REPORT (LACINA): UPCOMING HOSPICE ROAD RACES
Lacina: Under other, I have one quick thing. Each year Hospice has the Road Race and we have provided some security material in terms of some fencing. They have requested that again in-kind contribution we've done in the past so if it's OK, I'll notify the Engineer to just release that to them. Obviously we are the beneficiaries of a lot of the funding that they receive to help agencies that we also fund. So I will contact Mike.
Jordahl: I was just impressed by the various decorations that we have on the wall here that have come from the Hospice Road Races and I asked the other day what we had done to deserve all this gratitude and it looked like expensive stuff here and I was wondering if it was funding we contributed or something and it's really just the fence so that's...
Lacina: Well our employees have really been very, very giving. We've been very fortunate in the support that the County's given to the Road Race. But again, we're also recipients on the other side by providing services to the individuals, so it all works together.
Jordahl: Yes.
Stutsman: I want to just kind of update the Board on a couple of other things under other. I did contact Muscatine and Washington Counties and we will be rescheduling that meeting for January. So we will not meet with them until then. Linn County, Karen, we kind of did a survey to see which of 2 dates that were suggested would work the best for the Board.
Board of Supervisors Employee Karen Lineau: (Inaudible).
Jordahl: Oh, you're welcome to it.
Stutsman: What were the 2 dates that...
Lineau: Wednesday, October 22nd, or Friday, October 24th.
Stutsman: And the majority of the Board agreed that...
Lineau: Well we have 2 Wednesday's, one Friday, and one either.
Jordahl: Wednesday the 22nd at what time?
Lineau: At lunch.
Stutsman: Noon.
Jordahl: That's the town meeting at the Senior Center at 3:30, but we should be done in time for that.
Stutsman: I would think so. Probably if we met at 11:30 and went to 2.
Jordahl: Yes, I could do either.
Stutsman: Charlie? You said Friday, you wanted Friday. Would Wednesday work for you over lunch?
Duffy: You mean...
Stutsman: On the 22nd to meet with Linn County Supervisors?
Duffy: On the 22nd. Where are we going to meet?
Stutsman: Carol had worked out some arrangements.
Lineau: She said last year you did (inaudible) the Iowa River Power Company.
Stutsman: OK.
Lineau But she didn't know if you had a place in mind.
Stutsman: We really hadn't decided.
Duffy: Well because I'm going to represent the County on the day of the 22nd, there's some research.
Jordahl: Yes, Charlie's got that thing in the afternoon on the 22nd. We maybe ought to...
Duffy: That would be out for me.
Stutsman: Well I think the majority of the Supervisors can do it on the 22nd and these were the 2 dates that were suggested by Linn County.
Duffy: 22nd or 24th.
Jordahl: Could anyone not do it on Friday?
Stutsman: I can't do it on Friday.
Lienau: (Inaudible) Steve.
Jordahl: Oh, I see, OK.
Duffy: Well go on ahead and I'll... What time would it be?
Stutsman: Probably 11:30 to maybe 1, 1:30.
Duffy: Maybe I could show up for a little bit and then I'm going to have to leave early.
Stutsman: OK. Why don't we do that.
Duffy: If you have 4 people who could meet.
Stutsman: OK, so we'll plan for that for October 22nd and we'll get back to everybody on the details then. Oh, and I was contacted this morning by Ron Berg with MECCA and they are planning to apply for $5,000 of Project Safe funds and would like to use that money to have a county-wide meeting in October regarding substance abuse and things. He would like to have me sign a letter of support for these funds and of course the turn around time is on Friday so there's not a whole lot of time to react so I just wondered if it was OK with the Board if I went ahead and signed that letter of support. I will pass it around when I get that, but if that's OK then I'll just go ahead and do that.
Stutsman: OK, Charlie do you have any reports this morning?
Duffy: Tomorrow is going to be a busy day for me. Let's see, we have a Space Needs Meeting.
Stutsman: Uh-huh. In the morning.
Duffy: Then we have the department heads and then I think the last Deer Meeting in the evening. So I'm going to have to be there for that.
Stutsman: That's been a lot of meetings. That's good. Anything else? Steve, did you have anything?
REPORT (LACINA): UPCOMING TAX AND FINANCE COMMITTEE MEETING
Lacina: Thursday during the day I'll be in Des Moines with the Tax and Finance Committee, but I'll be back that night for the Zoning Meeting.
Stutsman: OK.
Lacina: But I might be a little bit late. It depends upon... The traffic last time, of course a semi load of hogs tipped over on the interstate.
Jordahl: Now that's traffic.
