July 7, 2004

BOARD OF FRANKLIN COUNTY COMMISSIONERS

The Board of Commissioners met in a regular session with Chairman John E. Taylor and Commissioners Fred E. Ferguson, Donald C. Hay, Donald R. Stottlemire and Donald E. Waymire present.  

The meeting was called to order by Chairman Taylor at 8:30.

Board met with department heads about a draft salary proposal.  Department heads agreed that we need to keep key employees and pay them accordingly.  Ted McCurdy said he is having a hard time hiring Paramedic’s.  Commissioner Stottlemire said they are trying to hold the budget.  Commissioner Stottlemire said he wanted to give employees everything they can to keep employees.  Shari Perry said that in some instances employees are started to low and then it is impossible to increase the wages to where they really need to be.  Blaine Finch said that bringing people in to low is a policy problem and this proposal does not address that.  Shari Perry said that the draft proposal addresses that and there is a new draft pay schedule.  Commissioner Hay said that the new draft schedule does address starting employees to low.  Blaine Finch said it doesn’t change the fact that entry level is still $9.00 per hour.  Shari Perry said that on the draft proposal the entry level is $9.95.  Darrell Wadkins said that each year he has been here we deal with small percentages of increases and the City of Ottawa just keeps widening the gap.  Commissioner Stottlemire said the County does not have the option to raise sewer, electric and water bills to generate more money, the County only has taxes to increase.  Blaine Finch said one of the reasons the City is where they are is because they invest in an HR Department and hire professional people to do salary survey’s and do small adjustments at a time instead of trying to do large adjustments.  Blaine Finch said when he was on the City Commission they tried to do market adjustments and it hurt morale.  Board agreed to see where they are at on the draft budgets and then make a decision about wages.  Chairman Taylor said we certainly want to keep good employees, but he has received a lot of calls from taxpayers saying they are taxed out.      

Keith Clark discussed contracts for Community Service Work Coordinators.

Commissioner Hay moved and Commissioner Waymire seconded to approve Contract for Services Agreements for Carolyn Schuster, Cynthia Norton and Robert Mills.  All voted “yes.”

Commissioner Waymire moved and Commissioner Ferguson seconded to go into an executive session for 30 minutes at 9:18 for attorney client privileges with Board and Blaine Finch present.  All voted “yes.”  Chairman Taylor opened the meeting at 9:45 and reported no action taken, no decisions made.

Commissioner Stottlemire asked about the Bioterrorism money and paying part of the Emergency Preparedness Director salary from the grant money.

Commissioner Hay said he had received a call from Joe Hiatt about residue on Sand Creek Rd. at the quarry.  He said when it gets wet it is slick.  Blaine Finch said he would get with Ray DeJulio and Commissioner Hay said he thought he needed to get with Scot Hamlin, since Ray is on vacation.  Blaine Finch said that Scot Hamlin was also on vacation.  Board asked Blaine Finch to get with Jeff Welton and get it cleaned up.  Commissioner Hay said that this could be a legal issue, which is why he is asking Blaine to take care of it.

Commissioner Stottlemire moved and Commissioner Ferguson seconded to go into an executive session for 10 minutes at 9:55 for attorney client privileges for pending litigation with Board and Blaine Finch present.  All voted “yes.”  Chairman Taylor opened the meeting at 10:05 and reported no action taken, no decisions made.

Jason Parks discussed a new draft 2005 Information Technologies budget which will include all departments’ phone bills and computer hardware, software and copier maintenance.  The Information Technologies budget will not include standard computer items that cost more than $1,500. 

Commissioner Stottlemire discussed the Emergency Preparedness 2005 budget.  He asked if Emergency Preparedness received any of the Homeland Security Grant Funds.  The Ambulance Department and Sheriff’s Department received the most money and asked if they spent all of their funds.  Blaine Finch said he believed that they did and the only way that Emergency Preparedness could have received money is if all other entities would have signed off on giving them money. 

Steve Brown requested that Roy Baker and Barbara Coleman attend the 2004 Kansas Association of Mappers Conference. 

Commissioner Hay moved and Commissioner Waymire seconded to approve Roy Baker and Barbara Coleman to attend the 2004 Kansas Association of Mappers Conference.  All voted “yes.”

Alan Radcliffe discussed the 2005 draft Emergency Preparedness budget.  Alan said that we will get 50 percent of the salaries from the state up to $29,000.  Alan said that there needs to be two alternates, so if he is not available, someone else could respond.  Alan said he thought he would have an office at the Sheriff’s Department by the end of the week. 

Barbara Conus discussed that most of the bioterrorism money had been encumbered except for about $8,900 for equipment and supplies.  Barbara said she would be able to transfer about $3,333 for July and August from bioterrorism funds for salary.  Barbara said starting September 1 the bioterrorism funds start a new year and she will be able to transfer money quarterly. 

