MINUTES OF THE INFORMAL MEETING OF THE JOHNSON COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS:
DECEMBER 30, 1997
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chairperson Stutsman called the Johnson County Board of Supervisors to order
in the Johnson County Administration Building at 9:01 a.m. Members present were:
Joseph Bolkcom, Charles Duffy, Jonathan Jordahl, Stephen Lacina, and Sally
Stutsman.
Stutsman: Meeting of the Johnson County Board of Supervisors for
December 30, 1997. Review of the formal minutes of December 23. Are there any
changes or corrections? If not, we'll put those on for action in the formal
meeting.
Stutsman: Business from the County Engineer and Physical Plant Manager. And this is discussion regarding capital projects and rural capital projects funds. This is something that we need to have action on before the end of the year and we need to earmark these projects according to resolution. And so Mike, I think you have a project that you have earmarked for this fund.
County Engineer Mike Gardner: Yes, Sally. Linda, Lynnette and I met one day last week and decided that perhaps the best use for this and easiest for us as far as bookkeeping goes so that we can get the whole thing straightened out would be to use it for right-of-way acquisition on the West Overlook grading and paving project. I am sure it is going to use all of that money and probably more. That would be a good way for us to use the money.
Bolkcom: Sounds good.
Lacina: Yes.
Stutsman: I think there is also a resolution earmarking funds for capital projects. Under project 3, date project to be started would be Fiscal Year 1998, and date project to be completed would be Fiscal Year 1999. So are there any questions? I think Pat pretty well, Pat Langenberg, who is the Physical Plant Manager pretty well outlined the projects that he wanted included in that resolution.
Bolkcom: I guess, just a note under project number 2, I know that we have space needs to build some decking at the Capitol Street storage building. Whether that is as high a priority as our other space needs... I know that we filled up most of that space we have there--whether or not everything there needs to be there or not, it just seems like a lot of money to put towards more space needs or storage needs in that particular building, so I am a little less excited about that. In fact, I would rather see that $40,000 included in just a general Administration, this building space needs. Unless we have decided to spend that.
Stutsman: I wonder if we should have Pat come up here because my thinking on that was that the decking was going to give additional storage space to better utilize this building.
Bolkcom: I see. Just seems like a lot of money.
Lacina: Right. Anytime we can move stuff out of expensive space that we can deal with the public and move it into storage, and that was our theory of the courthouse, to get a lot of the dead records out and then put in the new courtroom and so the $40,000 in decking could really free up a lot of more expensive space, where $40,000 in here I don't know would do a great deal.
Stutsman: And Pat's not available.
Bolkcom: We can leave it like it is. We're not saying that we're actually spending it this way at this point, but it does designate it.
Stutsman: Right.
Bolkcom: I just think one of the things I'd like to see done is us for our departments to go back through the storage building and make sure everything that we put in there, because we about instantly filled the place up, make sure everything in there we need to keep.
Stutsman: That Space Needs Committee that is going to be meeting in January is going to review that survey that Dwight Dobberstein put together and I think that's one of the questions that we'll be asking is about storage needs, if you have things that you don't need to keep, what your plans are.
Bolkcom: OK, sounds good.
Stutsman: I think that will be one of the things that will be addressed when we start getting into the Space Needs Committee and assessment. Are there any other questions? If not, we'll just go ahead and put this on for formal. Thanks Mike, for coming up. You had a busy morning with the snow, more snow, huh.
Gardner: Yes.
Lacina: We're still getting compliments, though, as people cross the county lines from some municipalities into the county about what a good job we do.
Gardner: That's good to hear. It always helps a little.
Stutsman: Business from the County Auditor. Resolution naming depositories. This is included in the packet.
Lacina: Each year we have to do this, and it's not saying that we're going to put money in there, but we have to put an amount and name the banks, is that right Carol?
Administrative Assistant Carol Peters: And you can't go over. If you increase upon that there has to be a resolution.
