Vice Chairperson Stutsman called the Johnson County Board of Supervisors to order in the Johnson County Administration Building at 1:34 p.m.. Members present were: Charles Duffy, Mike Lehman, Sally Stutsman, and Carol Thompson.

Board of Supervisors Deputy Administrative Assistant Deana Pillard said MH/MR/DD was requesting 2 positions, a Social Worker II and an Intake Worker. Stutsman asked if they don't approve these positions and they are under a capped budget, would they hire them anyway with their surplus funds. MH/MR/DD Interim Director Deb Conger said she would not hire them under a capped budget. Thompson asked if they had money for unhired positions for the current year. Conger stated they had money but personnel is a long term expense. Thompson asked if they had searched for cases they could close. She stated a Case Manager could have 35 cases each. Conger said she was in the process of doing that but there is some confusion on what constitutes an active case. She explained the Case Managers were telling her that all of their cases were active but they didn't appear to be so to her. Stutsman said the Board was leaning towards not approving the Social Worker II position. Conger said she didn't think they needed one, but they did need an Intake Worker because that person is currently doing 70 or 80% of their work and being paid out of Department of Human Services Area Administrator Cheryl Whitney's budget. Thompson clarified that a case manager was not a social worker. Stutsman stated the additional staff in this department in the last 3 years was above average on number of cases. Conger said they run 65 cases on the average. Stutsman said part of the problem is that they don't do any case weighting. Conger said some people are seen once a year and some are seen once a week. Thompson asked why someone would only be seen once a year. Conger said they would just check on them to see if their situation had changed. Stutsman asked what the 65 actually represented. Conger stated at the MH/DD Planning Council Meeting they were talking about caseloads going down. She said Craig Mosher's narrative said caseloads were increasing and they needed another social worker. Thompson asked if people from other counties are serviced there and who pays for that. Conger explained they don't do much contracting but she has observed a trend. She said they can only take on so many cases. Stutsman said they get reimbursed from Medicaid for case management but not for social workers.

Conger stated the unit Supervisors' perceptions were that many more people are coming into the system. She said they had about 679 clients in MH/DD and not all of them are from Johnson County. Thompson said she wanted to see how many out of County people they were seeing. Conger said Systems Unlimited has 33 homes in Johnson County, which house 173 clients, 57% of whom are out of county. Thompson said that wasn't a problem because the arrangement was that they would start in Johnson County. Stutsman said it was interesting when you consider Senate File 69 was to support community-based services and that's not materializing because they have Systems in that many homes. She said other communities are not developing those services. Conger stated they are not and Systems Unlimited wants to continue growing. She said they need to stop attracting clients and stop being a magnet county. Stutsman said she didn't mind as long as someone paid. Lehman stated they are creating a monster to manage. Thompson said Linn County enacted a policy to dramatically proportion services to their residents. Stutsman asked how they did that. Thompson said they didn't develop their services. Conger said they needed to stop being the County that offered the best deals. Thompson said that would affect their own residents.

Conger stated they have an increasing number of clients but not an unlimited labor pool at DHS. She said it's very hard work and because of that they have a high turnover. Stutsman stated that was one of the conclusions they came to when they decided not to build another detention center in Johnson County. She explained they just didn't have the labor pool. Thompson said Johnson County was a magnet because of the psych hospital. Conger stated they discharge children coming into student counseling to Johnson County psych services too. She said they have 130 State cases now. She stated these people have no legal settlement and therefore Johnson County pays for them. Stutsman said she thought State cases were people who couldn't declare residency anywhere. Conger stated she may be incorrect but she thought Johnson County had to take them because they are the county of last resort. Lehman said he thought they would be reimbursed if they came from another county. Conger stated you have to make arrangements with that county and they can say it's not their responsibility. Thompson said once that is resolved and they become a State case, they can get funding. Conger said she's talking about the cases that have never been resolved.

