Jordahl: Let's suggest another agenda item that doesn't seem to be on here. Discussion regarding employee computer purchase program. We have Jean Schultz in the audience. Sally's been working on this project for this some time. Let's see where we're at.

Stutsman: That's what we're here about. We want to go ahead and continue to proceed with this. There continues to be a lot of interest from employees. They make inquiries as to where we're at. basically, what Jean and I need know is that we made the decision to go ahead with the fair and to have that set up with 2 vendors who have agreed to participate. What we need from the Board is a cost, or an allocated dollar amount that the Board is willing to put into this program. To review, what that would amount to is that we would follow what basically Coralville, Iowa City and North Liberty have done with their employee computer program. We would offer employees an opportunity to participate in that. They would sign up and the County would up front the cost of the computer with a pay back from the employees over a 3 year period. The only additional cost that the County would incur would be the interest to cover these loans for 3 years. It would be on a payroll deduction plan. The employees would have so much taken out of their paycheck each month. We need to know what dollar amount the Board wants to put in to get this started. Once we have that amount, then we can go ahead and start arranging the fair and, having a sign up for employees and go from there.

Duffy: Sally, we need more than that. We never voted on it and I haven't changed my mind since we discussed this before. I don't think the County should get in the computer business. It's going to be a tough budget year. I can't see 400 employees that buy these computers through the County, take them home, use them however they want to use them, not entirely on County business... I am for the free enterprise system of government. To say, evidently there's 12 or 13 people that sell computers or have computer businesses in Johnson County ,and to say these 2... select 2 that will go for this program, I think hurts the small operators. I think we're just sticking our neck out. Are automobiles going to be next? We just don't have the money to do it.

Information Services Director Jean Schultz: Charlie, the way we picked the 2 was we sent a letter to every computer vendor in the yellow pages in the phone book plus Gateway had approached us and so we also sent a letter to them. We sent it to a couple other companies in Cedar Rapids that the County had already done business with. But we sent it to every local computer vendor who was in the phone book to give them an opportunity to express if they were interested in participating or not.

Duffy: Well maybe they never understood it. Maybe you should have invited them all in here. That 2 of them or one, maybe it boils down to one... I just don't think that's the way to do it. I don't think that the County should get in the private business sector. That's what we're doing here.

Stutsman: One thing I want to clear up is that improving computer literacy for employees was one of the goals that we agreed on for our strategic plan. I think that this fits in very well with achieving that goal. The idea is that you give employees the opportunity to purchase computers so that they can have those in their home. They can take their own time in their home to improve their computer skills with the idea that that will transfer into the workplace. If they have better skills and are more computer literate by having that opportunity to practice at home, then that will just logically carry over into the workplace. They won't be spending work time learning some of the basics in operating a computer or even some of the more sophisticated things that we all know are available but just never had the time to work out. I might also add I talked to Steve Atkins again yesterday. He reiterated again to me the extreme enthusiasm that the City employees have had for this program. It's been far beyond what they expected. The employees said that it did improve their computer skills. They were much more productive with computers at work because of the opportunity they've had to practice at home, on their own time. I might also add that the Board has agreed to go ahead with the program. We just need to come up with a dollar amount on what we want to spend on this. In talking with Steve, they initially put in $100,000. They put in another $100,000 for the program because they had such interest from the employees that they couldn't offer it to everybody so they had a lottery system. I don't know if the County is ready to put that kind of money in. If we want to maybe put in a lesser amount initially, see how it goes and build from there, continue to put in. But I want to emphasize again that this is a pay back program. This is a loan to employees. The only additional dollars that the County would be asked to put in would be the interest that we would lose by not having that money on interest.

Duffy: Sally...

Stutsman: What that amounts to depends on how much we put into it. I picked up a notice from Betty Sass yesterday downstairs in the Treasurer's Office with the minimum amount that we're required by the State of Iowa from their Treasurer's Department is 4.7%.

Jordahl: We're required to earn that much on our deposits?

Stutsman: At least that much.

Jordahl: Uh-huh.

Stutsman: If we can get more, great, but that would be... It's hard to get an exact figure of what this interest would amount to for the County because there's so many variables involved.

Jordahl: Well let's say that the full $100,000 were... Say that there were $100,000...

Stutsman: If we decide on 100,000.

Jordahl: Full amount over 3 years and everybody bought them at the beginning and nobody bought any during the meantime, that would be...

Lacina: $4,700 is the County's expense.

Stutsman: For one year. See the 2nd and the 3rd year would be less because people would be paying on a monthly basis for the pay back.

Duffy: Sally, we did not vote on this yet.

Stutsman: Well I think it was consensus.

Duffy: Now I wonder if when we discussed this the last time... When was that? A couple months ago?

