MINUTES OF THE INFORMAL MEETING OF THE JOHNSON COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS:
OCTOBER 28 AND 30, 1997
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chairperson Stutsman called the Johnson County Board of Supervisors to order in the Johnson County Administration Building at 9:05 a.m. Members present were: Joseph Bolkcom, Charles Duffy, Jonathan Jordahl, Stephen Lacina, and Sally Stutsman.
Stutsman: Review of the formal minutes for October 23rd. Any comments or corrections or changes? If not we'll put those on for Thursday. Business from Jason Wessels and Gina Cole for Digital Communications, are they just not here yet?
Administrative Assistant Carol Peters: They're scheduled at 9:30.
Stutsman: Oh, 9:30. OK.
Duffy: There goes our meeting.
Peters: There goes your meeting.
Stutsman: Yes, let's move on to business from the Board of Supervisors and letter from John Yapp Associate Planner for the City of Iowa City and this is regarding a voluntary annexation of 2.81 acres of property located southeast of the intersection of Highway 1 and Naples Avenue. We have a letter attached to the agenda concerning this. It's my understanding that John is not going to be here this morning Carol, that it's just...
Peters: No. I put this on just so everybody is aware that it is in the office.
Stutsman: OK.
Peters: If you have any comments.
Lacina: We're not empowered to do anything other than just comment too. I think they can take action whatever we do.
Stutsman: Right.
Bolkcom: So is this the monument business? Which business is it? Is it right on...
Lacina: This is the one by Miller's Monument Company, but I think it's across the road on the, well the map shows it.
Bolkcom: It's on the north side.
Lacina: On the east side. That corner.
Bolkcom: I'm having trouble following this map.
Stutsman: Yes, I guess I was too. So, do we take any action on this or just acknowledge it.
Duffy: We can't take any action on it I don't think Sally.
Lacina: The only thing we would have is that years ago we negotiated with the DOT and the City when they annexed a portion of that, that in the event it was ever required they would put up a traffic signal and the local people would kick into it. Since it's already in place probably, unless we see a safety concern we just acknowledge we have it. Would that be your recommendation Carol?
Peters: We can write back and say that the Board has (inaudible).
Lacina: Thank you for the information and...
Stutsman: OK, so is that all right to just go ahead and do that then? Carol could you draft a letter and....
DISCUSSION: JOHNSON COUNTY ADMINISTRATION BUILDING SPACE OPTIONS
Stutsman: All right. OK, discussion regarding space options for the Administration Building. Carol, could you call up Deb Conger from the Recorder's Office, because she wanted to be a part of this discussion. After our discussion last Tuesday, Deb reported at the Recorder's Meeting that we were no longer considering the option of going through her office. I wanted to make sure that we were all clear on what we're talking about here. That Deb is under a lot of pressure to continue with her process of redoing that office over there and she basically has put everything on hold until we have made our decision. So now she is ready to go ahead with her plans for that space over there. So I want to make sure that we realize that that probably is not going to be an option to us anymore to use that Recorder's Office and make sure that that's where everybody is at right now, as far as space for the HR person.
Lacina: Before she spends the $28,000 for remodeling would it be prudent to wait and see what the Study Committee outcome is going to be of that office, because if we do a lot of remodeling and then recommendations are made for combination. Or if we do a lot of remodeling and then a new Recorder comes in and decides on a different system, we may have wasted a lot of money. So while I'm not going to take a position on it, I just think it might be premature to spend a lot of money on something that may or may not work in the future.
Jordahl: That's an interesting point.
Stutsman: Can we hold discussion until Deb gets here, because I think it's important that she be here and she's coming?
Peters: Yes.
Stutsman: Why don't we move to reports then until she gets here. Let's see Steve, do you have any reports? I'm trying to start with different people so that...
Lacina: Yesterday Charlie and I went down to Louisa County. We wanted to do a quick drive by of the Muscatine County Recycling Center in light of the fact that we're going to be meeting with Linn County Supervisors and I think discussion of the landfill will be on the agenda. So sometimes it's good to just drop in on those things unannounced and just take a quick look. We didn't go through the tour, but just wanted to see what the outside of the transfer facility looked like and how they keep it up.
Stutsman: It's in Louisa?
Lacina: Well actually it's in Muscatine, we went on down into Louisa as well to look at some stuff.
Stutsman: Oh, OK. I see.
Lacina: We were all over the Southern part of the County looking at roads and comparing snow removal and of course they didn't have the snow farther down there, surprisingly, that we did. But it was impressive to look at that facility. I mean you wouldn't know what it was, unless you really went into it. They do a really nice job at keeping it clean and...
Stutsman: You're talking about the one in Muscatine?
Lacina: Right.
Stutsman: Yes, no flies. No litter on the outside. Yes, you don't even know it's a transfer station. I went down there a year ago and it's pretty surprising.
Lacina: The amazing thing to me is they get a lot of broken jars and tomato waste from Heinz's and the surrounding manufacturing areas of fluid, but still in the summer they have to add liquid to it to hold the dust down. I would have just assumed that with that garbage repackaging there would be a lot of fluid and flies and stuff. They actually have masks on and then filters on the equipment to keep the dust out. It's really not what I had perceived it would be. It was really interesting and that was from our tour we took a long time ago. I thought the roads looked good. Again, our county does and excellent job on the roads. I don't know Charlie if you had anything to add on that.