Stutsman asked which budget the Intake Worker would come out of. Pillard said Mosher budgeted for these 2 positions out of the MR/MH/DD budget. Stutsman said Whitney was asking for her half time foster care worker to go to full time. Pillard said $42,042.01 that needs to be itemized somewhere else if they aren't approving the social worker. Thompson suggested they keep in the extra social worker in case they do actually need it. Conger said 55 cases was the national average. She said it would take her until July 1st to evaluate the caseloads. Stutsman said if they didn't use the funding for staff they could use it for services.

Thompson asked what the rules for the leftover $1,000,000 were. Stutsman explained they could carry it over but no decisions had been made to date. Thompson asked if they could put that towards the $8,000,000 budget for next year. Stutsman said no because it was capped. Thompson asked if they could spend it on other areas. Stutsman explained it had to be spent in MH/MR/DD services. She said it was a self-imposed budget. She stated they could use the carryover but if their clients increase by 11% next year, it would have to be used for that. Conger stated Mosher believed they were experiencing a 7% increase in new clients. She said she wanted to find out if that were really true. Thompson said that was 42 people a year. Stutsman said she was hesitant to approve a position with so many unanswered questions. Conger stated they need to work smarter and invest in other things like technology and filing systems. Stutsman said the Planning Council also discussed spending the surplus on one time needs like phone and computer system upgrades. She said their budgets are too tight to do that and their staff salaries are extremely low already. Conger stated she interviewed her entire staff and the number one concern for social workers was the quality of direct care because the wages are so low.

Jordahl entered at 1:53 p.m.

Conger said they have clients with head lice, skin diseases and that have not been bathed. She said they have a training problem because of the high turnover. Stutsman stated SEATS Director Lisa Dewey was talking about not having staff there to greet the clients when they returned home. Conger said her social workers are going crazy because they can't stand to see this happen. Stutsman said they stay in business by filling all their beds. Conger said they are trying to handle the situation. Lehman said after they sort out the caseloads, they may be able to shift some cases based on how active they are.

Duffy left at 1:55 p.m.

Conger stated some may not need to be open at all but it's very difficult to close a case. She explained a client could be mentally ill and still function fine for years until one day when they stop taking their medicine and crash. She said if they close that case, they have to do all the paper work again. Thompson said sometimes just informing a client that their case is being closed causes a crisis. Conger said she wanted to institute some kind of grading system for cases. She said they could manage for now and then, if necessary, ask for a budget amendment. Stutsman said the foster care worker move to full time was warranted because those cases are out of sight. Conger stated they have over 100 kids in foster care currently. Pillard asked if they wanted Deb to reitemize her budget. She explained the total amount of the social worker position needed to be somewhere else. Conger stated she had a list of department problems, including minimum wages, the difficulty of the job, high turnover, low unemployment, 130 State cases, the University of Iowa discharging their clients to the County and CMI manifests itself in the University of Iowa student population.

Duffy returned at 2:00 p.m.

Conger said they need to stop agencies attempts to grow. She stated agencies all want to recruit clients from other counties, get more beds and buy more houses, even though they don't have the staff for it. Stutsman asked if the agencies were doing a needs assessment to see if they really need it. Thompson said they're not required to. Jordahl asked if the Department of Health inspected these places. Conger said she thought they did but was unsure how often. Thompson said they get deficiencies on their inspections but they keep operating. Conger stated they want to look at Story County. She explained Story County and ISU are working together to address these problems. Stutsman said she believed they made some major changes out there. She said they had a plan that was supported by the Board of Supervisors. She said they closed their County home too. Conger said they needed to think outside the box.

Conger stated Governor Vilsack wanted to change the definition of legal settlement to the county which the consumer identifies as their residence. Stutsman asked if he was advocating the State taking over mental health payments. Jordahl said there might be a partial increase. Stutsman said if it were funded they would give up local control. Conger said if Johnson County provides the best services of all 99 counties then everyone will say they are Johnson County residents. Thompson said if that were true, no one would develop services. Jordahl said it would bring State dollars into the county. He said it might bring in managed care. Stutsman said managed care isn't all bad. Conger said it had saved them money.