Stutsman: October.

Duffy: I wonder if we'd bought them then. Computers have dropped.

Stutsman: Well that's always (inaudible).

Jordahl: That will be true every single time you say it.

Duffy: Well then we're getting into things here...

Lacina: That's not relevant because the only thing you're paying is interest.

Stutsman: Right.

Lacina: I think you need some general rules to the program. For example, I don't like the lottery because you've got somebody that's been here working for the County for a long time, a new person comes in and... If you don't have a limit, they buy scanners, they buy a printer that's a duplex fax copy... I'm going to suggest that if we're going to allocate the $100,000, OK. The County's expenditure is going to be around 4,700 a year for interest. We limit the expenditures to be a CPU, which is the processing unit, and the monitor and a printer. If they want to buy modems, sophisticated external stuff, that's at their expense.

Schultz: What the City of Iowa City did and computers are less. This was in June of 97. They had a maximum of 3,500 but we could say a maximum of say $2,000 or whatever. A lot of the PCs are going to come with an internal modem.

Lacina: True. You can get some of the 400 megahertz systems now for $800.

Schultz: Yes.

Lacina: If you want to reach the maximum employees and you set aside $100,000 and you allocate 1,000 per individual, they can go out and get the rest. We're really helping them a lot there. You're going to 100 employees. That's potentially 25% of your workforce. My suggestion is you go to $1,000 per employee. That could be spent on the monitor, processor and printer.

Jordahl: I would suggest we add modem to that because modems are relatively inexpensive and it gets them on the web.

Lacina: That's true... and modem, if it's not included in the machine. Then what you're doing is you're allocating some of your reserves for this but the actual burden upon the tax payer is only $4,700 because you're paying that interest.

Jordahl: I think it's analogous to the health benefit. We've got money sitting in a fund to cover health insurance, a considerable amount of money. Similarly, that money is available for use by the employees and it's used to provide an employee benefit. This is...

Lacina: Now your risk would be default.

Stutsman: Right.

Lacina: OK, there would be some salvage value although with technology, perhaps not a lot. As long as the employee was employed...

Jordahl: It's on payroll deduct. There's not much default there.

Lacina: You're only risk then would be if they left, we would still have them sign some document.

Stutsman: I think the contracts spells that if...

Duffy: What happens then if they leave?

Lacina: Then they either forfeit the equipment or they have to pay.

Stutsman: They pay the rest of it back.

Duffy: They forfeit a used computer? Come on.

Lacina: You could say it's not an option. If you leave County employment, the amount is due in full. Period.

Stutsman: And I...

Duffy: You try to get it. Are we going to get someone to sue them or what?

Schultz: Well you can take it out of their last paycheck.

Lacina: No, on their last paycheck.

Jordahl: Take it out of their last paycheck.

Duffy: Well what if they say I'm leaving tomorrow, I have to get a check. We're getting into things here...

Lacina: Well no.

Duffy: I'm one of these guys who if you're going to dance, have money to pay the fiddler type.

Schultz: The City, I asked them. I did talk to Gary Cann at the City . This was in October. They had had the program for over a year and they had not had any PCs come back to the City.

Stutsman: Or anybody default on it. There has not been...

Duffy: We have people here that teach our employees... I went to the program myself, right through your office. Why can't we keep doing that?

Schultz: We do plan to keep doing that.

Stutsman: But see what happens, and I'm a perfect illustration of that, I've gone to the class and I didn't have time to practice on it during the work day. I did at home at night, and I do have a computer at home. If I didn't have that computer at home, what I learned in that class was basically a waste of time. The only way you learn to operate a computer is to practice on it. We are just facilitating so that people can do that practice time at home at their convenience, rather during the work day.

Lacina: (Inaudible) section in Excel and went through the help section and work through. If you've got it available, you will. You'll pull it up and use it.

Duffy: But they can come down on say Saturdays and Sundays, I've done it.

Stutsman: Oh sure, people can do that.

Duffy: I just think we're getting into something here...

Lacina: (Inaudible) employees can't. Cletus's Offices can't come in and work on it. Cletus can, or Betty, or Debbie but the employees can't.

Duffy: Well if they told him they were coming in...

Stutsman: I would prefer the option of allowing people to stay at home with their families rather than expecting them to come down here on the weekends.

Duffy: And use the computer for other things other than County business.

Stutsman: Sure. They're buying their computer. They own it, Charlie.

Duffy: Well, I don't think it's the end of the world, computers They're changing all the time.

Stutsman: That's why it's even more important that they keep up on them.

Duffy: We're going to lose more than the interest on this. We're going to...

Jordahl: I really think...

Lacina: You're going to have to vote on it. You're going to have to allocate the money and vote on it so that's going to come to see if there's support or not.

