Bolkcom: All right. We're down to item number 4, this is from Jean Schultz Director for Information Services. A, regarding discussion... technology update/report. Good morning Jean.

Information Services Director Jean Schultz: (Inaudible).

Stutsman: Thanks Jean.

Schultz: I just thought I would review where we are with the networking plan and what we've been doing, just improve communication a little bit. This hand out that I gave you... On the first page, it lists the items that were specifically on our 5 Year Networking Plan for 97, 98 and 99. Items with a checkmark are the items that we have complete. The items that we did not finish, I listed a number beside those and then on the bottom, the reason why we didn't. For example, the connecting Human Services via the phone company... The State administers their network and they were not willing to have us directly connected to their network. But we do connect with the people at Human Services via e-mail through the Internet. The fiber optic cable to the Health Department kind of is a budget concern. I talked with the Board and we kind of delayed the implementation of the fiber optic for 2 years, kind of to save money. We're connected with them via the phone company using prime relay. Basically, right now, the Health Department, Ambulance, Courthouse and Secondary Roads... All of those networks are interconnected. Conservation has dial up so they can dial in and get e-mail. We will soon be doing that for a couple PCs at the Sheriff's Office and also Senior Dining. We were scheduled last year to combine the Auditor's server with the central server. They're not really ready to do that yet so we haven't done that.

Jordahl: Do you have a reason for that?

Schultz: We've talked several different times and it's never a good time for them.

Jordahl: So it's not a matter of general principle, it's a matter of timing?

Schultz: Well...

Lacina: There never will be a good time, in my opinion.

Jordahl: Yes.

Stutsman: There's a difference in philosophies.

Jordahl: This pertains to our upcoming budget discussions and the question of the availability of our budget figures to Department Heads on a daily basis, as we've been discussing.

Schultz: Well, not really because their server is connected to the other server so as far as being able to e-mail and those kind of things... That capability is there. So they can do that.

Jordahl: Uh-huh.

Bolkcom: Are you going to talk directly to the Auditor about that question?

Schultz: This year we're scheduled to install a fiber optic in the Courthouse and the Sheriff, and again, those were... All the fiber optic were put back 2 years in discussion with the Board. The upgraded server for the Courthouse... That has been ordered and the purchase of hardware for the NT server has been ordered. So basically, it just shows you we have completed most of the projects. We're in the process of the ones for ‘99. You can see that. I also listed on the 3rd page, under other projects, some of the things we're (inaudible) to what was on the Network Plan that we have done since the first of January. We found that in e-mailing other buildings, that it was much faster if we put out an NT Server in each one of those buildings, an e-mail server. We did that. We installed the new PCs. We upgraded all the PCs except for the 286/386 to Windows 95. We upgraded the e-mail package to Outlook, which people have been very happy with. We have upgraded the PCs in this building and some of the others to Office 97. We're in the process of upgrading all PCs to Office 97. We updated the back-up server's software on the ... County 1 is the server here. The one at the Health Department, Secondary Roads and Ambulance... we replaced the actual server at Ambulance. We redid wiring and assisted when the Recorder's Office remodeled. We've done a fair amount of work on their installation of document management system and converting the vital statistics data on births, deaths, and marriage. We upgraded the network modems... Additional wiring at County Attorney, Health, Treasurer, County Assessor and Human Resources. In the programming area, we did a lot of work in converting the parcel numbering system from the County to the new permanent parcel numbering system. This is important. We've been talking about that for a long time. Plus, if we go to a GIS system, that's needed for that. We did some education in Visual Basic, more towards the client/server end. We've written, just some of the programs and applications we've written. We've upgraded languages that we've used. We have been going through the systems and making changes for the Year 2000 issue. We helped Burnell when there was the contract negotiation with SEATS in producing some of their reports. We've taught a number of classes. We've maintained the web pages. Right now, I have AD Check and we have... This is not in the Auditor's or not in the Ambulance area. We've got about 342 pages with information under the other offices. There's a couple different statistics that people use to measure web access. Sometimes they go by the number of requests or the number of pages transferred. I listed the jc.gov stats, basically, all the departments other than Ambulance and Auditor. If you go just on the number of requests, the total of that plus for the County... Like in September of 97, that month was like 6,000. Now it's like 23,500. You look at the number of pages transferred. It went from 2,700 a year ago and last month it was 8,500. So there's a lot more web access.

Stutsman: Good, great.

