Reconvened on January 28, 1999 at 10:35 a.m.

Jordahl: Reports and inquiries from the County Attorney.

Assistant County Attorney Janet Lyness: Nothing new.

Jordahl: Reports and inquiries from members of the public. Reports and inquiries from members of the Board of Supervisors. The silence just reigns in here.

Stutsman: We're just going through the budget process. That's what appears to be taking up all of our time is working through that. Meeting again after this meeting and tomorrow.

Lehman: I did get to Des Moines last week for the Iowa State Association of Counties of newly elected officials. It was kind of interesting to meet some of the first time Supervisors from the other counties and compare notes about their budgeting problems and requests and some of the problems their counties face. It's nice to know that you're not alone. But it's very obvious that Johnson County has a lot more demands than some of these smaller, more rural orientated counties. Their population isn't near what we have and their human service demands aren't near that. It was kind of eye opening. Yesterday, I attended the E911 Committee meeting. We basically discussed how funds might be used for communication devices amongst the emergency and fire and police organizations. We also discussed the Year 2000 problem. With all the computers and stuff, there'll be a lot of questions here how it's going to affect our equipment. It was a very interesting meeting. A lot of information was exchanged. That's all I have.

Jordahl: OK. Anyone else have anything to report? Charlie?

Duffy: We had a Johnson County Emergency Management meeting last night. I'll just go over these things fast. You probably knew that Johnson County was the third largest county in the whole state of Iowa. I think Polk County was first. Story County was next. In the FEMA relief from the State and the Feds, which amounted to $18,142,706 for disaster damages to government buildings, roads and other infrastructure. I think that's pretty good. That says something about the Board and Jim McKinley. But there's several other things here... too numerous to mention. If you'd like to read this... But there was a... This Committee is really composed of mayors of the cities or representatives, Board of Supervisors, the Sheriff's Department and the Sheriff is heading this thing. We're ready for... I think ahead of most counties on emergency management. That's HAZMAT or anything like that. It was a very interesting meeting. There were probably 14 people there. That's it.

Jordahl: OK. Sally?

Stutsman: We had department head meeting on Tuesday afternoon and I thought that went very well. We had a lot of good discussion and good comments from department heads. I attended a Mental Health Center Board meeting on Tuesday night. Their financial situation has much improved, largely in part by a very dedicated staff and director whose worked hard to get things on track again as far as the switching over from the County giving them a block grant to a fee for service. That was a good report to hear... that things are moving along much better. They also gave a presentation about a group that they're doing there for personality disorders. It was a very, very interesting presentation. They plan to do that at all the Mental Health Center meetings, Board Meetings, to talk more about what they're doing as a program there. That'll be good. We'll talk about boards and commissions on Tuesday won't we? I've served on there for several years and I think it's probably time for somebody else to take over that responsibility.

Jordahl: We have the Empowerment Board meeting this afternoon, is that correct?

Stutsman: Right. The Empowerment Board meets this afternoon at Mercy Center and that's at 6 o' clock. Those meetings are open to the public, so anybody is welcome to go to those meetings.

Jordahl: Do you have any idea what's on the agenda for tonight?

Stutsman: We did receive a grant so it'll be talking about the next step, what we do to implement the grant, just beginning the general process of organizing, how we want to begin talking about what the role is in the Empowerment Board, and working with the community in addressing the needs of families and children. Bob serves on that Board. I don't know if you have anything else to add.

Jordahl: This morning I got up, got the children to their respective locations and got to the Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors meeting in Coralville in time to participate in a group picture. It's their annual meeting. I had my smiling face there. I thought my smiling face was going to get the opportunity to defend our Local Option Sales Tax language and I think they were leading up to that. But I had to come here and be in this meeting so I had an excuse... vamoosed out of there. There were some interesting points made. I don't know if we want to hear me recite that. I could brush over them real quickly. John Becker, the President of the Chamber, was giving summary of the arguments in favor and against the local options sales tax. So while we're not supposed to be advocating one way or the other on this, but merely providing language for the voters of the unincorporated areas of Johnson County to decide whether they want this thing or not, I think it would be balanced enough with the consent of the Board, brush over what the arguments were in a balanced way presented both for and against local option sales tax. Would that be OK? I'll try and do this as briefly as I can because we do have to get to our budget considerations. Arguments in favor of the tax were that it was an opportunity to answer the question of tax shifting. Because of the rollback, residential property is taxed at only 56% of its value thus shifting the weight of property taxes to commercial property and industrial property. The sales tax then is able to remove some of that burden from commercial and industrial property. In addressing infrastructure needs, accelerating the scheduled road constructions, we are, for example, or of the jail... it meets community wide needs. As a growth facilitator, it would help to provide various elements of infrastructure which would help economic development. It was noted that 6 of 7 jobs that are expected to be created in the next few years are going to be within the 7 metro areas of the state, of which we are one. It would be an engine of revitalization for such areas as downtown Iowa City. Coralville has a plan for riverfront development between Iowa River Power Company and I-80. People dwelling in dorms currently don't pay property taxes so they would be paying the sales tax. Apparently the concern of people not shopping in an area because it has the sales tax is addressed in studies with statistics showing that, with onl