Stutsman: Do we want...

Duffy: Well let's not cry wolf then, Sally. When the rest of them come in, we're talking about budgets, and Human Services may need more money for people in need and all that, then we can't say we don't have the money.

Stutsman: I fully understand that and I agree with that. I just look at the cost of this and the potential benefits I see for the County as a whole. I think the cost is a small investment in the pay back that we're going to get on this.

Duffy: I think we're going to get into real trouble.

Lacina: (Inaudible).

Duffy: No we're not Steve, that's hearsay. This is a big...

Lacina: No, from as soon as they buy it you're going to start deducting this from their paycheck to get this money back. You're only cost would be the interest rate. 4.7 or whatever.

Schultz: That's the rule. That's the contract that they sign.

Jordahl: It is conceivable at the margins...

Duffy: (Inaudible) you can't use, in other words, we own the computers until they're paid off, right?

Schultz: Right. It would be...

Stutsman: Right.

Duffy: Then how can we say just do what you want to it? That's private business. Computers wear out. They're obsolete in a few years.

Stutsman: They're responsible for the maintenance and any upgrade that they want to do to it. They're responsible. We're just giving them the opportunity to purchase that.

Jordahl: We're not guaranteeing the computer. They break the computer, they still have to pay for it.

Lacina: We checked with the lenders too.

Duffy: They don't have to pay for it if they don't have the money to pay for it.

Lacina: They were not interested.

Jordahl: We're not getting the money for months.

Duffy: How do they pay for it if they buy it on credit, on time, and say something happens, you're going to have to pay for it.

Jordahl: They have a contract with us that it will be deducted from their payroll over the period of time until the computer is paid for.

Duffy: I think they're better off doing their own thing. The last couple weeks it went just like that.

Stutsman: We don't have an opportunity to do a lot of what I call positive perks for employees. I think this is an opportunity for minimal cost to do that for employees. I guess that's why I'm real supportive of trying to put this in place. Steve mentioned a $100,000. I don't...

Lacina: There are some issues that we need to figure out. One is the total amount that you want to set aside.

Jordahl: Uh-huh.

Stutsman: Yes, and that's the issue we need to come to agreement on right now.

Jordahl: Got that?

Stutsman: Does the rest of the Board... Do we want to start out with 50,000?

Jordahl: I like 100,000 because we're not spending the money, we are lending the money to our employees. The money we're spending here is...

Stutsman: We would have to up front it.

Jordahl: ...almost a pittance. We're talking about ending balances here. We're talking about a cash cushion here. We're not talking about taking this money out of the mouths of the needy. We're talking about our ending balance here. It's not like we're saying here, here's a $100,000 that we would otherwise spend for Human Services that we're going to spend this way instead. We're talking about the ending balance of the County. Is this something where we have relative security that this money is going to be paid back in part, like a third of this money, paid back the first year. By the time you get to the ending balance, we're not even talking about $100,000. We're talking about $66,000.

Duffy: Yes, but you mean the next July 1st, that ending balance? Well that ending balance is slick, Jonathan. That's gone down. We don't have the money we used to have. I'm just trying to stay out of trouble. That's what it's going to be.

Lacina: I would like to reach the maximum number of employees that's why I think that $1,000 is important. If we go to 50,000 and we go to 3,000 per employee then I don't think I could support it. I would rather say a $1,000 to 100 employees and get as many machines out because, the other thing, if you can call a friend at work and say how are you doing this and they've got them, they can work back and forth.

Stutsman: Uh-huh.

Jordahl: Uh-huh.

Stutsman: Jean, do you think $1,000 is realistic or would we be better at $2,000?

Lacina: I may be too low. Is it too low?

Schultz: If a person wants to be able to buy a computer, plus software, plus a printer...

Lacina: I hadn't thought about software.

Schultz: ...you're not going to get that much for $1,000.

Lacina: That's true.

Schultz: You could probably do that, depending on what software you wanted, for 1,500, or certainly 2,000. I wouldn't go with the 3,500. That's too high anymore.

Jordahl: That's pretty excessive.

Lacina: Would 15 be realistic? Microsoft Office is, what, 475 somewhere in there for the private edition?

Schultz: Yes. You can sometimes get it over the Internet or mail-order for a little less than that. You can get new PCs for a $1,000.

Jordahl: I would like to encourage people to be able to do this without having to say there's this extra hurdle here. I've got to come up with $500 cash myself, out of savings at Christmas time, or something like that. This is the benefit aspect of it. Where they can get, and I say what they want, I don't mean that they necessarily sit there and watch DVD movies on the thing, but they have the freedom to get the whole package. I would say if you limited it to $2,000 you're going to get people coming in for less because they simply don't want to spend more. It's not our money, it's their money that they're spending.

