Bolkcom: Item number 4 is business from Doug Russell and Sue Feeney regarding establishment of the Johnson County Courthouse Centenary Committee Discussion. Good morning, Doug and Sue.

Johnson County Courthouse Centenary Committee Co-Chair Doug Russell: Good morning.

Bolkcom: Hi. Go ahead.

Russell: Thank you for your time in meeting with you this morning. My name is Doug Russell. I'm the CO-Chair of the Johnson County Courthouse Centenary Committee. I'd like to introduce Sue Feeney the other CO-Chair. The Johnson County Courthouse was dedicated on June 8th, 1901. Its 100th anniversary is fast approaching. During the past century, the Johnson County government has carefully maintained and restored that building and a number of interested persons thought it would be appropriate to organize a committee with a view towards an appropriate commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the building. To that end, a committee was formed. The members are Miss Feeney, Stephen C. Gerard II, a District Associate Judge, Patrick J. Langenberg, your Physical Plant Manager, L. Vern Robinson, a District Court Judge, also from Iowa City, Edward R. Steinbrech, our Clerk of Court and J. Patrick White, your County Attorney. I am pleased that Mr. Langenberg, Mr. Steinbrech and Mr. White could join us this morning. The purpose of the committee is twofold. First, we would like to bring artifacts, documents, maps, pictures and photographs, and other items concerning the history of the Courthouse to the building for permanent public display. Secondly, we would like to hold a public rededication ceremony of the Courthouse on the 100th anniversary, June 8th, 2001. We've brought with us today, if Sue could help me display it, the first picture that will be donated to the people of Johnson County for the purpose of the Courthouse Centenary. This is an 1868 bird's eye view of Iowa City, a reproduction of the original, which is held in the Library of Congress. This picture is the gift of the Committee and will be the first picture to be placed, probably will be placed in courtroom of the building in the next week or 2, with the help of Mr. Langenberg. We wanted you to see the kinds of things that we hope to bring to the Courthouse. We hope that in addition to pictures, there may be some artifacts and historic items that could be placed in the display case. Thank you Sue.

Bolkcom: That bird had a good view. He has a steady eye.

Russell: Yes. In our work we would welcome the approval of the Board of Supervisors, as representatives of the citizens of this County and we promise that we will keep you and our fellow citizens advised of our progress in this work. We also would welcome the assistance of all the citizens of the County, present or former, with information or artifacts or items of interest to the Committee concerning the history of the Courthouse. We will be making public announcements from time to time. We will provide you with written reports from time to time and though we are not a branch of government, we know that the Courthouse has been of great interest to the Board over the years. We will always be available to answer your questions and to be accountable to you and to your constituents. Our purpose here today is to advise you formally of our existence and to ask for your approval for our work.

Bolkcom: Very good. Questions from the Board?

Jordahl: What about remodeling? We did some very nice remodeling, if I have to compliment us directly, in a courtroom in the basement of the Courthouse, the lower level of the Courthouse. I'm really excited about how we're restoring the... The Courthouse upstairs is a beautiful restoration... Are you raising money to do that or are you kind of wondering if we might, where are we at on the restoration angle?

Russell: That is beyond the work of the Committee but I think that I can speak for the Committee to say what an appropriate open house we would have if the remaining quarter of it were renovated by June 8th, 2001. We are hopeful that as part of the rededication ceremony there will be an open house at the Courthouse so that all the restoration work that has been done and may be done will be on display for the public and that all the pictures and artifacts that have been collected can be showcased. We won't be raising funds for the renovation, but we're for it.

Lacina: As you go through this process, is there a way that you could get photographs of that and the artifacts to put in a brochure that would talk about some of the significance.

Russell: Yes. In fact we're doing 2 things to keep a record of our work. One is Ed Steinbrech has agreed to be the historian and archivist for our Committee and we will have, at the Courthouse, we hope for permanent recording, a file on all our work, copies of all the pictures that are going to be on display with details of their history and background. We also expect at sometime, if not before the rededication, at least at the dedication, to have an informational brochure that would be available to the public about the history of the building and its contents.

Lacina: Possibly we could put that up on our web site as far as a link of some sort.

Russell: We'd be glad to provide the information when it's put together.

Lacina: The other thing, in trying to think of our equivalent of an Irvin Weber, Bob Verns pops into mind...

Stutsman: Yes.