Stutsman: OK, so we'll put that on for formal action. Discussion regarding resolution earmarking funds in the Capital Projects Fund. I guess that's the resolution we just talked about. Discussion regarding resolution earmarking funds in the Rural Capital Projects Fund. And we've already talked about that. Discussion regarding appropriating amounts for the third quarter of FY 98. This information is also included in the packet and this is pretty much a bookkeeping or a regular resolution that we have to do for each quarter to allocate funds. Any comments?
Jordahl: Well, we have these categorized according to the funds that the moneys are coming out of, but within those categories they are sort of done almost alphabetically, they are done by department number. In view of our recent efforts to talk about how computerization is something that serves all county departments and how we are seeing things in terms of what we do do centrally, it would be useful to me, for example, if interprogram services were collected by service area in reports like this to see all of the things that are benefiting all County departments grouped together. As an example, and it may that service area lumping would be useful as an additional level of organization within this.
Lacina: This is just the appropriations.
Stutsman: Yes, and I was going say, this we have to publish, don't we? In the papers? So to keep publication rates down, I think it would be better to keep it as simple. But if you would like that additional information, maybe Lynnette could break it down a little bit more for us.
Jordahl: Well, I am not sure it would be any more ink, you're talking about 4 or 5 lines here. I was just suggesting grouping the interprogram services amounts together.
Stutsman: I don't think it's necessary for the resolution, I think it's OK.
Jordahl: No, it's not for it necessary now. You just asked for discussion, and that's an idea that occurred to me, that's all.
Lacina: Do you have any suggestions? Everything is the way you prepared it and it's ready to be acted on as is?
Deputy Auditor Lynnette Hultman: Yes, this is just for the third quarter appropriations. Everything is appropriated at 75% except for block grants, and those are at 100%.
Lacina: Normally, is the first quarter where we really get into some trouble in terms of some payments up front we exceed the quarter, but now everything is flowing as it should be?
Hultman: The block grants are still ahead, and like insurance, that's ahead because one-time payments up front. Everything else is pretty much on schedule to this point.
Lacina: Good.
Stutsman: Any other comments or discussion? OK then, we'll put that on for action during our formal meeting. Anything else from the County Auditor?
Hultman: Did you already discuss all the other resolutions?
Stutsman: Yes.
Hultman: OK.
Stutsman: OK. Thanks, Lynnette.
Stutsman: Business from the Board of Supervisors. Discussion regarding space needs. We asked to put this on the agenda in continuation of our ongoing discussion about space needs in the County Administration Building. I guess we have hired a Human Resource person, and so we need space for that person. We have temporarily allocated space in the office across from the Treasurer's office, but that is a temporary location, so we need to continue discussion about how we are going to deal with the space needs. And I wasn't a part of the last discussion the Board had, I was at a meeting in Des Moines, so somebody will just kind of have to fill me in.
Jordahl: I raised this, asking that it be put on the agenda recently because of the immediate question of the arrival of the Human Resources Director. We do have a space available as an office, but I think that we're in general agreement that at some stage, as part of the outcome of the overall space needs study, that we're going to probably have a different space for that Human Resources Director.
Stutsman: Right.
Jordahl: I just wanted to put the issue on the table to talk about whether we might make a decision about a different space for that Human Resources person either sooner than the Space Needs Study is completed, or at least get a date on when the Space Needs Study is anticipated to be completed so that we can start making decisions. Because I think that I'd like to get the human resources person into a different space sooner rather than later. I'm really asking a timeframe question here.
Bolkcom: There's not only a question of when the Space Needs Study is going to be done, but there's this question of are we going to have any resources to do anything about it. That could be a substantially longer period of time because I think the Board's interest is to save money to do it and not borrow money to do it. So contingent on the kind of proposals that come out, the timeframe could be fairly extended for any major fix. The more short term things that we have talked about, and probably the things that we talked about while you were... that meeting that you had to leave, Sally, was a plan that has been kicked around for sometime, which includes basically going through the wall back here into the Recorder's area and building a new office for the Recorder behind the existing office. That's not a new proposal, it's one that's been around. The other idea was to take the space in the break room back where the exercise equipment is, and make that into, put some drywall up and a door, and make that into an office as well.
