MINUTES OF THE COMMITTEE OF COUNTY OFFICERS DESIGNATED TO FILL A VACANCY ON THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS:
OCTOBER 22, 2009
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
Interview of Candidate for the Vacant Supervisor Position: Maison Bleam.............................. 1
Interview of Candidate for the Vacant Supervisor Position: Mike O'Donnell.......................... 15
Discussion: Agenda(s) for Next Meeting(s).......................................................................... 22
Interview of Candidate for the Vacant Supervisor Position: Kenya Badgett........................... 25
Discussion/Action: Agenda(s) for Next Meeting(s)............................................................... 32
The Committee to fill a vacancy on the Board of Supervisors was called to order in the Health and Human Services Building, Room 202A at 9:00 a.m. Members present were: County Treasurer Tom Kriz, County Recorder Kim Painter, and County Auditor Tom Slockett.
Slockett: We’ll get right down to business. We’re here to interview Maison to fill the vacancy on the Board of Supervisors. Basically we’d like to have two minutes for you to, you have an excellent application and resume, so two minutes to just go over that, or tell us a little bit about yourself, and there’ll be an approximately two minute closing period Then we have eighteen, nineteen questions we want to ask you that have been posted on the web, so you should be familiar with those, and one or more of us may have a follow-up question or an additional question that comes up during the course of the interview.
Maison Bleam: Okay.
Slockett: Do you want to go ahead and, anyone else have anything?
Painter: That’s fine.
Slockett: Do you want to go ahead and start?
Bleam: Yes. Well, good morning. It’s not the greatest day out today. It works. My name is Maison Bleam and I want to thank the appointment committee for giving me this opportunity this morning. I’m humbled to be considered to fill the vacancy on the Board of Supervisors and serving the residents of Johnson County. I just wanted to thank you guys all for being here today and showing your commitment to service. I’m originally from rural Calhoun County, Iowa, and I’ve lived in Johnson County for the past four and a half years. My mother is an elementary school teacher and my father is a farmer.
Slockett: Rural what county did you say Maison?
Painter: Calhoun.
Bleam: Calhoun County.
Slockett: Calhoun.
Bleam: I actually found out the other day that neighboring Webster County is where Supervisor Stutsman is from. Great conversation about that. I’m currently a senior at the University of Iowa. I’m studying a B.A. in Political Science, a B.A. in Public Policy and Ethics with a minor in Business Administration, and I’ll graduate this December. The past summer I studied abroad in London, England, which was a great experience, and received a certificate of studies from the London School of Economics and Political Science. I also had a great experience with an internship placement in the British Parliament. In my leisure time I enjoy a good, competitive game of Monopoly with my friends. I have a love of waterskiing and snowmobiling. I also enjoy the outdoors, whether it be golf or I also enjoy pheasant hunting as well. In my spare time I am also an instructor for after school youth programs through the Johnson County Extension Office. I just recently began doing that, and these programs, which a few of them receive financial support through Johnson County government, provide after school programs aimed at curbing the loss of core educational skills, specifically targeting the math and sciences area. Programs like those have always been a great passion of mine, and I enjoy giving back to the community. I’ve been provided with a great education and up-bringing, and I just want to ensure that everybody has access to the sorts of benefits that I had growing up. Public service has always been a passion of mine as well, and with graduation approaching in December, I have sought out this opportunity to continue giving back to the community. I might be the youngest candidate to have applied for this position, but don’t let my age overshadow my commitment to public service. I have a passion for engagement in local governance, as shown hopefully by my resume, and I want to let the committee know that I have a vested interest in the future of Johnson County, because the decisions that are made today will affect my generation in the future, and for even generations well into the future beyond mine, so I have a vested interest that way. That’ll conclude my statement.
Slockett: Okay.
Painter: Thanks, Maison.
Slockett: The first question we have for you is: What makes you the most qualified person for this job?
Bleam: I would have to say that there are a lot of qualified candidates. It’s a very good mix for the field and I’m up against some pretty good competition. I would say what sets me apart from the rest of the candidates though is a passion, energy, and drive to best represent those who would be my constituency. When I’m charged with responsibility, I really do take that responsibility seriously. I have no preconceived, kind of cast in iron, opinions on a lot of the issues facing Johnson County, but I have an awareness and an understanding of the issues that are facing the County. I make that distinction because you need to have an open mind, you need to be able to listen to all sides of an issue, you need to be able to do your homework, you need to be able to do research into issues, you need to go out to the general public and ask what they would like to see done, especially in cases of large-scale construction projects or improvements to various public services. In some of my former roles and past roles in the community and on campus at the University, I’ve tried to do that to the best of my ability as well. I’m no stranger to tough decisions, and I’ve taken a beating for some of those decisions in the media, and that’s fine. I’ve also had to answer questions to groups of my peers, and I’ve been held accountable for those, but lots of times I stand beside those decisions because I think I’ve done a thorough vetting of what the issues are, and what the options are, and then come to a sound conclusion in the end. I also want to take a stake and an ownership in the decisions that are made going forward. Like I said that will affect my generation in the future, and I really think that I can add diversity to the Board of Supervisors being a young adult. I may be coming to the table with new ideas and a different perspective, then maybe a different approach.
Slockett: What would you hope to accomplish as an individual on the Board? As an individual and as a Board, pardon me.
Bleam: As an individual and as a Board in general, I think you need to be cohesive. I think you need to all work together to solve the issues that are facing the county in general, and in local governance. To me, communication is key however, and not just talking the talk or holding a forum to hear the sound of your own voice, but actually reaching out to the general public, saying what are your priorities, what are you looking for out of county governance, and addressing those issues effectively. And when decisions are made providing rationale in a clear, consistent manner, so you’re still going to have individuals that will disagree with you, but at least they may understand a little bit better what sort of aspect you’re taking to make the policy decisions. I’d also want to specifically motivate the young adult population to take more of a stake in local governance, and not just in the short term but in the long term. We have a very large young adult population with the University being in our community, and really encouraging the students to take a look at staying in the State of Iowa, staying in Johnson County specifically, maybe opening up small businesses, starting a family or just staying here in general. Retention is a big thing, and I’d want to reach out to the younger generation to see if they’re interested in taking a stake in some of those decisions affecting the county, and to contact their representatives, to feel that the door’s always open, to feel that they can pick up the phone and to call somebody.
Slockett: Okay. Number three, how do you view the County’s responsibilities with regard to human and civil rights. How will this influence you as you take on the role of Johnson County Supervisor?
Bleam: To me the County needs to lead by example in treating people fairly. I think that we can not only lead by example, but I think it says a lot about the character of the County in making decisions to be able to say here’s where we’re leading the way on different initiatives, here’s where we’re leading the way in human and civil rights issues. It may be challenging, since the County does provide many services and have many functions, but I think it’s a challenge that we can all rise to the occasion. I plan to lead specifically by example. I’ve always encouraged and surrounded myself with individuals in positions where we have competing ideology, or just different perspectives on things because I think it’s great to have a broad array, a diversity of people with different backgrounds to come to the table to talk about different issues, so one thing that I would really like to see is the encouragement of under-represented groups, whether that be young adults, whether that be historically under-represented minority groups, whether that be gender balance and that sort of thing, and encourage them to get involved in the governance of their community, whether that be applying for boards and commissions, whether that be applying for or running for the Board of Supervisors, for just job opportunities in County government. And I think that the larger, the more broad the range of people with different backgrounds, education, with different perspectives, different experiences in their life can only enrich county government.
Painter: Do we want to alternate any reading of questions in any way? I’m sorry to interject, but…
Slockett: Sure, do you want to take the next group?
Painter: Sure, take them by sections?
Slockett: I had a follow-up on this one.
Painter: I’m sorry Tom, go right ahead.
Slockett: That’s all right. We’re right now in a historic debate about health care, and it’s a situation where 45,000 people a year die because they don’t have health care, according to Harvard University researchers. That’s one per minute, so it’s a serious problem, and Senator Kennedy felt that health care should be a right and not a privilege for people. Current health care reform is widely criticized for various reasons, and is controversial, and there are three aspects of it I’d like to have your comment on that I think are key, and that’s the universality of health coverage. What do you think about the fact that so many people aren’t covered, 45-50 million people in the United States? The lack of comprehensive coverage and that people don’t have coverage for everything, that meets all of their needs. And finally, access for all and affordability of coverage. Do you have any thoughts on this historic debate?
Bleam: Yes. I think that health care is a right, and I think it’s a right in the sense that everyone should have equal access to affordable quality health care. How we go about getting to that point is quite interesting, and that’s what I’ve been watching the federal government trying to do, and it looks like there’s no silver bullet to the issue, but I think any step forward in reforming the current system is a step forward in the right direction. I think it’s atrocious that we’re one of the most wealthiest countries on earth, and that significant number of our population, whether or not they choose to not have health coverage, doesn’t have health coverage, and it relates back to sort of my stance on more of an economic issue and that is, I mean, people have to be healthy and that’s how you have a productive and effective work force, to be able to do jobs to create commerce and to have growth, and people have to be healthy in order to do that. I don’t know if I answered all of your questions, but…
Slockett: Yes, that’s great, thank you very much.
Painter: Okay, several questions pertaining to County Government. First of all, what are County Government’s strengths and weaknesses, and second, how would you enhance the strengths and address the weaknesses?
Bleam: The largest strength that I currently see from County Government, I actually utilized the resource when preparing for this meeting here today was, your guys’ technology is amazing. The amount of transparency that you guys have, posting documents online. We commented in our class the other day, actually our teacher did, our professor, about how many facts were posted on the Auditor’s web site, and I’m not just saying this because the Auditor is in the room right now, but it just has a wealth of information, he said it was a political scientist’s dream to see all statistics and stuff like that that were compiled all in one place, and I think that aspect of it’s great. I think televising meetings within Johnson County whether it be local government, the Board of Supervisors, or even some of the school boards, is just another opportunity for access for individuals to watch that, and to really utilize the internet and the media network and things. A weakness that I see in County government is, and it’s a weakness really that all representative and governing bodies face is, how to effectively communicate that this information is provided to the public, how to get across to your constituents your rationale for policy-making decisions, and sometimes it’s just impossible to do, because the information is there and people aren’t seeking it out. You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t force it to drink. It’s sort of one of those dilemmas, where how do you effectively communicate that that information is there and available for them to see. Was the…?