Lacina: ...a past Senator and Supervisor and has got a lot of history and might be somebody just to visit with as a resource.

Russell: We would be glad to do that. Thank you for the suggestion.

Stutsman: Doug and Sue, I'm just thrilled that you people are organizing this and approaching this 2 years before we're even ready to do a ceremony on this. I know you're doing this as volunteers, and I'm just glad you're on top of it. It sounds like you're well ahead of the planning schedule and I think that is going to be a really wonderful event.

Russell: Thank you.

Bolkcom: Thanks to the rest of the Committee, Judge Robinson, Judge Gerard and (inaudible) Mr. Steinbrech.

Stutsman: I was at a meeting last night at the Courthouse that gave a very informative presentation. It is such a beautiful building. I think every opportunity that we have to show it off I think it's great for the tax payers of Johnson County, citizens of Johnson County.

Russell: Well those of us on the Committee work there every day, or almost every day and we love it. We hope to share it with the wider community.

Bolkcom: OK.

Lacina: Thank you.

Bolkcom: We have a resolution on for a little bit later this morning. We'll make sure we get that passed.

Russell: Thank you very much.

Bolkcom: Thank you. Thanks for coming in.

Stutsman: Oh Doug, so will you be coming back to the Board with regular updates about the progress?

Russell: We will be glad to do so and (inaudible). We'll make sure that we... we're always available for questions but we'll make sure we give you periodic updates.

Stutsman: Good.

Bolkcom: Great.

Russell: Thank you.

Bolkcom: Thank you. Thanks.

INQUIRY (REVEREND ROBERT WELSH): MEETING WITH AREA LEGISLATORS

Bolkcom: Item number 5 is business from the County Auditor regarding our department reviews for September. Carolyn?

Peters: (Inaudible).

Bolkcom: What's the Board wish to do? Would you rather defer that until Tuesday?

Stutsman: Why don't we defer that?

Bolkcom: That's fine. I think that data came up in last week's packet. OK, business from the Board of Supervisors... We're actually expecting somebody from the Community News to attend this discussion. So maybe we'll put this on hold, item a, for a moment and go to item 7, discussion from the public. Any member of the public wish to address the Board this morning?

Welsh: One question, have you set a date to meet with the legislators of the County because I think in light of the election, State legislators with a Democratic governor might actually have more influence and might give more important (inaudible).

Bolkcom: Yes. The Board has a meeting, actually all of County government is meeting with our State Legislative Delegation on Thursday, December 3rd at 3:30, in this room.

Welsh: (Inaudible)... to address that pilot child care project.

Bolkcom: OK. That sounds fine but we need to make sure we note that. We will be seeking input from all our departments regarding topics of interest they'd like to talk to the legislature about. I personally don't have a problem with that.

Lacina: As long as it's open to all Boards and Commissions to do that.

Bolkcom: Sure, that's a good point. Any other members of the public wish to address the Board?

Jordahl: Well on Steve's point...

Bolkcom: We have another... Go ahead.

Jordahl: On Steve's point, the question of things being open to other Boards and Commissions, perhaps we ought to offer that opportunity to the other Boards and Commissions directly.

Stutsman: Well if the information goes out to the Department Heads that work with the Boards, it would be that liaison. Just like, I'm sure, Cheryl, if that's expressed to Cheryl, that she would bring that to us, as well as Bob bringing it to us.

Jordahl: Excuse me, Mike.

Bolkcom: In addition, we have a Department Head Meeting next Thursday. I believe this is items on... We can make it clear at that time... Mike?

Mike Lehman: I'd like to be brought up to speed on land use. Comprehensive land plan, the work sessions, what our schedule is on that.

Bolkcom: I believe the Zoning Commission is having another work session on November 10th. Is that correct?

Lehman: Do you know if there has been a change in that or not?

Bolkcom: I believe not. I've not heard of any change of that.

Lehman: 6:30 here?

Duffy: Yes.

Lacina: That sounds right.

Bolkcom: That sounds right. I...

Lacina: Charlie says yes.

Stutsman: Yes.

Bolkcom: Is that right? Yes. Very good. 6:30 here on November 10th we'll be discussing the land use plan.

Stutsman: (Inaudible).

Bolkcom: That's Mike Lehman, Supervisor Elect. Congratulations on your victory Tuesday.

Lehman: Thank you. (Inaudible)... A Board to work with.

Bolkcom: Great.