Lacina: Compounding the problem though, is now with homebuilders supporting building codes in the county, if we do expand the Zoning Department and we need inspectors, that would be a logical area for them to have some space, but that is a large room, and as we looked at it the other day, we thought we could sit 3, I think 3 offices there plus a hall.
Bolkcom: You're talking about the whole break room. So it's evolved from just the very back of the break room to taking the entire break room.
Lacina: Well, we were brainstorming and we even looked at the shower in the back of the...
Bolkcom: Yeah, we looked in every corner of the building actually.
Lacina: But I think you're right, yeah, the first step is probably the study and then to match up the resources and then start planning for what we want to do. Dwight, I'm sure, will be, Mr. Dobberstein an excellent resource for us. Because we still do have, for example if we get these new laptop voting systems, some of the old voting machines and that stuff, could move out of this facility so that people could use the space. And if we look at true storage space and try to allocate it to that area where we are going to be decking, and then as Joe suggested, and I think we need to do that very seriously, look at what we really need to keep. Now, some areas we did give away a set of books to the Historical Society which were damaged in the flood of 1993, and then from demand of abstractors and others, we ended up with them back. So we have to be careful that we don't get rid of something that is significant that we make the mistake, but there are lots and lots of documents that we need to go through and see if we really need to keep them or if there is a better way to do it.
Jordahl: The way I'd like to frame the question in terms of the immediate need of an office for the Human Resources person is there a particular action to change the amount of office space that we have in this building, whether it's the Recorder's office or the back of the break room, which we could identify as definitely something we want to do. And if we can, then it might be prudent to proceed with that in order to have a better space available for human resources in the short term without being precipitous and try to pre-judge the results of the Space Needs Study. That's the question I really want to ask. Can we fix the human resources problem by doing something that we know we are going to do anyway?
Stutsman: But we don't know what we're going to do anyway. That's the whole problem here is that we just don't know what we need, And then to go about it in a cost-effective way. I think we're all hesitant to start tearing out walls in this building and then find out well, we did that all wrong, and now we spent a bunch of money and now we wish we would have done it another way. And I think we all want to do it in a planful way so that we minimize any kind of excess expenses with the idea of a long-term goal, and I don't know...
Jordahl: I agree with that in general, yeah, it's very much the way I'd like to proceed, as you phrase it that way.
Bolkcom: I think we can do both. I mean, I think we can make some short term space improvements in this building and have a long-range plan. I think we can do the short-range stuff at a very low cost. Putting an office in the back of the break room is going to be a few thousand dollars if you apply a piece of 2x4 and a little drywall. And as Steve points out, if Zoning expands, we just put in a door and they walk through from their existing space. I think Zoning isn't probably going to expand for awhile. We don't have building codes, we don't have inspections. It's probably a couple of years off. But we could, for a few thousand dollars, have a very nice space there, that would be a very adequate office for somebody. In terms of going through the wall here, there's no question that we've continually, since I've been on the Board, talked about our own space needs and our own office for our own staff. And I think Pat said it would be like a thousand, basically putting in a door, you know. So it's not a major... To go into that office and take that space. The Board has also talked about the need for more clerical support. We cannot have more clerical support in this office because we've got no place to put somebody. So, that goes away if we don't have a desk. Was the Board ready to make a commitment then to redo that office in the break room on a temporary basis?
Lacina: No.
Duffy: No, I'm not. Sally, can I say something? Is this space needs for the other departments of county government or just our space needs? It looks like we're jumping ahead of some other departments. It will boil down to priorities that who and what division of County government really needs the space needs maybe more than we do. What we're doing is doing our own thing here. I think that's wrong. I see it's not the space needs of the Board of Supervisors and this Administration Building. Again, it's the space needs that includes a lot more than just us.