Duffy: Well I think they did especially yesterday, that the County Road workers were out early in the morning getting those roads cleaned up for the school buses. I noticed some of the other roads that weren't county roads, not to be a little critical, weren't worked over yet. The storm did a lot of damage to trees and sometimes there were limbs down in the roadway. Well, it's about like it is in town here. They did a good job.
Lacina: But to keep it short, the Road Department does do a great job.
Stutsman: Yes.
Duffy: Yes.
DISCUSSION: JOHNSON COUNTY ADMINISTRATION BUILDING SPACE OPTIONS
Stutsman: Deb is with us now, so we'll go back to our discussion about the space options. Deb I just told the Board that... Recapped our conversation from last week where you want to go ahead with your plans and basically have put everything on hold waiting for our decision as far as the Recorder's Office space that you had initially offered to the Board. Steve, you had a question about whether your plans should go ahead in view of the fact that we haven't had a final recommendation from the Recorder Study Committee and that would have an impact on what you're doing in the office.
County Recorder Deborah Conger: Your plans for taking the space.
Stutsman: Well, your plans for going ahead with the, and it's not really a remodeling, it's an updating of the computer system and things in your office.
Conger: Well, that might be a concern, but I feel like we are moving into a document management mode, so whether we do it now or whether we do it a year from now, it is going to happen. The Recorder's Office is the pilot for this project and so to me it makes sense to move ahead with it regardless of whether the office is consolidated, because that work will still need to be done. We have the money to do it. It's been budgeted. To me it makes sense to move ahead with it. Consolidation does not affect the actual work flow.
Stutsman: Uh-huh. It wouldn't, because I think that's what we constantly get confused at.
Conger: Now the question is if the work is going to be moved from upstairs here into another office the kind of desk set up that we're going to have may not fit into another space. You know, because of the way we have it arranged up here. So that might be a concern. You know if the work would actually be moved, if that space is going to continue as the place where the documents are recorded, regardless of whether there is a Recorder position or not, then I think it's not going to impact that.
Stutsman: So basically you're going to withdraw your offer for moving into the Recorder's Office.
Conger: Uh-huh. Basically, because we cannot find an alternative that seems to work out for putting an office somewhere else on the floor. It's just not... Putting it in the corner does not work well, putting it out in front of the windows there, the staff are not happy with any of those solutions. It seems to me like we've been going back and forth on this. I'm afraid that waiting for you to come to a decision on it is going to... You know maybe 2 years from now, if we're going to wait totally to do anything until you come to a decision, it could be 18 months, 24 months, before anything is actually decided on this. That's my concern, is if we are going to move ahead with document management and we're talking about a pilot project that begins in the Recorder's Office, it is going to extend to all of the rest of the county ultimately, then I would like to get started on that and get moving on it. That's the direction we've been headed so far is toward that. We're out of storage space, like I said, we don't have a lot of room to move and to continue on the way we're going with working on paper documents.
Lacina: I could see the need to, you've got some non-reproducible paper that you use to print birth certificates and documents that are not to be copied and they're issued on a page by page basis that you want security, so that somebody doesn't steal them, because the paper is considered valuable. But the other thing that I guess, so I can see the need for security to be able to lock some of that stuff up somewhere or personnel files. But in the remodeling on the electronic side, I just would encourage you, if you can to run the wire through the ceiling with the hub then coming down to the different desks, as opposed to going under the floor. Because in the event that the desks and everything are reconfigured, you can change a drop up above, go a little longer or a little shorter, but if you run them through the floor you run 2 risks. One is with flat cable, people walking on it in time is going to break it and then number 2, you're constantly messing with the carpet if you do reconfigure the office for space. Now I don't know how that works as far as the layout of the office, maybe that's not a good idea, but it just...
Conger: I don't think it's a good solution to have 7 wires coming down from the ceiling.
Lacina: Right, but you can come down several points from the ceiling to a distribution point to run out a short distance. As opposed to just running everything under the floor.
Conger: Hopefully if we do this it is not something that is going to be changed in 2 years. I would like to have a plan that is going to grow with us, so that 5 years from now we're not going to be talking about doing a whole new configure, you know reconfiguring it. Maybe that's not realistic. Going under the floor with the carpet, Pat Langenberg and Information Services, we've all had conversations about this, they have coverings for the computer electronic part of it that's not damaged by walking over it like it used to be. I mean they've got systems now where those wires can be protected. So it's not the issue that it was, because right now we have been dealing with the telephone wires under the floor that were not constructed properly and so now our phone system is marginal sometimes.
Lacina: Last fall we had a similar problem here, they were taking up the carpet, because we had a wire that was tromped on.
Conger: I think the technology for that now, they've been able to provide casings for that electronics, that supposedly you can roll chairs over and walk over and whatever and it's not going to damage it. I am thinking about an under carpet system whether than coming down.
