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HomeMy WebLinkAboutFinance 09-08-1999 ST. CROIX COUNTY NOTICE OF COMMITTEE MEETING TO: Chairman Thomas Dorsey St. Croix County Board FROM: Donald Brown, Chair COMMITTEE TITLE: FINANCE DATE: Wednesday, September 8, 1999 8:30 A.M. ***NOTE DATE CHANGE*** LOCATION: Government Center CALL TO ORDER ROLL CALL ADOPTION OF AGENDA DATE OF NEXT MEETING: Friday, October 8, 1999 8:30 A.M. ACTION ON PREVIOUS MINUTES UNFINISHED BUSINESS: NEW BUSINESS: 1. Review of Vouchers 2. Administrative Coordinator's Report 3. Finance Director's Report 4. County Clerk A. Dog Damage Claim for Michelle Jones, Town of Cylon B. Communications for Maintenance Personnel (Safety and Security) 5. Clerk of Court A. Office Manager Position 6. Corporation Counsel Report *7. Request for Four Sergeant Positions in the Jail - Karen Humphrey 8:45 A.M. *8. Non-Represented Employee Compensation Package *9. Update on Health Insurance Rates 1999-2000 *10. Flume Repair on County Owned Land - Pete Kling 9:00 A.M. *11. Year 2000 Employment Freeze CORRESPONDENCE ADJOURNMENT (Agenda not necessarily presented in this order) Date: 8/25/99, 9/2/99 COPIES TO: County Board Office News Media/Notice Board County Clerk County Board County Departments ADDITIONS/CHANGES/CORRECTIONS i ST. CROIX COUNTY NOTICE OF COMMITTEE MEETING TO: Chairman Thomas Dorsey St. Croix County Board FROM: Donald Brown, Chair COMMITTEE TITLE: FINANCE DATE: Wednesday, September 8, 1999 8:30 A.M. ***NOTE DATE CHANGE*** LOCATION: Government Center CALL TO ORDER ROLL CALL ADOPTION OF AGENDA DATE OF NEXT MEETING: Friday, October 8, 1999 8:30 A.M. ACTION ON PREVIOUS MINUTES UNFINISHED BUSINESS: NEW BUSINESS: 1. Review of Vouchers 2. Administrative Coordinator's Report 3. Finance Director's Report 4. accnd Le TTY . ro Ql.rcorcr~r~c _ Fl ; TJ tnhj, e-% r, I- Q • 2n a m 5. County Clerk A. Dog Damage Claim for Michelle Jones, Town of Cylon B. Communications for Maintenance Personnel (Safety and Security) 6. Clerk of Court A. Office Manager Position 7. Corporation Counsel Report CORRESPONDENCE ADJOURNMENT (Agenda not necessarily presented in this order) Date: 8/25/99 COPIES TO: County Board Office News Media/Notice Board County Clerk .County Board County Departments ADDITIONS/CHANGES/CORRECTIONS u UNOFFICIAL RECORD FINANCE COMMITTEE Regular Meeting September 8, 1999 Meeting called to order at 8:30 a.m. by Chair Brown. Members present: Don Brown, Robert Boche, Tom Dorsey, and Herb Giese. Tom O'Connell was excused. Staff Present: Administrative Coordinator John Krizek, Corporation Counsel Greg Timmerman, Finance Director Rich Loney and County Clerk Sue Nelson. Others present: Suprs. Hense, Jensen, Speer and Mehls. Chair Brown asked item no. 5 regarding office manager position in Clerk of Court be postponed until September 28 when all members would be present. Motion to adopt the agenda by Boche, 2nd by Dorsey with the exclusion of item 5. Carried. Motion by Boche, 2nd by Giese to approve the August minutes. Carried. Budget review dates are September 28th and 29th starting at 8:30 a.m. Loney reported budget books will be ready about Sept. 17th for the Finance Committee. Chair Brown is optimistic for a speedy budget process. Vouchers: Due to the change of date for this meeting, Giese will review the vouchers the afternoon of the 9th. Approval will be decided at the September 28th budget session. Administrative Coordinator: Krizek said if the State Budget is not completed by September 15th, the State will lose some Federal funding. Bargaining with the AFSCME unit has started. Finance Director: Loney reported the 1998 audit is done and will be distributed along with the management letter. The only critique is segregation of duties in offices with few staff. County Clerk: Motion by Dorsey, 2nd by Boche to pay dog damage claim for Michelle Jones, Town of Cylon for $150. Carried. Sue Nelson reported action from Safety and Security Committee. The previous request for radios for maintenance personnel was withdrawn. Dave Best, Service Technician, is pursuing use of cell phones for the staff, rather than using pagers. There will be no additional costs because the fee for pager use will be transferred to the cell phone charges. Request for Four Sergeant Positions in the Jail: Supr. Speer, Supr. Mehls, Sheriff Hillstead and Jail Captain Karen Humphrey were present. Sheriff Hillstead said presently there are 24 correctional officers, one night sergeant, and the Jail Captain. Additional Sergeants are needed to supervise both the staff and inmates on all shifts. There are 105 inmates on the average. The space rented to INS and the State brings in more serious offenders who are more difficult to control. Hillstead said if _1_ more sergeant positions were added, this gives the staff more opportunity to advance in the system. This also gives more employee satisfaction. Humphrey noted the staff does not get sufficient training; they are on the floor in one week. Supervisors would also train new employees. Supr. Mehls stated the County has a good reputation with State and Federal officials and we need to keep this. The increased cost per non union jail sergeant including wages and fringe benefits is $5,303, making a total of $21,212. Brown said this request has been turned down before and we can't make a career job for everyone employed in the County. Krizek said the management theory for private industry and some government entities is not to have layers of middle management. Middle management creates a difficult position between the boss and employee. Taking additional staff for sergeant positions would decrease the pool of people available for overtime work. Non union supervisors are not allowed to do bargaining unit