers who can’t get to the building until evening. Lehman with the USDA, the public can call ahead, but they’re not dealing with the numbers that the Auditor’s Office deals with. Slockett said that one issue is having one set of hours that’s always the same because it helps people. He added that if they lengthen their hours during elections, then people wouldn’t know it was open. He said he thinks the public likes the availability because they get a lot of compliments for it, so he would hate to move them back. Lehman said he is just throwing it out for discussion. Harney said he hardly ever sees people at the Auditor’s Office at night. He suggested they might be able to get more done if they didn’t have to watch the window. Slockett said if there’s nobody there, they’re able to get the work done anyway, but yet if someone came to the window they could get served. He said he knew a legislator that came a got a list of registrations after 6:00 and was very appreciative of the office still being available.

Neuzil asked how the numbers are decided for reimbursement from elections. He asked if Elections factors in salaries and things. Slockett replied that they can’t use regular expenses because it has to be incremental expenses for the election. He said there is a very detailed bill for printing costs, wages, and envelopes. Neuzil said he is trying to find a way to charge them more. Slockett said they never have any objection from the people they bill because the billing is so detailed that’s it’s really pretty indisputable. He said they charge them for the exact number of ballots used at satellites, but they can’t bill for regular office expenses. Neuzil said technically when employees are working on a school election and not doing their day to day job, that’s taking away. Slockett said they can’t bill for that. Deeth said that is specified, but added that they can bill for the poll workers.

Stutsman asked how many employees there are in the Auditor’s Office. Slockett replied that there are 14.5 full-time employees in the Accounting division including him. He added that there are 4.5 full-time employees in Elections including him. He explained that if they break it down, in the real estate area there are 5 employees doing all of the production of the maps, transfers of property and producing the tax lists for both of the Assessor’s Offices. Slockett said when the Board looks at the office, it looks like a very large office, but by looking at the components it becomes small groupings of employees. He said one thing that really helps a lot is the cross-training that occurs and the ability of people to help each other out so they can continue to serve the public when there aren’t many people in the office. Neuzil clarified that the Elections budget comes out of the Supplemental Fund. Harney asked if there were any more questions. Slockett offered to answer any further questions in the future.

Neuzil asked the Board if they want to go over the Auditor’s budget. Horne said they are kind of leaving everything on the table right now. Neuzil clarified that Horne will have some numbers available on the 22nd. Horne replied that he has the payroll numbers and he will need some time to set them up. Neuzil asked when the Board will start to play around with actual taxes. Horne replied that they can start on the 22nd if they wish. He said he hopes to have the worksheet by then. Neuzil said he is thinking about 2 sets of numbers; one set that shows the impact of COLAs and health insurance with a number of different scenarios. Horne said the step increases this year are pretty close to the amount of growth. Neuzil clarified that he is saying that at this point general growth will equal what will meet the needs of the employees. Horne said he has just seen the amounts for the step increases, so he’s not talking about COLAs. He said that isn’t including any new positions or a COLA. Neuzil clarified that just the step increasing will eat away the new growth without even factoring in the union employee’s contracts. Horne said that the good news is revenues have continued to come in fairly strong. Neuzil said the growth increases will be eaten up in step increases amongst management. Horne said it isn’t just management. Thompson said the Board might be able to up the revenue expense adjustment next year, which will help a lot. Horne said he isn’t going to arbitrarily do the revenue, but he’s going to use the formula again. Thompson asked if he’s going to tweak the formula. Horne said without getting too detailed, he’s toying with the idea of using a different method to measure it. He said he is thinking about using a regression analysis, which is more of a long-term forecasting tool. Thompson said it will take Horne more time to explain it to the Board than to do.

Horne said that he will have an initial estimate soon that will include a scenario given what the Board has talked about in their meetings with County Negotiator Judy Perkins. Neuzil suggested presenting a number of scenarios. Horne said that after that meeting, the Board can give him direction and he can rework it for them. Stutsman said she isn’t ready to look at that one the 22nd, because if they are going to start, then why listen to the other budget requests. She said he thought it is premature to start on the 22nd. Harney added that it will be best to start once the Board has heard everyone. Neuzil said the problem is if the Board listens to everybody and they’re talking about a 1%, 2% or 0% increase in taxes. Lehman said the Board doesn’t know what they’re giving the Auditor or the Recorder. He added that Horne needs those numbers sifted out, otherwise he’s just shooting in the dark. Horne said that he’s seen the steps and he knows what the growth is, so in those general terms he pretty much knows. Lehman said Neuzil wants to know what the Board has to work with so they can say we have X number of dollars, so who will get what. Stutsman said she knows what the answer will be, the County doesn’t have any money, so why bother sitting for the next 3 sessions. Lehman said why bother getting everybody’s hopes up. Stutsman asked if the technology request given is current. Horne said that Schultz will have another request because she’s changed it twice since then. He told Thompson that the personnel page should be pretty accurate. He said Schultz will come in to discuss technology.

Thompson said the Board could talk a little bit about how they feel about borrowing from the Reservoir Fund. Harney said he didn’t want to discuss that until the Board knew where they are, because he isn’t sure they will be in the position to borrow. Thompson said they don’t have any debt. Horne said in response to what the County generally does in bonding, that will be something that’s allowable. Neuzil said he wants to know long-term what that will cost. Thompson said if the County saves $100,000 per year and they paid $800,000 over 10 years it will cost around $100,000. She said they have the choice to do it up front or behind. Horne said some of the other things the County has bonded for were operational costs last year. He said this will not because it’s a capital cost. Thompson added that it will be a real bond that the Board doesn’t intend to pay in the first year, which is a big thing for the Board. Horne said once again the Board will be allowed to tax into the TIF areas to pay it off. Harney said one advantage of it is interest is down. Horne said the economic environment is good for borrowing. Lehman said one advantage is the County locks in the price now and is not saving, because 8 years from now the price will be higher. He added that the disadvantage is that there will be new technology in 8 years. Neuzil said the Board always hears the arguments for and against bonding because there are taxpayers that will say it’s more fair if this is something that going to last 10 or 15 years, then it should be taxed for over 10 or 15 years rather then tax right now when someone 15 years down the road is still using it. Thompson said the Board should buy it when it isn’t a General Election year because it will be hard to start new equipment in a year where there is a General Election. She said if it didn’t work it will be a much larger problem than if it is for a small election. Neuzil said he is interested in what Slockett said about a Federal grant opportunity. He said he would hate to have to go make a big expense to find out that the money was out there. Lehman said the grantors will be giving more weight to the people using the older machines. Neuzil said that right now Johnson County has some pretty good connections in Congress. Stutsman said that with the fact that the Country is going to go to war, she didn’t think there will be any money for voting machines unless it’s to upgrade paper ballots. Harney asked if there is anything else. Horne said that’s all he has right now.

Adjourned at 1:55 p.m.

/s/Attest: Tom Slockett, Auditor

By Casie Parkins, Recording Secretary