Bolkcom: We're at item A, reports and inquiries from the County Attorney.

Lyness: Nothing else.

Bolkcom: Thanks Janet. Item b, is reports and inquiries from members of the public. Anybody have anything on their mind they want to talk to us about this morning? Yes. Could you identify...

Gertrude MacQueen: Why don't we have a purchasing agent? You referred to that. Has there ever been one?

Bolkcom: That was Gertrude MacQueen asking the question for the public's notice. I don't know, Gert. We do not now have a purchasing agent. We have department heads that do purchasing. There is some joint purchasing between department heads for certain supplies. But no we don't and...

Lacina: On the big items we're required to go out for bid. So primarily each department, like the Sheriff when they go out for cars or that, they have to take the cheapest bid unless there is some other circumstance, safety or something related, to deviate. Pretty much each department within those budgets, since they control those dollars, has dealt with it themselves. But it doesn't mean that there may not be some possibilities of, like paper, across the County. Instead of each department... If we could figure out a way of buying a truckload of paper, there might be some savings. When we looked into it in the past, one of the problems we discovered is when you do that you have to have a break down center. So you bring the truckload in, you have to store it somewhere and then dispense it as it was needed. At the time, we didn't have the space and felt it would be more expensive to do so than what we would gain. But from time to time we look at it. If we can find an example of where it would work, I think we should consider it.

Bolkcom: Yes. I guess the Board historically hasn't seen... In terms of the economy of scale, that we might gain by having, say a full-time or a part-time person work on purchasing that.

Lacina: Yes.

Bolkcom: At this point, my sense is the Board hasn't believed that the savings would necessarily pay for that position.

MacQueen: Unless, unless, what you're discussing here, the regionalization, the cooperative effort pulls it all together.

Bolkcom: Right, sure.

MacQueen: Then the sense of a purchasing agent really makes sense.

Bolkcom: Right. Sure. I think that could be. One of the reasons I think we haven't been able to get it more together with the Cities in Johnson County is we haven't necessarily had a designated person in County government pushing, moving ahead on that particular point. We've had a number of people kind of look into it, but we haven't had anybody designated to make it happen. I think if we're serious about this as a concept, I think we're probably going to, at some point, have to make that move. Either have somebody part-time initially or... Again, we'd have to see some savings in order to accommodate it.

Lacina: Good question.

Bolkcom: Good question though. Thanks. Anybody else wish to address the Board this morning? All right, we're down to item c and that's reports and inquiries from members of the Board. Does anybody have a report this morning?

Lacina: For sake of time...

Bolkcom: Charlie, do you want to... Steve?

Lacina: Go ahead Charlie.

Duffy: Steve and I, yesterday went to Des Moines to State Economic Development Meeting, well attended. I'll just give part of this maybe.

Lacina: Go ahead, give the whole thing, that's fine.

Duffy: Some of it was on Iowa Value-added Agricultural Products and Financial Assistance; several programs, Enterprise Zones, Community Economic Development, Betterment Account, and Economic Development Set Aside, Iowa Financial Assistance Programs. That was well attended. It was about a 4 hour meeting. So on the 10th of November, this one I'm on it, Iowa Road Development Council meeting will have Doctor Darmett J. Hayes, Professor of Economics Department, Iowa State University. He is going to talk on impact of current market conditions like agriculture and other Iowa industries, which is real tough. Partnership success stories, we're going to talk about Western Iowa Technology, Enterprise Zones, Capital Corporations. Then we're going to talk about Region 5 Enterprise Team and then Iowa Geographic Information Center. Ann Peton, State GIS Coordinator, and David Plazak, Treasurer, are going to give a report on the GIS system. So I thought it was a very good meeting yesterday. As far as tourism is concerned, Iowa has to do something on tourism because when you average all the 50 states, they're just about average. And you're averaging in states that don't have any. Some of the folks we talked to thought that was a big item. I noticed that there were a lot of people there that had positions on Economic Development. There was one gentlemen from North Dakota that had a degree from North Dakota State University on Economic Development. He told me, now he represents about 9 counties. Then we had a meeting with the City and Iowa City City Council. I thought that was a very interesting meeting. I had to leave a little early because I had another one. This is the Johnson County Emergency Management and here is something I got from Jim McGinley this morning, that there's been posters down around Lone Tree. The Northern Border Pipeline Company, that has a huge pipeline down there, is going to blow out some of the pipes especially in the wet areas or underneath the roads. That will be tomorrow from 7:30 a.m. to... Let's see, I've got... OK, yes, it will continue for 4 to 5 hours from start at 7:30 a.m. You can hear the sounds 7 or 10 miles away. So the folks down there, the reason why I am kind of stuttering around here, if anybody calls, that's what it is. It sounds like a violent windstorm so just expect some calls. I just got this this morning.