Commissioner Stottlemire asked Alan Radcliffe about something in the budget for cell phone and pager.  Blaine Finch said it could be paid out of office supplies or misc. expenses.  Alan said that there was nothing included in the budget for fuel and maintenance for a vehicle.  Alan said he also contacted the State about vehicles that they will be selling.  Board asked Alan to get some more information on what is available from the State and the cost. 

Board discussed the minutes for June 30.  Commissioner Waymire read from the Commissioner’s Desk Reference Book about minutes and said they can not be verbatim.  Chairman Taylor said they would need to come back after lunch to discuss the minutes because there is a difference of opinion of what needs to be in the minutes.

Chairman Taylor gave Shari Perry two checks for Heartland China Grant payment.  One check from Dana Schirmer for $5,000 for reimbursement for the sale of a kiln and another from HTBM LLC for $25,000 to settle the CDBG loan with the State of Kansas.

Chairman Taylor closed the meeting at 11:53 for lunch.

Chairman Taylor opened the meeting at 1:00.  All present.

Commissioner Hay said he thought that all meetings were to be conducted by Robert’s Rules of Order.  Commissioner’s Hay read a part of Robert’s Rules of Order dealing with minutes. 

Commissioner Hay moved to approve the minutes for June 30, 2004.

Commissioner Stottlemire asked for some clarification on a couple of statements that he made that were in the draft minutes for June 30, 2004.  Clerk Shari Perry made those changes.

Commissioner Waymire said if the decision is to report everything then we need to go back and report what every department head said about their draft 2005 budgets.  Commissioner Hay said that is up to the recording secretary.  Commissioner Waymire asked for a couple of spelling corrections. 

Commissioner Stottlemire seconded to approve the minutes for June 30, 2004.  Commissioners Hay and Stottlemire voted “yes.”  Chairman Taylor and Commissioners Ferguson and Waymire voted “no.”

Commissioner Waymire said to remove the entire fourth paragraph except for the first sentence and the last paragraph remove all except the first sentence.  Also the figure of $35,400 in the first sentence of the last paragraph changed to funds.  Clerk Shari Perry told Commissioner Waymire that she can see that he really wants the taxpayers to know what he is doing.  Commissioner Waymire said that the press and media are here and can report.  Commissioner Hay said it appears we are trying to cover up what is being done.  Commissioner Hay said what is in the minutes is correct and should be in the minutes.  Clerk Shari Perry said it was stated in the meeting that they were going to transfer $35,400 from the Clerk’s budget so why remove it from the minutes.  Commissioner Waymire agreed to leave the $35,400 figure.

Commissioner Waymire moved and Commissioner Ferguson seconded to approve the minutes as amended for June 30, 2004.  Chairman Taylor and Commissioners Ferguson and Waymire voted “yes.”  Commissioner Hay and Stottlemire voted “no.”

Commissioner Hay said that it appears we are hiding something.  Chairman Taylor said the commissioner’s book put out by Kansas Association of Counties says that minutes should be short.

Clerk Shari Perry said she had only been involved in one lawsuit since she has been clerk, which had nothing to do with anything she did and information that was needed in the minutes was not there.  Commissioner Waymire said he thinks the minutes are being used for political opinions.  Clerk Shari Perry said that there was no political opinions there it was all discussed in the meeting.

Commissioner Stottlemire asked if anyone had heard about Risk Management moving out of the Annex.  Chairman Taylor said he thought that Blaine Finch had contacted all of the tenants about renewing their lease agreements.  Board discussed if either party could get out of their lease.

Chairman Taylor said that he has received a bill from Taylor Design Group for work done on the 36 Mile Plan by a contractor. 

Commissioner Hay moved and Commissioner Waymire seconded to approve payroll change 04-287 for James Haag, Jr with the Public Works Department.  All voted “yes.”

Commissioner Hay moved and Commissioner Stottlemire seconded to sign and approve a Modification of Existing Solid Waste Landfill Certification.  All voted “yes.”

Chairman Taylor asked Blaine Finch what should be done with the bill to pay a contractor for work done on the 36 Mile Plan.  Blaine said he would take the bill and call the State about the revolving fund money.

Commissioner Hay said the way he understands it, Blaine Finch was hired for legal council and he thinks that they are going a little overboard with him acting as a County Administrator.  Commissioner Hay said that all commissioners have stepped over the line and asked Blaine Finch to do administrative duties.

Blaine Finch said he has received a letter from Risk Management, a tenant at the Annex and they do not plan to renew their lease in February.  They will be leaving the space in August, but will continue to pay through February unless the County finds a new tenant before then.

Chairman Taylor said that he would contact Ottawa Family Physicians and ask if they were interested in more space.  County Clerk Shari Perry said she had a name of person who is also interested in space and that Town and Country Reality had expressed interest in expanding.

With no further discussion the meeting was adjourned at 2:00.

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                                            Clerk                                                                                           Chairman