Bolkcom: Jonathan has pointed out a concern about the Human Resource position and the office. Office is probably a fairly generous word. It's more like a closet, the space we're going to put this person in. And the desire is to have a better space. We've talked about our own space needs in this office for a long, long time. And we're trying to find a low cost way to address them. I think there's a proposal out there that Pat Langenberg has suggested that's a few thousand dollars that will immediately solve some of these short-term problems. It isn't going to alleviate the long-term thing. I think anything we do in the short term could easily assist us in addressing the long term issues.
Lacina: In the short term, pertaining to just the HR function, we have 2 options. One, is to put the HR function up at the Courthouse where there is room and have her work with the County Attorney on HR function stuff. The other option is to put her in the office across from the Treasurer's Office, which we have allowed the Physical Plant Manager to be in a similar space for all these years and he functions quite well. And he's got the noise of the... In fact, he has 2 doors because people go back and forth into the furnace room back there. Actually he has less space and all of the facilities in the county to maintain. So actually, the space downstairs is adequate to begin with.
Stutsman: Uh-huh.
Lacina: We are conducting a needs survey. I think before we start spending any money, even if it's a thousand, we should finish the study. Because we may find that oh, the drywall we put in the break room was 10 feet too short to fit another desk for who knows what, or a drafting table or something. So, one, we have an office; it won't cost us a cent to go down there and utilize it. In time, when we finish the study, then I think we need to take a look at it. But to spend money before that, I'm not ready to do that.
Jordahl: We have a couple of concerns here raised here that I think are really important. And Steve and Sally both talk about we need to plan these things to see it in the context of the whole. Charlie mentioned, I think very importantly, that we've got needs in other departments that are very pressing as well, and we need to address those. I would suggest that the Human Resources position is a way of addressing those other departments' needs, however, this is a position which has been brought into being because of a recognition of the needs of departments across the County. Providing an adequate space for that function to work I see as not somehow taking into account only the needs of this building or only the needs of the Board of Supervisors, but rather, it is addressing the needs of the County as a whole in terms of a commitment we've already made to hire that position. The issue of whether a thousand dollars or so spent now might fit into the overall plan of things or not, we already have a wall there in the break room, it's a brick wall, that separates that area which would reasonably be an office. It's about the same size as other department heads offices in the rest of the building. It would take only a little bit of framing, drywall, and a door, a door in one area and just some framing in the other area. I think at a significantly low cost to provide a much more useable space for this new person that we're hiring, and I think, that we have hired, and that we are very glad to have. So I think that balancing the cost at... I think we heard from Pat something under $5,000, maybe even a couple of thousand, would be a big difference in the quality of the space and the ability of the person to function. And it would be a better welcome to Johnson County government. So I think it's a small investment to make.
Lacina: Maybe we should wait until the HR person is here.
Stutsman: Well, I was going to suggest too, why don't we wait until after January 7th when the Space Needs Committee has met, and then maybe we'll have a better idea of how long this process is going to take, and I can, and Charlie, who are the Board's representatives on this committee, can report back. If we see this is going to be a long process to identify changes, then maybe we should reconsider some short-term things just to...
Lacina: Because, if there's going to be a need for a lot of paper files, there's going to be a need for filing cabinets and a larger space. If she wants everything electronically, other than some files that we'll have to keep on paper, that's going to make another difference in the space we need. And also, as we discovered from the discussion of looking at the Recorder's office, when we were talking about just putting up a wall, it's not just a wall, because as Pat Langenberg then said, well, you're going to need ventilation, heat, extension of power, I mean, there are fire codes, you don't just put up a wall, that you're going to have electrical outlets every 6 feet, and there are regulations. So, again, before we just make a decision, I think we need to see formal presentations. What is it going to cost us? But, number 2, she needs to be on-board. So let's just see what the study does and see what she needs.
Bolkcom: I'm more than interested in waiting on this. This item has been on the agenda 10 times, we've talked about this. We've had different proposals. Steve, a couple of weeks ago you were ready, you said we should move into the Recorder's office and take that space, and basically make a decision to move ahead, and I thought it was a good idea. And so, we need to make some decisions.
Lacina: But we didn't have the costs and we hadn't laid things out...
Bolkcom: No, we had a pretty good idea.
