DEPUTY RECORDER DEBBIE JENSEN: INTERVIEW FOR INTERIM COUNTY RECORDER POSITION

Stutsman: We're back in session.

Deputy Recorder Debbie Jensen: Before you start Sally, I would like to address this Board. There's something I need to read to you and then I'll give you all a copy.

Stutsman: OK. Can I say one thing first Deb before we get started?

Jensen: Yes.

Stutsman: I need to clarify whether you want this in open session or closed?

Jensen: Open. Bring them all in.

Stutsman: The Board really prefers open sessions, being as this is for an elected office.

Jensen: I do too. I agree with that 100%.

Stutsman: OK if that's OK with you.

Jensen: I don't like anything closed. Even my windows.

Stutsman: You have a comment.

Jensen: Yes I do. I have a comment and something I want to present to you.

(Jensen read a letter written from her to the Board)

Dear Johnson County Board of Supervisors:

After much thought and consideration I am withdrawing my application for the appointment of the interim position of Johnson County Recorder.

I feel the need to be honest with all of you and give you the reasons for this decision, which was not an easy one. It would not be fair to myself, my family, or my co-workers and the public which I serve to take this position if it was even offered to me.

Late in the afternoon on March 21, the last day to apply I conceded to the numerous pressures that were placed upon me the last few weeks and turned in my application.

I am not a political person and anyone who offered me this position must be willing to make the commitment to run for political office. And only the voters of Johnson County will determine the future of the Recorder's office.

As all of you know John has had health problems requiring him to be out of the office for long periods of time. In his absence, it is my job to take over his responsibilities. Doing 2 jobs has not been easy, but I got through these times. I also learned a lot about myself during these times, what I enjoyed about this situation and what I did not enjoy.

I think the Board needs to know that the Recorder's office touches the lives of many people in many different ways. Here are just a very few examples:

Ask me about the 8 year old who called and wanted to purchase a fishing license, and whose father was very sick and how I helped him. Ask me about the young woman that called wanting to get in touch with her biological father and how I helped her. Ask me about the young lawyer who had his first real estate client and needed guidance and how I helped him.

With the Recorder's Office taking over vital records, I see that we will be touching more lives. Some on very happy occasions and some on very sad occasions. Peter Drucker, management author, said, "Understand your strengths and place yourself in a position where the strengths count."

I am happy in my current management position I hold as Deputy County Recorder and this is where my strengths lie. I have had the opportunity to be placed in the position of Recorder and have discovered this is not where my strengths lie. I hope you accept this decision graciously and please do not ask me to reconsider.

Stutsman: Thank you very much Debbie.

Jensen: Thank you, now I have a few more things I'd like to elaborate on if you'd give me the time. Thank you.

Stutsman: OK sure. You have until 10:30.

Jensen: I have a half hour, this will only take a few minutes. When John made his formal announcement to retire, Steve came to me and he asked me if I was interested in this position. I told him no and I would welcome his leadership and support in any way I could. I want it known that Steve at no time put any pressure on me, all I ever received from him was encouragement and support. He even came to me on Tuesday, March 25 knowing how I was struggling and offered to withdraw his application and give his support and vote of confidence to me. After viewing all of the applications he felt I was the best qualified candidate. I begged him not to. I was still unsure I did the right thing for myself. I feel badly that I did not consider the awkward position I put him in. He did not want to compete with me. This weekend I also realized that we can trust this Board to appoint the best person for this position based only on qualifications. I am confident that you care about all of the staff of the Recorder's Office and will consider in your decision how this will affect our futures. The staff of 6 has over 90 combined years of experience. I feel you care about the public taxpayers' reserve. I know you would not relinquish the leadership of this office to incapable, inexperienced, or unqualified hands. On behalf of myself and my coworkers we give all our support to Steve Lacina. He is the only applicant with County governmental leadership experience, knowledge of County budget procedures and hiring practices and he also brings with him to this position his business education and we need this. I think Steve and I would make a great administrative team and I would be very happy being his co-captain. I sincerely hope that by withdrawing my application it will make your decision much easier. Yes, I think it's fair you consider all applicants and the information that they supply to you. But if you still are struggling and having a hard time with this decision, call on me. This is where you can use my qualifications and knowledge. I know and I have met 4 of the applicants and had the opportunity to spend time with all of them. Maybe I can offer some guidance to all you. This is where you can use my qualifications and I can help you. I am your ally, not your enemy. Something that I think you should keep in mind is that in any organization public or private your employees are your most valuable assets. I would also at this time like to thank my family, my coworkers, my friends professional and social and private, who gave me their vote of confidence and support. I'm finished, if there is any questions I'd be glad to address those and I have a copy for all of you.

Bolkcom: Great, thank you.

