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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMay_20_2014_Budget_Session_MinutesMay 20, 2014 IREDELL COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS BUDGET SESSION MINUTES Mav 20, 2014 The Iredell County Board of Commissioners met on Tuesday, May 20, 2014, at 4:00 PM, in the Iredell County Government Center (South Wing Conference Room), 200 South Center Street, Statesville, NC. Board Members Present Chairman Steve Johnson Renee Griffith Ken Robertson Absent: Vice Chairman Marvin Norman (sick) Staff present: County Manager Ron Smith, Deputy County Manager Beth Dirks, Finance Director Susan Robertson, Assistant Finance Director Deb Alford, Solid Waste Director David Lambert, Administrative Assistant Susan Cornell, Library Director Steve Messick, ICATS Director Ben Stikeleather, Health Director Jane Murray, Susan Johnson, Bill Griffith, Caroline Taylor, Brady Freeman, Parks/Recreation & Facilities Director Robert Woody, Parks Assistant Director Michelle Hepler, DSS Director Yvette Smith, Administrative Assistant Sheila Cook, and Clerk to the Board Retha Gaither. CALL TO ORDER by Chairman Steve Johnson and turned the meeting over to County Manager Ron Smith. SOLID WASTE: Solid Waste Director David Lambert began with explaining that 2/3 of his administrative staff will be eligible to retire within the next five to eight years. He is proposing to divide the department into two sections — Operational and Administrative. With this he would like to adjust the pay scale and add positions in the landfill. Presently when only one person is out they are shorthanded. A person is definitely needed at the West Iredell site. Chairman Johnson is not against developing a plan of succession and understands the needs of additional positions. He asked what that plan of succession would include. Lambert said they would like to have it in stages. Someone could be hired as an equipment operator, learn more about operations, train, obtain certifications and move up. However, some positions require more intensive certifications. Chairman Johnson asked the County Manager if there was anything in place that would facilitate the plan Mr. Lambert was speaking of. Smith said some departments have required certifications which receive monetary rewards. However, presently, merit is the only increase available for Solid Waste. A succession plan is available in some departments, but not in Solid Waste. Smith pointed out that many departments are made up of working supervisors/managers. This is an issue in Solid Waste with Terry Church. The institutional knowledge he has will leave with him upon retirement. May 20, 2014 Commissioner Renee Griffith asked if the request for more employees is actually because of more work or is it to help facilitate the succession plan. Lambert said it is a combination. However, there are several areas at the site that presently are not covered. The recycling arena for white goods, electronic products, and shingles are not supervised. He said he has caught the public removing items and others dumping trash in the shingles which means someone has to remove that trash before sending shingles to recycle. This is also a safety issue. There are soil and erosion issues as well. Commissioner Griffith asked if the staff would be hired at entry level, train and begin moving up. Lambert said yes, that is the plan. Commissioner Robertson asked if the enterprise fund could pay for this. Smith said yes. Chairman Johnson asked for clarification on revenues and expenditures and how the capital reserve would look at the end of the year. Smith said the capital reserve is fine. Lambert said he is requesting a new landfill compactor which is very expensive. The present compactor is a 1989 model. However, the repairs over the last two years have been $130,000 which is close to the original cost. The manufacturer has since disbanded and many parts are no longer available. Last year the compaction rates were some of the best in the entire state, with 1,850 pounds per cubic yard. This has raised the lifetime average from .53 to .57 on utilization rate, which may not sound like a lot, but one hundred extra pounds in one cubic yard of air space translates into millions of dollars over the life of the landfill. Chainnan Johnson asked what the fund balance would be after the potential purchase of this equipment. Smith said the request from Solid Waste will funnel $278,000 back into the fund balance. Even with the heavy purchases he will have to make on the capital side and new employees, there is a surplus. Commissioner Robertson asked about the County promotion policy. He said back in the 70s and 80s it was the trend to train, select, and then promote. However, as everyone was trying to reduce labor dollars the trend became select, train then promote. Smith said the County has just started leadership training. This year training was made available to individuals that were nominated by the department head or County Manager with the idea of training before a position is even open. This is a very economical training program and is 2 May 20, 2014 beneficial toward preparing future leaders. However, it is not a guarantee for a promotion but does aid the process. Lambert said he interviewed several