Lacina: ...and I said if we're all agreement to sit down and take a look at this, and we weren't, and so that whole idea apparently wasn't correct, and so, right, we didn't do it. Bolkcom: The last time we talked about it, the Recorder was in and she said she was fine with it, I mean, I think we could have moved ahead. I just want to come to some resolution.
Stutsman: Yes.
Bolkcom: We have growing needs and...
Lacina: We have that resolution right now, which is we have an office that will not cost us any space. Once she's on board, I think she needs to make an assessment of what she needs instead of us saying, well you're going to need this, you're going to need that. Let's let her get on board.
Stutsman: I guess I would... We've waited this long, we might as well wait a month or so and see where we're at.
Bolkcom: The other space needs that the Board has are their own space needs in their office. The Board has decided to hire a full-time secretary. That's completely on hold until we solve the problem. Because there's no place to put her or him if that's still going to happen.
Stutsman: Yes, Charlie?
Duffy: I didn't think it was one of the duties for HR person to solve our space needs problem. So I can't see, Jonathan, where the connection is.
Jordahl: I didn't...
Duffy: But I know one thing, that the budgets are coming in, and from what I see, they are way up and we have to be responsible to the taxpayers.
Jordahl: You bet.
Duffy: And I don't think we should $1,000 here and $1,000 there. I think we at least ought to wait till we see towards the end just how it's going to affect the taxpayers on these budgets.
Stutsman: OK, well, let's...
Jordahl: Just a point of clarification. I didn't make any comment regarding whether the Human Resources person would help solve our space needs.
Duffy: Well, what I thought just by listening to you was that there was a connection there, so that's why...
Stutsman: OK, we will continue discussion on the space needs at a
later time then.
DISCUSSION: HUMAN RESOURCE ADMINISTRATOR WORK PRIORITIES
Stutsman: Discussion regarding Human Resources Administrator work priorities. We, the Board, needs to decide what are some of the things that we would like the Human Resource person to work on initially when she begins. There are lots of things for her to do, and I think we just need to get our thoughts together about what we feel are some of the most important things that we want her to deal with.
Lacina: Given the definition and the legal requirements of the position, I'm going to suggest that when she gets on-board, have her sit down with the County Attorney and Carol and come back to us with a list of priorities and that we develop one or 2 additional, but initially to get that office set up, it's going to take some time and study, and some of the basic things that we need to do, go through the handbook, make sure that we are in compliance with federal regulations, state regulations, OSHA regulations, and ADA. Within this building, I think we have some violations just in the positioning of the desks. If you go to Cedar County and look at some of their offices, you should be able to take a wheel chair and maneuver through any of those offices, and I am not sure that we can do that. So I think just for us to get into compliance...
Stutsman: So are you saying a rewrite of the handbook would be one of your...
Lacina: A review, I think, possibly, is one of the things. But again, I think Pat and Carol can basically set up a list of things for us to review, and then with us... For example, I would like to see a County newsletter for employees. My personal opinion, but that may not be a priority of the Board as a whole, but I think that we as a Board should come up with one or two, but then also Pat and Carol should sit down and look at the legal aspects and what it's going to take to get that office functioning. That's just one suggestion.
Stutsman: Well, how does the rest of the Board feel about working on a County newsletter. Any other thoughts?
Lacina: I don't want to throw that out right now as an idea.
Bolkcom: That's a good idea.
Lacina: I'm just talking about a process by which we get that office up and functioning. And then Joe had mentioned to assigning a Supervisor maybe to help. I don't know that that's... I think that's a good idea.
Stutsman: I guess, I think that we need to have her be able to go to at least 2 Supervisors to get feedback, so that it's consistent with what she's doing and what the Board wants her to do. And I think it's much easier to deal with maybe one or 2 supervisors than with 5 of us, and then the 2 supervisors can come back to the whole Board and check in to make sure that we're all in agreement with what's happening with this position.
Lacina: I agree.
Stutsman: So which Supervisors would be interested in working with the Human Resource person?
Bolkcom: I'd be willing to do that.
