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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - 2007.08.09 - 36199MIKE ROGERS Chairperson EILEEN KOWALL Vice Chairperson HELAINE ZACK Minority Vice Chairperson August 9, 2007 Chairperson Rogers called the meeting of the Finance Committee to order at 9:02 a.m., in the Board of Commissioners' Committee Room A, Commissioners' Wing, County Service Center, Pontiac, Michigan. COMMITTEE MEMBERS PRESENT Mike Rogers, Eileen Kowall, Helaine Zack, Sue Ann Douglas, Hugh Crawford, Tom Middleton, Christine Long , Jeff Potter, David Woodward, Tim Greimel COMMITTEE MEMBERS ABSENT WITH NOTICE David Coulter OTHERS PRESENT CLERK/REGISTER OF DEEDS Ruth Johnson, Clerk Jim VanLeuven, Deputy Connie Spak, Deputy COMMUNITY CORRECTIONS Barb Hankey, Manager Bob Gatt, Chief DRAIN COMMISSIONER Kevin Larsen, Deputy Joe Kozma, Deputy Phil Sanzica, Chief Engineer Doug Buchholz, Deputy Jim Wineka, Supervisor EXECUTIVE OFFICE Jerry Poisson, Deputy Bob Daddow, Deputy FISCAL SERVICES Tim Soave, Manager Nancy Fournier, Chief Lynn Sonkiss, Chief LaVerne Smith, Supervisor Nancy Falardeau, Analyst Leo Lease, Analyst Prentiss Malone , Analyst Nancy Falardeau, Analyst HUMAN RESOURCES Nancy Scarlet, Director Jennifer Mason, Manager MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET Laurie Van Pelt, Director MEDICAL EXAMINER Robert Gerds, Administrator OAKLAND COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS 1200 N. TELEGRAPH ROAD, PONTIAC, MI 48341-0470 Telephone (248) 858 -0100 FAX (248) 858-1572 FINANCE COMMITTEE Sue Ann Douglas Hugh D. Crawford Tom Middleton Christine Long Jeff Potter David Coulter David Woodward Tim Greimel FINANCE COMMITTEE Page 2 August 9, 2007 OTHERS PRESENT CONTINUED MSU EXTENSION Beverly Terry, Director Lois Thieleke, Educator Robin Danto, Educator -Food Safety Saneya Hamler, Educator Eva Poole, Educator Carol Lenchek Environmental Programs Coordinator Julie Scislowicz, 4-H Program Coordinator Nancy Stobart-Mitch, Supervisor PUBLIC SERVICES Mike Zehnder, Director SHERIFF Michael McCabe, Undersheriff Dale Cunningham, Business Manager FREE PRESS Kathy Gray, Reporter BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS Larry Doyle, Administrative Director Harvey Wedell, Sr. Analyst Sheryl Mitchell, Sr. Analyst Jim Cavanaugh, BOC Li aison Helen Hanger, Sr. Committee Coordinator APPROVAL OF THE PREVIOUS MINUTES Crawford moved approval of the minutes of July 19, July 20 and July 26 , 2007, as printed. Supported by Long. Motion carried on a voice vote. PUBLIC COMMENT None. 5. FY 2007/FY 2008 C ONTINGENCY REPORT The Contingency Fund balance of $466,446 will remain unchanged with today’s actions. Kowall moved to receive and file and Contingency Repo rt of August 1, 2007. Supported by Long. Motion carried on a voice vote. REGULAR AGENDA 6. MR #07180 – DRAIN COMMISSIONER – GEORGE W. KUHN DRAINAGE DISTRICT DRAIN BONDS – FULL FAITH AND CREDIT RESOLUTION The Drain Commissioner, on behalf of the Geo rge W. Kuhn Drain Drainage Board, is requesting that the Board of Commissioners pledge the full faith and credit of the County of Oakland for payment of principal and interest on the issuance of George W. Kuhn Drainage District Bonds, Series 2007G bonds no t to exceed $2,500,000. The bonds shall bear an interest rate not to exceed 8% per annum and will be used for Structural Repairs and Access Gate Replacement Contract 6a. It is anticipated that the bonds will be sold to the Michigan Municipal Bond Authori ty, as part of their Michigan Water Pollution Control Revolving loan program at 1.625% interest rate. Public Corporations involved in the project (see Fiscal Note) will pay their share of the estimated project cost through Special Assessment Roll. The S tate of Michigan and Oakland County will pay their share of cost up front to opt out of the bond sale and avoid annual bond interest payments. FINANCE COMMITTEE Page 3 August 9, 2007 Potter moved approval of the attached suggested Fiscal Note. Supported by Middleton. Motion carried unanimously on a roll call vote with Woodward absent. 7. DRAIN COMMISSIONER – ROUGE OAKLAND ILLICIT DISCHARGE ELIMINATION PROGRAM (IDEP) ACTIVITIES PROJECT – GRANT ACCEPTANCE The Drain Commissioner is requesting authorization to accept a federal grant reimbur sement of $110,867.00 from the County of Wayne for the Rouge Oakland Illicit Discharge Elimination Program Activities Project. Oakland County will provide the required equivalent match of $110,867.00 for a total project cost of $221,734.00. The County ma tch will be met from a combination of existing personnel, multiple County Drain Districts and participating communities per Interagency Agreements. No additional General Fund monies are required. Budget amendments will be made as outlined in the Fiscal N ote. Douglas moved approval of the attached suggested Fiscal Note. Supported by Coulter. Motion carried unanimously on a roll call vote with Woodward absent. 