employees before selecting a candidate for the leadership training. He will also be selective when choosing a candidate for the MOLO (Manager of Landfill Operations) certification because it is about $4,000 per person and is required by the state. Health Department — Smith said at the time the initial request was made for an additional person in Environmental Health, the back log was only 2-3 weeks. However, since that time the back -log has risen to 8-9 weeks. He originally proposed to maintain a watch and discuss again mid -year. Environmental Health Manager Brady Freeman said they have put two supervisors in the field. The back -log is due to man -power issues but they have offered volunteer overtime. They have discussed mandatory overtime and contracting with other counties. One employee, hired two months ago, will soon be authorized for water wells. Health Director Jane Murray said there is a vacant position but Centralized Intem Training will not begin until September so it doesn't make sense to hire someone before they can be trained. Smith said because of the staffing issues, he has been hesitant to recommend adding positions. Murray said the vacancy has just been posted, but she is planning to reach out to surrounding counties with a proposal to share some positions. Chairman Johnson asked if the wait time could be reduced with the current staff. Smith said if all positions are filled and certified the wait time would reduce. The best avenue presently is to fill vacancies, review certification needs and then evaluate the needs. Commissioner Robertson questioned past issues with losing employees after certification. Murray said the staffing issues at present are due to retirement and moving staff members around. She said the new policy requires new interns to sign a contract for a mandatory time of employment after receiving full registered environmental health status. Commissioner Robertson asked if they anticipated a surge of inspections in the next wave of construction. Freeman said rumor has it to expect an influx of applications. If this does happen then he would put into place a development team. Next week he plans to assign certain staff to final inspections and certain staff to work on projects from the list. 3 May 20, 2014 Smith said two positions have been moved into Information Technology's budget. He said the Rapid Access Permit Program is continuing. Once all of the data is entered it is desired to make Environmental Health more mobile. Department of Social Services — Smith said one thing to point out is NC Fast and some positions they are requesting. He said the issues with NC Fast have been extensive and he is recommending these positions remain in the budget. Commissioner Robertson asked if there would be any funding from the State for those positions. DSS Director Yvette Smith said they would be funded at 75% because of the target use of those positions. They will only work with the NC Fast System. Commissioner Robertson asked how long those positions would be funded. DSS Director Smith said the 75% reimbursement is presently a fixture, because of the implementation of NC Fast. Chairman Johnson asked if things have improved with state support. DSS Director Smith said the system is very difficult. There are seven pilot counties which means there are a lot of glitches until everyone is on board which is the reason for all of the issues with Food and Nutrition. She anticipates the same issues with the next implementation. Yvette Smith said it is their responsible to assure that mandated programs are administered efficiently and accurately. She believes that an automated eligibility system is the ultimate framework for ensuring the timely and accurate delivery of mandated programs. Therefore, she explained, some of the critical needs in implementation of NC Fast. Based on the recent experiences with Food and Nutrition, where they spent the majority of time navigating system defects, work -a -rounds, and system issues, resulted in an increase in the back log of cases. As a result benefits were delayed three to four months. She said the department has experienced a 13% turn over since July. However, staff has worked untold hours trying to ensure citizens receive benefits and meet the USDA deadline of March 31, 2014. Plus comply with the process requirement for the applications and recertifications in order to avoid the future suspension or the disallowance of administration funds for North Carolina. The transition of NC Fast in Medicaid causes significant concern specific to the negative impact to the health care system delivery to the citizens, especially critical urgent and essential medical care. The fear is the impact on the local health care economy as it relates to Medicaid authorization and reimbursement for health care providers. The current challenge in Medicaid is the steady growing back log. There are 1,345 pending applications, of which 938 are untimely. This same time last year there were 437 pending applications and none were untimely. This is a 200% increase. The recertifications have also doubled, totaling 2,000 per month. The case load size has increased to over 900 cases for a one person case load. Therefore, it is important to invest in both permanent and temporary staff plus maintain over -time authorizations for staff to help meet the increased work load over the next several months. 