Finance Committee


DATE: February 12, 2008

Members present: Tommy Lee Bychinski, William F. Wenzel, Marty Krueger, Joan Fordham, Tom Kriegl
Others present: Kerry Beghin, Carol Herwig, Kathy Schauf, Brad Viegut, Tim Stieve, Dick Mielke, Bonnie Konkel, Bill Orth, Lynn Horkan, Penny Clary, Pat Carignan, Ann Burton

The meeting was called to order by Chairperson Bychinski at 8:33 AM. Certification of open meeting compliance was given. Motion by Fordham, second by Wenzel to adopt the agenda. Motion carried. Motion by Wenzel, second by Fordham to approve the minutes of the previous meetings dated January 8 and January 15. Motion carried.

Public Comment: None.
Communications: None.

Consider reallocation of 2008 Building Services budget for chiller maintenance:
Stieve and Mielke talked about the need to repair the chiller units because of air leaking into the units. Costs of this repair will be paid from the budgeted dollars for carpet replacement. Some of the carpet replacement work will be pushed back to a later date. Motion by Fordham, second by Wenzel to reallocate the outlay budget to repair the chiller units. Motion carried.

Consider request for travel in excess of 300 miles for Building Services and MIS staff for fiber optics training:
Stieve explained the benefits of having staff in house that can troubleshoot problems without having to rely on technical support by phone. The expected costs for travel, lodging and meals for three people will be under $2,000; the training itself is provided by Turin. Motion by Wenzel, second by Fordham to approve sending three employees to attend fiber optics training that requires travel in excess of 300 miles. Motion carried.

Consider resolution Authorizing the Public Health Department to Accept the Donation of United Way:
Konkel explained that United Way has offered a donation of $9,000 to the Sauk County Public Health department. These funds are designated to be used for the health care needs of uninsured or under insured residents of Sauk County. Motion by Fordham, second by Kriegl to approve the acceptance of the donation.

Reallocation of 2008 Public Health budget from contracted services to employee costs:
Sauk County has been the fiscal agent for an environmental health consortium with Adams and Juneau Counties. Adams County had been reimbursed for an employee in this consortium whose salary was covered by dollars budgeted as contracted services in Sauk County. That employee resigned. At the same time, funding for a full-time Sauk County bioterrorism position was reduced and that employee would have been required to reduce their hours. The request was made to use the budgeted dollars left in contracted services to cover the cost of keeping the current employee at a full-time level. Motion by Kriegl, second by Fordham to approve the reallocation of budgeted dollars from contracted services to employee costs. Motion carried.

Consider approval of travel in excess of 300 miles for Human Services staff to attend CMHC training in Orlando:
Horkan requested the approval to send two employees from the Human Services department to Orlando, Florida for training on the CMHC computer program. The training will last three days and the total costs are expected to be under $2,200. Motion by Fordham, second by Wenzel to approve sending two employees to attend CMHC software program training that requires travel in excess of 300 miles. Motion carried. Discussion followed regarding the continued effort to cross train and help out and work with other departments who perform similar operations.

Update on possible 2007 budget overrun for Human Services:
Orth and Horkan forewarned the Finance Committee of a potential deficit occurring at the end of 2007. Orth is confident that Human Services will be able to cover this deficit from within the department's fund balance. Kriegl pointed out a significant increase in the department's receivable balances compared to last month. Horkan explained that variations of that size are common and do not signal any problems with the collections. Billing cycles can vary and large checks from Medicaid can be a couple of months behind which easily cause sizable fluctuations in the receivable balances.

Update on financial performance of the Health Care Center as of December 31, 2007:
Clary reviewed some of the major changes that have occurred at the Health Care Center in the past few months. The HCC Board of Trustees met Monday night and decided to request the approval to out source the departments of housekeeping and dietary. Delores Rydberg has announced her retirement scheduled for April 14th. Clary explained that they are working to streamline the purchasing process and gain better control over inventories. New computer software has been purchased and they are working on the installation plan. The Director of Occupational Therapy has resigned and they are working to reorganize this department. Steps are being taken to review and improve the admission process. The business office has increased their focus on maintaining control of their accounts receivable balances. A lot of work has gone into CNA scheduling to try to reduce overtime and employee burnout. The new Kronos timekeeping program is up and running and will hopefully help us save money in the personnel department. Activity department has been restructured to include CNA participation. The Director of Dietary Services has retired and contracted dietitians have been hired to cover the responsibilities until outsourcing is decided.

Presentation of 2007 donations reports:
Beghin pointed out the lists included in the committee's packet of donations received during 2007.

