• Revisions/Approval Of October 15, 2002 Elected Officials Meeting Minutes *

• Communications Committee Information: County Government Week And Office Hours On County Administration Building Door

• Sally Stutsman: County Vehicle Washing Services

• Executive Assistant Mike Sullivan: HIPAA Compliance Issues

• Executive Assistant Mike Sullivan: Chief Elected Officials Consortium Meetings In Cedar Rapids

• Discussion: Possibility Of Future Cable TV Broadcast Of Elected Official Meetings

• Reports/Inquiries From Elected Officials

• Discussion: Arrears Payroll

• Discussion: Issues And Progress In Collective Bargaining

• Reports/Inquiries From Elected Officials

• Setting Next Meeting Date And Time

Chairperson Slockett called the Johnson County Elected Officials Meeting to order in the Johnson County Administration Building at 1:35 p.m.

Elected officials present were: County Attorney J. Patrick White; County Auditor Tom Slockett; County Supervisors Pat Harney, Mike Lehman, Terrence Neuzil, Sally Stutsman, and Carol Thompson; and County Treasurer Tom Kriz. Staff present were: Board of Supervisors Executive Assistant Mike Sullivan, and Auditor’s Office Recording Secretary Casie Parkins.

It was moved by County Treasurer Tom Kriz and seconded by Lehman that the October 15, 2002 minutes be approved. The motion passed unanimously.

Stutsman said that the Communications Committee is having an open house for County Government Week on April 10, 2003 from 4:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Stutsman said they would like to have as many of the elected officials present as possible during the open house. Neuzil explained that the theme for County Government Week this year is Counties Care for Kids. Neuzil said they are going to display drawings in the Administration Building from elementary school children about what Johnson County means to them.

The Communications Committee is also going to be unveiling a public informational computer to replace the wood directory in the lobby during County Government week, Stutsman reported. Neuzil said they also hope to have the new County Video ready at this time. The Communications Committee was also interested in knowing if people would like office hours on the front doors to the Administration Building. The elected officials said they would like this and Facilities Director David Kempf said he would look into it.

Stutsman said she has noticed that there are a lot of claims for washing vehicles. She asked if it would be worth their time to look into having a contract. Stutsman decided she would find out how much money the County is currently spending on washing vehicles and then see if it is worth it to look into the issue further.

Executive Assistant Mike Sullivan said he recently attended an ICN presentation sponsored by ISAC regarding HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act). The presentation was to help counties determine which departments would have to have security plans and privacy policies and procedures in place. They are going to treat Johnson County as a hybrid entity, which means that some departments will be affected by the HIPAA regulations and others won't. Sullivan said that some policies written, such as the privacy plan, will involve every department, to make sure that all of County employees are trained and fully understand what HIPAA is, the implications of privacy and the procedures for releasing that information to the public.

Sullivan reported that it appears that the County offices that won't be significantly affected by HIPAA are the Treasurer, the Recorder (although there could be Veteran issues with the Recorder), Secondary Roads, Human Resources, Planning and Zoning, the Assessor's and Conservation. Key departments that will be affected by HIPAA are the Auditor, Sheriff, Ambulance, Public Health, MH/DD, General Assistance, Veteran Affairs, Emergency Management, Medical Examiner and Information Services.

Sullivan said he continues to work on the Privacy Plan Policies and Procedures, which are mostly in place in draft form, and he will then meet with a work group to go over them. The Privacy Policies and Procedures lays out what the County has as protected health information, who has access to it, who should be allowed access to it, and how it is secured. The deadline for that policy to be in place is also April 14th, 2003. Sullivan said he will have it done by then so that the County is in compliance. Sullivan said the deadline to have the transaction code sets in place that are used for electronic filing has been extended to October 15, 2003, because they haven't decided on a universal set of code sets. The code sets are supposed to be tested by April 14, 2003. The deadline may also be extended because the Federal Government hasn't decided on the code sets. Sullivan said there is no deadline yet set for computer security requirements.

Sullivan explained that some departments will have to enter into business associate agreements if they share health information with an outside entity. Sullivan said he has talked to Assistant County Attorney Janet Lyness about this and she said they will change the language in existing 28E Agreements to make them HIPAA compliant. The deadline for these agreements is April 14, 2004. Sullivan said that County departments that share information will be able to form an internal memo of understanding.

Sullivan sent out assessment surveys to all County departments to see what type of protected health information they have. He received most of those back and they were invaluable. He's put the answers into an assessment tool that tells him where the department’s strengths and weaknesses are and what they need to focus on. Sullivan said he is also going to do onsite visits with those departments.

