MINUTES OF THE INFORMAL MEETING OF THE JOHNSON COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS:

DECEMBER 29, 1997

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Deputy Auditor Lynnette Hultman: Overview of County Budget FY99
• Sixth Judicial Chief Juvenile Officer Carol Thompson: Juvenile Justice Administration (27) Budget Requests

Chairperson Stutsman called the Johnson County Board of Supervisors to order in the Johnson County Administration Building at 8:45 a.m. Members present were: Joseph Bolkcom, Charles Duffy, Jonathan Jordahl, Stephen Lacina, and Sally Stutsman.

DEPUTY AUDITOR LYNNETTE HULTMAN: OVERVIEW OF COUNTY BUDGET FY 99

Administrative Assistant Carol Peters reviewed upcoming special meetings for the month of January:

Deputy Auditor Lynnette Hultman proposed a timetable for the budget, with one week allowed for error correction, finalizing the budget on January 30th. Publication will be on February 11th and 12th, the public hearing to be February 26th, and certifying the budget on March 5th. Hultman said publication must be 10 to 20 days before the public hearing. Stutsman and the rest of the Board agreed that it was acceptable, but they will be pushed to complete the budget. Lacina wanted to know about any upcoming budget amendments. Lacina mentioned property tax relief and the money the State will be giving the counties will have to be reduced from the tax asking. Hultman said 50% must be used for property tax relief. Hultman said the total amount was $120,000 from the State. Bolkcom wanted to know fund balances as of June 30,1997 to see where they were projected and where they actually were. Lacina asked for clarification, if encumbering funds stay in the separate departments' fund balances and do not go back to the General Fund. Hultman agreed; in the example of the Secondary Roads Fund, if they did not fully expend their budget, the money would stay in their balance. Hultman said the budget requests were in from departments, except the departments administered by the County Attorney or the Board. Lacina suggested that the Board of Supervisors increase their travel and school budget and Jordahl agreed.

Hultman said all bargaining units that have been settled so far for FY99 have been included. She said that wages, shown on the top of the handout titled Johnson County Funding Requests, were not determined yet for nonbargaining unit people and the Secondary Roads bargaining unit. Lacina was concerned about what the legal costs would be with the Sheriff's Department establishing a union. Hultman was not sure what budget this would go into. Bolkcom recommended that the Board ask County Attorney Pat White what his needs are for establishing the union contract. Lacina said that White had mentioned using incoming Human Resources Administrator Lora Shramek to set it up, but he feels she really needs to be seen as neutral. Stutsman said that the Board should have a work session concerning the new Human Resource position and discuss the Board's priorities for the position. Lacina wanted to know when Shramek will be starting. In reply to his inquiry, Stutsman told Jordahl that Shramek will be in the office across from the Treasurer's Office. Lacina said he offered to donate the Board's color printer for her to use until she gets something of her own. Stutsman said phone lines are set up. Peters said space needs will be put on the agenda for the next day's meeting, as well as priorities for the Human Resource position. Lacina said it would be good to have Shramek involved in the meeting. Stutsman would like to spend time talking about who will supervise her.

Hultman said the handout showing funding requests included figures showing what the new growth increase would be if the property tax limitation law were still in effect. The new growth amount in the General Fund would be $368,840. Rural Fund growth would be $82,399. Bolkcom asked Hultman if she calculated what applying the 2.16% inflation factor would provide in tax askings. Hultman said she did not include that number because that would have come under the unusual needs provision of the former limitation. Hultman did not include a grand total in the budget requests, but they far exceed the growth amount. Hultman stated that if any tax increase over 3 years exceeded the 2.16% inflation factor, the County has to explain why in the budget publication. Stutsman said ISAC was questioning the legality of the procedure because some rules and procedures weren't followed in adopting it. Lacina said to be safe the Board should still follow the requirement for now. Bolkcom wanted to know what the 2.16% calculation would be. Hultman said the amount for a requested wage cost of living increase in the Sheriff's budget is not included in the County Wages and Benefits section.