Lacina: Well, and Charlie's on the Labor... or maybe...
Stutsman: I'd be willing to do it too, I don't know, Charlie, if you want to do it?
Duffy: Joe and Sally.
Stutsman: Is that in agreement with, are we all in consensus there?
Jordahl: Yes, I'm fine with that.
Stutsman: OK, so Joe and Sally will. What are some of the other issues that... Is the Board comfortable with just having her meet with Carol and Pat and getting some direction there?
Jordahl: Clearly, that should occur.
Lacina: The 4 of you.
Stutsman: Oh, OK, the 4 of us,
Jordahl: And with the Super...
Bolkcom: That would be good.
Stutsman: Are there any other ideas the Board has that they would...
Jordahl: Well, we mentioned the question of filling the position of SEATS Director as a pretty high priority.
Stutsman: OK, that's right.
Jordahl: And it was suggested, I'm not sure by whom, it may have been Steve, that it be one of the early priorities. If you want to elaborate on that, Steve.
Lacina: Just, that's going to be a priority for us.
Jordahl: Uh-huh.
Lacina: I guess I would like to ask Pat and Carol for suggestions for things that, since you have been doing a lot of the functions. You have been doing all of the functions in terms of the regulation, the paperwork, those types of things. What advice do you have for us?
Stutsman: Maybe what we should do is the 4 of us meet with Lora and then just come up with some ideas and a timeline, too.
Bolkcom: That makes sense.
Jordahl: Maybe what we can accomplish now is not so much set in stone priorities that the Board wants to dictate, but rather to throw out some ideas that the committee of 4 can discuss with Laura and arrange those and maybe we... Because I think there are things that we shouldn't be too cautious about throwing out that have been discussed. Steve, you mentioned newsletter. I think we need an orientation for employees, you know, that's been mentioned. I mean, there are some things that would pretty obviously be part of that discussion.
Peters: Pat has already mentioned one are that he could definitely use her.
Lacina: The orientation, I think, is almost more important than the newsletter, so that's a very good one. But, Pat, what do you think?
County Attorney Pat White: Collective bargaining. The timing of the Sheriff's collective bargaining is such that it would be a logical orientation for her in an area where she can be a big help as we create a new contract.
Lacina: Although Rasmussen is very aggressive in his timetable. Is that realistic? Have you seen that?
White: Well, I think it's realistic.
Lacina: She won't be here until the 19th?
Stutsman: The 19th is when she starts.
Bolkcom: 20th.
Peters: Actually the 20th, the 19th is a holiday, I forgot.
Stutsman: Oh.
White: The tentative bargaining dates that we have identified are in February. Yes, I think that's realistic.
Stutsman: Well, it already looks like an impressive list of things that we need to..
Jordahl: Yeah, now I do think...
Bolkcom: How many people did we hire?
White: I agree, by the way, that something like a newsletter or orientation are priorities, even though they are maybe less significant. Like one of the things that is going to be important for this position is for County employees to understand who it is and what they're doing, and some visibility, I think, is an excellent idea. I'd personally concur in devoting time immediately to a newsletter to get that established, even though in the grand scheme of things, it wouldn't necessarily be the most important thing, it's an important thing to get started.
Bolkcom: The Board's Communications Committee that we've been working on has talked about a newsletter the last couple of meetings and having different staff contribute to that, so as we approached this position and saw that this person and the other people that had applied had done newsletters, it seemed like a nice dovetailing.
Lacina: Well, and she may be able to be a writer to it, then if the committee is going to do the newsletter, that's one task off her back.
Bolkcom: It's logical to have her be pretty involved in it.
Lacina: Did you see Scott's newsletter that was circulated? That was very nice, I thought.
Bolkcom: Yes, it was.
Jordahl: There is an issue that I think has been sort of in the shadows in regard to the HR position, that I think is a very central issue, and that is training. It's sort of, it's like a follow on to orientation, what's next? What else do you know how to do? In particular with regard to the computerization of the County. And I, you know, that may not be the first week, but I think it needs to get on the calendar as a priority for the HR person to begin working perhaps in conjunction with the Information Services Department to look at the training needs of the county.