8. MR #07181 – SHERIFF’S DEPARTMENT – CHAGNE IN CONTRACT PRICE FOR THE POLICE DISPATCH SERVICE FOR THE CITY OF THE VILLAGE OF CLARKSTON FOR 2007 -2012 The Sheriff is requesting authorization to contract with the Village of Clarkston for a five year period beginning April 1, 2007 to provide police dispatch services. Contract rates are $4,565 fo r 2007, $9,404.04 for 2008, $19,935 for 2009, $20,535.96 for 2010 and $21,152.04 for 2011. Budget amendments will be made as outlined in the Fiscal Note. Douglas moved approval of the attached suggested Fiscal Note. Supported by Coulter. Motion carried on a roll call vote with Kowall and Middleton voting no and Woodward absent. 9. PAYMENT OF MAC DUES MR # 04298 requires that the Finance Committee of the Oakland County Board of Commissioners evaluate Michigan Association of Counties (MAC) membership on an annual basis prior to release of funds for payment of dues. There was considerable discussion rega rding Oakland County’s payment of dues to MAC, pursuing a permanent seat on the MAC Board and review of the dues formula, which is based on population and State Equalized Value. Commissioner Coulter indicated that Board of Commissioners’ Chairman Bullard has set up a study group consisting of Commissioners Scott, Gingell and Hatchett to consider proposed changes to the MAC bylaws to present to the MAC membership for the purpose of establishing a permanent seat on the MAC Board for Oakland County. Commissioners suggested that the study group also be asked to look at the other issue regarding dues. Crawford moved approval of the attached suggeste d Report. Supported by Kowall. Motion carried on a roll call vote with Douglas voting no. FINANCE COMMITTEE Page 4 August 9, 2007 COMMUNICATIONS A letter from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services was added to the Communications without objection. A. Department of Management and budget / Purchasing division – Contract Exception Report for the Months of June and July, 2007 Contract Exception for the Drain Commissioner – Hubbell, Roth & Clark, Inc. (HRC) - Mr. Buchholz explained that the Michigan Department of Environmental Qu ality had requested in June that a model study of the Walled Lake -Novi Wastewater Treatment Plant’s hydraulics and treatment systems be done and returned to them by September. Because of the time constraints and the fact that HRC was doing similar work fo r the Drain Commissioner elsewhere, It was determined that it would be more efficient to utilize the expertise of HRC and not go through the competitive bid process. Mr. Buchholz and Mr. Kozma further explained that the competitive bid process would have taken two to three months to complete. This additional work is an extension of the existing contract with HRC. Commissioners asked that the contract exception report format be amended to better show the specific reason for the exception, i.e., time const raint – MDEQ notice was received on a certain date and had to be completed by a certain date, etc. B. Economic Development & Community Affairs – Waste Resources management – 2007 Best Buy Consumer Electronics Grant Application C. Sheriff’s Office – FY 2008 Off-Road Vehicle (ORV) Safety Education Program Grant Application D. Notice of Public Hearing for Industrial Facilities Exemption Certificate for RECARO North America, Inc. at 2120 Luella Lane, Auburn hills, Michigan 48326 Potter moved to receive and file Communication s A – D. Supported by Zack. Motion carried on a voice vote. THE COMMITTEE RECESSED FROM 9:47 A.M. – 9:53 A.M. BUDGET HEARINGS FOR FY 2008 / FY 2009 EXECUTIVE RECOMMENDED BUDGET Prior to the start of today’s budget hearings, all d epartments were asked to be prepared to respond to the following questions: 1. What are your department/division goals and projected performance measures for the new budget year? 2. How were previous goals and current issues identified for FY 2006 and FY 2007 addressed? 3. What issues are you facing for the new budget year? 4. What actions did you take to reduce deficiencies and redundancies? 5. What variances exist within your operating and personnel budgets, how are those variances being addressed and are they revenu e neutral? 6. What issues are you anticipating beyond this budget cycle that the Committee should be made aware of now? FINANCE COMMITTEE Page 5 August 9, 2007 The following departments participated in today’s budget hearings: the Drain Commissioner, the Clerk/Register of Deeds and the Depart ment of Public Services (Medical Examiner, MSU Extension, and Community Corrections). Chairman Rogers indicated that he would allow public comment on particular issues at the time those individual items were being reviewed. DRAIN COMMISSIONER Mr. Larsen explained that the Drain Commissioner (DC) had recently performed a reorganization to address efficiencies and redundancies by creating a customer services unit and streamlining the permitting and plan review process. In response to questions on the Prof essional Services and Motor Pool line items, Mr. Larsen explained that with completion of the master plan, the Professional Services line item has been greatly reduced and that most of the DC vehicles are charged off to projects. Ms. Sonkiss explained t hat vehicles are charged to the Drain Equipment Fund . Billable hours and assignment to the individual are used to determine rates and, through PeopleSoft, this