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HomeMy WebLinkAboutFinance 12-11-03 ST. CROIX COUNTY NOTICE OF COMMITTEE MEETING TO: Chairman Buck Malick St. Croix County Board FROM: Ralph Swenson, Chair COMMITTEE TITLE: Finance DATE: Thursday, December 11, 2003 8:30 A.M. LOCATION: Room 1281, Government Center, Hudson CALL TO ORDER ROLL CALL ADOPTION OF AGENDA DATE OF NEXT MEETING: January 8, 2004 8:30 A.M. ACTION ON PREVIOUS MINUTES: November 13, 2003 UNFINISHED BUSINESS: NEW BUSINESS: 1. Review of Vouchers 2. Treasurer's Report a. Request for Approval of Same Day Pay for Internet Payments of Real Estate Taxes 3. Maintenance Department Report a. Copy machine 4. Computer Services Department Report 5. Risk Management Report 6. Corporation Counsel Report 7. Clerk of Court's Report 8. County Clerk Report a. Tax Deed Bid Opening 9. Finance Department Report a. Financial Reports b. Jail Accounting Software 10. Administrative Coordinator Report a. County Litigation Financing Options b. 2004 Health Insurance Update c. Approval of Agreement for Second Property Parcel Appraisal of County Land in New Richmond (in response to WisDoT taking of another property) 11. Resolution for County Board re: County Litigation Financing 12. Resolution re: WisDoT Taking of County Land in New Richmond 13. Late Per Diem Request for Mary Ellen Brue 14. Late Per Diem Request for Dale Fern 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 December 11, 2003 OFFICIAL - Approved January 8, 2004 MINUTES OF THE ST. CROIX COUNTY FINANCE COMMITTEE Regular Meeting December 11, 2003 Meeting called to order by Chair Swenson at 8:30 a.m. Present: Ralph Swenson, Clarence Malick, Esther Wentz, Daryl Standafer and Stan Krueger. Staff present: Administrative Coordinator Chuck Whiting, Finance Director Michelle Pietrick and County Clerk Cindy Campbell. Motion by Wentz, f d by Standafer to adopt the agenda. Carried unanimously. Date of next meeting is January 8, 2004. Motion by Malick, 2°d by Wentz to approve the minutes of November 13, 2003. Carried unanimously. 1. Vouchers. Malick continues to review weekly. No discussion. 2. Treasurer's Report. County Treasurer Cheryl Slind submitted the October reconciliation report showing a balance as of October 31, 2003 of $1,784,583.61. a. Request for Approval of Same Day Pay for Internet Payments of Real Estate Taxes. Slind indicated Corporation Counsel has reviewed and modified the Same Day Pay contract. The suggested changes were made and approved by Same Day Pay. Slind hopes to have this in place in two weeks. Motion to approve by Standafer, 2nd by Wentz. Tax payments may be made by credit card or ACH debit with the property owner paying the convenience fee. Carried unanimously. 3. Maintenance Department Report. a. Copy Machine. Robole indicated Maintenance Department's copy machine no longer works. Robole requested use of funds budgeted in 2004 for a new computer to use for a copy machine. Motion to approve by Standafer, 2nd by Malick. Swenson clarified the Maintenance Department will need to delay the acquisition of a new computer. Carried unanimously. Robole added one of the chillers is back online. The second chiller was inspected and should be okay for 2004 and will be checked again in 2005. Swenson asked Robole to continue to provide input to the Capital Outlay Plan. 4. Computer Services Department Report. Computer Services Director Tom Boron indicated video conferencing equipment is ready to be used, but has not been used to date. He indicated the Badger State Report shows video conferencing will save the County $35,000 per year based on transportation cost savings. Swenson asked for a report on its usage. Boron will review information with Public Protection in January. Malick suggested offering this equipment for use by businesses for a fee and to notify the public of its availability. 5. Risk Management Report. No report. Finance Committee December 11, 2003 Page 2 of 5 6. Corporation Counsel Report. No report. 7. Clerk of Court's Report. No report. 8. County Clerk Report. County Clerk Cindy Campbell reported requests for additional information were sent to the claimants and town chairs regarding last month's dog damage claims. a. Tax Deed Bid Opening. Campbell indicated the Notice for Sale of Tax Deed Property was properly placed in the County newspapers for parcels located in the Town of Cady and the Village of Baldwin. The notice ran for three weeks. One bid was received for the parcel located in the town of Cady. This property was appraised at $73,500. Chair Swenson read Wis. Stat. 75.69(1) which provides, "Any county may accept the bid most advantageous to it but every bid less than the appraised value of the property shall be rejected." Chair Swenson opened and read the bid submitted by Blegen Properties, LLC. Bid offered was $29,032 and a certified check was included in the amount of $2,903.20 (ten percent of bid). Motion to reject the bid by Malick, 2nd by Standafer. Carried. Chair Swenson indicated the County will deal with its tax deed parcels on the advice of Corporation Counsel. 