Reconvened at 8:37 p.m.

Bolkcom: Go into the Informal Meeting. Item A under number 11. Business from Jim McGinley, Director of Johnson County Emergency Management. Update report, discussion of the June 29, 1998 storm. Mayor Saxton from Oxford is with him this evening. We visited on Tuesday a couple of days ago about what was going on with the storm. We had some conversation at that point- I believe it was Tuesday, this week has been a long one- on sirens, particularly in the case of Oxford and some detailed information we were looking for about sirens. We also had a representative from a local company here talking about sirens. I actually received a call from them this afternoon. That gentlemen was not able to be with us but was interested in coming to the Emergency Management meeting in the near future to visit about their siren products.

McGinley: Who was that, Joe?

Bolkcom: It was Fesler Incorporated.

Stutsman: Out in North Liberty.

Duffy: (Inaudible) that's on the committee.

Bolkcom: That's right. Mike Cash is also here, Mayor of Swisher is with us this evening as well. It's good to have you both here. Jim, go ahead.

McGinley: With regards to the sirens. We've checked on the sirens in Johnson County, the City of Iowa City. Iowa City had one siren that is down because of lack of parts. It had no impact from the storm. All of the sirens in the county responded well, no problems. The siren in Oxford has been reconstructed and is operational, it was tested and did work.

Jordahl: Is that at some different mode of operation now, Jim.

McGinley: No, it is basically the same as it had been prior to the storm.

Jordahl: OK.

Bolkcom: So it's working fine.

McGinley: Yes.

Bolkcom: Other than the fact that it works on electricity and not batteries. OK. All right.

McGinley: It does not have battery back up.

Jordahl: You say it's working do you mean it's working, do you have the same level of confidence in it.

McGinley: As far as I'm concerned, I do, yes.

Bolkcom: All right. The other conversation was about whether we needed battery operated sirens. I guess that will be a discussion point of the Emergency Management Committee and some guidance back to other policy bodies about that issue. Are there other questions. Jim, I guess the other thing that's happened this week is trying to get a Presidential Declaration for Johnson County, can you update us on that?

McGinley: The Public Assistance has been presented to the State. We've had a visit yesterday from FEMA and the State of Iowa. We visited 3 or 4 of the sites, we went over all of the information that we had pulled together and we finally came up with this information which was presented to FEMA and will later be presented to the President for some possible Presidential Assistance.

Bolkcom: Do you have copies of those?

McGinley: Yes.

Bolkcom: Very good.

Lacina: Do we have any idea how soon he'll act, if it...

McGinley: Well, I'll tell you the second phase of the request is what we refer to as IA, which is Individual Assistance, which is grants and loans for homes. That was approved this morning. I've also been approached to open what we used to call a DAC, Disaster Application Center. The State has requested that we open a DRC which is a Disaster Recovery Center. We're hoping to open it on the 17th of this month, which is a week from tomorrow, and it could last anywhere from 3 to 14 days. It would go through Saturdays and Sundays.

Bolkcom: Jim, before you go off of that. What would that Disaster Recovery Center do? Is that for people that..,.

McGinley: If you were involved in a disaster there are certain areas that you've got to cover with the federal government to get different types of assistance. What they do is they bring people in from each of the federal departments and we have stations at the Recovery Center, and so a person is able to go in within an hour, clear all of the stations at one time, rather than making a couple dozen telephone calls to get the same information processed. We've done it before and this will be the fourth time I'll be running one of these centers. Getting back to your original request, Public Assistance, as you can see from the information there, what we've had to do and very quickly was determine what the loss amount was. We did that by getting in touch with each of the cities and each of the different organizations involved. Then we had to sit down with FEMA and the State of Iowa and determine how much of that money would not be covered by insurance. So on that report that I've had there for you, you'll notice for instance in Coralville they had $305,000 worth of damage. It's government buildings and that type of structure. They have $56,000 which would not be covered by insurance. Then the Fed looks at it and says, OK, what is their total budget? In this case it's $24,700,000. What is their maintenance budget? Which is $2,900,000. And what's their reserve carryover? $2,800,000. So they take a look at that $56,000, which is the application amount, and they try to determine if that would have a material impact on that city. If it has a material impact on that city, of course then it's granted. If you take a look on the second page for Oxford to give you an idea. Oxford was of course the most seriously damaged city. They had damages which were originally estimated at $8,430,000 which included $8,000,000 for the school, possibly $8,000,000 for the school, $350,000 to replace the fire house. Then there were other costs that were involved. When they took a look at it, there is $122,000 that is not covered by insurance. So then the Fed would look at their total budget of $516,000, they would look at their maintenance budget of $3,000 and they would look at their reserve carryover of $35,000 to make a decision. It would appear to me that they would be granted the $122,000. So that their total loss is $122,000 not covered by insurance, they have $3,000 in their annual budget for maintenance, and the Fed would probably say, hey, this is ridiculous and would wipe them out for X number of years.