Lacina: We'll change the duct tape on the chair, Michael.

Lehman: I thought it was there for a reason.

Bolkcom: Duct tape is cheaper than chairs.

Lacina: That's true.

Jordahl: Yes it is, significantly.

Bolkcom: OK, Board are you ready to go to formal meeting? OK, 5 minute break, recess.

Recessed at 9:45 a.m.; reconvened at 9:53 a.m.

Bolkcom: We're back if you were wondering. The big hammer that hits the table is... the gavel. We're going to go back to business from the Board of Supervisors item a) is regarding... Discussion regarding external County news in the Community News Advertiser. There's a memo that was presented to the Board from the Communications Committee. I'd like to thank Deborah Conger for her assistance on this. That describes the work of the Board's Communications Committee that grew out of our Strategic Planning effort on behalf of the County. We've noted a number of projects that we've been involved with over the course of the last year including County Fest, we organized State of the County Address. We put together new service brochure on all the services of County government. Most recently, last month, put out the first internal County newsletter to County employees. Right now there's some efforts, and this is really a County wide Committee, talking about a new phone system for this building and maybe some others as well. An additional initiative of the Committee has been to look at how we as County government could do a better job communicating with members of the public about all of the things we do. We have been in contact and discussions with the Community News Advertiser about the possibility of us having a regular... we've got to decide what regular means here, but a regular page or 2 in the Community News Advertiser as a way for us to communicate to members of the public about all the various programs and services and calendar items, job openings, volunteer opportunities, minutes and agendas, variety of topics that are noted in the memo. Features on departments, features on things like County Cleanup Week that we have in the spring and fall. Things like potentially snow plowing policy, although we do have Roadways and would have to talk about that. But there's plenty of things going on. As members know, on occasion, we do hear from members of the public that are dying to have more information about what we're up to and this is one possible way to tackle that. Linda Schreiber was here, she's not here now. She...

Peters: She's on her way.

Bolkcom: Maybe we could grab her and have her come in if she's available. She's here from the advertiser to answer any questions. What we put together is kind of just a general proposal to the Board to consider that would have us have either one or 2 pages a month. Hi Linda. Linda Schreiber from the Community News Advertiser. Scott was going to be here.

Community News Advertiser Representative Linda Schreiber: He's on his way.

Bolkcom: He had some possible examples for us to look at this morning as well. We may be a little ahead of ourselves here. But basically looking at a page or 2 on possibly a monthly basis. We put together some costs. You can see it's a pretty good deal to circulate to 36,000 households. It's about for one page it would be $420 a month, for 2 pages, $756 dollars a month. Then there's some other costs associated with trying to get this organized either using say an intern from the Journalism School or some other means. So I guess at this point, Linda do you, I've just kind of done an overview of why we're thinking about this and what content would be included as well as presenting kind of a rough sense of the numbers at this point.

Schreiber: Just in general I think Community News Advertiser would be very interested in helping the Board get communications out to its constituency. I think that the product that we provide to our readers is of interest to people in the community. We're willing to work with the Board in however you feel, provide whatever assistance that you need, whether it be in layout or helping with editorial content or whatever.

Bolkcom: OK. The proposal that's put together here really, recognizing that we're in mid year looks at kind of if we were to proceed ahead what would it take to do this starting say in January, February, getting it rolling on a monthly basis. So that's what those numbers are. If we had one page it would be about $3,800 dollars for the 5 months. If we had 2 pages which I think in looking at these pages which we'll see in a moment when Scott gets here, I think we could easily fill up a couple of pages of content. The Advertiser is very willing to do the lay out on it and would really prefer to do the lay out on it. So we would essentially be working with a committee of volunteers and maybe require a little bit of staff time in a more focused way, to have somebody basically coordinate it. But we would generate the content, provide the content to the advertiser and they would essentially lay it out for us and do that part of it, which they're the experts at and have the sense about in terms of their publication. This is before the Board today to get us, to basically say is the Board interested in this? We've gathered some information and researched this. We feel this is a really low cost way to move. But we really need some more direction from you all on whether you think this is a really good idea or not and how we should proceed.

Jordahl: Communication with the public is a good thing. I'm very much in favor of doing something in this vein. I've done some calculations here that the Board should have before it in terms of the annual cost of this. If we calculated this 5 month thing out to 12 months, the one sided page would be $9,252 a year, the 2 sided page $13,284 a year.