Stutsman: That's true.

Jordahl: They may very well... I don't know. I can compromise somewhere. I think 1,000 is too low because it wouldn't cover the whole thing with as much flexibility. Somewhere between 1,500 and 2,000. I think 3,500 is way too high.

Duffy: Well suppose 400 County employees say we'd like to get in the program.

Jordahl: Good question. Good question. What happens if we've got $100,000 limit? What happens, first come, first serve, right?

Schultz: Well what the City did, and I think what North Liberty and Coralville also did, is... their plan was if there were more people applying than they had the money, they did a lottery system. But it could be something like , Steve, I think you were talking about somehow doing it based on seniority? Is that what you were thinking of?

Lacina: Something that... For example, if you don't set some guidelines, technically, can all of your election commissioners from all your precincts come in and say well I was a County employee...

Stutsman: That's a good point.

Lacina: ...and still be shown on the books.

Stutsman: I think it did say part-time or full-time employees, didn't it Jean?

Schultz: I think it said full-time.

Lacina: Full-time?

Schultz: Yes.

Lacina: OK.

Schultz: I'm pretty sure that was the way.

Lacina: But you'll need some mechanism to...

Stutsman: Yes, and I think for part-time it was pro-rated, wasn't it? That they wouldn't get the full amount. Was that right?

Schultz: I'm trying to find it in here but I...

Stutsman: That was a good point but I think it did specify that they had to be a full-time or a...

Schultz: It says only permanent employees of the City are eligible for participation.

Lacina: OK. That would resolve that question.

Stutsman: But I think we need to be careful too that there's equal distribution among all the departments too. If our goal was to improve the literacy of County employees I think...

Lacina: It almost has to be weighted by number of employees in the department though because if you have one with 6 and one with 26.

Stutsman: Well do we want to get...

Jordahl: But maybe you have one with 6 where they all have computers and one with 26 where the department doesn't have computers and the people don't have computers because they haven't used them at work either and are not familiar. So you might want to, in the spirit of bringing everybody up to the same level of literacy across the County, you might actually need to put more people... I think it should be on the basis of who is motivated to learn.

Stutsman: So basically, first come, first serve?

Jordahl: I think first come, first serve... maybe mixed with the seniority idea. I think if you've got a... like you could have a deadline like you do for the Board and Commissions thing came in so here's your application deadline. Then if you get 400 applications, then maybe you mix seniority into the thing, rather than having just a completely wide open... You have like an enrollment period.

Lacina: Deana, when we did the initial survey, do you remember what the response was? How many people would...

Pillard: (Inaudible).

Lacina: Oh weren't you? OK.

Stutsman: I think it was 100, wasn't it, Jean? 100 people.

Schultz: I've got the chart in here someplace.

Stutsman: That's been a while ago.

Lacina: There's a list I would work off of.

Duffy: What % interest?

Lacina: If they took the initiative to help out with the survey, then I would say they would have the first opportunity.

Duffy: What % interest again?

Schultz: 4 and one half.

Stutsman: 4.7.

Jordahl: 4.7.

Lacina: 4.7.

Schultz: This is the chart. It looks like there was 111 who were interested somewhat.

Lacina: 111, OK.

Schultz: If you look at that part This was what features they were interested in.

Duffy: 4 and one half %.

Lacina: Oh, I hadn't thought... A lot of the software comes in the CD-ROM so they're going to have to set up the system that's workable.

Stutsman: So did we agree on an amount then?

Jordahl: No.

Lacina: Well if you take 75 people at $1,500, you're looking at 112,500. Instead of going with a round number, I would try to target a number of employees. I'm going to suggest we go 75 employees at $1,500 maximum at 112,500.

Jordahl: (Inaudible).

Lacina: We're going to get that money back. They're committing this out of their payroll.

Duffy: Steve, I think you're just kidding yourself.

Lacina: Well I hope not.

Duffy: Is this on agenda? It doesn't say anything about action.

Stutsman: No.

Lacina: (Inaudible). It's informal here, just discussion. I'm just saying...

Duffy: Still I think we're really going through this...

Stutsman: Then we'll put it on for action on Thursday.

Duffy: We should be discussing this on Thursday.

Jordahl: Yes, I think it's very important we have this on for action on Thursday. We can't have this being an ongoing issue as to whether we're going to do this or not.

Stutsman: Yes, thank you. I agree that we need to make a decision and move on with this.

Lacina: Is it going to work, Jean? Are these bad numbers? If a target 75 employees, I realize there's going to be some that won't get it this year, but if you can try to later on open it up again for new employees, you can reach more and more employees.