Lacina: So Road Department down below we've got a loss of $10 and an application amount of $20.

McGinley: The Road Department in Johnson County...

Jordahl: That loss amount must be wrong.

McGinley: Yes, they have a... they indicated a loss amount of $10,000. The Fed took a look at it and said it's really closer to $20,000. So what they then do, we then talk to Secondary Roads and found out that their budget was $6,084,000 and their maintenance was $1,427,000. They have no carryover. I don't believe they have a carryover in Secondary Roads; it would come back into the General Fund, would it not? So based on that they would be looking at the $20,000, $1,427,000; they may or may not approve.

Stutsman: Is this just for public buildings and things.

McGinley: This is just for public buildings. The public buildings come under a public assistance grant. The individual come under the individual assistance and as I said it was approved toady.

Stutsman: What was approved Jim? The...

McGinley: What was approved, we were tacked onto a prior disaster and so the folks that have homes and have damages, destroyed or damaged will be able to go to the DAC starting this coming week from tomorrow and start to get relief immediately. For instance we have several homes that were totally destroyed and those folks will be given a grant which will allow them to, dependent on the size of their family, X number of dollars per month until they've either got a new home or the home has been reconstructed or whatever. We also have a number that the home owners can call. It's 1-800-462-9029. That's a number that I believe this year is in Virginia and the people could tell FEMA what their problems are and if they do that they'll probably go through the normal paper process, which would take considerably longer than going to the DAC.

Bolkcom: What's the number again Jim.

McGinley: It's 1-800-462-9029. We've already had, as of yesterday, we've already had 33 residents of Johnson County call. We've had more residents call than all of the other 15 counties put together.

Bolkcom: All right. How are we getting the word out about that phone number? Is it out there?

McGinley: We were not allowed to give the word out until this morning.

Bolkcom: I see.

McGinley: And the reason was FEMA said if you put that word out and people start looking, thinking they're going to get help, and you get turned down, you're going to look awful foolish.

Bolkcom: So now is appropriate to get that phone number out.

McGinley: Yes. And as I understand it Red Cross is putting out that information already. We'll probably get some in the local newspapers and radio and TV.

Bolkcom: OK.

McGinley: FEMA usually does a good job in advertising that number after your approved.

Bolkcom: Is there anything we can do to encourage that Presidential Declaration to be moved along?

McGinley: I don't think so. The indication that I got from FEMA representatives toward the County was he cannot see any reason why we would not get declared.

Stutsman: So what does it mean when we get the Presidential Declaration?

McGinley: When we get the Presidential, it means that there are certain costs... well, these costs that we're talking about here are basically numbers which would get us approved, but then any of the costs that these folks have... For instance, Kent Park in fact, I think it was the thing that really sold FEMA that we deserved a Presidential. He wanted to go in and talk to Rod and we got through the gate and got up to Rod's building and he just said turn around let's go, we don't need to see anything more. He said it was probably the worst disaster of this type that he's seen. I don't know how long he's been working for FEMA, but he had a construction company of his own prior to retirement. So I think we'll probably get it.

Bolkcom: Any other questions?

Duffy: Jim, how did you get these figures so fast? There's a lot of people connected.

McGinley: It looks like fast to you, but it was a heck of a job.

Duffy: I know it was.

McGinley: Tom Hanson has probably spent 6 to 8 hours a day developing the information with the cities.

Stutsman: Jim, I had a...

Duffy: I talked to Tom this morning.

Stutsman: I had a call from a business that provided a lot of assistance in the cleanup. Will there be any reimbursement for these.