Lacina: As I'm heading in they're announcing on the radio, WHO, that they had traffic backed up 8 miles and they were afraid of what to do. They couldn't open the gates and let all of these hogs out and they had one lane closed. I was late. I was late. But anyway, so I'll be up there Thursday. The only other thing, are we going to discuss what Joe mentioned earlier? The staffing thing.
Stutsman: Uh-huh. Right. That's under number 7.
Lacina: So yes, that's all the report I have for now then.
Jordahl: Before we go on to that, do you have other reports Steve?
Lacina: That's what I thought this was. Yes. That's the end of mine.
Stutsman: OK. Jonathan?
Jordahl: Yes, I have a number of things since last Thursday. Thursday, right after the meeting, I ran down to Washington to listen to Larry Wilson, the State Director of the Department of Natural Resources. My biggest interest there was the hog confinement operations. There have been a number of people interested in what developments there may be in Johnson County in that area. The opinions of Mr. Wilson and his chief, I guess it would be enforcement person or something that would deal directly with hog lots, was that they were being seen as a large problem because there were certain locally dramatic effects. You know, you'd have a big fish kill in one area, but that statewide other non-point sources of pollution were really of a greater concern, but because of the dramatic nature of hog lot failures there was a lot of public outcry about it. I guess in terms of, in going back to the question of the trend that we were discussing with respect to the RFP on development issues, that's really where my concern would arise. If we have an increasing number of these hog lots, then the fact that they are locally isolated now could be elaborated to a much larger extent as the process goes forward. So I'm not satisfied we have the last answer on that situation yet.
Lacina: Did you have a chance to see the Sladek's operation?
Jordahl: Yes, uh-huh, I did go out to that on Saturday.
Lacina: Some of the problems with the fish kill have been large lagoons of which have broken, as opposed to actual pits where it is confined underneath the building. Much safer.
Jordahl: Yes. Really. That's a very important point Steve. That distinction needs to be drawn and drawn clearly. I think these earthen sewage lagoons are very different from what Jim Sladek has going on. I really appreciated the chance to go out on that field trip that was uh...
Stutsman: Saturday morning?
Jordahl: Yes. We got to talk, actually to listen more, to Jim Sladek. He has a new operation which is, as Steve points out, has a pit system where the manure actually goes straight down through slits in the floor. So the hogs are over the manure. Then it can have ventilation so that it's not just steaming up there on the hogs, but they have ventilation that comes down from the roof and is drawn through powerful fans out the sides of the building. So that you've got a constant diffusion of these gases. Rather than having the stuff just sort of lingering in one place so that it might... You know, it has a large impact either on the hogs or on the neighbors. It is constantly being ventilated. The temperature also is controlled in those facilities. It's a really amazing system of the thermostat will raise and lower plastic curtains on the sides of the building. He claims to be able to maintain an almost constant 65 degree temperature year round through the use of those and heaters. I wonder how true that is on a 100 degree day, but he claims that it works pretty well.
Lacina: Keep in mind, he is small. In our Supervisor resolutions meetings, one of the counties talked about one of the large operations. They counted 22 4-wheel drive tractors hooked to 10,000 gallon slurry pumps and they're worried about the roads being pounded up, but when you're talking 22 just to move waste from one lagoon to the other, those guys are huge. Jim in comparison is a family farm operation.
Jordahl: Well and that's what it really points to, that the issue of competition, the idea of these large hog confinement operations. I mean the case is made, it's a question of economies of scale. It's like Henry Ford making lots of tractors in a factory and he repeats the operation. Well you get all of these hogs together, you can cut corners and make more money. What Mr. Sladek points up is the ability to compete effectively in an environmentally much less dangerous way on a family scale. That's really the point of what was done on Saturday. See backing up to Friday evening, I went up to Northern Iowa to listen to Wendell Berry speak on environmental issues and community. I was glad to have a chance to see him although I would have expected more content in a community-based nature. He really just read a couple chapters from a novel, so I didn't quite get what I wanted out of that. but anyway the County didn't pay for it so... On Sunday the 40th anniversary picnic of the ARC was held in City Park. There had been a lot of prizes donated from various area businesses. It was amazing the things that they were giving away there, packages of perfume and so forth. They had a band playing. It was really a nice day. I just would point ahead to the meeting with the department heads which is coming up, it's tomorrow isn't?
Stutsman: Wednesday.
Jordahl: Yes, Wednesday. Concerning the budget and our changes that may be going on there towards performance-based budgeting and the salary survey. That's at 2:00.
Stutsman: OK, Carol can we put you on to talk about the floating Christmas Holiday. We were a little confused on what we needed to decide on.