Schultz: There's a lot more people accessing our pages. We've also worked with all the various County computer committees and networking committees, GIS, (inaudible), the Document Management Committee, Communications Committee. We helped with County Fest. The next page... I listed the things that we're yet working on this fiscal year. We should be able to finish updating the 386/486 PCs. We have ordered 2 servers. One will actually replace the server in this building and then this current server in this building will go to upgrade the one at Courthouse. The reason we're putting the new one here is because it has more demand than the one at Courthouse so we're kind of trickling that one down to the Courthouse. There will be an NT server. We have an old PC being used for that. Finish upgrading software to Office 97... Hopefully we'll get the files moved from the Auditor's to the central server. We will have dial up connections for 2 PCs from the Sheriff's Office and one from Senior Dining so that they will be able to dial in through the County e-mail system or access like your budget reports. We have the new 3000... it has been installed, last week. We had the approval to do that. We ordered it and there were some promotions that we got so we actually saved money, plus got a better machine. Then there was some delay in getting some parts. We finally got the last part a few weeks ago so it was actually installed last week. Then we're doing some testing on it (inaudible) we bring the data on over so that people will actually be using it probably the end of next week. We have new versions of accounts payable and general ledger to install and to continue working on the Year 2000 issues. Our payroll system is a very old system and really needs to be upgraded. We've sent memos around asking different departments to list things that they see are important for a new system and start looking at payroll systems. I guess you can see, we also will be working with the Zoning Department with a project having to do with the Census for the year 2000, updating addresses and communicating with them. There's a new year for the tax statement law. In fact, I'm going to a meeting about that this afternoon in Des Moines. We'll be rewriting some programs for that. There's a meeting on it Friday in Des Moines also about submitting some of the evaluation reports electronically for the State and use in determining the levies. Again, we'll continue with the web pages and teaching software classes.

Bolkcom: Wow. Busy, busy, busy.

Jordahl: Uh-huh.

Lacina: You're also to be commended because the State issued the levies late this year and you got the tax bills out very quickly.

Schultz: Yes. (Inaudible) but they did get them very late. By law they were supposed to have them out by June 15th. I think it was almost August 1st. The last couple pages... I thought you might be interested in seeing what happened with the central technology fund as far as PC replacement. I tried to break it up by department.

Stutsman: Jean, just scanning this, it looks like you're working with every department but maybe the Auditor's Office. Is that correct?

Schultz: By working with them... I'm not sure what you mean.

Stutsman: Well it said did not request anything from the technology fund. It looks like everybody else has some things that they've requested or put in place.

Schultz: Yes, this year they are getting 3 PCs. We had some but they were not purchased from a Johnson County vendor. Basically, they wanted to wait until we had some we had some that were ordered from a Johnson County vendor. They will be getting the 3 we have (inaudible).

Jordahl: That was a purchase... We discussed that earlier, but that was something done at greater expense because we purchased the same type of computers we would have purchased elsewhere.

Schultz: Actually, the PCs we got, we got from a place in Coralville. They actually were a little less. They were not... they were ones that they did take good parts and they basically... They were sort of a name brand, but not really a name brand and so we decided to try some of those. We have ordered probably about 7 or 8 of them. The components are good. We have had some problems with them so we're not sure if we are going to order any more until we have a longer history with them.

Lacina: I hope not the k chip.

Schultz: Huh?

Lacina: Are they the k chip, the Pentium k chips or are they the Intel's?

Schultz: I'm not sure which these new ones are. I think they are k chips. I'm not sure.

Lacina: Are they Acers?

Schultz: Huh?

Lacina: What's the brand?

Schultz: (Inaudible). I hadn't heard of them before either. I guess we're trying to...

Stutsman: Work with the requests and things...

Schultz: ...work with local vendors.

Stutsman: Is that that office too that didn't have somebody at the office until like 9:30 in the morning?

Schultz: Yes.

Stutsman: So that's a problem too.

Schulz: It's basically a one person... It's my understanding it's pretty much a one person job , or just a couple or something. If there's questions like we didn't get some drivers with the network card that came with it. Basically we went to the internet and downloaded it from there, rather than getting it from the dealer.

Stutsman: Uh-huh.

Schultz: When those kinds of issues come up we basically go to the manufacturer, rather than to the local person.

Lacina: It might be cheaper, but by the time... If you factored in labor and time to support it... We just got rid of a 6 month old 286 MHz with a k chip that was just constantly locked up. We just finally chucked it.. We do have to be careful that these machines are compatible. While we try some, some of them are junk.

Jordahl: I thought we had decided not to do that. That's kind of where my question is here.

Schultz: This is technically a name brand and we wanted name brands. I guess as a department we did agree to try a few.

Stutsman: I appreciate you trying to work it out and see what can be done.

Jordahl: I guess I... I'm not trying to criticize you for this. I'm trying to encourage you to stick to your guns in terms of your judgement on things. If your judgement is that we shouldn't be doing this, then I want to support you in that.

Schultz: Well, Bill did a fair amount of investigation to make sure the components that were used are good ones and he felt comfortable with the components. Like I said, I don't know if we'll get anymore until we have a longer track record with them.

Bolkcom: All right. Other questions?