Jordahl: Well Deb, you have this prospect that Steve is talking about here that I think all of us are interested in is whether the office is going to be consolidated or not. Yet we have the clear need to move ahead with document management. So I think it maybe would be useful to try and see these separately and see that I think we affirm, at least I do, and I hope the Board is in agreement with the idea of moving forward with document management. But it is an interesting question and I assume it's been part of your thinking, say OK, what if the office is consolidated? What if it moves? Just as we are saying let's not knock down walls and require people to build other offices and spend 10s of thousands of dollars to accommodate a situation that may change.
Conger: I agree with that.
Jordahl: Let's look at a low cost way of implementing the useful changes and then see what, and I don't think the whole question is going to be decided by the Recorder Study Committee, but rather whether this becomes a ballot item or whatever in the future, what the ultimate disposition of the office is. It may take a number of months beyond that. It makes sense to do what we need to do technologically without doing things that are maybe optional and expensive. So within that framework how does the project that you propose divide out? Are you seeing this as only what's minimally required or is there some sort of office reconfiguration, furniture purchasing kind of... I mean I know we've talked somewhat about new desks and new locations and so forth.
Conger: For document management to move ahead we do need a different kind of a set up in our office, because right now the desks do not accommodate computers. They're old desks and so what it means is somebody sitting this way with the keyboard over here and looking at the monitor over here. Carol has got the same problem in her office, because the desk is not physically wide enough to put the monitor and the keyboard on that section. So you have somebody typing like this for 8 hours a day and you're going to end up with employees with health problems. That's my perception of it and having worked in this kind of stuff for a long time I know that those kinds of concerns are something that we need to think about. So I think that when you're talking about going from a non-computerized office to a computerized office you really need to have the furniture that goes along with that and accommodates it. I'm talking about chairs as well as desks.
Jordahl: Uh-huh. So you're talking about really...
Conger: Ergonomic concerns. Ergonomics.
Jordahl: Ergonomics or sort of health concerns associated with computerization rather than architectural concerns associated with in some way refurbishing the office. Is that legitimate?
Lacina: Well it's updating... We've never had document imaging, so some of this stuff, the jukeboxes and stuff, the wiring requirements, everything from the surge protection, so that lightning doesn't come in, which it did yesterday, and do some damage in the building and shut some things down... All of that stuff we've never had before and so there will need to be some physical changes just to provide space for that stuff and that function.
Stutsman: But that point is is that Deb needs to move ahead with this. She's been on hold with this, so I guess basically Deb is going to move ahead with this and we can no longer consider that space as an option to addressing our space needs. So I think that the Board needs to be aware that one of our options is no longer available and that's going into the Recorder's Office.
Conger: My recommendation at this point is because we're dealing with the consolidation issue and we don't know which way it's going to go, to me it does not make sense to take that office, build me another one, spend the time and money to do that when in November of '98 it could be voted into consolidate the office. So I'm not sure that in the long run it's a wise spending of money.
Jordahl: In terms of a little more global solution too, as we've been speaking with the architect about possibilities for addressing space needs in other offices, including the Board of Supervisors Office, it may be that the solution to our Human Resources position's office space needs and other needs are going to be addressed in some other way, again seen in a context of the Recorder being consolidated or not.
Lacina: I have been attending the Recorder's meetings and next meeting they do intend to take a straw poll which will give an indication of where the committee sets. So we should know in the next 2 or 3 weeks of what their opinion is. Now I do expect it to go on the ballot. There's an element that will not give this up, in my opinion versus whatever the committee does, but we should know in about a month what their position will be.
Stutsman: But I think the point is that I think there's certain things that need to be done in that office regardless of what happens with the Recorder.
Conger: I don't think it all hinges on a consolidation issue myself. I think document management is the other part of this and that's an ongoing thing regardless of the consolidation issue, that's how I see it.
Lacina: That will be a function that will be used by all of the departments in time as they electronically change their documents.
Conger: That's right.
Stutsman: Charlie, did you have a comment.
Duffy: I like to call a spade a spade. It looks like I've got support now for not breaking into your office and I was the only one up here that said don't do it. I don't like to break into people's offices. You yourself told me you'd like to have another office. I thought you were for it, but now your against it. I think we ought to leave politics out of this. Space needs in this county are indeed a real big problem and there's people to move ahead with your program, you're really jumping over some of the other folks. For example up at the Courthouse, the space needs up there are tremendous. We've got Human Services, Health Department, we could on and on. So anything we don't need right now, I guess can see that I'd just go a little careful. Again I see all of this money, oh we've got that in our budget. It looks to me like we overbudgeted some of this.
Stutsman: Well this has been money that's been budgeted for years Charlie. That's...
Duffy: To give give you a short answer here, but I'm glad somebody agrees with me on some of these things because it really surprises me. It looks like I'm going to have a good day now. But does that mean we're heading north now? Breaking in, I see our City Assessor is here.
Stutsman: I don't think we're talking about any other office.
Bolkcom: I don't like the terminology being used here Charlie. Breaking in. I don't think anybody is breaking into any... We have keys to all of the doors.
Lacina: Well kind of in summary...
Duffy: I mean are we heading...
Stutsman: No. I'm just saying that I think this is going to be something that we are going to have to continue to deal with. One of our options is no longer available and so I think we're just going to have to wait to see what the architect comes up with. Basically it's forcing us to make some long-term decisions about some of these things. I think that it's just...