Painter: The second part was how would you enhance the strengths and how would you address the weaknesses?
Bleam: Okay, yes. How I would enhance the strengths, is sort of the approach that I’ve taken in being on various boards and in leadership positions is, people like it when you seek them out, when you go and you speak with them. Lots of times they’re frustrated over issues that can be easily resolved and it just takes a little bit of effort on your part to go to their meeting and just have a frank conversation with them. We had to do this in student government a couple times when a couple organizations got their funding cut, specifically homecoming. We ended up during my tenure as Chairman of the Budget Committee, we zero funded at the University of Iowa’s homecoming, and that’s what was reported in the Daily Iowan. Well in reality they had a cash reserve of over a hundred thousand dollars, and we were trying to encourage them to pay a little bit more and to offset their costs instead of passing it on the students on this cash reserve fund, which they had collected over the years through selling buttons and T-shirts, which the student government had directly subsidized. So we were trying to encourage them, because they had purchased these things and made a profit off them by using public funds, to kind of utilize that money because that’s what was told to the student government in the first place. Obviously when it’s reported in the Daily Iowan that you have zero-funded such a large organization, the backlash is quite wild and we had a lot of questions our way. So I just went directly to them and said here’s our reasoning behind doing this, we’re not saying go and blow $100,000 this year, but if you came to us and said here’s our budget, here’s what our total cost of homecoming’s going to be, $80,000, and we’re actually going to use $20,000 from our cash reserve to help offset the cost, this is what we’re doing to try and free up some money to go to other student organizations. Once we had that conversation with them, they were a little bit more understanding.
Painter: Greater communication helps address the weaknesses.
Bleam: Yes.
Painter: Okay. What do you feel are the greatest challenges facing Johnson County, and how should the Board address them?
Bleam: Obviously, the shortfall in State revenue, the economic downturn, is going to be one of the greatest issues affecting the entire state of Iowa, whether you’re in City government, County government, even if you’re on school boards. That is going to be the first and foremost, I think moving forward. Luckily, Johnson County seems to be in a position where we’ve prepared for the worst. We live in a unique community, also. We have large commerce centers. We do, to an extent, have a growing population. So we’re sitting a lot better off than some of the other counties, some of the other governments in Iowa. So, I think that’s going to be the biggest issue to face going forward with the County to maintain the quality level of services that we provide when your revenue sources are kind of drying up. And, it’s becoming a lot more difficult to provide those same levels of services when the money is just not there.
Painter: Do you feel a new Johnson County Justice Center is needed?
Bleam: That is a great question. I personally do think one is needed. I just question whether or not right now is the right time to move forward on it. Not that I’m hesitant to move on it, I just, I’m going to be quite honest, I just don’t know enough about the entire project itself. I would have to study the issue a lot more than the 24 hours that I have looked at other issues. But it’s definitely something that’s been on the table for awhile. It’s definitely something that’s been thoroughly vetted, thoroughly discussed. It’s been about twelve years, has it, since last time it’s been placed to the voters.
Slockett: Nine.
Painter: Nine.
Slockett: Nine.
Bleam: I think it’s time to maybe move forward, look at moving forward, but at the same time I would have to put more research into it. But I do support the creation of it.
Slockett: I did have a follow up on that. The last time we voted on it, it lost two to one, at 66% countywide. In Iowa City it lost by 73%. That was a proposal for a 330 bed jail and that was one of the criticisms. That was based on the worldview that 5% of the world’s population is imprisoned and 25% of those are imprisoned in the United States, and just the notion that this society needs to look at our prison policies. Our local people have a big worldview. So, what would you think of the idea of limiting the size of the jail, say, to 180 beds, which is more than we have ever needed in jail, but it’s not a large expansion, it’s not a significant expansion, in light of the economic downturn. California, for example, is taking a lot of people out of its prison system.
Bleam: Yes.
Slockett: So maybe, given the economic situation, we could look at 180 beds. I just wanted to throw that number out and see what you thought of that type of adjusting of what has not worked in the past.
Bleam: The thing is, I’m not opposed to starting out small and strategically planning in the future for expansion. If we were to build a facility and it has 180 beds, and unfortunately we needed to expand that, I would hope going forward, looking in the long term, we would design a facility that could accommodate that expansion, especially during the economic downturn. That’s why I’m so hesitant to say, yes, I’m for this, when we’re already asking a lot of the taxpayer to put forth funding for a lot of different projects. One thing that’s always concerned me is that there’s a significant part of persons in prison who, I have to beg the question, are there better things that we could be doing, are there better programs for rehabilitation? Can we maybe instead of having this person sitting in jail, can they be doing community service projects? There’s a plethora of different options that we could explore to try to reduce the size of the individuals going into our prisons, as well.
Painter: How would you go about selecting from a pool of applicants to serve on various boards and commissions, of which the County has many?
Bleam: I have had many experiences with this. I keep referencing student government, because that’s what I just recently came off doing. Student government is charged with selecting individuals that will be a good representative face of the student body, all 30,000 students at the University of Iowa, and we really want to do a thorough vetting of each individual to make sure that they’re committed to the policy area that they are going to be commenting on, because they’re going to be working with faculty and staff in those types of situations. So, I would bring that aspect over to being on the Board of Supervisors. I want individuals who have, first and foremost, merit. I want to look at what their educational background is. I want to know what their references are. I’d like to pick up the phone and call some of their references and see what sort of individual this person is, who their past employers are, individuals that they’re working with in the community on different projects. Another thing that I like to look at is people from various backgrounds. I always think a great diversity of people can only enhance governance because you have all ideas, you have all experiences coming to the table. So individuals who are from the rural areas given consideration, people from the cities given consideration. I like to see that mix. I also like to see a good gender balance, as well. Especially, specifically, for certain boards and commissions, property owners, I mean, there are just so many things that you can look into. And I also like to encourage diversity of opinion from historically underrepresented minority groups, as well. I think that that is key and essential in moving forward on issues. That’s what I really look for. But basically, first and foremost, merit. I like to see a passion and a dedication to service, too. I like to see individuals who are really going to take the job seriously and represent their constituencies very well, and a little bit of fiscal discipline, too.
Painter: What is your long range vision for Johnson County and how would you utilize your experience in strategic planning to implement that vision?
Bleam: My long range vision for Johnson County is to keep expanding the growing population, to keep people coming to the community, to keep economic growth happening, to keep the innovation, to inspire that innovation for individuals to take a risk, to start a new business, to create new jobs, I just think that’s what’s great about the country, in general, the state in general, and Johnson County, in general, just to really make Johnson County an inviting place, but at the same time preserving our historical background, the scenic areas. You know, Johnson County is just a very pretty county, in general. And just, you know, planning accordingly with zoning issues with things like that to preserve things of the past, but not completely discourage development and future innovation from happening.
Painter: Do you have anything to say about your experience with strategic planning specifically and how that operates to giving an architecture for those things?
Bleam: Long term strategic planning, I think, is key in the grand scheme of things, especially on large scale projects. Lots of times, what will happen in elected positions, you have a rollover. I mean, you could have an entirely new Board of Supervisors the next election, but you want to have a comprehensive plan set forward so that, you know, if it takes five years to build a facility, there’s a plan going forward on how that’s going to work. Now, it might be altered, etc., but you don’t want to leave the incoming people, the future leaders, high and dry. My experience in it, I served on the internal operations committee at the United Way of Johnson County and we did a review of their long term strategic plan. They had just written one and we did a review of it and updated various policy areas. It was more in relation to how campaign drives were going forward in the community, because they had just written their long term strategic plan. I have experience doing that in a community setting, especially in the aspect of raising funds for a non-profit organization. But looking forward from my role as student body president, there were some things, too, that we had to do long term strategic planning on, as well. We did a review of the department of student services when Vice President Jones left, we gave our comment on what we would like to see out of the position. We recommended a collapse, actually a divide, not a collapse into a divide of the Dean of Students position from the Vice President of Student Services. So, I have some experience in long term strategic planning. I think it’s key, as well, looking forward into the future.
Painter: Are you going to take land use?
County Treasurer Tom Kriz: Okay. Land use and environment, I’ll take the next one here. What criteria, Maison, would you use in making land use decisions, and based on that, what basis would you make those decisions concerning road improvements, maintenance, construction, and roadside weed eradication?
Bleam: The criteria that I would use in moving forward is, I would keep in mind kind of an overarching kind of objective of what’s best long term for Johnson County. I’ve taken a look at the Land Use Plan that the County currently has. I took a look at some of the five year plans for road improvements and I also looked, I thought it was interesting in the question of roadside weed eradication and I looked into it and the integrated roadside vegetation management. I read through that very interesting document and to tell you the truth when going forward and making many of these decisions, I think first and foremost, I would consult with staff who have been here awhile, who have expertise in those fields and I would rely heavily on their recommendations, honestly. I think the approach to positions on boards, as not necessarily getting down into the nitty gritty, day to day micromanaging aspects of an organization, but more overarching policy and giving direction in that policy, and asking for recommendations from your staff, and I think that you need to have that faith and trust in your staff in coming forward with recommendations. With that said, going back to the Land Use Plan, going back to the IRVM, I would consult those documents and really see what those documents had to say and move forward off those. Of course, there’s always going to be extenuating circumstances, or unique circumstances, where maybe we steer clear of those policies, but I like to look towards governing documents, I like to have consistency in how you go forward making decisions.
Kriz: What do you think should be the County’s role in protecting the environment?
Bleam: I think the County needs to lead by example and I think that they did a very good job in specifically making this building LEED certified. I think that moving forward having all future projects that the County starts. Looking in the long term, not only does it protect the environment, but the cost savings are realized for the County in general. The amount of money, while it might be a lot of money up front, over a twenty year period, the savings may realized, if not even more. As for unincorporated land use issues, again, I think it’s critical to preserve our agricultural community. I think it’s critical to preserve the unique scenery. Johnson County has such beautiful green spaces, just to preserve those, to make sure that we have plans, urban sprawl is not encroaching on our agricultural community, that it’s not affecting the environment to a degree that’s going to be detrimental to the future. I really think that the County can lead by example by doing all the aforementioned.
Kriz: Describe your approach on balancing economic and business interests with interests in health and well being of citizens, and also environmental concerns.