Peters: OK you need to decide which holiday you wish to set for your office. Generally, this is according to the administrative agreement. Usually what happens and you set it, and generally speaking the other offices concur.
Stutsman: OK. So do we need to decide whether it's Thursday after Thanksgiving or the Friday...
Peters: This is for Christmas.
Stutsman: Whether it's the Friday after Christmas or the Friday after New Years, is that what we're deciding? Or just that it's going to be the Friday after...
Peters: Well there's a parameter there, but actually you usually put it right as close to the Christmas as possible.
Stutsman: OK. Christmas is on Thursday this year so it just makes sense that...
Peters: Sometimes what we've done in the past is take a survey of the other departments to see which they would like, but I think this year it's pretty... Christmas falls on Thursday it only makes sense to have Friday.
Lacina: What will happen is if you go the day before you will probably have a lot of sick employees on Friday.
Peters: Maybe in other entities, but not in Johnson County.
Lacina: Right.
Jordahl: You're good Carol.
Stutsman: So is it OK just to put it on for Thursday that we will designate December 26th as the floating holiday for this year, and get a notice out.
Peters: Then we'll draft a memo on your behalf for your signature to have.
Duffy: Question, does the holiday really float?
Peters: Well, this one does, because it depends on which year it is.
Stutsman: All right we've got that taken care of. Was there something else that we were going to ask Carol?
Lacina: Staffing.
Stutsman: Oh, the Compensation Board.
Peters: Yes.
Stutsman: You haven't had a chance to contact...
Peters: No, I've left a message and I have not received a call back yet.
Stutsman: OK. Do we want to take a...
Jordahl: Before we take a break under other I'd like to raise one more point. I'm very grateful that you've pursued the idea of having a meeting with Linn County and I'm glad that's now set and we're going to meet. I'm really looking forward to that. I think in a similar vein it's important that we establish regular meetings, for certain an initial meeting with Cedar Rapids to talk about their growth plans, how that affects our comprehensive plan, the North Corridor, Swisher's fringe area agreement, a million things. I really think we need to sit down with Cedar Rapids if we can.
Stutsman: I need to think about that.
Jordahl: Because their border, the southern border of the Cedar Rapids city limits comes within a mile I believe of Northern Johnson County.
Stutsman: Why don't we maybe talk about it with the Linn County Supervisors, see if there might be a joint meeting between Cedar Rapids, Linn County, and Johnson County.
Jordahl: That might make some sense.
Lacina: For a location for the Linn County meeting, does the new... Well it's not new, existing restaurant, but new ownership, the guy is renovating it, up at Shueyville. Mike Margolin, who was the one that had the picnic for the Zoning, or assisted with it. I wonder if that wouldn't' be a good place for us to go out to a small community and support that business as opposed to... it would be closer for them.
Peters: Sounds great. What establishment was this again?
Stutsman: It was highlighted in the Cedar Rapids Gazette on Saturday.
Lacina: Rick would have the phone number, but the guys name is Mike Margolin.
Stutsman: The only problem is I don't know if they're open at noon.
Jordahl: I was out there at noon. They are.
Stutsman: Oh, OK.
Lacina: Charlie and I stopped and they had great food. We'd need to notify them in advance so they could prepare for it. But that would be a way to just go into a small town and...
Jordahl: Real good idea.
Peters: Would they like a little area off to the side where you could conduct a meeting without background noise?
Lacina: If he doesn't have it open he has a banquet room. I don't know if it's finished but we could ask him. If it isn't we could find some other place, but at least we'd give it...
Jordahl: Well it wasn't that busy at noon.
Stutsman: We decided on the 22nd, so if you could contact the Linn County Supervisors so that they could put that on their schedule and then we need to start thinking about items for the agenda.
Peters: Great.
Stutsman: OK. Any discussion from the public? Before we move into the work session I'd like to take short break before we move into the work session so...
MARIANNE MILKMAN: COMPLIMENT ON DUBUQUE STREET RESURFACING
Marianne Milkman: I just want to say one thing. I don't know how many of you saw the Press Citizen this morning, there was a rather negative article about the paving of Dubuque Street, and people weren't notified where the paving was (inaudible). I on the other hand want to say think you've done very efficient and very well, they did the whole stretch, all the 4 miles in what I think was a very small point to remember. Because it meant that any one section only had a problem for a short period every day. So it meant that OK so you had to (inaudible). But then you knew you cleared most of the rest of the day (inaudible). They were, they had organizing, they knew what they were doing, they were very nice, they told you what was going on. I think the Secondary Roads department was told that he said that nobody was every told this was going to happen. River Heights people certainly knew since last April that it was going to happen sometime. We didn't know exactly when. I assume most of the Homeowners Associations knew. I don't know about other folks, but I guess it would be nice to get when it's a big projects like that, to get an article in the paper but again that is not (inaudible).