Jensen: I feel better.

Stutsman: Oh, I bet. No wonder you felt so stressed.

Jensen: I feel good like I knew I should. That's where I'm at right now.

Stutsman: Your relief is pretty obvious.

Jensen: The stress is gone. With the help of a lot of people.

Stutsman: Great real good. I recognize some of the people that are here do you want to introduce them?

Jensen: Oh yes, I would love to introduce them. I guess I got a half hour. I'll start here this is Mary, she works for Johnson County Abstract and she's always been there for me.

Stutsman: OK, Mary's last name for the Auditor?

Mary ?: (Inaudible).

Jensen: Everybody knows who this is. And this is Sheila Boyd, my favorite sister in-law who is the President of the Chamber of Commerce at this time and helped me with this. Friday night I was still struggling, she took me to lunch and she also shared with me that night an article she has written for the April newsletter of the Chamber and I recommend that each and every one of you in your leadership roles read this. It is a wonderful letter. Bring it Sally, share it with them.

Stutsman: In the perspective?

Sheila Boyd: It will be in Reflections.

Stutsman: It will be in Reflections. OK I'm sorry.

Jensen: I'm not familiar with it, she just mailed me her rough draft. I did use... Who is this? This is Jane Brown, one of my closest and dearest friends and we go back many years that she has put up with me through this. She also got a big promotion, she works for Seabury and Smith and like me she started out 25 years ago and worked her way up through the ranks and now she is a big vice-president. Is there just 2 in the United States?

Jane Brown: No, there is a lot of them.

Stutsman: Congratulations.

Jensen: This is Gary.

Stutsman: Oh, we know Gary.

Jensen: Do you know Gary? He's been there for me too, when I needed his technology expertise and when I just needed to talk. This person surprises me, I did talk to him about a family matter, and what did he do? I had told him, he goes what's wrong with you, what's going on, I know Steve, I know you, what's going on? So I explained to him what I was going through, he listened like a good friend would and he came, I had no idea he was coming.

Jordahl: Who is this person?

Jensen: His name is Mike Messier, a great insurance guy if you ever need... I am glad you took this time to get to know me better.

Stutsman: Good.

Jensen: Now do you have any questions for me?

Bolkcom: I don't.

Jensen: OK.

Stutsman: Not at this time.

Jensen: OK well I'm here if you need me. That's where I can help. Now I'm going to say one more little thing and that is that the day that John turned in his letter of resignation I was still shocked and kind of surprised and Tom Slockett came to my counter. And I've worked with Tom and we have worked together and he saw I was kind of sad and upset and worried about the future of this office and he said to me Debbie get your mind off that and plan his party. So I'm leaving here and I'm taking Tom Slockett's advice and I'm going to go plan a party and have fun and I want you to always remember that Recorders do good deeds.

Stutsman: Thank you. We'll see you at the party. We'll recess for a few more minutes, thanks for coming in.

Recessed at 10:13 a.m.; reconvened at 10:29 a.m.

COUNTY SUPERVISOR STEVE LACINA: INTERVIEW FOR INTERIM COUNTY RECORDER POSITION

Stutsman: Back in session. First of all before we get started Steve, I explained this to all of the other candidates is that you have the choice whether to go into executive session or open session. The Board prefers open session in view of the fact that this is to fill a position that's an elected position.

Lacina: And I agree.

Stutsman: OK, then we'll just go ahead with open session. I wanted to explain to that we put together a list of questions that the Board has submitted, plus we asked some other people to submit some questions and so we've compiled those and the Board will just go through and ask those questions. I'll begin by asking first of all why did you apply for this position?

Lacina: For several reasons. One is I enjoy challenges and 4 years ago John thought about not running or this last election and he came to me and asked me at that time if I would consider it that there were a lot of technology changes and things that needed to be done in his office. I said yes I would. Subsequently he had the bypass surgery and other surgeries and ran again. So when I ran again last time for this position it was only because he had run for that or I would have run for the Recorder's position. John has worked with me over the years, I'm very familiar with the office. He's thrown his support to me and a little bit ago Debbie caught me and gave me the letter so I understand that she's withdrawn and thrown support to me as well. But I have been looking at that position and feel I would do a good job on it. The other thing it is going to do is it will allow me to use some of my MBA skills. I'm a good budget person, analysis type of individual and I think I'm good with the people. So this would give me a chance to work in a team atmosphere over there, because I really want to do a lot of cross training and I'll be supportive doing everything from answering the phone to working on the budget. So it's going to give me a chance to grow as an individual. Finally given the interview process I've seen a lot of stress in the office over there. John really has served the public well and he's done it very frugally, but the other side of it is Debbie is doing 2 jobs right now and really hasn't been able to say no. He's given her more responsibilities and she's taken it and all the staff over there are under a lot of stress and I don't think people realize it. So I think that I can fill in and pat them on the back and tell them they're doing a good job. In my cover letter I did say I will work with the Consolidation Committee and if that's what's decided then that's fine, but in the meantime there is just a lot of work that has to be done over there.

