August 18, 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.
Sara Caylor, Director of CASA discussed a time line of when she needs to move out of her second floor office and move to the third floor. Sara said she would need more space other the 3rd floor office space and asked about the 3rd floor space that was the Historical Society and is used for the Appraiser’s Office storage. It was suggested that if what is in that space needs to be kept that it be moved to the storage facility. Darrell Wadkins said that Jason Parks needs at least two weeks to get new lines run for phones and computers and he needs to get the carpets cleaned. Sara said she would plan on moving sometime around Labor Day.
Kristie Stinebaugh discussed a budget for the newly created Human Resources Department for the remainder of 2004. She estimated that she will need $18,985. Board agreed to purchase eight file cabinets and two computers with monitors, one printer/copier, and a fax machine out of the equipment reserve fund. That would decrease the estimated budget by $6,600.
Commissioner Waymire moved and Commissioner Ferguson seconded to create a Human Resource Fund. All voted “yes.”
Kristie Stinebaugh discussed issues dealing with the payroll software that houses all of the employee information such as date of hire, address, rate of pay, phone number, department and job title. She feels that the HR Department needs access to that, even through payroll is not in the HR Department. In order to answer questions and do research for the department, she needs some type of information to look at. Chairman Taylor asked Kristie if she just wanted to look at it for information. Chairman Taylor said he didn’t know why that could not be available. Shari Perry said that she has called the software vendor and at this time a view access is not available, it is something they are working on, but at this time it is all or nothing. Chairman Taylor asked what the problem was with giving Kristie access to the payroll and Shari Perry said that she is responsible for it. Kristie said she contacted Douglas County, City of Ottawa and Ottawa University. Douglas County has a Director of Administrative Services and the Director has access to payroll. Ottawa University is the same way they have access to the system and can go in and look up information. City of Ottawa does not have access to payroll they get a data file and reports from the City Clerk’s staff. Chairman Taylor asked if we have all of the information on all employees. Shari said that each employee has a file. Kristie said it is all on paper in a file. Commissioner Hay asked why Shari could not provide the HR Department with a print out. Kristie asked if she was then to enter everything into a data base of her own. Kristie said she could do that but it would require some overtime. Shari said that some of the software programs do not have a security update that would allow view access only. Shari said she should not have access to go in and post a tax payment, and no one should have access to change payroll information without her granting that permission. Chairman Taylor said he didn’t care about the access you should be able to pull up the information about John Doe, how many dependents he has, when he was hired, etc. Shari said that at this point if you have access you can change anything you want. Kristie asked if it would be an option to sign something that states that she is not going to change anything. Kristie said that the HR Department should not be penalized for something the software vendor can not provide. Chairman Taylor said if you create a department you have to give them the information to do the job. Blaine Finch said he didn’t see a problem with giving the HR Department full access to the payroll program. Shari said that she was going to give access to the Human Resource Department, but it is against her better judgment, she talked to the auditor yesterday and he said the since the Clerk is responsible, it should be her employees that have access. Shari said that every current and past employee has a file and all of the information is in it. Kristie said it does not make sense when you are on the phone to have to go and pull a file to look up information when it can be looked up on the computer at your desk.
Commissioner Stottlemire moved and Commissioner Waymire seconded to approve payroll changes 04-325 for Gary Rose with Public Works, 04-326 for Orville Broce with Public Works, 04-327 for Rodney Crane with Public Works and 04-328 for Andy Cramer with Noxious Weed. All voted “yes.”
Commissioner Hay moved and Commissioner Waymire seconded to approve tax orders 2003-200 through 2003-201. All voted “yes.”
Commissioner Hay moved and Commissioner Stottlemire seconded to approve Debbie Hough attending the Fall Treasurer’s meeting. All voted “yes.”
Commissioner Hay moved and Commissioner Ferguson seconded to approve the minutes for August 16, 2004. All voted “yes.”
Commissioner Stottlemire discussed Linn County is applying for a Household Hazardous Waste Permit.
