MINUTES OF THE INFORMAL MEETING OF THE JOHNSON COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS:
SEPTEMBER 8 AND 10, 1998
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chairperson Bolkcom called the Johnson County Board of Supervisors to order in the Johnson County Administration Building at 9:02 a.m. Members present were: Joseph Bolkcom, Charles Duffy, Jonathan Jordahl, Stephen Lacina, and Sally Stutsman
Bolkcom: Good morning everybody. We have number 2 on the agenda, review of the formal meeting minutes from September 3rd and they are very brief, one page. Any comments? If not we'll approve those on Thursday.
SENIOR CENTER COMMISSION REPRESENTATIVE B. B. BALLANTYNE: SENIOR CENTER UPDATE
Bolkcom: Item 3, business from B.B. Ballantyne regarding a Senior Center update, discussion. Good morning.
Ballantyne: Good morning.
Bolkcom: Come on up and sit down.
Ballantyne: Come up there?
Bolkcom: Sure.
Ballantyne: This is my first opportunity to be at this particular meeting.
Bolkcom: Welcome.
Ballantyne: It's nice to be here. I represent the Senior Center Commission, as I'm sure most of you know, and I wanted to tell you about 2 or 3 things that are happening at the Center. First of all, this coming Friday on September 11th from 2:30 until 4:30 we will be honoring the Senior Center Volunteers. Invitations have been sent out to almost 800 volunteers at the Center. These men and women have contributed enough volunteer hours to make up for 20 full-time employees. So you see how valuable they are to us. We are providing refreshments and a program as part of our recognition of this service to the Center. I invite you to come and share in this event. The other big social event that I want to remind you about is the Senior Center's 17th anniversary and it will be celebrated by a picnic at City Park on Wednesday, September the 23rd. This is sponsored by the First National Bank. Personnel from the North Dodge Hy-Vee are going to do the cooking. Dinner will be served from 5 to 6 that evening. Reservations are required; there is no cost to those taking part. There will be a free bus service from the Center to the park and return at specified times. Lyle Beaver and his Brass Notes are going to be playing starting at 5:30, they will be in the shelter and there will be a dance floor there for people to enjoy. The other type of thing I wanted to tell you about is some of the repair and alterations going on at the Center. New hardware has been installed in all of the doors at the Center, providing a leverage type of handle instead of a doorknob which is supposed to be easier for everybody to use, they say of all ages. I guess I have to get used to it because I always reach for the other type of door. But it does put us in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act and I think this is all completed at this point. It also allows us to have a different key system which makes the building more secure. I'm not sure if that is totally completed. I know they were working on it last week, trying to get some of the bugs out; it's a pretty complicated procedure evidently. On the Washington Street side the entrance is being repaired. There's evidently some rust around those metal door frames that has to be redone. Also on the Linn Street side there will be center railings put on the steps at both entrances. Some of our participants have found it a little awkward and uncomfortable going up and down those rather broad steps without a railing in the center for support. So that's going to be done sometime soon. Are there any questions?
Bolkcom: A lot going on, busy month.
Ballantyne: Pardon me?
Bolkcom: It's going to be a very busy month.
Ballantyne: Yes it is. It always is there, it always is.
Bolkcom: Two big events.
Ballantyne: Thank you very much.
Bolkcom: Thank you.
Lacina: Thank you.
Duffy: Again I say this about every month, but I really appreciate folks like you. There are a lot of different Boards of Commission and if they all sent a representative I think that would be great.
Ballantyne: It would help (inaudible)
Duffy: You've been doing it down there for... It doesn't matter if it's 20 below zero or 90 degrees and it's just great.
Ballantyne: Thank you.
Bolkcom: Thanks a lot.
Bolkcom: Item number 4, business from the County Engineer, a) discussion regarding update status of right-of-way negotiations for Johnson County project reinforced concrete box culvert and approach grading on 640th Street and Utah Avenue. Good morning.
County Engineer Mike Gardner: Good morning. This project is the box culvert job down southwest of Lone Tree that we're in. It's been over a month ago now and we had one property owner that was still not willing to sign for our offer that we'd made on the right-of-way. The right-of-way acquisition people sent what we considered our final offer for our recommendation to you and said to do that. We gave them 2 or 3 weeks to respond to it and we never did hear from there. So I think Al gave them a call here a couple of weeks ago and actually met with them at the site. They still don't want to settle for our final offer. Our recommendation to you is that we would like to give the County Attorney authority on Thursday to begin condemnation proceedings on the property. If you have any specific questions Al has the information.