Conger stated she would like to put the $42,000 into direct care worker wages but she's concerned about a downturn next year. Thompson asked about subsidizing agencies for services that they provide. Jordahl said it was amplification of the State purchase of service wage. Thompson asked if they would get reimbursed for that share they subsidize. Stutsman said she didn't know for sure. Conger said they needed phone headsets for social workers. Pillard said that would count as office equipment and would eat up that $42,000. Conger said they could use tape recorders to dictate client meeting notes so they didn't have to rely solely on their notes. She said they could contract that out and send the tapes to a transcription service. Stutsman said that would keep the records updated too. Conger explained social workers are not paper work people. She said they need to keep the paper work at a minimum. Jordahl asked if the voicewriter could make a verbatim transcription of long conversations. Thompson said no, but they could dictate a few sentences into it. Conger said social workers have depressing jobs because clients don't recover.

Conger stated they are having problems with SEATS. She said Systems Unlimited has a summer program for around 15 disabled children. She explained SEATS has always transported the children to the school but now they won't do it. She said SEATS said they were already at their routine limit. Thompson said the people living in Systems Unlimited houses can contract with the school districts to provide transportation. Stutsman asked if they could accommodate wheel chairs. Lehman said they could. Thompson said that only left the problem of the children who live at home and attend this program for enrichment. Conger said some live out of town. Thompson said they could see if some of the parents could afford it. Conger said they were paying SEATS for the service. Lehman said it's a federal guideline that their routine schedule can only be a certain percentage. Conger stated she didn't want to employ cabs or Greyhound. Thompson suggested Bionic Bus. Conger said they are running into the same problem with job transportation. She said they currently have a job coach, who earns $40 per hour. Thompson asked if these were able bodied people. Conger explained they were clients with behavior problems, but not in wheelchairs. Stutsman said they were paying this amount because he was the only one available to do it. Conger said they needed more SEATS buses. Lehman suggested Iowa City Coach. Conger stated the social workers were opposed to sending them in cabs with people who didn't know how to deal with them and the clients already have relationships with SEATS drivers. Thompson asked if they could have a separate unit of SEATS just for MH/DD. Jordahl said it would use up the budget in 2 years. Conger said the problem wasn't money, rather availability. Jordahl said the problem would become money.

Jordahl said whatever surplus MH/DD had would soon disappear if a bus system was created solely for that department. Stutsman pointed out that the problem with SEATS was that it's a subscription service where all customers required equal treatment. Jordahl suggested increasing the capacity of the SEATS system by having extra idle buses ready for extra busing demands. Stutsman suggested creating a subcommittee with SEATS Director Lisa Dewey to investigate this issue. Jordahl and Thompson suggested creating a subscription bus service like SEATS that wasn't funded by the federal government or Iowa City but have it administered by the SEATS people. Conger said the growing elderly population in Johnson County was also increasing demands on SEATS.

Next, the Board discussed salary issues with Human Resources Administrator Lora Shramek. Stutsman said, citing the Board's discussion the previous day, that a 3% Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) for mid-management salaries was too high but interpreted other Board members as feeling this 3% increase was needed to maintain the changes made by the salary survey. Shramek said she understood that COLA would more closely reflect the actual lower COLA after the salary survey was completed. Shramek continued by saying the salary survey made it possible for 1% to 2% salary increases with merit pay in addition to the COLA adjustment. Thompson said she thought COLA would be adjusted according to union increases. Stutsman said this action was done before the salary survey and it was more of a general guideline than an actual policy. Thompson warned of workers getting larger increases than supervisors, which could eventually lead to supervisors' salaries being lower than their workers. Stutsman replied that the salary survey widened the gap between mid-management and union workers and mid-management wages were adjusted to more closely reflect similar jobs in the private sector.

