January 20, 2006

Kansas Association of Counties                                                

Governing Board Meeting Minutes

Friday, January 20, 2006

Lower Level Conference Room, 300 SW 8th Ave.

Topeka, Kansas

 

 

NOTE: Prior to the KAC Board meeting, the KAC’s Legislative Policy Committee (LPC) met to discuss several topics. They included: 1) Governor Sebelius’ proposal to exempt all new business machinery and equipment purchased on or after January 1, 2007; 2) a revised landfill siting process recommended by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE); 3) a KDHE proposal on industrial landfills; and 4) an invitation from Senator Majority Leader Derek Schmidt to develop a demand transfer proposal for very small counties. In addition, the Executive Director briefed the committee on other issues, including city-county consolidation (SB 379).

 

Secretary of Revenue Joan Wagnon briefed the committee on the details and impact of the Governor’s proposal to exempt new business machinery and equipment purchased on or after January 1, 2007. She reviewed several data summaries and projections with the Committee. The committee voted unanimously to oppose the proposal (HB 2619) but work with the Legislature on mitigation provisions should it become clear that an exemption bill would be enacted. The Committee voted unanimously to support KDHE’s proposal on siting landfills (SB 467) and to take no action on the industrial landfills proposal (SB 362). The committee had a discussion about the merits of supporting a demand transfer restoration proposal for small counties only, vis-à-vis supporting and working for a restoration plan which would impact all counties regardless of size. No policy actions were taken concerning demand transfers.    

 

 

President Gene Merry called the meeting to order at 11:30 a.m. Board members present were as follows:

 

Michele Abbott-Becker, Marion County Emergency Management/Homeland Security Director

Joe Connor, Unified Government Health Department Administrator

Terry David, Rice County EMS Director

Ted Ensley, Shawnee County Commissioner

Shannon Francis, Seward County Commissioner

Steve Garten, Barber County Commissioner

Larry McAulay, Johnson County Director of Legal Services

Gene Merry, Coffey County Commissioner

John Miller, Norton County Commissioner

Dennis Peterson, Riley County Noxious Weed Director

George Pogge, Jefferson County Road Superintendent

Gary Post, Lyon County Appraiser

Florence Whitebread, Geary County Commissioner

Tom Winters, Sedgwick County Commissioner

KAC staff and others present:

 

Randall Allen, KAC Executive Director

 

 

 

 

ADDITIONS/DELETIONS TO AGENDA

 

Ted Ensley moved, seconded by Gary Post, to approve the meeting agenda as presented.

Motion carried.

 

RECOGNITION

 

President Merry recognized Commissioner Tom Winters, who also serves on the Board of Directors of the Information Network of Kansas (INK). Commissioner Winters announced that at a recent INK Board meeting, the board approved a $100,000 grant to the Kansas Collaborative for the purpose of promoting development of GIS applications among rural counties, and achieving a level of cooperation and collaboration for data sharing. President Merry commended Commissioner Winters for his hard work in securing the grant, which is the single largest financial commitment to The Kansas Collaborative to date.

    

APPROVAL OF MINUTES

 

Dennis Peterson moved, seconded by Shannon Francis, to approve the December 15, 2005 meeting minutes as corrected, to reflect a June 16, 2006 board meeting date rather than a June 23, 2006 meeting date, as previously stated. Motion carried.  

 

APPROVAL OF BILLS AND PAYROLL

 

Florence Whitebread moved, seconded by Terry David, to approve the bills and payrolls dated January 20, 2006. Motion carried.

 

MONTHLY FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

 

Financial reports for the months of November and December, 2005 were presented. Executive Director Allen summarized the December, 2005 unaudited financial statement. He indicated that all budget summaries are presented on a cash basis, and as such, the audited financial statements would present 2005 budget activity in a different manner (accrual basis). Nevertheless, the December, 2005 monthly financial report reflected the following:

 

Revenues:                    

 

Budgeted 2005              $ 768,638.00

Received 2005              $ 763,117.70     (99.3%)

Received 2004              $ 834,604.69

 

Expenditures:

 

Budgeted 2005              $ 768,638.00

Expended 2005              $ 697,424.97   (90.7%)

Expended 2004              $ 756,679.06

 

Actual 2005 revenues over actual expenditures:                           +$65,692.73

Actual 2005 revenues compared to actual 2004 revenues             ($71,486.99)      (8.5%)

Actual 2005 expenditures compared to actual 2004 expend.         ($59,254.09)      (7.8%)

Tom Winters said that with the good news from the KAC’s finances, we should make every effort to get this information out to members. The board encouraged staff to write about this good news in the County Comment and communicate it in any way possible. John Miller moved, seconded by Shannon Francis, to receive and place on file the monthly financial reports for November and December, 2005. Motion carried.

 

PRESIDENT’S REPORT

 

President Merry reported on the January 11-13 meeting of the State Association Presidents and Executive Directors with NACo in Washington, D.C. The meeting included a briefing on the federal budget by Bill Hoagland, Chief Assistant to Senate Majority Leader Frist; remarks by Senator Charles Grassley (R-Iowa); and staff briefings on a variety of NACo programs. The group also went to the National Press Club and heard presentations from Jim Miklaszewski, Pentagon correspondent for NBC News; and Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. On Friday morning, the group went to the White House (Executive Office Building) and heard remarks from

Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez, federal Drug Czar John Walters, among others.