Lacina: I like the idea of trying to get better communication to the rural area. I mean we do the cable television which is fine for the unincorporated areas. Years ago we looked at radio and it, we struggled with time blocks and the cost and those types of things trying to get better communication to the rural area. I did the same thing Jonathan did, I ran the numbers as far as an annual rate and your math is right.

Jordahl: Or we're both wrong.

Lacina: Probably a little premature though as far as what the new Board and the commitment that they want to make to this. But I think the concept of trying to get communication with the 36,000 circulation you do, you reach a lot of rural people that do not have the cable. Some of the things seem redundant in terms of phone numbers, addresses, those things you can pull out of phone books and the like. So I don't know that that's productive. The idea of scheduling meetings and those types of things and events that are specific to the County. I think that would be important, having a bulletin board to get public involvement. But you did a lot of work on it and nicely done.

Stutsman: Joe and anybody that's on the committee, did you do any customer survey's to get feedback from the public as to how they wanted to be better informed and things?

Bolkcom: No we didn't.

Stutsman: OK. I went to a Reinventing Government session last week and I hope that's one thing that we can be more proactive in is doing more customer surveys of what people want, what the taxpayers want and things. I was just curious to know if you had gotten any feedback through any kind of survey of what the public is interested in.

Lacina: We probably want to talk to the department heads. It refers here to 4 employee hours per month per department.

Bolkcom: This item is actually on the Department Head meeting next Tuesday to basically have the same kind of discussion. Clearly it's the Board's decision whether we proceed with this but we definitely want to have the involvement of all our County department heads in helping with content frankly. I mean this is... There's a lot going on in County Government in every department and have some ability to communicate that to the public.

Lacina: Because if we come across it as the Board's decision we can quickly discover that it's the board's job and that the departments aren't (inaudible). Would it be possible for you to come to the department head meeting and give us a presentation of some possible things that we could do?

Schreiber: I think Scott is planning on being here.

Lacina: Is he? Great. That's great.

Bolkcom: Scott is going to walk through that door any second with some mock ups of possible what things should look like, what things could look like as a County news page. They've agreed to kind of give us some sense of what the possibilities are.

Schreiber: We talked in general about different items that would be appropriate for the paper. I know you have a number of Board and Commission vacancies... Things that are going on in the department. We have printed Roadways and circulated that to county residents in the past. There's just a variety of topics. We try to include in our news section as much as we can but often times the information that we include is time dated. So even we have to be selective in how much we can include in the Community News Section.

Lacina: What rate are we getting? We're not getting the cost that is calculated by Code that we have to pay for the minutes are we? We're getting a better rate than that do you know?

Bolkcom: We're getting an incredibly great rate.

Community News Advertiser Representative Scott Swenson: I'm not sure what the minutes cost.

Lacina: You answered that question.

Bolkcom: This is Scott Swenson, good morning.

Swenson: Good morning.

Bolkcom: We're a little ahead of you, but... We've had a discussion about the kind of things that we might see in this, a little discussion about the relative costs and the impact on our organization to do it. We noted that you've probably brought with you some examples that we might be able to look at in terms of what this...

Swenson: I did.

Bolkcom: ...could look like.

Swenson: These are work in progress.

Bolkcom: OK.

Swenson: These have not... I guess I don't have enough copies for everybody, but you want me to...

Bolkcom: Yes. Just circulate them, that'd be fine.

Jordahl: Maybe show one to the camera too.

Bolkcom: Show (inaudible).

Lacina: Careful of the cord, so you don't trip.

Swenson: This is (inaudible).

Stutsman: I don't know how many copies (inaudible).

Swenson: (Inaudible).

Jordahl: This is gibberish.

Stutsman: (Inaudible). People could (inaudible).

Lacina: Here you go, Pat.

Swenson: This is still in the creative process...

Bolkcom: We've developed a new language here.

Stutsman: I was going to say did you take this through spell check.

Bolkcom: Go ahead, Scott.

Swenson: As we go through the creative process here too, the term Connection is being utilized by the City of Coralville so we probably want a little different name for it.

Bolkcom: OK. Great. This gives some sense.

Jordahl: Steve's point about the phone numbers and addresses. We don't want to be publishing the phonebook each week. But on the other hand if we have an article about a department I think it would be crucial to have the phone number, e-mail, and so forth, of that department.