Commissioner Stottlemire moved and Commissioner Hay seconded to allow the Chairman to sign and acknowledge that the Franklin County Commission is aware of Linn County’s plans and approves the plans and that they fit with our regional solid waste management plan to build a permanent household hazardous waste facility in Linn County. All voted “yes.”
Chairman Taylor discussed that if the petitions are not submitted to put a question on the ballot to create a County Administrator he thinks the County Commissioners should put the question on the ballot by resolutions. Board asked Blaine to prepare a resolution to put the question of creating a County Administrator on the November ballot. Chairman Taylor said that this issue needs to be settled.
Board discussed Annex tenants and lease renewals. Shari said that she had emailed the people that have contacted her interested in office space to Blaine. Board asked Blaine to contact the current tenants about lease renewals.
Chairman Taylor asked Ray DeJulio if he had received a letter that was copied to him about some issues that a lady has concerns about. Ray said he had received the letter and is addressing some of the issues.
Chairman Taylor discussed that if a petition is not submitted or is submitted and found not to have sufficient signatures to put a question on the November ballot if the County should have a County Administrator. That he hopes that the Commissioners will pass a resolution to put the question on the ballot. Tom Weigand encouraged the Commissioners to make that decision as soon as possible so they could get signs made and go around to the other cities and get support. Dennis Woolman said it needed to be sold on the advantages not on disadvantages such as how much it will cost. Chairman Taylor said in a couple more weeks they can make that decision. Tom Weigand said with the bond issue on the November ballot there will be a good turn out. Dennis Woolman asked about reconsideration of the HR Department if a County Administrator is hired, that the HR Department would be under the County Administrators direction. Commissioner Hay said that all departments would work under the County Administrator. Blaine Finch said you would not want to consolidate the HR Department with the County Administrator. Blaine said the City of Ottawa and other counties have separate HR Department. Chairman Taylor said that he didn’t feel we would want to consolidate the HR Department with a County Administrator Department. Chairman Taylor said that in about two weeks that the HR Department would be moving from the third floor where they started on Monday to the second floor and that CASA would be moving to the third floor.
Dennis Woolman, Chairman of the CHIP Committee discussed priorities of road improvements recommended by the CHIP Committee. Dennis asked the Board to endorse them as the CHIP Committee as presented them. The top six roads are as follows:
Montana/Shawnee Rds. (from Sand Creek Rd to Ohio Rd.) 6.50 miles
Nebraska Rd. (from Rock Creek Rd. to Marshall Rd.) 3.00 miles
Shawnee Rd. (from Alabama Rd to California Rd.) 2.50 miles
Montana Rd. (from Rock Creek Rd to Labette Rd.) 2.25 miles
Louisiana Rd/Riley Rd./Kentucky Terr./Kentucky Rd. (from Sand Creek Rd. to Stafford Rd.) 4.50 miles
Oregon Rd. (from Rock creek rd to John Brown Rd.) 4.00 miles
The CHIP Committee feels that the County could only do about 3 miles per year, so Montana/Shawnee Rds. would take up to 2 years. Once roads are hard surfaced traffic patterns will change and that will need to be considered. Dennis said these roads are being recommended based on the CHIP Plans criteria, which is traffic count, connector roads and cost of road. Ray DeJulio said the CHIP Plan states the decision to upgrade a rock road to hard surface road must be based primarily on traffic counts, using KDOT methods. Roads that have traffic counts of at least 200 vehicles a day should be given consideration to upgrade to a hard surface road. Additional weight should also be given when roads would connect to other hard surface road. Chairman Taylor said he gets a lot of calls from people in Richmond and Williamsburg and that the southern 1/3 of the County pays taxes just like everyone else and they are being short changed and he can not vote for these priorities, because they do not show anything in the southwest portion of the County. Commissioner Hay said he also feels that the southwest portion of the County has been deprived. Commissioner Hay feels that Idaho Rd. to the county line, Richmond west on Butler Rd. or county line road if Anderson County would participate in cost of upgrade would be good roads to hard surface. Chairman Taylor said that just because traffic counts are lower you can’t just right off the southern 1/3 of the County. Ray DeJulio said some people don’t want roads paved, they want it to stay rural, they don’t want subdivisions and if roads are paved they will