Bleam: The approach that I take is that the health and well being of your citizens are going to come first and foremost. And I think that is kind of an overarching approach that I would take to it. That would be the first question I would ask on certain issues. Where it becomes interesting is balancing economic and business versus environmental concerns. You don’t want to hinder innovation, hinder economic growth because of environmental concerns, but you want to be conscious of the environment when making those decisions. Because you never know when the decision that you make, you know, in the next 15 years, could come back to haunt you. You want to very thoroughly look into those issues. It’s hard for me to, I’m planning a very broad sense of the approach that I would take, just because each situation is so unique to itself, it would just really depend on the issue that was before me.
Kriz: You talked a little bit about it before, but what is your opinion of the Johnson County Comprehensive Land Use Plan?
Bleam: Yes, it’s very good. It goes through land use policies. It goes for general policies and strategies. There were things contained in the document that I didn’t even think of. I think it’s very thorough. I would have to read it a lot more. I read through it very briefly, but I think the overall long term approach to land use policies is a very good one, especially preserving the agricultural and rural areas, especially being very conscious of the environment and to really encourage, I take the approach to economic development, it really should occur within the cities and municipalities. That’s where we should really encourage the growth. Should we have the opportunity to have that sort of development in the unincorporated part of the county, making sure we do it in an area where there is already established waste management services or utilities, so that it’s not a great cost and it’s not like the business coming in, but you know, through maybe incentives or grant programs, to help that business come in, is not a big cost to the taxpayer. And that would mean, you know, aware of the family farms and just the agricultural areas. I kind of take a home rule approach to that.
Slockett: We are now on the Taxes and Budget set of questions. What do you know about and what is your opinion regarding the impact and incidence of Johnson County taxes?
Bleam: My knowledge at the moment is fairly limited, but I do understand that a large portion of revenue comes from property taxes. I would want to see, I think from what I’ve read, and correct me if I’m wrong, I think we are currently at maximum tax capacity in some areas but maybe not in rural tax base. Looking into those issues, what I really want to be conscientious in moving forward is any new and additional taxes, just because of the economy right now, I know it becomes quite redundant to keep on saying that, but I mean I just there are a lot of individuals struggling paycheck to paycheck and I want to be very conscientious of that. I think also that looking for ways to diversify a funding exchange, if there is any way to do that, to have staff to look into that and I would have to look into it a little bit more, but if there is any opportunity to increase revenues without over burdening the taxpayers even more, which kind of is an oxymoron. But I mean to an extent if there is a way that we could feasibly do that, I would be open to the option.
Slockett: If we could figure that out that would be a big help. Fourteen: What if anything should be done about the nature of county tax options?
Bleam: Just to kind of go off that further, you know I think that all politics are local and that I would really encourage the State to allow more local control over the issue of raising revenue in the issuance of bonding and levies, things of the nature. So I like local control over issues like that. I think the State plays a role in that. I think we can be great partners, but I think that my approach is that I like local control.
Slockett: Are you in favor of implementing a local option sales tax, and if so, for what use?
Bleam: It really depends on what the issue would be going for. I want to be very conscious in how it would impact the residents of Johnson County going forward, if we were to implement a local option sales tax. I really think local option sales tax should be for a very narrowly defined specific purpose. I think a great example would be perhaps the jail and justice center, whether or not those two are joined or separate. That would be an interesting case where if we had enough public support going forward with a proposal like that, that I would be open to the suggestion. But again, I’m going to have a lot of restraint in doing that, because of the economic situation and how a regressive tax like that can affect lower income individuals. I want to be conscious of that. I also think that certain things like that, not only should they have a narrowly defined and specific purpose, but they should also have sunset provisions, where it's put up to a question of retention by the voters through a ballot initiative or in a general election. Not a ballot initiative put forth by the County back onto the ballot to ask the voters whether or not to keep that after the project that its been specifically identified for has been paid for. Just so it's not looked at as kind of a way of going in through the back door to increase taxes. That’s kind of my stance on the local option sales tax.
Slockett: Do you have any experience in putting together budgets?
Bleam: I do have some experience in putting together budgets. When I came to the University of Iowa, my first comment to some of my friends was I really want to get involved in student government. When I got into student government, I focused solely on trying to get on the budget committee because money speaks. If you don’t have money, you can’t really do a whole lot. It really does speak. My experience in putting together budgets, I served 3 years on our budgeting and allocating committee. It is the committee that receives through the Vice President of Finance office, as directed by the Board of Regents, $1.5 million dollars approximately in student activity fee revenue, which is mandatory fee placed into tuition that specifically goes towards enhancing extracurriculars on campus. The student government is charged as the elected representative body in disseminating that funding out to 400 student organizations. One of the biggest approaches that I took to the funding process, and one of the big concerns that I heard from most organizations, that it is terribly bureaucratic and complicated and odd. So what I started to do was clean up the system. The first thing we did was eliminate line item reallocation and that was each time a student organization would come to us with a budget, they would request specifically what it is they were going to purchase. If they wanted to alter that, they would have to come back to the student government and ask for a line item reallocation and it would take a vote. We eliminated that, because basically if you’re giving money to purchase you know a new Mac book, let's say for a student organization, does it really make a difference in that now they are going to purchase a Dell? It's actually going to save them money in the long term. Why should they have to come back and ask us for a reallocation? Obviously the money has already been committed for a computer; it is an equipment purchase. You know if you have $800 for a computer, honestly, I think the student government has better things to worry about than what type of computer you’re buying. We also implemented the big thing, this was new. This was a new approach, because student governments like to have a lot of control over the management of the funds that student organizations receive. I implemented a two year outlook policy where we had around 70% of a student activity fee goes to kind of a G20, if you will, of student organizations. We have SCOPE, which brings in concerts. We have a student run radio station, KRUI. Basically a lot of their costs were coming back over a five year period to finance out some of the larger equipment that they would buy. SCOPE would come to us and ask for a commitment to money in advance during the current fiscal year for the next fiscal year so that they could bring in better talent, because they needed to sign the contract to bring in concerts. So what we started doing was a two year outlook, where essentially we would approve not only the next year's fiscal budget but the year after that with the caveat that should an unexpected decline in tuition and fees happen, we would have to revisit the second commitment. But we were comfortable in making that commitment right now, but of course you always leave yourself kind of an escape route in case the student government just can’t meet the commitment. That has started the process to move forward, where we may in the future do multi-year budgeting and it's great that way. We also implemented a website and an online budget submission for our student organizations and this reduced the bureaucratic mess and sort of the complications involving their student ID and an account number that each individual group is assigned to. The great thing about this program is it is built in such a way where our guide to every request that they submit and if they got halfway through the request and they couldn’t finish it or they wanted to get an early start, but they didn’t have some figures, they could save it, saved to the system. So not only did student government have an archival history that was in an online format, which is backed up on University servers, but each individual organization had a historical perspective on what they requested in the past. Because you have a huge changeover in leadership and the leadership of student organizations, they can go back and see what prior groups had done, what they could anticipate to receive in funding. I mean, it did all sorts of wonders for our budgeting process and it eliminated paper waste, because we were going through stacks of budgets probably about this high. So to kind of keep it going here, I’m getting a little bit long, but we also created the accounting system. This was even identified by an internal audit that the University had done, was that the student activity fee was just a complete mess. What we were doing was we were carrying over funds from the year before and mixing that revenue in with new incoming revenue there was no way to see where money was exiting, to follow up to see if student orgs were actually the money on the things that we had approved. So what we did was we created in conjunction with and through the College of Business an audit committee. So anyone on a financial track, an undergrad or graduate student, and maybe going into public accounting or auditing, could serve on this committee and would basically be assigned an organization. We usually did the much larger organizations by just going through line item by line item and audit, to come back with the report just saying everything looks great or there were a few discrepancies. Most of the time everything was going fine. We also separated out the fund in general to create a reserve with a ceiling. Basically we created a reserve account and we created kind of a rollover account and then we created the incoming revenue account. So incoming revenue would go into one holding account. Any carryover money from the previous year was kept in a separate fund, and then we also created sort of our version of a rainy day fund, in case there was any large equipment malfunction. It was for very specifically targeted areas, so if there was a decline in revenue with the Board of Regents, if you know State revenue fell and they had to increase tuition or feed in an increase, we basically put a ceiling and a floor of about $20,000. So while that could grow over the course of the fiscal year, let's say it grew $5,000 at the end of the fiscal year, that money would be transferred out because we would keep a $20,000 balance in there and it would be switched over to a general fund.
Slockett: I think you have had some experience in budgeting before. That is very interesting. I’m sure you could go on and tell us a lot more about it, very good.
Bleam: Sorry about so much detail.
Slockett: How would you balance spending requests versus increasing taxes? If it became necessary to reduce the County's operating budget by 10%, how should the reduction be implemented?
Bleam: If we were to look at a 10% cut across the board or any cut across the board, I think first and foremost it would be the responsibility of each department to look at their budget, research it and to come up with recommendations. I think the approach that I would take is I would ask our department heads to look at non-mandated requirements. But outside of even just County government and staffing the departments, I would ask the citizens, other local leaders to follow in prioritizing in services, to kind of give us feedback on what the voters priorities are and in working with local leaders. There has got to be ways, you know all of us are pressed for cash, there’s got to be ways where we can encourage intergovernmental cooperation, where we can do large purchasing of various products. I mean there is no reason why we can’t, something as simple as paper clips in bulk within the City of Iowa City, and because you have two governments going in and purchasing such a large quantity in bulk, I mean that is going to reduce the cost to the County in the long run. You know in addition to that, not only identifying but you know I think you have to look at maybe measures to increase and enhance revenues, diversify funding streams, which you know I hate to do in this sort of economic situation because diversifying funding streams is a fancy word for raising taxes or a fee. You know we might need to look into retirement incentives, freezing County operational costs, whether that’s freezing them at current levels or looking at that reduction. You know, before we start making cuts to budget, I think I’d rather look at freezing operational costs, but for the long term…. But when you look at freezing costs, you also have to be, I mean you have to be understanding that there are certain exceptions, you know fuel, postage I mean there are certain things that are out of your control that are just going to keep on going up in price. Those are out of your control. But you know like I said, initiating policy meetings to fully identify top spending priorities, I think that that’s key. You know you can also look at ways to limit new programs, unless they are being offset by the phasing out of an existing program. One thing that I want to say, I think that going forward, I like to stay away from layoffs or furloughs. I think while maybe we should meet all collective bargaining agreements as they apparently stay in play. That means that the percentage of the raise of County employees isn’t going to be as high this year as it has been in years past. You know, with the understanding that you still have a job to come to tomorrow, that you have job security. I mean I think that is what a lot of people are looking for is just job security right now. So I think that’s a serious thing you need to communicate and in making these types of decisions, I was one of the individuals who really encouraged President Mason when making University cuts to solicit public feedback in the way that they are doing through a website, but also to be very open and transparent about it. When the decision is made, come out and say here’s the decision we made and she’s done that through various emails out to faculty, staff, and students and I think writing letters to the editor of our local newspapers by saying here is the reasoning behind this. Just getting that kind of communication out in any way possible, but there is also the potential that we would really need to review office hours or service and delivery cutbacks. It's not a very fun thing to talk about, but the hard decisions are hard decisions that have to be made. While I would take the approach to try and do everything in my power to stay away from those, I’m not afraid of making those type of decisions.