Stutsman said that the suggested COLA for FY 2000 was too much coupled with the added costs of the employee health care plan. Shramek cited the Director of the Public Health Department, Graham Dameron, as suggesting that the Board increase the copayment fee in the health care plan. Stutsman said most County employees were unaware of the county's strong health care plan and would be unsympathetic if health care plan costs was used as rationale for a small COLA. Lehman said it was risky to lessen health care benefits which could cost some County employees a good deal of money. Stutsman warned against setting such a precedent with large salary increases that the Board could only allocate funds to maintain salaries in the future. Shramek argued that large COLA increases could cause bargaining employees to request large wage increases. Stutsman said the salary survey also created an opportunity for wage increases through merit pay in addition to step raises. Thompson argued that a low COLA for non-unionized staff would encourage them to join unions. Duffy and Shramek agreed with Thompson's point. Stutsman said COLA had been higher than inflation by at least 1% the past several years which made it hard to justify wage increases to the public. Jordahl inquired about the inflation rate in Johnson County, saying current wages for jobs which formerly paid minimum wage led him to believe the cost of living in the county was greater than the national average.

Shramek said the total increases from the salary survey were skewed by large increases for lower wage and part-time jobs such as cafeteria workers at the Senior Center and law clerks. Shramek said the most difficult job positions to fill in the county were part-time ones, citing competition from the Coral Ridge Mall. Jordahl questioned Shramek, saying she initially was against a large COLA because the salary survey remedied this problem but seemed to encourage a large COLA for lower paying and part-time positions. Shramek said entry-level, low paying work salaries were increasing in the public sector, but not for professionals and management.

Stutsman asserted that management would be fairly compensated with a 2% COLA. Thompson inquired if there were any non-unionized entry-level jobs in the County that would be affected by the Board's COLA determination. Shramek said Senior Dining was non-unionized. Duffy spoke of how difficult it was to attract entry-level employees, that many part-time Senior Dining workers could earn more working at a fast food restaurant and how no one applied for a $9 an hour minute taker position. Duffy suggested a strategy, though hastened to say this might be inappropriate for FY 2000, of a 3% wage increase distributed equally every 5 years. Jordahl observed that a 3% COLA plus merit pay for management would provide the unions with enough rationale for a 3% wage increase or above in the next bargaining session. Jordahl added he could support a 2.5% COLA based on the need to lower union increases. Stutsman added that the employees they were debating about were eligible for longevity pay. Jordahl said a 2% COLA coupled with a 1% automatic step increase after a predetermined length of work and a possible 1% merit increase allowed employees to receive wage increases between 2-4% based on ability. Thompson said she would agree with what Jordahl suggested for the short-term, for FY 2000. Jordahl advocated a 2% COLA, seeing how it affected current union negotiations, then take that into account when creating the FY 2001 budget. Shramek recommended balancing the demand to keep COLA costs down with satisfying employees. Thompson said different COLA for different departments could cause employees to resent one another and hurt morale. Pillard reduced the initial COLA by 1%, providing a 3% COLA for elected officials and 2% for non-bargaining employees, administrative bargaining employees and the Sheriff's Department which cut approximately $100,000 in funds. Jordahl said the cut would save a good deal more than $100,000 in the future by it's effect on union contracts.

Recessed at 2:52 p.m.; and reconvened at 3:12 p.m.