Bolkcom: Wow.

Jordahl: When is that going to happen?

Bolkcom: Tomorrow morning.

Duffy: That's tomorrow morning.

Bolkcom: That would be what? Halloween or a... No, I'm sorry just kidding.

Lacina: Reschedule it.

Bolkcom: I'm a page off. It's the 30th of October...

Duffy: Yes.

Bolkcom: Pre-Halloween.

Duffy: 4 to 5 hours is quite a long time. They kind of expect that some of the residents in affected areas could become frightened or apprehensive. I would say that's an understatement. Anyway, you'll probably hear that. In the meeting last night, we're back to this Haz Mat truck, that we've talked about for probably a couple of years. Right now the Haz Mat team, it's 25 cents per capita in Johnson County, with the Cities having to pay for their per capita and the County pays for theirs. They want to increase that 50 cents to buy this truck which will cost somewhere between $200,000 and $250,000. Most of them, there last night, representing their City Councils, have said no problem with that. But when it comes to County we better figure out how many people live in the county and then we'll get a cost figure on it. It's a little controversial because this is a huge truck. But then again, if it happens to you, with all this stuff going by on the interstates if there's a huge spill or... You can't tell what would happen on some of this radioactive material going by. So this is something that will cost a little money to do, but maybe it's worth 50 cents for 365 days out of the year. I mean just one 50 cent. It was very interesting meeting. That's about it, Joe.

Bolkcom: Thank you, Charlie. Steve?

Lacina: It probably needs to be said that the truck wouldn't carry people, it would carry plasma cutters and specialized equipment. We had a farmer a couple years ago caught in the top of a grain bin in an auger with his arm in it. We couldn't go up with torches because, obviously, it would catch everything on fire and burn his arm. They have a plasma cutter which will cut metal, but you could pick the metal right up, it doesn't heat it. So it would carry that type of equipment that they could go up... While this guy was up there, I think they exchanged his blood like 4 times, he was bleeding so bad. It was just a terrible, terrible situation. The vehicle we did use, we actually had it overloaded and destroyed the brakes, the chassis was too small. So the vehicle would be sized correctly for the box, which would carry this emergency extraction equipment. In certain incidences, and as Charlie said, if we had a semi tip over or something we need specialized equipment to deal with some of that stuff. 2 things, Jim McGinley will be bringing in a team from the State, from FEMA, next week to talk to the Board about Flood Land Mitigation and some properties that we might be able to change from residential into some other use so that we wouldn't have flood damage. On the Economic Development meeting, the State has invested about 3 and half billion dollars, over about 8 to 10 years, back into the State trying to encourage companies that are loyal to Iowa to stay here and expand using our workforces. To update old technology industries, to stay current, like the old foundries that have been regulated out, to help them retool, stay competitive with other States. But they also have other components for small business people. So there are available $20,000 planning grants. If you're disabled or say, a minority business person that wants to look at the feasibility of starting a business. You can go to the State and get grants from 5,10, 20 thousand dollars that we'll sit down and see if your idea is viable. Then if it is and you can show that you're going have up to 15 employees, you can get some substantial grants to get your project off the ground. So the State has really shifted, I think, partly because of the IPSCO matter which was this huge steel plant that we located here. They have broadened a lot of that money into smaller businesses and they're trying to be more diversified which I think is fantastic.

Bolkcom: Uh-huh.

Lacina: But we brought back, probably 6 inches of information on a lot of that stuff and we'll be sharing it with the Board later on.

Bolkcom: Great.

