• Work Session: Budget Coordinator Position
• Executive Session: Budget Coordinator Position

Chairperson Harney called the Johnson County Board of Supervisors to order in the Johnson County Administration Building at 1:00 p.m. Members present were: Pat Harney, Mike Lehman, Terrence Neuzil, and Sally Stutsman; absent: Carol Thompson.

Harney asked if the Board needs to go into executive session. Stutsman said that she would like to avoid executive session if possible. Human Resources Administrator Lora Human Resources Administrator Lora Shramek said that if the Board discusses former Budget Coordinator Jeff Horne’s personnel performance, they would need to go into executive session. Stutsman asked if they are going to be discussing Horne's performance and the Budget Coordinator position in general. Shramek said yes. Harney said they need to do both. Harney said that they should will in open session and move to executive session when they discuss his personnel performance.

Harney said that Horne requested to come back to work for Johnson County because he felt that his new job wasn’t a good fit. Harney said they need to know the views of the Board. Neuzil said he’s happy to hear that Horne is interested in coming back, he's done a good job, and the position is a good position and is still necessary. He said that it is a good time to step back to decide what they want the position to be. Neuzil said he doesn't know the history of the position, but it seems that it is a position the Board created to give them more control over the budget. Neuzil said this is difficult when there is an Auditor’s Office who may not agree with the Board’s direction. He said when the Auditor’s Office is going one way and the Board wants to go another, the problem is getting to the same end result. Neuzil said this is an opportunity to lay out the groundwork for what they want this position to be, whether or not the position has enough resources to accomplish what the Board wants or if they want the Auditor’s Office to have more authority over the position. He said there seems to be a lack of communication between the Board, the Budget Coordinator and the Auditor’s Office, which is a concern.

Stutsman said that Horne has made incredible strides in better communication between the Auditor's Office and the Board. After looking over the job description, Stutsman said, there isn’t a lot that she would do different. She added that the position needs some tweaking because it needs to be more than a fury of activity during the budget process, but more of a year round process, which will take cooperation from the Auditor’s Office. She said that with the budget shortfalls it will be even more important that the Board has a position to give them background information and projections about where they are going. Stutsman said she just received an email from ISAC discussing rollbacks and property valuations in 2004, with the rollback being 47.5%, which will have a huge impact on Johnson County. For that reason, she said, the Board needs an even stronger position that can direct the Board on future issues so that they don’t just get the information a month before budget season and then have to scramble to cut things.

Lehman said he would welcome the chance to have Horne back because he’s doing a lot of things well, and some things that may need to be done a little better. He said there are a lot of things that are not necessarily in the job description but anything financial, whether it be property or anything else, he needs to be involved. Lehman said there are a lot of projects during the downtime where the Board needs to give him direction and Horne also needs to be a self-starter to keep himself busy with projects. Lehman said that for the Jail Taskforce, Horne researched the cost per day to taxpayers, and that is the type of things that he needs to be working on. Lehman said that with the new Financial Software, there won't be as many problems with coordination and cooperation with the Auditor’s Department because he will have access to the information he needs. Lehman said that Horne and the Board need to move hand in hand to the next level of his responsibility. He added that one of the reasons Horne left was that he wanted to grow, but there is room for him to grow in this position yet, but he and the Board have to have a vision that he needs to meet.

Neuzil asked who supervises Horne. Stutsman replied that Executive Assistant Mike Sullivan is Horne’s direct supervisor. Neuzil asked who performs Horne’s evaluations. Sullivan said his evaluations are through the Board. Neuzil said that is why he is confused. Neuzil said that once this position became available there was a question of who was in charge while Horne was gone. He said the Auditor's Office stepped in, which asked what is the role of the Budget Coordinator. Shramek said that when the Board decided to upgrade the Administrative Assistant to Executive Assistant, they decided the Executive Assistant would supervise the Budget Coordinator, but Horne was at the County during both tenures and that is why the evaluation was still done by the Board last year. Stutsman said that if Sullivan does Hogarty's evaluation he should also do Horne's. She added that the Board still evaluates Sullivan and gives him direction if there aren’t things being done in either of those 2 positions. Neuzil said that is how it should be done unless the Board chooses to make the Budget Coordinator position more important. He asked if the Board wants to have their own budget department. Stutsman said that someday the Board will, but they aren’t ready yet. She said that one of the reasons to have Horne come back is because he familiar with the situation so he can help strategize with the Board to get to that position. She said they can't afford another department right now because if the Board is going to have a separate budget department, they will also have to pay for an accountant or CPA. Neuzil asked if the Board wants to bring the Auditor’s Office in on the discussion to ask if there is too much overlap, not enough overlap and whose responsibility is each thing. He said if they are talking about a different type of department, such as Linn County's budget department, the Board wouldn’t hire more people, they would take people out of the Auditor’s Office.