Bolkcom: OK.
Lacina: This by Ronans, Al?
Bolkcom: Who are the property owners?
Assistant County Engineer Al Miller: Ronan.
Bolkcom: Ronan?
Stutsman: They simply want more money, is that what it amounts to?
Miller: Yes.
Bolkcom: How far apart are we?
Miller: 500 bucks.
Duffy: That's not too much is it?
Miller: It's not...
Lacina: If you open it up...
Miller: ... but I don't have any basis to give it to them.
Lacina: ... then you open it up for the rest of them.
Gardner: Our offer was based on fair market value. We feel that's what... That's what we've got everybody else signed up for.
Bolkcom: OK.
Stutsman: It sets a precedence if you take somebody... Then I think every property owner has to come in and then you just lose the whole system.
Jordahl: We have had processes of negotiation though. West Overlook Road, we were talking to people about the value of trees and so forth. How do we distinguish between discussions about aspects of a situation and fair market value? If fair market value is the key, then why can't we go in with an establishment of fair market value off the top in any situation and say, this is it, take it or leave it. If that's in fact our position.
Miller: When you're dealing with a tree line situation that's up at West Overlook it's more gray as to what the fair market value is for that.
Jordahl: Uh-huh.
Miller: All we have on this one is fence and land values. It would be a comparable sales to what the land value is based on (inaudible)
Jordahl: OK. That's a good answer.
Duffy: I think it's fair market farm value, say on a farm plus how it affects in some case the rest of the farm. Like if we ever needed somebody's drive or... I used to be on that Committee before I was a Supervisor.
Lacina: So your recommendation is to proceed and Thursday we'll set that.
Gardner: Yes.
Lacina: OK.
Bolkcom: Anything else on this item?
Lacina: I've heard a lot of compliments about the work that you did north of Lone Tree working with the farmers down there and there were a couple of tough issues. Good job.
Miller: Thanks.
Lacina: I think the people are well satisfied with you did.
Miller: Thanks.
Bolkcom: I had a couple... just under other business, we're going to be talking about budget later this morning and I don't know if the Board has thought much about when we should be thinking about scheduling a 5 year road meeting discussion in terms of looking at 5 Year Road Plan at the end of November and December. Something maybe that we could all be thinking about timing wise.
Stutsman: When does it work well for you, Mike? When do things slow down?
Gardner: Hopefully by mid-November, mid to late November (inaudible).
Bolkcom: Thank you.
Stutsman: We could look towards that.
Bolkcom: Sounds good. The other thing that... a couple other things. Prairie du Chien, could you give us an update on that just in terms of that project?
Gardner: We're working on the design right now.
Bolkcom: OK.
Miller: We're hoping to have a public meeting on that project similar to what we had for West Overlook, but we've not scheduled it yet.
Bolkcom: OK.
Miller: We're hoping to do that soon.
Duffy: That's to widen out the road. How much would that be on each side, 3 or 4 feet?
Miller: I don't have the... No, it's actually... I don't have the existing dimensions with me, but it's going to be a similar width to what we're putting in out at West Overlook. It's actually going to be 2 feet wider, 6 foot paved shoulders on each side and I believe it's 24 foot pavement.
Stutsman: Is that curve coming out of there, too?
Miller: It's going to be relocated.
Stutsman: OK.
Miller: There will still be a curve in there, but it will be complying to our design.
Stutsman: All right.
Gardner: It'll be much flatter.
Bolkcom: The other thing that Mike, you mentioned recently was the Dubuque Street project in terms of the upgrading of that sidewalk into a trail. Maybe we could put that on in a week or 2. Some design issues that you had raised.
Gardner: Yes. We tried to make some contacts last week...
Bolkcom: OK.
Gardner: ... with some parties and they were on vacation and so forth. So we weren't able to get very far with that this week, but maybe we can make some contacts, get some information, and get it on the agenda and get back in here.
Bolkcom: OK. That'd be great.
Stutsman: I was out there this weekend and I'm floored at the number of streets that are coming up onto Dubuque Street. I guess there's 2 entrances, new ones.
Bolkcom: Coralville?
Stutsman: Uh-huh. (Inaudible) change that out there.
Bolkcom: Thanks.
Duffy: On the trails on Dubuque Street and that, we should have what the ISTEA funding, how much it was, and then the property taxes, too, on what it would... It would be a match, get by with 20%?