Duffy: What if our architect says to do it?
Lacina: Well, but there's 2 aspects that we're looking at here. One is on the short-term. The Treasurer's allowed us to go downstairs with the HR function. Now compounding a problem with that will be support staff. I think we may need some temporary assistance for our office, because given yesterday and the volume of phone calls we received with one individual out, we still a lot of the phone calls were rolling to us. We're going to need some help doing letters, doing things for the HR function who will be out getting some training, getting up to speed on the FMLA laws and those types of things, somebody to answer the phone when the phone comes in rolls to whoever the help is. So I think that's one issue we needed to realize, we'll need a little bit of support help there. The long term issue is we need to continue with a space needs study to see if our best investment is in this building, if it is the beginning of an office complex up at the Courthouse, if it's looking for an investment in a smaller building off-site for us, but to give us options for that long term investment, which I think Mr. Dobberstein and Pat and the committee that you guys serve on are doing that right?
Stutsman: Right?
Lacina: So in the short term are we covered with the exception of some part-time help.
Stutsman: Yes, I did look at the space across from the Treasurer's Office, the mail room. Short-term I think that will work. I don't know if anybody else on the Board has seen it.
Jordahl: Yes I have.
Bolkcom: That's fine.
Stutsman: It's not ideal, but I think it will work and that's the way we'll go short-term.
Duffy: Do we have to remodel that office?
Bolkcom: Put a desk in there.
Stutsman: I think that's...
Lacina: But all of the personal files are still going to have to reside up here right?
Peters: We don't have any phone lines or computer lines in there yet.
Lacina: But the personnel files then will reside up here, so they're going to be going up and down. I mean we're really looking I think short term, maybe a year or so, but in the long run start looking at the total need.
Bolkcom: There' s a lot of shelf space and drawer space. I don't know if...
Stutsman: But those probably need to be locked.
Bolkcom: Right. A conversion..
Stutsman: I don't know if Pat can put locks on those things or not.
Peters: (inaudible).
Stutsman: Maybe there are Carol. I didn't look but that... OK.
Jordahl: Charlie raised a question here a minute ago that I think needs to be heard with regard to whether the Recorder's Office is off limits or not. I don't think we're making the decision that the Recorder's Office space is off limits, but rather that we're going to look at space needs county wide in a somewhat longer term. I don't think anybody's office is off limits in that framework. We're going to look at the general County needs and try and meet them as best we can. Is that accurate?
Stutsman: I wanted to clarify too this $28,000. This is an amount that you get from fees from documents that you generate out of your office that has been put into a fund over the years. So it's not really an item that we tax for.
Conger: Right.
Stutsman: So it's just money that's...
Conger: It's a document tax. To me that's going a little bit far. It's automation. It's called an automation account. For every document that comes across our counter there's a one dollar fee attached to that. That goes into a fund for automating Recorder's Offices. What that means is computerizing them essentially, moving into the kind of thing that we're talking about moving into. The other point I would like to make is that with this renovation plan if my office, if my personal office, is not taken by the Supervisor's or for this Human Resources position, then the way we've configured that out there is not going to allow for an office in the future to be out on the floor the way it's configured. So it does make the problem in the future if you would decide yes we do need the Recorder's office and we're going to move it someplace else, because the question is going to be where are you going to move it out there.
Jordahl: That goes back to the question of what happens if the office is consolidated. That it's reasonable to assume that there might be some movement that would follow on consolidation and yet the Recorder's Office, in part because of this existing budget that you're mentioning for automation of your functions, so it makes sense technologically to advance the Recorder's Office to deal with some of the volume of workflow that is associated with vital statistics, but it is on the other hand to the extent that the changes that are required are permanent or are of the nature of permanent changes, in other words that they would be expensive to change, it's problematic to invest those moneys because the situation may change. So we want to, I think what I'm trying to say, we should focus in on those changes that need to be made versus permanent changes that would be expensive to fix that maybe don't need to be made. I'm not trying to highlight any particular...
Conger: I definitely agree with that. That's why I changed my position here, is because I do see if the office is consolidated and right now we know in November of '97 we do a bunch of construction over there and spend $20,000 to do that, it is a waste of money and I just don't... If it's not consolidated, then you're fine, and it would have made it sense to do it But at this point we don't know which way it's going to go and I'm personally not in favor of spending the money to do a construction project based on future vote that could make it unnecessary.
Lacina: Compounding the problem is if the State ever gets their act together, you've got requirements as far as being able to tap into the State's system and they were going to impose this the first of July with vital statistics. You were supposed to have a security-based system where you could tap in and look at records. Well their programming is so goofed up, because they were going to be monitoring who tapped in and who had access and it just failed miserably. But if they come back down with this and we're required to do it it will...
Conger: January 1st they're supposed to have it as far as they can go.
Lacina: But the $101,000, and the balance in that account, we do have to start looking at what it's going to take so that we are compatible with the State. John, the previous Recorder, had set money aside which is in the budget so that you're allowed to spend that to move it forward.
Conger: Basically just means a dedicated phone line and a computer in order to talk with the Department of Public Health. It's not going to mean a lot in addition to that as I understand it.