Schultz: Well the City started, I think you said 100,000 the first year and they actually have fewer employees, if they could a maximum of 3,500.

Lacina: Yes.

Jordahl: We'd reach more people.

Lacina: Right.

Schultz: Yes, than what they do...

Jordahl: I think... And then next year...

Duffy: That's another problem I have, right there. I think we ought to stand on our own 2 feet like we used to, this Board of Supervisors. I notice that when we go to ISAC meetings now, it's not like it was a few years back. They'd come to us. How's everything going? We have a great county. You this, you that. Now it seems like just because we somebody else does it we're supposed to. Again, this financial thing is not good in this county. Juvenile detention, no building. Jail, need a new jail. Crowded spaces, Human Services and we're talking about space needs all over the place. Just because somebody else did something, I really... But you've got the 4 votes to do it.

Jordahl: I would call this an investment, Charlie. This is, in my point of view, this is an investment in our employees. When we take that money... Sally quoted that we're having to come up with 4.7% at a required earn. I think if we invest this money in our employees and their computer literacy, the County is going to gain more than the 4.7% worth of return on our investment.

Duffy: We got that program right now.

Stutsman: What program?

Duffy: From your office... That anybody wants to know how to, say run a computer, the common term I guess, we all already have it. I see a nightmare. I'd like to get into computer fixing business when they break down. That'd be great to get into.

Lacina: Well not all the employees are allowed to take the time off for that training though either.

Schultz: That's right.

Lacina: Some departments are just...

Duffy: They don't have to.

Schultz: They do have to because we only teach those classes during the day, Charlie. People (inaudible).

Duffy: All right, but I've seen Department Head Meetings up here we didn't have to have. Elected officials...

Stutsman: Employees don't come to those meetings. That's just...

Duffy:...that cost us... When I figured how much we're all making, over $450 an hour. Some of them sit here and... What's going on in your department doesn't mean that I should be here and there's more and more of them.

Lacina: OK. Our expense at 5% interest on 112,000 is going to be roughly $5,600.

Duffy: You're going to need more than that.

Jordahl: It's $5,600 invested in training.

Lacina: Exactly.

Duffy: You're going to end up with some used computers.

Jordahl: I think we're going to get a budget request from our HR person, I think this year, that will talk about training. I hope that we do. I think that we'll get a similar request from the Information Services Department. That's exactly the thing you're talking about, the training that we're conducting. This is a training expenditure, this interest, I think.

Stutsman: Well I might add too...

Duffy: One other question because I'm... Who's baby is this at the start? Who started this?

Lacina: It doesn't matter.

Schultz: The employees. The employees raised it because they...

Duffy: One employee?

Schultz: No, multiple employees.

Lacina: I've gotten several calls from Sheriff's Office...

Duffy: Oh really?

Lacina: ...other departments.

Stutsman: From the SEATS department, the Treasurer's Office, from this office...

Duffy: That they wanted to buy...

Lacina: Coralville and Iowa City were doing it.

Stutsman: Secondary Roads Office...

Duffy: Because Coralville and Iowa City were doing it, they thought we...

Stutsman: They heard that they were doing it for their employees and wanted to know why we couldn't do something like that at the County (inaudible).

Lacina: And asked if we could... Yes.

Duffy: Well maybe we should run for the City Council.

Jordahl: Charlie, a good idea is a good idea.

Stutsman: Yes.

Duffy: Well if you think it is, Jonathan. But time will tell.

Stutsman: Time will tell.

Lacina: I'm not voting for anything.

Jordahl: And he likes it.

Schultz: I'm sorry, Jean.

Duffy: (Inaudible) computers all the time, they're dropping. I'm going to have to leave. I've got to go to Des Moines.

Stutsman: No, you can't go to Des Moines yet.

Schultz: We tried to be more inclusive than these other agencies. The other agencies just went with Gateway. They didn't contact other vendors to see if anyone was interested in participating. They just said we're going to do it. This is the way. This is your choice. This is the vendor. We tried to open it up to other vendors in Johnson County and to be accessible to local businesses.

Lacina: We went to the banks to see if we could set up a program with them. They weren't interested.

Duffy: Why weren't they interested?

Lacina: We're going to do a technology fair.

Duffy: Well they're smart.

Duffy left at 10:20 a.m.

Lacina: They want more money.

Schultz: A couple were interested but, I think the Board if I remember right, felt that that wasn't really a perk. It wasn't really helping the employees because they weren't getting any monetary benefit. It that the way it was?

Stutsman: Yes, that's right.

Lacina: Well the loan rates would be high. So we're better off just doing it this way.

Jordahl: We're making it easier for them.

Lacina: Yes.

Jordahl: That's the whole point. We had discussed paying for part of the computer, more less giving the employee money.

