October 26, 2007

Minutes

Governing Board Meeting

Kansas Association of Counties

October 26, 2007

Training Room, Riley County Public Works

Manhattan, Kansas

 

President Dennis Peterson called the meeting to order at 9:05 a.m. Board members present were as follows:

 

Ted Ensley, Shawnee County Commissioner; Steve Garten, Barber County Commissioner; John Miller, Norton County Commissioner; Terry David, Rice County EMS Director; Shannon Francis, Seward County Commissioner Tom Winters, Sedgwick County Commissioner; Dick Works, Allen County Commissioner; Gary Post, Lyon County Appraiser; Dennis Peterson, Riley County Noxious Weed Director; Tom Wagner, Atchison County Commissioner; and Sheila Biggs, Dickinson County Commissioner.

 

Board members absent: Michele Abbott-Becker, Marion County Emergency Management Director: Joe Connor, Unified Government Health Department Administrator; Larry McAulay, Johnson County Director of Legal Services; George Pogge, Jefferson County Road Superintendent.

 

KAC Staff and others present: Randall Allen, KAC Executive Director; Judy Moler, KAC General Counsel; Mike Kearns, Riley County Commissioner; Bob Boaldin, Morton County Commissioner and Juliene Maska, Governor’s Grants Office.  

 

President Dennis Peterson recognized Riley County Commission Chairman Mike Kearns, who welcomed the KAC Board to Riley County.

 

The agenda was presented. No changes were suggested. Gary Post moved, seconded by Terry David, to accept the agenda as presented. Motion carried.

 

Minutes for September 21, 2007. Gary Post asked that the first sentence in the second paragraph of the legislative report be changed to read: “The second issue concerns the statute providing that all real property be valued as of its ownership and/or occupancy status on January 1 of each year.” Gary Post moved, seconded by Terry David, to approve the minutes of the September 21, 2007 meeting, with the correction as noted above. Motion carried.

 

Approval of Bills and Payroll for October 26, 2007. John Miller, Finance Committee Chairman, indicated that he and Commissioner Ensley had met prior to the meeting to review the invoices and there were no items of special concern. John Miller moved, seconded by Ted Ensley, to approve the bills and payroll dated October 26, 2007. Motion carried.

 

Approval of Monthly Financial Report for September, 2007. Randall presented the monthly financial report for September, 2007. There was discussion about the signing of the agreement with the Kansas Collaborative. Randall reported that the Collaborative is moving ahead with that and getting the signature of Lt. Governor Mark Parkinson. Tom Wagner moved, seconded by Dick Works, to receive and place on the file the Monthly Financial Report for September, 2007. Motion carried.

 

President’s Report. President Dennis Peterson spoke about three issues that had occurred during the last month. First, he reported that he had met with the Executive Director to briefly review the Executive Director’s performance appraisal as directed by the KAC Board last month. He said that he, Vice President Shannon Francis, and Commissioner Winters intended to meet with Mr. Allen after the meeting to discuss the report in greater detail. Second, Dennis traveled to Overland Park to attend the League of Kansas Municipalities meeting and bring greetings from the counties to the attendees of the League’s Annual Conference. President Peterson stayed for the keynote speech given by John Kasich of Fox News which was enjoyable. Third, President Peterson and the Executive Director made their southwestern Kansas swing to Clark, Comanche and Kiowa counties. Randall and Dennis shared pictures of their sojourn. Clark County had a dinner for county employees and Randall and Dennis. It was a great 3 day trip.

 

Audit Report. At 9:30 am the agenda was interrupted to accommodate the time certain audit report by Brenda Flanagan, of Summers, Spencer and Callison.   The audit had no irregularities and the management letter was received and discussed with the Board. Terry David moved, seconded by Sheila Biggs, to receive and place the audit on file and to refer the management letter to the Audit Committee and Executive Director for continued followup. Motion carried.

 

Audit of E 9-1-1. An engagement letter from Summers, Spencer and Callison, CPAs, was presented to the Board for an audit of the Wireless Enhanced 911 Local Fee Fund for the year ending June 30, 2007. The fund is administered jointly (statutory charge) by the League of Kansas Municipalities and the Kansas Association of Counties acting as the Local Collection Point Administrators. The estimated cost of the audit is $6,000 to be borne equally by the KAC and the League and funded by the administrative allowance (1% to each entity) from receipts. Tom Winters moved, seconded by Ted Ensley, to accept the engagement letter and authorize Randall Allen to sign the engagement letter. Motion carried.

 

Briefing on Deferred Compensation (Section 457) Program Administered by Nationwide Retirement Solutions. Joyce Hall, State Director and Dennis Blue, Regional Vice President of Nationwide gave a briefing on the NACo Deferred Compensation Program and the benefits Nationwide offers. The KAC has had an exclusive endorsement arrangement with Nationwide for several years. Most recently, however, Nationwide has lost several of the big Kansas counties thus drastically affecting the revenue received by KAC. Reasons for this as well as potential solutions were discussed by the Board. Nationwide will have a booth at the KAC conference. In addition, a Nationwide staff member will do an inservice session for KAC staff in December.