Lacina: Their software... Originally they were so concerned about security that they would monitor who was on it, how long, and for what purpose so somebody just didn't tap in and start snooping and apparently the software is really messed up.
Stutsman: We're going to have to move on, so I think that...
Conger: OK, can we just sum up where we are at this point?
Jordahl: If I may enter a summary, a reflection here. I think the decision is coming around to I think a fairly responsible one of lets spend as little as we need to to do what we need to do for the time being to modernize the functions of the Recorder's Office and the Board of Supervisors is backing away from making more expensive changes until we have the space needs study as a whole addressed. Is that accurate?
Stutsman: Right.
Duffy: Sally?
Stutsman: Quickly Charlie, we need to move on.
Duffy: I agree with you. But this is important. I agree and which way it goes I'm still not for breaking into your office. I think you need the space there and I said that right at the start. I haven't changed.
Stutsman: Are we all pretty much in agreement then with Jonathan's summary?
Jordahl: Well, I think maybe Charlie wants to hear me say it, and I will say it, you were right.
Duffy: OK. Thank you.
Stutsman: OK. Thank you Deb.
Stutsman: Jason Wells and Gina Cole from Digital communications. Presentation of communication systems and recommendations from the Board of Supervisors. Good morning.
Digital Communications Representative Gina Cole: Thanks good morning. I'm Gina Cole and actually this is Scott Grove.
Stutsman: Oh, OK. Sorry about that.
Peters: That's my fault. I'm sorry.
Digital Communications Representative Scott Grove: That's all right. I go by a lot of names.
Jordahl: Uh-oh. Right in the forehead.
Grove: You're on Jonathan.
Jordahl: Maybe I'll move. Who needs the screen?
Cole: Well, let me just throw one up there and see where we're at. I'll just start by mentioning some things about Digital Communications. We have been your vendor for communications since 1984 and we have provided some information for you for budgetary reasons. There are 3 different proposals for you that we have. The first proposal is for voice processing for the Supervisors. What I'll do on each of the 3 proposals is just go through for you what the objectives are and then some pricing information on those. For those of you that don't know, Digital Communications, actually we're a subsidiary, a wholly owned subsidiary, of McLeod and we started out as Teleconnect so we've been around since 1979. This first proposal would be for a voice processing system with an option for automated attendant. That's a fancy word for what probably a lot of you are familiar with to have an automated system, a computer answer the phone for you and help guide people through the system. You can design the system so that it will do that, you can also design the system, so that a live person will answer the phone, so there's some different options available. What it really provides is a way for people to leave messages 24 hours a day and also within the system you can route some of the callers friends and family, frequent callers right to people's individual extensions rather than having to go through our main answering position. We refer to that as a backdoor number so those people would have a different phone number and then of course part of our service is very thorough training. We have people that come out and train everybody on how to use the system, because we believe that that's essential to you gaining the benefit of a system. The automated attendant is of course, you can when you call in, you'll probably remember calling some different businesses and you'll say dial your parties extension or dial the first 3 letters of a subscribers name and that's how you get into the system. It also gives you different, you always have the option to dial zero for the operator if your unfamiliar with the system or the caller is unfamiliar with the system and it also gives you different greetings for holidays. You can program the system to indicate that it's a holiday period. This is actually the equipment list. We call it an active voice replay processing system with 2 ports. That means that 2 people can call into that system at any time. They can either be calling in or retrieving messages. In order to make this proposal work you would need two additional telephone lines and that would be for the 2 ports. That is to actually get your system up-to-date. Your system when it was installed and I don't remember the year it was installed, but it wasn't really a system that was designed for voice mail, so in order to get the system to access a voice mail 2 additional lines would have to be installed and then the monitor and keyboard would be for any kind of programming changes. Then there's some pricing information on the bottom for some auto-conferencing speaker phones and some various different options there.
Lacina: Are those one-time, annual or what?
Cole: Yes.
Grove: One-time purchase. That was addressing a request information for some conferencing and speaker phone capabilities within this.
Cole: Please stop me if you have any questions.
Jordahl: Well I wanted to amplify that point. Specifically with regard to amplification Steve. From my experience of calling in from Nashville, it was kind of a struggle to hear what was going on in here or I guess to be here I wasn't in the room to experience that. So I raised that question when we met a week or so ago with these folks, Carol and I did. They indicated that it would make it inexpensive to wire these phones directly into our present amplifier, so that voice from the phone could be heard readily in the back of the room and that similarly a microphone might be dropped from the ceiling to pick up voices of people in the audience that wanted to address the meeting and could then again be heard by a person on the other end of the speaker phone, so it would be a little bit more functional of a situation for somebody that wanted to participate in a meeting long distance.
Lacina: But your bid does not include that physical connection right?
Grove: No a microphone would basically be an extension of what you have to interface it into the telephone system. The access is there, it would be a matter of running a wire from that box right there back to the equipment room.
Lacina: That portion of it is in this bid?
Grove: No. That came up last week and your probably looking at $80 to do that.
Cole: The next page will get into the pricing a little bit more. That was just an option that we presented to you. We weren't sure which direction you would go on that. This will give you an idea on the pricing. I have to think backwards with these overheads. I'm not used to that.
Lacina: All 3 of the proposals have the reference to the plus the applicable sales tax and since we don't pay tax, I guess the question as I went through the proposals to look at the numbers is what is that?