Bolkcom: Uh-huh.

Jordahl: Maybe even staff names to refer to.

Bolkcom: Yes. Our web address, we could...

Jordahl: Yes. Some basics.

Bolkcom: We could have some real basic stuff in every issue, for sure, how to get more information.

Lacina: Some of the things from the employee newsletter could roll into this as well.

Bolkcom: Yes, yes. Good point. So you can see in terms of size, this is a fair amount of paper, but there's not a lot... You probably have some traditional stuff that you'd have.

Stutsman: Uh-huh.

Jordahl: It strikes me that this would work well with another project that Deborah Conger brought forward to us a few months ago, having a phone answering system. If we had a phone information number right here as prominently displayed as the web site where could people could call up and get automated answers to frequently asked questions.

Bolkcom: Uh-huh.

Jordahl: Talk about saving staff time, in our previous discussion with Mental Health Department. If we had something that would take the repetitious questions off of the backs of the staff that frequently have to answer the same thing over and over again, how do you spell Dubuque. This would be another way of publicizing that. So the more we are proactive in communicating in a variety of ways, the more impact each element of that will have in pointing to the others.

Bolkcom: That's a good point.

Lacina: On going back to Sally's comment earlier, in that reinventing government was a great program. Joe and I took that and it was good, but this could also be a survey feedback portion.

Stutsman: Uh-huh.

Jordahl: Oh, yes.

Lacina: For each month... what is your feeling on the Land Use Plan. They could send it in and we could get...

Bolkcom: Uh-huh.

Jordahl: That's great.

Lacina:...feedback that way. Or on a particular piece of legislation or something that we're doing at the time, just put a little simple thing in there. And either call and register on a number, if we get the phone system in, or fill it out and mail it in.

Jordahl: Here's the web address of the Land Use Plan...

Lacina: And... Right.

Jordahl: ...or if you don't have the computer here's where you can go and pick one up.

Lacina: Now can they respond... sure they could send us e-mails as far as if they wanted to do electronically as well.

Jordahl: Uh-huh.

Lacina: It could be a very good input device for us.

Bolkcom: Would this... Is the Community News on your web page now, if somebody wants to look at an article in the Community News? Is it... This could be...

Swenson: No.

Bolkcom: OK.

Swenson: No, but we do have an established web site with the Gazette Company called FYIowa that has extensive amount of local information on there.

Schreiber: Some of our news pieces do crossover and they go into that section.

Bolkcom: Sure.

Schreiber: But not all the news pieces.

Bolkcom: Would it be possible to archive this on our web page?

Swenson: Sure.

Schreiber: Uh-huh.

Bolkcom: OK.

Lacina: Who will coordinate this? Is this something that we need to run through the Auditor's Office?

Stutsman: It sounds like the Chairperson.

Lacina: Because I'm concerned that we don't put it on (inaudible).

Bolkcom: Right.

Lacina: Continue to load it more and more.

Bolkcom: I think today is just to kind of say to the Board...

Lacina: Be thinking about it.

Bolkcom: ...do you guys want to... Is this the direction you want to go, is this the kind of money you want to spend to do this, is this a good deal. We believe it's a really incredibly good deal in terms of the cost per hit. 36,000 households every month at this cost is incredibly cheap.

Jordahl: Uh-huh.

Bolkcom: $420 for one page for 36,000 households. To put this out 36,000 times for $420 is a bargain, but it's here today to say to you guys, is this the direction you want to go. We'd like to go to the Department Head meeting next Tuesday and assess the interest and get some volunteers. Again, our internal County newsletter to our employees is driven by a committee of volunteers on your Communications Committee. We see this as, hopefully, a committee organizational effort, but with the knowledge that there's probably going to need some staff time to focus on... Somebody to kind of help coordinate this thing. We're not going to communicate better with the public without a little bit more focus. So there is cost associated with that focus.

Stutsman: One thing, too, we don't have a lot of the venues to communicate, like for instance, Cities do. I know they send out a lot of information in water bills and things like that. People start talking about cost I'd like to know what they spend versus that form of communication versus this. At first glance this might seem... oh, this is a lot of money, but if we have as one of our goals to improve communication this might not be that big of an expense versus what our choices are and alternatives.

Jordahl: Uh-huh. It might help to get services to people that they might not know about otherwise. Saying this is what we do, you are eligible for this, take advantage of it.