Slockett: Good summary.
Painter: Okay, a series of what we envision is fairly yes or no kind of questions on appointment versus election. If you are appointed and an election is called, will you seek your party's nomination?
Bleam: If I’m appointed, the first thing that I want to do is let the public know who I am. I really think that we need public support around the appointment of whoever is in this position. I think that the first thing that I would want to do is hold a public forum just to get to know me, to specifically address this question. If I’m appointed and an election is called, would I seek my party’s nomination? I would need to figure out which party I would go with.
Painter: There you go, okay.
Bleam: I have no party status. I just don’t know at this time. I quite frankly, I don't know if I have the financial resources to seek a nomination. Not that it would cost a lot, but you know when you go into an election, there are costs involved. I just don’t know if I have the financial resources for it at this point in time.
Painter: Okay. If you were appointed, would you run for re-election?
Bleam: You know, it's interesting. I initially had approached this with the idea that I didn’t… I was kind of hesitating to weigh running for re-election, but the more and more I look into it and the more and more, you know… It’s an interesting concept and I definitely won’t rule it out. I’m coming more and more comfortable with the idea. It's a lot different from running for election from things that I have run for before and I would need to see come next year at the end of the term. I think the biggest deciding factor is do I have the confidence of the public to seek re-election? I don’t want to run for something where the general voting base does not want you in office
Painter: If you are not appointed, would you petition or would you run as the nominee in an election that was petitioned for?
Bleam: If I’m not appointed, I would not petition, just because I take the stance that I think that there are better things we can do with $75,000. This is a unique circumstance. I am usually one of those who believes in letting the voters decide. I think that because of the economic climate that we’re in, I just don’t think the wise use of taxpayer dollars right now. Had it been in any other year, I think I could have come to a completely different conclusion, it's possible, but I would not petition. Would I run as a nominee in an election that was petitioned for? It depends on if I was asked. I would definitely give it consideration. I would definitely approach individuals. I would have to have more discussions to see if I could even be a viable candidate, I would need to understand that aspect from party politics, there's lots of things that go into that. So it's definitely a possibility. I just have no idea. I’m just trying to get through the interview.
Slockett: Just for your information, Maison, there is an option to run nominated by petition, where you could run as not a member of either party, nominated by petition. It takes 250 signatures.
Bleam: Okay. Okay.
Slockett: The threshold is very low to get on the ballot in Iowa. So that would be an option. In fact the last time we appointed, there were two candidates, one is the person we appointed and the other one was someone nominated by petition with 250 signatures. So that would be a possibility.
Bleam: Okay. That’s great to hear, because it took me 500 signatures to get on the ballot for student government. That was higher.
Kriz: With winding this up Mason, do you have any questions about the appointment process?
Bleam: No. Not specifically about the appointment process. I do have a question though for you individuals and this might be completely off topic, but does the County do tours? Is there a way to see the top of the tower on the Courthouse?
Painter: Love that, top of the tower question.
Bleam: I have always just been interested in, driven past it multiple times, and I just don’t know what's up there, but I’ve always wondered.
Painter: I have never been up there.
Slockett: I was in the Courthouse for a decade when I was first elected and in fact at that time, I was in charge of the Courthouse. There’s a… You go upstairs in the rotunda, there’s a big skylight there now. You poke a button and a stair lowers and then you walk up into this, it looks like something out of a Munster movie attic. It winds around and you walk up and see. I think I would suggest getting in touch with Dave Kempf, our Facilities Manager. I’m sure he could arrange to take you up there sometime. It’s a great question and it’s a great view.
Bleam: Okay.
Slockett: You can see everywhere.
Painter: Okay.
Kriz: Okay. Really this is part of, we got a couple minutes to close here, if there is anything else you want to add
Bleam: Okay, just you know in summary, my dedication to serve is a commitment to transparent, open government and an enthusiasm for making a difference. Because I know I can and I will make a substantial contribution to the voters of Johnson County as a member of the Board of Supervisors, if given the opportunity. I am able and ready to put in the time and effort necessary to serve our community and I understand the responsibility that comes along with a position of that caliber. I’m not going to pretend and I hope I did an adequate job of presenting here today that you know I don’t have an answer to every problem or solution to each dilemma. But I am a quick learner and I do have a passion to serve those whom I represent to the best of my ability and I will do my homework on issues that are facing the County. So just kind of in conclusion, I want to thank each of you for taking the time to meet with me. I’m just ecstatic to have made it this far in the process and I appreciate the time each of you have taken to conduct these interviews and I don’t envy the task before you. I look forward to hearing from you in the coming weeks. Hopefully, it’s a positive outcome.
Painter: Thank you very much.
Slockett: Thank you
Bleam: Thank you very much
Kriz: Keep the driving passion going all the time
Painter: I see our next interviewee is seated down at the end of the hall. Ready to… about six minutes after…
Slockett: Do we want or does anyone need a break or anything. Should we just… Are you going to go get him?
Kriz: I can, I see him
Painter: Good morning.
Slockett: Good morning
Painter: Casie, could I have a clean copy of interview questions?
Deputy Auditor Casie Parkins: Sure
Painter: I was going to make a copy for each person and use that for notes.
Mike O'Donnell: Hello
Painter: Good morning
Slockett: Good morning
O'Donnell: How are you? I’m not having a good morning
Slockett: Oh, you’re not.
O'Donnell: I was out this morning talking to a girl who had got denied a SEATS ride and got involved with that and when I left, I was walking across the parking lot, dropped my tie in the biggest, deepest puddle there. Soaked it.
Painter: You are absolved from not having a tie.
Slockett: Absolutely.
O'Donnell: Thank you.
Slockett: Well, you are here for one purpose and that’s for an interview to fill the vacancy on the Board of Supervisors. We thank you for your time and effort and commitment to do that and the format we have is a two minute opening statement where you can just tell us a little about you and the questions have been posted on the web that we will ask and we’re just going to kind of rotate around the table asking.
O'Donnell: Okay, good.
Slockett: So, if you want to get started with your opening statement it would be great.
O'Donnell: That’s fine. Well, I think you all know me, Mike O’Donnell. I am currently Mayor Pro Tem of Iowa City. I have been for several times. Been married to my bride for 42 years, very happily, I might add. I have a passion for our county, I think we are extremely fortunate to live here, we have got people who are unafraid to become involved in voicing their opinions and I have always admired that. I have served on many, many different committees and been able to build consensus on the committees that I was in. When I first came on the Council, I think we are all old enough to remember the row between the County and the City over the SEATS issue. One year later, I was the Chair and one of the main forces in forming our SEATS Paratransit Advisory Committee and I think that is a wonderful accomplishment. I’m very involved in that and hope to continue to be. I am a lifelong resident of the county, I have lived in two of our major communities. I have lived in Coralville, where I became involved as a volunteer fireman and later I was director of a Police Auxillary. So my involvement goes back a long way and time flies when you are having a good time. And with that, I would be glad to answer any of your questions.
Slockett: Alright, thank you, Mike. First question, what makes you the most qualified person for the job?
O'Donnell: Well, that’s a kind of difficult question. Like I said, I am a lifelong resident and living in two major communities within our county. I’ve had a great deal of experience in budgeting and through eleven now, extremely difficult budgets with the City. You become somewhat familiar with them and I’ve gotten very good with the budgeting. Today with the increased demand on our tax dollars, I think it is incredibly important to sit down and look wisely at the budget and try and grab the greatest value for tax dollars. I think that’s enough.
Slockett: What would you hope to accomplish as an individual and as a Board?
O'Donnell: Well, I took the questions off the web this morning and I jotted down some notes here. I think solid financial stewardship, efficient use of County resources, staying focused on topics that affect the majority of residents in our county. I would also like to, sitting in on numerous meetings, joint meetings where we had elected officials from other municipalities, as well as County supervisors, I would like to see the attitude changed from we/they to an us and fully understand that what benefits one benefits us all. There is a need, and especially in today's economy, to work well with each other and develop relationships that encourage the ability to work together.
Slockett: How do you view the County’s responsibilities with regard to human and civil rights? How will this influence you as you take on the role of Johnson County Supervisor?
O'Donnell: Who doesn’t support human and civil rights? We have ordinances in place and review processes. I took part in forming a Police Citizens Review Board and I think it is incredibly important that if you feel like something has happened that you disagree with, that you have an opportunity to speak with one of your peers. Somebody who doesn’t intimidate you, but I was, I was a force in starting the Police Citizens Review Board and as far as our Human Rights Commissions, there is a review process there, we on a regular basis pick very good people to serve these posts.
Slockett: I had a follow up on this one, and then Kim will ask some questions. We are in the middle of a historic health care debate in the country that affects every one of us. A recent study by Harvard University researchers found that 45,000 people a year die due to lack of health care. That’s one per every 12 minutes. I would just like to ask, there’s been a lot of criticism about current reform and a lot of change in it as it has been legislated and I think that there are three aspects of health coverage that I would like you to comment on and that’s universal coverage for everyone, comprehensive coverage covering all of their medical needs, not having them cut off and so forth, and also access or affordability of coverage. What are your views on those things?