Lacina: It's kind of difficult for us because they've pulled off of Legion, weather can goof us up so sometimes it's really hard to set the date. We know during a certain time period. But we're all tired of that pilot car. They did a nice job. We're getting a lot of compliments on the crew as far as...
Stutsman: I've heard a lot of positive response too you know and after the finished project that it's a wonderful surface so great improvement.
Milkman: This was a long guest opinion in the paper this morning and I really was upset.
Stutsman: I'll have to look at that, I did read the paper this morning but I didn't see that.
Lacina: The other thing we found was the flag people would actually go to the cars and visit with the people and inform them what was going on. Lots of time they just stand there. But the crew that they had this year was very outgoing and worked with the public quite well.
Stutsman: Good. We'll pass those comments on to Mike then. He'll be glad to hear it.
Lacina: Thanks.
Stutsman: Thank you. Anything else from the public, why don't we take just a short 5, 10 minute break.
Recessed at 10:20 a.m.; reconvened at 10:32 a.m.
WORK SESSION: BOARD OF SUPERVISORS OFFICE STAFFING
Stutsman asked how the Board wanted to handle filling the position of the Deputy Administrative Assistant formerly filled by Kim Benge. Stutsman said Jordahl had prepared a proposal for a Director of Budget and Finance. Jordahl stated he wanted to discuss the RFP for a person to assist with a conversion of performance-based budgeting. Jordahl said the idea that they could convert to performance-based budgeting in-house would be based on existing staff. He said the Auditor is willing and able to help with performance-based budgeting; as are the Board's Strategic Planning Budgeting Subcommittee, Dawn Gingrich, the Budget Director for Linn County, and Tim Shields, who worked with strategic planning. He said there is a missing piece of someone to guide the process forward. He said that person could be a consultant, Tom Slockett, or someone in the Board of Supervisors Office.
Jordahl said to some extent Bolkcom sees the person who would replace Benge as being an important part of the picture of how performance-based budgeting could be done in-house. Jordahl said his own thoughts on this were that there was a problem in Benge being able to fulfill that role, because she wasn't perceived as having authority by the elected officials and department heads. Jordahl said, as they look at filling that position, they need to look carefully at exactly what they want from the position. He asked what should that position look like for it to function in the way that the Board of Supervisors wants it to function.
Jordahl said he drafted a proposed job description which states the replacement for Benge should perform a significant budget function, have a portion of time devoted to grants writing, and also some time for special projects. He said he also included something about finance to go along with grants and alternative sources of funding. Jordahl suggested they have a starting place where there is agreement about replacing Benge, that they should replace Benge, but the position be strengthened. He said the person in the new position should stand toe to toe with department heads and elected officials, and be able to request information with the authority of the Board of Supervisors. Jordahl suggested they reconstruct the position so that the person have the title Director instead of Deputy Administrative Assistant. He said a term like director, regardless of salary, would send a clear message to departments that the person has authority from the Board of Supervisors. He suggested the person should be placed directly under the authority of the Board of Supervisors, so there is no question that the person has authority.
Lacina said he had 2 concerns. He said that for the person to get involved in grant writing and review could take up all of the person's time and then they would lose the idea of the financial side. Lacina said Benge worked very hard with the Learning Curve, which took a lot of time. He said it should only be stated that the Director will also be responsible for alternative sources of revenue. Stutsman said it could be stated that 50% of the person's time will be directed towards budget, 25% towards grant writing, and 25% to special projects, with the idea that the person would have to prioritize. Lacina asked who would gain and who would lose. Stutsman said they have never had a grant writer before and maybe this would be a start, and after a year they could reassess the position and maybe hire another person if it was shown that a grant writer would pay for their own position. Stutsman said she sees this person evolving into a grant process rather than having it as a full-time position from the beginning. Lacina said if they are after a budget director they need to narrow what they are looking for so they get someone with expertise. He says he doesn't see the grant writing component right now as important as getting the budget side up and functioning. He said if the person in the future has time to work on grants, then they can put that in then. He said for now they should just allude to the fact that the person may work with grants. He said it is going to be a huge task for one person to get the County up on performance-based budgeting. Stutsman asked Lacina if he was saying he would support the position being strictly budget and nothing else. Lacina said yes.