9. Finance Department Report. a. Financial Report. Pietrick reported a General Fund balance as of October 31, 2003 of $21,136,376.56 which includes unpaid bond proceeds. The microwave project has not drawn any funds to date. The County may run into arbitrage issues. Pietrick indicated twenty- five percent of the proceeds must to be spent within six months and the remainder spent within eighteen months from July 2003. Malick will follow up with Gary Kollman and keep Pietrick informed. Pietrick reported the Expenditure Report shows the Sheriff's Department overtime is almost exhausted at 98%. Swenson requested Pietrick provide revenue reports. Health and Human Services budget should be at 84%. Two MasterCard machines were purchased but not yet received. This should help speed up revenues. Total revenues for Health and Human Services through October 2003: $18,056,876.49; total expenditures: $18,725,567.13. b. Jail Accounting Software. Pietrick reported she has looked at the jail accounting system and indicated the promises Visions assured regarding software upgrades and fixes, have not worked. She has reviewed other options and has found a program she feels will meet the needs for the jail accounting system. The new software is $6,000 and will require two receipt printers at $300 per printer. There are funds available in the Visions reserve account. Motion by Wentz, 2nd by Malick to take funds out of the Visions reserve account to pay for new software and printers. There is approximately $30,000 in the reserve account. This account will not be closed until all improvements are made to the remaining portions of Visions currently used by the County. Pietrick will talk with the Public Protection Committee regarding their hopes for the Vision corrections. Carried unanimously. Finance Committee December 11, 2003 Page 3 of 5 10. Administrative Coordinator Report. a. County Litigation Financing Options. Mike Hoheisel of Springsted was present. Whiting indicated the County needs to come up with funds for the proposed settlement of the litigation. WMMIC is looking into an option where the entire seven million dollar settlement would be borrowed at one time. WMMIC and County would be responsible for their respective shares. Hoheisel indicated Springsted reviewed options for funding the insured and uninsured portions and provided three tax-exempt options for the County. WMMIC has indicated it wants a five year taxable loan for its portion and would only do that if the County chooses to borrow as well. Three options were presented to fund the settlement agreement. WMMIC has asked for ideas to spread this burden over a number of years. Taxable interest rate is 3.845%. Hoheisel recommended locking into a borrowing rate now and to set up a designated fund balance. Discussion held regarding how this affects the levy. An example was set forth based on a $200,000 piece of property - per year taxes is under $700 per year. It was estimated taxes would increase $18.80 on the mill rate to cover additional borrowing for five year borrowing (5 x $18.80 = $94.00); $13.96 per year for seven year borrowing (7 x $13.96 = $97.72); $10.38 per year for ten year borrowing (10 x $10.38 = $103.80). Hoheisel recommends locking in a borrowing rate now. Hoheisel indicated the Finance Committee needs to discuss not-to-exceed amounts of the borrowing as well as choose the appropriate option. This option, with the taxable option will be brought to the full County Board for approval at the December 16, 2003 meeting which will required a three-fourths majority vote of all members. The County Board would then be asked to authorize the levy and ratify appropriate terms for these two transactions at its January 20, 2004 meeting. The sale of bonds will occur on the morning of January 27, 2004 and be authorized by the Board Chair, County Clerk and Administrative Coordinator later that same day. The funds will be delivered to the County around February 10, 2004. Motion by Krueger, 2nd by Standafer to recommend the seven-year borrowing plan to the full County Board. Malick indicated with this option, it would be callable in the sixth year and "defeased" in the fifth. Carried unanimously. b. 2004 Health Insurance Update. Whiting continues to talk to Sara Hames regarding retiree options. It was suggested a group of non-represented employees be put together to monitor potential plan changes. The Personnel Committee supports having an advisory committee and Whiting will make the appointments. C. Approval of Agreement for Second Property Parcel Appraisal of County Land in New Richmond (in response to WisDoT taking of another property). Whiting reported Ted Morgan has proceeded with the appraisal of Parcel 31. Morgan indicated if WisDOT were to obtain Parcel 31 from the County it would use this parcel to put a driveway in for a personal residence. Parcel 31 provides an opportunity for the County to extend a road across the property to 115th Street. He added this would be an advantage for the County and would allow access to Finance Committee December 11, 2003 Page 4 of 5 the north. Morgan is concerned the current right of way which joins County Road CC would be too close to the Highway 64 rebuilt, and WisDOT would not allow major development through this area. Morgan indicated this could be a major access point out of this area and the County needs to be sure it will be able to continue to use this parcel as in the "before." Morgan explained his understanding of the condemnation procedure. After WisDOT has acquired the property it needs, the property remaining may be reduced in value and the acquiring agency is required to pay damages for the reduction in value. The damages are measured by the value of the property before the acquisition, less the value of the property afterwards. That can be offset with a cost to cure. The purpose of the cost to cure is make the property whole, give back the potential for development or utilities to use the property, same as it would have been before the acquisition. Whiting provided a memo containing four