Bolkcom: Steve, what administrative experience do you bring to this job especially in the area of supervisory experience?

Lacina: I guess in my resume and the cover letter I discussed everything from being on Battalion Special Staff which dealt with 750 people to an infantry company commander which dealt with 160 people that were under me. Everything from logistics to intelligence to operations to strategy to deploying in a military manner to mobilization. I have a security clearance and wrote a mobilization plan to mobilize 750 people from a citizen force into an organized military unit. Obviously I've been up here 6 years. I was given responsibility when I was in the real estate business of managing some of the sales people. So I understand motivating, working with people. I have been involved on a lot of different boards and commissions where we had subcommittees and the like. Charlie and I served on a number of them with Farm Bureau. Everything I guess from the person that goes out and gets the coffee and donuts to the person that sets up the meeting. I've kind of done it all from small numbers of individuals where I was directed to go do a project by myself to large groups where we sat down and worked with generals and above to get stuff done.

Bolkcom: OK. Thanks.

Jordahl: What are your most significant professional accomplishments?

Lacina: Oh, good question. To me my family is one of the biggest ones. I'm very proud of my family, the fact that our home farm is paid for. That I've got some flexibility to do some things now that I might not have had otherwise. I'm very proud of being recognized in the military for a lot of my achievements as well as the Supreme Court recognition which meant a lot to me when they gave me the award for the contribution that I've made there. Secretary of Agriculture Dale Cochran was going to fax down and it hasn't come a letter recommending me as well. He had me act as a representative from Iowa when I went to the Soviet Union both times and I took letters of introduction and suggested trade agreements. I was the only Iowan on a team of 5 that went over and analyzed their agriculture and made recommendations to them about changes. So those were all real high points, but then it goes to things like last night when we were practicing with the other fathers because next Sunday we have a father-son basketball game and just being a father and family member is I think a real achievement to me, because it scared me when I started off when you had kids and how do you raise them and that. Those things are all important, but I have gotten a lot of different recognitions for different projects that I've worked on.

Stutsman: What are your strengths and conversely what are your weaknesses?

Lacina: Strengths, again I would go back to working with people. I guess both of my elections in the general election I was a top vote getter and I was very pleased with that. I'm very analytical, very budget minded, work well with people, I think I'm a motivator and I'm able to analyze a situation and fit in. There are times when you have to take a military approach and be the commander, but depending upon who you're dealing with I believe to get the most done it is best if you're an invisible leader. So your part of the team and you give direction but your in a supportive role and I think that's a very important concept. I guess I don't know exactly what your looking for in the question, maybe has that answered it or is there...

Stutsman: Well yes what you feel your strengths are and then also your weaknesses. Do you feel you have any weaknesses?

Lacina: Well I again on strengths I guess the fact that I have my MBA I've got one oral and two papers to do and then wait for graduation which is May 20th. I'm pleased that I was able to go back and motivate my kids, 2 of them are in college now and hope to motivate them to continue on later. Weaknesses, I'm very task driven in terms of I like to set a focus on something, set a timetable and get it done and sometimes I'm a little impatient as far as I like to get stuff done. Process is good to a point, but results I like better. Other weaknesses I suppose I've always felt one of my weaknesses was lack of education. I spent 7 years in a one room country school, did not get along with my teacher. That negatively affected me and of course in the city schools it was a struggle, but when I went to the Soviet Union and I was introduced as being the farmer. Farmer translates into peasant and I was invited to go see the displays while the other 4 were invited to go in and negotiate contracts, and we had quite a time getting through to them the fact that I wasn't just a peasant I was a decision maker as well and that always weighed very heavily upon me. So a weakness I guess in the past had been a lack of education and then that's one of the reasons I went back to get my MBA and I probably won't be done. I'll probably continue to look at some classes ongoing. It may not lead to another degree, but hopefully if I'm alive at 90 I'm still going to be taking some classes and learning because life is learning.

Duffy: Outline your experience with database management.