Slockett asked for a concise definition of HIPAA. Sullivan explained that it is a federal mandate upon entities that handle protected health information such as Social Security Numbers, name, address, or anything that could be an identifier that ties that information to a specific person. This information is required to be protected. Sullivan said there are only limited circumstances upon which that information can be released to others without authorization from the individual, such as that information is required for treatment or for payment, or for inter-departmental operations. Sullivan said that essentially HIPAA requires that health information be protected from being released to people who don’t have a right to see it or have access to it.

Slockett said HIPAA has become an incredibly complex undertaking. County Attorney J. Patrick White asked how much, on a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being a minor change and 5 being a huge change it will change the way the County does business. Sullivan said that for most County departments it will be a 2, for MH/DD it will probably be closer to a 5.

Sullivan explained that enforcement of HIPAA will be complaint driven. A process will then begin for the next 2 to 3 years to educate and bring procedures into compliance. Stutsman asked if Sullivan has enough resources for keeping the County on track for being HIPAA compliant. Sullivan said yes, that ISAC and the consultants who helped MH/DD in being HIPAA compliant have been a great help. Slockett and Stutsman thanked Sullivan for his work on HIPAA.

Sullivan said that as part of the Regional Workforce Investment Act there is a Chief Elected Officials Consortium that meets on the last Thursday of each month at 10:00 a.m. A resolution was passed which requires each County to send one elected official representative to their Thursday meeting. Sullivan said this is in conflict with the Board of Supervisors meetings and there isn't willingness on their part to change the date from Thursday to another day. Sullivan explained that Neuzil is the Board's appointed representative but has been unable to attend due to Board meetings. Sullivan asked if there is another elected official who would be able to attend. Harney said it is very important for the County to be represented in some manner, but he isn't sure about how to go about that. Neuzil asked how important it is for a County person to attend. Lehman said it’s nice to have a voice there and also to bring back firsthand information. Stutsman said the Board is in the process of adopting a coherent economic development policy, so if the Board is being more proactive in economic development by adopting a policy, then they need to follow through and be involved in this.

Lehman suggested easing the Board's agenda so that a Board member could leave a little bit early from the meeting. He recommended that it be the same elected official to attend the meeting month to month for at least a year. White agreed. He said he was on the original Job Training Consortium Board and if you’re not there you have trouble keeping up. Stutsman asked if White thought it important that Johnson County be represented? White said yes, but not if they have to slack off on their regular work to do it.

Stutsman said recently some Board meetings haven't been running long and she thinks they can rearrange the schedule so that they don’t have anything too heavy on the last Thursday of the month. Stutsman suggested a modified agenda for the last Thursday of the month and if that doesn't work then she would entertain going to 2 night meetings a month. Ultimately the elected officials decided that Stutsman would attend the meetings and they would try to keep the agendas light on the last Thursday of the month. If this wasn't possible after a few months the Board would consider changing their meeting to Wednesday. They also intend to ask Painter if she is willing to be an alternate.

Slockett reported that at the last Elected Officials meeting taping the meetings for cable TV broadcast was discussed. Slockett said that it seemed people were willing to do it, but he wanted to make sure that no one was opposed or wouldn’t come to the meetings as a result. Because some people were absent, Slockett put it on the agenda for discussion again. Slockett said it would be a way to reach out and have a broad representation of elected officials on cable TV.

Harney said last year there were 2 or 3 of the meetings when there wasn’t enough on the agenda, so they were cancelled, and this would be an issue. Harney questioned if a lot of the content would be interesting to the public. Neuzil said they are less formal when they aren't in front of cameras. White said he isn't opposed but was having trouble visualizing the Elected Officials Meeting as having much interest. White said the quarterly joint meetings with the City Councils and the School might be a higher priority. White said they need to elevate inter-governmental cooperation and one of the reasons it doesn’t get elevated is because voters don’t ask about it and it’s complicated to explain. He said additional visibility of the joint meetings with the City Councils and the School District might be a contribution to inter-governmental cooperation. Neuzil agreed. Harney said they have been discussing televising the MH/DD Planning Council meetings, and if they're making choices those are 2 meetings that might be a priority over the Elected Officials Meeting. Slockett said he would report that there was no interest in moving forward on this subject.

White said they have two murder trials in the next three months, which is going to effect his office's availability.

Neuzil reported that the Board of Supervisors is getting very close to the end of the budget process. He said the public hearing on the budget will be March 11, 2003 at 5:30 p.m.

Human Resources Administrator Lora Shramek said the Board of Supervisors has asked her to assist them in working towards their goal of getting all County employees on one payroll. Shramek did an in-depth survey with all department heads and elected officials and found that approximately 1/3 of employees are paid through the date that their checks are issued and 2/3 are paid a week in arrears. The Board of Supervisors has encouraged that new employees be hired under the arrears payroll requirement. Shramek said that in talking with Union Business Representative Joe Rasmussen, he has worked through changing a pay period with another County, similar to what Johnson County is facing today. He said it was extremely difficult because no matter how many times or how hard he tried to explain it to an employee, it was still perceived as taking away one week of compensation. Shramek said that employees forget that when they first started with the County they received that extra week of compensation. The Board of Supervisors needs to decide how aggressively they would like to pursue this goal of getting everybody on one pay cycle because it would involve some negotiations with the unions, she said. They would offer a voluntary plan for non-bargaining employees. Shramek drafted, with some assistance, a communications piece that helps explain what the County's situation is.