Schultz: One thing we are a little behind in is their client/server application on the 3000. We're short on the programming end of it. We have one position, a programmer position, that we're advertising now for the third time for. We just had a Programmer Analyst this week resign. She's been commuting for 3 years from Muscatine. She's gotten a job in Muscatine. You have some problems in that area in the fact that there's... In the first off, with the Year 2000 issue, there's more jobs than people in the market, plus their salaries are low. We do have a problem filling that. We are behind in that area.

Bolkcom: That's converting the big 3000 to a server.

Schultz: Uh-huh.

Bolkcom: Basically...

Schultz: And new applications and new things like that. Right now, we will have one, until we fill those 2 positions, then we have one full-time Programmer Analyst. We have another one who's basically on unpaid leave because of a sick child. That's (inaudible). It is a tight area for us.

Bolkcom: So we're advertising for those... we will be for both positions.

Schultz: We have advertised for the third time and then we will be interviewing the week after next for the programmer position. Then the Programmer Analyst just resigned yesterday so it will be posted today and then advertised.

Jordahl: Has the salary survey adequately addressed your needs in the realm of salary or to be competitive and fill those positions.

Schultz: The salary survey has not done anything as far as the actual staff salaries.

Bolkcom: In the unit...

Schultz: Pardon me?

Bolkcom: Because they're in the unit...

Schultz: Right.

Bolkcom: Yes, they're in the bargaining unit.

Jordahl: I see.

Schultz: I guess I'm just saying that as far as supporting raising their salaries... Because they are low. Plus the job market is real tight.

Bolkcom: OK.

Schultz: I wanted to bring that up to you but are there any questions?

Lacina: Jean, who generates the fee for the hosting the domain name? Where are we getting that from?

Schultz: Internet Navigator in North Liberty.

Lacina: They are paying us a fee?

Schultz: No. We pay them a fee.

Lacina: Well, that's for the internet access. We pay them a fee for the domain name?

Schultz: Well what they do is... We do not have a web server here. That's in 2 years, in the network plan, to get one here but then they also have the high speed access to the internet. Basically we have our name, which is the co.johnson.ia.us...

Lacina: But it goes to their server and then routes to us.

Schultz: It actually goes to their server and what happens is every 15 minutes our email server dials up their system and says do you have any mail for us and if so, then it downloads it here. Then it's available for employees. Likewise, every 15 minutes anything that people have sent out via the internet is uploaded to their server. Basically, they are acting like our web server.

Lacina: They're our host.

Schultz: Or our internet server.

Lacina: Fine, thanks.

Jordahl: So at the point, in 2 years, when we get our own connection here, we'll be able to simplify our address massively, I hope?

Schultz: No, the address will still be the same address. Like jjordahl@co... That standard, the co.johnson.ia.us, is a standard like if you email people in Linn County, it's co.linn.ia.us.

Jordahl: Couldn't we get an alias system that would... this is a detail I guess we could discuss at a subcommittee meeting but it would be nice to simplify our address for the public.

Schultz: We could do the P.O. box but I don't know that this might easier for them to remember, especially if they are e-mailing people in other counties. It's the County of Johnson, in Iowa, in the United States. I guess they could do some address at P.O. Box.com.

Jordahl: Or you could just have it say Johnson County, real straight forwardly. This is a detail discussion. We can do this later.

Bolkcom: Good point. We've got pobox.com, johnson-county... for the web, not individual addresses.

Schultz: Right.

Bolkcom: All right. The Y2K issue, Jean, could you speak to that? Have we had much interest in people helping? You put out a memo about...

Schultz: We haven't had anyone call since the meeting. At the meeting, I did talk to Cheryl and she thought maybe Gary Rowe from Human Services. I think he would be interested.

Bolkcom: OK.

Schultz: She was going to check with him to check his schedule. Bob Carpenter said he thought they had someone at the Sheriff's Office who would be interested. There's also been a couple people... I haven't spoken directly to Mike Gardener, but there's been a couple people at Secondary Roads express interest in being on the committee also.

Bolkcom: How would you describe where we're at, at this point? Are you feeling fairly comfortable that we're going to be OK? What kind of resources should we be prepared, as a Board, to put towards solving this? Do we have people power to fix everything?

Schultz: The computer systems, the ones that we directly work with... we're in the process of and I think we can have those without a problem. As far as the Sheriff's system, they lease that software. I know Duane Lewis talked about having some kind of form that could be sent to their... There's some standard forms we're getting copies of, that would be sent to them that their software vendor could say yes we certify that this software will be available before hand. As far as the PCs we should have available all 286/386 type PCs updated. As far as things other than those in the County, I guess we're not experts at this point and that's why we've asked for this committee, like if someone has a chip, a computer chip, on some kind of vehicle that's going to be affected or the phone system that DHS talked about. We don't know yet how much of that equipment there is.