Thompson talked about the revenue expense adjustment of $700,000, which is moneys set aside to accommodate people's tendency to under estimate revenues and over-estimate their expenses. Thompson said if the Board implemented Jordahl's suggested policy of spending personnel funding only on personnel, perhaps $200,000 could be allocated from the revenue expense adjustment. Jordahl credited Reverend Bob Welsh and Stutsman for suggesting this policy. Stutsman was hesitant to implement the personnel funding policy for FY 2000 without discussing the policy with department heads and elected officials, since enacting this policy too quickly would destroy any communication and cooperative gains the Board had made with those individuals. Jordahl advocated creating a process to implement this process so that it would be fully in place on July 1st, but to abandon it if difficulties arose from implementing it. Jordahl asked about a suggestion Thompson had brought up in a previous meeting, which would be allocating 98 or 97% of personnel dollars since there was always a surplus in allocated personnel dollars at the fiscal year's end. Thompson said applying 97% to personnel dollars would provide $340,000 in savings. Thompson suggested instead of funding each department's personnel line items at 97 or 98% of what was requested, as she suggested at the last work session, that the Board should tell departments to spend personnel funding only on personnel and then the Board could lower the moneys set aside for the revenue expense adjustment. Pillard objected to this, saying money left over from personnel funding was spent on other line items within a department's budget, so it would not be savings. Pillard continued by citing the Sheriff's Department as an example, that in the past this department used excess personnel dollars for the jail, and the Sheriff created his budget in the same manner for FY 2000. Jordahl argued that department heads should come to the Board for budget amendments rather than shifting personnel funds for unexpected expenses. Stutsman agreed with Pillard, saying if this policy could be implemented for FY 2001 but not FY 2000. Pillard advocated working with department heads and the Auditor's Office to track personnel dollars during FY 2000 and to gradually implement the policy while keeping department heads informed. Thompson and Jordahl agreed that by meeting with department heads soon that this policy could be implemented before FY 2000 began. Thompson said department heads did not budget for personnel moneys while intending to spend the funds somewhere else. Stutsman warned of angering department heads if this policy was implemented too quickly, that they would interpret it as the Board trying to diminish their control over their own departments. Thompson advocated estimating a conservative amount of funds from this policy, $100,000 out of $900,000 in annual personnel surplus.

Pillard said $500,000 of the $900,000 carry-over from FY 99 came from the County Treasurer discovering that some interest rates were under-estimated. Pillard warned that the Board could not expect a carry-over like that in the future, that this was due to declining interest rates. Pillard added the revenue expense adjustment didn't simply provide cushion for personnel spending but the bottom line of every department's budget. The Board continued to debate this issue, with Thompson and Jordahl in favor of implementing a policy stipulating funds allocated for personnel expenditures could only be spent on personnel, and Stutsman arguing that this policy should not be enacted for FY 2000. Lehman said it was more difficult to use funds allocated for one purpose on something else, since capital expenditures, capital projects, technology and personnel were now being divided into separate categories, giving the department heads' less flexibility and provide the Board with more information. Lehman was hesitant to enact this policy. Pillard again warned the Board that department heads would be angry if this policy was enacted for FY 2000 after these people had submitted their budgets. Jordahl suggested having a meeting with department heads where this policy would be presented, and then to decide whether to enact the policy for FY 2000. Duffy advocated subtracting an equal percentage, 1 or 2, from the personnel line items from each departments' budget. Jordahl said to create the FY 2000 budget without this policy, but when having the budget wrap-up meeting with department heads to present this policy and see if the policy can be enacted beginning on July 1.

Shramek returned and said she found a cost of living index figure from the Chamber of Commerce. Shramek continued by saying 100% is the national cost of living index average, while the City of Iowa City was 99.3%, or 0.7% below the national average. Jordahl interpreted this by saying Johnson County was close enough to the national average that the national inflation rate should be used when making COLA decisions. Shramek also presented a document to the Board which compared bargaining units and elected officials from Johnson County from 1991 to 1997. This document showed the Compensation Board recommended a 5.29% average yearly wage increase for the Board of Supervisors, though the Board increased their wages an average of 3.82% annually, while the average Consumer Price Index during this period was 2.94%. Lehman questioned a 3% COLA increase for elected officials while others only received 2%. Stutsman said deputies wages were tied to those of the elected officials. Stutsman continued by saying deputies did not get longevity pay or step increases from the salary survey. Jordahl added that elected officials did not get longevity, step increases or the benefit of the previous years salary survey.