Lacina said he had a concern about the statement that this person could assign support staff. He said the Board of Supervisors should keep their table of organization so that there was a clear understanding of who is in charge. He said if Peters is in charge of the office, they have to make sure that the office functions, that only one person should be in charge of the office. He said the position needs to focus on budget and working with the departments; there would be a lot of time the person would be spending in the departments. Jordahl said if Lacina looked at the sub-points it would be clearer, and he agreed that if the person was a grant writer that would take up all of their time. Lacina also said one of the points was to investigate financial investment opportunities, but the County all ready has finance plan which was written during the Welsh investment fiasco. He said looking into financial investments would also take a lot of time, but it could also be a huge gain for the County. Stutsman said the same applied to grants. Jordahl said the job description should only state that the grant function should be something of a central source of information on working with grants without saying the person should be a grant writer. Lacina said it should only say to review grant writing process. Stutsman said she did want the person to work with grants in some way, she noted that Benge also wrote a couple of grants. Stutsman said the person could just do something like distribute information on new grant opportunities to departments. Lacina said that Assistant Planning and Zoning Administrator R.J. Moore had written a lot of grants, and that the person could coordinate with Moore and not have to take the time to actually work with the grants.
Duffy asked if the new position would answer the phone. Jordahl said no, and Duffy said that would put a lot of pressure on other Board of Supervisors staff. Lacina said he sees another position coming into the Board of Supervisors office, because their temporary support staff, Karen Lienau, is doing a wonderful job. Peters said she has been a big help and thanked the Board for allowing her hire her. Jordahl said as much as he would want the new person to not answer the phone, this implies they would need another support person. Stutsman suggested they look at voice mail. Peters said she has proposal for voice mail to distribute to the Board. Lacina said he thinks it's important to have voice mail, but it wouldn't do other office jobs. He said Jo Hogarty has a lot of responsibilities with the agendas; they will need a second position. Peters said one of Hogarty's biggest responsibilities was the boards and commissions. Duffy asked where they would put 2 people. Lacina said one would replace Lienau and he thought the position could be filled with a capable person at a lesser expense; Stutsman said entry level. Lacina said when they hired Benge she was supposed to do research with DHS, Secondary Roads, and so forth, and this new position would be just a little bit more sophisticated. Peters told the Board to keep in mind that whatever they wanted the new person to do, the person would react to what a majority of the Board of Supervisors requests.
Duffy said he won't have an opinion on this until the budget askings come in, because the Federal Government has cut back. Duffy said they are moving a little too fast. Lacina said they put an HR function in the Attorney's Office and would the Board be willing to take that out of their budget. Lacina said the County Attorney would still want to keep that attorney, but they have put a lot of money into it over the years. Duffy said he thought the Attorney's Office had done a good job with personnel matters. Lacina said they all need to know where they're at on the budget. Duffy said it all boils down to priorities. He said he would hate to see a person with disabilities fall short and that the Board was moving too fast. Stutsman said this would be what was Benge's job, but it would just be adding more detail and clout to it. Lacina said the job description basically says get performance-based budgeting in effect in the County. He said he doesn't have a problem with the proposed job description, but he thinks that the grant writing part should only be a bullet. He said the position should have to answer to the Board and also stand alone with support staff assigned by Peters. Jordahl added that if they have an HR person and a budget person in the Board Office, they could hire a half-time support position for each function or one person for both.
Jordahl said in relation to office space there is a mail room on the first floor of the Administration Building that isn't used and they could turn that into an office. Lacina suggested that somebody contact County Recorder Deborah Conger because of her proposal about a $28,000 remodeling job, and suggest that that job be put on hold until office space is worked out, so they don't end up remodeling twice. Jordahl said that is an important question, because the Recorder Study Committee is working towards a conclusion, plus whatever happens in the next election. Jordahl asked if the Board of Supervisors should put their remodeling on hold for the HR function. Lacina said he wouldn't say that. Duffy said they shouldn't remodel because there is space for a Human Resources person in the Courthouse. Stutsman said there wasn't a place at the Courthouse. Duffy said it now might cost the County $28,000 plus whatever it costs to remodel part of the Recorder's Office. He said they should talk to Pat White. Stutsman said they should have the Recorder come in and explain the remodeling project. Duffy said it was odd that some people think there shouldn't even be a Recorder, but they were going to remodel the office. Jordahl said the Recorder's functions will remain in any case. Duffy said it is interesting that they are talking about a personnel director and a budget director, but they talk about not needing a Recorder's Office director. Lacina said it was interesting that the interim Recorder, who has stated she will not run for election, is spending $28,000 to remodel the office. Lacina said they need to look at space needs before they start rebuilding, restructuring and remodeling. Jordahl said they've already talked about taking space away from the Recorder's Office to make room for the HR function, and the Recorder's proposal may be driven by the Board's proposal to take away space. Lacina said they hadn't made that decision. Jordahl said it was a proposal and Lacina said there needed to be some action. Stutsman asked Peters if it had been decided, because she thought it had been an administrative decision. Peters said the Board had decided to cut a doorway into the Recorder's Office and create 2 offices. Lacina said he had no problem with making the 2 offices, but the $28,000 the Recorder was going to spend on remodeling hasn't been brought to the Board for approval. Stutsman said he was right, but her understanding was the work would be updating of computers, new desks, and rewiring for the Vital Statistics, which was an elected official's decision. Peters asked if she wanted an office. Jordahl said if they were taking her office, that was what driving the remodeling. Jordahl said he thought Conger was going to use the funds that have been kept for technology for the computerization. Lacina advised that those funds be used very carefully, because the Code of Iowa is specific and she doesn't want to get into misappropriation of those funds.