O'Donnell: Well, if there has ever been a need for health care reform, it's today. One catastrophic… one illness can actually ruin you financially. Insurance should not end. A lot of times when employment ends, you’re insurance is cancelled after a certain date. There’s a Cobra policy that comes in effect there. But, boy to be caught in today’s world without insurance is just ridiculous and reform is needed now more than ever. I don’t know exactly how that should go, but people need to be agreeable to sit down and try to work this out, because it is absolutely necessary, especially today.
Painter: Okay, a few questions on County government. What would you say our County government’s strengths and weaknesses and how would you enhance the strengths and address the weaknesses?
O'Donnell: The strength of any government is always the citizens within the county and I think the County has shown a great ability when you have a controversial issue to pull people together, unite them for a common cause. I think my abilities as working in city government for 12 years, I have established relationships with other municipalities within the county and have been able to work well with them, have developed friendships, and I feel that, the weakness that I touched on earlier, I think too often when we sit down and we are vying for the same monies, it is a we/their rather than what benefits the majority, I think I can do a lot to bring consensus.
Painter: What do you feel are the greatest challenges facing Johnson County and how should the Board address them?
O'Donnell: The biggest challenge facing anybody is the budget. The total dependence on the tax dollars, how we address them, is to spend money wisely, look for savings. You know maybe we can drive a County vehicle for more miles. Maybe we can look at different health care programs. There are a number of things that you can do, but you need to look within your, its always important to live within the existing budget and you need to look to department heads to tell you how they can function best and what cuts they can make. Not only ask them, but listen to the response.
Painter: Do you feel a new Johnson County justice center is needed?
O'Donnell: That’s a great question. If you look at that question, that could be an interesting answer. I believe we need a new jail, I really do. There is something that just rubs me wrong about spending all this money to different counties for transporting prisoners. Our jail is terribly, terribly inefficient. It is designed for 46 and on a regular basis has over 100. Not only do you have a safety issue with the deputies that are working in that area, but you also have a safety issue with those incarcerated. As far as the other elements of the justice center, I think we need to take a careful look and see exactly how they need to be expanded and if they need to be expanded at this point in time.
Slockett: I had a follow-up on that one. The last time we voted on a new jail was 9 years ago in the 2000 election and it lost 2 to 1 countywide and it lost by 73% in the polls in the City of Iowa City, some precincts over 80%. In line of not doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result, I wonder about, I’m just throwing out an idea of a 180 bed jail. That proposal was a 330 bed jail and we have a population with a very big world view and very human rights conscious population. I think there was a concern about the size of the jail, it was expressed in the campaign, and it was related to the fact that 5% of the world’s population is imprisoned and 25% of those people are imprisoned in the United States so there’s an idea not encouraging having more people in jail so the idea of 180 beds especially given economic situation, states like California are reducing their jail populations and its possible that 180 beds is more than we have ever needed on a single day plus a little cushion and so that might be a way to approach the voters showing that you have taken into account the votes in the past and of course, you would have to have scalability and an ability to increase it, build it so that you could increase it if necessary, but what would you think of a concept like that and trying to look forward?
O'Donnell: Well, I’ve always believed you incarcerate people because you fear them, not because you’re mad at them. As long as you build, we got caught in Iowa City with the library that is incredibly popular and we built it so we couldn’t expand it. I agree 100% you need to build something and think ahead. You know, we really need, it’s a real tragedy that that percentage of people are in prison. Like I said, you need to incarcerate people that you fear, that are a danger to themselves or others, and take a strong look at, everybody thinks in that everybody in jail is a convicted serial killer and that’s just not true. There are certain ways that you can handle situations through an ankle bracelet or you know some type of light incarceration rather than in jail. The situation has changed in the last nine years, we are looking at a problem that is really, really growing and especially in Iowa City. You need to respond to that. It troubles us a great deal. We just voted on a loitering issue where people are intimidated. These are kids that need attention. They need attention and they need parenting. They need education. Education is the key. You can build five schools for what it takes to build one prison and it certainly seems like a good option.
Painter: How would you go about selecting from a pool of applicants to serve on various boards and County committees?
O'Donnell: Well, it's been there for a long time. You do that with references and resumes. Gender balance has always been incredibly important to me. You know in this area we have a wealth of people to draw from that have applied for boards and commissions, but that is basically how I feel.
Painter: What is your long range vision for Johnson County and how would you utilize your experience in strategic planning to implement that vision?
O'Donnell: That also is a very good question. My long range plan for Johnson County is responsible growth, capturing more of the tax dollar. Cedar Rapids has a very interesting thing, 70% of their taxes come from commercial and 30% residential. We are exactly the opposite in Iowa City. Commercial pays a higher rate, but you need growth. Growth is good, but all growth is not good. It is kind of a funny thing to say, but I certainly never want to see our landscape dotted with towers spewing black smoke into the air. I just do not like that. I would like to see more things like the Joint Communications Center. That was a unified effort to get something done, something that we needed. I would like to see more of that happen in the county, something that unites us better.
Painter: Just to follow up, in specific terms of how you have preferred to go about strategic planning or kind of creating a vision together with other leaders within an entity, do you have anything to share about that and what that contributes to setting up an architecture for growth?
O'Donnell: Well, honestly Kim, you have to bring people together and you have to do what benefits the majority. I think my strong suit is relationships that I have developed with most of the elected officials within our county. We've done some incredible things. Iowa City and Coralville worked on Mormon Trek and the railroad trestle. I mentioned earlier the Communications Center. I served on the Emergency Management Commission, where we raised money through… We all went back to our individual councils and we raised money to have a new hazardous materials truck. That is incredibly important. I think that would be a strength that I would bring to this position.
Painter: Thanks.
Kriz: Mike, the next section is on land use and environment. The first question is what criteria would you use in making land use decisions? On what basis would make decisions concerning road improvements, maintenance, construction, and roadside then weed eradication?
O'Donnell: Well, obviously you look at long-term effect. You look at facts. You look at precedent. You look at need, and you look at affordability, the budget. Weed eradication in the ditches, I am very mixed about that, because I love to drive down the country roads and I like to see the green and I like to see the native flowers, but I do not like to see a deer jumping out in front of my car. There are deaths caused each year by that. But you can certainly control that by slowing down. Like I said, facts, precedent, need, and budget is how you determine that.
Kriz: What do you think should be the County's role in protecting the environment?
O'Donnell: Well, I think everybody's got a role in protecting the environment. I think the County should be a leader and they should be a leader in the educational process.
Kriz: Describe your approach to balancing economic and business interests in conjunction with interest in health and wellbeing of citizens and environmental concerns, that balancing act.
O'Donnell: I am not going to compromise on health, wellbeing of citizens, and environmental concerns. I won't do that. You must be reasonable and you must be cautious not to micro-manage. Obviously there is a need for economic growth, structured and the right type of economic growth. You need to continue to grow a tax base or you become stagnant. We grow our tax base to pay for things that we all value in our community, safety, human services.
Kriz: I know over the past everyone has looked at it, but what is your opinion of the Johnson County Comprehensive Land Use Plan.
O'Donnell: I have to be honest and tell you I haven't read it all. I thought when we did it, it should have been more publicized. I still do. I think that it needs periodic review. I believe that if we find something that needs tweaked or moved, maybe change in a small thing, we have an open mind and get in and do it. We can certainly bring in very qualified citizens to voice their opinion on it. I think it is a good document. I don't think it is a perfect document, but I don't think we find many perfect documents.
Slockett: I guess we are at the taxes and budget section, right? What do you know about and what is your opinion regarding the impact and incidence of Johnson County taxes?
O'Donnell: Gosh, they are a burden. Nobody likes taxes. I said earlier that taxes are something… We have a heavy reliance on taxes, but that is how we pay for things that we all value in our community. I certainly am not in favor of increasing taxes and there would have to be an awful good reason to do so. But taxes in general are a burden for everybody.
Slockett: Next question, what, if anything, should be done about the nature of county tax options?
O'Donnell: That's a good question, too. Most of our taxes we have very little control on, unless we go to a local option sales tax and so forth. I don't know… If you are looking at taxes, they have to be… you have to justify them with an issue or need. I don't know, I'm okay with the structure right now.
Slockett: Are you in favor of implementing a local option sales tax? If so, for what use?
O'Donnell: Well, I have been and it had to be for a very specific use. My use comes down to public safety and perhaps a property tax reduction. Once again, it's a tax. We are looking in Iowa City now, the utilities tax. I have many, many people call me and they tell me it's about time that Mid-American is kicking back. And it's wait a minute, all they're going to do is increase your bill. You are kicking back. This is a tax. Never forget it. I'm not certain how I will vote on it yet. I do not… I understand taxes. I don't favor increasing taxes.
Slockett: Do you have any experience in putting together budgets?
O'Donnell: Some. I've had 11 years of very difficult budgets. They get more difficult each year. The rollback affects you. The utilities tax, when they eliminated that, it just absolutely was devastating. When you think you've got something you have a flood, a flood that cost over a million dollars to Iowa City alone. I do have experience. I've become very good at budgets. A budget is, you have your bills. It's like a household, but it's much bigger. You have your bills and then you have your money leftover. It's your responsibility to be a good steward with that tax money and place the biggest value on each dollar that's taxed.
Slockett: How would you balance spending requests versus increasing taxes? If it became necessary to reduce the County's operating budget by 10%, how should the reduction be implemented?
O'Donnell: I think we all read the paper this morning and saw what our Governor's cut is going to do to staff. That will filter down and hit each and every one of us. This is the time when you get in and you utilize the knowledge of your department heads. You ask them questions. Ask them what they need to effectively operate. We are taxed high in this county. I really don't want to cut services to anybody. But when you get a major tax cut, it starts it seems like with public safety, it filters into human services, and it seems like those that are the least likely to pay for it are the ones that are affected the most. But you need to listen to department heads. I said earlier, look at all savings. We need review on health care very badly. That's a major expense for our communities now. Like I said, I don't know if we've done studies on using County vehicles more, replacing them less, computers, maybe they can last a couple more years. The last thing you do is cut jobs.
Painter: A few questions on appointment versus election. If you are appointed and an election is called, will you seek your party's nomination?
O'Donnell: You know my interest is high at this point. It's the best answer I can give you. I have not fully discussed this with my boss at home.
Painter: Yes.
Kriz: The ultimate boss.