McGinley: I think that's into the IA portion of this. So they will go to the DAC and SBA will be there to assist them if their situation warrants it.

Bolkcom: Marjorie?

Marjorie Hayden-Strait: Mr. Chairperson, can all of this information be put on a home page or a web site or whatever your calling it, like with the 800 number?

McGinley: That can be done.

Bolkcom: I think Jim has a page at the County page...

McGinley: Yes, I do.

Bolkcom: You could go there, there could be a little.

McGinley: But you're going to be seeing this in all of the papers for the next 2 weeks at least.

Stutsman: Where is the location of the DAC, has that been established?

McGinley: I'm waiting for a return call from Iowa City Community School District. We anticipate that it will be in West High. I've even made up the directions already for all of the counties that would have to be coming here, how they would find West High.

Jordahl: Speaking of the newspapers, you came to us one day with a sort of preliminary sort of after the storm estimate of that the costs of damage would be and then I saw another figure in the newspaper which was a fifth of that and I'm wondering if we've got a number that kind of shakes out at this point.

McGinley: Yes, you've got 3 things that were involved in the numbers that I originally spoke about. In some areas those numbers have increased, in some they're decreased. What we were looking at originally $28,000,000 of which $14,000,000 we thought might be had. I've spoken to the people at the EOC and we said, hey, we're not really in a position to tell you what the ag loss would be and so it was turned over to another Federal department to come up with what that loss is. So we took the $14,000,000 out and wound up with about $14,700,000. As we started digging further, now the first numbers were in within 24 hours and they were loose as a goose. We started working with the different cities and with the REC companies, we started finding quite a bit more, and as you can see here, just the organizations that we have listed, the cities, the parks, REC's your looking at almost $10,000,000 there, which is considerably more than we had thought it was originally. Now what's going to happen with the homes, I'm not really sure. We will eventually know the dollars that are involved, but none of us here will ever see the details of where they came from. I tried in the flood of ‘93 to get that information and I was told it was confidential, because it involved people going to banks to get SBA type loans, and if they were rejected for the loan, they would get a grant of $13,000, an outright gift. They said if we were to know how much they were to receive it would be a violation of their privacy. We probably will never... We probably won't know for 2 years how much money was involved with the individual homeowners and businesses.

Jordahl: Well, you came to us with an estimate. Do we have a better estimate now or do we have more confusion than we had originally?

McGinley: It's really confused. We're looking at probably 200 business and homes that we're aware of already that had either destruction or major damage or minor damage. Red Cross pulled those numbers together. The true estimate will take place, when these people go to the Application Center. Why what's going to happen, they're going to have to indicate where they live, there will be an inspector go out, but only after that point will they have an idea of what the true damage is.

Jordahl: It's not really important, just asking.

McGinley: No, the main thing is that we get help for these folks as fast as possible.

Bolkcom: Mayor Saxton, anything to report in Oxford? How are things going and...

Oxford Mayor Don Saxton: Things are approaching some degree of normalcy.

Bolkcom: That's good to hear.

Lacina: Nice spirit to have the fire trucks in the Coralville parade with the sign. That was great.

Stutsman: You have to keep a sense of humor. I guess that's all you can do.

Saxton: Well, we were washing down the main business section through town this morning.

Bolkcom: Good, very good.

Jordahl: How about volunteers, do you still have a need for volunteers to assist?

Saxton: No, we're over that hurdle. They turned out very well, we're very fortunate.

McGinley: We do have a need for volunteers in the unincorporated areas of Johnson County. Right now the outside volunteers, the inmates from the State prison have moved onto Iowa County, but we understand we probably will be able to get them back again. At that time we're probably going to be looking at a request to back up if we don't get the funding from the Fed, and I think we will, getting rid of the damaged trees and those portions of the building that have been damaged. As it stands right now we can't go into the property of the these people, but volunteers can go in, bring it to the curbside as we did, Joe, in '93, if you recall.

Jordahl: Steve, I don't want to step on your toes here, in relation to the 6th Judicial District, but I understand that there may be some volunteers available there, people who need to do community service and so forth.

Lacina: We'll be up there Wednesday. I can check with Hinsman. The other thing is I think the Board should authorize Joe- we'll probably need to do it next Thursday- to write a letter to the Institution and the inmates that came down and helped and worked very hard. Guards and inmates side by side helping the citizens.