Lacina: But we're going to have a free technology fair where people can come in, they can see Quicken or software, whatever and have any idea what they might like or what they don't. We're trying to reach as many employees as we can. Our overall cost is going to be minimal.

Jordahl: Uh-huh.

Lacina: Just the interest rate...

Jordahl: Yes, I think it's a real win-win. I hope that some of these points in the last couple of minutes summarizing this will be mentioned again when we discuss and vote on this issue.

Lacina: Yes, let's all flip hats and take the adversarial side and say that there's going to be some problems here. Charlie's concerned that we're going to get back obsolete machines. I think the way that Iowa City and Coralville have the contract structured, we do not take back the machine. If they suddenly decide they made a mistake, they are still going to pay for that.

Stutsman: Right.

Jordahl: And they are problems with the vendors, not us.

Lacina: We're not going to be maintaining the machines. We're not going to get the machines back.

Schultz: The only way we would get them back is if an employee terminated and did not pay off the rest of it. It's still County funds until it's completely paid off.

Lacina: OK.

Schultz: So like Charlie said, if someone came in today and said I quit, I leave tomorrow and didn't give their 2 weeks notice... But normally they would still have a week's worth of pay coming because they're normally paid for the prior week.

Stutsman: 2 weeks...

Schultz: This week they get paid. Normally they have a paycheck coming anyway and then the County would say wait a minute, you owe us X amount of dollars yet on your computer and take that out of the paycheck. It's not going to be very often that that is going to come back. But if a person just changes their mind and says I don't use a computer as much as I wanted, that's too bad. Just like when you buy a car, you can't change your mind and say well I don't want my car anymore.

Jordahl: Yes.

Schultz: Because if you're financing it through the bank, you still have to pay off that car.

Lacina: OK, so in that case, we can cover in the contract provisions so upon termination, here's what will happen. Your last paycheck will go towards the equipment and you can either pay in cash, or set up a payment schedule at that point. We can deal with that. Now, what other negatives do we need to address? There was a question of which 75 individuals would be able to utilize the program. Do we want to work off of the 111 that responded to the survey?

Stutsman: That survey is dated now. I think we almost should wait to see what kind of interest...

Lacina: Conduct another one?

Stutsman: No, maybe we better have our thoughts together about how we're going to allocate this.

Lacina: Allocate the 75... OK, so that's an issue we need to figure out.

Jordahl: What's wrong with first come, first serve, if we sort of open, as I suggested, an enrollment period? Announce it well enough in advance, say a month in advance, so people have time to think about it and shop, whatever and allow, say during the month of February, the first two weeks of February, or whatever...

Stutsman: But we're going to set up this computer fair so people could come in and look. I guess they wouldn't have to commit at that time. Then after we had that computer fair, have people sign up. The first 75 that put their name on the list, or sign the contract, is who we allocate to.

Lacina: Wasn't some of the idea to allow something for Christmas and then some of the sales after Christmas are some real good deals sometimes on technology.

Jordahl: Uh-huh.

Lacina: I don't know if we can respond that fast.

Schultz: I don't know whether there's going to be time to set up the technology fair because we have to schedule it with these companies. I'm not sure if they would be able to... Sally and I were talking that, whether they would be able to commit to have this computer fair and also be able to deliver the product by Christmas. I don't know if that's realistic since it's December 1st.

Lacina: With the retail market demand and everything else, you're probably right. OK.

Jordahl: It would have been nice to do that and it would be nice if we still could, but...

Lacina: What about the limits, the $1,500 per individual per employee, you said?

Jordahl: Yes, I think that's reasonable enough...

Lacina: OK.

Jordahl: ...from what I've been seeing lately.

Lacina: We still need to struggle with which 75. Are there any other issues that we need to address, that you can see a problem with this?

Stutsman: Drafting the contract. Pat has a copy of Coralville...

Lacina: OK.

Stutsman: ...and Iowa City's contract for review so we can...

Lacina: Then we can figure out a termination provision of some sort.

Stutsman: Yes.

Lacina: OK. Other than that...

Schultz: I think there is one, that's what I'm just trying to find here. I know it does say, should the employee return such computer equipment or software to the vendor, sell or dispose of the equipment, or otherwise render the equipment or software unavailable for the employee's home use the balance of the lease payment shall be immediately due and payable to the City and if not paid within 30 days of such return or disposal, shall be deducted from the employee's paycheck; failure of an employee to inform the City of such conversion of equipment or software may be grounds for discipline. But I know there's also something in here about if the employee terminates.

Lacina: Well if it's in there, great. Terry, you had a comment?

Muhlenbruch: One of the questions, I guess, would be to make sure the computers that the employees are buying at home, the programs are compatible...