information is calculated and charged to the drain system where they work. Non-Productive time such as vacation time is factored into labor costs. Mr. Buchholz indicated that many of the system charges to communities do not include anything for future maintenance costs as the systems age and fuel costs increase and this is an issue the Drain Commissioner is now looking at. Mr. Buchholz and Mr. Larsen indicated that if additional funds were available, they would purchase an asset management system. A Request for Proposal went out and bids were received back but the cost would be $4 million to $5 million. The DC is currently working with the County’s Information Technology Department to develop something similar. CLERK/REGISTER OF DEEDS (Clerk/ROD) Ms. Johnson explained that for last 2.5 years her office has lived within its budget and returned millions of dollars to the general fund. It is anticipated that the Clerk/ROD’s office will generate $17.5 million in revenue, utilizing $12.4 mill ion for its operations and leaving the remainder to the County’s General Fund. Documents in the ROD have declined from 630,000 in 2003 to 311,000 in 2006 As a result, overtime has been reduced by 90% and one student position has been moved to the jury commission. The scanning contract has been renegotiated and has resulted in a savings of $400,000. Vital Statistics and Legal Records staff has been cross-trained for efficiency purposes. Customer service has been improved by placing forms and applications and links to state and federal c ampaign finance records on line. Court Explorer is now available online to search court records, as well as FraudCheck. The Clerk/ROD was the first office in the nation to provide this service on line for users to see whether unauthorized documents were recorded against their names in the ROD. F or the first time, Elections, n ow required by law, is coordinating election training for communities with less than 10,000 people and a DVD is being developed that will be sent to all local units to train poll workers on use of the new voting systems. The Elections Division has also taken over the coding of ballots which was done previously by an out of state vendor. Information regarding these and other projects having been or being implemented by the Clerk/Register of Deeds office was distributed. Ms. Johnson indicated that other goals include continued expansion of technology, obtaining Campaign Finance software so that candidates can file on line, increasing sales, expanding Court Explorer, marketing micrographics services to other counties and completing back scanning of 40 years of land records. FINANCE COMMITTEE Page 6 August 9, 2007 Legislative activities includes initiating a change to allow for on -line marriage applications, supporting election consolidation and opposing an increase in the cost of copies and turning township election duties over to the Counties. Commissioner Douglas asked why the Clerk/ROD office charges more for a voter disk than the local units. Ms. Spak indicated that she would research this question and respond . Ms. Johnson noted her concerns regarding the new voting machines , indicating that there were various design problems with the machines such as climate sensitivity and calibration that require a large amount of maintenance. DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SERVICES Medical Examiner Mr. Zehnder reported that Genesee County is considering establishing its own Medical Examiner’s Office (ME). Should that occur, Oakland County’s contract to provide these services to Genesee County will be terminated. The current contract is for a one -year period with a 2-month released for either party. T he current contract rate per autopsy is $1,700, down $100 from the previous contract. If the contract ends, there will be carry-over activity from court cases , resulting in some continued revenue. Oakland County is looking at creating other revenue s to maintain the five positions tied to the contract . Genesee County has identified a doctor for it’s ME but has no infrastructure is in place to handle this function. Mr. Gerds indicated that he had sent a letter in June to Genesee County regarding this matt er and has not received any response to date. Michigan State University Extension (MSU Extension) Ms. Terry presented information on MSU Extension in conjunction with the distributed presentation material. She reported that MSU Extension is on track for its goals. MSU Extension is funded by federal, state, including land grants, and local dollars. Of MSU Extension ’s 36 employees, 14 are funded by Oakland County and are mostly support staff. The other positions are funded by MSU. Funding for FY 2008 should not be a problem but funding levels are unknown for 2009 at t his time. It is possible there will be a reduction in the parenting education grant program for low income families. It has been requested to delete two student positions and create one pa rt-time position to assist with programs. Commissioner Zack indicated that she did not feel that southeast Oakland communities were receiving a proportionate share of youth programs and that it was difficult to tell who was assigned where and for what programs. Ms. Scislowicz explained that 4 -H is a volunteer driven program so their job is to recruit volunteers to make a commitment to work with children ages 5 -19 to form a group or program , such as after school programs, to help them build leadership skills, citizenship and life skills. 