McGinley: I think it would be fine for the County to do it to the Department of Corrections. We can get you the 3 prisons that were involved. Some of those people, just so you know, traveled 3 hours to get into Johnson County, worked from 10 to 12 and traveled 3 hours back in the same day.

Bolkcom: Yes, they should get out early, recommendation in the letter.

Jordahl: In the interest of getting assistance to people in the rural areas, Barbara tells me that the 6th Judicial District has people who are interested in volunteering, some fairly decent numbers. I don't know if it would be you who would contract Gary.

McGinley: Are these inmates again?

Jordahl: These are people I think more in the Community Correctional Program, maybe treatment half-way house kind of things.

Lacina: Residential.

Jordahl: That have indicated an interest in helping out here.

McGinley: If they can do half as well as the prisoners that worked in Johnson County, we'll really be happy.

Lacina: Most of our programs are such that they're either in school or job training. I can check, but I doubt that our residential... We don't let them sit around, but I'll check.

Bolkcom: OK. It would be worth checking on.

Stutsman: I had a question about trees and replanting trees. I know that there are trees available tomorrow morning at the Soil and Water Conservation District for people to pick up and plant? Is there any organized effort to replant trees? I had somebody that asked me if there was anything in the works or if you're aware of anything.

McGinley: I haven't heard of any organized effort to do it, but it's something we might be able to get into down the road.

Stutsman: Uh-huh.

McGinley: Right now we're still trying to get rid of trees. You've been into Kent Park. Boy, I just can't believe... Rod is talking about hoping to have it back open, is it July 24th?

Stutsman: By the end of July.

Bolkcom: Correct.

McGinley: I don't see how he can do it.

Bolkcom: All right.

McGinley: If he does it he's a miracle worker.

Stutsman: Yes. Well he's done it before on other projects, so who knows? But yes, the work that is going to be involved there, and for Rod, just as an aside to Kent Park, he has got to get that cleaned up because of the fire hazard. That all of that dying brush is just going to be disastrous if someone would throw a match in that area.

McGinley: We were worried about that out in the county when we went into the smaller cities and when I saw the prisoners with the chain saws. I thought, oh my God, I can just see one of them cutting his head open or something or losing a leg. I was told that these people, the Chief Deputy indicated that they come from a prison up in the northeast part of the state and that they're accustomed... they do lumber work all of the time. Apparently you could see it. They knew what they were doing.

Bolkcom: Marjorie?

Hayden-Strait: A question. Has anybody started contacting Nancy Seiberling and Project Green on the tree planting or the Scouts?

Bolkcom: Yes, it's a good thought.

Hayden-Strait: Scouts can earn their leadership badges from doing those things.

Bolkcom: Right. Good point.

Stutsman: I do have a phone call in to Kate Klaus.

Bolkcom: With Project Green?

Stutsman: Well, from Heritage Trees, and maybe I can explore some of things with her.

Duffy: You really don't have too much time on that, because we got this today and that's tomorrow. USDA Service Center, 238 Stevens Drive, for trees and Gringer Feed and Grain will have a truck down there to help pick up the trees. They'll have them until they're gone they say, starting at 9:00 tomorrow.

?: I didn't hear the answer to Sally's question, can these people that come out into the rural areas with heavy equipment, is there any help that can be had to the owner to reimburse these people? I didn't hear the answer to that question. Could you tell me a little?

McGinley: I'm not sure I understand.

Bolkcom: For what kind of damages? For...

?: Well, storm damage that came through.

Stutsman: The help with clean up and things.

?: Yes.

Stutsman: You were saying that they were to go to the DAC Center and...

McGinley: Yes, the people would go to the DAC. Do we have the ability to reimburse somebody who has volunteered and worked for several days for instance? I don't know the answer to that.

Bolkcom: All right.

McGinley: We will certainly try.

Bolkcom: Does that help you? Does that answer the question?

?: I'm still having a hard time hearing. I'm sorry.

Bolkcom: OK.

McGinley: What we're saying is there were... I saw them out in Oxford and I know they've been working in the other cities, people with large equipment came in to help. They volunteered their equipment and their personnel I know for at least 3 days. Wasn't it at least 3 days Don?

Saxton: Some of them 3, some 2.