Gardner: I'll have to...
Duffy: Maybe (inaudible) ...
Gardner: ... look at it again. I can't remember if it was 80/20, 80/20 would be the maximum and I'm not sure if that's what we've got or not.
Duffy: Uh-huh.
Bolkcom: I think we went in pretty close to the max. All right. Thank you.
Gardner: Thank you.
Bolkcom: Have a good week.
Bolkcom: Item 5, business from the Board of Supervisors, a) discussion of Joint Meeting between Coralville, Iowa City, and Iowa City School Board, and us which is coming up. This is an item on this morning if members of the Board have any agenda items they'd like to have added to that agenda. The meeting right now is on September 16th at 4 p.m. I believe Coralville is hosting. There are a few items on that agenda already. I would assume the sales tax is.
Stutsman: What else is on here? I guess I haven't seen it.
Jordahl: I'd like to have an update on what's happening with Deer Creek Road. I don't know if that Committee's met yet, Steve?
Lacina: They had an initial meeting and I'll see what we can do.
Bolkcom: Deer Creek, it's a perennial agenda item for this...
Lacina: Actually it was more Mormon Trek I think, was what the... But I can check on Deer Creek.
Jordahl: Trails. I think Coralville's got a lot going on with trail planning. They had a consultant report a week and a half ago with some marvelous graphics and stuff. They're moving ahead full speed with that and I would like to...
Bolkcom: So ask Coralville to report on that.
Jordahl: ... really get up to speed on that.
Bolkcom: All right. Other items?
Jordahl: As part of that, there's the possible role that Johnson County might play. Their application for grant funds will be stronger if it's coordinated with Johnson County planning as well. So we should discuss that at the same time.
Bolkcom: All right.
Duffy: What was that again, Jonathan?
Jordahl: Coralville's application for grant funds for their trail system will be stronger if it's seen in the context of regional planning. We by discussing it with them and allowing them to frame their plan in the context of an overall County plan would strengthen the application and make it more likely that they would get funding.
Stutsman: Is that more of a discussion for JCCOG?
Bolkcom: It could be. All the players are going to be at this meeting I assume. You could say that for whatever reason...
Duffy: I don't know if all the players...
Bolkcom: It would be good to get an update from Coralville on that too.
Duffy: From Coralville. You're not talking about the rural, you're talking about Coralville.
Bolkcom: I'm talking about both.
Jordahl: I'm interested in the rural area since that's where we have more to say about things. But Coralville is independently doing a lot of planning. They're not waiting for us to do something before they plan. They're way out in front on this. Whether it's appropriate to talk about the County's role in this in that meeting or not is a legitimate question.
Duffy: Well that's what I was wondering.
Jordahl: But I don't think there's any question that we should find out what Coralville is doing.
Bolkcom: Yes. That's on the agenda. We'll put that on and if members of the Board want to make a point about what the County ought to do, feel free to do that. Any other items? I assume do people want to talk about the sales tax.
Stutsman: What will we talk about the sales tax? Don't we really almost have a work session by ourselves.
Bolkcom: Well, it's just one of those items that probably will be on the agenda.
Stutsman: Because I think Coralville has already made a decision about it. I think we just need to get our thoughts together about what we want put on the ballot as far as funding.
Lacina: Jail.
Stutsman: Yes.
Bolkcom: OK. Any other items.
Stutsman: Is there anything to involve the schools.
Bolkcom: Empowerment.
Deputy Administrative Assistant Deana Pillard: Empowerment.
Stutsman: If we want them to be a part of this meeting, I think we have to have some agenda items that relate to what their... That involves them too.
Bolkcom: Maybe they'll take some role in putting an item or two of interest to them on the agenda.
Stutsman: Planning is about the main thing.
Jordahl: Well, as I think about the schools and planning, there is a... you begin to run into the fact, I believe it's true that Coralville, and Tiffin are contiguous and there is this question of whether Coralville's northwest plan road system is going to jump over Interstate 380 or not and that affects the Clear Creek Schools and so Tiffin is not part of this meeting and it sort of raises that question. As part of the local option sales tax question, I believe that Tiffin is part of the metropolitan area. Check me if I'm wrong on that.
Bolkcom: I don't know.
Duffy: I thought there was a green area between Coralville and Tiffin. Maybe not Jonathan.