Lacina: Automated controls for buildings or something like that.

Schultz: Right. I have talked to Pat Langenberg and I did tell him that at this point, he might... His system is quite old. I think he got it when we built this building. The cost they're giving him to replace it is quite expensive but I did suggest to him that he put that in the budget until we find out what that (inaudible) later come to you and say we need additional funds for that.

Bolkcom: All right. Good report, Jean. Members of the Board if you have questions, feel free to follow that up. We can move on to the next item.

Jordahl: Well before we do that Jean and I were discussion the need for a meeting of the County Computer Committee to address issues of updating the 5 Year Plan to actually be a 5 Year Plan because it will be a 4 Year Plan now. We out to add a year on that out end of that. So we've tentatively scheduled a meeting for the end of the month on Thursday the 29th. Time of day, Jean? We had 2:00? 2:30?

Schultz: I think so. I didn't bring my schedule with me.

Jordahl: Somewhere in there. Also, there was some notion of the importance of having the GIS Committee meet, particularly in view of resignation of it's chair from that function. We thought perhaps a week earlier on the 22nd to help get that piece of the puzzle discussed, it can be such an expensive piece, a week in advance of the whole committee meeting.

Bolkcom: Very good. What time is that?

Jordahl: The 22nd is...

Schultz: It's at 1:30, I think.

Jordahl: I've got 1:00. 1:30, whatever.

Bolkcom: All right, good. Good work on that. We need to keep moving on that. OK, anything else on item a? Item b, discussion regarding employee computer purchase program.

Stutsman: I put this on the agenda. I wanted to get clarification and direction from the Board that the Board is still interested in doing this. This has kind of been one of those projects that hung out there for a long time, that we've worked on this for a long time. I think there's still interest by employees to pursue this. We're currently working with the Auditor's office to get some things in place as far as payroll deduction and stuff. But I just wanted to know that... It has taken time on Jean's part and not so much on my part to do this. I want to make sure the Board is still on track with this, this is something you want to do before we put anymore time in this. I also think we need to tell employees too. I think with the holidays coming up some people are thinking about holiday gifts. We need to let them know. If we're going to go ahead with this or whether we're just not interested in pursuing this.

Duffy: Sally, I'm not interested in pursuing it. I believe in the free enterprise system of government and I don't think we should get into the computer business. Evidently, we'll buy these computers in volume so we get them cheaper and I don't think it's fair to the rest of the folks that are in this business. It might backfire on us anyway. It might take a lot of bookwork, things like that. I don't think we should get in the computer business anymore than the automobile business for example.

Schultz: Actually the price that people would pay isn't any less. I guess it's less in the fact that they won't be financing it, but as far as the prices of the equipment itself, they will be the same.

Duffy: Yes, but are you going to buy them from one or 2 places? I thought that's what we talked about the last time.

Schultz: OK, what we did is we sent a letter to all the computer vendors in the phone book, in the yellow pages, in the Iowa City phone book, plus a couple vendors that we, as a County, have worked with in Cedar Rapids, plus Gateway, who approached Sally initially about having this. It was like 11 different vendors we contacted to see if they would be interested in doing something like that. We only got response from 2 that they were interested in participating. What we were talking about was having a few people from those vendors, when they could bring in a couple different configurations, and they would be here to answer employee's questions, to do demos, or whatever on the software and that. Then they could take orders and then I think the thought was that the Board would pay the financing. The employees would pay 10% down and the rest would be payroll deductions or something.

Stutsman: That would just be automatic.

Duffy: I'm still not for it. I don't think computers are the end of the world really. I think we're be making a mistake here getting into this business and that's what we're doing.

Lacina: So our only expense would be the time factor. We pay 100% up front and they would pay us back through payroll deduction.

Schultz: The expense would be the financing because at first...

Lacina: We'd lose the interest.

Schultz: ...the interest, where the County would be paying the interest. At first, we contacted, Sally did, different lending institutions to see the rates and then I think the Board had discussion where that wasn't really that big of a deal because you could go to a place in town and get a year with no interest. Wasn't that the discussion?

Stutsman: Right, right. That there wasn't any advantage to going to a local vendor to do that.

Lacina: I was concerned about the County making loans. After talking with (inaudible) GSI wrote a letter. It doesn't appear that they're concerned about it. Frankly, the amount of money we thought would not be real significant anyway in the total picture. I did have some concerns about us taking business away from the lenders. They're not concerned with that. OK, one of the things I am concerned about though, for somebody coming in that may not be familiar with PCs I do think we should consider a technology expo day or something where they could come in and see what the difference is between the 20 speed CD-ROM and maybe a 16 or 18. So I don't know if the vendors would consider coming in, setting that up.

Schultz: That's what we'd asked them to do.