Stutsman: Although, I recognize that that's important, I don't that would be some of the first things that I would have her work on. But it certainly is something that we want her to address at some time.
Jordahl: Well, I would put it, I guess one way of backing up, would be to call orientation part of training, you know, to just say training and then maybe thing one, orientation; and that maybe is something you want to move to right away. It's within the whole area of training.
Stutsman: Any other ideas or thoughts?
Bolkcom: So, perhaps the committee of 4 could meet on the 20th, we're going to be gone on the 20th, and I believe for ISAC on the 21st, perhaps the first week she's here, or are you thinking before that?
Stutsman: Not necessarily, because she...
Bolkcom: We probably want her...
Stutsman: I think she needs to be involved with it. So maybe we could set up a time after the meeting when the four of us are available.
Jordahl: Something with immediate implications for our budget process is a question of what we're going to do about the salary structure for the professional level people. And the question of incentives, for example. We're going to have salary survey, what's fair, how do you structure incentives for people to continue or to aspire to positions of more responsibility. And I think that's going to be on her plate, too.
Stutsman: Uh-huh, OK. Any other thoughts?
Lacina: So, you'll get back to us?
Stutsman: Yeah, the 4 of us will get together, or 5.
Peters: I can just make a list and circulate it for each of you to review.
Lacina: And we have decided that the position will be 40 hours
Stutsman: Uh-huh, right.
Bolkcom: Sounds like 60.
Stutsman: 40 give or take, right?
Bolkcom: Give or take 20.
Stutsman: Reports. Steve, do you have a report?
Lacina: No.
Stutsman: Jonathan?
Jordahl: Yes, I think I'm going to pass on that this morning.
Stutsman: Joe?
Bolkcom: Happy New Year!
Lacina: Thank you. Same to you.
Stutsman: Charlie:
Duffy: Yeah, I got some.
Duffy: We had a very successful dinner for the senior citizens at the Senior Center and our home-delivered meals crew that do this on Thanksgiving and Christmas are just the greatest on a very bad winter day. We delivered over 60 home-delivered meals, and a lot of people showed up for the dinner and everybody had a lot of fun, and one of the people said we have a lot of good things going for us in Johnson County and this is one of them. It comes back to volunteers, and volunteers showed up, so we had a great time. Also, I went to the Congregate Meal dinners on Saturday and Sunday, last Saturday and Sunday and then a week before that to see how they were doing on weekends, and I was told that they were doing good. So, some of these things, I think it's more of a rumor that maybe we might close on weekends. That isn't really, that's wrong, that's just, so we're not. I know that the Nutrition Committee said we're staying open for weekends, isn't that right?
Nutrition Committee Member Reverend Bob Welsh: Yes.
Duffy: And, I went out to the Fairgrounds last Saturday. There was a
weigh-in for steers that are going to be shown next summer and 4-H and FFA
(inaudible) was a human service. We see a lot of families and young children.
You can be in 4-H I think, or FFA, when you are 9 years old. And, it was just a
great family resource down there. And of course, it's not all livestock at the
shows, there's all kinds of things, it's just a great program, so that's... Here
come the volunteers again. We did have a meeting last night administrative
County Road Department, a lengthy meeting. We'll have another one coming up
here, I think that's on the 15th, Sally.
REPORT (STUTSMAN): INFORMATION ON IOWA'S PORK INDUSTRY
Stutsman: OK. January 15th, OK. Thanks for going to those meetings,
Charlie, those are lengthy, but they're really important, too. I just wanted to
report to the Board that I talked to Gene Mohling of the Extension Service, and
we've been getting information about an ICN broadcast about Iowa's pork
industry. That's going to be January 6, and of course we have a Board meeting on
the 6th, so it's going to be impossible for this Board to go to that meeting,
but he said that plans are being made to tape that ICN broadcast, so then we
will be able to look at that. This is a meeting that is put together to talk
about the pork industry in Iowa and I think it might have an impact on some of
the Boards of Supervisors, so I think that it is important for the Board to be
informed about what's going on with that, so this will be an opportunity for us
to catch that meeting, without having to miss a Board meeting to do that.