 

Gene also indicated that he has been named to the Rural Kansas Physician Advisory Committee of the University of Kansas Medical Center. He sees a nice fit with what the advisory committee is trying to do, and the work of The Kansas Collaborative.  

 

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR’S REPORT

 

Executive Director Allen indicated that 2006 county dues notices were mailed out along with a cover letter from President Merry. As of January 19, 38 counties had remitted their 2006 dues totaling $143,916.35. He asked that board members keep him informed as counties make their decisions about membership. In particular, he wants to know whether non-member counties have rejoined or whether any county needs more information on which to make their decision about membership.  

 

Randall presented a Request for Proposal for Financial Services. The document would be sent to prospective persons or firms interested in performing the general ledger, payroll, and tax reporting functions of the Association. John Miller moved, seconded by Florence Whitebread to approve the document and authorize the Executive Director to disseminate. Motion carried.

 

Randall briefed the committee on the status of The Kansas Collaborative. In addition to the news about the grant award for GIS, Randall briefed the committee on the four breakthrough teams. They are focused on:

 

1) Health Care Cost Containment for Jail Inmates and Juvenile Offenders: continuing the work of the prescription drug team but now expanding into the issue of hospitalization costs for the incarcerated population. The group is also supporting the work of the Kansas Sheriffs Association to advance a legislative proposal stipulating that counties must pay hospitals only the Medicaid rate for inpatient and outpatient hospitalization costs, rather than the fully billed rate.

 

2) Transportation Purchasing: the work continues with KDOT, county highway departments, and city public works departments in determining how purchasing can be coordinated to save monies on various transportation system purchases (e.g. sign faces, barricades, safety vests, et al). The group is also discussing how local governments can utilize state contracts for resurfacing projects, where a firm has already mobilized to an area for resurfacing of state roads, and how the locals can attach to those contract rates while a firm is already mobilized.

 

3) Geographic Information Systems Development: the group will be launched in February and will give its initial effort to presenting 5 regional outreach workshops around the State and gathering data to assess the current status of GIS development.

 

4) Community Capacity Building: this pilot project got off to a great start in Harvey County in January, with the cabinet secretaries of the Health and Human Services Cabinet joining many local service providers in Harvey County for a half-day sharing of collaborative successes in the Harvey County area. Joel and Kathleen will continue to work with the Harvey County group, which will be looking for ways to streamline duplicate planning processes for various human service programs, and then transfer those ideas to other counties and areas of the State.         

 

Executive Director Allen showed the board a copy of a letter he wrote on January 12, 2006 to the Board of Johnson County Commissioners, asking them to consider keeping their deferred compensation program with the Nationwide/NACo/KAC plan. Randall indidcated that further discussion of this topic, and KAC’s endorsement of the plan, would be scheduled for a board agenda in the near future.

 

Randall indicated that staff had not had sufficient time to develop a 2006 course list for the Kansas County Government Institute. HE said that he would forward it to the board when it is available.

KAC AFFILIATE/ASSOCIATE INFORMATION EXCHANGE

 

Board members representing the non-commissioner affiliate organizations shared information with the board. Information included the following:

 

The annual conference of the County Weed Directors Association of Kansas (CWDAK) will be on March 7-9 in Great Bend. Dennis Peterson said that commissioners are always welcome to attend the annual CWDAK conference and that they have one registration fee per county, and then everyone pays for the meals and food that they eat. Dennis indicated also that he will be bringing some Affiliate Relations Committee recommendations to the board at the February meeting.

 

George Pogge said that the annual meeting of the Kansas County Highway Association will be May 9-10, 2006 at the Courtyard Hotel in Junction City. He would like Randall and/or Judy to give a legislative briefing on the morning of May 10. He said that the KCHA would be signing a Road Scholar Agreement with KDOT sometime soon. HE said that the KCHA is looking forward to collaborating with other organizations in developing common curricula for Road Scholar programs in the future.

 

Gary Post gave a report on the Kansas County Appraisers Association (KCAA) annual legislative reception at the Governor’s Row House earlier in January. He said that 63 legislators attended the event, and the group felt like their small tract listing their legislative priorities was well received by legislators.

 

Michele Abbott-Becker, Marion County Emergency Management Director, informed the board of an upcoming April 24-25, 2006 meeting of the Kansas chapter of APCo (Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials) in Garden City. The two emphases in the meeting will be:

1) helping rural counties that haven’t taken advantage of the E-911 grant funds to know how to do so; and 2) discussing the role that GIS plays in advancing E-911 applications. She said that Jamie Bowser of the Governor’s Grant office would be giving two workshops at the APCO meeting in April.

 

Terry David, Rice County EMS Director, told the board that the KEMSA would like to develop some joint educational programs for EMS professionals and county commissioners, and would like to work with the KAC to achieve this goal. He said that a Spring EMS education workshop is scheduled for Saturday, March 4 in Wichita.  

 

 

The meeting was adjourned at 2:12 p.m.

 

                                                                        Respectfully submitted,

 

 

 

                                                                        _____________________________

                                                                        Randall L. Allen

                                                                        Executive Director

 

 

 

 

Approved:         _______________________________

                        Florence Whitebread

                        Board Secretary

                        February 14, 2006