Reconvened on February 18, 1999 at 10:05 a.m.

Jordahl: Reports and inquiries from the County Attorney.

Assistant County Attorney Janet Lyness: Nothing.

Jordahl: Reports and inquiries from the public.

Lehman: Did Bob want to follow up on that?

Welsh: I was pleased to say in the newspaper article today that you narrowed the field of the CPC to 6 persons. You probably might be commenting on that later. I was impressed that a little caption appeared in the paper concerning those persons.

Jordahl: We had some very qualified people apply so it will be interesting to see what they're like in person.

Welsh: I have talked with Mike, Tom Slockett, Tom Kriz and Kim Painter about the meeting with the applicants and have a rough draft to go over with you to discuss questions and ask questions about how you want to proceed. We can do that after the meeting.

Jordahl: You might like to just very briefly inform people watching this on TV or others who may be present what your referring to.

Welsh: The Board of Supervisors at their meeting on Tuesday determined that it would be well to invite 11 applicants who were not selected to serve on the Board of Supervisors to attend their meeting on March 4 which is a televised meeting from 11:00 until noon where they will be able to share with the Supervisors their ideas and suggestions and it would be an opportunity for dialogue as well as citizen input. It's a way of recognizing those persons and expressing thanks to them for applying for the position. At the same time taking advantage of the many ideas that were generated in that process.

Jordahl: Yes discussing some new ideas with some energized people committed obviously to County government. I think this could be a wonderful thing. I thank you for bringing that idea forward. Are there other inquiries or reports from the public? Well that leaves members of the Board of Supervisors to inquire and report. Who wants to start? Carol you're smiling very well.

Thompson: Well we had a nice reception last night at the Conservation Department. We got to see the new educational building which is beautiful and had a nice dinner. Learned a little bit more about the Conservation Department.

Jordahl: Anything else?

Thompson: You want to talk about the league meeting?

Jordahl: Yes I'll try.

Thompson: OK. We'll share.

Jordahl: Charlie?

Duffy: Well I was going to say about the same thing. It was kind of nice to be invited out to the new environmental building that's been in the works for several years. One of the things I really like about it, there's a path you can walk around the park that starts with that segment at the environmental building. The space, you know we've been talking about space needs here for the last couple of years. This meeting room, I think there's... I roughly counted the chairs, it was over 180 people could be in this meeting room. I think it's really going to be an asset to the whole county. Especially school children. There will be several different groups I'm sure will take advantage of meeting out there. Another thing they had was parking. Did you notice that?

Jordahl: Yes. Lots of parking.

Thompson: Plenty of parking.

Duffy: Lots of parking. They're kind of looking ahead. They were looking ahead when they, I think, built that building. I went out there several times and watched them put in the forms and that. But it was really kind of a break for the Supervisors to be invited to something like that.

Lehman: I guess I would echo those sentiments. It's a very impressive facility. I think the Director and his staff and the Board are very conscious in presenting a nice image to the public at Kent Park as well as the other County parks through Johnson County. As people become more aware of what they have to offer I hope they take advantage of it and use it. But a very conscientious group involved in that and we appreciate their efforts.

Duffy: One more thing that this building, most of it, was funded by funds other than the Johnson County taxpayers. There's grants that they got. I think REAP was one of them.

Jordahl: It was mostly an accumulation of REAP dollars over time wasn't it? Which REAP, the State program, Resource Enhancement and Protection, something like that. That kind of provides additional funding to the County on the basis of our commitment to Conservation as expressed in our taxation for that program. They've been saving that money up I understand for the purpose of the Conservation Education Center. So now that's built. A little bit of landscaping left to be done but the parking lots, the building, available for the public for those purposes. Sally?

Stutsman: I regret I wasn't out at the Conservation Board. You always can't pick the days when your going to be under the weather and yesterday was one of them. I thought about you at 5:30 as you were eating your chicken dinner. Because I had the stomach flu I was glad I wasn't there. So anyway I'll have to make it a point to get out there. I have not been out there since it's been all completed so I'm anxious to look forward to seeing it.