VIDEOGRAPHER ANDY SMALL: INCORPORATING A VIDEO INTO ORIENTATION
Stutsman: Any inquiries or reports from the public?
Videographer Andy Small: I just wanted to mention one thing. After listening to the discussion about the Human Resource Person and the orientation, the orientation being the thing that kind of caught my ear, you might consider incorporating a video into the orientation to standardize it across-the-board so every single person gets the exact same information.
Stutsman: I think that's an excellent idea.
Jordahl: Excellent
Lacina: Good idea, Andy.
Peters: The Board already has that.
Lacina: Well, we have a tape of the County, but we could do some more on that area, too.
Small: Because I would be interested in possibly coming up with proposals, starting out with the family tree of County government, and then going from there, and incorporating the video you already have, maybe just sort of changing it a little bit to make it a little shorter and make it a little more specific.
Stutsman: Good, real good.
Lacina: Probably when Lora gets on board.
Inquiry (Lacina): Letter to Legislature
Lacina: Could you write a letter to the Legislature, since the session starts January 12, I think we as a Board had highlighted some topics that we talked to them personally about, but again I think one more letter from the Board, saying here are some important issues...
Stutsman: Good idea.
Lacina: You know, Joe had the ICN, is what tripped in my mind, but we're barred from hooking onto the ICN even though it's 30 feet across the road here at the National Guard Armory, county governments are not allowed to hook on, even though your tax dollars paid for it. A few things like that, I think if we each had our issue and just put it in a one page letter and just sent it to each of our representatives again saying, just wanted to again remind you of important issues before they start, I think that would be a good idea.
Stutsman: I think that would be, too. Real good, thank you. Any other reports or inquiries from the public?
BOB WELSH: APPRECIATING COUNTY STAFF
Bob Welsh: Sally, let me express at the end of the year the appreciation to the 5 of you and the whole County staff. I think that most people really do not realize how full your plates are. And although I surely do not agree with all of you all of the time, I really do want to express appreciation for what all of you are doing on behalf of the county. I think at the end of the year, it's a good time to say thank you. You've made a good Chair, Sally, but you've needed the help of the other 4 members of the Board and I just wanted to say thank you.
Stutsman: Thank you, Bob.
Lacina: Just think, the work that we do here, and then you multiply it by 5, and we pass it on to staff and all the employees and the workload that they do.
Stutsman: I'm glad you mentioned staff, Bob, because you know, my working in the County, I just realized what a tremendous staff and support system, and elected officials and department heads we have. We are very, very fortunate in Johnson County to have such a dedicated workforce.
Welsh: And '97 has been a good year for Johnson County.
Stutsman: Yes. Bill?
BILL SUEPPEL: COMMENDING THE BOARD ON THE HUMAN RESOURCE POSITION
Bill Sueppel: Yeah, Sally. First of all, I wanted to comment. I cannot believe that Bob didn't agree with the Board in every single instance.
Stutsman: We don't even agree sometimes.
Sueppel: It's the end of the year confession. But I wanted to commend the Board for what I thought was a very far-reaching and very good plan for the future in hiring a Human Resources Director. I mean, there are so many things out there, this person will more than pay for herself in just coordinating all these various ADAs, FMLAs, FLSAs, work comps.
Lacina: Drug testing.
Sueppel: It's a marvelous step forward and I think you ought to be commended for it. Some people may accuse you of spending money, but I think it is money very well spent.
Stutsman: I think the County has done well with the resources we have in addressing these human resource issues. With Carol's help, and the County's Attorney's Office has just been very valuable, but I think the time has come where we really needed to move forward and hire a Human Resource person, so thank you for that feedback. Anything else? OK, we will recess and go into the formal meeting.
Recessed at 9:42 a.m.
Attest: Tom Slockett, Auditor
By Melinda McCleary, Recording Secretary