Stutsman: Kind of set up a computer fair or whatever an then have minimal staff from Jean's department to answer some questions about compatibility with what they have here at work and things.

Jordahl: I have a question.

Schultz: But we would not as a department provide any support once the employee got their PC. It's their machine. We're not going to be installing software or fixing anything or that kind of thing. It would be the employee's responsibility to make sure they got what they felt they needed from it.

Jordahl: That's part of...

Stutsman: Initially, the whole idea of this was to offer this to employees so they could have computers at home so that they could enhance their computer skills on their own time. That's why it's important to make sure it's compatible with what we have here at work so that those times would be transferable. You wouldn't waste time at home learning something and then not be able to use those skills when they come to work the next day.

Jordahl: I had a question about..

Duffy: We're going to purchase these from 2 vendors then, did you say?

Schultz: I guess in the last meeting we had... I'm sorry.

Jordahl: I want to... Charlie asked you a question, I suppose it would be OK to answer that.

Stutsman: From 2 vendors... 2 vendors responded, Charlie. We offered it...

Duffy: OK. I think we ought to put this on for Thursday and we'll vote on it. I want to vote no.

Bolkcom: Yes, we'll have to take some formal action if we're going to do this, Charlie. Jonathan...

Jordahl: Yes, thank you. If I can remember my question now. Training? I believe when we talked about that Gateway package we initially part of that was that there was some training offered. Is my memory serving me correctly there?

Stutsman: No. I don't think so.

Jordahl: OK, so one of my questions is training. It's one thing to get a PC and another thing to know how to use it. Now presumably, if we're enhancing the skills they are learning at work, they would have similar software on the computer at home, ideally, to what they are using at work. We should be providing training for people to use the software that they need to use to at work, at work.

Stutsman: We're already doing that. It hangs together for me that if a person gets a new computer at home that they might have access to County training for software that they can use at work.

Bolkcom: Don't we do that now?

Schultz: Yes, we have Word and Excel and e-mail classes that people can...

Stutsman: That's the whole idea. They get the training at work and this way they could practice at home on their own computer versus having to take time away from work to learn those skills and things. That's been something that's been a strategic plan for the Board so it sounded like this would fit well, to encourage computer literacy for employees. I guess we thought this is what Iowa City, Coralville and North Liberty and we thought it made sense for the County to do it too. But if the Board is not interested in doing this then I want...

Bolkcom: It's time to say so.

Stutsman: Yes and then we need to tell employees that we're not going to pursue this and for them to buy it...

Lacina: Is this a one time event?

Schultz: I guess that would be up to you. As Sally said Iowa City, North Liberty, Coralville all have done this. They went with one vendor. They didn't send out a letter to see... We tried to be more inclusive that they were by checking with vendors. They just went with Gateway. They came in and did the presentation so it was Gateway or nothing basically as far as participating in the plan.

Stutsman: When we first started this it seemed to simple. It's just gotten so complicated and taken so much more time than we thought.

Duffy: I'd like to ask one other question.

Schultz: I think Iowa City is going to continue, from what I understand.

Stutsman: I think...

Lacina: I can see the need as you learn the base machine you may want a different printer or a different drive or different software. First you walk and then you gain speed.

Jordahl: I think it should be on going.

Bolkcom: It could be on going but you might only...

Stutsman: You need to get started first.

Bolkcom: You might only finance a computer every 3 years per employee or something. I don't think we want... The real question for me is how much money do you want to dedicate to this. Do you want to have a cap? Do you want to have a we'll spend this amount of money. People who come forward and do this are in, once we run out of money, we're done. Or do you want to leave this open ended?

Stutsman: I think that's what Coralville did. I read through their contract today. They had so much money put aside. I think Iowa City did too, now that I think about it. If there was more demand than what they had moneys put aside, they went to a lottery system. Each year they would evaluate as to whether the interest... whether they wanted to continue it or whatever.

Duffy: Coralville has a large mall out there, Sally. We don't have any. If we finance an employee for a computer, when they bring it home do they just use that for County business until they get a...

Stutsman: No.

Duffy: Well see.

Lacina: They buy it.

Bolkcom: But it's our computer until it's paid for.

Schultz: It technically is.

Duffy: Until it's paid for. How do you know it's going to be any good? We got a whole list of them we're taking to Sharpless Auction.

Schultz: Well those are 286/386. Those are old, old PCs. I did talk to the people at the City of Iowa City to see if they got any PCs back because of employees not paying them off and they hadn't. It's worked fine for them.

Jordahl: You could...

Schultz: This wasn't something that came up internally. I think this came up because... Sally, didn't several employees contact you...

Stutsman: Yes, right.

Schultz: ...because they knew what Iowa City was doing, what North Liberty and Coralville were doing. They wanted to know if Johnson County was doing the same thing.