Pillard outlined the items added into the working budget from decisions made during the previous budget work session. They included: $11,000 for Block Grant 23, $338,000 for Juvenile Justice at a 96.7% increase, $349,848 for Health Pool/Central Services, $139,995 for a 3% COLA increase for nonbargaining County employees, $40,048 for a 4% COLA increase for elected officials, $73,083 for a 3% COLA increase for the Sheriff's Department bargaining unit, $61,287 for a 3% COLA increase for the administrative bargaining unit, $132,312 which Pillard noted would change because of the COLA reductions the Board made during that day's session. Also FY 99 expenditure amounts for capital expenditures and projects, central technology and departmental technology were included. Pillard said there was a $1,491,612 increase in the general fund tax asking from what the Board had already tentatively budgeted, excluding the Secondary Roads Department budget.

Pillard pointed out that the Board had approved allocating $32,587 into the FY 2000 budget so the Sheriff's Department could upgrade 10 Unix workstations to PC's. Pillard reviewed that a total of 30 Unix workstations were to be replaced with PC's, but this was requested to be done over a 3 year period with 10 replacements per year. Pillard said it was requested that savings be started for the computer upgrades in that department in FY 2001 and 02.

Jordahl inquired about the recommendation from Blue Cross Blue Shield to maintain County employees' health care plan by allocating $433,000 in additional funds. The Board was confused about exactly why this extra funding was needed and where it would go. The Board delayed any action on this budget item until Administrative Assistant Carol Peters could meet with the Board and clarify this issue. Jordahl asked Peters what the effect would be on the County employee health care plan if less than the $433,000 recommended amount was allocated. Peters said Blue Cross recommended funds be set aside equaling 3 months in claims. Peters said there was approximately $600,000 in the pool as of December 31st, 1998. Peters said the pool had been shrinking, that it once had $1,000,000 in it several years ago. Jordahl said some were afraid of allowing the pool to shrink to the point where it was equal to 3 months worth of claims, because there had been a high rate of health insurance claims recently. Thompson asked if the County's claims were higher than its premiums, which Stutsman said was true. Peters said claims also included administrative fees associated with the health care plan. Jordahl objected to department's paying for required physicals for the Sheriff's and Ambulance Department and hearing tests for Secondary Roads from the claims pool, that they should budget those as a departmental expense. Deputy County Auditor Chris Edwards pointed out that an average of $141,309 is the total monthly billing going into the health care fund. Peter explained that the $141,309 figure included all the billings going into the fund such as Chatham Oaks' contracts, Emergency Management, and the City and County Assessors. Jordahl asked about the administrative fees being subtracted from the claims pool, and Peters said those are always paid and that they had been increasing.

Duffy left at 4:22 p.m.

Jordahl asked Peters what amount was needed to be allocated by the Board to support administrative fees and to stabilize the shrinking pool. Peters recommended funding the $433,000 suggested by Blue Cross to stabilize the fund because there had been 3 years of large amounts of claims. Peters said the Board considered increasing the stop loss limit on the health care fund the previous year, but after looking at the number of claims over $35,000, it convinced the Board not to increase the stop loss, which was a decision Peters believed was a good one. Jordahl said he would support Carol's recommendations. Peters said she spoke with some COBRA people and they're supportive because they feel it's the best program there is. Thompson said there wouldn't be a lot of people dropping out to get their insurance elsewhere. Peters said the retirees portion of it went into affect in 1994.

Jordahl asked if there were anything they could all agree was wrong. Stutsman explained the Zoning person was not included in this yet. Thompson said she was supportive of the new County Attorney but more attorneys means less space. Jordahl stated he could be persuaded to add the County Attorney and the Zoning person.