4 May 20, 2014 Commissioner Robertson asked about the report that unemployment is going down which doesn't match what is being said about applications for benefits. Yvette Smith said there is an increasing number of uninsured citizens. Commissioner Robertson asked if there is a reduction in Food Stamps or other programs. Yvette Smith said no. Chairman Johnson said eligibility standards have changed. Also, when unemployment benefits stopped, people took whatever jobs were available. Even though they are working they still may qualify for benefits. Yvette Smith said many citizens applied for the Affordable Care Act and all of those applications go into the market place. Then those applications are sent back to the State. Iredell County received over 900 of those applications. DSS must review and evaluate those applications for Medicaid. Commissioner Robertson asked for clarification on the 2,000 recertifications. Yvette Smith said they have had to comply with the modified adjustment gross income which is part of the affordable care act. Everyone must provide their tax information to see if they qualify for Medicaid. This means two applications, one traditional and one by MAGI which is why it has doubled from 1,000 to 2,000. Commissioner Griffith asked if the two positions were for recertifications. Yvette Smith said they will work in applications. Commissioner Griffith asked if that would help with the number of recertifications. Yvette Smith said it would, but she will look at recertifications when everything is fully implemented in October. Presently if staff cannot complete their work each month, the state will give a 30 -day automatic eligibility for clients that were not completed. This will continue until December 2014. However, the state expects the department to catch up, even though the volume is growing. Commissioner Robertson asked about the turn -over rate and if there are issues replacing employees. Yvette Smith said they are losing senior staff. Replacements are hired at a lower rate for IMC I, and then after a year's experience they qualify for an IMC 11. Some have left this agency for another agency with higher wages, some have retired and some have found unique positions elsewhere. May 20, 2014 Contracted Mental Health — County Manager Ron Smith said there were no changes. This has been stable for the third year. Veterans' Services — Smith said there were very minor increases in this budget, which is due to insurance and normal salary adjustments. ICATS — ICATS Director Ben Stikeleather said the 5310 grant is going away, as he mentioned before. He has been in discussion with state DOT, because the current 5310 grant money runs for two years and is SAFETEA-LU money. It didn't make sense why it shouldn't be eligible in the urban area. Therefore, he has just received word, the 5310 policy was reviewed and Iredell County will have 5310 grant money in the urban area for one more year, until July 1, 2015. They are encouraging the elderly to use transportation through the Council on Aging so there will not be a massive turn over when 5310 ends. Stikeleather said ICATS will be eligible for a federal formula grant called 5307, which is a FTA (Federal Transit Authority) grant for urban areas for fixed routes and complimentary disability transportation associated with it. It is also eligible for capital uses. In order to leverage that, it must go through CATS, who is the direct recipient of that money. ICATS has negotiated a formula with CATS (Charlotte Area Transit System) that will be presented to the TCC (Trade Compliance Center) over the next couple of months in order to distribute those funds back to Iredell County. However, the caveat is CATS will oversee Iredell County's federal transportation portion, or CATS will, through the MPO (Metropolitan Planning Organization) name ICATS a designated recipient and the money will come directly from FTA to Iredell County. That means all of the reporting, oversight, all administrative work is done by ICATS. Currently the NCDOT handles all of the reporting, etc. It also means, reporting annually to the NTD (National Transit Database), safety audits, triennial audits from a financial standpoint with the federal government. Commissioner Griffith asked if it was worth the money. Stikeleather said yes, they are looking at $225,000 per year. Plus it will allow ICATS to continue to provide services. Commissioner Robertson asked if they would need to add staff. Stikeleather said yes they would like to add one staff member to come in and help with the administrative portion. The title would be Administrative Specialist. Commissioner Robertson asked if the cost of the employee salaries plus benefits would equal the money received. Stikeleather stated it is not just the $225,000 because there is a contract match with the Town of Mooresville. The cost of benefits & salaries would be about $50,000. Even without the grant money, this is a much needed position because of the comp time currently being accrued. Smith said the present staff does not have the capacity to manage the administrative duties of this grant. 