Stutsman: Yes, this wasn't something that Jean or I initiated. Employees knew that the City was doing it and they said why can't we do this in the County. So we just did...

Duffy: Well I think we ought to stand on our own 2 feet.

Jordahl: Uh-huh.

Duffy: Just because someone else does something that does not mean we have to do it. I think this is kind of a serious thing here.

Jordahl: I'm really glad we're doing it. We have stood on our own 2 feet, as Jean pointed out, in approaching it very differently and trying to include Johnson County vendors, make sure we reached out and offered everybody an opportunity to participate and compete. We did things differently. I'm, proud of that.

Lacina: A couple things have come up we need clarification on. One, if we finance the thing over 5 years, it's going to be obsolete so we can't extend financing over...

Stutsman: I think they said 3 years.

Lacina: OK, so financing is 3 years. When we go out to the employees with the information, we need to state that.

Stutsman: Right.

Lacina: How often, as Joe has said, can they buy? Will it be one purchase for every 3 years? What about if they want a printer or an additional drive or their monitor goes bad? We need to figure out the frequency. I would suggest once a year we open it up and see. Third point... I think Kim did a survey of the employees that wanted... we didn't at the time, have a huge response but we had a good response.

Stutsman: I think it was a pretty good response.

Schultz: There were over 100.

Lacina: Yes, but I don't think it would be something that would become excessive in terms of financial burden to the County.

Stutsman: Oh I see. Right. Well there again, like Joe said, and I think like Coralville Iowa City have done, they put a cap on it. If there were more people interested than we had moneys available, you just put it into a lottery system.

Bolkcom: Do we want a dollar amount per employee? You can borrow $3,000 or 2,500 or 2,000. If we have 100 people wanting...

Jordahl: A $3,000 computer, you've got $300,000.

Schultz: The Iowa City plan was 3,500 max.

Bolkcom: Yes.

Schultz: The maximum time to pay it off was 3 years.

Bolkcom: Yes.

Lacina: How long could they do that though? Can they do that each year?

Schultz: I don't...

Stutsman: I don't remember the...

Lacina: Or was it the 3 year... You can't use the program until the initial financing is paid off. Is that what we want?

Jordahl: You can't what?

Bolkcom: You have to pay it off...

Lacina: You have to pay it off.

Bolkcom: That's an interesting idea. You have to pay it off the computer you've...

Stutsman: Before you can...

Bolkcom: Before you get another one.

Lacina: The negative to... Of course it's a significant amount.

Jordahl: It could be every 2 years.

Bolkcom: I think we should be conservative about this and have rules that are stricter, rather than not. If we don't have anybody take advantage we can move to plan b. Duane?

Sheriff's Captain Duane Lewis: I responded to that with several other people too and isn't another component that we just wanted the discounted pricing to the County and not necessarily the financing? Now our people looked at it that way a lot. You might have to do your own financing but you could get a discounted price because of the bulk County business offering. Was that misunderstood?

Schultz: Actually, whether or not... Gateway's going to give the same price no matter what, whether or not we have this plan. The other vendor from Cedar Rapids... When a person goes in and buys a PC today, and says they are a County employee they can get the County discount.

Lewis: OK. I think that was the information a lot of my people were looking for anyway, is what was compatible to what you folks were doing because (inaudible) not necessarily they wouldn't go get one, if it wasn't financed by the County. I think we misunderstood in part anyway what the project was.

Bolkcom: Are there... Jean, are you saying we wouldn't really achieve much of a discount? Say we wanted to buy 50 PCs through this program, we'd probably pay just about what anybody would pay for those?

Schultz: Yes, I don't think Gateway was willing to...

Stutsman: Gateway wasn't, no. They had a set amount and that was it.

Schultz: Compucom we already get. I think it's like a 15 1/2 % discount, which is like 2% above cost. They can't really give much more discount because they're only making 2% the way it is.

Lewis: I think that information itself would be beneficial to a lot of employees.

Lacina: But it would be a savings over somebody going to a private vendor to buy one, right? We get...

Schultz: Right, they would get the 15 1/2% that they get now, whether they do it today or whether they do it through this program.

Jordahl: It would be a savings if they went to a private vendor to get an HP, like the one they'd get through the Cedar Rapids vendor but perhaps not if they bought some off brand you might get for $1,000 less locally. But it wouldn't be as, as you said, reliable and so forth, maybe not the same chip inside but would do things. I think that's the point of discussion here when you're talking about getting a discount. It still will remain the case the stuff they're going to buy will be of a higher quality but more expensive ultimately than something they could buy that would accomplish basically the same purpose.

Lacina: So a fourth point would be in terms of training. We will offer training programs for software that the County uses, Windows, NT, but not necessarily if they have some other operating system. That's their responsibility.