Lacina: I am computer literate and that is one of the things that I think that well we're all aware that the Recorder's Office, the financials are kept in a ledger system. I think Sally has seen the books over there and understands that some of it really is not even readable. I am familiar with Word, Excel, Power Point, at the University I took FORTRAN and COBOL which were old languages which have pretty much been phased out, but it falls in that math area and I like that kind of stuff. We have an analysis statistical package at the University provided to us our MBA programs which is pretty powerful heavy number cruncher. We can do histograms and pivot tables and I can analyze numbers until you turn green, but that's not useful. You also have to know what numbers are relevant. So I do have computer skills, I did ask staff to try to launch Windows on the one PC they have over there the other day and they were not able to do that. They started looking at books. They are good in DOS and the COTT system is based on DOS. But the PC hasn't been on a long time and that is going to be one major change we're going to have to make over there. We're going to have to bring some PC's in and do some training. They've had some training from Ann, but as Debbie said we haven't had time to use it. So I hope to put the books on Excel and just do a lot of things. For example in going over the inventory, they have 7 typewriters and one PC. They type the envelopes and I said well why don't you just establish a database on the machine and hit print and it's going to print the envelopes for you. Oh that would be nice, but they hadn't thought of that, so there is little things like that that take up a lot of time that we can make some small efficiencies and gain a lot. The other thing I'm very concerned about is this paper dump from the Clerk of Court. Right now with vital statistics, I talked to Ed Steinbrech the other day, the State will monitor how much time we're on the system because they're very concerned about fraud, confidentiality, somebody getting a birth certificate, death certificate and using it fraudulently. So they will monitor how much time we're on the system to see if we're just snooping. But they've also got a major glitch in the software right now, so the office is really going to have to come up to speed quickly to be able to utilize that software and Ed has volunteered to let us use Tammy for a couple of days to get us up and running if in turn we can provide a truck and maybe some help in moving some of these paper documents and stuff down. From about 1994 on we're going to 18,000 files and most of those will be confidential, the public will not have access to them. They'll have to request it, show us a need, show us who they are, maybe even have to sign a release then we will go get the document, reproduce it on nonreproduceable paper that we'll have to inventory and then give it to them. Our employees will have to sign affidavits of confidentiality and our job descriptions don't say that. We may have a little dilemma with the union. But Ed is willing to work with us on the computer software stuff and help us make that transition, because they're writing it and it is new and he says they've got problems. Good side is it is such a serious bug it may give us a little more time. It may not be the first of June. Now following up on it and this is a little bit off of the question, but we've allocated $11,000 for this position in FY98. Ed is using one and a half people right now plus 4 that will wait on counter if they're needed. He says generally one and half will do it. The State is telling us one and we've got that $11,000 so I'm going to have to have some flexibility in the budget to go in and pull some stuff out of other places to cover this position. But again the State's making the rules and we don't have a choice, its a mandate.

Bolkcom: I thought we had budgeted a full time position for July, is that different than this?

Lacina: We have a full time position in there, but it's $11,000 that she told me we've got in there for that position.

Bolkcom: OK, I thought it was like 24 or 25. I don't.

Lacina: But the other $13,000 is going to have to be a reallocation of other line items unless we can generate more revenue. Now the other thing she did, we'll collect a $10 fee for every document through vital statistics. We will be able to keep $4 of it and we'll transfer on the rest. We don't know initially how much revenue that's going to generate. If it generates enough revenue, we're OK. If it doesn't, then we're going to have to go back and scramble.

Bolkcom: So you're saying what we've done on our own action then is we've said they could hire a new position, but we've only given them $11,000.

Lacina: Right, subject to revenues. We may have to come in. That's the other thing, it's my intention, this is a non-property tax-asking department, we project next year $32,000 in additional revenues above and beyond our expenses, it is my intent not to come back to you for property tax asking it at all possible unless the State just really does a dump on us. We do project this year to generate $170,000 back into the general fund that could be used to support other departments and property tax relief.

Bolkcom: Steve, in terms of the anxiety level about John's retirement and staff feeling like they're going to get a new boss and they don't know who that is and in the interest of having a smooth transition over there how will you handle that issue and do you plan on making any changes?

Lacina: Well first thing that's going to have to be done is just serve the public. I mean that's paramount we have to do that, but there are going to be some problems. Heather isn't feeling well today and could go up to 6 weeks on a maternity leave and then depending upon how she wants to use the Family Medical Leave Act could be gone longer. Lisa Mohling has resigned for a better position, this will be her last week. Debbie is going to be spending a fair amount of time fighting with this vital statistics and that puts basically 3 of our staff people of 6 and puts them outside of the office. So one of the things I'm going to have to do frankly is just answer the phone, wait the counter, try to collect money. We have had theft in the office in the past with people robbing the office, because we do generate a lot of money. When we're talking $346,000 for the County that's coming off of what we're also collecting for the State. So there is a lot of money over there and that makes me a little nervous again going back to the paper books. But one of the things is just going to be simply get more out of what we have which is management of those resources. Use that PC for printing those envelopes and those types of things. I think I'm going to have to go over there and use a lot of praise. They do work hard and right now they're all kind of down. Support the staff we've got, the biggest changes will be in technology and training. It is my hope to cross train the staff so that everybody knows every function. Right now there are 2 people that do boats and licensees of that nature, but the other day when we had one individual out sick, lunch came, Heather was the only one in the office and she came and said to me if I have to leave will you cover the office? Well sure I would do that so one of the things is going to be just staffing. But again with low staffing and until we can get good qualified people because as soon as we go out and start advertising there is going to be some lag time, I'm just going to have to be in there and fill in and do whatever I can to help. So I see myself as a motivator and a supporter for a long time. I'll have a title of Recorder, but I'm just going to be... I don't know if you know Gary Jedlicka in Cedar County, the Treasurer over there. You go over there and he meets you with a smile. The staff's all working together. From talking to him you wouldn't know who the Recorder was and who was staff and that's what I hope to do the same thing here that the public has a good feeling about us and operating that way.