O'Donnell: The ultimate boss who makes the decisions. I learned that long ago.
Painter: Will you run for re-election if you are appointed?
O'Donnell: My interest is high at this time. I'll answer that the same way.
Painter: All right. And finally, if you are not appointed, would you petition or would you run as the nominee in an election that was petitioned for? This has happened before, where people have been nominated by petition.
O'Donnell: I probably would.
Painter: Okay.
Kriz: Okay. I know you are very familiar with government and everything, Mike, but are there any questions you have about this appointment process?
O'Donnell: You know I thought about that. I pulled this off the web this morning. I could not find it last night. But you know, if you've served as long as I have, you better be able to answer some questions and you better be able to contribute to a conversation. I did have a question. The paper, and we all know the papers are always accurate, they said that I would be an elected official on both the city and county level, if this happened. This is an appointment. I wanted to make it very clear that, if I'm appointed, I would miss one City Council meeting, and that would mean the second City Council meeting that I've missed in 12 years. So I take very seriously what I do. I think I have a great deal to offer. I look forward to your decision.
Slockett: I would just like to reassure you that you wouldn't have to resign from your City position. You could hold both offices at the same time. In fact, if you think about it, you'll probably realize that the Linn County Auditor served as Mayor of Robbins for some time.
O'Donnell: Okay.
Painter: That's right.
Slockett: So they aren't determined to be in conflict. So you wouldn't have to miss that second meeting.
O'Donnell: The conflict that was brought up, though, we would have already had our election on the 3rd, and we would have new councilors coming in. I don't know if we've had a 4 term City Councilor in Iowa City. I came very close to doing it, just based on the budget and that affection that I have for the staff. You have a wonderful staff, you have to learn to listen to them. They're professionals and I have such high regard for them.
Kriz: The last part is just anything in closing, Mike, that you want to share with us.
O'Donnell: Well, just to tell you once again that I'm a native of Iowa City and I have a passion for our county. I truly enjoy it. I think we are all very fortunate to live here. We are a very intelligent community. If you want to do a project, it's nothing at all to pull together a group of excellent people and reach a consensus and move forward. I have always felt very fortunate and blessed to live in this community.
Painter: Thank you, Mike.
O'Donnell: I wish I had found this last night.
Slockett: It should have been there. You know how computers are.
O'Donnell: No I don't.
Slockett: It should have been there. I won't say absolutely for certain that it was.
Painter: Gremlins.
O'Donnell: I appreciate the opportunity to talk to you.
Painter: That's fine.
Kriz: Thanks, Mike.
Slockett: It's been great having this conversation with you.
O'Donnell: Great. Thank you.
Kriz: I hope your day gets better.
Painter: Yes. That's right.
O'Donnell: I've got to come home and explain this tie.
Painter: The boss won't be happy about that tie.
Kriz: Take it to one of those one hour cleaning places and Marie will never know.
O'Donnell: This is my tie that I got for our 42nd anniversary. There could be trouble. Thank you.
Painter: Bye, Mike. Thank you.
Slockett: All right.
Painter: Do we need to visit a little bit?
Slockett: There are some things to visit about and this might be a good time to do it.
Painter: Okay. All right.
Slockett: I'll get out my calendar. One of our applicants is unable to interview, Edgar Thornton. I should say it would be very inconvenient for him to interview before the 29th. The reason for that is he is working under deadline in a project and if we insisted… I had a telephone conversation with him and I've tried to represent this adequately. If we absolutely insisted he might be able to do a telephone interview on Friday. The reason the 29th is available is he already has a ticket. He's working in Washington, D.C. and he already has an airline ticket to come in late on the 28th. So he would be available anytime on the 29th. He also is willing to consider a telephone interview on Monday or to look at getting a second airline ticket, which would obviously be very expensive, but he prefers to interview in person. I've looked at just to lay everything out before we discuss it. One of the problems is finding a room. You know how tight space is. But I was able to find a room here, the large room on the afternoon of the 29th, if we want to do that.
Painter: Did you have a chance to visit with Janet about any implications for that, given that we announced. I mean do we always sort of inherently reserve the right to have our decision day be a different day or is that an issue for us?
Slockett: In the event, yes, we have said all along that if for some reason we didn't have many applicants and we made a decision early that we could move it up, and also that we could make it later. We have to do it by November 1st, Sunday the 1st.
Painter: Right.
Slockett: But as long as we do it before then, we can decide to do that. We published in the notice that that is a possibility that times might vary.
Painter: Is there technology in this building that would allow us to get some visual of him, like a videoconference I wonder? I mean that is kind of skipping ahead, but it would be nice if we could do something that way.
Slockett: I wouldn't say that it is not possible, but those things can be done.
Painter: I know they can be a pain too.
Slockett: We would have to contact IT and see about it. He would have to have the capabilities on his end.
Painter: Yes. I hear you. That's right.
Slockett: We can't discuss this, but we just found out yesterday that he was essentially unavailable, but if we insisted, he might. He is under a deadline with a staff who is working late and together and if he took off while they were still working, he just feels he would be uncomfortable doing that on Friday.
Painter: So we would have him here in person if we went on the 29th.
Slockett: If we did it the 29th. I would suggest if we did that that, we would put it on the table that we would not make the decision until the next day, the 30th, because I think it's just a good idea to sleep on it and think things over after the last interview. I also tentatively reserved a room, 203B and C from 1:00 to 4:00 on the 29th. So I was thinking about a 2:00 appointment, if you two were available. On the decision, I just reserved the room for 10:00 to 11:00, because I didn't like to hog up the schedule too much, but it is open other times than that.
Painter: The other option then is the phone call on Monday the 26th.
Kriz: Which I'm not opposed to at all. I'm a little apprehensive of shifting the dates, moving away from the 28th as we had decided. We could certainly do it.
Slockett: Here is the notice that was published. The last sentence, it shows, tentatively, before, every meeting date and time, and then the last sentence in the paragraph, "The schedule may vary by majority vote of the statutory committee depending on the number and length of the interviews." I've spoken to Janet about it before, too. I don't think there is a legal problem, but that doesn't mean we need to do it. We don't have to do it. My personal feelings are to accommodate. It is something we can do. I really wanted to make an earlier decision, but he's not here and he has problems in getting here and he wants to see us. It's a more equal situation to have an interview face to face with each person.
Painter: I'd prefer to have him here with his pins underneath him on his home territory and be able to answer questions I think in front of us, too. It's within 24 hours of our date and I guess we couldn't really anticipate clients would turn down business to make time.
Slockett: And a lot of times if you interview someone on the phone and you decide to go with them, you want to interview them in person before you actually make the decision anyway.
Painter: That's true.
Slockett: There's that potential that we would then have quite a scramble. He would be here anyway, I guess. He will be here on the 29th regardless. Looking at the schedule, we planned on making it the 28th. That's a Wednesday. He'll be here on the 29th, one day later.
Painter: Right.
Slockett: I'm suggesting that we then make the decision on the 30th.
Painter: On Friday.
Slockett: But it would be possible to make it on Thursday, if you wanted to do it that way. The deadline is the 2nd, on Sunday. There's plenty of time.
Kriz: If we move it, I prefer to make the decision on the 30th.
Painter: I like the idea of sleeping on it, too. I'm with you guys on that.
Kriz: I do too.
Slockett: Okay. I really would, too, so I'm glad you feel that way.
Painter: I would agree to 2:00 on Thursday, if that's the time that we have some room and options, Thursday the 29th. I can be comfortable with that. I don't think it is the worst thing in the world.
Slockett: I would have rather done it earlier, but when I thought that over, I personally would feel more comfortable with that, but I am willing to go with the decision of the group.
Kriz: I could certainly go with that, too. So we would cancel Wednesday, as well as Monday?
Slockett: We had Monday and Wednesday, so we need to cancel those. That will free up those conference rooms. I also had scheduled… One of the local newspapers editorialized urging people to attend these interviews and I didn't think it would make much difference, but I thought it might be a good idea to have backup rooms available.
Painter: I saw that.
Slockett: So I did also reserve the 214B and C for tomorrow. But we won't need this room or the backup rooms for Monday or Wednesday, so that will free up some space that was reserved. Then on Thursday I reserved B and C and on Friday. So we'll have plenty, there won't be any problem with space.
Painter: What time are we looking at then on Friday the 30th to meet?
Slockett: Friday the 30th it was open, but I just reserved 10:00 to 11:00, if that meets your approval. It's just because we have been reserving such large blocks of space, I would hope that you'd be able to accommodate that time, but we could look at another time if that doesn't work.
Parkins: What time are the rooms reserved on the 29th? I’m sorry I missed that Tom.
Slockett: The 29th? From 1:00 to 4:00, but we are going to…
Painter: 2:00 to 3:00.
Slockett: 2:00 to 3:00. So I'll be able to scale that reservation back.
Kriz: Will we do a release then that things have changed? Or we should at least let the first few people who have been here know we won't be making a decision Wednesday.
Painter: Right.
Kriz: We could include that as we…
Slockett: We could put it on the web and we can put out a release. We could have the release from all three of us.
Painter: Anything else to discuss?
Slockett: That’s all I had other than, we can take a break, what time is it?
Painter: I’ve got 10:53.
Kriz: Seven till or so.
Slockett: So we've got a five minute break. Sounds good.
Parkins: We actually have 8 minutes until we can start again, or until we can interview.
Recessed at 10:52 a.m.; reconvened at 11:00 a.m.
Slockett: Ok, Casie can we start? Casie’s got the atomic clock here, I think.
Parkins: Just a few seconds.
Painter: She's very legalistic about our time here.
Slockett: You’re here to for one purpose and that’s to interview to be appointed to the vacancy on the Board of Supervisors and as you know we have a list of questions for you that have been posted on the web and we also have a 2 minute opening statement. You have a very impressive application and resume but you can just talk about yourself a little bit and then we’ll go through the questions and one or more of us may have a follow-up on some of the questions.
Badgett: Okay. All right, so I’m Kenya Badgett. I’m originally from Greensboro, North Carolina. As you can see on the resume, I spent some time in the military. Seven years in the military. I started out enlisted as a medical lab tech and then I commissioned as a missile operations officer. After that I returned to school to finish up my electrical engineering degree and then joined Procter & Gamble as an electrical engineer. I’ve been with them for three years. I moved out to Iowa with a different expectation of Iowa compared to North Carolina. A plant manager at the time said you are gonna get out here and you’re gonna love it and I said ‘no way’. I knew it, I’m from North Carolina and I absolutely love it. So I’m looking to stay here long term, this is home for me.