Lacina: But I'm glad to see them target more smaller businesses and that. Because as people are laid off, there's some really great ideas out there. With diversity, it's going to help the State as opposed to being specialized in one particular area. It was a real good meeting. The Economic Development Director was there from North Liberty. I saw Marty Kelly's name on the list and recognized a lot of them, Cedar Rapids. Des Moines Chamber was well represented. It was an interesting meeting.

Bolkcom: Great.

Duffy: Some other Supervisors...

Lacina: A lot of Supervisors.

Duffy: ...from other counties?

Lacina: Yes.

Bolkcom: Jonathan?

Jordahl: Thank you. First of all before I mention any personal items, I would like to ask Charlie again about the date and place of this Economic Development meeting. You described a number of interesting presentations there that I might be interested in. Do you have that handy?

Lacina: Tuesday, isn't it?

Duffy: That is on November 10th and that's on a Tuesday.

Jordahl: Where is that, in Des Moines?

Duffy: Yes.

Lacina: We might want to change that because Charlie and I would like to hit that. So we might want to take that Tuesday meeting and reschedule it.

Jordahl: Yes. That would create a rough pattern, in that, we'd have 2 weeks in a row of doing that, but I think that's not a bad idea.

Bolkcom: OK.

Jordahl: We also have Elected and Department Head Officials meetings that afternoon. So it's a...

Bolkcom: We'll put that next week if you want to talk about that.

Jordahl: Yes.

Duffy: Jonathan, there is another one that I reported on, a big one, that we have blocs of rooms reserved right now for a small bit.

Jordahl: Is it... Yes.

Duffy: That's in February.

Jordahl: Oh, OK. We've got time to worry about that one then.

Duffy: I think we all ought to go to that.

Bolkcom: You guys can get together on schedules after the meeting too.

Jordahl: Yes.

Duffy: We expect about 700 people there for that one.

Jordahl: OK.

Bolkcom: Good.

Jordahl: This afternoon I'm going, in fact shortly, to the East Central Iowa Council of Governments Board of Directors meeting. There's an item there that's of interest to the Board. I want to express my gratitude to Dee Vanderhoef who called me yesterday afternoon to raise this to my attention, that apparently in working out the details of the transfer of some buses from the SEATS system to Iowa City. So that it would more accurately reflect the responsibility of the various bodies for providing these buses and their access to Federal funds, it's a complicated question. ECICOG has a policy that says that 80% of the funds resulting from the disposal of a vehicle remain with ECICOG and 20% come back to the County. Which seems like it makes sense because of the original 80% Federal money, 20% local money. But in this case, the buses aren't being sold, they're being transferred. So Iowa City is not paying 80% Federal part. They're just paying the local part that they would've had to pay if they had acquired them themselves. And the Federal part is being treated as kind of a wash. The problem is that ECICOG right now, is interpreting their disposal policy as saying, that we would then only get back 20% of the 20% that is actually the money that would proceed from Iowa City to ECICOG. So they would apply their 80/20 policy to that 20% and keep 80% of the money that Iowa City paid for our buses. Our buses, I misspeak, they are ultimately ECICOG's buses, but... I am going to be arguing, and I hope that you would agree with me on this, that we ought to receive the same 20% portion of the remaining value of the bus that we paid for in the first place, as a compensation for losing the bus.

Bolkcom: That makes sense to me.

Lacina: Ask them if this is a good theory, that if this would work in reverse in the future that we'll be able to pay 20% of the 20%... I think (inaudible).

Jordahl: To acquire a new one... Yes, that's a good way of putting it.

Bolkcom: I agree with you, Jonathan.

Lacina: Yes.

Bolkcom: Go for it. Good luck

Duffy: Thanks for taking this issue on. Because this has been an issue for quite a few years.

Bolkcom: Yes.

Jordahl: I think the Board of Directors will see it our way too because a lot of them are Supervisors. Then the other thing was just, I went to the Regional Trails and Bicycling Committee, subcommittee of Johnson County Council of Governments, on Tuesday. The 2 items to come out of that are, that we voted that they would like to have language specifically mentioning Recreational and Transportation Trails in the ballot proposals for local option sales tax. I think this is something that, I think they're going to forward to the bodies that are proposing the sales tax particularly Iowa City. Along that same line and following up on Sally's suggestion of Tuesday, I've had conversations with representatives of most of the small towns. Generally, the perception of the idea of Joint Trails Planning is that it's a positive... that it's an economic development, as you were mentioning, a real plus for economic development that... bring more traffic, more people, more tourism, into their towns. Again, its a tourism thing, is all to the good. I haven't contacted all of them yet. We'll see if there is some variation to that, but so far so good.

