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HomeMy WebLinkAboutFinance 12-9-97ST. CROIX COUNTY NOTICE OF COMMITTEE MEETING TO: Robert M. Boche, Chair St. Croix County Board FROM: Donald Brown, Chair COMMITTEE TITLE: FINANCE DATE: December 9, 1997 9*00 A.M. LOCATION: St. Croix County Government Center CALL TO ORDER ROLL CALL ADOPTION OF AGENDA DATE OF NEXT MEETING: January 9, 1998 ACTION ON PREVIOUS MINUTES UNFINISHED BUSINESS: 1. Review of Vouchers 2. Security Issues 3. Sign on Houlton Hill NEW BUSINESS: i. Administrative Coordinator's Report A. Ag Center Update 2. Finance Director's Report 3. County Clerk Report 4. Corporation Counsel 5. 1998 County Board and Finance Committee Dates 6. Land Records Funding for Register of Deeds Information System *7. Library Funding A. Possible Contingency Fund Transfer *8. Lake Mallalieu Repair Costs **9. Closed Session Pursuant to s.19.85 (1)(e), WI Statutes, to Conduct Specified Public Business Where Competitive or Bargaining Reasons Require a Closed Session and s.19.85 (1)(g), WI Statutes, to Confer with Legal Counsel re: Possible Litigation **10. Reconvene in Open Session Pursuant to s.19.85 (2), WI Stats. CORRESPONDENCE: ADJOURNMENT (Agenda not necessarily )ATE: 11/26, 12/04, 12/05 COPIES TO: County Board Office County Clerk County Departments *ADDITIONS/CHANGES/CORRECTIONS presented in this order) News Media/Notice Board County Board ST. CROIX COUNTY NOTICE OF COMMITTEE MEETING TO: Robert M. Boche, Chair St. Croix County Board FROM: Donald Brown, Chair COMMITTEE TITLE: FINANCE , 1997 9:00 A.M. LOCATION: St. Croix County Government Center DATE: December 9 CALL TO ORDER ROLL CALL ADOPTION OF AGENDA DATE OF NEXT MEETING: January 9, 1998 ACTION ON PREVIOUS MINUTES UNFINISHED BUSINESS: 1. Review of Vouchers 2. Security Issues 3. Sign on Houlton Hill NEW BUSINESS: 1. Administrative Coordinator's Report A. Ag Center Update 2. Finance Director's Report 3. County Clerk Report 4. Corporation Counsel 5. 1998 County Board and Finance Committee Dates 6. Land Records Funding for Register of Deeds Information *7. Library Funding A. Possible Contingency Fund Transfer *8. Lake Mallalieu Repair Costs CORRESPONDENCE: ADJOURNMENT (Agenda not necessarily presented in this order) DATE: 11/26, 12/04 COPIES TO: County Board Office News Media/Notice Board County Clerk County Board County Departments *ADDITIONS/CHANGES/CORRECTIONS System ST. CROIX COUNTY NOTICE OF COMMITTEE MEETING TO: Robert M. Boche, Chair St. Croix County Board FROM: Donald Brown, Chair COMMITTEE TITLE: FINANCE DATE: December 9, 1997 9:00 A.M. LOCATION: St. Croix County Government Center CALL Mn ORDER ROLL CALL ADOPTION OF AGENDA DATE OF NEXT MEETING: January 9, ACTION ON PREVIOUS MINUTES UNFINISHED BUSINESS: 1. Review of Vouchers 2. Security Issues 3. Sign on Houlton Hill 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. BUSINESS: Administrative Coordinator's A. Ag Center Update Finance Director's Report County Clerk Report Corporation Counsel R eport 1998 County Board and Finance Committee Dates Land Records Funding for Register of Deeds Information System CORRESPONDENCE: ADJOURNMENT (Agenda not necessarily presented in this order) DATE: 11/265 COPIES TO: County Board Office County Clerk County Departments *ADDITIONS/CHANGES/CORRECTIONS News Media/Notice Board County Board MINUTES OF THE ST. CROIX COUNTY FINANCE COMMITTEE Meeting of December 9, 1997 The meeting was called to order by all Brown at 9:05 A.M. Roll call was taken with Brown, Bradley, Boche, and O'Connell in attendance, Dorsey absent (excused). Also in attendance for all or portions of the meeting were Supervisors Herb Giese, Linda Luckey, John Mortensen, and Ron Raymond, members of the press, Register of Deeds Kay Walsh, Corporation Counsel Greg Timmerman, Administrative Coordinator John Krizek, Planner Dave Fodroczi, Facilities Director Ralph Robole, Communications Director Bruce Brantner and Finance Director Rich Loney, who served as recording secretary. A motion was made by Bradley, seconded by O'Connell, to approve the agenda. Motion carried. The next meeting is scheduled for 9:00 A.M., Friday, January 9, 1998. A motion was made by Boche, seconded by Bradley, to approve the minutes of the previous meeting. Motion carried. Brown noted he had reviewed the vouchers prior to the meeting with Loney and Krizek. A motion was made by O'Connell, seconded by Bradley, to approve as presented. Motion carried. Krizek reviewed the history of the "Welcome to St. Croix County" sign in Houlton. He reported that the sign is on County Trunk Highway right of way and that the Highway Department had estimated the cost to remove the sign, dispose of it and reclaim the area to be $700.00. While this cost estimate seemed high to the members, the feeling was that, due to the very poor condition of the sign, it be removed. A motion was made by Bradley, seconded by O'Connell, to authorize staff to have the sign removed. Motion carried. Update on construction of the Ag Center in Baldwin: Krizek reported that the completion date has been extended to January 9, 1998, due to scheduling conflicts with sub- contractors and the feeling that quality may suffer if the issue were pushed. Occupancy would then be targeted for February 2nd. He noted that there are no problems in main- taining occupancy at the offices currently rented from the Village of Baldwin during this period. Regarding