Jordahl: My turn? How will you work with the Recorder's Office Consolidation Study Committee?

Lacina: I'm really looking forward to that. I think you put together a good committee. I think that we can establish some standards which County government could use. In the business world you've got your BE ratios and a lot of ratios of business analysis that you use as benchmarks to see how well the company's doing, terms like EVA which is extra value added above and beyond the cost of capital. All those are functions of business that if we can look at County government and say what is the staffing needed for x amount of documents? What is your maintenance cost for these documents? Can you do it cheaper? Those types of things I think that will help us. I think this committee also will be a vehicle which will allow us to make those changes in a business sense without politics. They're going to come in and say the COTT system will not operate Windows right now. Why? Because if we are going to interconnect with everything we're going to have to make that change, so that will not be a political decision. It's going to be a serve the public decision and I really think this committee is going to be very beneficial. In the event that they decide there are consolidations to be made again I have to accept that fact that I'm going at this for 2 years to give it my best shot and at the end of that time if it's decided there's consolidation then that occurs. But in the meantime we've got to get some pressure off of the employees, we've got to modernize, we've got to get things ready so in the event it is not consolidated its a real team player for the County. The old saying your organization is only as strong as your weakest link, well we want everybody to move forward together. We just need a good strong department over there.

Stutsman: Why are you prepared to accept a position that may be eliminated in 20 months?

Lacina: Again it goes back to the fact that we do have the home place paid for. The Cedar County farm we owe them less than $400 per acre. I'm involved in a couple of other business transactions. I'm not in "need" for the revenue, but at the same time of course its always nice. So I've got some flexibilities and I'm looking for some new challenges. With the MBA that's opened a lot of positive doors and I'm trying to decide which one to go for. A major factor again goes back to the family. I had an insurance make me a very good offer which would put me on the road and managing a staff in another town. With my 15 year old still at home and my kids close, I really don't want to do that so I'm looking for challenges here in this community. I've got the old tax bills from my grandfather back in the 1918's. We have been in this area, these are my roots. I would like to stay here. I would like to make a contribution to make it a better place to live and so that's some of the reasons that I decided. I didn't go for the maximum dollars in some of the opportunities that are there, but I think I can make a difference in people's lives in the service we give and the attitude people have towards the County. I think they will look at that office with respect and professionalism as we deal with them in a professional manner. I think it will help the County.

Duffy: Do you plan to seek election for the Recorder's position?

Lacina: Given the way things are right now if the office is not consolidated and because of problems that I'm starting to see now, I don't think the work can be completed in 2 years. I will not say that I won't run for reelection, because that's illness or for whatever reason somebody throws $100,000 at me or something, but I don't think the work is going to be done. I'm making a real commitment right now. This was really hard on Debbie to do what she did this morning. I'm making a commitment to you and those employees to be in this thing for the long haul if that office stays in place. And I probably would run for reelection. The vital statistics is going to take us some time to get into place. The transition from the 3000 to the 947 and the upgrade of COTT or the other comparable system is going to take some research, because if we make a mistake that will be very costly. When you mess with people's property John for a lot of years carried a lot of liability insurance, because if you make a mistake and it's an incompetent mistake the County doesn't necessarily have to defend you and you can be at risk yourself. So I think I'm making a commitment to get into this to learn it and it is my intention to hang in there until I don't really see the challenges anymore. But that's going to be ongoing, because times change and I probably will consider running for reelection if the job's not done.

Jordahl: The question might also be construed as do you plan to seek election for the position if a special election were called in this immediate future?

Lacina: Given the commitment that the staff has made to me at this time I think it goes both ways. If Debbie... and the applications are public record. I think Debbie and I could have stepped in there and operated the office quite well and with the commitment that they have now made to me which John O'Neill has already said he has given me all of his support. The deputies have given me the support and all of the staff right now I think I'm in it for the long haul. I could not in good conscience back away from them.

Bolkcom: Steve, where do you see yourself in 5 years?