Stutsman: Right.

Muhlenbruch: ...with what they're working with... to make sure...

Lacina: Yes.

Muhlenbruch: ...it's an IBM compatible or... With the same programs, what I'd hate to see happen is if the County's using Windows 95 and the computers that are purchased at home...

Stutsman: Exactly.

Muhlenbruch: ...are Windows 98...

Lacina: Or all Macs.

Muhlenbruch: Yes, exactly. To make sure that the software that is purchased is exactly the same software that the County is using so it's not like going from a color TV to a black and white colored TV, to make sure that they're on the same programs. The second note is that Gateway is offering unbelievable monthly deals right now that perhaps it should be something you could check into where there would be no expenditure at all from the County. There'd be zero dollars.

Lacina: Through their financing program we would just have payroll deduction at no interest expense.

Muhlenbruch: Yes.

Lacina: That's a very good point.

Muhlenbruch: Exactly. There will be no dollars spent from the County. Right now Gateway is offering it and it's... Plus with this... If I understand it right, plus Gateway then in 3 years, I believe, offers you to take those computers turn them back into Gateway or upgrade within 3 years, keep everybody... Guaranteed money. I think that would be... I don't know there might be some other vendors out there that are doing that, but Gateway is making a huge (inaudible)... What they're doing is they're focusing that towards families that are sending kids to college, how do I afford a new computer for my kid, well... I want to say 49.95 a month, but don't quote me on that. But they're paying that monthly and within 3 years they're guaranteed to go ahead and turn those computers back in for brand new upgrades and your 49.95 a month continues.

Lacina: Yes, that's a good program.

Muhlenbruch: So you would have zero dollars expenditure from the County's side.

Lacina: We can check that out, that's a really good idea.

Jordahl: Yes, I called them last week about that and I was a little bit confused by what I heard. What you're saying makes more sense, but I think I was asking the same question that you're answering. The answer I heard from them didn't jive with what I thought I was going to hear. We need to check into that.

Stutsman: Yes, we can...

Lacina: But the software thing also is extremely important because I hadn't thought about Macs before and since we don't...

Stutsman: That's why it's been so valuable having Jean work on this...

Lacina: ...have a... Yes.

Stutsman: ...because she knows what direction we should go as far as what we can offer and so forth.

Lacina: So we can put in there...

Stutsman: Good point.

Lacina: ...software and hardware must be compatible with the County system.

Muhlenbruch: Exactly.

Lacina: Then as they bring it in... if it is a Mac since we don't have Mac base, we'll have to say this is not compatible.

Schultz: What the City did is they basically had Gateway bring in 3 different configurations like a low end, a more powerful machine, and maybe a faster printer whatever, and the employee chose one of the 3 configurations. Then the City made sure that the configurations matched and were compatible with what they use in the office. I did find the part about employee termination it says, to participate in the program the employees must agree to all terms and conditions set forth in this policy; should the employee terminate employment with the City of Iowa City prior to the completion of a lease period the employee agrees to pay the balance of the lease payments either through deductions from the final paycheck or through an additional payment if the final paycheck is sufficient to pay the balance.

Lacina: Now it's a little bit separate, but you will need to start working on a policy about bringing in software from these machines into the County. I'll give you the following example. We were using CC Mail through the University and through the professor's documents we downloaded a virus.

Schultz: We do have a policy where software is not to be installed except by either our staff or designees. Like, for example, if it's like Chris Edwards in the Auditor's Office or Gary Rowe at Human Services, people we know. We also... there is in the policy that they need to have legal copies of it and...

Lacina: But if I take an Excel file home, the budget, and I'm working on it at home. During the day my son has downloaded a virus onto my machine. I then take that disk back out and bring it back in and plug it in here. We're going to want to make sure that they've got some virus protection and some firewall so that we don't end up crashing our system.

Schultz: Right. There's also in the policy that if you bring things in from outside or download it from the Internet you are supposed to run it through the virus scan. We do have a virus scan network that runs whenever you log-in also.

Lacina: Good.

Stutsman: OK. So we'll be ready for the agenda on Thursday to agree to 75 employees at a maximum of $1,500.

Lacina: Then we still need some mechanism... Maybe first come first serve, maybe we'll only have 50. If we receive... You could have an open period where you receive all of the requests. Then if you get 80, figure out some type of system... But you need to figure out... If it comes in 50, don't worry about it.

Jordahl: Uh-huh.

Stutsman: I think it's...

Lacina: I think we've covered the bases on most of these things.

Stutsman: OK.

Lacina: And in fact if we can work something with Gateway and not pay any interest then there's no cost to the County...

Jordahl: And then we don't need a dollar limit.

Lacina: ...huge benefit to the employee.

