Government : Benton County Board of Supervisor Minutes 10/9/12

October 9, 2012

The Benton County Board of Supervisors met in regular adjourned session with Supervisors Vermedahl, Buch, and Sanders present. Chairman Vermedahl called the meeting to order at 9:00 a.m.

Moved by Buch, seconded by Sanders, to approve the minutes of September 25, 2012, October 2, 2012, and October 5, 2012. All members voting aye thereon. Motion carried.

Moved by Sanders, seconded by Vermedahl, to approve checks numbered 202197 through 202425, payroll checks numbered 136361 through136375, and ACH deposits numbered 15480 through 15598, for payment. All members voting aye thereon. Motion carried.

Moved by Buch, seconded by Sanders, to approve the Recorder’s Quarterly Report for the period ending September 30, 2012. All members voting aye thereon. Motion carried.

Moved by Sanders, seconded by Buch, to suspend taxes pursuant to Iowa Code 427.9 on the following parcels:

200-13100, 0200-13200, 200-13250, and 200-13300. All members voting aye thereon. Motion carried.

Moved by Buch, seconded by Sanders, to adopt Resolution #12-50, TRANSFER OF FUNDS. Voting aye were Vermedahl, Buch, and Sanders. Nays none. Motion carried.

Moved by Sanders, seconded by Buch, to approve the hire of Craig A. Streeter, as a part-time correctional officer, effective this date, at a starting wage of $12.13 an hour. All members voting aye thereon. Motion carried.

Transportation Director Dana Burmeister told the board that she had received a new 18-passenger bus from the East Central Iowa Council of Governments. The bus will replace a diesel bus #300. The cost of the new bus is $54,969.00 but the total cost to BentonCountyis $9,260.00. Burmeister advised that she had funds available in her current budget due to the changes in full-time staffing.

Burmeister also spoke to the board about hiring part-time drivers. Moved by Buch, seconded by Sanders, to authorize the transportation department to advertise for part-time drivers. All members voting aye thereon. Motion carried.

The time of 9:30 a.m.having arrived and this being the time and date set for the third consideration of a proposed Social Host Ordinance, the board took up the matter for public hearing. There were four persons present. Hearing no comment, the chair declared the hearing on the third consideration closed. It was moved by Buch, seconded by Sanders, to approve the third consideration of a Social Host Ordinance. Voting aye were Vermedahl, Buch, and Sanders. Nays none. Motion carried.

Moved by Sanders, seconded by Buch, to adopt Resolution #12-51, ADOPTING ORDINANCE #66 AN ORDINANCE AMENDING THE CODE OF ORDINANCES OF BENTON COUNTY, IOWA BY ADDING A

“SOCIAL HOST” ORDINANCE. Voting aye were Vermedahl, Buch, and Sanders. Nays none. Motion carried.

Ann Jorgenson did not appear before the board but had advised Supervisor Buch that she would like to request the board’s support for the Iowa Braille and Sight Saving School in Vinton.

Moved by Sanders, seconded by Buch, to approve a request for a utility permit submitted by Windstream Communications to place utility lines in the county’s right-of-way in HarrisonTownship, along 25th Avenue, sections 9 and 10. All members voting aye thereon. Motion carried.

The engineer spoke to the board about the unannounced visit to the sanitary disposal to review their accounting procedures. The engineer advised that several issues were identified and addressed; however the major accounting weakness occurs on Saturday morning when the landfill is open. The board discussed various possibilities to address the issue. The engineer is going to continue to work on strengthening the controls.

The board held a conference call with Jones and Linn counties regarding the regionalization of the mental health and developmental services. Benton, Linn and Jones counties had previously entered into a letter of intent to form a MH-DS region as required by 2012 legislation. Iowa, Johnson, Dubuqueand Delawarecounties requested to join the region. JonesCountyexpressed concern about a larger region versus a smaller region. Mary Williams stated that she supported a larger region, which would allow the risk to be spread over a larger group. Deb Schultz, Jones County Central Point Coordinator (CPC), added that a larger region could prove beneficial in obtaining legislative assistance. John Brandt, Linn County Social Services Director, advised that he also spoke with the Linn County CPC and she also supports a larger group. It was questioned if Dubuqueand Delawarewanted to be considered together or individually. It was explained that Dubuqueand Delawarecounties wanted to stay together and either both had to be accepted into the region or neither. JonesCountyquestioned the funding for Delawareand Dubuquecounties adding that they didn’t have enough funds to cover their current services. Schultz stated that those counties would need to address some of their issues, but this is where spreading the risk would be advantageous. Linda Langston, Linn County Supervisor, stated that the details in the Memorandum of Understanding could address funding issues and recommended that the counties proceed with forming the region. Williams stated that the CPCs will begin meeting next week with all of the region’s counties and reiterated that the larger region would be best. Langston commented that a region consisting of four small counties and three large counties would put everyone in a position of working together. JonesCountycommented that they would not want to see the region get much larger. Langston asked if there were any other letters from counties that might be interested. Benton County Supervisor Ron Buch responded that BuchananCountywas moving to a northern region. Schultz was pretty confident that the southern counties in the area were pretty firmly aligned and that she didn’t anticipate any other county approaching the group. Jones questioned if the counties requesting to join were a good fit with Linn, Benton and Jones. Langston stated that she had spoken with JohnsonCountysupervisors, individually, and that all indications were that four members of that board agreed with the one-county-one-vote philosophy. Supervisor Dave Vermedahl stated that if JohnsonCountyagreed with the one-county-one-vote basis then he did not have any reservations. Langston commented that she also made it clear to three members of the Johnson board that the regional board will want to be able to approve the members appointed to the board from each county. JonesCountyquestioned that approval and who has authority to appoint - the board of each county or the regional board? Langston responded that the details had not been worked out but would be included in the 28E agreement and each county will have to enter into the 28E Agreement.

Moved by Buch, seconded by Sanders, that Johnson, Iowa, Delawareand Dubuquecounties be allowed to join the MH-DS region created by Benton, Jones, and Linn counties. All members voting aye thereon. Motion carried.

Action was taken to approve by JonesCountyand LinnCountyboards.

Moved by Sanders, seconded by Buch, to adjourn. All members voting aye thereon. Motion carried.

__________________________________

David H. Vermedahl, Chairman

ATTEST: ___________________________________

Jill Marlow, Benton County Auditor