Jordahl: For public information in order to get out there, what you do is keep turning right in the park. Every time you have a chance to turn right on the main seal coat roads that got in there just stay to the right. But don't turn off in any of the camp sites or boat docks or whatever. So kind of at the end of the road, the newest thing, farthest out on the northeast corner of the park. They've got some landscaping done out there. They're going to try and have 3 ecological zones reflecting the basic land types in the state of wetland, prairie and woodland within a very short distance of one another so that you can tour around on trail and see how these, Rod called them plant communities, are. Which will involve burning prairie which again should be an entertainment. That's something that also the Secondary Roads Department is involved in. That's sort of a point of contact here in terms of wildflowers and grasses. The Secondary Roads department is in the process of searching for a new Roadside Vegetation Manager and I think there will be some cooperation and communication between those 2 departments on those 2 issues.

Jordahl: I've had a pretty busy week. I went to the Senior Center Commission meeting on Tuesday and was present for 2 items of discussion there that are of interest to the Board. One was the issue of the 28E agreement that was put in place in 1981 between the County and the City regarding the Senior Center. Particularly the role of the Senior Dining program in the Senior Center as it relates to the current issue, not only of additional space requirements of the Senior Dining program but also what's going to happen with the construction of the new parking ramp to the north of the Senior Center. There will be some space available in there for programming and the question is will we have an opportunity to have some of the additional space we need for Senior Dining as that goes forward. The upshot of that appears to be both from that meeting and from a meeting that Carol and I had with the mayor of Iowa City and the City Manager last week, that we would like to get a committee together of a couple of representatives of the Board a couple of representatives of the Senior Center Commission and a couple of representatives from Iowa City to discuss these issues in greater detail looking at the 28E agreement and maybe some possible revisions of it. I'd like to have that on the agenda for Tuesday to discussion how we're going to structure that committee. The CPC selection process, Central Point of Coordination, or basically the director of the Mental Health/Developmental Disabilities department of the County is underway. The Board has gone through a raft of 48 resumes that we had and associated letters of support and made a selection down to 6 highly qualified applicants whom we will be inviting in for interviews. Carol.

Stutsman: Next Wednesday.

Peters: The 24th. February 24th.

Jordahl: Right, the 24th and the 26th of this month. So a week from yesterday. And a week from tomorrow, for first interviews and then we will cull that down to a smaller group. We may invite them back for second interviews on the 3rd of March when we will also involve representatives of the Mental Health/Developmental Disabilities/Mental Retardation/Brain Injury Planning Council, consumer representatives and representatives also perhaps of some of the service providers of the area.

Stutsman: And staff from the MH/MR/DD will be a part of that.

Jordahl: Staff will be a part of that as well so we're going to have input from various constituencies interested in who is going to be selected as CPC. Sally did you have additional comment on that?

Stutsman: Well they also were asked to submit questions too that they will be asking the interviewees.