interior work, the sheet rocking is going well as is wiring of the facility. Plans are to hold the February Finance Committee meeting at the location. Giese asked if staff would begin moving in before the sub -contractors had completed all of their work to which Krizek replied no. Krizek reviewed the history of the CLUES law enforcement software currently being utilized by the County. An issue has arisen regarding software version 3.25 currently in use by St. Croix County versus release 4.0 the company has released. He noted that they will not support version 3.25 after January 1st and that, while the County had been notified of this some eighteen months ago, that information was not shared by Computer Services staff and, as a result, we need some additional time to decide how to proceed. It is believed that version 4.0 would require a switch from terminal access to personal computers (PC) or "smart" terminals. He had been in contact with CLUES representa- tives and received an extension on support for six months until July 1, 1998. Maximum cost to convert is estimated at $90,000, a solution which would put PC's at all points of December 9, 1997 Page 2 access to the system. He told the Committee that staff is working to determine all possi- ble avenues for solutions to the issue. Funding sources for the cost of conversion may include the Polk/St. Croix Drug Fund, Contingency Fund and Jail Assessment Fund. Multiple issues are involved , including connection with other municipalities. Brown said he felt we need to take a long term view here and that the Information Services Commit- tee should look at the issue from the standpoint of what is best for St. Croix County in the long run. O'Connell asked what other counties are doing, to which Krizek respond. ed there do not seem to be others trying to work with municipalities the way we are with an integrated approach. Robole and Brantner discussed the issue of building security with the Committee in four areas: controlled exit devices, security video equipment, panic alarms and intrusion alarms. Regarding controlled exit devices, Robole suggested that six magnetic door locks be located in the courts area on second floor. These devices have a breaking strength of 1,300 lbs., require that a programmable pass code be entered on a key pad for the door to open and have been used with no problems at the Health and Human Services facility in New Richmond. The doors involved would be from the four court rooms to the access hallway behind them and the two doors at either end of this hall- way. Brown said he felt this to be a common sense, relatively low cost solution to the problem. The locks would be tied to the fire alarm system and would be disabled when a fire alarm is sounded. Possible use of these in the family court area was discussed. A motion was made by O'Connell, seconded by Bradley, to take $4,003 from the Contin. gency Fund for this. Motion carried. Regarding the panic alarms, eight ports of the ten port control panel are currently used by units located in the four courtrooms. The recommendation is that one more controller be purchased with new alarms located in the following offices: Clerk of Courts, Register A Deeds, County Clerk, Treasurer, Child Support, both Court Commissioner rooms and the County Board room. A motion was made by O'Connell, seconded by Bradley, to install the alarms as noted with the $4,178 cost coming from the Contingency Fund. Motion carried. Brantner had one quote for the security video equipment which included a camera, monitor and tape unit. Plans would be to house these items in the equipment room behind the first floor elevators. Bradley questioned the value of this equipment if no one is monitoring it. O'Connell said that, if we are going to look at monitoring an entrance to the building, consideration should be given to looking at the issue of security from a total building standpoint. Brown said the unit would produce a tape and therefore a record to view would exist. Various options exist for this, including a continuously running unit which would tape over itself, one which would have the tapes replaced daily with used tapes stored for a period of time, a unit which is motion activated and one set to start and stop at certain times each day. Various considerations here were discussed. Giese said he felt it very good to monitor the people coming and going into the building, that a system such as this is relatively low cost for the protection it affords and that the monitor could be placed in the Sheriff's Dept. O'Connell said he felt that monitoring one entrance would not give us security because all accesses to the building are not monitored. Brown suggested holding the security monitoring and intrusion alarm points until the next meeting so more research can be done, including getting more information from other suppliers and also directed staff to look at the issue from a facility wide point of new with options for that. December 9, 1997 Page 3 Proposed 1998 meeting dates were reviewed with a tentative Finance Committee schedule being distributed, one which has meetings on the ninth of each month except May 8th and August loth. It was noted that this is a tentative schedule and would be modified if needed. County Board meetings are scheduled for the third Tuesday of each month except the months of February and July. No reports