6 May 20, 2014 Stikeleather said even if the grant is not accepted, the federal government could perform an audit and require ICATS to do these tasks because of the contracted services they are already providing. Stikeleather said revenues show a project increase in transportation fees for contracted services provided to agencies. He is suggesting to nurture and grow that particular market so they are not dependent on federal and state money. Transportation for Work First has decreased but will be picking back up, which will be approximately $109,000 of the revenue. The 3% rate increase will generate $13,000. Also, the Town of Mooresville has increased the amount of fixed routes they are purchasing. Stikeleather said the expenditures on administration is showing an increase in salaries due to the proposal of the new position, as well as, the addition of a position that was added in the middle of the budget. The safety officer left and a senior person moved into that position and therefore a salary increase. He said they plan to only purchase two vehicles this year, which will be larger than anything already in the fleet. One main reason is the weekly shuttle to Veteran's Administration is filled to the max on every trip. In Operations, the salaries have changed somewhat. There is a request for one full-time driver, but three part-time positions will be eliminated. Even though the number of part-time employees will decrease he is requesting an increase in the salaries of the remaining part-time staff. He said the full-time employees usually get a bump with each salary study, but part-time is not included in the study. Also, included is an increase to be able to award part-time drivers who have CDLs. The larger vehicles will require more CDL drivers and they have implemented a system of Driver I and Driver Il which will be a 4 %2 cent increase with certification. Library — Library Director Steve Messick stated their budget is actually showing a decrease which is due to the transfer of one IT employee to ITS. The most important request is funding for two part-time positions in order to re -open the two branch libraries six days a week. Since 2010 the branch libraries have only been open from Tuesday through Saturday with two full- time employees. This means the two libraries are sitting idle on Monday. Monday is the second busiest day at the main library in Statesville. The part-time positions will begin in September and the salary will be approximately $10,000 each. Messick is requesting a 6% increase in the book budget which is $18,000. There is a growing demand for children's books and e -books. Commissioner Robertson asked what citizens use most from the library. Messick said the use of the public computer is actually down from when the building opened. The biggest increase is the use of the wireless network. More citizens bring their own laptop or tablets to use the Wi-Fi. Commissioner Robertson asked about the increase in children's book usage. Messick said the largest user group is women between the ages of 21-35, the second largest user group is women between the age of 35-50 and the third largest group of users are kids between the ages of 5-15. Most of the women are mothers with children. I May 20, 2014 Parks/Recreation — Smith said this budget shows some increases. They have asked for an outdoor facilitator, but he is not recommending it. Commissioner Robertson asked why this position would not pay for itself. Assistant Director of Parks/Recreation Michelle Hepler said the Whitewater Center in Charlotte is a competitor. She feels this position could certainly generate revenue, but the primary reason to add the position is to offset the retention of trainees. To completely pay for itself is probably not accurate, but it would generate at least 50% of the funds for the position. Hepler said there is another increase in salaries which is due to bringing one field maintenance position from Facilities Services back to Parks/Rec. Facility Services — Smith said, as he mentioned earlier, the safety officer position is not going to be filled at the present time. Two other positions are for grounds maintenance but $20,000 will be transferred to Contracted Services for mowing. This is not for all of the grounds. However, another seasonal person, less than 1000 hours, is proposed to be used where needed with grounds maintenance. Smith said some of the capital requests were put off for another year. Buildings — Smith said all of the building budgets were combined last year. This year is not showing a large increase. Most are basic improvements such as HVAC at the tax office and metal detectors at the Hall of Justice. Facility Services Director Robert Woody said it took a while to set up but it has been easier. Once the base line is created it will be easier predicting needs for future budgets. Commissioner Robertson asked about dropping contracted services for HVAC. Woody said they eliminated three large contracts and are seeing significant savings with HVAC because they are being handled in-house. Woody stated three more roof projects have been checked off the project ordinance. There are a couple more roof and paving projects on the list yet to complete. Smith said it was a three-year list. This concluded the budget work session for the evening. The Board moved into Regular Session at 6:50 p.m. Approval: Clerk to the Board