alternatives for WisDOT acquisition of County land for new State Trunk Highway 64. Alternative 1 provides the County agrees to design of CTH K as presented; agrees to $7,110 per acres for 23.3 acres; agrees to temporary limited easement on .38 acres @20% of $7,110 totaling $540; agrees to severance damage to Parcel B equal to 25% of $7,110 per 1.57 acres totaling $2,790; agrees to state acquisition of Parcel B equal to 75% of $7,110 per 1.57 acres totaling $8,372. Alternative 2 provides County agrees to all terms under Alternative 1 and agrees to the design of CTH K described as Alternative 2 contingent on approval by the City of New Richmond of the design and method for the County to recoup construction costs from future land owners if additional roads or streets are extended from CTH K; agrees to pay for the construction cost difference between Alternative 1 and 2 estimated to be $213,868 in a WisDOT estimate dated November 4, 2003. Costs to the County would be for borrow, aggregate base, asphalt pavement, curb and gutter, topsoil and a 10% contingency. County may provide some or all of these materials in place of paying for them. Alternative 3 provides the County rejects last WisDOT offer based on per acre value or other similar concerns and Alternative 4 provides County submits a counter-offer to WisDOT (with terms suggested by the Finance Committee and/or determined by the County Board.) Motion by Malick, 2°d by Krueger to recommend to the County Board rejection of WisDOT offer on both parcels (23.3 acre parcel and parcel 31) for the reasons we believe the compensation is inadequate and mitigation should be part of the whole and that we retain legal counsel to help draft more detailed resolution in the future. This will be placed on the agenda for the January County Board meeting. The Finance Committee instructed Morgan and Whiting to obtain legal counsel with Greg Timmerman. Carried. (Standafer voted no). 11. Resolution for County Board regarding County Litigation Financing. Resolution will be prepared for County Board meeting on December 16th 12. Resolution regarding WisDoT Taking of County Land in New Richmond. Whiting indicated this refers to the first property review with WisDoT. Based on the two alternatives and acceptance of the respective costs or land payments, the Committee should put together criteria for a Board resolution. With the City of New Richmond owning the street and if preference is for second alternative, resolution language should probably include references to gaining the City's approval and working to determine an appropriate payment method for the street. i Finance Committee December 11, 2003 Page 5 of 5 13. Late Per Diem Request for Mary Ellen Brue. Motion by Wentz, 2"d by Krueger to bring late per diem requests from Brue and Fern to the County Board for a decision whether to suspend the rules and to pay or not to pay. Carried. (Malick voted no.) 14. Late Per Diem Request for Dale Fern. Action taken in item 13 above. 15. Management of Nursing Home Remodeling Project. Malick indicated Health and Human Services was forming a committee to oversee the remodeling project at the Nursing Home. Malick recommends the Health and Human Services Chair appoint three County Board Supervisors and two associated staff members. Malick asked when appointing members to this committee, they consider someone with building expertise and the committee find it not necessary to meet very often. Swenson indicated Robole would be responsible for discussions with the contractors and architects. Wentz recommends this committee meet at the same time as the Health and Human Services meeting. Projected project completion date is set for April, 2004. Whiting recommended getting a clearly defined plan and monitor costs. The Finance Committee recommends Corporation Counsel review all architect contracts with respect to this project. 16. Personnel Performance Evaluation Planning. Whiting indicated it's time for the annual performance evaluations of Department Heads. Criteria for evaluations should be updated to include the mission statement of each department. Malick will announce at the December County Board meeting that evaluations are coming up for all committees and committee chairs will be responsible for performance reviews of staff based on their latest mission statement. 17. Planning Department Request for Professional Services Budget Carry Forward. County Planner Dave Fodroczi indicated there was a $10,000 professional services line item in Planning's 2003 budget which was to be used as potential expenditures for grant match on the Regional Waste Water Evaluation. $2,500 was used from this account in 2003 to participate in cost sharing on further calibration of a regional ground water model. $7,500 remains in this account. The Planning Department has a grant opportunity available which includes a nomination to the EPA by the Governors of Wisconsin and Minnesota for the St. Croix basin. This will happen in 2004. The Planning, Zoning and Parks Committee approved a request to the Finance Committee to carry $7,500 forward into 2004 to be used as part of a network of matching funds at the local level. Fodroczi indicated the watershed initiative grant requires a twenty five percent local match. Malick mentioned that Polk County has committed funds in its budget and Pierce County has already contributed. Motion by Malick, 2nd by Wentz to approve the carry forward of $7,500 to the 2004 budget. Carried unanimously. Meeting adjourned at 12:40 p.m. Esther Wentz, Secretary Cindy Campbell, Recording Secretary