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HomeMy WebLinkAboutFinance 02-10-05 AMENDED ST. CROIX COUNTY NOTICE OF COMMITTEE MEETING AND AGENDA TO: Chairman Buck Malick St. Croix County Board FROM: Ralph Swenson, Chair COMMITTEE TITLE: Finance DATE: Thursday, February 10, 2005 8:30 A.M. LOCATION: Room 1281, St. Croix County Government Center, Hudson CALL TO ORDER ROLL CALL ADOPTION OF AGENDA DATE OF NEXT MEETING: March 10, 2005 8:30 A.M. ACTION ON PREVIOUS MINUTES: January 13, 2005 UNFINISHED BUSINESS: NEW BUSINESS: 1. Review of Vouchers 2. Treasurer's Report 3. Maintenance Department Report 4. Computer Services Department Report 5. Risk Management Report 6. Corporation Counsel Report a. Review of Sheriff's Policies by Ray Pollen b. Plan for review of additional Sheriffs Policies 7. Clerk of Court's Report a. Consideration to Adopt a Policy for Writing Off Bad Debt More Than 10 Years Old ** 8. County Clerk Report 9. Finance Director Report a. Financial Reports b. Consideration of State Trust Funds Loans Prepayment c. Discussion of Debt Collection Service Options ** 10. Administrative Coordinator Report a. Update on County Property Inventory b. Status of Nazca Solutions Project 11. Review of Land Materials Disposition Options — County Limestone Remnants from Highway 65 Proj ect 12. * *Evaluation of sand and gravel at County Farm CORRESPONDENCE: ADJOURNMENT (Agenda not necessarily presented in this order) COPIES TO: County Board Office News Media/Notice Board County Clerk County Board County Departments * *ADDITIONS /CHANGE S /CORRECTIONS 10:09 AM 2/7/2005 OFFICIAL MINUTES OF THE ST. CROIX COUNTY FINANCE COMMITTEE Regular Meeting February 10, 2005 Meeting called to order by Vice Chair Krueger at 8:30 a.m. Present: Esther Wentz, Stan Krueger, Clarence Malick and Daryl Standafer. Absent and excused: Ralph Swenson. Staff present: Administrative Coordinator Chuck Whiting, Finance Director Michelle Pietrick, and County Clerk Cindy Campbell. Others: Supr. Julie Speer. Media: Judy Wiff. Motion by Standafer, 2 nd by Wentz to adopt the agenda. Krueger noted that agenda items 11 and 12 are the same matter. Carried unanimously. Date of next meeting is March 10, 2005. Motion by Malick, 2 nd by Wentz to approve the January 13, 2005 minutes with the following correction: under the Administrative Coordinator's report, item 11. c. should read: "...the Nazca product would replace the Tapes Laredo product used by the Register of Deeds Office." Carried unanimously. 1. Review of Vouchers. Malick indicated he found one unusually expensive item which he has questioned. He had nothing else to report. Malick invited other committee members to review the reports. 2. Treasurer's Report. The Finance Committee reviewed the December 2004 reconciliation report as submitted by County Treasurer Cheryl Slind. Krueger noted the service charges of $865.85 and interest earned in the amount of $7,295.88. Pietrick indicated this is a direct result of the way the accounts were set up. Krueger commended Pietrick and Slind setting up the accounts this way. 3. Maintenance Department Report. No report from Robole. Wentz reported the account for the Health and Human Services remodeling project has been closed. 4. Computer Services Department Report. No report. 5. Risk Management Report. No report from Rubin. Whiting reported he and Malick visited the WMMIC office while in Madison earlier this week. He indicated WMMIC is looking for board members and Whiting indicated he will submit his name to WMMIC with the support of the Finance Committee. 6. Corporation Counsel Report. a. Review of Sheriff's Policies by Ray Pollen. Greg Timmerman provided an update on the ten priority policies which are being reviewed by Ray Pollen. Pollen told Timmerman he hopes to have his review done in one week. Timmerman reported Pollen plans to make some suggestions on the policies which he finds confusing. Standafer confirmed that Pollen will not be writing the policies, he is only reviewing and providing specifics for language changes. Pollen's report will be forwarded to the Public Protection and Finance committees and the Sheriff, with the ultimate decision on the changes coming from the Sheriff and Public Protection Committee. Discussion regarding acting or not acting on suggested changes to the policies. Malick suggested recording reasons not to adopt a suggested change. Finance Committee February 10, 2005 Page 2 of 4 b. Plan for review of additional Sheriff's Policies. Timmerman reported Pollen indicated he is available to review additional policies for the county. Timmerman indicated Pollen suggested instead of having him review the policies over the next several months to have the Sheriff collect policies from other WMMIC insured counties and maybe WMMIC would be interested in putting together or reviewing the