Grove: There is no applicable sales tax to government entities so...
Lacina: So the 3 lines that you put in there, that would be the installation systems cost, cost of the installation of the system as opposed to that tax portion.
Grove: There is no tax included in these prices.
Lacina: Right.
Grove: It's kind of a boiler plate that we use.
Lacina: For all bids. Right, thank you.
Cole: The first section is some lease payments. These are just examples only. We go through Great America. You can choose to lease a system however you like. This is based upon a $1 dollar purchase option and I just breaks down as some payments. Give you some ideas on that. Then it also gives you the total system cost and then we break it down with different payments as the installation progresses.
Jordahl: I'm just curious here why you call it a lease arrangement, when it seems to be per payments to purchase.
Cole: You would actually own the system at the end of the lease period with a one dollar (inaudible).
Jordahl: So characteristically a lease means you don't own the system at the end of a lease and this one it does so why don't you just call it payments.
Grove: Within the world of leasing there are 3 different types of leasing. There is a one dollar buyout, a fair market value buyout or a structured percentage of purchase options. So different leases carry different terms and on a one dollar buyout it is a purchase option. So from a tax standpoint it is not an expense but a capital expenditure with a structured buyout, with a given one dollar buyout it is then a capital expenditure. We just put it in there for reference purposes depending on how you do your taxes and things like that. Whether you depreciate would determine the type of lease that you would want.
Jordahl: Steve do you understand that?
Lacina: Well under a lease, lets say that lightning comes in the first year and blows your system out. You have leased that equipment and depending upon if we extend it or not, you would have to come in and replace it, as opposed to if we buy it lightning comes in and blows it out, we go out and we have to replace the system. So a lease option purchase at the end, which we do some of the equipment at Secondary Roads gives us certain protections and at times we're also able to roll forward and update the systems before we come into that last dollar and extend it out. It also helps stretch those payments out over time. So there are advantages and disadvantages but of our purpose in the budget it's probably better to lease option purchase. But what it is it's like installment payments.
Jordahl: It's a lot clearer now.
?: How much interest do you charge?
Cole: I don't know what it is exactly. There's a factor that's multiplied out based upon the total purchase price but you can take 12 times 252 and find out what the total price was.
Grove: On this dollar value I think it's around 11%.
Cole: Do you have any questions on the first proposal before I go onto the number 2 option.
Lacina: So total dollar expended per year under option one is $2,692?
Cole: Right.
Lacina: Unless we go into the extended warranty? We have a warranty for one year under this option and if we went the extension we'd pay another $230.
Cole: Right.
Peters: Gina?
Cole: I think it's down here at the bottom, sorry. That's the extended service agreement, the annual rate of $230 after the first year.
Lacina: Oh, OK, thanks.
Peters: Before you go into the first proposal I just wanted to remind the Board that what you had requested originally was to visit with different companies regarding voice mail for our office and then it was extended to perhaps voice mail for the other phones that are on our subsystem, so to say. We have a system and within that system we have 4 subsystems. Then the third option, they proposed just to give you a guideline of what it would look like if you were purchasing a total package, a total new telephone system. So I just kind of wanted to remind the Board that this is exactly what we're looking at, so that's why you have 3 different proposals to be considered today. I should have said that in the beginning.
Bolkcom: I had a question about the automated features here, attendant, and whether or not that's the kind of thing that can be turned off or turned on at will.
Cole: You can set up your system any way you would like to have it. If you want to have an automated attendant, you can have that. If you want to just use it for messaging purposes, you can do that as well.
Bolkcom: I'm not in favor of having an automated system, of having a computer voice answer a phone. But there might be times after 4:00 or after we close that we'd be able to turn it off and on is what I wanted to know.
Cole: You can put it in a night mode and you can have an automated attend it at those periods of time so your still getting those phone calls, but have the personal touch during the day.
Lacina: Can you also roll forward to another number?
Cole: Uh-huh.
Jordahl: And specify that individually that if each night I wanted to call forwarded to my home, I could be at a different number
Lacina: Or if we were at a conference or if we had a cell phone for example, which Linn County does. They're up there on important issues, they'll roll the numbers forward. Like when they were negotiating some contracts so that would be a nice feature.
Cole: There's a lot of programming options and before we actually install a system we sit down and go through some of those options with you as well.
Jordahl: I'm always kind of, I guess not real knowledgeable about these different financial options here and when it says here cut over day that's something I'm not familiar with. Can that be explained briefly.
Cole: That's when we actually install the equipment, we call that a cut over.
Grove: A better term might be date of acceptance. After everybody's been trained and the system is up and running, you sign off on that.
Jordahl: OK.
Grove: We send you an invoice.
Cole: The reason we have that small number at the bottom is just in case, I can't imagine many changes in just a voice processing system, but if we were installing a phone system and you decided you wanted one more phone or you wanted one less phone or that type of thing that's the reason that that small number is at the bottom for any adjustments that are made in the process.