McGinley: Yes. We would hope that we could get some type of reimbursement for them, but I'm not sure whether FEMA would be agreeable to reimbursing them.

Lacina: Would you suggest, if in doubt, apply?

McGinley: Sure. If you don't apply, you can't get anything.

Bolkcom: Thank you. Mayor Cash is here from the City of Swisher. He is involved in our Emergency Management effort in the county. I don't know if you have anything to add to this conversation, but feel free. Thanks for coming in tonight. Anything else?

Duffy: The Sheriff is the head of our department almost and Jim and he's back there and...

Bolkcom: Bob, do you have anything you want to add? Or Captain Lewis? OK.

Duffy: I know they did a great job. They were out even before the storm was over.

County Sheriff Robert Carpenter: We were in it.

Lacina: I was going to say, the Sheriff was in it.

Duffy: Yes, I know you were.

Bolkcom: We're very appreciative to all of our County employees that were called out for the storm and the hard work that people have been doing.

McGinley: I'll tell you it was amazing the volunteer labors that were in Oxford for instance. The work that they did. It was unbelievable. Well, thank you, and keep us updated.

McGinley: OK.

Bolkcom: Thanks. Why don't we do inquiries and reports from members of the public. Does anybody have anything they would like us to know or comments?

Andy Small: Is Iowa City going to be picking up all of the brush that's on the curb?

Bolkcom: That's correct. Iowa City is going to be picking up all the brush on the curb. Yes.

Lacina: There was a question about that as to whether citizens could take brush to a location if they wanted to expedite things and get it out of their yard. I don't know if the concern...

Bolkcom: They can.

Lacina: ...is that the brush would fall off on the road or where do they go? Do they go to Sturgis Ferry down there?

Bolkcom: Down Riverside Drive. The Transit building on Riverside.

Lacina: The Transit facility.

Bolkcom: 1200 Riverside Drive. The Transit facility. So if you do want to haul it... I understand from the City if you do want to haul your stuff, feel free to do that.

Stutsman: That pile is getting really big down there.

Lacina: Good question, Andy.

Bolkcom: All right. Is there any member of the public that would like to address the Board? Marjorie?

Hayden-Strait: I gave some of you folks a green flier and that's to invite all of you and to ask you to spread the word. There will be a parade- thank you, Jonathan- on July 25th which is a Saturday. The purpose of the parade and the rally will be to honor human beings, number one, and the Americans with Disabilities Act which was signed into law in 1990. It's one piece of legislation that can be a key to help get people education and training and buses to ride and other good stuff. There will be speakers. There will be entertainment. Local musician Kevin Burt who sings with, they call themselves BS Burt and the Blues Instigators. Tom Nothnagle will do classical guitar and he's good. They'll be family events, children can have their faces painted. There will be games. They'll be food for sale. I was telling the young man, the reported from the Cedar Rapid's Gazette, it's really just a community get-together. We don't want just, quote, the odd people, we want all of us coming together. I shared with some of you folks, and if you'll look at the flier, volunteers are needed because many of the human beings on the planning committee have very significant disabilities and are very limited in energy level. So we need human beings to help decorate floats. There is a need for hayracks, flatbeds, vans, trucks, even little kid's pulling wagons. There is a need for human beings to give out water that day. We're praying that there won't be that heavy heat and high humidity. The parade will go from the Civic Center over to College Green Park. There is good stuff and on the green fliers, I'm sorry Mr. Ruby I'm out of fliers. We maybe can get you one. Oh, I gave Bob 2, are you willing to share Bob? Good Bob (inaudible) there will give you one. The important thing is that we need community volunteers. We need human effort and cooperation and money. Because even to rent a portable, an accessible portable toilet, we're talking big bucks. Like close to $200 and we don't know if there is an owner of these corporations that do that that would care to donate and/or give a significant discount. So I just want to let you know College Green Park doesn't have a toilet and College Green Park doesn't have a lot of trees. So some people are trying to get the canopies and the things that you use at weddings and picnics. But mainly it's to get people together to have fun. Last year there were 200 people and we have a feeling they'll be more but we need all of you to spread the word and come. Bring your friends.

Bolkcom: Great. Great. Thank you Marjorie.

Hayden-Strait: Thank you.