policies and making comments to what they think would be appropriate. Once collected the Sheriff could pick a policy or parts of policies and put them together. Malick indicated the Public Protection Committee intends to review the policies after the review is completed by Pollen. Supr. Speer added Jail Captain Humphrey has been good in informing the Public Protection Committee about policy changes. Timmerman indicated WMMIC sends out a monthly report regarding law enforcement issues. Timmerman and Rubin get copies. Timmerman reviews it and forwards proposed changes to the Jail and Sheriff. Malick indicated changes have to be monitored. It was suggested to possibly have Pollen on retainer, initiate changes from Pollen or suggestions from the Sheriff. Timmerman confirmed that the Sheriff is in charge of making changes to the policies. Timmerman indicated it may be appropriate to outsource policy monitoring. Krueger suggested WMMIC review the eight other county jail policies and make a recommendation. Timmerman suggested asking the Sheriff what sources he has for policy information and collect the sources and determine if that's the complete source of information. Krueger suggested someone from the Public Protection Committee report back to Finance next month on what the Sheriff's sources are for policies. Whiting asked who is ultimately responsible for maintaining the policies. Krueger suggested Speer review this with the Sheriff and the Public Protection Committee. Timmerman suggested waiting until Pollen's report is here, review it, then bring it back and decide what the next step would be for the remaining policies. Malick noted we can't afford to wait and to place this matter on future Finance Committee agendas. 7. Clerk of Court's Report. a. Consideration to Adopt a Policy for Writing Off Bad Debt More than 10 Years Old. See 9.c. 8. County Clerk Report. County Clerk Campbell indicated with the assistance of Dana Baker, a new copy machine has been purchased and installed in the County Clerk's office. Campbell stated Baker sent out a Request for Bids and received five bids. A Lanier copy machine was purchased from EO Johnson. The bid from EO Johnson for the Lanier copy machine came in at $13,146.00. Baker researched Government Rates which EO Johnson bases their quotes. Baker's discovered a difference of $1,058 between the Government Rate and EO Johnson's bid. Therefore the total purchase price for the Lanier copy machine was $12,088.00. Campbell added this copy machine includes a network print card, document server and scanner. Campbell thanked Baker for her work. Discussion regarding mandatory rather than voluntary coordinated purchasing. Whiting suggested Baker put together a report regarding savings and report back to the Finance Committee next month. 9. Finance Department Report. a. Financial Report. General Fund Cash and investments balance as of December 31, 2004 of $22,514,725.34. Pietrick indicated this is high because of tax collection. Two CDs Finance Committee February 10, 2005 Page 3 of 4 have matured and Pietrick asked for direction from the Finance Committee. She added the Financial Advisor will report in March. 2004 Contingency Fund balance is $159,645.00. Pietrick indicated the remaining Contingency Fund balance will lapse. 2004 Sales Tax received in January 2005 for November 2004 sales are $439,800. 2004 sales tax collections have exceeded the budgeted amount by $368,622.66. Yearend Revenue and Expenditure Reports were reviewed. Pietrick reported the District Attorney's office will not be receiving some anticipated grant funds and the county did not get reimbursement for the Drug Prosecutor position. Pietrick added the Personnel Department budget was over mainly because of paying for legal services. Pietrick indicated Septic Inspection and Recycling overages are offset by increased revenue. Question regarding Real Property Lister budget which ended under budget. Malick indicated Planning and Zoning intends to have a tracking system to track backlog in the Real Property Lister's department. Krueger asked Pietrick to look into why there are overages and under budgets. Malick suggested focusing on discrepancies over $10,000. There were no Health and Human Services reports. Pietrick also distributed two articles relating to enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems which focuses on the most technologically advanced products. Pietrick indicated she has placed accounting software in her 2006 capital outlay plan. b. Consideration of State Trust Funds Loans Prepayments. Pietrick reported the county can prepay State Trust Fund Loans. Currently, the county has two loans with an interest rate of four percent. The county is halfway through paying them off. If the county pays them off early, it would save $14,388 in interest. Pietrick