work. Giese asked what if a disaster occurs in the early morning hours and no one is in charge. The County could be liable. Brown and Boche suggested the concept of a lead person be investigated further in regard to costs and the union's views. This will be further discussed at the September 28 budget review. Brown thanked everyone for the good presentation given. Flume Repair on County Owned Land: Supr. Art Jensen and St. Croix Lakes Cluster Project Manager Peter Kling present. Jensen said no costs are available today because engineering work needs to be done on the flume that needs repair. Kling said this parcel of land containing the flume structure was deeded to the County from NSP in 1967 but the flume was never transferred, which according to DNR, has to be done on a separate form. He diagrammed the area showing the site of an old mill and where the structure is failing and causing erosion. If change is made in water flowage, from Cedar Lake, the DNR becomes involved. Corporation Counsel Timmerman stated the County does not own the waterways and DNR needs to provide proof the County owns the structure. Chair Brown asked Timmerman to research this further and report at the October Finance meeting. Kling said if the County does own the dam, the Sports Alliance will donate toward the repair. Year 2000 Employment Freeze: Supr. Horne reported an incident he experienced when an alarm went off at his business. The deputy who responded needed his driver's license because the law enforcement computer system was down. He also noted the County -2- needed to hire a former employee to fix some computer problems. Further discussion on this will be scheduled for October. Krizek said we need to hire a Computer Director with management experience and more cross training among employees should be done. More than one employee should know how to fix a computer problem. Brown said when the budget for the year is adopted, additional employees added during the year cause budget disruptions. Motion by Boche, 2nd by Giese to recommend to County Board approving a hiring freeze for the year 2000. Carried. Health Insurance Rates: Krizek said the earlier rate approved by Finance has been reduced by $6.97 which is the cost for the PTO plan for sick leave pay out accumulated. The totals now are: union employees pay $64.76; the County $582.86 for a total premium of $647.62. Motion by Giese, 2nd by Dorsey to approve the new figures. Carried. Krizek said if the County rebids the insurance, there are only two items to bid stop loss and administrative costs. The balance is the actual claims. If the County does not want to be self funded, then insurance companies could bid on the entire package. Brown explained the actual cost of claims is paid through the County's self funded insurance and the insurance part is the stop loss and administrative costs. Krizek said a composite rate is used to balance the fund. The County could increase the stop loss coverage and costs would be less but more claim money would be paid out. Brown recommended having an insurance consultant come in, explore deductibles, give an opinion if the County should be self funded and educate employees on medical services. No date was set. Non Represented Employees Compensation Package: Krizek said a new package is being considered with less cost than the original. The non represented insurance package should be set at the September Board meeting. The original proposal with wages and fringes would have cost $236,594 and this proposal costs $139,022. Labor negotiator Steve Weld indicated implementing a non union package would not impact negotiations with labor unions. If the County has not settled with the non represented employees, they will encourage the union to get more, so they will get more when the union settles. Giese said the new proposal has average increases of 3.57% the first year; 5.48% the second and 4.04% the third year. -3- Personnel Director Deb Kathan said the Personnel Committee looked at market surveys, geographic location, recruitment and retention and believes the County should be more aggressive in wage increases for non represented employees. Consideration was given to moving up a pay grade and an across the board percentage increase. Dorsey asked if the proposed percentage increases were the same for all employees on the wage grid. Kathan answered no. Boche asked what the percentage was for the E4 position which came to about loo each year. The Committee discussed the following to identify goals and justify the proposed wage increases: making non union wages on par with union wages when equal work is performed; market value comparison of Scott, Washington, Dakota, MN were given but no comparable was given for Wisconsin Counties; and recruitment problems. Finance Committee requested the following information: 1. What % of increase is needed to bring non union and Union wages on par for equal work. 2. Market values for Wisconsin Counties. 3. Recruitment areas--where are the problems? Krizek said whether or not the wage package is settled the health insurance rate for non represented employees should be set. Motion by Dorsey, 2nd by Brown to recommend to Personnel Committee that the non represented deduction be the same as the AFSCME deduction. Kathan said this sets a county standard and affects bargaining with the union. Makers of the motion withdrew it. Motion by Dorsey, 2nd by Brown to recommend to Personnel Committee the 9001 county, 10% employee split for non represented employee health insurance rates be separated from the proposed package and presented to County Board for approval. Carried. Motion by Boche, 2nd by Giese to adjourn. Meeting adjourned at 1:10 P.M. e E. Nelson Recording Secretary -4-