Stutsman asked about computer requests and Hultman said there are some computer requests in individual departments. Hultman said that the Board will get specific requests from departments with narrative explanations from some of the departments in the budget books. Lacina asked about the transceiver tower the Sheriff and Ambulance use, it may need to be replaced for $24,000. He said they need to check into it. Bolkcom noted that the Sheriff's requests would take up the entire increase. Jordahl responded that it is reasonable that each department would have pent-up need from the budget freeze. Duffy disagreed, and did not think it was the proper time to discuss it. Hultman said the 5 month year-to-date figures are in the budget book. Hultman said the Capital Expenditure Fund and Capital Projects Fund show in parentheses what was budgeted in the current year's budget. Jordahl asked about the Capital Expenditures lines 2 and 3 and Hultman said they are Elections requests. Lacina asked Hultman to add page numbers to the Funding Requests handout and also asked if she could produce the 5 year graphs such as were produced by the former Board Deputy Administrative Assistant. Jordahl stepped out momentarily to get an example of the 5 year graph showing trend lines. Hultman asked how many copies to make of the budget book, and they decided on 8.

Jordahl wanted to know if it would be possible to get the proposed budget on-line. Hultman said the database itself might not be too useful to the public; that the report itself would be better. Jordahl said that it should be available for the public to read only, and maybe the Board could access it and tinker with it on the computer. Stutsman said with the additional burden on Hultman this year, she didn't think they should add to that burden with additional work. Jordahl wants to make progress toward future computerization of the process; it was agreed that this coming month was not the best time to computerize it. Lacina pointed out the graphs and information Slockett produces for the budget hearing and Hultman said last year's presentation is on-line. Jordahl also mentioned the projector and screen were available if Hultman or anyone else wanted to use it. Lacina asked to see what the limit is on the General Basic Fund before they go to the General Supplemental Fund.

Bolkcom asked if there were specific things that department heads should talk about when they present their requests to the Board. One question he saw was breaking out computer technology. Lacina said they should think about what are meaningful measurement indicators during the year to go along with performance based budgeting. He also recommended that the departments prioritize their top 2 or 3 requests; the Board will need to let them know that the State Legislature is going to watch the counties carefully following the elimination of the tax freeze. Stutsman said that the Board should send a memo to department heads so they know to be thinking about what their top 2 or 3 requests are.

Jordahl asked about the Central Technology Budget request for $284,556, which includes the networking plan: wiring fiber optic cable, the frame rely, and servers (interdepartment functions); and replacement of outdated computers. Jordahl thinks the departments should request computer technology in their individual department requests, then the Board will decide whether to include that amount in the Capital Expenditures Budget highlighted for that department or to give it directly to that department in their department budget. Stutsman thought the computer requests would be in one central fund and asked why are they still in separate department budgets. Jordahl said Information Services needs the requests from each department so it knows what the budget amount should be. Bolkcom said the department heads want to have the ability in their own budget to buy computer technology, but the Board is moving toward a central fund to maintain equity. He said Information Services Director Jean Schultz is creating a form for departments to fill out each year to state their technology needs. Stutsman does not want there to be a double taxing in both department and a central technology fund. Jordahl asked if they should allow some purchases out of department budgets. Lacina suggested that the purchases be in the central fund and every department fill out the request form. If there is extra money, Lacina thinks it should not be kept in the departments, it should go to the County's needs as a whole. Jordahl said there could be separate Central Technology Budget line items for individual departments dedicated to only purchasing technology and easily tracked. Lacina agreed that would work. Lacina said Schultz may need to assess the amount of outdated equipment that will need to be upgraded.

Peters passed out the schedule of budget work sessions and discussed the schedule. Hultman said that the Budget Books will be ready December 30th or 31st.

Sixth Judicial Chief Juvenile Officer Carol Thompson:
JUVENILE JUSTICE ADMINISTRATION (27) BUDGET REQUESTS

Sixth Judicial Chief Juvenile Officer Carol Thompson said her biggest concern is detention. She said detention costs have been rising so much there is a good chance that the numbers will be higher. Based on the budget for this year of $200,000, Thompson did straight line projections from the first 3 months of operations this year and arrived at $260,000 projected for the current year. The new detention facility will be operating in the last quarter of the coming year, so they increased the budget to allow for the increase for that quarter. Law enforcement had told Thompson they may detain more juveniles when the new detention center opens; now they sometimes do not detain because detention facilities are full or too far to drive. Jordahl wanted to know what the graph of the increase would look like, but Thompson said it is hard to graph, because with the small number of juveniles involved, an increase of one can be a substantial increase. Thompson said that there are several factors that may hold up kids, like the County Attorney cannot get the case to court fast enough, that the courtroom schedule was too tight to get them in quickly, that they are arresting more kids, or that they are committing more serious crimes. Thompson also expressed concerns about the effect of the new mall opening.