soon have development. Ray said that when you have roads like Louisiana or Montana that have 500 cars a day, how can you tell those voters that they have to live with gravel, because you are hard surfacing a road that has maybe 50 voters traveling on it and you are doing this because you want to see a hard surface road on a map. Dennis Woolman said that hard surfacing roads needs to be based on traffic counts and benefiting the most taxpayers with road improvements. Chairman Taylor said he feels that the CHIP Committee has been a good thing, but we need some reorganization with the committee. Tom Weigand said he was in on the beginning of the forming of the CHIP Program. The Plan was done to take pressure off of the Commission and take the squeaky wheel out of the process. Tom said as being a former commissioner he thinks that the CHIP Plan needs to be followed and kept in place. Tom said when high traffic count roads are paved it gives more gravel to roads that only have 20 to 30 vehicles a day on them. Chairman Taylor said he doesn’t want to be controlled. He can put his hand on the map in one place and that is where the roads are being paved and where the CHIP members live. Dennis Woolman said that most of the paving on this recommendation is in the northern part of the county and that is not where a majority of the CHIP members live. Chairman Taylor said the southern 1/3 of the county has not received anything. Chairman Taylor said we have a difference of opinion. Dennis Woolman said you have to look at the planning of the county. We are doing a comprehensive plan of the county and we know for a fact that when 59 highway is finished we will have a triangle and we will see nothing but growth in the north quadrant of the triangle. We need to look at the growth pattern in the north and look at the south part of the county to protect agriculture property. The 36 miles that are being hard surfaced now is going to entice growth. Dennis asked the Board to consider impact fees, with impact fees you will get dollars to maintain those hard surface roads. This will allow county dollars to hard surface more roads. Chairman Taylor said he thought impact fees should be looked into. Tom Weigand said that impact fees should not happen. If people would look at the CHIP Plan they would realize why they are not going to get a hard surface road for awhile and that relieves the political pressure. Tom said the CHIP Committee is not after political gain or favors. Tom said that hard surface roads should be done with common sense, traffic studies and connectivity. Commissioner Hay said the entire CHIP members are from Harrison & Peoria Townships. Dennis Woolman said it is the Commissioners that appoint the CHIP members. Ray DeJulio said that all of the roads that are being hard surfaced at this time are all not recommendations from the CHIP Committee, but roads that the Commissioners wanted done. Commissioner Waymire said that the CHIP Committee should have someone from each township, but he has been to CHIP meetings when township board members have been invited and no one shows up. Tom Weigand asked how you would decide what roads to hard surface. Chairman Taylor said that you have to have some criteria, but you can’t rule out areas. Tom Weigand said at this time they are ruling out roads with low traffic counts. Commissioner Hay said it would be nice to have a black top road within 3 miles of every house. Chairman Taylor said that we need to have more hard surface roads in the SW portion of the County it is a must. Tom Weigand said we do not have population in the SW portion of the county and do they want to get into no planning and just responding. Chairman Taylor said there are not a lot of individuals on Cloud Rd., but it serves a purpose, it put a collector road in that area. Ray DeJulio said the collector roads with 500 cars a day should have higher priority than a road with 50 cars a day. It is more expensive to maintain a gravel road with 500 cars a day on it than a gravel road with 50 cars a day. Commissioner Stottlemire said that the previous Commission laid out a long distance plan. The Planning Commission is all from the same area of the county, but these committees and members are volunteers and you can only appoint people that are interested. Dennis Woolman said don’t slap the CHIP Committee members in the face and go against them. They followed the by-laws of the CHIP Plan. Tom Weigand said as taxpayer he would resent it if a road with 20 cars a day got paved before a road with 500 cars a day, we are to be thinking global, all of Franklin County. Chairman Taylor asked why you can not move around the county and do different sections of hard surface, like we do chip sealing, rotating. Tom Weigand said that sometimes we respond to quickly.
With no further discussion the meeting was adjourned at 10:30.
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Clerk Chairman