Thompson asked if the GIS program would made a difference for the map delineators that were allocated to the Auditor's Office. Jordahl explained the Auditor's Office is still trying to make a case for the ESRI grant. He said he wouldn't be opposed to the Auditor's Office doing that as long as they could do it without hiring additional staff. Stutsman said it was to get better people. Thompson stated they keep quitting because they can find better jobs. Jordahl said if they give the map delineator a permanent job, it might make it easier for Tom to do the GIS preparatory work. He said they will have to do something with mapping soon. Pillard stated that going from temporary to permanent doesn't mean they will work anymore hours. Jordahl agreed but said you'd be more apt to keep the same people. He stated it was a minor step in increasing professionalism in mapping once GIS did come in. Thompson said mapping was something that needed to be perfect. Stutsman said there were no changes with the Auditor's Office.

Thompson stated they talked about Health yesterday. Pillard said she spoke with Disease Prevention Manager Kot Flora and got some clarification. She explained Dameron had said that the part time clerk would help with the additional food inspections and she asked Flora if they would be back in a year asking for more personnel. She said Flora couldn't guarantee anything. Stutsman said they needed to look at the Board of Health budget amendment because they have included staff people in their budget amendment. Pillard asked if the $15,000 would be better spent on inspections, rather than a clerical person. She said that line item for the $14,000 was incorrect and Dameron said they would try to itemize that out, but he wasn't sure which line items it would affect. Jordahl said Pillard was not supportive of the part time Clerk II. Jordahl asked for her recommendation. Pillard said if they were going to give them more money, they should put it into the Food Inspector. Jordahl asked if they should go with a whole Food Inspector instead of a half time one and forget the clerical person. Jordahl said there was also a question of contracting fees over and above the inspection fees with other counties. Stutsman said they could stop doing food inspections and make the State do them, but there was a public health issue. She said they wouldn't do it as well. Thompson said they wanted good restaurants in town. Jordahl said it was a quality of life issue. Stutsman asked if they were willing to put in the full amount if they thought this was really important. Thompson stated it was important but she wasn't convinced they would have to pay. Stutsman said she couldn't support what they were asking for. She said they couldn't hire someone for just 6 months. Jordahl suggested they take that out of the budget amendment. Stutsman stated there was some legitimacy in saying that a Clerk could help with the work load. Thompson said the specialist could dictate it and then a clerical could type it up for less money. Jordahl said they could live with paperwork and the Food Inspector was more important. Pillard stated Dameron would probably want the inspector more. Thompson suggested they drop the clerk completely and just grant the Food Inspector.

Pillard asked about the printing and forms request for the Health Department. Thompson said they could find that in the budget somewhere. She said there's not much difference in $695. Jordahl stated they should leave it in because they did recognize there'd be an increase there. Lehman asked about the clinic nurse. Jordahl said to cut that $3,650. Pillard asked if he would have budgeted for that with the State. Jordahl said it should be cut in half. Jordahl said contract amounts are offset by revenues and questioned why they were included. He said those are not increases in the tax asking. Pillard said they still needed to approve it on the expenditure side. She said they didn't know about a lot of the contract amounts in the first narrative. Jordahl asked about the tax increase. Pillard explained they weren't affecting the tax increase but it had to be plugged into the expenditure side. Jordahl asked if the numbers erased themselves in the process. Edwards said it still needed to go into the expenditure side. Thompson said it would still be a wash.

Jordahl said Lora Shramek was in dire need of an assistant in Human Resources. He said she was always here working. Stutsman stated they have 416 employees and it's a tremendous job for just one person. Pillard said one option for the Board was to budget half that amount for the assistant because in July they would have to address the space issue. Jordahl said they could work on the space issue before then. He stated he didn't want to lose Shramek. He said they could postpone hiring but leave the money in there to hire with. He asked what the $5,000 for miscellaneous things was for. Pillard said she couldn't get everything line itemized out. She said she couldn't remember off hand. Stutsman asked if Jordahl wanted it cut out. Thompson said they approved it before so it must have been a good idea. Pillard pointed out it was for things like magazines, bindings, photocopying, mailings, etc. Jordahl stated he didn't think Lora was wasting money but he just wanted to know what it was for. Stutsman asked if they should grant $2,500 for it. Jordahl suggested they leave it alone. Stutsman said they were already pretty generous with her budget and she would like to cut it to $2,500. Jordahl asked Pillard if Shramek would miss anything if they cut that funding. Pillard said she could live with it.