Bolkcom: I appreciate that announcement. It should be a good rally and parade. We are going to skip over Supervisor reports for the time being and go to item E, which is Executive Session regarding Sheriff's Collective Bargaining Strategy. I assume we still want to do that this evening. Very good.

Motion by Stutsman, second by Duffy, to enter Executive Session at 9:07 p.m. to discuss collective bargaining strategy for the Sheriff's Department under section 20.17(3), Code of Iowa: "negotiating sessions, strategy meetings of public employees... shall be exempt from the provisions of chapter 21 (Official Meetings Open to the Public)." Roll call: aye: Bolkcom, Jordahl, Stutsman, Lacina, Duffy.

Motion by Duffy, second by Lacina, to leave Executive Session at 9:31 p.m. Roll call: aye: Bolkcom, Jordahl, Stutsman, Lacina, Duffy.

Recessed at 9:31 p.m.; reconvened at 9:39 p.m.

Peters: I'd just like to get out what date is convenient for everybody for interviews for the SEATS Director position.

Lacina: I do have a conflict on the 19th for that morning, the 17th.

Peters: You mean the 17th.

Lacina: I'm sorry, the 17th.

Bolkcom: We tentatively had or we didn't.

Peters: We didn't tentatively have anything. I was trying to straw poll you into (inaudible).

Bolkcom: How about the 16th in the afternoon? Thursday the 16th?

Lacina: I have a 1:30.

Jordahl: We have an appointment up in Cedar Rapids regarding performance based budgeting with Sally and...

Lacina: There is also a 3:30 Empowerment Meeting on the 16th which somebody from the Board should attend and I could do that.

Duffy: How about Friday at 8:00?

Lacina: When?

Duffy: The following Friday morning.

Peters: The 17th at 8:00? Or the 24th?

Duffy: Either one would work.

Bolkcom: We need to try and get something done next week if we can. How about the 15th?

Lacina: In the afternoon I have a 6th Judicial...

Jordahl: JCCOG.

Bolkcom: How about 11? How much time do we need? We're talking...

Peters: You'll need 2 hours.

Bolkcom: 2 hours.

Peters: 2 hours plus.

Bolkcom: Friday morning doesn't work for us or them?

Peters: It doesn't work for some of you.

Bolkcom: OK. How about Friday afternoon?

Lacina: Wait a minute. Wednesday the 15th from 9 to 10 we have a Land Use Meeting don't we?

Jordahl: Right.

Lacina: OK, what happens if we go in at 10... We need 2 hours. OK, I'm sorry I said that.

Duffy: Maybe we won't need 2 hours.

Bolkcom: Next week is shot.

Lacina: And Tuesday's too soon?

Jordahl: What's wrong with Monday afternoon? Too soon.

Bolkcom: I think a couple people are... I'm gone that entire day out of the County. I think Sally had a conflict Monday as well.

Lacina: Let's go back to Friday. That seems to be... I've got a conflict, but...

Jordahl: Is it all day, Steve?

Lacina: It should be from 9:30 to 10:30. Can we do it at 10:30 and go through 12?

Bolkcom: That'd be fine. 10:30?

Duffy: I guess.

Bolkcom: It's a go.

Lacina: All right.

Jordahl: This is the SEATS interviews?

Bolkcom: This is actually the second, we're talking second interviews.

Lacina: We'll schedule 2 hours?

Bolkcom: 2 hours.

Lacina: To 12. So we'll go 10:30 to 12:30.

Bolkcom: 10:30 to 12:30.

Peters: It may take a little longer depending on your deliberations.

Bolkcom: That's fine.

Lacina: That's fine.

Bolkcom: OK.

Duffy: It may take us less.

Lacina: Good job.

Peters: I appreciate it.

Bolkcom: OK.

Lacina: In the meantime, we need to draft another set of questions.

Peters: (inaudible).

Lacina: Good job.

Bolkcom: Reports and inquiries from members of the Board. Do we have any? I don't have any. Does anybody else have any?

Jordahl: Just this SEATS business. People should know that we're interviewing SEATS Director candidates. We've had a real strong field and we've narrowed it down.

Bolkcom: Good. Anything else?

Adjourned at 9:41 p.m.

Attest: Tom Slockett, Auditor

By Courtney Bork, Melinda Green, and John Deeth, Recording Secretaries