Shramek said having 2 pay periods can be problematic for administration and payroll purposes. She said paying employees in advance has also been noted as a poor business practice by State Auditors. Slockett said it is a poor business practice to pay employees in advance, but this particular procedure is not one of those that are included in what is a poor business practice. The State Auditor's agreed that a practice such as this, being grandfathered in, is not a problem, Slockett said. He said it's not a problem in terms of administration and the financial software the County is looking at would handle it seamlessly. Slockett said he would be completely in favor of having all new employees comply with being one week behind. But the reason people feel like the County is taking a week’s pay is because those affected would in fact lose a week’s pay or a week's benefits until leaving employment with the County in order to comply with this proposal. He said that he doesn’t think it should be done. Slockett said if the Board is under the impression that it is the State Auditor who is recommending this, they have incorrect information.

Harney said that the lady from the State Auditor's Office said it is poor practice and not good policy, and the gentleman said it can be done because it’s been done in the past. Harney said the County has lost money when people have quit and has had to go back and try to collect the money and it doesn't work. Slockett said this has only happened a few times. Harney said it doesn't make a difference; when you’re hired at a job, you work a week; you get paid for a week. Slockett said that in terms of the payroll, you have to adjust the payroll no matter what week you’re assigning the adjustment to. If a person is sick, it requires modifying the automatic payroll for the full amount. Shramek disagreed because they already know whether that employee is present when they turn in payroll on Monday through the previous Friday. She said they're submitting the accurate records that reflect the actual time worked on the pay time.

Neuzil said if you are going to make a change like this, how do you make it so that the employees don’t feel like they’re losing money. Neuzil said that people budget and they’re expecting that extra week’s pay. He said the question is, how do you make it so that there isn’t such an impact. Shramek said employees could opt to sell back up to one week of paid time off, be it vacation, comp time, personal holiday or holiday paid time. If employees would prefer to delay compensation, there’s the 3rd paycheck month option. October of 2003, employees receive a third paycheck, versus the normal 2, so that is a good time to make the transition. Shramek said the County could also offer a payroll deduction option so that employees could budget for that differential for a maximum of 26 pay periods. It could be any combination of these items, Shramek explained, so employees could sell back 2 days of vacation, they could payroll deduct 2 days and they could take one day unpaid to get that one week. Also included in the information that employees will receive is a handout of frequently asked questions.

Slockett asked White if another option would be for employees to sign an agreement that they will receive one week’s less pay at the end of their employment. White said employees could sign an agreement to pay back the County, but there occasionally still would be collection issues. Harney said if you wait until they leave employment at the County it doesn't resolve the problems it creates for department heads where they have to adjust back and forth. Sheriff's Captain Keith Slaughter said speaking for the Sheriff's Department payroll staff, they would love to get this straightened out and pay the people for hours worked, because they have several people that are on unpaid leave, back to work, then on unpaid leave again. Shramek said it has been a nightmare for the person who does the Sheriff's department payroll. Kriz said it is also a problem in the Treasurer's Office with the way people use their sick time. He said they're constantly readjusting their records.

Stutsman said every one of the elected officials ran on efficient, accountable government, and this is a no-brainer. She said she knows it’s painful for employees and she would want a long lead-time to prepare people for this, but it’s the responsible thing to do for the taxpayer. Neuzil agreed that here would have to be a sufficient amount of lead time. Thompson said this is an issue of fairness; why should 1/3 of County employees get paid in advance and have the advantage of using that money for a week that the other 2/3 don’t have.

Slockett said everyone in this room can afford this or it doesn’t affect them because they were hired after the change occurred, but there are a lot of County employees who are making every penny count. He said this mid-term adjustment seems unnecessarily draconian. Slockett said the new financial software is going to make handling this sort of thing a lot easier because this is not uncommon. Stutsman said she would agree with Slockett's argument that it is an undue hardship if there were not options. Slockett said if it is optional then let employees opt not to do it at all. He said if the Board is correct, that this is easy and it’s reasonable, employees will take that option. Thompson said she worked for the State when they went through this and some people never did understand it, but they all got over it. Shramek said the County's current payroll system can handle it, so it’s not a question whether or not the new one can. But the new system, she said, no matter how good it is, is not going to recover lost funds from when an employee quits after they've been paid for a full week. Slockett said the County can bill them or take them to small claims court. Thompson said it is difficult to tell somebody’s widow that they owe you. Neuzil said that maybe there would be a compromise and they could do this over a couple of years. Stutsman said to just bite the bullet and do it.