Jordahl: Well, Tiffin has annexed up to 380 and Coralville has annexed up to 380, what is not clear to me is whether 380 has been annexed.
Duffy: Yes.
Bolkcom: Who would want to annex...
Jordahl: I mean can you have a line on either side of a federal highway like that and not in the middle. I don't know how that works.
Lacina: Sure.
Bolkcom: OK. Agenda Items, update on Deer Creek and Mormon Trek project. There was going to be an update on that at JCCOG.
Lacina: Jeff can just give us an overview of that.
Bolkcom: Update on Coralville trails projects. I guess those are the two items.
Stutsman: Are we going to put that on?
Bolkcom: I assume it's on; if it's not on, the Board of Supervisors wants it on.
Jordahl: Mention was made here too of the extension of Oakdale Boulevard to the east. There is a lot of ripping and tearing of dirt over there and I would like to know exactly what's happening when.
Bolkcom: School might be interested in that one.
Lacina: I think that the dozers that were rolling over there were rolling on Gerdin's private property. I don't know that that's...
Jordahl: You mean on the Dubuque Street side or on the 1st Avenue side in Coralville.
Lacina: It would be on the 965 side.
Jordahl: I'm talking about between First Avenue in Coralville and Dubuque Street.
Lacina: Oh. Back in there?
Jordahl: Yes. It's amazing how much work is going on in there.
Bolkcom: So update on Oakdale Boulevard Extension..
Stutsman: Yes, that would be good.
Bolkcom: There is a Coralville road connecting to Dubuque Street right now.
Duffy: There's one thing, if we put it on the agenda about sales tax, it really isn't our baby because Iowa City is ruling on the thing.
Bolkcom: There's a vote to take it off? I would support that.
Jordahl: But the question that's on everybody's mind is what would we do with the money. Steve has made a suggestion already this morning as to what we might do with the money and I think that's what our agenda item would be is what we're thinking about.
Bolkcom: Well, we need to have a discussion before we can present what we're thinking.
Duffy: We want to make it clear that...
Jordahl: So maybe we should schedule a discussion.
Duffy: We want to make it clear that we're not the ones that come up with this.
Bolkcom: I think it's clear who came up with it. I don't think...
Duffy: Well, no but there's some people ask, like the last time, how come the Supervisors...
Stutsman: Well, maybe we could just ask for an update to see where every group is.
Jordahl: Well, but if we're going to ask for it, we ought to prepared to give something too.
Stutsman: We can tell them we're not...
Bolkcom: We can tell them we're still thinking about it.
Stutsman: We can tell them that we're still thinking about it.
Lacina: Blame me. I want to build a jail and I see this as a way of doing it. So I want an update, blame me.
Stutsman: All right.
Duffy: You're taking it away from the roads then, Steve?
Lacina: I didn't say anything about roads. No.
Stutsman: Well, I didn't... Aside, we need to put this on our agenda, too, to start talking about what we think our funding is if it does come to the ballot.
Jordahl: That if would be a nice part as an agenda item. If this is put on the ballot by the cities what would we...
Bolkcom: It is going on the ballot the question is what are we going to spend the money on.
Lacina: And to be responsible we need to figure out what we're going to spend the money on.
Jordahl: Certainly the jail is on the top of the list of things to look at.
Lacina: I shouldn't have ever said jail.
Bolkcom: Well, there's other things to think about too.
Stutsman: Yes just space needs in general.
Lacina: There we go.
Duffy: Everybody don't use the jail, but they do the roads.
Jordahl: I would say everybody uses the jail Charlie. We've got a mutual interest in staying safe.
Bolkcom: We have 20 minutes and here we go into the minutes received. One correction. The Task Force minutes were actually July 20th, 1998 correction. We're down to item number... We're going to skip over reports if that would be OK and go to... We have a work session planned for the budget. Do you want to do public discussion before we break into that.
Lacina: Yes.
INQUIRY (JOE GJOVIG): INSPECTION OF CARE CENTERS
Bolkcom: Are there any members of the public that wish to address the Board this morning?
Joe Gjovig: Yes, one question. I'd like to bring up one concern, the inspection of care centers. Does the Human Services Department regularly inspect them?
Bolkcom: What kind of inspections Joe?
Gjovig: To see how the care is that the patients are receiving, you hear of abuse all of the time.
Bolkcom: Sure the County doesn't. Through the Heritage Area Agency on Aging and the other agencies of the state there is care review committees developed, volunteers principally that go out and help try and assess what kind of care is being provided.