Stutsman said the Community Service Bill for Information Services was a given. Jordahl asked what the lump amount meant. Pillard explained she wanted to increase her staff travel time and staff development. She said ultimately that's not the amount she requested but the amount she could have for all of that combined. Stutsman said she didn't want to fund that. Jordahl said it was very important for them to stay current and staff development was needed. He said if they want to hire and keep qualified people they need to allow them to enhance their professional viability.

Thompson said she didn't think they had much choice in the Sheriff's budget. She said if they go to home detention, they will have to supervise those people and they'll need more staff. Pillard stated she thought they would contract that out. Thompson said no. Jordahl asked if they had given the Sheriff enough. Stutsman said yes. Thompson said probably not.

Thompson clarified that they wanted to support the taxi contract for SEATS and the new position for the Treasurer. Pillard said Kriz would rather have a deputy on the Motor Vehicles side. She said they could make him deal with what he has now and make him bring in a plan. She said they were going to 40 hours without increasing staffing hours. Stutsman asked if they should zero out that deputy. Pillard stated it would be an option. Stutsman said they are asking Zoning to do that. She said Kriz had only been in office 4 months and needed more time to get grounded. Pillard told Kriz to update the Board after 6 months. Stutsman supported not granting the Deputy Treasurer. Jordahl asked if she would support one. Pillard said it would cost $5,000 for him to have the other deputy. Thompson asked if he would replace the Clerk III. Pillard said she didn't think so. She asked if one deputy position was open currently. Stutsman said no, that he wanted to create a new one. Jordahl said he asked for an Assistant Deputy. He said they hadn't gotten approval from County Attorney Pat White so they were going to do something intermediate. Pillard said it would cost a little over $9,000 for the reclassification. Jordahl said they should talk with Kriz again.

Jordahl said they had requests to add a Sheriff's Deputy and a Deputy of Security. He stated they had discussed not telling the Sheriff how to disperse his personnel but they didn't grant the staff to fill these positions. Stutsman said they gave him a full time Deputy. Jordahl said he was talking about 2. Stutsman stated he asked for 4. Jordahl suggested they give him 2, one for his office and one for the Courthouse. Stutsman said they couldn't afford that. She said she wanted the request to come from the Sheriff, not the County Attorney. Thompson said he didn't include that in his budget request because he thought other things were more important. Stutsman said they are putting in cameras at the Courthouse. Thompson said people are just worried about someone entering a Courthouse with a gun. She said the Deputy would check them for weapons when they came in. Stutsman stated she'd like to be able to grant the Sheriff 4 new deputies but they couldn't afford it. Jordahl suggested giving him 2 people. Thompson said he'd put them on the road, not in the Courthouse. Jordahl argued that if they were needed on the road, why weren't they giving them to him. Thompson said she'd rather have more people on the road, than a new HR Assistant. Jordahl said it was also a question of what County Government was. He said it's Ambulance, Sheriff, Treasurer, etc. Thompson said the Sheriff was very conservative about his staff. Stutsman said they could take $43,000 out of capital projects. Jordahl agreed. Stutsman asked what that was. Jordahl explained it was general building stuff. Stutsman said that would leave capital projects at $500,000. Pillard said they could give Conservation the Fiscal Year 2000 base and not the $30,000 for the COLA. Thompson asked if they could examine the budgets that consistently have the high carryover balances. Stutsman said Secondary Roads was an exception because they almost had to put 2 budgets together. Pillard explained a lot of the Human Services money was grants. Thompson asked what difference it would make for Human Services if they weren't going to spend the money anyway.

Adjourned at 5:00 p.m.

Attest: Tom Slockett, Auditor

By Casie Parkins, Recording Secretary