Bolkcom: All right. Any other questions or comments? Any general sense from the Board? Are you feeling like we should continue to pursue this and... It is on next week to talk about it. We felt that we ought to get it in front of everybody just to give you an update on what we've gathered. This is obviously coming together just in the last couple weeks although we've talked about this for a number of months.

Lacina: Might have been better if we would have been informed individually so that we could have a little more input rather than just go into a public meeting and throw it at us. But I think the concept is good of getting better communication out to individuals. I think we should go to the department heads and talk to them about it.

Bolkcom: Very good. There has also been an agenda for the Communications Committee for the last year and a half and this item's been on it a number of times. So people that had an interest could have attended...

Lacina: But as we all know...

Bolkcom: ...could have attended those meetings.

Lacina: ...we receive so many agendas and meetings and...

Stutsman: Yes.

Bolkcom: (Inaudible) just want to make it clear that this item was one that's been kicked around for a number of times. Any other questions? All right. We appreciate you both coming in and the work that you've done. We meet next Tuesday at 3 o'clock, our department heads meet and we'd like you to come back.

Schreiber: Thank you.

Swenson: We'll have this mock up at a more advanced version by the time we meet back.

Bolkcom: Great. I'd like to... Go ahead, Steve.

Lacina: Could we give them our employee newsletter that we have out and maybe you could just shift some of those things. I'm assuming...

Bolkcom: I think they already have it.

Lacina:...you have it on disk somewhere.

Bolkcom: They already have it.

Lacina: They do have it? OK.

Bolkcom: I think we gave it to them last time. Yes. I forgot to say that the Board of Supervisors picture would be...

Jordahl: Or the Communications Committee, maybe.

Bolkcom: Right.

Lacina: The Chair.

Bolkcom: I'd like to again thank Deborah Conger and the rest of the Committee that's worked on this and of course our friends at the Advertiser have helped us. Thank you.

Jordahl: Yes. Thanks a lot.

Bolkcom: We're back to the formal meeting. I guess we'll adjourn the informal back to the formal.

Recessed informal at 10:12 a.m.; reconvened at 11:04 a.m.

Bolkcom: We're ready to reconvene the informal and go to... Any member of the public wish to address the Board this morning?

Reverend Bob Welsh: (Inaudible) too much on your last discussion, I've heard... and I feel uncomfortable about the last discussion because I've heard the purpose from the person who drafted the amendment was the diameter of the cul-de-sac. I heard another thing that talked about the safety aspect, in terms of the accessibility. I would hope that that multiple response team could be consulted to make sure that the interpretation given today of the multiple factors does meet their concerns.

Lacina: This came from them, Bob. They initiated this.

Stutsman: Yes.

Lacina: This is their product that they brought forward to us.

Bolkcom: Yes.

Lacina: They don't have any power of enforcement, we do in our regulations.

Welsh: I understand.

Bolkcom: Yes.

Lacina: So they have been fully aware and involved in it.

Welsh: One way of reading this would be that the cul-de-sac could not be over 1,000 feet from the County road and that that would meet their requirement about 2, 600 foot sections. All I'm saying is its better to check to have full consideration to make sure of that factor.

Lacina: But again, as was stated earlier, we do not take over subdivision roads. What you're saying, no subdivision could extend...

Bolkcom: That's... yes.

Welsh: That's the whole point of the...

Lacina: Right. That was not their intent, we can clarify that, but that was not their intent.

Bolkcom: I think there's been some important issues raised that we need to...

Stutsman: Uh-huh.

Bolkcom: ...spend some time on. I think the points, Jonathan, you've raised, are valid and need to be looked at, at another time. All right. Any other member of the public wish to address the Board? All right. What's the Board wish to do? We have a busy day still ahead of us with work session on department head evaluations. Are you ready to go to that or does anybody have anything that the Board needs to know this morning under reports?

Jordahl: Just the one thing would be, Carol, do we have a date set for the meeting with Iowa City about fringe area?

Peters: Yes. On December 7th at 4:30.

Jordahl: Right.

Peters: I need (inaudible).

Lacina: That's confirmed now?

Peters: If it's OK with you.

Bolkcom: Yes, that'd be fine, Carol.

Peters: I have to give that to Marianne Carr.

Lacina: OK. Question is, I had penciled it in, that's a firm lock, that is the meeting date? Or was it subject to...