Lacina asked where they were at now with the changes being made to grant writing for the new position. Stutsman asked if they were in agreement with hiring for a new job and asked Peters if they needed to formalize a job description. Peters said yes and they also needed to decide on what qualifications the Board wanted the person to possess. Stutsman asked who wrote the job description and Peters said that she and White could work on it together. Lacina suggested the Board draft it. Lacina suggested taking the phrase out of the proposal that had to do with support staff, because there may be times support staff is needed as assigned by Peters and there may be times support is not needed. Stutsman said that Benge did a lot of her own support. Jordahl said he wanted to see a statement made about support staff being assigned by the Administrative Assistant. Peters suggested to the Board that the budget position be like the HR position in that it must be self-supporting administratively. She said if they add that to the job description then the person they hire will not have any preconceived notions that they are going to come into a fully staffed arrangement. Peters said the HR person and the budget position would be continuously evolving. Lacina said the job description includes other duties as assigned by the Board, that the HR and budget positions need to help out in ways not in the job description. Peters said it is a small office. It was decided that Stutsman, Jordahl, and Peters would work on a job description. Jordahl asked if they wanted to require a masters degree, a business degree, business experience, budgeting experience or finance experience. Lacina asked what they wanted to pay. Stutsman said they would pay about the same as they paid Benge. Lacina said that takes out any masters degree level people. Stutsman said she didn't want to limit the field, because there might be some very qualified people with a B.A. Lacina said they should ask Linn County what they did when they hired Dawn Gingrich. Peters said she had some job descriptions and tables of organization from other counties. Stutsman said they would get back to the Board by next Tuesday.
Lacina said they still hadn't addressed the function that Lienau has provided. He said they had only addressed the Director of Budget and Finance. Lacina then asked when Lienau would be leaving and Peters said December. Stutsman said they wouldn't want the Budget Director doing what Lienau is doing, and Jordahl said he specifically didn't. Lacina said in December they will be starting the thick of the budget. Stutsman said they should really focus on getting a budget position on Board. Jordahl said they need to aim at replacing Lienau somehow. Lacina said it had worked well, but it will be costly if they continue to go with temporary assistance, he asked Peters what she thought. Peters said she would have to think about it. She said if the Budget Director was going to only work on budgets they would definitely need another person in the Board of Supervisors Office. She said there was going to be another person needed to staff some of the boards and committees. Jordahl said the budget position should not staff committees. Lacina said a staff support person could answer phones, take minutes for the committees and boards, and do mailings. Stutsman said she viewed a support staff position as strictly clerical. Jordahl said he saw the budget process as a year round job, not just December, January, February and March.
Peters said she didn't know where the Board was at in meshing the budget duties with the Auditor's Office. Jordahl said the question of how the Auditor fits in is an important one. He said there is discussion of doing this in-house, but what does in-house mean. He says part of what in-house means is that the Auditors Office has a lot of capacity in the budget area; and there has been some dissatisfaction with the ability to get exactly what they wanted from Benge's position and he perceived the problem is how her position was defined. Peters said a lot of the information that the Director of Budget and Finance will be dealing with will come from the Auditors Office, but there would also be additional information that wouldn't come from the Auditor's Office. Lacina said they are somewhat removing the function of HR from the County Attorney's Office and the Board will decide if they move the funding stream as well. He said the Board, moving into the Director of Budget and Finance position will, need to decide how much of a role the Auditor will have to play, because Linn County Supervisors decided their Auditor would not play in that function. Lacina asked if they wanted to bring Lynnette Hultman up to answer directly to the Board; he said the question is how the Board wanted to structure it. Stutsman said there would have to be coordination, but that she just wants to bring the budget function under the Board of Supervisors and take it out of the Auditors Office. Peters said the budget function in the Auditors office gave them a massive responsibility. Duffy said he didn't agree, because he thought Hultman's spreadsheets were great. Lacina said the information should be given to the Board on a more regular basis. Duffy said more spreadsheets are produced when there is a need for it. He feels they have been a great tool. Peters said an example of something the new position could do is to bring cell phone usage under one contract for some savings to the County. Jordahl said an important point was the question of savings. Duffy asked if County Manager was next on the agenda. Stutsman said not on her agenda. Lacina asked what was the next step. Stutsman said they would have a job description drafted by next Tuesday.