Jordahl: So we're excited about that. It's a very important area. I know that the community is interested in sustaining services of this kind and it's very important that we can get someone who can both try and keep the lid on costs and at the same time develop and sustain services that will meet the needs of the community. Conservation Board, I was wonderful opportunity to meet with those people and see that building. I want to encourage folks to get out and take a look at it. I left that meeting a little bit early to go to the League of Women Voters at the Coralville Public Library where they were kind of discussing their take on County Government and the process that they want to continue to pursue to keep tabs on us and make suggestions for the future. They recounted a number of instances of individual contacts. You might characterize as war stories of their involvement with County Government over the past 3 or 4 years in studying and meeting with officials and so forth. A lot of it was pretty humorous. But the more serious matter of it is their interest in pursuing the question of a charter commission to study the various possibilities of different forms of County Government. We had a suggestion made a year or so ago, in fact the Board even empanelled a committee to study the possible consolidation of the Recorder's Office with either the Treasurer's or Auditor's Office and that's something that had been on the League's agenda as well. And sort of a larger question out there of various alternatives that exist both within the Iowa code that we could simply select or empanel a full blown charter commission which would have, as I understand it, practically carte blanch to create whatever form of government they saw fit. A charter commission would be composed of appointees, each member of the Board of Supervisors would be able to select 2, each of the other elected officials in the County could select 2 people to serve on the commission, and then I think the elected representatives from the County to State Government also would be able to select one or 2. Anyway a total of 26 people would serve on a charter commission and they would have about 20 months to study possible alternative forms. And one of the things that was discussed as one of those possible forms was the idea of metropolitan consolidation. So there would be simply one government for the entire County that would conceivably encompass all of the cities in one body. And as we look at rural planning, it's kind of an appealing idea, we're talking in our fringe area agreements about having road planning done in coordination between the Johnson County Council of Governments, the County, the City, and the fringe area. Not to promote the idea of metropolitan government exactly but to just point to an example of the type of coordination that it could achieve. The question of transportation in the rural area, the SEATS system, the bus systems, road planning, all of those things would automatically be done on a county wide basis. So there's a... You could see why there's interest in this kind of an idea but I'm not sure that the Board wants to sit here and take a position on the issue this morning, I'm just saying this is what was discussed last night.

Duffy: Jonathan I think we ought to have several meetings before we get into this because I think it's political.

Lyness: This is just a report right now on what the League was discussing and we should keep it at that.

Jordahl: Uh-huh. Yes, perhaps when I start giving examples of my thoughts I'm delving into what I think, but oh well. I'm not ashamed of thinking up here. Let's see, what else have we got? Public hearing on the budget coming up. That should be on.

Stutsman: March 4th was it?

Peters: Second.

Stutsman: Second.

Jordahl: There we go. March 2nd, 5:30. That's a week from this coming Tuesday, here in the Board room. People are interested in the budget, they can get additional information from the Auditor's Office I trust. I don't know if that's available yet in the form that it will be by the 5th but I think it will be somewhat in advance of the 5th, or the 2nd rather. And, is it tonight? Lot's of busy nights. Tonight at 7:00 I'm going to an event at the public library on utility deregulation. That's something that's going to have possibly an economic impact statewide and is something that we ought to try to be abreast of. We have made a contract with Mid-American to stabilize, and in fact lower, our utility rates over the next, is it 5 years?

Lehman: I think so.

Stutsman: I think so yes.

Jordahl: So in terms of the County, we kind of know where we're going to be at for 5 years but the deregulation may occur and it stands to have some impact on the rest of the state so I want to be up to date on that. And then on the 24th of the month, a week from yesterday, Wednesday evening in Coralville at 7:00 in the City Council chambers there's a forum on Local Option Sales Tax where the mayors of all the towns and cities in Johnson County will be gathered as well as myself representing the Board to answer the questions, although not to advocate positions, regarding the Local Option Sales Tax. So if people have questions about that, we'll try to get clarified some of the perhaps misperceptions that there are about what the tax implies and clarify what impact it does imply. That'll do me.

Lehman: Might want to add, I had a county resident come in and praise our secondary roads for his gravel road being in such good condition. On the flip side he says it's in such nice condition he kind of worried about speeding. I'd like to pass that on, that he's very happy with the condition of the roads at this time of year and the jobs been done throughout the winter on it.

Jordahl: Uh-huh.

Stutsman: Right.

Lehman: I jokingly offered to, maybe we ought to record him, he took me seriously. I told him that I appreciate the input.

Jordahl: Maybe he'd like to be on the agenda at a formal meeting sometime.

Lehman: I think we like to hear more of the positive stuff once in a while too, but we need the negative input to call our attention to some of the problems too. And that's what we're here to help solve and hopefully not create more. It was nice to hear that from him.