Lacina: One thing I think we do want to look at is flexibility of the system. As we're talking about technology and the idea of off-site businesses, realtors wanting to check on taxes or go in and look at in the future assessment rolls in the Assessors Office or to see if prior to closing, if taxes are paid are owed, we're going to need a communications system as opposed to a telephone system. So that people can see documents, download a GIS system and maps. I would assume that this installation would be digitally compatible with what we have and we would probably want to run this past Information Services just to see if there's some communication component that we need to add.
Grove: We did speak with, Carolyn help me out, Jean Schultz.
Lacina: Jean Schultz.
Peters: Jean Schultz.
Lacina: OK. Very good.
Grove: In regards to what you have existing and we're kind of a standard platform. We can run off of a TCP/IP Application or an IPX. So we're comfortable with whatever you have, if you go to an NT, we can write the code into that, write the hooks to access any of that information.
Lacina: Good. Then you covered it. Thank you.
Cole: Anything else before we go on to number 2? This was, proposal number 2 was for a new phone system with voice processing for the Supervisor, Zoning and Recorder's Offices. So this will involve changing the phone system as well. What you had mentioned Stephen was that equipment being up-gradeable, the latest features and functions that will take you forward into the future and providing a voice mail system for all the offices as well.
Peters: But there again this is just for those offices that are on our subset of the total system.
Bolkcom: These 2 offices.
Peters: Yes.
Bolkcom: So you said there are 4 subsets?
Peters: Uh-huh.
Bolkcom: The other offices will be on other subsets.
Peters: Yes.
Lacina: Proposal 2 would build on Proposal 1 in that if we took one in time we could roll number 2 into it.
Grove: Yes or 3 for that matter, as we go into that.
Lacina: OK.
Grove: The phone system that we're proposing in Proposal 2 is up-gradeable or basically the same system that we're proposing for option 3 which is an entire new system for this building. So if we started small it is expandable utilizing the same circuit board, the same telephone, and the same everything to take it to a...
Lacina: Higher level. Carol correct me if I'm wrong but when we did DHS they eliminated physically their phones, because they were obsolete. Ours are also obsolete as far as parts right? We're cannibalizing in order to keep ours functioning.
Peters: Right. Actually I mentioned last year at budget time and I'll mention it again this year at budget time, I think you're at a point where you need to look for a whole new system for this building. Specifically so that you can have those functions available to you that you had just mentioned.
Lacina: Was this system used or old when we bought it?
Peters: This one was a new one.
Lacina: This was new? Oh, OK.
Grove: I think it went in in 84.
Peters: 86.
Grove: 86?
Peters: Yes.
Lacina: OK.
Peters: The one at DHS, not the one they have now, but the prior one had been a used system.
Lacina: OK, that's what I'm thinking of.
Duffy: That didn't work very good out there either at DHS.
Peters: It worked for quite a while.
Duffy: I mean the old system.
Cole: This is actually the equipment list. The first line is the Telegrad Digital 128 Telephone System. That is a system designed with your size in mind as far as having 16 central office lines. It's kind of a big word, but it's capable of handling 16 lines and 32 phones. It also has 16 analog ports, which would be for faxes, modems, ports for voice mail. The next 3 items listed there are part of the actual telephone system. The expansion cabinet is just to hold the number of electronic, or I should say cards that are in the system, the things that make the system work. We put in this proposal 20 display speaker phones. Then the active voice replay plus voice processing system. This is bigger than Proposal 1. It has 8 ports, which means that 8 people can get into the system at any one time.
Jordahl: Let me amplify on that if I may. There are 2 regards here, this 16 central office lines with 32 station ports, that means you could have 32 phones hooked up but you could only have 16 phone conversations going on at one time. When you come down here to the active voice replay plus voice processing system with 8 ports that means people either leaving messages on your voice mail or you picking up messages from your voice mail. Only 8 instances of that can occur simultaneously.
Bolkcom: It doesn't seem like very many.
Lacina: Well, what do we have now 3?
?: (Inaudible)
Lacina: Well for us.
Bolkcom: This is for 3 offices.
Jordahl: This is for 3 offices here.
Peters: Yes this is for 3 offices. I'm trying to recall.
Grove: I think we had, currently with all 3, Supervisors, Zoning, and Recorder's Office, I think we were at 11 incoming lines now.
Peters: No, it would be less than that. We have 3 incoming here. The Recorder has 3 and..
Planning and Zoning Administrator Rick Dvorak: We have 2.
Peters: ...you have 2.
Grove: OK.
Peters: So it would be 8.
Lacina: So there would be no change then.
Grove: No.
Lacina: OK.
Grove: But we have the system equipped to go to 16. When you add the 17th one Stephen, we would have to add a certain card.
Peters: We do that now with the system that we have. When somebody needs an additional line, you're going to have to help me here Scott, when someone needs an additional line and all the lines, or not a line, an extension. They need another phone. Or let's say they do need another line for their office. In our little subunits that we have, if all the lines are being utilized we have to purchase another card, an additional card, to facilitate another line or an extension. We do that now and that's what he's saying. These are built so that they can be added on to.
Lacina: So when we... We had some trouble with the security lines, what I think the elevator is wired in case of an emergency or a jam and then the heat system for this building in case it goes down and the jail. Is that a different system in those lines as opposed to these 8?
Grove: Those lines are not affiliated with the telephone system.
Lacina: OK.