Recessed at 11:20 a.m.; reconvened on October 9, 1997 at 5:43 p.m. with all Supervisors present.
Stutsman: Charlie?
Duffy: Sally and I yesterday, up at Pat White's office, Bob Carpenter was there, Pat Langenberg, Cheryl Whitney, and we started a discussion about space needs which is going to be very complicated and before we bat I think it's going to cost a lot of money. (Inaudible).
Stutsman: We don't want to alarm anybody quite yet Charlie but there are some real needs.
Duffy: Then we had the department head meeting yesterday at 2:00, well attended and very interesting meeting. Differences of opinions and so that was a good meeting. Last night I had a deer management meeting with, let's see it's Iowa City-Coralville Deer Management Committee. It lasted 2 and a half hours and I think we got through. The suggestions that we came up with will go to the Iowa City City Council and the DNR is going to have a hand in this too. Because you have sharpshooters and that, they're going to have to approve whether they can do it a couple of different ways and I think if anybody wants to read this there is a lot of material here, plus I got about that much in the back room but the summary of recommendations and what this says is that there is no other viable option but to kill members of the herd to reduce the numbers to a level that is tolerant to the community. But really the suggestion is that there is going to be some that we're going to have to use the word kill, but it's going to be looked at every year, the suggestions. Maybe it won't have to be done every year and anyway the summary of recommendations if anybody wants to read it, I think it tells the whole story. It's not an easy one really to be on. I'm like every else, it's nice to see some deer around, but there is too many of them and we just have to do something.
Stutsman: Is that it Charlie?
Duffy: Yes.
Stutsman: Steve?
Lacina: I feel like I've been on the interstate all week. We had the Supervisors' Resolution meeting in Ames and then today came back from the Tax and Finance Committee. Some of the other committees we're meeting up there and it appears the DOT will be pushing to have more counties take over drivers license. So when we do the needs assessment on space I'm going to keep in mind... They're saying now that the large counties won't be forced, but they said it would never be forced on any of the counties. It appears now that the pilot projects are working well and a couple of legislators are sparing this to give the rest of it to the County so... We also spent a lot of time on the utility property tax proposal, which we're hearing rumblings would be fast tracked and they hope to approve it in the first 2 weeks of the session. Legislature is doing some reviews and the utility people won't have the information to them until one of their last meetings, so the whole thing is just loaded up. So we're hoping to request more information, white papers or cost-benefit analysis of just exactly how it's going to work and an example of how it would work in a small medium and large county because basically it takes everything off of the property tax and just puts it on units of energy cost. So then when the school districts decide they need a bond issue, there is no property evaluation there. If the utility rates, if the sales increase or decrease we have no control over that, so we really can't depend on that money. Then there was a lot of discussion also under deregulation which is causing this. The utility companies will now be able to acquire cable companies, telephone companies and still have that same property tax base. So it was a real interesting discussion. They'll have a discussion at the ISAC, fall.
Stutsman: At the ISAC?
Lacina: They'll continue it, but the more we learn, the more confusing it gets. Also I'm sure all of us want to offer our deepest sympathy to the Meardon family. He was a huge... provided a huge service to the community and to the public and we'll all miss him.
Stutsman: Well said. You know I shared your experiences last night at the Art?
REPORT (STUTSMAN): PARTICIPATED IN ART FOR FUN AUCTION
Lacina: Oh, I forgot. There is so much going on this week. Go ahead. Yours was beautiful. I don't want to share mine with anybody, what I did.
Stutsman: Well that's because I drafted my son to help me. Steve and I participated in an Art for Fun auction where local people make art projects and then they have an auction on November 14th to raise money for University Hospital Schools.
Lacina: Sally did an angel that will be worth a lot.
Stutsman: Oh, right.
Lacina: I broke a lot of glass.
Stutsman: Did you. Steve had a pretty complicated project, but he had some beautiful work too. He and Julie both were participating so it was fun.
Lacina: And it's for the disabled kids over there so it's a worthwhile project.
Stutsman: Yes to help with their art projects over there which are very successful, so it's a good project. Jonathan?
Jordahl: Interesting. Well the first thing I want to do is to say thanks to Charlie for this deer project. I know that's been very time-consuming a probably a pretty thankless task, but here's some thanks.