Bolkcom: Great.

Lacina: On the trails issue...

Bolkcom: Anything else?

Lacina: ...the local option tax component for the County, the wording will have to be established in January, right? Well that's when you're really going to be heavy on your budget. So you may want some work sessions...

Jordahl: Yes.

Lacina: ...scheduled to get that pinned down...

Jordahl: Uh-huh. Before, before January...

Peters: I think they said you have to have the Auditors Office (inaudible) in the wording of the ballot. Isn't that what they said (inaudible)?

Lacina: I thought they said...

Bolkcom: No, I was thinking we need to determine

Lacina: ...(inaudible) write it.

Bolkcom: ...if the County... Iowa City is putting this on the ballot, obviously, that the County needs to develop a list, a proposal, language, by roughly around the first of January.

Lacina: Yes.

Bolkcom: Because they're talking about a March, sometime... I don't think the date is set, but they've been talking about a late March vote, mid/late March vote. So we're being asked to develop a list by... So we probably better plan some time in December to nail that down.

Jordahl: The only other...

Bolkcom: Anything else?

Jordahl: The only other thing I would like to mention is, vote. Exactly that. Election Day is coming up on Tuesday and whoever you support, please vote.

Bolkcom: Great message. Good. Go get it.

Duffy: One other thing, Joe.

Bolkcom: Charlie?

Duffy: Let's get back to John Glenn. He's been in the news lately. It was really a pleasure to meet John Glenn, and Steve was there, out at the farm when he was running for president. There were about 500 people there and it was shown all over the world. He was a great man then and he's a great man now. I've seen the capsule, the first one that he got shot into orbit with, that capsule. I'll tell you, you'd have to have a lot of nerve to do that. I wish him and the rest of the astronauts luck today.

Bolkcom: Thanks, Charlie.

Lacina: That's saying, he's a great man and he continues to rise above us.

Peters: Well said.

Bolkcom: All right. I just had a couple brief things. With Jonathan, I attended the Heritage Area Agency on Aging meeting on Monday afternoon, talked about some of the older Iowa legislature priorities and bills that are going to be pushed ahead next year. Also, with Jonathan, attended a few minutes of the Sensitive Areas Ordinance Subcommittee that met on Monday afternoon. The Board, on Tuesday, spent a better part of the afternoon talking about its 5 Year Roads Plan and we'll resume discussion of that again on November 12th at 3 p.m. talking about how we are going to be spending our road money for the next 5 years. The City/County School Board Cities, North Liberty, Coralville, Iowa City School Board meetings, have already been talked about. I think that continues to be a good forum for just getting together and getting a sense of what some of the issues are we share in common. A couple other items, the Board is working on evaluations of Department Heads and those are due tomorrow. I would encourage members of the Board to focus on the schedule that focuses on the top 6 people that we've... We've got about 10 evaluations to do, but if, in terms of your assignment for tomorrow, maybe if we could get through just the first 6 of those that would probably be more doable, to maybe focus that a little bit more. It appears that we're going to have to stretch that schedule out a little bit. The final thing I had was the Board... Supervisor Stutsman isn't here today. She's at a Reinventing Government seminar, just to let people know that again. The Board decided today to continue, to have its hours extended by one hour, that's a fairly significant thing for us. We've had a lot of discussion about it. We don't take it lightly. Just so members of the public know, starting next Monday, the 2nd of November, we have decided to have our office remain open from... We typically close at 4, but we're going to be here until 5 now. Hopefully it's is a trend that we're going to see in other departments of County government in the coming months. That's all I had. Any other comments? Thank you very much. We'll see you next week. We're adjourned.

Adjourned at 10:55 a.m.

Attest: Tom Slockett, Auditor

By Casie Parkins and Mark Kistler, Recording Secretaries

Sent to the Board of Supervisors on December 8, 1998 at 12:30 p.m.