Lacina: Ideally in New Orleans watching my son throw the shot and discuss.

Stutsman: With the full ride scholarship, huh?

Lacina: Well and Katie just got a scholarship at Ambrose in golf for next year so we're really pleased, $2,000 golf scholarship. So we're really pleased about that and she goes to the nationals in May and we're going to go down to Florida and watch her play in the West Palm Beach in the National Golf Tournaments down there and as a freshman in college I think that's pretty outstanding. Where am I going to be in 5 years? We're living in the home that my grandfather built back in 1926 and as you know I saved that other house that my Aunt had played in back in 1910. My roots are here, I don't see myself moving away from here. I see myself as a Johnson County citizen just trying to make a contribution. In the future will I look at higher offices I guess would be a question and I won't rule that out, but I still see my roots here and I have a lot of work to do and I hope I have a lot of skills to offer the public that will keep me here.

Jordahl: I guess you've already done a pretty extensive job of describing your familiarity with the Recorder's Office perhaps I could collapse this question with the next one with agreement from the Board?

Stutsman: Sounds good.

Jordahl: What challenges do you see facing the interim recorder and again you've kind of dealt with that so let's combine those 2 together and come up with some things you haven't said yet.

Lacina: I tried to anticipate some of the questions you'd ask me. And having been through the interviews with 2 engineers, Ambulance Director, CPC, Leo's hiring and others. That was a question that I kind of figured you would ask. The financials are going to have to be dealt with quickly. There are 3 accounts out there that I will collapse as soon as possible and do an audit to make sure that we're all protected. To make sure that John's protected, I'm protected, you're protected. I will collapse those down into one account and then when I bring that back up hopefully it will be on a computer system. That's going to take a little time. The vitals, I talked to Linda Langenberg at ISAC and she said I think this is a far greater mandate on Counties then we believe. And from what Ed said with the one and a half positions and the people waiting counter, I think that's going to be a heavy load on us so I see that as a challenge. Staffing, running at a 50% staff ratio for a while. We're going to have to go out and again I'm glad this committee is taking a look at this office, because it appears that unless we can allocate the resources better, we're going to need at least that vital statistics slot and perhaps one more, but I will have to justify it before I spend those moneys and I hope that committee can come in and they can find efficiencies like the computer printing the envelopes and that maybe we can just change some of the jobs. Challenges will include continued dumping on the State, once they start doing it I don't think they're going to stop. The defect in the software and the monitoring for snooping, it's going to be a problem. The affidavits of confidentiality again I don't think we've discussed that with our union. If they violate the terms of that affidavit they are subject to termination or in fact misdemeanor charges against them if fraudulent acts take place because of their action. So we're going to have to pay attention to that and then frankly we've got 90 days left in the fiscal year and I'm going to have to just get a hold of the budget and see where we're at and see if we can put in one modern PC. The PC they have over there is a 20 megahertz system, older than the one we've got back here according to Information Services so the technology is really slow so those are some of the challenges internally. Training, I was training officer for an infantry battalion and first I'm going to need to do an assessment of what is the need for the training and what is going to be most productive. There is no need to train everybody on Windows right now if we're still operating DOS and don't have the machines to utilize it on, but I am going to have to push for cross training so that somebody is missing, everybody can fill in. And then just to build a curriculum of how we can all grow and move forward in these positions. Right now as it is I'm not going to judge the merits of the rule, but Debbie and Sylvia cannot go to the same school at the same time. I will probably send them together to some of this stuff to bring stuff back and have them teach the rest of the staff, but education is really going to be a big thrust and push over there and setting if up correctly so that I'm not pulling them off the window for an educational thing that's a waste of time. It's something I'm really going to have to be careful of. The other thing is the people we recruit. I'm going to have to recruit good people. I'm hoping that we have some transfers. I'm trying to get Tammy to come down from the Clerk of Court's office, if she would right now she's resistant pending the consolidation of the office study, but she knows this stuff forwards and backwards and if she would move down here and take it over I'm sure she could really help us a lot.

Stutsman: When can you start?

Lacina: Tomorrow.

Stutsman: So you'd be ready to move right into that slot immediately huh?