Stutsman: No, and it's made very clear that there's no support offered for these personal home computer.

Lacina: That would be a good point. If lightning strikes and blows it out, you're to have your insurance. You don't bring in your PC to be debugged or...

Stutsman: The contracts that... I've seen the ones from Coralville and Iowa City, that's all spelled out very clearly in there. The employee knows the conditions. They know the payments and what not.

Lacina: A sixth point, which we'll have to deal with in time, in time we'll see requests from some individuals that want to work at home and tap onto our system. Because of the hacker problem and security, Jean will have to deal. But that's going to be a policy, in general I don't know it's specific to this.

Stutsman: So back to original question, is their interest to pursue this or do you want to just forget it?

Lacina: With those guide lines, I would say yes.

Bolkcom: I think there's one question we need... the big question is how much money do we want to dedicate to this. I think we can come up with a great program. The question is what can we afford? Is the Board willing to spend $30,000, 50,000, 100? You could easily spend...

Duffy: You're going to have a tough budget year, Joe.

Bolkcom: I don't disagree with that.

Duffy: I'll probably vote no for that too.

Jordahl: It's not so much spending as in encumbering. The actual spending here is just foregoing the interest on whatever amount of money and losing that degree of liquidity.

Lacina: Well you're going to have a big check tied up.

Bolkcom: It's going to tie up the money. (Inaudible).

Schultz: You're going to spend the money to buy the PC and then the employee over time is going to be paying you back. But the initial money to buy the PCs is going to be (inaudible).

Bolkcom: We're talking about a couple hundred dollars financing charge on $3,000?

Schultz: Plus, if you buy a $3000 PC and the employee pays 300 and then pays you back over time, you still have that $3000 that the County put out.

Bolkcom: Right, right, we'll never get the finance back. We'll get the other money back but basically it's going to be unavailable. A big part of this... Does anybody have a number they'd like to throw out?

Stutsman: Well the average... 3,000 ceiling... So if you want to offer it to 50 employees, 25...

Lacina: 50 employees at 3,000 gets you 150,000.

Bolkcom: I don't know where we're going to get the money. What about lowering the cost per employee?

Lacina: You can get some pretty good machines out there for 1,200.

Stutsman: Can you, Jean?

Lacina: Home use...

Schultz: Yes, you can but then when you consider software and you consider printers...

Lacina: Printers, cabling...

Bolkcom: A couple thousand. 2,000 would be pretty (inaudible).

Jordahl: Well it does suggest the possibility of an alternate approach here. Rather than tying up that amount of money, if we just gave each employee x dollars to go out and buy a computer, let them shop on their own, we would have less money tied up. It would cost us more in the long run but we would retain a lot of liquid going into questionable budget year.

Bolkcom: I don't understand that.

Stutsman: How would we...

Bolkcom: What would we give them, just the financing money?

Jordahl: Say we give them a chunk of change. $500 as an incentive to go buy a computer. They can get the money when they bring in the receipt for having bought the computer or something like that.

Lacina: And then they take it right back.

Stutsman: Yes.

Jordahl: They would take it right back?

Stutsman: Yes.

Lacina: The enforcement could be very difficult with that.

Schultz: That was...

Stutsman: Yes, we'd need a computer patrol.

Lacina: I see the intent. I'm just concerned that they will cheat (inaudible).

Jordahl: Well what you're saying there... That there'd be some question that the employee would go right back out and return the computer or go right back out and sell the computer to turn a profit and put the $500 in their pocket.

Lacina: (Inaudible) a 16 year old kid who bought the computer...

Stutsman: That seems like that's a lot more work than...

Bolkcom: We want more structure to it.

Stutsman: ...than what we want to be into.

Jordahl: I just think... There might be one or 2 that would do that but I wouldn't see that as a some kind of wide spread... I don't think people are out to rip off the County. I maybe naïve but...

Bolkcom: All right, do you want to set a different... 3,000 is on the table for the amount. Is anybody interested in going lower than that?

Lacina: I think that's excessive. You can get a good home printer for around the $200 range.

Schultz: Yes, you could do 2,000 and still get quite a bit of software too.

Lacina: And have a lot with modem and... Yes.

Stutsman: For your information, Iowa City, and I'm not saying we have to do it just because they did it, authorized 3,500 and Coralville 3,000.

Bolkcom: I think 2,000 would be about right for us.

Stutsman: Yes.

Jordahl: Uh-huh.

Schultz: One suggestion was brought up that, basically, people be given vouchers and go to whatever vendor they wanted to. But that wasn't what we had proposed and that wasn't what Iowa City, Coralville and North Liberty did do. We were modeling ours after theirs.

Stutsman: Do you want to do 2,000 for 10 employees?

