Chairperson White called the Johnson County Elected Officials Meeting to order in the Johnson County Administration Building at 1:35 p.m.

Elected officials present were: County Attorney J. Patrick White; County Auditor Tom Slockett; County Recorder Kim Painter; County Sheriff Bob Carpenter; County Supervisors Charles Duffy, Jonathan Jordahl, Mike Lehman, Sally Stutsman, and Carol Thompson; and County Treasurer Tom Kriz. Staff present were: Board of Supervisors Administrative Assistant Carol Peters, and Auditor’s Office Recording Secretary Casie Parkins.

There were no changes made to the Elected Officials Minutes of September 14, 1999.

Stutsman said she signed the County up for County-A-Day on February 23, 2000. She explained that this is a program the Iowa State Association of Counties (ISAC) puts on. She said the Johnson County Officials who wished to attend would meet at the ISAC office, where they would then be driven to the Capitol to visit with the legislators about issues of concern.

Thompson said the Board recently put on the table everything they’ve discussed in the budget and by the first week in January they should know how much they’re likely to have in revenues. Stutsman said there are a lot of requests on the table.

White asked if the Board had made any starting assumptions regarding space needs or the Jail. The elected officials discussed the overcrowding in the Johnson County Jail, the high costs of housing prisoners in other locations, and the possibility of a State order reducing the number of prisoners kept in the Jail. White and Carpenter talked about in-home detention. They also talked about the impact of having more law enforcement officers on the street and having more prisoners sentenced to serve in county jails.

County Auditor Tom Slockett arrived at 1:45 p.m.

White said they are at the point of making fundamental decisions regarding the space needs at the Administration Building and Department of Human Services, and continued that they need to make these decisions soon or they will lose a construction season. Thompson said the Space Needs Committee agreed the Jail would be the first priority. She said they also looked at a plan that would allow the County to meet its needs in 5 years if they saved 1.5 million a year and leveraged money against their own funds. Jordahl said they need a number on the table that will include the Jail. The elected officials discussed a bond issue for a new jail. Jordahl and Duffy discussed their opinions on funding space needs. The elected officials discussed how they think the community will view a bond issue, and how they will educate them. Many of the elected officials agreed that building a new jail does need to go before the voters. The elected officials discussed what other counties in Iowa are doing about their jail problems. They discussed the difficulty they would have funding a new jail, meeting all the other space needs, and meeting all the other various needs of the County. The elected officials discussed the fact that there might be an Iowa City Public Library bond issue also, and the consequences of that on a jail bond issue. There was further discussion about educating the public regarding the need to pass a jail bond issue. On the issue of possible higher operational costs for a larger jail, Carpenter send the new designs for jails reduce the costs per prisoner. Carpenter underscored the great distances that prisoners would have to be transported, if a new jail is not built, and the high costs for the out-of-county, probably out-of-state, housing of prisoners. White asked the elected officials if they had any interest in looking at available space at Sycamore Mall as a place for County space.

Stutsman left at 2:28 p.m.; Painter left at 2:46 p.m. and returned at 2:50 p.m.; Carpenter left at 2:51 p.m.

Duffy said the proposed building codes are a big issue for the county right now, and it’s a topic of great public discussion.

Kriz stated that the Treasurer’s Office is now the largest county’s treasurer in the state taking MasterCard and Visa, at no cost to the County.

Slockett said the Compensation Board recommended a 5% raise and he had hoped for more because the Auditor’s Office, Recorder’s Office and Treasurer’s Office weren’t included in the salary survey where the average increase was 7%. He said, because his deputies’ salaries aren’t keeping up with other offices, people are discouraged and there is high turnover. Jordahl and Slockett mentioned that the Compensation Board does want more data next year. White mentioned that if you added up the percentages that the Board of Supervisors have shaved off of the Compensation Board recommendation, there would have been a significant increase.

White said that the Treasurer received a successful ruling in an arbitration that was over a vacation grievance. White said it was ruled that a manager can make judgements about limiting the number of people on vacation at any one time.

Jordahl said they are in the process of working on the Heritage/Senior Dining Contract.

The Elected Officials scheduled their next meeting for February 22, 2000 at 1:30 p.m.

Adjourned at 3:15 p.m.

Attest: Tom Slockett, Auditor

By: Casie Parkins, Recording Secretary

Sent to the Board of Supervisors on April 7, 1999 at 5:00 p.m.

(to meeting transcript)