Slockett: Okay, ready for the questions?
Badgett: I’m ready.
Slockett: Alright. I’m gonna start, and then Kim, and we’re going to rotate around the table.
Badgett: Okay.
Slockett: What makes you the most qualified person for the job?
Badgett: I think mainly servant leadership so leadership in the community and feeling obligated to serve the community. Having the connection with the individuals in the community and understanding different backgrounds, different economic backgrounds, social backgrounds, and being in touch with those individuals. Two instances where I can kind of say this is where I developed a foundation for the serving leadership, is one through the military absolutely. Dedicating 24 hours a day, seven days a week to the military, that is your life and you know that you’re doing this because you are serving your country, you’re serving the people. So serving as a missile operations officer and as a medical lab tech. In addition, when I first moved to Iowa, about two months after my move here I started a group called Making the Cut where we provide free haircuts for kids in Johnson County before school starts. It’s a group that I lead and we incorporate several businesses in the area that contribute several individuals to give back to the community, so just insuring that what I get out of the community, I give back. I think that’s one thing that makes me well suited for this job.
Parkins: Just checking the volume, picking up on my copy.
Slockett: Just to make sure it picks up on the tape. Sorry I didn’t mean to interrupt.
Badgett: No problem. I’m being louder than in the plant.
Slockett: What would you hope to accomplish as an individual and as a Board?
Badgett: As an individual, I know that one of the major issues being faced for Johnson County, for all counties around the state and the nation is a financial situation, so how do you manage a budget? How do you manage insuring that the County doesn’t cut any services while balancing a budget that is ever decreasing? So as an individual, I would like to insure that I contribute to a successful budget, to identify opportunities to manage the budget. As a Board, I believe that it’s one of our main goals is to insure that we provide for the County the services that they require, the services that make this such a great place to live, on a shrinking budget.
Slockett: How do you view the County’s responsibilities with regard to human and civil rights? How will this influence you as you take on the role of Johnson County Supervisor?
Badgett: So human and civil rights are absolutely essential to set the standard at the county level. You want to insure that you don’t have any individuals in the county that feel that their human or civil rights have been violated. If you set that standard, that expectation at the county level, then at the city level, it trickles down to your neighborhoods and to your individuals. As Board members, we'll need to insure that every decision that’s made is made with respect to upholding this expectation of civil rights and human rights.
Slockett: Alright, I had a follow-up on that one before Kim goes to the next set of questions. We’re in the middle nationwide, in the middle of a nationwide debate on health care reform. It's estimated by a group of Harvard researchers that 45,000 people a year die due to lack of health care and that’s one every 12 minutes so it’s a very serious situation. The health care reform has been tried for many years in the United States and it has failed. The current health reform efforts have been highly criticized by some and Congress is having trouble moving forward with it. I see three major aspects of health care and I’d like to get your take on them.
Badgett: Okay.
Slockett: One is universal coverage. Two is comprehensive coverage in other words covering all of the medical needs and not having limits on it and so forth. Third is the access to the health care and whether it’s affordable. So I would just like to get your take from the human rights perspective. Teddy Kennedy said that he felt that health care should be a right and not a privilege and as a human right, how do you look at universal coverage, comprehensive coverage, and access or affordable coverage as part of the reforms that we should have.
Badgett: Okay. Well, I believe wholeheartedly that no one should have to choose between health care and your rent, or health care and your next meal. I believe it is a right to have access to proper health care. As a veteran in the military, I probably took for granted the fact that if I were sick I had somewhere to go and I didn’t have to pay. You know, when I got out of the military and I went to get a prescription and it was $3.00, you know, most folks would say oh, its just $3.00 but I’m thinking I’ve never paid anything for prescriptions, for eyeglasses. If I’m sick there is no co-pay. I think there are individuals, I’m in a position now where I can afford that, I can afford to pay my health care coverage, I can afford to pay my co-pays but I know individuals and there are plenty of individuals out there who have to make that decision. I don’t think that is fair to the individual and I don’t think that is fair to the community that you have those folks out there that have to make those decisions on health care. Whether or not you should be allowed comprehensive care, I think there should be boundaries. If it is free or if it is reduced and if the taxpayers are contributing then there should be limits as to what health care you can receive. Even in the military if I wanted plastic surgery, you know, there are limits. But, so as far as comprehensive, I believe there should be something in place but not necessarily covering every single thing out there. And access to health care, and I think that goes along with the universal to be able to access proper sufficient health care where you feel comfortable. I don’t feel that someone should have to go to a specific doctor that they may not feel comfortable with, or they may not feel that they are getting a proper coverage under that specific doctor, but they should have access to medical health and health care.
Painter: Several questions on county government overall and the first is, what are County governments strengths and weaknesses and how would you enhance the strengths and address the weaknesses?
Badgett: Okay, for this county, I believe that County government has done a remarkable job considering the climate of the economy right now. So, with strengths I think that the County government has managed successfully through some of the trials of this economy. I know when the stock market hit and many folks at the plant were saying ‘oh, I just lost half a million’ in my stocks and I’m thinking I need to go put gas in my car. You know, so the little things, but I wasn’t as stressed as I called back home and they talk about so many folks who have lost their jobs and they are having to increase taxes to compensate for failures and folks being able to pay their property taxes for example, so I think that the County has managed that well. Weaknesses, I wouldn’t say they are weaknesses, I’ll say opportunities. The opportunities would again go back to the budgeting, and identifying areas where you can decrease spending because there’s always those opportunities out there that we haven’t quite focused in on or that haven’t come to light yet. So where can we decrease spending in certain areas that still maintain that quality of life, the services for the County.
Painter: Do you feel a new Johnson County justice center is needed?
Badgett: I did some research on this and I do feel that there is a need. I feel that although if I compare the jail here to the jails that I’ve seen in other towns, it’s quite small. But from what I’ve read and the data I’ve seen, there is a need for some type of action. I don’t necessarily believe that a new multi-million dollar facility is the solution. Again, I guess as an engineer, I’m more data driven so I would have to see that we’ve exhausted other options, we’ve looked into other options. Whether they will be additional facilities options or a systematic change where you insure that you are not getting the same individuals back into the jails or you are not using up that bed space. But, if there are no other options, then maybe that’s the right option but maybe that’s not even the right option right now. You know, if we need to say we’ll look at that, we’ll table that discussion, we’ll look at other options, then maybe that’s the solution in five years and we have that amount of time to wait, then that would be what I would push for. Because I think in the immediate scope of what’s going on, we still have to wonder if we are going to have a terrible winter, will we need this extra money for cleaning up the roads, for repairing the roads when the snow melts and it rains.
Slockett: Okay, I had a follow-up on that one. Last time we voted on this issue was in the 2000 Presidential election and it lost 2 to 1 county-wide for a new jail. It lost in Iowa City by 73% and some precincts over 80%. That was a proposal for 330 bed jail and there was a lot of in the campaign against it, there was a lot of criticism of that being excessively large. We have a very sophisticated university population here, students and faculty, people with degrees such as yourself. And the concept that 5% of the worlds population is in jail and 25% of the jailed population is jailed in the United States and there’s an idea that maybe we ought to look at other things that are increasing the size of the jail. Are there things we can do to have less people in jail and so forth. And so I’m just throwing an idea out to see what you think that instead of doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results, and we voted on it prior to the last vote as well, that the concept of an 180 bed jail which is considerably smaller than the last time we voted on it with the idea of having scalability. 180 is more than we have ever had in jail on a single day so it would essentially take care of current needs but given the economic situation to may be difficult to pass a tax, a bond issue and also there may be less people in jail. For example, in California they are reducing the jail population out of economic necessity. So the idea is what would you think of scaling back the size of a proposal if one were to be made to 180 beds versus the 330 in the year 2000?
Badgett: I believe that would be an additional option, okay. So when I think about the original proposal, if we’re looking for the best value option, we want to put all of these options on the table so okay, the 330 bed solution is our Taj Mahal, this is you know, the dream facility. If we scale back to the 180 then it is going to cost X amount. Does it meet the needs of the County? Is it going to increase safety because I think safety is a big issue and the big topic that is on the table. Again are there other solutions. You alluded to the fact that there maybe intervention type programs that would keep folks from going back to jail, keep folks out of jail, keep them from having to get to that point that they are in jail. Also time needs to be spent or the data needs to be analyzed on what is the rate of recidivism for the individuals that are going to jail. Are they habitual offenders or are they going to jail for one night and they are taking up a bed to detox because they have been drinking. Is there another way that we can handle individuals like this without going to the public and saying we need more money for a facility that hopefully you will not have to be in one day.
Painter: How would you go about selecting from a pool of applicants to serve on the numerous boards and commissions that the County has?
Badgett: I believe that filling positions has to be a collaborative effort. I wouldn’t want to go in and say that I have the idea of who the right person is for this role and I select that person to be on a board or committee without collaboration with the committee. Initially identifying what's the status of the committee now. Creating what they call board matrix to understand what roles are covered now in this committee. What are the backgrounds of the individuals on this committee so we insure we have a comprehensive group of individuals, so diversity, age, industry on the committee. And taking applications because you want willing participants. And collaborating with one or two individuals from the current board to make sure that you have what's needed for this board, to make sure the individual is going to be able to contribute to this board. I wouldn’t go into this situation thinking that I know exactly what is best for this board.
Painter: What would you say your long range vision for Johnson County is and how would you utilize your experience in strategic planning to implement that vision to give it some structure?
Badgett: My long range vision, I talk to my sister about this all the time because I try to convince my family to move to Iowa. The only time they have ever called to say how is Iowa, is it really that great is when they read in the paper that Iowa City had the lowest unemployment rate in the nation. I think this was back in April. After that it is still hard to pull them in. I tell my sister all the time that this is my little slice of heaven and I'm going to put it on the map one day. We're going to be on the map one day. My vision is to be on the map as a long range vision. As far as strategic planning in my role in Proctor and Gamble it is always about the vision. You create the vision and you create the plan from the vision. In order to get Johnson County on the map I would try to have a collaborative effort from individuals in the community, from the Board, to create the vision and to identify strengths within the County, weaknesses within the County, opportunities, and threats to the vision. After identifying those items I would work with the group to develop objectives and core goals to meet these focus areas that would fall out of that exercise. One thing that I know is very successful in different areas of government is to develop focus groups with individuals in the community to get the community buy-in on the actions. Creating a strategic plan, creating the vision, having the document is great but you have to have the action behind it and you have to have the buy-in of the County and the community in order to easily set forth that action. So that would be the focus groups to help. I hope I answered that question.