Jordahl: We could payroll deduct $100 a month if they wanted a top-drawer system and had a similar monthly payment arrangement again.

Muhlenbruch: Then you put all the burden on your employee if they happen to quit or terminate... the County has stepped away from it.

Lacina: Jean what do you want more time to think about that or what are you thinking?

Schultz: No, that's fine. The only thing I was thinking of if it's first come first serve people may say well I sent my request through the internal mail and I should've gotten there and if they don't get it because of that...

Jordahl: A received by (inaudible).

Lacina: And Secondary Roads has to travel in versus somebody here that just walks up and immediately gives it...

Stutsman: Or, just say it has to be to the Board office by 4:30 on Friday, or something like that.

Schultz: But then if you get more than the 75... The lottery thing or unless you want to do it on seniority. Both of those seem fairly simple.

Jordahl: I think we cross that bridge when we come to it in terms of the more than 75. I don't think we're going to get more than 75 people buying computers.

Stutsman: I feel that way too. I think that we should...

Jordahl: If we did, then we can do it in advance.

Lacina: The other side of it is, if you're into the budget, in January you're going to get your roll back numbers and going to get your revenue numbers from your Assessor and Auditor. At that point, if you've got some extra dollars... We did not utilize 100% of the payroll of the salary survey money, right? There's a little bit left in, 12,000, 15,000. You may find some money instead of 112,000 allocation go to 120,000 to take care of all of them, or something. But I think you're right. You need to see what the response is going to be first and then from there...

Jordahl: Figure out what's fair from there. Well, we can probably move on make sure this is on the agenda for Thursday. Will we have some sort of some policy statement that we'll be voting for Thursday or is just basically that we will have a program?

Schultz: We could basically take Iowa City's plan and just change the Iowa City to Johnson County and add a couple things and just have that for you to look at? What would you like?

Jordahl: In the context of today's discussion is there anything at variance?

Lacina: Dollar amount limit would change.

Schultz: Yes.

Mike Lehman: Curios in Iowa City... Is it a one time deal or they going to open it up again next year more dollars available (inaudible) budget.

Lacina: They've done it twice.

Stutsman: I think they are so satisfied with it and they've had such a good response that they plan to continue it as long as they can.

Lehman: That's why I was curious if we put a cap on it what about new hires? (Inaudible) make available (inaudible).

Schultz: You'd have to allocate the money each year to continue that.

Lacina: But again, it's not really expense. We're financing, so to speak. Iowa City's response in talking with some of the employees and that's why they opened it up a second time. They had such good response and employees were in fact helping each other out and so they opened it up a 2nd time and they had another batch of people come in then that hadn't the first time.

Lehman: Did they reach cap 2nd time too then, or were they able to take care of everybody?

Lacina: I don't know what they did the 2nd time, how that worked.

Schultz: I can try to find out before Thursday.

Lacina: Those are good questions. I've not heard any negative comments. My concern originally was that we were competing with the private sector. I went out and talked to the banks and they weren't excited about it. The interest rates were high. Consumer loans are expensive. This is a win-win for everybody.

Stutsman: We have to recognize that there is going to be some administrative cost too. We talk about no cost. To put this on payroll deduction and stuff like that. There will be a cost for that. But I still think it far outweighs the benefit the County's going to receive. The cost that we will incur, administratively and with the interest, if that happens.

Schultz: We sent the letter. I can give you list of the vendors that we sent the letters to. We tried to give every local vendor an opportunity and not exclude anyone.

Jordahl: I think supervisor elect Lehman raises a good point here on the question of new hires. Do we need to have a closed enrollment period or can this be an open matter that simply floats with the dollars and say well we've run out of money? First come first served but the fund's empty.

Stutsman: Well and another thing, do we offer this to somebody who's just been employed to the County for a week? Or do we say you have to be employed at least for 6 months or something like that?

Schultz: That's certainly your option. Whichever you'd like to do.

Lacina: That's why I say seniority and the list of the survey people would give you some basis to allocate.

Jordahl: Yes, it would.

Lacina: We're not saying the employees have to have, any government related work County needs to cover that machine for the employee. In the case of ourselves County's going to have a machine for us. Jonathan and Joe have had laptops which they've been able to use. But this is independent, this is for home utilization. This is meant that they will be bringing these machines back in here. We've has some of that in the past. The County Attorney's...For a number of years I had my own up here. That's not the intent of this. The intent is for the employees to use it at home and learn from it. It isn't meant to dump a burden upon them.

Stutsman: Or to expect employees to take their work home with them and just...

Lacina: Right. 24 hours a day.

Stutsman: ...do work related things on it. OK. Thank you very much Jean for coming here.

(Continued in Part 4)