Harney asked how White feels about it. White said it is very painful for employees. He would suggest going with the requirement that new employees go on this system. He said at some point, the County probably has to say everybody needs to be on this system. He said Shramek's done a decent job of identifying options. White suggested that they don’t make non-union people do this, until they're positioned and think the union will. Slockett said they should attribute the reasons for the decision to do this for administrative efficiencies because the State Auditor is not requiring it.

Lehman left at 3:20 p.m. and returned at 3:25 p.m.

Slockett requested Shramek update the elected officials on issues and progress in collective bargaining. Shramek said they just finished the Sheriff’s Office fact-finding over hours of work, insurance, wages, shift differential, and in-service training. They will find out the results of the fact-finding in 3 or 4 weeks. She said they also have to go to fact-finding with Secondary Roads Department and the Administrative Unit, which are yet to be scheduled. She has not heard yet whether they'll have to go to fact finding with AFSCME, which would be SEATS, SEATS, Ambulance, and Social Services. She said it is a theme across the state with regard to raising the cost of insurance and few groups are coming to voluntary settlement.

Slockett asked what the status of health insurance is at this point. Shramek said the County's proposal is to move to a PPO plan, which is a change from the current comprehensive major medical plan. Under the PPO structure, 95% of Wellmark providers are under the PPO statewide and 98% in Iowa City. Employees still would be able to access other providers, but there would be a 10% differential; instead of 90/10 coinsurance, it would be 80/20. This proposal would save an estimated 6.5% in claims for the County.

She said the County would also like to see an increase in the family deductible, from $100 to $200, and an increase in the family out-of-pocket, from $500 to $1,000 annually. She said if you look at the comparability group, which is Clinton, Linn, Black Hawk, Scott, and Dubuque, it is customary that if you have a single deductible of $100, the family is $200 and if you have a single out of pocket of $500, the family rate is $1,000. Shramek said Johnson County is the only county in the 6-county comparability group that still has comprehensive major medical. Everybody else has either a PPO or an HMO. Shramek said the rates, if no changes are made, will increase 13.27%, effective July 1, 2003. If they make the changes they will save a total of 9%.

Kriz said the City and the Iowa City Iowa City Police Department recently settled their agreement and their family contribution changed from $20 to $40. Slockett said they already have a monthly contribution, which to him points out the problem with this proposal. He said it’s great that County employees can go to the doctor they choose and can get the medical healthcare that they need. Slockett said it's a slippery slope to do this. It's a small amount now but it's too tempting to increase the amount the employees have to pay. Slockett said he is in favor of more healthcare coverage and there is too little healthcare coverage in this country. He said he doesn't have to make the decisions about the budget that the Board does but to him it's very sad to see this happening.

Shramek said the County has always accepted and absorbed 100% of health insurance increases. When she first started 5 years ago, the County's total claims were just over $1 million and now they're in excess of $3 million. Slockett said there are a lot of employees who are single employees, who get a lot less benefits than people who are married. Shramek said that is precisely why they proposed the increase in the family contribution, because on the Employee Insurance Committee, they heard concerns that single employees receive less of a benefit. Slockett said as a single employee, he is perfectly happy to take that sacrifice if families and children can have better healthcare coverage. Slockett suggested that if there is any way the County can continue to provide full healthcare coverage to County employees, he would prefer that they continue it. Harney agreed that it is a great service and people have benefited from it. He said with the increases in cost over the last 2 years they have to either start cutting staff or other areas, just to meet the cost of that insurance that has increased. Slockett said the PPO list could change and there could be less doctors. Neuzil said he is happy that the County is still able to go to an employee and is able to recruit by saying the County covers their health insurance. Shramek said that even with the proposed changes, Johnson County will remain number one in every single category of healthcare coverage and as a community leader of the Iowa City area. Slockett said it seems like employees are taking a hit at the same time some are also losing a week’s pay. Kriz said it is the taxpayers who are taking the hit. He said he doesn't know any private businesses that offer the kind of insurance that the County does.

Slockett reported that he was elected to the Executive Council of the University of Iowa Center for Human Rights last week. He said the Center emphasizes a diverse array of cross-disciplinary activities designed to consider constructively and critically, the problems and prospects of human rights at home and abroad, with particular attention given to economic, social and cultural rights. He said these activities emphasizing trans-disciplinary collaboration include scholarly commentary, educational innovation, artistic advocacy and expression, community outreach and direct action.

The Elected Officials scheduled their next meeting for April 15, 2003 at 1:30 p.m.

Adjourned at 3:40 p.m.

Attest: Tom Slockett, Auditor

By: Casie Parkins, Recording Secretary