Jordahl: I would rather open it up to more people. We're talking about... Say you had 100 employees and a 2,000 ceiling a piece, you're locking up $200,000. If you had 100 employees and you gave them each $500 incentive money, $50,000 that we would use. We would get more than that back. We wouldn't be spending 50,000 in interest over 2 years for the $200,000 but it would leave us $150,000 more money in the ending balance to deal with.

Bolkcom: Right.

Lacina: Is this coming out of our building fund or is this coming out of moving fund or...

Bolkcom: It's coming from somewhere and when would it begin? I suppose it would begin next July. Or would it begin sooner?

Stutsman: Well my idea is...

Bolkcom: Sooner is better.

Jordahl: Yes, exactly.

Stutsman: ...to start right it away.

Lacina: I suggest one of the things we do is we look at the growth in our carryover from last year, if we had growth. We allocate a portion of those dollars as opposed to going into reserves or tapping any one department. Carolyn, you wouldn't just happen to have the number off the top of your head?

Bolkcom: It did creep up a little bit but we also had a fairly significant budget amendment, a quarter million, that we have not covered yet. That's a good place to start to look for the money, I think, but we're probably eating into any expanding any balance we did have already.

Lacina: What I am hearing though is I'm hearing consensus for support for the program with some restrictions that we've enumerated. What we need to do right now is look and see where the money would come from.

Bolkcom: The financial part...OK, that sounds good. Could we write up the provisions for this, the terms, 3 years...

Stutsman: We can. Carol says we can. I don't know. I'm not taking any notes.

Lacina: (Inaudible) for one time.

Bolkcom: I don't know.. I think we need more. $2,000 per employee. I would say per family every 3 years.

Stutsman: Right.

Bolkcom: So we're only financing one computer.

Lacina: Well amortized over 3 but...

Bolkcom: If it's a 3 year amortization, that they have to pay that off before they are... Or maybe that's it. If they could pay it if early, but we only have...

Stutsman: There are provisions to pay off early.

Bolkcom: If we're concerned we don't have enough money, having one family buy 3 computers and some families not be able to get any computers... I think it just spreads the money better. 2,000 and it would include what... A processor, a monitor, a printer and a modem. What about scanners? There's all sorts of other stuff. Do we want to limit it to components?

Lacina: I'm almost tempted to limit it just to the basic PC and if they want an exotic printer or something else, let them buy the peripherals.

Bolkcom: All right.

Lacina: That would stretch the money longer.

Jordahl: Let's think about this over the 3 years that you're talking about. Say we had 100 people in this, and I know you're looking for a dollar figure, but let's just say we had 100 at 2,000. That's $200,000 we'd lock up this year. We'll we're going to have the program next year, right, or on an on going basis. I don't suppose there would be another 100 employees that would want it, but hypothetically, you could have $600,000 tied up this thing.

Bolkcom: Yes, my interest would be to limit it to a maximum of 40 or $50,000 a year period. It's first come, first serve. I'm not interested in putting a couple hundred thousand dollars into this right now.

Schultz: We could do the lottery system, which is what Iowa City did if there were more people who wanted to participate than there were funds. They did it on a lottery system. The applications were due by a specific time.

Lacina: If we do the lottery though, than I think we should be just the base machines so that somebody doesn't come up with a machine with a scanner, modem...

Bolkcom: All right, so maybe you guys can make a suggestion on components.

Schultz: OK.

Bolkcom: Minimal components.

Stutsman: Right.

Jordahl: Yes, configure an outfit.

Bolkcom: No support.

Schultz: What Iowa City did is they had 3 different configurations for the employee to pick which one of the 3. Then they could get what level of PC they wanted.

Stutsman: That's what they do.

Bolkcom: Maybe make a recommendation the amount of money and get back to us.

Stutsman: OK.

Duffy: Joe, I want to point something out. Again, I don't think this is prudent use of the tax payers dollars. We're talking about money up here but I didn't hear too many people say anything about the tax payers. Now we set ourselves off in an island. We're going to use their money to get into private business. A lot of them that pay taxes forget about you. Plus, the fact the federal government is cutting back. That includes Medicaid. They have cut that in some cases. The State is doing it. Johnson County, what are we doing? We're going against the grain, we're paddling upstream. I don't take this lightly. I think it's serious.

Bolkcom: Thank you, Charlie. Any other comments on this? Enough direction? I think there's interest to move ahead with a more detailed proposal.

Duffy: Put it on for Thursday.

Stutsman: OK. Thank you, Jean.

Bolkcom: Whenever you're ready bring that back...

Stutsman: We'll try to get it back next week.

Bolkcom: Very good. All right. Thank you, Jean. We appreciate it.

Stutsman: Oh, you're going to be gone?

Bolkcom: Jean's going to take some time off. Much deserved. All right, when you get back, let's work on it.

Stutsman: OK.

(Continued in Part 4)