Presentation of quarterly accounts receivable reports as of December 31, 2007:
Question was raised regarding how things were going for the Circuit Courts department after starting to work with a collection agency. Beghin agreed to look into the status of that activity.

Presentation of jail unit A report:
Beghin presented a report and reviewed the expenses for Unit A of the jail through 2/7/08. Hafemann has indicated to Beghin that the opening date of the unit is still planned for March 1, 2008. Kriegl requested that staff review estimates to see whether or not the assistant jail administrator had been scheduled to start on January 1st or March 1st. Kriegl indicated that he also wants to see monthly reports of the revenue and expenses for Unit B because that can be seriously affected by the opening of Unit A.

Consideration of 2009 budget timeline and process, including possible revision to Financial Policy 2-96, Annual Budget Process, regarding funding to outside agencies, and intergovernmental meeting:
Kriegl requested that the Finance Committee who hosts the intergovernmental meetings be given more say in the planning of the agenda. Fordham believes that these meetings should focus on County issues that directly affect the local municipalities. Keeping the focus on sharing information relevant to municipalities will increase attendance. Krueger suggested that maybe the E&L committee would be the more appropriate committee to host these meetings. Krueger clarified the reason these meetings were created was to interact with Sauk County communities in areas of common interest. Fordham would like information given to local municipalities about the possible uses of our fiber optics system. Motion by Kriegl to include the operations of the jail on the intergovernmental meeting agenda. Motion failed due to lack of a second.

Schauf informed the committee that Dale Jaedike will be meeting with each department head to help improve the completion of Form 1 so that it will serve as a more useful management tool. Krueger stressed that the oversight committees need to take the performance measures more seriously. (to be continued)

Discussion of next phase of financing for the Health Care Center construction project:
Brad Viegut updated the committee on the market and the status of the next borrowing phase. Short term rates have been improving. When we begin the next phase of borrowing, he is expecting the interest rate to be much lower than where rates had been a few months ago. Motion by Krueger, second by Fordham to update the board on the market conditions in February and move forward with the $10 million borrowing in March. Motion carried.

Consideration of 2009 budget timeline and process, including possible revision to Financial Policy 2-96, Annual Budget Process, regarding funding to outside agencies, and intergovernmental meeting: (continued)
During the March finance committee meeting, we will be reviewing the budget guidance document. Fordham believes that these recommendations should be forwarded to the whole County Board. The Committee discussed outside agencies' requests being presented to oversight committees with a closer community of interest and not directly with the Finance Committee. Policy establishment to govern funding requests to outside agencies was also discussed. Schauf discussed the improvements being made to the process for requesting new or reclassified positions.

Discussion of Virchow Krause operational analysis recommendations related to Accounting and Treasurer:
Accounting - Beghin discussed that the implementation of scanning documents was initially delayed to install the necessary hardware to run the system. Continued progress with this change is expected to begin soon. The recommendation was made to increasing the frequency of processing vendor payments. Current County policies prohibit us from implementing this recommendation. Further review of this process and possible changes to the County's policies will be considered. The staff intends to proceed with developing formal training for new employees who will be working in MUNIS as recommended. The staff will also work to create a MUNIS users group as was suggested.

Treasurer - Carignan deemed the recommendation to consider temporary staffing as not a viable option. She felt the department has numerous peaks in the year instead of one predictable peak as Virchow Krause implied. Redesigning the record updating process is being considered. Burton explained that there are several different timing issues with both the tax system and the GIS system that make it almost impossible to perfect the blending of the two programs. Ongoing cooperation with the MIS department will ensure continued improvements.

Supervisor Kreigl departed at 12:15 p.m.

Treasurer's Department Update:
Carignan went over the Treasurer's annual report for 2007. Motion by Krueger, second by Wenzel to accept the Treasurer's annual report. Motion carried. Motion by Fordham, second by Wenzel to approve payment of the vouchers from the Treasurer's department in the amount of $4,926.40. Motion carried.

Accounting Department Update:
Beghin pointed out the highlights of the Accounting Department's annual report for 2007 and the monthly report for January 2008. Motion by Krueger, second by Fordham to accept the reports of the Accounting Department and approve payment of the vouchers from the Accounting department in the amount of $1,012,529.23 as well as the County vouchers in the amount of $4,824,566.52.

Beghin received word from the Clerk of Courts department that collection efforts have not fully begun yet but the initial set of information will be sent to the collection agency near the end of this week.

Finance will meet on February 18, 2008 prior to the County Board meeting at 5:50 p.m. The next regular Finance Committee meeting will be on March 11, 2008 at 8:30 a.m.

Motion by Wenzel, second by Fordham to adjourn the meeting. Motion carried.

Respectfully submitted,

William F. Wenzel, Finance Committee Secretary