Jordahl: Good, I'm continually pleased by our secondary roads. You go out there on any gravel anywhere and I have not been surprised by running into some deep hole or something, break my axle, you can go on those roads.

Lehman: Cross the county line and you can tell when you leave Johnson County.

Stutsman: That's what everybody says immediately when you're in Johnson County.

Lehman: And a lot of it is, the (inaudible) of the operators of the individual equipment do a very nice job. They're instructed well. A lot of good skills and talents.

Jordahl: And they constantly are updating things too. They have a new type of a thing for smoothing out the roads, it's got little teeth so it doesn't wear out the blade as much.

Lehman: Scarefires.

Jordahl: Replace individual teeth instead of replacing a whole blade so it's a good deal.

Stutsman: I had a couple of things. I had a call about the County Rural Clean-up Day. I don't know if we've set a date for that. If we could maybe have that on for next Tuesday. OK. And then also this public hearing for this Northgate Corporate Park Urban Renewal Plan. Does somebody from the Board planning to go to that public hearing on Monday February 22nd, 10:00. I don't know if that had been decided. Maybe we can decide who was going to go to that.

Lehman: What's the date on that again?

Stutsman: Monday.

Jordahl: 10:00 a.m. Monday.

Stutsman: I think probably...

Jordahl: I could do that.

Stutsman: Yes, I think it's appropriate for the Board chair to go.

Jordahl: And where's the hearing?

Stutsman: I'll just give you this.

Jordahl: OK, thank-you.

Stutsman: It's talking about the tax increment financing district for that and I think they just ask us to go or anybody that's interested in it to give input or just... I've gone to one of those hearings before when I was chair and it gives a good update about what their plans are and if we have any concerns about it. It's an opportunity to share our concerns.

Jordahl: OK. In the City Manager's conference room. OK, thanks for bringing that up Sally.

Thompson: We've all received a copy of the document from our strategic planning. Did we want to discuss that today or wait until Tuesday and put it on the agenda?

Stutsman: I think we need to put it, is it on Tuesday Carol? Yes, on the agenda for Tuesday.

Jordahl: Good.

Peters: It is a work session.

Jordahl: OK. Is the question of future strategic planning on other County departments part of that work session? Good.

Stutsman: How do we want to proceed with ...

Jordahl: Yes, other departments and as it relates to budget development. Charlie?

Duffy: We talked about this before but Iowa City Chamber of Commerce back to the future of business (inaudible). And I'll be riding February 26th, 4:30, 7:30 p.m. at Carver Hawkeye Arena. Business fairs presented by the Iowa City Chamber of Commerce and the University of Iowa Small Business Development Center. And this is really a real fine thing to go to if you (inaudible) Chamber of Commerce, there's a $4 contribution, it's not $6 a contribution. This would be on Friday but I think it's open on Saturday too and I think that elected officials are going to have a booth over there. We got it kind of late. This is really great, and the people that haven't been there before really should take advantage of this too. It's one of the good things we've got going for us in this county.

Stutsman: Yes.

Jordahl: Thank-you. Do we sign up for times for that Charlie?

Duffy: Yes, we will.

Stutsman: Yes.

Jordahl: Who is coordinating that, me? I hope not.

Stutsman: No, no Karen.

Duffy: We got a memo from them.

Jordahl: OK. All right.

Duffy: It ought to be something like that, a couple of hours in the booth. And our people that represent us in Des Moines will be there. Representatives, senators will be there and other City Councils. It's really something else. And if you go away hungry it will be your own fault.

Jordahl: OK. You're good at keeping track of where those places for food are Charlie. I appreciate that, I should look at your calendar, keep well fed.

Duffy: It's $4 to get in, we can add on another $2.59. But anyway it's a great thing.

Jordahl: OK. Well we've had a lot of reports. Should we go around again? All right. Enough of that. Other? We're adjourned.

Adjourned at 10:27 a.m.

Attest: Tom Slockett, Auditor

By Casie Parkins, Recording Secretary