Lacina: Now the other side I hope to be part of the County management team and that you will use me as a resource. And during the budgeting process I could come in and facilitate, obviously I could not take an interest or argue a side, but if I could be a facilitator I would be more than happy to do that. We all share a bunch of things as far as the property tax freeze, some of the mandates coming down from the State. I do intend to be very active in the Recorder's Association and can be a lobby force on your behalf as well. Charlie and I talked to Dale Cochran Friday, we're assisting him with some stuff in Des Moines, but we do have a lot of networking around the state. We've helped Dave Nagle and other ones. So while I might be moving out of the Supervisor's position I hope that you will continue to use me as a resource, because I really do feel committed to the direction we're going and if I can help you don't have to listen to me, but I can always try to point out 2 sides of an issue and be in a very supportive role. I would be very glad to attend the Joint City Council Meeting with you guys if you would like me to do that this week or fill in on Committees. And I guess the question back to you would be there are a number of boards and commissions which will need to make a transition. 911, I do the claims for 911, we only have 2 or 4 hour meetings maybe twice a year, but all through the year about every week or 2 weeks I do the claims and that board will have to elect its new chair. But I'll be more than willing to help that transition if it takes a month or if it takes until the end of the fiscal year or longer. I hope to be a resource that you can use. It would be logical to assign the committees among yourselves, but again if you want me to ride along I will sure do that.

Duffy: Do you have any questions for us Steve?

Lacina: Well one I ask for your support and appointment and as I said I hope that you will continue to use me as part of the management team. And that I'll be able to share some of the skills that I've learned in working with the County. I may need some flexibility in terms of looking at changing over in that COTT system. If we do change indexing systems we're going to have to run 2 systems for a while in order to get one up to running and then back off the other one. So there may be some things and again within the budget I don't think we'll be making any changes that would cause a tax asking, but I want to try to generate as much revenue as we can of course back to you because I know how tight your budget is. So I guess the questions I would have would pertain to just asking you to understand I'll need some flexibility within the office and then if you see areas of concern or areas where we need improvement to let me know right away, because unless I can identify those areas I can't respond to them. I am working with Senator Rife on the ICN trying to get the counties to hook on to that. I think that would make some saving for us in the computer needs stuff. Obviously, the tax freeze, mandates, on those things will continue to be an ally and then kind of as a closing statement and it was said at ISAC, a County is as good as its Department Heads. I will work very hard to be one of your best department heads that I can possibly be and that's not a short order because Tom does a good job in the Auditor's office, Cletus they all have their areas of expertise but I think I can focus in on the Recorder's Office and be a good asset and ally for the whole County.

Stutsman: Any other comments from Board members?

Bolkcom: I had just a follow up from my first question, talking about administrative experience and you cited a number of military experiences what years would that have been Steve?

Lacina: I joined the Army Reserves in 1968 and went into my basic training active duty at Fort Ord, California where I was there for my military training and then came back and worked my way up to sergeant. I went back into OCS, got my commission as infantry officer, I saw an individual lose his life because of pure incompetence of an officer and a sergeant and that motivated me to go back and get my commission. So I was in Army Reserves Unit up through 1976 I believe it was. Finally at the end I was in charge of a lot of the officers that they brought back from Vietnam that had either shot themselves to get out of battle or fled, whatever, almost a security type thing overviewing some of these guys. And they also taught me a great deal about what it takes to be a man and what life is about and what death is about. One guy told me, this Denny Wagner, had a huge respect for this guy, brilliant, brilliant officer, captain. And during the Tet Offensive he knew that they were going to get wiped and they had all kinds of reconnaissance teams they would send out and wouldn't come back. So they were in a staging area and were supposed to attack and he just dropped his M-16 down automatic and shot his foot. Of course they court martialed him and his whole company was then just annihilated so on the one hand he says he survived, but he always had this haunting feeling that everybody else that had depended upon him got blown away and it was a very interesting experience. I learned a lot from the military.

Bolkcom: OK, thanks.

Lacina: Sure. Anything else?

Stutsman: Well I think that takes care of it. Any other questions from the Board? Charlie? OK thank you for applying and your interest in the job and we'll go from here.

Lacina: OK. Thanks a lot.

BOARD OF SUPERVISORS: TIME FRAME FOR MAKING A FORMAL APPOINTMENT OF COUNTY RECORDER

Stutsman: Thanks Steve. One thing before we leave, checking references. How does the Board want to handle that? Do we want to divide up the different applicants and check references? Do you feel a need to call references?

Bolkcom: Probably.

Jordahl: The question of the time of deliberation is in some way related to that. The question is do we want to call all of the references or can we reduce the list to a smaller number in some way and according to my understanding of where we've got our deliberations scheduled for tomorrow morning we cannot reduce the list until tomorrow. And then we're scheduled to make an appointment immediately following our informal session tomorrow at the scheduled formal meeting. Therefore if we're going to call any references we have to call references for everybody.

Stutsman: I guess that would be my choice and I would suggest that we each take an applicant and call their references.

Bolkcom: I would rather narrow the field.

Stutsman: You mean right now?

Bolkcom: We can't do that right now, but I don't know why we want to make 25 phone calls when we need to make 10 or fewer.

Stutsman: So in other words you're saying not to call references until tomorrow morning?

Bolkcom: I don't know. It seems like a lot of extra work.