Painter: Yes it was good.
Kriz: Our next set of questions deals with land use and the environment here. What criteria would you use in making land use decisions? On what basis would you make decisions concerning road improvements, maintenance, construction, and roadside weed eradication?
Badgett: So the first part of the question the criteria for making the land use decisions, I think with this area it is unique because it is an agricultural county. You have a lot of farming community. One situation that I thought about when I saw this question was hog farms. So if a huge hog farm wanted to come in how would I assess their ability to run a huge hog farm in here? What I would look for initially in thinking about hog farming I would have to go back to some historical data on whatever industry it is that is coming in. So if is hog farms what is the historical data on the environmental impact of hog farms? What is the impact on the surrounding smaller farming areas with a larger hog farm in there? Environmental, agriculture, does this sustain the growth the County, is this in the best interest of the County or is it going to hinder future growth? Towards the second question about roads and weed eradication first and foremost is the safety. So if the roads are unsafe then that's a priority. Quality of the roads, sometimes your roads can be safe but not necessarily of good quality so you also want to take in consideration the quality of the roads. Cost is always a big part of the decision. And finally esthetics. I think that with this being such a great area with natural beauty you want to make sure you maintain the natural beauty of the area while insuring that if there are weeds that will come up on the side of the road and cause issues for the shoulder of the road that you do eradicate those but not to go too far and endanger any potential of any natural areas that might be beautiful as they are.
Kriz: What do you think should be the County's role in protecting the environment?
Badgett: The County must make decisions that insure that the environment is protected. When I think about environmental protection I still think about larger companies. So if I think about Proctor and Gamble or some of the other larger companies within the County, the County should set the standard to say that if you are here, if you are using our resources, if you are a part of our community then you don’t just take from our community, you give back. Recognizing companies that have sustainability plans. Recognizing companies that are implanting actions to reduce emissions or waste water reduction such that they're not impacting a county that is growing and that needs the resources that it has.
Kriz: Describe your approach to balancing economic and business interests with interests in the health and well-being of the citizens, and environmental concerns. Which kind of takes on what you were saying.
Badgett: What I was saying that businesses are again responsible. There's sometimes gray areas and when there is a gray area it should be what is in the best interest of the County. And if it requires a company, take for instance Proctor and Gamble, a multi-billion dollar company, they're required to spend a little more to insure that the environment is protected then we should hold them responsible.
Kriz: What is your opinion of the Johnson County Comprehensive Land Use Plan?
Badgett: I read the Johnson County Comprehensive Land Use Plan and it is that. It is comprehensive. It is very comprehensive. I can say I look forward to helping to implement the strategies, developing plans to help forward some of the strategies that are in the plan. I looked and looked for holes and I think they named this appropriately because it is absolutely comprehensive. I just look forward to helping move that forward.
Slockett: We're to the taxes and budget section. Back to me. What do you know about, and what is your opinion regarding the impact and incidence of Johnson County taxes?
Badgett: As far as Johnson County taxes, the property taxes, I think the taxes that are collected now are essential to providing the services for the County. You have many rural areas that require services and if that means you collect the taxes and we have to insure that a family gets fire department assistance in a timely manner then I think that's necessary. I don’t necessarily have a poor opinion of the County tax.
Slockett: What, if anything, should be done about the nature of County tax options?
Badgett: I think that the current County tax is appropriate. If any additional County tax options are needed I think that it should be a last resort. I think that if we exhaust all of the options that we currently have and we cannot identify any ways to reduce the budget then you go back to the people. You can say we do need an option for additional taxes and it is going to benefit the County as a whole.
Slockett: Are you in favor of implementing a local option sales tax? If so, for what use?
Badgett: Yes, as a last resort. For example for the disaster relief. There is no way you could foresee an occurrence of that nature. Again a local sales tax would benefit those areas that voted to participate in this. It is I think as a last resort and also there are other options that this would be a viable solution.
Slockett: Do you have experience in putting together budgets?
Badgett: I work with budgets. Actually I'm working with the considerable budget now, the $11 million project. My portion of that budget is for electrical work. We actually have another portion of my big portion is specifically for controls. So designing and implementing the controls of this new system that we are going to have. The two brightest points I can point out about managing a budget is one, to know your budget ahead of time. So as much detail I can get into the budget early on, I try, because the last thing you want to do is go back and ask for more money at the end. And two, managing the budget as if it were my own money. If it were my half a million dollars I'm not going to purchase an electrical panel that is $20,000 when I can probably take a little time and look and find one that is $15,000. So managing the budget as if it were mine and finding opportunities to come under budget.
Slockett: I imagine that electrical engineering degree and your summa cum laude level help in that project quite a bit. How would you balance spending requests versus increasing taxes? If it became necessary to reduce the County's operating budget by 10%, how should the reduction be implemented?
Badgett: The first question, balancing spending versus increasing taxes?
Slockett: Yes. How would you balance spending versus increasing taxes, and then the follow up is what if you had to make a 10% cut.
Badgett: Lets start with the spending. The 10% cut, that is a big one. So again the last thing you want to do is increase taxes. I don’t think you'll ever have the buy in of all of the people to say yes let's go ahead and increase the taxes. I think if you have exhausted your resources, if you can show that I have gone through all of these options and I have identified five different options and we realize that none of these options will meet the criteria to sustain the budget, then I believe you have data to go to the County and say yes we may need to increase taxes. The approach would be to ensure that there are no other options on the table to decrease the budget before you go in and increase the taxes. Cutting 10% out of the budget is significant considering a county budget. I looked through, I think it was the fiscal year 2008 budget, to get a feel for the spending. I looked to see where I could take out 10% and nobody wants to lose 10%. I believe that if you employ each organization to first dig into their own organizations and find where they may have losses that haven’t been identified. You may not find a total 10% but you'll find losses that may be administrative losses, operational losses, equipment losses, that you can capitalize on those opportunities to decrease your spending. And then if it were Kenya you need to go in and make sure we absolutely take out 10% I would have to identify what services are essential to the County, what services are needed. I want to ensure that health and safety is covered, the roads are covered, legal and judicial. You draw that line and you say okay everything below this line we'll look at, but we know this is the bare bones, this is the meat and potatoes of what we need, and we won’t touch this.
Painter: A few short questions in sequence on appointment versus election. If you are appointed and an election is called, will you seek your party's nomination?
Badgett: Absolutely.
Painter: Will you run for reelection if you are appointed?
Badgett: Absolutely. I am looking for more than a short-term leadership role. I am looking to definitely have an impact long-term.
Painter: Finally, if you are not appointed, would you petition or would you run as the nominee in an election that was petitioned for? In other words there is an option for people to nominate someone by petition.
Badgett: I can't say that I would petition. I think that if another individual is appointed I would definitely believe that the Board had made the right decision. When the next election came around I would definitely run. If a petition was signed and an election was to be held then I would run for the election.
Kriz: As we kind of get down towards the end do you have any questions for us about the appointment process you are going through right now?
Badgett: I think I understand the appointment process and that the term is just for the reminder of the term, so until December of 2010. Not quite sure about the petition part. So an individual would be appointed, and then there is a certain number of days.
Slockett: 14 days after the appointment is made is the deadline to turn them in. There is a group that has been collecting signatures. It actually could have been turned in at any time but the deadline to turn it in is 14 days after the appointment is made. Then the three of us are required to call an election at the earliest practicable time. We have to give the Auditor no less than 32 days notice of an election. Then the election will be held. Political parties hold conventions to nominate the candidate. Or non-political party organizations such as the Green Party can also nominate people. Kim was talking about another option is that individuals can run by nominated by petition by collecting 250 signatures. Like Ross Perot did, nominated by petition, that is how Ross Perot ran in the state of Iowa. That is how the process would work. We would have to pick a date and it could be no sooner than 32 days. I would have to be notified 32 days before that day. Are there anymore questions?
Kriz: We are at the point where anything you would like to wrap up or share with us.
Badgett: I appreciate the opportunity, one, for the interview. Two, I believe that I am well suited for the role. I have leadership and the additional experience in industry that makes me capable to deliver in this role and to impact the community.
Painter: Thank you. It was good to meet you.
Kriz: Good to see you. Thank you very much.
Slockett: Thanks very much.
Slockett: I think we decided on another meeting but we didn’t actually formally vote on it. I think that's about all we need.
Painter: We need a motion
Slockett: I think we would need a motion. Essentially a motion to cancel the meetings we previously scheduled, except for tomorrow, and schedule another interview. So the meetings we scheduled for October 26, 2009 and October 28, 2009. Then we'll need a motion to interview Edgar Thornton on October 29th at 2 p.m. and to make a decision on October 30th at 10 a.m.
Painter: Do we need separate motions for each of those or since they are all calendar changes then we would discuss them.
Slockett: It is your preference.
Painter: I would like to make a motion that we eliminate meetings previously scheduled for the 26th and the 28th and that we agree to interview Edgar Thornton on the 29th at 2:00 p.m. and to make our decision on the 30th at a meeting scheduled for 10:00 a.m. That's my motion.
Kriz: Second.
Parkins: Can I repeat the last part? The 30th at 10:00 a.m.
Painter: For making our decision, the selection meeting.
Slockett: I'll second that.
Parkins: Tom Kriz already seconded.
Slockett: I didn't hear. I was waiting for you to so I didn't hear it.
Slockett: All in favor say aye.
Painter: Aye.
Kriz: Aye.
Slockett: Aye. All opposed the same sign. Do we have any thing else?
Painter: I don't think so.
Slockett: Meeting adjourned.
Adjourned at 11:45 a.m.
______________________________________________________________________
Attest: Tom Slockett, Auditor
By:
On the _______ day of _____________________, 2009
By Casie Parkins, Recording Secretary
Sent to the Committee on October 27, 2009 at 3:45 p.m.