indicated we need to come up with the remaining principal balance which is $238,245. Pietrick recommends an early payoff and to use the funds from the excess sales tax or from the General Fund. Standafer indicated the county is earning less than an aggregate of four percent on the county's investments and added it would justify the prepayment of a four percent loan when our return is significantly less. Pietrick indicated this would probably require a budget amendment. Motion by Malick, 2 °a by Standafer to recommend to the County Board to prepay the principal of the State Trust Fund loans for the approximate amount of $238,000 and for a fund source to take it from the fund of revenues from sales tax that were not forecasted to be as high as they are. Pietrick will send a letter to the State no later than February 15 stating it is St. Croix County's intention to prepay its two State Trust Fund Loans. The actual payment is due March 15, 2005. Pietrick confirmed funds will be wired. This matter needs to be placed on the March County Board agenda. Carried unanimously. C. Discussion of Debt Collection Service Options. Pietrick, Dana Baker and Lori Meyer were present. Pietrick indicated a meeting was held with representative from departments that would benefit from a collection agency. Baker put together a summary of the meeting. Health and Human Services is interested in assistance for out -of -state debt. Pietrick asked if the Finance Committee would want to pursue this and if so, would they recommend one collection agency or multiple collection agencies. Both Pietrick and Meyer have talked to two different collection agencies. Pietrick indicated using two agencies would utilize every collection level possible. Whiting suggested developing one list of receivables rather than each department having its own list. Meyer estimated $190,000 is owed on debts older than ten years. Whiting suggested concentrating on what a collection agency could bring us. One firm indicated they keep twenty -five percent of what they collect. It was suggested the group interview the two firms. Malick suggested utilizing two firms and compare the results after a year. Discussion Finance Committee February 10, 2005 Page 4 of 4 regarding what gets assigned to a collection agency. Meyer indicated the Clerk of Court would advocate submitting debts more than three years old, but not less than. Discussion regarding procedure for jail judgment entries for health services, dental and pharmaceutical; and payments by credit card. The committee agreed to defer credit card usage including Discover and American Express to next month. Pietrick indicated our options are to explore firms on the state list and to limit to state approved collection agencies, reconvene the group and interview the firms and make sure there no hidden fees. This would expand available resources and someday come back with a write -off policy. Future agenda item is to discuss with Meyer furnishing names for publishing on the county's website. 10. Administrative Coordinator Report. a. Update on County Property Inventory. Whiting indicated he has no updates at this time. b. Status of Nazca Solutions Project. Whiting indicated Nazca has entered into agreements with Barron and Clark counties. St. Croix County has a verbal understanding that will follow -up in writing and we will work with them to get a pilot site set up for St. Croix County. Planning and Zoning staff, Supr. Zoerb, Tom Boron and Bob Heise have met with Nazca. The Planning and Zoning Committee will act on the agreement and will come back to the Finance Committee regarding payment. 11. Review of Land Materials Disposition Options — County Limestone Remnants from Highway 65 Project. Krueger reported he asked Supr. King and Highway Commissioner Tim Ramberg if there is limestone or sand and gravel on the County Farm property that could be sold to a contractor for the new highway project. Ramberg indicated he could get a geological survey done to see if there is sand and gravel on the property. The cost would be minimal. Malick indicated this information needs to be available by June. Motion by Malick, 2 nd by Standafer to authorize the St. Croix County Highway Commissioner to make an assessment of the opportunity for sand and gravel made available from County Farm property not to exceed $5,000, to be taken from the condemnation fund (from State's taking). Brief discussion regarding Schottler lease on County Farm property. Whiting warned the committee regarding making a decision on use of the property even though the County Board hasn't made a decision for the property. Carried unanimously. 12. Evaluation of Sand and Gravel at County Farm. Same as item 11. Correspondence: None. Meeting adjourned at 10:50 a.m. Esther Wentz, Secretary Cindy Campbell, Recording Secretary