Bolkcom: If we agreed to it. Do we have...

Lacina: ...cities.

Peters: No, this is the next date that the City is proposing. The ball is now in the Supervisor's (inaudible).

Bolkcom: December 1st... December 7th at 4:30?

Jordahl: Uh-huh.

Bolkcom: Iowa City talk about fringe area agreements.

Stutsman: And that's fringe area?

Jordahl: At the Civic Center.

Bolkcom: Good question. Any other immediate business for the Board today? I have one very brief item and we could put this on for Tuesday. The Board needs to select a couple of its members to attend the Joint Funding Process meetings coming up with United Way, Iowa City, Coralville, and Johnson County. (Inaudible) maybe we could put that on for Tuesday and see who wants to tackle that.

Lacina: Last year, was Jonathan and Sally went?

Jordahl: Uh-huh.

Lacina: OK.

Stutsman: Yes.

Bolkcom: All right. Any other business?

Duffy: Yes. Joe, I won't be here on Tuesday and I've reported this before about 2 or 3 weeks ago. Very important meeting, Economic Development. On the top of the list we're going to have a person suggest what we should do especially in the rural areas, that if not you're going to see corporation farming. It was terrible, I looked up, in 1981 for example the price of corn was about $2.65 a bushel, this time of year. This morning it'd be... You'd be lucky to get about a $1.82. Hogs were 40 to 41.50, hogs are about 16 cents today. Beans were $6.40 a bushel, then back in 1981, November 1981, and today you'd be lucky to get probably 5 and a quarter a bushel. So add that on to what it cost you to really stay in the farming business, like seed corn, $100 a bag when it was probably about $30 a bag back then. So that's one of the things that we're going to talk about. It's a Rural Policy Commission with a lot of influential folks on it. So I'll bring back a report on that.

Bolkcom: Thank you, Charlie. We're getting the high sign. We've got 2 minutes of tape left. Any final comments?

Jordahl: Well that's 17 years of inflation on top of that too, Charlie. It's much worse than it even sounds.

Duffy: Yes, I know. The older folks that have CD's could get 16% interest and now it's about 4 on most of them. So it's pretty serious.

Bolkcom: All right. We're down to item number 12 on the informal agenda this morning. It's a work session regarding... to discuss yearly evaluation of the following appointed department heads and Administrative Assistant to the Board for executive session. That would be Ambulance Director, Information Services, Human Resource Administrator, Human Services, General Relief Director, Mental Health/Developmental Disabilities Service Director, Physical Plant Manager, Secondary Roads Engineer, Senior Dining Director, Planning and Zoning Administrator, and Administrative Assistant to the Board of Supervisors. We need a motion.

Duffy: Do you want to take about 5 minutes before we make it?

Bolkcom: Let's make the motion and then we'll take a break.

Duffy: All right.

Stutsman: Carol, we have OK'd that everybody requested executive session on this?

Peters: Yes, I have...

Stutsman: OK.

Peters: ...written requests from each person.

Motion by Stutsman, second by Jordahl, to enter into Executive Session at 11:10 a.m. for an annual evaluation of Ambulance Director, Information Services Director, Human Resource Administrator, Human Services General Relief Director, Mental Health/Developmental Disabilities Services Director, Physical Plant Manager, Secondary Roads Engineer, Senior Dining Director, Planning and Zoning Administrator, and Administrative Assistant to the Board of Supervisors under section 21.5(1.i), Code of Iowa, "to evaluate the professional competency of an individual whose appointment, hiring, performance or discharge is being considered when necessary to prevent needless and irreparable injury to that individual's reputation and that individual requests a closed session." Roll call: aye: Bolkcom, Jordahl, Stutsman, Lacina, Duffy.

Recessed at 11:10 a.m.; reconvened at 11:15 a.m.

Duffy left at 12:10 p.m.; returned at 12:12 p.m.

Lacina left at 12:35 p.m.; returned at 12:40 p.m.

Jordahl left at 12:45 p.m.; returned at 12:50 p.m.

Bolkcom left at 1:45 p.m.

Motion by Stutsman, second by Jordahl, to leave Executive Session at 2:15 p.m. Roll call: aye: Jordahl, Stutsman, Lacina, Duffy: absent; Bolkcom.

Adjourned at 2:15 p.m.

Attest: Tom Slockett, Auditor

By Casie Parkins and Mark Kistler, Recording Secretaries