4-H looks for individuals already working with kids and tries to bring university resources and programs to them on an on -going basis. She asked that commissioners connected to the southeast communities let her know if they have any ideas to share . Ms. Terry indicated that there is a leadership group at the Charter Township of Royal Oak community center, which has just reopened and hired a director and they requested 4-H to provide them with summer programs. There are also programs in Southfield, Oak Park and Hazel Park and a group is getting started in Ferndale. Ms. Terry further explained that program developers work constantly to make sure they find out who else is out there for collaboration purposes and tries hard to be connected with communities and other agencies to provide programs. FINANCE COMMITTEE Page 7 August 9, 2007 Ms. Hamler explained that parenting education includes a breast -feeding education component that has staff doing home visits to low-income mothers to teach them how to properly pump and store breast milk and puts them in touch with community resources. Commissioner Greimel asked if he could get a copy of the program budget for MSU Extension, identifying where funding sources where coming from and what they were being used fo r. Commissioner Zack and Commissioner Coulter indicated that they were concerned about duplication of services, particularly with the education program s, i.e. does the Boys and Girls Clubs or YMCA also provide these programs, what can MSU Extension do or provide that others are not or can not, and asked that MSU Extension review its mission to evaluate and better identify and refine its core programs for next year so that Commissioners can better understand why they are doing these programs. Commissioner Douglas indicated that back in the early 1990s, the Board of Commissioners had directed MSU Extension to expand and develop new programs and suggested that this charge be revisited. She indicated that the broad mission statement comes from the federal pro gram and not from the County’s MSU Extension office. Ms. Van Pelt explained that MSU Extension was told to partner and to share services and avoid duplication. The 4-H program was told to work with CMH and add on to the continuum of services. Ms. Terry explained that, as an example of non-duplication and continuum of services, Ms. Terry explained that MSU Extension does not do anything that the Michigan Department of Social Services (MDSS) does but receives referrals by MDSS of parents for parenting educa tion to avoid losing their children or to get their children back. Community Corrections Commissioner Greimel asked how the location of halfway houses was decided. Ms. Hankey explained that Community Corrections (CC) deals only with inmates from the County jail, including those placed on probation, and not with halfway houses or Michigan Department of Corrections parolees. CC contracts with five different agencies at various per diem rates for various substance abuse outpatient services. These contracts are audited every six months. CC looks at the individuals past drug use and treatment and tries to match the program with the person. These decisions do not involve where the person lives or where the program is located. For example, those with drunk-driving offenses go to a program in Flint. CC works with the district courts and with Booking at the jail to place eligible inmates in programs. Information on CC was distributed. Ms. Hankey noted that in October of 2006 CC took over drug testing for the Sheriff’s Zero tolerance program and passed the cost on to the offenders, saving $120,000 for the Sheriff’s Office. Commissioner Greimel asked if he could be provided with information on the contract vendors. Mr. Soave indicated that the budget a mendment summary will be updated and placed in the next agenda packet mailing for August 23. There was discussion regarding the funding for visiting judges and increasing the fees for defense attorneys and guardians ad litem. Mr. Soave explained that dollars to fund a program would be taken from Contingency and funds taken from the reduction of line items would be used to replenish Contingency. FINANCE COMMITTEE Page 8 August 9, 2007 Commissioner Greimel indicated that he would like to work with other commissioners on how to address these requests. At Commissioner Coulter’s request, Mr. Soave indicated that he would provide him with what the total Travel and Conference budget is for Oakland County. OTHER BUSINESS / ADJOURNMENT There being no other business to come before the committe e, the meeting was adjourned at 1:06 a.m. ________________________ _______________________________ Helen A. Hanger Lawrence M. Doyle Senior Committee Coordinator Administrative Director NOTE: The foregoing minutes are subject to Committee ap proval.