Lehman said Horne feels he will be impeding upon the Auditor’s Department less with the acquisition of the financial software, because he will have access to payroll and he can do the scenarios for the budget. Lehman said that Horne thinks he can get along with an intern during budget season. He said that for Horne the financial software will be a great advantage over what the County has now. Lehman said that when Horne needs information he has to go to the Auditor’s Office and put in a request, but that should be cleared up with the financial software. Lehman said that with what is coming down the pipe in the future with rollbacks, the County won’t be able to fund additional personnel.

Harney said that after last week, he is of the opinion that the Board should either expand the department or put it back in the Auditor’s Office. Harney said it’s become real clear that there was miscommunication or no communication, because when Horne left he was of the opinion that they would have access to his records to keep the budget going, but that didn’t happen. Harney said that Deputy Auditor Joe Elder was able to step in to recreate some files and start getting budgets and publications back into place. He said that the Board was left standing with a lot of open things that weren't gone over with someone to cover the bases to be able to follow through with. Harney said it is embarrassing. Harney said it is real clear that it takes 2 people working closely to be able to backup the information unless the Budget Coordinator is working closely with somebody in the Auditor’s Office. Stutsman said that Harney just described the system he was talking about because Elder stepped in and it worked. Harney said Elder had to recreate the work, it took hours to get it all together because the number weren’t available. Lehman said if the Budget Coordinator's position had more personnel or if it was still in the Auditor’s Department, it would have flowed better because there would have been backup. Harney said the Board should expand the department to cover the budget and add more duties to keep the position busy year round, or put everything back with the Auditor. Harney said that it’s very nice to be able to go to Horne with budget issues that come up or changes to be made, but the big picture isn’t there.

Stutsman said that she’s always resisted putting the budget back in the Auditor’s Office because she doesn’t think that’s the direction the County should be going. She said that it might save money because there’s already the staff in the Auditor’s Office that could take it, but her problem is that she believes in decentralized government. She said that some can argue that they’re centralizing it by putting it under the Board of Supervisors, but she thinks that they are centralizing it by putting it in the Auditor’s Office. Stutsman said that one of the Board of Supervisor's primary responsibilities is doing the budget and it seems like if it comes out of another elected official's office, then how they present the information can sway the budget. She said the information needs to be done by a neutral party who elected. Neuzil said it could also be done so that the Auditor, Treasurer and Board of Supervisors have representation. Stutsman asked why the County Attorney and Sheriff shouldn’t have representation because the budget has impacts on them as well. Neuzil said that the financial background should come from those sources. He said that he hasn’t studied enough to look at other counties' structure, but the Board might not have to invent the wheel regarding this matter since it seems like this County is different than other counties. Harney said that it’s the growth, but also the political climate.

Harney said that Horne wrote when he left, that the Budget Coordinator position should either be expanded or go back into the Auditor’s Office, but now he wants to come back and take care of it. Stutsman said that what she understood from Horne’s comment was that Board either had to move forward by having it a separate department or forget it. She said that for a long time the Board has tried to sit on the fence. Harney said that then either the Board needs to create the department or go back. Stutsman said that she is saying that the Board needs to move towards creating a department, but not do it right now. She said the Board could bring Horne back with his expertise and start to strategize about how they can get it accomplished especially after the software is in place. She said they then could decide what resources could be put in place to create the department. Harney said that is exactly what the Board had decided in April, but now it’s changed since Horne is coming back. He asked if the Board should keep Horne at the same wage if they will be making these changes in the near future. Stutsman asked how the Board reorganizes any department. Harney said that the Board wouldn’t automatically promote or demote him.