 

National Association of Counties Report. Commissioner Garten announced that Colleen Landkamer, NACo past president would be attending the KAC Annual Conference to talk about NACo. Steve will be attending a NACo Board meeting in December 6-8 in St. Petersburg, Florida.

 

History and Development of E 911: Morton County Commissioner Bob Boaldin,

E-911 Statewide Advisory Board; Juliene Maska, Governor’s Grant Committee; and Judy Moler reported on the history of E-911 and the 10 years that went into making the current statutory system that we have now. The E 911 system has now been functioning for 2 1/2 years. The Advisory Committee has met and given grant awards to local PSAPs in an amount totaling almost $15 million. The Local Collection Point Administrators (KAC and the League) have remitted almost the same amount to PSAPs via the zip plus four information. The Advisory Committee is considering recommending that the grants award program continue into the future in order to help with continued funding for the smaller PSAPs. The grant program is currently scheduled to sunset in 2010.

 

Legislative Report. The Special Committee on Assessment and Taxation will meet one last time in November. At that time they will consider several issues including property tax on new residential property; property tax deferral; moving of the property tax payment date; and tax relief for storm damaged property. This latter subject was discussed by a Task Force requested by Rep. Kenny Wilk. The Task Force included Randall and Judy as well as Shane Krull, Miami County Administrator; Jeff Masterson, Butler County Commissioner; and Craig Weinaug, Douglas County Administrator. A white paper will be delivered on the subject to the Special Committee on Nov. 14.

 

KAC Employee Benefits Trust Report. Chair of the Committee, John Miller presented minutes of the August 23, 2007 meeting which were approved by the EBT Committee on September 26, 2007. Shannon Francis moved, seconded by Steve Garten, that the EBT minutes of August 23, 2007 be received and placed on file. Motion carried.

 

There are still some problems with United HealthCare (UHC) and its service areas, reported Commissioner Miller.   These are being worked on by UHC.  

 

Executive Director’s Report. Randall briefed the board on the following topics:

  • Kansas County Government Institute workshops. The most recent planning and zoning workshop (Leadership Academy) in McPherson was the final workshop of the 2007 KCGI workshop calendar. The workshop was very well-attended and well-presented by Rod Compton, Planning and Zoning Director in Butler County.
  • 32nd Annual KAC Conference Status Report. Randall reported on registration for the full conference, the exhibition, and the pre-conference workshop. He said that he expected to meet the budgeted target of 410 full registrants, with 85 exhibitors (will be sold out), and 110 pre-conference workshop attendees.
  • Randall referenced a written report concerning the recent NCCAE annual conference in Savannah, which was provided to the board earlier.

 

Presentation of the Preliminary Draft of the 2008 KAC Budget. Randall presented three documents concerning the KAC budget – including 1) 2008 Budget Discussion Points; 2) Projected 2008 Revenues and Expenditures documentation; and 3) a list of counties not joining the KAC in 2008. He indicated that the preliminary budget was not a recommended one, since the tentative 2008 expenditures exceed 2008 revenues by approximately $90,000 and this is not acceptable. He presented several ideas to help close the gap between expenditures and revenues, including 1) initiating a business membership classification, whereby businesses who are or want to be doing business with counties could pay an upfront fee, receive services such as receiving the County Comment; and be placed at the front of the line in terms of reserving exhibition space at the annual conference; and 2) possibly discontinuing mailing the County Comment and instead instituting an electronic newsletter.

 

Board discussion ensued. There was general consensus to go forward and develop the business membership concept, assuming it is consistent with the KAC Bylaws (which General Counsel Judy Moler will research further) and to give members the option of receiving the County Comment on-line, rather than through the U.S. mail.

 

The 2008 budget will be on the agenda for the November 18, 2007, at which time it will be appropriate to adopt the budget, or amend and then adopt the budget.

 

KAC Affiliate/Associate Information Exchange.

 

Terry David said Kansas City, Missouri is in the running to be the site for the National EMS memorial. Terry also passed around a KEMSA magazine that is published quarterly and is a money maker due to the advertisements included in the magazine. He indicated a willingness to help KAC staff work on initiating the business membership classification.

 

Gary Post reported that the Finney County Commission is sending a letter to Mark Beck at PVD urging that the CAMA Legacy system be maintained until 2015 due to the slow start with Orion.

 

Steve Garten commented that Barber County had signed an agreement with British Petroleum for BP to develop a wind farm in Barber County, with certain payments in lieu of taxes paid to local governments.

 

Ted Ensley reported that Shawnee County had recently decided to change its depository bank to a bank which does not have a state charter, but has considerable presence in Kansas. The Shawnee County decision would not have been possible without the banking legislation advocated by the KAC and passed by the Kansas Legislature last year.

 

The meeting was adjourned at 2:40 p.m.

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

________________________________.
Judy Moler

General Counsel/Legislative Services Director

 

 

Approved:

 

 

___________________________________.

Joe Connor, KAC Board Secretary

November 18, 2007