Lacina asked what performance measures could be used, and added that a 5 year graph would be helpful. Lacina wondered about length of stay, number of kids, average and high/low costs of cases. Case Worker Supervisor Brandon Beaudry said that every segment of the system is tight, facilities are full. Stutsman asked if there were any kids in detention because they were waiting to go to some other facilities, and Thompson said yes, but the kid must have committed a crime to be put in detention. Stutsman asked if detention costs were all County costs or were there State or Federal reimbursements. Thompson said that the State contributes money, which was $800,000 in the past; however, this year it is expected to come from a fine which was expected to generate $1,000,000 and which would be distributed among detention facilities. Beaudry said that for the first quarter, only $62,000 had been collected. Stutsman asked what happens if the $1,000,000 does not come in from the fines. Thompson said the detention fund must absorb the costs. Beaudry said that the cost per diem in Linn County was $200 per day, and other facilities were around $175 per day, but the new Linn county facility is projected to be between $180-190 per day. Lacina said there will be some savings from the Sheriff's Department transporting the juveniles to the nearer Linn County facility, which could be tracked. Beaudry agreed and said the facility will open in March 1999.

Thompson said, when juveniles are tried as adults, the adult jail time, which is cheaper than detention, is paid out of the detention fund. She said this is a new expense. Stutsman asked if the only increase was in detention. Beaudry said rent would increase a small amount. Lacina said they have no choice. Jordahl wanted to know how much they would be affected if the State did not make the $1,000,000. Thompson said the State only carries approximately 15% of the costs, going directly to the detention facilities; so if the money does not come in, it will probably only be a few dollars a day in increased costs. Lacina noted that the Board would just have to pay it because there has to be detention. Beaudry noted that last month was the worst month this year. This month looks better.

Lacina was interested in looking into factors for performance based budgeting. Thompson said they have a lot of data they are going to put in a spreadsheet to determine trends, but they need to meet with law enforcement to determine changes in the street. Jordahl said they are interested in seeing more clearly the trends in crime, costs, speed of processing people, etc. Thompson said of all the possible factors, all of them may affect the costs. She said lots of people move to Johnson County because of low unemployment and become a problem for the system. Beaudry added that the good services in this community attract people. Lacina said knowing the nature of the juveniles' crimes would help them target prevention money. Thompson said many of the kids they see were not here for third grade where the good prevention is taught. Bolkcom wants Thompson to give the Board the figures which have been tracked, like how many new people in the system, length of stay, and how many kids are in detention now compared to last year. Thompson said they can look at that. Bolkcom said they may be looking at a budget amendment. Thompson said there will be no revenues, which would be a drop of $10,000. Lacina noted expenditures will be up $30,000 for a net effect of $40,000.

Thompson replied to an inquiry about legal settlement, saying that legal settlement does not come into play because costs are paid by the county where law enforcement picks up the juvenile. Thompson said the new judge is a district court judge, not a juvenile judge; all 6 counties are backed up because of judge time. More judge time equals more County Attorney time. Jordahl said the straight line projection for detention expenditures may be low because it uses a flat projection for the current year re-estimated budget, but the trend seems to be a steady increase. Stutsman said they should plan for $300,000 next year with continuing increases the following years, due to the shifting of care from the State to the counties. Beaudry feels kids are just now getting treatment they should have gotten 2-3 years ago. He thinks the growth is also a result of kids seeing their friends not getting sent to treatment, such as day treatment, after 2 or 3 offenses. Thompson said other counties have a slower growth in detention, but they also are not having a population boom like Johnson County. Duffy suggested a 3-year budget, but he does not see how it can be done; he feels something is going wrong with the youth and it will be too hard to project. Jordahl said it is a function of not having caught and addressed the problems 3 years ago; and the County cannot afford a continued increase, so they may have to find other ways to address the problems. Stutsman said the unknowns made costs difficult to track.

Jordahl suggested increasing funding for juvenile programs which are identified as effective to decrease detention spending. Thompson said shelter care costs are capped; the State said they've paid all they are going to pay. Thompson said when people quit using shelter care detentions go up. Beaudry said from 1992 until 1997, when the legislation was overturned by the Supreme Court, the Legislature mandated funding restrictions for residential treatment and funding went down for residential treatment; now they are seeing the repercussions. Lacina wants to see other counties' detention budgets. Thompson said she can do the small county budgets, but she does not administer the Linn County budget. Thompson said Johnson County has been low in terms of numbers (not percentages) compared to other counties, partly because of limited availability of beds.

Peters mentioned the possible readjustment of department scheduling for budget discussion. The Board said they wish to try to maintain the schedule as it has been set up.

Recessed at 10:14 a.m.

Attest: Tom Slockett, Auditor

By Bridget Penick and Melinda McCleary, Recording Secretaries