Duffy: Thank you.
Jordahl: I think it sounds like a decent resolution to the problem. Yesterday as Charlie mentioned we had the department heads meeting and it was an interesting time, kind of looking at a couple of projects that we're working on. One of them is a salary survey to try to make sure that we have a fair distribution of resources in wages to County management people outside of, and it gets a little hairy as to how you define this. But it's between the union employees and the elected officials there is the sort of you might define as middle management. This is a survey to look at how we might distribute some money we've set aside to adjust some problems we've had there with it seems like an unfair wage structure to, unfair maybe too strong of word, but some things we wanted to do. Then performance based budgeting is another concept that has come out of the Board's strategic planning process in looking at ways of making the budget process more accessible, easier to understand, both for members of the Board and for members of the public who might want to look into it. I hope it will be helpful to the departments as well to look at what are the really significant parts to the service that they provide to the public, and then how does that relate to the dollars that are spent in that department. That will be kind of a useful part of our budgeting process. I'm glad to see we're meeting in the evening again here for our zonings and plattings. I think this is an opportunity where people from the public can come without having to take time off from work, although there are certainly those that are out in the fields and are questioning whether they want to come in here on a nice night like this I think. Tomorrow the communications committee. Another element of strategic planning coming forward. Maybe I'll let Joe talk about that.
Bolkcom: Yes, the Board has done some strategic planning. One of the issues is trying to improve upon how we communicate with the public about all of the things we do and we're meeting tomorrow morning for the second time and we'll be talking about kind of a mission statement to guide our work. On Tuesday I had the opportunity to participate in an Iowa Environmental Council meeting focused on, it's a series of 5 meetings focused on a meeting coming up in November where they are bringing Iowans together to talk about how we can review the 10 years that have passed since the passage of the Groundwater Protection Act of 1987 and what work remains to be done and how we should focus our energy. They'll be coming up with a report here. On November 20th there's another opportunity to get together and it was a good day here talking about human health issues and water quality from a state and local perspective. Also on October 18th the Johnson County Family Water Festival is going on with Know Your Watershed at Northwest Junior High. It's a family free event from 10 to 2 at Northwest. You can have your water tested. On Friday night there is actually going to be a jazz concert with Northwest Junior High Jazz Band and West Jazz Band. On Friday October 17th a bunch of local sponsors including the City of Iowa City, the City of Coralville, and Hawkeye State Bank is going to be sponsoring the jazz contest and we appreciate that. A couple of other things, I attended the MH/DD workgroup meeting this afternoon. They're reviewing the budget as we approach submitting another budget. There is some concern has been raised about some counties not paying for people that live in Johnson County for services, in particular mental health services. We have people that live here in Johnson County, but might be from another county and there is growing concern about the costs of that. I want to thank Tom Slockett and his staff downstairs for the election coverage on Tuesday night. They had the results up by 17 minutes after 8:00 when the polls closed at 8 and they're back to providing live coverage on cable. They did a great job with that. I was at home at 5 after 8 and see the results on the screen as they posted them right downstairs. Bob Hardy was also helpful to that. Finally, I got a call yesterday from Vice President Gore, oddly enough, I was kind of shocked by that. I got a call that said Vice President Gore wants to talk to you, and I thought well what's he want to talk to me about. So he called back and we visited and I told him I had just come out of a meeting on performance-based budgeting. He said that's a great thing. You guys are on track with that. The Federal government is into that, reinventing government. He did have a concern whether we needed one full time or a part time person to help us implement that.
Lacina: Then he invited you up for coffee. Yes, we know.
Bolkcom: We talked about a number of things, but it was very nice to talk the Vice President. He ended the conversation by saying is there anything I can do for you. I said well it was just nice to get the call, I didn't have any quick response on any federal grant or... So that's my report.
Stutsman: Good reports from everybody. Well we have a few minutes before 6:00 so...
Jordahl: One thing that should get mentioned is the cleanup week runs through Saturday. So people want to do cleanup around the place and get out to the landfill; this is the end of the week.
Bolkcom: Saturday the 11th.
Jordahl: Saturday the 11th.
Lacina: It's a maximum of 1,000 pounds, not 1,000 pounds a time. I've been asked that question.
Stutsman: Oh, good point.
Bolkcom: For rural residents only.
Stutsman: Anne did you have anything? Report from the County Attorney's office?
Assistant County Attorney Anne Lahey: I didn't have anything.
Stutsman: OK, we will adjourn the informal meeting.
Adjourned at 5:53 p.m.
Attest: Tom Slockett, Auditor
By Melinda McCleary and Casie Parkins, Recording Secretaries