Duffy: Yes.

Jordahl: Or if we were going to call all of them we could, I would prefer to have it sort of spread so that I wouldn't be representing one individual and you another. We would have sort of a spread responsibility for that.

Stutsman: Maybe the Board doesn't feel a need to call references.

Duffy: I don't think we do. Is that the way you feel?

Stutsman: I think what Joe is saying is that until we have a clearer picture of just who we're considering that it's just not necessary to call all of the references.

Jordahl: I mean I'd be willing to go through the process of calling the references in order to establish a better set of facts from which to make an important decision. I guess I would prefer, this situation of having this problem is created by the lack of time between our discussion in informal session and our scheduled vote on this issue and that's unfortunate.

Stutsman: Well there is nothing saying that we have to contact references and so if we just don't have the time or we...

Bolkcom: Well let's talk about the time frame. I know you want to make this decision tomorrow...

Stutsman: I do want to make this decision tomorrow.

Bolkcom: ...but I think if it at the expense of not calling references, I think we should call references. We ask people for references, I think it would be helpful to call references. There seems to be 2 ways to do that. We call everybody today or we wait and narrow the field to 2 or 3 tomorrow and take an extra day or 2 to make that deliberation...

Duffy: Now wait a minute Joe.

Bolkcom: ...and reschedule a formal meeting for Wednesday morning or Friday morning, because Charlie is not going to be here Thursday and...

Duffy: About a month ago I told you I was going to be gone...

Bolkcom: Right. You need to be here for the decision.

Duffy: ...but the sooner we get this done the better. I don't know. References are great, but I got enough information this morning. It's going to be a tough decision, but are we all going to call the same one for example. Maybe some of us would ask different questions and...

Jordahl: Now that's an idea Charlie, we could have this whole thing on the conference phone here and we could sort of all sit in and call all of them that way. Make 25 phone calls as a group that would take up the rest of the day.

Stutsman: At least.

Duffy: We're getting into...

Bolkcom: We don't have any specific question or questions we want to ask these references at all.

Stutsman: No, we ought to talk about that.

Bolkcom: We all ought to be asking the same questions.

Jordahl: Actually it's 18 phone calls.

Stutsman: Well there's 5 candidates times 3, 15.

Duffy: I'd say the sooner we get it done the better so we know what's going on over there.

Jordahl: 6 candidates, right, one dropped out, 5. Well if we want to make the appointment tomorrow and if we want to call any references then the only fair way to do it is to call at the very least one reference per each and probably all 3 for each. As Charlie points out having us all share the same information from that reference would involve us all talking to them. We do have the conference phone option as we had with Pat White this morning.

Stutsman: It's not on the agenda either for contacting references...

Bolkcom: Right. I'd agree.

Stutsman: ...so I don't think we can do it through the conference phone route. We'd have to do it individually.

Duffy: If we had a real good reason I feel to call references, then I'd probably be for it. If not I don't think I'd even be for it. We've got important decision to make and...

Stutsman: I guess I'm inclined to... I'm just trying to think what would I ask references that I didn't get from the interview and maybe a compromise with this would be to limit the field and see if there are any specific questions that we didn't feel were answered during the interview and then contact those references... Depending on how things go tomorrow we may all come up with one candidate and have the 3 votes and go from there and just do...

Bolkcom: That sounds fine.

Stutsman: OK.

Bolkcom: So go in tomorrow, narrow it tomorrow, and make a judgment about the references and if we have to continue the meeting until later tomorrow, we could do a number of things. Or Wednesday morning.

Stutsman: Well that is an option, we could recess to later in the afternoon after we've contacted references.

Jordahl: My question here is whether maybe we should publish some agenda item to correspond to this calling of references if we wanted to do it say on the speaker phone.

Stutsman: Well we have it on the agenda tomorrow to deliberate.

Jordahl: To deliberate, close enough I think that fits in there.

Stutsman: I think that could be considered part of the deliberations.

Jordahl: In my experience sometimes the calling of references is used more or less as a search for any possible disqualifying things. Once you have a candidate and this person seems pretty good and then you call a references to find out if they really are. There might be room for that after or as part of deliberations tomorrow.

Stutsman: OK, well then let's just deliberate tomorrow morning and see where we're at and go from there. Maybe... Does that sound OK?

Bolkcom: That's fine with me?

Stutsman: Charlie is that all right?

Duffy: Yes, I think sooner we get it done the better.

Stutsman: OK all right then that takes care of this session. Do I adjourn or recess? I think I'll recess until tomorrow morning at 9:00 a.m.

Adjourned at 11:12 a.m.

Attest: Tom Slockett, Auditor

By Chris Lambert, Amy Oetken, and Harry Rueber, Recording Secretaries