Gjovig: The County Task Force (inaudible).
Bolkcom: That's right.
Gjovig: The whole responsibility shouldn't be on them. Human Services should be involved too.
Bolkcom: Sure. Well, the State Legislature passed the bill and that's how it's set up. And we recently fired the State Ombudsman, he got fired recently. So we have nobody that's in charge of that program. But basically he, Carl McPherson, was responsible for providing training to all of the volunteers around the state through the area agencies to do that. There was a bill last session in the Iowa General Assembly that didn't get the support it needed to fix that. They were going to add some positions at the area agency level. So that will be something that maybe the task force and others interested in this issue should advocate for next year, some more resources put into that. We've got what 42,000 people in Iowa in nursing homes and we've had up until this point one paid staff person overseeing the quality of care in all of those places.
Gjovig: Well, I would think the Human Services Department would be concerned about this care that elderly are receiving and get involved.
Bolkcom: I think they are, but they don't have a legislative mandate to do it and there is no, I mean unless every county...
Gjovig: Why do they need a mandate?
Lacina: Because the private sector can tell them to get out.
Bolkcom: It's resources.
Lacina: They don't have to let them in there to go through those inspections, Joe.
Reverend Robert Welsh: (Inaudible).
Bolkcom: Department of Inspections and Appeals.
Welsh: Appeals, that actually has the authority. The Ombudsman position as I understand it does not really have any authority, (inaudible) the committees. The authority lies at the Department Of Inspection Of Appeals. Historically at least according to the Ombudsman report, they have not been very diligent about enforcing it.
Lacina: This would be a good issue- Joe is right- to try to get something done this coming year, bring some additional pressure to bear.
Gjovig: Get the law changed so we get more responsibility, at least on the County's place.
Lacina: Well, I wouldn't say necessarily more responsibility placed on the County, but that the care facilities are held to standards, whoever does it. But that the licensing is checked, and there are inspections made, and the consumers that are in those places are taken care of. Somehow that needs to be addressed.
Stutsman: Well, and I guess I think it would be great to have that responsibility on the County level only if they would pay for it. But I'm not interested in more responsibility on the County level with no dollars to go along with it. That's continually the problem we face. So lobby for it to be on the local level, but only if there's dollars that go along with it.
Gjovig: The counties were closer to (inaudible) than the State is.
Stutsman: Sure.
Welsh: Joe, if I could add, this is a real election issue in November. How people vote in November is going to have a real impact on that.
Bolkcom: Yes it is, in a number of races, including the Governor's race. I mean one of the...
Welsh: There seem to be some significant differences at that point in person's positions.
Bolkcom: Well, we've seen a vote just in the last year or 2 to eliminate all nursing home standards and one of the people running voted for that.
Duffy: Hey, I think we're getting out of hand here. That isn't on the agenda; I don't believe we should get into politics. Bob, do you remember probably 3 or 4 years ago I think the Supervisors or the State wanted us to get involved. I can remember about nursing homes. Carol isn't here, she'd probably know, but there was something there, because I remember visiting a few nursing homes. Do you remember, Steve?
Lacina: Oh, yes. But whatever it was I don't think it passed. Well, obviously it didn't pass.
Duffy: Well, they wanted our input for something regarding nursing homes.
Lacina: Oh, I don't know.
Bolkcom: All right. Go ahead.
Welsh: You mentioned last week when you talked about 28E Agreement on the parking ramp. That's something you probably would want to just mention at your next joint meeting.
Stutsman: Oh, with the City and... That's right.
Jordahl: Uh-huh.
Welsh: Again that wouldn't be a large agenda item, but merely be information.
Bolkcom: Yes, I think that would be a good one. Everybody that's going to be there uses the Senior Center. It would be a good update item for the City to provide what's going on with... All right. Any other members of the public wish to address the Board this morning.
INQUIRY (JOE GJOVIG): LOCAL OPTION SALES TAX
Gjovig: Is this county going to be involved in this one cent sales tax increase vote coming next year. In other words does the County have to come up with a program of what it's going to do.
Bolkcom: That's exactly right.
Gjovig: You're in the process of doing that.
Bolkcom: We're going to put that on in the near future to talk about it.
Lacina: But no, we haven't really yet discussed what projects we would do. But like Joe says we're going to take a look at it.
Bolkcom: Any other members of the public want to address the Board? Thanks for being here everybody.