from Finance and the County Clerk Krizek reported on costs to repair the Lake Mallalieu Dam, a project planned for 1998. When the budget was approved by the County Board in November, it was anticipated that the State would fund the project at 100 % . However, the final State budget contains provision for only 50 % funding. Local costs would be shared between St. Croix County (50%), the City of Hudson (20%), Village of North Hudson (20%) and Town of Hudson (10%), the same ratio as yearly maintenance of the structure. At this point, only estimat. ed costs are available, these being $299,600. St. Croix County paid $16,240.93 early in 1997 for plan development. The dam, one of three on the Willow River between New Richmond and the St. Croix River, functions for the purposes of flood control and recrea- tion. The repair project would involve removal of the gates, cleaning and re -sealing them, placing a good deal of rip -rap material and the installation of electric lifts and attached drives with automatic controls. Some work on a small relief dam at the site is also involved. Plans are for the County portion of this to be funded through the 1998 Contingency Fund once bids are received and actual costs known. Giese questioned advance notification by the DNR of their intentions here. Krizek reviewed the history, noting that the City of New Richmond and Willow River State Park did what they saw fit. The DNR feels there is a long term cost savings here through less man hours needed to monitor the water level. The information is presented for informational purposes only at this time. Boche questioned the allocation of funding for municipal libraries contained in the 1998 budget. Under the Board adopted resolution regarding this, funding is based on a mill rate of not less than $.19469359/$1,000 for 1997 through 2001 with a base allocation of $7,500 per library and the additional money allocated based on each library's percentage of total county rural circulation. For 1998, the total funding amounts to $326,534 com- pared to $295,014 in 1997. However, based on percentage of rural circulation, two libra- ries will actually receive less cash in 1998 than they received in 1997, the Deer Park Library $138 less and New Richmond $2,196 less. Boche said he was under the assumption that no library would receive less than they did in 1997, the first year of direct funding, and would like to make these two libraries whole. O'Connell asked if this issue shouldn't go back to the libraries who originally set the formula. Loney said that, if the Committee would consider making up this difference, he did not feel the use of Contin- gency Fund money should be considered. This is because the money levied for direct municipal library funding is apportioned to only twenty-four municipalities (those that do not have a municipal library) whereas money for the Contingency Fund is apportioned to all thirty-four municipalities. To use Contingency Fund money would, in effect, double tax those residents of the ten municipalities that have public libraries for library services. The issue was discussed further with Boche saying he felt this is something the Commit- tee should be aware of. Bradley agreed, saying is may be something that should be looked at for 1999. No report from the Corporation Counsel. December 9, 1997 Page 4 Walsh and Fodroczi met with the Committee regarding the planned 1998 implementation of the Register of Deeds records management system. Fodroczi said that, when the budget was developed, it was anticipated that State grant money would be available to pay for approximately $64,968 of the $136,443 project with the balance funded through carry forward monies and anticipated Land Records Fund revenues from document recordings. (This is a non -levy fund.) When final State determinations were made, it became known that the level of State funding for this project will be approximately $8,400. This issue had been discussed with staff and the Planning, Zoning and Parks Committee and the recommendation is to implement the full system in 1998 so as to get the most out of the system for the best cost and to, therefore, deficit spend the fund upon initial acquisition and recoup in the years 1999 and 2000. This would mean that, as it looks at this point, there will be less monies available in those years to fund other Land Records projects. After some discussion, a motion was made by O'Connell, seconded by Bradley, to deficit spend the Land Records Fund as described. Motion carried. Brown read aloud and presented to Boche a letter of thanks for Bob's many years of service on the County Board and to the Finance, Building and Bond Committee. Bradley and O'Connell also thanked Boche for his efforts. At 10:40 A.M., a motion was made by Bradley, seconded by O'Connell, to move into closed session per Wisconsin Statutes 19.85 (1)(e) to conduct specified public business where competitive or bargaining reasons require a closed session and 19.85 (1)(g) to confer with legal counsel regarding possible litigation. Roll call vote resulted in Bradley, O'Connell, Boche and Brown all in favor. Motion carried. Bradley excused himself from the meeting at 11:20 A.M. A motion was made by O'Connell, seconded by Boche, to reconvene to open session pursuant to Wisconsin Statutes 19.85 (2) at 12:05 P.M. The meeting adjourned at 12:05 P.M. Thomas P. O'Connell, Secretary