Shramek said that in a reorganization with new positions resulting, they would have to post the job for affirmative action and equal employment opportunities. She said in a reorganization, the person in the position being reorganized can apply for the opening that results from the reorganization. Lehman asked if the Board chose to keep Horne for the time being and add an assistant, would it still be under the Board. Neuzil said that in his opinion this would be bigger. He said it would be working with the Auditor’s Office to create a new department for budgeting. He said in his opinion the Board would take employees out of the Auditor’s Office before hiring any new employees because it seems like the County is duplicating services with having people in the Auditor’s Office and people in a Budget Coordinator's Office. Lehman said that again that would be reorganization. Neuzil said that there was discussion about getting the Budget Coordinator an assistant, but to him he thinks that is duplication. He said that should they bring Horne back, and start to work towards the process, by bringing in the Auditor’s Office and Treasurer’s Office to come up with a brand new department, it would make it a lot easier to have a Budget Coordinator to help with that process. Lehman said that the Board needs to look at Horne’s position too because if the Board reorganizes he could be left out. Stutsman said that he could. Harney said that he doesn’t think that if there’s an employee working in a department and they reorganize the department that they should have to re-post that position unless they’re looking for a supervisor. Lehman asked how much they can expand duties without calling it something else. Shramek explained that as soon as the Board makes it into a new position with a different pay grade, then there might have been a minority candidate that would have applied for a Budget Director position. Neuzil said that the Board needs to make the distinction that they don’t have a budget department, just someone that works underneath Sullivan and they are willing to continue that position until the Board creates a new position. He said that position may very well be eliminated in order to create the new position.

Stutsman said Neuzil is talking about doing a thorough study of the budget position with the Supervisors. Neuzil added also with the Auditor’s Office. He said that the Board was going to start that process next month anyway. Harney said that’s true, but at the same time there are many issues before the Board because the State has changed their ways and dollars won’t be coming in, so the Board needs a budget department or somebody to keep on top of things and make recommendations. He said he sees the Board getting lost in the shuffle. Harney said he doesn’t feel comfortable in his position to tell Horne what to do because of things changing. He said that the Board needs people that are qualified and have the background to pick up on that quickly. He said that he doesn’t mind making the decision once the choices are presented, but to keep track of it is very difficult. Stutsman asked if Harney thought that Horne wasn’t doing that. Harney replied that he didn’t think Horne was doing it to the level that he could or should be. Neuzil said that part of that is direction from the Board. He said that the Board started to see some function of this creation when the Board started looking at strategic planning but the Board didn’t do a very good job of following that document. Stutsman said that to her the strategic planning is part of the ongoing budget process. She said she could see the Board doing thorough evaluations of every department all year long instead of just at budget time.

Neuzil asked if the Board has to go through the whole rehiring process. Shramek said it depends what direction they want to go. Neuzil asked if it is possible to tell Horne he’s hired or if they have to publish it again. Shramek said that if the Board decides to keep the position as is, they could reinstate him into that position without going through the hiring process. She said his last day worked was on a Thursday, Friday he took a day of vacation, Monday was the day he was at Strawberry Point and he called her at home in the evening saying he made a mistake. She added that he also called some Board members to let them know as soon as possible. She said that the Board hadn’t declared the position as a vacancy via posting because that meeting hadn’t taken place yet. She said that she couldn’t really find any direct precedence for this, but Gary Yoder left a union covered position for 2 months and was hired back as a management assistant director, which was an advertised position. She said that there’s a County policy in the employee handbook that says an employee can return within 2 years and with Department head discretion be given previous employment credit, which means reinstituting sick leave and vacation. She said that Horne would have been paid out 10 hours of the 40 that was available, but this would allow them not to start back at the beginning, which is an option the department head has. She said looking at other positions, most people were hired back after a posting was made. Shramek said if the Board does this, they are setting a precedent so if anybody else decides that if anybody wants their job back after X number of days, is the County willing to say OK. She said next time it might be somebody in a protected class with a good discrimination case. Harney said that he’s got some real concerns, but he’ll talk about them in executive session.

Motion by Neuzil, second by Stutsman, to enter into Executive Session at 1:28 p.m. for an evaluation of Budget Coordinator 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, Stutsman, Harney, Lehman; absent: Thompson.

Motion by Neuzil, second by Stutsman, to leave Executive Session at 2:27 p.m. Roll call: aye: Neuzil, Stutsman, Harney, Lehman; absent: Thompson.

Harney said that the Board decide to consider changes in the structure for the future, but to have their meeting in April like they planned before. He said Horne’s position is safe for now but if the Board chooses to restructure at that time, they don’t know how that would be done. Neuzil told Horne welcome back. Harney said that Elder is doing some things with the budget needed to be done for Thursday. He suggested that Horne should work closely with Elder on that. Horne said that he learned his lesson with the Press-Citizen. Harney said that he met with the Press-Citizen and it’s not just the Press-Citizen because they expect better communication to make sure everything is in order.

Adjourned at 2:33 p.m.

Attest: Tom Slockett, Auditor

By Casie Parkins, Recording Secretary