Peters: They're affiliated with the Centrex Plus System. They're not affiliated with the phones that we have in this building.
Lacina: So they're dedicated to other use.
Peters: They're wired a completely different way. Because like when those had to be moved, we didn't contact Digital at all. It was U.S. West that needed to be contacted. You can thank Judge Green for all of this by the way.
Lacina: Deregulation.
Peters: Yes.
Jordahl: There was one feature that was in my notes for the upcoming Proposal number 3 that if we wanted to add lines beyond 16 we have to add a card. The dollar amount that came up per our earlier discussion was that each card gives us 8 new lines. Right? That will cost us $700 for each 8 new lines. Let's see here and each line is approximately $30. So $30 plus an 8th of 700 to add lines.
Peters: OK. Now the $30 for the line. That is an actual line to the outside. It's for the Centrex System.
Jordahl: So that's the...
Cole: The service.
Bolkcom: That's the cost to the telephone company for the service.
Peters: Yes.
Stutsman: On a monthly basis. $30?
Peters: Yes. But we do not have an additional line for each phone. So...
Jordahl: No, we could add any number, well not any number, we could add roughly twice the number of phones as lines. Is that a limiting figure or is that just arbitrary?
Grove: That's your configuration. Different companies have different configurations.
Jordahl: We could have 500 phones for one line. It's just a question of how crowded we wanted to be.
Grove: Sure. How many people you wanted to talk to.
Bolkcom: So if we have 8 lines now between these 3 offices, are we doubling that to 16 lines?
Grove: All we are doing is putting the capacity in there for you to grow.
Bolkcom: To have 16 lines.
Grove: Yes. We would put the circuit cards in there for 16, if you only utilized 8, you would only pay for 8.
Bolkcom: OK.
Jordahl: But currently we have 12 though?
Stutsman: I thought we said we had 8.
Bolkcom: We just said 8.
Jordahl: But last week we said we had 12, so I'm just... I don't know what the facts are here. I'm just kind of asking what the facts are.
Bolkcom: Carol said there's 3 here, 3 in the Recorder, and 2 in Zoning.
Grove: Yes.
Bolkcom: So that's 8. Unless there's another office being included.
Jordahl: So is we have 8, that 16 gives us significantly more capacity where the 12 seemed to me like it was kind of tight.
Stutsman: But each time we add on we add on $700 plus $30 a month. Is that right?
Grove: The circuit board that goes into the phone system supports 8 lines.
Stutsman: Right, but if we wanted to add more lines?
Grove: If you wanted to add a 9th line, I'm going to add a circuit card for $700. Then that 9th line costs you to U.S. West $30 a month.
Jordahl: But you have the capacity to add another 7 lines at $30 a month each without adding another card.
Grove: Yes. That's correct.
Bolkcom: If we set it up for 16 there is going to plenty of growth in the system, if we've only got 8 phones now.
Cole: Right. Right. The only thing you would pay for at that point would be for service.
Bolkcom: Right. Right. Back to the number of ports. 8 ports means theoretically 4 people could be calling in for their messages as 4 people leave messages.
Cole: Uh-huh. 8 people can be utilizing it.
Bolkcom: One way or the other.
Cole: Uh-huh.
Bolkcom: OK.
Peters: You know, to just give you an example of how the ports work for voice mail it would be like up at DHS.
Stutsman: Up at what, Carol?
Peters: DHS.
Bolkcom: How many ports do they have and do they have any problems with...
Peters: 2.
Bolkcom: They only have 2?
Peters: Uh-huh.
Grove: You'd be amazed at your average session within voice mail is 7 to 12 seconds. So that's basically one or one and a half ring cycles. So if somebody were trying to call in and all 8 ports were busy, that it may ring one and a half or maybe 2 times before somebody got out of it and then you were selected.
Bolkcom: I see. So 8 is a sufficient number you think.
Grove: Each port will handle, on a multi-port system, if you figure each port will handle about 70 calls an hour.
Bolkcom: That's plenty.
Dvorak: Does this system have the capability of directing phone calls to other offices? In that if we're unable to answer the phone we can direct the phone calls to a different office? Because we frequently try to help out the Board and if they weren't available the phone could automatically kick into my office.
Grove: Sure. That is a function of the phone system itself.
Peters: We actually have that now.
Stutsman: Is that the rollover or whatever?
Peters: No. That's within the system and the trick to that though is if nobody is in this office all 3 of them have to be programmed to kick over.
Dvorak: Oh, so OK. I'm not wanting to do that, but I just wondered if it was possible.
Peters: We'll try not to.
Cole: The telephone pricing is broken down here too so you can see if you wanted to add or subtract you can see where that is going.
Grove: Along those same lines, whether we have 8 or 12 incoming lines now to the 16 we propose 20 telephone sets and the system is equipped to handle 32. So when you add that 33rd phone I need to add a circuit board to the system.
Jordahl: I misunderstood that. I thought when I asked about 500 phones here... That's not the case. If you have 16 incoming lines you're topped out at 32 digital station boards?
Grove: No. I could add another 16 circuit station card, take it to 48, and still maintain your 16.
Jordahl: OK, so the circuit station card is different from the card that respects the 8.
Grove: Yes. Yes.
Jordahl: I'm beginning to get lost.